Changes and investments in the Electic Craft Room

I return to my blog after a period of time away from work due to life being life and supporting my husband as he worked two jobs over a crossover period.  But now I return back to business and its all change in the Eclectic Craft Room.  As we start off with a new working area and new desk and an improved computer, So hopefully no more PC problems.  I have also spent some time making some investments in equipment and materials for my crafts and have been testing them out and also sorting through all my crafting materials and equipment.

So, the first investment I made was a long dreamed of piece of equipment of the Brother Scan N Cut.  I only purchased my bigshot at the end of 2013 in the run up to my wedding and the first machines of this type were reaching the market but they were out of my budget.  But as the new model CM900 had recently been released it seem perfect timing and I could now justify the cost.  I took the plunge and invested in the CM900 bundle from Create and Craft TV which came with standard and middle tack mat, the standard cut blade and holder, the colour and erasable pen set and pen holder, the high tack fabric support sheet and iron-on fabric contact sheet.   I have made a few cards for close friends and family to test the machine out and have spent time investigating the design software, which is very intuitive and once you have the hang of the basics you can push your creativity to where you wish.  I will continue to investigate and learn more about the design software over the next few months ready for Christmas card designs.

Brother Scan N Cut CM900

At the end of April I made my second investment and purchased artist grade pencils.  I had been researching which brand to go with for some time and finally decided that I would go for the Faber-Castell Polychromos as they seemed more stable as they are bound to the wood casing and the Prismacolor pencils I had also narrowed it down to have reviews of not being centred in the barrel and are more prone to breaking. 

120 Faber-Castell Polychromos Set and New sketchbook

My set of 120 Polychromos pencils arrived along with a new sketch book in time for the beginning of May and I had planned to do a sketch per day for the month of May but due to my husband changing jobs, along with my own illness, this became impossible and I only managed a few sketches at the being of the month.  I have however, since been approached about my first portrait commission and have been working on this for the last 3 weeks.  I have been given permission to post my work in progress photos and post a pictures latr this week.

3rd May drawing day 1 -

Apple using Polychromos

5th May drawing day 3 -

Wild Orange Flower using watercolours and black liner

I have spent some time during this away period sorting through all my crafting supplies, materials,  finished and unfished projects and have made the decision that I need to complete the un-finished projects I have and then complete the un started projects. I have many unfinished projects due to going through a period of time when I really did not know what I wanted to do or where I was going in my life and ended up acquiring so many different projects that I just ended up with a collection of them.  So over the last month I have worked on and completed a wool cross stitch of a dolphin and those of you who follow me on my Facebook page and my Instagram account will have seen the finished cross stitch. I have recorded this cross stitch process and am planning to attempt my first ever time-lapse video and upload this to YouTube.  I also plan to make this cross stitch into a cushion as I have always been passionate about making things that have a practical use as well as decorative.  I have many more cross stitch and tapestry sets which I plan to complete and craft them into something practical.

Finished Dolphin cross stitch

As I move forward with my business and my blog I will be getting into a schedule and plan on posting a blog every Wednesday with the crafts of the week.  I may post small inbetween mini blogs every so often but I will continue to post on almost a daily basis on my Instagram which is linked to my Facebook page, so if you want to see what I'm doing on a regular basis make sure to like my Facebook page or Follow me on Instagram.

Until Next time.

With Love