The fourth in my series of amigurumi throwback posts and this one gathers together the birds and sea creatures. Owlets I think this was the first amigurumi pattern I crocheted and it's a good introduction to making little critters. It doesn't take long, but it manages to introduce a number of techniques: crocheting in rounds… Continue reading Amigurumi: air & water
Well, five days in and I haven't given up yet 🙂 And I've completed one card and done the colouring for another so that's definite progress on the Christmas card list. I say that like I actually have a final finished list of cards I have to make, whereas, in practice, I actually have a… Continue reading The Daily Marker Challenge #11 day 1–5
Focusing on the blog and being generally unmotivated to do much in the way of actual creating (plenty of ideas, just really hard to get started on any of them) has meant that I have been mostly absent from Instagram recently. I have every intention of at least looking through and liking everyone else's work,… Continue reading The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge #11
Another bit of unloved stash taken down off the shelf and put to good use. I bought one of the Kaleidacolor multicolour ink pads ages ago out of curiosity; I think I maybe did a test stamp with it on some scrap paper, but I've never used it on an actual project. And then I… Continue reading Pink and purple embossed flowers
I wasn't happy with the first incarnation of this panel. The end result was so far removed from my initial idea that I classed it as a failure, not a "throw it in the bin" failure but still... Nancee disagreed and said nice things, including that it reminded her of "some old time Christmas ornaments/lights".… Continue reading Rework: golden drips
Every now and again I come up with an idea for a card design but then I can't find a suitable image, either in my stash or even as a downloadable digi stamp. So, not wanting to give up on the idea, I end up making my own digi stamps or cut files to use.… Continue reading Pumpkin freebies
I was tidying my computer desk the other day, working my way down to the bottom of a pile of crafty bits that had ended up balanced on the corner, when I came across a stamp set I'd been lucky enough to win in one of Kathy Racoosin's colouring giveaways over on Instagram. Rather than… Continue reading Pink embossed flowers
Pink! I did say that this last pair of leaves were going to be more colourful and pink is (a tint of) the complementary colour for green, making it the obvious choice. It is also a colour that I have grown to love — not so much the baby pinks though they do have their… Continue reading Monstera leaf pair #3
And this is my absolute favourite of all the Christmas cards I've made so far this year. Another thing that nearly went in the bin but ended up working out really nicely. I thought I'd have a go at doing a snowman on kraft card, after all, white stands out on kraft, whereas on white… Continue reading Snowman on kraft
I liked the black background against the green and the clear embossing on the last pair of leaf panels I made, so I thought I'd have a go at a more subtle version with one of the other Brusho/stencil attempts. Once again, I used the stencil as a mask, covered the Brusho with Versamark and… Continue reading Monstera leaf pair #2
As so often happens, something passed by in the daily stream of blogs and YouTube and caught my imagination. On this occasion, it was bottle caps. I can't remember the context and I had absolutely no idea what I would do with them — other than "something mixed media" — but I didn't have any… Continue reading Guide: Bottle caps
This is probably my favourite of the batches of cards I've made so far this year. When I saw the poinsettia edger die I just couldn't resist picking it up and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. It's a simple design, though inlaying the poinsettia flower was a bit fiddly and… Continue reading Poinsettia inlay
I was catching up on blog feeds and YouTube subscriptions and there was a project that used Brusho, I don't remember exactly what it was, but it got me thinking about whether it was actually possible to use water-activated pigment powders (like Brusho and PaperArtsy Infusions and various other brands) with stencils without making a… Continue reading Monstera leaf pair #1
This is another card made out of the bits left over from creating the small batches of Christmas cards (1, 2, 3, 4). The stencilled panel was originally going to be layered with the smaller panel on the holly flourish card, but I wasn't happy with how that was looking. Instead, I used it as… Continue reading Wooden snowflakes
I was checking through my to-do list and it reminded me that I was going to do a quick update post. It's not often I go back and make changes to past projects — I might add a sentiment to a card that didn't have one, but that's about the extent of it — but… Continue reading Update: resin-glazed dragon
Crafty Rat 