Tips & Advice

A little while ago, the kind folk over at Chalkola sent me some of their chalk markers to play with, and life has been so busy recently that it has taken me a while to share this post with you guys.

When I used to work in a craft shop, paint pens were a big thing, and they were so popular. This was really before the chalkboard craze took off, so I imagine these days chalky paint pens are even more popular. The first thing I noticed about these pens was the range of colours – how fun! There were a range of sizes and in the pack there are even 6 skinny ones which have a gorgeous metallic sheen.

These pens are really designed to work on slick surface – so I decided they would work great on glass! I picked up a frame at a local hardware store and fancied it up using some scrapbook paper and stamped images from the adorable Lil’ Painters stamp set from Mama Elephant.

This was a quick projectso I turned on the video camera and took a little video so I could share this with you. I am so in love with the final result, and I have already made an extensive list of Things To Do on my home-made dry erase board. Although so far, Princess Pi has come into the craft room twice, erased my list and left messages of love on there instead! But how can a mumma complain about that, huh?

You will see from the video that the pens work brilliantly. They are smooth, easy to use and give a great result. After about a minute the ink is dry on the surface and won’t budge – until you use a wet wipe to remove the ink. The best thing about them is definitely the fact that they don’t smell bad. So many times paint products can be smelly and they can give me a sore head – but not these guys.

Because I had these pens to hand, I also used them as a project for Piper’s birthday party. I bought some blank wooden doorhangers from eBay, and the kids had a blast using the markers to draw on them. Technically the pens are made for smooth surfaces, but the pens are robust enough that the wooden surface didn’t damage the nibs or anything. It was a great way to get great coverage, in a wide selection of colours. Of course, because the wood is absorbent, the ink wont wipe off the wood – but I didn’t want it to wipe off anyway.

A huge thank you to the folks over at Chalkola, and they are so generous that they are offering a discount code for Hungry Heffy Crafts viewers. Isn’t that sweet!
To take advantage of the discount code, simply use the discount code 15OFFSTR over on amazon or the Chalkola website.

Happy Crafting, Friends!

Helllllloooooo from this cute little mouse! I hope all my crafty friends are having a super day!

Today I want to share this card which features some of my favourite stamps sets, alongside some new products from a company which I have only recently discovered – AladinE.

When I was at Creativation, I was was walking down an aisle when I overheard a french accent coming from a demo table. I studied french at Uni so I was excited to check out the booth – and boy am I glad I did! I was excited to see a massive booth called AladinE, which had a huge range of crafty supplies – ink pads, stamps, dies, masks, fabric paints, markers and so much more. One of the most exciting products in my opinion was their texture paste. It works in a similar way to embossing paste, but it is far more robust. You can use it on metal, glass, card, wood and EVEN FABRIC! Yes – fabric, and its machine washable!

I decided to give it a try on a card today, along with a fun chevron mask and some embossing powder also some AladinE.

I thought I would use the paste to create a textured background, and then create a more whimsical design using layers of stamped images and vellum. I reached for the Mama Elephant Page Huggers stamp set along with the Yay, Kites set from Lawn Fawn -they were perfect for this card!

In the video you can see how I put together the whole card, although I will admit that I pre-stamped the images off camera first. I used my trusty copics to add some lovely colour to the images before diecutting them. I needed a few extra elements to build a ‘ground’, so I also used the Mama Elephant Up, Up and Away set to stamp some cute flowers.

I admit, I got a little bit stuck when it came to adding a greeting. I ummm-ed and aahhh-ed for about 10 minutes before settling on this scripty hello die cut from Simon Says Stamp. I used the Izink embossing powder to get the rich tomato colour, and mounted this onto die cut layers of foam to get great dimension on the card.

To finish it off, I added some little gems and dew drops from Honey Bee Stamps.

This card is a bit different to some of my other cards, but I am really happy with the way it turned out. I was really happy also with the texture paste and I cannot wait to try it out on some fabric. I even bought a little kids apron and I thought that Piper and I could have a go at decorating it for her. I think she will get a kick out of designing her own apron.

Thanks for stopping by and watching the video. See you again soon!

Lesley