Craft Asylum blog post: stamped card

Click here for the full step tutorial and the finished card!

Butterflies homemade doily using die cut butterflies

A couple of days ago, I posted a project done with butterflies. Here you have another version.

I used the same elements but instead of a balloon I used one of the bowls. I spread the baseline on the inside and place the soaked butterflies on top. Once dried, they came off very easily and kept the shape of the bowl pretty well. Finally, I spray painted them.

This is what it looks like. Bellow, beside the larger butterfly bowl (tutorial here).

And here with a large tea light.

It fits beautifully, by pure chance, I did not plan it!

Anyway, i hope you will give this technique a try. It is fun, pretty cheap and effective results. What more can you ask for?

Golden Butterflies - paper mache technique using a balloon

Today I am sharing a project that I have been wanting to do for a long time. It is based on a paper mache bowl project that i saw online. After watching the video, I thought it was a great idea that may work with die cuts. I tried with my new Intricate Butterfly dies and it work!

I used: 

• a balloon, 
• white glue, 
• vaseline, 
• a disposable bowl, 
• a scoop to measure glue/water, 
• water, 
• paper, 
• gold spray, and from 
• Sizzix Big Shot 
• Sizzix Intricate Butterflies
• old newspapers

I mixed the white glue with water, about 1/2 ratio. This is not a fixed thing and you can make it more watery if you want. Then I spread a thin coat of vaseline over the ballon.

I die cut loads of butterflies using all three sizes from the intricate dies from the the Intricate Butterflies Thinlits set. Then dip them individually on the mix of glue and water so that they are completely covered.

I placed them carefully on the ballon, making sure that they all overlap, so that there is only a few free on the edges. And I let it dry overnight. Probably a few hours would have been enough, but I did not want to risk it.

Once it was completely dry, I pierced the balloon. Be careful as the whole thing tends to fly away. On the right you can see how it looks once the balloon is removed.

Finally I spray it all with gold spray, I used Krylon's 18KT gold plate, one of the best in my opinion but hard to get in the UK. I used another disposable bowl - a takeaway food container - to hold the butterflies in shape while spraying. Then I sprayed it also and trimmed the edge off to make a base for the butterflies.

 The finished result. I am so happy on how it looks.

And with the base looks nice too.

And you know what?

It also doubles up as a head piece. If I get invited to Ascot next year, I have my head gear sorted!

I loved this project so much that I did another version. But I will that for another day...

New blog post for Sizzix: First of my new collection!

Click here for my first project (http://sizzixukblog.blogspot.com/2014/09/butterflies-card.html?m=1) on the Sizzix blog using dies from my new collection of dies for Sizzix, my fourth release!

The collection is called Everyday Memories and you will be seeing more projects in the coming days in this blog!

Craft Asylum blog post: layout and card

This weeks blog post for Craft Asylum, a layout and a card using their latest collection Into the Woods is live now! Click here for the direct link.

A trip to Rayher HQ

Late May I went to Rayher HQ (Lauphein, Germany) to demonstrate Sizzix, and just now I get a chance to blog about it. I had never been there before and it is always so exciting to go to new places and work with different companies that bring Sizzix to crafters all over Europe.

The day started early. Very early. Incredible early. At least for my standards. 5:15am pick up by the taxi. So I had to have Starbucks breakfast at the airport. On the plane I met Kay Halliwell-Sutton from IndigoBlu. We have known each other for years, but never quite had a proper conversation. As then I found out, germans don't speak as much English as I thought so it was nice to actually be with someone who speaks english.

As soon as we got to Rayher we were greeted by beautiful displays. I was in awe of the attention to detail in them. Beautiful displays for beautiful products and projects.

Some of those projects incorporated Quilling, but in a more modern and fresher way.

I quickly set up the table with the beautiful samples from Pete Hughes and Debi Potter. Plus some of mine too.

During the days I was there demonstrating I made some projects like the ones above or bellow.

And tried and tested different things. I loved showing european Sizzix retailers a few of my techniques like the paper patchwork.

Food was served in a tent, very nicely decorated with quite a few options for food.

This group? One of the highlights of the trip. They are from Croatia and with the Slovenians that came on the next day, they soon became some of my favourite people! 

And on the way back to the airport, we did some tourism. Not really, just that it was lovely to enjoy the landscape and buildings.

I really loved the landscape and I hope to really do some tourism in that area one day!

New necklace for Sizzix made with shrink plastic!

For the full step by step tutorial and the finished project click here.

A visit to Sizzix HQ

 

As part of the Sizzix European Blogger team, I got invited among other bloggers to go to Ellison - Sizzix HQ  as I call it - in Wrexham. The bloggers were: Bente Fagerberg from Sweden (originally Norway), Elena Roche from Spain, myself (representing the UK!), Karola Witczak from Poland and Elina Stromberg from Finland.

We were hosted by the marketing team, Alison, Fiona and Kayleigh. Of course, I have known them for years as Fiona used to be my boss while I worked full time at Sizzix. It was lovely to see them again and spent some time with all of them.

The place is lovely. It has change a bit since I saw it last. I loved the cantine with big Sizzix banners and decorations.

No matter how many times, I always get goosebumps when I see my work published or, in this case, big print outs. (My projects are the 2nd and 4th from the left).

We had a fun time going into the craft room, a place where Pete creates all his projects. Talent!

Of course, we did a lot of this! all taking photos of the same thing.

Wales is beautiful. I just love the scenery.

We had dinner in a countryside pub. The food was nice, the company perfect!

And a visit to Sizzix HQ would not be complete with a photo with my Christmas Twin, Pete Hughes. He is even nicer person than he is talented, and he has got talent to fill a few football stadiums.

New post on Craft Asylum

I was in the mood for some stamping, so I grabbed some elements.

Click here to see what the card I made looks like.

A faux Letterpress tutorial using Bigz dies and a Big Shot

Today I am sharing a DIY project inspired by the workshops I took on proper Letterpress. I wanted to create my own type so i experimented...

I used the lids of a take away food container to create the shape. I removed all the edges and calculated the thickness that would have to have to work, the thickness of a embossing folder closed. Make sure that if in doubt, you start with a thinner layer than too thick. You can always use thin acetate to create a bit of a shim underneath.

I die cut four ampersand using Tim Holtz WordPlay alphabet die Sizzix. I glue them all together with a strong adhesive. Then I sanded the top (with is the mirror side) to create a better printing surface than shiny plastic. To ink it up I used Brilliance pads which are beautiful pearlescent ink that dry quickly on paper but stay wet on plastic.

I secured the ampersand with low tack tape, and proceed to print it as if it were an embossing folder through the Big Shot. On the right you can see the effect. Lovely debossed effect.

On the back, its pretty flat but with some bruising which is normal for deep impressed Lettepress. 

To create a card I decided to stamp the message from my Large Family Birthday set.

This step I recommend do it before the letterpress one, but as I do things on the go without much planning, I did it after which meant that the letterpress impress effect was lost a but by die cutting the label.

Once I had it die cut I stamp the other two messages (Sister / Friend).

And here it is, finished! i hope you enjoyed it and give it a try. Remember, always try with thinner plastics, as you always add more but it is difficult to remove any layers!