Crafty Essentials

I know on quite a lot of the blogs I follow people have done posts on their top crafting products.I thought I would do a number of posts on my favorite products. One of the best things I have purchased is the ATG tape gun I have two of them actually. A pink one which dispenses a  narrower tape and yellow one which has a thicker tape.

The guns make applying double sided tape so easy and the adhesive ATG use is so strong. Its brill for all types of projects. Its one of those products I now couldn't live without I would advise people to purchase it :) quite often. I got mine here http://www.3mselect.co.uk/p-2422-scotch-advanced-tape-glider-kit.aspx and its on sale at the moment for 11.99.

I will be doing some more posts in the next few weeks on some of my other top products so keep an eye out for them.

Big Shot

I was lucky enough to get an early Birthday Present of a Big Shot machine this week, I was so excited when I received it I have been wanting one for ages as I think it will help take my card making to the next level.

So far I have just been playing around with it using different dies, I have bought a variety including some nestabilities, some bigz dies and a few embossing folders. I have found it super easy to use and am loving the results.

I made a mass purchase of dies from the Sizzix website, they are having a clearance sale on and there are some unusual and interesting dies available some as cheap as a £1 I would definitely advise checking it out.

I will be posting some more details about projects I have made with the big shot later on once I have had a proper go with it. If anyone has some great tips or techniques with the bigshot then please do post below.

Boot Sale fun on a Sunday

I am a huge lover of markets and boot sales, I haven't been to a boot sale for years I think the last time I went to one was when I was re decorating my bedroom before I went to university.

I decided to head to a huge bootsale at the MK Bowl today, there are so many stalls and so many people. I wasn't on the hunt for anything specifically just things I could use for crafting or things I could craft onto. i ended up laden with bags with all sorts of different things which I have lots of crafty ideas for.  I enjoyed bargaining for the best deals and just having a mooch at what people were selling definitely a great way to spend a Sunday morning.

One of my favorite buys was this amazing vintage suitcase, I am not sure exactly how old it is but I loved it as soon as I saw it, I assumed it would be very expensive but when I asked the stall holder he said it was only £4 I snapped it up.

I plan to use old atlas pages to decorate it and am going to use it to store my holiday snaps and memorabilia I am a hoarder of all things travel related I have tickets, maps, leaflets and postcards from all over the world everywhere I go I collect stuff and this suitcase seems like the perfect way to make a feature of this collection.

WOYWW

So it's been a while since I last joined Julia's fab blog hop. If you haven't seen it its a great place to check out what other crafters have on their desks and what projects they are working on.

I have been away from WOYWW and craft for the last month or so as life has been pretty stressful but I am hoping that things are on the up now :)

Anyway here is a sneeky peek of what's on my desk. As you can see I have been multi tasking working on both Mothers Day cards and Easter Cards. I have been working on the floor again and as you can see I managed to spread mess everywhere. In the top picture you can see my alphabet stamps which I love to use to make my own handmade sentiments. In the second photo is a tin which I have full of die cut shapes and pre stamped images which I like to have out when making cards as I can then pick whichever shapes and stamps best fit the card I am making. In the third picture there is my tray filed with inks acrylic blocks and some clear stamps.

I have decided to have a massive sort out and organize of all my craft stuff this weekend so hopefully next weeks WOYWW will be a much tidier affair.

(check out the posts below for better pics of the cards I have been making)

Poundland Storage Solutions

Lots of lovely crafters have given me advice on the best way to store all my new found craft stash and quite a few people have suggested popping to Poundland for some super inexpensive craft storage solutions.

I went in earlier and found these amazing baskets for a £1 which I think are great for storing my promarkers in for the time being. I have seen some very elaborate storage solutions which I really love but for the time being I want to be spending money on more stash and not storage.

I got a great suggestion earlier which was to put elastic bands around the different colour families so that the colours which blend together are all stored together and easy to locate so thats my job for tomorrow.

WOYWW

So last week whilst blog hopping I stumbled across this fantastic post where each Wednesday crafters from all over the world congregate on Julia's blog to share pictures of their work desks and the a particular projects they have on them on that Wednesday.

I only discovered the blog a few days ago and have to admit that I have been hooked ever since. It is so interesting to see how other people organise their work spaces, its also great to see that the people that post vary from novice crafters like me to some real craft artists whose work just amazes me.     

So far I don't actually have a desk solely for craft so kind of just spread out in the kitchen or lounge. This week I have been working on Thank You cards and decided to do something a bit unconventional so have done a thank you card with a panda on. As you can see from the first picture I used my large collection of pro markers to colour in the digi stamp.

I store my promarkers in a old sweet tin and to be honest its not great it is hard to find which colour I am looking for and its impossible to keep the pens in colour groups which makes it quicker to get the colours needed for blending. Some sort of storage solution needs to be purchased asap. 

As you can see from the above picture my desk gets a bit messy when I am fully immersed in a project. In the background you can see a pad of multi coloured card stock which I purchased in Lidl at the weekend it was a bargain at 1.99 for a pack of 25 sheets. You can also see my self healing cutting mat which I love I use it for everything not just cutting, it makes it much easier to tidy up when I am done if all the bits and bobs are on the mat. You can also see double sided sticky tape which I think every crafter is a little bit in love with, and my craft knife and scissors which I used to cut out all the elements of my digi stamp.

This is the final card not 100% happy with it but pleased as its the first card of this type that I have made. I used a digi stamp which I cut into individual elements and mounted them on different levels of my folded piece of card. The bamboo canes were fiddely to cut out so I don't think they look as neat as I would like. The sentiment circle I did in green and then added stamps I think it would look more effective in a purple colour rather then blending in with the foliage in the rest of the image. I added some glitter glue to the card to make it a bit more interesting. Overall I like the image but think the way I have set up the card could be better I think I would give it 6/10.

I look forward to looking at what everyone else has on there desk this Wednesday.

Stash Storage

As I mentioned in a previous post over the last two months I have amassed a huge amount of stash for a whole range of crafts. I seem to be one of those people that when I take up a hobby I really go for it.

I had been storing all this stash in various ice cream tubs and larger crates as well as just piled up on the floor. This meant it was right faff to find what I was looking for and wasn’t good for keeping things neat tidy and organised.

Most of my stash in some sort of order

Over Christmas I was lucky enough to receive a beautiful sewing box which I have used to store all my embroidery, cross stitch and sewing machine accessories in. This means it is much easier to locate exactly what I am looking for and all the threads are organised by colour and all the needles by size.

I also received a small draw system that included four draws that were all split into little sections. The sections were variable in size because you could move the dividers around to suit what you needed. The top of the draw section also opens up to reveal a large compartment.

Sewing box 

I have used this to store embellishments of varying kinds and some stamping materials. I had amassed a huge amount of sequins, beads, buttons, stickers etc. which I split up into each of the sections.

I also used it to store some of my smaller tools and basic materials including glue spreaders, foam pads, small craft knife, quilling tool and small alphabet stamps. The draws are all see through so I think this will make it much easier to find the particular embellishment or tool I am looking for each craft project.

Over Christmas Dunelm Mill had a sale as well as a further 20% of certain products, I took advantage of this by purchasing a mid size three draw system for only £7.99 which I have used to store larger tools, paper, cardstock and various glues, glitters, stamps and inks. It is completely full with a wide array of products all ready.

I still haven’t managed to store everything I have bought, I have 50 pro markers which are currently in a roses tin which is fine for keeping it tidy but makes things difficult when looking for a particular colour pen. I still have lots of paper which I have stored in a large wooden box and a number of balls of wool which are also in the same box; not to mention the enormous amount of magazines I have purchased over the last 2 months. At first I considered just removing the pages I was interested in and recycling the rest of the magazine but have actually changed my mind and decided to keep all the magazines as I think they will come in handy when looking for inspiration, information and instruction-now just need to figure out how to store them.