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04 June 2008

All about Inchies

I love making inchies. Inchies are 1 inch by 1 inch squares, decorated using any medium.

This is a slideshow of some inchies from my blog.



So, where do you start on your inchie journey?

Think small.
Look at all your craft supplies to see what would fit onto an inch. But also look at your larger objects, such as rubber stamps & you will be surprised at the number of elements that you can incorporate into an inchie.

To help tune your eye in, you could follow an exercise I did a while back. I took a glossy magazine & made a collection of inchies just using the images & printed words from that one publication. The results can be found here:-

Floral Swirls

Sunday Blues

Earthworks

Have a go.
Just dive in & see how you get on. I know many people cannot work on such a small scale, so inchies are just not for them. You won't know if you like making them until you try them for yourself.

Start a collection.
Keep all small items together, so that when you want to make an inchie, you can look through them for inspiration. When you are next at a craft shop, train your eye to seek out anything small; beads, tiny gems, small eyelets, very thin ribbon. The Tim Holtz Doo Dad word sheets are perfect. If you thought Artist Trading Cards were good for using up all those crafting scraps, then inchies are excellent.

Shrink.
Do you have a great stamp but it's just too big? Use shrink plastic to get it to the right size. Have a great image on your computer? Use your computer's graphics software to reduce the picture to fit onto your inchie.

Materials.
You can use fabric, photography, alcohol inks, acrylic paints, acetate, card, paper, friendly plastic. Size should not restrict your choice of medium.

Challenges.
Try a challenge.

If you have any questions, please post a comment & I'll try my best to help.

Welcome to the little world of Inchies.