My first Gothic Arch - a bit late!

On Gothic Arches the challenge from 5th to the 19th February 2012 was on the theme of "Bedecked and Beribboned".  For some time I have been tempted to join in these challenges, but I am always too slow, or I haven't got any ideas.  This time I managed to get everything together, and I'm only 2 days late!

I used 3 downloaded digi images, some stamping and some real ribbon.  The girl was a free download from the Craft Stamper magazine website, the hat was from 123rf.com, I can't remember where the background was from (sorry!).  I stamped the borders and the button using the stitch and button stamps from crafty.co.uk.  The ribbon is old stash - I bought the stripy stuff from a local market in a weak moment, there's absolutely miles of it, and I'm glad I've found something to use it for at last, before it goes all manky!

I hope Effie will forgive me going down the girl/hat/ribbon road with my gothic arch, like she did.  I'm going through a phase of putting hats on things/people at the moment, but this is the only finished "hat" item at the moment.

Post-it-note Pad for my elder daughter

A few months ago I saw a video on YouTube, that showed a woman altering coasters to make the covers for a post-it-note pad.  I thought to myself “I could do that”, then promptly forgot all about it.

In January I saw some coasters in our local bargain hardware shop, and I remembered the video.  I bought a pack of coasters, and this is the result!

I was supposed to be making something with teal as the main colour, as that is my daughter's current favourite.  However, I couldn't find any paper in my stash that was remotely like teal, so I gave up and used a pinky-red, because it went with the post-it-note papers that I had.  I hope my daughter wont mind!


To prepare the coasters, I first peeled off the shiny printed surface, then sanded the remaining paper lightly, to give the glue a key.  I also sanded all of the shiny surface off the edges.  The coasters are about 9.5 cms square, so I was able to use just one sheet of 8 ins square oriental-patterned paper, cut into quarters, to cover the four surfaces.  I did one surface at a time, using watered-down PVA to glue the paper on.  I bent the excess paper over the edges, then sanded the excess paper off.  When the glue was dry, I dabbed all the edges with a gold Adirondack paint dabber, leaving the surface rough.  When this had dried, I stamped the oriental text background stamp onto the front and back outer surfaces, using black Archival ink.  I lightly wiped the ink off the paint, so that it left a sort-of ghost image on the gold.


Now it was time to do the binding!  This time I was lucky - I only needed six holes, so it wasn't quite as difficult to get the loops looking moderately round.


For the flower on the top, I diecut some shapes out of patterned paper backed with red card, using my Tattered Florals die, and then did some stamping with white Gesso.  The result was rather flat, so I painted the edges of the petals with my gold paint dabber.  It still looked boring, so I painted the whole of the inside of each flower shape with mica.  Much better!  To make the stamens, I cut a rough circle of black paper, fringed the edge of it, then twisted each bit of the fringe slightly.  I dabbed the edges with gold paint, to tie the black in with the rest of the colour scheme. To shape the flower, I used a sponge mat and a large ball-tool that I bought from the Glitter Girls.  I glued all the layers together with Glossy Accents, then added half of an old press-stud in the centre.  I had intended to sit the flower on a leaf, but I didn't want to add green to my colour-scheme, and I thought a black or gold leaf would look silly.  So I ended up using a flourish - again!  I diecut it out of waste mount-board using my Elegant Flourishes die, and had to trim it, as it was too large.  I painted it gold and stuck it on with Glossy Accents.  Finally, I stuck the flower on with Pinflair Glue Gel.

Canal Book for my younger daughter

My younger daughter lives in Kent, and she misses our Midland canals.  So I decided to make her a book of canal photographs, that I took myself in Wolverhampton and at the Bratch locks during 2011.

I made the pages from offcuts of mountboard from a picture-framing shop.  I cut all the pages to the correct height but over-sized in width, then stuck the pictures on both sides with gel medium.  I die-cut the fancy edges, and used a craft knife to cut the "split" pages to fit.  I sanded the excess paper off all the edges, then painted them with a gold paint dabber.

That's when the project ground to a halt!

Originally I was going to fix the pages together with book rings, but I decided I didn’t like them, so I bought myself a Bind-it-All and some wires to use instead.  I tried out the BIA on another project first, but the binding didn’t go very well, and the loops ended up nowhere near round.  I asked for advice on UK Stampers, and Tasha (aka Chicken Licken) gave me the hints I needed.  She told me to set the squishing channel a bit wider, and to do the squishing bit by bit in stages.  It worked a treat, so I have been able to finish my book.  Thanks very much, Tasha!!

                

                

                

                

                

I’ve trimmed the book with bits and bobs, and I just need to put the title and “created by” on the blank areas of the back cover, then my daughter can have it.  I just hope she likes it!

Notebook for my husband

This is the notebook I made for my husband, as a rather late Christmas present.

I made the covers out of grungeboard, covered with sticky-backed canvas, painted brown then dry-brushed with a little white paint.  I covered the inside with vintage-styled patterned paper.

The gears were diecut from grungepaper, painted black then rubbed with a pewter-coloured metallic rub-on.  I stuck them on with Glossy Accents, along with the Ideaology bits and pieces.  I left the spinners free to spin.

I used large swivel clasps for the hanger, so my husband can separate them and hang the book up open.  I made a bookmark out of two small swivel clasps, so he can mark both the page of notes he's working on and the corresponding page of diagrams.

For the pages, I cut a pile of lined paper for my husband to write notes on, and a pile of cartridge paper for diagrams.  The pages are a bit smaller than the covers, so it took me a while to figure out how to punch the holes in the right place!

This is only the third binding I have done with my Bind-it-All, and it has worked out great!  I put my success down to the hints I received from Tasha (aka Chicken Licken) on UK Stampers.  Thanks very much, Tasha!

Here is the first postcard I have made.  It was for the January swap on UK Stampers, on the theme of "Numbers".

As the postcard was to be posted naked, I didn't dare use my favourite Distress Inks, so I made the background with acrylic paints, diluted and splodged onto wet card.  I stamped the title and the little numbers in circles with paint.  The title didn't show up very well in the white paint, so I painted over it with black.  I made the large numbers by drawing through a stencil then painting along the lines.  I wrote the text with a Sakura pen.  Finally, I paint the edges with a gold paint-dabber.

For anyone who isn't old enough to recognise the quote against number 42, it comes from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams

On UK Stampers we are having monthly challenges for 2012.  This is my effort!

The challenge was to make a hanging out of material from old clothes, metal, tissue and stamps.  We were supposed to use old stash only, nothing new.

I made the background out of an old tee-shirt stuck onto some left-over card from an old pad, the fish out of a tomato-paste tube and the lid from a can of octopus, the sand out of inked, stamped and scrunched tissue and a scrap of card, the bubbles out of Glossy Accents, and the weeds out of the packaging from last Christmas's pudding.  The jump rings and chain have been in my stash for ages.  The only new thing I used was my Cropadile, for punching the holes.

Autumn Card

I decided to try making my own stamps, like Tim Holtz does, and this is the result.  I used the Tattered Leaves die and some 6mm thick foam.