The Introverted Crafter

As I've said before, it's always interesting to revisit your stash. you find stuff you forgot you even had, or inspiration will strike with something you were previously at a loss to use. I've had plenty of magazines in the past, including two subscriptions. The one thing that you will get with craft mags, is a free gift on the front. With cross stitching mags it is usually a chart or mini kit, like the bird kit that started my cross stitch obsession. Papercraft mags have a wider range, from stamps to bowmakers, papers to charms (though not many of those anymore for some reason), embossing folders, dies, scoring boards, the list is almost endless. So, if like me you buy a lot of the magazines, you amass a lot of these freebies. I tend to be slightly more selective now, though if a free gift catches my eye it still ends up in my stash. Today's post illustrates some of the freebies I've had. These have been in my stash for over a year now (shame). The first select...

Well unfortunately my camera has given up the ghost so I've been looking for alternative ways, and the best way I've found so far (which admittedly isn't great) is my ipod touch. The pics aren't very good admittedly, but for now they will do. The winter days don't help, I swear we haven't had any light today. So I will update what I've done, and I guess I'm going to have to think of buying a new camera or something. Balls! Here is where I currently am on the Beauty and the Beast stitch. I have a feeling it will last me till at least the end of 2016 the way it's going.   Honestly I work on it for hours yet it feels like I'm making no progress at all.   I decided to make a Christmas piece of jewellery the other day. Originally it was going to be some earrings, just something simple, but upon searching through my stash I realised that I didn't have any matching Christmas charms, so I decided to make a necklace instead.   I ...

Apologies for the lack of post at the moment. I've been working on the stitch and I've made a bottle necklace but unfortunately my camera has decided to give up the ghost so it's a bit pointless posting about makes without being able to put them on here! As soon as I'm up and running I'll be posting a new post. Sorry again Ems

First of all, here is where I am currently on the BAB stitch. I realise it's a bit crumpled but unfortunately I can't put it in my hoop, nor can I afford to buy a new one, so I've been freehanding. I've also found a new pattern I really want to do, which, rather than buy more threads, I'm going to try altering the colours of. Long way off though. Tim Holtz has always done amazing tags and I decided, as I was rather late learning about his tags, I'd try my hand at an old one of his.   As you can see I've altered it slightly, substituting what he used with what I have in my stash.   The reindeer was almost the same, but with a different embossing folder and less leaves and bells around the neck. There is gold spattered but I don't have mixative or one of those fancy brushes so I used an old toothbrush and distress paint. I also used black remnant rubs rather than white.     I couldn't use the beaded trim as a) I don't...

It's been ages since I've made a tag, or entered a challenge, so today I thought I'd do both. I'm entering the That's Crafty Halloween challenge and here is what I've done. I started off by cutting out some pediment cards, then gluing onto a piece of white card. I painted that black, embossed it with clear embossing powder, painted it red then wiped some away. Unfortunately you couldn't really see the crackle stamp so I did another one with black distress embossing powder. I then splattered it with silver paint. The cat and bat were painted black and stickled, the other bat (top left) with weathered wood. The skull was painted black, then glued and painted with white to get a crackle, then distress inked. The crown was painted silver and stickled with old paper stickles. I found an old diary and ripped out a few entries (night, terror and hallow) inked the edges and glued them onto the tag, putting a remnant rub skull on top, then adding remnant rub phras...

Back to the crafting! First of all, I stitched another wedding sampler. It's the same pattern, but I just want to illustrate how different a pattern looks when you simply change the colour. I've also started work on the Beauty and the Beast stitch again. Here is where I am currently.   Not a lot of progress but it's a big project, probably the biggest I've taken on so far.     Now on for the multi medium! I dug out some Feel Unique boxes for this. For those who don't know, Feel Unique did a subscription beauty box for a while, and before I was craft mad I had a few of these. The Feel Unique ones were black, with a drawer you pulled out. Perfect for a craft project and another example of never throwing things away that you can alter! I started by gluing them together (three in total) and covering the sides with card. You may remember the next bit from earlier. I glued a bunch of random things onto the card, painted it in black gesso, then dry brush...

Two posts today, second will be craft related as normal but for my first I wanted to do something a little different. Ben Sawyer was kind enough to interview me about my debut novel on his blog and we had such a fascinating talk I couldn't help but want to reciprocate! His novel, the Familiar  is available through the link. If you want an atmospheric read that chills your spine then get this book! So, without further ado, here is the interview! Welcome Ben, I'm going to get straight into the questions. 1. If you could write in any other genre, which would it be and why?   1 – I have a few stories on the go, one a Sci-Fi, one a very dark comedy and the other, once again, Horror. It’s a really difficult question. I enjoy writing horror and comedy, they seem to go hand in hand. I have a story in my head about a political family in a fictional country which I’ve kicked about for years but find the idea of writing it down really intimidating! I suppose p...