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Sometimes you just need something small and fiddly to craft while you can’t move about much, while you lie on the couch feeling fatigued and sorry for yourself. Say, if you are feeling really under the weather. Just in time for Valentine’s. So: These tiny little paper roses are perfect. So easy to make you can do it even if you have a fever, promise!
There are plenty of tutorials for these out there, but I followed this one by Ann Martin over at All Things Paper. Excellent! Be sure to check out her other projects and tutorials as well.
There is a special place in my heart for recycling, and so I decided to make these paper flowers out of newspaper. There’s this local paper that someone sticks in our letterbox once week no matter what notes we put up. It’s fairly annoying: It takes about 2 minutes to flip through, and then it goes directly in the recycling bin! Such waste of paper. So, I thought I’d give it another round before it got tossed out.
I cut long strips from an entire spread, and was lucky enough that one of the pages had a huge picture in it with a big blue sky. So, folding the strips in half I got the blue colour on both sides of the strip, which lead to the blue effect in the middle of the roses.
Quick, easy and so very pretty! Love making my own embellishments!
Stay safe everyone. Thanks for visiting!
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Handmade decos are always a nice touch to a card or a scrapbook layout, I think. It just feels great to be able to make something from scratch from the supplies you have, and it gets a little more personal, which is what I always want with my Christmas cards. Sometimes a Christmas card is only thing you send someone that year, maybe to a friend or a loved one that lives far away and you’ve haven’t had a chance to see or talk to in a while. That’s why it feels important to me; I want the recipient to know I’m thinking about them.
So here are some of the Christmas cards I made this year. I decided to hand paint some baubles with watercolour. I really can’t paint at all, but this technique is fairly easy: Draw a circle on some watercolour paper, dampen the circle with water, then add colour, a little bit at a time.Make it a bit darker around the edges and leave a little spot where you don’t put any colour at all, which makes it look a bit shiny.
When deciding on size, I punched out a circle with one of my punches and used that as a template. That made it easy to punch out the baubles perfectly circular after I’d painted them. Also, I used some of my small snowflake- and heart stamps to make a decorative pattern. I stamped the pattern in water resistant ink before I added the watercolour. Lastly I sprayed the baubles with some shimmer mist. To make the card a little dimensional I adhered the baubles with some foam dots.
I was really pleased with these cards, I wanted to make more like them, but I went on to other ideas, more posts to come!
Stay safe, everyone. :)
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The Christmas cards needs to go in the mail next week if they are to arrive in time, especially the ones I’m sending overseas. So I have to get a move on! I thought I’d done rather well so far, but when I sat down and reviewed my list I realised I still have a few to make. Gah! Glue glue glue! My problem might be that I never like to make the same type of cards more than a couple of times, 2-4 for the most of any card. It’s much more fun that way, getting to try new techniques and motifs and colours. But I guess it’s not so great when it comes to speed and productivity, hehe…
I like to add handmade embellishments to whatever I make, if I can manage. So I tried to paint these X-mas baubles in watercolour. I don’t really know how to paint but painting different layers of the different shades worked out quite well. I made them the same size as one of my circle punches, do cutting them out was a breeze. I have soem pics of the finished X-mas cards to post, I just need to get them off my camera. But here’s a sneak peek at least! Have to get back to stamping and gluing and making more cards! *Hurries back to my crafting nook*
P.S. What’s the chance of me setting up a Craft Signal light, like in Batman? It could be a monkey. I could flash it towards the ceiling and make an alarm noise and run to my work space shouting: “To The Craft Cave!”… Seriously have to look into this… It feel very important… Maybe I should write a theme tune…
I think it’s fun to add a little extra, not only to the Christmas card itself, but also to the envelope. It makes it all the merrier to find it in the mail, don’t you think? A pretty envelope with your name written by hand, and a little something extra cute, at least you’ll know for sure it wont be a boring invoice ;)
I got these little stamps with a crafting magazine, and they were perfect for this! I stamped them on a nice thick paper with water-resistant ink, and then hand-painted them with watercolours. The motifs are tiny! It took some patience. But overall I’m pretty pleased, they feel very cheerful!
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Summer is over in Sweden, but were having some warm days still with sunshine and beautiful foliage. Here and there you can still see some stubborn flowers peaking out, which reminded me that I completely forgot to post the flower brooches I made this summer! (I had a little sneak peak in this post) So here they are, a bit late, like those late blossoms in our autumnal gardens.
They were made especially for a combined hen night/bachelor party. I wanted to make something special for the couple, and on top of making them a distressed and vintage looking treasure map for the day I also made these paper corsages for the entire party.
I cut out a whole bunch of flowers from green, orange and red paper, crunched and curled them and glued them together. I punched out some hearts in black, to pose as pistils, and attached them in the middle with some black stickles.
It really was a lot of fun to make them, and I’m rather impressed with myself that I finished them in time! Most of all it felt great to be able to bring a gift to that special day that was hand made.
I can’t help it, I just think they are funny. Fuh-Nyh! What project doesn’t get a boost from googly eyes? Old stamp motifs or funny shapes get another dimension. (Plus: Boring baby pictures? Boring photo of your granny? The answer: Googly eyes!). I used quite a lot of them on the X-mas cards I made the other month (note to self: don’t forget to actually SEND the X-mas cards this year), and then I couldn’t stop myself, I put them on everything. Anyway, I found a lot of inspiring googly-eye-nutters on Flickr, enjoy!
1. Boo Owl ghost, 2. Basil the seeing eye dog., 3. Thank You, 4. Biscuit Buddies {29/52}, 5. Whoo’s Turning 50?, 6. 10/365 – Watching you, 7. Hang In There, 8. Whachoo lookin’ at?, 9. halloween_card, 10. three’s company, 11. Christmas Mini Card Set-1, 12. Pickles with eyes., 13. heroartsinchies, 14. Will you stop!, 15. May I cut in?, 16. 065:365 Would These Eyes Lie To You?, 17. Close up of eyes, 18. those citrus fruits are at it again., 19. Pug Card, 20. 282/365 eye pod
Go on, you know you want to…
I’m making a small album with photos from my trip to Italy, and I couldn’t find an album I liked. I got a generic one instead, and am going to try and spruce it up. I wanted some chipboard numbers to glue on the front but could not find any in the right size or shape. I did however find really cheap ones made of light weight wood at the craft store, sold piece by piece. So, that way, I can alter them any way I want, and in the end I don’t have a box of left overs I won’t use. Win!
So I painted them red with ordinary acrylic paint, and then I used a glossy accent that crackles as it dries. It’ll match the Italy-inspired ribbon i found, so now I feel all co-ordinated and matchy ;) Gluing them on the front cover of the album with some bead glue will keep them in place.
 Cheap and plain wooden numbers, painted to match the colours of the ribbon. (Also notice the time warp back to 2001)  Use a glossy or crackled glaze to give it dimension (you can glaze just about anything...)  Ready to use, crackeled red numbers to glue on album.
I’ve been wanting to try this out for a couple of years now, but just haven’t gotten around to it. I remember as a kid when my dad used to show me how to solder (he’s an electrician, so he had a lot of skill). I remember when I started pre-school and my mum got her first job after her maternity leave, soldering circuit boards and mother boards for computers. She also had a lot of skill! So when I saw a video about soldering charms a few years back I thought: “Hey, THAT I can do!”. Well, some skills are just not inherited, and some does definitely not come naturally to me.
Getting the supplies has been kind of a challenge, actually. I have ventured into many hardware stores asking questions about soldering and flux gel and copper tape, and since they are generally not artsy and craftsy they have been giving me very strange looks. I actually got a “Little missus, you should visit your local craft store instead” today.
Well, my boo helped me get a soldering station on a bargain and I just couldn’t keep putting it off any more. I finally found a place that sold some thin glass pieces (why are THOSE so hard to find? I’ll have to go into glass fusing next) and I was found standing in my little kitchen today, windows open, smoke from the soldering up my nose, giving this charm making a first try. I failed on so many accounts, and it’s crude so say the least, but here it is:
 First try. Paper from Graphics 45 It was only my first try after all. I’ll try again. Preferably with a kitchen fan close by, ’cause I’m feeling a bit woozy. But it was FUN. Tools, you gotta love to have tools.I’ll do better next time!
It’s funny how trends catch on in the scrapbooking arena. They seem to pop up almost simultaneously around the world, they travel so fast, even compared to fashion trends. Once in a while an idea pops into your head, and then like on queue other people get the same idea, and suddenly scrappers everywhere are all using bubble wrap or owls or pirates in their projects. It’s fabulous and it’s a sure sign we should all just move in together and just inspire each other. Yarr!
It would be hard to pick a country for us all to live in though. Internet is our Scrapbook Nation!
One of these Suddenly Trendy Things is Shrink Plastic. Me and Tricks tried it out last year during our there’s-gotta-be-a-way-to-make-fun-personal-embellishments-phase. Tricks said one day: “Say Jen, do you remember that material they’d let you use in pre-school, that plastic shrinky thingy”… and we went out and found it and got hooked, naturally. And, around the world, people must have thought the same thing! ‘Cause now I’ve read about it everywhere, it’s becoming a trend (no wonder, it’s easy and fun!).
Tricks made a pair of super cute apple earrings, I have some great photos of that, I have to dig them up! Every time she wears them I can’t help but smile and feel cheerful; they are just so her, and colourful, and she made them with her scrapbook stuff which is awesome.
But so far I’ve only found these pictures of a card I made for a coffee crazy friend, with a miniature coffee cup made from shrink plastic:
Blade Rubber Stamps has a whole page on using shrink plastic! Check it out!
When I started out, two years ago now, there were so many products I thought I’d never use. And I never thought I’d be so into making my own embellishments either. But now, a few years later, here I am, spending precious time trying out things that often does not end up the way I thought it would (more often than not it requires a few tries). This is one of those projects, making my own buttons.
When I begun this hobby I never thought I’d ever put anything remotely like a button on a project. It just didn’t make any sense to me. More embellishments are always useful though, and I can’t keep putting blingy gems on everything I make (I would gladly do it but I need some variety I guess). So here I am, makin’ ma’ own buttn’s!
I’ve been itching to try to make my own embellishments with clay for a while now. I’ve read a few articles on paper clay, a super light material made of tiny paper granules (granules, not just in toothpaste!), that sounded perfect. Not to heave for a card you’d like to send yonder. Then I stumbled onto Craftpudding’s cutsey clay ornaments and decided I needed to give it a go, or else it would be buzzing around in my head for a long time (the What If’s of scrapping, keeping me awake).
The result is not at all what I thought it would be and I can’t say that I am all that pleased, but it is my first try, so maybe next time? Plenty of clay left! Maybe on the right project they will look rather nice. Here’s what happened:
I made some different shapes with the paper clay and used some tiny ornament stamps I have to impress a shape in them. They dry fairly quickly but i let them set over night.
I painted them in various pastel colours from a set of paints called “Shabby Chic” from Panduro. Perfect set if one wants a certain colour scheme but does not feel like mixing them oneself ;)
I dabbed some gold coloured paint on them whit a foam brush to give them a kitschy look. I then added some colour to the imprints and finished up by coating them with some varnish:
Tadaa, handmade buttons! I will definitely give it another go, it was plenty of fun and, well, they need some improvement ;)
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