This particular page is where you will find tips that I have picked up on my crafting journey. I cannot claim that I learned these all by myself. Where possible I will mention the names and places where I learned different techniques.
Some I have learned from the craft presenters and demonstrators on Ideal World's Create and Craft TV channel. They have a lot of brilliant demonstrations on there that provide some very useful help. Crafting magazines are very useful too, I particularly like the Craft Stamper. Inspiration has also come from friends and fellow crafters.
I am fortunate enough to work somewhere that I can make use of my love of crafting and I have met some very talented crafters.
Anyway, enjoy and feel free to comment. I look forward to hearing about your own tips and techniques too!
My Tip this Week - 31 May 2012
Stamping
There are loads of stamps out there, clear, wood mounted, unmounted rubber (red and grey). Stamping is something I have mentioned before but this week's tip is really targeted at the beginners among you. With such an array of stamps to chose from my advice to a beginner would be to chose a set of stamps that has a particular theme you like. Make sure you have two stamps you can use for main images and a variety of smaller sized ones that can be used as embellishments, corners, borders or backgrounds.
Then go and have some fun. Practice on copy paper with your central image and then see how the smaller stamps complement it. Good sets to go for are those by Creative Expressions, they have a brilliant selection of themes and their unmounted grey rubber ones contain a good array of different sized stamps and a sentiment or two so that you don't have to go searching for stamps to coordinate with them.
Go stamping crazy and see what you come up with!
My Tip this Week - 24 May 2012
Free Papers
Use them - stamp on them, practice your ripping and tearing techniques, distress them, chop them up for patchwork cards. They are a brilliant free resource - perfect for practicing techniques without seeing all your prized expensive papers go in the recycling bin when projects are beyond saving.
If you are anything like me, I get an almost physical pain when I make a card and I then look at it again with objective eyes and realise my design is flawed beyond saving. When I realise it is destined for the bin or being taken apart to salvage what I can for another project. And it hurts even more when I know I have paid good money for the papers and card. The pain is definitely lessened when I know at least the patterned papers were free.
Try it ...
My Tip this Week - 17 May 2012
Recording Inspiration
Find any way you can to record it, but whatever you do don't leave it up to your brain to keep it safe - it simply will not cope. I have found out this the hard way.
Time and again I will be dozing off to sleep at night when a little lightbulb goes on in my head and I suddenly have an idea for a card layout or something I can add to that half finished card that I knew there was something wrong with it but couldn't figure out what. I have this great idea and I think to myself - "I'll do that tomorrow" and then I go back to sleep. The next morning when I get back to my crafting table - can I remember the idea? It has blown away like petals on the wind. So frustrating!
So my advice is simple, keep devices for recording ideas everywhere - yes - everywhere. It's fairly easy today. With iphones etc that you carry around with you they all have handy little apps that can store notes. If you keep your phone by the bed when you get an idea - sit up and record it there and then, because I guarantee you will not remember it in its entirety the next day.
If you prefer notebooks, make sure you have one - with a pen - in any room that you spend time in. I have often used those index cards and stored them in a box in date order - alphabetical or themed is also a good idea.
My Tip this Week - 10 May 2012
Inspiration
Where do you get yours from? Mine comes from all kinds of sources - other people's gardens (hence the recent historical Artist Date!) But also my own garden - which has a splash of blue because my bluebells are blooming lovely at the moment. It brings out the fairy side of me and makes me want to make fairy cards.
I also get lots of inspiration from craft magazines - not always card-making magazines. Sometimes I draw ideas from cushions and bags, wall coverings and furniture.
I am sure as a fellow crafter you will agree that it is important to fill your mind with images and ideas but then it is important to hang on to those ideas and keep them safe. (But that's the next week's tip!)
My Tip this Week - 3 May 2012
Tools
I wanted to mention tools. For anyone who has read my Artist Date page you will see I mentioned not having the right tool for the job, i.e. my ruler was metric when the instructions I was following were in inches. In addition to this, I didn't have a rotary cutter, I had to draw a line in pencil on my fabric and cut it with scissors. Not ideal when you need to be precise with your cutting.
But ... do you always need the right tools for the job? Sometimes I think you can improvise. In fact there are a good few professional crafters out there whose top techniques were discovered because they had to improvise. Check out Ali Reeve - she is a master when it comes to improvising and using items you find in your home.
I think too that it depends what you are doing. My improvisation worked because I just just having fun. If I was making something to sell I would have most likely gone out and bought myself a patchwork square ruler in inches and a rotary cutter. (Incidentally both are available as a subscription gift if you subscribe to Simply Homemade magazine until the 17th May!)
When the best quality product is called for you should use the best quality tools and materials you can. But if it's all just for a bit of fun where's the harm in the odd slightly wobbly line?
My Tip this Week - 26 April 2012
Go on an Artist Date. Never heard of this?
It is an amount of time no less than 2 hours alloted on a regular basis (weekly is best) to being completely and utterly in the 'creative zone'. No-one else is allowed to come and all interruptions must be ignored.
It sounds indulgent doesn't it? But it is a brilliant way to keep yourself inspired and creative, especially if you use your creativity as a source of income. As Julia Cameron puts it by "doing your artist date, you are ... opening yourself [up] to insight, inspiration, guidance."
Still think it is time wasting? Look at it this way - you know you need to spend quality time with your children / spouse etc. and I am sure you make an effort to do that. So why don't you allow yourself to spend quality time with your inner creative self? That need's nurturing too, doesn't it?
For a fuller description and further information read Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. It is a brilliant book for nurturing your creative side. You don't have to be an artist - you can be a writer, card-maker, dressmaker, model maker - anything that requires you delve in your creative side on a regular basis.
Try them and see!
My Tip this Week - 19 April 2012
New techniques - practice, practice, practice!
If you are venturing into a new crafting area - such as the grunge or distressed look, it is always best to have a few extra pieces of card (or the medium you are planning on using) to practice the spraying or sponging and sploging (etc.) techniques.
That way you can get a very good idea of how the technique is going to work before you ruin the pieces of your project that you have taken time to cut to the correct dimensions. It will also give you a good idea how your materials will react with the different inks.
I have found through my own experiences that different card and paper etc. doesn't always react the way you expect it to.
My Tip This Week - 12 April 2012
De-cluttering:
Is it possible to de-clutter when you are a crafter? How many times have you kept papers, stamps or CD roms that you haven't used for a while but that you know just might come in handy at some point?
I know I am guilty of that and recently I have been able to prove it. Papers that I haven't used in years came in really handy when I started doing the boys' cards.
The point is - and my tip is - I think you can de-clutter if it means re-organising or rationalising (I like that word!). It can take time but, for example: keeping all your coloured card in separate boxes makes it a whole lot easier to use.
I know one of the things that makes it harder: free work bags. Ever subscribed to a craft magazine and the introductory gift was a craft storage bag? They seem so handy at the time. When I sorted out some of my stash I was able to empty three different craft bags and put all the contents in one central place. It felt good and I didn't feel as though I had thrown away anything 'that might come in handy' one day. Mission accomplished!
Stamping with Large Stamps
Some of the Creative Expressions Beautiful Ladies stamps are very large. I know there are different views on using EZ mount foam and rock-a-blocks. I found with these large stamps a combination of the two worked. The 'Three Ladies' stamp worked best mounted onto EZ mount and then placed on a rock-a-block. The plus side to doing this is you don't have to apply any pressure at all and the image came out perfectly.
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