Day of the Dead ATC Coins

If you like making ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) you'll love the new Artist Trading Coins!  2 1/2" circles instead of 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" rectangles but the principle is the same.  They're great for trying out new techniques too!

These are my first Coins, made for a RAK Challenge on the NJJM Facebook recently.  The theme was "freestyle" but as I was making mine at the end of October I used a free cover stamp from Craft Stamper magazine and went with a Dia de los Muertos theme.

I printed off a distressed purple damask pattern background paper, die cut it into coins, added a glitter glue spider's web, some book paper and a strip of script washi tape.  Then I stamped and coloured my skulls, fussy cut them and popped them on the top.  They are now winging their way to Australia, but I made myself an extra one so I can keep one myself, as I realised that I hardly have any of my own makes as they are mostly swaps and presents.

Snippet Roll

The Newbie Junk Journal Makers Facebook group ran a challenge this week to make a snippet roll.  Yes I had to look it up too!  It's basically a long strip of fabric, embellished with lace, buttons, beads, ribbons - anything you like really.  I've never made one before, but seeing the pretty little rolls the ladies on the group were posting I felt I really had to have a go for myself.  I discovered it's also a brilliant way to use up some of those little odds and ends that accumulate on a craft table!

I cut a strip of fabric from a sleeve of an old blouse, dug out the sewing machine and just started adding lace and odds and ends of ribbon until it was covered.  I then added beading samples I'd worked up years ago,  a couple of keys, a brass filigree embellishment and some buttons and beads from my bit box.

It was great fun to make and I'd definitely do another.  This one had a size restriction for the challenge but I'd make a longer one next time.  Traditionally they are rolled round an old wooden cotton reel but I might hang this one on the wall instead

Watermelon Needlecase

My offering for a recent fruit themed swap on the My Makes Forum was this cute little watermelon needle case:


The pages of the needle case were made from two circles of white felt, hand stitched to the larger green circle.  The stitches on the outside were hidden by the white and pink circles when assembled.

The outside was formed of three circles of felt, cut with concentric circle dies on my Big Shot Plus.  I sewed black beads onto the pink circle to represent the melon seeds, then stitched the three circles together with running stitch and edged the green felt circle with blanket stitch.  I just caught the green felt with the running stitches rather than going all the way through so they would be invisible on the inside.

I attached a button and a loop of ribbon to fasten the case closed and sent it off on its way for the swap.

World Mental Health Day tag swap

The Newbie Junk Journal Makers Facebook group are running a tag swap for World Mental Health Day.  We had to make two tags with a positive mental health aspect (affirmations, quotes etc.) and swend to our swap partner.

These are my tags:

I blended several colours of Distress Oxides to make a blue sky effect.  For the first, I stamped a sentiment that I am very fond of, and added a book paper cloud with some tiny sequins as raindrops, a die cut sun and rainbow (coloured with Promarkers) and a tiny wooden bird.

For the second, I added a stamped and coloured image, some positive affirmations and a wooden butterfly.

These are the wonderful tags I was lucky enough to receive in return from my swap partner Kelly: simply stunning!

Quilt Block Tag

Another recent tag, also for the Newbie Junk Journal Makers Facebook group (NJJM) was for a challenge - the tag had to be an interpretation of a quilt block.  There were some wonderful entries, some were actually quilted in fabric, but I chose to use my favourite hexagon quilt patch in coordinating papers.  I stuck them onto a card backing and drew "stitches" with a pen, then used an embossing folder to add texture and highlighted it with a faint application of distress ink.  I then glued it to a slightly larger tag and added paper lace and a sentiment and then finished it off with an eyelet (I love my new Crop-o-dile!) and some fibres.

Woodland Journal Tags

I have recently joined in a tag challenge on the Newbie Junk Journal Makers group on Facebook. I designed three Woodland themed tags: I'd decided that was going to be the theme of my next journal and making these was a good way of getting started on sorting out the papers and stamps that I would be using on it.

The tags all use up scraps from my stash of offcuts and magazine freebies, on a base of blended Distress Oxides stamped with some cute little wildlife stamps. I've used a die-cut stag on one, and a skeleton leaf on another.

And here are the other sides, I have added a die-cut squirrel to one, a fabric and glitter ivy leaf and a stamped sentiment to the others:

The yarn is variegated in lovely soft autumn colours, with a super crimped texture, again it came free with a magazine and I will be sorry to see the end of it as it is so unusual.

My First Junk Journal

I've been wanting to make myself a "junk journal" after discovering them on Facebook a little while ago and realising that they are what I've been hoarding stuff for without even knowing it!  All the papers and ephemera that were too pretty to throw away suddenly have a use at last.

What's a jun journal?  Well I have realised that it is whatever you want to make it!  Some people recycle old hardback books to make the covers and add their own signatures, others make inserts for ready made "traveller's  notebooks", and others make the whole thing from scratch.  The sky's the limit.

I was a little unsure where to start so I joined a mentoring scheme on the amazing Friendly Junk Journal Facebook Group and was assigned a volunteer tutor, Angela, to guide me through the process of making my own journal over the course of three months.

In the first month I made myself a cover from card, decorated it and made my first signature, sewing it into the cover.  Month two the task was to create a decorated signature and sew that in too.  In the third month I learnt about tuck spots and journalling cards and added them to the signatures.

I soon learned that I could have done with somewhat thicker card for the cover, as the fatter the journal get the more the cover bends, and that trying to stamp onto pages after they are sewn into the signature is not at all easy to do well.

I wouldn't say it is finished yet, as I want to add a bead dangle to the spine and will almost certainly add more decoration to the pages, but it was a brilliant introduction to a fun craft and I have learned a lot from my wonderful teacher Angela and fellow mentee Olivia.

Anyway, here are some of the pages from my first junk journal - but it certainly won't be my last!  The theme I chose was Folk Art, and with the exception of the bookbinding awl, thread and needle and a couple of Russian Doll colouring pages from the internet everything I used was already in my crafty stash.

Thank you for looking xx 

Colour themed ATCs

I have had some mixed media fun with the ATC swap on the My Make Forum this month.  The brief was: three ATCs, all mainly the same colour.

I chose aqua as I'd just bought some aqua metallic paint from our new local craft shop and wanted to try it out!

The first one has a collaged paper background edged in Peacock Feather Distress Oxide.  I mixed some of the metallic paint with Grunge Paste through a starry stencil, and once it dried I overstamped in black archival with more stars and a sentiment, and finished off with a star sequin.

The middle ATC has a Distress Oxide background of Peacock Feather and Cracked Pistachio.  I used the blended Grunge Paste as before but with a butterfly and stars stencil, then added some patterning to the butterfly's wings with metallic pen and some tiny sequins. Again I finished with a couple of stamped sentiments and some sequins in different shades of aqua.

The final ATC has a patterned paper background, inked with Peacock Feather, and I used the Grunge Paste through a HOTP feather stencil.  Again I coloured in detail with a metallic pen, stamped and added sequins as before.

They are now on their way to the States for a swap, who knows where they will finally end up?

Some forum swaps

I joined in with the ATC and Fridge Magnet swaps on the MyMakes forum in May: the theme for the magnet was the Royal Wedding and the ATCs were to be one for a boy and one for a girl.



The image that stood out for me from the Royal Wedding was that marvellous doorway of greenery and flowers so I based my magnet on an arch of green FlowerSoft with punched flowers and dots of Liquid Pearls and glitter glue.  The centrepiece was a crown embellished with more glitter glue in regal colours, above Harry and Meghan's initials, they year and entwined wedding bands.









The backgrounds for the ATCs were made with Distress Oxides.  I dabbed them onto my craft sheet, spritzed with water, then the card was dragged through, dried and repeated.  I stamped the cute baby hand and footprints in Distress Oxide and highlighted them with clear Wink of Stella, then after spattering with silver paint I added some more stamping and some bows and embellishments from my stash.

Cat cards

My sisters, like the rest of the family, are cat lovers so it wasn't hard to choose a themes for this year's birthday cards (they are twins). 

For one I used a cute set of little cat silhouette dies on a shaped card with some glittery bird and flowery card and a diecut greeting.

For the other I used a template from this month's Crafts Beautiful and paper-pieced a very glamorous kitty and die-cut her a pink bow.