Wool covered bead necklace

 

To me, wooden beads are packets of promise. They are wonderfully inexpensive and there is so much you can do with them. Here I have covered them with fuzzy wool and added little sequins to decorate them. The process is pretty easy and you can coordinate your newly knitted scarf with a matching bracelet or necklace.

The project appeared in a recent issue of Get Creative magazine. Click here to find out how to make your own version, step by step.

Macramé and button bracelet

Confession time. I really have a bit of a hard time with macramé so projects like this tend to get away from me a bit. I’m ok for the first few knots then my brain over thinks the process and I can’t remember whether I am going over or under. Call me Macramé challenged.

However, I love macramé bracelets so I designed this one for Get Creative magazine. I had to get some  help actually turning my ideas into reality, so Michelle who, by the way rocks at macramé helped out. I measured and told her exactly what I needed and I started the main loop. Then she kindly removed the string from my hands, nodded sagely and began knotting away. Magically the bracelet materialized just as planned.

If you’re a dab hand at macramé or want to learn, here is the link to the project and the full instructions. 

Hand Painted card

What I love to do most is to show people how easy it is to do things that look quite hard. Take this card – it’s hand painted and it looks difficult to do but it really is quite easy. I made it for Get Creative magazine together with full step by step instructions.

The next weekend I made cards for all my family. Each was hand painted in this style and each was customized to suit the recipient. There was a bird decorating a tree with a heart decoration for my mum, my brother who lives in the tropics had a tree which was a palm, my nephew got a tree on a computer screen and so on. They were so much fun to make.

If you don’t think you could paint a card, I challenge you! Try this one, you’re guaranteed to succeed.

 

Turn a photo frame into a mini book

This book features my cat Molly who is just so dammed cute!

It is a photo frame which has had holes drilled on one side and had large wooden tags added to it to make it into a mini book. It stands on a book case in our living room.

It was also featured in Get Creative magazine in Australia and the article includes full instructions for making one for yourself.

Book about Me

This book is titled Unashamedly All About Me and it’s one of my interactive book designs. You can write on it with chalk, stick things to the notice board and hang things from pegs. I love designing these books and this is one of  my favourites of all time.

It appeared in Get Creative magazine in Australia together with full step by step instructions for making it.

Wire worked card

I love working in wire – it’s such a fun medium. I have a cool technique for twisting wire into a bicycle shape which I use every now and then. Here is one incantation of the design on a Bon Voyage card which featured in Get Creative magazine in Australia.

The full instructions  are here including details on twisting some wire into your own bicycle.

Eddy – Heritage mini book

My Great Uncle Eddy was killed in WW1 in France. I made this mini book to celebrate his life.It is made from corrugated cardboard – my all time favourite medium as it is inexpensive, fun to work with and recycling is always a good thing to do.

The book was featured in Get Creative magazine in Australia and here are detailed instructions for making it.

Stamped silhouette card

 

Here is a fun card that I designed which makes use of a masking effect to keep the stamped bird from being stamped or inked over. It is simple to do and it lets you turn a single sheet of cardstock into a great card by simply stamping and inking it in layers, bird first!

Here are instructions for making it from the Get Creative web site.

Yum! I love Ranger Glossy Accents

Ranger makes this wonderful product called Glossy Accents. It is clear and it is not only a dimensional adhesive but it can also be used as a dimensional glaze to give your projects a great shine. It really is all you need to hold the heaviest embellishment to your project.

This is a collage card I made using Glossy Accents to give everything on the card a great glossy coverage.

The card has an angled front panel and I used some cool Australian stamps to feature in the collage. The card was a project in Get Creative magazine in Australia. You can find detailed instructions for making it here. 

Printing with Gocco

1. Create your image(s), originally uploaded by mariss+drew.

If you are like me you have a cool Gocco printer tucked away in a cupboard that you've never used. Ok, you use the cupboard but not the printer if we're going to delve into semantics here.

So, this Flickr user has created a cool step-by-step Gocco tutorial that will take you all the way through the process. Armed with the concepts you now have no excuse for not digging out the printer, fire off a bulb or two and get printing.

Come to think of it, Christmas is just around the corner (and about a mile up the road), so why not dig it out, dust it off (find something else to fill the cupboard space - I'm thinking the new paper range from Sassafras Lass) and get printing. I think I will.