Paper beads are a great way to keep on crafting when you can’t get out to buy supplies.
There is no doubt we are living in the most difficult times that most of us born since the last World War can remember.
The video clip below was shot yesterday in a town near where I live. I was forced to go out to deal with an urgent banking issue and had to venture into town.
It would normally be packed with people just before lunchtime on a Friday but this was the scene that met me – very eerie.
We are all living in very worrying times, times that many people are finding extremely hard to deal with on many levels.
What should have been a busy UK town centre has been reduced to a ghost town.
Crafting is one way to try and stay occupied and keep our minds off this awful situation that worrying will not change.
So I have been trying to think of ways people can craft if they don’t have everything they need.
One of the projects I came up with is making paper beads without a bead rolling tool.
As you may know, I designed a paper bead rolling tool many years ago and have been selling it online and at my classes for a long time.
My tools and templates do make paper bead making much easier, if you are in a position to get them now.
I’m not sure I understand the thinking behind that, especially as stores selling alcohol, (or Off Licences, as they are called in the UK), are.
It’s a very strange situation when, during a national crisis with most people like prisoners in their own homes, alcohol is considered more important than the very art and craft supplies that could keep people from going quietly mad in isolation.
Escapism through art/craft is much healthier than using alcohol.
I just don’t get it.
Keep busy everyone – crafting is a great form of meditation because it helps us forget the world for a few hours.
Hope you find my paper beads YouTube video useful in developing ideas for crafting without many supplies – see you next week.
Tissue paper light shades are quite simple to make and you don’t need lots of expensive supplies.
Tissue paper light shades are only for use with battery operated tealights or battery operated candles – they must never be used with naked flames.
Some of my easy to make tissue paper light shadesPlease note these tissue paper light shades are for battery tealights only. Never use them with a naked flame.
You can find the full tutorial on how to make your own tissue paper light shades on my YouTube Channel.
All you need is coloured tissue paper and lots of white glue. The trick is being able to cover the sheets of tissue with PVA glue without losing your patience!
In the tutorial, I show you two easy ways to do that without using too many swear words.🤪
When I was making my tissue paper light shades, even I had a couple of teeny problems.
It wasn’t all plain sailing – these are two failed tissue paper light shades.
The hardest part of making these shades is getting the glue onto the delicate tissue evenly and then drying it without it all sticking to itself or to the drying surface.
You can see by the above screwed up pieces of tissue – I had two mess up on me. I use waxed paper taped down to a glass cutting mat as a base on which to work and then I just let the sheets dry right on there.
But even then I had to keep moving the sheets around a little throughout the drying time to stop the tissue from sticking in places.
Once you see the basic technique for making tissue paper light shades, you can start exploring ways to decorate them using your own ideas.
For these purple ones I used some round gold cord I had. I sandwiched it in between the sheets of tissue.
I used lace strips for another one and fancy wool on a third.
But you could do stamping or doodling on the tissue with Sharpies before you put glue on.
When you put battery operated tea-lights or candles inside these lanterns it gives you room a cosy glow. NEVER use naked flames in them.
Hope you have fun making lots of lovely lights to brighten up these strange times we are all living through.
If you aren’t sure where to get any of the supplies and tools you see me use in my video, do check out my Amazon storefronts by clicking one of the two Amazon links below.
Fun with fabrics is not a thing I ever thought I would be writing about on my website! Just ask my needlework teacher from school days🥴
Although I am into many different arts and crafts, fun with fabrics has never really been a part of my arty crafty repertoire.
I’m all about paint, glue, paper, pastels, inks – anything that makes a mess really 😆.
However, that all changed when I attended a class recently to learn how to make Art Quilts – now, I am truly hooked.
My very first art quilt made with tutor Anne Robson at Studio 2, Wooden Roots, Rendlesham UK
Having fun with fabric in an arty way is something I had never really considered until Anne Robson’s class came up at Wooden Roots.
But more about that in a later post when I hope to have finished a couple of Art Quilts made from my own paintings (which I have transferred to fabric).
I know lots of people wonder how they can do this, so I will be sharing with you how I have managed to print my own designs onto cotton and how you can do it too.
One of my pastel images printed onto cotton fabric ready to make an art quilt.
The possibilities for fabric art are endless when you start to dream up ideas of your own.
Until I discovered the arty possibilities of having fun with fabrics (when I took Anne’s four week course), I had always been envious of people who could sew really well, but didn’t think it was for me.
But last year, one of my YouTube viewers sent me a beautiful gift that she had sewn herself and, I did start getting a little curious about crafty possibilities with fabrics.
Leslie Gilbert is one of the 9.5 thousand subscribers over on my YouTube channel Rainbow Lane.
First she sent me a cute little Mug Mat and then, she very kindly made me some bunting with my channel name on.
Rainbow Lane Bunting sent to me by Lesley GilbertThis mug mat may just have saved my wooden table from more mug rings!
Lesley is no stanger to fabric art.
After she sent me these beautiful gifts, I learned that she makes all sorts of things:- mug mats, gorgeous quilts, taggy blankets and amazing fidget lap quilts for people living with dementia.
Take a look at some of Lesley’s beautiful work in the slideshow below.
As you can see, her work is very neat, bright and colourful.
I absolutely love the personalised taggy blankets; I believe these ones were orders that Lesley had completed.
And the fidget lap quilts/muffs are a brilliant idea for those living with the effects of Alzheimers/Dementia.
Thanks to Lesley’s kindness in making me such a lovely gift (which I will be showing on my YouTube channel very soon), I did start to get the glimmer of an interest in sewing.
So when I saw the Art Quilting course that Anne Robson was teaching, I was way more open to having a go than perhaps I would have been and, I booked myself onto her course.
Although I am a very clumsy and inept seamstress – no, really I am! – I am enjoying adapting what I learned with Anne to present my art in a very different way.
It’s making me think differently about what I am creating and I’m loving it.
Anne and her helpers getting everything ready for the class.
As I said earlier, I am currently practicing the sewing skills I learnt in Studio 2 at Wooden Roots, Rendlesham, here in the UK.
I won’t be sharing the actual methods we were taught for making the quilts because that is something Anne has developed in her own style and is the best person to teach it. Besides, I will be learning this art for a very long time to come!
However, I will be sharing with you the trials I have had with my sewing machine and what I am doing to overcome them.
These are the two Art Quilts I am working on at the moment.
What you see below is a very different use of what I was taught on the course – for example, you will notice there is no layering of fabrics.
I’m not quite ready to start layering at home with no tutor on hand! So I am using my own printed art work as one whole piece to begin with and I will quilt the lines I have drawn.
Cheating? Maybe. Will it be as effective? No – it will be a completely different look. And it might turn out to be terrible! I’ll show you how it turns out – even if it turns out badly – I promise!
I have already had problems with what I want to do but think I have found the answer – so I hopefully, (finger’s crossed!) I will be back here with my results in a week, month, year – whenever! But I will be back 👀 🤞
My artwork printed onto cotton and ready to start quilting.
Another one of my pastel abstracts printed and ready to be qulited.
Meanwhile, my fun with fabrics will continue in another of Anne’s classes.
She is teaching a 3 hour workshop on February 29th near Woodbridge in Suffolk, on how to make a tote bag.
Fancy learning to make one of these?
We will be supplied with the ready cut fabric in a choice of vibrant and exotic fabrics and given step-by-step tution in how to make a fully lined bag.
And as with all Anne’s classes, it will be a fun and sociable affair 😍
Check back here in a couple of weeks to see how I got on with the tote bag class and hopefully, my two art quilts will be finished too.
And I would love to hear from anyone who is dabbling in the world of fabrics and making art – so if you are having fun with fabrics, drop me a comment below and tell me what you are doing – see you again soon!
Craft classes in Suffolk – if you want to come and learn something new this year and you live in Suffolk, UK – Studio 2 at Wooden Roots will have something for you.
Learn to make beautiful hand decorated and handbound art/writing/photo journals.
If you are in Suffolk and wanting to meet friendly people while learning a new arty crafty skill – check out these classes by clicking on the links above.
You will be taken to the booking page for the class you want to explore.
You will find a very friendly bunch of people at Studio 2, along with the added bonus of hearing what goes on in Studio 1!
Marcus Brown of Wooden Roots, Bentwaters Park, Rendlesham.
So if learning to drum is on your bucket list alongside learning new crafts, Wooden Roots is waiting for your call! You can find a list of upcoming classes and workshops here.
Fake YouTube Emails have been circulating for a long time, warning YouTubers that their channels are about to be suspended if they do not take the action dictated by the potential hackers.
After receiving a large number of such emails over the past year or so, I have made a quick video showing what the emails look like, how you can tell they are fake and what you should do if you get one.
This is typically what the fake YouTube emails say:
With the aim of increasing easy intelligibility and transparency, We are updating our Terms of service for YouTube channels that are open to making money. Please accept our new terms of service by clicking on the link below. Otherwise, the monetization feature of your YouTube channel will be disabled within 24 hours. The new terms of service apply to people with monetization enabled. Thank you for being part of the YouTube community.
This is followed by a clickable link saying ‘click for details’.
Here is another typical message:
We’ve received a complaint that your channel has lots of spam videos. Please check and edit the spam videos we have marked by clicking on the link below. Otherwise, if you don’t edit spam videos on your channel, your channel will close in 24 hours. Thank you for your patience in this process.
This also comes with a clickable link which, if clicked will surely take you down a rabbit hole from which you will not escape with your YouTube channel intact.
Fake YouTube Emails depend on your kneejerk reaction in order for them to work for the hackers.
Us YouTubers put a huge amount of work into our channels and naturally, getting a message warning us they will be shut down within 24 hours if we don’t click the link and follow the instructions is going to cause a sense of panic.
Don’t be fooled into parting with your channel by cyber criminals
Even YouTubers who sense that these messages could be one of the dreaded fake YouTube emails are tempted to click on the link ‘just in case’.
Don’t do it. Watch my video and other videos on YouTube from other channel owners like me, who have had these emails.
I apologise for this not being a craft post but hopefully it will help someone not fall prey to all the fake YouTube emails currently doing the rounds.
Landscape quilting is very much in vogue and in a few weeks, I will be behind a sewing machine, in a classroom, making art with a very talented fabric artist and tutor called Anne Robson.
Anne created the beautiful landscapes you see above and this week, I went over to Studio 2, where I will also be delivering courses, to see how everything is coming along.
Anne teaches in the same studio where I will also be teaching art and craft starting in January and I just love the space where all this creativity is taking place.
If you are based in Suffolk UK, then you too have the chance to come along to Studio 2 to dabble in some new arts and crafts with us.
Studio 2 is a beautiful art & craft hub over at Rendlesham, Suffolk.
Studio 2 is part of Wooden Roots, a music studio on the old American Air Force base known as Bentwaters. (More about Studio 1 on my sister website early in the New Year.)
In January, several of us will be launching our four week art & craft courses at Wooden Roots.
I will be teaching workshops in making beautiful art/writing journals from scratch – more about that in my next post.
Gorgeous art journals – learn how to paint covers, assemble pages and handbind the whole album
For now, I want to highlight Landscape quilting artist and tutor Anne Robson who will be leading the workshops on landscape quilting.
Anne has sewing in her blood. She made her first sewn item at seven years old and by her teen years, she was making her own clothes.
She later went on to design cuddly toys that were also night-dress cases in the form of dinosaurs, polar bears, lambs and koala bears.
Although Anne really only made these as novelty toys for her children, the demand for them was such that Anne and a friend had a small business selling the cuddly nightie cases.
She gradually moved on to designing gorgeous bags made from furnishing fabrics, while she was living in Spain.
Some of Anne’s more recent bag designs made with African fabrics.
Anne had discovered fabric art, back in 2006 in Santa Monica California, where she fell completely in love with it.
She didn’t know it at the time, but her love of quilting would eventually lead her into teaching others the art of Landscape Quilting.
Anne told me that seeing enormous wall quilts hanging in an exhibition at an Arts & Crafts house in Santa Monica made her want to know more about the art.
She said: “The wall hangings really left an impression on me – I was completely inspiredby themand began thinking about how I could create my own fabric art.”
Landscape Quilting – One of Anne’s pieces
As Anne’s knowledge and experience of Landscape Quilting grew, the pieces she was producing attracted a huge amount of attention from people wanting to learn how they could do it too.
She often found herself being asked to show people how to produce the quilts and eventually, she decided to begin teaching workshops.
This has now grown to the point were Anne needs to be teaching in a purpose built studio where everyone can sit comfortably at sewing machines with space to layout designs.
Finding somewhere to do that wasn’t difficult because daughter Gemma, along with percussionist husband Marcus, already have a music based business where there was plenty of room for Anne to have her studio.
Left to right: Gemma, Anne and student Sarah-Jane looking at fabrics in Studio 2
Marcus, Gemma and Anne all lived in California for many years and it was there that Marcus started the very successful Wooden Roots, a business specialising in making high-end Djembe drums that are sold to musicians world-wide.
Two years ago, they all returned to the UK to continue developing the business and they moved into spacious premises formerly occupied by the US Air Force.
Studio 1 and Studio 2 nestle side by side at Wooden Roots in an atmosphere of absolute warmth and creativity, both musical and artistic.
This is the perfect place to learn something new. And as someone who is both teaching and learning at Wooden Roots, I can tell you this is the place to be if you want to explore your creative possibilities in a truly inclusive and supportive atmosphere.
I will be writing more about Marcus in the New Year and sharing my Djembe experiences with you.
I will also be reporting back on how I get on in Anne’s Landscape Quilting classes – so watch this space to see how I get on🤔. I’m sure I’ll be fine!
To be honest – I can’t wait to get started learning landscape quilting with Anne!
Although I know my way around a sewing machine and have made ‘stuff’ throughout my life, I’m not a stitchy, sewy kind of person – well I thought I wasn’t until I saw Anne’s work. Whatever happens, it will be enormous fun having a go because Anne is so passionate about her art.
Tutor Anne Robson explaining the do’s and don’ts of fabric composition.
Landscape quilting student Sarah-Jane gets some one-to-one tuition from Anne.
How can anyone resist boxes of neatly folded, colour coordinated fabrics to choose from?
This will be a compete departure from my usual creative environment which is an array of paints, inks, papers, glues and varnishes.
The boxes of beautiful fabrics that Anne has are so calming compared to my own tangle of art stuff in my home studio. It will make a change to have clean hands while I create!
Fabric, cottons, pins and sewing machines. What more could a girl (or boy!) ask for?
What are you waiting for?
Places on this block of workshops are being reserved fast.
If you want to ensure you get a place – hop on the Wooden Roots website now to book and pay and then you will be guaranteed a place. For those who have only provisionally reserved with the office, remember, booked and paid for trumps reserved – yep, life is like that!😍
The course is over four Wednesdays from 1pm – 3pm – January 15th, 22nd, 29th and February 5th 2020.
If you fancy learning Landscape quilting – this is a brilliant opportunity to do it NOW – see you there!
Fancy paper beads are a step ahead of the usual triangular shaped bead strip that make a fairly standard paper bead.
Standard paper beads made from triangular strips.
Diablo shaped beads made from a more adventurous paper bead strip shape. As these strips are quite hard for beginners to make, I sell the pre-cut diablo bead strips online. They are currently only available as part of a kit. See further down for details.
Making these fancy paper beads in the diablo shape is easy.
I have created a pre-cut diablo paper bead strip in plain white, to make it easy for beginners to make basic diablo paper beads which they can paint and decorate in their own style.
In the picture above, you can see the diablo beads I made in my most recent film and they are painted with metallic pink and green paint with a sealer/glaze on top.
I have added some tiny gold and silver spacer beads to set off the colours.
Two bracelets I made with my pre-cut diablo srips.
If you want to see how to make these fancy paper beads, watch the video over on my YouTube channel.
I have made a short film showing the technique for rolling the strips. When you first see the strips, especially if you are a beginner to paper bead making, they can look a little intimidating and complicated.
But they really are not difficult to roll and the fancy paper beads they make are a lovely change from standard paper beads.
I show you very clearly in the tutorial over on YouTube how to roll the diablo strips with ease to make perfect diablo shaped paper beads.
If you want to get hold of these pre-cut paper bead strips, I am selling kits with enough strips to make three bracelets
The kit – a 3mm paper bead rolling tool, 36 diablo strips and 100 3mm metal bead cores.
And while stocks last – I am giving away a free glue stick with every kit.
A free glue stick while stocks last.
UK, European and other worldwide customers can buy my diablo paper bead kits from my Folksy shop below.
In my Folksy shop, the postage costs are separate. I have set this shop up especially for UK customers but I do ship worldwide from here for those who want to use Folksy.
If you are wondering how to make Christmas decorations out of paper – you are in the right place.
To make your hanging Christmas decorations, you will need the following:
Assorted Christmas themed heavyweight paper
A glue pen
Glitter
9mm split rings and some smaller jump rings
Assorted silver or gold Christmas themed charms
20mm or 22mm gauge craft wire
Tiny glue dots for crafting
Christmassy ribbon
Stick on craft gems.
And you will also find the following tools helpful in making these simple Christmas decorations:
Large craft punches in symmetrical shapes but you can of course just cut by hand with scissors or crft knife.Looping pliers are brilliant for making neat loops on craft wire.
A bone folder is very useful in making sure your creases are sharp.Craft wire cutters are best so you do not blunt your scissors.
The instructions on how to make Christmas decorations out of paper – step by step are in my video below.
If you want to try out my, ‘how to make Christmas decorations out of paper’ project but you don’t have a craft shop near you, have a look in my Amazon shops (links below).
It’s always best to try and source your supplies and tools from local craft shops, especially the small independant ones.
However, if you live in a place where there is no easily accessible craft shop, then you will find what you need in in Amazon stores.
You will find my Amazon Afflilate statement by clicking here.
Did you find this video useful?
Now you know how to make Christmas decorations out of paper – you can go and make lots of gorgeous decorations – let me know how you get on in the commnets below.
