Exploding box - L.Denison style :)

I decided to make an exploding box a la Laura Denison :) This is heavily based on her idea, with the tags being different on mine, and the proportions slightly different too - but it's basically her idea :)

I used La Belle paper, with a little MME too.

I'm still not happy with the lid of the box - I think it looks like a toilet roll holder from the 70's... but I'm working on a new one. I finished the box when I attended a craft evening at my local craft shop - lovely time me and my friend Lou had there.

I have just 36 tags in my box - and 8 extra journalling spaces made from the flaps that cover the outer flaps of the box. Four of these tags slip in sideways in a space made from the outer flaps - quite a little ingenius idea from Laura there :)

Some of my tags/photo mats I made into little opening covers - some with acetate covers that I inked with stazon. All the edging was done woth a Martha Stewarts corner punch.

Still papercrafting...!

A month has passed me by - but I am crafting... honest :)
I had made a halloween mini, but have decided that I need to make another one - more grown-up (if you get what I mean?). Anyways... here's the original try:

I made the cover first (the cherished chipboard from HobbyCraft) - the paper was red, then I inked it up with Red Lava and a bit of Plum Cosmic Shimmers... scrunched it, dried it, ironed it - way to shock the family - I haven't gotten my iron out in years - if the tumble dryer can't get the creases out, how am I expected to? Anyway...  the family are now in tune with my way of thinking - i.e, that papercrafting is more important than housework (and ironing paper is more important that ironing clothing).  I also used a bit of Distress Embossing Powder to create the dusty aged effect.

Chain, hitch fastener, spider, skeleton, horrible web stuff - and LOTS of modpodge and the cover was complete. It was fun creating it all - even if I didn't use the little skeleton hands I had got just for the sole purpose of decorating the cover of this album.

All the pages inside are different - but they all have tags and pockets. My eldest daughters favourite was the haunted house with the opening door and the ghost inside - the back of the page has a space for journalling and a photo mat. She also loved the coffin mini-mini book for photos and journalling.

My favourite page was a sixteen page mini-mini that looks like a miniature spellbook, hidden inside a pocket - inked and aged pages sewn together for binding - but my camera is out of battery, so can't show you that one at the moment :(

A Trip To HobbyCraft

Whilst our hubbies were away having fun, my Mum took me for a little shopping trip to HobbyCraft... well, while the men are away, the ladies will make them pay *lol*
I specifically wanted chipboard...
"Do you have any chipboard" I asked an assistant who was milling around.
"Ummm....." he replied
I asked again: "12 by 12 chipboard perhaps - for making mini albums and scrapbooking?"
"Ummm...." he replied.
"It's like layered paper - very popular these days... Docrafts - Papermania - sell mini chipboard albums... any inkling yet?" I was trying to be helpful.
"Ummm..." he replied - his eyes becoming a little glazed as he looked around, avoiding my gaze, and trying to figure out how to escape this mad woman who wanted an alien and rare material ...
"Look, it's like cardboard, it comes in 12 by 12 sheets - sometimes white and sometimes what the manufacturers call 'bare'... do you have any in stock do you think?" I was being polite and not too frightening - honest!
"Ummm..." he replied. Then (astonishingly) added "No". He sounded sure. "Definitely not" he said.
"You don't stock it at all?" I asked.
"Nope" was his almost grunt-like reply. "We don't sell chipboard". He said 'chipboard' like it was a foreign word that tasted funny in his mouth... like he'd never heard of it before!
"Oh, well... never mind. Thank you anyway" I sighed dejectedly.

I walked around the corner of the aisle, looked up... and saw 12x12 chipboard! I grabbed it like it was pure gold ... I may have even been muttering such words ike "My precious" as I stroked the packaging with a mad glint in my eye.

"Hmph!" I thought... loudly *lol* "Hold on a minute, Mum" I said to my poor mum, trying to keep up with the insane thing her daughter had suddenly become "I'm just going to find that rather helpful assistant" (I don't do sarcasm all that well).

I strode up in front of the young man, held aloft my precious... uh, I mean I sort of shoved the chipboard in front of his face, and declared for the whole shop to hear "LOOK!"
The poor assistant (who thought he'd shaken me off some minutes beforehand and was now rooted to the spot in sheer terror) stood dumbfounded and mute as I shook my treasured (and as yet unpaid for) chipboard around in front of him and cried "THIS is chipboard. You actually DO sell the stuff... papercrafts aisle - for your future reference". I beamed him a huge smile, turned my heels and waltzed off mumbling something under my breath about how I should be paid to be there instead of useless six foot tall teenage boys.
I then made the mistake of looking around to see if the message had hit home... and saw him giving me such a withering and hateful look that I just wanted to hide. Oops... take note ladies... this is your first lesson in how to really annoy HobbyCraft staff and risk being barred from the only such shop in your area :D

Another Mini-House

I've been a bit blue lately... Hubby went abroad with my Dad for a week and I really missed him! I sat around the house moping, and didn't even look at scrapbook paper (shock, horror!).

Anyway, before he went away on holiday I finished making a little Christmas House based on the BirdHouse Mini I had made following Laura's instructions. The Christmas House is a lot smaller, and the album/book inside is a lot different.

Everything was made with paper except for the little robin on the back window sill (that was an old Christmas Cake decoration from when I was a little girl). The slipping snow on the roof is made from white paper, inked and then glazed. I overdid the glaze in some areas so that it would drip and look like it was melting snow.

Even the door had a little wreath and a letter box that opened. Of course, everything was stickled :)

The snowman was papier mache - quite a difficult task, as he is only about an inch and a quarter tall!

The tree took me hours! It's made from about 400 little punched leaves all glued to cardboard 'skirts' glued around a tube of cardboard. I thought it would be so frustrating making this... but it was so therapuetic!

More about the birdhouse mini...

Following on from my previous post (of a slightly inebriated blogger *lol*), I thought I'd add a few details about the birdhouse mini I made.

The outer papers are all MME, and the inner pages are made with double-sided heavy-duty papers from Prima.

The fake hole in the front of the birdhouse was made using inks rather than black cardstock, as I wanted to make a 'hole' that looked slightly more real - so I inked heavily in the centre of some card with Black Soot Ranger ink, and then used tissue to blend it outwards. I used wooden pegs for the feet - cut off and painted, I thought they looked so sweet and fitted in perfectly!

The lttle brown bird was bought really cheaply, but had gold wings attached and these just had to go! I padded out the wings and tail with feathers from my budgie to replace to gold sequin-like wings I had ripped off (that sounds so cruel!). I didn't pluck out the feathers from my budgie, I might add rather quickly here *lol*... they were picked up and saved from when he was shedding naturally :)

Just a quick reminder that the original design by Laura Denison is found here.

I chose to make my birdhouse a bit more plain than Laura's - but that's what is so great about her designs - they are so adaptable. I'm thinking of making several of these - from a wedding chapel to a tool shed - but it could take me a while :)

Still Here!

I have been so busy lately! I haven't done any layouts lately... but I have completed the utterly adorable and gorgeous Birdhouse Mini from Following The Paper Trail (Laura Denison). It is GORGEOUS!

Of course I adapted the design of Lauras to suit my own tastes - but she is sheer genius to think up something like this. The only slight problem I have at the moment is CallieCat thinking the bird is there for her enjoyment only, and she keeps trying to eat the poor thing.

I made all the ivy leaves myself - all hand cut individually and gesso'ed and gel-penned to within an inch of their lives *lol*.

Anyways... I'm shattered right now, as I've been out all evenng celebrating my babygurls' 21st birthday (gin should be banned for over 40's *lol*) so I'll sign off, get perfectly sobered (#1 son making me black coffee as I type *lol*), and try posting again later.

Summer Of 94

I sorted through a few of my photographs, and chose five to do layouts with - and I finally finished the first one. The photograph was taken at the New Forest in 1994, and is of my eldest child - my son. He's just been made liaison officer for a writers club - so I'm quite proud and puffed-up at the moment.

I used My Minds Eye papers throughout - using a few scraps along the way for photo matting and the corner detail. The Perfect Pearls was a bargain from my local craft supplier at just over £1, and is Emerald Green. I decided with this layout not to pick the colours of what my son wore that day to reflect in the paper choices, but to use the pale browns, bright greens and grey colours of the background of the photograph instead. I thought this might make the photograph stand out more, so I could be less 'flouncy' and feminine with my embellishments, and let the photo be the main focus of what I hoped would be a more masculine-feeling layout.

As you can see, all those pretty flowers I had made are sat in pots, still waiting to be used *lol*

Lastly... yep, more flowers :)

I finished the centres of the last flowers last night, deciding to make some mini-scrunchy-roses for the centres. I think these look a little like fancy dog roses...

I used the 'Flower W/Centres' sizzix die in my faithful little sidekick, and inked up five layers for each bloom - bottom two layers in 'Antique Linen', then two layers in 'Weathered Wood', and the top layer in 'Tattered Rose'. Then I scrunched 'em all up, followed by a careful unravelling of them all. Not really a good idea for people with rheumatoid arthritis *lol*

Next step was to twist each petal of every bloom very carefully (I use long-nosed tweezers), as the inking had made the petals slightly damp-ish, and then I set Razzer onto them... drying them all throroughly.

From here, it's just a matter of layering them up and then making the little scrunchy-roses for the centres. These were made by inking up old book paper (I used the Ranger Distress Ink again in 'Antique Linen'), and punching out 1.5cm flower shapes. Layering up five flowers to make one rose, and scrunching up each layer over a small brad used to hold the flowers in place, followed by a blast from Razzer - I tend to use the heat gun on these little blighters until I can smell burning - I like this tatty aged look it can give.

Wait for the roses to cool, and then loosen them a little with your fingertips (or any tool you like to use). Last job with these mini-menaces *lol* is to just ink up the edges to match the colour scheme you'll be using them with. I chose 'Weathered Wood' for the centres of my dog roses.

I really liked the soft colours on these, and am looking forward to creating a layout for them to appear on soon :)

Roses (yes, more paper flowers)

These are more of the flowers I made yesterday - the glue is still wet, as you may notice in the photographs... but I never claimed to be a patient person :) I wanted a damask-like rose to use on a scrapbook page, so it had to be flat enough to use on a layout, but still look 'flouncy' enough too.

I used two dies (Sizzix Flower Layers, die #1 - Flower w/centre, and die Flower Layer #3), cut them from the pages of a book I use specifucally to tear up, and Cosmic Shimmers 'Plum Pudding' and Vibrant Violet'.

I used two of each flower to make the rose. First, the bottom (larger) flowers were die cut, spritzed, then scrunched up and carefully unfolded.  Then I used a cocktail stick to roll up the edges before blasting them with Razzer.

I used the Plum Pudding Cosmic shimmer for these bottom two layers, and a mix of the Plum Pudding and Vibrant Violet for the next two layers of the smaller flower. The smaller flowers weren't scrunched, but had the same process of a cocktail stick used to curl the petals on them, and dried with a heat gun.

Next it was simply a matter of layering them up. I always use Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive - just my personal preference when sticking paper to paper... I think it has excellent hold, and it does dry clear as well as being photo safe and acid free.  Each layer was slightly off-set to the one below, making a nice layered effect.

I made my own tiny roses for the centres - using a six-petal round flower punch - each flower measured 1.5cms, and three layers were used, plus a 2-petal cut-off for the centre of each rose. Tutorials for these paper roses are widely found through the internet - youtube has many examples.  I also made some mini-scrunchy-roses using the same 1.5cm punch, and decided that when I make these Damask-like roses again, I'd definitely prefer the scrunchy centres, as they fit the look much better. All the mini-roses were coloured with the Plum Pudding Cosmic Shimmer Spray.

Well that's about it... though I do have one more type of flower to finish which I will blog whenever I decide what the centres will be :)

Just one more little extra thing though... this was layered up using leftover flowers, and I loved the colour combination using the Plum Pudding mixed with Vibrant Violet, and another flower that had been spritzed with Mango Blaze but had also managed to pick up a little Lava Red from some paper. Anyway, I loved the final flower (5 layers), with an added centre of the scrunchy rose.





Paper Flowers (again... sorry!)

This evening I decided that Hubby could have the remote control for the television, and I would leave him in peace whilst I made some paper flowers. I had bought a Charles Dickens book for only £1 (thank you, poundland... even though I don't get boxes of freebies through the door *lol*), and really liked the font and spacing of the type, and used pages from this to make all the flowers.

I have to admit that under normal circumstances I could never advocate ripping pages out of a book - but this one really was bought just for that purpose. Anyway, I used a flower die and my sidekick to get the basic flower shape, and then covered a whole lot of them in Red Lava Cosmic Shimmer. Note to self for future reference... use latex gloves!

I patted the flowers dry with paper towels and next took one flower, twisted each petal with long-nosed tweezers (same as I make my other flowers) and dried it thoroughly with Razzer (my heat gun). Same goes for all the rest of the flowers, until I had quite a pile... and still no idea exactly how I would make these poinsettia blooms - I was just enjoying the mess I was making :)

I used just three flowers to make one poinsettia, placing them slightly off-centre to each other - so that each layer was NOT directly above any other.

Now I had to decide what to put in the middle. I spritzed a page of the book with Cosmic Shimmer "Mango Blaze" and dried it thoroughly and then punched out some wee ickle mini-mini flowers. I pushed the petals of these little flowers up over a cocktail stick (so they looked like little tiny cups) and then glued three of these to the centre of each flower. Hey, Presto! poinsettia-like flowers.

I think I'll be using these to make a Christmas wreath rather than on a scrapbook layout - but then I guess I'd have to make a lot of other things - mistletoe, holly, ivy and Christmas Roses... *lol*

I did make other flowers this evening - but they need their centres added to finish them, and I haven't decided exactly what to use yet.

Still no scrapbook page...

Well, what with all that tidying, and my sons birthday today (YAY!!!) I decided that I wanted something smaller to craft, so I made a mini-mini-book. It's just under 1.5" by 3", and I tried to use scraps, offcuts, and even photographs already printed out. It's going to be used as a tag for my mums birthday present. It started off as a little plastic box that I had bought from Tesco with little inkers inside.

With the tidying of my craft space, I had lots of ideas about what I wanted to use... and I knew exactly where to find it all too. I am very happy to say that I didn't make much mess, and the craft area is still as neat and tidy as before I started too :) Every photograph except for the one on the front page is in a little pocket, and every page has a little bit of bling on it.

I wanted to make sure that the book, small as it is, would be 'coherent' and with not too much going on, so I kept the embellishments the same for each page, used only 'Tattered Rose' and 'Walnut Stain' inks throughout, and chose my mums favourite black & white photographs of her wedding, my brother and I, her grandmothers, parents, and siblings.

All in all, I really enjoyed making the book, and it took me just a few hours from start to finish - and that's including waiting for the liquid pearls to dry :)

I used super-glue gel to glue the paper onto the plastic box - being careful not to get it too close to any flaps on the box, as the gel sets hard and makes the plastic brittle. The ribbon fastening is wound all round the box, glued with the gel also... as is the button. The ribbon from the top flap simply winds round the button once and this holds the lid closed very well.

Here's hoping Mum enjoys her little extra gift come her birthday in November :)

Had A Tidy-Up

I came to the conclusion that so many others have reached before me... if you can't see it, you won't use it!  Speaking of craft items, of course. So, I decided to sort out my crafting items that were hidden away in drawers and cupboards... all those things that I use and then just shove back anywhere that they'll fit and then not find them again for six months! I don't have a dedicated craft space as such - so I am slowly but surely taking over the dining room (goodness knows where I'll be sitting the hordes of guests for Christmas dinner this year! *lol*), but using a room and making it a total mess are two entirely different things apparently (so my Hubby has informed me), and so I really had to do some serious sorting out. I used an old shelf for my inks and micas, glimmers and powders... adding my ribbons and books I cut pages out of to make flowers, and sorting out my photographs into a folder and oddments of printed paper also in a folder and placing these on a shelf (stuffing them into a space, more like!). My albums are stacked on top along with Rufus the cuddly toy dog who is still waiting for me to decorate his little kennel. The storage boxes were sorted out a while ago and mainly contain punches, stickers and stamps, as well as flowers and bling. I have way too many flowers... the shoe boxes at the bottom of the shelves are full of foilage and flowers, one drawer is so stuffed I can barely open it, and then there's that vase full of riotious colour - leftovers from bouquets and purchases that I thought I couldn't do without :). I do have a cupboard converted from an emersion heater storage space, as well as a sideboard that are full of tools, glues, tapes, pens, pencils, paints, Christmas embellies, plain 12x12 papers and probably a ton more stuff I can't even remember! This doesn't even begin to include my patterned papers collection... I really do need a craft room!

Online Craft Pound Shop...

Yes, it's true... an online craft shop with items selling from just £1 - well, actually... they're having a sale and there are brilliant items priced at just 25p! I'm in a crafting delirium! *lol* I can find some of the same items at The Range and also at an *almost* local store... but not for 25p, so I'm really happy... just had to share this bargain basement corner of the web that I discovered whilst browsing through Gumtree :)

Online Craft Pound Store

The Wedding...

I scrapped a photograph from my daughters wedding on Friday... I think I would have done a few more, but I ran out of ink... and this page had taken me almost two days to do as it was! I have fiddled with the colour a little on the computer, as my camera seems to wash out the colours and make everything look a bit bland.  Hopefully it's pretty close to how it looks 'in real life'.

I used a Papermania double-sided cardstock called "Wedding Sentiments". I actually preferred the reverse, but thought that the side I did use in the end suited the whole layout best. I did a lot of stitching - most of it is covered with the flowers. Some of the larger lillies are from Papermania - I just cut off all the greenery as it didn't look very nice. The remainder of the flowers - pink lillies and cream roses are all (tediously) cut from some decoupage sheets I had (unfortunately NOT die-cut). The butterflies are material covered balsa embellishments from a company called "Craft For Occasions" - I do get quite a lot of little bits and pieces from this company, as Hobbycraft sell the packets quite cheaply. I found a brilliant bargain at my local shop... Liquid Pearls for £1.70 - the colour is "Pastel Raspberry" and though it looked almost white in the bottle, the colour was a perfect pale pink for this layout. The edges were inked with "Tattered Rose" distress ink, and then sprinkled with another bargain - pale pink embossing powder for £1 a tub. A few brads were used too - also from Papermania.

I still can't believe I'm a mother-in-law now...  But the wedding was lovely - the rain held off for the happy couple, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I didn't get to attend the evening reception - I was ill :( Katie did save some wedding cake for me though, so it's not so bad *lol*

ARGH!!! I'm a mother-in-law!!!

My beautiful middle daughter got married on the 10th September - that's why I haven't been crafting too much lately - no time! Still, now I have LOTS of photographs to make layouts with. Just a quick post to show off a wedding photograph... and to tell the world (or the few people that read this *lol*) that the new baby due in January will be.... A BOY! I'm already buying up suitable stash for layouts when he arrives - my grand-daughter Lily will make such a brilliant big sister.

1st Mini-Book!

I made my first mini-book! Well, I made an anniversary book for my parents back in March - but that was more of a photograph album with a few added extras. I altered a notebook for my daughter to use as a special diary... but this book I made from scratch, and I'm quite pleased with it so far (not quite finished yet).

The book is based on a tutorial by Laura at Follow The Paper Trail, though she uses envelopes to make pages, and I cut and folded 12x12 pages for everything. I chose the Urban Couture collection from Basic Grey, as I liked the earthy tones and the distressed appearance of the pages. The actual outer of the book is made from a cereal box (cut up and doubled up) as I didn't have thin chipboard handy :) Each page has a flap added to it, which I decided to use as double thickness so that it was sturdier and I was also able to use the off-cuts left over from the construction of the pages.

Each page also has a little file made from scrapping paper and decorated with a tab made from the leftover cuts of Basic Grey papers. Each flap and file was inked with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. The construction from beginning to as it is now took all day - without special dies and handy envelopes to cut up, it was a little fiddly... but thoroughly enjoyable - except for the broken nail I suffered :( So please excuse the state of my short nails showing in any photograph - I'm thoroughly embarrassed about my nails *lol* I'll be adding journalling slips and flowers, ribbon, and swirly inking on the files too... all ready for a few photographs (have no idea which ones yet though!). The ribbons and charms (and even tassels) used to decorate the binding outer edge are all from my stash drawer... I've been waiting to use the little key charms for so long now - I used to have them dangling from my mobile phone (cheaper than phone charms!), and there's also a mini-mini metal tag that reads: "My Heart". Awww... sweet! *lol*