The Craft FantasticI am both glad and sad that Shepherds Falkiners has moved. Sad because I can no longer browse their lovely store in my lunch hour, or wander down to buy more book binding supplies. Glad because it stops me buying yet more paper.
I am resigned to online window shopping and trying to think up an excuse to buy some of the following:
Oh. But I actually think I do need some of this French waxed paper for covering my notebooks:
Why? Erm, well, I just do…
Two origami bunny tutorials:
The yellow one is inflatable, so when you get to the second to last step, you need to… blow into the bunny’s nose!
Coptic binding is something I’ve been wanting to try for ages and I found a really great tutorial. I love this one particularly as the pictures are so clear.
To practise this technique, I decided to bind my old sketches together. They’ve been laying around, sheets of A4 from sketch pads that have fallen to bits… I don’t really know why I keep them but I do! Binding them all together meant I could keep them all tidy in one place and also have a go at coptic binding. Winner.
I love the spine!
One of the advantages of this type of binding is that allows the pages to lay nice and flat:
🙂
One of my favourite Christmas presents this year was this book: Everything Oz, The Wizard Book Of Makes & Bakes. Ever eager to have a reason to try out new craft projects (though sometimes no reason is needed!) I chose the paper balloon mobile to make as a gift for my friend, who’s just had a baby boy. Armed with some adorable but subtle blue pram-printed paper from good old Paperchase, I set to work.
I’ve decided that I’m not going to post a full tutorial on here, because I really think that if you like crafts then you’ll love this book- it’s a great investment. However, I’ve done little pictures of my progress, so you can get a good idea of how these are made.
So. Here goes. Basket first:
The base is a circle with tabs round the outside, which are attached to a long rectangular strip of paper (nice surface on the outside!).
Next, I made the swags to go around the edge of the basket:
I did 4 of these, evenly spaced. Ish.
Then on to the balloon! Using a variety of papers works well. I used blue printed, sometimes inside out, plus some plain silver.
I adapted the balloon bit slightly, using the method from the paper beads I make.
All that was left to do then was to attach the basket to the balloon:
Ta da! I’ve added a few embellishments, a silver paper bow to cover up a gap in the swags, where the string was glued on and also some teeny triangles for bunting:
It began with an innocent discussion on snozzcumbers, and ended with this link being emailed round the office from Letters Of Note:
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/08/thank-you-for-dream.html
This website is a definite must visit for anyone who likes reading, writing, letters and words.
Here are some of my favourites:
As 2012 is now over, I think it’s high time I knuckled down and finished some of the projects I’ve either started or been thinking about!
First up, I have 3 mini notebooks to finish, with black covers. Sadly the black bookbinding material has been out of stock, but it’s now on order to be delivered! I have the cover boards all cut and ready for covering. Come on postie! I need to make more of these:
I’ve had some awesome material from Ikea to make into cushion covers for a whole year now, so they will be next on the list for finishing off:
I got some great key embellishments that have flat backs, perfect for adorning my notebooks:
Oh, go on, go have a look. I have a fancy new banner and everything.
I have Christmas origami gift tags:
Knitted wrist cuffs and headbands:
And a selection of little notebooks, only £1.50 each!
Go on…
Come along! We have the usual paper goods, plus lots of snuggly knitted things for winter and some Christmas stock, too.
I’ve added more festive Christmas gift tags to the Craft Fantastic Folksy shop!
I’ve also added some knitted hair bows:
You can check out the shop here.
