Febuary/March 365 Days Of Love Project Boxes

Hi All

I am sharing this on both this blog and my musings blog because well it really does fit both.

My project for this year started as 365 Love letters to strangers and has evolved into what I now call 365 days of Love. I did not want to give up on the project for lack of things to write about or to feel pressured to come up with stuff all the time so I have evolved the project to include random acts of art and craft and well to just be whatever I need it to be on the day as such.

So for feb and march I created a wee box of Love, with everything from a Little album, mini paper bag of bath salts to a handmade heart cushion hangy thing.

Anyway here is the finished box:

the box before it was wrapped with a good view of the Heart cushions that were hand cut out, hand sewn and hand stuffed actually the 23 of these took me a rather long time to complete and I am sure between them and the other things I made more than warrent 2 months project time.

the 2″ square boxes I made from scratch:

the 1″ Paper Bags made from one of My fav MFT Dies

The Love albums that I had to fight with my cuttlebug to cut out (both the letters and album are quickutz)

The boxes ready to be wrapped:

and all finished with a Tim Holtz butterfly die cut and a pretty mulberry rosebud

They also include a turkish delight easter egg as its easter, and some have a small turquoise heart bead in them.

It was a lot of work to get these done, when I thought oooh a box of love for valentines day I had no idea it would take me so long to get them done.

I have to say though that I am really happy they are now complete just have to print a little label for them to say what they are about and give them away 🙂

12 Tags of 2013 (or my take 12 mixed media journal pages)

I Hi everyone.

I know cutting it fine, but life has been a bit of a roller coaster of late to say the least.

I have spent the last two days working on my version of Tims March Tag.

I will post the pic then break it down for you all 🙂

my idea started with cutting some tissue paper into strips (I just folded it over a few times so it made really long strips), and then using some of the left over mist I had made for my bear (a mix of stream colour wash and mowed lawn re inker) and misted it, tossing it around as I went to get a semi even coating. I then misted over it again with a pearl mist that I made using perfect pearls ‘pearl’ and water.

I dried my ‘grass’ and then painted my journaling page with Stormy Sky and Mowed lawn distress stains.

Used some multi medium over the mowed lawn and started laying down my ‘grass’ strips.  I also added extra at the top I did little V shapes and at first pasted them with the V point facing up then did them facing down, did another layer of strips, and added in some scrunched up along the top to create a morefluffy grass like texture.

I got a new stamp this week an Imaginisce snag em stamp of a Chick and I could not resist using it on my page. So using inspiration from Dyan Reaverly I could not resist stamping the wee chick onto my page and also stamping them onto some plain white cardstock and painting them in Distress ink 🙂 I did however also grab my trusty prima craft knife and cut out the wing so that it looked like they could also flap away, I added a little glitter to the flowers on them with some glue gloss, and could not resist finishing one off with a smidge of Brown paper twine so it looked a little like it had a worm in its beak. I also added a little extra grass so it looked like my birdie was resting in the grass.

I then felt like getting a little bit more background texture so used a spotty piece of grungeboard that I have as a stencil and added some spots in Malted Milk paint dabber, then used Cool perri paint dabber to over Tattered Angels glimmer screen of a butterfly, and then also misted over it with Purple Twilight Colour wash. I did a simmilar thing on the other side with a flourish stencil, however I misted and then painted so it gave a more muted effect.

I added in my addage ticket. For me easter is a time of hope. Used some seasonal chit chat words in my grass.

Then used a grungeboard circle to create my sun. The Sun is  coloured with terracotta paint dabber and then I melted lemon fantasy film over the top to create my Sun.

Then It was time for my butterflies, I don’t own the bunny die. I do however own the silver tinsel twine however I chose not to use it. Not because I did not think the technique Tim showed us with the melting and the alcohol ink was not awesome but because it is an easter page and I really loved the idea of using easter egg foil instead. So I did. It appeals to me in a few ways its a free resource, its recycling and its always pretty colours and so shiny. I also inked around the edges of the Almanac Paper with some vintage photo and did the same for the butterflies I used later.

I cut my butterflies out of Almanac paper from Prima just to add a little of an old world look to match the Hope tag and because  I have to be honest and say I really love the complete mish mash of the Distress/old look mixed with the pastels and brighter flowers.

I then cut out some tattered florals flowers from white cardstock, Used distress stains over them, misted over them with my trusty home made pearl mist and dried them.

I then layered them and moulded them a little adding in a button to their centers that had some of the lime and white paper twine through the holes in the buttons.

I then added some rhinestones to the positive butterfly images and added them to the page

Lastly I doodled in with a white paint sharpie the stems and leaves of my flowers painted over a coat of distress stain dabbing it off to keep it light and then used a Zig writer to go around the edges so the would pop a little more.

And there you have it my journey to my Mixed Media page for March. I know its Autumn in Australia I just really love the pastels and easter colours.

Happy Creating everyone.

A very Special Engagement Card

My Sister and her Boyfriend got engaged recently. So being me I of course wanted to be the first to make them a card.

There was a great challenge at Jellybeans last month to create a card using layers and circles, something I am not very good at so it was quite a challenge for me even more so as my bug is dying and only cuts on one side so every circle had to be cut twice to actually work.

It is no secret that my sisters favorite colour is purple so I pulled out a couple of sheets of paper from the meddow lark paper pad. And started to play.

It took me a while to get it to all work together and I ended up using the leftovers to create the heart and circle on the front (the triple thick seems to have made the paper pinker than it actually is in the center)

I really love how the mulberry butterfly almost looks pressed in this.

and here it is my sisters engagement card (though the layers show up stronger in person as there is mounting tape between each one)

Spooky Shadow Box

This project has been almost a month in the making. It all started with an amazing (and I do mean AMAZING see her tribute to Mr Poe here)Toni’s Cupboard of Curiosities

So Toni then set us a Halloween Cyber Crop challenge to create our own spooktacular box/cupboard of curiosities. Unfortunately I do not own any configurations or other such things so Used a Twiddleybitz 6″x 6″ shadow box instead.

sadly I bought two of these some time ago at a craft show and when I went to paint and assemble the second one found out it was missing a vital piece that means I could not put it together or use it. So I had to go back to the drawing board. I had already had decided on what to use the other one for, had it painted and assembled as well. It was originally painted a metallic blue with silver paint sponged over the top to represent clouds (I forgot to take a photo of it this way sorry about that)

I found an amazing online minitatures store Magpies Miniatures where the flat bottle, miniatures spider, black cat, gargoyle, broom and candle holder came from.

here is some of the elements I started with the other bottles and vials are from the Tim Holtz Ideaology range, a Tim Holtz Tree (misted in black soot and covered in Martha Stewart black onyx and white gold glitters), A miniature paper sack (its a die by Memory box), a skull from a halloween garland of skeletons as well as some of the bones, Satin, Grungeboard, glitter, a painting from this amazing artist Jim Smeltz who sells his work in miniature prints here, and the candles are actually hand made by me but more on that later.

here is the Box before it was Alcohol inked and filled (The ‘wallpaper’ is from Primas Firefly 6×6 paper pad)

It was a lot of fun creating my icky vials and bottles of things and such a shame that in the finished product you just do not see the bottom of the ‘blood’ vial. Both it and the bottle that looks like slime exploded out of it are a mix of Alcohol Ink and triple thick mixed and heated (Note please use tweezers or tongs and be careful cause it will bubble up and over it takes a bit of time and a few tries and cool downs to get it all to work) with a heat gun. I love how they turned out.

My bottle of eyes is actually sticky back pearl rhinestones in different sizes stuck together and then put in the bottle and covered with glossy accents. I swirled them all around with a long needle I have for bearmaking I love how it turned out.

Here is a pic of my project Alcohol inked. It was a process that took time and a couple of days to get so I was happy with the effect. I also covered the gargoyles ball with Black Onyx glitter just to give it a bit of a different look to the stone ball.

Here is a pic of what it was like just sort of sussing out where things may or may not end up

this is the right side of the bottom of the Shadow box, as you can see I used the smallest of the Idea-o-logy trees misted it in black soot distress mist (that I made myself) then covered it in black onyx glitter about 2-3 times shaking off the excess and allowing it to dry everytime. It dissappeared to much into the whole blackness of the inside of the box so I added over some white gold glitter as well which sort of looks like a mystical snow (at some point I am hoping to get a wee pentagram in a circle or some such for the top of the tree I just have not seen what I am looking for yet) The bones are from a halloween skeleton I took appart and painted with snow cap paint dabber (I wanted them to have more of a stark look rather than the aged look of the skull). I died some pink satin with Red Pepper Colour Wash and made the Witches hat out of grungeboard, and the cape as well (I will get some pics later with the little spider on the cape it just looks so much better than the cape on its own)

Now to the lefthand side of the bottom of the box.
here is where I used the skull, all my bottles and vials, the Witches broom and also a wee handmade paper bag filled with scolls (the scrolls are made from watercolour paper. Misted with a combination of mists including a pearl one as I wanted them to have a mystical type shimmer but still look really old I have a ton of these left as I went a smidge overboard) The edges are inked in Vintage Photo Distress ink and I misted them again to get it to bleed.

The next thing is a close up of my little candles and I can not believe I actually made these myself from scratch. I melted a beeswax candle I had in a container with my heat gun (would suggest a saucepan and a stove but I was in a hurry and not in need of that much wax) First you run your wick into the melted wax and roll it between your fingers this makes the wick thinner. Then dip the wick into your wax (I actually used cranberry alcohol ink in the wax be warned it does go a bit odd but overnight the colour came out and I love how my candles look now they were very pale and took a while for the colour to show through) Until you are happy with their thickness. I also rolled them in my fingers a bit to get the shape right. At this stage do not worry if they are too long. The best thing about the candelabra is that it sits up on it’s own. I then dipped the bottom of the candles in wax and set them into the candelabra. lit them to get them to be close to even, and used the wee tea light container I had been melting wax in to drip/pour over wax to make the candles look like they had been around for a while dripping. I also needed to light the candles again to get rid of the wax that covered over the wicks. It was an evenings work but I am so stoked with how they turned out. Here is a close up of them.

The finishing touch was the Amazing Art Print (I also got a lovely card, another print and a sticker on the back of the envelope all that can be used in future projects)

And here it is My Witches House Shadow Box (Promise I will get a pic with my glittery black spider tomorrow I just wanted to share this project now that it is done though I can’t promise I will not add to it over time)

and thats it for now 🙂 I had so much fun doing this and though it did not turn out as gruesome as I had wanted it to I would happily tackle another such project with enthusiasm.

A little bit of History Mini Albums Part 2

This next mini album was made at the start of 2010 and was a huge leap out of my comfort zone in terms of colour and style. I Believe I made this for the Kaiser DT call that year. I can certainly see how my photography has also improved a lot since then.

A Kaiser MDF Album with Kaiser Paper, and other assorted things and one of my all time most used set of stamps MSE Friendship quotes.

and last but not least a chipboard Mini Album I created last year after a break up. I am really proud of how this turned out even if it wasn’t the happiest of endings. Sometimes scrapping can be a form of therapy. There is a lot of pockets and such to add print outs of messages and such. Funny though I have yet to add them to the album. I may one day but then again maybe I wont shrugs.

And thats all for the walk down mini album memory lane 🙂

A little bit of History In the form of Mini Albums Part one

You can tell these are older as well as the photos from my photobucket have not been edited to fit the size of my wordpress blog!

The first Mini Album is a Kaisercraft tag book, that I turned into a friendship book. It was one of my first plays with crackle medium and I have to admit I really love how different thicknesses of crackle medium create totally different styles of cracks.

The other thing with this Album is my stash was very new at the time and I really did not have much to work with. I made this album about 4 years or so ago.

Ahh my first Distress ink Pad used here 🙂

The smallest Album I have ever made made with Mini Playing cards and the index prints you sometimes get with photos.

This next album was a couple of years back me Playing wanting to do More Masculine stuff as I do not often get the chance or have the need to do that sort of thing. Another MDF Kaisercraft Album and more crackle.

Meet a New Ballerina Bearbie

As yet to be named this new little (and I do mean little at just 3” tall) Ballerina Bear turned out so well that I had to put all other things I have to share with you aside and share her.

She is truly one of the bears that show how much my scrapbooking supplies get used in my bear making.

Inspiration strikes sometimes in the strangest ways. Yesterday I was sorting and putting away my paper scraps (I have a folder where they all go sorted by colour so I can easily find what I may be looking for) when I came across a piece of tulle that I had hand dyed for the 12 tags of Christmas with Distress Re-inker Stormy Sky. I have always wanted to try making a no sew tutu and so in the midst of sorting out the paper scraps I chopped up the tulle, got a piece of cord and made a small tutu. I finished sorting the paper scraps but could not shake the idea that I needed to make a bearbie to go with the Tutu.

So I cut out a wee bear (the same pattern I used for the Tim bear on my last tag), prepped sewed, stuffed and jointed indeed this wee one would not let me sleep until she was fully stuffed with all her seams ladder stitched shut.

This afternoon it was more hand dying, of satin, flowers, and ribbon. So that she matched.

I looked at a prima say it in pearls I have with blue pearls and after I had made her leotard (of sorts) I tried a little of the pearls on her top. It really gives her somewhat of an Haute Couture look. Also used a couple of them for her earrings. Amazing what a little imagination can do.

So here she is ready to be adopted and go to a new home.

and lastly she takes a bow

Some layouts and a card.

So here I am just waiting to remember to take photos for Adventures into doodling two and three when I remember I have two layouts and a card that I have yet to share with you all. They are all such polar opposites and really stretched my skills in some ways.

The first layout is from my niece’s birthday last year. Her favourite colours are Pink and Rainbow.

Now I am no stranger to pink and pretty. My first thought was cupcakes, with Impasto Icing and corrugated card patty cases. Of course with micro bead sprinkles. I also However I have had a lovely piece of Shimmery Ki memories Lace butterfly CS. I traced a circle onto the packaging paper and cut it out as one piece. I sat there looking at the clear packaging circle and thought oooh wonder what I can do with that. Some Staz on and a Kaiser stamp later I had a lovely acetate looking piece of hand stamped goodness (which also created an idea for faux rub ons and yes it is on my tutorial to do list). I really wanted to try a little painting on white cs, with a smidge of splatter. Add in some hand blinging of 3 stamped flourishes and a giant cupcake to hide the sour expression of someone else at the party and viola a layout is born. I have been working on my layering skills. Just because I like to stretch my skills and push my creative boundaries.

The second layout was a harder journey. I really will need to invest in more 3d flowers or learn to make them myself (budget scrapping can sometimes be a smidge painful full of wants but not always haves). For this I wanted to have a go at clustering. The thing I have learnt is that sometimes my mind is far too ordered. Although I am so happy with how my Layout of me from Kindergarten turned out (my aim is to have all my school photos scrapbooked by the end of the year). I can see that I definitely need more flowers and some other stuff to cluster with. Always a learning curve. I took the colours from the background flowers in this photo as well as the blue in the uniform. Added in some resin flowers, a big hand made one and a matching journaling tag complete with seam binding and jute. And here it is:

I had an idea after joining the girly grunge site for this card. Originally it was going to be for my DT application for Donna Salazar designs (perhaps next time). I was so happy with this Shabby Chic steam punk look. Along with the handmade recycled book flower butterflies and flowers. I cut in half a Tim Holtz cog that I had cut from plastic packaging, which if you look carefully form leaves of sort under my flowers. Just a little snow cap left to dry then inked over with a smidge of green. I totally adore just adding a hint of colour. This is where re inkers and cotton buds come in most handy. It is a simple technique dip your cotton bud into your re-inker and then gently apply on the edges you want colour. Use the clean side to clean off the excess and viola shabby chic. It also works well used with browns for an aged old worn look. So with the big Tim Holtz clock and the Sizzix locket die (all coated in triple thick with a smidge of iridescent medium). This idea was born. Totally love the background with a homemade pearl mist and glimmer screen. Not sure who will be the recipient of this card but I do hope they love it as much as I do. Especially as I parted with one of my Tattered Angels keys just to give it the extra oomph it needed.

So now you are caught up with my few scrapping endeavours this year. As always I look forward to being challenged and stepping out of my comfort zones. All whilst scrapping on a pretty small budget. Often I think that having a small budget has forced me to find ways to be creative that I may not have found if I had an endless stash of wonderful products to chose from. (although I would not complain at having more choices at all and can imagine I would be very happy in a well stocked studio of creativity and with everything at my fingertips yes a woman can dream)

drummmmrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooooollllllllllllllllllllllllllll please and the winner of a Bag of Mixed Die Cut recycled book flowers is…………………………….
Lucky Number 4 Alex Carr! Will be in touch to get your addy for your flowers Congratulations!

12 Tags of Christmas Day 8

Inspired by the Ever Amazing, Ever Impressive, Geenie of Creativity Mr Tim Holtz himself

 http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/12-tags-of-christmastag-8.html

After two completely botched jobs and ruining two tags trying to get the background technique to work with stamps that did not suit it. I was getting frustrated. So I went and looked through my other stamps pulled out a few sets and started to re evaluate my idea. It took a little playing and I have to say even though my original set of ideas was completely different I am very happy with the end result. I am not the best when it comes to layering or adding lots of things onto a space. I think it comes from loving the clean uncluttered look. So even getting the layers I did into this tag was a challenge. I did pull out chipboard gears and the same clock that Mr Holtz used on today’s tag. But I did steam punk already with Day 1’s tag and honestly after I started playing I just let my creativity go and followed along in its wake. So here are the results. Love to know what you think.

 

Materials Used:

Tim Holtz – Re-Inkers in Dusty Concord and warn lipstick

-Blending tool and 2 pieces of felt

– Paint Dabber Snow Cap

-Visual Artistry Stamps- French Market, Lost and Found, and Regal Flourish

Versa mark Watermark Ink pad

Homemade white Pearl Mist

Glossy Accents

Manilla Tag

Prima Say it in Pearls (two small flourish pieces)

Baking Paper

Resin Flower

Hand Dyed Seem Binding (Mine came from a wonderfully seller on Etsy called Tattered Inspirations)

Sizzix Heart Locket Die cut from chipboard

Cotton Buds

Kaiser December 25^th Clear Stamps (I used the merry Christmas ticket)

Polyshrink in Opaque

Brilliance Pearlescent ink in: Purple and Orchid

Staz on Jet Black

Heat Gun

Utee

Step 1. See The Technique on Tim Holt’z Blog for the background of this here is mine after I added an extra step and misted it with homemade pearl mist, dried it with my heat gun and re misted it with the pearl to give the really shimmery and very pastel colour effect. I used snow cap on the flourish stamp from Regal Flourishes in the top corner and the writing from Lost and Found on the side. I used worn lipstick and dusty concord to Colour the tag.

Step 2: Paint all 3 pieces of your chipboard Locket with snow cap. Dry and repeat.

Step 3. With your blending tool go around the outside of the background heart with dusty concord, blot off any excess ink with a piece of paper towel, or strong tissue.  Leave the centre white or if you like colour it as well.

Step 4. Go around the outside of the smaller ornate heart with Worn Lipstick, blot off excess ink. Then using a cotton bud with a smidge of ink, Run it around the ornate parts of the Heart. Again blotting off the excess

Step 5. Do the same with the key. I did the heart at the top with Worn Lipstick and the key part in dusty concord.

Step 6: After the ink has dried push each piece onto your versa mark watermark stamp pad. Cover in Utee. Shake off Excess. And heat to a smooth glossy finish with your heat gun. (Alternately you could use glossy accents or triple thick. I was impatient and did not want to have to wait for them to dry)

Step 7: Using a little glossy accents on the back of the ornate heart position and glue onto the background heart (I left the top part of the locket unglued so I could slip the shrinked tags under it a little and in case I wanted to add a chain or some such.)

Step 8: Tear off a piece of Baking Paper. Using the Staz on (I tried this with versa mark black as well it does not set) ink the Eiffel Tower stamp from French Market and stamp onto the baking paper. Heat with your heat gun. You will know it has set when the image fades into the background and looks similar to Tim Holtz’s ghosting technique

Step 9: Position your Eiffel Tower image onto your tag and play with it to see where you want it. Trim or tear off excess of the image and stick into place (I found a little glossy accents on each side worked well for this)

Step 10: Position your Heart locket in the bottom corner. When you’re happy with where it is going use a little glossy accents to glue it into place

Step 11:  Place your two small flourish pieces onto the Baking Paper in the bottom corner opposite to the heart and stick in place leaving a gap to glue your resin flower.

Step 12: Glue on your Resin Flower with glossy accents

Step 13: Attach your key in a place you are happy with

Step 14: Stamp your Shrink plastic with the Merry Christmas Tag in both Orchid and Purple. Cut around them. Using tweezers, or something to hold them in place. Heat with your Heat gun until they won’t shrink any more (best to do one at a time) when they have shrunk a bit you can remove the tweezers (or you will end up with an indent). I shaped mine while they were still warm so they do not lie completely flat

Step 15: Attach your two shrinkies to the Tag

Step 16: Take a small piece of seem binding and tie into a bow. Glue bow to the key

And that is it everything I did to make today’s tag.

12 Tags Day 7

Inspired by Tim Holtz

You may be wondering why I am not putting ribbon and charms through the top of my tags. I am putting them onto a huge jump ring sort of like a lose mini album.

Tim Holtz –Blending tool

– Paint Dabber Snow Cap

– Re inkers in Vintage Photo and Antique Linen

– Alcohol ink in Ginger, Lettuce and Gold

– Glossy Accents

-Blending Solution

Cake decorating tools

Rubber mat

Craft Mat

Water Mister

Baking Paper

Kaiser Latte Pearls

Prima Say it in Crystals (not sure which one sorry it was in a pile of Bling)

Heat Gun

Heidi Swapp Edge Distresser

Christmas Seal Sticker

Manilla Tag

Die-Namics Die 5 petal flowers (is a 3 one) sorry I looked for the name but cannot find the die at present

Now this did present a challenge to me not owning any glassine. So here is my faux (a lot lighter and similar but very different) Glassine technique

1. Tear off a length of baking paper (don’t go to big with this as you will be alcohol inking for a very very very long time if you do. I did enough to make about 4 flowers with 2 of each of the larger size petals and one of the teeny petal to hug the pearl)
2. Scrunch it up into a small ball, and then repeat until you are happy with the crinkles on your Baking Paper
3. Spread it out on your craft sheet and flatten it out as much as possible (DO NOT IRON IT FLAT or you will only get an very very very light version when you ink it and it will take way more alcohol ink)
4. Generously ink your felt with ginger alcohol ink and swipe it in long strokes over your baking paper (have your heat tool handy and ready to go)
5. Heat with your heat tool. Do not be alarmed at how much seeps into the baking paper, Repeat this process until you are happy with the depth of your Brown inked lines (use your blending solution when needed)
6. Flip over your baking paper (do not do this on the same side as the colour will blend into the darkest one) and take your lettuce alcohol ink. Ink a new felt with this and repeat the process until you’re happy with the depth of colour. Do not expect this to go as dark as glassine it more tints the baking paper
7. Do a final coat over your lettuce of gold (I did mine by using a fresh felt and adding the gold mixative and dabbing a little blending soloution in the middle of each one) then heat and repeat if you want a bit more depth and shimmer

Now for the actual Tag

1.  Use the background technique from Day 4 and also posted on today’s tag (if you do not have the distress stains see my day 4 post for how I did this and substitute the blues for shades of brown and use a little more snow cap)
2. Fold your baking paper to fit your die (you can cut quite a few flowers at once)  and roll through your die cutting machine (I have a bug and  used the c, b and a plates)
3. Now make your flowers by using 2 of each of the larger sizes and one of the smallest flowers. Use your ball tool and push it into the centre of each petal and pull back towards you. Do this for each petal.
4. Assemble your flower with a small dot of glossy accents in the middle. Place each petal in-between the outer petals. Then finish with a large latte pearl in the centre
5. Cut your say it in crystals into two pieces (I do this so that the flowers do not hide too much of the Bling) I had also cut some off this to use in other projects. This was a corner one. Decide where you want to position the flourishes and stick them down.
6. Bunch up 3 of your flowers. I used a little glossy accents on the sides to glue them together. Then place a little underneath to secure them onto your tag
7. Place your other flower at the top right corner and glue in place
8. Add your Christmas sticker or stamps

The hardest part of this for me was experimenting to get a faux glassine. It will never be as dark as the original however I am really pleased with the result.  Let me know if you think I should do a YouTube tutorial on this or using cake decorating tools to give your paper flowers shape.