Papercrafted Clematis Card

As I type, my head is pounding, my ears are popping, and the light-sensitive lights are on and it’s only 11:25am. Something to do with the English heatwave breaking down – there’s thunder and lightning and I love it!

Another challenge stimulated a spurt of creativity this morning – it’s another for the ‘Less is More’ blog, and this week it’s ‘hand made flowers’. This card features my handcrafted clematis flower, using the Leone-em bumble bee paper punch to create the petals and an ash leaf punch for the leaves, shaped with an embossing tool pressing into funky foam. The centre is a sun punch, with a smidge of Aubergine ProMarker underneath to darken the centre and similarly shaped. A quick mount on Bazzill pre-embossed cardstock, and a strip of thick white card with the sentiment from WOW! Everday Sentiments clear stamp set embossed with WOW! Metallic Silver embossing powder.

Handcrafted Clematis Card

I’m in the process of planning a ‘Papercrafted Flowers’ workshop at my studio in Leicester – if you’re interested, let me know below and I’ll keep you informed 🙂

College – Term 5 – Final Major Project – another paper craft light shade

Well after a flurry of activity over the last two weeks watching my new studio get installed, and then decorating it, constructing furniture and moving in – as well as emptying out and putting back to right the dining room, conservatory and some of the craft room – I have my first ‘working’ day in the studio.

Of the various things I have to catch up with, college work is one priority as I have a mid-way assessment tomorrow. Consequently, I have taken pics of my latest light shade in my series. This one features one of the patterns I gleaned from a visit to the Islamic artefacts at the British Museum, drawn into Illustrator, adapted for the round and then screenprinted in opaque white ink onto thick tracing paper, and then constructed onto a card frame. As with the previous post, here are photos of the shade in daylight, and internally lit at night.

College – Term 5 – Final Major Project – Paper crafted light shades

It’s already March, and only two weeks before we finish Term 5. One more term to go, and that’s my college course done and dusted. If it weren’t for my new studio to look forward to working in, and the list of jobs to do in the house, I know I would be dreading the end of college. Though I was unwell last week, I did carry on with my final major project. It’s grown out of looking at Islamic geometric patterns – I’ve learnt to construct geometric shapes with a compass and ruler, transferring them into Illustrator, and then finally applying them to 3D polyhedra. I settled on a truncated cuboctohedron as my main construction, and played about with various construction techniques.

Here are just four of the anticipated dozen final pieces. Some are uninspiring in daylight, but come alive when internally lit. Others inspire in both lights. I can tell you that I got a blood blister in my finger tip from all the scoring of folds. I can reveal that the shadowfold light required 360 separate knots. And that I stuck down each of the 400 petals on the frilly one! All are handcrafted (though I did use the Cricut machine to cut out the shapes to my design!) and nothing more than fabric or paper and glue. They are roughly 6-7 inches in diameter and designed to sit over an inexpensive battery powered LED light (£1 for two in Poundland!).

Tattered Flowers in a Paper Vase

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I’ve taken a bit of time out from designing for my college course to make this canvas featuring a paper craft vase and paper craft, die cut, hand coloured and constructed flowers. I’ll be entering it into Tim Holtz’s Tattered Floral Challenge as it is his Tattered Floral die that I used to cut the flowers from 160gsm thin card. The vase is made from the same card to my own design – SVG file available if anyone would like it…

Each flower layer was wrinkle free distressed in first a layer of Fired Brick and Festive Berries both sides, dried and then wrinkle free distressed in a layer of Fired Brick with Ripe Persimmon. They were then dried before being spritzed and flicked with water and left to dry naturally. The centres were punched and then sprayed with Dylusions Granite spray. The flowers were assembled onto florists wire and stuck together with matt multi medium and left to dry over night before being glued into the vase and onto the canvas background.

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Here’s the inspiration pic, a vase of flowers in our lounge:

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Warm Wishes – Kraft & Kreme

I’ve been asked to do a guest slot on the Less is More blog today 🙂

This week’s theme is Kraft & Kreme, and as always, a clean and simple design is required. Ok, my design might not be so simple to make, but it’s clean and simple under the definition of lots of white space (i.e. unfilled – kraft card isn’t exactly white!).

WOW Feb 2013

 

I cut a 15cm sq kraft card to shape, keeping the oval offcut from the front. I made a mix of 50:50 WOW! Primary Bark with WOW! Vanilla and triple embossed onto the oval offcut, then whilst still hot swirled it with a metal tool. I used the same mixture to emboss the sentiments (from WOW! Merry & Bright Christmas and WOW! Everyday Sentiments) and hearts (from WOW! Gratitude) – I flexed the clear stamps on the acrylic plate to follow the curve of the card. I outlined with Vintage Photo Distress Marker and shaded with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I’m happy to create a template if anyone requires one 🙂

Twelve Tags of 2012 – December

It’s the last Craft Club of the year tomorrow, and thus the last of my twelve tags of 2012. This one incorporates WOW! Embossing Powder, die cut tattered pine cone, a cocktail stick, hot glue, dry glitter and the special secret ingredient – an upcycled orange juice carton! There will be the option to add holly sprigs as well.

Brown & Pink Inverse Cards

 

Well I don’t think these will win any prizes! They are a quick and somewhat crude card, using punches and Bazzill card stock. What’s punched out of one, fits into the other. The colour strips were added on top, and the sentiment is cut using the Cricut Opposites Attract cartridge. I made them for a quick entry to the Less is More challenge, and I think they show I’m a little out of practice!