Oh dear-buying crafty bits again!

I've been browsing some of my favourite blogs, namely itsallfiddlefart. As a result I've convinced myself that despite only having made about 4 cards in my 2 years of crafting, I DEFINITELY need a Sizzix Big Shot!

Are you as bad as me? I bought a dremel 3000 last month, and then a dremel workstation. I haven't even taken it out of the box, but at the time I couldn't craft without it. No wonder my dear partner rolls his eyes at me when I talk about making money out if crafting..... You've got to speculate to accumulate ;o) 

Decorating wooden plaques

I've been decorating wooden plaques for nearly two years now. Initially I just used tubes of acrylic paint and decorated them by hand with uni posca paint markers and embellishments. However, I hated seeing the paintbrush streaks and my handwriting was never quite neat/"arty" enough for my liking. 

Irritating paintbrush streaks

Poor handwriting

I've tried a gizzilion different sorts of pens and finally decided that for a professional look I am best using wooden letters. The prices of these vary but the cheapest I've found them so far is about 20p for a 4cm letter. Alternatively you can buy pots of 250+ self adhesive letters from amazon in arial font. One of these pots do go quite a long way, but it may be more economical to just buy the single letters to spell the words that you want rather than having a mountain of qs and xs that you'll never use.

Plaque made

I discovered a great secret to avoiding paintbrush streaks too... using spray acrylic paint instead. They give great coverage, they dry really quickly and I find that they're actually much more economical as I'm not applying 3-4 coats. My favourite is Kobra, which I buy from Graff City. Fab range of colours and if you buy in bulk (6+ cans) they're a great price compared to tubes of paint.

The wooden plaques themselves I buy from ebay. Depending on how many you want and the size you want to work with I recommend contacting a few different sellers to see what they can offer you in terms of discounts and combined postage. 

I'm always trying new techniques and will gradually blog the different methods I use with mini tutorials and information on which materials I use and where I have found them from. In the mean time, here's a few pics from my earliest attempts at plaque making:

I learnt whilst making this plaque that you should lightly sand
acrylic paint where you intend to glue and embellishment
otherwise it wont stick as well. Love the sign, hate the writing.

I wish I had done the writing in white for this one. Love the
pink colour. Think the writing looks a little lost - a smaller
plaque probably would've been better. I like the handwriting
for 'smile' but then it went all horrible! :o)

I actually really like this one for some reason.
It is very basic in terms of skills, but there is something about
it that catches my eye.

My first ever craft fair

Trying something new...

I am currently grabbing 20 minutes as my eldest little boy (19 months old) has an afternoon nap, and my youngest little boy (7 months old) sits in his bumbo seat, entertaining himself.

Until the arrival of my little boys I had worked up to the dizzying heights of Head of Department in secondary education, teaching religious education. I absolutely love my job. I love working with children. However, my gift is also my curse and I can not do a job half heartedly. I throw 110% at anything I'm involved with and so the arrival of my boys mean that teaching, full time at least, is not something I can manage. I have learnt a whole new world of multi-tasking as a mum of two young boys but sadly I haven't mastered the art of creating extra hours in the day and I don't have the resources to give both my boys and school the love and attention they deserve.

This means I have had to resign from my teaching post and for the first time since receiving my national insurance card at 16, I am unemployed-SCARY!

I started crafting when I was pregnant with Toby. I had an awful pregnancy and suffered with hyperemesis gravidarum - the hideous sickness that never ends, so I started my maternity leave at the earliest opportunity. Whilst I was physically capable of very little my mind hadn't switched off from work and was buzzing for something to do. I happened to stumble across a crafty discussion on the moneysavingexpert website. I was inspired by all the amazing ideas and decided to have a stab at some of the creations other people had made. I soon realised I had my own creative streak and that I thoroughly enjoyed designing and making little gifts.

I get so carried away with ideas I often forget what I had intended to make before I get around to making it. Or I make something and forget how I did it. My biggest frustration is finding inspiration in other people's work and not properly bookmarking it. I have therefore decided to give blogging a go. I've always enjoyed "writing", I love educating and its a great feeling to create something and then have people admire your work. So please, introduce yourself, your blog and your work and take any inspiration from my work that you can.