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 

Craft Blog Club Halloween challenge: Part 1

I am a member of the twitter based #craftblogclub. Craft Blog Club is for anyone who is interested in crafting or runs a craft blog. Ran by the lovely Emma at Life is Peachy it takes place every Tuesday from 7-8pm. Just use #craftblogclub to join in! =)

The Craft Blog Club challenge for October is to make a Halloween decoration using a craft you haven't used before! I was very excited about this one... So much that I had to get started straight away! I have always wanted to try paper cutting, the art of creating silhouettes or pictures using a piece of paper and a scalpel. So I bought a scalpel from The Works for £1.99 and a pack of black paper (also £1.99 if anyones interested) and started experimenting!

I wanted to create a Halloween scene, which I am going to use to decorate something later in the week. I am keeping my cards close to my chest at the moment lol. So on the back of my black paper, which luckily is white, I drew an outline of a graveyard, complete with crow and creepy tree and started to cut it out.

 I have placed it on a sheet of white paper so that you can see it clearly. The witch and ghost were cut out separately so that I can move them around before I stick them down.

Here's a close up of the "ground scene". Its one continuous piece. I'm proud of my spooky tree, I didn't think I would be able to draw a convincing tree but I managed =)

Here is my witch. I copied the outline from a picture and I'm pleased with how she turned out. Below is my ghost... I drew him freehand and can't help but think that he looks like one of the little monsters that chase Pacman haha! Oh well, never mind.

  

I'm going to continue with this project later in the week. I've really enjoyed paper cutting, although I have had to do it in short bursts. Firstly because it makes my shoulders ache like mad. Secondly because as you may already know, I am very clumsy so using a sharp scalpel for long periods of time isn't recommended... I would like to end October with all of my fingers attached! 

Here's hoping ;)

Hayley x

Hello October!

I'm a couple of days late with this but never mind... It's now October (yikes hasn't this year gone fast?!) so I've decided to list a few things that I will do this month, or at least hope to do =)

• Complete the #craftblogclub October challenge! This month it is "Create a Halloween decoration using a craft/skill you haven't tried before". I am very excited about this and have all my supplies ready. I'm starting over the weekend =)
• Unveil my secret commission. I can't upload pics here or on Facebook until I secure permission from the customer. Hoping to unveil in the next couple of weeks. I'm very proud of it!
• Sign up for more craft fairs in time for Christmas! I have two in the pipeline but would like to sign up for more as the festive season approaches!
• Get 1000 page views! Might be a big ask but I enjoy a challenge! I got 641 pageviews in September.
• Start a feature called "Theme Thursday". This will start next week. Basically I will suggest themes for a baby shower and how to organize the decorations, food, games etc. Hopefully this will be helpful to anyone planning a baby shower!

Well there we go! Hopefully I will be able to tick all of these off as the month passes =)

Heres hoping!
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

Pirate ship nappy cake

A few weeks ago I wrote this post about a challenge I had set myself on Facebook (with the help of my lovely likers!) Basically I asked people to suggest objects for me to make a nappy cake of.

I have already made a lion and a butterfly: 

 Today I picked another suggestion, a pirate ship! I will hold my hands up right now and say that it looks more like a sailing boat... but I'm still pretty pleased with it =)

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 

Custom Orders are the best!

I'm very excited today because I have been working on a custom order! I love custom orders... When someone says "Could you make a nappy cake in the shape of *insert random object here*?" and I say "I have no idea... But I'll give it a go!"

I was asked if I could make bears... Turns out I can =)

On Sunday I received a message on Facebook asking if I could make a nappy cake resembling a certain object... I won't say what it is yet but hopefully I'll be able to post photos soon. So today I spent a lot of time on this idea and I finished the nappy cake and I have to say I'm really proud of it! Personally I think it really looks like the object it is supposed to be (if that makes sense) and I have sent photos to the lady who enquired. I'm waiting for her response, hope she likes it!

I think the reason I love custom orders so much is that I love a challenge! There's always that thrill as I think "Can I really make *that* out of nappies and baby items?!" I love to plan how I'm going to assemble it and there is no better feeling than sending photos to the customer and saying "Look, I did it!"

Fingers crossed that the lady likes it!
Hayley x 

Second attempt at Paper Marbling

After my first attempt at paper marbling, I was ready to give up but thanks to encouragement from you lovely lot I decided to give it one more go. So did my attempt look like the photo in the book this time? Nope! But it was a huge improvement on last time... and this time I didn't cover my kitchen floor in wallpaper paste whilst trying to tidy up =)

I'm still not sure if I will use my marbled paper to cover my notebook for the #craftblogclub challenge. Either way I am glad I had another go! Here is a reminder of my first attempt.

Not good... Here are some of sheets from my second attempt.

Not exactly a work of art but I'm much happier with it! So thank you for the encouragement! I have another idea that I want to try out so who knows what will happen to my poor notebook! Haha =)

Bye for now!

Hayley x

Notebook project disaster!

The #craftblogclub challenge this month is to cover a notebook. I decided to have a go at something I hadn't tried before... Paper marbling. Basically paper marbling is when you drop paint into a wallpaper paste mixture so that the paint floats on top. Then you use a cocktail stick to swirl the paint into a pretty pattern and place a sheet of paper on top so it absorbs the paint.

My idea was that I would marble some sheets of paper and use them to cover my notebook. Then I have some embellishments that I was going to decorate it with. So what happened? Well here is the photo of what the finished product should look like, from the book I am using as a guide.

And here is a photo of one of the sheets I made...

Need I say any more? So it didn't exactly go to plan. I'm thinking of a plan B for my notebook but unfortunately that isn't the end of the story. Because I was now faced with a problem...

How do you dispose of wallpaper paste???

There is probably a really simple answer to that (if you know, please comment) but I wasn't sure what to do. So I started to pour some of it down the sink and then thought "Maybe not, that can't be good for the plumbing!" So then I decided to pour it into a plastic bag and put it in the bin. Which is probably the sensible thing to do. Unfortunately I made a slight mistake, so I have a tip for everyone. Which is:

"If you are going to tip something that is partially liquid into a plastic bag, check that the bag doesn't have holes in the bottom!"  

I am hanging my head in shame as I type. But I am all cleaned up now so I can laugh about it haha! Hope my story gave you a giggle, I am now going off to think of another idea for my notebook... If you have had any crafting disasters please comment below, it might make me feel like less of an idiot!

Hayley x

Butterfly nappy cake tutorial

A couple of weeks ago on Facebook I asked my fans to challenge me to make something different out of nappies. I had some fantastic suggestions and I'm still working my way through them... Next on my list is a pirate ship! Anyway one of the suggestions was a butterfly and when I posted photos I was blown away by the response! One person said they wanted to try to make one themselves, so here you go Dee, this post is for you ;) 

Before we start you will need:

• A baby bottle
• A pair of scratch mitts
• 8 nappies (I use size 2 but you can use any size)
• 6 baby wash cloths
• Coloured ribbon
• Elastic bands
• 2 cotton buds
• Googly eyes
• Sticky tape
• Double sided tape

Got everything? Good lets go =)

1. Take your scratch mitts, put one inside the other and pull them over the lid of the bottle.

2. Take a nappy and roll it up starting from the bottom. Secure it with an elastic band. 

3. Roll one wash cloth around it.

4. Repeat with another nappy. These are the lower wings.

5. Take a length of ribbon, tie it around one nappy and tie a knot.

6. Wrap the ends of the ribbon around each side of the bottle and secure with another knot.

7. Tie the ribbon around the other nappy and secure with a knot. Trim the ends of the ribbon.

Note: I haven't got a photo of the bottle with both of the lower wings attached because... erm it looked kind of rude lol! Maybe I'm just being immature but never mind =) 

8. As before roll one nappy up. Then take another nappy and open it up. Roll up the first nappy inside the open one.

9. Open up another nappy and roll the first two nappies inside it. So you now have a roll of three nappies.

10. Take 2 wash cloths and cover your roll of nappies.

11. Repeat the last 3 steps so you have 2 upper wings.

12. As with the lower wings, take a length of ribbon, tie around one wing, then around the bottle and the second wing. 

13. Tie the ribbon tightly and trim the ends.

14. Attach the googly eyes with low tack double sided tape (This doesn't damage the mitts, it simply peels off)

15. Attach the cotton buds to the back of the scratch mitt with low tack tape.

And thats it! If you make this, let me know how you get on and send me a pic! All I ask is that if you make one and post it to your Facebook page, Twitter, Blog etc please link back to this site. Thank you =)

Hayley x

My challenge

Good afternoon =)

I've just popped over to show off a couple of my latest creations. I asked my fans on my Facebook page to suggest things that I should try to make out of nappies. I've had some brilliant suggestions so far and I am working my way through them. So here is my progress so far:

Natalie challenged me to make a lion.

Dee challenged me to make a butterfly

I'm pretty happy with both of them, I'm even thinking of making a quick step by step tutorial on how to make the butterfly, incase anyone wants to try it at home. If you are interested please leave a comment =)

If you want to check out the other suggestions (or want to add your own!) then head over to my Facebook page www.facebook.com/nappycakes1511 

Next on my list... A pirate ship! Wish me luck =)

Have a great Sunday!

Hayley X