gingerandgeorge

Way Back Wednesday :: Card challenge

Only a couple of months way-back, if I'm honest, but that just about qualifies, right? 

The card above was very directly inspired by a fun challenge idea in this month's PaperCraft Inspirations magazine. You can find the details, plus my original card project, over at the PI blog. If you feel like using the inspiration a little less literally, the post also contains info on how to join in and try out your own prizes-to-be-won version.

The super-lazy among you might be pleased to know there's an even easier option heading this way tomorrow. Assuming a quick press of the 'print' button won't be too much of a strain, you'll be golden. 

x

You Washi, I'll DIY

I'm never quite sure how well I manage to hide things here on the internet. You might not know, for instance, that I have a terrible weakness for tiny sweets which taste like soap, or that I used to be pretty good at juggling. Probably less of a secret is the fact I'm quite obsessive.

Which may explain the following.

Last week, I made some fancy strips of deco-tape and posted about them here. Lots of people seemed quite keen on the idea which (a) made me very happy (thank you, like-minded readers), and (b) was all the invitation I needed to go tape-crazy. Admittedly, a single comment would have done it. I like making tape.  

You might also remember I had some leftover tissue paper hanging around and in a happy collision of ideas . . . say hello to DIY washi tape. 

Made following exactly the same method as for the original envelope tape, you just need to be a little more careful working with tissue, which is obviously thinner and more prone to tearing than regular paper. On the plus side, however, it also means your finished tape is semi-transparent (like real washi-tape), so you can create slightly different effects when applying it to projects.

As well as a pack of regular, gift-wrap tissue (the stripes, which are by Caroline Gardner), I also used some leftover Decopatch sheets - an orange and white print, plus a wholly delicious woodgrain. And then I found another kind which seemed like a good idea.

Because if woodgrain tissue-tape is good, vintage sewing pattern tape is kind of awesome.

I'd love to tell you this whole thing stopped there, but the sewing patterns led me to a fresh box of papery goodness, and - like I mentioned back at the start - things got out of hand. 

First of all, there were vintage books in the box, along with some Chinese text.

And then, origami papers.

Some old maps.

And a couple of IKEA tape measures (don't tell me you never swipe a few extras while you're there).

I suspect it will be quite a while before I run out of tape . . .

. . . or the urge to make things with it. 

But if and when I do find something else which is begging to be tape-i-fied, I promise you'll be the first to know. 

x

Sofa shopping

Morning, festive types, and welcome to The Great Christmas Shopping Expedition For Anyone (Like Me) Who's Left Things To The Last Minute And Is Now Being Scuppered By The Snow And Crowds And Postal Chaos, otherwise known as buying presents without having to leave the house and/or worry about delivery options. 

I've tried to include a mixture of ideas for a range of different recipients, but - assuming you have some basic skills and supplies in your creative arsenal - there will hopefully be at least something here that might solve a last-minute gift dilemma or two. 

So, eyes down, elbows out, credit-card flexed, aaaand . . . shop!

I love MIBO's adorable downloads almost as much as their retro homewares. They now have a special studio site devoted entirely to print-at-home products, including a beautiful 2011 calendar and a whole range of cute paper animals including Forest Friends (above) and Christmas Creatures. 

If you like the idea of a printable calendar (a super-speedy solution to the last-minute problem, and one requiring the minimum of skills and materials), there are plenty to choose from on Etsy. 

Blue Tricycle's nature design is especially lovely . . . 

. . . as is this one from empapers.

For a bespoke option, you could try this blank version from Paper Submarine, and add your own photos, illustrations, quotes or decorations to the space above the dates. 

I was really excited to spot these notecards from one of my favourite Etsy artists, ashleyg. Print out a little bundle and tie together with ribbon for a really sweet gift, or try printing a single one and slotting it into a simple frame. 

At A Glance Graphics also have a print-at-home art option - the typographical print below fits an 8x10inch frame or mount . . .

. . . or for something a little bit different, I love the idea of turning a framed print into a dry-erase memo board. The Love Letter below is from Sim and Charlie Designs, who also offer a fun menu option - Cook, Eat, Repeat.

For boys (or grown-ups with a bare spot on their desk and a little dino love in their hearts), how about a cut-and-fold Kirigami T-rex? 

Or for something similar - only a little more domestic and a little less prehistoric - this paper doll house is a sweet steal, at just $4 (£2.64). 

It's well worth searching for downloadable embroidery patterns on Etsy, if you've never tried it before. There are all sorts to choose from, including plenty that are simple enough for beginners to tackle. I've just ordered this cute pair of thermos flasks from Campfire Chic, and am thinking I'll stitch it onto some vintage bedsheet fabric for a super-kitsch retro camper look.

Other stitchy options I love include this fabric storage bin pattern,

a pretty and oh-so useful book bag from Lilly Blossom, 

these gorgeous fabric Mary-Janes (seriously - how amazing would it be to give someone a pair of handmade shoes for Christmas?)

and a pack of adorable Scottie dogs, which you can make from repurposed sweaters.

Felt sushi (from July Hobby) is ridiculously cute . . . 

. . . and if you're a speedy hooker, there might just be time to make a crocheted baker-boy cap (complete with zipper flower), too. 

Exhausted? That was a lot to skim through, I know. But at least you're still warm and dry, and you haven't had to yawn your way to the front of yet another shuffling queue. 

If you are still looking for one or two last-minute gifts, I hope there might have been something here to inspire you, and if you're all finished, wrapped and calm (how?), then maybe you could start thinking about next year. 

And yes. That was a joke. 

x

PS. Once you're done downloading, printing and making, don't forget to help yourself to some of the free gift tags below. 

 

Palette Pingpong (No.1)

A few months ago, I posted a tutorial over at The Copy+Paste Project all about how to make colour swatches from photographs. Lots of people said lots of nice things about it, one of them being my lovely friend, Gabrielle. In fact, being a proactive sort of a gal, Miss Gabs didn’t just say nice things, she rolled up her (probably vintage) sleeves and posted a few of the pretty palettes she’d been making.

The two of us had been talking for a while about doing a project together, and at some point during one of those inevitably lengthy conversations, we ended up coming back to the colour swatches. The idea is simple, and I’m very happy to introduce you to Palette Pingpong. Each week, Gabs and I will take turns picking out a little bit of photo inspiration for each other to turn into a colour palette. Often, it’ll just be about the pretty colours, hopefully it’ll throw up some unexpected combinations to inspire us (and you!), and once in a while we’ll give the swatch in question a little workout while we’re at it.

Today, though, we're kicking things off with pictures we’ve chosen ourselves – Gabs has one of mine and I’ve stolen one of hers. (Neither of us know which images the other has used, so you can bet your pingpongs I’ll be dashing over there for a nosy as soon as I’ve finished writing this.) I had a tricky job picking just one of her photos (truthfully? I didn’t – this is just my favourite of the three I made), but here you go with my Green Gables-inspired colour swatch.

 
I think it’s the fact I’m feeling the tiniest touch of autumn in the early morning air just now that pulled me towards that particular set of colours. It’s my favourite time of year and I’m pretty sure this colour combination will be featuring in at least a couple of autumnal projects this year. 

As for what I’ve done with it right now, I took just a little bit more inspiration from Gabrielle and recoloured something I made to celebrate the opening of her online shop, The Green Gables, last month. (You can see the original here.)

If you’d like to play along and have a go at making your own colour swatches, or using those we’ve put together, you know you’d be very welcome. Link me up in the comments below, or leave a note with Gabrielle over at The Green Gal. Don't forget to go and see what she's done with her end of the bargain, too - that's where I'm headed right now.

x

Pimp My Hallmark

When you’re a maker of things, there’s a certain pressure on birthdays, Christmas and other high-holidays to DIY. I’m pretty certain the pressure for most of us doesn’t come from the recipients – my family, at least, are just as happy to prop a store-bought card on the mantelpiece as they are to receive one I’ve slaved over for hours - but I always feel a little like I’ve let them down if it’s not handmade. Silly, I know, but I’m guessing it’s not just me.

So, I thought I’d share a really simple idea that appeased a little of the guilt when my nephew celebrated his fifth birthday earlier in the year. I was well and truly stuck for handmade ideas (unlike the year before) and a little short on time, but nothing in the shops felt quite special enough. By way of a compromise, I ended up buying a simple but fun card:

. . . and then pimping it out when I got home.

Should you be inspired to try something similar, I’ve rounded up the details in this handy, cut-out-and-keep guide to How I Pimped My Hallmark.

Whether or not it’s an improvement on the original card is a matter of taste, but I prefer it, and the end result feels much more personal – it’s one-of-a-kind, specially from me for my (joint) favourite little boy. And when he’s a boy this adorable, you’ve got to agree special is the order of the day.

x

I've been making . . . (Part Two)

It’s very much been a month of two halves here – making things and writing outdoors (hurrah for sunshine and pretty gardens), then heading back indoors to edit photos and do computery stuff. It would be nice to think there’s an ingenious-but-pale scientist somewhere out there, busily inventing a way to make laptops more sunshine-compatible, but until then, please go right ahead and enjoy my hard work, while I slap on another layer of tinted moisturiser so my vampire skin doesn’t frighten small children.

The grocery bag above, decorated with Little Miss Radish-me, and the windmill picture below were both projects from our weekend-long blog party over at The Copy+Paste Project back in May. (Lots more goodness to catch up with there if you didn't see it at the time.)

Also in May, a certain someone turned . . . well, let's just say a few years older than his pretty face might suggest. In an effort to decorate with something frugal but fabulous, I took my scissors to a piece of gift-wrap and created the banner below. You could very easily do the same by printing off alphabet letters in a selection of fancy fonts and colours, cutting around them, and folding the top edges over a length of string or ribbon.
  

And then, lastly for now, a little rabbit. It's a finger puppet, but I'm not going to say much more, as plans are afoot involving a few more of them. I do like those round pink cheeks, though.

 
Another catch-up post coming your way in a day or two. Prepare to marvel at the hole-y goodness of my crochet progress. 

x

Make the most of your digi-bits

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.

:: two ::

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!

Kitschy ink

This is my beautiful little sister.

 When we were growing up, the deal was I bossed her around and she let me. (Sweet, I know.) These days, she’s much less of a pushover which, considering I’m every bit the control-freak I was back then, is probably a good thing. So, when I needed a model for some Kitschy Digitals projects a few weeks ago, I was a little bit surprised and a lot grateful that she was so willing to  put up with me telling her what to do, how to stand and when to smile.

The cardigan (made using the silhouettes from this kit as an appliqué pattern) was one thing…

…but letting me paste temporary tattoos about her person in spots of my choice? Now that’s sisterly love for you.

The ‘to-do’ list was inspired by one I spotted in Paperchase a few weeks ago. Despite owning enough notepads to rewrite all seven Harry Potter books in half a dozen different languages, I’m constantly scrawling notes and reminders on my hands (in my defence, they’re much harder to lose than bits of paper). I also love lists, so the memo-slash-list-slash-hand-tattoo seemed like a thoroughly ingenious idea, albeit one that could use a bit of prettying up. I added a tiny re-coloured detail from the Olivia kit to my basic list design, but it would work with all sorts of icons – clip-art and dingbat fonts, as well as other Kitschy Digitals kits. If you want to try something similar, here you go with the basic template, ready to add whatever prettiness you like.

Download To-do list (blank)

And because I know how smart you are, the answers to your very insightful questions are (one) I found the tattoo paper here, and (two) my sister is a leftie, hence her list being all ready to fill in on her right hand. If you’re not similarly sinistral, you’ll probably want to tattoo your left palm instead.

 x