It's a Creative World

carving out your own crafty niche...

Hi there everyone, its alix here again :0)

Today I thought i'd share some of the online class by Julie Fei~Fan Balzer that i've been taking this month.  I am a big fan of online classes as you can take them as and when suits you, you don't have to travel or sit too long anywhere uncomfortable...and you can even do them in your p~j's...no~one need ever know!  Actually though, the best thing for me about an online course is generally the prompting to get out of a rut and try something with a bit less thinking and a bit more doing.  I'm terrible for spending hours contemplating what to create or make...and then running out of time or energy to do it...so sometimes a bit of organisation is what i need to get me going again.  And this course has kick started me again big time!

The course I'm taking is called Stamp Carving 101 and if you've been to my personal blog lately you'll have seen lots of evidence of it!

I'm not giving away any of Julie's secrets or hard work...but showing you an example of one of the lessons i followed pretty much to the letter.  This was the carving out a bracket frame lesson.  I drew mine freehand and transferred it to the rubber with the pencil transfer method.  Its an easy shape to carve out so a good one to get started on...and a very versatile stamp to have in your stash as its ideal to frame a small image or hold journalling, as well as to make swirly borders with.  Hence why i didn't chage the design! ;0)

 

When i had carved my stamp and printed it out with a Big and Juicy pad you can see how cute it it...but i wanted to play with my new stamp...and i wasn't in a *cute* mood today...i was feeling distinctly grungey and inspired by dirty walls and graffitti...so here is my stamp used in that way!!

Its not the prettiest journal page you'll ever see...not even the prettiest one by me...but i had 10 minutes and i was feeling direct and raw and this is what I came up with!

Sometimes you just have to carve out your own niche for the day, right? :0)

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope I've given you pause for thought...if nothing else do stop by Julie's blog and see what she's up to from time to time...she is awesome!

 

 

Watch out! There is BLOG HOP coming!

Put the SPRING back in your crafting with our amazing Spring Blog Hop.

31st March and 1st April

Don't miss out on some great inspirational posts

Be inspired

Hey from Caz! I love to browse blogs and have my very favourites saved to my iPad so I can access them any time and any where. I wanted to share some of them with you today :)

Itty bitty blog - Now I don't speak (or read) a wordof French but I just adore this blog. I love the photos, the projects and the presentation. I have book marked so many of these wraps to make myself, YIKES!

Soule Mama - Now this lovely lady makes me want to up sticks and move to a wilderness paradise! I just adore the photos, the words and most of all the true, honest to goodness adoration this mama has for everything she does.

Greedy for Colour - Like colour? Then this is the blog for you. A feast for the eyes this one. Kate has even crochet'd a skin for her bicycle. Pure genious :)

Brooklyn Tweed - Ooh, yet more deliciousness for the colour sences. Gorgeous yarns, amazing photographs of amazing projects. Another blog that has me adding to my knitty/crochet wish list.

Dottie Angel - For me this blog is all about the words. I just adore the writing. I get it, I connect, I love it.

Highland Housekeeper - Our very own Eleanor! Since I first 'met' Eleanor I knew I loved this lady. I love that she cares, I love her creativity and HUGE talent. Boy is this lady talented. She surely is. And so lovely. One of my favourite people in the creative world of ours. My friend, E.

I have more, but this is enough for today :) I do hope you enjoy these blogs as much as I do and add them to your i'm sure already too long list of must read blogs.

Thanks, as always, for dropping by.

Caz xx

Happy New Year from the IACW Team

Hiya everyone.

We all want to wish you a Happy New Year & hope 2012 will be a Happy year for you all. One thing I can guarantee is it will be a Creative New Year here on Its A Creative world. We are all staying on to keep the Creative juices flowing & hope you will follow us well into the New Year. We have lots planned from Sewing projects, scrapbooking, Jewellery making, Card making & much much more. The posts will be up and running as normal from Jan 1st.

I also want to thank personally the Design team you are very Talented everyone of you, I love the mix of crafts being made & I get excited when a New post pops up on my computer. Thankyou Thankyou thankyou xxxx

                                ..........................................................................

If you are a little unsure what you want to craft as your first project of 2012 check out the link below to make Pillowcase dresses for girls in poverty in 3rd world countries (theres more details & links on the blog too)

Sew Scrumptious Every girl deserves a pretty dress

The link for the directions to make a dress is here

Happy New Year Love Jayne & the Team.

Not forgetting the Oldies :)

Ok we are not oldies but we have been on the DT for some time & are staying, These are the very Tallented ladies staying with us on IACW :) The ladies are lucky I was going to put a photo of them up but my emails are not working so they have been let off lightly (unless i add them later)

CAZ - Creating memories

DEBBIE- Rainbow Poppy

JAYNE- Paper Thoughtz

LYNNE- Lindyloo Crafts

KAREN- Dollys dreamings 

ELEANOR- Highland House Keeper

MANDY- ichthusfish

{image supplied by photobucket}

NEW DT PART 2

Here are the last of our new DT members and links to their beautiful blogs.

Doda- Doda's Creations

 

 

Alix- A Good Life

Kerry-  Socks and Scrapbooks

Ifa- Loving Life

Erika-  Snappy Crafts

Laura - bubbaboobits

 

 

OUR NEW DT PART 1

Hiya IACW

 I am proud to announce we have finally picked our new DT. They are creating as we speak so they can Inspire you all. We at IACW look forward to seeing what they all come up with & Welcome you all.

Keep a look out we will be up and running very soon.

Katherine - Fruit of my Scraps  

KATIE- Glittery Katies blog

Tracey - Running with Scissors

Gabrielle - Crafty thoughts

Leanne - Craftaholic

Caroline - La pause en Scrap de Caroline

Paper Crafting... Can you Believe it's paper ??

Hiya IACW.

I have a Passion for Paper Crafting and whilst browsing the Internet I have bumped into a few Brilliant (non Scrapbooking) designs & Tutorials that I am going to try out.

 
I love this Bracelet above over at All things paper There are some Tutorials too on the website. Can you believe it is paper ??? There's a Similar technique HERE too.

 
What about this paper Pumpkin above? there's a great Tutorial over at Whipper Berry  I might have a go at this in October.

 
I also found a site that had lots of Tutorials and liked the look of these Magnets...Site is called Tip Junkie.It has a Tutorial to make these Magnets above.

Hope you like looking at a few of my paper finds. I know there are a lot of amazing Paper projects out there but I wanted to show you ones that EVERYONE could easily make too and adapt the projects to our own tastes.

Happy Paper Crafting

Jayne x

 

 

 

 

 

Following the Paper Trail

I have something a little bit different today.

I want to shout out about a lady who had to be one of the most awesome scrappers ever.

I know some of you will know and admire her work already, but whether you already know her already or not, grab a cuppa, pull up a chair and prepare to drool.

The lady in question is Laura from Anchorage and her awesome blog, Following the Paper Trail, is HERE

Now you know I am a real mini book fan – well this lady has to be the mini book queen of the universe. Her work is so unbelievably good it is not true.

And she does classes as well!!

 Check out this masculine mini book that will take your breath away.

 

Now if you don’t think that is awesome then – well …. I just can’t believe you won’t.

This was the first album I saw of hers, pointed out by MaryAnne.

There are dozens of videos of hers on You Tube.

You need to watch them ALL. Seriously.

 

Check this one out AMAZING WEDDING BOOK    

I can’t believe how awesome it is.

 

And she has tutorials for how to make many of the things.

 I am so going to have a go at some of them – I hope this will have inspired you too.

Dolly x

Wax Art

Hi, I'm Lynne and I adore all things sparkly and messy.

I was blog hopping whem I came across THIS  on Suze Weinbergs blog.  It inspired me to get out my coloured encaustic waxes and have a play.

 

You need to remember it's not like painting and to build up the layers slowly.

You can buy specialist tools for applying the wax, but I use a travel iron.  Once you've used it with wax you can't use it on clothes again.  (I speak from experience)

I've added foils, rubons, smooch inks and tissue to add depth to it.

If you don't have coloured encaustic waxes, you could always use wax crayons.

Lynne