Personalised Items

After the craft show last month, I was asked to make a quilted baby blanket in the style of the cushions that were so popular at the show. I hadn't done this before but I was quite confident that it would look great - and it did!

I cut a piece of the patchwork material and layered it up with some wadding and light pink material, and machine quilted it in the check pattern. This was the easy part!

I bought some silky bias binding to edge it, which I hadn't used before and was a little bit tricky but I got there in the end:

For the corners, I did cheat slightly because I rounded them which made the binding a bit easier. The blanket was received very well and commented that 'it is better than anything you can buy in the shops' which is a great compliment! I'm hoping to get some more of this material so I can make a few more in the new year to sell.

I also had a request for a bespoke Christmas card. This was from someone who really likes my cards and wanted something special to give to her parents.

This card wasn't as easy as I first thought and I sat there on a Saturday for several hours wondering what I could do. I had to play around with the backing paper for ages, making sure it looked good.

The main image is a Christmas tree stamp from Indigo Blu which was heat embossed with white frantage embossing powder, to give the vintage glittery look:

Although I absolutely love embossing, I just can't find a good coloured gold embossing powder, so for the Mum and Dad lettering I had to paint the chipboard letters with gold acrylic paint, which had a similarly dazzling effect.

I did, however, emboss the Happy Christmas with bronze embossing powder - I couldn't resist!

The stars were the perfect finishing touch, embossed with the same white frantage powder which gives a different result every time. Although they turned out mainly white, they do have gold glittery effects mixed in too.

I hope they like it!

Jewellery Making

Jewellery making is something I have wanted to try for a while but I haven't had a clue where to start.

It was my lucky day when, on the way back from the craft and gift show, I stumbled upon a bead shop - right here in Brentwood! (apparently it's been there for several years but I don't often go to that part of the town).

When I walked in there were lots of lovely beads tempting me, so I signed up to a beginners workshop for the following Saturday.

In the workshop, there were two different types of necklace available to make and we had a pick of a large variety of beads. It turned out that the construction of the necklace itself is actually very straight forward, it's the designing of it that takes the most time.

The first necklace we made was this one:

 It was made using a length of tiger tail, folded in half. The majority of the beads are threaded onto one of the strands, but the other strand is used to thread one bead onto, with the design being held in place by a joiner bead threaded onto both strings. It's not as complicated as it looks and can be adapted in many different ways. However, it took us ages to decide on which beads to use - there were just too many on offer.

The next necklace was this one which is designed to be much longer:

Once you got the hang of how this one is constructed, it was very simple to build. Again, this design can be adapted and can be made smaller.

The Brentwood Bead Shop holds regular workshops from beginners to the more advanced. More information can be found on their website: www.brentwood-bead-shop.co.uk

Brentwood Craft and Gift Show

The last few months have been working towards the weekend just gone - to make things in order to sell them at the Brentwood Craft and Gift show.

This was a 2 day show and comprised of several different stalls selling various different crafts, gifts and foods as well. It was advertised as being the biggest of its kind in Essex and even some reindeers popped in on Sunday.

We worked hard to get the stall set up on Saturday and although it started off slowly, we had quite a good day - mainly due to several family members and friends paying the stall a visit and parting with their money.

There were several different items for sale including patchwork cushions, magnets, handmade cards and decorated candles:

 

 On the second day the heavens opened - so the hall was very busy. The stall had a bit of a change around to make some items more visible (and us - there was no hiding behind the card stands on day two.....)

The fleece baby blankets proved a very popular item, probably due to the cute animals printed onto some of them as well as the very soft feel of the snuggle fleece.

Although none of them sold, the mice pin cushions were also a big talking point, with lots of comments that they were cute. However, they are still sat on my shelf until they can find an owner:

I now have time to do more work on the blog. so over the next few weeks there will be several 'How to' guides showing various different techniques - so why not follow the blog so you get regular updates on the information and news.

I will also be putting some of the unsold stock onto my Etsy page shortly, or if you would like anything please leave a comment on this post.

Claire

Black doesn't have to be boring

It was my Mum's birthday at the weekend and I always try and make her a special card using new techniques. The card this year was made trying out a new technique for the first time and luckily it went alright.

I purchased some angelina fibres, also known as fusible fibres, several months ago as part of the Clarity Stamping in the Classroom with Barbara Grey workshop. I made along with the project that she demonstrated but I never tried anything else after that.

One of the techniques that you can do with angelina fibres is the one I've used in the butterfly on the left hand side.

They work with heat and fuse together when heat is applied - normally by using an iron.

For the butterfly, I cut six pieces of the film and stamped the butterfly onto 3 of them using stayzon ink. I then sandwiched the fibres in between the two pieces of film - one stamped and one plain piece, covered it with baking parchment and ironed over the top using the coldest setting.

Once ironed, the harden as well and I cut out the whole butterfly from one piece, the top part of the butterfly (including the body) from another piece and from the last piece I cut the bottom part of the butterfly (including the body). I then stuck the two halves onto the main butterfly using double sided tape on the body only. This gives the butterfly the 3D look.

For the background, I again used the angelina fibres but without sandwiching them. I took a variety of colours and laid them over a sheet of baking paper. I muddled them up a bit so they were quite random and then laid another sheet of baking paper over the top and ironed. They fused together creating a sheet which I stuck to a black piece of card using pritt stick as the background to the card.

The third part of the pack that I bought were some different petal stamps. There are many different designs in the pack but I chose one which had an intricate flower design within the petal:

I used 2 different coloured heat embossing powders on black card to create the flower. I stuck them round in a flower shape and then stuck a piece of card candy as the centre of the flower.

For the sentiment I again used black card, cut out using a spellbinders die, but covered it with perfect pearls as I have tried before when I was experimenting with inchies. Find out how I created this by clicking here.

The card was finished with some pink gems and a peel off butterfly stuck to acetate and the wings bent up to give it dimension.

Although the majority of the card used black card, with the techniques outlines above, black certainly doesn't need to be boring and can be made to sparkle as well as white card. Don't dismiss using black card next time you go to make a card!

The distressed look, heat embossing & acrylic paints

This was a technique that I tried out a few months ago and thought I would share it with you. It involves heat embossing and acrylic paint to achieve an unusual distressed look.

Here is the first card I made:

Here is what you need:

Coloured card, co-ordinating coloured acrylic paint, clear embossing powder, versamark ink pad, stamps of your choice, heat gun, large paint brush, a tissue

1) Choose the coloured card - this will be the colour that shows through your design.

2) Stamp your chosen image with the versamark ink onto the card and emboss with the clear powder.

3) Paint over the image and the surrounding card with the acrylic paint and allow to dry

4) Once the paint has dried, take the tissue and dampen it with water. Lightly rub over the embossed image to remove the paint, revealing the coloured card underneath. Then leave it to dry.

And now you have your image. Here is a close up of the flower on the card:

I applied some turquoise ink to the edges of the flower. On the background, I highlighted some of the features of the stamp, such as the watch and some of the wording, with some gold perfect pearls.

I then had a go at another card, which didn't turn out quite as expected but it can always be worked on:

The background was made using black card. I didn't have any white paint at the time (I have now purchased some so might have to try it again), so I used some picket fence distress stain. It didn't work quite as well as the paint probably would have done, because the black still shows through quite a bit.

The picture in the middle was made using red card and a bronze paint. Again, it didn't stand out as much as I would have liked because the colours were too similar, but it was an experiment and now I know what I need to change next time.

It can be a bit messy and time consuming as you have to wait for it to dry each time, but it can be very effective.

Stamping onto Candles

I first heard about this technique from a friend and when I become stuck what to make my Mum for mothers day I decided to give it a go. The results where brilliant (if I say so myself) so I thought I would try it again and experiment with heat embossing - my favourite!

I also thought I would share a quick tutorial with you as well.

Here is one of the candles that I heat embossed with blue glitter WOW powder. The picture doesn't show the sparkle very well.

What you will need:

A white candle, some white tissue paper, embossing powder, heat gun, talcum powder to stop the static, a large and a small paintbrush, a stamp of your choice and versamark ink.

Instructions:

1) Cut a piece of the tissue paper to the right size to cover the candle. You will be wrapping this around the candle and you don't want any overlap.
2) Brush some of the talcum powder onto the tissue paper using the large paintbrush and tip off any excess.
3) Ink up your stamp with the versamark ink and stamp it onto the tissue paper, pressing fairly hard to make sure all the image comes out. Then carefully take the stamp off being careful not to tear the tissue.
4) Before the ink dries, pour the embossing powder over the stamped image and return the excess to the pot. The heat the image until all the powder is melted. Repeat this as necessary - with the snowflake candle I stamped my image twice which was enough to cover the candle.
5) When you have your image ready, cover the back of it with a small amount of Pritt Stick and wrap around the candle. This keeps the image from moving when heating.
6) Some people prefer to use baking parchment when heating - wrap this around the candle and heat through it, however I didn't use this. Apply the heat gun to the image on the candle, being careful not to heat the wax too much. You can see through the tissue paper and easily identify when it is melted to the candle because it becomes more see through.

The key is not to heat the wax too much and do it in small sections. I heat a bit and then rub it over with my fingers to make sure it's stuck down and it's smooth. This does mean I get covered in wax but once it's dry it easily peels off!

Some of the edges might be harder to stick down, so if you do find they are curling, apply a little bit more of the pritt stick and heat again, smoothing the tissue down with your finger immediately after removing the heat.

Then you have your finished candle. Here are some more that I made now I've got the hang of it:

The two on the outside are both heat embossed and the butterfly ones in the middle are just coloured images using pro markers before the tissue is heated onto the candle. After heating I then applied some stickles glitter glue to the image.

This technique did require a lot of practice so before going for the best one, buy some cheap candles that you can practice with. They make great presents. I have wrapped mine in cellophane and tied with ribbon and added a small tag to them:

Journal of my Life

I was thinking of another book to make and decided to look for some ideas on the Sweet Shoppe Designs website. I had previously downloaded a digital scrapbooking kit from here so I thought I would have another look to see what's new when I came across the Journal of my Life scrapbook kit.

I immediately fell in love with the colours used and downloaded it to use. The kit comprises of a number of papers, elements and alphabets and because it's a downloadable pack you can print off and re-size the pieces you want to use.

I chose an 8x8 book because it leaves enough space to add both photos and embellishments. I bound it using the Zutter Bind it All machine because it makes a very sturdy book and looks professional.

The Love and Life were cut out from the kit and glittered using stickles glitter glue. I stuck a piece of white lace along the bottom with double sided tape and then die cut a heart from chipboard. Then, using the frantage embossing powder in shabby pink and some shaved ice, I embossed the heart and stuck it over the lace.

The circular butterfly element was embossed onto black card using WOW violet pearl powder and mounted onto a scalloped circle coloured with distress ink. The yellow card candy was made using some kraft card candy and embossed with yellow WOW powder.

The inside of the book has individually decorated pages that have enough room to put pictures on them and to add your own embellishments.

 This is the first page and I have made a frame out of ribbon. I cut 4 strips of ribbon to the same length and trimmed the ends diagonally. I then put double sided tape onto each strip and layered them over each other, ready for a picture to be added.

The turquoise paper on the right is my favourite and I felt that I didn't want to add too much to these pages. A journalling element was added to the left hand page to record details of the pictures added.

This one is another of my favourite papers - the journal page. I wasn't sure what I could add to this page so just a butterfly with some glitter added. On the right hand page I die cut another chipboard heart but this time I embossed with blue lagoon WOW powder, punched a hole in it and threaded through some twine.

The paper on the left hand side of the above is a replicate of some newspaper, which I love. I really couldn't  find an element that would go with this paper so I left it blank and complimented it with some purple wood effect paper opposite, finished with a tag.

And the last page I'm going to show you is this one. The left hand page features a tag and a felt circle replicated element that was part of the kit. I have glittered the flower detailing and will put a small silver gem in the middle of it.

On the right hand side I have added another journalling tag as well as some butterflies that were heat embossed with WOW powder in pomegranate.

As you can see, there is still plenty of room to add your own personal touch to this book and I have created the pages so that they all co-ordinate and there is lots of colour.

Part of me doesn't want to sell this book but the good thing about it is that if I do sell it, I can always make another one!