Once upon a story stone

This week I have been so busy!  Trying to finish website, creating story stones and doing even more papercuts... not to mention looking after my two girls!  Oh and work! 

I thought I would share my new story stones with you.  I created a new set (creatively called set 3!) also two add on packs, construction and fairy tale.  Every stone is double sided so there are photos for each side. Anyhow, enough chat, bring on the photos!

Fairytale add-on. 

Set 3

Construction add-on

What do you think of the location shots?  I need to crop the photos a bit but have been trying out different ways to display them.  I love the construction stones in the sand!

Oh and I eventually got round to that fishy papercut!

Well I hope you have all been super crafty this week!

xxx

The big decisions in life!

To paper cut or not to paper cut??  MMM, now this has been a difficult one.  I keep trying to focus on my other crafts and setting up my website but I keep getting tempted!  A lovely friend asked me to do a couple of initials for her children, so pencil in hand I started to doodle!  I drew and cut each design three times in an attempt to get a design I liked.  

I thought I would share my  finished pieces with you and some of my other attempts, I wanted to see them all together to see if I have improved!

First attempt, I even did a tutorial for doing this one, If you fancy having a go click here.

Second go.  I love this one but the original design had far more in it, I kept cutting bits out and if you look close enough the lines aren't very straight!  This is certainly one of my favourites however!

I was very close to not having another go at papercutting!  after a little friendly push or two from my lovely blog readers I decided to give it another go and this little wonder was created, one chilled out Saturday afternoon.

All of a sudden it came to me!  That's right! why not try initials!  And where is the best place to start? well letter 'A' of course! he he!  A little cheer up present for a dear friend.

Here is my first go at the 'J'.  I big ideas for the snake but in the end it covered so much of the 'J' that is wasn't noticeable so unfortunately the snake just had to go!  I do wonder however if I couldn't have popped him in a tree or something though.

Last but not least (I have a few more ideas swimming through my head now) the finished 'J' and 'S' .  I am still not 100% about the J if I'm honest but I guess there should always be room for improvement!

Things I have learnt... it isn't called paper cutting for nothing, I used card for most of these and it is tiring on the hand, tough on the blades and in fact down right hard work!  I also learnt that changing the blades often really does produce a far better picture.  My next trial will be spray glue, I use a glue pen at the moment but worried every time where it will spill out or not, so spray is on my shopping list.

So what to do now?  Should I get back into trying to set up my shop, design some new story stone sets as these are selling well or do another paper cut? 

Well off to check out the lovely people hanging around in the handmade harbour, why not come and dip your toes in too?

xx

Week round up

I know I have been a little remis this week, not that I haven't been crafting but I had planed to post at least a couple of tutorials a week and really not managed it this week.  Oh well, in  my defense I havan't been idle!  There has been lots on industrial crafting going on.

Here are a few things I have been making and having a go at.

Recycled keyrings.  I started making these little heart keyrings nearly a year ago and like so many things was left at the bottom of the creative ironing pile.  a little while ago I started creating upcycled and recycled Jewellery under the name ReJenisis.  Since having my little one however I ran out of time.  These are def an example of that.  Was so great to complete these and have already found new homes for them!  Each one is made from cardboard destined for the green bin, the beads were oddments left over from past commissions.

Here are a few recycled blanks ready to be made into necklaces and keyrings!

A new make for me was to have a go at these sweet little buttons, the patterns were paper scraps so fantastically recycled!  the tops are clear plastic buttons.  This little batch of 6 were my first attempt!

I have been having a play with my stamp maker this week and created my logo and  a few birds.  I have created a set of digi stamps (yet to be released) and these little birdies are part of it.

And last but not least!! Yes you guessed it! Another paper cut!  I thought I would give the alphabet a bash!  So far I have decided that the alphabet should only have one letter 'A'. 

Have you all had a creative week?? What wonders have you been up to?

xxx

Smashing Fun! Paper cuts and books!

What a week!

Well it has been a crafty week!  I have made wooden and also recycled keyrings, taught a friend to make a box, tried paper cutting again and done lots of Smash booking!  Oh and created a teachers set of story stones.  (It has been busy, not sure where the energy came from, just hope it lasts)

I thought I would quickly show you my little paper cut.  I am so pleased with it, mainly because I didn't make any mistakes and that I didn't try to challenge myself too far which has been part of my down fall in the past I think.  Any how, what you do you reckon?  I love it in black, that may be my new thing!

I don't know if you remember my big crafty challenge last week, but I made a smashbook in the process and even gave a tutorial on how to make it.  Well I thought I should use it, so I made a start filling it with memories from our recent adventure to Scotland.  We only stayed a couple of days, but did do a lot.  I thought I would give you a sneaky peak at some of the pages I have done.  I haven't done any journalling yet but I have managed to sort out photos and memorabilia from our visits.

         

     

Hope you can see the layouts alright, I have filled the book.  The thing I particularity like about Smashbooking is that there are just no rules!  I used to love to scrapbook, but it would take hours to decide on layouts and colours and embellishments to go with them etc.

  

Smash books are just fab!  

I know I am using a brand name here and I am using my own book, does this matter?  I am not sure.  There are several different type of journalling book like these, Smash is one, La de dah another and even Stampin up have jumped on the wagon and created their own.  I love all the accessories that go with these but to be honest I love making the books and using them, They are far more personalised.  My other bug bear with the commercial book, is that often you like the page picture so much, you don't want to put anything on it.  No matter what you would call it, the thing that is clear is that it is exactly how scrapbooking used to be, before the posh papers and special albums.  Scrapbooking has evolved and is now a no holes barred, no rules way of sticking memories or interesting items collected on your journey through life into a book quickly.

If you are interested in starting having a go at journalling like this then I found loads of videos online, there are lots of images to see on Pinterest, I even have a board all about it so feel free to pop by and have a browse.

Well I think maybe I have gone on enough and am off to go and see what wonders are to be found at Handmade Harbour (my fav Sun/Mon hangout!)  Hope to see you there.

xxx

Paper cutting 3

Well I thought I would give it one more go.  Paper cutting, it has to be said, is not my skill set!  I find it so hard to control the knife around curves, especially small ones.  Still I did persist and I am quite pleased.  My lack of skill however did mean that I had to cut off the word 'So Tweet'  The 'So' went because I forgot to draw it the right way and the 'Tweet' quickly followed suit as I accidentally cut the arm of the 'T' off!  Anyhow what do you think?  I am thinking that I should just stick to the drawing and program my silhouette to cut it out next time!! 

I am going to share this on Handmade Harbour so do pop over and say hi to all the talented people taking part in Handmade Monday.

xxx

Paper cutting tutorial

Happy Thursday everyone...I know it is a bit late in the day but I have been busy having a go at paper cutting.  It took much longer than I thought.

I fell in love with paper cutting a while ago after reading an article in Craft seller.  It is just so beautiful I just had to have a go.  A few days ago I bought a swivel blade, hopefully just right for the job!  I have pondered for a few days how best to go about this project.  I hadn't found any tutorials online so I had to think outside the box on this one.  Here is how I did it! 

1.  Draw a frame shape.  I drew a circle but any shape would do.  I drew it in a thick felt tip pen.  This will help later on.

2.  Stamp some stamps or draws patterns in the frame.  I have some stamps I got free from a magazine last year so I used these.  Make sure the images touch each other as often as possible and overlap the frame.

3.  Now use the thick pen you used for the frame and draw around all the shapes.  By using the thick pen you are automatically creating the guidelines in which you will be cutting later on.  If you have any larger gaps you could add extra pattern.  I put in some swirls.   Notice that all the red lines stop at the edge of the frame.

4.  Here is a close up of the design. 

5.  Now you need to carefully cut around the red lines.  DO NOT cross any of them.  Your aim is to cut away all the white so all you are left with is the red lines.

6.  Once all the white has gone within the frame turn your design over and...hooray! 

Now over to you! let's see what you can do... go on.. dare ya!