Crafty Coasters

I hope you have all had a lovely week!  Normally I am so desperate to get my blog done for Sunday but there just didn't seem to be time this Sunday..We had been exploring yet another National Trust property, This time Kingston Lacey, A firm favourite and one we often visit.  This time we got to show a lovely friend round.  My youngest thoroughly enjoyed finding all these little hidden doors!!

I have been busy preparing the Winter Wonderland Crafty What Nots.... looking totally gorgeous so far!  I have also been making some coasters and hanging hearts ready for an upcoming craft fair.  I have also prepared a few tutorials, but these are for the Crafty What Nots so I'm afraid you will have to wait for those.

I thought I would leave you with some piccies of my coasters.  I really love them and although they take a little time to make (mainly varnish drying time) I think they are really effective.  What do you think?  I have recently become a stockist of Country Love Crafts and they have so many wonderful things.  These coasters were my first experiment!

Hope you have had a creative week!  I'm off to say hi at Handmade Harbour as usual although I feel a bit like the late girl this week!

xxx

3d pop up flower tutorial

Well Hi-di-hi there lovely readers!   I do hope you have been enjoying your weekend.  We had such a lovely day wandering around the beautiful grounds of Mottisfont House, if any of you haven't been but live near Southampton it is a total must!  Their Christmas extravaganza (the Nutcracker) is something we are all very excited about if last years events is anything to go by!

Here are my little cherubs running on the lawn with the football!  Such a beautiful day!

Now as much as I could bore you all endlessly with National trust photos I thought I would share a mini tutorial with you for a flower I created recently.  I was a bit of an experiment but I loved the finish!

I used the super sized flower punch and punched out a flower in a patterned paper.

Step 1 - fold the flower in half, open, turn it a fraction and fold again.  The aim is to make sure each petal and each gap between the petals have a fold.  (see image below)

Step 2 - After completing all your folds you now need to fold in half and then in half again (it doesn't matter which way round the paper is or whether the first fold was through a petal etc)

Step 3 -  cut off the corner (I cut off about 5mm diagonally)

Step 4 - Create valley and mountain folds all around your flower.  Here I made all the folds in the petals mountain folds but it looks just as great the other way round!

Step 5 - I used the next size down flower punch and punched out a flower from scrap paper. (Your not going to see it)  Cover in tape and glue! (I think glue dots or even hot melt glue would work even better)

Step 6 - This is a little tricky and if you have punched out a smaller flower quite fiddly!)  you need to push all your petals in at the same time, this will close up the hole you created.   Stick this on the scrap flower covered in glue....beware, you need to hold for a while!  I found that as the flower naturally wants to return to its original shape you need to make sure the glue is set first!

Step 7 - I put some extra glue in the centre (just to be sure) and then stuck a very tiny flower over it to hide the joins!

Hey pretso!  a really cute 3d scrap flower!  Great for using up oddments!

Here is another flower I created!  this one has valley folds in each of the petals!

Hope you love making these little flowers of mine.  For an experiment I was really pleased!

Good luck!  

Well off to Handmade harbour as always for a lookie at what everyone has been up to.

xxx

Exploding box card tutorial

I thought I would share a new tutorial with you, I am doing this as a workshop on Friday and figured this would be a good opportunity to share it with you all.

Exploding pop-up card

Step 1 - For this tutorial I started with a 12x12" sheet of double sided scrapbook paper.  I firstly cut down my sheet to 29x15cm.  I put the rest to one side ready for later on.  Next you need to mark out 4 lines 7cm apart, this will leave a 1cm strip at the end.  (I have used pen here so you can see, I suggest that you just score the lines as you will need to score them anyway.  If you need lines maybe use a pencil)

Step 2 - Fold along each of the lines you drew in step 1.

Step 3 - mark 15cm down the vertical edges.  Join these marks up although do not score through the section closest to the 1cm strip.  (see image above)

Step 4 - Cut down each of the 4 vertical lines down as far as the middle line your scored in the last step.  You can also cut out the top section of the narrow strip all together (this will be your tab)

Step 5 - Cut out 3 strips of 9x5cm paper

Step 6 - Mark 1cm in from both sides and fold like the above image.

Step 7 - Choose which side you don't want to see and put a strip of double sided tape along the top.

Step 8 - Attach your flowers, stems and leaves.  You will need to make sure they are all facing away from you as you are working on the reverse of your design.

Step 9 - Once you are finished attach a scrap of paper on top of the remaining tape so that it doesn't stick to something it shoudn't later on.

Here is the front for one of my panels.

Step 10 - place a strip of double sided tape along the left tab of one of your panels.  This needs to be a panel with the most height as this will be at the back of your card.

Step 11- Attach your panel, face down so the tab sticks approximately 1cm from the right edge of the second section in from the right.  The top of your panel needs to be level with the middle line you scored.

Here is the panel folded back on itself.

Step 12 - Repeat the last step with the next two panels.  I have put the front panel a little lower to hide the panels behind.

Step 13 - Attach double sided tape to the right side of each of your panels and the tab from your larger piece of paper.

Step 14 - Well fingers crossed this will work alright! You need to fold the larger piece of paper in half.  The panels inside will stick to the top section and the main paper tab will also stick to the top.

Now you can fold down three of the side panels (not the one that you didn't score, this is the back panel)

Here is the box opening up.

Ta Da!  I haven't quite finished this one yet, I still have the side panels to decorate but I'm getting there!

Crafty What Nots

Well for those of you lovely people out there who read my blog you may have seen me hinting at my new release!  Well seems a good time to tell the world!  Well the part that read this that is!  I would like to introduce you to Crafty What Nots! 

Not that long ago I had a ponder! My ponderings were about craft (as they often are) and I wondered about how great it would be if you could get craft supplies sent straight to your door every month, and what would make it even better would be if you had no idea what was coming or the crafts you might learn as a result.  I had noticed subscription boxes reviewed on various blogs but hadn't seen one that appealed enough to me to buy.  I am not someone who likes a load of stuff that I can't use but when it comes to craft ... well you can never have too much! 

Each Crafty What Nots box contain around £20 of materials, a kit with instructions to make something as well as a personal handmade gift just for you. I am also very keen on upcycling and my boxes contain packaging you can use for crafts as well.  Each box comes in the largest large letter size possible to keep postage as low as possible while making sure there is loads of space for all the crafty goodies inside!

             

Handmade by Hannah

So with my general plan in mind it was time to see how viable it was.  So I managed to find a wonderful group of friends and bloggers to give my review box a go!  I gave out very little information beforehand to see what the general reaction was.  So far I have had some lovely responses back.  If you would like to see what was inside the 1st box then do pop over to these fab blogs for a peek inside.

Glitter and Sewon

Dainty and Ivory

I have now had some great interest in further boxes so had to have a rearrange of my website to include a 'Crafty What Nots' section where you find out more about them, buy more materials if you wish or even subscribe or buy one off boxes.

Inside each box is also an inspiration sheet with just a few ideas of things you could make.

And if your wondering why 'Crafty What Nots'?  Well I am a Pooh Bear fan and loved Eeyore's pot for what nots and etcs.  I already create journals called 'And Etcs' so a box full of What Nots seemed a fab idea!

Well if you fancy getting the November box I am extending the deadline to the 20th October (cut off dates are usually the 15th of each month but as this is the first proper month I thought I would extend)  Each box is £12.50 plus P&P (cheaper if you buy 3 or 6 months)  The next box is Winter Wonderland!'

I will be popping by Handmade Harbour to see what some lovely bloggers have been up to, so do pop along for a dip!

Tissue paper Pom-Pom tutorial

Just thought I would pop this little tutorial on.  I was having an experiment the other night to see what I could make from some tissue paper!  I made these gorgeous paper pom-poms!

First you will need a standard sheet of tissue paper, some string or twine and scissors.  An ink pad is optional.

Step 1 - I used half the sheet of tissue paper, so cut in half and put the other half aside.  First off you need to fold your tissue paper in half width ways

Step 2 - fold in half again

Step 3 - Fold in half again!

Step 4 - now fold your tissue paper the other way to make a smallish rectangle

Step 5 - you now need to concertina fold your tissue paper up, each fold should be between 1-2cm

Step 6 - Tie your thread around the middle of your tissue paper.  It doesn't need to be too tight as it will easily hold it's shape later on.

Step 7 - Cut the ends into points like below

Step 8 - Gently open out one side of your concertina and ease one layer back towards the middle (this can be quite tricky.  Don't worry too much if is tears as this shouldn't be too noticeable.

 

Step 9 turn your piece over and repeat on the other side.  Reapeat this until one half of your concertina is fully opened up

Step 10 - Now repeat on the other side, making your pom-pom.  If you used ink you should be able to see a coloured tinge to the edges.  Unfortunately for my demo I used a really light colour which didn't show up too well.  I tried with a darker one and that worked far better.

I think I may make pom-poms from all my tissue paper now!  I love ideas for recycling packaging.  No shoe box will be safe!

xxx