Thursday 26 April 2012

Crafty Giveaway!

To celebrate reaching 100 likes on my facebook page I have decided to hold a giveaway!
The prize is any 4 of my printables - you can choose any combination of scrapbooking papers, collage sheets or gift boxes.  The printables are all my own original designs and the winner will receive them as high resolution 300dpi jpg files.  You can print them as many times as you like to use in your own crafting projects.  Here is a small selection of my designs, see the full range of printables here.
The printables can be used for so many different craft projects...
From making gift boxes for giving small gifts like sweets...
...to greeting cards...
...cupcake toppers, gift tags, bunting and more!
I hope they inspire you to make something!  What would you make?

For your chance to win
Leave a comment on this post with your idea of what you would use the printables for.

Please make sure you leave your entry by midnight (GMT) Monday 7th May to be in with a chance to win.  The winner will be chosen at random on Tuesday 8th May.

For an extra entry become a follower of this blog and for a further entry 'like' my facebook page.  Just include a note in your comment here to say that you follow and / or 'like'.

Please remember to leave me a way of contacting you if you win - an email address, Folksy or Etsy username or link to your blog.
If I'm unable to contact the winner within 2 weeks another winner will be picked.

I look forward to seeing your ideas for using the printables! :)

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Something fishy

I've been working on some new fish illustrations and thought I would share some pictures of my work in progress...

I started with lots of sketches of different types of tropical fish...
I chose a mixture of freshwater and marine tropical fish, focusing on colourful ones or fish with bold patterns. These illustrations were drawn in pen and watercolour pencil...

I then scanned these drawings and finished colouring them digitally...
I'll be using these fish in scrapbooking papers, greeting cards etc. - more on the finished designs soon!

Spending so much time drawing fish made me want to visit the fish shop again - yesterday I bought 2 mollies and 2 panda corydoras for my tank.  The Panda corydoras are my favourite corys - they're the sort of fish I based my DORA illustration on. :)

To celebrate reaching 100 likes on my facebook page I have decided to hold a giveaway - look out for more on that later this week!

Friday 20 April 2012

Folksy Friday - The Secret Garden

The weather has been so changeable here – sunny one minute then pouring with rain and hail storms the next!  It’s good weather for the garden to grow but I’m looking forward to warm sunny weather to go outside myself.  This week I’ve chosen ‘The Secret Garden’ as my Folksy Friday theme – to remind me of sunshine and pretty flowers :)Click on the photos / links to see more lovely items from these Folksy sellers…

Wychbury    /    Artisan Leather
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Tuesday 17 April 2012

Words and Phrases - new printable collage sheet

I spent this morning working on a new collage sheet - it's a sheet of words and phrases that I thought would be really useful for cardmaking and scrapbooking...
The sheet contains over 70 words and phrases in 3 sizes - from 'happy birthday' and 'thank you' to 'mr', 'mrs', 'baby' and much more!  The text is all in black on coloured backgrounds - with 6 colour schemes to choose from.  My favourite schemes are these two here...
The sheet has just been listed in my shop and is available to buy here.

I'm also working on some new fish illustrations - more on that tomorrow! :)

Monday 16 April 2012

Dye vs. Pigment Ink

I've had my HP printer for several years now and I've always been very happy with the quality of prints it produces.  I use it to make all the prints (ACEO / 5x7 inch / 8x10 inch) in my shop.  The printer takes two cartridges - one tri-colour (cyan, magenta and yellow) and a photo cartridge (black, light magenta and light cyan) so I get a good range of colours in the prints.  I print on HP's Premium Plus range of photo paper to get the best results - it also means that if kept out of direct sunlight the prints will resist fading for over 100 years.  Photos which I printed on Premium Plus paper at least 5 years ago look like new, whereas photos I printed on cheaper paper look faded after only a short time.  (I've not been around long enough to test the 100 years yet!!)

The HP inks I use are dye based which, although good for my art prints, has one downside for printing scrapbooking papers - the ink runs if you use PVA glue or glitter glue on them.  Dye based inks are water soluble coloured liquids which are absorbed by the surface they are printed on.


Pigment based inks - like those made by Epson - are made from ink particles encapsulated in a resin coating which sit on the paper surface and are not absorbed into it.  They produce bright colours, will last up to 200 years and are water resistant - so are great for printing scrapbooking papers.  I have access to an Epson printer (which produces great prints!) and I'm using it to produce the papers for my cardmaking kits.
One downside of the pigment inks is that they're not so good for printing on fabric that will be washed often as the ink sits on the surface instead of soaking into the fabric like dye based ink.  I'm experimenting with some fabric printing at the moment, so I'll have to see how the two printers compare.

Thursday 12 April 2012

Colourful patterns

I've been enjoying playing with shapes and colours to make new patterns for sets of printable scrapbooking papers.  Looking for inspiration I'm starting to see patterns everywhere - I've even found myself staring at the wallpaper on tv shows!
Following on from my original sets based on spirograph patterns (Myrtle and Carolina) I have 4 more colourways ready for release: Rose, Saffron, Lavender and Scarlet...
Each set contains a slightly different combination of designs with spirograph patterns mixed with spots and stripes.
I used an old Spirograph set to draw some shapes which I then scanned and used to make the patterned papers.  Did you know that technically the shapes made by the spirograph are actually called hypotrochoids and epitrochoids?  There are lots of complicated equations for the shapes.  Basically hypotrochoids are drawn with the wheel inside the ring and epitrochoids are drawn with the wheel outside the ring (the shapes in my patterns are hypotrochoids). 
These sets of papers are available to buy from my Etsy supplies shop: www.hfcSupplies.etsy.com
I'm happy to make custom sets too - so if you like the patterns but would like them in another colour please let me know!

Tuesday 10 April 2012

New! Steampunk Cardmaking Kit

This cardmaking kit is the latest addition to my selection of Steampunk craft supplies.  It contains card blanks, envelopes, backing papers, motifs and border strips to make at least 5 unique cards.
The cards in this set are made from 100% post industrial waste fibres, they are acid, lignin and chlorine free and come with brown Kraft envelopes.  I have included 5 different coloured cards (sandstone, suede, tuscan brown, ash and dark grey) to coordinate with the backing papers and motifs.
8 sheets of A5 backing paper are included in the kit - from spots to cogs, keys and clock hands.  Combined with the border strips and motifs they would be great for making men's Birthday cards, gift tags and more!
If you would like to make your own unique Steampunk cards this kit is now available to buy from my Etsy shop: www.hfcSupplies.etsy.com

Friday 6 April 2012

Folksy Friday – Happy Easter!

I almost made this Folksy Friday for last week but time ran away from me, so here it is for the Easter weekend.
Hope you enjoy this selection of lovely Spring items from Folksy sellers :)

Thursday 5 April 2012

My little helper...

Why is it that some days never seem to go right?  I spent most of yesterday watching over a sick budgie - Charlie has injured his leg and couldn't sit on his perch properly :(
He had a trip to the vet and some pain killers and spent the night apart from his friend Bobby so he could get some rest.  He seems calmer today and we're keeping a close eye on him.  As he has not eaten much we are hand feeding him too.  Hopefully he will feel better with some rest.

Charlie's friend Bobby is far from calm today though - she's going mad trying to see Charlie in the other cage!  She even managed to escape by pushing the lid off the seed pot and climbed out!  Here she's come to help me at my desk... :)
Somehow I don't think having Bobby on my desk will make today more productive though!

I've been meaning to post a picture of these too - my latest batch of Moo cards :)  Folksy and Moo have an offer of a pack of 50 free cards - you just pay postage and packing and the cards come with the Folksy logo on.

Tuesday 3 April 2012

Sunshine = Electricity

I've not been online much for the last few days because we have been having solar panels fitted - the electric has been off and on and the whole house has been turned upside down.  It's surprising how much chaos was caused by having the panels fitted!  The good news is they're working now and we're being very green making our own electricity :)
The house is almost back to normal, we're just waiting for the scaffolding to be removed and all our tulips can be seen in their full glory!