Helmar Creative Team

Recycled Rose Journal

As most could of guessed by my posts I love to recycle or upcycle things, so over a period of time I have collected some strange pieces of cardboard and assorted different papers with the intentions of creating an Art Journal with them.

Well guess what I have created...

Materials needed to create a similar project 

2 A4 MDF boards

2 sheets of decoupage paper

assorted flowers, metal embellishments

assorted cardboards, mailing envelopes, fancy thick papers

black acrylic paint 

Art alchemy wax

Helmar Spray Adhesive

Helmar Krystal Kote Matte Varnish

Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive

Helmar 3 Dimensiol Scrap Dots


I started with 2 MDF boards and 2 sheets of decoupage papers by Little Birdie.

Using Helmar Spray Adhesive I sprayed both the paper and the board and stuck them together.

I allowed this to dry doesn’t take long at all.

Next step was to paint my MDF boards and the edges with a Matte Black paint blending around the edges of the decoupaged front board.

To protect my MDF painted boards and the decoupaged front board I took my pieces outside and sprayed thoroughly with Helmar Krystal Kote Matte Varnish.

While this was drying or should I say airing because it does omit some toxic fumes (so always spray outside), I started on my decoupage rose piece for the front board.

I have fussy cut this out and then just broke the paper fibres with my stylus to allow the image to sit with a bit of shape. 

I have used scrap dots to secure my decoupaged roses onto the front board image. 

I then decided this project needed some kind of mixed media embellishing.

So I  have cut some ball and chain pieces to use as the flower stems and also added a recycled butterfly piece off a hair band from an op shop all attached with Helmar 450 Quick Dry adhesive.

Used a bit of Art Alcamey wax to add some colour around the board edges and to define the 3D flowers. 

Now onto the recycled pages what a collection I have.

I use the boards to mark the position of where the holes need to be punched and then re enforced all my assorted papers with some cellophane tape to help protect the holes from tearing.

To attach all my pages I have used 2 screw apart threaded DRings. 

Once my album was all completed I finished up with a nice fabric flower on the front.

And that is how you create a recycled journal out of any and all papers and cardboard pieces.

Thanks and please share!

Paperclip Corsets

This month's project is a favourite of mine and I've made them in different forms over the years, little corset paperclips for your journals or other crafting projects.

What you will need:

Helmar Craft Glue, decorative cardstock, smallpieces of lace, yarn and fabric, scissors and if you desire you can use some glitter glue.

To start with decide on your corset image, I used a couple of pre-printed images from the Stamperia paperline 'Princess', I also had some dressform die cuts that I trimmed off at the hip line. If you don't have these things you can quite easily find an image online or just draw your own corset shape.

After cutting my shapes out I chose a backing cardstock. I placed my corset (right side facing me) on top of the cardstock (right side facing down) and traced around the corset. Remember if you are making more than one to mark (on the inside) which corset it belongs to.

I then played around with my laces etc to find the right colours and textures to go with each little corset. My rough measurements are that the 'skirt' will be about two to three times the length  of the corset. If you wanted to make little ballet tutus you would use much shorter pieces.

Using my Helmar Craft Glue and on the reverse side of the image. start to glue the laces etc on, remember the first pieces glued on will be the most visible pieces once you finish so you need to glue these on upside down, be sure to keep flipping the corset over to see how it is looking as you go. Layer your laces and trims and try to have the heaviest/thickest ones last.

 

Once you have glued them all on, flip your corset over and trim any overhanging edges.

Now to work on the paperclip part.  Using the cardstock piece you cut out earlier for the backing, mark a little indent at the top which is the width of the paperclip and cut it out carefully. This is so that the paperclip will not be seen from the front of the corset. Slide your paperclip over the backing cardstock. I like to have the longer part glued inside the corset.

 

On the inside, very generously apply your Helmar Craft Glue all over the paperclip and cardstock and glue the two sides together, press them firmly and allow time for the glue to dry.

 

Once the glue is dry you can decorate your corsets according to your taste and how they will be used. Please remember that if you are going to use them in a book/journal you will need to keep them as flat as you can, I used glitter glues and lace on mine.  You could also make up some 'plain' corsets in advance to be used in future projects.

 

Once everything is dry you can trim up your skirts if needed, I like mine looking 'shabby' so only a little trimming was needed.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by the Helmar Blog today and I hope you have enjoyed this little tutorial and will consider making some for yourself or as gifts for others. They are also great to use as bag toppers or even to put on the front of a card.

Take care and have a lovely day xxx

Jeanette

 

 

Trifold Fabric Junque Journal by Tamiko

Hey hey good people, Tamiko here! If you like me, then you never met a handmade Journal you didn't like (giggles). Let me show you what I made!

 

Materials needed:

Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA Glue

2 Concentric Tags

Fabric

Bone folder

Scissors

Craft Knife

Permanent Marker (blk)

Rubber band/ Waxed linen

Glue brush

Construction of this journal actually began with me, gathering paper tidbits, unused small bags and scrap paper. I placed those papers together to create a signature.  This was put to the side so that I could create a cover. I label my 2 tags inside cover and outside cover. The outside cover was a slightly bigger tag than the inside cover by 1 inch.

 

I took each tag, slathered them down with some  Helmar's Craft & Hobby PVA Glue, using a brush. I laid the tag against fabric, wrong side up. I left 0.25 of an inch overhang around each tag, to cover the edges.

 

I cut a slit along the fold, sorta midway on the outside cover. I took an 18 by 3 inch piece of fabric and folded it in half, along the 3 inch side. I secured the edges using ____? YOU GOT IT.... Helmar's Craft & Hobby PVA Glue! I took that strip and then threaded it through hole. I played around with fabric tie closure to secure even amount of tie to hang over the ends. I even tried to ink the edges and ink the tie slot with a permanent marker.

 

I slathered even more Helmar's Craft & Hobby PVA Glue on the non fabric side of each tag. Adhereing them to each other and lining them up along the folds. 

 

I loved making use of the pockets. Inside them I inserted additional pieces of paper with some fabric elememts to draw or write on. 

I hope you enjoyed the process of making my tiny little junque journal and that you make your own soon! Dont forget the best way to hold it all together is with HELMARS WORLDWIDE line of fabulous adhesives!!!! Until next time, be safe!!!

Faux 'Mercury Glass' Vase

Today's project is a fairly simple one, it's something I've been wanting to complete for a while now but just haven't got around to doing. I found a vase at the Op-Shop/Thrift Store a couple of years ago, it was a silver foil lined vase but the silver started peeling off shortly after I got it home. I finally decided it was time to do something with it.

What I used:

Helmar Tacky Craft Glue, Helmar Crystal Kote Gloss Varnish, 'Go Press and Foil' silver foil, scissors and a brush.

As you can see, the original silver was flaking off quite a lot so I washed it and it ALL came off, the vase was now just glass, I didn't expect that but went ahead anyway.

Next I cut up some strips of the silver foil into manageable sizes. 

I then applied my Helmar Tacky Craft Glue to small portions of the vase and using a brush I spread it out. Please note that I have used far too much of the Tacky Craft Glue in the second photo, only a small amount is needed for this project, enough to grab the foil.

I then applied the foil. I am using the foil on the outside of the vase as I want to use this as a storage container in my craft room.

Continue foiling the remainder of the vase, it's helpful to allow one part to dry before moving onto the next.  You can also go back and fill any spots as you wish.

Once this was done and it was dry (which doesn't take long) I decided to apply a coat of Helmar Crystal Kote Gloss Varnish to help protect the foiling. I used a plastic bottle filled with water and placed my vase upside down on top of it so that I could easily spray the varnish all around. I set this up outside which is always recommended if possible.

Unfortunately I couldn't photograph myself spraying but I gave the vase two coats of varnish allowing time for the first coat to dry over night.

Here it is finished but still drying on a little shelf. Of course when using Helmar Crystal Kote Gloss Varnish be sure to read the instructions thoroughly.

I do hope you have enjoyed this little project and thank you so much for stopping by the Helmar Blog today, take care everyone xxx

 

Jeanette

Little Sparkly Tags

Today I am making some little sparkly tags, these may also be used as embellishments if you like  :)

This project was inspired by a youtube video which I will LINK HERE 

What you will need:

Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive, paper/cardstock (I used glitter cardstock), a small bowl and a variety of seqins, tiny beads and glitter and a hole punch if you want to make tags.

First of I have cut out some circles from glitter cardstock in a variety of sizes. As these will be used as small tags for gifts etc I kept them small at 1", 1.25" and 1.5". I also punched holes into them at this stage.

I then had a bit of fun making up a mixture of the sequins, beads and glitter in a small bowl, just enough to make a few of the tags.

Taking one of the circles, I applied Helmar 450 Quickdry Adhesive quite generously to the right side.

I then placed the circle into the sparkly mixture with the glue facing down, pressed firmly and then lifted it out. You have time to adjust the sparkly bits to your desired look and clear the punched hole before the glue dries. 

At this stage, you can add a little more glue to any parts that may need more filling, you can also add more glitter or even glitter glue.

I made a variety of the circle tags using different variations of the sparkly mixes.

You can see here how the same mix of the sparkles added to different coloured cardstock gives a much different look, one is made with white glitter cardstock and the other with silver glitter cardstock.

I do hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and will consider making some for yourself, they didn't take long at all and it's a great way to use up some of your sequin and bead stash. The majority of my sequins and beads have been found in op/thrift stores for just a few cents.

Thank you so much for joining me here on the Helmar Blog today and happy crafting everyone!

Jeanette xxx

 

Rise Up With Some Paper Lilacs

Hello Helmar Fans, Raelene with you today sharing the paper Lilacs I made for my husband's Disworld themed 40th Birthday.  My husband has been a Terry Pratchett fan since he was young and has been collecting his books for decades, he still has the first book he bought second hand with his pocket money so I really wanted to throw him a Discworld themed party.  I had lots of ideas for decorations and food and a epic cake I wanted to attempt but I ran out of time so only got to make the one decoration.

For those of you unfamiliar with Terry Pratchett's Discworld series I suggest heading to your nearest bookshop and grabbing The Colour of Magic, Hogfather or Nightwatch to get you started or watching The Colour of Magic or Hogfather or Going Postal on whichever streaming service you can find it on where you live.  It is well worth it.  Lilacs are what the rebellion wear in Nightwatch, hence the title of this post.

To make my Lilac I researched and found some videos of people making them and from those made my own plans, click here to see the video I found the most helpful.   I decided for added strength I would use Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive to adhere the florist wire to my paper/cardstock, Helmar Acid Free Glue for any paper on paper gluing and to use 3 shades of purple cardstock from the Purple Passion Cardstock Pack that Spotlight stocks. 
You will also need Green cardstock for your leaves, Green Florist Wire, Green Florist Tape (close to your leaf colour), some jewellery making tools (wire cutters and round nose pliers), small ball tool, small 4 or 5 petal flower punch and a scrap of foam to shape your flowers on and poke the wires into to let the glue dry when you add the base to the flower.

We had a bit of a working bee for punching and shaping flowers and we spread it out over a few weeks to try and reduce the repetitiveness. To make it go quicker I pre-cut each sheet into strips just wide enough to use the punch, One person would be punching, one would be shaping while I cut strips.

Once they were all punched and shaped it was time to add the wires and the bases.  I started by cutting the scraps of cardstock leftover from punching the flowers into small strips (I cut them about 1 inch by 1/4 inch as my flower punch was bigger than what is ideal for this project), then I put a drop of Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive on one end of the strip, I wiggled the wire in it and then folded the end just over the wire, set aside and do the next one.

 

Once the Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive was dry I put a small amount of Helmar Acid Free Glue along the strip and tightly rolled it up, set aside to dry.
Once that was dry I added a dot of Helmar Acid Free Glue to the flower base and placed my flower onto it and set aside to dry.

  
 

Next I decided to put my florist tape half way up my paper base to give it a more natural flower base feel.  Just wind the florist tape around, starting half way down the flower base and firmly pressing as you go.

Then I created my leaves, I decided to create the same leaf as the lady in the above video but as my punch was much bigger I had to create bigger leaves just like I did with my flower bases.   I used Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive to adhere the wire into the fold as it gives a much stronger hold.

 

I followed the wiring instructions from the video but adapted towards the end as I had a few less flowers than she did and my flowers were bigger (worry I have no pics of this process as I was wiring at night and no one was around to take photos).

I hung my finished project on our DND cupboard door until the party and then on party day it went on the table nearest to hubby, I think it looks so good next to my Marzipan pigs.

LOVE IS .........

This month we celebrate Valentines day

but what is Valentines to you

to me it is Love for family and friends. 

So here is my creation...

To create this project I purchased some MDF letters that spelt the word LOVE,

gathered together all sorts of laces, trims and ribbons 

and an assortment of pinkish flowers, charms and lots of gems. 

I used 2 Helmar glues to create this project: 

Tiger Grip Adhesive and Fabric Glue.

So to start I have glued a thick strip of lace on each letter using the Tiger Grip adhesive .

Once dry I trimmed this wide lace back so the letters were more prominent. 

Next step was to add the different layers of lace, trims and ribbons on each of the letters using the Fabric Glue.

I have then moved on to add a beautiful piece of flower trim to all the letters. 

Now onto the fun part of prettying the letters up firstly I added gems to the centre’s of each daisy and I also added my 4 word charms. 

Then some pretty flower combinations and metal charms.

All completed! 

I hope you all have a great Valentine’s Day! 

Robot Pen/Pencil Holder

Hello Helmar Fans, it's Raelene with you today.
Hubby got me a pen/pencil holder with dividers in it from the clearance section at Officeworks years ago, it had marks on it and he thought I would like to alter it but I couldn't decide on how I wanted to alter it until now, so I grabbed it out and some old thin robot scrapbooking paper I got from Spotlight several years ago and set to work.  Yay for stash busting ;)

I started by trimming 2 piece of my paper to fit
 

I then ran some Helmar Acid Free Glue around the edge of one side of the pen holder and a squiggle in the middle, then spread it out with a foam brush and applied the middle of my paper to the side, Helmar Glue gives me the wiggle room needed to get a precise line up of paper to the edge and time to smooth things out.  Once I had the middle piece right I glued down the side pieces to the sides of the pen holder.

I repeated this with my other piece of paper.  I love that on one side the robots aligned perfectly and the other side it was so close that my only issue was having 2 blue together.

You could stop here but I didn't want to have 2 blue robots together so I went through my stash and found a robot die cut or sticker to adhere over the second blue robot. 

I decided to add some navy blue ribbon from my stash to the top and bottom edge of the pen holder using Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive to get a strong hold on the paper, unfortunately my hand wasn't steady so I got some where I shouldn't but mistakes are just a embellishment away from being awesome.

I then started adding stars from my stash randomly over the pen holder so my robot covering the extra blue robot felt like he belonged and to cover some of my wibbly wobbly glue mistakes, then I just randomised to make it feel natural..
I adhered the die cut stars down with Helmar Acid Free glue.
I adhered the resin and sewing patch stars down with Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.

 

Apart from the resin and sewing patch stars everything is flat so the pen/pencil holder can sit on it's side for pens that need to be kept that way.
I love how it turned out, now to work out who gets it on their desk.  :)

 


It even works as a book end ;)

A Great Fix for a Foot Pedal

Warning:  This is not a 'pretty' post but it is a very 'useful' post :) :)

Last year I decided to take my Overlocking machine out of storage to get it fixed, it had been packed away for a number of years as it had seized up mechanically. Unfortunately I found that it had also been damaged while packed away. The foot pedal had snapped!

 

As I didn't really want to purchase a new one I decided to try to fix it myself.

Using my trusty Helmar Silicone Adhesive Sealant I applied a liberal amount to one side of the break, it had snapped on an angle so I made sure to be very generous.

 

I then carefully placed both pieces together and cleaned up the outside of the foot pedal as best I could without removing too much from around the break. I wrapped two elastic bands around the foot pedal to hold it in place while it dried.  The pedal was left for about 24 hours before removing the elastics. I checked the elastics every few hours to be sure they did not get stuck to the pedal as well.

 

Once the Helmar Silicone Adhesive Sealant had dried, I removed the elastics.

 

I then gave the foot pedal a good wipe over and it was fixed and ready to use again. 

 

I know that this isn't the prettiest foot pedal in the world and I do wish I had been a little more particular about tidying the silicone on the outside before it dried but it works as good as it should and it's a great fix until I can find a new one. I've been using my Overlocker for a few months now and  the pedal has been going great. 

Be sure to remember that you can use Helmar Silicone Adhesive Sealant for fixing many things around the home, plastics, metals and even glass.

I hope you found this blog post interesting and useful today, take care everyone :)

Jeanette xxx

Kim's Blog Post

Hello Helmar followers it's my turn on the blog today and I am going to share a layout I have created coastal suitable for boys.

I just love the papers and the cheeky image they have on them, so typical of little boys..... unfortunately I have not got a boy photo suitable to use yet.

 

I have collected and cut all my papers and am going to use my all time favorite product from Helmar that is the Helmar 450 Glue I can not speak highly enough of this product it adheres anything down solidly.

In the below photo you will how I just randomly apply the glue over the background of the paper and adhere it to the next layer I do this through all my creations and you do have time enough to lift and shift if needed before it is completely dry.

I just keep following this process of adhering layers until my layout is complete.

For my next layer I need to also include my chipboard element and again I have used Helmar 450 to secure that down and also the next layers of paper. What i would say here is that should you wish to keep more dimension to this layer over the chipboard you could always use some Helmar Scrap Dots 

I then added my next layers including the photo (or in my case a photo mat for where the photo will be placed) and I have used Helmar 450 again and as it is archival it wont damage the photo or papers in years to come.

And to complete my layout I have added some Ice Glaze & enamel Pigments from Aladine products in Glacier.

As a handy hint I always ensure when using my Helmar 450 hat I have wet ones on hand to clean the nozzle after use so that the glue doesn't set and dry on the nozzle, but what i have found should this happen is that you usually can always just pull the set glue off quite easily. Another little thing that I have found when i using Helmar 450 and gluing smaller pieces where the glue might should through as clear for example the I have now learnt to squeeze a small amount on to a plastic surface and then mix ink from a Tim Holtz reinker in to the glue and the glue will accept the colour and mix quite well. these little tips I use all the time when i am creating.  

I hope that yo have enjoyed my layout today and I look forward to sharing my next post with you shortly.

Happy Crafting Kim Kendell.