Crafty thoughts from Crafts forum Members

With so many different shapes and sizes of bare chipboard available to crafters at the moment it can sometimes be difficult to know how to approach using them in your crafting and get the result that you want. Bare chipboard can be decorated in lots of different ways, painting and embossing with embossing powders are just two ideas. As a backing paper designer I am always looking for new ways to use my papers on cards and scrapbook pages to give interesting and different results.  Covering bare chipboard with your favourite backing paper is a great way of co-ordinating elements perfectly.

Here is a quick tutorial showing you one way to add backing papers to chipboard and get a professional result with just a little bit of effort.

For my demonstration I have used a chipboard flower from Maya Road and a backing paper from one of my own Funky Hand download collections Shabby Saturday. You will need a sticky glue like Pritt stick, a sharp scalpel for cutting and, my secret weapon, a Basic Grey Precision File kit.  Now, you don’t HAVE to have this file set but if you decide that you would like to work more with chipboard it will be a purchase you wont regret. You can use a metal nail file or emery board and you will still get a good result.

Apply glue all over the front of your chipboard shape making sure you cover all of the surface and then place it face down onto the reverse of your backing paper. Leave it to dry.

Once the glue has dried begin to cut the shape of the chipboard out of the paper from the reverse. Taking care to cut as close to the chipboard as possible.

Your chipboard shape is now covered with your backing paper but it will be rather rough around the edges..this is where your file comes in.

Working from the front of your chipboard gently file the edges of your backing paper. TIP: File at a slight angle and only away from you. If you pull and push the file like a saw the paper is likely to pull away from the chipboard and you wont get the smooth result you want.  Filing your chipboard shape can take quite a while but the more time you take the better the end result will be.

Once you have finished filing you can then decide how you would like to finish off the edges of the chipboard shape. You can leave it plain or perhaps use a felt tip along the edge. I used a small black ink pad to ink the edges for slightly grungy finish.

I added this chipboard flower to a card I made for my best friends daughters second birthday. I attached it to the card by making holes through the flower and the base card and threading 21 gauge covered wire through them both and a co-ordinating button,twisting the wire to secure them all and finishing it off by adding beads and curling the wire.
This technique for covering chipboard works great for all types of chipboard, So, now you can cover anything from chipboard alphabets to your bind it all book covers..Enjoy!

Anice xx

Lisa (Candles by Lisa) asked me to make another special Birthday Card for her sister in law to send from her kids. 

I’ve never used pre printed background papers before so this card is a first!  Edged with black ric-rac ribbon with the front of the card cut slightly shorter than its corresponding edge to add interest.  The flowers are cut using the Cuttlebug asterisk die (oh how fab is Cuttlebug?!) and I’ve used some fuchsia shiny but delicate florist gift wrap (this was an inspired find!) which nicely curls up and added gems for in the centres.  Each flower is layered with 20 to 30 individually cut flowers for depth. 

I hope she likes them Lisa!

A friend of mine has made these dinky bags.  I don’t get the chance to visit her very often but when I do we always have a good catch up on what she has been creating.  On my last visit, she showed me a handful of these little bags, made from thick paper and using various techniques.

My favourites are the wax crayon and ink wash effect – very bright and unusual, and each one unique.  Also shown are the flower and leaf stamped bags.

Shirelle makes these on a very limited budget but it always amazes me to see what she has created from very little outlay.  They are ideal to use as an unusual gift bag for when wrapping something so small becomes a sellotape nightmare. 

I have requested 20 of the little bags as I use them to put loose die cuts in as a thank you for website orders.   And I hope that Shirelle can make many more and I can offer them exclusively through Tip Top Toppers.

I’ve been asked to make an Anniversary Card and I wanted to do something a little bit different.  I’d bought some gold rose printed vellum a short time ago (really only to justify postage and packing on something I REALLY needed!) and had not had any ideas on how to use it.

 Anyway, copied the centre tie template onto ivory hammered card and then creased (using my wonderful card creaser!) at the appropriate points.  I used pritt stick to glue the vellum to the card as I’ve found this one of the easiest ways to stick large areas of vellum and you can’t see the glue.  The holes to tie the ribbon through were punched using an ordinary hole punch (but I marked where the holes needed to go – just in case!)  I’ve had a recent splurge on buying ribbon (I can’t resist) and used some wide gold organza ribbon to tie the card together.  A hand cut tag with ‘Happy Anniversary’ is also attached to the ribbon.  Inside are banners top and bottom with the words ‘Happy Anniversary’ running across.   I hope the commissioner and recipients like it!

I’ve been wondering for a while what I would do if my card creaser broke.  I’ve not had it a particularly long time – my Mum bought it for my birthday after I’d nearly worn out her Lakeland Craft catalogue, and to be honest, I don’t know what I’d do without it!

 After measuring (to make sure that the fold will be central) I use the sharpish tip to mark where I want my fold line at the top and bottom of the card, I then score between the two.  This gives me the indent where the fold will be and then I simply fold the card and use the rounded edge to press on the fold.  Thus providing a professional looking card! The card creaser is also useful for smoothing down any rough edges to the cards.

Go and buy one!!

And so this tale of creativity starts

Contact one of us if your looking for parts

We have Jellybelly Jellybrain

For all hand sewn bunting with added name

Butterbeandesigns for colourful letters

The likes of which Id say nobody betters

Tip tops unique cards are very distinctive

For all happy occasions she’ll have a card you’d like to receive

Candles by Lisa makes fantastic works of wax

Easily contactable, though currently not by fax

Crystal Velvet make tiaras and hat pins

Watches, charms and adjustable rings

Apple Tree Craft , a seamstress extraordinaire

RaspberryBloom is a jewellery designer with magical flare

Beadsage is wise and a master at bead weaving

Approach him cautiously if its forum advice you are needing

Funkyhand is modern with her scrapbooking cd’s

Indri with her quilling(can we have an update please?)

KandM Creations with her maillework and beadweaving

Once you visit her site theres no way you’ll be leaving

EM Evans and NattyNetty supply

Craft bits and pieces for all of you to buy

Sommerwood sells beautiful hand painted clocks

Or treat your (untidy) child to a storage box

The silver zebra makes her pieces of decorative glass

Not only that she has a fantastic………range of other products

To one and all and anyone Ive forgotten

Im Poisoned Apple Jewellery so lets face it, Im rotton.

Making little people is what I’m good at.  Or so I have been told. 

Hang on.  Let me stop you right there, before your mind wanders down the wrong path - this is not the kind of blog for things like that! I create personalised cards for special occasions – friends becoming engaged, their subsequent weddings, babies etc., purely because I could never find a high street card which said it all.  I started off creating for my own use and then it snowballed when I took some into work and sold them all within an hour! Ah-ha!  I thought! (Remember them?!) Can I develop this opportunity; can I make people smile at my cards and instil a desire to keep them long after the normal shelf life of 3 weeks on the windowsill?  With a spring in my step I knew I had to keep my own personal card sending going, not to miss any birthdays, anniversaries or opportunities and hope that order requests would materialise from those. 

Lisa and Mike’s engagement card (Easter 2006, and no, I did not take a photo of it), you could say was the catalyst.  I was touched and secretly very chuffed that they had framed it and hung it in the kitchen and wondered how to ask Lisa if I could perhaps, sort of, maybe, kind of, pull together something, nothing flash of course, for the Wedding planned for early June 2007. She must have read my mind!  She emailed me to ask if I’d create 16 thank you’s for the immediate Wedding party – the two Dad’s, two Mum’s, Best Man, 5 Ushers, 4 Bridesmaids, Page Boy and Flower Girl.  And best of all, a brief to do what ever I wanted! 

After the initial warm glow of recognition for my creative talents had worn off I began to privately swear and gnash my teeth as I thought I’d fail miserably and the cards would be naff.  I asked Lisa lots of questions as to colour scheme, the hairstyles and colours (very important!) and anything else I needed to know.  And then I got to work……

Lisa and Mike were really pleased with them!  And I was asked to create a 60th Birthday Card by Mike’s Mum for a work colleague, and I’ve also been asked to create some Save The Date cards for another friend…….

As somebody who is currently making, what seems like, a neverending supply of wedding and evening invites for friends, I thought Id look to my fellow crafters sites for encouragement.

My case study is of a person that goes by the name of Swirlyarts.

Not only is she a busy wife and mum but she has the energy to run her own card making website.From here I have found that she makes a wide range of hand made cards under many themes, birthdays, men’s cards etc, my favourite being the Alphabet range of children’s cards, complete with T for tree and G for giraffe.

She provides a one off service and commissions and is currently developing a wedding stationery range, not just invites but menus and placecards etc

Now, the jewel in the crown is what she sells on her etsy site www.swirlyarts.etsy.com In an age where recycling is essential, Swirly has made enevelopes out of magazine pages!!Perfect for the card of a fashion fanatic birthday girl! also available are colourful woollen scarves and blankets, a necessity in the recent weather.

So I have decided to stop being negative about my card making marathon and praise the likes of Swirly and many others who take joy in providing these products.

See her etsy store here:   http://swirlyarts.etsy.com

I just wondered if anyone has noticed a down turn in Craft Events in Britain.  This year I have found the attendance and people buying from craft fairs has been extremely low. 

Could it be that people aren’t looking for handcrafted/made items which are a bit more expensive than you would get in the supermarket, because we don’t have the huge buying power of the big chain stores, plus we have a passion for our craft and I know like very many crafters out there we are perfectionists and would not want to sell something that was less than perfect!!!

Or is it that people have less disposable income because of interest rates rising and have to settle for the less expensive options?

Candles by Lisa each candle Handcrafted - www.candles-by-lisa.co.uk

First time I  read wood sprite I thought this must be a wood crafts to then find out that woodsprites offer personalised greetings cards can be customised to show whatever greeting you would like and personalised gift wrapping paper can be customised to show whatever greeting you would like…

Here is an example of the paper..

I wonder why I picked this one heheheh

 To find out more Please visit woodsprites-trading.co.uk

For other UK card and paper crafts please visit http://www.ukcraftwebsites.co.uk/cards.php

Need tips or help with cards and just want to chat about them then come to the crafts forum

http://www.craftsforum.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=18