Gifts for the Girls

Gifts for Girls

Hi There!

Hope your week is going

well.  Mine's a bit topsy

turvy.............!

"No change there then" I

hear you say...

.....I seem to have an extra

Gift for the Girls and not

enough Icons (starts tomorrow)

How did that come about?

Don't ask, just enjoy as

Louise Thomson brings you

a delightful extra "gift"

"Previously I have made little wooden 

bird houses in to Christmas tree

 decorations and I had thought I might

 do the same with these adorable 

little ArtC ones. 

At my hubby's suggestion I changed my

 mind and decided to make a baby girls

 mobile but as the project progressed 

it somehow turned in to a decorative 

wall hanging!! 

At least that means there are plenty

 more ideas for future sets!

I started by laying out the bird houses 

and painting one side with fresco chalk paint.

The houses were easily assembled 

and glued using pva. 

I painted the outside in Fresco Pixie Dust paint 

and made little hooks for them by twisting

 wire around some round nosed pliers.

I found some cute scraps of paper for 

the roof and cut them to size. 

I pushed the wire loops through the

 paper strips and glued them down

I can't tell you how much I adore

 these little things!

I put scraps of paper in the back and 

stamped a carabelle stamp on to

 some painted card

 adding tiny pieces to the houses

I cut a few more paper scraps to make

 'nesting material' and bunting. 

I painted a few kaisercraft wooden flourishes

 to go with the houses and assembled

 everything with ribbons and thread, 

tied on to a twig from the garden."

Materials;

Art C mini birdhouse set

Fresco paints

Wire

Archival ink

Carabelle wild nature stamp

PaperArtsy stamp

Kaisercraft wooden flourishes

Ribbons

Thank you Louise, this project

is a joy and lends itself to so

many occasions 

I have to confess to having a

set of these little houses sitting on

my desk in the guise of

a "work in progress" ...............

Now I know exactly what I

shall make with them....

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Holiday Album

Holiday Album

Hallo There!

It's holiday time again and

what better time to see

Part 2 of Craftyfield's

Fauxdori Album.  

So without further ado

it is over to you Craftyfield:

"Last month I showed you a no commitment 

type of album, similar to Midoris,

 [read the post here] 

Rather than using blank pages or a 

standard notebook for my Fauxdori, 

I knew I wanted to use scrapbook papers

 to make mini albums for short holidays, 

weekend trips and the like.

I spotted the Kaisercraft Basecoat IV 

on the Craft Barn website and quickly 

snatched them in case they would go 

the same way as the previous Basecoat 

collections (out of stock everywhere...). 

To me they lend themselves to 

contemporary scrapbooks and particularly 

urban photos, therefore, perfect for 

the pages I had in mind. 

In this picture I show some of the

 papers and directly below, their reverse side. 

Notice how on the reverse of the label area

 (the bit you normally cut off) there are 

quotes printed.

I put together the pages (after cutting

 down to size) in the same way as for 

my Gelli prints/watercolour notebook I did 

last month.

More interesting than the 

paper album, however, are 

folders/inserts for the Fauxdori. 

A basic folder design starts by 

scoring horizontally a 12x12 paper 8" 

(or whatever your page length is),

 making a 4" flap that will hold 

memorabilia, photos etc... 

Then a vertical cut in the middle

 of the flap, or a narrow triangle

 can be cut out instead.

As you can see in this picture, 

I went further and used a die 

to give my folder an extra 

decorative detail.

I turned the paper over (it's double sided)

 and to prevent the contents from 

spilling out the sides, I make a fold 

by scoring at 0.5" left and right. 

By using the paper "sideways" and 

keeping the label I made a feature 

of the printed quote. 

On the flap I created in the previous step, 

I cut out the paper on the score line,

 as shown in the photo, bottom right. 

Do the same to the left.

You can fold the flap and glue it down, 

you now have a perfectly serviceable folder.

But... how about a second tier? 

Yes, a second paper cut down smaller 

(6" tall in my case) and die-cut in 

the same manner as the first one

 is just placed inside the folder

 and stuck in place with the side folds.

 This is how it looks all put together 

and with various item secreted in the pockets. 
Notice how I rounded the corners,

 including the "middle" (I used the 

corner rounder on the folded file folder). 

Rounding the middle, actually creates

 the perfect slot for the elastic that 

will keep the folder in place in the Midori.

There are more options and decorative 

ways of making these folders, a few of these 

are shown here. 

I have used decorative scissors 

(remember those?) to create 

the bottom flap opening.

I also jazzed up my second tier pockets 

by die-cutting the top with a skyline die 

and a Hello die.

You could also use your border and corner 

punches, as I said, plenty of options...

 look in your stash and go mad!

You want transparent folders to see 

what treasures you've put away? 

No problems, there are several solutions 

for that too. Use your imagination to

 turn items into folders. 

In this picture what you see is a

 plastic cover for school books 

(with a school book in it!) I picked up 

in France where they are de rigueur and

 readily available.  

I cut such an A4 cover in 2 and scored 

each half in the middle for an A5 size

 plastic folder.

Here's the pocket after scoring, 

with photos in it.

I later sealed the pockets by melting the

 plastic along the scoring line. 

You can run a stitch line instead 

with your sewing machine.

Of course you can use other plastic items 

to turn them into folders, think Zip-loc bags, 

page protectors etc...

 Here I cut flaps in an A4 page protector

 and created an horizontal seam halfway 

down the page and a vertical seam on the 

lower half creating an A5 and 2 A6 pockets. 

Excuse the rough look of this one, 

I made it from an already used and 

abused protector and will use it to

 hold some of my scraps.

 The inserts shown in the Midori, the plastic 

folder in the middle is difficult to photograph!

  From a different angle...

I hope this has inspired you to create

 your own Fauxdori, I'd love to see 

what ideas you come up with... "

Supplies:

Kaisercraft papers:

Scoreboard: 

Dies : 

Corner punches: 

You have certainly inspired me

Craftyfield.  What a fantastic

project Thank you for this and

for potentially saving us a small

fortune on an actual Midori

At this point I should make it clear

that Midori is a trade name and

Fauxdori is Craftyfield's clever

description of her Midori-like book

"Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

For the Boys

For the Boys

Hi Everyone!

Wouldn't be great if

making gifts for the

boys was just a question

of changing the colour

scheme? ........... 

Actually, I think we

would miss out on a lot

of the fun if we did that

although I did read 

somewhere that the male

brain is wired differently

for colour.  Really?

I'm not sure  .........

Louise Thomson has

an interesting question  .......

"Why do women get all 

the notebooks?! Sure, I love a tiny 

notebook probably as much as most 

crafters but that's not to say that 

there can't be masculine ones too. 

My Dad always keeps a notebook

 in the car to record his petrol 

and mileage. 

My brother has one that he records

 places he's cycled, and yet

 if you look in the shops, most 

notebooks are floral and feminine, 

or at best plain. 

Time to address the situation!

I started with an alterable Kraft notebook, 

fresco paint in Antarctic and some 

Seth Apter stamps. 

I gave the notebook a couple of coats

 of paint and left it to dry.

 I stamped one of the Seth Apter ESA05 set

 in cobalt archival ink onto some tissue paper

and glued to the spine.

 I used aquamarine archival ink 

for the main image

I partially re inked the stamp and stamped 

over the top in the darker blue. 

Using a fine liner I highlighted a few 

of the details. 

I also added some inking around 

the edge of the notebook.

To finish I added metal corners 'tarnished' 

with a little permanent black ink, 

coiled wire and a wooden kaisercraft key 

gilded in silver alchemy wax and attached

 with a little piece of wire."

Materials;

Notebook

Fresco paint

Archival ink

Tissue paper

Fine liner

Metal corners

Seth Apter Stamps

Wire

Kaisercraft wooden key

Alchemy wax

Thank you Louise.  I think

you have provided a good

solution to the dilemma of

why are little notebooks

often so pretty pretty

I try to keep a stock of

these little notebooks to

hand as I find they do

make nice little presents

and are quite fun to

decorate to suit the

recipient

"Till tomorrow

Mickie xx