Friday Craft, Too Hot to Stamp

My craft cave gets all the late afternoon sun, and when it’s hot outside, it’s super hot in the craft cave. So I’ve taken my show on the road, to the backyard.

I’ve got my Zig watercolor markers and some pre-stamped Lawn Fawn cuteness. I’m teaching myself how to use these markers for shading, because I do not want to spend the money on Copics but I want to have the same fun and result as Copics.

As you can see it’s a learning process. I love how the little muchroom house turned out, and the gnome, but the fox’s coloring is not the greatest. I’m also learning to make do with the limited color palette I already have, instead of running out to buy another marker I’ve been trying to blend for the colors I want. The flesh tone on my gnome is a mixture of pink and yellow, the fox is light brown and carmine red.

Much more learning to come evidently.

What are you learning about this summer?

MCM

Friday Craft, Sewing Fabricdoris

The Midori Traveler’s Notebook is a brand of planner/notebook from Japan, a leather cover which holds notebook inserts using elastic. There is an entire community of users who have adapted this concept and created their own covers, inserts and other fun accessories.

These are some handmade versions using fabric instead of leather, with some handmade inserts as well. It’s a lot more fun making the fabric cover than it is making the paper inserts.

It’s been a few years since I took to the sewing machine. I forgot how much I enjoy it. The actual act of sewing, but not the ironing, measuring and cutting. Too bad, because that part takes up 60-70% of the actual time spent on a project.

But I was able to flex my creative muscles with these. Since they’re just big rectangles in essence, and created no small amount of waste fabric after measuring and cutting, I added side pockets to several of them and was able to use up most of that waste.

For my next batch, I want to figure out how to add a zipper pocket, or perhaps some other way to hold a pen inside the cover.

MCM

 

 

Wordless Wednesday

From the archive:

MCM

Wordless Wednesday

From the archive:

MCM

Wordless Wednesday

From the archive:

MCM

Friday Craft, Watercolor Love

I am having a great time watercoloring with my Tim Holtz Distress inks. I may have participated in the recent online sale at Joann.com and purchased some additional colors and a couple of storage tins to hold all my tiny ink pads. Now I have them arranged by color family and ready to go.

Recently I also started receiving the monthly card kit from Simon Says Stamp, beginning with the February kit. It is, of course, Valentine’s Day themed, and includes a stamp set, a small paper pad, heart shaped embellishments and card stock to use for card bases.

Everything on these cards with the exception of the little wood frame on the left most card came from the kit.

And I have a lot leftover. So many card makers get this kit and make videos for their YouTube channels, so there’s a ton of inspiration out there. I haven’t made cards in a great long while, perhaps over a year, so this was a great way to get my feet wet. I’ve also been using my watercolor obsession for some cards.

I think I’ve had these floral stamps for over 10 years. I stamped them on watercolor paper with VersaMark ink and then embossed them to create a resist.

For the orchid, I think there’s too much detail in too little space for this technique to really work well. That said, I still think they turned out beautifully.

And finally, the simplest card of the bunch. For this card, I stamped two of the images from the set included in my February kit. I used masking fluid to fill in the little heart, then taped the panel down to a piece of chipboard.

 

 

 

I smooshed some ink from three ink pads onto a piece of plastic (spun sugar, picked raspberries and worn lipstick) and sprayed the ink with water. Then I smooshed the panel around in the color and allowed it to dry. When I peeled off the blue tape I got a great border around the color, and adhered it to the card base with this striped background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So. Much. Fun.

I hope you have a lovely love day.

 

Friday Craft, Handmade Book Episode 10

Another handmade junk journal featuring a digital kit from Tsunami Rose called Life Abloom. This one uses a file folder for the cover, with pages printed on cardstock for stability. A lovely kit featuring lots of flowers, vintage labels, pockets and other ephemera.

MCM

Ep 1   |   Ep 2   |   Ep 3   |   Ep 4   |   Ep 5   |   Ep 6   |   Ep 7   |   Ep 8   |   Episode 9

Friday Craft, Handmade Book Episode 9

This one is made from recycled file folders, using a video tutorial from The Paper Addiction and Vintage Queen Bee digital journal kit by Ephemera’s Vintage Garden. I love the kits from this seller, and have purchased several. She also sells licenses so you can sell what you make from her kits.

This mini book uses 3 file folders, and uses the scraps to make tags and inserts. I printed the kit onto plain old copy paper for this one, since they were all glued down to a file folder or piece of file folder. In the picture on the middle right, you can see the piece where I used scraps to make a quilt top of sorts. Love using those scraps!

MCM

Ep 1   |   Ep 2   |   Ep 3   |   Ep 4   |   Ep 5   |   Ep 6   |   Ep 7   |   Episode 8

Friday Craft, Handmade Book Episode 8

The book making continues in my craft cave, and the books were more popular at my craft fair than my jewelry. Right now I’m working on creating a junk journal from scratch, using some old paper pads from my stash. I’m hoping to move into the video tutorial arena with my very own YouTube channel, but I’ll need a good-ish camera to make that happen. Stay tuned…

I made this book awhile ago, using a beautiful digital kit from Tsunami Rose called Charming Fragments.

I used a file folder for the cover, some 6×9 mailing envelopes, some tiny doilies for tuck spots, and all the wonderful ephemera included in the kit. The ribbon is held to the cover through an eyelet.

Whenever I finish a book I inevitably have ephemera left over, which I have been collecting in an envelope. I try to use every scrap knowing that crafting can be a very wasteful hobby, and this book does include some cards and tags from other kits. Eventually I’ll have enough to make a mash-up junk journal.

MCM

Ep 1   |   Ep 2   |   Ep 3   |   Ep 4   |   Ep 5   |   Ep 6   |   Episode 7