Early Valentine Craftiness

I've been having some initial thoughts about Valentine's Day coming up soon, so have been 'playing around' with ideas.

One of my favourite crafty motifs is the flourish (you'd never guess looking at my blog would you? lol)  and I'm pleased to say it is still very much in vogue in the craft world at the moment.  So, what better idea could I come up with than to combine the heart with some flourishes, because that is exactly what I did:

It was just a sketchy idea - I stamped the large heart and the flourishes in black. I then drew and coloured in the little hearts around it freehand with a red pen.  I was going to leave it like that but then started to sketch over the flourishes with the red pen and before I knew it I'd sketched all over it with the red.   It has given it a loose calligraphic effect which I quite like.  I'm not sure whether I'll use it as part of my card this year or maybe I could frame it as a decoration?  Perhaps it needs some words...?

Another idea I was playing with was this:

It looks like a squashed boiled sweet, but it is in fact an embellishment made out of glue from a glue gun that has been stamped with a wooden stamp and then coloured with red alcohol ink.   It was a new technique I had read about and thought I'd try.  After heating up the glue I just put the message stamp into it and left it to set for about 10 minutes.  To colour it you just add the alcohol ink straight from the bottle (on a craft mat).  Think it mght make a nice Valentine's card envelope seal.

Finally, not Valentine's related, I altered a box file:

Ryman's, a UK stationers has a great range of stationery at the moment with this multicoloured type on it but they don't do a box file in the range so I photocopied the image from this other plastic file that I bought and stuck the photocopy (after laminating) onto my existing box file.

This was the file they had in the range (they also do note books, address books, go take a look):

It's good, but just a little too flimsy for the rough treatment I give my everyday files!

I'm just a little bit excited this week, because I've treated myself to a couple of craft items that were in the sales and they should be coming in the post any day now - the new Cuttlebug and a Suze Weinberg Melting Pot!  Wahay!

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

qwiksave

Inspirational Calligraphy

It's no secret, I love swirls! Flourishes, swirls, call them what you will, but I am delighted that they have been in the crafting world for quite a while and are still very much in vogue.  Designers are always thinking of new ways of presenting them and these days I've noticed the new fangled way is to add additional designs to them.  I showed you some the other day, adding holly berries.  This time I noticed some with words around the edges.  I decided to get out my calligraphy pen and do my own:

I've mounted them on silver and will be framing them.

Can't get enough of swirls! :-)

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Flourishes Printmaking

I think the charity shop saw me coming today (no, not in that way!) they had put this gem in their 30p box which had my name on it! (no, not literally, lol)

Before I show you what it is I will show you what I made with it:

Just look at that sumptious texture with my favourite motif - flourishes, yay!

The object itself I think is a hot plate/trivet for teapots?  It's got an Ikea label on the back so it probably wasn't that expensive in the first place, but it is just 'so me!'

It's all embossed so I'll be able to use it for so many things, embossing (obviously), clay impressions, crayon or wax rubbings... and what I did in the above pictures, printmaking.  I covered it with some Black Soot Distress Ink and printed it on a piece of scrap paper (above) and all over a large piece of lining paper (below):

This was me getting my hands dirty:

I was thinking that I might use this paper either inside or on the cover of the Altered Book I started yesterday.

What a great find!

Thanks for reading,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave