I lived in Shiga-ken in Japan once upon a time.

 When I saw this "Wave off Kanagawa" reminiscent die on TEMU, it reminded me of the woodblock prints of Hokusai, Ando, Kuniyoshi etc.  I was transported back in time to the first decade of the 2000's when I lived in the land of the rising sun, it made me nostalgic for the beautiful landscapes and rich history.  So I decided to order it and I have been having fun with it.  I have never seen this die anywhere else other than where I saw it on TEMU, so I dont think there is a patent or brand on it.  A while back I also ordered a 12 well pack of the "CANDY" Shimmer Solid Watercolour paint from TEMU and I didnt really get to play with it much because we were moving and I just didn't have all the time I would have like to really test run it. Long story short - I took an evening to test-run both the paints and the die and while I only meant to do one  test, I had so much fun with it - I did three iterations.  

I really liked the die because it cuts cleanly and layers pretty decently.  I say this because I have ordered another sea wave die but I could never get it to cut well and they were supposed to layer but their plate design have them facing in opposite directions - so you always had one that looked embossed-cute and the other one debossed cut.  This one just works.  Anyway - here they are:

Bohemian Masculinity

 

Would you send this card to a guy? Do guy cards have to be bland coloured and boring - why cant they have loads of texture and colour and why cant like leaves be a masculine thing?  I would totally send this card to a guy, this guy identifies Bohemian okay? - this is our next entry into the Masculine challenge over at Simon Says Stamp.  

 A tree on the other side of the wall shed a whole bunch of leaves.  I liked them.  I really didnt want to put them the in garden refuse.  I know I am a bit on the oddball side but stay with me. I bust out the Dala Drawing Inks (from now on referred to as DDI) again and had an idea brewing in my head - I knew painting the leaves in the rich and vibrant jewel tones that DDI comes in would be just luscious!  I wasn't wrong!  Look at the saturation of the pigment in the inks - its so deep and but transparent at the same time.  I love it - well done Dala, you have nailed the drawing ink.  Its so much more than a drawing ink - its a whole craft experience.  Dala Suncolour used to be go to for dying anything - paper or cloth - but I have been converted.  I now exclusively use DDI for paper and card when I want deep, rich transparent colour on paper and card and keep the suncolour for dying fabric. 

Anyway, about the card.  The background is a paperscrap from my bag of scrap.  I went with what I would consider a Masculine Bohemian type colour palette to zhoosh up the leaves.  Oh I like the bottles that the DDI comes in now - they have a pointy nozzle, much more user-friendly than the flip tops.  I used DDI in Magenta, Golden Yellow, Orange, Violet Process Cyan, Scarlet and Olive. 

 Initially I wanted to line them up in 3 leaves sort of deal, standard, dependable layout but somewhat cliched - so then I decided I'd rather layer the multi-coloured leaves on top of each other like a forest of trees.  I loved that.  I put a strip of 2-side tape on a thin strip of dark brown card and stuck a raggedy piece of gauze on the back.  I had a big brown rounded square button that I thought looked like a masculine button, I added more of the Sand craft paint to the button to make it look a little more rustic, threaded it with some thin paper rope to tie into a shoelace knot. 

We had a few runes left over from the "Enter the Dragon" card, and like I said in the last post - this was made with Dala Clever Clay.  You can get crazy clay in different colours.  I would suggest that you get a standard set and then get twice the amount of white.  With your drawing ink you can colour customise the clay to your preference.  

I add a drop or two of Black DDI  to white clay to make the stone grey.  I overstuffed the clay it into a mold.  I used a dough scraper to scrape off the excess on the top so that it is fairly level on the bottom.  It

takes about 24 hours to completely dry or you can be like me and try and get it out of the mold 12 hours later - these were thin so it worked out well for me.  

Here is my trick to get the textured effect of weathered stone. Don't get too finicky about getting the clay into the mold too well - if it has a few airbubbles - it makes it look more stonelike.  When your grey pieces are dry put a thin layer of craft paint on the dry clay, let it sit for about a minute or two.  Then with a wet brush, lightly water-wash the pieces so that the paint doesnt wash off completely - just let it be not perfect and not uniform.  That way you get this really mottled effect that looks like it is stone that has been painted and weathered over time.

I used these left over rune pieces to give it a little more manly Bohemian Viking interest.  Anyway I am so happy with how this turned out.

I am already dreaming up new ideas for more craft projects with my collection of Dala supplies.  Stay tuned for more ways to use these versatile products in crazy ways.

I am not associated by any affiliate relation to DALA nor am I sponsored to write posts about them - I just really, really, really enjoy their brand.  I think they are very well priced and have a great selection  and variety of craft supplies.  I also like the quality of their products.

Dala has a store on Takealot - click this  Dala  to link to it. They dont have their entire catalogue on it - which is sad because they now also have polymer clay and alcohol ink and it is not on the site.  Or you can also get a fairly decent selection at Crazy Plastics if you're in South Africa.

I got the Runes mold from Temu, - they have different kinds of silicone molds for resin, baking and crafting, I am super happy with the quality of the molds as well - I put them through all kinds of trauma in my crafting experiments and they are still alive.

I do have a discount code for TEMU to pass down - that will get you 30% off if you search the code acp636712 on the app,  if you are new to TEMU - you can ⭐️Click the link https://temu.to/m/ulqdrhgg4l0 to get 💰R2,000 (+/- U$D50) coupon bundle or ⭐️ Search  acp636712 on the Temu App to get 💰30% off discount !!

Enter the Dragon

When Monday rolled around and the weekly challenge at Simon Says Stamp was revealed to be "Masculine" and then the Wednesday challenge was also "Masculine", I sat down with my 6 year old to think about what we could do - I suggested something with a lot of gears and riveted metal and she didn't love the idea.... the steampunker in me was devasted.  She suggested we do something with bright colours and hearts - so then I had to explain that that probably wouldn't fit with the theme challenge.  

So then we had a conversation about what "masculine' means - and I tried to give examples of masculine signifiers that 6 year old could understand - things like colours etc.  I got to tell you I had the best conversation about the arbitrariness of culturally defined markers of masculinity.  She wanted to know why colours make something boy-like when it is just a colour?  Then she wanted to know how did they choose those colours to be boy-like then she wanted to know who made the rules about boy-colours and girl colours, and boy-rules and girl-rules.  Then she wanted to know why the people who made the nonsensical rules made the rule that  boys shouldn't like flowers, hearts and pretty colours.  I loved all the philosophical reflection.  I also loved that she thought these categories of masculinity and its markers were irrelevant, arbitrary and completely ridiculous. Plus I think I have a budding feminist philosopher on my hands.  

Following the existential disappointment she felt in the state of culture - we had to come up with an idea that would both uphold her convictions in starting a cultural revolution that would spearhead a challenge of the arbitrary norms 😝but still stay within the scope of the challenge.  

Now it is not a big secret that both my spunky 6 year old and I both love the "How to train your Dragon" franchise, the "Dragon Riders" series so I suppose it inevitably transpired that she suggested that we do a Dragon themed card.  In retrospect and as I type this post - the layers of significance in this piece of pop-culture film in relation to our existential resolution is magnificent.  If you remember any of the HTTYD films - you will have noted that it expertly deals with issues of 'stereotyping' and 'toxic masculinity' in the most awesome, entertainingly educational way. Hiccup the protagonist character breaks the gender trope of the male hero being excessively brute, violent, and disposed toward force and domination. The Dragons are multi-coloured and sparkly beautiful, they are ridden by both malesand females.  Once there is a respectful communion between the riders and themselves, they are strong and a force to be reckoned with.  Once they are able to transcend their labels - they are somewhat invincible and the nature and quality of life for all becomes a whole lot better.  So as I reflect now, I think in light of her questioning the facetiousness of gender-specific conventions and the themes dealt with in HTYYD, her suggestion of a dragon-themed card is a pretty cool rebellion on gender-tropes.

So here is what we did - a dragon- in some deep pinks, blues and greens - while still staying within the realm of things asssociated with masculinity.

We made the leathery skin on the card by wrinkling up a piece of regular 80gsm card, and 'squeeze
sponging' over it with some Dala Drawing Ink (Sepia).  It created a lovely textured effect - the ink settles in the wrinkles and pools in some places.  Dala's drawing ink has a bit of a glaze quality to it - so you can really create an approximate appearance of worn leather.  

Using artistic licence we decided that we were going to use Rune-like symbology to represent dragon script.  We made the runes with Dala's clever clay.  It is lightweight airdry clay that dries to a fun foam like consistency.  I added a drop or two of Dala black drawing ink to white clay to make a stone colour.  I got the runes mold from Temu.  We pressed the clever clay into the mold and then levelled it off with a dough scraping tool.  It requires 24 hours to dry to full cure - but I was able to liberate them out of the mold in about half of that time. They got a light sponge treatment with Dala craft paint (sand) and then a water wash to take off some of the paint so it sort of looks like weathered painted stone.

Next we were onto the Dragon - I bought the Dragon die from Temu - there were a lot of tiny pieces in the belly of the dragon - it was little bit of a mission to work with because they kept falling out.  the solution was to put a strip of Stencil glue (also Dala) on the reverse side all the way up the belly to hold those tiny pieces in place.  We coloured the dragon in

with Pentel's two-tone gels,

The background on which the dragon rests - was made with Distress inks - sort of - I just used the inking tools and I didn't add more dye to them so that the colour was not as saturated and it looked a bit muted.

If you are interested in the vast catalogue of non branded wafer craft dies (like the Chinese dragon)  at Temu or their eccentric selection of silicone molds (like the runes mold) that Temu has - you can use this link to https://temu.to/m/ulqdrhgg4l0 get a💰R2,000 (+/-U$D50)coupon bundle for a first time user  or ⭐️ Search  acp636712 on the Temu App to get 💰30% off discount !!

Dala does have an online store on TAKEALOT Dala - which is an online marketplace like Amazon in South Africa - items can be shipped to anywhere in the world from there - plus I guarantee you - they are so well priced you could buy a whole lot more product than you thought you would be able to

So there you have our entry for the Monday Challenge of Masculine on Simon Says Stamp.

All about texture - but didnt make it!

I started making this card with the intent to submit into the draw for U$D 25 voucher at Simon Says Stamp - the theme was TEXTURE.  Anyhow long story short - I didn't make the deadline for submission.  But it was too cute not to share - and there is lots of lovely texture - and I really had fun making it. 

Fortunately - the Wednesday challenge is "Anything Goes" - so I will get another chance to enter the draw and that is exactly what I am going to do.

I bought the adorably whimsical mushroom die from TEMU.  

It's okay guys to buy dies that are unbranded and are not designed by a well known designer or design company....it's okay....

The embossing folder is an old one from TimHoltz texture fades - I would not be able to tell you which one exactly - because it could possibly be from about decade ago - all I know is that it is a sizzix one and it looks baroque and flourish.  

The gauze came from the medical supplies kit.  The background paper that I turned into a fake momigami type element - yup you know what I am going to say - TEMU ofcourse, it was the VOYAGER 6x6 paper pack set.  And the bits of bark were fly-away bits of yellowood bark that I rescued from my husbands' workshop rubbish bin. 

I have an affiliate link for TEMU that will get you a discount bundle of about R2000 or about $100 as of the exchange rate today if you are new to TEMU - you can also qualify for a 30% off discount. - You can get that deal if you go through this link:   https://temu.to/m/ulqdrhgg4l0 or you can search  acp636712 on the Temu App to get 💰30% off discount !!

Anyway - enjoy

Day of the DAD

💀💀 this is a bonus post💀💀

 I have a funny punny 6year old!  She's a little eccentric in her tastes.  She loved the Disney film Coco, and ever since then has been intrigued by Dia de Muertos (did I spell that right?).   Anywhooooo, we were talking about Father's day and making Father's day cards and I bought a new unbranded, generic, no designer vine wreath die from Temu.  So we did a test run of the die.  We used some background paper that we got from Temu as well as the remaining woodslice that we had cut up and coloured from the Tim Holtz/Sizzix set that we used in the last card.  Once we started layering everything together -  For reasons only known to my eccentric little girl - this die reminded her of sugar skulls and calacas and from there was born the best giggles only a six year old could produce - "Mom" she said - "We should call this card - 'Day of the Dad'!" - I gotta say I could not have come up with something as awesome as that- so here it is a "Day of the Dad" card for her dad.

Temu has been great for getting everything from sparkle paint, to dies, to stencils, even resin which I made the tiny dew drops with.  If you are thinking of checking the marketplace out and have never bought from them before - I have a code that will help you get coupon bundles of up to R2000 (zar) or the U$D equivalent of $55 - you will also qualify for 30% off your first order.   TEMU is like the affordable version of Amazon or Wish.  Shipping is free in South Africa right and you pay import tax calculated on the nature of your goods.  I find that this works out for my wallet a whole lot better than going through Amazon.  So what I an going to do is drop my link here below - and you can use it to qualify for the coupon bundle or the discount.

⭐️Click the link https://temu.to/m/ulqdrhgg4l0 to get 💰R2,000 coupon bundle 

or 

⭐️ Search  acp636712 on the Temu App to get 💰30% off discount !!

You may use this code as a voucher code on checkout as well~

'Hope' is the thing with feathers!

I like entering those Simon Says Stamp challenge - So every now and again with enough time and the when I have the crafty stash that aligns with either the Monday or Wednesday challenge, I give it a go - and this one was really fun to do.  The theme of the Wednesday challenge is Feathers or Fur.  Anyhow, this was great because it made me think of that Emily Dickinson poem - 'Hope' is the thing with feathers.  AND  I always hope that the random number generator will pick my number - because who wouldn't like $25 from Simon Says Stamp.  And so here we are - and this is going to be my entry....I figure this is going to be my best shot.

A little walk through on the making of the card so that you can.  I wanted to keep the colours muted and somewhat masculine - because I think I am going to give this one to my dad for Father's day. 

I made the background patterned paper by distress inking (Vintage Photo, Brushed Courdroy and Walnut Stain) through an A4 sized page of various feather patterns in stencil film that I may have either got from Crazy Plastics or Westpack - I cant really remember for sure because it was a while back - however you all know that I recently have been making patterned paper from cake stencils that I got from Temu - so I had a little squiz over there - and I think I will be ordering this from them next.

I have an affiliate link that you can use to get 30% and some free gifts and a R2000 coupon bundle if you are a new user. You can do that by clicking on this link - 

⭐️Click the link https://temu.to/m/ulqdrhgg4l0 to get 💰R2,000 coupon bundle

 or ⭐️ Search  

acp636712 on the Temu App to get 💰30% off discount !!

I drew and doodled on the stencilled feathers to give it a bit of personalisation and interest with Pentel Metallic gels and the grey jelly roll set from Sakura.  

Over that I ran a strip of natural burlap  ribbon that you can pick up from Temu for next to nothing - you can paint the edges to match your colour pallette with one coat acrylic by masking off the centre of the ribbon with masking tape. 

I thought it would be super cute to have a heartshaped woodslice over that -
the woodslice comes from the amazing Sizzix/Tim Holtz Woodslice collection.

A while ago we used to have a stationery and magazine store chain that I think that has since gone out of business - they used to import these monthly magazines called  Die-cutting Essentials or something like that - they were awesome - every month you would get a die as a freebie. The feather die came from one of them. And I had guinea fowl feather that I picked up somewhere that I added on top of the paper feathers to give it a little textural interest.

I am kinda sad that my phone camera and lighting really washes out the colour on this card.  While the tone is muted browns, blues and greys - the actual card is a little more saturated and those contrasting colours and patterns really work so elegantly together.  I didnt want to stick on a "hope" sentiment on the card so I used the 'hugs' instead because like I said earlier my dad is going to be the recipient of this card for Father's day.

I watercoloured a bit inbetween in the white spaces between the feathers just to tie in the colours a little bit for a more cohesive feel. And that was that!

Anyway I hope you like this entry.  I hope the Simon Says Stamp random generator likes my entry too!

Finally, I leave you with this gorgeous little poem by Emily Dickinson - enjoy...

“Hope” is the thing with feathers 

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

Cake Stencil and Patterned Paper hacks - a second part to the story

 Yes I am back with the next installment of guerilla crafting.

My next project that I will enter into the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge is this one.

Yoh, this one was a whole lot of fun to make.  I always forget how lovely a simple Primary colour palette on Kraft card is.  

I made the patterned paper by using distress ink in Spiced marmalade,Candied apples, Black Soot and Peacock Feathers on kraft and similar toned paper.  

I bought the cake stencils from TEMU - once again I am happily going to sing about how affordable these are. ZAR R45 is about U$D 2.50

They have a magnificent variety to choose from. And you can co-ordinate your own shape and size bundle if you want.  I am so thrilled with my guerilla crafting supplies from TEMU that I am happily affiliating with the site now to offer anyone on the struggling end of crafting supplies a chance to get stuff on discount there as well.  If you want to use my referral link - to check out the awesome generic, non-branded bake and cake stencil stuff you can find there - You can also qualify for a R2000/ U$D 110 coupon + 30% off  if you would like that with referral code/link as a new user - which is clickable right here https://temu.to/m/ulqdrhgg4l0 

Happy guerilla crafting - may your craft cart supplies be plentiful.

Cake and Patterns and Distress ink - part one

 Hello there 

The Wednesday challenge over at Simon Says Stamp is all about PATTERNED PAPER.  I would love a shot at the USD 25 to shop there, USD prices for crafty things is sooooooo painful to a South African wallet so whenever I have the time and energy to take a stab at it - I try to take it.  Plus I really enjoy finding ways to re-imagine my random stashes of things.

So I did a little guerilla crafting on the side to fit the challenge.....but I have a few tricks and crafty witchery to share.

Well I needed to use patterned paper and I was determined to have a co-ordinating scheme going, and frankly I did not have the cash to splurge on multiple pieces of the patterned paper or whole books of patterned paper so I had to make a plan - and a plan I did make.  

I got these cake stencils a while back from TEMU and I have been loving them.  I know that some people have issues with places like TEMU - I am not one of those people - I want to craft, crafting supplies are expensive and TEMU fills the gap created by the aforementioned.  I am happy.  I hope you are too, if you are not, then well I have to add a disclaimer here that I don't plan on making it my burden to carry the torch for it and I don't plan on dying on that hill too. We can part ways and opinions and I wont be offended.  You do you, I do me.  They are really well priced on TEMU and you dont have to pay the exorbitant shipping and duty charges that AMAZON charged me for the same kind of stencils.  My goal here is to guerilla craft on the cheap and introduce that to the South African market - I believe craft and creativity is something that should be accessible to all - I believe that there is purchasing power disadvantage that non-US/UK/EU citizens face and I believe in restoring the parity as my own contribution - anyhow as you can see - as of today the dollar equivalent of this stencil is U$D 3 - whereas on Amazon it was something like $5 and that was excluding shipping and tax. 

 If you are interested in checking out TEMU - you can link to it here with my referral code - ⭐️Click the link https://temu.to/m/ulqdrhgg4l0 to get 💰R2,000 coupon bundle or ⭐️ Search  acp636712 on the Temu App to get 💰30% off discount !!.  If you are a new user you will get a 30% off discount and they have a bunch of other marketing offers as well that you can cash in on.  

Back to the challenge - I made my own co-ordinating patterned paper with this stencil and and my good old trusty DISTRESS INKS/OXIDES and a bunch of other salvaged items from various stashes of scrap.  It was fun - I loved it so much I am going to do another post with the other card I made with other cake stencils.  

This totally frees you up to make whatever card you want in whatever colour you want and you can mess around with all kinds of elements you want in the same co-ordinating scheme as well.  I am seriously chanting "Let them papercraft cake" at this point.  Cake stencils are awesome - they are longer than average paper craft stencils and they come in so many lovely patterns. I love the ones that you can seamlessly repeat the pattern with. You should check it out!

Here's my affiliate code again - https://temu.to/m/ulqdrhgg4l0 to get the 30% off welcome bonus and the chance to grab the R2000 /U$D 110 coupon bundle  or you can search this code - acp636712 on the app to get a 30% off new user welcome bonus that is linked with this code.

Happy Guerilla Crafting

Irregular holes!!!

A while ago I spied with my little eye these awesome dies from Memory box - they had an ocean theme and you could layer them to make a kind  a diorama of sorts.  I thought they were super cute.  I wanted to have them but my lowest end of middle-class South African wallet didn't.  So I almost forgot about them.  

Almost - because whilst on a shoot around on a random online marketplace that trades in South Africa - I happened upon a set of generic, non-branded set of graduated irregular border-window dies. I think you were supposed to make paper mountains out of them but I immediately thought of the memory box dies and the potential funnery colonised my head and so of course I had to get them.  

So I did.

- and then I had to make something with them - 

So I did.  

I made this little koi pond diorama-dee-da card for my mom for mother's day and she absolutely loved it.    

It turned out so stinking cute - the koi fish were also non-branded dies that I got off of Wish at some point.  I used the biggest one out of that set.  My dear darling is in the process of building us kitchen cupboards for our new place and he is busy processing some raw yellowood - the bark came off of the edges of those planks.  I made the greenery by staining and crinkling up some old wax-paper chip bags then cutting out strips of pond weed looking thingies.  It was a lot of funnery indeedery.

I have so many ideas in my ol' noggin for all kinds of projects with these irregular border layering dies.

More works in progress - you win some - you lose some

 Nothing too much to say about this - except that it was a fun thing to do - I broke from my recent Dala Ink obsession and went back to good old Tim Holtz Distress ink to ink the elements.  My favourite part was inking a brown bag in 'evergreen bough'/'moss-something-or-the-other' and then fussy-cutting curling it up to make the seaweed.

.

 

This next one below is an idea that I am kicking around with.  I dont particularly love it enough yet to give it's own post - but it is still fun to keep messing with it  to see where it goes.

 

Lastly - this is one that I am not fond of at all.  I am discovering that my attempts at a vintage style - might not be my thing AT ALL .  So like here in this one below I feel like I don't get the elements and/or the layout right and it just looks like a bunch of things got stuck together with a stray piece of chewed up bubblegum on some dirty ol' rubbish bin.  And maybe I need to wash my blender brushes because all my inking looks a little dirty. And quite clearly this is a choice of palette that does not work together - but hey - you live you learn. What's that thing they say - "Creativity is about making mistakes, art is knowing which ones to keep" or something like that?

 

This one is NOT the one to keep

😛