Homemade spray paint

Today I have made my own spray paints. All you need to put the paint in is some spray bottles. Luckily, I had a few empty ones to hand so used these. 

All I put in the bottle was a squeeze of Acrylic paint and a bit of water. I then shook this to mix it and it was ready to use. 

I have used stencils with it and sprayed and let the paint drip down here are a few examples 

I hope that you like the idea :)

Making a loose leaf journal

As you may be aware I have been getting back into being creative. I have started art journaling and am loving the process. However, I feel quite hindered by working in a book this is because; I feel like I have to fill it, it takes ages for me to be happy that the surface is flat, I spend half my time looking in my journal for a suitable page to use and feel it stops my creative flow. I feel I work much better on a piece of paper of my choice. 

Due to this I decided to make a loose leaf journal so I can create my pages then put them in the book afterwards. 

To make the journal I used 

Arch leaf folder (the binder was broken) 

Old cards 

Needle

Thread

Gesso

Art materials to decorate including doll template from Such a pretty mess http://gabriellepollacco.blogspot.ca/2012/06/mixed-media-fun-with-bo-bunny-template.html?m=1

Beads

To start with I had an arch leaf folder that needed using so I decided to upcycle it for this journal. I took out the ring binder section and metal corners off. 

I then decorated the folder. The folder provided a great surface to do a mixed media cover on to. 

When I was happy with the cover

I bound into the folder 12 small cards. These I bound in a figure of 8 and added beads as I bound it.

Then the journal was complete!! Now I am free to stick the loose leaf pages in to the book using the cards by sticking the pages to them. In all I could put 48 pieces in here if I wanted to as I could put work in back to back. I am really pleased with the outcome and will definitely be upcycling more arch leaf folders :)

I hope you enjoyed reading this please leave a comment below :) 

Carving stamps

Today I found out about stamp carving and had to have a go. 

I wanted a cheap way of doing this so opted to use a cuticle cutter instead of a Lino cutting tool. 

All I used was: 

Erasers- I just used the ones I had spare around the house but will definitely be buying bigger ones the weekend. 

Cuticle cutter/remover 

Pencil 

Paper

Ink pad 

The idea was to draw the design on the paper then rub on the back of the paper to transfer the image. However, I found I worked better if I just went for it! 

After an hour I had all the erasers carved back and front. One of the stamps I carved around the outside as well. Below are the results. I am so pleased and know I am going to be doing more as it is so relaxing. 

This is my favourite design. 

I hope you enjoyed this please feel free to leave comments below. 

Making a smash book

I have not heard of a smash book before but after doing a bit of research I decided that this sounded my kind of craft.  To me the smash book is like a scrapbook however, you do not need to spend loads of time making it look pretty like a scrap book.  The idea is that it is a quicker way to document what interests you or places/ events that you have been to or taken part in.

I have started a homemade smash book using old notebook front and back cover.  I recovered these to make them more appealing.  I then decided to use book rings to bind the smash book as I am just adding pages as I go as often my page may be a bag from the place I have visited or a map/leaflet.

I keep all the items that I want to Smash in a box so they are waiting for when I have free time.  For example there are photographs and tickets/collected items from the places we have visited.  Little Boo liked the idea so much that she wanted to make a smash book for herself.  I am really interested to see how this goes and am going to leave it to her to choose what she wants to add to the book.  I feel that it will be a good opportunity for her to improve her writing as well as creative skills.

 

My Smash book also has a part dedicated to our new family member and doubles up as a baby book.  For this section I have used gift bags, gift wrap and ribbon I received to make the inside.  This makes it a lot cheaper and a great way to recycle!

Make your own Decorative Tape.

I love Washi tape but get annoyed at how much it costs.  Therefore, I set myself the challenge to make my own and you know it is not that difficult.  I used some low tack tape and then coloured or painted this as I desired.  I used the Inky Doodles Embroidered backgrounds stamps to make the tape look more appealing.  I love these stamps they are so much fun as you can make up your own patterns. I also used my Spectrum Noir pens to colour in the tape.

I hope that you like the results this is such a great activity to also do with children as they could create their own tape for using to wrap presents with. 

 

 

 

Then I considered a way that I could store these effectively.  Thanks to Jennibellie online who gave me the inspiration for making a simple book embellished with my own home made paper beads again Jennibellie inspired.

 

 



Recycled magazine paper pot (All Crafts Challenge April/May)

I am really pleased to tell you all that I am now part of the Design team on Craft My Life blog.  The blog hosts a really fun craft challenge where people can link up their craft ideas.  The only rule being that it must NOT be a card.  This I think is an excellent idea as it gives us all the opportunity to try out the different crafts that we may enjoy but have never made time for. It would be great if you could pop along and join All Crafts Challenge link any craft idea that is not a card. I will look forward to seeing everyone's ideas.

My contribution this month is my recycled paper weaved pot I really wanted to make something that would use some of my old magazines then came across some ideas which use rolled paper.  All you need to do is use magazine paper and half this then roll the paper around a wooden skewer and glue to finish.

Once, you have quite a few of these you need to then flatten  all the rolls of paper.  I then followed this YouTube clip on how to complete a weaved paper basket.  I am so pleased with the results I do not want to paint it as I like the way it looks up cycled. To finish this off I added a recycled paper flower.  I hope that you like the idea it is really simple to do it just requires patience.

A few card ideas

Hello I decided to share with you a few cards that I have made recently.  I realise that some of my readers enjoy card making themselves and like to see the ideas that I have made.  This month I have used my sewing machine for the first time when creating a card I loved the results so will definitely be doing this again!

Here are the cards that I have made

Engagement Card

For this I used a embossing folder as a stamp to do the back ground then heat embossed this.  I love the effect that it gives.

Birthday Card

I was really pleased how this worked out as it was the first time that I have incorporated using the sewing machine within my designs.  This was much easier than I first thought and I like the bunting idea as it makes a really bright and cheerful card.  The little bows I made using a fork here is the video I used.

Birthday card for someone who enjoys the outdoors

My Husband really enjoys the outdoors and is attempting the welsh 3000's  in the Summer.  Due to this, this year I decided to make him a map inspired Birthday card. I therefore looked for inspiration on the Internet and found a super free Digi stamp download on Just rite paper craft. For the backing of the card and the tag I wanted something rustic looking so I used the chipboard from the back of an A4 pad  of paper. All that I did was do a good quality scan of the OS map for the background.

I hope that you like these ideas I will be back in a few days with some Mothers Day inspiration!!

Shared on

Sister act Card Challenge 

Create your own colouring books using your own photographs

Little Boo loves painting and colouring in so I decided to make her a colouring book using photographs that we have taken.  The photographs can be of anything that your child likes, most of ours are focused on family and toys.

To do this you need Picasa or Photoshop. Luckily I have access to Photoshop so I was able to do this colouring book on there.  

All you do is upload the photograph that you want then change the filter to sketch then photocopy. 

You then amend the detail until you are happy with the results then Print! 

It is possible to do this on Picasa but I was not as impressed with the output

In Picasa under the special edits you click on Pencil Sketch then move the sliders till you find the best output then print.  

I hope that this has come in helpful.  

Introducing my Mommy makes- Quilling

I hope that you all like the new look of the blog with the added buttons! I have decided start to sharing the crafts that I do on the blog.  I am sure that a lot of my followers like to craft themselves (when we have the time). Today I have decided to share with you the Mothers Day card that I made for my Mom.   This year I decided to do some quilling.  I have not done any quilling since I was probably about 11 so was really pleased with the results. The craft is fairly basic to do and only requires a few things 

• Quilling tool 
• Quilling papers
• Circle sizer
• PVA glue 

All you do is make twist the paper with the quilling tool take this off then allow the paper to uncoil to a selected size.  You then glue this then pinch it into the shape that you need.  I enjoyed making this card as it was all my own design so I did not need to worry about following a pattern.  I hope that some of you may be able to try out this idea.  

Making Miss Mouse from Show me Show me- handmade Birthday present

A few weeks ago I started knitting and I am really enjoying it.  After making a few finger Puppets for Little Boo I decided that it was time to do something a little bit more difficult.  Little Boo loves Miss Mouse on the program Show me Show me on Cbeebies. As you can not buy the toys for this program I decided knitting one would be a good idea.  I looked everywhere for the pattern to knit Miss Mouse then eventually I found the pattern on ebay.  I am really pleased with how she has turned out and the pattern was easy to follow (thanks to the lady on ebay and with the help of youtube to look up stitches).  I just hope that Little Boo likes her as I am giving it to her as a Birthday present she is 3 next week!

Have you ever made a Birthday Present or toy? Some great places to start looking for knitted toy patterns are

ebay
Ravelry- A knitting and Crochet pattern website.  Some of the patterns you have to buy but many are also free.
Flutterby Patch- A great blog that has some free patterns and some that are sold at Etsy .  I love the free pencil toppers pattern and the tooth fairy.

I have also found some good books whilst searching.

Knitted Toys

I love the Finger Puppet idea in here for Goldilocks and the three bears.  I am just in the process of finishing these off. 

Nursery Knits 

There is a lovely doll in this one and I like the puppets as well. 

Anyway, I hope that this may be helpful for some of you.  I realise it can seem like a really difficult task but with youtube on my phone I was able to look straight away if I could not understand what I had to do for one of the stitches and this was quite frequently! Hope you like Miss Mouse.