An old magazine and a bit of Brasso?

Recycling is all the rage these days – apparently making something you’re about to throw away into something useful and beautiful is now known as upcycling. Here’s how to upcycle a glossy magazine page into a pretty greetings card using Brasso, embossing powder and a bit of elbow grease.

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Unique Giveaway #3 – new draw, new winner

Hi all – I’ve had no reply from the first drawn winner this week, so in I’ve decided to redraw for the giveaway in the hope of finding an active follower to win. So, random draw number two had the result:

The 35th commentor was ‘auslorri’ – well done! I’ve sent you an email, so check your inbox/spam folder – if you don’t reply within 7 days, you too will lose out on the prize!

More ATCs and a Gift Box

I’ve been busy melting powders today… the last of my ATCs for this weekend’s swap with the Wow! Embossing Powder Design Team are complete! As normal, the photo doesn’t quite do them justice 🙁

And the last of my creations to be made in time for the trade show at the NEC is this lovely gift box – it’s just 5 cm square at the base and made from a sheet of A4 coloured card. The stamps are all from Wow! Embossing Powder, as is the fabulous no-messing-about-with-antistatic-bags white embossing powder.

ATCs – heat embossing techniques

I’ve been busy quilting for the last few Thursday mornings, and all weekend – I’ll be showing the quilts off in due course once they are finished. I also spent several hours this week doing 3 metres of bunting for the WOW! Embossing Powder stand at the NEC trade show this weekend:

We’re also doing a Design Team ATC swap at the show, and have been encouraged to share our favourite embossing powder techniques… here are two of mine:

Unique Giveaway #3 – the winner!

Hello all! If you entered my prize draw, you were one of  just over 50 people to do so – what an incredible response, and thank you for all your comments.

The winner of the mug and fancy saucer set is the author of comment number:

Congratulations, Sandy, you’ve won! Look out for an email in your inbox with details on how to claim your prize 🙂

[And you’re still in with a chance… if Sandy doesn’t claim the prize within a week, I’ll redraw]

Unique Giveaway #3 – four days to go

Just a little reminder to those that haven’t entered yet, I’m giving away this mug and fancy saucer set hand-decorated with my own tangle designs. Entry is by commenting anywhere on my blog between now and midnight GMT on my birthday, Friday 10th February. I’ll draw the winner on Saturday 11th February and announce it here on my blog. Good luck! [If you’ve already entered, you’re welcome to make more comments, but you’ll only be entered into the draw once.]

Self-closing box instructions

Following several requests (well, at least one!), here are instructions for making my self-closing box using the printable template on my Template page.

Either print or trace the outlines from the template onto a sheet of A4 card (at least 160gsm recommended)
Cut round the solid lines
Using a scoring blade in your personal cutter, or an embossing tool or other scoring technique of your choice, score the dotted lines
Crease all the scored lines, folding upwards. Add a strip of double sided tape to the underside of the tab (red strip in photo)
Stick down the tab to the inside (printed) side of the last (right hand) section of the box, to make a pentagonal cylinder
The tags tuck under one another to close the box – you should end up with a nice swirl. To unlock, just pull one of the hooks from the rest. By doing the same top and bottom, you can create a horizontal box like the centre of a Christmas Cracker
If you want a vertical standing box, try tucking the hooks toward the inside of the box – this is tricky and fiddly, but gives this smooth bottom closure
And this is what it would look like on the inside.
Hope this helps! If you want a video version of this, then I’ll point you toward my Amazon wish list so you can get me the webcam I’d like to set up video tutorials 🙂

Wow! A Mother’s Day Bouquet

I’ve posted another project over at Wow! Embossing Powder blog as part of their design team. This time I have designed a bouquet in a perfectly formed custom gift box, making use of the February fluorescent theme colours. Pop over for the instructions.

Templates and instructions for the box can be found on my new Templates page – look in the toolbar above, or click here.