'Patterns' Wax Seal theme

Hello

Wishing you a warm welcome to my little crafting place, thank you so much for coming by!

I'm in a Wax Seal group on Instagram, which has really helped in all sorts of ways.  The support, advice and encouragement when you're struggling to get something new are just a few reasons to love being part of this group! 

Every week or so we choose a new seal-making theme then make and share our creations.

So here are some of the seals I made recently during our Patterns themed week 

These first ones are a new stamp, it's quite large and getting to know the right amount of wax needed has been a bit tricky - but I do like the patchwork blanket pattern!

 

I love these next stamps, they remind me of Moroccan tiles

and these last ones made using my current favourite stamp

Do you buy paper craft goodies, such as dies, stencils, stamps etc?    It would be wonderful if you'd click through to the store using my Spellbinders link.

 There's also all you need to start making wax seals!

 

Just a Note

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  THIS is my Affiliate link to the Spellbinders store 

-  you can use it to access the store whenever you buy from Spellbinders

It doesn't cost you anything, but I may get a little reward for pointing you there.

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself, and please come back soon!

 

 Kathy xx

April 2026 Card Chain Reveal

 

Hello,

I enjoyed taking part in the Card Chain Challenge for the first time last month, so I signed up again for the next one, and the cards that went around the world in April 2026 can be seen HERE.

To join in the chain, you sign up to send at the end of the list and once the list closes make and send a card to the person before you on that list, and wait to receive a card from the person who signed up after you 

 It's a worldwide chain and 22 people made up the chain this time.  I sent my card to Brenda, a fellow Brit and my card came from Gail, who lives in Norway

 

All the cards exchanged this month used at least one of the following options:

 

Colour Palette Option

(Exact matching is not required.)

Sketch Option

 

(Orient as desired.)

Theme Options: Long Ears / Spring / Friendship

Product / Technique Options: Bookpaper / Fancy Edges (ripped, die cut, embossed etc)

 

My card for Brenda

 

 

I chose Spring, Fancy Edges and Friendship from the options.

 Friendship is the perfect theme for meeting new card-making friends!  

The Spring bit  is obvious with the daffodil yellow stripes, the tulip wax seal and the fresh green leafy sprigs.  The fancy edge is the postage stamp punched shape.

 

The yellow striped backgroun is a digital design printed directly onto the lower half of a sheet oif A4 linen card.  I trimmed it down to make this card and and the remainder I can use to make a 'scrapling' or for a background for something else.

The wax seal was made a few weeks ago and you can see more about it HERE.

I printed some plain coloured card to perfectly match using the Hex codes of the stripes, adding a sentiment to part of it, and leaving some to use for matting.  Then I chose some green and blue cardstock to match the shades on the wax seal for the punched background and the leaves, for which I used some Spellbinders dies

 

And here is the cutie that landed on my doormat, from Gail, in Norway

 

If you buy paper craft goodies, such as dies, stencils, stamps etc you may like to use my Spellbinders link 

 

Just a Note

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  THIS is my Affiliate link to the Spellbinders store 

-  you can use it to access the store whenever you buy from Spellbinders

It doesn't cost you anything, but I may get a little reward for pointing you there.

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself, and please come back soon!

 

 Kathy xx

Beach Hut Box Frame

Hello,

I've something different to share today, something I've never tried making before! I've seen shadow boxes many times and usually thought "I must have a go at one of those". And moved on to someting else.

But a few weeks ago I saw that WRMK had added a Shadow Box Punch Board to their stable of other punch boards and I couldn't resist. I don't think it's particualry 'new' but I can be slow to the party (I'm not a great party-person to begin with).

For one reason or another it sat on the shelf for a few weeks after arriving but finally made it to the desk on Sunday - the instructions are good, but I don't find turquoise print on shiny white paper the easiest to read so I looked for a nice clear video and found this one by Linh Van HERE.  What I love about Linh's videos is that you can really see what she is doing and her talk-throughs are always super-clear. So I had a practice with a plain square of paper, and like Linh in the video realised pretty fast that you don't need to be limited by the instructions on the board, you can make many sizes and they don't have to be square. 

It's the punch mechanisim that's the game-changer to making box frames.  I took pictures of how the card looks after scoring and punching.  You need to be careful to punch so you get this pattern, whatever size you choose to make.  Then just burnish the folds and fold them in - all the folds go the same way.

So practice done I was ready to go solo and make a rectangle instead of the squares on the instructions.  

Annoyingly, you have to use imperial measurements - its weird that while most of the world uses metric, the US manufacturers rarely consider creating metric versions for us!

Anyway, what you need to do is decide what size you want the inside area of your frame to be then add 4 inches to the top and bottom - this is because each edge takes 2 inches for the scoring that creates the box 'edges'

For mine I knew I was going to use digital paper inside and could sort measurements accordingly,  I didnt bother being precise, I just used a piece of  A4 card (short edge at the top) did the scoring at the top and sides then taking in how much I needed to allow for the scoring on the lower edge I lopped off a couple of inches off the bottom before adding the scoring. Iin this case the space I was left with was 8.5 x 11 cms (yes, I know I'm mixing my systems but it's mine and I can do it however I please).

I decided to make a beach scene and use some of my collection of suitable digital papers as well as bits of ephemera 

Using digital papers allows you to customise the sizes of the images you print and I started by choosing the background piece.  I made it just smaller than the area of plain card inside all the scoring and glued it down before folding up the frame. I also added a few dabs of glue to keep the frame nicely folded as it kind of opens itself on the corners if you don't..

 Having got this far on Sunday afternoon I picked it up again on Monday.

I resized and printed three copies of the beach hut picture, one to be the base and the rest to use for adding layers. I made the window with some scraps as there wasn't one on the digi.

I used tiny shells, beads, flowers and leaves etc to build up my picture,  There are also a few wax seal shapes and some glitter glue to fill in any gaps.  The little seahorse is a wooden shape inked and glittered. 

I also inked around the edges of the box frame as it looked a bit too pristine against the shabby-chic beach hut. 

 

 I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, though I've just realised that I intended to add a little boat on the sea so I may do that later!

 

I've collected the ephemera from all over the place over the last few years, but in case you're interested here's the details for the papers, which I bought from FantasyaDigitals via Etsy

:

Coastal Junk Journal Kit and Junk Journal Beach Kit

 

 I love these papers! They print really nicely - I just used some white textured Bazzill card to print on.

 

If you buy paper craft goodies, such as dies, stencils, stamps etc you may like toi use my Spellbinders link 

 

Just a Note

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  THIS is my Affiliate link to the Spellbinders store 

-  you can use it to access the store whenever you buy from Spellbinders

It doesn't cost you anything, but I may get a little reward for pointing you there.

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself, and please come back soon!

 

 Kathy xx

Drawer Unit for Wax Seals

  Hello,

 Thank you so much for coming by!

 One of the great benefits to buying  Hubby a 3d printer for Christmas is being able to say "Do you think you could make me a......" , and him saying "Yes, I can do that"

Which is what happened when my ever-growing collection of wax seal stamp heads was beginning to get lost all over the place (there are still some I know I bought but just can't remember where I put them) 

It took a couple of goes to get this right, but I'm so happy with what he's made, and because they stack, I can expand my storage!

 

Each drawer has 12 little pegs to keep the stamps in place.  I could probably squeeze some of the tiny  little ones in-between if I really wanted to!

He's printed the drawer units in pairs and there's a divit and foot for stacking them together.  

Eventually I'll sort them into catergories so the different colours of drawers will help me remember what's inside.  Or I can label them.  Or more likely just keep opening each till I find what I want haha

I was invited to join an Instagram wax seal making group recently and it's an absolute joy to see what fellow members make, and to pick their brains for tips as they are all far more knowledgeable and practised than I am.  It was suggested that we have a weekly theme for sharing our waxy makes, and you know, apart from anything else, iIt's been fun just going through my seals to find ones to fit the theme but also finding little treasures I'd forgotten about!

I made these for a recent Under the Sea theme

 

Just a Note

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  THIS is my Affiliate link to the Spellbinders store 

-  you can use it to access the store whenever you buy from Spellbinders

It doesn't cost you anything, but I may get a little reward for pointing you there.

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself, and please come back soon!

 

 Kathy xx

Easter Box

 

  Hello,

 Thank you so much for coming by, I hope you like what you see!

I'm sharing a little gift box this time. it also had a big ribbon and a gift tag, but I forgot to photograph it when it was ready to go!

It was made to hold the Easter gift for our 3 year old Great-niece that Hubby had made on his 3d printer

Here's what was inside 

Aren't they cute!

 

Just a Note

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  THIS is my Affiliate link to the Spellbinders store 

-  you can use it to access the store whenever you buy from Spellbinders

It doesn't cost you anything, but I may get a little reward for pointing you there.

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself, and please come back soon!

 

 Kathy xx

A Bunch of Easter Tulips

Hello,

Thanks for coming by!

This time I've the second of the Easter cards I made using the tulip wax seals I made a few weeks ago.   

I printed the striped design directly onto the card.  I resized the design to A5 (horizontal) and set the printer to print it as close to the top and side edges of  a sheet of A4 card as possible.  I folded the sheet along the edge of the stripes and trimmed any plain white off, then cut to the size I wanted.

As for the other Easter card I also printed a matching coloured piece of card using the same RGB codes, along with sentiments printed to match perfectly.

This time I cut an aperture with a circle die and a 'frame' for it with some of the matching card.  Inside I stencilled a slightly larger circle using pink ink that matched the tulip seal

I added a strip from the spare printed card adhering it  to make the pattern across the card, and added one of the sentiments I'd made 

 For these tulips I used the same stamp as before but made 3 separate tulips  using the Pour and Scrape technique.  Whereas usually you'd put the shape back into the stamp then stamp it into newly poured qax, this time I removed each tiny flowerand set them aside until I'd made 4 - I only wanted 3, but it pays to have a spare!

I made the background seal and highlighted the framesection with a gold pen, then arranged 3 tulips in the centre. They're quite fragile but using tweezers I fixed them in place with spots of superglue glue, then I sprinkled some ultra fine glitter over the top to disguise any excess glue - I don't really have sa steady enough hand for this sort of thing!.

 

 

If you buy paper craft goodies, such as dies, stencils, stamps etc you may like toi use my Spellbinders link 

 

Just a Note

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  THIS is my Affiliate link to the Spellbinders store 

-  you can use it to access the store whenever you buy from Spellbinders

It doesn't cost you anything, but I may get a little reward for pointing you there.

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself, and please come back soon!

 

 Kathy xx

Card Chain Challenge March Reveal

Hello,

Last month I did something new!

With much encouragement from my great friend Joanne, I joined in with the Card Chain Challenge for the first time.  You sign up to send a card to the person befor you in the sign-up list, and then the person who signs up after you sends a card to you.  

It's a worldwide chain so whilst I sent my card to Hilary, a fellow Brit, my card came from Dee, who lives in Kenya  

 

25 card makers took part in March and as it's the 2nd of the month we can see all the cards that were sent over on the Card Chain Challenge blog big reveal. 

 

 Friendship is the perfect theme for meeting new card-making firends!  

 

 

 

For my card I chose to use two of the Theme Options (Gnomes, Friendship), and added in a sprinkling of the colourpalette option

 

I had a phase of making gnome cards a while ago - they were just perfect for my menfolk as I could tailor the cards to their interests! Various sports, and favourite foods were featured on them. 

 This time I decided its just the right time of year for potting up flowers so mixed a couple of die sets to create the picture.

 I stencilled a simple circle to centre him on and added some die-cut grass, adhered Flower Pot Gnome and adde a die-cut 'Hi' sentiment

 

A big thank You to Dee, in Kenya  for this pretty card - it was such a treat to receive a lovely card in the post and a change from the junk mail and bank statements that is our usual mail.  I enjoyed it so much that I've already added my name to the Aorul list AND my card is ready to send! 

 

If you would like to take part in the next card chain challenge, you have until 6th April to sign up here

 

Just a Note

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

If you buy paper craft goodies, such as dies, stencils, stamps etc you may like to use my Affiliate link to the Spellbinders store  

-  you can use it to access the store whenever you buy from SpellbindersIt doesn't cost you anything, but I may get a little reward for pointing you there.

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself, and please come back soon!

 

 Kathy xx

 

Happy Easter

Hello,

The whole process of making wax-seals is one of happy concentration and immersion!  It's fun to do and what could be more mindful than losing yourself in creating something so small.  If something doesn't work as you'd hoped it doesn't matter, you just re-heat the wax and try again. 

I shared some tiny tulip seals a few weeks ago and this week I've been using them to make Easter cards. I only send a couple and usually struggle to do even that!  This time the tulip seals made coming up with an idea much easier. Today I'm sharing the first of the cards

 

I printed the striped design directly onto the card.  I resized the design to A5 (horizontal) and set the printer to print it as close to the top and side edges of  a sheet of A4 card as possible.  I folded the sheet along the edge of the stripes and trimmed any plain white off, then cut to make two cards with vertical stripes. I also printed a matching coloured piece of card using the same RGB codes, along with sentiments printed to match perfectly.

The curvy white piece was made using two edger dies from an old Spellbinders set.  I used a punch to cut the pink postage stamp then just trimmed a rectangle to white to fit inside. The wax seal was fixed in place using one of the special sticky circles you get for the job! The last thing was to cut down the sentiment and add to the curved panel

 

The tulips on these seals are only about 1.5cm tall, so the whole seal is only about 2cm diameter. They were made using the Pour and Scrape technique.  They are so cute!

 

If you buy paper craft goodies, such as dies, stencils, stamps etc you may like toi use my Spellbinders link 

 

Just a Note

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  THIS is my Affiliate link to the Spellbinders store 

-  you can use it to access the store whenever you buy from Spellbinders

It doesn't cost you anything, but I may get a little reward for pointing you there.

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself, and please come back soon!

 

 Kathy xx

WRMK 3d Printed Tool Holder

  Hello,

 Thank you so much for coming by, I hope you like what you see!

The inspiration for Hubby's birthday card recently shared here came from the 3d printer I got him for Christmas

So this time I thought I'd share something that he's made for me - a bespoke box to hold 3 of my most-used WRMK tools.  If you have the same kind of tools you'll knpw how heavy and awkward to keep handy they are.  Mine just ended up lying on top of other stuff.

 

As well as the 3 main tools and to make best use of the space there are small areas perfect for items like my jewellery pliers and wire cutters, a couple of types of glue and a slit to hold my rulers

Here's how it looks empty.

You can see the curved shape that keeps the multihole punch tidy 

The master plan is to get my craft desk more organised and less of an eyesore using the incredible Gridfinity system of 3d printed solutions. Basically you make a grid of squares that fits your space then add the boxes, containers, trays etc that you need for you 'stuff'.  It allows you to customise to the shapes you need for your items.

He's already sorted his desk drawer - check out the slot for his small screwdriver set, and the very organised battery area!

 

Just a Note

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  THIS is my Affiliate link to the Spellbinders store 

-  you can use it to access the store whenever you buy from Spellbinders

It doesn't cost you anything, but I may get a little reward for pointing you there.

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself, and please come back soon!

 

 Kathy xx