How I Upcycled an Old Frame Into a White Board

Funny what you end up with when you go to the tip to throw out some things from your garden. In my case I swapped a hose with a hole in it for a print of Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's. 

The print wasn't up to much, but the frame was fabulous and I had a sudden flash of inspiration to turn it into a whiteboard for the Crafty Basement. 

Of course it took me a good few weeks of overthinking it, but the end result is, I think, a fabulous addition to the craftroom and am very pleased with how it turned out. Here's how I did it:

1. After cleaning it with some alcohol I use for cleaning my Copic markers, I took the picture out of the frame - turns out it was just a piece of board with the image printed on top - and covered the print with some Fablon Sticky Back Whiteboard plastic I found in Hobbycraft. 

3. I had to cut it into two main strips and a small piece to cover the corner. I smoothed it out with the edge of an old credit card and polished it over with a cloth. I found that the join isn't really an issue at all and hardly noticeable.

4. Following the instructions, I had cut excess around the edge and now folded it over and using a warm iron, attached it to the back of the print.

5. I then simply put it back into the main frame.

6. As an addition, I wanted to be able to attach some of my loose dies to it, so I found some magnetic A4 sheets I bought many years ago, and using some double sided tape, attached it to the back of the sheets and stuck them to the front of the board.

After thinking about it for a good couple of months, the whole project only took me about 45 minutes to do and as always, I wished I'd done it sooner!

I attached it to the wall using some 3M strips as we can't use any pins or picture hangers on the wall as this could damage the special membrane behind it. So far it's staying up nicely.

I hope you enjoyed this project - a little something different!

Have a crafty week!

Craftroom Update - the big move + A viking invasion with Avery Elle

Well, here we are again! After my last post I found myself some extra energy and so after the kiddies were in bed, I went a bit crazy in the spare room and started taking things off shelves in order to move some very heavy furniture to finish my set up. I forgot how heavy the sofa bed was and I got my husband to help in the end, as last time I moved it I pulled several muscles in my back and it was decidedly painful for quite a while.

So, now the big bookcase with a lot of storage boxes of various shapes and sizes is next to the desk. I've been reorganising what's on it, putting things on my Trofast unit and also into my little Moppe cabinets. I'm still working a lot of it out, but I like where the furniture is now and will continue to reorganise and get storage I'm happy with. There is certainly a lot more room now in here, and all my craft stuff is in one coherent space. Oh and you can see I removed all the lovely cards I got last year (they are safe!!!!) and left space for hopefully more. As you can tell, I'm doing OK so far and it's only January :)

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my craft room. I am considering braving a video and doing a little tour at some point in the next couple of months. I hope you might join me. 

So, in terms of card making, I made a little purchase of some things that were on my wish list. I did it through Seven Hills Crafts. It's the new branding for Make The Day Special that I used to order from a lot. I love the new name - makes more sense to me - the website is so much better and the customer service is just as excellent. If you're in the UK and have never ordered from them before, I can highly recommend.

Anyway, one of my new purchases was this cute stamp from Avery Elle. I saw it on IG when it was released and it just called to me, so I decided to crack it out as soon as I could and get some colouring on. Let's just forget they pillaged much of the UK .... they did settle down in the end ;)

I stamped the Viking in Memento Tuxedo Black and then put three of the little hearts on a small acrylic block and stamped them around him. There is a small boo boo which if you're eagle eyed you will notice, but I couldn't be bothered stamping again!! 

I then coloured the Viking and some of the hearts in with Copics. I added some sparkle and shine with Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents to the coloured hearts. 

I then trimmed the panel and attached it to a blue card base.

[Supplies: Avery Elle Viking Stamp; Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb card stock; Memento Tuxedo Black; Copic Markers; Wink of Stella; Glossy Accents; Blue card stock; Double Sided Tape]

I hope you like him as much as I do. I'm definitely going to colour him again!

If you love colouring as much as I do, you'll be excited to know that the 30 Day Colouring Challenge, hosted by the supremely talented and lovely Kathy Racoosin, is back. Set your calendars for 1st February and get colouring. 5 minutes every day is all that is needed! I'd love to see your creations and the best place to do that is via Instagram, so come on over :)

Thank you for your continued support, and for all your lovely comments. I hope you have a fabulous week!

Craft Room Update - More storage and another card

Hello! Welcome back :) Glorious sunshine outside and beautifully crisp and frosty. But you didn't come here to discuss the weather, you wanted to know (I hope!) what I've been up to crafty wise. 

Well, deep down I knew that when I moved the craft desk into it's new space, the reorganisation and sorting out would tail off a little. I was right. Having things closer to hand meant I could get crafty easier. But, it's not all forgotten, and I have added in a little IKEA Trofast Unit to my craft space. It's designed as children's storage but it is flexible enough to be used with plastic tubs and also shelves. I've decided to go with it rather than the Alex drawers, because if I find I have to move to another space in the house sooner than expected, I can move this to the children's room without any trouble and it will have another use. We have to be quite flexible with space around here, as there isn't a lot of it!

  
I've not quite decided what will go into it yet as I've another large bookcase full of stamps and other crafty things that I need to go through and move, but the space is coming along nicely. More sorting next week I hope!

I have another card to share using those highly versatile Sugar Pea Designs I got before Christmas. I managed to use quite a few new things on this card!

I stamped the little bird (it's a calling bird, you get it??) onto some Neenah Solar White 110lb and coloured it in with some Copics. I then cut it out using one of my SSS stitched circle dies. I then stamped the CB Hello in Altenew Ocean Waves and die cut it out using the matching die - sensibly I bought this one!. 

I then took a grey card base and rounded the corners with my WRMK Corner Chomper 1/2" and adhered the bird, then the Hello on top and stamped the sentiment in VersaFine Smokey Grey. I added a few enamel dots for effect.

[Supplies: Sugar Pea Designs Every Day is Christmas; Clearly Besotted Congrats to You stamp and die; Copic Markers; Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb; Simon Says Stamp Shapes with Stitches; Altenew Cool Summer Nights; VersaFine Smokey Grey; WRMK Corner Chomper; Echo Park Enamel Dots Hello Winter; Double Sided Tape; Ranger Multi Medium Matte]

Simple yet effective, don't you think?

Thank you so much for your lovely comments as always. I hope to be back soon with more cards and more craft room updates.

Enjoy the rest of the week :)

Craft Room Update - The Return of the Desk... and a card too

Well, my crafty friends, here we are three weeks into 2016 and it's stopped raining and is back to blue skies and sunshine - let's not worry about the freezing wind, ice and snow that some parts of the UK have, it's just nice to not have cloud all the time. Really lifts my mood.

OK, so this amazing thing happened. I made some cards. Yep, really, I did! I cleared the kitchen table and got all my stuff out and played while baby slept and had a lovely long nap - she needed the sleep, I needed the crafting.

Here's one of them:

But before I go into details on this, another amazing thing happened. I got a craft desk into my craft space! Yay! I had a look at it last night to see if we could bring it downstairs as one, but in the end had to dismantle it and rebuild. It didn't take long. Looks good, eh? I still have lots to do in my craft space, but I shall keep you posted and when it's finally finished, give you a tour. I love seeing other people's craft spaces, so I hope you won't object.

Anyway, back to the card. So on Sunday I had a bit of free time after church and before my concert rehearsal started (just a little bit of Joseph and His Technicolour Dreamcoat as a charity fundraiser). The kiddies went back home for lunch with their Dad, I ate a sandwich and got out all my Copics and some images I'd stamped before. There was quite a bit of interest generated and I coloured in a few images whilst waiting. One of them was this little frog from my Sugar Pea Designs Christmas stamps. They are so versatile and have non-Christmassy sentiments to go with them if you want.

I cut him out from some Neenah 110lb card stock with my SSS stitched circles leaving a straight edge on one side. I then cut out an equivalent circle from a panel of green card stock, removed the green circle, popped in the frog and cut them out with the largest SSS stitched rectangle die. 

I stamped the Birthday from my CB Happy Birthday set in Ranger Cheese Puff (more colours are coming out in these finally - they look yummy!) and happy in VersaFine Onyx Black. Foolishly I didn't buy the equivalent die and had to fussy cut it out - I'm going to buy the die!. It was simple to put together on a white card base, lining up the circles and adhering the frog with some foam pads for some height. I added the Birthday with foam pads as well. I thought a few enamel dots were a nice touch, as well as some white dots on his waistcoat.

[Supplies: Sugar Pea Designs Every Day is Christmas; Clearly Besotted Happy Birthday; Simon Says Stamp Shapes with Stitches; Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb; White Card Stock 250gsm; Copic Markers; Ranger Dye Ink Cheese Puff; VersaFine Onyx Black; Double Sided Tape; Foam Pads; Echo Park Enamel Dots - The Story of Our Family; Sakura Gelly Roll Pen - White]

It's got an Irish feel, don't you think?? Be a good design for St Patrick's Day!

Thank you so much for reading, and for all your supportive comments on my cards and my ongoing craft space reorganisation. It's getting there, even if it's a bit frustrating at times not getting any crafting done.

Have a lovely weekend, wherever you are.

Thank you and Goodbye 2015...Here's to a crafty 2016!

I can't quite believe this is my last post of 2015. Where has the time gone, and more to the point, how did I manage to keep card making AND blogging for nearly a year??

I've been thinking about what an amazing year it has been and just how much I have managed to do and learn along the way. When I first went into the new Hobbycraft shop that had opened in the retail park at the edge of town (it is walkable!) in October 2014, I had no idea that 18 months later I would be well and truly addicted to card making, have a growing craft stash and have made a lot of lovely crafty friends.

I wanted to take a few minutes to say thanks for all of your support. I wouldn't have kept going without it. All of your wonderful comments and your blogs and videos (those of you who have them!), inspire me to try new things and carry on crafting. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You make it all worthwhile!

Now, the reason I have no card to share is because earlier on in the week my craft desk disappeared.

Until Tuesday, my craft space looked like this:

 

Yes, those are all the cards I've received this year. How amazing and nice are you all??

And on Tuesday my craft desk disappeared..... OK, it went over to my sister's new place as it was actually a kitchen table and she is in need of furniture. So, as of Hogmanay, my craft space looks like this:

 

I have another desk which I will replace it with, and I hope to be up and running with a newly organised craft space early in the new year. I promise to have a card to share!

Until then, have a very very Happy Hogmanay (New Year's Eve) and a wonderful New Year's Day! Here is to a very crafty 2016!