For the Girls

For the Girls

Hallo Everyone!

Present time is looming ever closer

and we thought we'd inspire your

crafty instincts.  

Claire Jackson has used one of

the Art-C Display Boxes to get

started:

"I started with the Art-C display kit box.

It comes in 8 pieces and the Perspex panes 

are covered in film to protect them.

I glued the two base, and two lid pieces together 

as per instructions, and gave them a coat 

of black gesso. 

I then decided that the top looked 

a little plain and added some Kaisercraft 

wooden embellishments before 

gessoing them too. 

It is really important that you don’t get paint

 in the slots for the panes or they won’t fit in.

 Next I gave the lid and edges of the base 

a coat of Imagination Crafts Rusty Patina 

in verdigris. This has a lovely gritty texture

I added a few more embellishments 

before using my fingers to dab on DecoArt

 worn penny and a little matte black paint.

While the paint was drying I started on the 

glass vials to go inside.

To get a deeper colour I first put a few drips 

of alcohol ink inside each vial and turned

 them around to coat the inside

Next I used a felt applicator to add the same

 colour to the outside. 

I then added a second colour to the outside

 of each vial to get a marbled effect.

 I then added drips of copper mixative.

 I lightly rubbed gold Alchemy Wax on the 

butterflies and added enamel accents.

 I added embellishments to the vials before

 assembling the box. 

The kit is so well designed that the pieces 

fit together very tightly without glue so 

if you wanted you could take the lid off 

at a later date. 

 With the reflection it was difficult to photograph. 

This project makes a pretty present 

in its own right but you could, 

if you wanted to, fill the vials with essential oils 

as an extra gift "

Materials:

Art-C display kit
black gesso
embellishments
Imagination Crafts Rusty Patina
alcohol ink
Alchemy Wax
Enamel Accents

Thank you Claire.  Love what

you have done with the bottles

I can almost smell the essential

oils I imagine are in them.......

lovely......

This particular display kit would 

also showcase a small treasure

or two..... you know the sort of

thing you have put away safely

in a drawer so you don't lose it

and then hardly ever see it....!

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Silhouettes

Silhouettes

Hallo there!

Another lovely day

and I hope, a happy one

Certainly Claire Jackson is

set to make us smile with her

beautiful project, so let's get

going........

"Cut a piece of yupo 10cm x 10cm. 

Use a piece of masking paper or a post it

to create a mask for the moon. 

Using a felt applicator dab spots of aqua alcohol ink 

over the entire piece of paper. 

On a clean piece of felt pad put a few drops 

of blending solution and go over the aqua 

to create a mottled background.

Tear a piece of card to mask off the upper part 

of the square and create a hill line. 

Apply turquoise ink below the mask. 

Go over with blending solution. 

Move the mask down and add purple twilight 

around the bottom. 

Remove the moon mask and add a mixture of 

turquoise and purple alcohol ink around the 

edges of the square. 

Make sure a few dots overlap the moon

 to create the impression of depth.

 Stamp the rabbits in black Archival ink. 

(Touch up any pale bits with a black Sharpie.)

 Along the bottom, stamp the fairy buttercups

 in cobalt and deep purple. 

Stamp the mini leaves around the sides 

and top in cornflower blue and cobalt. 

Add a couple of drops of aqua ink to a baby wipe 

and gently dab onto the moon to create depth.

Add black stems with a fine permanent pen 

and white highlights with a gel pen. 

Add a very pale grey edge to the moon 

with an alcohol marker.

Stick the top layers of the printer tray together 

and paint the tray and stand in Fresco Finish eggplant. 

When dry, stamp the tray (not the stand) 

with small flowers in mermaid and sherbet. 

Wait for it to be completely dry and paint 

a thin layer of translucent blueberry over the top. 

The flowers will just show through. 

If it’s too thick just wipe it back with a baby wipe.

Rub on a thin layer of pink tulip Alchemy Wax, 

again using a baby wipe to take off any excess. 

It’s hard to see in the photos but it adds a delicate shimmer.

Run a clear embossing pad along the edges

 and emboss in silver embossing powder. 

Cut a piece of patterned paper to go on the back of the tray. 

Assemble all of the pieces together"

Materials used:

Yupo paper

Alcohol ink: purple twilight, turquoise, aqua

Archival ink: jet black, cobalt, cornflower blue, deep purple

Lavinia stamps

Tando mini printer tray

White gel pen

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paint

Alchemy wax: pink tulip

Detail embossing powder: silver

Clear emboss ink pad

Thank you Claire for such a fun project

Another for my 'To Do' list.......

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Dimensional

Dimensional

Today we have Dawn Heald  to 

show us a beautiful bowl she has created:

I've made a shaped button bowl and I'll be honest it was meant to be a flower bowl. However, with a slip of my scissors and a couple plasters later, it changed. I'm overall pleased as these make handy little bowls easy to get at the contents.

You can make papier mache shapes using a variety of different sturdy objects. Just wrap in plastic wrap/cling film first to prevent the paper sticking to your objectives.

To make this project.

Choose object shape to use as a Mold. Cover with cling film first to prevent the paper sticking to your object. Tear small pieces of book pages and glue them all over your object. Build up as many layers as you like depending on how thick you want it. Leave to dry naturally.

Then remove object from the papier mache. You may need to cut down it to prise is off. If so simply use small pieces of book pages and glue back together. Dry and then trim and neaten edges to get shape you want. Neaten further by sanding and applying glue on very edge.

Paint all over with watered down white gesso

When dry apply colour all over using Alchemy Wax using sponge and or paintbrush.

Now make some embellishments with Shell Mold and paper clay, painted with Starlight Paint and Pink Alchemy Wax. Make some little fishes by Stamping Fish stamps onto Frosted shrink plastic, die cut, colour with clear sparkle pen and shrink with heat tool.

Back to the bowl, sponge edges and stamp the little asterisks all over the outside with Black Stazon Ink. Then add dots of White PVA glue all around outside. Dry.

Stick embellishments around outside of bowl. Add further decoration with buttons and Peacock Stickles.

The finished bowl from all angles:

Products used: 

Imagination Crafts Alchemy Wax: Peridot, Japanese Jade, Cobalt, Pink Tulip 

Imagination Crafts Starlights Metallic Paint: Pearl, Orange Oxidized 

Heartfelt Creations Under The Sea Stamps, 

Heartfelt Creations Under The Sea Die set 

PaperArtsy Lin Brown stamps ELB15

Woodware Seashells Mold 

Paper Clay 

Polyshrink Shrink Plastic: Sampler Pack 

Cosmic Shimmer White PVA Glue 

Stickles Glitter Glue: Peacock 

Stazon Ink Pad: Jet Black 

White Gesso

Multi matte medium

Wink of Stella clear pen

Thank you Dawn for showing us how to go about
making these beautiful bowls.


That's all for today folks!!

Mickie xx

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas

Hallo Everyone!

Here's a versatile wreath you can keep

from one year to the next or make as

a gift.  Brought to us by

Louise Thomson

Well it really isn’t long until Christmas will be upon us

 and so I wanted to share a project that

 could be used as a card or a decoration. 

Start by smooshing a selection of distress inks

 across a non -stick craft mat. 

I used ripe persimmon, fired brick and seedless preserves. 

Spritz this all over with water.

Press a sheet of white 12”x12”paper in to the ink

 and repeat a few times as desired to get a 

good coverage and colour on your paper.

Use the tattered florals die to cut as many flowers 

from your sheet as possible. 

With a bit of jiggery pokery you should be able to get quite a few!

Spritz the flowers with colour bloom to give them a lovely gold shimmer.

Use alchemy wax applied with your finger to add more gold highlights.

Place each floral component in the palm of your hand

and run the back of your thumbnail along each petal 

to give them a slight curve. 

Layer them together in twos or threes, 

fixing them with 3D foam mount pads

Arrange the flowers in to a wreath and stick down. 

Coat a piece of white card in antique linen distress ink 

and add highlights using tattered rose. 

Run the card through a die cutting machine 

with a woodgrain effect embossing folder 

then add a layer of ground espresso ink 

to highlight the texture. 

On a rectangle of white card, stamp and emboss 

a Chirstmas greeting using gold embossing powder. 

Ink up with more antique linen distress ink

 then stamp the vine around the edge in 

antique linen to give subtle detailing.

 Layer the components together and finish

 with a dot of gold stickles glitter in the centre of each flower.

Happy Christmas!

Materials used;

Non-stick craft mat

Distress inks– ripe persimmon, fired brick, seedless preserves

Mister spray

Tattered florals die

Stickles – gold

Alchemy wax – Inca gold

Color bloom spray – Sorbet

Embossing powder - gold

White smooth finish card

Woodware ‘wishing you’ stamp

Heartfelt creations ‘celebrate the season’ stamp set

Textures woodgrain embossing folder

A lovely wreath Louise and the flowers

and sentiment would also make a lovely card.  

Thank you very much

That's me off to make my wreath

See you all tomorrow

Mickie xx