'Food' Wax Seal theme

 Hello

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

Our Wax Seal Social group on Instagram is a great place to chat and get advice, but as well as that, every week or so we choose a new seal-making theme then make and share our creations.

Today I've some of the seals I made recently during our 'Food' themed week 

Tiny Cupcakes 

 

Grapes and Strawberries

 

 

A set of ice lolly and cones from earlier in the year - inspired by the first warm days of the year.

These last ones are some I made a year or so ago

 

Ice Cream Cones

 

 

Fried Egg on Toast

This wasn't made using a stamp, I just mixed and poured wax freehand! 

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

Pink Flower Birthday

 Hello, 

welcome to my little crafting place - today I've a birthday card to share, and for this one I used a couple of favourite die sets. A lovely Spellbinders flower set from a year or so ago - you can still find it, I've given the name and die number beloand the slatted square set from Craft Addiction uk 

I used Susan Tierney's special flower-making xardstock for the flowers and leaves, inked with various shades of green and pink. 

The slatted die was used directly onto the card front, then I made a frame using some other square dies (I wanted one a bit wider that those in the slatted set) to fit on the outside for some dimension

 

Inside was partially inked in a few shades of blue ink so that the colour would show through the slats and added an extra leaf inside for interest.

To finish I made a set of white on green sentiments using my graphics program and used one of them - the rest will come in handy later. I use Paint Shop Pro and we've just bought the latest version.  I'm very used to the old one, so have a tendency to go back and use that when I'm in a hurry or stuck as to how to do things in the new one!

 Materials

from Spellbinders;

 

Susan's Garden Specialty Cardstock SCS-122 

 

 Simon Hurley Floral Stems Etched Dies S6-215

 

 Other

Slatted Squares die set: Craft Addiction uk 

Inks 

pc generated sentiment

 

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

'Random Colours' 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, and apart from the chat and advice, every week or so we choose a new seal-making theme then make and share our creations.

Today I've some of the seals I made recently during our Random Colours themed week 

This was quite a tricky one and a lot of the resulting seals turned out a revolting shade of sludge! Maybe I took the 'random' word too literally when I made a pile of bits of wax 'junk' to use as a starting point

I thought these two were actually quite interesting with the tiny specks of different colours in them.  Perhaps a bit reminiscent of beach pebbles? 

The next two were so sludgy that I highlighted the stamp design with a gold pen, but the mottled wax still looks a bit like some marble types I think

Next I changed tack and was more selective about the colours! I set up 3 ovens and 3 colours then poured the wax from them in stripes before stamping

Again using 3 colours and a different pouring pattern I made this, making any kind of tidy shape is tough though.  Good thing I tend to prefer 'organic' shapes most of the time!

 

All in all it was an interesting challenge with plenty of surprising (good and not so) results!

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

'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. then 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