Caroline Rees

The 4th artist on my favourites list from the Smiths Row exhibition is the wonderful papercut and glass artist Caroline Rees who works from her studio near the beach on the Gower Peninsula.

She creates wonderfully detailed papercuts inspired I assume by her beautiful surroundings. She also creates equally lovely window and door films which I am very tempted to buy for our bathroom window. They are so much more interesting that any of the others films I've seen.

Polly Finch

1. First on the list of my favourites from the smiths row exhibition is the wonderful papercut artist Polly Finch. Her delicate hand cut art is so intricate and lovely and usually carrys a sweet message. I always find papercuts so amazing as I could never imagine having enough patience to cut something so detailed.

Lovely Idea

I recently had a newsletter emailed from the people at Papermash and noticed this brilliant idea.

We have just had our little boy's first birthday and wish I had thought to do it then. Use coloured masking tape (in this case gold glittery tape available at Papermash) to create personalised numbers on party cups. Love it!

DIY Card Mobile

I am three months into being a new mum and have finally found some time to do some crafty projects. The first being a DIY Mobile for Harry's nursery. We chose to have curtains in the Harlequin Distant Shores (see below) and so thought it would be nice to pick elements out the design to make into a mobile to hang above his cot.

Distant Shores by Harlequin

It was the first time I had made a mobile and I am really pleased with how it came out, I think Harry is too, so I thought I would share how I created it with you all.

The Balloons:

1. Draw a template in cardboard of your hot air balloon and use to cut out the shape in five different coloured cards.

2. Take each of the five balloon cut outs and fold exactly in half.

3. Take the first folded cut out (in the this case the yellow one) and apply double sided tape to one side.

4. Now cut the tape to fit the balloon shape

5. Peel off the backing on the tape and stick to another of the folded balloon cut outs (in this case the blue one) as below

6. Repeat steps 3-5 with the next cutout (this time red) and stick this to the blue cut out.

7. Repeat steps 3-5 with the next cutout (this time green) and stick this to the yellow cut out.

7. Repeat steps 3-5 with the next cutout (this time orange) and stick this to the green cut out.

8. To finish the 3D balloon, apply double sided tape to the orange cut out and attach to the opposite blue cut out

The Clouds:

1. Create a template for the cloud in card and use to cut out five cloud shapes out of cream or white card.

2. fold all five of the cloud cut outs in half

3. Attach double sided tape to one side of each (as with the balloons) and stick each to another cut out until you have stuck them all together to form a perfect 3D cloud shape.

As you can see from the original photo I also created a Red London Bus, a Blue Campervan and Grey Elephant to go on the mobile but you can add what ever shapes fit with your little ones room.

I used the inside of an embroidery hoop and attached 4 pieces of red ribbon, equal distance around the hoop, for the top. The mobile elements are attached using invisible thread that you can buy from most craft stores.

I hope you enjoy trying to make your own mobile as much I did. Happy crafting!

DIY Cut PAper Candle Holders

I was browsing one of my fave blogs How about Orange by Jessica Jones and she has posted this great project for creating your own cut paper candle holders. All you need is some sheets of printer paper trimmed to fit some glass containers, cut lots of u shapes into the paper and fold the flaps outwards, then use double sided tape to fasten around the containers.

Images from How about Oange

You could experiment with different shapes to create really interesting patterns. If you have a silhouette machine you could easily download a lace or doilies pattern and use the machine to cut out the delicate features. And hey presto, lovely votives for a summers evening table.

Happy Valentine's Day

Image from Papermash

I hope you are all having a lovely Valentine's day. I realise it's probably a bit cheesy to celebrate such a corporate excuse of a holiday but i can't help it. Love to you all!

To make things extra special check out this crafty tip from the people at Papermash on how to create a lovely centre piece for your loved one's special dinner.

Origami Heart Garland

Ever since we had a Japanese student visit our primary school and teach us the basics of origami, I have loved it. Making everything from beautifully colourful cranes to simple Christmas stars. So when I saw this post by Jessica on How about Orange on how to make an Origami Heart Garland I just had to post about it.

Images from How about Orange

Get the Instructions here. All you need is some brightly coloured origami paper and twine to connect and hang the hearts from. You can get some lovely striped bakers twine on eBay. There you go, perfect for valentine's day!

craftgawker

Apologies for not posting this last week, It's been very hectic at work what with the run up to Christmas and having to drive up to printers etc..

I just wanted to let you know about a new inspiring site i\ve discovered called craftgawker. It's a photo gallery that you can search for visuals of crafts and projects with links to the original websites for instructions and further details.

I found the image below submitted by Ellineé showing how to create these wonderful snowflakes. I've been making these for a couple of years since I found the instructions in a magazine. They are so simple to make, I just used ordinary printer paper. The site gives you free downloadable and printable instructions so get crafting!

Image from Ellineé

Christmas Julekugler

As featured on the Decor8 blog this is a fab video showing Rie Elise Larsen making really inexpensive but effective Christmas decorations called Julekugler. All you need is some patterned paper(you could use wrapping paper), striped twine and small beads. I fancy making these at the weekend!

Decorative Christmas Bags

I saw this image on Pinterest and loved the effect of the opaque print on plastic bags.

For the last few Christmas's I have made dark chocolate truffles for friends and family and popped them into clear cellophane bags with a nice red ribbon. This year I'm going to take it a step further into festiveness, so on Saturday i bought a pretty lace heart stamp and some Stazon opaque ink in cotton white, which can be stamped on glass, plastic, vinyl, metal, leather, paper, porcelain.... well pretty much anything really. I'll post about the results after the weekend.