Sunday 31 July 2016

Bee Forever True - Printer's Tray by Julie Ann

Hello Everyone! Thank You so much for all the kind comments on my fairy-tale, walking house! This week I've gone for something just a little larger from the beautiful array of Calico Craft Parts, but the Printer's Tray I've chosen does allow for miniature 'worlds' within each little compartment. it stands 20 cm high and measures 10 cm across. With a depth of 2 cms you can fit miniatures onto the little shelves.



It's inspiring and fun to browse the assemblages and printer's trays on Pinterest: you'll come away intrigued, I promise. I love how the printer's tray can become our own 'Cabinet of Curiosities', telling a unique and personal story.



The Calico Printer's Tray kit is so easily assembled. I painted mine, first with some terracotta acrylic paint, then a coat of crackle and finally a turquoise top coat. While all this was waiting to dry, I had lots of fun creating elements to go inside my tray.



My aim was to create as much interest as I could inside - and around - the tray, using Calico Parts. I wasn't sure exactly how my assemblage was going to turn out. I just let my imagination run free as I combined painting, my own miniature art-work and collage on the crowns, greyboard hearts, wings, feathers, ovals, Steampunk top-hat and Butterfly Bramble flourish. Old map-paper collaged onto hearts and copies of vintage playing cards stuck onto strong card that I aged further with a sepia archival ink-pad around the edges, suggested a playing-card king and queen coming to life. I was reminded of the playing cards in Alice in Wonderland - a text I find myself returning to again and again. Maybe this Queen and King are not the same tyrant or ineffectual husband as those in the story! 



Once my tray was dry, but not stuck in place, I played around a little with arranging the elements inside. You might notice I also stamped some script and patterns on it as well.



Having assembled all my details, it was time to stick everything together with strong, white, multi-purpose glue and to add some flourishes. Sometimes I'll use the whole piece, as with the butterfly and bramble; but it can be fun to snap off sections to soften a corner.



My tray was beginning to evoke memories of how our hearts take flight to distant lands, while reading fairy-tales on hot summer days with the hum of bees in the sweet-scented air. The bee charm, aged with Gilder's Paste added a final touch and - along with the text on the playing cards - asks us to 'Bee forever true'. As you can see from my first picture, I went on to add a tiny slipper from an old earring and three miniature dice.



I hope that, as you look into my Printer's Tray, you will be encouraged to create your own stories...



and recall dreams long ago on sunny afternoons. I used a sprinkling of gold UTEE melted onto the feathers and blobs of pearl pen to accent my flower centres.



Thank You so much for stopping by the blog today. I hope that your summer is proving to be a happy and creative time.

Calico Craft Parts Used
Printer's Tray Kit Style 2
Greyboard hearts
Sheet of Mini MDF Crowns Style 3
Sheet of Mini MDF Wings Style 1
Sheet of Mini MDF Feathers Style 1
Mini Oval Wood Plaques
Butterfly Bramble Flourish
Sheet of Mini Steampunk Motifs Style 3

Thursday 28 July 2016

More Colourful Houses!

Hello!

My post on Saturday was about colourful houses... how you can create a (reasonably) simple creation just by gluing colourful backgrounds to the sides of the house. My post today goes a few steps further on.... :)


So... the colourful house has had a few additions!

I gave it windows and a shiny red door....


And I gave it a more complex roof by adding 'tiles'... circles punched from left over bits of painty background card!


The house was given wings, and placed onto a wooden base. Both of these were painted white, then covered with black stamped text.


The base was then glued to a small candlestick. As the house is now raised up off the ground, you need a ladder to reach it :)


More scrap bits of painty background!

So.... the simple house gets a major 3D makeover!

Hope you like it!
Trish xx


Calico Craft Parts used:

Wonky house (this is the large version)
Windows
Doors

Tuesday 26 July 2016

Blooming Flowers Canvas by Lesley

A colourful little number from me today......with absolutely no sign of any rust! Shocking!!


I started by priming my canvas with a coat of gesso. Using different shades of green watercolour paints, i randomly covered the canvas.

I applied texture paste through a stencil to the sides of the canvas and over parts of the front.
I then used crayons to add more colour and texture.


The stems of the flowers are actually parts from the steampunk pipework mdf set with the ends cut off. These and the minishields were coloured with crayons as well.


I added a coat of Decoart triple thick gloss to the top.

And finished off with black ink on the edges and some words.


Thanks for reading.
L.xx

Ingredients.

Pipework maze MDF
Mini wood shields, set 2
Mini wood shields, set 3
Mini wood shields, set 4

Monday 25 July 2016

A Lucky Charm Princess Piglet For My Niece's Birthday by Claudia

In Austria and Germany pigs number among our lucky charms.


We give little bought or selfmade pigs (made from marzipan, printed on chocolate wrappings, cast with resin or crafted from other materials) alongside lucky clovers, horse shoes, chimney sweepers or toadstools to each other on New Year's Eve and they are meant to bring their new owners luck.

Sometimes in the country even real piglets are given as birthday gifts on special birthdays (all of which does not affect the fact that piglets also end up as roasted sucklings on such events at the same time ;).

My wonderful niece lately celebrated her ninth birthday and I decided to create this birthday card with a lucky charm pig for her (as I wish her tons of good luck, success and happy moments of course).


Calico Craft Parts used:

- Rounded Rectangle Greyboard Mixed Media Board - Style 18
- Piglet MDF Wood Shape - Style 7
- Stars - Mini Greyboard Shapes
- Mini MDF Wood Crowns - Style 3
- Mini MDF Label Holders Wood Shapes

Of course it had to be a piglet princess for a princess - so my piglet got a crown. (I guess the weight of the crown is quite exhausting to carry...so the piglet has fallen asleep).

I started with painting the piglet and mixed DecoArt media fluid acrylics "Transparent Red Iron Oxide" and "Titanium White" to create the flesh tone. The label holder and crown were given a coat of DecoArt "Venetian Gold" Dazzling Metallics.


While these were set aside to dry I painted the stars and the mixed media board using Decoart Americana "lemon zest" Satin and Americana "Sea Breeze" acrylic paint.


Then I applied a thin coat of DecoArt "Carbon Black" Antiquing Cream to the crown and label holder. Once that had dried I wiped most of it back using a damp cloth.


I stamped some wood grain texture onto the dried mixed media board using black archival ink.


The stars got a thin coat of DecoArt media Crackle Glaze and once that had dried naturally (do NOT dry with a heat tool!) I used Carbon Black Antiquing Cream to make the cracks visible.


The quote for the label holder was written by hand and glued in place using matte DecoArt Decou-Page. The edges of the panel were inked with black archival stamping ink using a piece of blending foam.  Decou-Page was then used again for fixing all the finished elements to the mixed media board.


And this is the finished birthday "card". The back was covered with heavy white printer paper and used to write our birthday wishes on.


My niece loved it and she also allowed me to share her birthday card with you so you can create your own! (Thank you, Rosi dear! Mwah! XXX)






I hope you have enjoyed your visit today and leave inspired! Thank you so much for stopping by! See you next time!

Hugs and happy crafting,
Claudia
xxx




Saturday 23 July 2016

Colourful houses: Part One! By Trish

Hello!

I'm sharing the first part in a short series today... sharing ideas on how to decorate the fabulous new house shapes!

I've used the wide with wonky roof houses, in all 3 sizes!

I find it really helps to get an idea of the size of the houses, so I thought a picture may be of use..


That is a regular sized ink pad, so you can see that the large one isn't massive, and the small one not too teeny either!

To start with, I wanted to give all the houses some colour. Two ways really of doing this, either colour directly onto the houses, or stick on something coloured! I went with the latter this time :)

I created a couple of masterboard sheets, my usual painty messy backgrounds. It's an easy job to draw around the shapes of all the sides, then cut them out.


Lots of glue later, all the houses were covered! I went over the edges with a black ink pad, in order to finish off the white edges of the cut, white cardstock that was showing.


To finish off this first part, I added a die cut word to one of the houses.


Of course, this could be the point where you stop! I really like them so far, but I'm going to add some more extra details... so join me again on Thursday, and I'll show you what happens next!

Wonky Roof houses can be found HERE

Have a great weekend,
Trish xx

Sunday 17 July 2016

Delightful Discoveries - A House on the Move!

Hello! Julie Ann here back with another Monday project using Calico Craft Parts. You may know already how much I love stories and fairy-tales. This week I created a fantasy cottage from one of the new Calico MDF block style house kits. Let's fly away to lands we've only heard about in fairy-tales in 'The House of Delightful Discoveries'.



What I love about Calico MDF kits is that they look so effective without a great deal of painting. For this project, I used a face from a collection of my drawings I have scanned, along with some little hand-drawn hands. I added colour with water-colour pencils and enhanced the drawing with pencil shading and black pen. After spraying with fixative, I attached faces to the back and front of the house with some Matte Medium and just touched the edges with some light green acrylic paint. The walls are craft tissue stuck straight onto the MDF with matte medium and sealed with fluid matte medium. I simply stamped the roof with a ticket stamp using black ink. I really liked the effect this created of a little wooden house rather like one we might see in the illustrations to a Russian fairy-tale.



I decided that a house with a face and hands needs feet! I created these sneakers from Polymer Clay. Once they were baked and had cooled down, i painted them with acrylic paint in blue and white and attached them to the base of the house.



Although the sneakers looked comfy, I thought a pair of wings from the sheet of Mini Wood Wings style 1  would be ideal if my little house grew tired with all her trudging around in search of adventure. These wings are painted with a little blue acrylic paint and finished off with some gilding paste. These cute tiny mini doors seemed perfect for this project.



You're lost in the Woods, tired and hungry, you rub your eyes: is that house walking towards you, or away from you? And does it really have a face - and wings?



Stepping inside a magical, flying house and viewing the world below you through fairy windows might not have been a part of your plan; but you're about to make some wonderful discoveries...



and the only ticket you need is your imagination.



To create the impression of the enchanted forest, I planted the house of 'Delightful Discoveries' on a little slice of bark with moss stuck on with transparent glue. Hold tight now, we're about to take off. Soon we'll be flying high above the tree tops looking down on worlds stretched out below like tiny, model villages with dolls' house residents. Thank You for joining me today. I do hope your week will be one of 'Delightful Discoveries'.
Calico Products Used.
Block Style MDF House Kit
Sheet of Mini Wings Style 1
Sheet of Tiny Doors and Windows

Saturday 16 July 2016

Bird on flowering vine canvas - Guest designer - Nikki Acton


Hi everyone - I am back to today to share my second creation as guest designer this month. Many thanks for the lovely comments I received for my beach hut canvas.

Today is similar but different! Yes another reverse canvas but a different theme and colour scheme. This is also a much larger canvas - around 12 x 9 inches. I started by applying texture paste around the frame and inside through a couple of stencils.

I then added various purple paints - first by spritzing with water and allowing to drip, then using a baby wipe to move where I wanted a little more and then finally with my fingers if I had missed bits! Once dry I added some stamping to the background using archival ink and a brick stamp.

I painted the ATC and border, the corner flourishes and bird on vine with the same paints - I make sure I get some variation in colours - rather than one flat colour. I added some gilding wax in places to highlight.

My finishing touches included a little gilding wax over some of the texture in the background and on the frame, some fibres under the ATC , a bird cage die cut and some little flowers to add focus to the ATC.


I have the opportunity to sell some of my craft sometimes in a local shop and I managed to get this one in last week just before our shop closed again for a while - it sold within a couple of days which doesn't happen too often! I hope you like it too.

Craft parts used today:
Plain ATC with frame

It has been a pleasure being a guest here this month - thank you.
Nikki