I bought some pretty Japanese Yuzen Chiyogami paper when I first came to Edinburgh in 1999.  Well, that art shop has long since closed and 18 years down the line, I have finally made something with those oh so pretty papers!

Here's the tutorial I followed, it really is very easy, not like the bow or crane ones which make my eyebrows knit!

• Box Frame

A lot of companies such as Matalan, Dunelm and Asda sell the frames complete with string and pegs, but the frames are open, with no glass.  I don't like that, so it's easy to make your own.  You just need a box frame, where there is a gap between the glass and back.  If you are framing a single dress, I would recommend the square 23cm Ikea Ribba frame.  For the washing line, I think a wide, triple aperture frame works best.  I have found two frames, one from M&S for £15 and a wider still one from The Range for £5.99.

• Background Paper

As my frame was very wide, I didn't have any paper to fit, so I simply spray painted the sheet that came with it.  My local B&Q shut down last year and I bought a massive stash of spray paints at 70% off, woohoo!  The colour I went for was Valspur Spun Sugar.  An A3 sheet should work for the M&S frame.

• Mini wooden craft pegs

These are available in the stationery department of most supermarkets, I got mine in Sainsbury's.  Here's a link to the Hobbycraft ones

• Baker's / Natural  twine

I reused twine from a parcel I received recently.  It's often wildly overpriced, but Hobbycraft are doing 27m balls for 50p.  Alternatively, a length of ribbon would also look very pretty.

• Yuzen / Chiyogami Paper

The best quality paper is made using the same hand silk-screen-printed techniques as the finely patterned kimono cloth known a 'Yuzen' in Kyoto, Japan.  I got a second stash from  here on EBay, let's hope I don't take 18 years to use these!  Amazon sell some with free next day delivery for Prime members here.  In fact, I think any paper with pretty colours or patterns will look great!

So, even if you've left it late, there's still time to whip up a pretty card or to make a framed washing line of these cute little origami dresses.  I promise they are super easy to make - I even taught my pal from memory using a napkin in a restaurant!

I bought an A3 laminator from Aldi a few months back to use in conjunction with a laser printer for the purposes of foiling.  Now, foiling has been a rollercoaster ride of a craft hobby, so I'll cover that separately, but I just had to share with you the fabulous, consistent and easy results I've had using my laminator with fabric and heat transfer vinyl (HTV) cut with my Silhouette Cameo.

I tried applying gold chrome HTV to card ages ago and it worked well, but when I used it with an iron, the card curled massively and no amount of time under heavy books would fix it.

Well, as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention.  I was having a drama with a leaving card that I designed to be foiled and I needed it for the next day.  I had no self-adhesive gold vinyl, but I did have some in heat transfer vinyl.  I decided to give the HTV a whirl and as my laminator was already up and running, I figured I would run it through and see what happened.

I was chuffed, it applied perfectly with just one pass through the laminator and unlike with foiling, I was able to use very thick, textured card too, which I thought suited the sheep!

It seems barmy to use a laminator when you could just use regular self-adhesive vinyl , but I find it is actually a good option for a few reasons:

1. I can buy one product and use it two ways
2. I use HTV more, so I have a big selection of colours and finishes to choose from.
3. I find it easier to source unusual finishes such as chrome, glitter and flock in HTV rather than vinyl and they are often available in smaller sizes, such as 30cmx50cm sheets from MDP or even A4 sheets from Crafty Cutter
4. No need for transfer tape as HTV comes complete with a low-tack transfer sheet.  This has just the right amount of stickiness to hold the design in place but comes away easily from the card without ripping or leaving marks.
5. Applying self-adhesive vinyl is a right-first-time type gig, but you can take your time aligning or moving the HTV before passing through the laminator.

I have already attached fusible stabiliser to my Liberty Tana Lawn fabric for my applique onesies , so cut out some more shapes to use on cards.  For the mother's day card, I applied the fabric directly on the card.  As the sentiments above and below were done with sketch pens, I also drew on the card where the fabric MUM letters should be placed.  I made sure the pen would be covered by using a 0.1cm internal offset.  The word MUM uses Clarendon font and the wording above and below uses the Sketch Serif Font from the Silhouette Design Store

For passing through the laminator, I held the fabric in place with a piece of HTV carrier sheet that I kept from my last project.  If you don't have any, kapton (sublimation) tape would also work - eBay and Amazon sell it for a few pounds.

I normally like to have a little dimension in a card, so decided to apply my fabric to some  brown Kraft card.  As the fabric and Kraft card pieces were small, I fed them through the laminator sandwiched in some plain copy paper and then attached to the card with foam squares.  The Kraft card was cut with a 0.25cm external offset to the fabric L.

Just as I combined fabric with a HTV border for my applique onesies, you can do exactly the same for cards.  I used my favourite elephant design, and the bloom font to make a new baby card. 

I couldn't bare to waste the elephant shape that I weeded from the HTV, so decided to make a second card.  All I needed was the wording and water splashes, so used up a scrap strip just 3 by 9 cm and got a totally cute card made out of scraps and waste!

I plan on making big versions of the Kraft card and Liberty fabric letters strung together to make pretty bunting for a new baby gift.

​I was also thinking that I could make a baby mobile, with lovely fabric shapes.  I plan to cut a front and back piece and give it a nice plumpness by sandwiching a smaller piece of felt inside or maybe use some wadding.  If I was using wadding, I'd maybe use a pair of straighteners instead of the laminator to nip the edges closed, like a very pretty Cornish pasty!

​As my laminator is A3, I can do some nice big wall art for my hall that I'm currently decorating too :)

I LOVE letterpress.  I love the old-school style embossed finish, the beautifully engineered machines and hot foiling, well, common the name speaks for itself!  So, when I happened upon an introductory workshop around the corner from me on Leith Walk at Dot and the Line, I decided to give it a whirl.

Lou keeps the classes small, so it was just me plus one other, which means there is plenty of time for questions and no queuing.  After intros and a cuppa we got down to work, with Lou demonstrating how the letterpress is set up and the printing process.  We were using the Adana table top press which I immediately wanted to take home.

One of my favourite parts of the workshop was learning all the awesome letterpress lingo.  We started with a frame, called a chase and arranged our type on a composing stick, separating the lines with strips of metal lead. 

Geeky fact - Leading (line spacing) is pronounced led-hing not lee-ding!
The strips of lead are where the term 'leading' describing the distance of line spacing comes from. I'd always assumed it was pronounced lee-ding as 'in leading the way', but no it's led-hing as in 'lead piping'. 

Once done, we slide the composed text off the stick onto a metal tray called a galley.  We then tightly packed out the empty space with wooden spacers called furniture.  Smaller slivers of wood are called reglets and finally we use a quoin which is an expanding wedge to lock into place.

We cut out our bookmarks from come Colorplan cardstock with a kick-ass guillotine and got to printing.

I chose the quote from Little Women author Louisa May Alcott 'She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain'.

In my first attempt, I accidentally put my 'i' in brain upside down.  I kind of wish I'd kept it as it's cute and plays into the quote

The most common mistake is mixing up b's and d's or p's and q's, as seen in my classmate's quote from The Great Gatsby:

The workshop was £30 (concessions available) and lasted three hours.  Lou also runs other courses on screen-printing and book binding that sound fun.

I decided to etch a scrap piece of brass with Edinburgh etch recipe and see how it would look when rolled through my Big Shot craft mangle.  I'm somewhat pleased with this first attempt.  It impresses nicely, and whilst it's a shame that the edge of the brass makes a line, I'd just choose to incorporate that into the design by picking a circle or cut shape next time.   I think inking up could be messy - I'd defo need a briar and guides to stop it going everywhere.  I've blurred some parts of my address to avoid nutjobs!

An easier option is to make or buy a polymer letterpress plate.  They can be used with the at home kits such as this one demonstrated on YouTube. I do owe my buddy Danielle a massive apology though, as I thought these polymer plates might be the same as the polymer stamps.  Danielle gave it a go and in the process ruined her lovely stamp, so please don't make the same mistake folks!

I think I'm going to get a handheld embosser seal thingy.  You can get the contraption, plus plates with your own custom design for about £35.  I'll keep you updated when I finally get around to ordering mine.