Scrapbooking #2

Another scrap book page!

This photo is my parents and my sister having tea at Westfield shopping centre, the day we went on a tour of the BBC studios in London.

These are the supplies I used for this page. The background paper is from this pack of Martha Stewart paper that my friend gave me as she was getting rid of it. The tea, coffee and sugar stickers are some that I've had for ages so I don't know where they came from. The pale blue paper is actual a post-it which I printed on using the same technique as my photo gift tags.

Plastic Canvas Box

On my last trip to the Scrap Store I picked up a handful of small squares of plastic canvas. I thought they'd be perfect to make a box with.

I'd also recently discovered this pack of embroidery thread that  I don't remember buying. 36 for £2? Such a bargain. These were just what I needed.

 I haven't used plastic canvas before, and I haven't done cross stitch in a very long time so after trawling Pinterest for pattern ideas I decided on a simple chevron pattern.

Note: This photo is of the first square I sewed. After that one I made sure all my cross stitches were facing the same way.

 The sewing took a week (and all the episodes of Married at First Sight) but I finally got all six sides sewn.

Then it was time to assemble the box by sewing the edges together, trying to keep the cross stitch pattern.

I lined the inside of the box with pink felt which I glued in place then sewed round the top edge.

I'm pretty proud of my attempt at plastic canvas cross stitchery!

This Week I...

...made this guy who will be part of a learning game for the children at school. Does it look like a crocodile? Cos it's meant to be a crocodile. And excuse his tinsel nostrils, I didn't have any regular green pom-poms. I found the idea here and instead of using letter cards, like in the original idea, I'll be making cards with high frequency words on to go inside.

I've also been working on a sewing project which is taking a long time. So long that I've watched the entire first season of Married at First Sight on youtube while working on it. I'm kind of obsessed with that show. Has any one else seen it? My favourite couple are Jamie and Doug, but I'm not sure what to think since I found out Jamie also appeared on the Bachelor.

I hope you had a more eventful week. What did you get up to?

Scrapbooking Start

It's finally happened; I scrapbook now.

I've always thought about doing proper, super decorative scrapbooking but with the amount of photos that I take it would be never ending. So I've decided to limit myself to only using the photos that I've had printed from film. I had a set printed in 2012 and I've got a camera with a half finished film in it at the moment.

This also means that the photos will all be the same size and I won't have to worry about sizing and printing them. I've chosen to make the pages square - the width of A4 paper - and I've been using whatever card I have around.

I thought I would share the materials I used for each page as I'm trying to use up the things I've collected, instead of buying new things from the crazy scrapbooking isles at Hobbycraft.

For my first page I used a leaf print patterned paper as the background, which I picked up at the Scrap Store. I added details by cutting out bits of some map themed wrapping paper, like the compass in the bottom left hand corner. I used Letraset, also from the Scrap Store, on a brown label, and I printed on to a brown paper bag to make the other labels.

What do you think of my first attempt at scrapbooking?

This Week I...

...cut my hair!

I felt the need for a side fringe/bangs so I got the scissors out and got snipping. I couldn't find the same youtube video I used when I did this a couple of years ago so it didn't turn out quite as good, but it'll grow and I'll trim it better.

This week has mostly been working during the day (I walked into one of the units at school and got the biggest bruise on my thigh. So many colours!) then crafting in the evening whilst listening to a lot of Radiolab. Give it a listen, I'm now a fountain of obscure stories.

Painting: Water

I started this painting before Christmas but then I got too busy to dedicate lots of time to it, which meant I then lost track of it. Water is very tricky to paint, and even more so when I could only work on it for an hour at a time and couldn't remember what I'd done the last time.

So this is where the painting is at at the moment. I might go back to it, or I might just called it finished and move on to another one.

What do you think?

Cards Using Paintings

I've had my paintings printing on greetings cards by photo websites before but you have to buy in bulk and have at least 10 printed of each design. When the only person buying your cards in your Grandad this can be a problem. So I've come up with a way of creating cards using my paintings that are one offs. And they start to use my ribbon stash and my blank cards.

I printed some of my paintings, like this one and this one, onto paper them stuck the picture onto white card and trimmed it so it left a small border. 

The part that took the longest was deciding which ribbons to use and how to place them. I put a few small bits of double sided sticky tape on the ribbon to stick it on the front, then a used selotape to stick them to the inside. I think I will cover the end with a sticker to neaten it up.

I used glue dots to stick the card to the front.

I think the ribbon adds to the image as it picks out the colours.

I can see myself making lots of these using all my different paintings.

This Week I...

...took this painting over to Bedford to be part of Animal Studio's Art Jumble.

The art jumble is an affordable art fair on 10th January - 7th February. There's a lot of different styles of art on display and I'm glad that my painting is a part of it.

This weekend I had a trip to the Scrap Store and to Hobbycraft to spend some of my voucher. Then I decided it was time for a big sort out of the back room where I keep my art and craft things. I took everything out of the cupboards and drawers, chucked out a lot of stuff (there's only so much cardboard I need to hoard), sorted out the rest and put it back neatly.

What did you get up to this week?

Photo Magnets

I love the look of Stickygrams, the little magnets you can get printed of your Instagram photos, so I decided to make some as part of my Secret Santa present for my friend. I made them because Laura doesn't have Instagram and because I have printable magnetic paper.

I started by picking out photos of Laura and her boyfriend, her sisters and her friends. Then I edited them and made them all squares, then I printed them on to the magnetic paper. 

I cut the out using a craft knife, leaving a little white border around each photo.

I miraculously found a cellophane packet from a greetings card which fit the 9 magnets in exactly.

I mean exactly!

Laura loved them! Except it turns out her fridge isn't magnetic because it's built into a cupboard, Doh! But she's going to put them on the side of her microwave or a radiator instead.

This Week I...

...took the Christmas tree down. Sad times.

If you didn't see my video of the tree going up then click here.

Over the Christmas break I've been watching a lot of films with my parents. This week we watched Begin Again, The Fault In Our Stars, and on Saturday we went to the cinema to see The Theory of Everything which was really good.

I'm back at work tomorrow and the staff are having a sharing lunch as it's an inset day, so I've made these biscuits because I'm sure everybody didn't enough sweet treats over Christmas.

How was your week?

Sewed Santa

Every Christmas my sisters and I get a magazine in our stockings. This was originally to keep us occupied so my parents could get a bit more sleep on Christmas morning, but now we all get up around the same time.

This year I got this copy of Sew magazine which came with a little kit to make a jolly Santa!

It was the perfect thing to do during the afternoon while we were all just sitting around after Christmas dinner.

The kit came with everything you need to make the Santa, including thread. You just have to cut out the pieces from the printed fabric, stitch it all together, stuff it, then add the embellishments like the buttons and the pom-pom.

He was finished by the end of the day, whilst watching Miranda, Doctor who and Call the Midwife.

I love his tiny little legs!!

I've already asked my Mum, I mean Santa, for a similar little sewing project for next year.