Happy Mother's Day + Washi Tape Bow Tutorial

 Today is Mother's Day here, so Happy Mother's day to any Mother's / Grandmothers / Carers out there!

I had pancakes for breakfast in bed this morning (see my Instagram photos in my right sidebar for pictures!), so that was lovely. Unfortunately hubby then had to dash off to work, but my friend Rosie is cooking a roast for me and my kiddies for lunch - isn't she lovely?!

Here's the Mother's Day card I sent to my Mum. I won't see her today as she lives too far away for a day trip, but I should be seeing her in a week or so. I hope this colourful card made her smile this morning:

I used mainly Glitz Design items, from the 'Color Me Happy' and 'Uncharted Waters' collections. I love the giant rhinestone with a heart inside, and I'm having so much fun with the roller doodle stamps - I used the chevron doodle, with gold glitter Zing embossing powder, down the right of the card. It adds a lovely sparkle!

Do you want to know how I made the washi tape bow? Here you go:

Step 1: Cut a section off a cardboard tube, to just below the width of your washi tape:

Step 2: Cover it inside and out with washi tape (two different kinds of tape):

Step 3: Poke a hole through the middle of the front and back of the tube, and push a brad through to hold the tube together in a bow shape. The washi will wrinkle around the brad, but that's okay as you are going to cover up this centre section:

Step 4: Wrap some washi tape around the centre section a couple of times to cover up the brad and the wrinkled tape:

That's it! If you want the bow to have tails then just cut these from the same washi tape and stick them onto your project before you add the bow. Make sure you use really strong adhesive to attach the bow - I used a hot glue gun, but glossy accents or similar should also work.

This bow does make the card a bit bulky, as it doesn't squish down like a ribbon bow would. I had to send my card 'large letter' size by Royal Mail. I don't mind this, but if you don't like paying more for postage then you should save this kind of bow for hand-delivered cards or other projects!

Whether you are a Mother or not, I hope you enjoy your Sunday! x

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Fimo Feathers and Paper Straws Tutorials

Good Day! Sorry this tutorials post was a bit delayed, but I went away this weekend to a crop (more details about that on another post this week), and I didn't manage to get this post finished before I left. So here it is now...

Here are the handmade embellishments that are part of my March Counterfeit Kit:

The 'stickers' and the little birds were quite easy, so I haven't got a tutorial for those - I'll just talk you through them at the end of this post. But first I have got two other tutorials for you - one for the feathers, made of Fimo modelling Clay, and a video tutorial for the paper straws!

Fimo Feathers:

Step 1: Soften a lump of white modelling clay (I used Fimo):

Step 2: Squeeze one end to be more pointed, and flatten the other end, so you have a shape a bit like a guitar:

Step 3: Elongate the flattened end, and pinch the pointy end together more. the pointy end should be about a quarter of the overall shape in length:

Step 4: Flatten the pointy end down too, so it now looks really pointy like a pencil. Shape the other end to have a soft point at the tip:

Step 5: Finish shaping and smoothing the clay until it looks like a feather:

Step 6: Bake or leave to dry according to manufacturer's instructions. Then use a fine paintbrush and some acrylic paint to paint a feathery blue line all around your feather:

Step 7: When the outline is dry, paint a line up the middle - you can add a 'hole' somewhere along the line to make it look a bit thicker:

Step 8: When the centre line is dry, you can then paint diagonal lines going from the centre to the edges of the feather, all the way along. If you make any of the lines too thick, you can leave it to dry and then paint back over them a little with white acrylic paint:

Step 9: When the paint is all dry use some strong, dries-clear glue to add a gem and a sequin to the bottom of the feather:

Done! My feathers are approx 3.5" long and ⅛" thick, and they weigh 6 grams. You could maybe make them a little thinner, but Fimo will get more brittle the thinner it gets, so don't make them too thin or they will snap. And make sure you attach them to your projects with strong glue!

Paper Straws:

I did a video tutorial for this one - it's only a minute long. The steps are:

Step 1: Take a square piece of paper and roll it from one corner to the opposite corner (with no adhesive).

Step 2: Unroll it and add adhesive to the two sides of the square that you were rolling towards.

Step 3: Roll it back up, and then snip off the two pointed ends.

Here's the video (you can view it HERE in You Tube to see it larger):

Quick and easy! Use a strong adhesive - I used removeable tape at first and the corner unrolled a little, so I tucked a bit of strong gluestick underneath and it's fine now. A permanent adhesive works better!

Happy Stickers:

For these I used a variety of stamps and inks. I chose images and words that matched the kit and then stamped them onto shapes, or stamped them onto paper and cut them out. The tag and label shapes were cut using my Slice design cutter.

For some of them I inked the edge, some I doodled a border on, and the tree I backed with card. Then I just stuck them all onto a piece of white card using blu-tack, so I can take them off and add adhesive when I want to use them!

Shrinkles Birdies:

These were simple too - I just coloured in a bird stamp using ProMarkers, and stamped it onto frosted Shinkles. Then I cut them out and shrunk them in the oven - they shrunk to about half the original size, so these little birds are just under an inch wide. They are so cute!

There we go! I hope one of my handmade embellishments has inspired you to add a little something handmade to your next project. Check back through the month to see how I'm using these on my layouts and cards!

x

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Oh How I Love To Read - A Challenge Mini-book

Challenge One is now live on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog, and it's one that's a real challenge: to create a page or project with no photos, only journaling, about 'why I love ____ '.

I quite enjoyed this challenge! I always have lots of things I'd like to record, but because I don't have photos, they tend to get forgotten. For my project I ended up with a mini-book, as I was inspired by my theme 'Oh how I love to read' to use an old book to record my favourite novels in:

I'm going to show you how I put the book together, and then show you all the pages in case you wonder what my favourite books are (I warn you they are mostly Children and Young Adult Fantasy Novels)!

Here's the construction:

Step 1: Cut the front and back covers off an old book, using a craft knife and a steel ruler. I used a poetry book I picked up at a car boot sale for 20p, as I loved the yellow pattern!

Step 2: Cut a length of fabric approx 2.5" wide, and 3" longer than your covers (so there will be 1.5" to spare at each end). Use pinking scissors to stop the edges fraying.

Step 3: Use a hot glue gun to attach the fabric to your covers as a spine. Glue onto the outside of the covers first - make sure they are level, and leave a 1" gap in between them. Then fold up the top and bottom flaps onto the inside and glue them with hot glue too. Mark a pencil line 1.5" down from the top and 1.5" up from the bottom (I've added arrows to the photo as it was hard to see the pencil marks).

Step 4: Cut another strip of fabric that's 1" wide, and 1" less in length that the height of the book. Add hot glue above the top pencil line, and attach the top of this fabric strip. Then slide on a small book ring. Add more hot glue from below the book ring, to the next pencil line. Then slide on another book ring, and glue down the end of the strip. Done!

Now you just need to decorate the front cover:

I used all bits from my February Counterfeit kit. The doily flowers are punched from one of the 6x6 papers, using a Martha Stewart Vintage Doily punch.

I also used my kit for all the pages, cutting them to different sizes. I used the Echo Park sticker sheets, a bit of washi tape, and some misting with a wood arrow for a mask, for embellishments. The only extra pages are the front and back pages, which were original pages from the poetry book. I stuck two pages together to make them a bit stronger, and then used gesso to cover up the front of them for writing on:

I love my mini-book! I hope to keep adding to it, as I find or think of more books that I love. Hopefully one day my kids will look through it to see what books they might like to try! 

So, are you going to take up the challenge? If you need more inspiration there are more DT examples HERE. Or there's also the 'Progress' layout I made last month that had no photo! I'm going to try and do another 'no photo' layout for the member's blog hop later in the month, which you could be part of if you want to take up the challenge!

For those wondering, my sister didn't get a placement at a Camp America camp yesterday. We stood for 2 hours in the cold to queue up for the event, and by the time we got in all the positions had been snapped up by the people ahead of us! She can still apply online though, so fingers crossed. And we had a nice time in London, including dinner at Chiquitos, so it was a good day anyway! See my instagram photos in the right sidebar for some of the photos I took!

x

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Tutorials - Wood Pieces and Beaded Pins

Hello! Today I'm going to show you how I made the wood-effect pieces and beaded pins that are part of my January Counterfeit Kit!

First up - 

Wood Veneer Style Pieces! 

To make these you'll need:

• Some chipboard shapes 
• Acrylic paint in white, yellow and brown 
• A paintbrush 
• A piece of fine sandpaper 
• A baby-wipe

Step 1: Choose which chipboard pieces you want to use:

Step 2: Paint the front of them with 2 coats of white acrylic paint. Try not to paint the edges too much, as wood veneer pieces usually have dark edges, so it looks better if they stay as bare chipboard as much as possible:

Step 3: Mix a teeny-tiny bit of yellow and brown paint in with a big blob of white acrylic. I then painted one coat which was pale-yellow looking (I forgot to photograph that stage) and then mixed in a bit more brown for the next coat of paint so it looked warmer:

Step 4: Once this is dry, use fine sandpaper to rub gently all over the pieces, so you're revealing the pale yellow coat, beneath. It doesn't matter if you reveal a bit of the white paint too - but try not to sand it right back to the bare chipboard:

Step 5: Rub your fingertips over the pieces to remove any sandpaper residue. Then mix some medium brown acrylic paint, and use a dry paint brush to pick up a little of the paint, and add lines to one of the pieces:

Step 6: Quickly, before the paint dries, wipe off some of the paint with a baby-wipe, moving the wipe in the same direction as your painted lines, to blur the edges and take off some of the paint:

That's it! Just repeat the last two steps on one piece at a time until you've got all your pieces looking nice and wood-like:

Now here's how to do the -

Beaded Pins

Step 1: Start with some pearl headed pins (from a haberdashery) and a selection of beads. If you don't have any pearl headed pins you could glue a bead to the top of a pin first and leave it to dry completely before the next steps:

Step 2: Decide on the beads you want to use, and the order you want them to go in:

Step 3: Carefully dip the hole end of each pin, one at a time, into some wet glue that dries clear, and then push the bead onto your pin, glue end upwards. So you're sticking the first bead to your pearl head, then each one afterwards is sticking to the bead above it:

That's it! Just wipe off any excess glue as you go and then leave all your pins to dry thoroughly:

If you stick your pins to your projects by using a 3D foam dot, to push the pin point into, it will make extra sure the beads don't fall off! I have also since made some more beaded pins by just glueing the last bead - putting the glue onto the bottom of the last bead after it had been pushed onto the pin. But I don't know if I trust those ones to stay together as much - I might try it with some superglue next time.

There we go! Let me know if you have any questions. Keep an eye on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog for links to other tutorials!

If you use these tutorials in any way to inspire your projects I'd love to hear about it! And don't forget I'm happy for you to pin this post to your Pinterest boards if you have them, so you can check it again another day. 

I shall be sharing my first projects made using my January Kit within the next couple of days! x

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Wreath with Candy Cane Treats!

(This post is part of my Frosty Festivities Blog Event)

I love seeing all kinds of wreaths on Pinterest (here’s some that I've pinned). I was determined to make one of my own this year. To make it extra special I've included some treats on it, that visitors can help themselves to - with our Christmas wishes!:

I kept it simple but striking. To make a wreath of your own like this one you will need:

• An 8” diameter Polystyrene Ring, and some White Wool
• A couple of sheets of White Craft Felt 
• Some Red & White Checked Ribbon
• A Snowflake, a Button,  a Sentiment, some Twine, and a some Candy Canes
• A Needle and White Thread, and a Hot Glue Gun.

Step 1: Cover your polystyrene ring with wool. I taped one end of the wool to the back of my ring and then just wrapped it around and around until I got all the way back to the start, where I took off the tape and tied the ends together. I suggest watching some TV or listen to a podcast while you complete this stage, as it takes a little while!

Step 2: Make your ornaments for the wreath. I made the white felt flower by following this tutorial. The strip of felt I started with was 2” wide by 11.5” long, and I cut the slits approx ¼” apart, then I rolled it up and hot-glued it to a 1¼” circle of felt to keep it together.

For the Snowflake I used my own template, which you can download here. If you print it to 5x7” the snowflake template will come out the right size – it should be approx 2.5” long by 1⅝” wide at the widest point:

You can then cut 5 of the shapes from white craft felt:

Next you need to pinch the ends together. I used hot glue to seal the pinches, but be careful not to burn yourself – if you’re worried you could sew them:

I then cut two more circles of 1¼” diameter, and hot-glued the ends of the snowflake between them, finishing with a button on the top circle:

The pocket for the Candy Canes is a 5” tall by 2” wide piece of white felt folded over (to be 2.5” tall by 2” wide) and stitched up the two sides, finished with a bow glued to the front. The pocket, flower, and snowflake are all hot glued on to the wreath.

I added a sentiment to the top left of the wreath, to encourage visitors to take a Candy Cane! I tied it on with twine, and also glued a snowflake on next to it (it’s a Studio Calico Wood Veneer Snowflake painted and glittered), to balance out the detail at the bottom of the wreath:

Finally I added a 10” long piece of ribbon, folded into a loop, and hot-glued to the back of the wreath, to hang it on my door (You might need less ribbon depending on how big you want your hoop!).

Here’s the finished wreath again so you don’t have to scroll back to the top:

Now it’s ready to hang on my door and spread some festive cheer!

Be Inspired:

• Make a felt snowflake
• Decorate a wreath
• Find a way to give a gift to someone who you wouldn't normally give gifts to!

Don't forget that a comment on this post, or on any of my posts from this weekend, will count as an entry into the Grand Giveaway {NOW CLOSED} but only if you've registered your interest in winning that here!

Do you hang a wreath on your door each winter? 

Thanks for reading all of today's posts! I shall see you again tomorrow, for lots more projects, inspiration and giveaways. We'll start again at 10am GMT! x

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