A potential Studio guest wanted to see some handmade journals, so l dug out some that I have made over the years. In the process, I found a travel journal that I made back in 2018 following an amazing three-week holiday in Canada and Alaska in honour of our 25th wedding anniversary (and the cashing in of an endowment mortgage policy). I don’t appear to have featured it on the blog before, so here goes:
I had a lovely weekend in London a couple of months ago, staying in a rather nice hotel. The said hotel had wooden keycards to get into the rooms, nicely engraved with the hotel name. Which got me thinking – could I make one of my own? I started researching possibilities, learning about NFC tags and working out the practicalities of making a ‘digital’ wooden business card. Here’s the result, and below, I focus on the process.
Facebook marketing works… I saw this pattern for highland cow amigurumi dolls promoted in my feed, and after an inquiry, I purchased it from Cottontail & Whiskers. Said inquiry was ‘Would you like me to make these?’ I aimed to crochet all three over three months, in time for a certain person’s birthday at the beginning of April. After several false starts (it was the first time I had done anything similar), I managed to get the largest (Tunnock) done in time.
Today’s focus is all about kerf. For those unfamiliar with the term, kerf is the sliver of material that is vaporised when cut with a laser or sawn away when cut with a saw. It’s usually the thickness of whatever is doing the cutting plus a smidge. By leveraging the kerf, it is possible to cut shapes that will then push-fit into others and remain there through friction. It’s particularly helpful when working with clear acrylic, which is tricky to glue without the glue showing up. That’s how I made these acrylic tealight holders using my xTool P2S laser and upcycled COVID screens for the main cube:
And some additional prototype designs for Christmas:
Time for another clean and simple card challenge at AAA Cards. This week we have a sketch to work to (see below). This is a guide to a card layout rather than drawing your own. The optional extra is to make the theme suitable for a baby. Here’s my card as part of the design team’s inspirations:
Another fortnight has flown by which means it’s time for another challenge over at AAA Cards. We’ve chosen a theme of ‘outdoor activity’ as our prompt for a clean and simple card make. I spent absolutely ages going through my stash and could not find a single stamp or piece of ephemera fitting the theme that I hadn’t used recently. Google stepped up to the challenge, however, and after tweaking my search criteria and a downloaded file I made this card:
I’m a bit behind on posting my Bible journaling templates, sorry about that. First up, last month’s session was based on verses that were ‘by request’. I received four nominated verses and chose the last to complete the set. I also admit to rejigging one of my older templates, so you may recognise it.
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been working in the garden for the last few weeks. The main effort has been to address 20 years of neglect and get the rest of the garden to match the clean lines of a new patio. As a result, several things had to go to the tip along with oodles of green waste and clippings. Three rusted IKEA tea light metal framed lanterns were consigned for metal recycling, but I took the opportunity to deglaze them before that happened. A bit of designing later and the upcycled glass lantern was born. Available in both beech and walnut veneer finishes.
I thought I would share some of the behind-the-scenes things that are going on at The Studio. I’ve been working on other projects (mainly in the garden) for the last few weeks which is why there have only really been the clean and simple cards published. By sharing this, you’ll also understand some of the processes that lead to a finished handcrafted product and why I should charge more…
This is the latest project I have been working on, ready for Christmas shows at the end of October and early December. Keep on reading for my observations, prototyping and a few more pics of the finished item.
It’s a colour challenge this week over at AAA Cards’ clean and simple challenge blog. Our task is to choose a side (of the colour wheel) – either hot or cold. Most of my art includes warm colours, so I thought this time I would take on the cold side. This meant choosing purples, blues and greens and I turned to the distress palette for my inspiration card:
