Archives For Craft

Hey Charlotte Where’s My Shaving Foam ?

September 7, 2014 — 35 Comments

Sometimes on my lunch break from work, I enjoy getting crafty with my Mum and my friend Gill.  So when Gill offered to show me a new technique to colour cards and paper I jumped at the chance.  It was going to be fun as it involved shaving foam, card dyes and possibly getting messy. 🙂

To start, I sprayed an even layer of (bargain priced) shaving foam onto a plastic tray.

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After adding the shaving foam to the messy tray I sprayed the dye on to the surface of one side.

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I then added a second colour to the surface.

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Then to add a little texture to the surface I used a wooden stick to create straight lines up and down the shaving foam mixing the colour on the surface of the foam.

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Then take the piece of card or paper that you want to transfer the pattern to and place it gently on the surface of the shaving foam.

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Once the paper is resting on the surface of the shaving foam press it gently to get an even coating of colour.

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Peel back the paper or card gently and evenly lift it out of the tray.

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Place the paper or card flat on your work surface.

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Then gently scrape off any shaving foam that has stuck to surface with a  ruler or other straight edge.

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The ink dries quickly to the paper or card and you can wipe away any foam that might be left.

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The swirls and patterns can make lovely backgrounds for cards or other craft projects.

It is really quick to do and the only other thing that I would recommend to you is using latex gloves to keep the dye off your fingers. You can use the shaving foam in your messy tray more than once just add a little extra dye.

If you give it go I would love to hear from you, Oh and don’t tell my Dad it was me that took his shaving foam 😉

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Feeling a little board…

December 15, 2013 — 75 Comments

I started to feel a little better today and as a result my Mum saw that I was getting a little stir crazy, after all what does a girl do when she can’t sing 🙂 I looked around my bedroom and found my old “Hannah Montana” storage box and I thought that I could give it a little make-over. We had some paint left over from decorating the lounge and Mum found some paper that we use for carding and we agreed that I should use “collage pauge” to transform the old box.

The technique involves tearing paper and coloured tissue into small irregular pieces and then glueing them onto the item to be decorated. You build up the layers of paper one piece at a time and watch it transform as you do it 🙂

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I sanded down the box to roughen up the surface to allow the paint to stick to the surface a little easier.

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Then I painted the box with the old emulsion paint and let it dry. Whilst the paint dried I took the chance to tear up the paper and sort it into little stacks ready for glueing.

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I then built up the layers one piece at a time. This is the fun bit seeing the colours and patterns take shape and bring new life to something old.

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Once I finished the sides and back I thought that I had better check the draws still fitted 🙂

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I have some pink glitter paper left from my flat wall and I just might use them on the front of the draws, what do you think ?

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Paper Roses

September 6, 2013 — 95 Comments

As promised here is a step by step guide on how to make the roses that I have used in my earlier picture, I have never done one of these guides before so here goes 🙂

Step 1:

I have used a template cutter to press out the spiral shape that I used to make the roses, but you can achieve the same effect by cutting out a circle and then cutting out the spiral shape from within the circle.

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Step 2 :

Take the spiral shape that you have cut out from your piece of card or paper and remove any excess paper.

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Step 3:

Now I use my Mum’s quilling tool which has a split end that you can thread the paper into in order to help you twist the paper into shape.  You can get the same effect by twisting the paper spiral around your finger but it is easier and quicker with a quilling tool.

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Step 4:

Hold the paper quite tight as you twist it in to shape.  When you get to the end of the spiral you can remove the quilling tool or relax your grip if you are using your fingers and you will get a loose rose as in the following picture.

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Step 5:

Now you need to glue the tight end of the spiral together to form the base of the rose.  You can use any good quality paper glue but preferably one that dries transparent.  I used a hot glue gun for speed but on a couple of my earlier roses I forgot that a hot glue gun is HOT 🙂   ( you may catch sight of a plaster on my finger ).

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Step 6:

Leave the rose to dry and then  it is time to add a little sparkle 🙂

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I have used a bottle of glitter glue just to highlight the edges of the petals.

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Step 7:

Finally I glued a small bead into the centre of the rose for that little something extra.

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Here is the finished rose:)  and a few I made earlier in the week.

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I hope that this has been helpful 🙂

Finally to finish off here is another picture that I managed to complete yesterday and I would be interested to hear what you think.

The frame is only 9 inches by 9 inches but I hope that along with the others they will brighten up my walls.

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The roses look good in lots of different colours.  My Mum says there was a song by Marie Osmond called “Paper Roses” so I will have to have a listen 🙂

UPDATE :

Lauren asked for suggestions on how you could use paper roses so I have added a picture below to show a few alternative ideas on how they can be used 🙂

Examples

If you click on the picture or tap it you will see that I have loaded a full size picture which you can see more detail in.

Best wishes

Charlotte

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Art from the heart

September 2, 2013 — 153 Comments

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This week I’ve been busy making paper roses for a picture I’m planning to hang on my sparkly pink wall.  I asked for some some help from my friend Gill and my Mum because they’re really fiddly and they take ages to make.

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Here’s a photo of the work in progress.  When it is finished I’ll take a photo of it on my pink sparkly wall once I am back up in Scotland.

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On Friday, after work I found a few of my textile pictures which I had made as part of my GCSE Textile project at school.  One of them, a cupcake, was in my scrapbook and I decided to use it to create my second framed picture.  The cupcake case is made from felt that I burnt fabric onto using the Margaret Beale technique, (I watched her husband demo the technique at a craft fair), I machine embroidered over the top and used beads to decorate.  I started to decorate the picture mount using Sizzix cut outs and it needs a bit of something in the top corners and down the side I think and maybe some added glitter, what do you think ?  🙂

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My final picture frame is made for a gift.  The centre piece was made as part of my exam using newspapers and sticky tape in a soak process to take text off the printed paper, stitching, netting, beading and I added some wire that I twisted in to springs along with other embellishments to add interest and depth.

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I really enjoyed doing textile classes, here’s a picture of me in my final GCSE exam design; a top (that I’ve just remembered is still at school), it started off a dress but I grew in the two years I was making it and it got too short to be a dress 🙂  There were thousands of beads that had to be sewn on which took forever.  You can just see the bag that I made to go with the dress which I still use now.

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Quick update : I have just found another picture of the bag that I made as part of my project so I thought that I may as well post it too 🙂

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Finally, on Thursday I took inspiration from http://magicvintagespy.com/ and went to the local charity shop Age UK and managed to put together this outfit below for £20 (dress, hat, gloves and necklace) for a 21st birthday party of my friend Jess.  The theme was fashion through the decades so I chose the 1940’s.   I certainly generated a few quizzical stares when I got on the train  and I wasn’t wearing the hat and gloves at the time so imagine the reaction if I had done that 🙂    The only problem is that my calves are still aching today after spending the whole of Saturday evening dancing the traditional Scottish dance the Ceildh (pronounced kay-lee) amongst other dances.

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I will be working in the sales office for the next two weeks to provide holiday cover but tonight Russell Lomas offered to accompany me on some new pieces I wanted to rehearse so that I could get some practise in.  The session went great and my new repertoire is starting to take shape ready for my new College term.

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