Craft Journal

Posted by Lisa on July 23rd, 2008 in Projects

Until recently I hadn’t had much experience with these products. I knew they existed but I had never had a go at producing something with them. I never knew that is was this easy to create some beautiful pieces of work, or how many projects you can find a use for them on.

There are all the specially produced paper mache shapes to cover with decopatch but you can use these papers on basically anything.

Here I have covered one of the alphabet letters in a blue patchwork paper. This is how I made it:

1. Tear up the sheet of patchwork paper so that you have roughly one ‘patch’ per piece.
2. Starting from the front of the letter, cover the whole of the L with pieces of paper, overlapping them slightly.
3. Once the Decopatch is dry give is a coat of varnish.
4. Once the varinish is dry, outline all the edges of the letter with Gold Patchliner.

You can create a whole name in Decopatch letters, your initials or just a word such as ‘LOVE’.

Decopatch products can also be used on cards. See how I created this anniversary card on Easy Craft Projects.

Decopatch products are available from www.miliati.com.

Lisa x

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Posted by Lisa on July 21st, 2008 in New Products

DMC now have the rights for Disney cross-stitch products and they have produced some really nice items so far. New in this month have been the Ready to Stitch Disney toys and keyrings.

I don’t often blog about sewing items but these are just cute I though I needed to share.

These are basically small stuffed toy Disney characters with a little area for you to personalise it with a cross-stitch design.

The every popular Winnie the Pooh characters are available  - Winnie, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore. Mickey and Minnie mouse are also avaiable, as is Bambi and a 101 Dalmations Puppy.

Unlike many Disney toys around, these are instantly recognisable as the ever loved Disney characters. Starting at around £6 for the keyrings, these have a reasonably high price ticket but nothing less than you’d expect from a Disney product.

Ideal for both children and Disney fans, these would make an ideal gift.

Lisa x

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Posted by Lisa on July 16th, 2008 in Projects

The latest project at Easy Craft Projects is this noticeboard sponsored by Miliati.

Using a few products your cheap and boring noticeboard can be given a new lease of life.

I have chosen to use mine as in inspriation board. I will change the pictures on the board every few weeks or when I see fit but there are many other uses for this board.

You could use it as a simple reminder board. You can add your notes onto pretty pieces of note paper and add a printed calendar each month to keep those important dates on.

You could use it to display all your children’s artwork on. Create a title for each child’s name and display their work around it.

I hope this has given you a few ideas for brightening up your room.

Lisa x

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Posted by Lisa on July 13th, 2008 in Inspiration

I’m sure most of us have done this at some point in our lives. I know that back when I was at school I used to doodle all over the covers of my notebooks and diary as well as on any little piece of paper I could find when I wasn’t interested in what I was actually supposed to be doing. I also know that I still doodle when I’m thinking or sat in some meeting that I don’t have much to contribute to.

How many of you have actually used these doodles in your work?

Until recently I hadn’t either. But then I saw this woman’s work - Adrienne Looman - and she completely inspired me to try something different.

Since then I have tried incorporating my own little doodles into my crafting. To begin with I started small - just adding little swirls or borders with my pens. Then I went onto writing out my own titling. This part was mainly because I had ran out of chipboard vowels but I was so happy with how it turned out I have been handwriting them a lot more. Then I even added a few doodles drawings.

At first I was a little unsure but I realised that my handwriting doesn’t have to be perfect and my pictures can be a little bit odd but it all works towards the overall personalised look.

If you want to know a bit more how you can introduce doodling then take a look at Adrienne’s book - The Doodle Formula.

Next time you want to do something a little different - pick up your pen and start playing!

Lisa x

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Posted by Lisa on July 12th, 2008 in Projects, Inspiration

You’re looking through a magazine and something catches your eye… you love the colours or the design or just something about it that makes you think wow! What do you do with it?

A great way to inspire yourself is to gather up all these pictures and other things that you see and keep them somewhere that you can refer back to them when you are in need of something to kick start your creativity.

One way of keep these together is in an inspiration journal. In your journal you can stick these pictures, keep notes about what you liked about them and add your own little sketches of reminders about things you have seen that cannot be actually put into your book.

You can also use it to record all your ideas for future projects that you know you just don’t have time to do right now but you don’t want to forget about them.

If you start putting all these pictures, ideas and notes down on paper you will soon find that you spend much less time pondering what to create and more time actually creating.

And if you want an extra cover for you inspiration journal or idea journal then take a look at this project on Easy Craft Projects. You can create this colourful journal using Decopatch products available from Miliati.

It is really easy to do and you will have a gorgeous looking journal without spending lots of money on a ready bought one.

You could also use this project to cover other books - such as address books, notebooks, recipe books, photo album etc. You could also create one to give as a gift to a friend.

Lisa x

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Posted by Nikki on July 9th, 2008 in Announcements, New Products

How many of you have trawled the internet and high street stores looking for male orientated stamps that don’t involve some type of sport or beer ??

How many of you have gone home empty handed, or logged offline with an empty basket because of this ??

Well, hopefully this is where DewDrop Craftz can help.  They are looking to stock a range of stamps for the male orientated cards and LO’s that are something a little different to the norm.

Here is the first of their new male orientated stamps available shortly from their new designer Kathleen Rietz.

Hoping to offer something other than sports and beer..

Nikki x

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Posted by Rosie on July 6th, 2008 in Random Craft

If you have a look around, you will find some amazing chipboard shapes out there at the moment. From tags of all shapes and sizes to flowers, swirls, alphabet letters, words… The list is almost endless!
So, what do you do with the chipboard?
There are many ways to decorate it;

* You can leave it in it’s naked form.

* It is a fantastic medium to take acrylic paint, which you can then embellish further with Ranger Glossy Accents, maybe adding some glitter while it’s wet, Ranger Crackle Accents can also be used, giving a wonderful aged look when it has dried and cracked.

* You can ink it.

* You can cover it with paper or cardstock.

To give you a couple of examples, I’ve added some photos here to show you what I’ve done.

The blank tag here is over 11″ high by 8″ wide and is available from Clever Cuts Above Board range. I’ve split it into thirds by gluing some Scenic Route ‘Grafton Street James’ paper to the bottom two thirds with a cream/gold flecked paper to the top third. I then inked around the edges to soften them with a VersaMagic inkpad and then covered the join with some fringed braid. The chipboard swirl accent from Bubbly Funk is coloured using Craf-T Products Metallic Rub-ons to give it a lovely, shimmery copper finish. The photograph was matted onto the cream/gold flecked paper and embellished in the corner with a Prima Got Flower and a brad. A 1″ grossgrain spotty ribbon from Ribbon Mad and flowers from Dunelm and Aunty Sarah finish the tag along with a punched circle of the patterned paper, a button and some ric rac.

The chipboard cupcake from Bubbly Funk comes in two parts.  For the base of the cake, I’ve covered it in SEI Gerty’s Garden, Garden Gloves, with I then embellished with some flower trimmed organza ribbon.  The top of the cupcake is painted with white acrylic paint and then when dry coated with Rangers Glossy Accents which I then sprinkled lightly with some glitter.  I coloured the cherry, stalk and leaf with Sakura pens and then coated them with Rangers Crackle Accents.

Why not have a go with chipboard, you’ll love it!

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Posted by Lisa on July 2nd, 2008 in Announcements

and the winner is Jo Yeates. Please email us your address and we will send you your new craft goodies.

 Lisa x

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Posted by Lisa on July 2nd, 2008 in Announcements

This month’s sponsor at Easy Craft Projects is Miliati. A relatively new online shop, Miliati stocks Decopatch products.

Decopatch is the creative art of gluing and varnishing very thin, strong and flexible paper to decorate any sort of object or surface. Decopatch paper is the only paper which produces a smooth texture and a real paint effect. The paper is deep-dyed and glazed, it does not break apart when glued or handled and the colours will never fade or run.

Decopatch can be applied to so many different surfaces. Ove the next month Easy Craft Projects will be giving you a few ideas about what you can do with Decopatch. In the meantime go have a look at Miliati’s own gallery for a few inspirational ideas.

Lisa x

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Posted by Lisa on July 1st, 2008 in Projects

Bubbly Funk have sponsored two more projects over at Easy Craft Projects.

I have created this bright and colourful LO using Shrink Plastic.

I have also put together this cute keyring using mini chipboard tags. I’ve added a couple of photographs of me and my OH. You could add pictures of whoever you like. You can have one tag for each of your children. You could create one of your entire family and give it to a parent or grandparent. You could use other pictures - somewhere you went on holiday.

Have fun creaing with these projects.

Lisa x

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