Project: Washi Tape

Last month on someones blog they posted a link to a video on You Tube on how to make your own washi tape. At that time I owned 2 rolls so I decided it would be fun to make my own to try out.

I saw one video where the lady used masking tape to create her tape strips. I tried this one first by sticking the tape to accetate and then decorating it. I used rubber stamps, shape punches and my pro markers to decorate it.

It all looked great on my acetate but when I peeled it away I didn't like the texture but also the ones I used the shape punched shapes on they all fell off when I peeled it away. So that was such a waste of time. Still you may have noticed I used them on my Project: Inspiration envelopes.

This one I wouldn't recommend at all.

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My second attempt was this weekend. I created these washi tapes by sticking tissue paper (I only had pink) to double sided tape and cutting off what wasn't needed.

I then used my pro markers (cupcake), distress ink (leaves) and pigment inks (flowers) on each strip. My favourite has to be the distress ink as it seems to have a really nice soft effect to it.

These felt so much nicer and didn't get any wrinkly bits in it. Due to the double sided tape it ended up thicker and much easier to manage then the masking tape.

This one I would recommend if you want to try it.

The last one I did see but refused to buy incase it didn't work is tape that you use for First Aid, the translucent type. I'm wondering if the surface may still be too shiny as with the tissue I ended up using the rough side. You maybe willing to try it.

Since then I have bought some washi tape but I'm still tempted to occasionally make my own for a more unique design and style.

Have you ever made your own washi tape?

Project:Inspiration

You are Beautiful!

What more can you tell a person who is drinking this stuff? I actually put this on the shelf whilst my sister had her back to it, I quickly took a photo and wondered if it would fall off but it seemed to stay for about 10 minutes. Then I guess someone walked passed and it fell down, I was at the counter and could see it from where I was, I thought someone had taken it so quickly only to realise it had fallen. At that point a man and his partner were walking down the aisle, I thought he was going to wheel his trolley over it and flatten the seal, thankfully he saw it, picked it up and.......put it back on the shelf! Goodness! He didn't even really look at it, wouldn't you be quite curious seeing an envelope decorated like that with stamps? I know I would, I'd flip it over and look at both sides. Ladies make your men more curious about such things :).

The thing is though when this idea came to me, I had really wished that we had £1 notes instead of coins as I would have loved to have put a note in to each envelope and told that person to treat themselves because they deserved it. Sadly we don't and putting a £1 coin in would have made it too bulky but still imagine if I'd put a life changing amount of money in that envelope and this man just put it back on the shelf. I wish someone would give me a life changing amount of money, I'd continue doing projects to make peoples days!


Are you lucky enough to have a flowery garden at your end of the world? Unfortunately any bit of blooming the plants here wanted to do have been drowned by all the rain and blown away by high winds when there is no rain. Can't win either way really!

Project: Inspiration

This envelope as you can see I left in a shopping trolley. I came back and it was gone. I love how this one turned out and I especially love these postage stamps, I do however really need to look into getting some new postmarks in a variety of countries. This one I'm using is only for France.

I've really enjoyed working with these small square images, I've had them for such a long time that I think I may have to think of a project to use them.

Do you have any ideas?

Project: Inspiration

I had planned on only posting one more envelope at the supermarket but ended up taking another 2 as I decided I would post one on someones car whilst I'm there as its easir to go unseen here then if I was on a main road somewhere. It has only just rained, the clouds seemed to have cleared to a lovely white. I stuck the envelope on, spend 30 minutes in the supermarket and when I came back out it was still clear... Yes! So I thought until I went to the next store and whilst in there it suddenly poured it down, that you couldn't even hear yourself think. I actually felt a little sick as I'd actually gone back to my car to put my shopping away and was actually disappointed that the owner of the car hadn't come back yet.

I went back to the car in the pouring rain, I was strapping my niece in when I heard some shouting behind me and I turned around to see a lady (driver) and man (passenger) get into the car. The lady pulled it off and got into the car with it... I was worried she'd throw in there in the car park. She opened it and looked at it despite it being soaking wet. I was actually so pleased that the colour hadn't run as that was my first thought when the rain came down. Now I at least know where one of my envelopes went. Whether they kept it or not is another thing.

I did however forget to put a 'for you' sign on this one but I don't think it mattered. Do you agree?

Do you think the quotes that I've used so far are ok?

Project: Inspiration

Today I made my way to the supermarket, I didn't need anything but made an excuse just so that I could leave 2 envelopes in order to create some posts this week. I would have liked to have left more but don't have too many completed. Also with all this rain it makes it really hard to leave those that I want to outside in open spaces but hopefully I'll get to do that some time soon.

I had hoped to actually leave this envelope in a phone box but as I was making my way to the supermarket I noticed quite a few men hanging around so decided to try and leave one at the phone  inside. It doesn't help that those are the 2 phones that are close by in this area. There were not so many people around but I was still so conscious with it being such an open space. I wanted to take a better photo but I also didn't want to draw too much attention too myself by moving further back. I decided the main thing was that you can see the envelope. On my way out I took a peek in that direction and it was still there.

One of the things I've gained from this experiences is trying to draw some things myself which I aren't doing too brilliantly at but I don't think the actually person will care as its quite eye catching. Still like I mentioned in my previous post, its my writing thats a problem as I just don't like it. I write much smaller and in Italics. My calligraphy pens are a right pain as the ink won't flow properly through them so I'm going to have to try and look for some cartridges to see if those work better then the refill. You can also maybe see why I decided to call it inspiration(al) as each quote is something similar to this. I thought the breath quote suited this as you have to breath to talk.

I decided this morning to create an e-mail address as I decided that if it was me I'd like to get in touch with that person and tell them exactly what I think of what they received. Only annoying thing is that I thought my address ended in .com but its .co.uk so for these 2 envelopes I'll never receive the response if I get one... that's actually quite sad.

Do you prefer the old fashioned telephone or the more modern cordless ones?

Project: Inspiration

I'm starting a new project this month which I worked on most of last month but still haven't completed because I made it more complicated then it should have been. I actually wanted to call it Project Wonderful but it doesn't quite fit in with what it has become. So I've decided to call it Project Inspiration because of the quotes to inspire and to believe in.

The idea of this project came to mind when I came across a tweet on twitter about moreloveletters which is to write a letter and leave it in places for people to find, read and quite possibly get in touch. I didn't fancy writing a letter to a stranger (for once) but to use envelopes with postcards and a 'You're Wonderful' quote. The quotes didn't quite work out as I couldn't think of so many inspirational wonderful quotes so in the end I decided to use uplifting quotes instead.

Anyway the idea was to use my envelopes from letter sets but when I actually sat down and looked at them I thought they were just so disappointing with the To and From, poststage stamp mark and an address it just didn't fit in with what I had in mind.

It was such a shame though as I had some really cute envelope but I eventually gave those up on make my day to a happier home and somewhere hopefully where they will get used.

My sister wanted to create some Good Luck cards for the children at work so we went shopping. I saw this pack of brown cards with envelopes and decided I really wanted to work with it as its something I've never used before. I'm glad I did as its been really nice to work with and feels like spaces are filled where as white always feels like there are too many blank spaces.... hope that makes sense.

On a few of the blogs that I follow I've seen a lot of amazingly collaged and crafted envelopes. I really wanted to do something like that as its not something I feel comfortable doing with my friends letters as I'd be worried it would get spoiled in the post but also I feel safer using tape around the edges which would make the whole thing pointless in doing. I looked all over for collage images but couldn't find anything that was just images, they also included music sheets, book pages, playing cards etc... that I almost gave up but then came across those on ebay. I love them a lot and have made great use out of them but the only thing is I wanted it to be neutral incase a man came across an envelope it would be nice for it not to be so girlie. As I couldn't find anymore images I decided to stick with these and my rubber stamps.

I gave all my stamps away on make my day at the beginning of the year as they were just sat on my desk taking up space in a box. So it typical that when the time came to do this project, I didn't have a single one and had to go out and buy some.

I then thought more about it and realised after getting such a fun and decorated envelope it would be so disappointing to open it and find a brown piece of card with a few words on it. I then over complicated things by decorating each postcard too. I really hope that whoever receives these will choose to frame them but of course I know that won't be the case. My first job ever was packing junk mail, when I toss out all those envelopes and leaflets I never stop to think twice about the hours I spent standing there in the cold packing each one and getting paid per 1,000. So who is going to do the same for this?

I created a short list of possible places I could leave my envelopes. Its grown some more since I created this one. I've so far created 23 envelopes but will probably make 25, I'll see how things go as time goes on. Maybe you can think of some places that I maybe able to leave them. Unfortunately public transport isn't an option as I no longer use it and won't have holidays until the end of the month when Ramadan will start.

I decided as I was going to put so much effort in I might as well make some seals. I would have loved to have made wax ones but I didn't like the thought of ruining my envelope if I didn't do it right or even better burning the house down in my clumsiness. I will have to remember if I do this again to make these even thinner as they are quite bulky for the envelopes.

Then finally the adventure of the envelopes begins.....

The first one of course had to go to the postman but its a shame I only got around to posting it today, as it will have a pile more letters on top for when  the letters are collected tomorrow so it may go unseen.

I wish I didn't have to write 'for you' as I can't use fancy enough writing for it as those six letters, no matter how I change my writing still look a mess.

The postboxes are hand drawn, the rest are rubber stamps.

The postcard says....

To

Mr Apprciated

Fabulous w(or)k

Dedicated (you have to be to wake up so early and to work in such a horrible climate)

10(thank) u (you) so m(uch), A Fan

All the other postcards have quotes on and I wish I could given them to someone else to write on as my writing just looks awful. I really would have loved to have printed something off and just stuck it down but I have openoffice which doesn't have all that many great fonts, those I've tried to download don't work.

Anyway I've made this lengthy enough. I'm going to try and post an envelope a day on here but that may not be possible as I haven't yet started to leave envelopes anywhere. I'll see as I know I'll end up doing a couple a day when the time comes.

Please let me know what you think!

Project: Lollipop Stick Journal Prompt

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I took part in a journal prompt lollipop stick swap. I was going to post this when I received mine but then decided it would be too photo heavy so I'll post mine now and the other one later for you to see what my partner does.

I'm so glad I bought the wider sticks as the thinner ones would have been a pain to write on.

The first half I decided to do a dark style theme as I just can't help it. The problem I found is that the colours bleed because of it being a natural wood so when I stamped the building it looked like a blob of black. I ended up making it an even bigger blob of black because it reminded me of going into the countryside and always seeing at least one deserted but interesting building. Also though some people always have that one house in their street that they think is haunted. I went over it in yellow fluorescent to highlight the building a little, it was much darker for real but not so obvious on here and it looked so eerie.

As I didn't know who my partner was I decided to make a cute one too but that was a big mistake as when partners were assigned it turned out my partner doesn't like cute but especially not teddy bears! Eek! I sent it anyway and said that if she really didn't like it I'd remake it as I have plenty of sticks left.

I had to make a container of some kind to store them in, I had planned on decorating an envelope but the sticks wouldn't have fit so I used this hair band which I've never used but own for some reason. I cut it in half and sewed the bottom. I couldn't be anymore creative as the postage would have been sky high as it already cost me nearly £4 to send this. My brother posted a few packaged on Thursday for me including this and wouldn't be quiet about the cost of everything! Its one of the reasons I hardly swap on swap-bot anymore because majority of the partners are from the U.S and Regional swaps are so limited in what you can do. Anyway I now have to keep my fingers crossed that my partner will be happy with everything.

I can't wait for next month when I can share my next project but also I don't want it to come as it will mean I'll be another year old and Ramadan but it will bring the summer holidays at least!

Did you have a good weekend?