At Random

At Random

Hi Everyone!

Gosh!  Have you noticed?

It's halfway through the

month.....already!

Days are getting a little longer

too.  Fantastic!

Claire Jackson has brought in

a lovely summery project for

us to delight in........

First I assembled all of the pieces, glued them 

together and stuck them to a cardboard mat.

 I gave the base a layer of texture paste

 and embedded microbeads on one side 

and flower sequins on the other, before 

giving it all a coat of gesso. 

I then decided it needed a little more

 dimension and added some Kaisercraft

 leaf flourishes.

All that was left to do was paint the 

houses with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish

 chalk paint and add the charms.

I’ve tried out a few of the Art-C kits now 

and they are really good quality and fit 

together very closely. 

This kit is fun if you’re looking for a quick 

project and would be ideal as an afternoon 

activity with children."

Thank you Claire - Love what you

have made here.  I have this

particular set and all I've done so

far is glue all the pieces together

and so two little houses have

been shunted back and forth 

across my desk for a while!  I

shall have no trouble finishing

them off now!

In fact, I might go and see if

any of the Art-C kits have made

it to the SALE along with some

extra embellishments!

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

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

For the Girls

For the Girls

Hi There!

So here we are with the 

final project in this strand

and what a project it is....

Here's Jane Castle to

show you what she made:

 

The project I have made does take a little time

 to make but then if you are going to give 

someone a handmade present your 

time is the main part of the gift. 

So grab a cuppa and we will make a start.

One of my main hobbies is gardening 

and I like to save seeds for the next 

growing year. 

A very close friend and neighbour is 

a keen gardener also and we

 always give each other birthday and 

christmas presents, nothing expensive but 

always something with a special thought. 

So I decided to turn this wonderful 

mini house into a seed shed for her.

Using Art-C mini house box kit I gave

 the outsides of each part a coat of white gesso.

The inside of the base, back and 2 sides 

were then covered with some of 

Imagination Crafts Rice paper.

 This was attached using 

Ranger Distress Collage Medium.

The distress medium does make the background

 quite a bit darker as you can see 

in the photo above.

Next I made a start on the seed envalopes. 

For these I used some ordinary brown

 wrapping paper as this helps to keep the 

seeds dry. 

Cutting pieces 10cm x 10.5cm, I then made 

folds so that the finished size would be 6cm x 4cm. 

the corners were cut away so as to 

remove some of the bulk.

In the picture above you can see the various stages, 

the last one has the bottom sealed and 

the top open ready to be filled.

I stamped the labels onto white card using 

black ink and a stamp from JM15. These were then 

lightly coloured using Chalk Cloud blending 

ink before hand writting. 

The envelopes were stamped and heat embossed 

with white powder using various PaperArtsy stamps.

The tag was made from kraft card and also 

heat embossed.

The seed packets were then filled --

and immediately sealed. 

Poppy seeds can go a very long way !!!

At this point I decided to make a sign for 

my shed, so masking off a stencil I 

inked onto a strip of shrink plastic.

This took about an hour to dry and then

 I cut it to shape and punched the holes

 in the top before heating

Now onto decorating the outside,

 the roof had a coat of Granny Smith paint 

before adding Grunge Paste through a Tando mask.

 I added a little Slate paint to the paste 

before applying it to the roof. 

Once dry I lightly sanded and 

added some Treasure Pewter.

The sides and the back were painted in 

Blush paint and then sponged with the 

Chalk Cloud blending ink in Toasted Rose. 

Stamped flowers were added using

 Carabelle Studio 'Zinouk du Jardin'.

Using the same stamp set I made a 

little figure, she was stamped onto

 300gsm card and then cut out. 

Her dress was stamped onto an off cut 

of painted card and stuck on top. 

Colour was added to the figure with 

Distress Markers.

Self adhesive gems for the ear-rings and

 Liquid Pearls for her buttons. 

The spade was stamped from JM 43.

There are holes in the 2 roof pieces so I 

added a ribbon bow and attached the 

'Don't eat the Daisies' tag.

The 'Seed' sign was threaded with some 

silk thread and tied to the decorative edging 

which was painted in China paint.

Zinouk and her spade were stuck on 

with some glue and the seed packets

 popped inside.

As this is a fairly small house/shed

 it's hard to catch the detail of the 

inside on camera.

I have been very impressed with this kit, 

it all went together very nicely.

I might include a battery nightlight to go 

inside for when the seeds have 

been planted.

The bow could be untided and then

 it could hang from a branch on a

 summers evening.

Thinking about it several would look

 very cute!!"

Items Used

Art-C Mini House Box Kit

Brown Parcel Wrapping Paper

Imagination Crafts Rice Paper

Ranger Distress Collage Medium

Shrink Plastic

Brilliance Ink Pads

Tando Creative Mask

PaperArtsy Stencil

PaperArtsy Grunge Paste

PaperArtsy Rubber Stamps

Carabelle Studio Rubber Stamps

Ranger Liquid Pearls

PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylic Paints

Cosmic Shimmers Chalk Cloud Blending Ink

Treasure Pewter

Stampendous Embossing Powder

and some seeds!

Thank you Jane - I can

just see these little houses

dotted about the garden

holding those little battery 

operated night lights!

Another delightful present

don't you think?......

'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