Louise Sims Papercrafter

Happy 7th birthday Polka Doodles As this anniversary is normally called the "7 year itch", the Polka Doodles team have embraced the prickly feeling by scratching that itch and mixing/scratching up some new images ... get the pun? Corny we know but the team have had great fun. So to embrace the “itchy scratch” the Polka Doodles team have thrown caution to the wind and “scratched up” a different kind of birthday celebration. The birthday celebrations will be running for 2 weeks and each day someone from the Polka Doodles team will be sharing their “mixed/scratched up” image. It’s been all hush hush and secret squirrel too as no one knows who has been busy creating what and when they will be revealing their image... so the Polka Doodles team get to join in the fun too. To add an extra layer of itchy fun, everyone has also been colouring up the new “scratched/mixed up” images, (still not knowing who designed them) and they will be sharing via their blogs and

I have loved working with book pages in my crafting and often go to my local Oxfam Book Shop to buy the "very preloved to an inch of their printed life" books. I couldn't bring myself to destroy a good book however naff the subject matter! So I thought I'd share how I print on to book pages, although there are probably lots of different ways out there. I begin my adding a strip of double sided tape to the top and side edge of a piece of white photo copier paper and then begin layering the pages. I add lots of different layers of book pages but try to butt the edges up against each other to stop creating different thicknesses over the page. It is also important to make sure all corners and edges are stuck down so that they do not get caught in your printer. Once you are happy, trim any excess to create an A4 paper, ready to go through your printer. Next print what you would like on to your backing paper. I have chosen a mixture of digi images and papers f

It's Sunday and again I wonder how the weekends go so fast. It's be a chauffeuring kind of weekend as Aaron had his Leavers Ball on Friday so lots of driving to different gatherings, in lots of different places! Can't believe that his secondary schooling comes to an end and am now panicking as to what happened to the last 7 years!!! A new chapter to his life starts and I think he is very excited about it all. Recently I have been making a project with my pan pastels (will share later) and had some water colour paste still remaining, so used it to create a simple, layered floral card ... I have stamped the images from Lemonade Fizz Soup Stamps and began by colouring them with dry pan pastels and the to add depth, with the wet paste mixture. I should really say it's not a paste, paste. I carefully create some dust by scraping the sides and then add a little bit of water which in turn makes a thick pan pastels paint. I call it a paste because it has that texture. I

Happy 7th birthday Polka Doodles As this anniversary is normally called the "7 year itch", the Polka Doodles team have embraced the prickly feeling by scratching that itch and mixing/scratching up some new images ... get the pun? Corny we know but the team have had great fun. So to embrace the “itchy scratch” the Polka Doodles team have thrown caution to the wind and “scratched up” a different kind of birthday celebration. The birthday celebrations will be running for 2 weeks and each day someone from the Polka Doodles team will be sharing their “mixed/scratched up” image. It’s been all hush hush and secret squirrel too as no one knows who has been busy creating what and when they will be revealing their image... so the Polka Doodles team get to join in the fun too. To add an extra layer of itchy fun, everyone has also been colouring up the new “scratched/mixed up” images, (still not knowing who designed them) and they will be sharing via their blogs and on Face b

A while back, I created a MDF teapot storage using a wonderful kit from Studio Light at Personal Impressions, (see HERE ) but before I stuck the sides together, I quickly drew around the MDF teapot piece to create a matching card. It was then decorated with the remaining papers and embellishments from the kit. Here is a quick tutorial explaining how I created my shaped card ... Step 1 :  Using one of the MDF teapot sides, draw around the shape on to the cream card, twice. Cut our the teapots, covering one with a paper from the kit. Score the other design as per the photo. Place glue on the handle upto the score line, (this will form your hinge). Step 2 :  Create a tag slightly bigger than one of the image toppers from the kit; using the cream card. Punch a hole and add ribbon, distressing the edges of your tag for an aged look. Step 3 :   Adding some lace and ribbon to the front of your card and place the tag at a "jaunty" angle. St