Craft for the Craic - Something Glittery

This month over at Craft for the Craic the challenge was 'Something Glittery'

 

And this is my glittery bauble

( sorry the photo isn't the best - but the lighting at the moment doesn't help much).

 

Its made from a 12" x 12" sheet of card stock - double sided would probably be best, But I figured that out when I was putting it all together - oh well!!!

Also required is double sided tape, glue, ribbon, glitter and butchers twine.

There is a bit of measuring involved and maybe the way I've described it makes it sound complicated - Believe me once you start , its very straight forward

 

Cut the 12"x12" sheet as follows :    Two strips of 1” x 12”

                                                           Four strips of 1.25" x 8”
                                                           Two strips of 1.5” x 10” strips

 

Take two of the 1.25" x 8" strip and glue\ tape together, (this would be in duplicate)
Take the two 1.5" x 10" strips and glue\tape together 

End up with two 1" x 12" strips,
                     two 1.25" x 16" strips
                     one 1.5" x  20" strips

I used a score board, marked each strip at half inch intervals and folded into valley and mountain folds ( i.e. folded like and accordion)
I then laid them out as shown below : 12" strip,  16" strip,  20" strip, 16" strip and 12" strip

 

There are  lots of YouTube clips on line that can explain how to make the rosettes more succinctly than I can, Basically take each strip, glue the start and end together and make the rosette shaped 'flowers' as shown below

 

Using a wet glue and brush I painted the edges of each rosette, liberally sprinkled glitter over them and allowed them to dry over night.

 

Using a combination of double sided tape and glue between each rosettes- I stacked them as shown.

To ensure it all stayed together - I feed the butchers twine through from bottom to top. Created a loop so it could be hung up. 

 

To finish it all off - I created two bows, one in satin ribbon, the other in organza, I layered them over each other and stitched them to the butchers twine . For an extra bit of bling - I added the bauble at the bottom.

 

And voilà - my 'something glittery

 

 

As always thanks for dropping by - I hope this encourages some of you to have a go.

For those who may be calling into me  over the next while - In advance I apologise for the glitter that will be all over you (despite my attempts to clean it up).

But hey at this time of the year everybody should have a little glitter and be fabulous :)

September - Anything but a square or rectangle over at Craft for the Craic

This months challenge over at Craft for the Craic is  - Anything but a square or rectangle.

 

I embraced this task by completely ignoring my tendency to create cards and I went with something completely different.

Please scroll to the bottom of the blog to see the finished articles

Quite often I hear people say how expensive crafting is - in this case it cost precious little and I'm happy with the outcome. I started with some sheets from an old calendar- I'd kept it much longer than I should have, only because I liked the pretty colours and knew I'd eventually find a use for it

I turned the pages over and marked the bottom of it at half inch intervals

At the top  - I moved the rule in a 1/4 of an inch and measured half inch spaces

Then its a case of joining the dots so it results in an isosceles or an equilateral triangle shape,

a bit like this  /\

 

Using a blade and metal rule - cut along the lines and it results in this

 

Using a cocktail stick- wrap the strip around it, starting at the wide end and holding it tight

 

As you near the narrow end - add a little glue and continue to roll tight

It should look a little like this when completed

 Continue to wrap and glue until a collection is created. I put them on the sticks in some polystyrene packaging to allow the glue to dry.

To toughen them up and ensure they lasted longer I gave them a coat of gloss sealer   

 

 

Voila - the finished beads

 

There's 100's of different ways of using these but I made a necklace and bracelet combination.

For an added bit of interest I put tiny flower shaped beads between my paper ones.

 

 

   

 

Thank you for dropping by - I hope you found the blog interesting and useful. Paper weight and length of the triangles will have an effect on the beads - so have a bit of fun trying different combinations.

 

 

 

 

Craft for the Craic - August Photo inspiration

This month over at Craft for the Craic the photo below was our inspiration for the challenge. Thanks to Eithne for sharing  her garden with us.   

 

 

I started with two rather plain hardback notebooks

 

 

And finished up these

 

 

For the black one : I used some thin funky foam to form the 'wilderness', it was a first for me as I'd never used it with the die-cut machine, it was very easy to cut. I layered it up putting a repeat cut pattern in cream slightly off set between the layers to show it off, as without it just seemed rather dull. Beneath the die cut - I used some skeleton leaves, The blossom was made up from layered up flowers from my stash. A bit of bling was added to finish it all off

 

 For the green and purple one : I used re-cycled materials that were die cut. For the flowers I used recycled envelopes - I stitched them together instead of just gluing them, The greenery was cut from an old Christmas card,  the flower box is an old brown paper bag and the trellis came from the dividers that are usually used in A4 folders

 

As always thanks for dropping by and hope you like this months creations

 

Craft for the Craic - Wings Challenge

Over at Craft for the Craic - the challenge this month is Wings





Seen as I'm such a huge fan of Butterflies and Fairies, my natural inclination would have been to pick either of these but i decided to set myself a bit of a challenge and steer away from the obvious. Heres what I created - it looks like a pretty average card but the surprise is on the inside

I have the cutest set of litte duck stamps and I thought rather than just stamp them onto the card - I'd delevop the idea a step further. The 'ducks' start off like the one on the front of the card - just wearing his feathers!!!! included in the stamp set are 'clothes' for the duck, so its easy to stamp them, colour them and layer them up as fits the occasion. 

So having prepared the individual parts, each one was cut and layered, glued and then to strengthen them, they were laminated. 

Then they were stuck to the pegs, tiny magnets were attached to them   

 

Easily creating fun, useful fridge magnet note holders

So thats my take on our 'wings' challenge  and not a fairy or butterfly in sight :)

Thank you for taking the time to pop by and hope to see you back again soon

Craft for the Craic Challenge : Die-ing for Spring (use a die cut) or an Easter theme

This month at Craft for the Craic  the challenge is 'Die-ing for Spring (use a die cut) or an Easter theme. 

As I'm a huge fan of my die cut machine this was an easy choice and heres my creation.

You know those scraps of paper that we all keep, in the hope that 'someday' we will find a use for them . This is a great way of using them up. That said, I do know that the die cut machines are usually expensive, the dies also, I agonised for months before I finally parted with a large chunk of cash on the one suited me.  I love mine and find it very versatile If you are considering one, its worth doing a bit of research first.  

For the tree trunk - I diecut the 'peep-hole' out of piece of brown card and then I embossed it, to give the bark effect. The leaves I had fun with, I found an old travel brochure and thought the cover of it would be a suitable shade for the leaves.  Using a die a number of leaves were cut, I shaped them my by running them over a bone folder (that curls them slightl)  then to add a little more texture again using the bone folder I veins were added. I stamped the little badger twice, coloured him and then layered him up- so it looks like he is shyly peering out of the tree trunk.  

The fox again was created from a die and scraps of varying shades of brown card. Although some his parts are tiny and fiddley - they are worth the effort. I did cheat by drawing his eyes. The flower was cut, I used water colour markers to add a bit of shading to the edge of the petals. Using foam pads, he was layered up.

 Before sticking it all down - I arranged the individual parts on the card, Once happy with the layout, I removed the bits, Coloured the background with pan pastels, then using glue and foam pads- it was all stuck in place

Hope you like the finished article, as always thanks for dropping by. Please do go and vist the 

Craft for the Craic blog to see what the other team members have created

Craft for the Craic - March Challenge - theme is Bingo

Hello  :) - Its been a while since I blogged but a huge thank you to my very understanding DT over at

 Craft for the Craic

This month theres a challenge that was new to me, a Bingo Challenge, Here's the image\template we worked from.

I picked the Flower, Ribbon and Diecut combination and here's what  I came up with

I used dark purple card as my base card, I layered it with an embossed pale mauve card. The embossed pattern looks like tree bark and I love it ( you'll be seeing that again in the future).

Using a smaller piece of the dark card, it was layered beneath the Flower patterned paper.

I then stamped and die cut the butterflies, layered them up, I only glued along the center of the butterflies to allow the wings stand up, I then finished them off using the pearls

The final touch was the addition of the ribbon, I made a bow seperately, glued it onto the flat ribbon and tied it altogether with a final pearl.

As always thank you for dropping by and please go visit the Craft for the Craic  blog to see what the rest of the design team created .