Floral Collage Canvas

So, you've accumulated a load of patterned papers (either physical or digital), but you have no idea what to do with them.  At least, that's a problem that I have. I'm not a prolific card maker, nor do I scrapbook, but I can't resist a pretty patterned paper or an interesting background texture.  So what to do?  Collage, that's what!

I tend to overthink things and spent ages trying to decide what to collage.  In my mind I felt like it needed to be some grand, artistic piece.  But it really didn't have to be so complicated.   In the end I went with a simple floral layout inspired by an embroidery design.

I used papers from my digital stash, but any papers would work.  This would actually be a great project for using up paper scraps.  I chose a newsprint, a pink paper with a a slight texture for the flowers, two different green papers for the stems and leaves, yellow paper for the flower centres and a lovely bluey-purple paper for some berries.  I've listed links to all the papers used at the end of the post.

Step-by-step

1.  I printed out three sheets using one of the designs in the Old Newspaper Textures set.  The original file is a 12 x 12 sheet and the text was quite large.  So I resized it a couple of times to make the print smaller.  I tore pieces from all three sheets and stuck them down on the canvas board trying to get a nice mix between the different text sizes.

2.  Using the pink sheet I cut a strip about one inch wide and then cut about 30 petals shapes.

3.  I arranged the petals on to the canvas board to create 3 flower heads.

4.  I cut thin stems from one of the green papers and various sized leaves from the other green paper, then arranged them onto the board.

5.  I cut a few small circles for berries from the blue-purple paper and three yellow circles for the flower centres and added them to the piece as well.

At this point the collage was finished, but I felt like it didn't stand out from the background enough. So I went around the edges of the petals, leaves and berries with my Derwent Inktense pencils to help lift the composition off the page.  I think that I might have overworked it a bit, but it does seem to have done the job and I still like the end result.  (Original on the left, "enhanced" on the right.)

  

Tutorial

Watch the process video on my YouTube channel.

SUPPLIES

5 x 7" Canvas Boards  (you could also use scrap cardboard)

Matte Medium (Mod Podge Matte [Europe], Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium [Europe], Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium [US])

Derwent Inktense Pencils

A2 Self-Healing Cutting Mat

Backgrounds and digital papers:

Old Newspaper Textures

Scattered Gold Shimmers in Green

Glop Wallpaper 08 (sample freebie available with fewer backgrounds) [apple green paper]

Glop Wallpaper 16 (sample freebie available with fewer backgrounds) [pink paper]

Pattys Desert Strips 3 Bundle (sample freebie available with fewer backgrounds) [blue-purple paper]

Glitter Digital Papers

Christmas Decorations - Indoor Wreath

I love Christmas decorations and in an ideal world every room in the house would be festooned to bursting point. In reality though, every year the living room looks beautifully festive but the decoration of the rest of the house is sporadic at best. So I vow to craft up a storm for next Christmas, but it always seems to creep up on me! You know, it's ages away, it's ages away. it's ages away, oh shit it's here! It's like that scene out of Monty Python's The Holy Grail (but without the carnage 😂!) You'd think by now I'd be better prepared...

So in my attempt to boost the decorations stash I have made a few things, including this indoor wreath. I will be attaching one to every internal door in the house.

I cut a ring from Kraft card with a 15cm outer diameter. I then lined it with pine sprigs that I die cut (I don't know the brand) from green paper. I then die cut holly leaves from two shades of green mirror card using the holly dies in the Tattered Lace Holly & Robin set. Finally I cut several poinsettias using two sizes from the Tattered Lace Poinsettia 2016 set to place over the leaves around the frame. The wreath is finished off with a red bow at the top and a loop of red ribbon for hanging glued to the back. As I cut the holly from green mirror card, I went back over all of the berries with red glitter glue.

In our house the decorations go up on the 1st December. That's only a couple of days away so I won't have a full complement of decorations in time for that, BUT technically I've got until Christmas Day so I'll keep making them and adding them up until then.

Paper Flower Pot

Inspired by the pop-up box card, I thought it would be fun to use the same principle to create a different shape.  A plant pot came to mind and I do like to make paper flowers, so I put the two together and voila!

Unlike the pop-up box, the plant pot is only connected along the top edge.  The sides have been cut away to create the pot shape.  I used two strips of card on each side to connect the front and back of the pot to give it some stability.

The flowers have all been made with either punched hearts, or using hand-drawn heart templates.  I stuck 5 heart petals together at their tips to create each flower.  I also scored along the petals before colouring them to give some texture, then shaped the petals by curling gently.  Most of the petals were cut from plain white card, which I then coloured with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers.  A couple were cut from pink paper and then coloured blue.

Some of the stamens were made by snipping at regular intervals into a thin rectangular strip of card and then rolling that up and fanning out the cut fringes.  The rest were made using Flower Soft by Katy Sue.  I actually much prefer those.  I added a few die cut and freeform leaves, and some decorative flourishes by Tattered Lace to finish off the display.  Because the pot is made using the same principle as the pop-up box, it does flatten, so in theory you could make one of these and send it in the post.

Text Accents

I've been watching a lot of YouTube for inspiration for mixed media and also making my own embellishments.  I see a lot of people use Tim Holtz's Idea-ology word stickers for text accents.  I don't have any of those, but I do have a few mini alphabet stamps, so I thought it would be fun to make my own (and less expensive too).

For these I used a Dovecraft set, which I got on sale for £1 at Hobbycraft.  Stamp any words that you like then cut out the strip.  It's a quick, easy and cheap way to add text accents to projects, with the added benefits that you only get the words that you want as many times as you want.  The stamp sets come in various styles, so could work for lots of different types of projects.

This is not a sponsored post and does NOT contain affiliate links.  These are my own opions based on products that I have bought.

Pretty Paper

TK Maxx might seem like an unlikely place to shop for craft and stationery supplies, but it's worth checking out every now and again.  From gorgeous notebooks to paper pads and embellishment packs there are some surprisingly good deals to be had.  Much of the crafty stuff is imported from America and not widely available here so even better value.  My best haul so far was a 180-sheet 12x12 paper pad by Recollections that I snapped up for just £7.99.  

But my latest find (which I L❤VE) hails from these shores; a 2015 calendar by Hammond Gower from their Lace collection.  It's a gorgeous fusion of Kraft card with pops of colour. Love, love, love it! The calendar doesn't actually appear on their website but it looks like it's made up of a collection of their greetings cards. I'll be a happy bunny on New Year's Day when I get to put it up.  Here are some of my favourite months.

Wallpaper - The New Paper Pad

I love paper pads, but with a 6x6 pad costing roughly £5-£10 and a 12x12 pad at around £15 a time, they can get a little expensive.  One alternative is to go down the digital route, but that has its own hidden costs and limitations.

The other day, while looking for a new mirror at B&M Home Stores I happened to walk down the wallpaper aisle when a few rolls caught my eye.  Among them was this one:

Isn't it lovely? There's 52cm x 10m of paper on this roll, which works out to the equivalent of one 12x12 pad with 32 sheets, and two 6x6 pads each with 32 sheets, and paper left over.  And because it's all a continuous length it can double up as wrapping paper.  All that for only £4.99 - an absolute bargain! Even at £10 or £15 a roll, that's still amazing value.

The only downside might be that it's all the same pattern, whereas a paper pad will generally offer some variety, but if you choose a design with lots of different elements in it, you can make it go a lot further. 

Here are some of my favourite designs that I found on the B&M website:

Hello!

I love paper. In fact I've always had a thing for stationery - pens, pencils, pencilcases, paper, gift wrap, you name it.  I haven't always kept in touch with my paper passion, though it occasionally showed up from time to time - the stationery cupboard at work was one of my favourite places. Then just before Christmas 2013 my passion for all things paper was unleashed with a vengeance!

Image via createandcraft.tv

The seeds were sown in late Summer when I stumbled upon (and promptly became hooked on) Create & Craft TV, which inspired the seemingly harmless decision to make my own Christmas cards.  Shopping for supplies started a chain reaction, which shows no sign of slowing down.  I was introduced to a whole new world of pretty papers, delightful embellishments, stamping, embossing, die cutting...  You get the picture.

Now, you should know that I've also got a thing for fabric, yarn & haberdashery.  It seems that I have a need to express my creativity by making things.  I delight in the whole process of taking a set of separate elements, and then combining them to create something completely new. It's marvellous!  So although I barely have time to spend on my existing crafty interests, I'm embracing this awakened interest in paper into my crafty fold, and as it's nice to have somewhere to document my journey I decided to set up this blog.

So here's to a new adventure. Let's see where it takes me!