Melus Makes

What do you do when you have way too many sequins, possibly have too many duplicates and you can’t find what you’re looking for? Well don’t do what I did and forget about it – get some storage for them! In the last 12 months, I’ve been fascinated by shaker cards and pockets letters, shaker cards possibly more, but the array of colours, the variety of sizes and combinations of mixes brings out a great interaction and specialty to a card and project and like me, I had never considered a new element papercrafting. With a few a packets bought over the first 4 months and then the increased escalation of buying more over the last 3 months, I decided to invest in sequin storage – but had no idea where to start. I looked to YouTube first, searched through my favourite crafters, cardmakers, scrapbookers and jewellers and they had invested in various storage solutions – mainly the Darice Storage Container Tray below, but for myself having 72 boxes was a little excessive – I do know ...

I heard about Simon Says Stamp many years ago through Kristina Werner and Jennifer McGuire, both of whom worked, designed or were (and still are) affiliated to the brand - they've designed stamp sets for them, done projects for them, created videos with them and their products and they were always a brand that I thought I would never be able to get hold of because of where I was based location wise - which is in the UK. I took the plunge in making my first order with them back in December 2014 and ordered nearly $60 worth of merchandise, which probably doesn't seem that much based on the US dollar but for me it definitely was - the shipping for the item total exceeding $50 was $20 and this hadn't been added to the total yet! Since that order, I have not looked back, I buy products from Simon when they have flash sales, as the shipping is worth it, or once maybe every 6 months as I can't really afford to buy from them more than 3 or 4 times a year. When I do...

If you do not follow me on Instagram already - please do - it's where I put up latest hauls, latest products I'm using, cards I'm creating, projects I'm undertaking - anything paper related, anything crafty related - I've got you COVERED! My Instagram is: melusmakes - please do come and follow me! Now, in recent months, I've been hauling, buying a lot of crafty related things, mostly papercraft while I've been out and about and also while being inspired by others - YouTube, Facebook, new releases by various stamping / dies companies and with Christmas in four months - I mean, how? It's a good time to be getting into the mix. Though, I do not do any Christmas crafting until the end of September! (that seems early doesn't it?) Anyways, I've been hauling, while being out about in the city (UK based) and on a recent trip to Bath, the craft buying didn't stop (even If I'm on a little break!) So here's one of my IG posts with the haulag...

Hi there guys! I have a mini craft haul in this blog post - the items I bought from Tiger and Paperchase - both stores based in the UK. Tiger Paper Tapes - £2 for a set of 3. They are several designs available in the store Coral and Green Paper Bows - £1 for two sets (50p each) Paperchase Paperchase have a few new ranges out at the moment, but they also have a great sale of which I purchased most of the items in this haul All Occasion Wide Wrap Tape - £3.50 (was £7.00) for approx. what looks like 15m+ Paper Tape (Blue) 10m - 50p (was £3.00) Medium Pink Jewels - 50p (was £2.75) Light Blue Small Jewels - 50p (was £2.75) A5 40 Foam Sheets (not pictured) £2.00 (was £4.00) in Natural Colours: White, Peach, Brown, Ivory, Black, White, Dark Brown and Grey So make sure if you're nearby to these stores that you pop in and have look at their new ranges!

Simon Says Stamp are having a huge 25% flash sale on all Simon Says branded products for THIS WEEKEND ONLY! So make sure that if you love their own branded dies, stamps, stencils, inks and so that you bag yourself a bargain this weekend with a few items. If you live in the US or Canada, shipping will be significantly cheaper then the UK and Europe, so do make sure you try and get your shipping's worth in products! UK shipping is $15 if you spend under $50 on the website (which includes the discount) Enter 'SSSFLASH' on the website where you can add a 'Promo Code' and 25% will taken off the main total. Bag yourself some wafer dies, stamps. inks and other Simon products to evolve and expand your craft collection! Happy Craft Shopping!

  I made this Birthday card for my boss a while back, so thought I would write a post about it! This card was used using the materials below, on top of most of the dies and stamps used, you will need a die-cutting machine, acrylic blocks as base tools for any die cutting or stamping. The cats themselves are from a papercraft book by Kikki K.   E S S E N T I A L S Big Shot Die-Cutting Machine with Cutting Plates Foam Tape Double-Sided Tape / Glue Glue Dots Scissors Paper Trimmer   M A T E R I A L S  |  P R O D U C T S Hello Love 6 x 6 Pad | American Crafts Happy Birthday Wafer Die | Simon Says Stamp Small Stitched Circles | Lawn Fawn Paint Strokes | Paper Smooches Large Stitched Rectangles \ Lawn Fawn Gold Sequins Vanskap Paper Lover's Book | Kikki K 300gsm White Card Cardstock My boss is a massive cat fan, she loves cats and I thought this would be an aptly created card for her birthday, needless to say she loved it! Hope you guys enjo...

Hey everyone! As a starting block on my brand new website / blog, I thought I would uncover a previous craft questionnaire which featured as a post on my other craft blog. I see this as a ‘Getting-To-Know-You’ Q + A post, as such! So let’s get started… How did you get into crafting? I was in college at the time, which was around 16 years old and I handmade a birthday card for a friend of mine and he really, really liked it. My art skills back then was nothing short of rather bland, so I can only assume then, that he was being super nice! From then on, I haven’t looked back How do you find your inspiration? Other crafters. Seems pretty boring really, but that’s how I get inspired – by watching, reading, seeing other crafters’ work, projects, videos. Its great seeing crafters using their creative skills as a living and making projects, and investing in new tools and equipment for even more projects, it’s brilliant. How do you combat creative blocks? Social Media an...