Laminator Workshop

 Hello Crafters

I have been preparing for a “Using Your Laminator for your Crafting” workshop

I managed to list 10 makes for the laminating machine as I really enjoy using the machine to  finish my projects. The list is below:

1. Laminating sleeves to keep your dies tidy  
2. Laminating pouches for your paperwork. 
3. Laminated purses for giving money or gift cards 
4. Laminating one side of your paper to make journal covers
5. Laminating one side of your papers to make tags
6. Laminating gift boxes and bags
7. Use your scrap pieces from your laminating to make clear lids for your boxes or put them through your embossing folders to make pretty tops for your boxes that look like glass finish 
8. Use your scrap pieces to make handles for your gift bags that look like handbags etc 
9. Put napkins into your laminating pouches and either laminate completely or laminate one side for an ethereal look to the project
10. Make your own stencils

Many of these ideas I have used before and shown on the blog but I will try to show a few new items I have made and hope to inspire you to use your machine at home.

Item 3 - 3 gift folders

Here we have 2 made with straight popper closures and on the third I have cut out a matching butterfly and added it to the popper when securing it so that the tab is decorated.

Item 4 Journal Covers 

Here I have used a piece of the Boho Bouquets paper and laminated it to make a Journal cover that is more durable.

9 Using napkins to laminate for your projects

Here we have 3 napkin projects 

A poppy folder 

Manipulated napkin panels to make the width to make a box

Seashells napkins laminated with Matt laminating sheet - one side only -

So here we have a taster of just some of the projects that can be made with laminated papers.

I hope they have inspired you to try your own.

If you want to see some videos of laminating project I would recommend Positively Papercraft on YouTube as her video’s inspired me, 

Happy Crafting

Dee

Upcycling Christmas Cards

 Hi Crafters

Yes it is that time again, time to start getting ready for the great Christmas makes.

I was thinking about half term and the opportunity to make cards with the children ready for them to give out at Christmas, preparing some items in the half term will take some of the load off later. With that in mind I came across a box of 4 x 4 cards that I had bought in the sales last year.

The box had 30 cards with red envelopes and I think cost me just 99p, at this time of year you may well be able to find them in the discount shops as they put out the Christmas stock. 

The cards although perfectly good for general use if you have no crafting ambitions, were not for me, but the 30 envelopes alone were worth more than the 99p, and was the main reason for purchasing the box. I can make my own 4 x 4 cards and have the perfect envelopes. So what to do with the cards from the box.

Well here are my ideas:

1. Gift Tags - simply punch a hole in the top and add some pretty ribbon I used one bunch of 8 tags an added some Christmas colour ribbon.

2.  Photo Mini-Book - I took a group of 8 cards and glue the back page of 7 to the next card. 

The cards are then folded to concertina 

 

Leave one card to decorate the box you make to hold the photo mini-book

Use the card to draw around to make the box shape. Add 1cm line on all 6 sides and then another 1cm line outside the first line. Cut around the outside lines to make the base of the box, and score the first line. Cut down to the first line on each of the six sides and glue the tabs down to make the base box. Repeat for the lid but make the first lines 1/8th” off the card base, so this makes the lid lightly larger.

The last item I made was a banner. First I cut off the back of the cards, then I punched two holes in the top and simply slipped ribbon through the holes spacing the card evenly along the ribbon.

This would jolly up any plain wall space

Well here are some ideas to get you started. Would love to see any of your makes.

Happy Crafting 

Dee

Super Quick card for you to make

 Hi Crafters

I have been away a couple of week but I am back now and today I have a great card that can be made quickly and with items you already have in your craft room.

I chose a fairy theme but you could use flowers or for men a motorbike or train would look good in this format. Next choose the size card you want to make, I made mine A5 as it was the quickest and simplest card to make. Ideally a stamp and die combo is best but you can use any stamps and fussy cut the images.

Cut apiece of A4 smooth card 13cm x 19cm too work on. (Adjust this to fit your finished card size). 

I made the mistake of using a linen card which did not give me such a smooth finish 

First take a circle or oval die which will give you an aperture 4-6” and cut it out on a piece of scrap card as we are going to use the aperture not the shape 

I used a circle as it was the right size and cut it out on a piece of craft card I had in my scrap box. I will keep the circle for another project.

Next lay the stencil piece over your working card 

Now on the inside of your aperture use inks or chalks to build up a layer of colour around the edge, You can do this all around but I prefer the look with a gap at the right side of the aperture .Continue to build up the colour with less in the centre fading to nothing in the centre. 

The with black ink or a darker in to the one just applied add your image to the right side of the aperture. 

I stamped some star dust to the shaded left side and put my fairy to the right, and as I had a die to match my fairy I cut my fairy out again and layered it. 

I then added a greeting to the top of the card outside the circle image and then backed the work card onto a piece of blue card 14cm x 20cm to add a trim 

I could imagine this on cream card with yellow shading and a dark brown or black train through the right side, 

Back soon with more makes. 

Dee 

First ICHF Craft Event in 2 Years

 Hi Crafters

Well today I drove to Exeter to visit the ICHF Craft Event, my first craft show for 2 years. I did not need anything for my craft room but wanted to see if there were new products and ideas around.

First I noticed that paper crafting was greatly reduced, plenty to see and top up with if you needed it but nothing too new. Lots of kits for diamond pictures and glitter crafting, these seem to have taken off during lockdown, but no new machines, dies or innovative kits for paper crafting.

The hall was fairly quiet, but in all honesty it was 12.30 on Sunday (the last day of a 3 day show, we had past several coaches in the coach section of the car park and the first car park was full, but we were the first row of the second section so all in all it was a lovely way to really see the stalls.  

The fabric stalls were busy and i bought several batches.  The first stall I came to  “Fabrics Galore”  had just what I wanted, some fabric to embroider, they had  some beautiful linen mix with butterflies and flowers that will be perfect.  I also bought some Christmas fabric and a most unusual print that came in panels with large squares, enough squares to make the bunting they had on show was £9 and the print is so unusual I had to have some even with nothing particular in mind. 

Then I bought some fat quarters as another stall had a great choice at £1 each, I think this was from the Bombay Store, I have seen them before at the Bath & West ground for craft shows and found some great bargains with them.

The last batch of fabrics were wonderful Italian prints, and some extremely luxurious Devore fabric that was going for a song so I had 3 metres, some Italian Polyester/satin beautiful seascape square print that I can either make a throw or bag and the Italian cotton print which was such a gorgeous print and again i will use for bag or cushions not sure yet. The company with this lovely selection was Rosenberg & Son and they tell me they show every year at the Sherborne show. 

I found one of my favourite stalls “House of Zandra” they design and sell kits for felt animals etc, They had obviously been busy over lockdown and there were some lovey new kits showing. I bought a lobster and octopus and a turtle. I may not make them all.  Last time I went mad on their stall I gave some away for Christmas presents. You can buy from them on-line if you have a crafty friend you think would appreciate one for a gift, they are worth checking out. 

Here’s Monkey that I made last year I love him and he and my stuffed dog are the only animals allowed on the furniture.

As well as these main purchases I found some interesting stalls where I bought a trial purchase

William & Oliver Rabbit patterns from the Sewing Sanctuary they had some great patterns and laminated fabrics for bag making. So I thought I would try the pattern first and I have the company details if i get on well with it. 

The Wool Shop Leeds had some great samples of knitting. A lovely slipcover, a wrap and jumpers as well as  a kit for making slippers and if I remember correctly some small toys

I stocked up on red tape for my laminating workshop and had a great couple of hours looking at the fabulous quilting and embroideries that were on display. A big thank you to all the stall holders who did a great job bringing their goodies to the Exeter show, it must be a risk and I hope they all did really well.

I have no excuse to be bored this winter, and I have managed to get everything put away. So time for a cuppa and  sit down.

Back soon with more Crafty ideas

Dee

Using Your Laminator - A Workshop in the Making

 Hi crafters 

I was looking at YouTube and came across some videos on working with your laminator. I use mine a lot on many different projects with mat and glossy laminating sheets. I started to list the different uses and when I got to 10 I realised this would make a great workshop. 

The laminated sheets can be used to alter paper, card, tissue, which in turn can be used for various different projects.  

I have used them for covering journals, making pouches. Finishing boxes and making bags. The workshop would start with methods for using the various materials and how they work in the laminator, and then the laminated sheets could be used to make a couple of projects. 

There would be show and tell on projects made and how laminating can help you use up your scraps. There are so many great ideas out there. 

There will be the second workshop making Anna Griffin Style Easel cards.

Dates are being finalised and full information should be available soon.

I am excited to be going back to running workshops, its such a lovely way of sharing ideas and crafty tips with other crafters in a friendly get together. Half of any profit made from the day goes to the local Hospice (St Margarets). 

Back Soon 

Dee

Tidying up the Craft Room

 Hi Crafters

SInce lockdown I seem to have a thing about tidying my craft boxes. I have had every box out of the cupboard and emptied, tidied and reclassified everyone. As there are over 30 boxes from 5lt to 25lt thats an awful lot of tidying over the months. It now seems like a regular occurrence anytime I have spare time out comes another box. The great thing about that is you get to see some lovely items you have forgotten you had and you get inspired to try new things. I am not sure the craft stash goes down that much as i manage to fill the spaces made from the tidy ups, quite quickly, as the next inspiration has me ordering new dies or papers to use on the projects.

I have recently come across an old kit of Wine Buff papers. They were purchased as a CD and my printer was not up to the job at the time so I had to rely on someone else printing for me so never really used it to its potential. Having said that there were some great aspects to the kit and so I have popped them on Ebay as someone else may wish to try them. 

I also sorted out some Create & Craft card kits and put a job lot on Ebay as there are some great quality cards and card sheets that could be used for lots of different projects. One other item I found was a whole Anna Griffin card kit new in the box. Now I have a large box specifically storing Anna Griffin papers dies and embellishments but these were in another area completely so had been forgotten. As I have made up about 20 Anna Griffin cards either from a kit or from the very pretty easel die set I have from her range I decided to pop the kit on Ebay. It seems Anna Griffin is as popular today in the Uk as ever, even though you cannot buy her kits easily as she is seldom in the country. The Pulley Card Kit made 20 cards and sold within an hour. It is the quickest sale I have ever made on Ebay, and it got me thinking that maybe I could do a class making Anna Griffin style cards. 

As I am currently looking to book a couple of dates in the local hall I may make this one of the themes for  one of the days, and for the other I was going to do Gift wrapping. Gift boxes and bag ideas. Hopefully that will be Christmas sorted. 

Here are some of the Anna Griffin style cards finished today after sorting out the box. I had made all the toppers but had to cut all the easel bases. Now they are finished and can go in the card box for use or selling.

I am looking forward to getting back to doing classes again, and am working on structuring the time as well as possible to ensure that all levels of crafters are catered for, and everyone who attends gets to take home something they are pleased with and hopefully will make again on their own. 

Happy Crafting

Dee

 

Special Occasion - Pop Up Book Card

 Hi Crafters

Today I have a lovely project for you, recently made for a 50th Wedding Anniversary, and I love the design so much I also made another at my craft club on Monday. 

I saw it on YouTube, there are a few videos out there but I found it first on Sam Calcott video and will link the video below so you can follow the instructions.

It is essentially a 5 x 7 card that when opened, pops out with 6 pages of a book for you to add pictures and greetings. Ideal for a special birthday or event as you can either add photo's to give in the card or leave the pages blank with just the message in the centre, and the receiver can add their memories of the day to the other pages as a keepsake.

You will need:

1 base card 5 x 7”
3 pieces of A4 card
3 pieces of decorative papers 
1 piece of A4 Mira card or backing card and another sheet of decorative papers for the inside covers

You can add more plain papers to the inside of the inside pages embossed for effect and lovely to set off your pictures.

I have used The Paper Tree Romance papers for this card as the sentiments gave the message I wanted to add .

Here is another one made with Crafters Companion Sara Signature Garden Party papers.I also cut some of my scraps for the flowers. 

Here is the link to Sam’s YouTube video of the card 

https://youtu.be/SBZG90-IqLc

I hope you will have a go at this card but if you do not want to make it I will have one or 2 for sale in my Etsy shop 

Happy Crafting 

Dee