Crafting Passionz - Vintage Lady Tag Swap

So despite being a seasoned scrapper (I've been at this five or so years now), I have never, until now that is, scrapped a tag despite knowing that they are really popular with many scrappers and card makers.


Thankfully this gap in my experience has been resolved thanks to my participation in a swap through Crafting Passionz. 


I really enjoyed creating these tags, once I had finally selected a photo that is. I had some really lovely free Vintage photos I have downloaded from Magic Moonlight Free Images and the hardest bit was picking one photo from so many lovely images. However once I had picked my photo, everything fell into place so quickly and easily. Ahhhh the mojo has returned at last.


Lots of different techniques - inking, distressing, stamping, paper tearing, ribbons, stick pins and of course flowers & rhinestones... fast becoming my signature.

Think I may need to make some more...

Crafting Passionz - Flower Swap 2

Here is the second part of the flower swap for the Crafting Passionz flower swap. Look to yesterday blog for the fabric flowers I created.


This part of the swap was a flower created from paper.


After a fair bit of experimenting and several failed attempted at paper flowers, I was almost ready to give up. 


The bulk of my problem was that I wasn't happy with the paper flowers I was cutting and trying to shape. They just weren't looking the way I wanted them to after I pushed, and prodded and shaped and glued. I decided the issue was that I didn't have a flower cutter that produced a flower in the shape or style that I was looking for. I did have some, but the end result just didn't look right after the techniques that I wanted to try... so it was either change the shape of the flower or change the technique. The conclusion was the technique stayed, the shape changed.


I pondered this for a bit until the light bulb finally went off. I have a Klic-N-Kut machine. I could download or create a flower style I was happy with and then go from there. This would also alleviate the issue of the flowers being cut the same as I could just repeat the cutting process as many times as I needed.


I created a flower shape I liked with seven petals. I then created various sizes of the same flower - 100%, 80%, 60%, 40%. At 100%, it was a little bit too big so I deleted this and added 70% & 50% to give me five different sizes for five different layers.


After some copying and rearranging I then placed my double sided paper on the carrier sheet and cut out all the petals I needed. Three 12" x 12" pages allowed me to cut all five layers for nine complete flowers.


I soaked each of the petals in water for 15 - 30 minutes, then placed them onto paper towels to dry. I sprayed them with a generous dose of spray starch before partly drying them using my heat tool to make sure there were no visible signs of water. 


Once each of the five layers was dried I started to curl the individual petals. I started with the largest flower and curled each petal around a bamboo skewer, then pulled the curl out slightly so that it wasn't too tight. Once all petals on each layer was curled, I dried the petal layer out completely before a final reshaping.


I repeated this with each layer, though made sure as the petals got smaller, the curls became tighter for the inside of the flower. 


When all layers were completed I nested each layer inside one another from largest up to the smallest using glue dots to hold them altogether.


Once all flowers were made, I sprayed them with Glimmer Mist for a little shimmer before finishing each flower off with a red rhinestone in the centre of the flower.

I think it looks a little like a water lily flower.

Crafting Passionz - Flower Swap 1

I'm finally starting to get into some scrapping having at last once again found my mojo and inspiration. Admittedly its just a couple of swaps through Crafting Passionz a group created for Aussie & Kiwi Scrappers but I have high hopes that it will lead onto bigger and better and more creative endeavours... as these have been seriously lacking of late.

I joined in a swap to create two types of flowers - one from ribbon or fabric and the other from paper. Todays blog will show you the fabric flowers I created. Come back tomorrow to see the paper flowers I created as the second part of the swap.

I thought the first flower looked too simple, hence the creation of a second fabric flower even though the swap is only for one of each.

Both flowers are die-cut felt which I cut using my Sizzix die-cut machine. As an aside, I have found that felt cuts really well with the larger "original" Sizzix dies, but not so well with the Sizzlet dies. I think it is something to do with the depth of the blade... though I'm only guessing. The dies cut a set of 4 petals with each cut, though I didn't use the smallest petal as it was too small.

I layered each of the petals then hand-sewed sequins and beads to hold the layers together using some coordinated embroidery thread.

These were really easy to piece together. I may have to try some more experimenting and mixing of colours for more stunning flowers for my scrap booking.

Crafting Passionz - Pin Swap

I recently signed up for a forum created especially for Australians and New Zealanders (at last I hear some people say). You can find it at Crafting Passionz. 


One of the first things I signed up to join in was a swap of Stickpins. I didn't even know what was meant by this so after some You Tubing away I went.


I purchased the corsage pins at my local fabric/haberdashery shop and the beads & charms were from my jewelery making stash.

I coloured the green pin heads with an American Craft Slick Writer Pen (medium head) though you can also use a Copic Marker for that. I love the slightly marbled effect of this colouring. I then threaded on the Blue Mountain beads and seed beads holding the final bead in place with Diamond Glaze.


The white pin heads are the natural colour. I used a ball head headpin threaded through the red/white bead. I created the loop in the end which I linked to the heart charm using a small jump ring, then added another jump ring to the other side of the heart which I looped over the pin. I add the crystal beads and spacers, again holding on the final bead with Diamond Glaze.


The small cases were made from cardstock which I sprayed with my DIY Glimmer Mist in various colours. I then stamped an image on top before grunging the edges inside & out of the cardstock using a Distress Ink. After making the folds I then punched the holes using my Crop-o-dile before finally threading the ribbons through to tie the package closed. Last but not least I recycled some packaging from some rubber stamps which I trimmed to size and pushed the decorated pins into so as to safely keep them in the case.


These really were so quick and easy to make. The hardest thing was deciding what beads to decorate the pin with.

DIY - Glimmer Mist

I did some back reading of blogs the other day and was somewhat taken aback by the genius of my friend Glenna's blog of the same title, so I took a leaf from her book and made my own Glimmer Mist.


I managed to pick up the bottles at the Payless Plastics 50% off sale (major bonus for me) and most of the paint I already had in my stock so this was definitely a coup to get such a selection for only a few dollars, instead of about $150.00.


If you haven't tried this it is really easy. There are other "recipes" for the DIY Glimmer Mist, but Glenna's one is by far the easiest and cheapest so here goes...


Ingredients:
Atomiser/Mister bottle
Metallic Acrylic Paint
Acrylic Paint
Water


Methodology:
3/4 fill your atomiser with water... I eye balled this so sometimes I was up, sometimes I was down. 
Add a good squirt of your chosen metallic acrylic paint (I tried to get just under one complete layer of paint "spaghetti" on the bottom of the bottle)
Shake vigorously to mix up
Add a good squirt of your chosen acrylic paint (this I eyeballed again as the water was coloured so I couldn't tell exactly how much I put in. Err on the side of less, as you can always add more paint if it is not bright or intense enough)
Shake vigorously to mix up
Test to see if you like the colour combination & intensity. Adjust as desired.

Although the mixes look quite bright & intense, when they are sprayed on card stock & dried, the final result is more subdued. (Most of the samples had 2 or 3 layers of colour)

I can't wait to try them out on some projects instead of just small scraps of paper. Watch this space for the finished results.