Themes, layouts and inspirations
Do you make any of these mistakes? I’m really not a fan of articles or sites that try to make us feel like we’re doing it all wrong, but in this video Sandy explains what she sees are three mindsets that hold paper crafters back from making art they truly love. I especially agree with the last two! What do you think?
Book Nooks have been popular for awhile now, these are fun little spaces to sperate books and add some color and even light to your book shelf, think of them as 3D book ends. There’s lots of companies selling kits you can put together, you can design and create your own or use die cutting patterns like the one for this amazing Harry Potter themed Book Nook. Designed by Miss Mandee this Quidditch themed design has layers with Hogwarts castle in the background, the rings on the Quidditch pitch, witches and wizards on their brooms playing the sport and the famous golden snitch flying around.
I’m a huge Harry Potter fan and have lots of books as well as scrapbooks I’ve made featuring the Wizarding World and I can’t wait to download these FREE SVG cut files and use my Silhouette electronic die cutting machine to make one of these nooks for my own shelf.
You can get them too by visiting the Miss Mandee blog.
-Heather
Looking for scrapbook supplies, we recommend A Cherry on Top.com
I am so glad you brought up good tools. My grandmother taught me to knit and crochet when I was 11. Knitting didn’t make sense to me but crochet did. Over the next 40 years I kept picking up and laying down my efforts though because I would get frustrated. Nothing turned out like the picture. One problem I learned when I tried this last time beginning in 2014 was that I was strangling my yarn but the other big lessons were 1) I was using bad yarn and 2) I was using cheap hooks. When I had to pick up a new F on the way to visit family in VT, we made a stop at WEBS. They only sell good tools. I bought my first addi hook and discovered what a great tool it was. I came home, went online and bought the full set for $65. When I decided to try knitting one more time last year, I started with one of the old pairs of Bates needles I had and quickly understood part of the problem…the finish on the needles is terrible and grabs the yarn. So I invested in my first set of Knitters Pride. They were acrylic and also stuck to the yarn. Over the next 12 or so months I have bought KP steel needles and rosewoods in circulars and straights. Now I love knitting and I am learning which yarns and needles work best together. I still use my steel addi hooks but so far they work well with all kinds of yarns. I do have to resort to acrylics for crocheting bulky weights when I need anything larger than a K but because I have the basic mechanics down now I can “make it work”. By the way, I’m also a papercrafter and have learned this lesson in that art also.
Thanks again.
Thanks for sharing your story Kathleen. You are so right, proper tools and supplies are very important. I also knit and crochet (check my personal blog http://www.callalosoup.com/crafts) and this past year I got rid of all the cheap yarn I had, and now only use good quality stuff. I’m slowly doing the same with my hooks and needles.