Papercraft Inspirations Shrink Plastic Freebies

Yesterday I received my second copy of Papercraft Inspirations from my subscription. Free this time was a sheet of shrink plastic with printed images.


I've never used this medium before but have seen it on tv craft shows and always fancied a go but didn't really want to have to buy the heat guns but only recently found out (in Papercraft Inspirations) that you can also do them in the oven!


I used my Promarkers to colour the images in yesterday at my parents (while making Spaghetti Bolognese) then cut them out once I got home and shrunk them this afternoon. I want sure how much they would shrink and the magazine made them look like they wouldn't shrink much based on the card pictures in the magazine but holding my shrunk items up to the magazine they are true to life sizings (so they must be small cards).


I had my items on the tray ready to put in the oven when my husband said he could probably use his blowtorch which had a heat gun setting. I gave him one of the dodgy bits of plastic (a butterfly button that had gone a bit wrong) and he tried shrinking it which worked well but it went a bit to melty and bubbly (and oval?!). We put the rest in the oven and in a few seconds had finished shrunken pieces!


They are really cool but not really designs I would use but it was a great first insight that I purchased the special promo deal from Handy Hippo! Plain and decorated shrink plastic and pens.


It saves you over £5 on Handy Hippos price and their site says it saves £10!


I'm looking forward to making some keyrings and charms with these.


The photos below show the items before shrinking, after, the butterfly which is my favourite one, and the difference between using a blowtorch/heat gun and the oven.


Update: 04/07/12
Handy Hippo pack came yesterday and made my husband a cute little keyring of him and his fav sandwich filling hehe

Before shrinking

After shrinking (they aren't arranged in the same way as when they went in the oven as I removed them to flatten them)

Shrunken butterfly

Left one made by my husband with the heat gun, the one on the right was done in the oven.

Keyring I made for my husband with the pack from Handy Hippo and Papercraft Inspirations

Leo Bancroft Hair Products

Ok I know this isn't craft based but this blog originally started as a cosmetics blog.

I have mega mega thick hair and it really doesn't like me at the moment and is just frizzy, unruly and blah!

I saw recently after following Leo on twitter that he had a range of hair products available exclusively in Tesco. I knew of Leo from his time on Channel 4's The Salon and from being on there myself (manicure with Georgina).

I don't usually shop at Tesco but make the trip there just to try out Leo's range (it was only a few minutes up the road).

The range has a number of different shampoos, conditioners and styling products and comes in a lovely purple and silver packaging. Shampoo and conditioners in this range are £4 each usually which is a great purse friendly price, but there was an offer on the range when I went (25th June) for 2 products for £6. I chose the shampoo and conditioner for coloured hair (for my newly plum dyed locks), serum and heat defence spray. The packaging has great hints and tips from Leo such as heat isn't coloured hairs best fried which I never knew so I'll be turning down the temperature!

The smell is really nice (I won't be told my hair smells like wet dog with this compared to when I tried Avon Naturals). It reminds me a little of Charles Worthington Dream Hair as its a very luxurious smell but not overpowering.

The shampoo lathers well and the conditioner felt lovely and silky. It was really easy to wash out too (my hair is so thick that some shampoos don't wash out easily and I'm left with residue in my hair).

I followed the shampoo and conditioner with the serum. It suggests a pea sized amount and due to my hair being so long and thick I ended up using 3 pumps. It wasn't sticky, greasy or oily (I hate when serums are so greasy that you can't get it off your hands). I then followed with the heat defence spray which was nice and light to apply.

After drying my hair it didn't seem frizzy at all, but I still had to straighten it as my hair is so thick and volumous so I sprayed some more heat spray and straightened my hair.

I love the results. My hair feels light, smooth and silky and has a lovely shine.

I have definitely found a new favourite hair brand!

Glossybox UK June Box - Me Me Me polish

My Glossybox arrived yesterday at my parents. I used to get it delivered to me but due to them changing from Royal Mail to courier I've had to change my delivery.

In the box was a MeMeMe Nail Collection Lasting Polish. I've not tried this brand before as I usually use OPI or Nails Inc. The colour is Sensuous which I originally thought was a nude but is more like an apricot. On first coat it looked like smokers nails buy got peachier after the second coat but still not sure on it.

I found the brush really thin and also the polish was very runny. I'm not sure if I'd buy this brand myself but will see how it lasts.

Crafting Update

Well I'm sitting here with Spike (our hedgehog) on my lap and thought I'd update about silicone glue.

My order came on Friday and after worrying about the odour, it doesn't really smell much. I brought a white tube of the adhesive as a bidding war started on the Create and Craft silicone adhesive!

The tube came with a nozzle and it was quite hard to squeeze out so I think I may get a syringe for it but it does seem to be easier to use than sticky tabs. It takes some time to dry so it's not great to use for last minute cards. 

I'm trying to find out how to best clean the application nozzle as I searched online but can't find guidelines and ended up using water and a cocktail stick which got very messy!

Thinking forward to my next project, I saw a video on YouTube (above) about recovering a tray and remembered that we have a white tray that my husbands Nan gave to us when we moved it and it's plain white (wooden) so I'm thinking of going to The Range as they have a lovely cupcake wallpaper I could line it with. I'm hoping to go there soon and will post the results once done.

Happy Saturday

Freebies from Papercraft Inspirations

I brought my first copy of Papercraft Inspirations 2 issues ago, mainly due to the price and the extra freebies being given away via Asda (Forever Friends papers). I found it modern and had lots of unisex ideas as well as the printables available online.

Due to the birthday offer on subscriptions, I snapped up a 50% off deal and am now subscribing to my first craft magazine!

The new magazine arrived two weeks ago now I think.... and came with some see through cut outs of flowers, butterfly's and frames. A few of these were split but not noticeable (one was tapped :os which was a bit strange).

It also came with some papers which were really nice and girly with pokadots, butterflys, swirls etc.

I used some of the free die cuts in the card attached, then added my Marianne Designs cupcake dies and a crafts-too embossed 'Happy Birthday'.

I'm still getting the hang of embossing the Marianne Design dies as they keep moving with the embossing mat as it stretches when it squishes through the Big Shot.

Crafting Adhesives - Updated

I've only recently started crafting, starting with my wedding invites which I started making around Christmas time and I started off with using glue sticks, foam pads and doubles-sided tape.

Foam pads are great for sticking card toppers on cards and decoupage but I always end up with the little square of backing paper getting everywhere! Also I've found that if I have just coloured in a die cut, I have to wait for it to completely dry or the tabs don't seem to stick.

Glue sticks are ok (ie like the pritt stick type) but I find that I need to have a bit of paper under so that I can go over the sides if not the paper/card does not stick down properly and also the sticks seem to dry to quick and don't stick down properly onto cards.

Double-sided tape was my favourite but it doesn't seem to permanently hold and also gets stuck to scissors really easily.

I then went onto trying tacky glue from Hobbycraft. I brought this for when I was making cardboard camera stands for our wedding (which we put business cards in asking people to upload their photos to flickr). This glue is good but does take a bit of time to dry or drys really quickly when you don't want it to. I also find that as it's wet, it makes the card/paper curl which can be really annoying.  I suppose it would help if I got a glue spreader, not just squeezing a little on the thing I want to stick.

Recently while watching QVC craft shows and Ideal World Create and Craft, they seem to use roller glue a lot. I have thought about signing up to the Ideal World Create and Craft Club, and saw they did these glue rollers, but I have problems with items coming via couriers rather than Royal Mail as they can't get to our postbox to leave a 'sorry you were out' card, or they can't re-deliver for weeks. I ended up buying a 'Stick It' permanent adhesive roller via eBay for just under £2. It came yesterday and I've used it on a few cards and while packaging up the die cutters I sold on eBay. It is very easy to use and not messy (unless to slip and end up gluing the wrong thing, or the table instead, and then its a bit hard to remove).

I'm looking to possible buy the gel glue tubes next which I've seen on Create and Craft. These look like a great mess-free alternative to the foam pads as they can give a bit of height from what I've seen and would also be easier to use on more intricate cut outs where the foam pads are too big. Until then I think I'll mostly be using my roller for big items and tiny dots of tacky PVA for more fiddly items.

Update...

Have given in and am purchasing silicone glue! I've found 1 Create & Craft tube with nozzle from eBay and will see how it goes before buying more. I've seen many people moan about the smell of these glues and there are odour free ones on the market but will see how this one is (ie if it gives me a migraine it's going in the bin). For £1 it's not bad.

The roller glue worked great for packing up eBay sells and attaching the printable postage (a first time trying that too). It doesn't seem to like my cards much though as I am currently using textured cards, not smooth ones.

Sizzix Die Sale! All end this Saturday

I have a number of Sizzix dies (and an unbranded die) for sale on eBay. 

These were included with the Big Shot I brought a few weeks ago and won't really be used. I've also brought lots of dies myself and need a clear out! (I've only had it 2 weeks!)

The items for sale are:

Sizzlets #3 Tags

Sizzlets Nappy Pin

Thin Cutz Bouquet

Medium Sized Hugging Bears

Book Hedgehog

All my items for sale can be found here Sara's eBay  

All the dies have a starting price of 99p!

Also on there I have a hand folded book hedgehog and Corel Aftershot Pro so go and have a look :o)