Month: September 2017

Cutlery pouches

~ guernseyjane ~ Leave a comment


a little something for the Christmas table

I need to use some of my lovely Christmas papers so made up the set of cutlery pouches as a gift for someone I know likes the concept.

I used the docrafts folk Christmas kit. This included sheets of stick on initials.

Method: a 12 x 12 sheet is cut into three strips, each 4 inches wide. Each strip is folded at 8 inches to create a front flap half the height of the back. The sides of the pouch are stuck down with thin double sided tape

A belly band is created by cutting a 1 inch strip from some contrast paper, the strip wrapped round the pouch and fixed with double sided tape

A square (with corners rounded) of scrap paper is stuck over the join in the belly band and an initial stuck on the square

I used border patterns from my scan n cut to give top and bottom of each sheet a scallop edge but a border punch or pinking scissors would also work.

Four sheets of paper made nine pouches including belly bands and trim and a set of spare initials was included to cater for a range of guests.

Secret book ‘safe’

~ guernseyjane ~ Leave a comment

From the outside a boring old book but open it up …

we cut out the centre of pages of volumes of the “history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire” (2 volumes so far, 6 left in the set) to create a hidden recess to store goodies away from prying eyes

We started by sealing the outside edges with Mod Podge, when it dried a Stanley knife was used to cut out a rectangle starting a few pages in and cutting down through to about three quarters of the way through the book. We then sealed the exposed cut edges with more mod podge

Tips from my crafty assistant: seal the outside of the pages for stability first; cut from the corners out for neatness; don’t make the rectangle too big to weaken the frame left behind.

To finish, the recess was decorated with stickers

I plan to put some chocolate money inside and label the wrapped gift ‘some valuable reading inside’

Up cycle peg bag

~ guernseyjane ~ Leave a comment

scan n cut to decorate my tablecloth to peg bag project

the old oilcloth tablecloth has been taking up space in my fabric pile and all I can think of using it for is peg bags, any ideas?

I used a smallish plastic hanger ( note to self remember to keep hangers when next buying stuff in m&s as stash now depleted) and traced around the width of the hanger on the reverse of my oilcloth. I gave myself a half inch seam allowance and some wriggle room as the oilcloth doesn’t stretch.

The fabric length was cut at one and a half times the planned length of the bag (this gave me the back and folded up to make the bottom of the bag front.  When this piece was cut I folded it in half lengthwise to check it was symmetrical

To get the top front of the bag a separate piece of fabric was cur to match the width and shape of the back piece but length to just more than half of the planned bag size.

I planned the cutting  so the cut pieces finished on the bias bound edge of my tablecloth. This saved a hemming step. (That is why the right edge of my front does a little bend in the picture, I thought it would look stylish, actually it just looks wobbly).

The two pieces were stitched wrong sides together leaving a small gap to put the hanger through. I then Turned them  right sides out and creases were finger smoothed out (even a cool iron melted a prototype).

I cut shapes from external use vinyl on the scan n cut to decorate (and cover the iron damage on my prototype) and trust the project will enjoy a good second life somewhere

 

No sew appliqué

~ guernseyjane ~ 2 Comments

scan n cut with heat and bond made this a doddle

this old pillow sis in the dog basket I made some while back. It needs an upgrade and I wanted to practice my scan n cut fabric cutting technique in it. The pillow and case are standard ones recycled to the dog bed so a bit of no sew appliqué does the upgrade and helps me practise for other projects.

simple instructions

iron heat and bond onto a piece of lightweight cotton. Mine was about 10″ by 6″ , I chose plain black because of the type style bit white on a patterned pillowcase  would work as well

peel off the paper backing and press on the scan n cut mat, set blade to 4, pressure and speed to  4 , let the machine cut out the design then peel fabric from the sheet

position the design on the ironed pillowcase, I used a ruler to line the letters up – I forgot I have some transfer tape to try out

when in desired position, cover with a cloth and hot iron to seal in place

Clean and simple card

~ guernseyjane ~ Leave a comment

Simple but classy eh?

I used watercolour paper and ‘smooched’ by putting distress ink on acetate, misting with water, then rubbing the resulting inky puddle into the paper

When it dried, I foam mounted the cat and greeting, these were stamped on patterned paper: – stamps a freebie set from a magazine and papers from kanban. Yes I fussy cut rather than using die or scan n cut

The card was finished with some sequins ( colour matched to the ink background) .

 

Stash buster card making

~ guernseyjane ~ Leave a comment

My holiday crafting project: to use up some of my die cut and paper packs….

15 cards, 6 gift card holders put into three presentation boxes ( with a few cards for my use) but there is still soooo much left over that I can’t see myself ever needing  to buy another pack.

I do like the colours of this do-crafts owl folk paper set but I must have made more than 30 cards already from the ultimate pack I bought – in the sale of course- so won’t mind when I use it up.

This time I tried new layouts with banners, flags and layering

And rather than stamping a sentiment inside just decorated an insert sheet with some strips or little die cuts

And the boxes were pizza box style from a sheet of A4 card that was just big enough but needed to be closed with a belly band cut from the paper kit to remind me what is inside each box.