Scrap Booking Techniques

So today/tonight I was overcome with the urge to create something a bit conventional - just to see how it turned out.

This week I found a Youtube tutorial explaining how to make a mini-wallet.  You can see it here.  I guess at this point I should add that I've had stamps and inks and embossing powders and the like for years but I've always used them slightly unconventionally and it's only recently that I've been drawn to more conventional scrap-booking, I'm just not sure that conventional scrapping is for me.  But in order to explore I need to take a couple of first steps....

So, I made a wallet.  I'd made one the night before and realised that the constant opening and closing of the wallet lends itself to the paper-stock tearing.  Card stock is too thick, paper stock is better but it degrades.....unless you add a layer or two of Mod Podge to the surfaces.  If you try this out and cover both sides of your paper in Mod Podge (matte) then make sure it's all dry (really dry) before you start folding.

Here's the front of the mini-wallet.  There's a little card tucked into the front and the fibres are attached to another card accessed from the front folds.  Somewhat cloyingly the word Memories has been stuck on the front...I'll have to change that next time.....

This pic shows you the size of the item.....it's quite dinky.

Here's the back which has the same set up as the front, two cards are accessed in the front folds.  Now, are you wondering what you could use these cards for?  The idea is that you get little photos or bits of ephemera from an occasion and stick them onto the cards.  You can also use the cards to make notes as at least one side of each is not so decorated as to make this impossible.

Anyhow, back to the front.  Here you can see three cards, the two I mentioned before plus another that is tucked inside the front page.  This one has a grommet punched into it and along with another inside the second page this is how you can keep this little treasure shut by tying a ribbon through the both of them.

Open the wallet up and here's what you see.  What may not be so obvious is that there are another two cards tucked away inside the folds, accessed from the centre via the cut outs I have made....  and the moths are printed on a transparency that acts as a little pocket for tickets or other such ephemera.....I had forgotten to add the instruction, "Don't forget your ticket" to this page but did so after this pic was taken.

 Here you can see the two cards and the ribbon used to tie the wallet up...

And here's the back, decorated with some very old buttons....

All in all you have 16 surfaces on which to store memories, plus a little pocket to slide a ticket or even another photo.  Yes, you'd have to get small pics printed from your PC but I think this is a lovely way to offer a gift.  Maybe you could slide a gift card inside the front pocket, or a ticket to an event and then let the owner add their photos of the day or evening?

I hope to make some more of these and be a little more adventurous in their conception and decoration....

Digital Art

I am a baby beginner at this.  To be fair I've had Photoshop 7 for years and all I've ever really done is use it to resize photos.  Maybe I've been a bit overwhelmed by it?  No matter, I found a great Youtube clip about using masque tools and layers in Pixlr, the online editing tool that is very similar to PS) and I've been playing ever since.  It's how I made the images I've used on my domino pendants and I made a couple of cards recently too this way.  The tutorial, here, combined with this one about making digital stamps have made me feel a little more confident and so I want to explore this genre further....

Anyhow, here are some of the images I've altered.  All of the images are royalty free and available on the web.

  

(The above pic has become a domino pendant for my daughter - she loves her new pet gerbil so I thought this was cute)

As I say, I'm a baby beginner.  All I can do is continue to play and see what comes out.

In the meantime I appear to have bought a couple of empty cigar boxes on an auction site - I was inspired by this page to have a go at making some altered cigar box bags.....

Art For Art's Sake

There is a massive part of me, a huge and almost overwhelming part of me, that wants to indulge myself fully in the world of art.  Which means messing about endlessly with stuff.  Ephemera and kitsch, attempting to express myself via Lazertran and tiles, inkjet transfers, crazy quilting, altered art, collaging, doll making, scrapping and digi art....I want to try it all.

I need 48 hours in a day with the need for 2 hours sleep and no responsibilities inbetween.....

And so I am addicted, yes addicted to art-e-zine.  I cannot stop drinking it all in.  Some of it I turn away from run away from.  Other articles I drink in and feel drunk from looking.  And the list of things I want to try grows longer.  And inbetween I need to fit in my responsibilities, my loves and my life.  I have a short time in which to indulge myself and I have to stop procrastinating and let the Muse run free, unafraid of criticism and censorship.  I just have to be brave don't I?

Altered Things

To be fair I do mostly *alter* things when I'm making something - mostly old bits of jewellery that come into my possession that get taken apart and then made into something new.

But I've felt the need to try some new techniques and decided to have a go at making some domino pendants.  Did I have any dominoes in the house?  Nope and one day a couple of weeks ago it took me two hours to find some in town - all of the shops I thought would have some didn't and in the end I got some little black wooden ones and a box of cream plastic ones from a bookshop of all places.

I think I'm going to add a tutorial about these little babies soon so for now here's a pic of some of them under a bowl so that their coating of Glossy Accents doesn't pick up dust.

All of the vintage images I used were free and I played around with all of them in Pixlr to get some different effects.  They look a little cloudy here but that's due to the wet Glossy Accents.  I discovered the little hand tool I have isn't powerful enough to drill into the plastic dominoes so I shall have to stick a bail on them, but my smallest drill bit goes easily into the wooden dominoes and that's much more exciting as it means I can drill holes into the bottoms and add eye-pins and dangly bits for extra interest.  Once they're completely finished I shall definitely post some pics cos I'm really loving these.

Next up are some pics of two jars I *altered* over the weekend using stuff from my stash.  Once the base papers are on and dry it's just a case of imagination and glue-gun so they're a fast make.  Well, kind of fast!  The first one is light shades as I was going for a shabby chic look:

Again I used a free vintage image and stuff from my stash.  It's decorated all the way around but I'll save further pics for a tutorial...

And last of all is a Ganesha inspired jar as I like darker colours:

Again there are pics and some stamping all the way around this one.  

I love making these - it's my new favourite way to be creative and I shall be playing with these some more.  In fact I have some little bottles that I'm going to make into poison bottles....(not literally of course!)

And with that I shall leave you with lots more creativity - make sure to mosey on over to Handmade Monday and check out the lovely things people make. xx

Growing Things

At last!  The  sun is shining!  Hopefully it'll help some of the seedlings I have growing to have a spurt.  Today has been a great day for getting a few things planted out at last and now I have a large planter full of runner bean sprouts with some Black Eyed Susan plants and some pea sprouts that'll be tarted up by the sweet peas I put in the middle.

Unfortunately I've now run out of pots so I'm scratching my head about what to do with my tomato seedlings....I've got one tomato tumbler plant growing in a hanging basket but I've at least another 8 plants with no homes to go to.  Last year I grew some tomato plants in hessian bags but this year I don't have any so I really don't know what to do.

I've a couple of pepper plants that may or may not bear fruit at some point and I recall reading that they do better in smaller pots but again, I don't actually have anything to put them into at the moment.

I had some flower seedlings too that were potless and then after weeding my front garden I decided this evening to put the growing seedlings into the soil in the front garden in between the shrubs that are there.  And as I had a few bean seedlings left over with no-where to go I've stuck them into the front garden too.  If they take hold properly I'll put some sticks in next to them for them to grow up and they'll probably find themselves growing up the iron railings too.

So now I have potatoes, chard, carrots, spring onions, radishes, peas, beans, peppers, tomatoes and herbs growing in the back garden with edible flowers violas and nasturtiums growing too.  I've a couple of recycled containers ready to sow some salad seeds into as well tomorrow.

At the allotment I've planted potatoes, onions, carrots, chard, beetroot, radish, courgettes and some flowers.  And I've some space for a few other things so might do some secondary sowing and put some peas in up there as there are plenty of tree trimmings to use to protect them from the deer and to give them something to grow up.  As this is the first week for about a month that it hasn't rained for 72 hours a trip to the allotment is on the cards tomorrow afternoon.

Crafty Catch-Up

Well, I think it's been a good three weeks since I last blogged and I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to get back here.  No, that's a fib - I do know why, it's because I have been feeling over-whelmed by something and the urge to write about it was very very strong but I couldn't at the time.

This week I shall be mostly applying for a job.  Before anyone jumps to an assumption about what I do at the moment I should make it clear that I do work, in a self-employed capacity teaching belly dance and selling the things I make, and I have been able to work around my young family without incurring child-care costs.  As my family all live about 100 miles away I can't call on my mum to help out and my son, although now three and a half, isn't due to go to school full-time until September 2013 (as his birthday is mid-September and they now only do one intake per year).  So my plan was to continue to struggle along self-employed until then, and then once he was at school look for some extra work.  The children have had a lot to deal with in the last 18 months since their dad and I split up and their emotional well-being has been top of my list of priorities.

Then three weeks ago a friend threw me a curve ball.  A potential job, back in the field I used to work in before becoming a full-time parent eight years ago.  It was finally advertised last week and between her telling me about it (with the instruction to apply once it was advertised) and today I have been hunting out childcare. Childcare that I feel happy with, with someone the children are comfortable with.  I think I've got that one as sorted as I can now and so I can focus on something else for a little while.

Now all I have to do is make sure my CV reflects my experience and skills correctly and write a covering letter.  Harder than you'd think when you know it's going to be read by someone who knows you well, but I have to forget that and write the letter as I would for any other application.

In the meantime I've been working on some commissioned headdresses and adding at least one listing a day to my Etsy shop - I've gotten a bit behind with that so need to ramp it up and make sure I at least get all of the descriptions drafted out properly.

Oooh, and my new love is digital scrapping - why on earth it's taken me so long to get my head round using layers and masque tools and such in Pixlr is beyond me but now I do have an understanding I can't find enough time to play around with images I have and have found for free on the net.  Here's a pic to show you what I've been up to:

And on that note I shall leave you with a link to 1st Unique Gifts and the Handmade Monday blog.  If I'm a good girl and finally sort out my application letter I shall sit down this evening with a slice of cake and a cuppa and make sure to catch up with what everyone has been doing.