Basket & Books.

Hi everyone,

sorry for the lack of a post recently. I have been busy behind the scenes, just not blogging my 'efforts'. To day I thought I'd show you a couple of things that I've been playing with.

Firstly, I've been making a few miniature books for my printer's tray. Over the years my tray has become a bit of a shadow box displaying mementos from my holidays abroad, plus a few other bits & bobs which have take my fancy. I've already got twenty or so  books but to my mind these trays look more interesting when they're filled with plenty of nicknacks and I do love my books.

Here's a picture of three of my newbies...... I made fifteen in total.

It's ages since I made some of these tiny books. I tend to make the full sized versions these days but here's a link to the first batch I made when I first got my printer's tray .........     printers-tray.html

Something else that sparked my interest, when I spied it on YouTube, was making baskets out of newspaper. The mess newsprint leaves on everything is a pet hate of mine so I decided to use brown paper instead of newspaper. I won't go into detail on the making process as there are literally oodles of YouTube videos that show how to make the paper tubes and  how to weave them.

Suffice it to say, I decided on a small, simple basket and set to rolling tubes. That, I found, was a knack in itself and no where near as easy the YouTube videos made it look!  After  twenty tubes, and with the help of a small bamboo knitting needle, I got the hang of things but the tubes still took me ages to roll and you need a lot..... I used a good few hundred for my small  basket. But it using the brown paper was a eureka moment. It's as cheap as newspaper, most definitely cleaner and more robust for the weaving process. Here's a small bundle of my rolled tubes........

The weaving process was hard but again there is a knack to weaving these paper tubes together. More than once I found myself muttering under my breath that it would have been easier to have bought some wicker! But what it is, is forgiving and I'm more than happy with my end result.....

Yes, it is rustic but it is sturdy and for a first attempt I'm happy with it.  

Originally I had plans to stain my basket when finished, mainly because I ran out of paper and the second roll I bought differed in colour from the first, but in the end I sealed it using Ranger Matt Medium and left the colour variation to add to the baskets rustic appeal. Matt medium is perfect as it not only seals the paper, it makes it more robust and this little basket is definitely and surprisingly sturdy.

Here's a quick close up picture of how it looked unsealed with the matt medium.......

Hope you enjoyed reading what I've been up to lately. I'll post a couple of new journal page makes soon but in the meantime if you fancy brown paper basket weaving I'd give it a go.... definitely a challenge but fun.

Happy crafting.

Carol. xx

Anniversary Snail Mail Book

Hi Everyone,

I thought I'd share a book I made for a wedding anniversary present.  This post is a little picture heavy so you might want to grab a quick cuppa before you settle yourself down to read.....

I've been happily making snail mail for awhile now.... some of my own ideas and others from Pinterest... because I decided I would bind them into a book and add a note or letter in each one before giving them to my partner for our second anniversary.  Each one covers a particular theme of something we've done that month... e.g October - Halloween etc. 

OK, so here we go...... the cover 

 Outside cover with leather closure.

View of the spine.....

Close up of the clasp on the closure..... I used a small snippet of the paper on the clasp and coated it with Glossy Accents.

View inside the book.... I used "Stack the hinge" for my binding, cutting a slither off the LHS of each envelope to slip in the hinge from the binding to secure each envelope. 




Now for the inside of the book......

I decorated the front and back of each envelope so here is my first page/envelope......

 Front of the first envelope.....

 and now the back of that envelope.

  2nd envelope front.....

Close up of the front....

And back of the 2nd envelope....

 3rd envelope front.....

Back of that envelope.....

 4th envelope front

 And the back.....

5th envelope front.

and the back......

 6th envelope front....  This envelope contained a note about a lovely break we had in Welsh Wales. Hence the dragons and sheep.

and the back....

 7th envelope front.... this one contained a note about a boating holiday we had abroad so I chose a sea theme for decoration. 

and the back.....

 8th envelope front 

and the back of that envelope......

 9th envelope.... the design for this envelope is one I copied off Pinterest (sorry I don't know who originally posted this one but amazing art - I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it and had to try it). I really liked the stencilled moon in the background and the gorgeous autumnal colours.

 and this it the stylish witch on the back of my halloween envelope. I didn't seal down any of the envelopes so the design is continued under the flap as well as on top.

 10th envelope.... can't you tell it's almost Xmas!

And the reverse of the envelope says just that.....

 My next envelope was along the same theme and again another image spotted online and copied in water colour.

And the back of that envelope....

Obviously this envelope was a New Year theme... I was trying to capture one of our pride (we have three cats) looking ahead into the following year by peering into the envelope.

And the back of the New Year envelope.....

This envelope was a little different from the rest as it represented February which is a birthday month for us.... I wanted to make this one more mixed media and dimensional by attaching a tag.

Here are a couple of close ups.......

The next envelope was a play with Zentangles ... I doodled part of this one whilst sitting in a meeting one day (perhaps I shouldn't own up to that!)

 A wee close up.....

And the back of that envelope with a couple of party balloons.......

A close up of the party gal's balloons.

That's the lot.........

I have to say the freedom of sketching, doodling or painting on envelopes is wonderful. ... if I make a mistake, in the bin it goes (none of this embrace imperfection business for me.... I jest really).  

I just happened to come across a couple of packets of envelopes in our stationery drawer at home one day that were a perfect size to play on and the paper they're made from must be watercolour paper, as they take watercolour beautifully.   

I began playing on the envelopes last year and love sending them out to friends whenever I need to jot a line.  It's very addictive and now I can't stop.  Why not give it a try... if nothing else it'll brighten up your mailman's day.

 Have a brilliant week all and thanks so much for reading my blog ramblings.....

Carol.  xx 

Printer's Tray

I was lucky enough to get my hands on an old printer's tray sometime ago and I've decided to make it my project over winter.......over the dark dreary winter nights I'm going to try and turn it into a configurations display to hang on one of my walls here at home.

Needless to say I couldn't wait until the dark nights actually hit  and set too making one or two tiny books..... well, 15 actually!



















Here are a few more close up pictures.........

Most of them have pages inside but a couple have little 'objects' inside like this tiny feather that came from one of my pet bantams.

Or this Rangers Idea-ology fragment layered over a date. The title of this book is Resolutions....

Some have maps inside........

Or plaques like this little book which has the title Discover......

  or pages of tiny text......

This one has a small pack of playing cards inside which came out of my Christmas cracker last year.

I covered the front and back cover of each book with Tim Holtz paper which I aged/distressed with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and a touch of Treasure Gold. I also used both of these on the edges of my pages too.

My front covers are decorated with a mix of tiny images which I've squirrelled away with such a project in mind, doodling and/or  Ranger Remnant Rubs.

I think I'm going to be very, very busy this winter as these wee books have hardly filled a couple of the compartments in my printer's tray! 

Hope you liked them.... and thanks for taking a peek.

Carol. xx