Category: Design

Muck N Brass Furniture Luxecyling Workshop

17/8/2018

I had a fab wee weekend down in London last week catching up with friends and shopping my wee heart out. I also managed to fit in a furniture upcycling, or indeed luxecycling, course at Muck N Brass. I couldn't believe my luck when I saw that Zoe was running a workshop the very weekend that I was visiting. Check out my fabulous side table that I painted and decoupaged with beautiful designer wallpaper!

Fusion Mineral Paint

I discovered Muck N Brass through my interest in Fusion Mineral Paint. I was lurking on Instagram, lusting over some beautiful furniture upcycles and noticed that my favourite ones were all using Fusion. Now, I may have mentioned previously that I'm not a fan of chalk paints such as Annie Sloan's at all. I find them hard to work with and I don't like the rustic, thick paint strokes and distressed finishes. I much prefer a completely smooth, flat, matte finish. I'm pretty devoted to General Finishes Milk Paint, but upon reading some reviews of the Fusion Mineral Paint range, I noticed that they shared similar characteristics - both are self-levelling, matte, low prep and durable. I spoke to the lovely Nicky from Done Up North and she told me that if I enjoy working with GF Milk paint, I would like Fusion too. Check out all the lovely colours in the Fusion range:

Table Manners Workshop

In the Muck N Brass Table Manners Workshop we got to pick out our own solid wood end table and then learnt all the steps to upcycle it. We covered prep, painting techniques using the Fusion Mineral Paint and also decoupage using designer wallpapers or luxury gift wrap. When I hear the word decoupage, I think shabby chic vintage roses, but nothing could be further from that on this course. We're talking bold and graphic designs and even included some absolutely fabulous wallpaper designed by and exclusive to Muck N Brass.

The course was £150 which includes all the tuition, materials, teas and coffees plus lunch. You have the table plus an information pack to take home afterwards! It runs from 10am to 2pm.

Would I Recommend?

I considered the workshop really excellent value for money and would thoroughly recommend to all levels of experience from complete novice to avid upcycler. Zoe is an excellent and fun teacher and she went above and beyond in helping me to get my side table back to Edinburgh!

Regarding the Fusion paint, I liked it but found it a little harder to work with compared to GF Milk Paint. I loved the colours and durability, but found it left brush strokes which I don't normally get. I read that it can be sprayed so I'll defo try that and I've also bought their Ultra Grip which preps even the craziest surface to accept paint such as glass and laminate. At the moment I feel that there is room in my life for both General Finishes and Fusion Mineral Paints :)

Comparison of the finish between General Finishes Milk Paint and Fusion Mineral Paint by Craft Chatterbox blog

Zoe On Tour?

Zoe will be up in Glasgow for a while filming a show for the BBC (she's proper famous don't you know?!). I told her that I know lots of people who would love to take a class up in Scotland and so she's looking into it. I'll keep you posted if she manages to get something organised!

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How To Make Your Own Foil Prints and Stickers

19/1/2018

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Tutorial on how to make your own foil prints and stickers using a laser printer, a laminator and foiling sheets. Reviews and recommnedations of Foiling products by Craft Chatterbox blog

I'm very excited to bring this tutorial to you today as I've been a foiling-mad woman for quite a while now! I've recorded a video which shows you how to foil your own prints. I've also covered foiling stickers and how you can layer foiling on top of inkjet printed backgrounds. I compare the different foils and give tips on the best printers and card.

To help get you started, I'm giving away a bumper pack of free printable designs - links at the bottom of this post.

Why A Laser Printout?

Laser printers don’t use water soluable ink, instead they use tiny granules of black plastic called toner. Laser printers uses static electricity to arrange the toner onto the page and then the hot rollers melt it and fuse it to the paper. If we heat the page again, the toner will melt and become a perfectly precise glue that the foil will stick to. Any parts of the paper that are white stay white, whereas anything printed black will be covered with foil.

Before - a normal black and white laser print out. Gold foil is placed on top and run through a hot laminator, giving the final foiled result. Tutorial on toner foiling by Craft Chatterbox

Bee image by Nic Squirrell https://www.silhouettedesignstore.com/view-shape/148628

Inkjet Printouts Won't Work, but that can be useful

Inkjet printers will not work, but the fact that they aren't reactive can be used to our advantage. We can print any design, using black or coloured inks as a background, safe in the knowledge that the foils won't stick to them. We can then take the inkjet printout and run it through the laser printer, this time printing the design that we want foiled.

Foiled designs can be layered on top of inkjet printed images, here the stripes are inkjet and the wording is laser printed and foiled. Tutorial by Craft Chatterbox blog.

Inkjet printed background stripes with laser printed and foiled centre

Foiled designs can be layered on top of inkjet printed images. This is marble patterned wrapping paper, but equally inkjet printed pattern would work too. The wording is laser printed and foiled. Tutorial by Craft Chatterbox blog.

This is marble patterned wrapping paper, but inkjet printed background would also work.

Printer Tips

Mono laser printers that only print in black and white are better than colour ones as apparently the formulation of the black toner is different. I originally bought a Canon printer from John Lewis but had to return it as it kept getting paper jams. In the end I bought a Samsung MD3220ND from Printerland, currently £117.58 as it was the only printer I could find under £500 that could take cardstock up to 220gsm.
If you don't want to buy a laser printer, you can get your local print shop or chain such as Staples to print you copies. Photocopiers also use toner if you have access to one.

Foiling Sheets

The Minc Rose Gold foil comes in a roll which is handy. I bought mine from Amazon UK for £7.37 and it shipped from America (there is no import taxes as the value is under the threshold).

Deco foil by thermoweb foiling sheets. Foiling Tutorial by Craft Chatterbox

The Deco Foil Rose Gold foil comes in 6 by 12 inch sheets of 5 or 20. The 5 sheet tube is £6.42 and comes with free next day delivery if you have Prime. The larger pack of 20 is £7.16 but ships from America, also no import tax.

Patsy May Toner foiling sheets. Foiling Tutorial by Craft Chatterbox

Patsy May, a UK company sell 15m rolls of metallic foil in widths of 10, 20 and 30cm for £6, £10 and £15 respectively. They also sell holographic and patterned foils in the same sizes and prices. The postage is £2.70, but even adding this, these foils work out the cheapest.

My favourite is the Deco Foil, but in the video, the Patsy May foils actually performed really well on stickers.

Card and Paper

My favourite white card to use is Color Copy by Mondi, its bright white and super smooth, especially formulated for laser printers but also works well with inkjet for those layered looks.

Mondi Color Copy 200gsm is great for foiling. Tutorial by Craft Chatterbox

Mondi Color Copy A4 200gsm £13.11 from Amazon with free Prime delivery.

I also like the super smooth card from Anna Marie Designs which is £5.99 for 50 sheets.

I'm a massive fan of an innovative paper from Italy called The Tube, sold by Paperstory, both for foiling and for paper cutting. It has a latex like finish and 10 sheets are £3.10. There are a variety of colours, my favourite are the matte black, petrol blue and graphite grey.

My favourite papers to foil with. Matte Black 'The Tube' paper from Paperstory. Image is #4051032 from Vectorstock. Foiling tutorial by Craft Chatterbox blog

Matte Black 'The Tube' paper from Paperstory. Image #4051032 from Vectorstock

Tip For Silhouette Users when Foiling Stickers

Stickers look great foiled, I particularly like to make foiled return address labels.

Foiled stickers cut with a Silhouette Cameo, but circle punches can also be used.

For those with Silhouette Cameo cutting machines, the Cameo 3 having two blades is great for stickers. I do a light kiss cut which cuts the circles but not the backing paper (blade 1 force 5) using the left blade. It then automatically moves on to cut with more force (blade 2 force 27) through the full sheet using the right blade. Once you've cut the stickers and removed the registration marks, then you can foil as normal.

Cutting stickers with the Cameo 3. Kiss cut with the first blade then fully cut the sheet to remove registration marks with the second blade. Do this in a single pass using the cut by line option within the Send menu

How to kiss cut then trim the sticker sheets in a single pass using the cut by line option.

FREEBIES!

Please feel free to download and use the following PDF printable freebies that I have designed (personal use only). I've also included SVG and Silhouette Studio Compatible formats (GSD) if you'd rather cut the designs instead of foil them. The PDFs are black and white, I've just shown them in gold to help envisage the final product. Click on the images to open the download links

Free printable PDF file for foiling by Craft Chatterbox. You Make Me Happy When Skies Are Grey

Fool For Love font https://mistifonts.com/fool-for-love/ Arsenale White font https://www.dafont.com/arsenale-white.font

Free printable PDF file for foiling by Craft Chatterbox. Silently Correcting Your Grammar

Ostrich Sans font https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/ostrich-sans

Free printable PDF file for foiling by Craft Chatterbox. Origami insects

Icons created by Agne Alesiute and kindly shared under Creative Commons licence. https://thenounproject.com/grrrauf/collection/origami-animals/

Free printable PDF file for foiling by Craft Chatterbox. Insect mandala

Icons made by Freepik and kindly shared under creative commons licence https://www.flaticon.com/pack/animal-kingdom

Free PDF printable by Craft Chatterbox. Little Sleep Thief foiling file.

I Love Glitter font by Misti Fonts http://mistifonts.com/i-love-glitter/

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Mid Century Modern Furniture Shops In Scotland

29/9/2017

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If you, like I, swoon over the sleek, elegant lines of Mid Century Modern Furniture, here is my guide to the best places to find it in Edinburgh, Glasgow and central Scotland. Join me in my mission to bring more Mad Men style to our homes!

Mid Century Modern Market at Drill Hall Edinburgh

The timing for this blog post is fortuitous, as today I will be popping along to a new market that's dedicated to MCM design and furniture. It's held in Drill Hall on Dalmeny Street in Leith and launches today, Sunday 1st October. The market will be held quarterly.

**Blog update** So I went along at 2pm. Apparantly it was super crazy busy when it opened at 12, so much so that it was difficult to move. So, whilst it was calmer by the time I arrived, I was told that a lot of the best stock had also been sold. Regardless, there was still a nice selection to browse. I was particularly impressed by https://www.c20home.co.uk/ - they had a particularly some lovely restored ercol sofa (sold) and rocking chair that I very very nearly bought. See below for some snaps of that day

Gumtree, EBay and Newsnow

Gumtree is probably the easiest and cheapest place to find MCM furniture. It's where I found my TV unit, dressing table and chest of drawers and is also where I found many sellers listed below. Key words I search for are retro, mid century, teak, g plan, danish, 50s or 60s.

EBay tends to be a bit more expensive, but has a bigger range if you are prepared to travel or have the item delivered without seeing it in person

A great site I love is Newsnow, as it trawls both Gumtree and EBay, along with other classified sites. I was getting really irked by the ads that I'd accidentally click on when scrolling listings on Gumtree whilst on my iphone, so this site thankfully alleviated that.

Paris Proctor & Dog - Kinross

I found Sam on gumtree and visited him in scenic Kinross (half an hour from Edinburgh) when I was on my quest for a cocktail cabinet. Whilst I didn't find a cabinet, I did take home a lovely chair for my craft room. I had a good old chin wag with Sam who's a lovely bloke and true enthusiast for MCM furniture. Paris Proctor & Dog on Facebook and Instagram.

Jimmy's Retro Furniture - Musselburgh (Edinburgh)

On the subject of dogs, Jimmy is an adorable parson terrier, who photobombs his owner Gav's wonderful furniture finds. The warehouse is based in Musselburgh and is by appointment only, Gav can arrange delivery too. Follow on Jimmy's Retro Furniture on Facebook and Instagram

Retro Interiors - Glasgow

This is one of the best and largest collections of retro furniture in the UK, indeed buyers often come up from London to shop here. John the owner has this massive warehouse stuffed to the rafters and there is room after room of gorgeous stuff. I did get FOMO (fear of missing out) because there are so many warrens and items stacked up high. You can't research beforehand on Facebook or Instagram, instead go along and explore this treasure trove in person- 569 South Street, Glasgow G14 0QX Tel: 07803 235 651

Kean On Antiques - Glasgow

Another shop I found on Gumtree, I bought my little cocktail cabinet from Ryan that I then upcycled with an Orla Kiely style stencil that I made. A great shop with keen (haha did you see what I did there?!) prices. Kean on Antiques on Facebook.

Caroline Key at Trash Furnishing - Edinburgh

Caroline upcycles mid century furniture just around the corner from me in Edinburgh and does an absolutely stunning job. I'm very keen to have her work her magic on a piece for me soon! Trash Furnishing on Facebook.

C/O Caroline Key - Trash Furnishing

L'Atelier Vintage - Edinburgh

I've not purchased (yet!) from L'Atelier Vintage, as their stock moves quickly. I'm looking forward to meeting them at the market and to seeing some of their pieces in person. L'Atelier Vintage on Facebook and website.

L'Atelier Vintage - Mid Century Modern shops in Edinburgh and Central Scotland

Bra Bohag - Edinburgh

This shop on Easter Road in Edinburgh houses beautiful scandi MCM furniture, art and ceramics. Bra Bohag on Facebook.

Bra Bohag in Edinburgh - Scandi Mid Century Modern furniture shop

Have I Missed Any?

If there are any other lovely shops and dealers of mid century modern goodies, I'd love to hear from you!

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Ode to Orla Kiely - My Kitchen Refurb

4/8/2017

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After a long hiatus, I'm glad to share with you my kitchen makeover - dark grey and Orla Kiely themed! Whilst my kitchen before wasn't terrible, I really disliked the mix match of wood colours and it wasn't my style. I had actually picked a new kitchen (acrylic gloss) with a U-shaped layout, but decided to cancel the order when I separated from my partner last year. The total cost of this project including all the Orla Kiely accessories was under £1000 and I'm surper pleased with the results.

General Finishes Queenstown Gray

I'd seen upcycle projects using my favourite General Finishes Milk Paint on Pinterest and thought it might be a fun project to try. I originally thought I'd go with the paler Seagull or Driftwood, but I kept being drawn to projects that used the darkest Queenstown Gray, so decided to be brave. I used the High Performance Flat Topcoat. The worktops were sanded back and stained with GF wood stain in Walnut. For the walls, I used Johnstone's who colour matched to Farrow and Ball Ammonite

General Finishes milk paint colour chart

As you can see from the above photo, I have 12 cupboard doors of varying size and 6 drawers. I boxed in some pipes with MDF and painted that along with a freestanding shelving unit. There were also the kickboards, cupboard sides, wall shelves and backsplash, not to mention random stuff like my doggie door stop and even some picture mounts! I opted for 1 large (gallon size) tin of the milk paint and 2 of the top coat. I painted 2 -3 coats of milk paint on both sides and 3-4 coats of topcoat. I opted for the smallest tin of wood stain for the worktop. The total price for all the paints, topcoats and stains was £241.

Paint Sprayer

Earlex HV5500 HVLP sprayer used in Kitchen Upcycle with General Finishes Milk Paint

C/O Screwfix - Earlex HV55 HVLP Sprayer currently £187.99

I wanted a perfect finish, so decided to abandon trusty foam brushes and set about researching a paint sprayer. Bamboozled by options, I spoke to the helpful guy at General Finishes Edinburgh who said a HVLP (high volume low pressure) sprayer would be best. I was set to hire one from Glasgow, but managed to get a bargain on EBay for £107.

Prepping the Space- Just Call Me Dexter

OK, so I did go a bit overboard with the whole prep thing! Life would have been infinitely easier with a garage, but alas, I don't have one *sigh*. I needed to fully protect the floor and window area and spray inside the room. I got the dust sheets, overalls, mask and floor protector all from Screwfix. When a friend told me that the orange mask filter looked like a massive tongue that photo gets even more ridiculous!! I ended up ditching the overalls, the sprayer really wasn't that messy. The floor protector however is really an excellent product, I ended up hoovering and mopping it and it was very durable but peeled back without damaging the floor or leaving residue.

First Coats

I did quite a full coverage on some of the first coats, but then decided that it would be better to layer up the colour more gradually. I had a scrap of cardboard about 60cm by 30cm that turned out to be very handy when blocking any overspray, as this was the size of my full and half sized cupboards/drawers.

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men

I started the project over the Easter weekend and thought I'd prep the room Friday, paint on Saturday and Sunday and be finished and relaxing on Monday. Pah-hah-hah, what wishful thinking! I was still doing topcoats each night after work and then when I got a horrible lurgy-flu it was just grims-ville trying to paint whilst coughing and spluttering into a mask. I'm glad I painted the fronts and backs, but it certainly added more than double to the time as each side had to be completely dry before I could flip and paint the next layer.

In a distressed call to my close pals, they wisely told me to get some help in for the final push. My lovely Polish decorator Gregor and his friend Paul came to my rescue. The lads boxed in an ugly pipe left by nightmare plumbers, did the emulsion and sanded and stained the worktop along with other jobs around the flat. I was honestly am so indebted to them for all their hard work and for rescuing me from my mini meltdown!

Splashback Stencil

I love the Poundland metallic sticker paper for stencils. It cuts well with the Silhouette and has a washi-tape like stickiness, never taking off even the most delicate of paint finishes. This time though, the force of the Earlex sprayer meant there was a little bleeding. No biggie, I just tidied up with an artists' paintbrush, but a repositionable vinyl may have been better in this instance.

Hob Cover

One of my major bug bears of the kitchen is the tall cabinet in the middle of the wall. It splits the kitchen in two, reducing worktop space and would have been much better at either end. I therefore ordered bespoke hob covers from Hob Covers Direct for just shy of £100. I was very impressed - the technical drawings came back same day (Sunday) and the covers were with me a few days later. They do scratch easily, but overall have been a lifesaver for giving me much more worktop space. They lift up when cooking and so have the benefit of also shielding the splashback from splashes and splatters.

Shelfies - from Shameful Shambles to Shipshape Order

I had a tatty old set of pine garage shelves that was basically in a disgraceful mess. I painted them and bought some boxes for storing the likes of tea towels, food processor accessories and tupperware. I covered the £2.50 DRONA Ikea boxes with Orla Kiely fabric (£18/sq metre), which, as luck would have it, is the right width to cover the 4 sides perfectly! The felt type uncovered boxes are also Ikea - the lidded one next to the microwave is EKET (£10) and BLADDRA ones are £7 each.

Window Seat and Blind

Orla Kiely Cool Grey Linear Stems Blind and Window Seat. Upcycled cocktail cabinet also themed in OK style

I made the window seat myself but ordered the blind from Lilac Tree, who I was very pleased with. I ordered the foam cut to size from efoam and opted for the dacron wrap with stockinette, so the total came to £48. I actually had issues with my first attempt - the continuous zip kept splitting and I didn't like how the seams on the side panel looked. So I managed to reuse the fabric for the bases of the shelf boxes and started again. This time I wrapped a continuous length of fabric around the cushion and just boxed panels at the angled sides. This time I used thick width velcro instead of a zip. I used the exact dimensions of the foam width and depth for the fabric. The only change I made was to use a cushion thickness of 10.5cm in my calculations rather than the actual thickness of 12cm to give a nice and full plumpness.

OMG are you still with me?

I didn't intend on this post being quite so long, sorry!! I'll come back and talk about the large stencils I cut with my Silhouette machine for the cocktail cabinet upcycle project and also the backsplash in my next post. Until then here is a slide show of before and afters.

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Mummy Maddy's Makeover Takeover

5/4/2017

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Hey guys, Nadine here with a guest blog post from my mummy! Craftiness runs in my family, so when my mum showed me pictures of her recent livingroom makeover, I thought it would be fun if I could share here. So today I'll move over and let my mum takeover with her makeover!!

Mad(eleine) About Fabrics

After living with ‘drab’ plain navy curtains for over 10 years I decided in my wisdom that it was about time for a change! Which colour, plain or with a design, readymade or make my own? Decisions, decisions! I had a good look on the internet and shopped locally in Belfast, Northern Ireland which resulted in a few options. I couldn’t find anything that I really liked in any readymade ranges, so thought I’d have a go at sewing my own curtains and if I hadn’t gone mad in the process, possibly run up some cushions to compliment them.

I found a fantastic shop with a nice easy to navigate web site called Mad About Fabrics http://www.madaboutfabrics.com/ which was just on the outskirts of Belfast in the Duncrue Industrial Estate. Brilliant!! On visiting the shop I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much choice of fabric in one place and excellent customer service too. They had various Orla Kiely fabrics by the metre, which was nearly the fabric of choice!

Isla Fabric by Porter and Stone

Isla Fabric in Pewter from Mad About Fabrics in Belfast

In the end, I decided on ‘Isla’ fabric in the colour Pewter from Porter and Stone http://www.porterandstone.co.uk/isla-collection (£22.95 a metre). Although described as classic Chenille Jacquard, it is by no means what I would have thought of as ‘old fashioned’ chenille, as it has a slightly distressed texture and is a nice weight for curtains so I thought this would make up well for a warm and cosy feeling in my living room.

Minty The Sewing Machine

When the assistant carried the large roll of fabric out to my car I was slightly concerned that I’d taken on more than I could chew and worried that the material was too thick to go through the sewing machine and could turn into a nightmare!

Out came ‘Minty’ my trusty sewing machine from John Lewis (a gift from my daughter Nadine), which is currently on sale for £99 (20% off). I needn’t have worried about any problems as this was a dream to sew and the pattern turned out great to use as a guide.

Plumping for some Cushions

I had ordered up an extra metre in case I felt a cushion coming on! So, I made some cushions in a very easy pillow case type design with pompom edging purchased via EBay, how-to guide easily found on YouTube.

Cushions made with Isla fabric in Pewter by Porter and Stone

I also purchased via EBay some material with a fox design: Fryetts “Foxy Fox” in Teal to add a different element into the room and 2 plain cushions from TK Max, which I have always found to have good quality cushions and feather pads at a reasonable price. Result – one awfully fancy living room and one very pleased seamstress!

Fryetts Foxy Fox cushion in Teal colourway

Dulux Slate Grey Paint

To complete the room I have finished it off with a new coat of paint. I used Dulux paint in Slate Grey, on two walls which was mixed by Dulux in Homebase to provide some extra protection against marks but still providing a nice matt finish. I used Crown paint from their Period colours range in Palladian on the other two walls.

Isla curtains in Pewter, dulux paint in slate grey

Guest blog post by Madeleine Scott - Nadine's mummy!

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Letterpress workshop at Dot and the Line

12/3/2017

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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.

Overview and Demo with Lou

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.

Adana tabletop press. Craft Chatterbox attends Dot and the Line's introduction to Letterpress workshop in Edinburgh

Lou's Adana table top press

Cases of letterpress type. Craft Chatterbox attends Dot and the Line's introduction to Letterpress workshop in Edinburgh

Cases of letterpress type - that's where the terms upper and lower case come from!

Letterpress using Gill Sans Light Shadowed font with Adana tabletop press

Lou's demo using Gill Sans Light Shadowed font

Letterpress Lingo - Reglets, furniture and quoins

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.

Composing stick with italic Times New Roman typeface separated by leading strips

TTypeface separated by leading strips and packed out with wooden furniture. Adana letterpress introductory workshop

Typeface packed out with wooden 'furniture'

My type is ready to print. I love all the wonderful letterpress terms.

The Adana Table top Press in Action

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

The Finished Product

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

Letterpress bookmark using Adana press at workshop by Dot and the Line in Edinburgh

Bloopers

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:

Cost

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

DIY Letterpress

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!

Polymer Letterpress Plates

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!

Courtesy of Boxcar Press, the main makers of polymer plates

Embosser Seal Press

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.

Courtesy of Stamps Direct

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Loving La Vidalerie

1/12/2016

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I'm just home from a week's holiday at La Vidalerie in France and it was fabulous!

My First visit in 2013: An Introduction to Jewellery Making

I first discovered La Vidalerie when shopping for handmade silver jewellery findings a few years back. Browsing through the website, I noticed that they also run jewellery making holidays. So, my buddy Jenny and I went along for a few days on their beginners' course.

Mastering the Basics

We covered the basics and it was a revelation to learn the correct techniques for things I always just muddled through with. For example how to securely crimp and attach clasps to bracelets, open and close jump rings tightly without distorting them and how to make the perfect wire wrapped loops every time!

Wire work, Riveting, Fold-Forming and Soldering

We drank a hell of a lot of cups of tea with choccie biccies, so I don't know how we managed it but we also branched into loads of 'proper' silversmithing. We made our own earwires and clasps and learnt how to herringbone weave silver wire around beads. We got our hammers out and learnt how to fold-form flat silver into 3d shapes. We stamped and riveted pieces and even learnt how to solder our own stacker rings!

Precious Metals Workshop in Edinburgh

After my first holiday at La Vidalerie, I started making things at home and took an evening class at Precious Metals Workshop in Edinburgh. I got quite into it and hired a bench with a friend, Di, whom I met at the workshop.

After a couple of years, my jewellery hobby dwindled, as my Silhouette Cameo had taken over and a flat move took up my remaining spare time. I decided to cancel my bench as it was £60 per month and packed away all my tools.

In need of a Retreat

Not many people know, but things have been tough recently, as I've separated from my long term partner. I needed a break and the first place that sprung to mind was La Vidalerie!

Rekindling My Hobby

Since visiting last, Karen and Tim have built a fabulous workshop, kitted out with loads of equipment, so I had a ball.

Keum Boo

My favourite jeweller Misun Won uses this Korean technique of fusing fine gold foil to silver a lot and I was keen to find out more. I experimented with cutting it on my cameo, which was very nerve-racking given the cost!!

Electro (salt water) etching

At PMW in Edinburgh, I tried chemical etching on copper and silver, so was keen to try out salt water etching on copper with Karen. This technique passes an electric current from some household batteries through the water to etch your piece. We also used the same idea of electro-etching on silver, but instead of salt needed to use silver nitrate. We tried out resists, including vinyl cut from my Silhouette Cameo.

Glass Fusing and Etching Dichroic

I learnt how to make fully fused glass pieces and how to make custom designs etching the special sparkly dichroic glass

Rolling Mill Textures

This was an unexpected delight, so much so I have ordered my own mini mill arriving tomorrow! I cut designs in paper with my cameo, many inspired by retro Orla Kiely style stems. I particularly love my brooch and learning how to make the fastening.

Claw and Tube Setting Stones

Apart from constantly dropping my teeny weeny topaz when I was trying to set it, I love this sea glass pendant and learning the versatile claw setting. I want to take a trip to Seaham near Newcastle where this glass is from - apparently there was an old Victorian bottleworks factory which routinely dumped its end of day glass into the sea. Almost a century after it closed, the sea still churns back daily loots of beautiful sand-polished glass nuggets. Closer to home, I hear South Queensferry is also good, but this time because of the nearby pubs!

Completing my Origami Hummingbird

I etched this little fella in PMW but he had languished in an unfinished projects box. I soldered a brooch pin on and we gave him a wee polish and he's ready. Do you think I should keep him or gift him this Christmas?

Itinerary

I know it seems like I have some sort of affiliation, but I don't at all, I just really loved both my holidays! Karen and Tim are so warm and welcoming and really easy-going. Tim picked me up and dropped me off at Montpelier airport, although we realised that Beziers is actually a way better option late March to October as Ryanair fly direct from Edinburgh.

Breakfast and lunches are included and veggies are well catered for as Karen herself is vegetarian. For dinner, you can cook in the gite or Tim will happily drop you off in the local village and collect you again.

Incredibly materials are also included, yes really - silver, copper and glass! I even got a little laser engraved usb with all the photos Tim kindly took and my own polishing stick. My makes were wrapped in little bags and tissues and I was given some La Vidalerie jewellery tins so I didn't damage them travelling back home.

My holiday cost £890 - this is the 2016 price for 5 workshop days and 7 nights. This can be split into shorter holidays such as 2 Workshop Days / 3 Nights for £395 per person or 3 Workshop Days / 4 Nights costing £495 per person. I think this is fabulous value considering day courses in Edinburgh cost as much or more without food, accomodation or materials! Here's their website La Vidalerie.

Oh, I should mention that Karen and Tim are English ex-pats, so teach in English in case you assumed my French is way better than it is!!

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Tray Chic

18/7/2016

3 Comments

Lap Trays Upcycled with General Finishes Coast Blue Paint, Liberty of London fabric and copper vinyl. Blog by Craft Chatterbox

Before

Before - my tray in a very sorry state for itself.

We have a couple of those lap trays with the polystyrene balls underneath that I totally destroyed with spilt acetone and other crafting abuses. Following the success of my Winged Eyeliner stencilled make-up tray, I decided to give our two lap trays a wee make over using scraps from other projects.

Coastal Blue Paint

I used Coastal Blue Milk Paint from favourite brand General Finishes. It's a deep midnight shade that I thought would go excellently with copper. I bought it to upcycle a funky heaxagonal drinks cabinet I found on gumtree, but figured I'd give the paint a quick whirl on these trays first. It's a no prime, hard wearing formula, but as it's such a dark colour, the first coat might look ropey - don't worry though it all comes good on the second /third coats.

First coat of General Finishes Milk Paint in Coastal Blue

First coat on the raw wood photo frame looks perfect, but scary on the tray.

Tray with 3 coats of General Finishes Coastal Blue Milk Paint

After a second coat the tray looks good, a third and it's perfect

Liberty of London Fabric

I'm addicted to the glorious world of Liberty prints. I picked up some of this gorgeous fabric in Mandors fabric shop in Glasgow and it's been waiting patiently for me to put it to good use. I plan to make some fabric applique cushions with the fabric, but haven't managed to get around to that just yet. For the trays, I just used my staple gun to attach the fabric all the way round the edges.

Freebie Copper Vinyl

The fabric pattern reminds me very much of mountain scapes and our holiday to Iceland last year, so I decided to cut some geometric style mountain graphics using my trustee Silhouette Cameo from vinyl. The kind guys at MDP Supplies in Falkirk gifted me this copper vinyl as it was an end of roll and always tripping them up. What a score, I absolutely love it!!

The Finished Product

The only problem now is that I don't want to use these trays in fear of wrecking them!

Lap Trays Upcycled with General Finishes Coast Blue Paint, Liberty of London fabric and copper vinyl. Vinyl cut with Silhouette Cameo. Blog by Craft Chatterbox

I'd love to hear from you. If you have a cameo too, do you use it to upcycle? Which tray design do you prefer?

3 Comments

Create SoundWave Graphics From AN Audio Clip

17/6/2016

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I made a quick video tutorial on how to create a sound wave graphic image from an audio clip. The clip can be anything, such as a father's day message from some kids or your favourite song. If you have a Silhouette, you can cut the design and apply to a anything you like such as a mug, wall decal or t-shirt. Never fear if not though, it will still make a lovely card or print your design onto a poster or canvas.

Tutorial on how to create a sound wave graphic from an audio voice recording clip by Craft Chatterbox. Video tutorial on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBOcEMdvYAw

The web app I used was to make the sound wave is http://mishaheesakkers.nl/waveformer/.
I used https://www.unitag.io/qrcode for making my QR code.

If you would like to curve the sound wave around a circle to create a radial design, I recommend Inkscape which is a brilliant vector editing software that's free.

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How to Design Papercuts Plus Step-by-Step Tutorial

14/5/2016

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Hi guys, up on the Silhouette UK Blog today we have a step-by-step tutorial for a papercut that I made for a wedding gift for my friends Emily and Callum.

This combines with the tutorial from last week, which is a guide to how to design many different styles of papercutting.

Bunting Papercut Tutorial with free Heart Frame file from Silhouette UK Blog by Craft Chatterbox

Link to http://silhouetteuk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/bunting-typography-papercut-with-free.html

How to Design Papercuts on Silhouette UK Blog by Craft Chatterbox

Link to http://silhouetteuk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/how-to-design-typography-papercuts.html

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