I thought I'd better share this one before Valentine's Day becomes a distant memory!
My wall art example for Craft Hobby + Stitch was made to demonstrate the excellent bonding qualities of Beacon Gem-Tac. If you design your project so that you can access both front and back of your base material then you can make use of an iron to heat set buttons, gems and other embellishments. This ensures that they are firmly bonded - how embarrassing would it be if they started dropping off mid-show?
I firstly cut the heart swirl and sentiment from a piece of white flocked heat transfer vinyl (HTV) on my Silhouette Cameo and ironed it on to a 12" square of regular felt/flannel. Then I adhered the buttons using Beacon Gem-Tac (actually I practiced various arrangements first in the Silhouette's Designer edition software, which saved a lot of frustration). Although the glue dries clear, excess glue would still show up on the matte texture of the felt, so it was important not to allow any glue to oose out around the buttons. The trick to achieving an 'oose-free' finish is to use a thin coat of glue and to gently guide the buttons into place without pressing - and then some patience! I left the glue to cure overnight and then ironed on the reverse to complete the sticking process.
When it had completely cooled down I trimmed the felt and adhered it to a cardstock frame which I'd earlier cut on the Cameo and assembled with Beacon 3-In-1 glue.
I love the cardstock frames designed by Lori Whitlock and available in Studio format though the Silhouette store. I've made several and I recently made another of these combined with a 3D letter which I'll share in a later post. Ooh, I just remembered a tiny one that I made way back!
Design Credits:
Heart Felt Wall Art Janet Packer (The Crafting Quine) Frame: Lori Whitlock Heart (adapted): Jamie Koay Flourish (adapted): Bird's Cards
Sewing Frame Buttons: Janet Packer Frame: Lori Whitlock Other Elements: Silhouette Online Store
How much could you save by using the library? My library recently handed out questionnaires about library use, and the question about how much the library saves me gave me pause to think.
In general terms the answer would be quite a bit as I'm a voracious reader of books, magazines and books on CD (while I'm driving). But, as a crafter I save too!
Crafting Workshops In the past year I've attended two FREE crafting workshops at the library; Altered Books and Creative Bookbinding. How much would they have cost at my local craft store? I'm thinking at least £10 plus materials, so I'll say £30. Here are some photos of my efforts, BTW.
Craft Books Well I've borrowed at least 3 card making books, and 4 general craft books so far this year. At an average cost of £15, that'd be a whopping £105.
Craft Magazines My library doesn't subscribe to any printed craft magazines, but through the free e-magazine service I regularly read Papercraft Creations magazine, and occasionally Photoshop, Scrapbooking, and iPad. In a whole year that'd be a dozen or so magazines a year, and at average cost of £5 each, coming to a whopping £60.
It total then, I reckon that the library saves me at least £195 per year just on crafting.
If you don't use your local library already, why not visit and take a look at the craft section, or even browse their website to see if they offer a free e-magazine service - you don't even need to leave the house to save!
My first (crafting) love, is paper crafts. I love the colours and textures and inexhaustible possibilities in both 2-D and 3-D.
My favourite adhesive for 3-D card and paper work is Beacon 3-in-1 and I think this is amply illustrated by my next craft show make.
Made mostly in card, I also used embossing powders, air dry clay, paper wire and home made acrylic buttons. The lighthouse rotates to display a bottle of 3 in 1, and at the very top of the tower there is an LED light. I hope you like it - I loved making it!
If you missed it, pop back to part 1 and see what I made in 3D in fabric.
Design Credits: The Ensemble - Janet Packer (aka The Crafting Quine), 3D Letters & Numbers, 3D tag base - SVG Cuts Capstans, Seagulls, Boat sails, Lighthouse - SVG Attic Ship's Wheel, Boat base, Anchor: Bird's Cards
If you aren't following the action at Craft Hobby + Stitch International trade show at Birmingham NEC you should! The Twitter feed is buzzing at @CrftHobbyStitch.
My contribution to the show has been to make a host of items using some of the vast range of Beacon Glues for Mark at Creative Products Distribution.
Now the show is underway I can share them with you.
You'll already have seen the hot air balloon made entirely with stiffened fabric using Beacon Stiffen Stuff. I found another Beacon product, Fabri-Tac was perfect for sticking the stiffened pieces together, and I used this combination again to make this fabric rose.
You can see how beautifully the pieces cut on my digital cutter, as the stiffened sheets were perfectly flat and made full contact with the cutting mat.
I decided to test even smaller cuts, and made this little information card to go along with the balloon.
This final picture shows just how small that swag is (yes those are inches!).
Just 2 items were displayed: the telephone featured in my designer paper post and on my blog header and a hot air balloon made entirely from fabric, string and a LOT of Siffen Stuff.
Fabric Hot Air Balloon
I'll share in a later post how to prepare and cut cotton fabric to use on your digital cutting machine to make this and other intricate fabric cuts without the need of an iron-on stabilizer.
