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Project one

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.







Now I'm not saying that there is anything particularly wrong with this card. It's a nice card. I just think that if I had chosen to follow the instructions carefully, it would have been a better card. That is what this whole series of projects is going to be about though. Learning from my mistakes. 

The reason I chose christmas as a subject was simple; it was the only newspaper style paper I had. After deciding this I decided that, instead of using striped paper etc (I have plenty of striped but none that would have gone with this) I would instead use various other papers from the same stack, which was a Hobbycraft christmas stack. Staying in the christmas vein, I replaced the button with a jingle bell, and used a printed image for the centre rather than a stamped one. This did mean that I did not use distress pens/inks , as Sue did, but I felt it didn't need it. I also didn't have any brads, so I used some gemstones I had. One other thing that I also need to work on is measuring things, instead of just going by instinct. As you can see by the second layer, I made this square too large. The newspaper print should show on the right hand side, and the brads/gemstones should have been on there and not on the upper piece. 

Still, as I've said, this is a learning process. The next project is slightly harder, so I will be interested to see what I make of it. 

Elsewhere, I have been working on my Starry night stitch, have finally written the blurb from my book, and am going to Florida soon! Busy times!

Happy crafting everyone
Emma x




Comments

  1. Inky and Quirky Designs23 October 2014 at 13:56

    Oooh do you mean me Emma?! Well the good news is I have done a tutorial today so you can try that one out,it's really easy and you probably have all the stuff for it. I think I will start doing more in the future but I just assume that everybody already knows more then I know anyway :)

    Gorgeous card by the way,nice vintage vibe to it.

    Oh if there's anything you want explained,just email me,the address is on my blog

    Big hugs
    Donna xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ems8423 October 2014 at 14:14

      Yes Donna I meant you! lol
      One thing we established crafters have to realise is that there are people starting out everyday. So tutorials are definitely a good thing!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous25 October 2014 at 15:23

    Hello Emma. Love the card. You do yourself a dis-service when you say that you did 'this' wrong ... you didn't. The card turned out YOUR way rather than a carbon copy of how someone else did something like it.

    I've actually seen a very similar card to that card, but in a different version, just today! (I'm still catching up with tons of posts I've missed over the last few weeks. I've been so poorly that I missed so much). This other card was made by another blogger I follow and who follows me.

    I'm not sure if your site will let me put a link in this comment, but I'll try so that you can see it: http://lynnesbowsandbelles.wordpress.com/2014/10/23/santa-his-twinkly-beard/

    If it doesn't work, send me an email and I'll email you the link.

    When it comes to things I've posted on my blog ... I began by putting all the details in about the 'thing' which I'd made - but I wasn't certain that I was doing 'overkill' on the writing, so I try now to keep it to the minimum in words, and instead post photo's with bit's of information attached to them in the hope that it gives enough information for anyone wanting to make something similar.

    BUT ... I would very much welcome any questions on how I did something, and I'd be more than happy to write the details in reply. Even emailing if I think that it might be more easily understood. (I've done this for someone else - and we got to talking via emails back and forth).

    I know that I perhaps come over as super confident - but nothing could be more from the truth. I only know how to do all this stuff simply because I've been doing it for the last ... omgoodness... let's just say over thirty years .. plus value added tax, and postage and packaging fees, and a lifetime subscription! LOL

    I think I've been a crafter for longer than Tim Holtz was even a twinkle in the eye of his parents. (although mind .. I'm not sure how old he is, so I might be doing myself a great big dis-service there! lol)

    I probably don't do half of my stuff in the way that an acknowledged pro like Tim does it - but here's the thing ... there is no 'proper' way of doing 'it'. There's only the way which works for YOU.

    If you have an idea to do something, then the best advice I can give you is break it down. Look at the way someone has made something look rather than look at how they've done something to make it look that way.

    Aw look see .... I'm rambing on again.

    If I've done something - anything, even how I sharpened my pencil(!) - just ask me in a comment on my blog. You know how much I LOVE to see you on my blog. I actually look forward to seeing your name and even secretly hope that you will like a certain thing or other which I've made and am posting about ... but when I don't see your name I just presume that you must be super busy with your own life and perhaps don't have time to come and visit as often as I'd love you to.

    Just ask away about anything you like Ems. Seriously. If you lived next door we'd both never be out of my craft room, and I'd love it. I don't have anyone here who I know who crafts (I moved home by 170 ish miles a couple of years ago, and haven't found anyone who crafts where I live!) - so crafty friends are very much loved!

    Ask away Ems. I don't know what you want to know unless you ask.
    ~ Cobs. x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ems8426 October 2014 at 00:47

      Aw Cobs I've missed your comments!
      Sorry you haven't been well. I have to admit (bad blogger) that I have been neglecting comments on other blogs. This does NOT mean that I do not love what you have done, I haven't yet seen something you have made that I haven't loved. My problem is I usually look at blogs when I have finished work, so I am too tired to string a coherent sentence together! I've also been working on my book page (if you see the post before this you will see a small exerpt from it) . Still, you are absolutely right, if I want to fight this introversion of mine, I can start by commenting on other people's blogs.

      By the way, I wasn't singling out you and Donna because you don't share what you do, more that you two have my favourite craft blogs!

      It's not fun when you don't have any crafters near you to craft together, but we can have a virtual craft room between our blogs! You're absolutely right, if we share any tips we may have, or answer any questions we ask, then it will almost seem like we are crafting together!

      Emma x

      Delete

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