Saturday 27 October 2018

papercrafts in October...

October Daily
Started an arty journal called a 'daily' - challenge was set by Serena Bee Creative. Made a TN (Traveler's Notebook) and used scrapbook paper 'Jack's Revenge' by Reminisce, 'Dark Hollow' by Ella & Viv, 'Haunted House' by Carta Bella and 'Treat Bag' by Hocus Pocus. Papermaze is a good UK site to buy US papers. This page in my October Daily was about the Harry Potter postage stamp set that was released on the 16th.

Thingummyjigs
Found stripey straws at Poundland and decorated circular gift tags edged with metal to make some decorative picks. I could have done with a small label maker instead of writing the words.

Hallowe'en bunting
For the last couple of Christmases I've made bunting using cards and scrapbook paper so I translated that into Hallowe'en bunting saying BOO!. A gemmie makes the skull's eye pop.

Haunted House
Had bought a set of toy suitcases and reckoned they'd make a good Haunted House stacked on top of one another - this was a BIG project. I removed the hardware (handles, locks) and cut away the lids to leave the 3-storied house open on one side. Making the furniture was fun. I used small stickers and bottles on the scrapbook papers to decorate.


Pocket Letter Swap
As a member of PopFizzPaper's Crafty Club I did a pocket letter swap. with a US crafter called Kestrel whos jam-packed letter blew me away with little folders and stashes including stickers, bead mixes, embellishments and washi tape samples. Oh, and there was a bag of apple and pumpkin flavoured candy corn too. I stocked my pocket letter to her with a tiny painting, frames, stickers and die cuts. And blackcurrant lollipops and a bag of Swizzel's sweets dressed up as a mummy. Great fun. 

Monster Paperclips
Had glued some paperclips onto felt balls bought at Sostrene Grene. To turn them into tiny monsters I added goggly eyes. Easy peasy.

Wand
Amongst the scrapbook paper was some photographic wooden prints. Folding this upon itself made a wand shape. Only effective from one side as the other revealed the folds. 'Illusionardium Woodenwandus'

FatBat Rosette Shaker
I wanted to make a shaker rosette and decorate it as a bat but I made the shaker so big that it resulted in a huge bat. Added a stripey straw, and behold, Fatbat.

Memorydex Challenge
A challenge set by Sabrina Ann. Memorydex is a type of journaling system using a filing card type of setup. Even without a Memorydex die cutter or punch it's still feasible to make them. We had to base our cards on either monsters or villains and I chose Winifred Sanderson from Hocus Pocus on a bad day - 'when a spell runs amok'. The black cat Thackery Binx also runs fowl of the exploding spell.

PFP Crafty Club Shenanigans
Dani from PopFizzPaper ran a Hallowe'en fb page for the month of October full of mini challenges, treasure hunts and opportunities to post pictures of papercrafts. I won a mini Happy Mail (goodies decorated and packed imaginatively, put in a box and posted - there's always sweets included) currently winging its way to me.


I'm really hoping to do a video flip-through of the October Daily book I made and decorated AND I'd love to make a video on the Haunted House too. Although I'd started the Inktober challenge this year I only got as far as the fourth day - I instead focussed on papercrafting which is something I love working with. And that online course I signed up to (free on Kadenze) fell by the wayside - I'll pick that up again in November... hopefully... 
there's a procrastination challenge that's starting on the 1st...


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Thursday 11 October 2018

my creative planner...


I can hardly believe it was June, 4 months ago, since I last posted an entry in this blog. I have been in the throes of a dark phase but have and am still crawling out from under that particular stone. I have a couple of other blogposts that I might now be able to finish. For this one I've taken a few pictures of my creative planner without which I wouldn't be able to function as an artist/crafter.



I use a green Leuchtturm (how is that pronounced?) which I picked up at TK Maxx for half price. I stood there at the stationery shelves with both the green one and a grey one in my hands, trying to decide which to buy. I should have bought both. 

The Leuchtturm is favoured by many bullet planners as the 249 pages are each numbered plus it has an index section at the front. This keeps me from losing track of what I'm doing when. The pages are nice quality though some pens are too heavy ink-wise. I like using a Papermate Replay as it's easy to erase mistakes, misspellings etc. My book has blank pages so I can sketch ideas in them.



I draw out a new month's calendar when I need it and prefer drawing boxes to write within. I do use a code to indicate whether a task has been achieved, decided against or pushed ahead to another time. However my writing changes depending upon my mood or emotion. It can be anything between neat and downright chaotic. I doubt if I will ever achieve the perfection of Kara Benz's careful yet artistic consistency, and yet I yearn to be able to do so.



Unlike my personal journal, where I revisit pages I've written again and again and add dated notes in the margins, my Leuchtturm is a working tool. It serves to organise the inspiration and excitement I feel whenever I have an idea and helps me translate that maelstrom into achievable working tasks.





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Copyright © 2016 by Roisin O'Hagan/bloowabbit

All rights reserved. The artworks/illustrations or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the artist except for specific permission granted with a free downloadable.