More Card Making!

First of all, I need to apologise for the lack of activity on this blog lately, this last month I have been in the process of moving house, so both of my blogs took a back seat, but before that I was so preoccupied with my Nail Art blog, this one was kind of forgotten about. I aim to rectify this in the near future :) this next week I am still in the process of moving, but after that my posts should become a little more regular.

Anyway, recently I went to a show called Craft for Crafters, and bought myself a few goodies to try out some different techniques. My mum is also heavily into crafts and card making, the amount of stuff we have between us is pretty unbelievable! My mum bought a Big Shot machine, which is a machine used for Die cutting and embossing, and she spent a lot more money than she intended to on plenty of embossing folders and die cutters to go with it of course! My attention was caught by a method of making 3D designs, with metal stencils and a 3D paste, So I bought a few stencils, a colored paste, and a translucent paste for adding glitter to.

Today being Valentines day I decided I had the perfect opportunity to try these out making a card for my Valentine! Unfortunately I have not seen him today, so I am emailing him a picture of the card instead :)

I started off creating the main feature of my card, the 3D peacock, here is what I used -

The small pot contains clear glass micro-beads, the larger pot contains a bronze(ish) colour 3D paste, I taped the peacock stencil down firmly over a small piece of black card. You are supposed to use a spatula type thing to spread the paste, but I used an expired debit card instead, good thinking huh?

So, I scooped out a large blob of the paste, placed it across the top of the stencil, and the gently dragged it down to make the design. All of the excess can easily be scraped back into the pot, so there is very little wastage. It is easy to cover up any spots you have missed, or smooth out anywhere the paste is too think, it is very easy to use. Straight after I was happy with how the paste looked, I untaped the stencil, and poured glass micro-beads all over his tail for some extra sparkle. Here is the finished peacock -

No Flash

With Flash

Close Up Of Tail, With Flash

Close Up Of Tail, No Flash

Now, to make this into a card... I clearly needed to try out mums big shot machine, my original idea was to cut out a square of red card, emboss it, and place it behind the black card, but it turns out that the peacock was nearly the size of the card base anyway! I still wanted an embossed background for him, so just embossed the entire front of the  card instead! I then used Pritt Stick to attach the peacock, and decided I needed a heart on there too - it wasn't looking much like a valentines day card!

I wanted red hearts, but due to the orangeness of the peacock, it just didn't look right, so I settled on silver. I cut out 2 different sized hearts using the big shot machine and nesting heart dies. I then embossed each heart with a different pattern (you may notice I was very precise with the placement of the embossing folder, look at the tiny embossed heart in the smallest die cut heart) I attached the small heart to the large one, using a thick blob of 3D glue, and then attached to the card with 3D glue. Here is the finished product, I am so pleased with how it turned out :)

Showing 3D of Hearts

I love what I have achieved here, and am super pleased with everything I bought at the craft show :) the 3D paste is a quick and easy way to make a stunning design, and the embossing ability of the big shot machine can add an extra level of interest to just about anything, it is so versatile. The micro-beads are certainly an eye catching alternative to glitter too, and these clear ones can be applied over any colour to add a more interesting texture and an incredible sparkle.

Wishing you all a very happy Valentines day, S x

Birthday Card

This is just a really quick post to show you the birthday card I made for one of my closest friends. I gave it to her already, so I won't be spoiling it for her as I know she reads my blogs, <3 you Genie!

Anyway, here is the card I made -

The dress is done in the same way as the snowflake christmas cards I posted about previously, by taking an outline sticker, and filling it in the the scraps from a contrasting colour sticker of the same design. In this instance I chose to leave the flowers on the dress not filled in, as I thought that the gold colour of the backing paper made for prettier details.

I started off by creating the dress, I then cut around it, and cut a slightly larger piece of red shiny paper. I stuck the red paper down first, and then the gold paper with the design on. I then waited for the whole lot to dry, before adding the little happy birthday sticker in the corner. I really like how it turned out, simple and elegant. My friend liked it too :)

That's it for now, S x

Olly Owl Is Finished!

So last night, I decided that I was going to finish my pinflair owl, I may have been up until 2am, but I'm proud that I have finished him, and he now has pride of place on my bookshelf :) This project was one that I didn't really think I would ever get around to finishing, as it was fiddly and repetitive to do, but once I got into it and started making some better progress it became much easier to motivate myself to finish him. By the time I only had the brown sequins left I would set myself little targets, by pouring a number of pins out onto the tray, and then treating myself to a cup of tea or something when all of those pins had been used!

Anyway, here he is, with no naked parts :) -

He is actually very sparkly, especially his beak and toes :) unfortunately my flat is quite dark, especially since it's winter and we're lucky to get 5 hours of daylight here! Slight exaggeration perhaps, but my other half is a doorman and works nights, so our sleeping patterns are a bit wonky. Anyway, point of that rant being, sorry about the rubbish pics! Next time we get a bit of sunlight, I will try to remember to take a picture of him to capture his sparklyness for you to see.

I have just shown my boyfriend the completed owl, and his response was - I had no idea you'd been working on that! - Clearly he has not been paying my blog as much attention as he claims hehehe.

Also, check out my funky nail art on my thumbnail, I'm loving playing around with nail polish at the moment, if you want to see this and the other designs I have tried in more detail, go here- http://myjourneyinnails.blogspot.co.uk/ :) cheeky bit of shameless self promotion.

My next craft projects are going to be a birthday card for a friend (I cannot post this until after giving it to her this friday though, she reads my blogs, love you Genie <3) and some more christmas cards hopefully :)

blog you soon, S x

Olly Owl Progress

I have done a little more of my sequin owl, and he is really taking shape now, here's what he looks like -

 And from a slightly different angle -

I am enjoying this project more now he is looking all shiny and pretty, and whilst it is time consuming, it is actually really easy to sit down and get into it properly if there are less distractions. All of this progress was made in one session, and all that is left to complete Olly the owl is the dark brown sequins to cover the rest of him :)

Hopefully I will soon be blogging about a finished sparkly owl, however I am a little distracted with all of my new nail art supplies that I got in the post today, so it may be a couple of days before I get back to him!

Until next time, S x

Another Owly Project

This owl is still in progress, just thought I would show you all the bits I have done this afternoon. This is a pinflair kit, which just involves pinning sequins onto a polystyrene model to create a sparkly ornament :) I only bought it because of my owl obsession, and he has been sitting in my drawer untouched for months, so I thought I would bring him to Devon with me so I would add some more to him.

This type of project is fiddly and time consuming, but you don't have to think about what you're doing too much so it's great to do while you're watching the TV or something, which is what I have been doing this afternoon.

The owl started today looking like this:

I did this little bit months ago so I thought it was about time to do some more, so I added the light brown sequins around his eyes like this:

Then I added his white chest with the bigger white sequins:

And now Olly Owl looks a lot more like he is taking shape :) so far the eye's have definitely been the most fiddly bit to make, it was difficult to try to get them symmetrical, but I am happy with how they look now.

I will keep you updated about his development!

Will blog you soon, S x

Project in Progress

Just a quick post to share with you one of the (many) projects that are currently in progress. This one is another scarf I am knitting, you can see the first knitted scarf in my previous post Past Projects, here - http://craftingmyjourney.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/past-projects.html

This second scarf has also been in progress for more than a year, but I have set myself a target to be finished by Christmas. Not necessarily to give it as a gift, although I may well do, just so I have a target to work towards. Scarves are a rather boring thing to make after a while, so I need that extra bit of motivation!

Here is the scarf as it is now:

 Please excuse the mess in the background! I will get around to cleaning any day now, honest ;-).

This scarf is pretty much the inverse of the first one, even made using the same needles (they are a size 6, which have a diameter of 5mm, this seems to be ideal). This scarf is slightly narrower than the original, being only 40 stitches wide rather than 50 - after seeing the other one finished I decided that I could loose a bit on the width in the hope that it wouldn't take quite as long to make! I have been doing 40 rows in green, followed by 10 rows in the cream colour,using only garter stitch. I will finish this scarf with a few tassels of the cream colour on each end :) When it is done, I will be sure to show you all!

Bye for now, S x

Cross-stitch Mouse and Blackwork Owl

Here are a couple of little projects I have recently completed, I am only posting them now as one of them was a gift I have only recently given :).

This is the blackwork owl, I have named him Horace because of his angry eyebrows! I have a bit of an owl obsession :) It's about the time of year that my infamous owl hat, Monty needs to come out of the cupboard! Anyway, this little blackwork piece was done from a kit that I bought at a stitch craft show last year, he only took me a couple of days to complete, and is currently framed, hanging up in my little living room :)

Horace

The next little piece was originally planned as a card for a friend and her husband congratulating them on the birth of their daughter, but then I decided to frame it and give it to them as something that they can keep instead :) I decided on a design with a mouse, as these friends run a mouse and small animal rescue and rehome operation, I myself have adopted mice from them, 8 in total I think, but unfortunately I have none left, I miss those little critters, full of personality, but my flat now is just too small to accommodate them as well as the bunny and hamster!

Anyway, back to my mousey cross stitch, this is my first attempt at this sort of thing without a kit, using the supplies I bought from amazon (see previous post "supplies") and a book of cross stitch designs. I used 14 count white aida, and a selection of different embroidery flosses. Unfortunately the cheap floss I bought doesn't have a coding system at all that I could tell, so I just had to select the colours I thought would fit best, and I think it turned out ok. The aida was great to work with, no more fraying than any other aida I have used, and the floss didn't fray either, the only drawback was the lack of a coding system, but considering how cheap it was (£15 for 100 skeins) I am very impressed. Here is the finished and framed mousey:

My nail kit has still not arrived yet, I called up the company I ordered it from and they said it should be here early next week, so hopefully soon I shall have another blog up and running following the progress of learning nail skills :) I am so excited for it's arrival, I've been daily checking my emails for a dispatch notice!

Anyway, my dinner is just about ready to come out of the oven - yum! So I will leave you now, with a picture of my bunny rabbit Bert, just 'cos he's awesome :)

Much love, S x