Craft Blog Club Halloween challenge: Part 3

Part 1 is here
Part 2 is here

In part 2 I finished my Halloween Jar and decided to expand on the challenge. Here is a reminder of my finished jar:

I decided that because I had enjoyed paper cutting so much, I would try to make a full picture to frame. To do this I took a sheet a black paper and marked a 1cm border all the way around the page. I then drew a scene of children trick or treating, ensuring that the design connected to the border so that it was one intact piece. I didn’t take a photo of the drawing, I got carried away and dived in with my scalpel before I remembered to take the pic… Sorry. But anyway, I cut out my design and added it to a black A4 photo frame and here it is…

The whole scene

The trick or treaters: Witch, devil, fairy and vampire. At this point I should probably admit that the fairy also had a sweet bucket… and an arm holding it… My hand slipped so I had to cut her whole arm off to correct my mistake. Oops!

Its a bit clumsy but for a first attempt I’m really pleased with it! What do you think? Comments/constructive criticism welcome =)

Hayley x 

Craft Blog Club Halloween challenge: Part 2

If you haven’t read part 1 of the challenge it is here

In part 1, I chose to do paper cutting and had a go at making a spooky Halloween scene, set in a graveyard naturally 😉 Here is a reminder:

I decided to stick my paper cutting onto a jam jar, so that I could put a candle inside to light it up. I painted the jar with some fab metallic purple paint I found in The Works. I then attached my cutting with double sided tape. For safety I used a LED tea light rather than a candle, I really like the effect.

My tree looks extra spooky with the light shining through!

The witch and pumpkin

 The graveyard scene

You might have noticed that my ghost/pacman monster is missing. He was quite big and I ran out of room. But if you look on the above photo, you can see what I substituted him for… A bat! I’m keeping the ghost for now though, as I’m not done with the challenge yet! I’ve decided that one jar isn’t very impressive and its only 8 days into October, so I’m going to do some more paper cutting. I haven’t decided yet whether to make more jars or try something different… I’ll keep you posted =)

Bye for now,

Hayley x 

Belated September round up

September is my first whole month on this blog, so even though its a little late I’ve decided to write a round up! Then tomorrow I’m whole to post my aims for October =)

So in September I opened a Twitter account and came across the fab #craftblogclub! Ran by the lovely Emma from Life is Peachy Craft Blog Club runs every Tuesday 7-8pm. Just use #craftblogclub to join in! September also saw the first ever Craft Blog Club challenge, which was to cover a notebook! Now anyone who has read my blog in the last couple of weeks will know I had a couple of problems with this challenge…

You can read about it here:

• Notebook disaster
• Second attempt
• Finished notebook

So what else have I been up to? Heres the full list including the points above.

 

In September I have:

• Opened a Twitter account
• Joined #craftblogclub
• Completed my notebook
• Made a lion, butterfly and a pirate ship
• Wrote my first tutorial on how to make your own butterfly
• Had a rant about ridiculous magazine projects
• Asked the questions Why do you craft? and also When did you “officially” become a crafter?

Not bad for my first proper month =)

I’m going to post my goals for October shortly,

Bye for now,

Hayley x

#CraftBlogClub notebook challenge

Well I finally finished my notebook! All it took was two attempts at paper marbling, a big mess and a bit of swearing 😉

Why the alien? Well I was looking through my embellishments and found this little guy. He has a sticky pad on his back and when I put him on to see what it looked like, the sticky pad got well and truely stuck… I was going to re-position him but the paper was going to tear so he can stay there lol.

So I have completed the challenge, even if I did it very clumsily. At one point I didn’t think I was going to finish at all, as my blood pressure was rising and I was very close to hurling the notebook out of my bedroom window! Oh well… Bring on the October challenge! 

Hayley x 

Magazine Project Madness!

As a keen crafter I read a lot of magazines that feature hints, tips and projects for you to make and sell. Most of the time I think these magazines are fantastic. Incredible. Extremely relevant and useful. However, there is one part of these magazines that I have occasionally doubted. I have given them the benefit of the doubt up until now. But in the latest issue of one of my favourite craft magazines was a feature that made me think “Ok, enough is enough! I must speak up about this and find out if I am the only one who feels like this!”

What am I talking about? The projects featured in these magazines. You know the ones: “Make this for £X and sell it for £Y”. Sometimes I think “But no one would pay that much for that project”. At this point I should probably point out that I live in the North East where generally everything costs less than in other areas of the country. Which is why up until now I have given these projects the benefit of the doubt, because maybe people who live in London, for example, would pay that much for that project because the cost of living is higher there. 

So why have I changed my mind? I changed my mind because of a project in the latest episode of a craft magazine. This project made me shake my head and check that I had read it correctly. I had. But I still couldn’t believe my eyes…

This project was telling you to paint pebbles so that they resembled bugs and then sell them in sets of five… FOR £15!!!

WHAT?! 

Painted pebbles… Now to me that sounds like a great project to do with the kids. A fantastic rainy day activity, something to keep the little ones busy. But they are seriously suggesting that you paint loads of these, split them into groups of five and take them to a craft fair. Then sell them for £15 a set!? If I did that around here I would be laughed out of the building! We are in a double dip recession! Surely I can’t be the only one that thinks this?Would you pay £15 for five pebbles painted to look like bugs?

I want to finish by saying that I do honestly love these magazines, they advise and inspire thousands of crafters but I feel that some of these projects need a dose of reality! Let me know what you think =)

Hayley x