tincan handmade craft deli

I lived in Shiga-ken in Japan once upon a time.

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 16:07:00 +0000

When I saw this "Wave off Kanagawa" reminiscent die on TEMU, it reminded me of the woodblock prints of Hokusai, Ando, Kuniyoshi etc. I was transported back in time to the first decade of the 2000's when I lived in the land of the rising sun, it made me nostalgic for the beautiful landscapes and rich history. So I decided to order it and I have been having fun with it. I have never seen this die anywhere else other than where I saw it on TEMU, so I dont think there is a patent or brand on it. A while back I also ordered a 12 well pack of the "CANDY" Shimmer Solid Watercolour paint from TEMU and I didnt really get to play with it much because we were moving and I just didn't have all the time I would have like to really test run it. Long story short - I took an evening to test-run both the paints and the die and while I only meant to do one test, I had so much fun with it - I did three iterations.

I really liked the die because it cuts cleanly and layers pretty decently. I say this because I have ordered another sea wave die but I could never get it to cut well and they were supposed to layer but their plate design have them facing in opposite directions - so you always had one that looked embossed-cute and the other one debossed cut. This one just works. Anyway - here they are:

Bohemian Masculinity

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Sat, 08 Jun 2024 19:55:00 +0000

Would you send this card to a guy? Do guy cards have to be bland coloured and boring - why cant they have loads of texture and colour and why cant like leaves be a masculine thing? I would totally send this card to a guy, this guy identifies Bohemian okay? - this is our next entry into the Masculine challenge over at Simon Says Stamp.

A tree on the other side of the wall shed a whole bunch of leaves. I liked them. I really didnt want to put them the in garden refuse. I know I am a bit on the oddball side but stay with me. I bust out the Dala Drawing Inks (from now on referred to as DDI) again and had an idea brewing in my head - I knew painting the leaves in the rich and vibrant jewel tones that DDI comes in would be just luscious! I wasn't wrong! Look at the saturation of the pigment in the inks - its so deep and but transparent at the same time. I love it - well done Dala, you have nailed the drawing ink. Its so much more than a drawing ink - its a whole craft experience. Dala Suncolour used to be go to for dying anything - paper or cloth - but I have been converted. I now exclusively use DDI for paper and card when I want deep, rich transparent colour on paper and card and keep the suncolour for dying fabric.

Anyway, about the card. The background is a paperscrap from my bag of scrap. I went with what I would consider a Masculine Bohemian type colour palette to zhoosh up the leaves. Oh I like the bottles that the DDI comes in now - they have a pointy nozzle, much more user-friendly than the flip tops. I used DDI in Magenta, Golden Yellow, Orange, Violet Process Cyan, Scarlet and Olive.

Initially I wanted to line them up in 3 leaves sort of deal, standard, dependable layout but somewhat cliched - so then I decided I'd rather layer the multi-coloured leaves on top of each other like a forest of trees. I loved that. I put a strip of 2-side tape on a thin strip of dark brown card and stuck a raggedy piece of gauze on the back. I had a big brown rounded square button that I thought looked like a masculine button, I added more of the Sand craft paint to the button to make it look a little more rustic, threaded it with some thin paper rope to tie into a shoelace knot.

We had a few runes left over from the "Enter the Dragon" card, and like I said in the last post - this was made with Dala Clever Clay. You can get crazy clay in different colours. I would suggest that you get a standard set and then get twice the amount of white. With your drawing ink you can colour customise the clay to your preference.

I add a drop or two of Black DDI to white clay to make the stone grey. I overstuffed the clay it into a mold. I used a dough scraper to scrape off the excess on the top so that it is fairly level on the bottom. It

takes about 24 hours to completely dry or you can be like me and try and get it out of the mold 12 hours later - these were thin so it worked out well for me.

Here is my trick to get the textured effect of weathered stone. Don't get too finicky about getting the clay into the mold too well - if it has a few airbubbles - it makes it look more stonelike. When your grey pieces are dry put a thin layer of craft paint on the dry clay, let it sit for about a minute or two. Then with a wet brush, lightly water-wash the pieces so that the paint doesnt wash off completely - just let it be not perfect and not uniform. That way you get this really mottled effect that looks like it is stone that has been painted and weathered over time.

I used these left over rune pieces to give it a little more manly Bohemian Viking interest. Anyway I am so happy with how this turned out.

I am already dreaming up new ideas for more craft projects with my collection of Dala supplies. Stay tuned for more ways to use these versatile products in crazy ways.

I am not associated by any affiliate relation to DALA nor am I sponsored to write posts about them - I just really, really, really enjoy their brand. I think they are very well priced and have a great selection and variety of craft supplies. I also like the quality of their products.

Dala has a store on Takealot - click this Dala to link to it. They dont have their entire catalogue on it - which is sad because they now also have polymer clay and alcohol ink and it is not on the site. Or you can also get a fairly decent selection at Crazy Plastics if you're in South Africa.

I got the Runes mold from Temu, - they have different kinds of silicone molds for resin, baking and crafting, I am super happy with the quality of the molds as well - I put them through all kinds of trauma in my crafting experiments and they are still alive.

I do have a discount code for TEMU to pass down - that will get you 30% off if you search the code acp636712 on the app, if you are new to TEMU - you can ⭐️Click the link https://temu.to/m/ulqdrhgg4l0 to get 💰R2,000 (+/- U$D50) coupon bundle or ⭐️ Search acp636712 on the Temu App to get 💰30% off discount !!

Enter the Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 14:58:00 +0000

When Monday rolled around and the weekly challenge at Simon Says Stamp was revealed to be "Masculine" and then the Wednesday challenge was also "Masculine", I sat down with my 6 year old to think about what we could do - I suggested something with a lot of gears and riveted metal and she didn't love the idea.... the steampunker in me was devasted. She suggested we do something with bright colours and hearts - so then I had to explain that that probably wouldn't fit with the theme challenge.

So then we had a conversation about what "masculine' means - and I tried to give examples of masculine signifiers that 6 year old could understand - things like colours etc. I got to tell you I had the best conversation about the arbitrariness of culturally defined markers of masculinity. She wanted to know why colours make something boy-like when it is just a colour? Then she wanted to know how did they choose those colours to be boy-like then she wanted to know who made the rules about boy-colours and girl colours, and boy-rules and girl-rules. Then she wanted to know why the people who made the nonsensical rules made the rule that boys shouldn't like flowers, hearts and pretty colours. I loved all the philosophical reflection. I also loved that she thought these categories of masculinity and its markers were irrelevant, arbitrary and completely ridiculous. Plus I think I have a budding feminist philosopher on my hands.

Following the existential disappointment she felt in the state of culture - we had to come up with an idea that would both uphold her convictions in starting a cultural revolution that would spearhead a challenge of the arbitrary norms 😝but still stay within the scope of the challenge.

Now it is not a big secret that both my spunky 6 year old and I both love the "How to train your Dragon" franchise, the "Dragon Riders" series so I suppose it inevitably transpired that she suggested that we do a Dragon themed card. In retrospect and as I type this post - the layers of significance in this piece of pop-culture film in relation to our existential resolution is magnificent. If you remember any of the HTTYD films - you will have noted that it expertly deals with issues of 'stereotyping' and 'toxic masculinity' in the most awesome, entertainingly educational way. Hiccup the protagonist character breaks the gender trope of the male hero being excessively brute, violent, and disposed toward force and domination. The Dragons are multi-coloured and sparkly beautiful, they are ridden by both malesand females. Once there is a respectful communion between the riders and themselves, they are strong and a force to be reckoned with. Once they are able to transcend their labels - they are somewhat invincible and the nature and quality of life for all becomes a whole lot better. So as I reflect now, I think in light of her questioning the facetiousness of gender-specific conventions and the themes dealt with in HTYYD, her suggestion of a dragon-themed card is a pretty cool rebellion on gender-tropes.

So here is what we did - a dragon- in some deep pinks, blues and greens - while still staying within the realm of things asssociated with masculinity.

We made the leathery skin on the card by wrinkling up a piece of regular 80gsm card, and 'squeeze
sponging' over it with some Dala Drawing Ink (Sepia). It created a lovely textured effect - the ink settles in the wrinkles and pools in some places. Dala's drawing ink has a bit of a glaze quality to it - so you can really create an approximate appearance of worn leather.

Using artistic licence we decided that we were going to use Rune-like symbology to represent dragon script. We made the runes with Dala's clever clay. It is lightweight airdry clay that dries to a fun foam like consistency. I added a drop or two of Dala black drawing ink to white clay to make a stone colour. I got the runes mold from Temu. We pressed the clever clay into the mold and then levelled it off with a dough scraping tool. It requires 24 hours to dry to full cure - but I was able to liberate them out of the mold in about half of that time. They got a light sponge treatment with Dala craft paint (sand) and then a water wash to take off some of the paint so it sort of looks like weathered painted stone.

Next we were onto the Dragon - I bought the Dragon die from Temu - there were a lot of tiny pieces in the belly of the dragon - it was little bit of a mission to work with because they kept falling out. the solution was to put a strip of Stencil glue (also Dala) on the reverse side all the way up the belly to hold those tiny pieces in place. We coloured the dragon in

with Pentel's two-tone gels,

The background on which the dragon rests - was made with Distress inks - sort of - I just used the inking tools and I didn't add more dye to them so that the colour was not as saturated and it looked a bit muted.

If you are interested in the vast catalogue of non branded wafer craft dies (like the Chinese dragon) at Temu or their eccentric selection of silicone molds (like the runes mold) that Temu has - you can use this link to https://temu.to/m/ulqdrhgg4l0 get a💰R2,000 (+/-U$D50)coupon bundle for a first time user or ⭐️ Search acp636712 on the Temu App to get 💰30% off discount !!

Dala does have an online store on TAKEALOT Dala - which is an online marketplace like Amazon in South Africa - items can be shipped to anywhere in the world from there - plus I guarantee you - they are so well priced you could buy a whole lot more product than you thought you would be able to

So there you have our entry for the Monday Challenge of Masculine on Simon Says Stamp.

All about texture - but didnt make it!

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 12:48:00 +0000

I started making this card with the intent to submit into the draw for U$D 25 voucher at Simon Says Stamp - the theme was TEXTURE. Anyhow long story short - I didn't make the deadline for submission. But it was too cute not to share - and there is lots of lovely texture - and I really had fun making it.

Fortunately - the Wednesday challenge is "Anything Goes" - so I will get another chance to enter the draw and that is exactly what I am going to do.

I bought the adorably whimsical mushroom die from TEMU.

It's okay guys to buy dies that are unbranded and are not designed by a well known designer or design company....it's okay....

The embossing folder is an old one from TimHoltz texture fades - I would not be able to tell you which one exactly - because it could possibly be from about decade ago - all I know is that it is a sizzix one and it looks baroque and flourish.

The gauze came from the medical supplies kit. The background paper that I turned into a fake momigami type element - yup you know what I am going to say - TEMU ofcourse, it was the VOYAGER 6x6 paper pack set. And the bits of bark were fly-away bits of yellowood bark that I rescued from my husbands' workshop rubbish bin.

I have an affiliate link for TEMU that will get you a discount bundle of about R2000 or about $100 as of the exchange rate today if you are new to TEMU - you can also qualify for a 30% off discount. - You can get that deal if you go through this link: https://temu.to/m/ulqdrhgg4l0 or you can search acp636712 on the Temu App to get 💰30% off discount !!

Anyway - enjoy

Day of the DAD

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Wed, 29 May 2024 09:45:00 +0000

💀💀 this is a bonus post💀💀

I have a funny punny 6year old! She's a little eccentric in her tastes. She loved the Disney film Coco, and ever since then has been intrigued by Dia de Muertos (did I spell that right?). Anywhooooo, we were talking about Father's day and making Father's day cards and I bought a new unbranded, generic, no designer vine wreath die from Temu. So we did a test run of the die. We used some background paper that we got from Temu as well as the remaining woodslice that we had cut up and coloured from the Tim Holtz/Sizzix set that we used in the last card. Once we started layering everything together - For reasons only known to my eccentric little girl - this die reminded her of sugar skulls and calacas and from there was born the best giggles only a six year old could produce - "Mom" she said - "We should call this card - 'Day of the Dad'!" - I gotta say I could not have come up with something as awesome as that- so here it is a "Day of the Dad" card for her dad.

Temu has been great for getting everything from sparkle paint, to dies, to stencils, even resin which I made the tiny dew drops with. If you are thinking of checking the marketplace out and have never bought from them before - I have a code that will help you get coupon bundles of up to R2000 (zar) or the U$D equivalent of $55 - you will also qualify for 30% off your first order. TEMU is like the affordable version of Amazon or Wish. Shipping is free in South Africa right and you pay import tax calculated on the nature of your goods. I find that this works out for my wallet a whole lot better than going through Amazon. So what I an going to do is drop my link here below - and you can use it to qualify for the coupon bundle or the discount.

⭐️Click the link https://temu.to/m/ulqdrhgg4l0 to get 💰R2,000 coupon bundle

⭐️ Search acp636712 on the Temu App to get 💰30% off discount !!

You may use this code as a voucher code on checkout as well~

'Hope' is the thing with feathers!

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Sat, 25 May 2024 16:11:00 +0000

I like entering those Simon Says Stamp challenge - So every now and again with enough time and the when I have the crafty stash that aligns with either the Monday or Wednesday challenge, I give it a go - and this one was really fun to do. The theme of the Wednesday challenge is Feathers or Fur. Anyhow, this was great because it made me think of that Emily Dickinson poem - 'Hope' is the thing with feathers. AND I always hope that the random number generator will pick my number - because who wouldn't like $25 from Simon Says Stamp. And so here we are - and this is going to be my entry....I figure this is going to be my best shot.

A little walk through on the making of the card so that you can. I wanted to keep the colours muted and somewhat masculine - because I think I am going to give this one to my dad for Father's day.

I made the background patterned paper by distress inking (Vintage Photo, Brushed Courdroy and Walnut Stain) through an A4 sized page of various feather patterns in stencil film that I may have either got from Crazy Plastics or Westpack - I cant really remember for sure because it was a while back - however you all know that I recently have been making patterned paper from cake stencils that I got from Temu - so I had a little squiz over there - and I think I will be ordering this from them next.

I have an affiliate link that you can use to get 30% and some free gifts and a R2000 coupon bundle if you are a new user. You can do that by clicking on this link -

⭐️Click the link https://temu.to/m/ulqdrhgg4l0 to get 💰R2,000 coupon bundle

or ⭐️ Search

acp636712 on the Temu App to get 💰30% off discount !!

I drew and doodled on the stencilled feathers to give it a bit of personalisation and interest with Pentel Metallic gels and the grey jelly roll set from Sakura.

Over that I ran a strip of natural burlap ribbon that you can pick up from Temu for next to nothing - you can paint the edges to match your colour pallette with one coat acrylic by masking off the centre of the ribbon with masking tape.

I thought it would be super cute to have a heartshaped woodslice over that -
the woodslice comes from the amazing Sizzix/Tim Holtz Woodslice collection.

A while ago we used to have a stationery and magazine store chain that I think that has since gone out of business - they used to import these monthly magazines called Die-cutting Essentials or something like that - they were awesome - every month you would get a die as a freebie. The feather die came from one of them. And I had guinea fowl feather that I picked up somewhere that I added on top of the paper feathers to give it a little textural interest.

I am kinda sad that my phone camera and lighting really washes out the colour on this card. While the tone is muted browns, blues and greys - the actual card is a little more saturated and those contrasting colours and patterns really work so elegantly together. I didnt want to stick on a "hope" sentiment on the card so I used the 'hugs' instead because like I said earlier my dad is going to be the recipient of this card for Father's day.

I watercoloured a bit inbetween in the white spaces between the feathers just to tie in the colours a little bit for a more cohesive feel. And that was that!

Anyway I hope you like this entry. I hope the Simon Says Stamp random generator likes my entry too!

Finally, I leave you with this gorgeous little poem by Emily Dickinson - enjoy...

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

Cake Stencil and Patterned Paper hacks - a second part to the story

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Sun, 19 May 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Yes I am back with the next installment of guerilla crafting.

My next project that I will enter into the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge is this one.

Yoh, this one was a whole lot of fun to make. I always forget how lovely a simple Primary colour palette on Kraft card is.

I made the patterned paper by using distress ink in Spiced marmalade,Candied apples, Black Soot and Peacock Feathers on kraft and similar toned paper.

I bought the cake stencils from TEMU - once again I am happily going to sing about how affordable these are. ZAR R45 is about U$D 2.50

They have a magnificent variety to choose from. And you can co-ordinate your own shape and size bundle if you want. I am so thrilled with my guerilla crafting supplies from TEMU that I am happily affiliating with the site now to offer anyone on the struggling end of crafting supplies a chance to get stuff on discount there as well. If you want to use my referral link - to check out the awesome generic, non-branded bake and cake stencil stuff you can find there - You can also qualify for a R2000/ U$D 110 coupon + 30% off if you would like that with referral code/link as a new user - which is clickable right here https://temu.to/m/ulqdrhgg4l0

Happy guerilla crafting - may your craft cart supplies be plentiful.

Cake and Patterns and Distress ink - part one

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Sun, 19 May 2024 16:39:00 +0000

Hello there

The Wednesday challenge over at Simon Says Stamp is all about PATTERNED PAPER. I would love a shot at the USD 25 to shop there, USD prices for crafty things is sooooooo painful to a South African wallet so whenever I have the time and energy to take a stab at it - I try to take it. Plus I really enjoy finding ways to re-imagine my random stashes of things.

So I did a little guerilla crafting on the side to fit the challenge.....but I have a few tricks and crafty witchery to share.

Well I needed to use patterned paper and I was determined to have a co-ordinating scheme going, and frankly I did not have the cash to splurge on multiple pieces of the patterned paper or whole books of patterned paper so I had to make a plan - and a plan I did make.

I got these cake stencils a while back from TEMU and I have been loving them. I know that some people have issues with places like TEMU - I am not one of those people - I want to craft, crafting supplies are expensive and TEMU fills the gap created by the aforementioned. I am happy. I hope you are too, if you are not, then well I have to add a disclaimer here that I don't plan on making it my burden to carry the torch for it and I don't plan on dying on that hill too. We can part ways and opinions and I wont be offended. You do you, I do me. They are really well priced on TEMU and you dont have to pay the exorbitant shipping and duty charges that AMAZON charged me for the same kind of stencils. My goal here is to guerilla craft on the cheap and introduce that to the South African market - I believe craft and creativity is something that should be accessible to all - I believe that there is purchasing power disadvantage that non-US/UK/EU citizens face and I believe in restoring the parity as my own contribution - anyhow as you can see - as of today the dollar equivalent of this stencil is U$D 3 - whereas on Amazon it was something like $5 and that was excluding shipping and tax.

If you are interested in checking out TEMU - you can link to it here with my referral code - ⭐️Click the link https://temu.to/m/ulqdrhgg4l0 to get 💰R2,000 coupon bundle or ⭐️ Search acp636712 on the Temu App to get 💰30% off discount !!. If you are a new user you will get a 30% off discount and they have a bunch of other marketing offers as well that you can cash in on.

Back to the challenge - I made my own co-ordinating patterned paper with this stencil and and my good old trusty DISTRESS INKS/OXIDES and a bunch of other salvaged items from various stashes of scrap. It was fun - I loved it so much I am going to do another post with the other card I made with other cake stencils.

This totally frees you up to make whatever card you want in whatever colour you want and you can mess around with all kinds of elements you want in the same co-ordinating scheme as well. I am seriously chanting "Let them papercraft cake" at this point. Cake stencils are awesome - they are longer than average paper craft stencils and they come in so many lovely patterns. I love the ones that you can seamlessly repeat the pattern with. You should check it out!

Here's my affiliate code again - https://temu.to/m/ulqdrhgg4l0 to get the 30% off welcome bonus and the chance to grab the R2000 /U$D 110 coupon bundle or you can search this code - acp636712 on the app to get a 30% off new user welcome bonus that is linked with this code.

Happy Guerilla Crafting

Irregular holes!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Sun, 12 May 2024 13:06:00 +0000

A while ago I spied with my little eye these awesome dies from Memory box - they had an ocean theme and you could layer them to make a kind a diorama of sorts. I thought they were super cute. I wanted to have them but my lowest end of middle-class South African wallet didn't. So I almost forgot about them.

Almost - because whilst on a shoot around on a random online marketplace that trades in South Africa - I happened upon a set of generic, non-branded set of graduated irregular border-window dies. I think you were supposed to make paper mountains out of them but I immediately thought of the memory box dies and the potential funnery colonised my head and so of course I had to get them.

So I did.

- and then I had to make something with them -

So I did.

I made this little koi pond diorama-dee-da card for my mom for mother's day and she absolutely loved it.

It turned out so stinking cute - the koi fish were also non-branded dies that I got off of Wish at some point. I used the biggest one out of that set. My dear darling is in the process of building us kitchen cupboards for our new place and he is busy processing some raw yellowood - the bark came off of the edges of those planks. I made the greenery by staining and crinkling up some old wax-paper chip bags then cutting out strips of pond weed looking thingies. It was a lot of funnery indeedery.

I have so many ideas in my ol' noggin for all kinds of projects with these irregular border layering dies.

More works in progress - you win some - you lose some

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 07:24:00 +0000

Nothing too much to say about this - except that it was a fun thing to do - I broke from my recent Dala Ink obsession and went back to good old Tim Holtz Distress ink to ink the elements. My favourite part was inking a brown bag in 'evergreen bough'/'moss-something-or-the-other' and then fussy-cutting curling it up to make the seaweed.

This next one below is an idea that I am kicking around with. I dont particularly love it enough yet to give it's own post - but it is still fun to keep messing with it to see where it goes.

Lastly - this is one that I am not fond of at all. I am discovering that my attempts at a vintage style - might not be my thing AT ALL . So like here in this one below I feel like I don't get the elements and/or the layout right and it just looks like a bunch of things got stuck together with a stray piece of chewed up bubblegum on some dirty ol' rubbish bin. And maybe I need to wash my blender brushes because all my inking looks a little dirty. And quite clearly this is a choice of palette that does not work together - but hey - you live you learn. What's that thing they say - "Creativity is about making mistakes, art is knowing which ones to keep" or something like that?

This one is NOT the one to keep

😛

Experiments with packaging

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 07:15:00 +0000

I have to admit that I drive my family nuts with my collections of junk, old packaging and just generally anything I think might make a nice bit of texture or craft experiment. There is a point to it though - you can discover some awesome texture stamps and I feel better about re-using things that would normally just end up in the rubbish dump. So I always feel better about reducing waste and doing a tiny bit for the future of the planet and having some experimental fun in the process - win-win.

Anyway, this project below is one of those:

Are you able to pick out the salvaged elements?

There is a piece of corrugated cardboard that came from a box that I painted with Dala Tempera in Magenta.

😜😜😜😜😜😜😜I stamped the background border texture from a piece of shock-protection sponge that is used in electronic goods packaging - it really makes a lovely printed mottled, bubbly texture - this would be awesome to mess around with on a gel plate I reckon.

The actual background card was the cardboard insert, that they stretch pantyhose over (dudes I am not even kidding here - I will save everything). On that note, the insides of the little boxes that the Tempeest loadshedding light bulbs come in make the best material to use in a die-cutting machine - it is stiff but soft enough to cut through and very, very easy to use with dye ink if you would like to add some colour.

The little string elements came off gift tags on this year's christmas presents. The white mesh was from a roll of mosaic tile tape😁. The black grid and the buttons are about the only things that I can say that came from actual dedicated craft store supplies.....though I bought those buttons in a fabric store with the intention to make a tiny button necklace.

The sentiment element was the inside piece of a frame die that I used on another project.

And I stamped and coloured with Dala drawing ink that I soaked into those flat latex make-up sponges. You've got to keep these latex sponges constantly wet and in a teeny airtight 'tupperware' type container if you want to make these re-usable as the ink does eventutally dry out to a hard matt glaze type finish if you do not. But I mean its not too bad if it does, you can crumble this up, I have once before chucked the broken bits in an old coffee grinder that I use for crafting to make colourful crumbly bits for other projects. I mean I dont know what I might actually use this weird textured thing for - but hey it is what it is and when the time comes it's use will reveal itself to me....tee hee....😜😜

A never-ending story - a beautiful journey with Dala

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 19:36:00 +0000

I know that I have mentioned my love of Dala supplies in the past. This is another Dala gushy post featuring their puff paint. Guys, I am giving you the permission to steal this supply from your kids stash - it is so fun to mess with.

A while back the framing shop SERENDIPITY (a Framing shop with some art and craft supplies) had a tiny bottle of Dala Puff paint in the kids craft section, so I got it - and then I forgot about it. I just recently re-dicovered it. Anyway the lid on this thing had split open at the top for some reason so the paint had started to dry out a bit but I discovered that this makes it work a little better than when it is fresh off the cart. The slightly dried out, more viscous consistency of the paint - makes it easier to control on paper and you can scrape it into lines, run it over a stencil as a paste, it dries a little quicker as well, so you can mess about with puffing bit a little faster (which is always a plus when you are as impatient as myself).

Puff Paint comes in the regular Dala brand colours and so while you can get it pre-coloured I like the white puff paint because you can paint or dye it whatever colour want and you can control to a fair degree where you want to colour the puff. Plus - it's all about the texture - this is the most grown-up kind of puff paint if you are into texture but want to move beyond the marshmallow puff kind of puffing paint. With a heat gun you can puff this baby up straight away, or you can wait and let it dry naturally on the paper. Depending on how you heat it and how thin or thick you strokes of paint are you can create tiny puff plumes or big billowy plumes of puff. I laid on the puff paint in dense gloopy globs and blasted it with a heat gun here to create the the whimsical "lavender" stalks . While for the background texture - I kind scraped it on with a spatula tool and then created lines by dragging vertical stripes through with a disposable knife. I also let this dry out a bit longer before I blasted with a hot hairdryer instead of a heat gun.

The colouring was done with the Dala kids 12 block paint set that I mixed in a palette with drops of watered down Dala Dawing inks. I used Magenta, Turquoise, Yellow, Blue, Viridian and Green - but I blended them in various shades to my preference. This works surprisingly well and you can get the best spectrum with just a combination of inks and kids powder watercolour paint.

On another side-note while we are talking about raiding your kids art supplies - another brilliant product from DALA to paint with is the kids liquid TEMPERA - the colours are so richly pigmented and lightfast, and it has a lovely almost liquid gel like feel to it, so it doesn't scrape on the paper and shred it, it also seems to make the paper less warpy than regular watery kids paint. While I am quite excited to share my Tempera experiments and will post on it in the future - I didn't use Tempera on this tiny project though.

The background stamping was done in Dala Black, Blue and Red Stamp Pad Ink that I mixed together and then watered down a little with glycerine, to give it a little smudgy sort of faded out effect, I liked that it kinda makes it look like badly printed fabric. I poured this mixture into an empty stamp pad and stamped the background with that. I find that just playing around with Dala regular stamp pad ink blends gives you the most vintage effects. If you add the right amount of ink to their Acrylic Retarder and lay that down on squished up paper, let it dry and then iron it out flat - you can create some really cool looking vintage background paper. You can really do so much with these products if you are willing to experiment - I truly love this company, the fact that all their products work seamlessly with each other and the freedom it gives you to mess about with your own creativity without breaking the bank.

The lasso frame behind the bark was made from dyeing white paper covered wire with watered down Dala Golden Brown Drawing Ink. The paper wire may or may not have been from Dala - I have no idea where it comes from - I am willing to go there though and say it because most of the craft items I get are from Dala.

Anyway - this is my Dala appreciation post for today. I am not sponsored neither am I affiliated with them in any way, I just really appreciate their stuff because it is well priced for the quantity you get and the quality is pretty decent compared to buying from abroad. It's good to support local and they deserve the mentions because it is literally my 'go-to' brand and I love it.

My future mad scientist experiment with Dala lovables is going to use the acrylic glaze as a "clear drawing ink" - I want to make metallic drawing inks - I have purchased the Dala Pearlescent Powders and my idea is to blend the powder with the glaze to make metallic drawing ink. I will keep you posted if it works out!

a little bit of everything

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Sat, 19 Aug 2023 15:55:00 +0000

So I always save all kinds of bits and pieces of things that I save because I think they might come in handy one day to craft with. The fun part for I have to admit is re-imagining (upcycle if you will) things you would ordinarily chuck out. So I have boxes of salvaged things like popsicle sticks and bits of wire, used plastic zip ties and gold paint that I scraped up off mats. I found a book of latin verse that was published in the early 60's and I collected that too.

But what do you do with the random collections of junk before your house starts to look like a an episode of Hoarders? Make cards - that's what you do, make adorable cards for your loved ones.

Popsicle sticks can be turned into a little fence with a black pen and some brown stain or ink. I mixed Dala Sepia Drawing Ink with a bit of their Black drawing ink and watered it down to get a weathered effect.

Old cereal boxes can take a crafty beating - I put a layer of modpodge on it to glue down some book pages - inked over with Dala Drawing Ink. I love Dala drawing ink for vibrant but translucent colour. The ink must have some kind of glaze or polymer in it because it dries to a matte gloss finish. It's really cool

I then die cut the Hollyhocks out of the cereal boxes with the holly hock die. They went in front of the fence and that wrought iron strip was a piece of zip tie that got a treatment of super glue and fine beach sand that I dyed with Dala drawing ink. I kinda did the same thing on the sentiment label plate thingie bit with a rougher texture from big flake glitter that I had bought for my kid from Dala as well - over the top went some gold leaf size from Dala which I could swear is the same as Dala Stencil Glue which I have been obsessed with for years. I let that dry out a bit to get super tacky. The gold leaf flakes are actually the result of mixing Dala gold paint mixed with a bit gold edible mica (the kind you use in baking - think I originally got that from Barco moulds. Anyhooooooo, I had painted something or the other and because I use those clear kitchen mats cutting boards as a palette - I had quite a bit of this beautiful dried gold paint - so I had the tincan head idea to scrape that off and collect them in a jar. Like OH MY GUYS - it worked brilliantly as a knock-off diy of flake bits - seriously they work just as well as any other flake bits that you would buy.

Remember that old book of latin verse? I have been wanting to try my version of the Japanese Mokugami paper. Mokugami is kind of like a rumpled texture paper. I always loved how it adds a depth and texture to paper. I thought a latin page would be cool to do this with. Anyway, I wanted a lighter pastel type of colour to this so instead of Dala, I went in with ink blending brushes. I didnt even re-ink them - just went with the residue on the brush.

I started squishing and squashing and then thought that I kinda wanted it to look more like waxed paper so then I got a solid body butter stick (for reals I am not even joking) - this butter stick smells so deliciously like citrus leaves. I swiped that all over the page, used my hairdryer to heat enough so that it saturates the paper. I then glued that down with Dala stencil glue onto an old offcut piece of canvas - this might have been out of one of Dala's painting pads but I cant be sure - it was just a random piece that I found in those boxes of stuff that I save like a hoarder.

I don't work for Dala by the way, even though this whole post is reading like an advert for them. I have to tell you about my most recent serendiptious moment with them - I had bought their liquid tempera for my 6 year old to paint with and guess what - I have stolen most of it from her supply. I love it more than the regular craft acrylic I get from them - I think I love the tempera more - its like the perfect highly pigmented translucent paint that dries to an un-movable finish with insane pigmented translucency with a matte finish. It is so light fast as well. I dont think gets DALA gets enough credit in the crafting world for the kiff-ass stuff products that they make. I am such a fan.

So that's this post. I will keep posting my destashing attempts as I go along.

Fun Cards - clouds and Hot air Balloons

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Sat, 19 Aug 2023 06:15:00 +0000

Do these ever really get less fun to do? I have three different designs of hot air balloon. I am a little nuts about them. This is my favourite of the lot.

I enjoy making these so much that I kinda have to keep track in my head of who I sent Balloon cards to so that I do not continually send them the same type of card.

This one is for a 7year old BFF of my daughter.

The penant streamer was made from washi tape - after years of painfully cutting perfect tiny diamonds and then folding them over the cord, then trying to glue them together, I finally realised I can just fold washi tap over on itself and then cut them into triangles - DOH - why I didnt think of this earlier is directly correlate to my DOH-brain.

I totally scratched out the personalised birthday sentiment out of a piece of rainbow themed scratch card.

I have been saving my cards on Pinterest but here's one just to keep this blog running

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Wed, 09 Aug 2023 13:22:00 +0000

Its for my dearest, it's his 50th birthday on Sunday coming.

We have an almost 6 year old - she is lots of energy and he is such a trooper when it comes to keeping up with her - it's always full steam ahead. So this little birthday card is a nod to the magnificent engine that he is - even at 50 and now going beyond.

I love you babes, you have changed my life in such and magnificent way on so many levels. Thank you for sharing this part of your life with us. (I mean he's never going to read this blog ever because we have all forgotten about it - but hey..........)

I am also going to add to this - that I am going to enter this into the SIMON SAYS STAMP challenge - Monday Challenge - Happy Birthday ALL and create because:

1. I happened to see that it was a challenge that perfectly and miraculously aligned with the making of this birthday card -

2. I always want to enter these challenges but hardly ever do - so today I am

3. I had a look at the entries and decided that it needed something steampunk-ish and in richer colour palettes - just for variety sake

Thus I present MORE STEAM FOR MORE PUNKERY FOR 50 MORE - a birthday card for my darling man,

A few cards here and there

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 13:28:00 +0000

There are a couple I have made over the last 6 years, I still like doing it - just never get the time to do it as much anymore, they still are fun nevertheless. Mainly I post them to Pinterest. I like Pinterest - so quick and easy and fast to share to. I have ghosted Blogger for Pinterest - its true. I never quite got into Instagram, even though I have an account. I just like Pinterest so much more - like its for grown-ups who dont really want to be grown ups but also wanna be grown-ups - strike that and replace with NEED TO BE GROWN-UPs.

You dont have to go through all this time consuming blog writing as well. Anyway - here is a new card that I loved making - it was a birthday card - you just needed a set of stitched star nesting dies and "Bob's your stardust!" Kinda loved giving it a slightly vintage retro tatty feel. That was my favourite part.

I accidentally bought 24 sheets of the same 12'x12' design - PART 2

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 04:30:00 +0000

As I was saying earlier in Part 1 - I have been hard at work trying to not bore myself with the paper.

Fortunately it is such a wonderfully neutral design and colour palette that it lends itself well to many re-imaginings.

In this re-imagining - I went totally out of my usual tendency to love and create in rich, deep jewel tones and go with something a light, pastel and airy. I must admit though that the 14 year old that I was creating this birthday card for heavily influenced the colour palette.

The hardest part of this card was trying to glue the wire lettering down - but I discovered a really neat wire gluing trick - ACRYLIC NAIL GLUE!! It works so well - it is super quick drying and it comes with a little brush - so you don't have to squeeze big old drops of super glue or super glue gel onto everything and their aunty. You just brush the back of the wire with glue soaked brush and down she goes like an anchor off an ocean tanker.

I will keep up this series as long as I can think of different ways to use the wood grain paper!

I accidentally bought 24 sheets of one design of 12 x 12 inch Scrapbook paper - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Sun, 06 Aug 2023 22:00:00 +0000

Consider this a continuing series of how I can "re-interpret" the wooden design element on all 24 sheets of 12x12" the paper in as many ways possible.

So how did I love thee - let me recount the ways - One way was to super like making this birthday card for my darling friend Lesley, who is the sweetest, funnest, coolest, and I really wanted to do something that would be loved by her.

I challenged myself to use stamps and dies from older collections from years past. Lately I have been pulling out more Tim Holtz of yesteryear and really "enjoying the journey" with that.

I used a free vintage font 'Essays 1743' to make the print on the scrolls. The map texture was also a free map jpg that I got from somewhere a long time ago and I happened to have unused printer sheets of that.

One thing I really love is stamping with TIM HOLTZ Inks and then overstamping in the same Oxide of that. It looks soooo vintage grungey. The stamping platform makes that so ridiculously easy to do. I have one of the TIM HOLTZ stamping platforms from when they were originally released. I was gutted when they were made to take that off the market - I love the platform and I wanted a bigger one and now I cant get one. As for the MISTI - I just cant justify (especially with South African exchange rate) the huge cost or pricepoint of it and that is excluding how much it would cost to pay import and shipping from the US or Canada. The price of the small size version, seriously, not even the big version of that is enough to feed six families here. I get that its willing buyer/willing seller and yes, yes, the mighty dollar signs call them but me - consider me an unwilling buyer - me must rather eat.

This card was inspired by the ADVENTURE AWAITS card designed by Kath Stewart on an old 2018 Monday Challenge of Simon Says Stamp that I happened to find randomly on Pinterest. I pinned it to my board Awesome Cards on Pinterest. You can check that board out here - https://za.pinterest.com/tincanac/awesome-cards/. You can link to the card directly here Kath Stewart's original masterpiece

I loved it so much that I wanted to do something similar but with my spin on it. I dont know what I would call my style - eclectic is as kind as I can be in describing it - its not really here or there or anywhere in particular. Either way - here it is here - A BIRTHDAY CARD. Gotta love birthdays - such wonderful reasons to make things.

3 Tiny Squirrels go on a nutty adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 19:10:00 +0000

I love these tiny squirrels. Initially I thought they are so small what can you possibly do with them? But the ideas have been churning and this layered A5 sized card was inspired by my little girl, who told quite a lovely story as 4 year old's are prone to do about a squirrel girl who had squirrel friends. One day the little girl got lost in the forest, but she was okay because the squirrels helped her collect all the nuts they could find. So she was not hungry and she had her friends and she decided to live there happily ever after. The End.

So there you go - that was the inspiration behind the card featuring the 3 TINY SQUIRREL Die-set.

Yes, we can be nuts together.

Beyond the Product 1

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 19:02:00 +0000

HELLOOOOO - I am reviving this blog. I had a baby at 40!!! She is now almost turning 4 years old, while keeping her out of trouble at this phase of her life requires a far more "hands-on" approach for me than I imagined it would be - her limitless quests of curiousity, have her entertained enough for a few minutes here and there while she intently focusses on whatever thing she is investigationg/tearing/taking apart/ spreading/ painting, or pulling out.

So much has changed in 4 years - I am definitely poorer than I was pre-kid, and then there's that never-changing, irritating phenomenon of the South African Rand being absolutely dismal compared to the currencies of those first-world places where all these contraptions and craft supplies come from. Taken together, that makes me come to a horrible self-realisation - I no longer have the financial means to be able to splurge on just everything I desire especially those trendy crafty goods with very first-world prices that my chronically broke derriere am no longer able to afford.

But when you got to get your creative fix, you make a plan - and plans I have been (in the) making.

I got back in touch with some SOUTH AFRICAN brands/products that I used to love and I think I have actually been a little more original, creative and not fallen into that trap of (subconsciously or consciously) trying to mirror the trends and styles on the craftNet.

Then I thought it was kind of funny, because all the South African Brand Craft Products I have been buying, have evolved in terms of how they are used and I thought it would be fun to blog about how I use these products even though its not exactly what they were actually designed, created or marketed for.

My first share after my long hiatus are these notebook/journal covers. I have been a fan of Luthien Thye for years who creates the most magnificent books and jewelry and cool stuff. I always thought it was freaking awesome and I loved her notion of functional art. So I fully give her all the credit for inspiring this little avenue of craft dabbling and for inspiring the design of most of my attempts. I mean I tried really heard not to copy her too much, but the stuff she does is so amazing and I find myself kind of like subconsciously imitating her because I love he style so much. - so I do give Luthien Thye the credit for the craft/design asthetic. ALL CREDIT TO YOU Luthien Thye.

Like I have said before I am a craft dabbler with no particular interest in any particular craft, and this has really captured my interest right now. I am really enjoying it, I have more freedom to texturise the crap out of it without worrying about it being too heavy or to bulky to post (which was always my problem with cardmaking). Notebook covers are fun, you can indulge all kinds of madness you dont have to stay within the lines and journals are so charmingly olde-worlde charm in the digital age, that they actually make awesome gifts that everybody loves.

Let me start with one that I gave to my dearest Mau for Christmas.

I loved making this - it really turned out awesomely textured and chunky and antique and the glossy resin coat I treated it made me dream about finding some ancient artefact at the bottom of an Ocean.

I thought I had better pictures of this - but alas this is all I have got for now!

12 Tags of 2016 (well sorta....) inspired by ol' Tim's tag anyway~!

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Tue, 26 Jul 2016 01:09:00 +0000

Its been so long since I did a post, longer still a 12 Tags (Tim Holtz) inspired project.

My uber buddy Nicol has his birthday coming up tomorrow and I wanted to make him a little birthday card to go with the gift that he is getting from me. I unashamedly drew some technique inspiration from this month's Tim Holtz Tag over here on the left.

If you're struggling to see any kind of similarity - dont feel too confused, I rarely play samey and I usually pick the elements from the tag that I find interesting and go with that.

Here is what I came up for Nic.

I stamped and coloured in like in the technique tutorial, I kept the idea of negative die-cutting with the leaf and the name, There was a bit of random stitching and the addition of a silver charm that I did some more random stitchy things on. Instant Birthday card - Thanks for the inspiration though to Tim Holtz and his July Tag.

"Hit the Books" - May 2016 Challenge at Our Creative Corner

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Sun, 01 May 2016 06:00:00 +0000

Hello there - May at Our Creative Corner is sending you back to the books. Who doesn't love a bit of old book text on anything. Instead of trying to explain what a fun challenge the lovely Jennie has come up - I am going to leave it up to her here below to tell you all about it.

Hit the Books

Hi! Jennie here with you this month hosting my first challenge for Our Creative Corner. I do hope you enjoy the challenge theme I have chosen for you all this month.

I adore old book paper and old books and I am always glad to be able to breath new life into a dilapidated book which most people would consider throwing out!

For your projects this month we would like to see you searching through your stash for old book paper or books and create a project with what you find. You might want to use papers within your project or you might want to breath new life into an old book by altering it in some way. I hope I have chosen a challenge theme with huge scope for projects small or large.

Whatever you make let us see you give those old book papers or books centre stage!

Hop on over to Our Creative Corner to see the beautiful art and jewelry and vintage exquisiteness the rest of the design team has to offer. And once you are done with that - enter your own bookpage inspired project on the May "Hit the Books" challenge page and you could be one of the recipients of a generous gift by our fantastic sponsor this month

Crafty Individuals

Here above is what I did for the challenge. I must admit that I was whooping all over the place when I saw what Jennie challenged us to do because it played right into something I have been wanting to do.

I wanted to update the boring soap and hand cream dispensers in my bathroom. Instead of buying expensive bottles from a homestore, I modpodged book paper over cheapie plastic dispensers, used some Tim Holtz letters in an old typewriter-esque font and added some ribbon and embellishments. And voila- it matches the theme I have going in the bathroom better than anything I could have bought.

I could talk you through the whole process but it is quite redundant seeing that being the avid crafters you wonderful bunch are, there is no need to tell you how to podge, embellish and seal. What I will do instead is give you a photo play-by-play from start to finish.

And there you have it - Happy crafting and Happy Worker's Day for all South Africans!

-Candice-

Gypsy Fayre–April 2016 Challenge at Our Creative Corner

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 17:02:00 +0000

This month of April 2016 I have the absolute privilege of hosting the challenge over at Our Creative Corner. I have always a deep fascination with Bohemian/gypsy culture and sometimes consider myself somewhat of neo-Bohemian with a gypsy soul.

This month's challenge invites you to let us see your gypsy nature.

Gypsies are wanderers, purveyors of exquisite things, mysterious things, free-spirited bohemians curating the beauty of life and sharing the wonders with you as the travel along.

So for the challenge let your creativity run wild and free like a gypsy

I want you to create interesting items you might imagine finding at a traditional Gypsy Fayre.

You may create whatever your gypsy heart desires, but it must....

contain at least 3 colours from this featured colour palette

show us how your project is inspired by this gorgeous ode to the gypsy soul!

The sponsor this month is

What do you think? Do you have the soul of gypsy?

Play along with the rules of the challenge like with your gypsy soul and you could be the curator of some fabulous gyspy loot too from them. Remember to submit your project at the challenge page on

http://ourcreativecorner6.blogspot.com/2016/04/gypsy-fayre.html

I always imagined that Gypsy carts would have loads of bright colourful and interesting accessories.

Every month I try to get out to a little gathering of Bohemian free-spirits and neo-hippies in the province that I live in, I thought it would be an awesome idea to wear the OCC April challenge theme to get some extra publicity for the OCC blog as well - as it happens that at these events there is a lot of trading and sharing and communion of creative energy and colourful souls.

I created a collection of Gypsy

accessories in the form of a headdress, earrings and a ring.

The entire collection was created out of odd bits and bobs I had in my collection of trim, wool, yarn, feathers, ribbon, beads and shells I picked up here and there on my gyspy wanderings and tradings.

To create the flowers – I cut 5 to 6 little petal shapes out of organza ribbon and threaded them, and the pulled the thread taut so that the ends bunched together and pulled the petals into a flower shape.

I stitched gorgeous rich coloured upholstery beading onto a long headband elastic and added a few metal belly-dancing discs for gypsy interest. This was the front of the headband.

For the back, I wanted it to be an effervescent effusion of colour and joy and sparkling interest.

I used an embroidery hoop to keep a length of fleck yarn taut and added various lenghts of interesting embellishments to it.

I braided, knotted, drilled holes with my Dremel through pieces of shells and mother-of-pearl that I had picked up sometime or the other.

I sewed on two loops to the sides of the headband elastic where it would sit just behind my ears and two clasps onto either end of the back part of the headband to make it easier to attach the back part of the headband to the elastic.

For the ring – I made another organza flower and added a few feathers to a ring base.

Finally for the earrings – I pretty much bundled a few feathers together, tied them up with fleck thread and did some fancy wire designs to attach it the the earwire.

That completed my project and it was all ready and it was a hit at the “Harvest, Zuvuya” gathering.

–and here we are, gypsy camp all set up and ready to flaunt our gypsy nature.

Thanks and that’s it for now – looking forward to seeing your gypsy creations at Our Creative Corner

The Return Of the Our Creative Corner Challenge - March 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Tue, 01 Mar 2016 05:00:00 +0000

This month's challenge, I have to admit had me in a bit of tizzy, busy mess. We have the magnificent opportunity of returning to a challenge of our choice from the last three years.

The details of the challenge as it is laid out at Our Creative Corner can be found by going here - go on over and have a look - the design team have all chosen a variety of different challenges and there is a bounty of coolness to look at this month because it is so diverse.

In a nutshell - there is a list of challenges from 2013 through 2015 that you can choose from. You have to state what challenge you have chosen, go to that particular challenge, read those specific challenge rules and then play along to those rules in this month's challenge.

I thought it was a brilliant plan - the problem was that almost every single challenge listed was a super fun one and I battled to settle on just ONE challenge that I wanted to have another go at. Eventually I settled on Alison's "Words, Words,Words" August Challenge from 2013 because I love Alison (not in a creepy way) and darn it - it's an awesome challenge!

artistic-outpost link

As always there is a brilliant sponsor this month. Click on the link underneath the badge there to go on over and have a look at their fabulous range of goodies. If you play along in this month's challenge at Our Creative Corner - you could be the winner of the generous prize they will be sponsoring.

For my project - I decided that I wanted to make a card that could also be detached to hang on the door of a private library or folded up to place on a reading table.

I loved making this for many reasons. In addition to highlighting "words" as a focal point of the project, I decided that I wanted to challenge myself to feature a colour scheme that I hardly ever use and also to make the entire project out of leftover crafting supplies.

I used the following craft supplies items.:

Distress inks to colour the image and create the background -Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge, Dried Marigold, Fossilized Amber, Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany and Black Soot.

Archival Ink in plum to stamp the text background and Santoro Gorjuss Girl.

Santoro Gorjuss

Satin Ribbon to create the "fire" flames. I kind surprised myself when I realised how simply folding and glueing ribbon in loops could create the effect of a ribbon fire.

Brown craft wire to create the smoke effect.

Coffee beans for the logs in the fire.

Old piece of cardboard that was distressed to create a grungey contrasting background.

Tim Holtz' Sticky Alpha parts plastic letters to spell out my sentiment intentions.

Bakers Twine from "The Twinery".

If you see anything else on there that you see that I have not mentioned but you are curios abouthere please leave me a comment and I will let you in on it.

Hope I did Alison's challenge justice.

"Sew Sew" - February 2016 challenge at Our Creative Corner

noreply@blogger.com (Tincan Crafter) — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 05:00:00 +0000

It's February and it's "Sew Sew" time!

"Fabrics, wool, threads, lace - this months challenge hosted by Jan at Our Creative Corner is all about texture, layers and loveliness!
What scraps have you got hidden away? Any snippets of favourite clothes you can't bare to part with?
Anything sewing related can be used in your piece. You could use stitches, sewing machine or fake stitches. Don't forget to get out your sewing themed stamps and dies.
Have fun and create something!"

The rest of the Design Team's incredible work on this theme is so brilliant and if you haven't come from there to here - be sure to go on over and have a look-see. I decided to challenge myself to embrace the South Africa cultural heritage, while keeping in mind the theme and the event of Love-day on the 14th, while trying to create something fresh and original (which turned out to be a much taller order than I anticipated)....

"So she sewed shweshwe on the sugar sweet dolls!".

Shweshwe (/ˈʃwɛ.ʃwɛ/) from the Sotho name Moshoeshoe is a traditional Sotho (South Africa &

Lesotho) printed fabric characterised by its geometric designs out of which traditional garments are fashioned.

I hand-sticthed some shweshwe fabric scraps "wool, threads, lace", sequins and ribbon onto card and created these quirky African Valentine Paper Dolls.

The Sponsor this month is

As always there is a generous prize to be won -

"Darkroom Door is sponsoring one Rubber Stamp Set, valued at $31.95 AUD, to our randomly drawn winner. http://www.darkroomdoor.com/rubber-stamp-sets"

To be eligible to win - all you would have to do is create a project following the guidelines above and upload your project on the "Sew Sew" post at Our Creative Corner before the end of this month.