I have something a little different again today - I want you all to get as much from your supplies as possible so I like to show that you can do so much more than cards with them. So today I have a lampshade/tealight cover inspired by Japanese lanterns but with a more Scandinavian theme with reindeer........ (yes the inside of my head is sometimes a little muddled!)
My husband and I are slight Japanophiles and met whilst learning Japanese at night school over 20 years ago. One of the things are love are shoji screens and the lanterns they make in that style. So this was my starting point for inspiration.
I went with the black frame and vellum but went for a circle rather than a cube as it was easier to create.
To make the frame I used a couple of the Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles (NOW BACK IN STOCK) taped together with washi tape (the largest from the large and small together to get a nice thin frame) and used the die cut lengthening technique to get a longer frame than you would normally get. This is easy to do with any die cut - just let one end hang out of the edge of your acrylic plates on your first cut so you don't cut all the way. Then move the die along your paper (take care to keep it on the same angle) and turn it around so the other end is hanging out and then you'll cut one long frame (you can keep repeating it for however long your paper is!) Hopefully this image makes it a little easier to understand if you've not done it before.
Once I had my two frames I cut two pieces of vellum just a millimeter smaller so the edges wouldn't show outside my frame. I dusted the vellum thickly with my embossing buddy and then stamped the reindeer from A Holy Holiday from Paper Smooches using versamark and then carefully heat embossed it using Hero Arts gold powder. For the noses I used a very old embossing powder called red tinsel which is translucent - but you could easily just use a red glitter instead like our Ruby Red ultra fine glitter.
Once the design is complete, all you need to do is run strong double-sided tape around the inside of the frame and then overlap the two uprights to stick the two frames together and make a lovely circular shade.
Obviously this project really comes into it's own at night - so here's a night shot with a candle inside. As always with candles and paper - be SUPER careful and if in doubt use a battery operated tea light. However as this is a wide shade it is far enough way not to set on fire so can be used with real candles. I think it would make a nice gift if you boxed if up with a set of nice Christmas smelling tealights!
News from the Store:
As we're getting very close to December now - I should let you know about our Christmas closure.
The store will be closing at 8pm on Thursday 18th December - this will be a full closure so there will be holding page on the store and you will not be able to place orders until we open again on 2nd January 2015.
Please bear in mind that the postal service is now getting very busy so it is generally take longer for parcels to come through. If you want items from the store as gifts - don't leave it until the last minute to buy as once it leaves me there is little I can do to ensure it reaches you on time.
If you are ordering Gift Vouchers - please put in the notes if it is for Christmas or some other occasion, and if it is for a man or a woman so I can send an appropriate card.
We are still expecting some more stock in the next week or two:
Catch you next week!
Tara
My husband and I are slight Japanophiles and met whilst learning Japanese at night school over 20 years ago. One of the things are love are shoji screens and the lanterns they make in that style. So this was my starting point for inspiration.
I went with the black frame and vellum but went for a circle rather than a cube as it was easier to create.
To make the frame I used a couple of the Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles (NOW BACK IN STOCK) taped together with washi tape (the largest from the large and small together to get a nice thin frame) and used the die cut lengthening technique to get a longer frame than you would normally get. This is easy to do with any die cut - just let one end hang out of the edge of your acrylic plates on your first cut so you don't cut all the way. Then move the die along your paper (take care to keep it on the same angle) and turn it around so the other end is hanging out and then you'll cut one long frame (you can keep repeating it for however long your paper is!) Hopefully this image makes it a little easier to understand if you've not done it before.
Once I had my two frames I cut two pieces of vellum just a millimeter smaller so the edges wouldn't show outside my frame. I dusted the vellum thickly with my embossing buddy and then stamped the reindeer from A Holy Holiday from Paper Smooches using versamark and then carefully heat embossed it using Hero Arts gold powder. For the noses I used a very old embossing powder called red tinsel which is translucent - but you could easily just use a red glitter instead like our Ruby Red ultra fine glitter.
Once the design is complete, all you need to do is run strong double-sided tape around the inside of the frame and then overlap the two uprights to stick the two frames together and make a lovely circular shade.
Obviously this project really comes into it's own at night - so here's a night shot with a candle inside. As always with candles and paper - be SUPER careful and if in doubt use a battery operated tea light. However as this is a wide shade it is far enough way not to set on fire so can be used with real candles. I think it would make a nice gift if you boxed if up with a set of nice Christmas smelling tealights!
News from the Store:
As we're getting very close to December now - I should let you know about our Christmas closure.
The store will be closing at 8pm on Thursday 18th December - this will be a full closure so there will be holding page on the store and you will not be able to place orders until we open again on 2nd January 2015.
Please bear in mind that the postal service is now getting very busy so it is generally take longer for parcels to come through. If you want items from the store as gifts - don't leave it until the last minute to buy as once it leaves me there is little I can do to ensure it reaches you on time.
If you are ordering Gift Vouchers - please put in the notes if it is for Christmas or some other occasion, and if it is for a man or a woman so I can send an appropriate card.
We are still expecting some more stock in the next week or two:
- Penguin restocks from Mama Elephant will hopefully be here in a few days.
- Avery Elle, Paper Smooches and Wplus9 all have new releases which are on they're way and should be here before we close I hope.
- Lawn Fawn have a mini release for Valentine's Day which I have ordered and it will ship mid-December but this will not be here before we close. But will be available as soon as we open. They will have their major 2015 release showing at CHA in early January and that will be here just as soon as I can get my hands on it.
- We will also be adding some new items to the store in 2015 - starting with adhesive products.
Catch you next week!
Tara
