I’ve been playing on my Glowforge laser cutter during the lockdown and experimenting with designing tealight holders. The first, tall one, took inspiration from one I came across on Pinterest. Once I had all the settings dialled in for the circular design, I came up with the next two designs. One features mirror acrylic and is a little bit out there, but I hope the internal reflections will make it zing. After that came the next two faceted rounds using various repeating seamless patterns to fill the facets. All are made from 3mm birch plywood, treated with flame retardant and are available to purchase for £5 each (p&p extra).
Available to purchase
Card Craft
LIM DT Card: OLC Going Dotty
Less Is More challenge time again… and the theme is ‘OLC Going Dotty’. This is a one layer card challenge, with artwork applied directly to the card. No matting or layering is allowed and no other embellishments either. It can be quite tricky and it’s not unknown for several attempts to be needed to get perfect stamping and other mark-making. Here’s my design team card, just one this time:
Quick and simple – stamp a sentiment first in jet black archival ink and then mask. Apply distress oxide inks through a Tim Holtz mini-stencil and take off the mask. All done!
Design Team Projects
LIM DT Card: White & Cream
It’s a fortnight since the last Less Is More Challenge, which means there’s a new theme. This time it’s ‘white and cream’ colour challenge. Again, I’ve done two cards… I thought the first I made was too simple and not at all ‘exciting’. I think the second has a little more interest and this is the one I chose for the DT post:
Card Craft
LIM DT Card: Scribbles, Drips and Splats
I’m delighted to be able to share that I have been accepted on to the Less Is More Challenge Design Team. You’ll all know that I have recently been taking part in their challenges after a long hiatus, and it’s an honour to join the DT. You can find the fortnightly challenges here, and a little more info on the card(s) I make following the theme here on my blog. You may even get to see the outtakes…
I’ve used one of my most favourite techniques for my card for the splats – get your Distress Stains out, make sure the tip is nice and juicy and then firmly tap against your page (actually, you thump it down with a bit of force). Watch where the spatter goes!
3D printing
Gaslands: Apocalyptic car makeover
For those not in the know, Gaslands is a table-top game based in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Players control small fleets of armed vehicles in battles for resources, dominance and survival. Handily, the game uses Matchbox size cars and vehicles as ‘pieces’. I was introduced to the game for the opportunity to customise these cars – I’ve yet to actually play it! Here’s a makeover you may be interested in…
Card Craft
LIM Challenge Card: Out of Focus
Here’s another clean and simple card for the Less Is More Challenge blog. This time the theme is ‘out of focus’ and suggestions were bokeh, airbrushed backgrounds and watercolour stamping. I chose to go down the alcohol ink background, a suitably defocused technique. Stamped over is a sentiment block of text, cut out to make a tag. Finally, a sentiment stamp direct to card finished off the design:
Card Craft
LIM Challenge Card: Butterfly Inchies
A quick, clean and simple, one layer card for the Less is More challenge #416. One layer cards are exactly that – no fudging allowed, no mats and careful stamping and colouring. Mistakes mean starting over… Clean and simple means leaving plenty of white space. This time’s challenge also called for no sentiment. Here’s my take:
I almost put shading around the squares and then thought that would make it look more than one layer! Darkroom Door Butterfly Post collage stamp stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and then coloured with ProMarkers.
Arts in Worship
Bible Journaling: Just One Word
If it weren’t for this pesky virus, we would have had the theme ‘just one word’ for our next art journaling and Bible journaling sessions. I’ve done the prep for the Bible journaling, so I thought I would share. A printable template is available for free from my shop.
Reviews
Review: The Paperbox card and paper, part II
A little while ago I reviewed a box of goodies from The Paperbox Ltd. Today, I continue the review showing a few makes along with some notes.
3D Projects
Lasercut: Memory Book
Ever start on a project and get disillusioned halfway through? This is one such project… I got hold of an outline file for a laser-cut 3D ‘book’ box and thought it would be ideal for a memory book. I spent all morning tweaking the sizes of all the holes, working through several sheets of MDF before I was more sensible and started cutting just a couple of joints at a time as tests. They’re still not quite dialled in correctly, but at least it went together for this prototype.




