Marc’s Mini Accordion File

Marc sent me something that really fired up my creative juices, not sure what the proper name for them is is so I’m going to call them mini accordion files.  The first two in the picture are the “real thing” and the one on the right is a template that Marc also popped in so I could make my own.

The Japanese one was stunning ….with some of the envelopes containing lovely earrings and a necklace  ……

….. as was the green suede effect one, what is he like!!!!???

Now please bear with me as this was my first attempt …. and just hope the instructions are good enough for you to follow.

First I drew round Marc’s template, onto a firm/thick card, the notches indicate where the score lines should be. I then cut it out and scored and folded it, making the “joints” supple and bendy.

I chose to cover my file with a navy silk material/paper (from QVC outlet shop), but with hindsight, as this was my first effort perhaps it would have been easier to used a patterned paper.

I cut the silk paper giving me enough spare to fold over to give neat edges using double sided tape to stick it all down.

Then I cut out the notches, and proceeded to carefully and as neatly as possible fold over and stick the edges.

Voila …. I followed this by cutting another piece of silk paper to cover the inside of the file, again sticking it down with double sided tape.

Next came the envelopes, six in all, and all I can say is that Marc’s envelopes are much, much neater than mine ….. I was far too impatient  to see the finished article!

When the envelopes were all cut out and stuck together, I put a length of double sided tape down the middle and stuck the envelopes one on top of each other to form an accordion effect………

…… which I then stuck to both ends of the file.

I also added a far too large Velcro fixing to each end ….. again I was in far too much of a hurry!!

Phew …… finally done and dusted!

This is now going in my rucksack to keep all my little findings and treasure safe and sound.

THANK YOU MARC FOR SUCH A BRILLIANT IDEA

I have made a PDF of Marc’s templates, that I will gladly send to anyone who wants it. I am not too hot on this sort of thing, so I think in the process, the templates are now slightly smaller than the originals, so ignore the measurements I scribbled on them, but I am sure that from what I have done, you can use the measurements to make up your own set of templates if you want, or use the template as it is. – nellxxxx@aol.com

A Fairy Clock in 15 minutes

My sister had a clear out and asked me if I wanted this clock, boxed and unused, well I never like to say no!

I left it lying around in the kitchen for a while and then yesterday afternoon I had a brainwave.  First I checked to see if I could take the front  off, which I could and then how much space there was under the hands.

I didn’t have a theme in mind, so I just looked through some of the stickers I had.  They needed to be fairly big as I wanted them to cover some of the numbers on the face completely. These stickers that I got from Poundworld the other week (now reduced to buy 2 get 1 free), were perfect, and I especially like the way they are also textured.

The rest was simple. I just stuck the fairies and flowers carefully into position on the clock face, and then added smaller flowers to the hands using a little glue.  In all this took me no more than 15mins. I usually ignore cheap clocks in Home Bargains etc. but now I have made this, I want to make more. Wouldn’t it be cute to make a Christmas clock?

Jigsaw Pushpins and Fridge Magnets

I apologise for the pictures, they are a bit dark, but hope you get the gist of what I have made.

The jigsaw pieces I have used are beautiful and came from my sister. I’ve had them for a while and as I was filtching through my drawers inspiration struck.  I’ve glued a plain pushpin on the back and then added one of my expensive, very sparkly, flat back gems to the front.

 

Pushpins made, I thought I’d make a few fridge magnets in exactly the same way.