Guest Designer time! Welcoming Jakey :)

Hi! Jakey here, and I’m very honoured to be invited by the Creative World team to share a li’l technique of mine with you today. I’ve been playing with transparency – well, who hasn’t, eh? And I’ve had some fun making and adapting my own ‘ghost lettering’ to add to cards, layouts and other projects. Transparent letters can be quite expensive to buy – but they’re so easy and economical to make! Great fun too, and they give you a fab opportunity to get your hands grubbied up with paint and inks… now what could be better? So, to start with, you will need some supplies – but it’s almost certainly the sort of stuff you have in your stash already! You’ll need: Inkjet transparency sheets Assorted acrylic paints A pen that will write on glossy surfaces – a slick writer or gelly roll. Inks – chalk and/or alcohol Any bits you want to add… beads, glitter, bling, buttons… whatever. You’ll also need access to a PC or some lettering templates. I make mine in Microsoft Publisher, but you could use Word, or whichever DTP program you use normally. If using good old fashioned lettering templates, just place template over the acetate sheet and trace the letters! Cut out, and decorate – nothing could be easier. If you plan to make them with Publisher I have added some instructions here for you to follow. For the beginners amongst us, I have assumed no prior knowledge - so all you PC whizzkids, do not be offended please! Open publisher and choose blank page > word art (left hand side). Select highlighted box on top upper left, giving you an outline font. Type your title word. Select edit text and choose font >choose bold. Click text box to select and stretch word to the size you require. In edit text choose format text > grey > at 1 point. The reason you want grey is to avoid deep black outlines. You are going to cut these letters out and the grey outline is for guidance only. Cut just inside the lines, so your transparency letter is clear of any markings. (This, you may like to add back in later with a slick writer style pen for a freestyle look). Print title word out at desired size. Cut out and you're ready to play! Do remember to set your printer to ‘mirror image’ or reverse printing and to print onto the rough side of the acetate. This way, you can flip it over once printed, and the good smooth side will be the side that shows on your project. So - You now have your blank ‘ghost letters’, which you can grunge up, jazz up, colour up, doodle on – however your mood takes you! 1. The letter has been cut out and dry brushed with acrylic paints. 2. I’ve added some scribbled circles to the letter here. 3. Next I blobbed paint onto the circles. 4. Then added some doodling detail – and I’m done! Took minutes! A different style. Flowers and dots! And again, but with a bit of chalk ink smudged on the back – who says you can’t do freestyle lettering? Lol! Read on for some tips on having fun with these versatile letters – but why stop at lettering? Print out butterflies, birds, flowers, stars… anything you like! Paint them, doodle on them, add glitter, bling, alcohol inks…. your imagination is your only limit! A few tips for enjoying these versatile letters/shapes! The transparency will accept acrylic paint very well. Paint on the back (rough side) for more durability. Or paint on the front and scratch some paint off for a grungy look. You can completely cover the letters with paint or dry brush as I have here. Use a slick writer to doodle outlines, circles, flowers, dots or stars… or whatever you want to go on them. Write on them, add glitter, buttons and beads… Alter the colour with alcohols inks, or stamp over them using stazeon inks for a permanent finish. Why not paint first – then stamp over? You really can do so much with them – and can customise them easily to fit your project. I’m sure you can think of lots more ways to use this technique. Just remember to have fun whatever you do! Happy Scrappin! Jakey xx A HUGE thanks to Jakey from the Creative World team - there's a little something on it's way to you in the post!! ;)

Altered Wrapping Paper

Hello, it's Joy here again, bringing you some messy play. This project was an accident... I decided to ALTER wrapping paper after I wrapped the present - so very messy and freestyle! But if you want a tidy version, you could alter and then wrap. ;0)

I started stamping using black acrylic paint. The stamps in this picture are Stampers Anonymous, Artgirlz, Autumn Leaves, Heidi Swapp, Blonde Moments, Rambling Rose, PSX, and Cats Life Press stamps.

I then blended lumiere paints all over the page, outlined and coloured letters with Sakura glaze and souffle pens and used 3 dimensional paint to make swirls and dots.

Rambling Rose swirl for some magic...

Stampers Anonymous stamp.... love how well the glaze pens and paint worked on this one to make it pop

Cute little PSX stamp, Heidi Swapp ('friend') and Cats Life Press stamps. See how the gorgeous green souffle pens highlight the stamps even with squiggly squiggles?

Artgirlz fabby house stamp and word stamps, markers, gel pens, 3d paint. gel pens make that house pretty funky!

That's it for today. EnJoy playing XXX

Very quick cards - playing with fonts!

Hello! It's Jo here, coming to you from a very wet part of the world, just about managing to keep my feet dry! I am not the world's best card maker, I'll freely admit, but I do like to make cards for special occasions, and I certainly appreciate getting home-made cards. If I'm making cards, it's usually at the last minute, which means that anything that can be produced quickly is good! Here are three very quick cards that I've made, all a variation on the same theme, which is using a mix of fonts to produce a more interesting end result. For this first one, I've used some bright, stripy paper for my background, and matched the 'fill' colours in my text boxes to the colours in the paper. I've used a different font for each word, and printed the text on glossy photo paper, which just lifts it a little bit. From the top, the fonts I've used are: Rockwell Extra Bold, 2Peas Duck Duck Goose, Bauhaus 93, Action Is, and Mom's Typewriter. For this next one, again I've used scrapbook paper (Blonde Moments) for the background, but this time used only muted colours. From the top, the fonts are: LB PlainStamp, 28 Days Later, and CK Grunge. And for my third card I wanted to go bright and zingy again, and I've used some more stripy paper, and a font that, ordinarily, I would avoid like the plague as I think it's so widely used in 'professional' documentation, Times New Roman, but when it's 'rainbowed up', I really like it!! So, three really quick cards. Have a play around with your fonts, and next time you're card-making, try a little experimentation!

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

Altered Bags

It's Maria and Joy here today, bringing you two projects on altered bags. These are great fun for adding a bit of personality to your bags.

Maria used Making Memoriess Boho Chic Lauren cardstock, sticker and brad. Prima blossoms and buttons all edged in Milled Lavender distress ink.

Maria is going to use hers as a portable sewing kit to keep in her crop bag.

Joy used a clippykit bag, adding in ATCs from friends and from her own collection.

Joy topped off the bag with memory frames and charms.

We'd love to see your altered bags, so please leave us a comment with a link. :0)

It's Monday.....

....and that means we have a little more Use Your Stash inspiration for you! If you're anything like me you can never throw anything out before seeing if there are bits on it you can use first :) I am most like this when it comes to throwing out clothes, I have to have the buttons off shirts, the lacy bits of bras, pockets off jeans and sometimes I love the pattern of something so much I have to keep the whole thing! But then these 'bits' sit in a drawer taking up space and I never sem to use them! Sound familiar?? I'm sure it does! :D So today I am challenging you to go dig through your stash and find that bit of fabric or lace, or jeans pocket and use it on a LO! Here is mine! A LO of my DHs son in a moody surfer/sk8er boy pose. I used one of his billabong shirts that was destined for the bin!! Chopped it up and stitched it to my cardstock, added some grungy stamping and some metalic rub ons that pick out the blue on the fabric enhancing it! A simple yet effective LO, and very cheep!!

Please excuse the not so great photos of the LO, but it's so windy outside I just couldn't get the LO to stay still enough to get some good photos :)

Thanks for visiting!!

Caz

xx

The Wonderful World of Fonts!

Do you love using different fonts on your layouts?

There are so many to choose from aren’t they.

Today I’m going to list a few sites that I think are the best for fonts and also give you some tips on organising them.

Firstly here are the sites I like to use for my free fonts.

1001 Free Fonts

Dafont

Font River

SharkShock

Urban Fonts

Disney Fonts

ScrapnFonts (chargeable)

Create your own font

Free Scrapbook Fonts

If you are a Quickutz/Sizzix Fan then you can get fonts that match all your fabulous die cut alphabets, how cool!

Find them here

Quickutz

Sizzix Fonts

Now some of you may be a wiz with fonts but other people simply don’t know how to install them which is fair enough. I’ll try to explain very briefly how to do it.

The easiest fonts to download are TTF (true type fonts). These don’t need any unzipping or anything. You simply download the file, locate it and place it in your fonts folder.

Your fonts folder ‘should’ be in your control panel but may be different depending on your operating system. Click start and control panel. You should find a folder labelled Fonts in here but if not then go to Appearance and Themes and it should be in there. Some files are downloaded as Zip files which means you will need to extract the files from it with something likeWinzip and once extracted you would just do the same and put the file in your Fonts folder.

I hope that makes sense?

As well as downloading them there are programs that you can buy to help you manage them. The predominant ones are - XFonter The Font Thing AMP Font Viewer

I personally have XFonter and love it but you do have to pay for it although a free trial is available.

XFonter

X-Fonter is an advanced font manager, especially created for web-designers, graphic artists and font fanatics. In a simple user interface you can quickly find the font that you need. Even with thousands of fonts on your computer, with X-Fonter they're just a few clicks away.

• Supports TrueType, OpenType, Postscript Type 1, Raster, Vector Fonts
• Organize your fonts in custom Collections
• Preview and Use Fonts without installation
• Install or Uninstall any TrueType Fonts
• Search for fonts on any drive/directory
• Font Filtering by Font Family, Codepages and Font Style
• Adjustable Colors, Styles and Sizes
• Character map (ASCII and Unicode)
• Image editor with nice effects (JPG, GIF and clipboard output)
• Very simple and intuitive interface
• No extra DLL's required
• Uninstall option
• Compare fonts in Dual pane
• Print font overview
• Font Manager

Font Thing

• Browse installed and uninstalled fonts
• Browse fonts in subfolders as a single combined list
• View sample text and individual characters in your choice of colours
• Change sample text "on the fly" or easily switch between your own standard text samples
• View detailed font information
• Print font samples
• Associate notes with fonts
• Install or uninstall any number of fonts at once
• Load (and unload) any number of fonts for temporary use
• Copy or delete any number of font files at once
• Rename font files to avoid file name conflicts
• Filter fonts according to their type
• Group fonts into collections for easier management
• Use multiple font windows simultaneously for easy font comparison and management.

Amp Font Viewer This program is an easy to use but powerful font manager, which allows getting a quick overview of both installed and non installed fonts. It can install and uninstall fonts, and organize them in categories. Some of its features are:

• Supports TrueType and OpenType fonts (Windows 2000/XP required for PostScript OpenType fonts)
• Supports Type1 fonts (Windows 2000/XP required)
• Installation of fonts from a folder (one by one or from a list).
• Installation of fonts temporally (until the program is closed).
• Deletion of installed fonts.
• List of all installed fonts with several display options.
• List of the fonts from a folder with several display options.
• Several options for organizing fonts in categories and managing them.
• It can print a list of all or some of the installed fonts with an example of each font.
• Scratchpad area for testing the look of any font (installed or from a folder).
• Dual English/Spanish version.

Well I hope this has given you a little insight into the wonderful world of Fonts!!

Cath x

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.

Altered memories.....

Hey hey it's Friday!! And time for the weekend, which means shopping, family days out and often a party to attend. And here at it's a creative world we like to make gifts that are a little different and meaningful. Now I wonder how many of you have little wooden boxes lying around your house, just because you're an artist and CAN'T possibly throw anything out :) I know I do and in fact I have had one in my side table drawer for about 8 months that I knew I would use one day....um actually my lovely DH found it and brought it home for me ;) So today we are going to turn a plain, ordinary, little wooden box............... .........into a treasure chest! A place to keep all those tiny precious keepsakes, those things you know you could never part with, those things that take you back to the days you held your tiny baby in your arms, those things that would get lost if you didn't have a place to keep them safe.

Give the box a light sand to start with, then a few coats of acrylic paint. I wanted to give it a slightly worn look so I sanded it again making sure I exposed the wood on the edges, it also gave the paint a smooth look, cause I am a bit of a streaky painter! Then you need to add some embellishments and this is the part where you can really let your imagination fly and create some awesome effects with kitchen roll and PVA glue, or decoupage. And then finish off with a few layers of sealer, I used modge podge, just to give it a little protection.

So there you have it, from plain, to gift in a few hours, and of course this idea is not limited to baby showers, you can make boxes to keep treasures from weddings, special birthdays, childhood, earings on a dressing table.....the list is endless!

Thanks for visiting and as always from us here at it's a creative world, have a great day and happy creating!

Caz

xx

Takeout Delivery...

A friend at work showed me the favour boxes that she has made for her wedding at the weekend. They were the sweetest little chinese take away boxes, plain white with a metal handle. If this had happened 3 years ago I would have thought they were nice and got on with my job but not any more. All day I kept thinking about the little boxes and planning how I could decorate/alter them and create scrumptious little gift boxes and I was so excited when she brought me some spare boxes yesterday.

As soon as I carried them home I started on my mini project and it didn't take very long to finish. I removed the metal handle and flattened out the box, used spray mount to cover the box in glue and stuck it to my patterned paper. I trimmed around the box, used my cropodile to punch holes for the handles and then reassembled it. I reattached the handle and tied ribbons all along it. The cupcake picture is from a digital scrapbook kit from the Shabby Princess and the words are stamped with small alphabet stamps.

I am so pleased with how it worked out and now I'm beginning to think of decorating some with a Christmas theme.

Have fun this week and remember to leave a comment with a link to your work so we can take a peep

Andrea xx

Layout Class

Hello Another simple layout class brought to you by me, Cath! I hope you like this one. Items used - Bazzill Dark Denim Bazzill Raven Autumn Leaves Superstar range Heidi Grace Rub Ons and sticker Heidi Grace Alphabet stickers Journalling pen Charcoal ink pad Again this is an 8.5x11 layout but you can adapt it to a 12x12 or 8x8 etc..

• After cutting my Bazzill to size i randomly cut one thin long strip which was inked and stuck to the left hand side. Then i cut a wider strip with the coordinating paper, inked the edges and adhered this to the bottom centre.

• Sand the edges of the photograph to make it pop out a little.

• Matt photograph onto black cardstock.

• Then i lined up the Superstar title and stuck it down. Don't be afraid to used different sized letters.

• Cut out 3 stars from left over paper and stick these to the top left and down the side of the photograph.

• I used the heart rub ons to create a border at the top but you could doodle if you dont have any.

• Stick embellishment or sticker in bottom left corner.

• I used a piece of left over paper to write the date on which i attached above the title.

• Lastly i cut out strips of the denim cardstock and hand wrote my journalling on it.

And it's as simple as that! Please let us know if you decide to interpret it your way and don't forget to send us a link! Thanks xxxxxxxx

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

Organised ? It's a Myth...or is it?

Hi again from Di (on a budget) from Cape Town South Africa; following on from Cath's great post yesterday on getting your precious photographs organised.

When I started sewing I was organized. When I started decoupage, I was organized. When I started crochet and knitting I was organized. When I started bead making I was organized. When I started drawing and painting, I was organized. When I started gardening, I was organized.

Even my computer is organised!!!

By “organized” I really mean that I have a box or two of stash, tools etc and I do not need loads of space. With some crafts, it’s easy to be organized. What is it about paper craft that leads to CHAOS???

When I started the 'new' scrap booking in January 2005, I had this little pencil case that contained everything I needed.

Then I hit the shops and bought loads of "stuff". So then, I bought loads of Tupperware style boxes, each of which contained something specific. BUT, it just does NOT work for me… We all know (whether we admit it or not) that mothers normally know best. My mum and I played with beads for a while. I gave her a very neat box with everything she needed all compartmentalized and colour coded. What did she do? She sat down at the table, put a tea towel in front of herself and TIPPED the whole lot on to the tea towel, and had lots of fun. AAAAGGGHHH. I was horrified But, guess what, that’s what worked for her. So what are some of the things that we need to organise? Brads Cardstock Chipboard letters Chipboard shapes Die cut letters Die cut sayings and shapes Eyelets Inks Metal letters Paints Patterned paper Photographs Punches Ribbon Rub on letters Rub on sayings Stamps ”Other” embellishments Work in Progress - Projects

I want to talk about just a few of the things we need to organise because the same principles apply to just about everything...

Chipboard letters (incomplete sets): I have been trying Mum’s technique. Now instead of 32 boxes of chipboard letters I have ONE BIG BOX. When I need something I tip the whole lot on to the table! This is what my incomplete sets of chipboard letters used to look like...

And this is how they now look...

I got fedup opening 32 boxes of letters. I made one box of all my leftover letters! and you know what; its fun. When I tip them out, I get to see all the different styles all together. I can push them around, mix and match and feast my eyes. When I have more chipboard letters, I just throw them in the big box. When the box is full, fill a second box. Ribbon:

Ok you can roll it up, colour code it, hang it up. It all depends on how much you have. Me I throw it in a big box where it sits loosely, does not need to be ironed, and when I need some, I tip the box up, have a look, select what I want, and close the box up. If you have loads of ribbon, you can hang it up on coat hangers, wind it up and pack it colour coded. It's really about whatever works for you.

So I have used the big box idea to store quite a few things!!! The boxes measure 13 inches by 8 inches and are 5 inches deep and cost about R30 (2 pounds sterling). Quite a cheap storage solution.

Then there are the little things like brads and eyelets. I love these little stacked " jars" which my darling son in law bought for me at the "Muji" shop. I think they cost abut 1 pound sterling, so also an inexpensive storage solution for all the litle bits.

Now a "nifty but thrifty" idea: I bought some pizza boxes for R5.oo each (about 35p sterling). I reinforced the sides with double sided tape (1 inch wide), decorated the lids with patterned paper ,and put labels on the front.

Now I have boxes for complete sets of chipboard letters, chipboard shapes and sayings, die cut letters, die cut shapes and saying, rub on letters, rub on sayings., and odd embellishments. I use small ziplock bags to separate the embellishments. If for example, you have LOADS of rub ons, categorise them by theme and have a separate box for each theme. My pizza boxes look cheerful and are "cheap as chips". What's more you get to use some of that stash in decorating them. Organisation is a journey not a destination. Disorganisation starts for me when I buy new stash and when I finish a project. Lets consider what happens. A package arrives full of great goodies, or I get back from stash shopping. What do we do? We either do not open the package and it sits there for days, or we open it up, lay it all out, ooohh and aahh at all the goodies, and it sits there for days. I think the trick is to unpack and put it all away in the RIGHT place . Then when we finish a project normally there are some leftover bits and pieces. What do we do? We clear the left overs and put everything away in its RIGHT place.

We'll be back with more ideas to help you get organised and we'd love to here how you organise your stash, and where you need help, so keep those comments rolling in.

Thanks for reading and love from Di XXX

Storing photographs

Hi everyone, welcome to another Sunday with me :) Today i wanted to show you just a small selection of the products available for keeping all your photographs neat and tidy. I am terrible when it comes to storage and all mine are still stored on my computer waiting to be printed. All the ones i have that are pre-digital are just shoved in a box in no particular order. For all of you out there who have a zillion pictures stored on your hard drive then the first thing i will say to you is BACK THEM UP!!!! Whether this be on CDs or on an external hard drive then please do it. I know of many people who have had disasters with computers(you know how temperamental they are) and have lost all of their precious memories forever. If it's the only thing you do today then go do it!!! I was also recently found out that the wallets you receive your photographs in are NOT Acid free so don't keep them in there. Right, for all of you organised people who have them printed and need somewhere to keep them, here are a few ideas! Artbin Photo Tote

Tote has a carrying handle and adjustable shoulder strap and is completely padded for safe transport of contents. Dimensions: 8.38"L x 10.50"W x 5.50"D (21.29 x 26.67 x 13.97 cm) Comes with (4) 9400AB Photo Cases. Generations Photo File

Need somewhere to organise your photos? This durable poly file with seven expanding pockets and six tab indexes is the answer. The elastic cord with securely keep your photos in place. Very affordable. Cropper Hopper Photo Case Indispensable for organising your photos. Holds over 2000 4x6 photos safely and efficiently. 8 moveable dividers allow you to organize pictures by year, theme, child, and more. 12 acid-free index cards make it easy to subdivide photos. A 2nd side is ideal for holding 8x10 photos as well as oversized memorabilia, even 12x12 paper. Doubles as a storage case to hold an array of tools and supplies. Use with Cropper Hopper 4x6 Photo/Negative Protectors. Measures: 12.75x13.25x6. Also available in Ice, Purple, and Black. Uptown Chic Photo Chest

For centuries, people have stored their most precious possessions in chests. Now you can store your most precious memory treasures and photos in unparalleled elegance and style with the Uptown Chic Photo Chest. Designed to fit neatly on your desk or shelf, it’s a great way to keep your favorite photos at your fingertips and is the perfect companion to the Urban Chic Paper Chest. The stitched trim and chic leather-like finish make this chest so attractive; you really can consider it a “chest of treasures.” MULTI Photo Storage Box

Holds 500 4x6 photos Available from Amazon Sliding lid Constructed of wood and glass Holds multiple photos on lid 7 x 7 x 5" (18 x 18 x 13 cm) Photo Keepsafe Store Box

This attractive box comes folded and easily snaps together to store a wide range of supplies including Photo/Negative Protectors (CH46-4P). Also holds 12 Keepsafe™ Photo Organizers Thankyou once again for taking the time to visit us and don't forget to let us know what sort of system you use! Cath x