a little bit of everything

6

 So I always save all kinds of bits and pieces of things that I save because I think they might come in handy one day to craft with.  The fun part for I have to admit is re-imagining (upcycle if you will) things you would ordinarily chuck out.  So I have boxes of salvaged things like popsicle sticks and bits of wire, used plastic zip ties and gold paint that I scraped up off mats.  I found a book of latin verse that was published in the early 60's and I collected that too. 

But what do you do with the random collections of junk before your house starts to look like a an episode of Hoarders?  Make cards - that's what you do, make adorable cards for your loved ones.

Popsicle sticks can be turned into a little fence with a black pen and some brown stain or ink.  I mixed Dala Sepia Drawing Ink with a bit of their Black drawing ink and watered it down to get a weathered effect.

Old cereal boxes can take a crafty beating - I put a layer of modpodge on it to glue down some book pages - inked over with Dala Drawing Ink.  I love Dala drawing ink for vibrant but translucent colour.  The ink must have some kind of glaze or polymer in it because it dries to a matte gloss finish.  It's really cool

I then die cut the Hollyhocks out of the cereal boxes with the holly hock die. They went in front of the fence and that wrought iron strip was a piece of zip tie that got a treatment of super glue and fine beach sand that I dyed with Dala drawing ink.  I kinda did the same thing on the sentiment label plate thingie  bit with a rougher texture from big flake glitter that I had bought for my kid from Dala as well - over the top went some gold leaf size from Dala which I could swear is the same as Dala Stencil Glue which I have been obsessed with for years.  I let that dry out a bit to get super tacky.  The gold leaf flakes are actually the result of mixing Dala gold paint mixed with a bit gold edible mica (the kind you use in baking - think I originally got that from Barco moulds.  Anyhooooooo, I had painted something or the other and because I use those clear kitchen mats cutting boards as a palette - I had quite a bit of this beautiful dried gold paint - so I had the tincan head idea to scrape that off and collect them in a jar.  Like OH MY GUYS - it worked brilliantly as a knock-off diy of flake bits - seriously they work just as well as any other flake bits that you would buy.

Remember that old book of latin verse?  I have been wanting to try my version of the Japanese Mokugami paper. Mokugami is kind of like a rumpled texture paper.  I always loved how it adds a depth and texture to paper.  I thought a latin page would be cool to do this with. Anyway, I wanted a lighter pastel type of colour to this so instead of Dala, I went in with ink blending brushes.  I didnt even re-ink them - just went with the residue on the brush.  

I started squishing and squashing and then thought that I kinda wanted it to look more like waxed paper so then I got a solid body butter stick (for reals I am not even joking) - this butter stick smells so deliciously like citrus leaves. I swiped that all over the page, used my hairdryer to heat enough so that it saturates the paper. I then glued that down with Dala stencil glue onto an old offcut piece of canvas - this might have been out of one of Dala's painting pads  but I cant be sure - it was just a random piece that I found in those boxes of stuff that I save like a hoarder.  

I don't work for Dala by the way, even though this whole post is reading like an advert for them. I have to tell you about my most recent serendiptious moment with them - I had bought their liquid tempera for my 6 year old to paint with and guess what - I have stolen most of it from her supply.  I love it more than the regular craft acrylic I get from them - I think I love the tempera more - its like the perfect highly pigmented translucent paint that dries to an un-movable finish with insane pigmented translucency with a matte finish.  It is so light fast as well.  I dont think gets DALA gets enough credit in the crafting world for the kiff-ass stuff products that they make.  I am such a fan.

So that's this post.  I will keep posting my destashing attempts as I go along.  

Fun Cards - clouds and Hot air Balloons

 Do these ever really get less fun to do?  I have three different designs of hot air balloon. I am a little nuts about them. This is my favourite of the lot. 

 I enjoy making these so much that I kinda have to keep track in my head of who I sent Balloon cards to so that I do not continually send them the same type of card.  

This one is for a 7year old BFF of my daughter.  

The penant streamer was made from washi tape - after years of painfully cutting perfect tiny diamonds and then folding them over the cord, then trying to glue them together, I finally realised I can just fold washi tap over on itself and then cut them into triangles - DOH - why I didnt think of this earlier is directly correlate to my DOH-brain.  

I totally scratched out the personalised birthday sentiment out of a piece of rainbow themed scratch card. 

I have been saving my cards on Pinterest but here's one just to keep this blog running

Its for my dearest, it's his 50th birthday on Sunday coming.  

We have an almost 6 year old - she is lots of energy and he is such a trooper when it comes to keeping up with her - it's always full steam ahead.  So this little birthday card is a nod to the magnificent engine that he is - even at 50 and now going beyond.

I love you babes, you have changed my life in such and magnificent way on so many levels.  Thank you for sharing this part of your life with us. (I mean he's never going to read this blog ever because we have all forgotten about it - but hey..........)

I am also going to add to this - that I am going to enter this into the SIMON SAYS STAMP challenge - Monday Challenge - Happy Birthday ALL and create because:

1.  I happened to see that it was a challenge that perfectly and miraculously aligned with the making of this birthday card - 

2.  I always want to enter these challenges but hardly ever do - so today I am

3.  I had a look at the entries and decided that it needed something steampunk-ish and in richer colour palettes - just for variety sake

Thus I present MORE STEAM FOR MORE PUNKERY FOR 50 MORE - a birthday card for my darling man,

A few cards here and there

 There are a couple I have made over the last 6 years, I still like doing it - just never get the time to do it as much anymore, they still are fun nevertheless.  Mainly I post them to Pinterest.  I like Pinterest - so quick and easy and fast to share to.  I have ghosted Blogger for Pinterest - its true.  I never quite got into Instagram, even though I have an account.  I just like Pinterest so much more - like its for grown-ups who dont really want to be grown ups but also wanna be grown-ups - strike that and replace with NEED TO BE GROWN-UPs.

You dont have to go through all this time consuming blog writing as well.   Anyway - here is a new card that I loved making - it was a birthday card - you just needed a set of stitched star nesting dies and "Bob's your stardust!"  Kinda loved giving it a slightly vintage retro tatty feel.  That was my favourite part.

I accidentally bought 24 sheets of the same 12'x12' design - PART 2

 As I was saying earlier in Part 1 - I have been hard at work trying to not bore myself with the paper. 

Fortunately it is such a wonderfully neutral design and colour palette that it lends itself well to many re-imaginings.  

In this re-imagining - I went totally out of my usual tendency to love and create in rich, deep jewel tones  and go with something a light, pastel and airy.  I must admit though that the 14 year old that I was creating this birthday card for heavily influenced the colour palette.

The hardest part of this card was trying to glue the wire lettering down - but I discovered a really neat wire gluing trick - ACRYLIC NAIL GLUE!!  It works so well - it is super quick drying and it comes with a little brush - so you don't have to squeeze big old drops of super glue or super glue gel onto everything and their aunty. You just brush the back of the wire with glue soaked brush and down she goes like an anchor off an ocean tanker.  

I will keep up this series as long as I can think of different ways to use the wood grain paper!

I accidentally bought 24 sheets of one design of 12 x 12 inch Scrapbook paper - Part 1

Consider this a continuing series of how I can "re-interpret" the  wooden design element on all 24 sheets of 12x12" the paper in as many ways possible.

 

So how did I love thee - let me recount the ways - One way was to super like making this birthday card for my darling friend Lesley, who is the sweetest, funnest, coolest, and I really wanted to do something that would be loved by her. 

 

I challenged myself to use stamps and dies from older collections from years past.  Lately I have been pulling out more Tim Holtz of yesteryear and really "enjoying the journey" with that.

I used a free vintage font 'Essays 1743'  to make the print on the scrolls.  The map texture was also a free map jpg that I got from somewhere a long time ago and I happened to have unused printer sheets of that.

One thing I really love is stamping with TIM HOLTZ Inks and then overstamping in the same Oxide  of that. It looks soooo vintage grungey. The stamping platform makes that so ridiculously easy to do.  I have one of the TIM HOLTZ stamping platforms from when they were originally released.  I was gutted when they were made to take that off the market - I love the platform and I wanted a bigger one and now I cant get one.  As for the MISTI - I just cant justify (especially with South African exchange rate) the huge cost or pricepoint of it and that is excluding how much it would cost to pay import and shipping from the US or Canada.  The price of the small size version, seriously, not even the big version of that is enough to feed six families here. I get that its willing buyer/willing seller and yes, yes, the mighty dollar signs call them but me  - consider me an unwilling buyer - me must rather eat. 

This card was inspired by the ADVENTURE AWAITS card designed by Kath Stewart on an old 2018 Monday Challenge of Simon Says Stamp that I happened to find randomly on Pinterest.  I pinned it to my board Awesome Cards on Pinterest.  You can check that board out here -   https://za.pinterest.com/tincanac/awesome-cards/.  You can link to the card directly here Kath Stewart's original masterpiece

I loved it so much that I wanted to do something similar but with my spin on it.  I dont know what I would call my style - eclectic is as kind as I can be in describing it - its not really here or there or anywhere in particular.  Either way - here it is here - A BIRTHDAY CARD.  Gotta love birthdays - such wonderful reasons to make things.

3 Tiny Squirrels go on a nutty adventure

 I love these tiny squirrels.  Initially I thought they are so small what can you possibly do with them?  But the ideas have been churning and this layered A5 sized card was inspired by my little girl, who told quite a lovely story as 4 year old's are prone to do about a squirrel girl who had squirrel friends. One day the little girl got lost in the forest, but she was okay because the squirrels helped her collect all the nuts they could find.  So she was not hungry and she had her friends and she decided to live there happily ever after. The End. 

So there you go - that was the inspiration behind the card featuring the 3 TINY SQUIRREL Die-set.

Yes, we can be nuts together. 

Beyond the Product 1

HELLOOOOO - I am reviving this blog.  I had a baby at 40!!!  She is now almost turning 4 years old, while keeping her out of trouble at this phase of her life requires a far more "hands-on" approach for me than I imagined it would be - her limitless quests of curiousity, have her entertained enough for a few minutes here and there while she intently focusses on whatever thing she is investigationg/tearing/taking apart/ spreading/ painting, or pulling out. 

So much has changed in 4 years - I am definitely poorer than I was pre-kid, and then there's that never-changing, irritating phenomenon of the South African Rand being absolutely dismal compared to the currencies of those first-world places where all these contraptions and craft supplies come from.  Taken together, that makes me come to a horrible self-realisation - I no longer have the financial means to be able to splurge on just everything I desire especially those trendy crafty goods with very first-world prices that my chronically broke derriere am no longer able to afford.

But when you got to get your creative fix, you make a plan - and plans I have been (in the) making. 

I got back in touch with some SOUTH AFRICAN brands/products that I used to love and I think I have actually been a little more original, creative and not fallen into that trap of (subconsciously or consciously) trying to mirror the trends and styles on the craftNet.   

Then I thought it was kind of funny, because all the South African Brand Craft Products I have been buying, have evolved in terms of how they are used and I thought it would be fun to blog about how I use these products even though its not exactly what they were actually designed, created or marketed for. 

My first share after my long hiatus are these notebook/journal covers.  I have been a fan of Luthien Thye for years who creates the most magnificent books and jewelry and cool stuff.  I always thought it was freaking awesome and I loved her notion of functional art.   So I fully give her all the credit for inspiring this little avenue of craft dabbling and for inspiring the design of most of my attempts.  I mean I tried really heard not to copy her too much, but the stuff she does is so amazing and I find myself kind of like subconsciously imitating  her because I love he style so much. - so I do give Luthien Thye the credit for the craft/design asthetic.  ALL CREDIT TO YOU Luthien Thye.

Like I have said before I am a craft dabbler with no particular interest in any particular craft, and this has really captured my interest right now.  I am really enjoying it, I have more freedom to texturise the crap out of it without worrying about it being too heavy or to bulky to post (which was always my problem with cardmaking).  Notebook covers are fun, you can indulge all kinds of madness you dont have to stay within the lines and journals are so charmingly olde-worlde charm in the digital age, that they actually make awesome gifts that everybody loves. 

Let me start with one that I gave to my dearest Mau for Christmas.  

I loved making this - it really turned out awesomely textured and chunky and antique and the glossy resin coat I treated it made me dream about finding some ancient artefact at the bottom of an Ocean.

I thought I had better pictures of this - but alas this is all I have got for now!

12 Tags of 2016 (well sorta....) inspired by ol' Tim's tag anyway~!

Its been so long since I did a post, longer still a 12 Tags (Tim Holtz) inspired project.

My uber buddy Nicol has his birthday coming up tomorrow and I wanted to make him a little birthday card to go with the gift that he is getting from me.  I unashamedly drew some technique inspiration from this month's Tim Holtz Tag over here on the left.

If you're struggling to see any kind of similarity - dont feel too confused, I rarely play samey and I usually pick the elements from the tag that I find interesting and go with that.

Here is what I came up for Nic.  

I stamped and coloured in like in the technique tutorial, I kept the idea of negative die-cutting with the leaf and the name,  There was a bit of random stitching and the addition of a silver charm that I did some more random stitchy things on.  Instant Birthday card - Thanks for the inspiration though to Tim Holtz and his July Tag.

"Hit the Books" - May 2016 Challenge at Our Creative Corner

Hello there - May at Our Creative Corner is sending you back to the books.  Who doesn't love a bit of old book text on anything.  Instead of trying to explain what a fun challenge the lovely Jennie has come up - I am going to leave it up to her here below to tell you all about it.

 Hit the Books 

Hi! Jennie here with you this month hosting my first challenge for Our Creative Corner.  I do hope you enjoy the challenge theme I have chosen for you all this month.

I adore old book paper and old books and I am always glad to be able to breath new life into a dilapidated book which most people would consider throwing out!

For your projects this month we would like to see you searching through your stash for old book paper or books and create a project with what you find. You might want to use papers within your project or you might want to breath new life into an old book by altering it in some way. I hope I have chosen a challenge theme with huge scope for projects small or large.

Whatever you make let us see you give those old book papers or books centre stage!

Hop on over to Our Creative Corner to see the beautiful art and jewelry and vintage exquisiteness the rest of the design team has to offer.  And once you are done with that - enter your own bookpage inspired project on the May "Hit the Books" challenge page and you could be one of the recipients of a generous gift by our fantastic sponsor this month 

Crafty Individuals

Here above is what I did for the challenge.  I must admit that I was whooping all over the place when I saw what Jennie challenged us to do because it played right into something I have been wanting to do.

I wanted to update the boring soap and hand cream dispensers in my bathroom.  Instead of buying expensive bottles from a homestore, I modpodged book paper over cheapie plastic dispensers, used some Tim Holtz letters in an old typewriter-esque font and added some ribbon and embellishments. And voila- it matches the theme I have going in the bathroom better than anything I could have bought.

I could talk you through the whole process but it is quite redundant seeing that being the avid crafters you wonderful bunch are, there is no need to tell you how to podge, embellish and seal.  What I will do instead is give you a photo play-by-play from start to finish.

 

 

 

 

And there you have it - Happy crafting and Happy Worker's Day for all South Africans!

-Candice-