Strawberry Print Toddler Dress

Following another visit from my Mom another little dress has been created on Great Grans old machine.  The fabric was chosen by my sister on a trip to Birminghams Rag Market.  

Here is the finished article

I tried out french seams, which weren't as complicated as I thought you just have to remember that its counter-intuitive and you have to put wrong side to wrong side to start off with. 

For the buttons on the back we made two little rouleau loops.

This was in the summer 2013 finishing this post it's now Jan 2014 and I havent made anything on sewing machine since, so that is my new years resolution, to get the machine out!

Stamping with Gesso

This afternoon I thought I'd have a little play with gesso on some left over die cut shapes.  I spread some white gesso on the carinkin with an old credit card, not to thick and not worrying to much about it being perfectly smooth, and left if to dry al little bit, probably only for 10min as I'm impatient!

I then spritzed some stamps with water before pressing them into the gesso, the water means the stamps release from the gesso easier (or at least thats the idea!).  For the square piece of card I spritzed it with water with some perfect pearls mixed in but this didn't really show as the stamp lifts off the gesso rather than leaving ink behind.

The oval piece looks ok but I think to square one has a bit too much gesso or I should have left if a bit longer as the stamping came out a bit splodgy.

I then tried stamping on the plain part of the oval card with the gesso which I am really pleased with, to do it I just smooshed some gesso on my craft sheet (using the trusty credit card) and then 'inked' the stamp from this. I haven't had time to try inking over all of this but will report back when I do.

Wallace & Gromit Birthday Card

Made this straight forward card and thought it could use a little something else.

As luck would have it, our tin opener broke yesterday so I quickly took it apart and pinched the workings to try and replicate them with my Melting Pot.  I am just waiting for utee the melt properly, I really don't think my Melting Pot gets hot enough!  Here are my makeshift playdoh moulds ready to go.

When I poured the utee in it didn't run into the edges so have made another mould that is deeper. 

As you can see it still didn't really work, I think this is down to the utee being coloured with normal embossing powder making it too think.

Toddler Dress

This is my first go at sewing a garment and using a sewing machine, I was helped a huge amount by my Mom so I can't really take all the credit.  Also I got so excited at the prospect of sewing that I forgot go take pictures as we went along, but I just had to blog it anyway!

We found the pattern first then chose some yellow gingham to make the dress with.  We worked using my Great Grans sewing machine, which looks very retro cool, but only does straight stitch.

I learnt what all the markings on the pattern mean, about cutting fabric, tacking, taylors tacks, gathering, doing hems, adding elastic and just practiced actually using my machine.  Its a whole new world to me!

Here is the finished dress.

Here are the matching panties, that I need to check for size then finish off (on my own!).

Butterfly Card

Having been asked to make a 70th birthday card I decided on a butterfly theme.  There is a pink A5 card base, with turquoise polka dot paper layered with a strip of pink paper embossed with the daisy Cuttlebug folder.  A die from the Spellbinder Damask Motif set was used to cut out four shapes in the pink paper, these were layered at the top and bottom of the pink strip.  The join is hidden by some lace.  A butterfly design pyriamage from Hunkydory is placed on the top of all of this with a die cut butterfly in one corner and a die cut sentiment printed from computer and coloured with promarkers.  

The insert was designed and printed from Serif Craftartist.

Coloured & Embossed Card

For our craft club home work we were given a white piece of card that had been run through an embossing folder and told to use it in making a card.  I coloured the embossed piece of card with promarkers for a sort of faux letterpress look.  

Also using promarkers I coloured a Holly Hobbie stamp and cut it out with a scalloped oval die, and inked the edges using the die as a stencil.

Three different floral papers were cut to size stuck on a 6x6 kraft card blank and stitching drawn around the edges.

The three embellishments in the bottom right corner are made using the Melting Pot, small cookie cutters were placed over patterned paper and clear utee was poured into the cutter.  I think I poured a bit too much in as its quite thick, also as the utee had been in the Melting Pot for quite a while it has yellowed.

I think I poured a bit too much in as its quite thick, also as the utee had been in the Melting Pot for quite a while it has yellowed.

Just a quick tip for the Melting Pot (or maybe its only me that's daft enough to have this problem), don't pour all your left over utee into a tall cookie cutter, because its really hard to get out once it cools down!

Sepia colouring with Promarkers

I am quite new to Promarkers and this is my first attempt at a sepia image.  The stamp is a Holly Hobbie character I got free with the Card Making & Papercraft magazine. Its not great and I'm more than happy if anyone wants to leave some pointers in the comments.

S

I used the Flexmarker Skin Tones Set 1 and the Coral Promarker.  I did struggle using the Skin Tones as they are all so pale I found it difficult to get any shading, hence using the Coral Promarker as well.  Although I'm not sure the Coral worked particularly well.  

I will keep on trying!

Heating & Colouring UTEE

What with all this sunshine I haven't had chance to do much crafting (too busy in paddling pools and sand pits), but I can report back on some experimentation I've done.

Firstly, colouring.  I wanted to try using acrylic paint to colour clear utee in the Melting Pot.  When I added it the mixture did bubble a bit and maybe I didn't leave it quite long enough as when I poured it out there were some air bubbles.  Colourwise, I added a teal kind of green paint but the utee went a darker forest green and didn't dissolve into the utee leaving a mottled/grainy look.  However with it being green it gave the finished product a Jade look which I quite liked.  I will try other colours to see if they have the same effect (I did take another colour to craft club with me but it had solidified in the tube!). I will up load some pictures in a little white.

Green acrylic paint and the coloured utee.

Jade effect rose.

You can see all the bubbles in the mixture.

One thing I've been having issues with is when pouring out the utee is it seems to cool too quickly and come out 'stringy' rather than in a nice gloopy puddle, but as I was using my Melting Pot at craft club I got distracted (gossiping!) and left it melting much longer than I normally would and the utee poured out much better than it has done before, so I think maybe I've just been too impatient.

Tea Time

It's Thursday, which means Craft Club, which means homework.  This weeks theme was Tea Time.  I must confess that this week I've been playing with my Melting Pot a lot! So I put this card together this afternoon. 

It's patterned background and large topper are from a Hunkydory die-cut sheet.  The background is layered on to silver mirrorboard and then on to the main A5 card body.  A scalloped oval was cut from vellum using a spellbinder die and inked with Victorian Velvelt Distress Ink.  A teapot motif is stamped and heat embossed in white on the oval, with two card heart buttons that have been glossed with clear embossing powder hiding the glue and silicone thats attaching the vellum.

Will be experimenting with my beloved Melt Pot tonight so will report back.

Colouring utee with embossing powder...or not

This afternoon I thought I'd try again at colouring clear utee with normal embossing powder. Last time I tried it the mixture went too thick and gloopy to pour out properly. This time I used metallic powders, bronze and gold, which seemed finer. The mixture didn't thicken too much but the powder didn't dissolve properly leaving the utee with a mottled look.  I will continue testing different makes/colours of powder, so far I have tried bronze and gold by Heat it Up and sunlight yellow by Hampton Art Stamps.

Here is the colour I ended up with.

Vintage Pendant with UTEE/Melting Pot

Here is my first attempt a piece of jewellery using the Melting Pot.  Below you can see the bronze effect pendant blanks I started with, these were less than £2 from ebay for five.  

Other items I used are some glass beads, some patterned paper and a cheap multi pack of earings (I also plan to use these to make some playdoh moulds).  The penny, I used to draw around so the paper would fit in the pendant blank. The pliers are to remove the backs of the earings so that they sit flat.

Once I'd gathered all my bits it was just a case of sticking the paper in place and using a tiny bit of glue to hold the beads, pearl and flower in place. Once the clear utee had melted in the melting pot I poured it on to the pendant trying to get it into all the nooks and crannies.

To be honest it looked a bit rubbish at first, the corners hadn't filled up and there were whispy bits all over the rose and pearl. But then I remembered my heat gun, a quick zap with that remelted the utee and the "air"  from the heat gun sort of let me direct where the utee went.  I am really quite chuffed with the end result and just need to pinch a jump ring from somewhere to put it on a chain and wear it! Will be desperate for someone to comment on it so I can say, I made it!

 

UTEE Roses from a Mould

I ordered some bronzed pendant blanks from ebay (see future posts for experiments) and the very nice people sent a little red plastic rose as well, so I thohght it would be perfect to try and use it to have a go at making a mould to pour utee into.

Rather than investing in some of the pricier mould making products that are around I brought a tub of playdoh for about a pound.  I pressed the rose into the playdoh (which smells as good as I remember!) and eased it out, then poured in my utee into it, let it cool and popped out the rose. The first cream rose in the picture is my first attempt, the second one wasn't quite so good on the detail, this was to do with how I coloured the utee.

Those little stringy bits just snap off.

To get the rose out of the playdoh just ease it a bit and the rose falls out.

I have read that you can colour utee with normal embossing powder, I tried this by adding some yellow 

powder to the melted utee, it only turned it cream rather than yellow. So for the second rose I added more yellow powder, this seemed to make to utee mix much thicker but didn't change the colour at all.  When it came to pour out the utee it it was too thick to fill in the detail on the mould, maybe adding more utee would have thinned it out again.

As for the actual playdoh as a mould, I was very impressed. Obviously the mould doesn't last, so if there's something you know you'll want to make again and again something like Mould N Pour but for a one offs I'd go with playdoh.

The red one is the original, the middle is the first attempt and the last one is the slightly lumpy one poured out when the mixture was too thick.

Not so good brads/buttons

The next thing I tried was to make some domed embellishments using a silicone chocolate mould. I poured a bit of utee on then placed a card button in the mould and poured more utee on top.

As you can see they haven't turned out so great. I think I used too much utee before putting card on, plus the utee is a bit cloudy.  I'm guessing this is because it was reheated from earliers left over utee. Oh well, lets try something else.

First Go

Using a silicone muffin case I placed in the bottom a picture, some gilding flakes and some glitter then poured a layer of melted utee over it, I then added a word, more flakes and glitter, poured again then repeated.

It came out ok but there are a few crater holes and a bit of a sqiggly pattern from where there wans't much utee in the pan and it came out in a drizzle rather than the nice big puddle you need for a smooth finish.  The first thing I've learnt is "don't skimp on the utee".  You can also see how quickly the utee "yellows" once its been in the pan a while, I quite like this look but it might bother some people. Another thing I've found is that the words and picture were printed on paper and as you can see they almost look as though they've got wet, I think card would work better in future projects.

Its not perfect but overall I'm quite pleased with this, I love the layers, it's so tactile and a little bit magical.

Its here!

Finally my melt pot has arrived! Have been playing already and will show my creations, successful and not so sussessful.

Crocheted Toddler Jumper

I finished this project a little while ago so don't have any in progress pictures, but as its my first attempt at a garment I thought I'd pop it on here.  Its made with Sirdar Snuggly Crofter Baby Fair Isle effect DK wool in shade 0159 Tilly, the pattern is King Cole pattern 3033.

The colours are a little crazy but I thought that was ok for kiddies clothing. There are three different coloured buttons on the back. It seemed go on for quite a while but I'm really chuffed now its done and will definitely be having ago at another garment. 

Birthday Card for my Sister

Heres my first attempt at an easel card, with a bit of gesso fun and quite a bit of stamping.  I added an extra fold to a 6x6 kraft card to create the easel part then stamped each section with a different design.

I cut a square shape out of floral cardstock and a plaque out of another patterned card. The floral square had wildflowers stamped in black and then heat embossed with clear gloss powder, the paper flowers were stamped with a map design, inked and layered up with a button in the middle. I then inked around the edges of the square beacause I have some kind of addiction and have to distress everything (damn that Holtz man!).  

I've tried with the gesso again but still not doing great with it. A thin layer was spread over the top right corner of the square and left for a while, I then spritzed a script stamp with water and stamped into the gesso but it didn't really leave a clear impression, maybe the gesso hadn't dried enough. Then I inked up a butterfly stamp with turquoise ink and stamped over the gesso again, this seemed to work better being a simpler stamp.

The little plaque was stamped with a ticket design, with brown ink topped with clear gloss embossing powder, and again, inked around the edges.

 

To make the stopper for the easle card I cut a strip of the floral paper, I

inked around it and stamped with a tall daisy stamp. Added a strip of lace and a sentiment to make the actual stopper part of it to hold up the top part of the card.

and here it is, I really had fun making this andexperimenting with gesso, even if I'm still not very good with it.

P.S.  Still not Melt Pot delivered :( 

Hexagon Box made at Craft Club

A six sided box with curved flaps making the top which can be concave or convex. The two hexagons on the template make up the base, one on the outside bottom of the box and one on the inside for rigidity, trapping the bottom tabs between them.

 

Also, still no melt pot, not very happy!!

1st Blog

Current Craft Status:
Finished 'dance' themed card for Craft Club homework (see pic).  I am waiting very impatiently for my Melt Pot to arrive, am desperate to play and show, have already bought loads bits and bobs to try out with it