Inchy by Inch - Guest host

This week I am the guest host on the Inchy by Inch challenge blog, which you may have seen featured in this month's craft stamper magazine.
I chose my theme as "text". I hope lots of people take part.
My Inchie uses a stamp from the stampsmith so I am also featuring it on the stampsmith blog.

I have also used a little bit of flower soft on this piece

TGIF books (and matchbook tutorial)

I'm really honoured to be the guest host at TGIF this week, where the theme is books, also one of my favourite themes as I love to use book pages in my work.
I made a matchbook notebook like this for my second piece in this months stamping contrasts article in craft stamper magazine, but as it was my second piece I didn't really get much space to explain how I did it, so I thought I would include full instructions here if anyone is interested.






materials: card, paper, trimmer, scorer, stapler, adhesive



trim a strip from the card (size isn't really important, it depends how big you want your notebook to be)



score 3 small strips of equal size.



fold up as shown


bend down the cover so that it overlaps the fold a little, not all the way as you need to allow room for stapling.


and fold


cut paper smaller than the cover for pages


open out and lay pages so they lie against the first score line, on the right side of the card (i.e. the side that will show on the outside of the book)


staple in place


the staples should be close to the bottom of the page (gives more room for the cover.) do not worry about stapling neatly, you will not see the staples


turn over and apply adhesive to back of first scored bit


fold up so the adhesive sticks this bit down.


you can now close the notebook and decorate at will


(all stamps on TGIF piece by non-sequitur)

Fairy Wands

I am very proud to say that I am the guest host at Mixed Media Monday this week, and the theme is "stars"
This is an idea I originally had when a friend asked me to "do something" to a toy wand to make it look a bit better for her daughter to carry as a bridesmaid. I didn't stamp on it, I managed to resist, but it gave me the idea of making my own wand that could be sent as a greeeting. The back of the star is left blank for a message. I also thought that it would look nice as a tag tied to a gift wrapped in silver paper. The stamp is by paper artsy and the background paper is by papermania. I cut two stars using a fiskars shapecutter template, and I sandwiched the handle between. The handle is made from rolled up paper, but I have put some floristry wire inside to in order to prevent "wand flop". this allows the roll of paper to be squashed between the stars for a smoother finish. I'm really hoping that my wand will inspire others to have a go at wand making, I'd love to see what other people do. otherwise I am just looking forward to seeing everyones' "star" creations.

I have also made this gold one for the One Powerful Hour challenge. I love these colour challenges as I get everything out of that colour and just play! I even used some gold zuzu paper (I don't know what it's called, but if you are a regular on louise crosbie's blog, you'll know what I mean). even the handle is just made from gold paper. All stamps are by Inka