Steampunk Debutante Bag

Technique:  Papercrafting

Pens & Inks:
Vintage Photo Distress Ink
bronze and copper inks or paints

Papers:
Steampunk Debutante by Graphic 45
grunge paper

Dies:
Spritely Sprockets by Spellbinders
Tattered Floral by Tim Holtz

Other:
double sided adhesive tape
emery board
paper mache shopping bag
buttons
Vintage Photo stickles
jewellery chain for handle

The bag is made from sturdy paper mache and is approx 6" square by 2" deep.  I left the paper mache raw, choosing only to sand it a little to give it some tooth, and then adhered the graphic 45 paper to all sides, including the bottom, with double sided tape.  

I went around all of the edges with an emery board to distress them (an emery board is an economical little disposable sander), and then liberally applied Vintage Photo distress ink.

The gears are cut from the reverse side of the paper.  I applied double sided tape to the side I didn't want to be showing and then ran it through the Big Shot.  Voila!  I now had gear stickers.  I was so pleased with myself for thinking of this, it saves fiddling with glue which I can never seem to get neat.

The flowers are cut from grungepaper using the Tattered Floral die, and sponged with copper and bronze acrylic paints, flowers and buttons are all glued into place with hot glue and the flowers are given a liberal dusting of Stickles.  A 50cm length of chain is used for each handle, secured inside with a split ring.

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp and Show:  Steampunk

Chocolate Belly Band for Blokes

Technique:  Papercraft

Stamps & Images:
Sitting Santa Flippin Decoupage

Pens and Inks:
Peeled Paint Distress Ink

Papers:
American Crafts Crimson Weave
We R Memory Keepers White Christmas
sports pages from the newspaper

For the longest time I was a Christmas Grinch.  I hated Christmas, I felt the yearly ritual of buying socks, jocks and chocolate was a farce.  Office parties, end of school get togethers, Secret Santa, I hated it all.

That has all changed now, and I realized that for me, if I gave a meaningless gift (generic junk or gift cards) then the gesture was meaningless because I wasn't giving of myself, I was only giving of my wallet, and I begrudged the financial obligation.

So now, I love gifts that I can make quickly and easily, that don't break the budget, but have meaning for both myself and the recipient.  It's doubly good if I can give something that makes the recipient laugh or smile, because that's the best gift of all :o)

I am going to make a stash of these chocolate belly bands for last minute gifts, stocking stuffers and basket fillers, door and raffle prize donations and secret santa swaps.  The construction itself is very simple, intentionally so, I wanted these to be quick to make, easy to give and fun to receive. 

The image I chose features Santa having "a break" while reading the paper, so I picked up on the paper theme and carried that throughout the project.  Santa is placed on a "naughty or nice" list taken from a We R Memory Keepers paper called White Christmas. The edges have been inked with Peeled Paint distress ink before being placed on a red belly band which is slipped over a block of chocolate that has been wrapped in the sports pages from the weekend paper, giving this a distinctly masculine feel.

On the back is the sentiment which reads:

Thanks for looking and I hope your sense of humour is as warped as mine and you got a good giggle out of this :o)

Challenges:
Winter Wonderland:  Santa Clause is Coming to Town
Totally Gorjuss:  It's a Man Thing 
Cards for Men:  Anything but a square 
The Corrosive Challenge Blog:  Funny or Punny

Steptember Angels

Technique: Crochet

I can't believe a week has gone by already, I don't feel like I got anything done!

Every week I crochet an angel and send it off to someone who is need of hope through an organization called Angels for Hope. This is fantastic way to let people know that no matter what they are dealing with, that they are not alone. Each week I blog about it in the hopes that someone who wanders this way will read it and spread the word.

To celebrate the start of Spring all of my September angels are made with  a soft baby weight yarn with beautiful pastel colours.

If you like to crochet and would like to register for Angels for Hope you can do so here. Also, if you know someone who is need of an Angel, you can put in your request there.

Recycled CD Ornament

Technique:  Papercraft

Stamps:
Drew's Cupcake digi by Designed to Delight
Two Apples digi by Designed to Delight

Pens & Inks:
Reds:
Greens:
Denim Blue: B91, B93, B95
Sky Blue: B24, B26, B28
Flesh: E0000, E000, E02
Red: R22, R24, R27
Green: G03, G05, G07
Grey: C0, C3, C5, C7, C9
Bundled Sage Distress Ink
clear Spica Pen
glitter gel pens

Papers:
Waiting for Santa Collection by Webster's Pages

Other:
old CD
wide double sided tape
double sided foam adhesive
ribbon
Sparkly Fluff
Rock Candy Stickles

We have stacks and stacks of old compact discs lying about the place, quite literally in the hundreds I would guess, which predate the portable hard drives that now store all our data.  I have been itching to find a way to use one, this challenge was perfect :o)

Using the CD as a template, cut two circles from your designer paper.  I used the Waiting for Santa collection by Webster's Pages, the paper has ornaments with the alphabet and drawn lines giving a very school book type feel, and this is going to be an ornament for my son's teacher.

I used strip of double sided tape on each side of the CD to secure the ribbon into place, sorry for the terrible photo, I should have done the non reflective side first, but I wanted to show you how I secured the ribbon.

Once the ribbon was secure I covered one side with double sided tape and stuck the first circle of paper into position. 

The edges were trimmed with scissors, and then I took an emery board to the edges and lightly sanded to remove any overhang still remaining and smooth the edges.

Both sides of the CD are covered in the same way, then the edges inked with Bundled Sage distress ink.

One side of the ornament has the Drew with Cupcake digi sitting to one side, I've used sparkly fluff and glitter glue to make it look less like a birthday cupcake and a little more Christmas-y.  I haven't put on much in the way of embellishments, because the blank space you see there next to Drew, will be where my son writes a personal message to his teacher.

The other side of the ornament has a Christmas wreath made from apples (apple for the teacher).  I used Gimp to make the background on the apples digi transparent, and then used Word to fiddle about until I had a wreath shape I was happy with and then after printing and colouring, fussy cut it to make a photo frame.

The finishing touch is a double bow on each side, made from the same ribbon as was used to create the hanger, but a thinner version. 

Challenges:
Christmas Stamping All Year Long:  Teacher's Pet
ABC Christmas Challenge: R is for Recycled plus Ribbon or Rhinestone
Crafty Ribbons Challenge:  Christmas Cheer in September 
Papertake Weekly:  Anything Goes

Catching up with Stamping Mathilda

Once a week I spend the day playing catch up, adding the finishing touches to any projects not quite yet done, taking photos and browsing the net for inspiration, and as always, looking for free patterns and interesting tutorials, and this week with my craft room in a total shambles I felt like I have needed more than one catch up day!

I don't remember when I first stumbled across Stamping Mathilda's site, but I am so glad that I did.  The artist, Godelieve Tijskens is wonderfully inspiring.  She has designed for Darkroom Door and Art Journey, and her site contains a beautiful array of projects that include both classic rubber stamping and card making to art journalling.  Whenever I am feeling low on inspiration a cup of tea and an hour at Godelieve's site and I am fully recharged.

She posts frequently, every other day or so, making her website rich with content.  There are plenty of tutorials and as she is also a photographer the blog itself is eye candy.  Do go visit her site, you won't be disappointed!

Here are just two of my favorites out of hundreds of projects and tutorials:

Votive holder made from vellum.

An ongoing project she has to illustrate a dictionary.

Six Inch Crochet Blanket Sampler - Catherine Wheel

Technique: Crochet

Materials:
8 ply yarn in 3 colours

Tools:
4mm crochet hook

Finished Size:
6 inches

This is another of the blocks from Jan Eaton's book, and yet another pattern that took quite a bit of fiddling and fussing to get a uniform 6" in size.  Next time I am picking one block and making an entire blanket with the one design, that way I know without any fuss that all the blocks will be the same size!

Time to start blocking these, after which I will take more photo's, they will look so much prettier when they are actually square :o)

This week I discovered puppies like to play with wool every bit as much as kittens do!

Angel "Pin Up" Doll

Materials:
wooden clothes pin
large wooden bead for the head
acrylic paints for the skin and face
no. 10 crochet thread
steel size 7 crochet hook
flesh coloured embroidery floss
gold chenille stick
curly blonde dolls hair

The craft room is still in various stages of upheaval but I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

To make this cute little angel, follow the basic instructions in my tutorial on how to make a clothes pin doll to make the body, using the gold chenille stick for her sleeves.

The dress is a free pattern for a halloween angel, but instead of making it in black and orange I did it in white for a traditional angel.

For her hair I have glued a few curls of  dolls hair to the top of the bead, and her shoes are based in gold paint with a dusting of gold glitter over the top.

Hooray for Birthdays

Technique:  Papercraft

Images:
Gus Birthday digi from Bugaboo Stamps

Markers, Inks & Pens:
Flesh: E0000, E000, E02
Denim Blue: B91, B93, B95
Moss Green: YG61, YG62, YG67
Orange: YR02, YR04
Redwood: E15, E17, E19
Faded Denim distress ink

Designer papers:
Little Toot Collection - Cruise by Kaisercraft
Seaside Collection - Coast Line by Kaisercraft

Embellishments:
Glossy Accents on glasses
yellow glitter glue on headlights
metallic silver pen on handle bars

Another birthday in the house this week, this time for a 29 year old male.  He's a funny guy, a little cantankerous at times, we often joke that he is an old man trapped in a young man's body, so dear Gus seemed the perfect choice!

The sentiment on the front comes with the digi, and inside it reads "Hooray for Birthdays".

I think the only birthday card left to make is for my Mother at the end of this month, then nothing until January, which gives me a good long stretch to work on Christmas cards and gifts.

September Angels

Technique: Crochet

Every week I crochet an angel and send it off to someone who is need of hope through an organization called Angels for Hope. This is fantastic way to let people know that no matter what they are dealing with, that they are not alone. Each week I blog about it in the hopes that someone who wanders this way will read it and spread the word.

A new month and a new colour, to celebrate the start of Spring I chose a soft baby weight yarn with beautiful pastel colours.

If you like to crochet and would like to register for Angels for Hope you can do so here. Also, if you know someone who is need of an Angel, you can put in your request there.

Father's Day Card

Technique:  Papercraft

Materials:
designer paper
DIY Chester digi from Pollycraft
Copic markers

It's Father's Day this Sunday, so a card from my son to his Dad was in order.  We have always joked with our son, who from a wee age has been quite the climber, so we nicknamed him "monkeyboy".  This darling little image of Chester was perfect.  The sentiment inside reads "For the one hundredth time, I am NOT a monkeyboy".  His face was filled with joy as he gave it to his Dad, and isn't that exactly why we do what we do? :o)

Catching up with Crafty Storage

Once a week I spend the day playing catch up, adding the finishing touches to any projects not quite yet done, taking photos and browsing the net for inspiration, and as always, looking for free patterns and interesting tutorials.  

Where do you craft?

The major living areas of our house are relatively open plan (thanks to some creative renovations!).  The lounge room and dining room are one big room, and the dining room and kitchen are divided by a breakfast bench, so if you stand at the kitchen bench you can see right through to the lounge.  At the beginning of this year my storage space was two book cases in the dining room, and my work space was the kitchen bench.

This became increasingly frustrating, having to clean away what I was working on before every meal, or risk it getting dirtied as others prepared food in the house.  So I cleared out the spare bedroom of everything and moved my craft stuff in there.

It's still not fancy, I work on a 6' long trestle table, have plain wooden book cases with stacking baskets and round tubs to try and organize everything, but I can shut the door and be at peace, or close it off from wandering pets and people without worrying about half done projects being disrupted.  As finances permit I will start remodelling in there to specifically accommodate my crafting equipment, which is where this site deserves a mention.

Crafty Storage is a blog dedicated to showcasing craft storage ideas, how to stash your stash.  It has tonnes of ideas submitted by readers, not just for organizing entire rooms, but fabulous ideas for specific products like holders for your Copic pens, stamp and ribbon organizers etc.

I've spent hours committing the sin of envy and drooling over many of the work spaces.  Mostly I can't even imagine how some people have so many crafting supplies!  I imagine I will get there eventually LOL

Here are two of my favourite posts, ranging from one extreme to the other.

First is Jane's Creative Cupboard, which is literally a crafting space in the under the stairs cupboard space.

And in complete contrast is Dawn's Creation Station, a complete cottage set aside for her crafting.  I just loved the exterior decorations she chose!

I hope you enjoy looking through the blog as much as I did :o)