It's a Creative World

BUSTLE & SEW

 

Today it's our pleasure to welcome a guest, Helen from Bustle & Sew:

"Hi, I'm Helen and I live in an old farmhouse by the sea in the beautiful South Hams area of Devon, with my beautiful Newfoundland dog, Ben. My husband commutes weekly from Portsmouth, so is here to help walk him at weekends!

I work part-time for a local charity, supporting elderly people to stay in their own homes, and also have my own, very tiny, business, Bustle & Sew, selling my patterns online.

These are just a few of my designs:

I don't have any formal textile training, but come from a long line of skilled needlewomen, learning from my mother and grandmother from a very young age. I love to create with fabric and thread - embroidery and applique are my favourite techniques. I love sharing my ideas for designs with others, not just experienced stitchers, but also, hopefully, those new to the pleasure and satisfaction of making something yourself.

I was thrilled when Eleanor suggested I might like to contribute a guest post to IACW, and thought long and hard about suitable ideas - I hope you like the projects I've chosen.

Hand embroidery is my main passion - I love the feeling that I am part of a long line of embroiderers stretching back through the ages, and also the portability anbd low cost of materials and equipment - hoop, needle, scissors, floss and fabric - embroidery really is a hobby accessible to everyone. So I thought for my first gift to you (I was always told as a youngster that visitors should bring a gift with them), I'd offer you one of my hand embroidery patterns. This one is a little bunny who doesn't seem at all sure what to make of the bunch of brightly coloured balloons he finds himself holding!

Please just CLICK HERE to download my Bunny and Balloons pattern absolutely free.

One of my most popular series of hand embroidery designs has been my "Rosie & Bear" series, based on my memories of my own Rosie's childhood days (a long time ago now!) and the naughty Bear she adored and took everywhere with her - he's waiting for her next visit now, perched on her bed just as always.

It's fun mixing real memories with imagination - below is my Rosie & Bear Royal Wedding pattern. Here Rosie is peeping through the railings at Buckingham Palace, hoping for a last glimpse of the beautiful princess, whilst Bear, who couldn't care less about rose petals and lace, is tugging at her hand - he wants to go and march with the soldiers in the parade!

Of course, you don't always have the time to spend hand stitching - it can take a while, and I also enjoy machine applique - a look that's become very popular recently, that can be very expensive to purchase.
So my second gift to you is another pattern - this time four cheerful marching elephants inspired by a 1950s children's colouring book...

Free pattern here.

If you like these patterns, then please do visit my shop, Bustle & Sew, where I have lots more listed. And, as the final part of my gift to you, just enter the code
“PaperMountains”
at checkout and you will receive 20% off your first purchase.
Come and visit me soon at my blog … – I’d love to meet you there!
Best wishes, and thank you again to Eleanor for inviting me."
Helen xx

It's been delightful, thank you Helen.

Don't forget to check out the lovely free patterns Helen is so kindly giving away.

xox

Something to share?

The creative girls here find a lot of inspiration out there in blogland. So many creative folk happy to share their ideas, their work and their sources too. Are you?

We would love you to come and be our guest. If you have a blog, that's good, and even if you don't, as long as you have a camera and can show pictures of what you make or do, please get in touch with us at:

[email protected]

and one of us will get back to you.

What kind of thing?

Well, if you can create it with paper, fibre, fabric, food, scissors, paint, wood, plastic, flowers, metal, card, pens and pencils, knife, wax, wire, leather, or any other material or tool you can think of, new, old or recycled,

if you can wear it, hang it, use it, eat it, display it, give it, grow it or any other function or purpose you can dream up,

and if you can spare a moment to write a few lines, then what are you waiting for?  Tell us about it!

I use these

and these

and these

and these

and these

 

and these

and I love these!

While you are writing that email to us, I'll just get along and sort out this box...

Hear from you soon we hope.

xxx

 

Simply stunning cards

Hi Everyone – Dolly here but with someone else too.

For a long time I have been an admirer of Tina Fitch’s work on UK Scrappers. (silverst170) I am in awe of the cards she makes using the Craft Robo in ways I can only begin to imagine. Her work is stunning and so intricate and so I asked her if she would like to share some of her work and her thoughts on the blog here.

Let these few whet your appetite.

 

 

So I hand you over to Tina.

My name is Tina I am married and have two children, both girls. I also have twin granddaughters that presently take up most of my time.

 
I worked full time till about 6 year's ago as a Manager for Greggs plc, I organised and conducted training and opened the new shops for the company as well as managing my own unit..One day I went to work and decided it just wasn't for me anymore, so left there and then. Don't know what came over me, but decided enough was enough I wanted my life back...

 I was then brought a card kit from QVC which I used and started to make handmade cards.  I was never any good at art or making cards hahaha until I discovered the Craft Robo in Birmingham at a craft show..

My hubby brought one for me and from there I struggled to get to grips with my Robo for approx 6 months.  I then started to churn out some of the most awful card templates you ever did see and sold them as templates on ebay. I never looked back from that day. I just love pretty girly things and always have done.

So I started out trying to make card templates that you can't buy in the shops and my cards are unique.  I have never seen anything like it in the stores anywhere I have been and believe me I do look...

 

Now I can look at something from picture and near as not replicate it as to how I would like it to look. I now have my own website selling templates for the Robo, silhouette and wishblade digital cutting machines, I  now have nearly all the templates I originally created in GSD converted for all other machines to use.

 

 

You can see Tina’s work on her own website here
www.forevermemoriesforyou.co.uk   All Design templates are for personal use only...please read her Terms Of Use with all orders.

You can also keep up with her on her blog here http://forevermemoriesforyou.blogspot.com/  

 

 

And in keeping with our Christmassy theme this month - how about these for stunning Christmas cards.

  
 

 
 

I think you will all agree - her work is stunning. I know I keep using that word but .... well it just is.

Thank you, Tina, for allowing us to share your work here. x

Butterfly Minibook - a Year in Review

It's lovely to welcome back Mandy (of the amigurumi bauble fame) with another step by step tutorial for us, for Christmas Eve.

Year in Review, Butterfly Mini Book.

 Hi, Mandy here. 

I made a Year in Review, ‘Butterfly Mini Book’ for my Gran as a Christmas present.

She loves a bit of ‘bling’ and butterflies are her favourite thing so that’s why I chose that shape for the mini book, but any chipboard mini book would be fine.  I can’t remember where I got it as it’s been in my stash for a while, but it only came with 3 actual chipboard pages and one ‘lattice’ front cover.  I decided to use thick, double-sided patterned paper for the inner pages of the book and use the chipboard lattice on the front cover and a chipboard back cover.  (This also means I have two chipboard butterflies left over to use on another mini book).   I always think it’s best with mini books if you stick to one range of patterned paper & since I like the thickness of K &Co double-sided patterned paper I chose  their ‘Wild Saffron’  range.  I also decided to use rub-ons for the months on each page and just one binding-ring on the top left of the book.

 

 

Draw around a chipboard page onto the double-sided patterned paper.  Make 5 of these inner pages and an extra one to glue behind the front cover ‘lattice’.

 

 

Cover the chipboard back cover in patterned paper, using plenty of glue (I use glue-stick). 

 

 

Sand around the edges.

 

 

Choose the photos that best ‘highlight’ each month of the year.  There is only one page per month so I was selective & chose photos that would interest my Gran the most.  Re-size the photos and print them out.  To save photo paper I squeezed as many as possible onto each piece of A4.

 

 

Ink around all the edges and all over the ‘feelers’ on the covers.

 

 

Use ‘Glimmer Mist’ to spray the chipboard lattice.

 

 

I sprayed blue at the edges of the wings…

 

 

Once dry, use Glossy Accents to glue the chipboard lattice to the extra patterned paper inner page. 

 

 

My Gran likes ‘bling’ so I was generous with the glitter and little sequin hearts at the edge of the wings.  Set aside this front cover to dry.

 

 

At this stage I laid out the inner pages of the mini book.  It’s not possible to match the colours in the photos to the paper, but I tried to choose ‘greenish’ papers for Spring and ‘yellows’ for Summer etc. 

 

 

Arrange, then glue the photos to the pages.  I usually trim my photos with a white border to give them definition.

 

 

Apply rub-ons for each month.

 

 

Apply Glossy Accents to the ‘feelers’.

 

 

Have fun embellishing the pages.  Use die-cuts, felt shapes, buttons and ‘bling’.  Embellishments often look better grouped in layers, actually touching other elements on the page rather than ‘floating in space’.  I used Glossy Accents to glue mine down because the Mini book will get a lot of handling.

 

 

Punch holes and set eyelets where the binding-ring is to go.

 

 

Because the pages are small, I decided to do some very minimal journaling on the inside of the front cover.  Each month has a ‘Dymo’ tape label heading.  I used ‘American Crafts Thickers’ for the year 2009.

 

 

Tie some matching ribbon around the binding-ring.  Down the butterfly’s body there was just space to add a rub-on title ‘Special Memories’.  Here are some of the inner pages…

 

 

A Year in Review Mini Book is a great way to scrap lots of photos and makes a lovely gift or keepsake.

 

Happy holidays!

Mandy.

A gorgeous gift idea, Mandy, thank you.

We hope all our readers have wrapped and labelled, prepped veg ready for tomorrow, and sleep peacefully tonight.

Silent night, holy night...

xxx from the IACW girls

Guest designer - Mandy McKenna

We're pleased to welcome today a friend and follower of IACW, who has designed and written a tutorial for a Christmas tree decoration especially for us.

Over to Mandy:

I have four children, the eldest of whom went to sixth form last month and the other three are home-schooled by me.  Before that I had a career in teaching and went to Bible College as a mature student for three years.  We are a Christian family and try to treat other people as Jesus would treat them. 

On the crafty front, my Gran taught me to crochet when I was little.  I never really got on well with knitting but loved embroidery.  In recent years I have tried my hand at beading & jewellery, quilting, and dabbling with polymer clay.  

I got into scrap booking several years ago and make cards for special occasions.  Like many people, I have always loved crafting and ‘making things’ and usually have several projects on the go at once.  I love to go to Art Galleries and do ‘Arty stuff’ with my children. 

I love to learn and am currently taking an online course with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer which has been very liberating and inspiring. 

This is my blog… http://6ichthusfish.typepad.com    I was really pleased to be invited to do a post here on IACW.

Crochet Christmas Tree Baubles

By Mandy McKenna

 

The baubles are crocheted in the Japanese style of Amigurumi.  With Amigurumi crochet, each ‘round’ in the crochet carries on from the round below, in a spiral pattern.  It’s different to traditional crochet patterns because you don’t make the ‘3 chain’ to take the work up to the next level (which is how you usually make Granny squares for example). 

 The baubles I’ve designed use a round ball pattern, which is the basis for many Amigurumi  soft toys, so if you enjoy this tutorial, you could then move on to more complex Amigurumi patterns if you wanted to. 

 I’ve made the tutorial photo rich so that if you are a beginner at crochet you can follow the pattern easily.  When I started out with Amigurumi, the hardest thing I found was keeping my place on the crochet and not losing where I was.  So stitch marking  the round you’re on is really important.  I’ve experimented with different ways to mark the rounds in Amigurumi and here I’ve shown the way that I’ve come up with that works well for me. 

 Materials you will need

You will need some coloured yarn.  I use the brightly coloured Bamboo Cotton by ‘King Cole’ which is 50% bamboo and 50% cotton.  It’s similar to double knitting.

 2mm hook (which gives a very tight finish that I like), but you could use a 3mm or even 4mm hook if you wanted.

 Various sequins, beads, bling and ric-rac.  Note the baubles are meant as a decoration, NOT a toy.

 Embroidery thread to match or contrast with your yarn.

 Darning needle

 Sewing needle that will take embroidery thread but that will also pass through the holes in your beads

 It’s also worth noting that I’m using the USA term ‘single crochet’ in this pattern.  This is the same stitch as ‘double crochet’ in the UK. This is because most Amigurumi patterns have US terms.

 PART ONE Crocheting the bauble.

 When you start an Amigurumi pattern, you can use what’s called a ‘magic loop’ but it’s another thing that can put people off amigurumi, so on this pattern I’m beginning in the traditional way where you make a loop and do 2 chain, try to make the first chain stitch quite loose.

 

 Round one

Into the second chain from the hook, do 6 single crochet stitches (6sc)

 

 Round two

 Do 2 single crochet stitches (2sc) into each of the single crochet stitches below.  You need to count and make sure you have 12 stitches in round two.  (12)

 

 You can begin to see the crochet ‘spiralling’ .  Now you need to add a stitch marker.  The best way I’ve found is to use a contrasting piece of thick thread in the LAST stitch of the round.  This is because if you make a mistake or get lost in the pattern, you can rip the work back to the stitch marker, knowing the work was correct up to that place and then you can begin the round again.

 Round three

 Do 2 single crochet (2sc) into the first stitch, then 1 single crochet in the next stitch…

 

 Repeat another 5 times to give you 18 stitches. Notice how you must actually crochet INTO  the stitch which has the stitch marker in it…

 Count the stitches to check you have 18, then move your stitch marker.  (18)

 

 Round four

 Do 2 single crochet (2sc) into the first stitch, then 1 single crochet into each of the next two single crochet stitches on the round below.  Repeat another five times (so you did that 6 times altogether).  Count to make sure you have 24 stitches then move your stitch marker.  (24)

 

 Rounds five to nine

 Do 1 sc into each stitch around.  Count 24 sc stitches then add your stitch marker into the 24^th stitch. Rounds 6 to 9 are the same.  I usually make a mark with a pen on some scrap paper every time I’ve done a round and moved my stitch marker.  It’s easy to forget which round you are on if you don’t keep track.

 

 Round ten

 Now it’s time to decrease. 

‘Single crochet decrease’ by crocheting two stitches together.  Insert the hook into just the front loops of the first two sc stitches below…

 

 … then do 2sc.  Repeat another five times to give you 18 stitches.  (18)

 Round eleven

 Do 1sc then single crochet decrease (by crocheting two stitches together, see previous photo).  Repeat five times to give you 12 stitches.  (12)  Stuff the bauble firmly with toy stuffing.

 

 Round twelve

 Single crochet decrease all the way around (a total of six times to give you 6sc stitches.  (6)

 Measure about 1 metre of yarn and snip off.  Pass the cut end through the last stitch and pull it firmly.

 

 Thread a darning needle onto the yarn and make one small neat stitch on the top of the bauble…

 

 Then push the darning needle right through the bauble…

 PART TWO  crocheting the ‘hanging loop’ on the bauble

 Wrap the yarn around the tip of your little finger…

 

 Insert the crochet hook through the loop you made around your little finger, catch the yarn and pull it through…

 

 Pull the yarn through…

 

 Yarn over the hook and pull through.  Pull this stitch tight and push it down towards the bauble so that it’s touching the bauble and there isn’t a big gap…

 

 Then single crochet around the ‘hanging loop’  …

 

 Fasten-off by passing the cut end through the last stitch.  Pull the end tight and thread a darning needle on the yarn.

 Push the needle down through the bauble and out the base.  Make a few small stitches and fasten off.  Thread the cut end up into the bauble.

 

 PART THREE  Decorating the bauble

Choose some embroidery thread and a needle that will fit through your beads.  Insert the needle up through the base of the bauble and out where you want the sequins and beads to go. 

 

 To fasten off tie the two ends together at the base of the bauble.  Thread the loose ends up into the bauble.

 

 There are many different ways to decorate the baubles.  I tried ric-rac and beads, different sequins with beads and used mini-dots to add some bling!  You can also crochet stripes on the baubles (during rounds 5 to 9). 

 

I’m happy to help anyone who needs it… my e-mail is [email protected]

Bye for now.

Thanks Mandy, for such clear instructions and fabulous photos. If any readers make Mandy's baubles, we'd love a photo or blog link. And here is some more of her work, this time a monster,

and look at this fabby butterfly, instructions here! 

Cheerio.

Guest Designer - Michelle Jackson-Mogford

Hi all! Well here I am with my last guest visit on this very inspiring blog. This time I’d like to share with you an inspirational piece of art.

Last week I turned the big 40 and it got me thinking about where I’ve been and where I’m going. I thought I would like to make a sort of new years resolution but on a grander scale, like a new start, well life begins now right??!! I wanted to have a secret place to keep my wishes, hopes and dreams…. You didn’t think I’d share them did you? Then

following a lovely afternoon spent with Mary Anne Walters last week, when she shared lots of her crafty books and magazines with me, I was reminded of my love of Mexican shrines (any of you who know me know I have a love of anything Mexican J) and knew it was the perfect way to create a piece of inspirational art that I will look at every day and a great place to keep my little secrets.

I love these little pieces of art, for their colour, their arty crudeness, and all the fascinating ways they are decorated (and all the little things they hold) This is another great way to recycle and use up all those little bits and bobs we all collect and stick in a drawer for ‘one day’

Inspirational shrine

 

For the shrine construction you will need some corrugated card, loo roll/kitchen towel, pva glue and strong glue, masking tape, acrylic paints, chipboard and some plain card. The décor and objects are up to you, and you can really go to town! I have used a scrap of polystyrene (all will be revealed) charms, shells, beads, sequins, art metal, a Mexican newspaper, gesso and some word stamps.

For the construction cut 12 strips of corrugated card 4cm wide x 8cm long and 4 strips 4cm wide x 3cm long. All the sides are doubled up strips of corrugated card. Bind them together with masking tape. This gives a good surface for the papier mache and also gets rid of the corrugated channels on the ends of the pieces.

 

Construct the 2 boxes using masking tape. The smaller box is for the drawer. Tip Make the tops and bottoms go across the ends of the sides. Don’t worry about perfect corners and the unevenness you will get from the materials, this will just lend to the finished authenticity of your piece.

 

Cut another rectangle of corrugated card for your drawer front by drawing round the drawer box and bind with masking tape. Also cut a square of chipboard for the back of your shrine by drawing around that box Tip cut it slightly smaller than your lines. I used chipboard as I have papier mached the back of the box and know it will retain its shape when it gets wet.

 

Next cut a shape to top off the shrine, I cut the base of mine in chipboard for stability and added some layers of card to add dimension.

 

Next get messy! (Well it is one of my projects J) Mix some pva with a little water and papier mache your box construction and shrine top. I used kitchen towel this time (not the usual loo roll!) It is a little stronger and gives a nice texture. You will find the lumps and bumps showing in your construction at this point, again don’t worry this adds to the authenticity. At this point I also papier mached little bits of Mexican newspaper to the inside of the top box. Put it aside to dry. Tip lay it down to dry and make it as square as possible.

I then papier mached the back of my shrine with some more of the Mexican newspaper and then the scrap of polystyrene came into play! It’s from a bit of packing and I drew a heart out to fit into the back of my box. I then carved it into shape with a craft knife. It’s a lot easier than you think why not have a play? You could also make a shape from fymo or similar (remember it may be heavy though) or use a picture or an embellishment you may have, remember it’s your shrine! I papier mached the heart in the same way and put it to one side to dry.

 

 

 

 

Next make a little box from plain card for your drawer Tip make it slightly smaller than the measurements from your box (I drew round the base and sides of the drawer section to get a rough measurement to start with)

 

 

Paint all the pieces with acrylic paint, I used traditional Mexican folk art colours, I love the bright colours together.

 

 

Then I further decorated the pieces. I cut wings for the heart from art metal and stuck both to my shrine back. I applied gesso to the heart and drawer front to stamp my word stamps. I doodled the drawer front with a white pen, adding a bead for the handle, glittered the top piece and added charms down the inside sides.

 

 

Once you’re happy with that stage of décor assemble the pieces together. Stick the drawer front on your little drawer box, stick the back of the shrine on and add the top.

 

 

Then you can decorate some more, the other great things with these shrines is more is better and bling is good J I added sequins. I then added in all the little bits that are personal to me and the story my shrine is telling, what you add is up to you, My bits are shells a little bottle charm of crystals and some little calla lilies.

 

 

 

 

 

Not only have I created an authentic piece of Mexican folk art but I now have a secret place to write myself little messages and keep little treasures! So what will you do with yours? Have fun playing and please share!

I hope you’ve all enjoyed the 3 projects I shared with you this month. I’ve had a great time creating and have really enjoyed my visit. Thanks to Caz for the invite and to all the creative girls for having me and making me feel so welcome. I hope to bump into you all in cyber space and will definitely be visiting IACW for inspiration! Until soon happy crafting

Love

Michelle x

www.mjm-thearttart.com

Guest Designer - Michelle Jackson-Mogford

Hi all, me again! I’m getting quite comfy here everyone’s made me feel so welcome! And these IACW girls share some fab projects! So did anyone have a go at creating a ‘metal’ LO?  don’t forget to share it!! This time I thought I would bring you something more colourful and a bit different! If you know my work you will know I love paper dolls and doodling and so I came up with the idea of …

 

… A Funky Family Portrait

 

 

The other thing about this project is you get to use up a few of those scraps that I know you have lurking around! You will need a cheap canvas, scraps, tissue paper, white card, coloured card, doodling pens, coloured pencils, acrylic paint, ink, pva, loo roll and a piece of corrugated card. Oh and some little photos of your loved ones!

For this project we are going to reverse the canvas and set our scene inside it! Cut a quirky shaped frame from the corrugated card to fit around the wooden frame of the canvas. When you’re happy with the shape and size, mix some pva with water (about 5 parts glue to 1 part water) and papier mache the frame with some loo roll (classy me!!) You can get a great texture with it and build it up as much as you want. Put it aside to dry.

 

Then papier mache some torn and scrunched up blue tissue paper onto the canvas, making the sky. Add some hills with your scraps. When you’ve done that paint some blue and green acrylic paint on the inside of your frame matching up with your sky and grass position.

 

Next get Doodling! I doodled some clouds onto old book pages cut them out and inked them. I cut a house from scraps and doodled a rainbow onto white card colouring it with my pencils. Build up the base of the picture as you wish.

 

Now we move onto the paper dolls. Cut out some simple body shapes, similar to the paper dolls we used to play with as kids. Colour the parts of the bodies that won’t be covered by clothes with some coloured pencils (or medium of your choice of course!)

 

Lay one of the dolls onto some coloured card and use it as a template to draw the clothes, cut out and decorate.

Once all your dolls are dressed, cut out the photographs of the people in your picture. I tend to crop a picture and size the heads to around 4cm in height, (I put them all onto a word document and print in black and white on fast draft to check the size!) always make the heads slightly larger than you think they should be as it adds to the cartoon effect.

 

Now start to assemble the family, I built my people up on silicon glue to give the whole project a more 3D look.

 

Now doodle some more!! I added some more doodling at this stage to build up the picture. The blue birds I attached to the front of the frame with nylon thread so they will ‘fly ‘when the picture is hung.

 

Going back to the frame I painted it with white acrylic, then a cheap gold acrylic (from a kids craft department) it has a slight translucency which I liked so the frame wasn’t too heavy (although I have made frames like this before and used gold spray paint to make mock gold frames!) Once the paint was dry I then inked around and over it with a brown ink to add shadowing and ‘age’ I adhered the frame to the canvas.

 

Lastly I folded the body of my paper doll in 2 places so it could sit on the edge of the frame and sat my dog next to me, I love the way this finishes off the 3D feel of the whole piece.

 

 

 

A fun and quirky way to show of your family portraits, and great if your family is spread far and wide and the opportunity hasn’t arisen lately to have a real family portrait done, all you need is head shots of everyone and you can make your own up! I hope you’ll all go and have a play now, paper dolls are such fun! Don’t forget to share the results and I look forward to seeing you all again on the 29^th July with my final project to share. Until then happy crafting!

Love

M x

http://www.mjm-thearttart.com/

 

Guest Designer ; His Pride and Joy

Hi Michelle here aka mjm and I’m thrilled to have been invited to guest at It’s a Creative World for June!

So a little about me before I share my 1^st project. I am a one time theatre designer/stage manager who has gone back to her arty roots and loving it!

 

I discovered scrap booking at the beginning of 2007 and realised it was the perfect outlet for my creativity. I love telling stories and creating art with meaning as well as being really into collage, so scrap booking is the perfect solution for me!

 

I was proud and thrilled to be announced a 2008 Best of British Scrapbooking winner with Scrapbook Inspirations last November and have been an on going contributor with them for just under 2 years. I design for Banana Frog here in the UK as well as being on the DT for Crafty Stash. I also design for Purple Cows in the States and have been accepted as a Basic Grey ideas designer. I launched my own website at the end of 2008. www.mjm-thearttart.com,where I share my work, inspirations, my blog and sell my DIY projects (full instructions and templates for some of my work that you can make with your own materials and colours in your own unique way!!)

 

I love playing with products and finding different ways to use them. Above all I have a passion for my hobby and love to share it with people.

 

And so to the creative stuff!

 

His pride and Joy

 

I love books and have many, many arty books to gleam inspiration from and to boost the mojo when it’s needed. The idea for this LO came after looking through a fabby book by a lady called Ashley Calder called Scraptatstic. I took her idea and made it my own. (I think with art we all gain inspiration from other artists from the greats to the contemporaries, to this end I will always acknowledge someone who has inspired me and hope that everyone always does the same!)

I loved the idea of creating a background that looks like a piece of metal but is just essentially a piece of card!

 

The Ingredients

An A4 piece of card

Some tin foil

Red, brown and orange acrylic paint

Kitchen towel

Some brads

An old ruler

Some ephemera (I found mine on the internet)

Some embellies (I used Tim Holtz idea-ology sprockets and a 7gypsies journaling block)

Tim Holtz distress inks antique linen, tea stain, and walnut

Tools to distress with, e.g. sandpaper, scissors etc

Spray adhesive

Glue of choice

Photo 6’’ x4’’ landscape

 

Rip along the edges of your A4 card to create an irregular shape. Rip some strips of your tin foil and scrunch, unscrunch and stick to the card using a spray adhesive (I can’t recommend crafters companion permanent spray adhesive enough!) They can be longer than the width of card and can go in any direction.

 

 

Fold over the edges of the foil and glue to the back of your card. As you fold over, mould the foil into the irregular shape of the edge of your card.

 

 

Time to get messy!!! Dribble red acrylic paint over your surface and spread with your fingers, leave it a few minutes then…..

 

 

Gently wipe areas with some kitchen towel. This will lift the colour in places.

 

 

Then do the same with some brown acrylic, spreading and wiping as before.

 

 

Build up your layers of colour until you are happy with the rusty metal look. Next we add

some orangey rust patches. 1^st by dabbing orange and brown acrylic along the edge of an old ruler and using it as a stamp to create lines, to look like the edges of sheet metal…..

 

 

Then with fingers, building up a corner of rust with the orange, brown and red acrylic

 

 

Take your ephemera, you could use a book page, a vintage ad like me from the internet or whatever you fancy as a mat and distress the edges and ink. Distress your photo, I distressed the edges of mine, ripped off one end sanded and inked it and adhere both to the background. Add some brads along the rusty lines as rivets (It doesn’t matter what colour these are we will be adding paint!)

 

 

Get your jounalling ready, I printed mine form my computer in word using the font travelling typewriter from 1001freefonts.com. I inked each piece and distressed my journaling block.

 

 

Assemble the rest of the layout adding in the sprockets or similar embellishments

Time to get dirty again!!! With more orange and brown paint and your fingers, meld everything together with patches of rust

 

 

 

 

And that’s it! A convincing metal layout that weighs nothing!!!

 

 

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed my little spot here and I hope you’re inspired to go and play (and get messy LOL) I’ll be back on the 14^th with another project for you which I am cooking up right now! Until then Happy Crafting and thanks to IACW and Caz for having me!

Love

M x

 

 

 

 

SOCK MONSTERS

Be Our Guest - Brenda Noble, aka BOBS.

My name is Bobs and I'm 52 years old.  

I have two grown-up daughters, one of whom is married and has given me four grandchildren.  I live in Aberdeenshire and have been dabbling in crafts almost all my life.    I love papercrafts and have a real passion for stamping and altered art.   I also love photography and keep trying to improve my skills.

 

Sock Monsters!

 

These funny creatures are surprisingly quick and easy to make and everyone seems to love them.    For a basic monster, you will need:

 

One sock

Needle and thread

Two buttons (either a matching pair, or random, the choice is yours)

Scissors

Toy stuffing

 

Lay the sock flat out, with the heel sticking up.

Shape the heel into a pair of lips by manipulating with your hands until you have a shape you like.

Sew around the mouth using a backstitch.  

I try not to be too precise about this, as I prefer the lips to be different every time.

  It gives them character and you’re never quite sure what sort of expression their face will have in the end!

Sew on the buttons for eyes.

I have made some monsters with matching eyes, but mostly I use random buttons for a funnier look.

    It’s also best to sew the eyes quite close together because they will naturally grow further apart as you stuff your monster.

Turn your sock inside out and lay flat.   Cut straight across roughly two inches from the toe.

Cut each end down the middle, with the legs being at the ‘toe’ end of the sock and the horns being at the ‘ankle’ end.

Cut the toe piece in half too.

Again using a backstitch, sew up the long side of each toe piece and set aside.

Sew all the edges of the horns and legs,

leaving a small gap in the middle of either the legs or the horns.

  

Turn the monster the right way out again, using a chopstick or knitting needle to make sure the corners of the legs and horns are completely out.   Turn the arms the right way out too.

Now it’s time to stuff your monster.   You can put in as much or as little stuffing as you like, but try to make sure it is evenly stuffed, with no obvious lumps and bumps.  Once again, use a chopstick or knitting needle to make sure the stuffing is pushed up into the legs and horns.

Remember to stuff the arms too!

Close the arms neatly, trying to get all the raw edges inside.  This makes it much easier to sew them onto the body.

Close the gap neatly in the monster’s body, using small stitches.

Finally, sew the arms in position and there you are!

 

 

These are just the basic instructions, but once you have made a couple, you can begin to create your own variations.  They are great fun to make and seem to be very popular because most of mine have been claimed and re-homed as soon as they’re finished!

 

They are also the perfect way to use up those odd socks that the REAL sock monster leaves behind in your tumble dryer!

Thank you Bobs, these are a simple but characterful soft toy to make for, and be made by, children and adults alike.
We'd love to see any sock monsters our readers or their children make, just leave us a link and we'll drop by for a peep.

Be our guest ...... Alison Drummond Jones

Hi everyone – my name is Alison Drummond Jones (Alibri on UKS) and I was honoured to be asked by Maria to take a guest spot here at IACW this week.  It’s a lovely cosy place, isn’t it? 

 

I have been scrapbooking and crafting in general for over 5 years, and have  been on various design teams and taught numerous classes through the years – and what with keeping class supplies and duplicates – things were getting more and more out of control!

Last year, concerned about my ever growing piles of stash, I concentrated on getting 2 huge projects completed from the supplies I had accumulated, and it is very satisfying to be able to now look back on these albums and flick through the pages, knowing that the execution of them cost me nothing extra apart from adhesives!

At the beginning of this year, I was as concerned as ever to reduce my piles of patterned paper.  I love it, of course – but my aim is to reduce it enough to be able to justify a scrapbooking kit every month – that way, I can use the latest and greatest, without feeling guilty that I am still stockpiling it. 

How am I doing thus far?  Well, actually – pretty good.  Not including the 20 or so layouts I have completed this year, or the 100 cards I have probably made, I have used 112 pieces of patterned paper, specifically on the production of 4 birthday books – therefore, each book takes 28 pieces each! 

I drive myself crazy trying to remember birthdays, make sure I have made enough cards to send out on time, and try to think where I’ve left such and such’s date etc – so I decided to design a way to combine the dates of people’s birthdays, and specific cards I had made for them.  So I came up with the idea of making a birthday book which would also hold cards for every month.  Thus far, I have made 4 books, and have taught this in a class– the girls loved this idea, which could also be adapted for keepsake books of some kind or another. 

Here are the four books I have made so far:

 

 

The first one was using an assortment of miscellaneous heritage papers, and is to be given to a friend for her birthday in a couple of weeks.  The cover is 7 gypsies, title cut out on the “Storybook” Cartridge, and completed with gems and stamping. 

 

 

My sister in law gave me a birthday kit from Papermania, which was birthday themed – so that was the basis for another book!  I had two pieces of this Basic Grey Lilykate left over, so that was perfect for the covers.  I used Basic Grey alphas, completed with stamping, flowers and gems. 

 

 

This third one is about to be posted off for a friend’s birthday the end of this week – it’s a shame you can’t see the sparkly Stickled cover – again using up old alpha stickers. 

This last one will go out in about a month – and is made entirely from Basic Grey – predominantly Skate Shoppe.  I still love the combination of colours!

 

Really, I am not trying to boast about my productivity, but rather to   demonstrate that you could use any type of papers to make this book – as long as they are of decent weight. 

Let’s take a further look inside: 

I have made an “envelope” for each month, and you slip the appropriate cards in at the top.  Embellish each envelope as much or as little you like! 

 

 

You can theme each page according to the month – here, I stamped the  month onto the index card.  The idea is to fill in the details onto the card. 

You can buy a pack of 100 index cards from  stationery shops – mine were from Staples, and cost the princely sum of £1.46!  They also come in different sizes and colours. 

 

 

Naturally the book gets quite bulky when filled with cards, but if you leave enough ribbon to tie a generous bow, it really doesn’t matter how thick the book is – that is why it is best to make it a fairly decent length of ribbon. 

 

 

I used a 3 inch circle punch at the top, and lined the envelope with co-ordinating patterned paper, so you didn’t see any of the white.   It just looks more “finished” that way. 

 

You can recycle backs of notebads for the covers, and use bookrings instead of the Bind It All system to connect it altogether. 

The project is quite time consuming – no doubt about it – but very satisfying to complete.  A friend will receive a lovely handmade present – and you will reduce that  mountain of patterned paper – good job done!

For full instructions …..

Birthday Card Book

 

You will need:

Wire cutter

14 Sheets robust patterned paper- this needs to be of a good weight

14 Sheets co-ordinating cardstock/plain robust paper (could also be patterned)

Bone Folder

2 A4 Sheets cardboard/chipboard for the book covers (backs of note books will work)

Alphabet & embellishments for the front cover (– I used the Storybook Cricut cartridge above)

Double sided tape, extra strong tape, repo Hermafix AND wet glue (all of them)

Paper Trimmer/guillotine, knife and self-healing mat (all of them)

Bind-it-all (can substitute book rings)

Ribbon to tie the book together (at least 2 ft)

Large BIA Wire to co-ordinate (1 1/4 inches)

Large 3 inch circle punch ()

Glossy Accents – if you want to “gloss” your title letters

Juicy ink pads to co-ordinate with your patterned paper

12 index cards (from Staples or other stationers)

Alphabet stamps

 

Instructions:

Covers: 

1. Trim the blank bits of card for the covers  to 10 ¼ in high x 8 ¼ in wide. 

2. Work out which paper to use for the covers, and which plain paper to use on the insides.  Adequately cover the front of the cover with double sided tape and stick the patterned paper onto the front cover. 

3. Mitre the edges of the patterned paper so that the cover is neat and secure, and there is no blank cardboard showing.  Use the bone folder to smooth down the paper over the corners. 

4. Measure the middle of the book and cut two pieces of co-ordinating ribbon, each at least 15 inches long.  Secure the ribbon on the front with several bits of extra strong tape taped to the front cover, and on the top.  Tape the ribbon on the back in the same way, laying the covers together so that the ribbons exactly match in position. 

5. Cut two pieces of paper for the inside of the covers – 9 ¼ inches high x 7 ¼ inches wide.  Secure adequately with double sided tape, then attach to the insides of the covers. 

6. Cut out your title using the Cricut “Storybook Cartridge”.  “My Book” letters were cut out using 2 inch size, “Birthday” using 1 ½ inch letters.  I used the Fancy Corners feature, to change the font. 

Envelopes:

You will be creating 12 envelopes, one for each month and these are intended to hold a couple of cards in each, should you make your own, or buy them.  You will be slotting an index card “into” the page, so work out if you want the front of your envelope to be plain card or patterned paper. 

You can embellish each envelope further at a later date should you wish. 

1. Work out the order for the papers to go throughout the book, trying to make the colours flow.  Arrange so that your choice of patterned paper or card forms the front of the envelope. 

2. Trim the card for the main part of the envelope to 10 ¾ in high x 10 in wide. 

3. Score down the left, right and bottom sides, leaving a 1 inch margin. 

4. Cut the patterned paper to 9 ¾ inches high and 7 ¾ inches wide. 

5. On the front of the envelope, make two diagonal cuts of 1 inch.  Line these up using an index card, so that it will sit square and middle on the envelope. 

6. Also on the front of the envelope, make two score lines 2 ½ in and 5 ½ in inside the score lines.  Punch out half a circle with the 3 inch circle punch. 

7. With some of the left over patterned paper, cut a piece of patterned paper 2 ½ inches high x slightly less than 8 inches wide.  Adhere this piece to the top of the reverse side of the patterned paper, to “line” the envelope. 

8. Turn in the score lines on the envelope using the bone folder, then adhere the patterned paper to the card by running double sided tape down the left, right and bottom sides of the patterned paper. 

Index Cards

I have used 5 x 3 index cards here – other size and colour options are also available.  By using index cards, you should never have to muck up your book, if you’ve gotten dates wrong for people’s birthdays.  If you do make a mess on one side of the card, simply flip it over and use the other side! 

1. Using alphabet stamps, stamp the month title in a coordinating ink. 

Binding:

The covers are designed to be slightly longer than the envelopes, to protect the contents.  Use the largest wire you can find for the project, to allow for expansion. 

1. Punch a full length binding strip with a scrap piece of card, making sure that the side mechanism is set to continuous punching. 

2. Measure properly against the binding scrap so that the punched holes for the wires are evenly spaced along both the envelopes and covers and then punch holes in all, ensuring that the envelopes are the right way around. 

3. With the wire, thread this from the front cover first to the back cover last, so that the back of the wire sits against the front cover.    

4. Make sure that the bottom pushing mechanism of the Bind-it-All is spaced appropriately for your size wire, then push the wire together.  KEEP YOUR FINGERS OUT OF THE WAY! 

Finally – stand back and admire your work! 

 

Wow, wow and wow!!!

 

Thank you so much to Alison for coming to play and for sharing such stunning work.

 

If you've been inspired to create birthday books we'd love to see them.  You know how nosey we are so just leave us a linky dink and we'll drop by.