Die cutting First Edition craft Vinyl

I have another Christmas in July inspired make for you today. This time I am showcasing the mat-less vinyl from DRK Crafts. I got sent some to play with and used the white, silver and blue to create the tea light holder using a cheap glass I got from the supermarket. And I also upcycled a glass jar that had cooking sauce in it to make a vase. Rather than using a cutting machine as I have not got mine on hand at the moment I used my dies (I used the snowflakes from the falalala Time for tea dies) and die cutting machine to create these.

This is what I learned from die cutting these snowflakes.....

It die cuts easily and it gives a great option for those that don't have an expensive cutting machine. However getting the little unwanted bit out of the dies before you can use them again is a bit annoying and time consuming. Plus you generally can't use the transfer film as the cut shapes can lift with the dies so do not stay on the backing sheet with this method. So the weeding process is harder and of course you need to cut repeated times as can only cut as many as you have the dies for each time. All in all I would prefer to do this sort of project with a cutting machine but am pleased with the results so I hope you like it too.

The glass tealight holder has a fake candle in it and the glass itself was 50p in ASDA. 

The "vase" is as you can see a recycled curry sauce jar. 

I really enjoyed using this First Edition matless vinyl and can not wait to use it with a cutting machine but this showed me that there are so many more options for how it can be used.

I am entering these makes for the following challenges:

The crafty addicts - Anything Goes

The holly and the ivy - Christmas

Crafting from the heart - Anything but a card goes

Crafting Happiness - Anything Goes

Pearly Sparkles - Christmas in July

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

Fairy summery review

I have something a bit different to share today. It is time for another Sweet November Stamps review ahead of an adorable clear stamp release that will be out next weekend. I have used the Fairy hair stamps from last years release and sublimated my copic coloured image to make a coaster!

I did this by first colouring my chosen fairy and fussy cutting around her so there was no white outline.

I used the following copics to colour this pretty fairy:

Skin: E33, E11, E00

Hair: RV66, RV55, RV63

Top: G09, YG05

Skirt: Y11

Wings: B02, B00

Butterflies and ladybird: Y38, Y15

Next I scanned her into my computer. 

NOTE: I added glossy accents to her wings and the lady bird before I scanned her...DO NOT do that. Learn from my mistakes. The glossy accents even though I had left it for a couple of days to dry did stick to the window of my scanner! I was originally just going to use her for a card or I would not have added the glossy accents and thankfully they have come off of the scanner but don't give yourself that extra work lol. 

Then I found a nice cloudy sky background and some pretty daisy flowers on creative fabrica and went to work putting them all together a way I liked in photoshop. I got 9cm sublimation coasters so I set my images to be in a 9.5cm square just to make sure the image went all the way to the edges of the coaster.

Next step is printing the new square image out on my sublimation printer and then using my Cricut heat press to sublimate the coaster (cook the ink into surface the coaster). For these coasters I set the heat to 200 and pressed them for 50 seconds.

I am very happy with this result and also I did check with the lovely ladies at Sweet November Stamps first to confirm I was allowed to use their images in this way. This may be different for other companies so please always check with them first if you are going to do this kind of project.

I now have a load of ideas for other projects so watch this space :D

If you would like me to do more about sublimating just let me know and I can go into more detail/ do my posts and videos about it.

Be sure to check back on my blog later for a sneak peek of the new clear stamp release that will be available next weekend (17th June 2023).

I am entering this coaster for the following challenges:

Crafty Fingers - Anything Goes

LeighSB Designs - Anything Goes

Patties creations - Anything Goes

Paper dragonfly creative - Anything Flies

Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes

Ellibelle's crafty Wednesday - Anything Goes

Little red wagon - Things that fly

Crafty Addicts - Anything Goes

Unicorn challenge - Fantasy

Thank you so much for taking the time to check out my blog.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

Nova paint pens on glass

 

After the fun I had the other week using these Nova paint pens on tin I thought I would try them out on glass. They worked just as smoothly and I love the final result. Trust me you don't need any real drawing skills to do this yourself. 

I am going to put some lavender bath salts in these as gifts.

Here is a little video of how I decorated this glass so you can follow along and make your own :D

I am entering this decorated glass into the following challenges:

Crafty Gals - Flowers for mom

Double D - Flowers

Crafting from the heart - Anything but a card

Thank you so much for taking the time to look at my blog.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

Crafty Purple Frog Sneak Peek Day 4

This is the last day of the sneak peeks and the last day that you can join the Instagram hop to try and win the "All Ears" stamp set. Today we are showing off the "Party Mouse" stamp set. 

This adorable little mouse is all set to party with a cakes, candles and party hat. 

For my first make today I stamped a whole load of cakes out and coloured them up with Spectrum noir tri-blend pens before fussy cutting them out. Next I used Heffy Doodle memo tape to mask off the bottom of a piece of card so I could ink it up in Antique linen distress ink. Then I moved the same piece of memo tape so it was now covering where I had just inked and inked the top part with Tumbled glass distress ink. To finish the back ground I stamped the Happy Birthday from the new Happy Birthday Everyone stamp set across the middle and layered it on some black before sticking it all on my card blank.

I put the cakes all over it coloured my little mouse and gave him the party hat which of course I made sparkly with nuvo drops. I stuck my mouse in the middle of the card on some foam pads so he stands out a bit and then added a load of Nuvo drops to make the background really sparkle :)

 

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

The paper shelter - A birthday card

Penny's paper crafting challenge - Anything goes with paper

Crafty sentiments - Anything goes

Lemon shortbread - Anything goes

If you have been checking out my blog for the rest of the week you may have noticed that I am a little addicted to making these stamps into little charms so of course I had to make some mouse earrings :D

Again I used Kraftin' Kimmie Hybrid ink to stamp the image on the textured side of the frosted shrink plastic before colouring it with my Spectrum noir tri-blend pens. I then made a hole above the mouse and cut the whole image out going around the hole so when I used my Wow! heat gun to shrink it they have a way to attach them to the chain. 

I added a few little heart charms from my stash and I think that is enough for these. I wanted the mouse to be the main focus :)

I am entering these earrings for the following challenges:

The house that stamps built - Anything goes

Crafty creations - Anything goes

Through the craft room door - Anything goes

Unicorn challenge - Include an animal

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

Crafty Purple Frog Sneak Peek day 2

For day 2 I have the "Blooming Marvellous" stamp set to show you :) The DT and GDT have also done some amazing things with this stamp set so if you want to see more please check out their links which you can find on the main Crafty Purple Frog Shop Blog.

Don't forget there is also the Instagram hop going on which you can join for the chance to win the "All Ears" stamp set so why not join it and get a whole load of inspiration.

For my first project I have done some more shrink plastic charms. I thought I would add some of the leaves as well as the bee and use a few of the flower shaped beads that I had in my stash. For this bracelet I threaded the 8mm glass beads along with the flower beads and my shrink plastic charms on some tiger tail wire and added the toggle clasp to the ends of it.

For my second make I decided to try out a bookmark. I used some of the same 8mm black glass beads but added a larger glass bead and some small silver spacer beads before putting it on some silver chain. 

I am entering these for the following challenges:

Get creative - Anything goes

613 Avenue create - In the garden

Dragonfly dreams - Feature a creature

Corrosive challenge - Anything goes

We love to create - Anything creative goes

Sunday stamps - Colour inspiration

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

 

Crafty Purple Frog New release day 1

I am really excited to be able to show you the brand new "All ears" stamp set. I had so much fun creating with this hare. And make sure you check out the Crafty purple frog Instagram for a little Instagram hop that is running until Thursday. You could win this stamp set by joining in and you get to see loads of inspiration as well :)

If you love all things Crafty Purple Frog and want to grab the whole release at a bargain price there are a limited number of buy it all bundles available now to pre-order right HERE. Be quick though as they will sell fast!

 Now onto my makes for today. I thought I would have a go at some jewellery making. I used to make lots of jewellery but haven't had a go for a while. I have to say I really enjoyed the process. I used some shrink plastic to turn my stamped images into little charms. 

To do this I stamped them onto some frosted shrink plastic using Kraftin' Kimmies hybrid ink. The hybrid ink meant that I could then colour using my alcohol markers. When you shrink the image with your heat gun the colour intensifies so I stuck to the lighter shades of my tri-blends when I coloured up these hares. I used scissors to cut around the images once I had given them a little bit of time to dry. Make sure you leave some extra plastic where you want to have a hole for a jewellery fixing to go. For these I left extra space at the top of one of it's ears and made a hole with scissors but you could also use a hole punch to make your hole. the hole will shrink along with the rest of the image when heated so make it a decent size.

Once I had my little charms I then went through my bead collection laying the beads out on a bead mat until I was happy with the look. I ended up with the necklace and earing set :D

I hope you can join our hop and that we can inspire you :)

 I am entering this jewellery for the following challenges:

Moving along with the times - Animals/birds

Gem of a challenge - Anything goes

I have also made a card Using the awesome Hare and used the little stamps that come with the set to make my own patterned paper.

I just love the way these glasses look and they will also fit the other animals in this release as well as the Badger from "The sett" stamp set. There are also a couple of tiny stamps in this set to be able to give the Hare some great eye lashes like I have here. To finish off I covered the lenses in glossy accents.

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Corrosive challenge - Anything goes

Dragonfly dreams - Feature a creature

Avenue 613 - In the garden

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back.

The DT and GDT have also done some amazing things with this stamp set so if you want to see more please check out their links which you can find on the main Crafty Purple Frog Shop Blog.

Huge hugs

Amy xx