The Introverted Crafter

This will be a relatively short post, purely because I wanted to write a separate one later this week giving an insight into my writing. I think it's best to keep them as separate posts, in case there are people interested in the book not interested in crafting, and of course vice versa. I do implore you to read the next part though, as in terms of creativity, it is the biggest project I have ever undertaken and in terms of my life, it is the scariest thing I've ever done. Onto the crafting, and today is project two of the project book. The original is called Time Flies and is by Sam Poole. What I wanted to take from this was some new techniques, namely the shape of the card and the embossed background. Here is my take on it. Last project was christmas, this is halloween! (Off topic, that's just put "this is halloween" from Nightmare before christmas in my head) Now this card is diddy. The only framelit dies I have are these and they aren't v...

As I said in my last post, I was going to try to go a little left field (for me anyway) and use the project book that I recently received to do some items. Unfortunately, there are no craft teaching groups near me, at least not where papercraft is concerned, and sometimes what I have taught myself only gets me so far. There have been plenty of times, and I believe I have mentioned this before, where I have seen someone's work and either have no clue whatsoever how they have produced such an amazing piece (Donna and cobs I'm looking at you there) or, as with Tim Holtz/ G45 , there are so many steps to some pieces I quickly get lost. So I decided to go back to basics almost. Today was project one. This piece was designed by Sue Wilson and is called Welcome Home Now, the major mistake I made was to NOT read the instructions! I looked at the pictures, decided that the inspiration I was going to take from it would be the layout, and just started. Here is the result. ...

I've got another altoid tin for you today. I decided to use my Roald Dahl papers and decoupage for this, as I have overused the Steampunk Spells a bit recently, and I want to save some of that for bigger pieces. I decided to go relatively simple for the outside, using a green spotted paper and some chipboard letters that have been inked and glossy accented. The glitter around the side is purely because some of the altoid tin was showing through! I had some trouble lining the side of this for some reason, so much so that instead of paper I used some ribbon (strange green ribbon from the Roald Dahl collection but ribbon nonetheless!) to line the lower side. I have realised part of my problem was that I was lining it when the tin was open, thereby papering too much. Explains why my last one didn't close too. I used multicoloured spotted paper to line the inside (the top is glittered with blue because the paper would not lie flat, I wonder if it is something to do ...

I don't know about all you other crafters out there, but since I work strange hours sometimes, I prefer to set aside one of my days off for all those boring chores we have to catch up on, and the other day off for crafting. So last week I decided I would leave my crafting for Thursday. Unfortunately on Thursday there was an emergency at work and I was pulled in to work all day! Honestly I didn't mind but I suppose it goes to show that it might be better to do a little bit of crafting on both days off, instead of procrastinating! Anyway, I have made a little progress on the Starry Nights cross stitch. As I've said before, I stitch by colour not by row, but you can see it starting to take shape. There are four pages of this and obviously this is page one. This is the first kit I have done that isn't by Bothy Threads or the photo stitch company I like. I'll be honest, Bothy Threads is far more user friendly than this one is. For starters you have to wind eac...

Ok, I'm not really going to Hogwarts. I will be going to Universal next month but that's not the point of this. I was having a quick rummage through my rather extensive stash the other day when I found these: I was just going to put them away (there are two of them) when I suddenly thought that I do this quite a bit. I buy something, or it comes free with a magazine, I put it away and then I forget I ever had it. Call this a challenge then. You can join if you want. Look through your stash, pull something out, and use that particular item to influence what you are going to make. Obviously with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on my mind, I decided to dig out my polymer clay, mica powder and shrink plastic, to see what I could come up with. Cluster key rings! I used the list that all first years take to Hogwarts and the number 7 (obviously important) and this is the finished result. Below is each item separately, so you can get a closer look. The Hog...

I do feel like I'm trapped sometimes. Mainly by fear. Right now by the certainty (in my head at least) that my latest venture is going to fail. I don't expect success. I don't feel like I deserve success, even though I know I have worked so hard. This is insecurity. The long held belief that, no matter how hard you try, you will never be good enough for anybody or anything. That nothing you ever do is good enough. The worst part is that, given time, you will ignore anything positive that anybody says about you/your work, and just concentrate on the negatives, most of which come from your own mind. The only way I have found that works for me is to push on and just work through the insecurities anyway. It doesn't make them disappear, but at least I will always try. I've been using my Steampunk Spells set again this week. This was what I made. I decided to use the inspiration of the layout of the Steampunk spells paper, and make a 3D version for this cage. I...

I have spent ages contemplating whether or not to buy a goody box from Country View Crafts. It costs 14.99 but for the life of me I couldn't find a single review of one, bar a small blurb that someone loved the contents. So I bit the bullet and bought one. As always, delivery was almost instantaneous. I ordered it yesterday and it arrived this morning. Here are the contents. Some wedding cake embellishments. A wave shadow box. Some ten second studio metal sheets - 12 in total, all A4 size Three ten second studio moulds Some embellishments. I like these as they will help when I get stuck for ideas for male cards Some christmas tree shaped cards Some double sided tape Some glittery ricrac braids - green and silver Some christmas flowers A magazine. This came with it's own freebie, which was a project to make a recipe book A project book, There are some gorgeous things in here A lime shake n spray...