How to make your own faux barbed wire

Whilst working on a rustic project for a recent workshop I decided it needed a finishing touch. And I had just the thing in mind - barbed wire! Not exactly the safest thing to put on a card front you might be thinking - surely it would be too sharp and dangerous. Well, read on to see what I did. Materials required: brown beading cord white glue sharp scissors Lumiere paint: Metallic Silver, Pewter and Metallic Rust Cut two lengths of beading cord, 10cm and 15cm. Set aside the 10cm length. Coat the 15cm length with a thin layer of glue (hint: use your fingers to coat it - they make the best paintbrush!). Stretch the cord between your fore fingers and thumbs and then twist it tightly by turning one hand towards yourself and the other hand away. Keep twisting until it begins to twist back onto itself. Twist a little bit more. The glue will stop it from untwisting. Set this piece aside. Cut the 10cm length in half. Set one piece aside and coat the other piece with a thin laye......

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Get Creative!

Get Creative magazine has made me a star! Well, maybe not a star but they have put me in the spotlight this month. I'm the profiled teacher in the Spring issue of Get Creative - what an honour! In this issue, I even get to share an ATC project with you with full step by step photos and instructions. If you'd like to see what I made, grab yourself a copy of the latest issue. It's available from all Spotlight stores and selected newsagencies....

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Twist Bead Jewellery

This week, I've been replenishing my Friendly Plastic jewellery stock. I had no idea that people really liked my stuff until after many of the samples I had taken to stamp camp in Newcastle on the weekend found new homes, much to my delight! But now, with another demo and workshop at Stampin' Daze stamp club this weekend, I needed to replenish my supplies so that attendees can see how you can turn some simple twist beads into stunning pieces of jewellery. So it's been head down and tail up to put together some pretties for your eyes. Well, actually, for your wrist, neck and dainty ear lobes! Here's a preview of what you can expect to see this weekend if you're at the demo and workshop. Enjoy! Ruby Bracelet featuring glass pearls and gold metal beads and matching Ruby Earrings featuring tear drop beads to tickle your neck! Rose Glow Bracelet featuring Swarovskis for sparkle! Sweet Candy Necklace A little bit of whimsy There are more to come plus som......

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City Meets Country Stamp Camp

This past weekend I've spent in Newcastle teaching workshops at the annual City Meets Country Stamp Camp . And what a lovely weekend it was spent with such a nice group of people who warmly welcomed DH and I. It was Brian's first experience at stamp camp and not being a crafter, he thought he would have a restful long weekend and just pop in and out of the workshops as he pleased. But before he knew it he was working in the shop and helping with the workshops! It was surprising how quickly he picked things up and he really got into the swing of things, much to the delight of the campers. And it was non stop fun from the moment we arrived and set up shop (with a lot of help from Wilma and Tara) and assembled the kits with the help of Tara (what a little speedster she is!). The product we featured over the weekend was Friendly Plastic and regular readers of my blog will know that it has become one of my favourite mediums. Whilst it's been around for a very long time it's ......

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How to use up all your cardstock!

When you're lucky enough to be building a new house, how do you choose the colour of your new kitchen splash back? Do you visit the manufacturer's showroom and select the colour from the samples on display? Or perhaps visit your local paint shop and collect some paint chips? Or maybe you find a kitchen to die for on the glossy pages of House and Garden? Well they all sound like good ideas but if you're a paper crafter (and avid paper collector), then you raid your paper stash of course! Here's what you do: Gather together every shade of every colour of 12 x 12 card stock in your stash. Tape the squares to the wall with double sided tape. Stand back and eliminate, eliminate, eliminate......... until you find the perfect colour.......... Then match it to a paint chip. And the final colour choice: Dulux Jewel or in papercrafter's terms: Bazzill Purple. Mmmm....... deliciously sophisticated! Who said you could never use every piece of card stock you had ever bought? ......

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Spectacles Chain - Not this time!

I've been working on a large collaborative project for some weeks now and having finished the original piece, it's now just a matter of completing duplicates for the other participants, so I'm working on them production-line fashion. It's definitely the quickest, but also the most tiresome way to complete them so I've taken a break to have some fun making Friendly Plastic beads. My original plan for these beads was to make them up into a spectacles chain to hang off my glasses. At home I'm always careful to put my specs down in the same place so I know exactly where they are, but when I'm teaching, I have a terrible habit of taking them off and putting them down and then being unable to remember where. Just ask anyone who has done one of my classes! But anyway, back to the beads. Somehow, they feel too big for a specs chain - I'm sure they would keep catching my eye as they swayed around. So I decided to turn them into a necklace instead. I'm really......

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