DIY Specialty Cardstock

Hello Fellow Alchemists,

Today I wanted to share how I used contact to make my own specialty papers super cheaply. There is a cost breakdown at the end of the video below. I used many dies and stamps sets to make my cards so if you’re interested in cross brand card making this is the video for you!

For the first two cards I used two different Altenew sets for the sentiments and the die is from the Kaisercraft Rose stamp and die set used without stamping. Using a similar style I also made a card using the Tiger Lily Spellbinders D-Lite die. Last in this batch is a card using a Lifestyle Crafts die that I paired with some Gansai Tambi Starry Colours watercolor.

The next two cards use Kaisercraft dies again. The first is using the Circle Posy with a sentiment from the Inkadinkado Expressions set. My favourite card uses the Bouquet die with a sentiment from the Lawn Fawn Mom + Me set.

The next two cards have an ocean feel. One uses the mermaid from Kaisercraft and a spellbinders label die, the other uses a Fish from find it trading and sentiments from Kelly creates and Your Next stamp. Lastly I made a card with a balloon vellum background and sentiment dies from Crafti Potential.

I hope you enjoyed these cards using the DIY Specialty Paper, let me know your favourite below. I hope you’re creating your own arty crafty alchemy. Bye for now.

The Arty Crafty Alchemist

April 14, 2018April 24, 2018

Make Your Own Wreath Builder Template

Hello fellow Alchemists,

Today I am showing you how to make your own Wreath Builder template. Don’t be worried by the size of the video! I also give a demo on how to use the Wreath Builder template and show some examples of smaller ones I have made. The Wreath Builder template only takes around 10 minutes to make the first time and once you have that size made you’re ready to make projects.

Sorry for the cruddy voiceovers I had to record it with my laptop as I couldn’t find my headphones :(. Anyway the Wreath Builder template is pretty easy to make. All you need are square dies, a die cutting machine, paper trimmer, ruler, a pencil and some heavy weight cardstock, a cereal box or stencil plastic. Oh and some tape to hold your die in place.

Above is the picture I showed in the video which shows how to line the die up by using our folded pieces of paper. Use the folded lines and the ruled lines to get the piece of paper in place and then add the die over the top. I am sure this could be done with a ruler and a scalpel someway but I am not that patient! Much easier with dies and a die cutting machine. Don’t forget you can make any size just go by the diagonal size of the die you are using and measure the middle of your cardstock to do the + in the middle.

This is a picture of what I created in the video. You can stop at any point or add more objects until you are happy with the wreath. The stamps used in this image are from Docrafts Traditional Floral Creativity and Kaisercrafts P.S. I Love You stamp sets as well as a random Facebook set. Any small to medium stamps you have will work. With masking you could use larger stamps too.

This pic shows a busier wreath jam packed with flowers and leaves. It’s all personal preference. I like both busy and more simple wreaths. I think I will use the Wreath Builder template a lot to make a quick card when I need one in a pinch or when I need a bunch of quick cards for an event.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I’d love to see what you create with a Wreath Builder template so leave a comment and a link below. Hope you’re creating your own Arty Crafty Alchemy. See you next time.

The Arty Crafty Alchemist

March 23, 2018

Easy Clean Tim Holtz Stamp Platform

Hello fellow Arty Crafty Alchemists,

Today I am sharing with you how to make an easy clean Tim Holtz Stamp Platform using an Inkssentials Craft Sheet, a paper trimmer and some tape. Of course if you watch the video you will see me do things the somewhat hard way but you will get the idea!

I decided to do this to make cleanup a lot easier. The plastic surface is nice but it’s very slick so things move around easier and get messy faster on it. You can also see the black smudges from some Archival Jet Black… I have found since adding the craft she I have much less movement when the magnets are on top. Some of my projects were sliding around with the two magnets before adding the mat.

We don’t need the ruler! At the time I thought I would make the craft sheet go to the edges but in the end as you see I went with the 8.5″ size. Which is the size of the measuring tape at the top, lol.

Don’t forget to make sure the tape goes all the way to corners! When you don’t do this the corners lift very easily and get caught on your clothes. They curl up and get messy until you have to redo the whole thing. This happened to me with the mat when I stuck it to a board for crafting on. However now it gets a new life on my Tim Holtz Stamp Platform.

This is a good way to recycle an old dingey mat rather than throw it out plus I have more pieces if I need them. They are not economical to buy in Australia so it’s much better for me to just use this old one than cut up a brand new one…

Thanks for watching

The Arty Crafty Alchemist