WHAT TO DO WITH BIG CARDS

In past years when I bought lots of cards to get me started and before postage was so much more for large cards, I bought several sets of large A4 size cards. Now I struggle to find suitable designs.
I cannot remember where I came across the idea of scoring and cutting the inner space to make the base card into a frame for your work. But it seems to suit the large cards

 To make the inset frame

Score two sets of oblong frames 1cm apart
Cut a piece of card the size of the inner score lines
Decorate this piece with your theme
From the middle of the oblong score a cross with a sharp knife
Cut from the middle of the cross to each inner corner
Fold each triangle cut forward and back on the inner and outer score line to set the frame 
Line with the piece of card cut   

A TIDY CRAFT SPACE

Before we started decorating the bedrooms/craft room I hada  selcetion of boxes and files for my craft papers and tools. In order to tidy the garage store and the craft room Hubby bought me some storage boxes (they are from the 'Very Useful Box Company' ) I had some stacked in the wardrobe floor and on the floor of the craft room by the desk, as well as many other filing systems across the desk collected over the 15 years or so I have been crafting.

Well we finally decorated the bedroom that would become the craft room and computer room.
We left the wardrobe in and with more handy boxes collected I had a major sort through and condensed all my craft materials into the space available. (of course this does not include the craft stored at work)

It is much quicker to find a tool and now instead of tidying the desk and wardrobe on holidays I havea sort through my boxes.

Craft storage

A Place for everything and everything in its place

needless to say there are no pictures of my desk available at this time 

 

NEW MINI ALBUMS

I have cleared a little space by clearing out the drawers and boxes in the craft room. I also made a few sells this week so I have room for some small albums

After a couple of days away I sat down and made a couple of albums. The first size albums that I make, perfect for a single event or holiday 

These albums are made from three sheets of 12 x 12 and give nine sides of nearly 6" x 6" and four panels of 3" x 6" for Journals or notes. So a good album to make if you want to tip your toes into album making. 

Cut sheet 1 of  the card into  2 strips 5.75"  x  12" 

Sheet 2: cut another strip 5.75 x 12 and the other piece cut 5" x 12" 

Sheet 3 cut one strip 6" x 12" the other piece cut into 2 6" x 6" 

 For each of the 3 strips 5.75" x 12" score each side 3" from each end and fold in 

Lay the three pieces next to each other in a line

Glue the middle flaps to the outside pieces - the outside pieces will fold in 

With the strip that is 6" x 12" score at 3" and 2.75" either end. This piece forms the outside cover.

Glue the back of the middle piece of the triple piece to the base of the cover

The 2 pieces of 6 x 6 can then be added to the front of the album to complete the album..
The last piece narrower than the others can be added to the centre as an additional pull out page
Score and fold so it sits inside the middle section 

MINI ALBUM 

MIDDLE OF ALBUM

OUTER LAYER

Tips: 

• Choose coordinating papers, easier if you select from a collection 
• As this type of album only has one layer of paper per page choose a thicker paper/card stock of 240gsm or more 
• Ensure when you cut the papers you have any pattern going left to right and when putting pages together all the pages are up the right way before gluing
• You can add strips to the inside bottom edge to make a storage flap but I prefer to leave them blank for the album maker to complete and embellish as they wish 
• confused by any of this check out mini albums on 'you tube' where you will find video instructions for this style of album

 

VINTAGE ROMANTIC SCRAPBOOK

Back after a couple of days away so no crafting for a few days. However before I wet away I found a 
Scrapbook I had nearly finished and decided to put the finishing touches
The scrapbook ismadefrom vintage romantic papers. All about valentines and loved ones. So great for a friends wedding or I think it would make a great journal to plan a wedding .
It has five envelope sections all covered and each with a tab inside to hold more info. So ten pages for photographs ideas and lists. Samples of fabrics, table layouts , flowers and cake not to mention stationary. The five sections have plenty of storage space and the album is made with the binding system so the pages have  1cm between pages allowing plenty of space if you fill up the storage pockets. As well as a little mini book for adding notes added to the middle page, There is a envelope of tags in the storage area for you to write up any pictures or. Memorabilia.
The front is very simple and I will probably add some bling, or it could be altered to give your book a title.
Such as My Book of Wedding ideas
Name and date of friends/family wedding.

BACK FROM THE SHOW

Up early on Sunday to go to the Sincerely Yours craft show. I am very pleased the show comes to the South West, as I hate the hike to NEC for the bigger craft shows.
Alas there was no Inka Gold at this years show, but several other goodies from stamps to Mica powders a new die and coloured card.
Back home to try out the new purchases, but before I sit down at the desk there was just the matter of making room for the new purchases in the cupboard.  A tidy of several boxes, 2 clearance items on eBay and I have managed to put away today's buys. Next photograph the clearance items and list them on eBay, answer some emails and make lunch. So no time to actually craft.

Back at work today I am still in the clearout mode, so lunch time saw me clearing out my craft box at work (yes I have one here too). Have been really ruthless and put a load of items for sale on ebay as clearance. I really want to start anew. Cannot wait to try some new album layouts, and use the mica powders with stamping that I bought from Honey Doo Crafts. The demonstration was excellent at their stall, I learnt the tricks of getting a smooth finish when painting with Mica powders, keep a piece of cheap kitchen towel by your pallet, and put the brush to the paper before using, thus taking out most of the water leaving more mica. This gives a really beautiful smooth finish. The stall was also demonstrating making flowers with vellum paper, excellent stall they also have a gallery and blog at www.honeydoocrafts.co.uk

So out with the old and on with the new, and hopefully someone will find a new home for all the lovely boxes ribbon and stamps cleared out. Where does it all come from.

MINI ALBUMS - MEMORY BOOKS ALL SHAPES AND SIZES

I love making mini albums. I like to make smaller ones that are suitable for a single event or holiday and this makes them very affordable when I come to sell them.  The opposite to the type being sold on Create and Craft at the moment, they are selling a good basic album that you can have hours of fun with and it will form into a full multi dimensional album.

I basically make 3 types

Album 1
A mini album that has just 6 sides of 6" x 6" and 8 tabs approx 3"wide and 6" high.
This is a great starter album for that one off event, such as a hen party, friends birthday or anniversary or a weekend break

 

Album 2

This is an envelope album usually with a hard cover and 6 pages, 12 sides C6 size
these will have little additional sections inside and the inside flaps will have storage flaps
Some or all of the envelopes will be open for storage and may have additional flaps and journal sheets inside



Album 3

This will be a binder style album with a standard 6 main pages in the binder system and then several additional sleeves added to the main pages. As I make more of these so they seem to grow in size. Not having a lot of spare time to craft except weekends  makes me want to finish my projects quickly, but the more albums I make the more inclined I am to spend more time and produce a larger album.

My albums are sold through ebay and etsy to ensure there is room in the craft room to continue crafting new items

If you are starting out and want to make albums check out 'You Tube' here there are some extremely talented crafters, some have their own blogs and from there or from their etsy store you can purchase templates. But beware you can get hooked. On the upside they make lovely gifts for friends or family who have everything, especially if you personalize them.

Have you tried the Inka Gold pastes by Viva Decor

So today Iwas thinking about visiting the "Sincerely Yours" show next weekend and this reminded me of my big find at the show last year.

As well as seeing the Heartfelt Creation stamps and dies I also saw the Inka Gold by Viva Decor.

They come in many different lovely colours and are so easy to use.

I saw them on the Oyster Stamp stand, and watched them being used by the demonstrator.
Immediately I had to have some. It was the middle of the day so many of the colours had already sold out but I bought 3 pots and went home to try them.

They work well as a gilding paste so you can smooth over an old button or change the colour to go with your project.
You can cut out cogs and keys and then cover with Inka Gold to make it look metallic

Or you can colour your background card like encaustic art by spritzing with water.
To get an idea of what I mean with this, check out the excellent 'you tube' posting from Loll Thompson called "Smooshing with Inka Gold"

Needless to say having seen the smooshing process I can see a workshop coming on.

After last years show and trying out my three pots, I immediately went online to Oyster Stamps and purchased a few more colours (Oyster Stamps have an excellent website with a beautiful gallery of cards and ideas so are well worth a visit). I see they currently have some lovely new items from the CHA show such as Tim Holtz sizzlets dies and masks, for pre-order.

So come Sunday I will make my way to the show a little earlier than last year and see what lovely new colours I can make my own.

Wow I Love the Heartfelt Creations stamp & die Combo

I have been working on my flowers for the workshop I am doing next Saturday.
Part of the time will be spend making paper flowers and we will be mainly using the Sizzix die that came with my Sizzix Plus and the fauna die from heartfelt creations. But today used my new Heartfelt Creations combo dies that I had from hubby for my birthday last week

I want to show the different finishes you can get
Such as Shabby Chic

Glazed finish

as well as simply putting together the layers

I have the Arianna Blooms & Lace
The Chrysanthemum
And my favourite so far the Poppy

Orchid Designs have some amazing examples of cards made using these stamps and dies and you can see many on Pinterest to get you started
Well worth taking a look if you are into flower making

As well as the bookatrix cards I have made I am hoping to make a spring wreath and also gift boxes using the flowers.

FIRST PUBLISHED ARTICLE

I am really pleased that in April I had an article printed (my first ever) in the Clerks magazine which is the industries publication for Town and Parish clerks. For those not in local government it will mean very little, but still it was a full page and required considerable editing to get the word count required ( and I thought I was good at précis ), so I am pleased at achieving this new challenge.

March and April Workshops

In March a few of us got together for a half day workshop.
I use to have one a month, but since promotion they have lapsed to about 4 a year.

Card 1
We used chalks to form a background.
I find chalks easier to work with than a brayer.
The background has sky, the sun and ground and then the main theme is stamped in black on top. This can be trees, flowers, street scene. This card was then layered onto the main card and framed with another layer of card to give the appearance of looking into the scene.

 

Layering like this enables the shape on hte top layer to be cut out by most die cutting machines whereas if you tried to do this on the original 8" x 8" card it woudl requrie a large die cutting machine that has a bed that takes A4 size papers.

We also made tags using the same method. When stamping a collage stamp with a clear stamp pad and then gradually dusting with chalks the picture image appears like magic so it is a great technique to do with crafty children.

We also made a flip top gift box.

On April 16th we will be meeting again to make Pop up cards, Step cards and flowers.

I hope to show those present how to shape the blossoms to make more realistic flowers and then use the flowers to decorate your paper projects. I will report back after the workshop hopefully with pictures of projects made onthe day.

Selling at fayres

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Selling At Fayres

(I cannot believe it is 5 years since setting up my Blog and not adding anything new)

So much has happened with my crafting in the meantime. Including taking part in my first craft sales. When I learn how to video properly I hope to post to 'You Tube' as I have picked up so many tips for selling at fayres from other crafters who have kindly posted their ideas.

Selling is a very different process to holding workshops or making for family and friends, and it took me a while to get the right layout for the table and concentrate on Point of Sale and presentation.

For last Christmas my table had
Square Christmas Cards 
Pop Up Cards,
Teepee Cards
Paper Baskets
Boxes with T-Lights
Mini Books 
Gift Card Holders
Gift bags and Boxes
Covered Notebook
Santa letter pack
Christmas Chocolates


The sale went well in that I met some other crafters, made enough money to pay for more craft goodies and made room in the craft room to add new makes, plus found what sells and what does not. 

I love to make mini albums but they do not sell as well in the UK as they do in USA. Other basic 
items such as gift bags, boxes and cards are a struggle to sell as people think they can make them themselves. A couple of ideas to get over these hurdles 
1. Step up my game and produce really pretty gift bags and boxes

2. Offer multi-buys. I did this with the pop-up cards and it worked well
if you have any other ideas on improving the layout or selling techniques please let me know

3. Restrict the number of different items on a table, to concentrate the eye of the buyer

4. Try to get a reputation for a specific item that people will come to your table for. Hopefully next time to are selling they will make a beeline for you to see your new items.

5. Keep ahead of the trends, and introduce new ideas and designs all the time. My teepee cards sold well last year as people had not seen them around. Crafters often want to buy to get try the design for themselves, it is all sales.

I am still working full-time so my blogs may not be as often as I would like, but | will try to keep up a bit better than the last 5 years.

The pictures were taken at the craft show. Not great quality but alas my video is too noisy and the one I did at home has a husband shouting from the other room and rustling in the background. I will try again at the next fayre. 

I would love to get your comments as its all a learning curve. 
Dee