Patterned papers

I   L O V E  patterned papers. 

They exist in a huge variety of designs, colours and materials.

And they are so easy to find. 

- Many craft magazines (1) offer them in their latest issue. 

- You can buy them from craftshops (2) or via one of the oh so many webshops.

Patterned papers are very easy to use and enable you to make a nice card in a very short amount of time, even if you run out of ideas. You just need to put 2 patterned papers together and add some extra features (embellishments, text, buttons, flowers, doodles...) and that's it!

Like the 2 birthday cards below. Both cards were made in 5 minutes!

For the first card I used 2 patterned papers as background. I added a paper butterfly and a Happy Birthday tag (offered in one of the Papercrafter issues). To finish off I added some doodles with a coloured marker.

 For the second card I added an extra piece of patterned paper on the top edge.

 (1) Craft magazines with lots of ideas on cardmaking and other crafts : Papercrafter, Papercraft essentials, Craft Stamper, Crafts Beautiful, Quick Cards, Simply cards and papercraft.
(2) Craft shops in Edinburgh: Stamper Grove, Hobby Craft.

Holiday in France

I just got back from a 10-days holiday in France.  
What a great holiday full of discoveries and gorgeous weather. I stayed a few days in the South of France discovering the villages of Séguret, Sablet and Vaison-la-Romaine before going to la Ville Lumière. 
Here's a brief summary of my journey.
It started in the small village of Séguret, hometown of my sweetheart. 

Séguret is a small village in Vaucluse. It is surrounded by the dentelles de Montmirail and the Mont Ventoux. It belongs to one of the most beautiful villages of France. The village lies at the foot of a hill topped by the ruins of its feudal castle. And it is also famous for its excellent Côtes du Rhône wine. More infos about Séguret here: http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/vaucluse/seg

                                  

  

 

We chilled out on Sunday afternoon at the lac du Paty and were darous enough to have a swim in the oh so cold water.

I then explored the lovely medieval town of Vaison-la-Romaine and bought some local products on the  weekly market. One of the most interesting aspects of the town is its geography and its Roman ruins. The Roman ruins and the modern town are in the valley on the banks of the river Ouvèze which is crossed by an ancient bridge from the 1st century AD.
More info about Vaison-la-Romaine here: http://www.provenceweb.fr/e/vaucluse/vaison/vaison.htm

During my stay in Provence I met lovely and interesting people. My sweetheart's family give me a very warm welcome and made me discover great spots, such as the Groseau waterfall.
More info here: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groseau
http://www.ledauphine.com/vaucluse/2010/08/13/la-source-du-groseau

We then headed back north to enjoy the rest of our holidays in Paris. Thanks to the gorgeous weather we enjoyed lovely walks and picnics and lots of ice creams...  
It was the week of the Paris movie festival and there were a few belgian movies on the list. We chose to watch Kid, a tough and deep movie from Fien Troch. We also went to the Cité de la Musique and view a very interesting exhibition dedicated to music and cinema (Musique et cinéma: le mariage du siècle).

I really enjoyed my time in France. I came back full of energy, with a lovely colour on my natural pale skin :-) and with more love in my heart.

Bird serie - 2

The bird serie is finally ready after some delay due to a major distraction: the SUN.
It's been sunny all week here in Edinburgh and I couldn't resign myself to stay inside. I had to go out and enjoy lazying about in the park with a book and have a chat with friends :-)
And to be honest I also kept on postponing bying frames...
Anyway the serie is now ready. And I am sharing with you how I realised it.
I already had selected the patterned papers I wanted to use as background (see previous post Bird serie - 1).
I chose plain coloured cardboard matching the background papers and I cut the bird template in it. I then decorated each bird with various embellishments (flowers, buttons, paper lace doilies), I highlighted the border with a pen and I used a flat pearl bead for the eye).

I then glued each decorated bird on the assorted background paper. I also added  some extra elements such as stamps, flowers, buttons and leaves to fill up the empty spaces without overloading the page though. I wanted to keep it simple (more in the clean & simple style); the focus should remain on the bird. And after doing that, the birds were ready to be framed!
As I could not find any frame in the colours I wanted, I decided to buy cheap frames and to paint them so they would match the birds designs.
I started sanding each frame to take off the varnish and to prepare it for the painting.
On 4 frames I used a semi-liquid light violet metallic colour (see pictures of violet frames 2,3,7,8). On the 4 others (see pictures of frames 1,4,5,6) I used white gesso as primer coating and then I put Adirondack Alcohol ink - applied with a sponge. On frame 8, I added a stamp design on the edges.  And this is what it looks like:

I really enjoyed working on this serie and it did not request a lot of effort. Once you have a clear idea of what you want (I usually start doing some sketches on paper) and which paper to use, it goes pretty quick. You just need to cut, arrange, glue and frame. Moreover you don't need a lot of material. To realise the serie, I used the followings:
- 8"x10" frames - you can buy cheap ones and decorate/customise them (as I did) or buy ready made ones;
- white gesso paint and alcohol ink to decorate your frame;
- patterned papers to use for the backgrounds (I used free samples from Papercrafter magazine);
- various plain coloured papers for the birds - to match or contrast with your patterned papers (any leftovers will do);
- embellishments: buttons, ribbons, flowers... anything you fancy to embellish your design.
The pictures below with details show you how easy it is to obtain nice results with just a few extra elements.

I hope you'll enjoy it.
If you have any questions concerning the materials, the techniques or anything else, I'll be happy to get back to you.
Don't hesitate to leave a comment or send a message. Any feedback is welcome.

Hello sunshine - Happy Edinburgh

I usually try to avoid reading newspaper on my way to work – mostly because I catch the 6:39 bus and I don’t want the rest of my day being spoiled by bad news. And let’s face it, newspapers are crammed with negativity; from poor economy to tragedies and murders, just to name a few.

But for some reason I decided to break the rule - even if I knew it was way too early for bad news on what was due to be a promising sunny day… So I picked up the Metro in the newspaper rack available on the bus and gave it a go. As I started turning the pages, I came across one bad news after the other (e.g. a baby wedged into the toilet and blocked in the pipes…). And while I was seriously considering leaving my reading aside,  the following header drew my attention: "It's capital: City's just full of shiny happy people".  What ? Shiny happy people... Gosh I love that song; a brilliant duet were the voices of Michael Stipe (REM) and  the flamboyant Kate Pierson (B-52's) blend perfectly well.  And could it be the article is talking about Edinburgh's people ?  Well that made me curious enough to want to read further.  And this is how it goes.  "Edinburgh is the happiest city in the UK, according to its civic leaders".  The article itself was not particularly interesting but you can find more info in the metro of May 29.

Anyway this was enough to start the day with a smile on my face and it is still there today... probably thanks to the lovely weather.  Yes, we are enjoying a lovely pre-summer time.   And in a city as green as Edinburgh, with its numerous parks, hills or the seaside… this weather enables us to enjoy the beauty of flowers in bloom and the melody of singing birds.

Arthur seat

Cramond

 But this is not a priviledge to Edinburgh only; Scotland is filled with beautiful spots. Last Saturday I enjoyed the beauty of the Scottish borders with a journey trip to Bowhill Estate, in Selkirk. I joined my dear friend Flavia for a walk in the forest and along the lake. A real enchantment.  And the place offers a variety of activities: a visit of the House and the gardens, marked trails, country ride, playground for kids, theatre…

If you want more info on the Scottish Borders, check on this website:  http://www.visitscottishborders.com/

Bird serie - 1

Last weekend I decided to tidy up my (craft)room cause lately I’ve been putting my crafty bits (especially my stack of papers and my hand-designed templates) all together in one big pile. It was at a stage I couldn’t see what I have. And of course it doesn’t make me want to start crafting as I first have to dig ;-)

So I gave a big clean up and while organising my blank cardboards and patterned papers, I came across a booklet of free patterned papers (that I got from Papercrafter ) (*).

What a shame I haven’t used them yet. Let’s change that right away. And… why not using them or at least some of them to design a serie of frames with…hummmm….birds (let’s celebrate spring). That's a deal! 

Let's start with drawing a bird on cardboard so it can be used as template and let’s pick some papers.

The idea is to make a serie of frames with a big bird in the center.  The bird will be decorated with all sorts of embellishments (flowers, buttons, doodles…) assorted to the background paper. And then it'll be framed.

Let’s see the results in a next post…

(*) Papercrafter is the renewed version of Let’s make cards.

Event

Great news for all papercrafters and scrapbookers!

This Saturday the Meadowbank Sports Stadium (London Road, Edinburgh) will be hosting the RossPaper Craft show for the first time. The entrance is only £2 and there will be many exhibitors proposing a great choice of cardmaking and scrapbooking supplies and a lot of demonstrations. Definitely the place to go this Saturday for all crafters. At least where I will be!

More Info:

The show takes place on Saturday 01 june 2013 from 10am to 3pm. You can buy your ticket at the door or beforehand at Stampers Grove if you’d like to avoid queuing.

Crafts and New Blog

As I mentioned it in my last message, this post is dedicated to share a few recent papercraft projects I've been working on.

Last month I attended a paper sculpture demonstration in the Central library.

Paper sculpture ? What is it all about ?

Well it’s creating shapes, objects, scenery  and so on from books, magazine, newspapers…  

A perfect way to give a new life to old books (happy recycling J).  I stayed 1.5 hour and realised two basic pieces:

1)      I re-used a hardcover book to make a letter holder.  It is really easy to make and very quick.  You just have to fold the pages in a certain way to create it.

2)      I also made an angel.  There again I re-used a book but this time one with a soft cover. I folded the pages to obtain the body/robe and  I cut the cover into the shape of angel wings. To realise the head, I cut a few pages in a rounded shape and I glued them together; starting with the top edge and the next one with the bottom edge and repeating it until I obtained a ball.

It could easily be used as table decoration for Christmas or any other occasion. And you can add some colour by painting the pages or by using a coloured comic/manga book.

I really like this one and my friend as well :-)

During the past weeks I also explored the art of Doodling and Zentangle.  

Originally, doodling is making some scribbles or drawings that could be either abstract or actually representing something concrete. 

I remember doodling or doing some random scribbles on a piece of paper when I was bored or when I needed to occupy myself while my attention was drawn elsewhere or just to do something with my hands while daydreaming J.  And we all doodle.  Yes, we DO! It can be simply by doing some sketches in a notebook, drawing some shapes in the margin of a schoolbook and so on.  

This form of creativity as since a few years found a new dimension in Zentangle.

Zentangle is a slightly more organised way of doodling, using patterns to form a drawing (or not)… It is also a very relaxing activity (Zentangle) and it can give such great (art) results. More info about zentangle here: http://www.zentangle.com

I was already using doodles in my crafts as additional touch (borders, stitches, flowers…) 

but now I’ve tried to create a finished piece from doodles:

and Zentangles:

New Blog

As I’m developing my craft activities, I’ve decided to set up a new blog that will be dedicated to crafts: www.akhatanpaper.blogspot.com

I will keep this one and post new messages on a regular base with general info, venues,  readings…

Feel free to leave a comment and/or send a message.  Any feedback is welcome J