Journal Planner Charm Tutorial

Planners seem to be a big thing this year. Big ones, small ones, red ones, blue ones. OK, I'm starting to sound like Dr Seuss. But they do seem to be everywhere on blogs, YouTube and Facebook. Not to mention every kind of accessory you can imagine - and yes, I have been caught up in it all. I have not only bought several journals recently but I have been making them too. More on that in a future post.

However, among the accessories I am seeing is 'journal jewellery' - planner charms that hang from the elastic of travel journals. When I saw the cute little charms I knew that my paper beads were ideal for the job - and so this little tutorial was born.

Materials:
Wide hole beads (the ones here were made by me and, sadly, no longer available for sale)
Silk cord (available in my Etsy store)
Lobster clasp (or other clip for attaching the charm)
4mm jump ring
Thread (roughly 10-13cm (4-5 inches)

Tools:
Scissors
Pliers

Method:

1. Cut a length of silk cord roughly 20-25cm (8 -10  inches) long. The longer the thread is the easier it will be to tie the knots in it. Fold the length of cord in half.

2. Place a piece of thread between the fold of the cord so it can be folded in half too. You are going to use it like a needle to thread the bead onto the cord.

3. Push both ends of the thread through the bead hole until they come out of the top. Then pull the bead onto the silk cord.

 

4. Tie a knot in the top of the cord where the fold is leaving a small loop to attach a jump ring onto.

5. Pull the bead up to the knot and tie a second knot underneath the bead.

6. Take the two loose ends of cord and tie one knot in each tail. Make the tails as long or as short as you like. Trim any excess cord from the ends.

7. Use pliers to attach a lobster claw using a jump ring.

8. That's it! Clip the charm into your journal. You can also use them on bags or as knitting and crochet stitch markers too.

 

Please excuse the not-so-brilliant photos this time. It has been dull, grey and blowing a gale for the last two days and I could not get outside to take decent sample photos. Roll on Spring!

Journey journal

I took part in Linda Matthews' Creative Stitch Alchemy course recently. The idea was to make a mixed media mini journal using the theme of 'Journey' as a springboard for ideas. It uses fabric, lace, hand stitching, machine stitching, beads, sequins, rhinestones, whatever you fancy. I have always been inspired by India, the colours, the wildlife, the architecture. So I used it as my inspiration. I hand printed and hand dyed some of the fabrics and used leftover tatted pieces that I made some time ago. So it really is original to me. The finished journal is a bit bigger than the size suggested in the instructions but it allowed me to use pictures printed on fabric in mine. It was a really nice little course that allowed me to do something a bit different and I am really rather pleased with the finished journal.

Front cover: 

Inside pages: 

Back cover:

A note(book) for Sunday

I have managed to get some of the projects finished that I started all those weeks ago. As a starter, here are the notebooks I mentioned a few posts back. Some may be destined for my Etsy store soon - if I can decide whether to add beads to them or not. They are made from fabric and the images are, of course, some of my own paintings and drawings. They are printed onto T-shirt transfer paper which is ironed onto polycotton fabric. Hey Presto, some fabric images to stitch to anything you like. I'll be posting more images of other things I have been up to, including crochet, wire bugs and new art.

Catch up

I hadn't realised that it had been so long since I posted anything to my blog. With 20 inches of snow to deal with over the last two weeks I guess things got away from me - again.

So what's been happening? Well, lots of Christmas card making so I have added some photos of them here. Then I signed up for an online class with Carla Sonheim. It has been brilliant fun. We are making journals and purses from fabric scraps and I have re-discovered my love of my sewing machine. If you want to find out more you can read about it here. There will be a second presentation of the class in the New Year and I can heartily recommend it. So far I have made two scrap journals and am in the process of making my scrap purse. The final lesson arrived yesterday so pictures of the purse will follow soon but here are a couple of pics of my journals. I have adjusted Carla's instructions just a little when it came to binding them. I used a binding technique using cotton perle thread and beads instead of stitching the page in. That way I can add new pages later if I want to.











I also mastered basic crochet. Now, this has been an issue for me for a long time. I learned to knit when I was little but never really took to it. Crochet, however, was a mysterious hobby. One hook and magnificent forms could be created. Could I figure out how to crochet? Nope! The illustrations in books were always useless but by chance I came across a tip from someone who crochets - the internet. This will sound very obvious to most of us. I use the internet to research nearly everything but it never occurred to me that it would be of any more help than the books I had used. Wrong! I had forgotten we are in the age of video classes. NexStitch is a crochet site that had a number of videos for beginner and it revolutionised the way people learn crochet. Me included. So far I have just played around but I have embarked on what I hope will be a scarf. The plan is to have grey ends that will be embellished and a coloured central panel. So far it is slow going. I might be 60 before I get this finished but I am having fun learning new techniques.


And marbling! I bought a couple of bottles of a marbling paint by Marabu called Easy marble and it actually works! In the past I have bought all the alum, size and inks and produced the ultimate in ugliness. So it was a lovely surprise when this stuff actually worked. It is a solvent based ink that floats on water (if you are using something smaller than A5 paper or wallpaper paste if it's bigger than that. So far I only have the blue and yellow so my colour will be limited but I feel a shopping spree coming on next week.


And, of course, there has been Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas and I have been taking part but I will post the photos of those later.

Other than that, there has been little drawing going on. I had an essay to write for my mythology course which took me longer than I expected. The snow meant much snow shovelling and Christmas shopping has been keeping me away from more productive work. But I hope you have enjoyed this catch up on my creativity. My Challenge Gillian images will be up soon too.

More beady treasures

Here is another example of what someone has done with my beads. How brilliant is that? Anyone who reads my blog regularly will know how much I love Halloween and all things spooky. So this journal suits my taste very much. It was made by Lori and you can see more of her art and BEAUTIFUL quilts at her blog. She has also opened an Etsy store where you can buy unpainted quilts to paint yourself too. Beautiful and fun all in one. Thank you for sharing, Lori.

Merry Christmas!

It looks like we will be getting a white Christmas this year. The first in many years. Yippee!

So, now it is Christmas Eve, and all the cards have been delivered, I can show you some of the Christmas cards I have been making this year. I bought some nice stamps and card so there was very little that could go wrong with them. It made the job much easier. Every year I seem to have fewer and fewer cards to send. A family members pass on and friends leave the fold the need to make as many cards diminishes. It is a sad but natural part of life but this time of year allows me to think of all the fun times I had with those people.

The pictures above are of my final tip in pages for the monthly swap I took part in. The recipient was a fan of pink so I used my snow obsession and pinks and purples as the theme.

The swirly card here is by a company called Hunkydory and the images and stamps by Crafty Individuals. All very rich and Christmassy.

Wishing you all a crafty Christmas and a creative New Year.

A few pictures of some greetings cards and inchies I made. At the top of the page, however, is a collection of pages from a manifest journal swap. The idea is to take a large piece of paper and write what you wish to manifest in your life on the paper in large, bold letters. Then you add some masking tape over the writing in places and coat it in gesso. Once the gesso is dry you remove the masking tape, tear the page into equal pieces and paint it, collage it, do whatever to make it look pretty. Each participant then gets a page from each person's sheet. It was another new project for me but great fun - even moreso when you realise that each page is a very personal piece of the other swappers.

The next post should be some of my Halloween treasures that I have been making and swapping.

Recipes for a sweet life

OK! I know! Until recently it has been a whole month since I posted. It has been busy here with everything from a new shower being installed (huge mess!) to me having a horrible cold. Now that things are quieting down - don't speak too soon, Gillian - I will hopefully have more time to create and post.

Over recent months I have been taking part in swaps for some things I have never tried before. The first of them was recipe cards. I like simple cooking - not for me standing, over a hot stove for hours on end. Just think Mediterranean cookery - mmmm, simple and tasty. So swapping recipe cards was new and fun. Of course, the first swap was for sweets and treats so the diet was put on hold while I tried some of them.

The other cards here revolved around other kinds of recipes - there is a facial scrub and some lemon balm tea. So even if you're not the world's best cook there is a recipe out there to suit - it just needn't be for something edible.

The bottom photo is for my ongoing tip in swap - it just had to be a Halloween theme for October.

I have more pictures to post but I'll be adding them throughout the week.