It's a Creative World

5th Anniversary

We've just spent the month of July celebrating It's A Creative World's 5th Anniversary with a month of fabulous, diverse, creative posts, from the last 5 years, and we hope to keep you reading with a new updated format. Here's an idea of the new weekly schedule:

MONDAY - a creative girl's inspiring project

TOOT TOOT TUESDAY - take a look - a product, a blog, a shop, a video, or it might even be YOU!

WEDNESDAY - another creative girl with something to share

THINKIN' INKIN' THURSDAY - making a mark - anything inked or painted.

FRIDAY - more inspiration from our girls

SATURDAY SUPPERS / SEWING / SKETCHES 

CYCLIN' SUNDAYS - recycling, refashioning, renovating, altering.

(as seen here)

Something for everyone, you'll agree. 

This is our creative world, and it belongs to YOU our readers too, so if you have something to share, we'd love to hear from you. We'll feature you and your project, old or new, on your very own post. Or would you like us to feature your creative blog?

What are you waiting for? Email Eleanor : [email protected] and she'll get right back to you.

Come back tomorrow, Dolly will be here to launch the new format.

IACW

xx

 

Washday blues (or pinks yellows and browns)

Suzanne showed us something of a departure for her. Sewing. Not on paper. Nope. This time she actually used fabric! She said:

For a long while (all year) I have needed a new peg bag. I've been using an empty biscuit tin which, frankly, wasn't really upto the job I was asking it to do. I had also, for a long while, had a set of three pretty cotton tea towels I bought from Home Bargains (something like £3 for three) with the express intention of creating something with them. So today was the day to gather myself together and get the thing made.

I'm not much good at sewing, following patterns and the like, so a foolproof design and instructions were a must. I did a bit of Googling and decided upon the instructions at this website for a really easy to make peg bag. 

And, just for the fun of it (and so you can see that I really am not good at sewing and not just saying that) here are the photos that show the simple steps involved.

Lay tea towel face up and turn over the top about 4" (or whatever depth required to accommodate your hanger).  The only wooden hangers I had were those with the trouser hanger bit on them, so I delved into one of the kid's wardrobes and found a plastic one with a narrower design. I also did without tailor's chalk (used a laundry pen) or the tape measure (I'm more of an 'ish' girl when it comes to measurements).

Mark the shape of the hanger for your sewing line.

 

Sew each edge of the folded section upto to the middle, leaving 1/4 inch gap unsewn at the middle for the hanger to be poked through later. (Remember, if you use your sewing machine a lot for sewing on paper, like I do, change to a new needle before starting.)

Fold up the bottom section of the tea towel so it overlaps the top section by about 1/2 inch. Sew up both edges just beyond the point where the top section is sewn on either side.

 

Cut away the excess fabric and create a notch for the hanger to go through (I used pinking shears as these help prevent fraying.

 

Turn inside out, add your hanger and fill with pegs. And hope for some more good drying days! Mine is here pictured with the other two tea towels that came in the set. Aren't they so pretty?

If you use a plainer fabric, you could always pretty it up by adding flowers, ribbons and buttons, but I thought this fabric was gorgeous enough without anything else added to it. They would also make really great gifts (especially for anyone setting up home) and craft fair items too.

xxx's

Suzanne

And that is the last of our archived posts for now! Come back tomorrow for a look at what we have planned, starting in August.

Victorian cone

 

Joanne brought us this unusual cone project.

 

First, take a pulpboard cone and cover it in your chosen patterned paper.  I used 7 Gypsies Notting Hill for mine, and the cone was from Panduro.

 

Fill it almost to the top with any old paper.  I used scrap brown paper I had from packaging. Then, using a Cropadile, punch a hole at either side of your cone.  Thread through and twist some gold wire as shown for your hanging loop.

   

It's then just a case of decorating and letting your imagination run riot! I decorated the front using an image from a sheet I got from Artchix Studio and trimmed this with Distress Stickles in Antique Linen for a bit of sparkle. I tea dyed a piece of lace for around the top and a piece of leaf ribbon to weave around my hanging loop. Dried moss was glued to the top of the cone, and I then added two mulberry roses which I again trimmed with my Distress Stickles, some little wired gems and pearls and a plastic quail's egg.  Everything was bought from the florist department at Hobbycraft, apart from the egg which, like the cone is from Panduro.

 

Bye for now.

Still afraid to doodle?

Andrea was too! She said:

I used to look at all these wonderful layouts and cards in magazines and online galleries with delicate and intricate doodles and think no way!! 

However, one night when I was blog hopping I realised that I can doodle and that I've been doodling most of my life - especially in those boring meetings and lectures I have to attend (my meeting notes are always so much more colourful than my neighbour's!!) Doodling doesn't have to be flowers, swirls and scrolls. It can be dots, lines and zig zags - in fact anything goes!

Why do I always find inspiration in the middle of the night? It was about 1:00am when I found a particular blog and of course I couldn't go to bed, I had to get out my pens and card and create!!

Step-By-Step Doodled card

1) Doodle your design on card using a fine tipped permanent pen, I used a CD, glass and my roll of double sided tape to draw the circles in pencil first, then rubbed the pencil lines out after tracing over the top. By using a permanent pen you eliminate the chance of the ink smudging and the felt tips running into the black. When you have finished drawing your design cut it out leaving a border of a couple of millimeters.

2) Add colour using felt tips, paint or coloured pencils

3) Use alphabet rubber stamps for the sentiment. I used PSE pixie stamps and black Stazon.

4) Cut out each letter and ink around the edges with black chalk ink.

5) Position your letters onto your card and when you're happy with the final placement use glue (I used glossy accents) to attach.

6) Punch a flower shape out of patterned paper.

7) Doodle around the edges of each petal using a fine tipped black marker.

8) Gently curl the edges of each petal between your thumb and finger and use chalk ink to define the edges.

9) Cut your patterned papers to fit your cardstock and attach using your sewing machine in a combination of straight and zigzag stitches.

10) Use foam pads to stick your doodled design onto your card, add the flower and then a

button or doodled centre to the flower.

11) Finish your card by running a black chalk ink pad around the edges of your card.

I hope you find inspiration to pick up your pen and start doodling. Perhaps like me you'll relise that you've always been doodling - just in your own style. There's no stopping me now!!

Love from Andrea xx

Doughnut Muffins

Did you ever try these muffins Paula showed us?

These cakes give you the best of both worlds as they are a doughnut and a muffin combined and justHAVE to be tried.  Even novice cooks should have a go at baking them (in fact, all muffin recipes), as they are simple to make, just throw all the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir a little to combine them.  The secret to a good muffin is not to overmix the ingredients, so perfect for when you have little time or arm power!

INGREDIENTS

• 125ml milk
• 85ml light olive oil or vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 200g self raising flour
• 100g caster sugar
• 12 teaspoons of jam

TO FINISH THE MUFFINS

• 100g butter
• 150g sugar

Beat together the milk, oil, egg and vanilla extract.  Stir this into the flour and caster sugar and mix gently to combine.  Fill the holes of a muffin tin a third full with the mixture, add a generous teaspoon of jam on the top, then cover with the remaining mixture.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until the muffins are golden and cooked through.  Remove from the tin and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. 

To finish the muffins, melt the butter and place the sugar on a plate.  Roll each muffin in the butter then the sugar.

I hope you enjoy this recipe.  Don't forget to share your photos and thoughts with us if you make anything from IACW.  We all love hearing from you:)

Happy eating!

Paulaxx

 

Alix does She Art

It's time to take another look at Alix's little bit of She Art...

Hi everyone, its Alix here!

Just for fun i thought i'd share a few paintings i've done following on from Christy Tomlinson's She Art painting class which i took last year.  If you haven't taken this class i highly recommend it...you can see all the info on it here :0)

Now, i am no painter...and i can't draw for toffee...mmmm toffee...but i can do this style of mixed media artwork...and so can you!!  Christy is so sweet and takes you through baby steps with lots of video tutorials...its as easy as painting by numbers when you know how.  i'm slowly working through my friends immortalising them one at a time...

here is my friend Pippa...who is a real painter :0)

notice how the background is painted and then the girl is paper pieced over the background using scrapping scraps...and then painted over to help her meld into the artwork...

  

notice how there are lots of details...some are doodling...and some are rubons...both are super cute :0)

and notice how there are dimensional elements too...like these pearls...all in all the idea is to use all sorts of media...can you spot the stamping on this girl's legs?  

...and don't forget you can have *he* art too...this one is me and his Nibs ;0)

you can even have religious icons if you're so inclined!!  please forgive me...this is my first ever *face*...i know its far, far from perfect...but i sort of like her! :0)

so what are you waiting for...get out your scraps and some paints...you've got nothing to lose...if you don't like it...you can just paint over it!!  *genius*

 

Scalloped scrapbook embellies re-visited

Mandy's posts are always timeless, and worth repeating...

Hey again, Mandy here.

I am on a roll making my own scrapbook embellishments.  I just love making a pile of embellies which I can reach for, rummage through, and find something suitable to add to a layout.  This is what I got up to recently...

 

First of all I created the circle wordart on my computer (using Microsoft Office Word).  It took some fiddling about to get exactly the right size so that when printed out, each circle of words fitted nicely inside my 2" circle punch.  This is what the sheets look like printed out on different cardstock...

 
Here is the pdf file to download and print them yourself.  Just check your printer doesn't helpfully  adjust the print size in any way!   Download Circular Word Art for 2 inch punch

Once I had my printed sheets I set to work punching out a pile of 2" circles with the wordart and an equal amount of  2.5" scallop circles.  I used dark brown chalk ink around the edges of the circles...

 
For the middles I used everything from buttons & brads to crochet flowers and stamping!   

 
In the photo below I used 'Saddle Brown' STAZON to stamp text onto a pink silk flower...

 

I really like layering when it comes to embellishments so I dug out a 1" circle punch and after stamping onto vintage bookpaper, punched this small circle to layer ontop.

 

 I also did some simple stitching with embroidery floss onto felt circles.  Here are some of my favourites...

 

The large yellow brad (on the top right below) has been stamped with brown STAZON and a text stamp...

If I decide I need a particular colour or specific words for a layout I'm making, then it wouldn't take too long to make up one particular scallop embellishment, but for now I have a pile to reach for!

Bye for now.

 

Photos on fabric

One of our popular posts was from Doda, transferring photos onto fabric. Here she is:

I have recently finished this little journal for my daughter. It is for her photography ideas and inspirations and she requested some vintage photographs for the cover. It was a good inspiration for me as I have been wanting to try out this technique for a while now. Using an eco friendly orange household cleaner called Citra Solv, it is possible to transfer a toner ink based photocopy or print onto fabric and it will become permanent! Yes, permanent! 

I was really excited to try this for the first time. I'll give the short version here, but if you want more detail there are some helpful instructions here.

I used a scrap of cotton curtain lining which had a nice smooth feel and a tight weave. Using masking tape, I stuck - print side down- the toner print I wanted to use. (Remember to reverse your image before you print it- especially if you are using some text in your image.) I've used a collage of old family photos for my first experiment.

 Underneath the fabric I placed a piece of cardboard and underneath that a few layers of fabric just to provide a little "give". 

The paper I used was the cheapest kind of printer paper you can buy -  I think mine came from Asda.

Be sure not to have any masking tape over the area where your image is.

I used a pin to pierce a couple of holes in the foil on the top of the Citra Solv bottle and then poured a small amount into an old plastic lid. Using a flat natural bristled paint brush I brushed over the back of the paper, using only just enough liquid to wet the paper but not oversaturate it. Once you do this you will be able to see right through the paper to your image.

Using the back of a tablespoon, I rubbed hard all over the image. Perhaps I could have rubbed even harder as my image didn't turn out quite as strong as I expected. I think another factor in this was that all my photos were quite small and perhaps a larger image would come out clearer. You will definitely lose some detail however you do it, but I love the aged vintage effect anyway so I didn't mind at all...

...and here is how it turned out. 

I was quite pleased with the technique and will surely be using this again for many things; homemade journals, pillows, sachets... wherever the inspiration takes me!

The Citra Solv is not cheap, but a little goes a long way. Use it sparingly. It smells wonderful and is also super for removing stains and general household cleaning. I bought 4 little 8oz bottles all for craft use and am now down to my last one as I used the other 3 for cleaning. I am telling you... once you have smelt the stuff, you'll be hooked! 

I wonder if you'll give this a try...let me know if you do :-)

Have fun being creative !

 

4 months to go

Yes, we're looking back at looking forward to Christmas, first here's Grungey Glittery Katie:

Here's my grungey take on Christmas with my christmas shrine.

First of all you will need:

Cardboard or Foam core board to construct shrine

Craft knife

Ruler

Tissue paper or pages from a book to cover shrine

Inks

Christmas bits and pieces

Take a piece of cardboard or foamcore board and cut a 6" x6" square:

Now measure 1" in from the edges as shown above and cut out the centre 5" x 5" square:

Measure the exact length of internal sides and use these measurements to cut 4 pieces of foam core board 1" deep

Like so:

Now to cover the foam core board with paper (this makes it easier to stick the sections together:

Spread with PVA glue:

and cover:

Cover the front frame too:

Now attach the four edge pieces again with PVA:

Reinforce with some paper and glue around the joins:

Finally stick the back section on:

And the shrine/shadow box is done!

Now for my Christmas shrine I used an arched piece of foam core board and covered it with 7gypsies tissue paper and coloured it with green Pine Needles and red Fired Brick Distress Inks.

I used old Christmas decorations and florist decorations to give a Christmassy feel to my shrine!

Hope you enjoyed my take on Christmas! It's never too soon for Christmas creations!

Happy Crafting!

And now here's Debbie with her socks off:

Last year I saw lots of links for advent calendars made out of socks, so in the sales I bought a wide variety of socks very cheaply, at half price some of the patterned socks were 6 pairs for £2, I mixed the sizes so there are some baby socks, adult and children's socks.

Sadly I forgot that this project was waiting for me to be organised and completed by the beginning of December, but I will have it ready this year, for sure.

Here are some of the links and photos I have found to inspire you:

HGTV

Greeneyed.com

Omnicrafter

Muffins and More

Hellokids

If you do make a shrine or a sock advent, please post a comment and we'll be in touch - we'd love to feature what you make.

 

 

 

Kit yourself out

Last year, Suzanne told us how she prepares for scrapping. She said:

I really am one of the World’s worst when it comes to planning and preparation for going to crop; anyone who has seen me arrive at my local crop with my car filled to the brim with my stash will be able to confirm that!

I have, in the past, tried my hand at being organised before going to crop and created a series of project packs. The impact on my productivity was incredible. Even if you don’t often get out to crop, you could practice preparing some project packs so that you can make the most of any scrapbooking time that you have at home.

Preparation is key!

First of all, I determined which of my paper ranges I wanted to take with me to work with. For me, these were a mixture of recently purchased products I was itching to use and a variety of older ranges that I had bought with particular photos in mind but had never got around to using yet.

Once I had decided on these, I went through the photos on my hard drive and selected at least two sets to print for each paper range I had chosen.

Step three was creating some journaling on the computer and choosing one of the patterned papers to print the journaling out on. Now, I very rarely plan my layout design before I start working on a page, so for this stage it was just a case of typing out the story I wanted to tell for each page and formatting each one slightly differently so they would fit together on a piece of the patterned paper when it was cut down to A4 to fit through the printer.

Finally, I put together my embellishment boxes - I go out to crop a lot so my favourite embellishments - a selection of tags, threads, buttons, flowers, ribbons, brads, gems, punches and inks - are all kept together in Really Useful Boxes and put into one of my wheeled totes.

Working like this was a big turn around from how I normally work on a page when I am at home, as the journaling is usually the last thing I squeeze in after the photos and title (and just before the embellishing). I was a bit apprehensive about how I would be able to work with the journaling pre printed but I found it much easier than expected. In fact, more thought went into telling the story behind the photos than sometimes happens when I leave the journaling until last and have to fit the story in around everything else!

Since this blip in my normal unorganised self, I have reverted to type. However, I discovered a blog called the Counterfeit Kit Challenge. The premise of this blog is wonderfully simple. In their own words "If you have ever browsed through those great monthly scrapbook kit clubs and admired their beautiful kits...but knew you needed more supplies, like a "hole in the head"...you know who you are (you're the one with TONS of supplies and embellishments in your ever growing scrapbook stash)...this challenge is for you!" They scour the kit clubs, choose one to copy and offer it up to the rest of us for inspiration. We then shop through our own stash to replicate the inspiration kit, as closely or remotely as we wish, thereby getting a wonderful project pack all ready and waiting for when the creative desire strikes.

There are also links to tutorials for making those fun bits and pieces often included in kits as well as challenges for actually scrapping with the kit.

One month the inspiration kit was the Jenni Bowlin December kit.

 

and the add-on

 

I spent a satisfying couple of hours hunting through my stash and put together my own version. The joy of working like this is that you are using what you already have (so it's cost effective) and you get the push to put together products which you wouldn't normally do (so it pushes you creatively), whilst getting a 'designer based' kit customised for your own personal scrapping style and tastes (theoretically, no waste! - or at least no more new stuff purchased to go to waste).

This is my own version

 

Main Kit

My Mind’s Eye glittered cardstock, I Believe range (red) 
Making Memories Funky Vintage scallop stripe (yellow tone on tone is the reverse side) 
Green Bazzil Cardstock
Creative Imaginations white line scalloped paper
Making Memories Noteworthy paper (blue/green floral)
Sassafras Mix and Mend-Fancy Free
Jenni Bowlin Vintage Red Bookprint
Bo Bunny Kitchen Spice, Allspice
Webster’s Pages Seaside Retreat Hide and Seek
KI Memories Lace Cardstock (pieces)
Mini label sticker book by 7Gypsies
Making Memories Funky Vintage Flocked Alpha stickers
Mini calendar bingo style cards (printed off at 60% original size) from download link on the challenge blog
Doillies stamped onto kraft cardstock, Hero Arts, Stampin’ Up and Grunge Art Gallery stamps
Small selection pins from stash
Flowers made from 7Gypsies tissue paper (very old stash!) following tutorial linked on the blog
Prima Cloisonne Gilded Lily flowers
Normal size book turns included (7Gypsies I think)
Yellow thread

 

Add on kit

1 Sassafras Cardstock Border Sticker Sheet
Selection October Afternoon cards, Prima journaling sheets and Fancy Pants creative cards
Digital bingo cards by Kenner Road at Two Peas in a Bucket
Selection digital images all from Two Peas in a Bucket (Farmer’s Market by Sande Krieger, free mini kit; Be Happy by Hazel Olive; Kitschensinque by Polka Dot Pixels)
Making Memories Funky Vintage flowers
Making Memories Funky Vintage Die cut stickers (lots left over from a prize package)

I have added in extra patterned paper in lieu of the cardstock (as I love working with tone on tone patterns for my background), included lots more embellishments (I had many part used sheets from a particular range) and printed off the digital elements from items in my digital stash.

I now just need to follow steps 2 and 3 from my project pack process (photos and journaling) and I am all set for many happy hours of scrapping when the mood takes.

xxx's