Christmas Animals

Christmas Animals

Hi Everyone!

In the UK the Robin is a

much used Christmas icon

but if you're in the US you'll

probably substitute it with

a Cardinal Bird.................

or so I'm told

I wonder what birds are

Christmas icons in other

countries?...................

...............anyone?

Bit of a treat for you today - 

a small canvas by

Helen Chilton and it

features Robins............

Die cut the snowflakes out of card and arrange

 on a 6" x 6" canvas board.

Glue on with a wet glue and then seal. 

Trim off the edges.

When it's dry paint over with a good layer

of gesso

Let it dry again and then spritz with some 

Imagination Crafts Silver spray.

Blot back and then add some Starlights -

 I dabbed it on with my fingers.

Get out some Grunge Paste, add a blob of

 Toffee Fresco paint to colour it and

 mix together.

Scrape through the branch stencil directly 

onto your canvas.

 Don't worry if it looks a bit messy.

Use up the rest by scraping through the

 leaf stencils onto card. 

When dry, cut them out.

Using the same DecoArt stencil, 

trace some birds onto grey board.

Cut them out and gesso.

I've then added basic robin colours with 

Fresco paints.

To make them come to life, add details 

with coloured pencils.

 

Do the same to the leaves. 

Add a white dot to the eye.

Stick it all down onto the canvas.

 I then decided to add darker tones to 

the top right of the canvas.

Note the shading and highlighting on the 

branches and birds"

DecoArt Mixed Media Stencil:Canvas

Imagination Crafts Starlight paints:
Imagination Crafts Shake & Gilt: Silver
PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints:
Coloursoft Pencils:
Find It Trading Dies: Precious Marieke -
Grunge Paste:
Greyboard

This is fun Helen

thank you very much

I am going to have to find time to

make this canvas so I'm off to

see what I have to buy.........

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Jingle Bells

Jingle Bells

Hallo Everyone!

Whoop! Whoop! It is Saturday 

and here is the last jingly project.

Feel almost sad - it has been such 

fun to see the different 

interpretations applied to the theme

Helen Chilton is going to

see us out with some

winter snowflakes......

jingling all the way of course!

"I used standard sized cards that'll fit

 a standard sized envelope (usually my

 cards never fit anything!) and the 

Precios Marieke Snowflake dies.

This was my first one, very quick and simple, 

in fact too simple for me - I don't like it much!

The greetings are from a

 JOFY and Kay Carley set.

I thought things got a lot better when 

I added some colour in the form of Brushos - 

Pixie Powders would be good too as they've 

got a bit of a shimmer (didn't think of them

 'til afterwards!). You only really need a tiny

 sprinkling of powder here:.

Stamp a greeting and glitter the snowflake...

...and add an embellishment.

Then I thought I'd add a bit more texture with

 some embossing. I've used a Tim Holtz embossing

 folder that looks vaguely like snow, but any 

would do - swirls, patterns etc. 

When embossing directly onto the card like this, 

emboss with the card open so that you can

 get the pattern right up to the middle fold.

Sprinkle the Brushos again - I liked them

 over the textured background....

...and then add the glittered snowflakes 

and twiddly bits.

This one's embossed again and I've 

painted the snowflake with Starlights 

and then glittered it:

As I had the Starlights out, I decided to back

 the snowflakes with a painted circle.

This one ended up like this:

The hardest thing for me with all these was 

keeping the card clean as I'm not 

by nature a clean crafter!"

Products used:

Find It Trading Dies: Precious Marieke:
PaperArtsy stamps: Jofy and Kay Carley
Brushos:
Cosmic Shimmer 
Imagination Crafts : 

Rich Gold, Orange Oxidised, Bright Fuchsia

Glitter
Cards & Envelopes
Tim Holtz Texture Fades embossing folder: Bubbles

Nice little masterclass to send

us jingling on our way Helen.

Many thanks

Now that die looks a useful

one to have in one's stash.....

'Till tomorrow 

Mickie xx

For the Girls

For the Girls

Hallo Everyone

Hope your week has gone well

and you are ready for the

weekend!  Hooray for Friday!

Here is the next instalment

of our current theme, which

I hope you are enjoying and

gaining inspiration from

Helen Chilton has a shrine 

for us today so sit back and

watch the magic unfold....

"I chose the Shadow Box Shrine 

for my Art-C project.

I've started by painting the pieces white 

and sprinkling with Pixie Powders.

Just rub it into the wet paint. I also used Teal Wash.

Then I scraped some Crackle Paint onto one side.

For the flowers, colour some thin card 

with Distress Oxides....

......and then cut out loads with the 

Impression Obsession dies.

Curl them up and wire them with a 

bead in the centre.

I thought the back needed a bit more oomph,

 so I stencilled it in black.

The twirly bits - all provided in the kit - 

have been painted with some of the 

Indian Pink Cosmic Shimmer Metallic Gilding Polish.

The base is painted white and coloured with

 Pixie Powder as before. I then doodled on it in 

black mainly to cover up the fact that I

 can't paint straight lines!

Add a few more loose flowers and 

stick it all together."

Products used:

ART-C 
Cosmic Shimmer Pixie Powders:
Cosmic Shimmer Metallic Gilding Polish:
Impression Obsession dies: 
Imagination Crafts Art Stencil:
DecoArt
PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Paint: 

That is a delightful gift Helen

thank you

You know Everyone, those

flowers are nowhere as fiddly

to make as they look - and

they are quite spectacular 

when wired into a bunch!  All

you need is the die and bits 

of paper from your stash to

get started.......

Just saying....

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx


PS:  Helen will have us making trees 
at Inky Fingers on 18th October at the
Memorial Hall, Lingfield.  If you would 
like to come and join us please follow
this link   :

and if this is more your style:

Helen will be teaching this at Kit n Kaboodle

on 28th October.  Here's the link if you want

to be there.  Again the venue is The Memorial

Hall, Lingfield.

Mxx