In amongst the usual piles of paper and fabric, my office is playing host to a couple of woolly projects just now. There’s this (which I can’t share fully just yet, but is far too deliciously-coloured to keep to myself):
And this, which I’ve got set aside for an educational afternoon with the lovely Green Gal later this week.
I can’t
help feeling a new obsession may be brewing.
x
Thanks so much to
everyone who entered the Kitschy Digitals giveaway, and for your tutorial
suggestions, which have been duly noted on my long, long list of ideas (it also
includes a list-holder...). One of these days, I'll get round to picking
winners in a more creative fashion, but for now, Random Number Generator, do
your stuff.
Congratulations,
Alexa! Drop me an email with your postal address, and I'll get the little
striped camera mailed off to you later this week. For
the rest of today, I shall be stamping, drawing, recycling and deciding whether
or not to share The Tale Of The Bird Who Stole All Four Calendar Cubes From My Office. (If it tries a return visit, I may
well be making something with feather accents tomorrow.) x
...and I really need to get around to re-naming it.
I'm gathering together photos of my nephews to make a present for my Grandma. Any other explanation is too disturbing to consider.
On my photo-hauling travels, however, I found a few more things that fall into the 'forgot to post them here at the time' category, and realised they might be worth dusting off.
Looking at them now (i.e. under the influence of tinsel, fairy-lights and cinnamon-scented dish soap), I'm thinking they'd also work well added to a few special Christmas gifts instead of store-bought bows or tags. You could either make them simply as decorations, or add a brooch pin so they can be taken off and worn after the event. Find the original (and super-simple) tutorial here.
Also, don't forget, you've still got a few hours to enter the stripy-camera giveaway. I'll pick and post a winner tomorrow morning.
x
In just a few weeks time, 2009 comes to a credit-crunched end and we hiccup hello to a brand new year. Which probably means that, in the vain hope of keeping up with family birthdays, dentist appointments and the busy social whirl of the next twelve months, you're on the lookout for a shiny new calendar. Kylie, Miley, Peter Andre, Hollyoaks Hunks - it's a tough choice, I know. But you're creative (right?), so why not just eschew such shallow celebrity types and have a shot at making your own?
The hardest part is already done for you - download the dates for free over on the Scrapbook Inspirations blog, either with the months included, or without if you'd rather add your own (using stamps, stickers, rub-ons, etc..). Print them onto plain white cardstock, and then decorate the upper part of each page in any way you like. For mine, I decided to keep things simple, sticking to just a few basic supplies - paper scraps, circle punches and a fine black pen. Each of the twelve monthly pages are included below, in case you need some ideas and inspiration to get started. You could equally use photographs, rubber stamps, favourite quotes, digital elements or your own hand-drawn images to fill the blank spaces - it's entirely your choice.
Once you're done, the finishing off is just as easy. I rounded the corners of each page (entirely optional - I did it because I like the way it looks), and then punched a set of holes at the top edge. To make a hanger, I twisted two lengths of wire together, but ribbon, string or yarn would work, too.
If you decide to have a go at your own version, I'd love to see what you come up with - leave me a link in the comments below. And if it's decorated with pictures of Kylie, Miley, Peter Andre or your favourite Hollyoaks Hunks? Well, I'm not here to judge.
x
I'm not sure I shared these with you when I originally posted the project over at Banana Frog. There's a mini-tutorial included in the post if you want to make a few for your Christmas tree or just to hang around the house.
Also, if you're one of the very welcome visitors coming here via the calendar download on the Scrapbook Inspirations blog (hello!), I'm planning a post in the next day or two with pics of all twelve monthly pages, just in case you need some extra inspiration. If you haven't come here from there, you can go there right now and help yourself to the free download. It's honestly much easier than I'm making it sound. And free. But you got that bit, right?
x
You know you’re obsessed with polka
dots when baking cookies on a pizza tray turns out to be the highlight of your
week.
Should you be tempted to serve up your own spotty
biscuits, here you go with my tried and trusted, discovered-by-accident method.
:: Make cookie dough (my recipe was similar to the one here).
:: Roll out and cut into shapes of your choice.
:: Place on a lightly-greased pizza tray - the kind with lots of holes.
:: Cook, according to recipe.
:: Allow to cool on tray.
:: Carefully lift off and flip over to reveal spotty pizza-tray dents.
Hands up who wants to come for tea?
x
PS. The Kitschy Digitals giveaway is still open - see post below to enter.
If you've visited the Kitschy Digitals blog recently, you might have spied a few sneak peeks of these adorable camera embroidery patterns. I was lucky enough to get my hands on them ahead of their official release so I could stitch up a few examples.
The two above were both made using the same design, the stripy version stitched by hand and the yellow polka dots on my trusty sewing machine. I really like how different they look, and am definitely planning to experiment with machine-stitching again. A purist (i.e. someone who knows what they're doing) would probably shudder at my methods, and quite possibly results, but the sketchy effect it creates is so satisfying I don't really care.
The patterns, if you want to have a shot at stitching one up yourself, are available in Danielle's Etsy store, Tiny Bazaar. For the super-speedy, she's also offering 30% off, up until the end of tomorrow (Monday 30th) - the details are here, and you can bag some on-sale Kitschy Digitals product, too.
To celebrate the launch of the pattern, I'm also offering up a giveaway. The stripy camera above is in need of a good home, and I'd love to send it off to someone as an early Christmas present. Leave your details below to be in with a chance of winning, but while the comments box is open and your fingers poised, I've got a quick question for you, too.
I've finally given in and decided to join the herd. Etsy is calling my name, and I'm hoping to have a small shop up and running within the next couple of weeks. One thing I want to offer is tutorials, along similar lines to those offered in the 12Days workshop, but available individually as downloadable PDFs. I'll still be posting free stuff here, as before - please don't think I'm about to stinge out on that - but these will be more detailed and involved, with plenty of additional ideas and options included.
With that in mind, I'd love to know if there's something you've always wanted to learn how to make - being as general or specific as you like - and also, if there's anything else you think I should stock on the shelves of my Etsy emporium. Let me know in the comments below, anytime between now and the end of the week, and I'll pick a winner next Sunday, 6th December.
Good luck!
x
PS. If you're only just starting to think about Christmas and want to find out more about the 12Days workshop, details and sign-up info are over at The Copy+Paste Project. It's not too late!
One of the things I love most about being part of the design team for Kitschy Digitals is the freedom to make just about anything that takes my fancy with the kits. As a non-scrapbooker who’s particularly fond of scrapbooking products, it’s a match made in heaven, and it’s largely down to Danielle’s kitschy kits that I’m now a fully paid-up member of the digital fan club. As well as being ridiculously economical (pay for something once, use it as many times as you like), digital products are also incredibly versatile - maybe even more so when you’re looking at them through non-scrapbooking eyes. On the off-chance you’re either (a) unconvinced, (b) yet to try digital or (c) not quite getting all you could from your kits, I’m here to bring you The Rather Large List Of Ways To Make The Most Of Your Digital Supplies (Including Papers, Kits, Elements, Brushes, Fonts And Just About Anything Else That Might Fall Under The Digi Umbrella).
:: one ::
Print elements onto sheets of inkjet-friendly shrink plastic to make charms or buttons. When you're preparing the file to print, bear in mind that images will shrink by around 50% when heated and the colours will also intensify. Punch a single hole near one edge to make charms and pendants, multiple holes for sew-on buttons, or none at all for hole-free charms which you can glue into place. You don’t just need to stick to elements either. Try printing patterned paper sheets onto the plastic and then punching or cutting out shapes to shrink and use in a similar way.
Use layered templates as patchwork patterns. The cushion below was designed
using an Ali Edwards template from Designer Digitals. I re-sized it in Photoshop, and then printed out the
pieces individually to make paper patterns, adding a 1.5cm seam allowance
around all sides. You could just as easily adapt the same idea to create blocks for a patchwork quilt, or to make a patchwork-style collage from patterned paper.
:: three ::
While you’ve got your needle and
thread out, digital brushes, elements and dingbat fonts can also make great
embroidery patterns. The bird on my cushion is from this brush set, and the deer on the scarf below is from the Kitschy Digitals
Woodland kit. They were each worked in slightly different ways – the bird was
printed onto plain paper and traced through the fabric with a water soluble
pen, while the deer was printed directly onto the fabric – but both options
make for really straightforward stitching.
:: four ::
You remember my sellotape tutorial, right? I still love this idea and have a couple of sheets of tape-strips printed up and stashed away for Christmas. I’m also planning to print up a couple of wider strips from the same product, maybe using this picture font, and wrap them around plain drinking glasses to use over the holidays.
:: five ::
Make your own custom-designed
fabric by printing digital papers onto inkjet cotton or linen.
If you’re not planning to wash the fabric (e.g. if it’s for a collage or a
scrapbook layout), you can alternatively use normal fabric. Spray a sheet of
copier paper with temporary adhesive and press your well-ironed material down
on top, making sure it doesn’t overlap the edges. Run it through your printer,
as normal, and then peel away from the paper backing.
:: six ::
Think clearly, and design your own
acetate overlays or transparent elements. I did this with the feathers from
another Kitschy Digitals kit, and used them to make the napkin ring below, but
they’d also work beautifully on cards, layouts or as pages in a mini-book. For
plenty of acetate-y inspiration, you could do much worse than browse through
the Hambly Screenprints blog,
and while I’m not about to suggest you try resisting their gorgeous overlays,
there’s no good reason you can’t use those and print your own versions at home, too.
:: seven ::
The Kitschy frames below were
printed on to sheets of plain white card, and the pictures then made on top,
filling in the centre part of each frame. By adding a bulldog clip to the top,
or fixing them in place with a magnet, you can turn your artwork (or your
children’s) into an instant, framed gallery. Alternatively, you could print
off a whole selection on slightly smaller sheets and clip or bind them together
to make a 'framed' sketchbook, ready to be filled with all kinds of doodled,
painted or collaged masterpieces.
:: eight ::
Thanks to email, Twitter, Facebook
and mobile phones, most people don’t use as much stationery now as they once
did, but it doesn’t stop me (and I’m guessing quite a few of you, too) loving
fancy paperie. Put your digital kits and favourite fonts to work designing all
sorts of personalised pieces, from invitations and notecards to tableware for
your next party.
:: nine ::
Inkjet transfer sheets (often sold
as t-shirt transfer paper) allow you to add digital designs to almost anything
made of fabric. The pyjama top below combines the Kitschy deer (again!) with a
cute, cross-stitch font and took all of ten minutes to print out and iron into
position. You can obviously make your designs as simple or as complicated as
you like, depending on the kit and the item you’re adding it to. (Find a quick tutorial for the whole pyjama project here.)
:: ten ::
Maybe it was just me, but I always
loved name-tapes when I was at school. Getting a new set because my mum had run
out of the old ones wasn’t quite as big a thrill as the twice-yearly trip to
buy new shoes, but it was definitely up there! With a little help from your printer
and a bit more of the inkjet transfer paper, it’s not too difficult to make
your own version of name tape, guaranteed to be even more exciting because
they’re personalised. Type the relevant name in your favourite font, then add a
small digital stamp or dingbat alongside it – something from these David Walker
collections for girls or boys would be perfect. When you’re done print the design onto the inkjet sheet
(don’t forget to reverse the text), and iron onto a strip of cotton tape. Snip
the tape into shorter pieces and fold over the ends to stitch into clothes,
just as you would a normal name tape.
If you don’t have any need for name
tapes, you can still use the idea to add words, images or printed designs to
other projects. I ironed a length of digital lace onto some cotton tape for the
layout below, which also features the same product printed out as an acetate
border strip, a length of sticky tape and a set of shrink plastic buttons. If that doesn’t count as
getting the most from a kit, I’m not sure what does!
SUPPLIES
:: First of all – obviously! – I’m going to direct you to
Kitschy Digitals. As well as Danielle’s wonderful kits, there’s also heaps of
inspiration on the Kitschy blog and in the Flickr group.
:: Some of the Kitschy kits are also available in the Two Peas
digital store, along with a really wide range of kits by other designers. I
love the range Shimelle has been developing (especially the Trip to Nature
papers,
and am also head over heels for Jill MacDonald’s hand-illustrated kits.
:: Designer Digitals is always a
good bet, too, especially as everything in their store (everything!) is on sale at the moment. I’m especially smitten
by the Andrea Victoria patterned papers and calendars.
:: And last, but not least, the
rather smaller but no less pretty kits at KI Memories, which are every bit as
colourfully wonderful as their printed papers. As well as more Jill MacDonald
goodness, there are also a couple of older Love, Elsie lines and some
exclusive-to-digital Elsie elements, too.
x
PS. If you want the chance to win some Kitschy goodies, it’s not too late to sign up for the 12Days workshop, which also features a healthy selection of digital downloads and other goodies!The fifth of November!
x
