Category: Paper

Inspired by Trash

art-e-zine Inspired by Trash

Links of entry

This is a page from a creative diary (‘journal’), but I would love it as a collage, too!

Today I have not to do with a tutorial but an inspiration, especially with regard to ready-bought material versus material ‘saved’ from the trash.
When I’m visiting craft stores – especially the paper and scrap book sections – I’m often disgusted by the commerce that rules the originally creative use of trash.
The author shows in her article what wonderful and unique things can be made with material found a little bit everywhere by keeping your mind open.
I persevere in my attempt to emulate her ;-)


Links:
Inspired by Trash (Trash inside your journal )

Here at unikatissima: Keep Your Mind Open

Stencilled Card

unikatissima Stencilled Card

Links of entry

(Click photo to enlarge)
Recently I needed a birthday card and that is the reason why I played around with stencilling again ;-)

 

unikatissima Stencilled Card
I wanted to have a negativ stencilled feather and sketched and cut therefore a feather.
Here I’ve made my first tests already.

 

unikatissima Stencilled Card
I covered my feather with light brown chalk and smeared the chalk with my fingers outwards.
This way I got white areas around my stencil which made the quill of my feather much too broad for my liking (see arrow).

 

unikatissima Stencilled Card
Therefore I cut two half-stencils and used them.
It worked great!
Another advantage of this half-stencil method is the fact, that the really narrow quill of my feather can’t slip or even tear anymore.

 

unikatissima Stencilled Card
I glued a cut-out feather shifted on my stencilled feather and because I thought that something is missing, I embroidered some lines with golden thread.
I used a running stitch back and forth as I always do.

 

unikatissima Stencilled Card
That’s how the inside of the card looks – I left it this way and wrote on the right side of the card.

 

unikatissima Stencilled Card (Click photo to enlarge)
And that’s how the finished card looks: I liked it ;-) and the adressee liked it, too :)

Admittedly the card looks still a little bumpy here because I fixed the chalk with hair spray. After everything was (really!) dry I put it under a heavy book and afterwards it was beautifully flat again.

 


Links:
Instruction on how to make the Running Stitch (English)
Instruction on how to make the Running Stitch (Vorstich) (German)

Here at unikatissima:
Entries with the tag ‘stencil’
Entries with the tag ’embroidery’

Making Good Photos

Guardian A squirrel who appeared

Links of entry

Recently I told that there were times when I didn’t know how to make good photos.
Now I learned that curious ground squirrels must be taken in regard when taking photos with delayed-action shutter release ;-)))

 


Links:
Photo enthusiasts go nuts for squirrel’s holiday snap
Wikipedia entry for ‘ground squirrel’

Here at unikatissima:
Taking Photos from Jewelry
Skinner Blend Beads Necklace

Postcard Boxes

Craftster Postcard Boxes

Links of entry

Once I’ve seen pictures of beautiful postcard boxes (that I don’t find back, unfortunately ;-() and I always wanted to make some.
Up until now I haven’t found the time but now that I even have templates for them, it should work somehow ;-))

 


Links:
Postcard Boxes (Back The Day It Was Frugal – Today It’s Going Green)

Here at unikatissima:
Entries with the tag ‘box’

Juice Rack

Recyclart Juice Rack

Links of entry

I’m always fascinated of all those ideas that people have – just as of this juice rack: simply nail some beverage cartons to a plank and you get a coat rack.
Sheer lunacy ;-))

If you have a coat rack already or you find this one interesting but don’t want to have it at your home ;-), you can make a lot of other stuff from your beverage cartons: beverage carton crochet, a Marudai, a weaving loom, a coin purse or a vase.
I’m sure that in the course of time more will come ;-))
And if you’d like to have a coat rack but not especially from beverage cartons take a look at the Bookhooks (from my entry Recycle books).


Links:
Juice Rack
Bookhooks (from my entry Recycle books)

Here at unikatissima:
Beverage Carton Crochet
Links to self-made marudai in my Kumihimo entry
Cardboard Box Loom
Tetrapak Coin Purse
Woven Newspaper Vase
Recycle books

Card Holder

Recyclart Card Holder

Links of entry

Wow, an idea again that I really appreciate: take a phone book, roll it up and fix it with a ring of a nature what-so-ever and done is the card holder!

The silver coloured ring looks quite good, but I imagine that it would look as good when you wrap your card holder with wire, plastic, beautiful yarns or fabrics or when you slip a poymer clay ring over, the only thing to make sure is that you fix everything well.
And in place of the Yellow Pages you can use as well coloured ads or paper – neatly stacked – or books where you removed the cover.


Links:
Card Holder (Reusing Yellow pages) – they’re linking to another website but I didn’t find the Card Holder on the other web page

Here at unikatissima:
Entries with the tag ‘ring’
Entries with the tag ‘wire’
Entries with the tag ‘plastic’
Entries with the tag ‘books’

Skinner Blend Beads Necklace


unikatissima Skinner Blend Necklace

Links of entry

I made some nice necklaces from very narrow polymer clay beads where the bead colours are blended – and I wanted to present them now.

 

That’s what you do:

 
unikatissima Skinner Blend Necklace
First make a Skinner Blend (a ploymer clay slab with a colour blend).
I blended it from light green to blue.
Cut the slab in stripes and wrap them around one or more kebab skewers – not too firm or you get problems taking them off, later.
Join the edges thoroughly and with care so that the beads won’t fall apart later.
At the top of the photo you see a piece of light green polymer clay, that will become contrasting beads.

By the way: If you don’t have a pasta machine for the Skinner Blend (never use a pasta machine used for polymer clay for food again!) you can find hints on how you can manage without it via the links below.

 

unikatissima Skinner Blend Necklace
Cut the wrapped slab with a small knife down to the skewer at regular intervals, I made my future beads about 3 mm wide.

 

unikatissima Skinner Blend Necklace
Bake the polymer clay following the instructions and get the beads off the skewer(s) carefully.
On this photo you see my light green contrasting bead that I put between the others to make it look more interesting and you see a silver bead where I don’t remember how I coloured it.
I think that I used silver coloured metallic powder that I bought for some Mica shift projects.

 

unikatissima Skinner Blend Necklace
I threaded my beads on a self-dyed violet silk cord and made the clasp from a black braided band and a big, round light green bead.

 

unikatissima Skinner Blend Necklace
And that is a red necklace with Skinner Blend beads that I gave away – I’m sorry for the poor quality of the picture, when I took the photo at that time I didn’t know how to make good photos.
On both sides of the black central bead I let the colour blend go from light to dark red and loosened it up with narrow black beads.
The earrings are simply cones that I rounded at the top and that I carved slightly horizontally to make them match the necklace.

 


Links:
Skinner Blend

Don’t have a pasta machine?
Making A Jellyroll Cane Without A Pasta Machine
via: Glass Attic – Pasta machines – click on ‘No pasta machine?–other ways …guide rails’

Pasta Free Skinner Blend (Video)

Here at unikatissima:
Polymer Clay Mica Shift

Taking Photos from Jewelry
Poor Man Side Flash

Shape Book

cheeky magpie Shape Book

Links of entry

I’ve seen some shaped books, at an exhibition e.g. in our public library and I always liked them.
Therefore I’ve been pleased to find a tutorial for shaped books – great! :))

By the way, there are folded books, too which seem to be interesting, too ;-)


Links:
Shape Book Tute
folded books 2

Hexagonal Box

papirklip og aesker Hexagonal Box.jpg

Links of entry

I always like to look for boxes and I like the hexagonal box very much – just as much as the Washi box because they have both this ‘extra box on the inside’.

Coming soon! ;-)


Links:
Hexagonal Box (Sekskantet papæske Hexagonal box) (Danish and Englisch) – the first text is always Danish, the English text follows in italic font

Here at unikatissima:
Make a Washi Box
Entries with the tag ‘box’