Earth Laughs In Flowers

Today I am sharing a Journal page, created using Julie Hickey Designs Dinky Circles die set, Sweet Pea die set, and stamps from Daisy Blooms and Garden Blooms. I made it to fit my TN, which I created a while ago. Click on the picture below to go to the video demonstration. 

I used watercolour card with Salvaged Patina, Cracked Pistachio, Kitsch Flamingo and Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxides. 

I used the flower from the Dinky Circles die set to create a stencil, which I inked through, and I also used the little stamp from Daisy Blooms too. To create the feeling of the flowers having foliage, I stamped the focal stamp from both the Daisy Blooms and the Garden Blooms sets onto the card, with Cracked Pistachio. It doesn't stamp particularly well as the card is textured, but it gives enough of an impression that I was able to then paint the leaves with the ink.

I used more watercolour card to mop up the ink from when I made the background, and then die cut this for the flowers and for the letters.

Thanks for popping by, and I hope I have given you a little inspiration. Feel free to follow me here on my blog, or on FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest. For lots of video demonstrations, pop over to the Hixxy Studio YouTube channel to subscribe. The main items I use can be found on the Hixxy Crafts website - have a look under the Hixxy Studio tab.

Happy crafting,

Cxx

Butterfly Pocket Journal Page

Today's share is using the Elizabeth Craft Designs: Art Journal - Butterfly Pocket Insert. It is designed to fit in the original (A6 ish) ECD Traveller's Notebook (TN), but the height is about the same as the XL square - and so fits in there, and therefore with the faux leather cover that I made before.

This is a HUGE die set. You get the die to cut the pocket insert, which has a lovely Mandala style cut out design. There is a separate die to cut out that same design on other parts of the pocket - or on the fab size tag die that comes with the set. There are also three side-on butterflies - but you can cut them twice and create a full front-facing butterfly. There are also a range of words in a really funky font - with extra individual letters for any that are not covered in the words!! 

So, the "worker" die cuts out a piece that is divided into three. Two parts fold and stick together to from a pocket - which the tag fits into. The other part creates the other half of your page-  so it opens like a card (I will have a blog for one that I made soon) - which then fits over the elastic in your TN.

I used an A4 piece of mixed media paper, and inked it with Prize Ribbon, Scattered Straw and Bundled Sage Distress Oxides. I also sprayed the paper with the same colours. I spritzed my mat with water, and mopped this up on the BACK of the card - as both sides will be visible (see the part where the word "creative" is).  

Using the same colours, I inked through several stencils from the Elizabeth Craft Designs: Art Journal - Pattern Stencil Pack. This is a lovely set of little stencils - perfect if you take crafting supplies with you when you travel.

I picked out some yellow, green and blue card from my scraps box to complement the colours, using this for the die, the letters and some of the butterflies. 

  

And it now sits inside my TN.

  

Thanks for popping by, and I hope I have given you a little inspiration. Feel free to follow me here on my blog, or on FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest. For all the videos, pop over to the Hixxy Studio YouTube channel to subscribe. And FB lives are streamed on both the YouTube channel and the Hixxy Crafts FB page. The main items I use can be found on the Hixxy Crafts website - have a look under the Hixxy Studio tab.

Happy crafting,

Cxxx

Iris Shutter: Journal Page

Hello! Today I am sharing a journal page using the fabulous Elizabeth Craft Designs: Planner Essentials - Iris Shutter die. It is designed to fit on a page of the ECD SideKick planner, which is 7 1/4" x 5 1/4". Their other planner is 9" x 6 1/4" (I think it's also called A5 Slim). There are a whole host of dies for these planners, helping not just to create fun pages, but also to actually cut out the pages with different edges. 

I have neither planner - so have created one that will fit the larger pages - with a back and front from greyboard (which I will decorate at some point), and "bound" with book binding rings. My base page was cut using the die that came with the Retro Number Trio set. I cut it with two sheets of single sided paper (put them back to back through the cutter) and stuck them together. Click on either photo below to see the video demo.

  

The idea of an iris shutter is a bit like a camera shutter. It has a "lever" that you can move to open and close the shutter, revealing a hidden message or image. I have gone with a beach/nautical theme for my journal page. 

Making the mechanism

The shutter mechanism dies are labelled A, B and C. There are also some banana shaped pieces, and some arrow extenders. You need one of A, two of B, one of C, and 6 bananas (you need to cut the die twice). You need to have a strong card (I would say minimum 240gsm) for part B and the bananas. These are also the parts that will be visible at the end, so choose your coloured cardstock, or ink them before assembling.

I will attempt to do step by step with photos - but do check out the video to see how it comes together. 

Start by hooking the ends of the bananas through the slits in piece A. Keep the little "sun"s on the bananas facing up. Hold in place with paper clips.

  

Stick the two B pieces together back to back. If you are using the overlay that comes with the die set, then you will need to extend the "lever" using the extra arrows. Use two from the set. You can infill the little chevrons with bits cut from other iris shutter projects.

 

Place glue dots (I used 0.5mm) directly on top of the "sun"s on each of the bananas, before placing part B on top. You do not want glue anywhere else - so glue dots are perfect. They also have a quicker grab than wet glue! Make sure that you stick part B in the large space between the spokes of A. This is where the arrow will go up and down, and it needs to be just fractionally past the bottom spoke, as in the first photo. Put more glue dots onto the spokes, place part C on top of B and then fold over the spokes. Do not squash the mechanism down - just fold over and stick - you want to be able to move the lever easily. Check the mechanism opens and closes. You can tuck in the little bits at the back - but don't secure them as they need to move.

  

  

It is important to make sure that your image is the right size - use one of the circles left from cutting out the mechanism to check. It is also a good idea to work out where this needs to go, and place it on your project before securing the mechanism down, as it is very tricky to put in afterwards.

There are two other parts to this die set. One you will need, the other you may not. There is another, unlabelled, circle. This is the cover - this you need. And the other is the overlay -  sometimes, if you are making a card, then this is not needed.

To attach the mechanism to the overlay, firstly you need to close the iris. Attach glue dots in between the spokes and line up the aperture in the overlay, over the closed iris. You also need to check that the lever is positioned in the little cut out.

 

Attach 3D foam to the back of the overlay. It needs to be deep enough to allow the mechanism to work. Open the iris, and position over your image. Check the mechanism still opens and closes.

   

For my journal page

I added mats and layers underneath the overlay, and made my cover into a life ring to go with the beach theme. I used elements from Amy Design: Underwater World - Sea Life for the shells and bubble.

Another fab set of dies from the ECD Planner Essential Range, is the Reinforcements 2 set. I used the fold back ticket and fish to reinforce the page holes, and also used the fish as the image in my iris shutter.  

The sentiment was created on the computer and cut using the cover die. I used the "waste" circles from cutting out the cover pieces, to add some layers. 

And I didn't forget the other side of the page. The camera reinforcers were used for the photo mats as well as on the page holes. I just need to decide which pics to put in there.

Hopefully, that all makes sense. I have a couple of other projects made with this Iris Shutter - so watch this space.

Thanks for popping by, and I hope I have given you a little inspiration. Feel free to follow me here on my blog, or on FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest. For all the videos, pop over to the Hixxy Studio YouTube channel to subscribe. And FB lives are streamed on both the YouTube channel and the Hixxy Crafts FB page. The main items I use can be found on the Hixxy Crafts website - have a look under the Hixxy Studio tab.

Happy crafting!!

Cxxxx

Traveller's Notebook

Hello! Today, I though I would share with you my Traveller's Notebook. I demoed this on a FB live, and the video is available on the Hixxy Studio YouTube Channel - or just click on the picture below. 

I was given the Elizabeth Craft Designs: Art Journal - Bubble Flowers die set to play with. It comes with an amazing array of journaling dies - flowers, a great little bubble cut-in die, signpost, lock, keys and a couple of butterflies. But I was initially unsure as to what the large die was for. It looks like it cuts out a base card - with a score line (and I have a project using it in that way which I may share later). However, I like to know what I am playing with, so had a bit of a shifty around the internet and realised that it's for cutting pages to create signatures for the Elizabeth Craft Designs XL square Traveller's Notebook. ECD make three sizes of TNs - the XL Square which is 5 1/2", the Square which is 4 1/2" and the original which is 4.88" x 3.5".

That lead me to researching traveller's notebooks, and to ultimately deciding that, as I didn't have one then I would make one. 

I immediately thought of the faux leather technique to create the cover, but was unsure about how to create it. This YouTube video is what I ultimately found, and adapted to suit my sizing. 

So, firstly, let's look at how to make the faux leather. This technique has been around a while - and there are lots of variations, but this is how I do it.  You need glycerine (just bog standard from the chemist or supermarket), water, a spray bottle and the card you want to make into faux leather. I tend to use Kraft card as it already has a suitable tone for the leather look. But you can use other card if you want a different coloured effect.

Mix the glycerine with water. There are various different ratios out there online. I used a ratio of 6 parts water : 1 part glycerine, which has a higher amount of glycerine than some. It doesn't really matter how you measure this. I marked an old Distress Sprayer bottle that I have managed to break the sprayer on, and marked it at 1/4" intervals. I then decanted it into a smaller spray bottle.

Spray your card and get it quite wet. Gently massage the liquid in. If you rub too hard, the card will start to pill. Do this on both sides. Scrunch the card up, and open out. You can repeat the application of the liquid if you think it still feels a little stiff.

 

At this point, while it's still wet, you can run it through with an embossing folder (which I did on the video), or you can leave it with the creases from the scrunching (you can run it through your machine with just the plates to make it flatter if wanted). On my finished piece, I did both - one for the outside and one for the inside. You can heat dry it, or leave it to dry naturally. 

Then next step is to ink it. I have used Distress Inks (NOT Oxides): Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge, Fired Brick, Vintage Photo and Black Soot. Apply them from lightest to darkest ie Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge and Fired brick - all of which I was quite random with. With Vintage Photo, I took more time to get an overall coverage on the whole piece. And finally, Black Soot over that adds that aged look. 

  

 

The piece below is the one I created on the FB live.

For the journal, I created two pieces - one that was embossed with a folder for the outside, and one that was left with the creases for the inside.

  

When I originally made this, I had pre-cut the pieces of card to the size I wanted them to be. I would suggest that you don't do that - do two full pieces of A4 - as I found, once they had been made wet and embossed and dried, that the didn't match up anymore. Once you have inked and they are dry, then cut your pieces. Use the whole length of the A4 card, and then cut to somewhere between 5 1/2" to 6". My template is based on 5 1/2" - but I would probably make it nearer 6" if I did it again.

Stick them together with either a good PVA or a book binding glue. In the video, I said I used Paper Pantry - actually it's Jane's Originals Paper Bindery Smooth Stick. Run a brayer over it to ensure a good adhesion, and check the edges to make sure there are no gaps. Seal your cover with something - Mod Podge or another decoupage type glue. I used Cadence Satin Finish Decoupage glue. Sponge it on - don't brush it - otherwise you will move the Distress Ink around. Let this dry. 

   

You now need to insert the elastic that will hold the signatures in. I used 3mm round black elastic, and started with a piece approximately 90cm. It's a good idea to make a template for placing your holes. I started with a paper one, which I used to create a more durable card one. If you are making your notebook 6" as opposed to 5 1/2", then alter the 2 3/4" measurement to 3". The 3 top and bottom holes need to be just at the top and bottom of the paper, so again, that may need adjusting - it would be useful to watch the video to see what I mean. 

 

You then need to thread the elastic through. I will write the instructions here - but the video may help. 

Have the inside of the notebook face up. 

Push the elastic out through the top middle hole, and back up through the top left. Leave the end from the middle hole reasonably long, and keep it to one side. Fix with a piece of washi if it helps. 

Then: out from the bottom left, and in through the bottom middle

          out through the top middle, and in through the top right

          out through the bottom right, and in through the bottom middle

Tie the two ends together, making sure it's reasonably tight - but will allow you to add in your signatures.

   

To create the loop to hold the notebook together, you need approximately 60cm of elastic. If you don't want the bookmark, you can use less.

The elastic needs to be threaded from the inside to the outside, and then back through to the inside, leaving a loop. You then need to judge how much of a loop to leave. Mine was 3". Secure the loop on the inside with a knot. The rest is for your bookmark - you can add a charm at the end if you like.

 

Create your signatures using the base die from the Bubble Flowers set. This notebook will hold three. One I made from single sided papers (from my stash and that have been sitting there forever), and coloured paper from a child's drawing pad; another was from old double sided papers (again - from my stash); and the third was from a combination of mixed media paper, watercolour paper and stamping card. Personally, I like that the signatures are loose leaf and not bound - but that is my preference. 

Thanks for popping by, and I hope I have given you a little inspiration. Feel free to follow me here on my blog, or on FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest. For all the videos, pop over to the Hixxy Studio YouTube channel to subscribe. And FB lives are streamed on both the YouTube channel and the Hixxy Crafts FB page. The main items I use can be found on the Hixxy Crafts website - have a look under the Hixxy Studio tab.

Happy crafting!!

Cxxxx