CUT STRIP BACKGROUND

CUT STRIPS

COMPLETED BACKGROUND

This easy background is a simple way to use up leftover papers.

I used a dark brown background card.  The papers were cut at an angle....just somewhat randomly, an then stuck them side by side with a little gap between.

Then the layers were sliced vertically and reassembled, alternating top and bottom, and leaving a similar sized gap.

I've used "outback" colours with a bit of copper shimmer to lift it, but I think if you used a black base and primaries you'd get a very sixties look which could be fun.

CRAFT ROOM RENO

My craftroom had sort of grown organically over time.  It had green walls and well-worn pink carpet. There were plastic boxes, and cardboard boxes and an assortment of plastic bags, unrestrained piles of paper and....well...you get the picture.  After spending a number of evenings drooling over other people's creative spaces as shown on various sites, my husband, good bloke that he is, suggested we could do something similar....in fact.... as he enjoys woodwork, more or less whatever I wanted.

Lucky me.....yay.....followed by sudden panic.  What did I want?  Well,  I wanted to be able to store the same sorts of things together for starters.  I wanted to be able to find them too, and then access them easily!  I also wanted to be able to work either sitting down or standing up. Most of all, I wanted a comfortable, usable space - not cluttered, but not so pristine that I was afraid to throw a bit of paint around.

Well.....a few weeks later, and as of yesterday (today if you count cleaning up) we're finished!  I was going to say that I'm not posting this as a "look what we did!" but have to confess there's a bit of that - I wish I'd taken photos of the old room so you could actually see why I'm so pleased with the end result.  The official reason, I'm writing about this and posting pictures over the next few weeks is that I have really enjoyed looking at what other people have done for storage and how their craftrooms are set-up and feel like I should feed a few ideas back into the system.  Hopefully someone might find some inspiration here too.  I know its not strictly papercraft, but I'm fairly sure that getting  myself organized is going to be a big plus in actually producing some!

The New Craftroom

PHOTOGRAPHS FOR COLOURING

Sunflowers as line drawing

Colouring is still a popular activity which many people find really relaxing.  If you have access to an image editing programme such as Elements you can easily turn your photos into images for colouring. 

I've just used the auto pencil sketch function for this, made a duplicate layer, blended the layers using "Multiply"and then adjusted  levels to increase the contrast.

If this all sounds too hard (believe me it isn't, but its probably easier to have someone show you if you aren't familiar with how to do this) then you're welcome to use the sunflower image (Yes I did grow them!) to colour.

I have to confess I haven't really been bitten by the colouring bug - I spend far too long agonizing over colours for it to be in any way relaxing - but should it strike I think it would be kind of nice to use some of my own images, and as I draw at around grade 3 level, photos are my one hope!! 

Original photograph

DIE CUT FABRIC FRAME

Fabric is easy to die cut as long as the die you are using is not too intricate.

In this example I'd stuck some thin cotton fabric to double sided Jac paper which is a good way to not only prevent fraying but apply an even layer of adhesive to the surface.

The actual shape I wanted was the butterfly, but it seemed a shame to throw away the left over fabric so I stuck it onto a scrap of embossed card and die-cut both layers with a circle die.

Fabric frames have potential.  You could add real or faux stitching or frame a photo of someone wearing a garment made of the actual fabric for a scrapbook page etc.  I'm not sure its something I'll do a lot but its worth adding to the list!

INKLESS HEAT EMBOSSING

INK FREE HEAT EMBOSSING

I have to work really hard not to get loose embossing powder all over the place when I heat emboss.  (I do know that this is because I don't follow my own advice re: not touching the surface, flicking stray bits off with a hard brush, and in extreme cases using an anti-static pad etc etc).

After a particularly messy effort (due to lack of effort on my part) I wondered if this could be "a technique" - perhaps for a little star trail (as in the picture), or specks of rain, or seaspray etc, so I just sprinkled  a bit of embossing powder here and there and heated it.

Rule one (of course) is don't lift it up or, without ink or some other medium to hold it in place the powder will simply fall off.  Rule two is if you are going to heat it flat then do so on a heat resistant surface.

It worked OK I guess but a little too randomly for my liking.  Unlike heat embossing with ink, you can't just shake off the bits that aren't exactly where you want them.  I'll stick to little dots with an embossing pen in the future but inkless embossing is possible.

CARD WITH CROCHET EDGE

CARD WITH CROCHET EDGE

If you have some left over crochet cotton, why not use it to add a special edge to a card.

I've pierced holes down the side with a single needle tool, a reasonable distance from the edge. This was a precaution in case the card tore.  As it happened, this was unnecessary as everything stayed put.  There are lots of ways to space holes  evenly, but I used the most "low tech" which was simply to pierce them against a metal ruler at regular intervals.

I blanket stitched along the holes, so there was a larger space into which to crochet, and then just made up the edging as I went along.

If I was doing this "properly"  I would have used a much finer cotton, and probably either worked out or copied a more decorative edging (there are lots of free patterns online).  You don't have to confine crochet to the edges of cards - crochet motifs can be used as the main focus (flowers, snowflakes, small doileys etc), and you can also add borders to simple shapes.

DIE CUT FROM PHOTOS

Photo and dies

Die-cut birds from repurposed photos

I like playing around with photos....sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't end up quite as I imagined it would, or I get carried away and have extra prints, when one is sufficient.  The red daisy photo was an example of the latter, but as I hate throwing things away, I decided cut out a flock of little birds instead.

I'm quite pleased with the end result - the photo (commercially printed) has a nice surface sheen, the paper is stiff enough to be mounted with foam dots and keep its shape, and it cut easily.  If you were really keen you could even design your own prints especially for certain dies (I'm already imagining a collage of tiny feathers for these guys).  You can get a 15 x 10cm print for just a few cents from many processors nowadays - bargain thick patterned paper!!

STAMP AND EMBOSS PRINTING

Stamp and Folder

Stamped Embossing

This is a quick and easy technique that could result in some really interesting backgrounds - I'm not claiming that my example is one of them, but it should give you some idea of how it works.  I've used a foam stamp (any stamp will do but I'm fairly sure that the less detail the better), ink it up with a non-permanent ink (I've used a chalk pigment), stamp onto your embossing folder, then insert a piece of paper or card and run through your Cuttlebug (or Bigshot etc).  I'm going to play a bit more with this technique - perhaps make some of my own stamps from fun foam?  If it works out I'll post the results at a later date.

ACETATE AS A CARD BASE

ACETATE BIRTHDAY CARD

I don't often do complete cards for this blog, but made an exception this time you probably wouldn't be able to see the "idea" if I hadn't!

If you're getting a bit fed up with the usual card bases made of.....well......card, how about trying acetate.

Its a little trickier to deal with as you have to deal with the back being visible I left the sticker "as is" and cut a panel of red card to disguise the back of the 3D picture.  Then, because my red backing/border proved a bit dodgy (thus proving once and for all that I can't cut straight with scissors!) I added a border sticker on the front.  Rest assured I do take more care with the cards I actually give people - this one is just "by way of example".

As the picture I was using, coupled with the backing, stickers etc ended up being quite heavy in relation to the thickness of the acetate, I double scored the middle so that the card had a little spine, which added stability when it sits up to display.  As the picture had height already, it didn't add much, if any thickness to the overall card.

(All the materials came from Regal Craft Cards)

MINI BOOK WITH SEWN SPINE

 I usually fold my little books or attach the pages with rings or ties, but I have branched out a little with this book which has a sewn spine.

I made three signatures (sheets of paper folded and stacked) and sewed them together.  You can find any number of examples of how to do this on line, but basically, starting on the outside of the folded stack,  I just made three holes went in at the middle, then out on one side, back in on the other side, out again through the middle and then tied of the threads.

I used some lilac handmade paper that I have had for ages but for which I've never quite found a use.  I used quilting thread, passed through bees wax to do the actual sewing, and pre-pierced the holes using an awl.  If your stack is too thick to go through is one go, make a template with the position of the holes marked so that you can do a few sheets at a time, but still get the holes in the right place.

The cover was made with two pieces of packing card slightly larger than the pages, with a third piece placed between with a couple of mm between, for the spine.  (I just measured the height of the sewn signatures to work out how wide to make this.  After cutting a piece of darker and thicker lavender handmade paper, about 1cm larger than the three pieces together, I applied double sided tape to the edges of the card pieces and centred them on the cover.  After mitring the corners, I put some more double-sided tape on the edges and stuck them down.

Next up I just checked everything for size, and then stuck the front page of the inner pages to the inner edge of the front cover, and repeated the same with the back page and the back cover.

I probably should have re en-forced the spine with masking or cloth tape but as the cover paper was strong, and the book quite small I didn't bother, and I think it will all stay together OK....time will tell.

Excuse my gardening fingers but I thought I'd include my hand to give you a sense of scale.  Rather than stick to any pre-determined measurement I simply used the size of the paper as a guide.

Clearly if you wanted you could easily add extra decoration to the front, which I may well do once I decide how to use the book.

BACKGROUND WITH RICE AND ACRYLIC PAINT

RICE ON WET PAINT

 I'm always keen to try new background techniques, but as this one is a bit on the messy side, I haven't had the chance to try it until now.  (Hence I have forgotten the source of the idea.....sorry....happy to credit if you want to claim it as your own).

The idea is basically just to spread a layer of very watery acrylic paint, and then sprinkle rice on top immediately.

After the paint is completely dry, the rice is removed.  The rice absorbs some of the paint, leaving paint-free areas, and creating patterns.

As you can see, it worked OK.....not remarkably.  I think it would probably be better had a used a less absorbent paper as the background so that more liquid is taken up by the rice.  I also found it impossible to remove the rice without ripping some of the paper underneath.  This isn't necessarily bad - it does have its own "look."

All in all I'm glad I finally got around to trying this technique but don't think I'll be using it frequently. There are easier ways of creating similar effects, and in terms of the lay on/take off technique, salt seems more reliable.  Still, if you haven't tried it its worth a go.  I imagine dark blue paint on gold or silver paper might make a nice starry sky.........

RICE PATTERNED BACKGROUND

ACCORDION FOLDED SEWING KIT

Closed Sewing Kit

Open Sewing Kit

I have lots and lots of paper.  I am not complaining about this fortunate state of affairs, but every now and then I do feel that perhaps I should actually use some of it.

As I seemed to be forever borrowing sewing needles from the ladies at work, these little kits seemed appropriate.

I just folded a long strip of textured white card three times (to make four panels) - up then down then up again to make an accordion.

I added paper to the back panels, securing a ribbon under the end one (which becomes the front of the book) so that it can be tied around the book to keep it closed.

On the other side I added little pieces of felt secured with split pins to sticky backed magnets to hold needles and pins, and a little pocket to hold a bobbin shaped piece of card wound with three different colours of cotton.

They won't last forever but don't take too long to make and are very functional - just a nice size to slip in your handbag (or desk drawer for the next time some annoying person like me wants to borrow a needle or pin!)

PAPER SCRAP EARRINGS

Here's one for folks who can't bring themselves to throw out even the tiniest scraps of handmade and Japanese papers......buy some earring backings and little glass cabouchons and go wild.

Due to a slight misreading of quantities on ebay,  I now have enough to wear a different pair each day for, oh, well, give or take.....about a year!!  (But I have used up a lot of little bits of paper!!)

Some polystyrene packing provided a nice stable base, whilst I was gluing the bits together.  The black, gold and burgundy examples were made by colouring the base of the glass with Sharpie markers before glueing them to the base, but the rest were all made with scraps of paper.

CLEAR EMBOSSED BLACK CARD

CLEAR EMBOSSED BLACK CARD

This is a rather bad photo of clear-embossed Versamark on a black background.  I hope you take my word for it, that it does, in reality look great!!

I used a flash to photograph it, hence, the reflection of the stamped image, and the appearance of a far greater contrast between the image and background than exists in the real world.

The actual example is very subtle and would make a great background for cards.  Try it yourself to see!!

EMBOSSING WITH CARBON PAPER

CARBON PAPER EMBOSSED SAMPLES

Often I'm playing with various bits and pieces in the craftroom and have a "good idea" only to be disappointed to find only a few thousand other people have already posted the same idea to Pinterest, their blogs and any other place you like to name.

I'm pretty sure someone, somewhere has put this one up too, but I haven't seen it yet!  Its a stupidly simple idea too - just pop a sheet of carbon paper (blue side down towards your paper) inside your embossing folder before winding through your Cuttlebug or Big Shot.

You get the same result as inking up your folder without making a mess (not that this has ever deterred me, but I know its an issue for some folk).  The blue and white is, as they say on all the home reno shows "on trend" at the moment, and you can get some really cool results by re-using the carbon paper with a second patterned folder.

I did this with the top example (the paisley), apart from being lighter, if you look closely you can see shadows of the little flowers in the background.  The carbon is fairly stable, but you could probably spray some sealer on top if you want to be extra sure that the blue stays in place.