Faux mini canvas

We are so very excited to welcome the fabulously talented Lousette Ashton back to It's a creative world. I shall hand you over to Lousette and let her weave her magic.

A long time ago I bought several packs of small, very cheap IKEA photo frames, you know the ones that are 3 for £1 or something silly like that. I had grandiose ideas for them, but nothing ever came of it and they sat in a box under my bed for years (literally).

Then one day I saw a beautiful photo printed onto a canvas in a restaurant, and decided to have a go at making my own mini photo canvas using cotton printable fabric from Crafty Computer papers. These little faux canvasses are cute as gifts, and also great for photos that are maybe not good enough for normal printing as the texture of the cotton disguises grain or other flaws.

You will need: Small wooden picture frame Plain white cardstock Spray mount or Photo mount Printable cotton sheet Double sided tape Tacky, PVA or other wet glue Scissors and craft knife

Step 1

Remove the glass form the photo frame. If you have a very dark coloured frame you might want to give it a quick coat with white acrylic paint.

Step 2 Measure the outside dimensions of the frame. Crop a photo to these exact dimensions and print out onto cotton paper. I find it sometimes help to adhere the cotton to a sheet of ordinary printer paper using removable adhesive. Although the cotton has a backing sheet attached to it, it is still quite thin and my printer couldn’t feed the sheet properly on its own.

Step 3 Use double sided tape to cover the front of the frame with plain white cardstock. Trim the cardstock to size. (I always use a bigger piece of card and then trim afterwards using my craft knife instead of cutting the cardstock to size first).

Step 4 & 5 Spray the cardstock with photo mount, remove the backing sheet from the cotton and drape over the frame. The photo mount gives you the chance to reposition the image until it is perfectly placed. Press down gently to make sure the cotton adheres to the cardstock.

Step 6 Cover the sides of the frame with double sided tape and fold the cotton over. Make sure it is nice and taut. Fold each side over onto the back of the frame, mark with a pencil and trim off the excess cotton.

Step 7 & 8 Use double sided tape to finally glue the remaining cotton onto the back of the frame, making sure the corners are tucked neatly on the sides. Glue the excess fabric of the corners down onto the back with tacky glue. Hold for a few seconds until the fabric stays in place.

Decorate the front with embellishments or rub-ons if you wish, or simply leave as is.

Thank you so much Lousette and what a fantastic gift for the children to give relatives at Christmas.

If, like us, you've been inspired by Lousette please let us know. We love to see all your creations. And just a reminder: We will be off line on Friday the 30th November for our move over to typepad!! Please be sure to pop back on Saturday the 1st December for the link to our new home.

In the Doldrums ???

Hi again from Di with another idea to get the creative juices going.

I have been through a real “mojo less” period, and sometimes I just want to play. Because I am retired, I am on a pension, and therefore a BUDGET. Like you I have stash that I have actually FORGOTTEN about. So this is also an oopportunity to "Use Your Stash". Cheap and Cheerful Décor: Sometimes I just want to sit down and play, with no expectations of what I am creating. That’s when I create stuff to adorn my “studio”. So get some old cardboard, patterned paper, as many embellishments as you feel like and play. My Studio Just some patterned paper, paint, chipboard letters brads and ribbon.

About me:

And more just about me!!! And finally a little "welcome" I treat these as ’throwaways”. If they adorn “My space”for a few months, that’s fine. But they are in my face reminding me of who and what I am. They contain some positive thoughts that I can focus on whilst working. I used some paper that I have loved for a long time but have probably “over scrapped” LOL. You will find that you are not inhibited by the colours of photographs. (If you decide to include a few photographs, print them in black and white, sepia or antique.) This works for me. We would love to hear how YOU approach kindling your inspiration (We hope you come to IACW!!!! LOL.) a BIG Thanks for your very generous donations to our breast cancer awareness campaign. A special thanks to the folks who accepted my little challenge and donated this weekend. You will see that we have almost reached our target!!! And a reminder to get your "Scrap your Boobs" layouts in before the 31st October. Please email them to us at acreativeworld@hotmail.co.uk THANKS!!! Thanks for visiting and love from Di XXX

Delightful terracotta candle pots

Hey there everyone! A big HI to you all today from Caz!

Today I am bringing you a very quick easy project that has no limits :) but in the spirit of Chistmas.

I found these beautiful church candles at John Lewis for £2 each! Yes that's right £2, and that was for the big ones, the smaller size were only £1 each (Wish I had bought more!). But my problem was I didn't have candle holders for them! That was until I stumbled across these cheap but very cute terracotta pots at my local garden centre and I just knew they would work! All I did was give the pots and wipe down to get rid of any water marks and cob webs (!) and tied some raffia around the rim to give them a country look.

The pots cost 39p and 59p for the larger ones!!!!

It was that easy and they look so pretty!

Now obviously we like to be able to adapt our projects to use for lots of different occasions, so some other ideas:

How about painting the pots orange and having them out in the garden for halloween.

How about using them as a centre piece when you have a fancy dinner party, a bit of black velvet ribbon around the rim would really snazzy them up!

Or you could paint them loads of different bright colours and have them on your outside table when you have a bbq.

And finally give them as a gift, if you buy the teeny weeny pots you could give 3 with a bag of tea lights to someone who enjoys having candles around the house. The teeny pots cost about 29p each!

I hope todays post has inspired you to add a little light into your life.

Caz xxx

And Hi from Di the MDD (Mad Dear Mother) of Caz. I have a little challenge for you today!!!

For every 1 pound that you donate to IACW Just Giving page I will donate 1 pound. This challenge is open until Sunday midnight 21st October!!! So come on girls just 1 pound from each of you! And why would I do this? Because cancer took my mum. Here she is....

Because of her I have a mother,I am a daughter, and I am blessed.

Love from Di

Nude words....inside and out!

Ooh doesn't that title sound a bit naughty {lol}

Today we are looking at decorating wooden letters and I want to extend a huge IACW welcome to the lovely SCRAPDOLLY who is sharing her stunning project with us today.

Karen has decorated the word TRAVEL beautifully using themed paper and embellishments.

And a little detail...

My project is a little different...

I have used the Creative Imaginations bare elements word CREATE and have decided to start off decorating the NEGATIVE or OUTSIDE part first. (the insides are still waiting for their turn!!}

Firstly I painted the whole thing blue, including the inside bits for the R and A.

Once dry I used a sanding block to give it a shabby worn out look.

A few bits of ribbon and a clear jewel were the only decoration I wanted.

For the backing I used Cosmo Cricket, Dutch Girl: Audrey paper attached with modge podge.

And a little detail...

A huge thanks to the lovely Scrapdolly for sharing her work with IACW readers

and as always...

haPPy creATing

Caz

xx

Christmas Sewing

Hi again, today we are bringing you ideas for handmade Christmas fabric items; we hope you get some ideas and inspiration. Trish xxx I will start with my Christmas pinny. I bought this gorgeous holly fabric from my local fabric shop and got a bit of a bargain, as there was a pattern miss so ended up with more than I had wanted, which was ideal. I put the fabric on the floor and laid my full length pinny on the top, gave myself a 1 inch allowance and cut round the shape, hemmed it all the way round, cut a medium sized rectangle, hemmed it and stitched it on for a pocket and used ribbon for the ties. As I had some fabric left I decided to make a hot pad for getting the dinner out of the oven, I just cut 2 squares approx 9x9 inches of the patterned fabric, the same from slightly thicker plain cotton fabric, and the same again from wadding (doubled up), pinned it all together then used my sewing machine to stitch diagonally across to form a criss cross pattern, then edged it with bias binding, very quick and simple to do. I still had a few scraps of the fabric left over, but not really enough to sew anything, so after hunting round the internet I came up with a great idea, A rag wreath, I made the circle with jewellery wire, it took quite a lot of wire to make it relatively sturdy, but you could always use an embroidery ring instead, I tore the fabric into strips approx 1 inch wide and 3 inches long, and tied it on the wire until it was full, I then tore a plain red fabric into slightly smaller strips, about half and inch wide and 2 and a half inches long and tied them in between, this wreath will hang inside my kitchen door. Di has done a lovely pinny/sack/shopping bag using fat quarters and calico.

I bought about 5 "Fat quarters " in a little shop in Hitchin. Cut then into 6 inch srips and stiched them together. (about 5 feet of strips) Then backed them with calico so that the whole thing would be lined, turned the whole lot inside out and the top stiched. Almost too late added the smiley face buttons using embroidery cotton . i should have added them before attaching the lining so that the stiching would be concealed. I then made the ties, turned them inside out and attached them to the side of the SACK. VOILA I had a Christmas sack, a pinny with a BIG pocket, and a xmas shopper!!!! It is robust washable and I think quite Joyful.

Fabulous photo frames

Hi, I’m Karen and I was thrilled to be asked to be a Guest Designer for today. Thank you ladies for inviting me. I’m going to show how to transform an ordinary, run of the mill photo frame into an object of beauty.

As you can see, my photo frame was looking dull and the photos were about 3 years out of date too, so the whole thing was desperately in need of a makeover. I’ve covered this one with cardstock weight patterned paper, which works well on flat surfaces, but if you have a moulded frame, you could paint instead (I’d recommend you use gesso as a primer first).

Supplies for the frame shown here:

Mod Podge Sandpaper K&Co Amy Butler Belle patterned papers Fancy Pants chipboard flowers Li’l Davis Designs chipboard photo corners Li’l Davis glitter chipboard alphabet Maya Road chipboard heart Heidi Swapp fuzzy rub ons, pink Li’l Davis glitter glaze, clear Lime green, bright pink & pale blue acrylic paint Pale blue ric rac

Firstly, choose your patterned papers – the ones I’ve used are K&Co Amy Butler Belle but the beauty is that you can use absolutely anything and match it to your home décor. Measure the width and height of the frame, and cut strips of patterned paper to size. Note: as my frame is quite wide, I had to join two strips together for the top and bottom strips but I matched the pattern carefully and it’s barely noticeable. Alternatively, you could use lots of paper scraps and cover your frame in a patchwork effect.

To mitre the corners , simply place the patterned paper strip in position on top of the frame and make a small mark to show where you need to cut at an angle. The photo below is to illustrate this; I’ve used a thick black line so it can be seen more clearly but in practice I just make a very small mark with a pencil by the inner corner of the frame.

Sand the frame lightly to key the surface, and use Mod Podge to stick the papers in place. Allow to dry and sand the edges of the paper to give a distressed/aged feel; apply a thin coat of Mod Podge to seal.

Once dry, decorate the frame as you like. I covered some chipboard flowers with patterned paper, then sanded the edges and tied on some ric rac. I then added some glittery chipboard lettering plus some painted and glittered chipboard embellishments. You can keep it simple or pile on the embellishments; a word of wisdom though (it’s probably obvious but I learned this the hard way when I did my first frame a while back) – if your photo frame is to be used freestanding, make sure that the embellishments don’t overhang the bottom edge or it won’t stand up!

As a finishing touch on my frame, I added some new up to date photographs and used rub on velvet lettering on each photo. I hope you like the project and it inspires you to give some of your old frames a makeover of their own.

Button Heart

I imagine that a lot of you are like myself and have LOADS of buttons lying around; well here is a quick and simple project that will use some of those spare buttons. The base is a 4x4 inch deep edge canvas, painted to the colour you want. Draw a heart shape on a piece of painted/coloured card and cut out. Using Glossy Accents (or any other strong clear drying glue) start to place the buttons round the edge of the design, I used all different sizes and pale colours in mine. When you have filled the centre of the shape you will find that you need to put buttons on top to fill in the gaps, keep going until you are happy with the result. Hope you have fun with this project. Trish xxx

A corner of my home

Hi, it's Maria here and I'm just wondering if you have a favourite corner of your home. I must admit that mine changes from day to day but at the moment this is top of my list. Ok, technically, it isn't a corner but the door of my crafty room. But it makes me smile whenever I am sitting in here pushing bits of paper round and hunting for that embellie that I put down five minutes ago. This was made from a Making Memories kit which included everything you need except for the photos. But, you could easily make something similar using chipboard letters and whatever papers you fancy. If you're lucky enough to have a Craft Robo or something similar you could cut the letters with that. The wreath is a remnant from Christmas that I couldn't bear to pack away. I'd love to see your favourite corner and hope that you enjoyed seeing mine. Toodle pip The girls here at It's a creative world hope that you are all keeping safe from the dreadful floods. Our very own Joanna has been caught up in them and she and everybody else affected are in our thoughts.

Hanging around

Hi, it Maria here again. Thanks to Di for yet another fabulous and enlightening post.

Today, I have to share a rather fabulous find. These are French laundry hangers and you can get them from the lovely Catherine at Character Constructions.

They are really handy for displaying small layouts around the house. I rather like making up layouts using my scraps and then popping them round the house. It's a cheap and fun way to brighten up your home. This one is hanging on the notice board in my crafty room. It's been there a while now but I just love that photo.

I also have to tell you that we would love to feature the artwork of your children during the summer holidays. If you would like your child to be included please leave a message here and we'll get back to you.

Toodle pip

Bling it up baby

Hi, it's Maria here again with some ideas to brighten up your life and save you some pennies.

We're in the process of hauling our house out of the 1970s and into the 21st Century. I'm not sure about you but I find the actual cost of decorating a room fairly bearable. But, when you come to buy those pretty accessories the pennies sure do add up.

The price of lamps was something of an eye opener so I settled on some from good old Marks and Spencer at the bargainous price of two for £9.50.

They are nice lamps and they do the job but I really fancied something with a twist. Now, I'm a pretty simple gal and settled on an old brooch pinned to the shade for my bedside cabinet.

However, my girlie wirlies go for the more is, well, more approach. They ummed and ahhed over the brooch idea and then I spied the most fabulous shiny diamante flower braid. According to Charlotte it is the same as the bracelet for her *Bling bling Barbie*.

Ladies, we had a winner. If it's good enough for the pneumatic plastic bombshell that is Barbie it's good enough for us.

The braid is made up of small flowers with a diamante centre and is easily trimmed to size. I simply measured the length and attached with a dab of super glue on alternate flower centres. This is much easier if you can enlist a helper to pop a peg on the braid as you go round. Leave the pegs in place until the glue dries.

Remove the pegs and voila one blingeroonie bedside lamp.

I do hope that you like this *nifty but thrifty* idea and would love to see any altering that you ladies get up to.

Toodle pip

Ooh, don't forget that you can click on the piccies if you want a closer look.

Kids Creating Art

I'm sure that all of us deal with Children in one way or another. Whether you are a parent, carer, teacher or someones relative we all are involved in some way. What better way to create a keepsake than by getting the kids involved in the Art itself. Some of the us ladies on IACW have been getting crafty with our children and here are some ideas you might want to have a go at! Enjoy!!! Cath xx Andrea I am a teacher in A Special Needs School and also the Art Co-ordinator so the children in my class do a lot of art! A couple of weeks ago I set them a challenge to make an art gallery to brighten up a corner of the classroom. They really took the challenge to heart and produced some fantastic pictures on the theme of 'landscapes'. I thought I would share this on It's A Creative World as I know a lot of you will be at home with your children over the long summer holidays and will need to fill in the odd rainy afternoon.

These pictures were all made with just coloured tissue paper and pva glue. I was so amazed at how well they came out, especially when you take into consideration that these children all have very severe special needs and are only 7 and 8 years old. Just tear the tissue into strips, glue onto the background using pva and then cover the whole thing in another layer of pva to seal it and to give it a shiny finish.

This method could be adapted to create colourful art for your home by taking on a theme of spaceships, seaside, sunshine, under the sea etc. and your children could make an original work of art for their bedroom.

Love from Andrea x

Cath

I decided to get my son Corey involved in making a canvas for my kitchen. Not only did i make a work of art but also a unique keepsake. Keepsakes are very precious to me. Corey was a very sick little boy when he was born 12 wks early and spent 5 months in hospital. During those times, not being a scrapbooker then, i didn't value the concept of keeping everything so to have memories for the future. I truly understand how important it is now.

I picked up a canvas at Home Bargains for £1.99 and used the paint i already had so that is literally all this cost me! This really couldn't be any simpler. I basically painted Coreys hands with a variety of colours and the pressed his hand down on the canvas to make the pattern.

You can obviously just let the child go for it but i wanted something that was somewhat neat. But if you aren't bothered about that then just let them rub their hands in paint and go for it. The result, i think, is a stunning work of art and one that will have pride of place on my wall! Thanks! Cath xx

Joy 2 fabulous projects from Joy!

Shells

Materials: Shells, bag/bucket, water, Adirondack inks, plastic tubs, paper towels/newspaper/messy mat, spatula, bowl

This is a simple project you can do yourself or with kids of any age. My 2 year old son helped me, and he's still talking about it :0)

Collect your shells from the beach... Look for bright colours - anything that grabs your interest. (I even gather little rocks - heart shaped ones - for other projects.) Wash them thoroughly, and leave them out to dry.

Then fill small plastic tubs with water and add a few spritzes of Adirodack colour wash of your choice in each tub. You just want enough water to cover the shells you place in each tub. Leave them overnight to soak.

Have a messy mat (or old plastic table cloth - something you don't mind getting paint on) and paper towels ready. Line the messy mat with paper towels. Gently remove the shells using a spatula or spoon. Pour the excess water down the sink (but leave the water running a bit to rinse any dye from the tub). The shells should be ready for use in a few hours.

Then pick a lovely bowl for display. :0)

PAINTING with your kids with Berol Water Soluble Wax sticks opens up a WHOLE NEW WORLD of creativity... I had the adult version for messy play, and I went looking for some for Calum that would survive little hands. These fabby little things are coated in plastic for easy grip, and the break down easily when dipped in water to make opaque paint - so easy, so much fun, and something just a little bit different to try with kids....

Trish

I used 2 6x6 canvases

Anitas acrylic paint

Anitas metalic acrylic paint

Black felt tip pen

The hands of 2 small children

The handprints, outlines and writing on each canvas were done by my 6 year old and 4 year old kids.

It says ***** right hand, aged *

They had great fun doing this and getting covered in paint, a lovely gift for a family member.