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.]
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.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.
I’m doing a 3D module at college at the moment, and we have to design something with one moving part, to be made out of wood/acrylic. Of course I had ambitious ideas, and decided to mock up my proposal out of 5mm foam board to check that it worked. So here is my 3D, working, foam board wave machine, starring a kebab stick!
I’d love to post a video of it in action… but I haven’t quite got the right facilities to do that just yet 🙂
This took about 90 minutes to make, with no templating or pattern. The base is A5 size, the discs the diameter of a 10 pence piece secured with a bit of glue. It was really exciting to give the kebab stick it’s first turn and see the wave pattern go across!
In readiness for my next Wow! Embossing Powders project, I’ve added a new section to my blog to hold a library of templates that I have used over the years. The first to appear are a self-closing box and base that I designed to be made from a sheet of A4 in acetate, though it would work well enough in card too. Please have a peek, using the link on the toolbar under the blog title, and let me know if I need to add any assembly instructions!
Well I’ve finally done it, and created my third unique giveaway. This one is in honour of 50,000 blog views, and I’ve just passed 55,000! It is a one of a kind, never to be reproduced, ceramic mug and fancy saucer with my own tangle patterns hand drawn onto it. It is dishwasher safe, and the mug is a perfect size for a double espresso (but not a decent mug of tea!). I’ve signed and dated both pieces – you never know, they might be worth something in a few years time 😉
All you have to do to have a chance to win this unique giveaway is to leave a comment anywhere on my blog between now and midnight on Friday 10th February. I’ll draw the winner on Saturday 11th February. Best of luck 🙂
Please note: I don’t like spam, and I wouldn’t want any of you to be getting loads of emails you don’t want. So, please, don’t put your email address into the main text of your comment where everyone will be able to see it! (Unless that’s what you want…) If you have signed in properly, I can see your email address in the private admin area of the blog. If you’ve already added your email to a comment, you’ll note I have edited them away.
Here’s another Wow! Embossing Powders design team project 🙂
I’ve just finished work on my jewellery project! And I have a very big blister on my thumb to prove how much work I did on it too… The brief was to make a wire basket using natural form as our reference. The wire had to be designed around a repeating motif and for bonus marks we could attach pierced and hammered metal pieces. And here it is:
I think it has taken around 20 hours to make, with the binding of the inch and a bit square motifs taking about half of that. Each of the five metal sections took around 40 minutes to pierce using a jeweller’s saw, and the blister resulted from hand sanding them this morning. And it all started from my drawing of a hollyhock seed head in Week 1.
I’m leading a workshop during the afternoon of 22nd October (see About Me page) creating handmade books – I hope that we’ll get to make all three of the samples below:
This started out as a cream coloured ceramic heart from Dunelm and has had the magnolia image transferred onto it. The image comes from spare wallpaper used to decorate the room – an ideal way of making complimentary accessories.
