Heat Embossing

Wow! look at this, two posts in less than two weeks!  Have I got my blogging mojo back????

I don't know about you, but whenever I have lots to do there is always something else I'd like to try. Recently inspiration has been popping up at odd times! Yesterday, my inspiration led me to my recently made Travelers Notebook.  I say made, it's actually a bit of a work in progress and I am adapting it as I go along.  I will share my notebook with you soon once I have a little more in it. Until then I would love to show you an insert I made.

I created an insert to wrap around one of my books. I wanted extra pockets.  I decided to use a lovely pad of paper from First Editions called 'Isabelle'  ( an old pad now unfortunately) 

The patterns are so beautiful and full of pinks, greens and browns.  This particular paper had lots of white so I thought I would use heat embossing to decorate it.  You can see the difference here between the areas that I have decorated and those I have left.

This experiment led me to have another go and produce a video tutorial for you all.  So I do hope you enjoy it. 

I have also created a video on my Facebook page on how to use the same techniques to enhance your lettering!  To watch it click here.

I am expecting supplies this week and I will have a couple of kits available to buy so you can try this at home.  I can also sell the items individually.

Total kit price is £25 (£30rrp so a fab saving!)  postage is £3

I'm linking up with Handmade Monday so do pop by and link up too if you have a blog or to come and find some wonderful blogs to read.

Jenny xx

6 Whole Months!

6 months! 6 whole  months.... I'm so sorry!
Actually those 6 months since my last post have flown by, lots of news and things to show you all but I don't think I should write an essay for my first post in such a long while!

So what's new I hear you ask..... (that is if you are shouting really loud!)
Well I had some very big decisions to make and I closed down Crafty What Nots before Christmas.  Life had got so stressful and the boxes were adding to the pressure and it started to become a chore rather than pleasure.  I think that's always the point where you should stop, but it is often very hard to know when that time is. You don't want to give up too early but you also can't run at a loss and be miserable. So choices were made and I closed down my page and website.  Oh my! what a difference that made.  I found the pressure instantly lift and I started to find my crafting mojo again!  I will still design boxes on request and I do produce kit boxes but now they are all under the name of Jennysis (so much easier to deal with one page rather than 2)
Here is a box I recently made up for someone.

So what have I been up so since??

Well my portraits and illustrating really started to take off and I became really busy designing logos too.  I never thought I could really make a living from my creative endeavours but the last few months have shown how possible it can be! (It does take a lot of hard work tho.)

I have also been involved with some lovely collaborations and been asked to design custom illustrations for some lovely businesses!  I will share more about this next time.

I will leave you today to get on with another really exciting project but in the meantime I would love to share this collaboration with you. A little while back a friend shared a video about Kung-fu Tea.  this fantastic yet odd practise inspired me to draw some tea ninjas.  These developed into the Afternoon Tea Ninjas, ready to serve you a cream tea before you even know you want it!

Well the Ninjas escalated and I have now drawn various different types on Ninjas.  So far there are Clown Ninjas, cocktail Ninjas and Saturday night out Ninjas. I have loads more ideas though so there will be more very soon!  

Now what to do with these designs!  I hit a bit of a wall until a very good friend of mine asked if she could sew one of my illustration!  Jenny from Gecko Fabric Art created the most wonderful mug rug, perfect to rest your cuppa and a cake.

  I really thought a mug would be great too so I contacted the fab Edens Garden of Gifts and she printed up some mugs for me!

Look at these!  My Ninjas are everywhere!

You can now order a mug and mug rug of your very own!

This has been such a fun collaboration and it's been really sparking my creativity.  Ninjas to come will be 'Introvert Ninjas', 'Builder Ninjas', 'Accountant Ninjas' and  'craft Ninjas'.  What sort of Ninjas would you like to see?  Would you buy other items with Ninjas on? like notebooks, t shirts, placemats etc?

Well I ended up writing more than I intended so I really must go!

Have a lovely sunny day.

I will be linking up with some other lovely crafty pages over at Handmade Monday! Do pop by to check out some fantastic pages.

Jen xx