My First Tags

It's so weird, being a woman of a certain age (*mumbles* "ahem... in my forties"), and admitting to trying to do something for the first time. Okay, so this isn't stunningly amazing like I've jumped out of a plane, done an abseil from a huge height or finally pooped myself during a bungee jump... (please! at my age?!? *lol*)... but I have tried something new. And so now, the big unveiling of my very first attempts at "Altered Tags"... (drumroll please)...

Okay, so the drumroll was a bit over the top - they're not too brilliant... but I have to admit they look quite nice slotted away in my accordion box. The quotes on all of the tags are quite simple - some hand-written, and some stamped:

"In dreams we catch glimpses of life larger than our own"

"Live, Laugh, Love"

"Believe in your dreams"

"Listen to your heart"

"The road to success is not a path you find but a trail you blaze"

Some of the techniques used on the tags were fiddly but so much messy fun - like making my own transparencies with some packing sellotape and a sheet of freebie paper ("Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady" 6x6  paper pack free with Cardmaking & Papercraft, issue 91 May).  I liked using some old techniques remembered from my cardmaking days - resist embossing technique... and also some newer ideas and creations - such as making small paper flowers.

I am itching to get out some thread and start stitching on tags *lol*... old habits die hard.

I have, on order, some lovely quote stamps... so hopefully I'll be filling my accordion box very soon - well, after the weekend when the grandbabies go back home, and I've had a chance to recover from their stay at Nonna and Gangads house :)

Accordion Inspire Box

My accordion box is finished... and I'm beginning to fill it with tags. I wanted something a little bit different, so I decided that this should be like an "inspire" book - so all the tags have a quote or saying on them, and I can just flip open the box and choose a tag at random and see what it says.

I used the gcd studios paris nights papers (item #486), and also Tim Holtz "Symphony" tissue tape (#TH92829) to cover the chipboard pieces. The 15 envelopes I used to make the accordion inside are just small money envelopes - perfect for 12x6cm luggage tags, or K&Co tags also, but the envelopes aren't big enough for journalling tags. I bought this pack of 50 money envelopes at Tesco (value range) for less than £1.

It's simply held closed with a cardboard shape that I've strengthened slightly by covering it with "Rock Candy" distressed crackle paint (TDC26686). I used "Rust" alcohol ink (TIM22169) just splotched onto the shape with my finger (still stained!) to give it an aged look.  Just a couple of added paper flowers from my stash drawer with fabric brad centres from trimcraft (Snowman collection, SNOWES01), finished off the outside of the box - I didn't want too much decoration.

 This is a very easy box to make, as it has no sides and only the way the envelopes are glued together and to the box allows it to keep it's shape when closed.

I can remember making these at school - well, something similar anyway, only these days it seems much more fun to do :)

Crafting Mishap!

My craft area (a corner of the dining room) is somewhat... bijou i.e small and cramped! As well as my 'system' of stacked boxes and things scattered on shelves, I've also taken over the sideboard, wall cupboard, and several other items of furniture that have spaces to jam my craftyness in... oh, and I also store 'stuff' under things too - space under the sideboard? ... crammed, thank you!. Lovely... lots of stash to keep a scrapbooker happy. Well, at least I was happy until last night. As many will know, I am not a glitter-loving-gal. I like a little sparkle every now and then, but huge amounts of glitz just isn't my style (I just wish I could use glitter as well as some of you girls and guys out there in blogland). So, my glitter collection (about 30 or so pots) has lain idle in the back of a drawer. Now... let me just give you a little sneaky peek as to how these drawers are ...

STUFFED!

Not much room left for anything... and as I think I need (and therefore buy) more 'stuff'... well, the 'stuff' gets stuffed... into any space left in a suitable drawer (there is some method in the madness of what's in the drawers... honest!)

And so, last night I was looking for some brads I knew I had - they're kept in the "brad, buttons, and sparkly-things" drawer. "Sparkly things" include bling and glitter. That's when I noticed... as I was rummaging, I got sparkly spots before my eyes... I thought I had some strange crafting disease (other than a critically ill bank balance!). I looked at my hands... oh, no! they were covered in tiny, tiny black spots... that glittered. I must be infected with some arty-farty illness that's crept up on me unexpectedly! Nope... on further inspection, I realised that some of my glitter pots had finally been crushed to oblivion in my drawer... expoding their sparkly contents with abandon over my brads, buttons, and other sparkly things. A deeper delve revealed the green glitter had also succumbed to the crush... a pretty little rainbow of glittery-ness in my drawer. Only it wasn't so pretty - or little! I had to empty everything out by hand (no tipping it onto the floor this time!) and clean off all my packets and boxes. After cleaning the drawer itself, reloading it, and putting it back in its rightful place, the dining room had been well and truly glittered. No amount of being careful stops glitter travelling around a room and getting stuck everywhere. I had a sneezing fit this morning and glitter sprayed from my nose!

Ah, well... it's all done now - I just need to find a safe place to put my glitter pots now - somewhere hermetically sealed with a time lock might be useful :)

WOYWW... week 100

Week 100 it may be for many... but this is just my second go at 'playing' "What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday". And here it is...

Cold coffee and discarded jewellery on the far right, messy papers (Paris Nights GCD collection - love it!), Tim Holtz tissue tape, money envelopes, Scor-Tape, a variety of crafting tools, and my carousel that's stuffed with whatever I might need - or may have used - over the past few days (there's even feathers stuffed into the drawer from when my youngest daughter dressed up as Kesha, and needed a feather hair piece!).

All this, for the main, to make an accordion box to hold tags in. I haven't actually made any tags as yet... but when I do, they've somewhere to go :) This box was made because of a blog I visited, where Debbie makes the most beautiful tags... I was inspired. Visit her blog "Scraps From A Broad" here.

Wisteria tutorial...Part 2

Oh, yes... tis I again with another fiddly, annoying part to the wisteria bloom.

This is for the little buds that you'll need to finish off the ends of the spray... and you'll have to excuse the state of my fingernails in the photographs *lol*

Okay, so we start off with cutting out a small heart from a piece of paper - I didn't use any cosmic shimmer mist for the buds, as this would just make it harder to glue them, and the misting wouldn't really show anyway.

 Using a cocktail stick, roll the edges of the heart inwards - keeping the coloured side to the outer, and hiding the white side.

 Next you have to glue this carefully, and ignore the state of my hands and nails completely *lol*

 A six-petal flower shape is then used - I punched my flower shapes from a green piece of paper - either a 1 or 1.5cm punch will be fine. Then simply wrap the green flower shape around the top half (the pointy end of the heart) of your bud. That's it for those... now onto the slightly open bud:

 Cut out a smaller heart shape - and preferably a little fatter than the previous one used. Turn the heart shape colour-side-down onto your palm, and work the paper until it's a flattish cup shape. You will need to keep the crease down the middle, so squish that a bit when you turn it over to make it prominent...

 Preferably using the 1cm flower punch, and using the green paper once again, punch out a flower and then cut in in half. Wrap this half flower round what was the pointy end of your heart and glue. It's done - how quick was that?!? You can pinch the open end of the second bud together, and glue it carefully - and when using it on a layout, you'll need to use silicone glue, pinflair, or foam pads to keep it raised.

So there it is... three buds to make a wisteria spray.

The leaves are simply die cut rose leaves, embossed and then bent in half and pinched at the end to hold their shape. These were misted with cosmic shimmer mists, and held in place on the layout with silicone glue.

All the stems are simply stitched - the leaves stems have a little spiral at the end... just because I liked it, and wisteria has these little spirally tendrils too. To be honest, making these blooms was a fiddly pain! *lol*... AND... they look pretty dull and boring just sat there singly on their own... but put them together, and I think they look pretty good - even if I do say so myself *lol*

And please remember... If you enjoyed this tutorial and the wisteria, then I thank you... if you didn't like it, then you have Mandy to blame *lol*

Wisteria Bloom Tutorial... Just for Mandy :)

This may take some time... but Mandy from UK-Scrappers (she also has a brilliant blog here ) wrote me the most lovely message at UKS saying a tutorial for the wisteria blooms I made might be a good idea.

So, here are the blooms we're talking about:

For this tutorial, I won't be spraying the papers with Cosmic Shimmer Mists, as the glare from the shimmer will make it too difficult to see - it was bad enough trying to take photographs with the sun shining so brightly through the window. I'll do the tutorial for one bloom - please bear in mind you'll need about 10-15 of these. I used pale purple lightweight paper, which I glimmer-misted and left to dry (a heat tool for drying is fine too).

To make the bottom part of the bloom you'll need a five-petal flower shape - a small one. These measured about one inch across - and as you may start to guess, this is the fiddly part...

Fold up the bottom two petals so the bloom is almost in half. The 'X' shows the petal which you will need to glue to the main flower part. For the remaining four petals, fold themtogether and give them a little pinch. Where the white shows on this part, you'll have glimmer-misted/inked/painted your bloom.

Next you'll need a cocktail stick.

Roll the four bottom petals outwards and, starting with the inner petals, glue them together. Try not to get glue on the back petal, as when this is glued to the other part of the flower, you need a little space. When all four petals are stuck to each other, set this piece aside... the fiddly bit is now over! *lol*

For the next part of the wisteria flower, you'll need to cut out a rough, fat-looking kidney bean shape from your paper. Use whatever you have handy (rounded end of pencil or pen, small spoon, etc) to shape this into a sort of flattened cup shape - I do this in my hand.

When you do this part, the white side will be glimmer misted, and this is the side that needs to be on the inside of the 'cup' - I've used the coloured side to show the bloom here (sorry). Use a yellow pen/ink/paint to colour a small part of the bloom at the bottom. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy, huh?!

Turn over the 'cup'. The 'X' marked here is on the reverse of where you just painted it yellow on the other side.

Now glue the 'X' marks together. The four rolled petals should sit nicely on the yellow part of the wisteria bloom. Now you'll need to punch or cut out a six-petalled flower in green paper - not rounded petals, but more spear-shaped.

Cut one of these flowers in half, and then stick it to the wisteria as shown below - so that two petals stick out each side at he bottom of the bloom, and one is almost hidden by the four rolled petals.

Et, Voila! You now have a wisteria flower.

Of course, there are a couple more componenets to making the whole wisteria spray - so the next tutorial for that will be ready soon.

Wisteria...Finally!

When I planted my little wisteria, everyone who I asked said that it would flower in it's second year after planting. I watched it grow at a tremendous speed, and in the second year... it didn't flower! I waited five years for this beautiful plant to bloom finally in late April 2011 - but it was so worth the wait!

I don't think I've ever worked so hard in putting a layout together - from stamping with my favourite swirly La Blanche stamp, and also using a Tim Holtz stamp from the Visual Artistry collection (Urban Grunge CSS25917)... to making each and every little wisteria bloom and leaf... to the huge amount of hand stitching! I started with a 12x12 paper from the "Rose Garden"  collection of papers (PMA1671300) and stamped using Milled Lavender (68976)  first and embossing it with clear powder, followed by swirls and text using Dusty Concord (78179)  Ranger inks over the top of the embossing. I then layered up a mix of scrap papers from the Rose Garden Collection, and also remnants from the Heather Capsule set of papers that are STILL in my stash drawer. I looked carefully at the wisteria to see how they're put together - but nomatter how I tried I couldn't make my paper replicas look as good as the real thing. I used plain papers and sprayed them with a mix of Cosmic Shimmer Mists.

The leaves were done in the same way - and I embossed them to make them look more authentic. When I glued the flower and leaves design to the papers, I stitched stems through them just to bring it all together a bit (not explaining myself very well here... sorry!). I topped off the paper wisteria bloom with a couple of ribbon bows in co-ordinationg colours.

The triple-fold design at the bottom right-hand corner is stitched to hold it down... and I also added matching buttons (found in my stash drawer).

The bright green butterflies are Anita's Decorative Toppers (ANT373100) - I cut around them to remove any white edges. I didn't really plan this layout, but I did have some idea of how I wanted it to look. I'm quite happy with the result - except for one really silly mistake. Look closely at the line of small photographs... the bottom one is upside down! lol. Well, this took me ages... and I'm not changing it now!