PUNCH STORAGE - STUDIO REORGANISING PART 2 Today the new letter rack unit arrived from Ikea. I had seen this recommended online for storing punches and thought it would be ideal for my studio. It was simple to assemble, with all the framework clicking together without the need for screws. The whole construction…
CHAOS IN THE CORNER - STUDIO REORGANISING PART 1 I had to call a halt on my album project temporarily, to sort out some of the chaos in the studio. I managed to tidy the far side of the room which had been a dumping ground for months and it's nice to see…
TYPEWRITER ALBUM PART 10 - FLOWER EMBELLISHMENTS I hadn't really intended to start making embellishments before completing the pages of this album, but one goes where the creative flow dictates! Recently I watched Barbara of 49Dragonflies on YouTube, making some gorgeous flowers from punched circles, and I knew I wanted to try it.…
GLASSINE AND PIANOLA ROLL PAPERS I have had a great creative fun afternoon today. For some time I have wanted to experiment with glassine paper. A few months ago I bought a pack of this special paper from Amazon. The pieces are quite large, and there's a lot of it in the pack.…
MIXED MEDIA FROM CUT LETTUCE STEMS I was preparing some salad today and cut the bottoms off the Romaine lettuce. I've noticed before how attractive these cut bits are, looking a bit like stars. I took some photos and fiddled about with the colour and contrast a bit in my photo editor. Some…
HEAT-EMBOSSED EMBELLISHMENTS What fun I have been having. Die-cut frame centres I recently bought a set of small frame dies, and spent a session cutting them out of scraps of card. I now save all die-cutting waste in a box, ready to make up into Luise Heinzl's Mixed Media Masterboards, but sometimes you…
CICADA WING PAPER - TRANSPARENCY EXPERIMENTS Shoshi has got her white coat on again, in full Mad Scientist mode. Time for some more scientific experiments! Initial thoughts and problems encountered I have already established that clear heat-embossing works beautifully to make cicada wing paper really transparent, but it is inconvenient and time-consuming, and…
TYPEWRITER ALBUM PART 9 - KEYBOARD ON CICADA WING PAPER I have had the most tremendous fun making this page. It is multi-layered and I think it has come together very well. There are a couple of techniques in it which are new to me. The folio with the completed page For this…
TYPEWRITER ALBUM PART 8 - GATE FOLD FOLIO PAGE A gate fold is a paper with the two sides folded into the centre, so that when you open them like opening a double door, the larger portion is revealed underneath. I am grateful to Sara-Lee Armstrong for this design, which I saw on…
EXPERIMENTS WITH CICADA WING PAPER The other day my order of cicada wing paper arrived from Amazon. It took a while to arrive, coming from China. This natural-coloured extremely thin paper is supposed to be for Chinese calligraphy. People often ask if this is made from actual cicada wings but no - I…
