Pen made from a Yogurt Pot!

Yes, you read that title right! Although mine was more of a dessert pot, an Aero Chocolate dessert pot to be precise (yum!) 

..and I used the pen to write the word 'Aero' with it.

It's actually only the nib thats made from the yogurt pot, the rest of the 'pen' is in fact a pencil!

(Instruction information further down)

As a money saving tip, I like to look at craft books at both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, particularly the ones that say 'Look Inside' the book.  There are so many that give you step by step instructions on how to do crafts of all kinds, and all free (with just access to a computer). 

Apart from Amazon, if you look up an author of a craft book, it might be worth looking at their publisher's website as these often have great offers, links to other books you might like and in the case of the one I got the idea for this pen from, loads of crafting information too.  I looked up the author of the fabulous book, 'Creative Wildfire' (LK Ludwig), which is an art journalling book I won as a book share from Whoopidooing's Carmen (yey!) and it lead me onto the blog of the book's publishers (I think?!), called craftside. On there you can find example pages from other crafting books and the person blogging often has a go at the craft shown.  

This do-it-yourself pen nib idea was taken from a book called 'Modern Mark Making-Creating your own Pen with Recycled Materials' by Lisa Englebrecht and you can find the instructions here (scroll down)

All you need to make the nib is one yogurt/dessert pot, scissors and some electrical/duct tape.  Plus a stapler and a pencil.

My dodgy eye is still not right, but I was desperate to get back to crafting.  Apart from making this pen today I also made some watercolour embellishments for journalling with:

(Idea taken from a watercolour book on Amazon)

Our family bathroom is now my second artist's studio, lol.

And, (sorry, for the long post today, I'm making up for lost time!) I  also took some close up pictures of one of my son's Union Jack cub's badges.  I love the way you can see the stitches but wish my camera could get even closer.  My old (sadly broken) camera used to, I remember it taking a very detailed picture of my fingerprint!

Thanks very much for looking and for any comments,

qwiksave

(PS.  Followers, don't forget to enter my giveaway on the post before this).

Watercoloured Christmas Pictures

I really enjoyed making tonight's craft:

Mini Christmassy pictures using rubber stamps, watercolour pens, a plant sprayer and a white pen.

I just love the blending effect that watercolours create when lots of water is added.

I made a few:

Not so keen on the 'Merry Christmas' one but I love the Father Christmas:

After stamping the image (using Memento Dye Ink) and leaving it to dry, I coloured him & the background normally with some watercolour felt tip pens...

..and then I 'zapped' the paper all over with the water from the plant sprayer.

I mopped up the excess with a kitchen roll and after leaving him to dry for a little while, I went around his outline with a uni-ball Signo White pen.  I love the almost magical, unpredictable results.

I also went on to making this non-christmassy one:

...using a 50p charity shop stamp.   Pretty flowers are not my normal style but I took great pleasure in doing this to them!   Zap! Zap! :-D

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Colourful Journal Page

A little while ago I had a 'practice run' (Link) at doing a journal page, well the idea still appeals to me to do a 'proper' one and now I have my Bind-It-All I can make my own pages.

So this is what I started to do tonight, my first background page:

The butterflies won't be on the page for real, they are just modelling for me! :-)    They are another recent purchase and they are magnetic.  I fancy using them as stencils as well as for other artistic uses.

To make this page (which I'm sure will be less dark when it dries) I used ordinary felt tips and a water brush.

And so that the colours kept individual, I wiped the water brush on my hand in between colours (a tip I learned from Create & Craft)

I love it when the colours spread out with the water.

Beautiful!

Another thing that is beautiful but not associated with it is the dandelion clock - there are so many around at the moment!

This is one of MANY in our back garden....

I meant our jungle! Where is that lawn mower? lol

Have a Great Weekend,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Unscientific Product Road Test

Today I've been doing a few bits and pieces of crafts, but none that I was happy enough to show you so I have rapidly done a road test of a product that I would like to recommend.

Up to now, I haven't ventured into the world of colouring with markers like the fab Copics and Promarkers that almost every crafter I know has, but I would like to.  I love seeing some of these stamped characters all coloured in with beautiful shading showing lovely rosy cheeks and rounded features with carefully coloured in shading.

You can also get water based promarkers, and I have got a few which I have had for yonks and never used.  One of the reasons I haven't used them is if you use them with water on inkjet printouts they bleed and make a mess.  This was the subject of my roadtest:

SIMPLE INKJET PRINT BEFORE I ADDED PRODUCT:

AND AFTER:

(Both were done in the same way, with an outline drawn with the waterbased aqua promarker around the edge - which was given chance to dry -  and then the water brush was used to blend.  The top one wouldn't blend, which is why its not completed.)

...AND THE PRODUCT I RECOMMEND:

GHIANT INK JET FIXATIVE SPRAY!

Sorry, for the quality of these test pictures, I was running short of time to put this on.  The results would have also been better if I hadn't rushed!

This spray is not cheap, mine costs £8.25, but I'm sure it will be very useful.

(Images were photographed when still wet)

Sorry for the advertising nature of this post, but its useful for us crafters to let others know what works for us. Have you got any wonder crafting products you would recommend?  

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

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