Hello lovely people...

I know I have been MIA for ages but I'm back and to celebrate I have moved my blog.. new start and all that.

I am hoping to be posting more regularly and with a whole new style over at my new blog

THE CRAFTY ELF

I do hope you will all come find me and follow me :D

Storage Wars

Hi everyone,



Today is a quick post in reponse to demand for instructions/tips etc on the storage units that Emma and I have been talking about for a few days.
I originally saw a post on them for copic markers on this blog here...Copic storage unit  but we have changed the instructions slightly as we found it worked better for us



I decided it might be a good way to store my assortment of pens so enlisted the help of my trusty best friend and partner in crime, Emma and we decided we would have a go!
It uses A2 sheets of Foam core board.. I found 20 sheets on ebay for £23 delivered and thought that was a fab price. It also came the next day!  The shop i used is here....   SBS consumables on ebay





Right so there we were.. picture the scene armed with a hot glue gun, a ruler (well technically a tape measure and a straight piece of metal) a pencil, a craft knife and the foam board......


To make either unit pictured below we cut...

a) 2 pieces measuring 21"x4 3/4"
b) 2 pieces measuring 20.5" x 4 3/4 inches
c) 6 pieces measuring 13.5" x 4 3/4 inches

The original instructions we found used more pieces and slightly different construction instructions so i will tell you how we did it...

Then you need to decide what you want to store... this bit was far from technical for us as we grabbed a spray ink, a distress stain and a distress ink and kind of guessed by eye.

The b and c pieces will form your grid so using a B piece mark where you want the VERTICAL WALLS ... we measured it very accurately (not) but popping a distress pad on the foam and marking where it ended. Then do the same on the C piece to create the height of each cubby - we used the rough guess and pencil line technique as before hehe.

Then you need to cut slits in the B and C pieces to allow them to slot together. The cuts need to go half way to the width of the piece and be the width of the foam board (in our case 5mm) (we worked this out to be about 6cm - we couldnt half the inches) remember to cut from the front of one piece, then the back of the piece it will slot into!

This needs to be done for all the cubby holes you are having.. and the beauty of this unit is you can change the gap sizes to suit your needs. We cut one piece then used it as a template for the other pieces. Dont forget to leave 2 C pieces uncut as these form your sides!!

So now you have lots of foam board cut and no idea what happens next.. congrats you are at the same place we were!

hehe the good thing is thats the most technical bit over. The construction is easier.


Simply slot all your slitted pieces together to form your grid. Then using a hot glue gun and sticking a side at a time simply build the edges around it. The sides stand on the top of the bottom board. If your cuts arent perfectly straight you may need to manipulate slightly to get it to all stick flush but thats the beauty of the board. And thats it!

We used another sheet of board to put a back piece on ours but thats entirely personal choice. We just stood the completed cube onto a sheet of board, cut it at the right width, left a small bit at the top as a ledge and stuck it to the back with glue.

We know ours arent 100% straight but hey we built them and are pretty darn proud of ourselves... of course we stored everything BUT pens in them so will need to make more

Things we have learnt along the way

* The glue is hot! very hot... do not rub it with your finger cos it burns and blisters when it sticks to you
* Steel tape measures hurt when they retract with your finger inside them whilst you laugh at your friend burn
* Blood doesnt wipe off foam board very easily (see point above!)
* These units are addictive and you will want to make different size shelves to fit everything you own
* They will hold more than you think!!  (the CD's at the bottom of unit 2 store my unmounted stamps)

I hope this helps and you will have a go yourself. To make 3 of these units ( 2 of unit 1, and one of the other - all with backs) we used 11 pieces of board but have loads of scraps spare too so could use them.. I estimate we would get another 3 units from what we have left from our 20 sheets.. so potentially 6 storage units for £23.. thats £3.83 each!!!!!

If you need any more tips or anything from my instructions explaining please do get in touch!

The Octopode Factory and Me!

Hi Everyone,



This week I was asked by the amazingly talented Lily to be involved in the Octopode Factory Friday challenge, this week was the theme "anyone for Cake"



Lily is superhumanly talented amd her digi stamps are great, especially for those wanting to have a break from the cutesy images for a while. Have a look at her shop here

I was sooo pleased to be asked (and very nervous as I am a newbie to mixed media thingys) anyhoo I had a bash and this canvas is the result...


Let me know what you think, and check out the TOFF challenge and have a go yourself!

Supplies Used:

Digi Image by The Octopode Factory
Acrylic Paints
Mr Huey Spray Ink
7 Gypsies Tissue Paper
Faber Castell PITT pens
Kuretake Cirococo pen
Random stamps and rub ons
Bubble Wrap and punchinella
Staz on Ink
LOTS of Mod Podge!
Letraset Flex Markers
Tim Holtz Masks

Spellbinders Guest Blogger!!

OMG its finally live!! I am sooo excited to be able to show you my project now.

As q quick recap over christmas Spellbinders were promoting on their Facebook page how close they were to 10K fans, and that when they got to that magic number they would be chosing a friend to guest blog for them.


Imagine my surprise when they chose me!!! I am a huge huge spellbinders fan and was so honoured to be asked.


I made this elegnant Wedding Guest book - thats the beauty of spellbinders they make a quick and simple project look amazing.

Please do bob on over to the Spellbinders blog  and have a look and leave them (and me) a comment to let us know what you think!



Also check out this blog post and video link "cut, emboss and Stencil" by Holly about using your spellbinders in otherways ... did you know you could stencil with them too?

Thanks for taking the time to look at my blog today!

Crafty Boots Challenge and a new direction

Hi everybody,

Hope everyone is well and settling back into our normal routines again. All the kids are back at school again now so back to some sense of normality.


Thank you all so much for your lovely words about my sneak peeks both here and on twitter (i am @pinkhairdelf). It really does make my day to hear that people like what I am making.


My Spellbinders project should go live today but not until about 8.20 MST which I have no idea about translating to GMT - but I promie as soon as they publish it their end I will hit send on my post here.

This week the crafty boots challenge was entitled "New Beginings". Which I thought was quite fitting as I have a long list of resolutions this year and a need for change.

As I am sure many of you crafters can relate too sometimes its nice to do something totally different, try something new.. so thats what I did for my challenge project.

Heavily inspired by my lovely mixed media artist pal Emma and by a workshop I did with Christy Tomlinson called "She Art" I decided to have a go at a mixed media canvas.

I had a ball! I got painty and inky and really enjoyed creating for creativity sake! Even if we did have a power cut half way through and I couldnt move for fear of touching something with my painty hands or knocking open paint pots over.

Im afraid I cant tell you exactly what is on the canvas as I just splodged bits and pieces everywhere. I used a lot from the Scarlet Lime mixed media monthly kit, acrylic paint, mod podge, tissue paper, random rub ons and stamps, templates fom crafty boots, Faber Castell PiTT pens, Neocolour pastels, ooooh and a gorgeous Cocoiro pen from Kuretake...

I am in love with that pen! It wrote clearly and every time on paint that was still a bit wet, on rough surfaces and with such a brilliantly clear ink - I think I may need to get one in every colour, and certainly will make it an essential tool in my journey into art journalling!

Would love to hear what you think about my new direction? I will still make cute cards but want to try to push my art into other areas too. In fact the lovely emma and I have a deal.... I will teach her to colour, if she will teach me art journalling... so expect more "experiments in the future!

Upcoming Projects Sneak Peeks!

Hi there,

Happy 2012 to you all and I hope you are all having an amazing year so far (yes I know its only been 5 days but start as you mean to go on?!

I had a great start to my new year when I was randomly chosen by Spellbinders from their 10,000 facebook fans to do a guest blog post!!. I am soo excited as I am such a fan of spellbinders and will share my project on their blog later in the week .... ooh ok then you twisted my arm... a little sneak peek wont hurt!!

I will let you know when it goes live :D

Also whilst we having little cheeky looks I have another snippet to show you...

This is from my project for the next crafty boots challenge which launches on Monday 9th January. It was a bit of a new direction for me and something I have never tried before but OMG I LOVED it!!

Come back on the 9th for full pics and details but in the mean time why not pop to Crafty boots and join in the current CELEBRATIONS challenge which is open till Sunday

Merry Christmas

Just a quick post today to thank you all for checking out my blog and for all your support, especially after the last year or so.


2011 was a tough year for me but I have so many exciting things coming up in 2012 that I cant wait!.


So lets all raise a glass, and I wish you all a very merry christmas!

My Winter Wishes card uses:

Winter Fairy digi by Sylvia Zet
FlexMarkers 
Sweet Flourish papers by Pink Petticoat 
Wink of Stella Glitter pen in Clear by Kuretake
Card Candi in Silver

Spellbinders Card

Hi Everyone,.


Today I would like to share a card I made for the recent spellbinders design team call. I didnt get past the first round but was quite pleased with my card and would like to share it with you.

I love the green and cream colours and want to give a huge thanks to Emma for lending me her entire selection of spellbinders dies.

The flower was made using a scallop circle - would anyone be interested in a tutorial on how to make one?

The other components are listed below the picture, please let me know what you think.

Patterned papers - Sweet Flourishes in Mocha and Sage by Pink Petticoat
Sentiment stamp by Kaisercraft Clear Stamps- Friendship Sentiments
Card Candi  by Craftwork Cards
Elegant Edge Card Blank from Crafty Boots
Distress Ink Pad in Old paper
Spellbinders dies, 2x borders, labels, and scallop circle