Picnic Time!

Do you ever see a paper and it reminds you of something?

When I saw this watermelon paper from the Summer Lovin collection by Carta Bella it just shouted "picnics"

I was inspired to make these cutlery holders that I could slip some plastic cutlery in to take on my picnic. I think they makes things a little fun too.

using a sheet of red cardstock and my cameo I cut out the pockets for the cutlery to sit in.  I tucked a piece of the green lace behind the band for a little more rustic look and I think they are pretty darn cute. I then fussy cut 2 of the melon shapes out and glued them back to back onto a cocktail stick to create some toothpicks for after your food. Cant wait for my next picnic!

Tracee

All supplies for this project and more can be found in the Papermaze shop

Tags completed….

Hi, Carol with you today - in my last post I featured a new product being stocked by Papermaze being the Golden Gel mediums - for my projects I used the crackle paste…found here

So today I'm showing you the results from the other two tags in the series…for a recap see here…

The "au natural" tag was given a covering of very watery acrylic paint - I didn't over saturate the dried tag as I didn't know what effect it would have on the cracks, so I kept the brush moving over the  product quite dry…this was the result...

Taking a harlequin mask and walnut stain distress ink I added some stencilling to the base, I then added colour to the edges.  Taking various flat and raised flowers, buttons, bling I made a decoration to the bottom.  I needed some leaves but didn't have any, so don't let things like that stop you - stamp a leaf (this one is from the Paperarsty Jo firth-young plate) onto white cardstock, paint and cut out….these embellishments are then added to my tag, a key and stamped word finished it off.

my last tag I kept very simple - the harlequin mask was placed over the crackle paste and walnut distress stain rubbed over the top….a rosette made with patterned paper and a button were added along with a stamped word.

TFL

August Crop Day

Tomorrow is our August crop, and as ever, we have put together an optional kit for you!  This month it's been designed by Janina, one of our regulars, and uses the lovely Marion Smith Nirvana papers. 

We always welcome newcomers to the crop, so if you'd like to join us, just drop me an email :)  Light refreshments are always available, plus a number of punches and tools for your use and there's a 10% discount in the shop!

The World is full of Magic

This month I was sent a very eclectic mix of papers and being a bit of a creative slump at the moment I was a bit puzzled as to what I was going to create.
I had this cut file on my Cameo just waiting for the right layout to place it on. . . voila. I added a little mixed media and some of the previous bits and pieces I have been sent from the shop this year and this is what I came up with.

 

The washi tape with clouds and hearts on matched perfectly with the reds and blues in the papers.

I wanted the title to stand out and not be lost on the page, by placing it on the red side of the Echo Park - Walking on Sunshine Beach Stripe paper.

 

 

 

I stamped onto the red paper with some versamark ink and clear embossing powder to create some texture to the paper. I used more ink and a stencil for the polka dots behind the photo. Before I glued my title down I carefully went around the edges with a sharpie marker to make it stand out a little more. I like the multi coloured look that the Puddle Jumper paper by Pink Paislee gives to my title. I used a faux stitch stamp for my page much quicker than the sewing machine!

 

Tracee x

 

All supplies used can be found in the shop

product review - golden gel medium - crackle paste

Hi, Carol with you today.  Back in June, Papermaze had a delivery of the Golden Gel Mediums - there are several types on the shelves - look here… today I'm sharing with you the crackle paste.

The texture of the paste is really light, unlike most texture mediums I usually use, its almost mousse like in consistency, goes on really smoothly and takes a while to dry like all crackle mediums.

I thought I would use tags as bases for this review, but, this medium is great on chipboard, wood and other solid substrates too.

I took three tags and treated them in the following ways:-

I added a thick layer of the paste onto the tag using a spatula:-

I painted a tag using acrylic paint and then stencilled the paste onto the tag:-

for the third tag, I mixed acrylic paint with the paste and then added a thick layer to my tag:-

here are all three tags together:-

 As you can see the cracks on the "au naturale" tag are much deeper,  the one with the paint/paste mixture are a lot finer…..the stencilled paste was a much thinner layer due to using the stencil but there is still a lot of cracks there, but, very fine.

Have a play and see how you get on with the product - we would love to see what you create…

In the meantime, this is what I created using the painted tag…

I stamped using a flower stamp and then coloured in using pens….. a text stamp was also used for the background.  distress ink was added to the edges and then a bit of colour using my pens….to finish it all off I added some jellibean wood spinkles to the middle of my flowers and some gilding wax to the edges….

TFL today.

Generic colour ways...

One of my all time favourite colours to craft with has to be Kraft. I love it for its versatility and because it can either be prettied up for a feminine project, or grunted up for a masculine one (and we all know how difficult it is to craft for men!!) 

Here's a quick comparison of two cards I have made in the past using a Kraft/yellow/grey colour scheme, and working them differently to get the style needed. 

Female cards can't go wrong with floral patterns and butterflies, whatever the colours.

...and for men, try adding ink splats, stitching and circles to hold the grungy, masculine look.

We would love to see any cards you have made using similar colourways.  

If you'd like to share any sort of project with us, email me (address on the right) and we may show some on here in the future :-)

Summer workshops sneak...

Our group of summer workshops were very popular, and although we do not usually share what we created, we thought it would be nice to give an example of the sort of  projects we create during one of our classes. 

For this class, we made our own masks, practised blending ink, created a flip section for more photos & journaling and incorporated some simple, but effective hand stitching. 

What I love most about these workshops is how each and every project created ends up being very different, despite all starting with the same products and instructions. 

During the Autumn, we shall be organising another batch of workshops, both daytime and evening, so keep an eye on the 'workshops' section of the website for those :-)