A Little Bit of Nerdmas Magic

I know it has been a while, crazy crazy year (seriously)

Inspired by the fact a friend bought me some Nerdy Christmas Ornaments the urge to create something purely for the Joy of the season and for me.

And  if I am totally honest because I have not seen one anywhere else before (I mean it may exist really I did do a google image search and search pintrest there is the Actual Tardis police box shape and all but you will see what I mean)

 

Soo I have recently unpacked my box of Off the Page Projects of which (I am a bit of a collector especially of the Kaiser MDF things, mini albums and such are fantastic quick and simple gifts in a time crunch)

I stumbled across a Santa Sleigh, technically this was supposed to be for me to do a Santa Bear, bu ut my Nerdmas ornaments were about to be delivered and I had no tree thus an idea was born.

Sooo I prepped the MDF sleigh with a couple of coats of Prima Heavy Body Gesso

 

Added over with Liquitex basics Primary Blue which turned out super patchy and I was trying to get the colour more tardis’y

 

soo then I added a bit of white to a ceramcoat blue I have hear and two coats later all splotchyness was gone.

After that I tried to add in the white squares without much success sooo I die cut them out of white cardstock and then painted overthem in ceramcoat white

 

added in some Police Public call box ribbon and did the fiddly adding of the gold braid to the edges

 

Think You will agree for a whim that I had no Idea how to accomplish am pretty stoked with the results.
This will certainly be making an Annual Appearance at my House that is for sure.

 

Not sure who will be pulling the Sleigh Next year as I really am hoping to have my act together and ornaments made for my Nerdmas Tree next year.

Tesla Inspired Wall Art

This was created for a friend’s Husband.

I absolutely love the wooden boxes Prima put some of their accessories in now they are fantastic to recycled into these little art pieces.

I covered this one in Tissue tape, then Matt Multi Medium followed by some Alcohol ink. I think you will agree it comes up a treat.

Then it was a matter of playing around and choosing bits to see what would go where and then sticking it all down.

Of course most of this is Idea – ology with a few watch parts and other random bits thrown in,

I really love how these turn out just wish I had more of the little wooden trays.

Game of Thrones Themed Gift

For any Nerdy Crafter’s out there you know how hard finding Nerdy Craft stuff can be, sure Viva Las Vegas Has a Dr Who sheet of Rubber, and superman and wonder woman stamps

Paper smooches and a few of the stamp/die companies have a few dies

and spoonflower is a god send for fabric but it would be nice to see a wider range of nerdy stuff (and not with the price astronomically bumped up)

anyway

This Ornament and stocking are made from Spoonflower fabric and the Card features a Sweet Pea Stamp.

I am really happy with how this Set turned out, in part due to the colouring of the stamp to Look Like Sansa Stark (and yes I am aware she does not have a scar along one eye)

So I am going to be playing a lot of catch up before the new year begins sorry for the blog spam if you get the emails 🙂

Hugs and Merry Christmas

Recycled Embellishment Tray

I have to say it is so lovely to not have to feel like I need to hoard my idea-ology embellishments.

This is a Tray that had locks and keys in it.

I covered it in Tissue tape, then coated that with Matt Multi Medium, dried it and added some alcohol ink over the top. Super happy with how the technique turned out and will def use it again.

I then pulled out a mix of Idea-ology and watch parts and bingo my little tray was created.

Have to say I am really chuffed with how this has turned out.

12 Tags inspired OTP

As always inspired by the techniques of Tim Holtz

I really love the embossed foil tape technique so much so I used it Last year to create a mask (the technique cropped up in CC2 from memory)

I really love how the foil tape covers the shape of the Mask so well and gets all the contours without difficulty.

The Mask was a cheap one from ebay that I took the fabric and other tacky stuff that was on it off. What I have discovered is that the pre made masks are stronger and better to work with than the paper mache kind and often cheaper and some are lined as an added bonus for comfort.

Anyway here is the Mask

 

and from each side (I used some watch parts and mini cogs and gears from ideaology)

It was a birthday gift for a friend. It has a Game of thrones, Dr Who (insert other cool nerdy references here) type feel to it.

I was really happy with the end result.

If you want to do this just emboss a few pieces of the foil sheet/tape at once, do the aging technique linked to above and go to town.

A Little Locker

By now you are all well and truly aware I am not only a budget scrapper but a bargain hunter as well.

Nearly all my craft supplies have been gotten on Sale, or at a discounted rate.

I recycle everything I can think of.

I also look for things to play with (though have to stop myself sometimes as I have been trying to use up the OTP stuff I have, needless to say I am almost out of MDF albums and fun stuff to play with)

Anyway the OP shop (opportunity or second hand shop for non Aussies) near my Councilor is a treasure trove of interesting items.

I recently Discovered that they have a section out the back with old jeans for just 50c ( perfect for crafting with at that price and no sadness at killing erm I mean upcycling a pair of jeans)

I have also scored many a good 30-50c book, a whole container with about 60 slide covers again 50c, a bag of dominoes for 2oc

and this little Locker which once upon a time came with a Mary Kate or Ashley Olsen Doll for 50c. It still had the faux magazines and books inside it.

This is just phase one of this project I have an idea for it but it will take some $$$ to get the things I want and a little inventiveness on my part.

Now because I like to pin my posts and I am not clever enough with photo editing to put the pics all Into one I will start with what I have done to it then show you what it looked like to begin with etc. Almost backwards but not quite.

So here is what I have so far (remember this is just a smidge bigger than a barbie type doll):

and here is what the locker looked like originally

and here is is covered in Foil Tape (I got a rather large 2″ wide roll from ebay by searching foil tape worldwide it was about $4 and it is well worth the money as it goes very far.) I was tempted to leave it like this cause its kind of fun and funky all silver but I really do have an idea for where I want to take it.

and again how it looks now.

I embossed the foil tape by tearing it into strips the length of my Cuttlebug embossing folder. I embossed about 4 strips at a time as they are thin and it is much quicker this way. I also did the strips in different sections of the folder so I could mix up the looks.

I then took each strip and used alcohol inks in Lettuce, rust and another colour. Painted it with Black Ranger Paint dabber, left it to dry overnight and then lightly sanded off some of the black paint. I find the steel wool technique does not seem to work very well for me and flattens the embossing a bit to much for my liking.
The best part about the foil tape is that it is very forgiving and easy to add more where needed.

Aprils 365 Days of Love Gratitude Journals

These are small notebooks that I covered and decorated fairly simply (I did 21 of these in one hit having 5 already done and needing to add a few more to the pile)

They all have some variation of this written inside:

Dear Wonderful You,

Please use this notebook as a gratitude journal by writing 5 things you are grateful for in it everyday.

Love a friend

Bear in mind they are only small notebooks and I only wrote on the first page 🙂

not sure what I am doing for May yet and honestly it may be the end of the month or next month before I get to it but be assured I will.

A little bit of creativity with Kaisers Needle and Thread

Our local Craft and sewing store Spotlight (explination added for non Aussies who read my blog) had Kaisers paper pads marked down to $7.50 each so I decided to pick up two of them one being Chapter one to help me step out of my comfort zone, and the second Needle and thread because I love it so much. That trip also yeilded as always a few really cool bargains, one of which was two packets of 6 paper mache matchboxes for just $1 each.

A couple of days after I got my new stash home I was talking to a friend on the phone and started playing. This is what I created. Adding in a vintage pattern paper flower (cut from Carnation Creations), and a little misted Tissue paper. Their was no purpose to this project it really just was one of those ones that flowed and happened on the spot so to speak.

I started by covering the matchbox and making my flower, then misting the lot with one of my homemade mists. I use my Martha Stewart score board to get the paper to the right size it saves lots of fiddling around and means you can pre score your corners and other fold lines. I have taken to using it in place of my paper trimmer even as I find it easier and love the distressed edge you get.

I then covered the inside bit of the matchbox, misted some tissue paper, and created a template for the top part of the dress from a scrap of cardstock, covered it in the same paper I had used for the sides of the matchbox and scrunched the tissue paper around this to form the skirt. I then added some pearls. Decided where I wanted the dress in the box and viola a wee project completed.

Butterfly Garden Matchbox

This matchbox had been sitting partially finished in my stash since last year. Ever have that thing where you start something, it doesn’t fit the swap or person it’s intended for and you kind of loose the flow of what you are doing so it sits around waiting for you to discover how to finish it?

I had created the matchbox and wee book prior to knowing who my swap partner was (look back to the faux grimoire matchbox to see what I did for the swap) and of course it was completely unsuitable for that person.

So recently I found some wee rub ons I had bought from my local spotlight on sale. They worked so well with the wee book I thought why not and finally finished the matchbox (always a good feeling when you finish a project that has been waiting a while)

So here it is (I am so pleased with how this turned out I just love the butterfly garden papers by Pink Paisley hard to get now but so glad I have them in my stash. This is an ordinary matchbox I recycled.

and that’s it there isn’t any more.

House Album

I got a wonderful surprise in the mail at Christmas time a lovely friend from the states sent me the DCWV paper stack Mariposa 12×12 paper pad (I know spoiled much)

I wanted to make something for another friend of mine so chose a few of the papers out of the Mariposa Pad and set about creating a Kaiser House Album for her. She is Indian and was going to India for Christmas. She is also very family orientated so I created an album ready for her to Journal in and add photos of her family.

It has been a while since I undertook an MDF album (I don’t have many left here these days and have stopped buying OTP things becuase I have loads and want to use the ones aI have up or at least significantly reduce the numbers and also am on a budget at present that sadly doesnt really include craft supplies).

I forget how time consuming it can be to sand the edges and get them all inked and nice thank goodness for Distress Stains Tarnished brass made the eging job a lot simpler.

I did not add embellishments to this preferring to keep the look clean and simple (appart from the window sils on the cover) and allow the recipiant to add her own creative flair to the album as well as her own pics. I did add some rub ons and quotes when they fitted.

Here is the cover and finished look when closed

the inside cover:

the next pages:

and finally the back cover: