Metal Heart Frame

This week I had hoped to create something truly inspiring as my application for American Crafts design team.  However, not only is my vision poor due to Iritis my Eclips machine is still getting fixed!  Creating without tools is very difficult.  I have a circle and a love heart punch, a craft knife, pair of blunt scissors, twine and some odds and ends lying about.

So here is what I made..........

This is a photo frame I made out of some wire I had which I bought last year from my hardware store.  

I used my heart punch and punched out about 10 hearts and once curled I adhered them adding some buttons to create a flower.  I also used the heart punch to create leaves around the stem.  

Some of the cuts outs were mounted onto chipboard and heart were adhered to these before they were adhered to the cotton reel.  I used hot glue throughout.

I had a tiny plant pot, a sunflower and mini peg in my stash and used these to help embellish the photo.  The cotton reel is a large reel and very old, I found a bag of them in my local church cupboard all dusty and needing some love.

This American Crafts paper is full of sunshine, happiness and a reminder summer is coming.  Thanks for dropping by, take care of you.

Pauline

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Back to Basics

Recently many of you will be aware I been applying to join design teams.  What I feel is at times a disadvantage is how some artists are using lots and lots of purchased supplies to make their projects look fantastic, and of course they do.  I wonder how many of these people could make something really inspiring and creative with just the paper and no more than 4 embellishments?  I wonder if these design team applications are measured truly on craft skill or how bonnie projects look with all their goodies on them, because we can all do that!

Cheeky Boy Layout

Here is a layout using a bright and sunny American Crafts paper 6x6 paper collection.  I loved making this for my son.  I often make lots of pink and girlie projects so I was determined to make something more for the boys in our lives with my application projects for American Crafts.

This layout was great fun.  I managed to still indulge my love of fussy cutting and layered to my heart content.  Lots of the embellishments and cut outs are on pop dots and sticky foam of different height to create varying layers and dimension.

I made a rosette flower by cutting a strip from the paper, folding at every half inch then adhering the ends together.  Once flattened using hot glue I layered a yellow, orange and green button and used twine to make a bow.  I followed the theme of the orange and green from the photo around the layout.

I made a frame from the paper and raised this onto pop dots then as this cheeky lad is sitting on the steps into the house I made a roof from the paper and using a section of the border I simulated roof tiles and added a chimney.  I then adhered twine into folds to emulate smoke from the chimney.  Again I followed the home theme around the layout in the use of the buildings and stamps.

I specifically chose this paper to be the main page as it had buildings, which I wanted to transfer into the layout from the photo and the steps.  As this paper also has arrows along the bottom I then also used this as a theme around the layout.  I hope this all worked out, I think it does and it flows brilliantly.  My son was so happy with this he took it into school to show his teacher.  He is now 9years old so he must have been really proud of this or it may have ended in the bin!

I love my cheeky monster xxx

American Crafts Card

This card I have made as part of my Design Team application for American Crafts.

It feels like a while since I last did a blog I have Iritis which affects my vision and its difficult for me to see plus my Eclips machine is still being fixed so I have felt a little disadvantaged.  However, it has surely made me try much harder and to think differently in order to complete all he required projects and all in all that is not a bad thing.  So here is the card I made.

It's been some time since I made a handbag and the withdrawals were awful haha.  The size is 5" x 141/2" in all.  This is a wool button I have used for embellishment and it has been secured with hot glue. 

 The flowers were from my local craft store and have been sprayed with Perfect Pearls in a Ranger mini mister.

Inside the card opens out and on the left I secured two white mini pegs with hot glue and made two mini envelopes.  The envelopes were inked with Broken China Distress Ink from Ranger.  

The envelopes can be unpegged and inside are spaces for sentiments or a secret love letter.

On the right I used a sticker from the collection and adhered this to black card stock before adhering this to the page.  The card secures with Velcro dots, which you can see in the photo.

 I then added some IAmRoses and again sprayed these with Perfect Pearls.  

I punched two holes in the back for the ribbon handle and adhered each end underneath the inside page.

This was fun to make and has cured my handbag obsession for a little while.  I hope you are all having a great weekend.  Take care of you and thanks for stopping by.

Pauline

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Design Team Applications

I am so, so frustrated at not having the equipment I have working to enable me to work at my full potential.  I now accept there is no way I stand any chance of being successful but I shall keep having fun, creating crafts that make me smile, help me relax and remember that life is good xxx

Bo Bunny Mini Album and Storage Box

This is a mini album and storage box I have made this weekend using the gorgeous Bo Bunny collection Love Letters.  

The box I made in the shape of a house.  I used tyvek and hot glue to make the structure and also added some strong card hinges both inside and outside.   It's size is 7" x 11" and the mini is 6" x 6", slightly wider once the binding was added.  I used my Cinch from We R Memory Keepers and one of their binders in a gorgeous purple.  Once constructed I used Distress Stain in Tea Dye around all the edges. 

Page 1.  As the collection is Love Letters instead of the traditional shaped pages I chose to make envelopes.  All the pages open up to offer further photo mats and memory keepsake opportunities.

Page 1 & 2.   I used stickers and cut outs throughout all the pages.  On this page I added one of my stash sunflowers because they are sunny and bright. I hot glued the sunflower onto a white peg I also had in my stash. 

Page 2 & 3. On these pages I have added twine, hearts onto tiny pop dots and a small metal frame, which was raised onto sticky foam and will allow a small photo to be placed underneath. 

Page 3 & 4. I distressed a lot of the paper using my Tonic distress tool and using my heart punch I added hearts. 

Page 4 & 5. I think these pages are my favourite. I distressed and layered the paper, used stickers and cut outs, sticky foam for dimension and a decorated cream peg for embellishment. 

Page 5 & 6. These pages were great fun to complete. I used the border from the sticker and adhered it to firm card, added the middle to a page and cut around then layered them onto the border card.  On the next page I used two wood butterflies and wound twine around to secure the flap down. 

Page 6. The final page I used Smoochable paper from my 6x6 stack and a sticker, which to me was most appropriate for the final page. 

Front of house box,  I used I Am Roses and other flowers from my local craft store.  I cut out the lock and key and used sticky foam to raise them to add dimension. A peg from my stack was added for effect. 

Side view.  Its difficult to make out but many of the cut-outs on both the house and throughout the mini album have been raised on sticky foam and foam dots and squares to add dimension and depth.

Side view.  I fussy cut out part of the paper collection to the top and to make a border and made a tag to insert inside and added an eyelet and ribbon. Flowers are from my local craft store.

Back of the house.  I layered three of the bunting cut outs and added a metal butterfly, raised the sentiment onto foam and tied this gorgeous pink twine around. 

This was such a delight to make.  There are so many opportunities to place pictures within the envelopes and also on the back-side.  This collection is so much fun and truly inspirational.

I hope you have enjoyed this project.  

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.  Take care of you.

Pauline

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Bo Bunny Love Letters Card

Today I made this card using the gorgeous Bo Bunny paper.

I layered distress paper from Kraft and an postcard cut out from the collection.  I then made an envelope using my Martha Stewart scoring tool.  I cut a  3" square and adding the corner addition to the scoring board I scored at 1 1/2" and 1 3/4". 

Using red and white twine I wrapped this around to reflect a tied parcel and adhered the two layers onto the card.  I then raised the cut out postcard onto foam strips and adhered this also to the card.

Once I had adhered the mini envelope down I then punched out lots of hearts and raised them on mini pop dots adhering them to reflect them flying out from the envelope.

I added a fussy cut stamp raised on pop dots, stamped using a stamp from the collection adding hearts on pop dots, added a banner cut from the paper and a small xoxo sticker, also from the collection.  I used an I Am Roses flower and hand cut out two leaves, which I sorted using my leaf tool and mat from the Sizzix Susan's Garden Tool Kit.

The inside I made a larger envelope, again using my Martha Stewart tools, this time a 5 1/2" square scoring at 2 1/2 and 2 following guidelines on the tool.  I then added some more stickers from the collection and tied a coordinating ribbon around the envelope before adhering it to the card.

I purposely did not glue down the envelope as I wanted it to open up to reveal the sentiment.

This is such a cute card, which with such amazing products makes crafting not only easy but a joy.

I hope you all have a wonderful crafty weekend and lots of fun.  Take care of you.

Pauline

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I Am Roses Wreath

Recently I was lucky enough to celebrate having my first 100 followers on my Facebook page Pollycraft. 

To celebrate this I held a competition and the winner would win a craft I made especially for the competition. 

I made this wreath using pipe lagging I bought at my local DIY store and taped the ends together. I then used thick twine to wrap around. This was a long process which took more than 2 and a half hours. I wanted it to be perfect and despite the twine being fairly thick it still needed a lot. 

I then added lots and lots of IAmRoses flowers. I secured them down with short pins and added some coordinating ribbon. 

I then added more of the twine criss crossing across the wreath and added a couple of mini white pegs and a photo. 

I made some bunting with my favourite washi tape from Tim Holtz. I did this by using a firm piece of white card and covered this with strips of tape then cut the card into bunting shapes. I then adhered the bunting to the twine with strong glue. 

Lastly I cut out one of the beautiful flowers from the Graphic 45 Old Curiosity Shoppe 12x12 paper and covered it with lots of Glossy Accents from Ranger. Once this dried, it took overnight it was so thick, I used a hat pin I had from my stash which had a gorgeous white pearl on the end and secured it to the wreath. 

The winner of the competition is so happy with her prize and has this hanging in her lounge. 

Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope your all having a glorious day. 

Pauline

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7 Gypsies Printer's Tray

This week I have been working on a Father's Day gift for an old school friend.  

The tray comes from 7Gypsies, the core paper is Tim Holtz Ideology paper, grungeboard elements from Tim Holtz and parts from an old meccano set. The background papers with inked with Black Soot and the pictures with Vintage Photo.

The brads in the grungeboard hinges were from Tim Holtz as is the mini film strip roll.  

The wooden letters were from my local hobby store.  The arrows are grungeboard and inked with Barn Door and Black Soot Distress Inks.

Hot glue was used extensively to adhere all the plastic and metal elements down.

I love the two wee Hells Angels lol.

This was such good fun to make, Chris will be one very happy dad this Sunday.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great day.  Take care of you.

Pauline 

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Mixed Media

Today at work I explored mixed media with a young person I work with.

Here is the beginning of my project.

The base of the project was some cardboard which I cut from a packaging box.

I started by adding fairly generous amounts of glue on the cardboard and then also onto the back of the paper and other items to adhere them down.   I added scrunched up bits of tissue paper, which I had kind of crudely rolled up.  My reason for doing this was to add dimension and layers.

I have used string, buttons, corrugated paper, gems, tissue paper, I frayed some material and spread filaments around the page, some craft foil and some thin metal wire, which I coiled around.  All of these items were just lying around in our craft room so if trying this for yourself just use items lying around your house which you no longer need.

Everything was secured with pva glue and once dry I added a first layer of pearlised blue paint.  

I really like how it turned out and during the process my young person and I had a great session, she loved trying this out, asked lots of questions and my advise to her was just go with it, don't think out it too much but most of all HAVE FUN.

Hope you are all having a great day.

Pauline

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Mixed Media Shadow Box

This shadow box was a commission I recently undertook, which was a special present for absent family members and had the owner so, so happy it has now been lovingly paraded around a large part of Greece to be shown off haha.

The theme was of course Scotland.  I used a variety of ribbon, jute, organza and string and the paper is Bo Bunny Smoochable paper and a calendar page as the background.

Bottom Right clockwise:

Wooden cotton reel wrapped with jute.  Handmade bead thistles with tartan ribbon

Small jar with sand from Carnoustie beach

Tim Holtz pins with special date

A tag using tartan ribbon with sentiment

Map of Scotland with heart around Carnoustie 

Dundee jute with Gaelic saying - love, loyalty, friendship

Kilt pin with lyrics from Auld Lang Syne wrapped around

Bunting - Lang May Yer Lum Reek - long may your chimney smoke, which is a prosperity good luck saying, if you had money then you had coal

Bottle cap from Irn Bru with clock

Paper flowers and buttons

Lace trim

Jewellery wire house

Authentic tartan runs down middle.

  

Sorry for flash glare.  

Bottom left: now added personal messages and wishes, which were kept secret held together with twine and a pencil inside.  Washi tape was used around the inside frame.

Hope you enjoyed this, it was a wonderful project to create and an honour for a special little lady.

Pauline

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My 2nd Ever 12 x 12 Scrapbook Experience.

I have used Bo Bunny Love Letters 12 x 12 paper in this project.

So here is my second attempt to conquer the craft of scrapbooking.  I have found not having my Eclips machine has meant I couldn't add all the shapes and borders I would have liked to add, but I tried my best and am happy with how it has turned out.  Well I think I have learned more and able to build upon my skills and teeny bit of experience, however I will let you be the judge of that.

My daughter hates this picture but I love it as she is really happy, even her eyes are smiling.

On this page I used wooden letters from my local craft store, wooden flourish, an antique lace doily and some paper roses.  I also cut out some glitter accents from the Mariposa stack by DCWV.  All the butterflies are from Graphic 45 Old Curiosity Shoppe.  

I inked the paper flowers with Adirondack alcohol ink in Cranberry and Clover and added pink and cream beads from my stash.

The leaves I cut from Bazzil paper.  I recently purchased Susan's Garden Tool Kit from Sizzix and this was the 1st time I have used it, am happy with how they turned out, what do you think?

I finished off the page with some of the stickers from the collection and sprayed with Ranger's Perfect Pearls to add glimmer and sparkle to my gorgeous wee girl.  The stamp you see here is from Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous collection Ultimate Grunge.

Thanks for stopping by.  Take care of you.

Pauline

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