Thursday, 28 September 2017
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This is a very quick video of a cake I made recently. I shall make one soon of all the cakes I have made.
I could get used to all this teccy stuff!
Back to craft tomorrow
Tuesday, 26 September 2017
YouTube!!!!
I'm still not quite sure (I'm yet to upload a video) but I do believe I have just created a YouTube channel! Yeyyy!
It's called the Hapless Crafter.
I just need to figure out the camcorder.....
It's called the Hapless Crafter.
I just need to figure out the camcorder.....
Monday, 25 September 2017
What a week on my crafty journey of discovery!
O where to start on such a hectic week?! Slap bang right in the middle of packing up 17 years as we prepare to move home I have managed to secure a few precious periods of relaxation devoted to craft; watching techniques, being led on a random path selected by autoplay and actually putting some of my intended "one days" into action.
Firstly, I discovered that, as someone who cannot measure or cut out for toffee, there is actually a company out there who seems tailor made for me. Yes folks, I have discovered the wonderful world of "we are memory keepers". I never intended to mention any company when I began this blog, but thanks to them I have been punching tabs to organise my stamps, dies, making gift bags, envelopes, envelope boxes and thanks to another company I am now drowning in cereal box gift tags with amazingly professional tops. I also learned to use my paper trimmer properly! Sounds simple to most, yet no matter how carefully I lined something up it never measured what it was supposed to. It may as well have had song lyrics on it instead of ruler markings, yet now I have got to grips with it and get perfect results every time!
There has been a serious depletion in the butterfly population on my projects!
Firstly, I discovered that, as someone who cannot measure or cut out for toffee, there is actually a company out there who seems tailor made for me. Yes folks, I have discovered the wonderful world of "we are memory keepers". I never intended to mention any company when I began this blog, but thanks to them I have been punching tabs to organise my stamps, dies, making gift bags, envelopes, envelope boxes and thanks to another company I am now drowning in cereal box gift tags with amazingly professional tops. I also learned to use my paper trimmer properly! Sounds simple to most, yet no matter how carefully I lined something up it never measured what it was supposed to. It may as well have had song lyrics on it instead of ruler markings, yet now I have got to grips with it and get perfect results every time!
There has been a serious depletion in the butterfly population on my projects!
Tuesday, 19 September 2017
DIY silver foil card and are we really crafting anymore?
Making silver metallic card today; I use duct tape; the actual stuff they use on airconditioning ducts. It comes in enormous rolls and if I made a sheet of card every day forever I would still have some left.
I'm not so good with putting tape down in a straight line so there are overlaps but if it is run through an embossing folder you really don't notice.
Now that leads me onto something else... are we really crafting anymore?
Everything is made for us now; die cutting... any shape we want. You can even get dies that create a complete card for you that looks like a filigree masterpiece. One pass through a machine and presto! a card. Where's the fun, where's the enjoyment or creativity?
We haven't really made it. We just cranked a handle or pushed a button.
There's more of an effort made now by just going out and buying one! Everyone knows you used a die. A die that will never pay for itself, despite what those crafty, and I mean that in the sly sense, TV salespeople tell us.
Embossing folders; again, one pass through, you may need to trim a few edges and bung it on a card blank. An A6 rubber stamp. There's no skill to it. No pleasure. Especially after the first one.
I've fallen for them, but have they stolen the fun?
Half the creations on TV by the "design teams", well if you made them they wouldn't stand up! Thing is, they are already finished and I haven't done anything so I'm operating a machine on a production line.
My point is that there's no creativity any more.
Craft, hand-made has become commercial, isn't that an oxymoron?
- a nice little earner for the companies that make them and yeah you can "create" nice backgrounds with your super duper pens but that gets a bit samey samey sometimes. I suppose we could make it different - we could stick a butterfly on it......
Maybe I'm a bit down today. I shall watch a video by Marta. She has such a beautiful soul and she always lifts me.
Love,
Ruby-Sian XXX
I'm not so good with putting tape down in a straight line so there are overlaps but if it is run through an embossing folder you really don't notice.
Now that leads me onto something else... are we really crafting anymore?
Everything is made for us now; die cutting... any shape we want. You can even get dies that create a complete card for you that looks like a filigree masterpiece. One pass through a machine and presto! a card. Where's the fun, where's the enjoyment or creativity?
We haven't really made it. We just cranked a handle or pushed a button.
There's more of an effort made now by just going out and buying one! Everyone knows you used a die. A die that will never pay for itself, despite what those crafty, and I mean that in the sly sense, TV salespeople tell us.
Embossing folders; again, one pass through, you may need to trim a few edges and bung it on a card blank. An A6 rubber stamp. There's no skill to it. No pleasure. Especially after the first one.
I've fallen for them, but have they stolen the fun?
Half the creations on TV by the "design teams", well if you made them they wouldn't stand up! Thing is, they are already finished and I haven't done anything so I'm operating a machine on a production line.
My point is that there's no creativity any more.
Craft, hand-made has become commercial, isn't that an oxymoron?
- a nice little earner for the companies that make them and yeah you can "create" nice backgrounds with your super duper pens but that gets a bit samey samey sometimes. I suppose we could make it different - we could stick a butterfly on it......
Maybe I'm a bit down today. I shall watch a video by Marta. She has such a beautiful soul and she always lifts me.
Love,
Ruby-Sian XXX
Monday, 18 September 2017
a mixed media artistic solutions engineer...
Welcome back after a rather lethargic weekend...
After consigning yet another YouTube video to may "watch later" list I finally decided enough was enough. I finally got round to making a much needed batch of texture paste
whilst watching a lovely lady called Marta transform an old book into an amazing work of art, full of envy as she gets sent loads and loads of stuff by companies to try out so she gets to use them in such quantities that you would think they were as free as air. For her they are I suppose. That's why I stopped watching the very lovely but not so frugal any more Frugal Crafter. She started as just that, a make do and mender crafter and now dangles all these lovely supplies in out faces and talk about things I haven't even got a clue what they are even for. I guess that's fame....
So with baby powder all over the kitchen, more glue and acrylic paint, a drawer FULL of match pots I have gathered over the years I came across a rather artisticy chap talking about gesso. Finally! someone who didn't use over-complicated terminology and who had probably never heard of Tim Holtz or Michaels and who didn't think that the words "lace" and "vintage" were synonymous. The relief! Nice chap; I didn't realise anyone could chat about gesso for so long, however, I got to finish 3 half jam pots of lovely smelling runny goo.
I think all these terms - texture paste, mediums, brushos, mousses and twinkle dinkle doo dahs very confusing - mediums? the arty crafty world seems full of so many mediums it's all far too confusing for me. Like solutions. Do you remember how we once has a world which overnight became full of solutions providing companies? What's all that about? It made rather boring firms sound interesting. No it made them sound incredibly pretentious. I digress...
Now on to making the covers of my books look beautiful but that will have to wait as I have to collect up a load of things to bung on them before I can call myself a mixed media artistic solutions engineer...
Bye for now,
love,
Ruby-Sian XXX
After consigning yet another YouTube video to may "watch later" list I finally decided enough was enough. I finally got round to making a much needed batch of texture paste
whilst watching a lovely lady called Marta transform an old book into an amazing work of art, full of envy as she gets sent loads and loads of stuff by companies to try out so she gets to use them in such quantities that you would think they were as free as air. For her they are I suppose. That's why I stopped watching the very lovely but not so frugal any more Frugal Crafter. She started as just that, a make do and mender crafter and now dangles all these lovely supplies in out faces and talk about things I haven't even got a clue what they are even for. I guess that's fame....
So with baby powder all over the kitchen, more glue and acrylic paint, a drawer FULL of match pots I have gathered over the years I came across a rather artisticy chap talking about gesso. Finally! someone who didn't use over-complicated terminology and who had probably never heard of Tim Holtz or Michaels and who didn't think that the words "lace" and "vintage" were synonymous. The relief! Nice chap; I didn't realise anyone could chat about gesso for so long, however, I got to finish 3 half jam pots of lovely smelling runny goo.
I think all these terms - texture paste, mediums, brushos, mousses and twinkle dinkle doo dahs very confusing - mediums? the arty crafty world seems full of so many mediums it's all far too confusing for me. Like solutions. Do you remember how we once has a world which overnight became full of solutions providing companies? What's all that about? It made rather boring firms sound interesting. No it made them sound incredibly pretentious. I digress...
Now on to making the covers of my books look beautiful but that will have to wait as I have to collect up a load of things to bung on them before I can call myself a mixed media artistic solutions engineer...
Bye for now,
love,
Ruby-Sian XXX
Friday, 15 September 2017
Back already!
Glue's not dry - I'm making tags and I need to sand the edges. Long story but the short version is I can't cut in a straight line.
I thought I would share a little inspiration. The net is full of how to's, so which ones do you really get great ideas and techniques from? I expect you have your favourites, well here's mine...
Sheena Douglass and Barbara Gray
They are my crafting rock gods, or goddessess, I don't know, pc terms and all that, but not only are they super duper talented ladies, they are also really engaging and hugely inspiring. I really can follow them. Mine doesn't turn out as wonderful as theirs but even I can make something half decent. If I can finish it.
Have a nosey for them.
That, ladies and gents is the super tip of the day.
I thought I would share a little inspiration. The net is full of how to's, so which ones do you really get great ideas and techniques from? I expect you have your favourites, well here's mine...
Sheena Douglass and Barbara Gray
They are my crafting rock gods, or goddessess, I don't know, pc terms and all that, but not only are they super duper talented ladies, they are also really engaging and hugely inspiring. I really can follow them. Mine doesn't turn out as wonderful as theirs but even I can make something half decent. If I can finish it.
Have a nosey for them.
That, ladies and gents is the super tip of the day.
Tales from the hapless crafter....
Good morning world on a lovely sunny day from a quiet village in Cambridgeshire, UK.
Whilst waiting for glue to dry I thought I would dabble in the world of the blog.
Like alot of crafters, I like calling myself that - it makes me feel part of a huge group of people, I came upon craft, or rather re-came upon craft, because if we are lucky enough as children we get to make stuff, sew, knit, glue, paint etc., so I rec-came upon it as a form of therapy. I spend my days talking to my dogs and myself, half making things - I have a bit of a problem finishing things - so I thought why don't I just type too? If I talk to myself then why not talk to the world? You never know, you may just find some of my ramblings a bit of help.
Where to start?, so many you tube tutorials I want to make along with, so many pins, the make list is forever growing. I look for a tutorial on one thing, find something completely different and think, "I can do that!" O it looks sooo easy... and quick. A last minute 10 minute make - that'll come in handy, then all day to make a card which won't stand up and I started off looking for a tutorial on how to make a sugarpaste gerbil. O well, it doesn't matter. I'll just stick a butterfly on it.
I'm hoping to share my makes, my bakes, my disasters and ask for help.
I wonder if anyone will answer back?
Whilst waiting for glue to dry I thought I would dabble in the world of the blog.
Like alot of crafters, I like calling myself that - it makes me feel part of a huge group of people, I came upon craft, or rather re-came upon craft, because if we are lucky enough as children we get to make stuff, sew, knit, glue, paint etc., so I rec-came upon it as a form of therapy. I spend my days talking to my dogs and myself, half making things - I have a bit of a problem finishing things - so I thought why don't I just type too? If I talk to myself then why not talk to the world? You never know, you may just find some of my ramblings a bit of help.
Where to start?, so many you tube tutorials I want to make along with, so many pins, the make list is forever growing. I look for a tutorial on one thing, find something completely different and think, "I can do that!" O it looks sooo easy... and quick. A last minute 10 minute make - that'll come in handy, then all day to make a card which won't stand up and I started off looking for a tutorial on how to make a sugarpaste gerbil. O well, it doesn't matter. I'll just stick a butterfly on it.
I'm hoping to share my makes, my bakes, my disasters and ask for help.
I wonder if anyone will answer back?
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