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Friday 31 August 2012

Free printable sewing ephemera sheet

Here are some of the ephemera images I have used in some of my work. I have put them on a high res sheet for you to use in your crafting.


Please do not sell this sheet, sheet © paperwishesbyamanda.2018. If you have come here from Tipnut please do leave a comment. Happy crafting.

Saturday 18 August 2012

Paper Garland Upcycling no. 3



Another day and another easy project. Again its abandoned tattered charity shop books. 


 I have punched, sewn and turned this one into a garland. 

use tape to centre the punches circles



 Looks lovely in the sunshine. Today has been like a lovely summers day in Ireland  yet it is the depths of ‘winter’ here. The blue winter skys are one of the nicest aspects of living in this country such incredible deep blue.

Friday 17 August 2012

Book Envelope Upcycling no. 2


Secret Garden Envelope

More magical recycling, this gift envelope is made from a damaged copy of The Secret garden. I loved this story as a child and it seemed a shame to let this old copy go into the bin because it had pages missing. A ten minute  project and I can give it away page by page. You could use an old button instead of the brad if you have none of those hanging about. The bird is an Inkadinkado stamp.
Just as well it is a 10 min. project. I have had a mad day taking the cat to the vet. His legs are bandaged up after a car accident and he is confined to a cage. Add that to shopping day and taxi services and craft has to take a back seat.

Thursday 16 August 2012

Alice in Wonderland Theatre Upcycling No.1




Recycling a votive candle box


Made this for a birthday gift.  I love Alice in Wonderland stuff and the Graphic 45 Halloween in Wonderland goes great with this Bo Bunny Timepeice paper.  The Characters are all cut from G45 paper and glued onto acetate strips and can be used to perform on (or rather in) the theatre.

This is the first of a series on upcycling. I am going to make things out of stuff headed for the bin. There is so much we buy to make crafts including card so I will try and turn it around - save money and the planet, one gift at a time.  

Wednesday 11 July 2012

Kiasercraft Great Southern Land Baby Album


I have been making my first baby album for a friend who had a little boy called Ruben. This is a country WA baby and I have used this as a starting point. I have used papers from Kiasercraft and Graphic 45.
I stuck with olive greens, creams and a vintage look. I have used embellishments I made from classic Australian children’s book illustrations by May Gibbs - Gumnut Babies, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite’s fairy illustrations and Dorothy Wall’s - Blinky Bill the Koala. All the ribbon is seam binding I dyed with Tim Holtz Crushed Olive Distress ink
I made all the pages plain and included a flap with lots of 4” x 6” photo mats and tags for journaling and pictures.

products used:

Great Southern Land - 12x12 Scrapbook Paper – WA
Great Southern Land - 12x12 Scrapbook Paper – VIC
Great Southern Land - 12 x 12 Die Cut - TAS
Graphic 45 Baby 2 Bride collection - Dream a Little Dream
 (It even had his name on the reverse side!)
Graphic 45 Little Darlings paper collection - Precious Poesy
Doily edger punch by Martha Stewart
and Tim Holtz Distress ink in Crushed Olive and Forest Moss 



Sunday 27 May 2012

Catching Up

Its not easy finding time to blog. I have been making things I've done my first market and finally listed items in my Etsy shop. Now to blogging more and posting the things I am making before I give them away! I put up the Fairy gift tags on Etsy. They are very Spring and Summer although of course we in the land of Oz are heading into Winter. Still it is never really cold here to my Irish bones.

Sunday 1 January 2012

New Year Resolution



Blogging on the first day of the new year. It was not a resolution but it should be. With moving, Christmas and no internet for a month, blogging has been neglected. The first of the year has been productive - blogging and creating too. I was a bit lost after the flurry of Christmas card and gift making. I watched lots of videos for ideas and decided it was time I tried an album.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the loss of photographs now they all go from digital camera to computer. It is so easy to loose them all if the machine dies. Like the bank that cannot give you cash if ‘the computers are down’!!!! Even with scratches negatives are much less fragile through time. I am going to try this year to print most of my photos and create prints not just invisible ‘files.’

With this new years resolution in mind I have made an album for my Mum. It is for Mother’s Day so I will not photograph it extensively and spoil the surprise if she looks in. I used a template from http://www.mycreativespirit.blogspot.com/ I think this lady has a brilliant eye for design in her pages and she is wonderfully calm and clear in tutorials. I have been inspired to make albums over the holidays.



I wanted to use a sea theme as we live near the sea and have lots of lovely photos of us all in water and sand. I have used Graphic 45 and a range of papers. I have also used a range of sea themed embellishments and stamps including Crafty Secrets Mermaids, Cherry Pie Art Stamps and my new inks from Santa. I have finished the album pages but I still have to make the tags and photo mats once I have printed out the pictures. I got really excited after making this and tried other formats but I like this one best so far. It is a great format for a beginner.