Floral Journal

This is a floral themed journal I made for a swap on the MyMakes.net forum.  The cover is a birthday card from my Mother-in-Law and there are flowers galore inside.  This really was a lovely journal to work on, just right for the beginning of Spring! There are lots of pockets, tuck spots and tags and plenty of  journalling space.

Thank you for watching, I hope you enjoyed a breath of Spring too.

Christmas Carol Challenge and Swap

It's definitely a Christmas Carol theme this Christmas - firstly the Dickens novel was our book club read for December, then I took part in a challenge which involved making a card and a mixed media piece, one to be based on the Dickens and the other to be any Christmas carol, using Artisan Design products.  Then the carol theme was chosen for a 6x6 scrapbook page swap on the My Makes forum.

These are my makes for the challenge.  My card is "In the Bleak Midwinter" with some suitably wintry looking deer and a village scene, and for my mixed media piece I took a canvas board and used Distress Oxides on photo paper to give a stone effect for Scrooge's headstone.  The lettering was done by hand. In both I have used the Artisan Design Snowflake mask and Distress Oxides as a background, and in the Scrooge one I've used the AD Fern stamp to add some foliage round the stone.  Flock made a nice snowy effect on both.

I made a similar style Bleak Midwinter scrapbook page for one of the swaps, and the other was inspired by The Holly and The Ivy.

I was lucky enough to be a winner in the challenge and received this wonderful prize of a set of Faber Castell watercolour pencils.

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.

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.

Napkin decoupage box

There are so many pretty paper napkins these days. I found one with beautiful pelargoniums that picked up the colours of my craft room curtains perfectly so I picked up a couple of paint tester pots and decoupaged a storage box that was starting to fade.

I posted a picture of this box on the My Makes forum and was asked to create a step by step for it. Please do pop over to the forum and have a look at my tutorial , including a useful tip I picked up from YouTube on how to smooth out the delicate paper without tearing it.

I have another half dozen of these storage boxes in various sizes, they are so useful for holding crafty bits and pieces and unfold flat for easy decoration. Now which paper napkin shall I choose for the next one... 

Mystical Swaps

Back in June I took part in a Mystical themed set of swaps on the My Makes Forum.  We had to upcycle something for one swap, create two ATCs for the second and the third was an "any craft" swap.

For my Upcycled item I took an old travel sweet tin, prepared it with gesso then sponged it with Vintaj Patina paints in Moss, Verdigris and Jade.  When it was dry I used a black Promarker to draw a dragonskin pattern all over the base of the tin. 

To decorate the lid I glued on a brass filigree shape then created a dragon's eye with a printed eye covered with a glass cabochon and made a setting for it with tiny bronze seed beads strung in a circle to fit the cabochon.

 I also used a dragon's eye theme for a necklace: I set a similar dragon's eye and cabochon into the bezel of a brass key and attached it and some charms to a copper chain.

The ATCs were a cute little dragon made with Tattered Lace Tiny Tubs dies on another hand drawn dragonskin background and a pretty die-cut and inlaid unicorn on a rainbow starry background.

Valentine's Day Box Card Tutorial

I have created a tutorial for this Box Card over on the MyMakes forum - do pop over and check it out! I made it into a Valentine's card as it's February, but once you have mastered the construction you can decorate it any way you like.  And it folds flat for posting too.

It's a great little stash-buster for odds and ends of paper and die cuts: even the acetate strips are recycled from packaging materials.

Change the colours and it's good for a wedding. I made a couple of Christmas boxes last year and I have an idea for using some hot air balloon dies sometime soon... would also be good with flowers for Mother's Day.... hmm that's coming up soon isn't it - watch this space!

My Makes Forum Launch Party

Do come and join us at the fab new craft forum My Makes . The forum's up and running now and we're having a launch party from mid-day on Saturday 10th September until 8pm on Sunday 11th September.  Fun and games, challenges and much more!  I'm one of the moderators and would love to see you, do come and join in this friendly new craft forum.

Great new craft forum - introducing My Makes

I'm very happy to reveal that I've been appointed one of the moderators for a lovely new crafts forum called My Makes. It's a friendly community for all crafts and I hope you will join us and make new friends and share your own makes.

I have also done a tutorial for this banner birthday card, made from scraps of paper and Washi tape, and will be working on more tutorials for the forum in the future.  Hope to see you there!

Banner birthday card