#472

Hey, everyone, how are you? I’ve had a bit on my mind lately, but today I actually remembered to blog. I was doing some paper mache after being inspired by YouTube. I started by covering a polystyrene ball for a later project, and it developed into coveing a lightbulb, a small container, and creating a vase for fake flowers out of card.

Here, it’s upsidedown.

It wasn’t a good idea to start a messy project so close to a house inspection, but I was inspired, and couldn’t resist. To be fair, I have a few messier projects in mind, so this was fairly safe on the list.

I try to keep you guys up to date… But no promises, heh.

#447

Instead of making things easier on myself, I decided to stamp out some of my own patterned paper to use on cards. I was watching YouTube again, and whenever I see people colouring on toned paper, I always get the urge to do it too, as it’s one of my favourite art types to do. So I wanted to incorporate it into cardmaking, and the YouTuber made hers into a lovely card by colouring all the stamped images. I thought that looked great, but would be time consuming. I was inspired to develop my own version by lining up one stamped image to colour, and stamp around this with just outlined ones on the rest of the paper.

I ended up adding some simple shading on the background Santas, which makes them look more dimensional. I haven’t finished the colouring on the main Santa, but he’s in the right area to be pointing to a sentiment, which I hope looks as good as I’m imagining.

It’s been a long day, goodnight.

Sleep. Eat. Craft. Repeat.

#442

It’s getting late, so I’ll be quick. Even the cats are tired from chasing all the moths that spring has brought.

With the birthday money that I received, I decided I needed to invest in a new trimmer as I was getting increasingly impatient with my old one, which left so many burrs on the edge of the paper that I needed to use a pair of scissors anyway. After researching, looking at sites and reviews, ( which I rarely do, but my partner does for everything, to the point it’s annoying and I know more about his purchase options than I ever wished to.) I came to the conclusion that the GBC 4 in 1 rotary trimmer, while looked great, didn’t have any reviews, and I wasn’t willing to pay $200 on a gamble. So watching videos and looking at Amazon reviews, (not to buy on there, of course, they are awful at shipping to Australia,) and I found some useful information in reviews, which led me to look at the Dahle brand. I originally looked at the Dahle 550, but as I’m not going to be cutting on a business level, I didn’t need the industrial version, and found that the Dahle 507 was more suitable for me, and a bit cheaper.

Here he is, all lovely like. Excuse the mess… I’m creative.

I’ve only used it a few times, between naps as I wasn’t feeling well, but he’ll get a lot of use soon with the Christmas cards.

I think I’ll call him Roald, as Roald Dahl is my favourite author, and it suits him.

So much for being quick. Goodnight.

#434

Photo skills: -50 points for this poor display.

Anyways, I was getting a bit worried about not posting anything, and figured a bad photo was probably better than nothing. If I waited until morning for good lighting, or have to set up a mini photoshoot, I’d likely forget to post all together (from past experience.)

I’ve been continuing with my paper flower trend, and although I wasn’t hit strongly with a muse this time, I pushed myself to develop a couple of pieces. Creativity is a great thing, and it’s said the more you use it, the more you will have. This said, I try to push through the uninspired times. I may not end up with the best outcome, but it will not be time wasted, as it often leads into a project or path that is more fruitful. Sitting back, waiting for creative energy does not usually pay off, especially in my case.

I didn’t have much to post here in the last few days, as I have been slowly going through the process of filming and editing a video. I finally managed to get up early enough for optimal lighting, and tied my camera to the table with the perfect overhead view. I even managed to record a thing. I just need to find some music, an intro, and put some subtitles so you can understand what I’m drawing, without me talking. I’m not the best at editing, but I can make my way around windows movie maker well enough. I should probably learn how to use Adobe Premiere and After Effects one day, since I have them.

So very many things to do.

#395

This is what the box die turns out like. Very pretty, and would make a great gift box for small jewellery or a couple of chocolates or something. I think I’ve figured out how to make the larger one work, it just needs some surgery first. I have to finish this box off, yet with an embellishment and ribbon for a handle. I think I’ll be making a few of these to have on hand for future gift giving.

I also had a go at making myself an embossing folder for my big shot. It worked surprisingly well, considering last time I tried one, it failed completely. To make this, you die cut a pattern out of card from a food box, keeping all the pieces. Then, lining them up over another piece of card, you glue in the pieces in the slots, so they match up completely, taping the two rectangular pieces together so it hinges and lines up. Then you can use it as a regular embossing folder. You might have to play around with the shim plates and bulking with card to get the right amount of pressure through the machine, as this isn’t as thick as a regular embossing folder.
I’ll also have to try making my own embossing diffuser plates.

#394

Another present for me! I’m getting spoiled lately!
I saw this mega die set in a closing down sale last week, and despite its massive markdown, I had nowhere near enough money for it, so had no choice but to leave it, and hope that it hadn’t been sold for another week waiting till payday. Luckily, I have an awesome family, and they went back to the shop, early the next day, and bought it for me.
I can do so many things with this set, but what excited me the most is being able to make my own cardboard buttons, by layering three of the cutouts and gluing them together. I can then paint them, and use them as buttons for embellishments. There are a great range of flower dies, too, that can all layer together nicely. The only issue is that I may have to butcher the biggest die, so it will fit through my machine, as it wasn’t shown on the packet, so I didn’t know it was in there. We were a bit confused about what to do with the ‘thank’ die, as there is no ‘s’ on the end, or a ‘you’. I guess I could stamp that out or something.
This set has certainly inspired some ideas, between my drawings, for some upcoming cards and projects.

#382

I was trying out some things that I saw in videos. Now that I’ve finished cleaning, I can create things again.
I’m still keeping to a fair bit of drawing, though the muses in that area aren’t flowing greatly.
Firstly, the CD stained glass sun catcher. I was sent a video on Facebook about making old CDs into suncatchers by removing the laser layer to make a clear disc, use a stained glass liner, which I had, then fill in the sections with I’m assuming was alcohol ink, as it was transparent and adhered to the plastic. The first problem I had was I tried using DVDs. Apparently the backing layer on these are completely different and hard to remove, so I searched deeper, finally finding some really old CDs (you can tell the difference between them, as the CDs are greenish, whereas DVDs are more blue purple on the bottom.) I finally got a few discs clear, and marked on a design with a Sharpie. I knew I didn’t have alcohol inks in bottles, so I tried with my Copics, which is why it’s all streaky. This also caused the Sharpie to lift onto my Copics, erasing the lines I made. I haven’t even gotten to the lining stage yet, so I’ll have to have another go. I might have to search for more old CDs.
The other craft that I tried is these paper stones. The video that I watched used bigger circles and put them on rings, but I just wanted to try making the gems for now. You make these by punching out a bunch of circles or shapes in different colours of construction paper. You then glue them into a pile until you get a nice size to work with. Leave these to dry, and then use sand paper to shape and reveal the coloured layers of the paper. After this you seal them with sealant or nail polish, and then use strong glue to make them into jewellery. Since I only used a glue stick to adhere the layers together, I need to seal it really well, so they don’t split. By the end of these few I did, I was bored of sanding and had paper dust everywhere. They look cool and are super easy. I already have a few more ideas that I’d like to try for this.
So, lately I’ve been thinking of making videos for my raspberrysheep YouTube, which hasnt been touched yet. I know I’m not a master at anything, but I’m sure there’s plenty I could teach you guys, and it has to be easier explaining in a video than written here. I have a couple of ideas, but please, ask questions and let me know what you’d like to see in the comments.
Hope to see you soon 🙂

#363

These are my own oil pastel scratch art papers. Unfortunately, I forgot what colours I had made them beneath the black. I guess blue Santas can be Christmassy. It is cold in the north pole.
Perhaps, next time, I’ll write the colours on the back, though it is exciting to uncover the colours without knowing. Might work better for non-specifically coloured images, like the bear.

#362

I have a couple of problems. Try as I  might, I haven’t been able to make a scratch paper that works as well as on the store bought paper. The oil pastels give great colours, but not much detail. On clear packaging plastic bags, I can get the detail, and I can layer it onto patterned paper, but I need to glue it together somehow. I’ve tried contact, plastic, foil paper and gouache, alcohol ink, water based ink and acrylics. I’m even trying watering down the acrylic and adding more layers. The reason I want to make my own paper, is that I’m running out of the bought paper, and they don’t sell it where I found it anymore. Getting the artist quality is really expensive (I think it’s called Tiger paper.) Maybe I’ll look for some online.
Anyway, I figured out that I can make nice embellishments, that are protected from wear, by scratching small images, then using resin dome stickers, and trimming them out. These will be nice to use on cards, I think.
I did a pile of embossing this morning, ready for cards. I’m not one for planning cards ahead of time, so I just embossed random images in random colours, so I can pick them out from a box and cycle through ones until I find an image that matches, or is close enough that I can see what size and colours will fit.
I only finished one card today, so I’d better up my game, but in my defence, I wasn’t feeling great. At least I have some embossing and embellishments ready for future cards, so wasn’t all wasted time.