Little Christmas Gift Box with Art Mould Frame

I haven't blogged for a while so I thought I'd show you a little something whilst I'm finishing off some other items to go with it. I am really pleased with this Krafty Lady Frame Art Mould I bought when I went to the Stamp Bug a few weeks ago and have made up several already, for bigger projects. Set on the diagonal, it was the perfect size for a little papier mache box from the Altered Element:-

The image in the centre is from the new Crafty Individuals Christmas Miniatures book, which as usual is gorgeous, and I filled it in with glossy accents. I made up the frame with friendly plastic. I maybe haven't shown the mould in its best light as it is very detailed, but I have lost some of the detail as I wanted to use some little bits of Angelina Jolie film, which of course fuses rather than melts. I decided I liked the slightly grungy but very shimmery effect, though.

Advent Calendar

Over on the Altered Element Blog I have an advent calendar project which I made for my November guest spot. Sadly since I made it, Lynne has announced her decision to close. I feel so sad as she has been the most wonderful person imaginable to work for, and has managed to source the kind of goodies I had only dreamed of, and some I didn't know I wanted but now know exist. Where will we go now? I will let Lynne make the announcement in her own words here, but suffice it to say I hope very much that there are happier times ahead for her.

If you would like to know how I made this, pop over to the shop blog, but sadly as Lynne is not currently re-stocking, the Twiddleybitz calendar is no longer on the website. I hope it will give you a few ideas though, and is such a fun project to make!

Mon Ami Pierrot!

 I was sent this blank papier mache mask box and some other items (for another day!) from the Altered Element for my DT work this month. At first my mind was a bit blank as I was thinking of it as a doll's face, then when I started to think of it as a mask the rest was easy!  So I hope you like my Pierrot!

You will need:-

Papier Mache Mask Box
Shrink Plastic - White
Gel Medium
White Acrylic Paint
StazOn Jet Black
Glossy Accents

All from the Altered Element.

White Broderie Anglaise or similar
Black Marker Pen
White Tissue Paper

Harlequin Stamp
Any mask stamps

1. Paint the box inside and out with the white acrylic paint and leave to dry. Meanwhile, stamp a selection of mask stamps on white shrink plastic, cut out, and shrink.
2. Stamp the Harlequin Stamp on tissue paper with Black StazOn, and use the Gel Medium to adhere it to one side of the mask, down the centre.
3. Draw a diamond shaped eye on the other half and add tears, using the black marker pen, and add Glossy Accents to the tears.
4. Cut a piece  of the lace a little longer than you will need, fold over the rough ends, then use a gathering stitch to gather it into a ruff and stick to the bottom of the mask as shown.
5. Finally, adhere the shrink plastic masks around the sides of the box. Warm then slightly again with the heat gun so that they curve around the edge.

Anyone for Rococo?

When I received my Altered Element DT pack a few months ago there was such a lot in it, I am still using lots of the items! I received two sets of Artchix images, the Playful Gents but also some gorgeous Happy Hour images with a French theme, incorporating some Rococo clocks. I'm conscious I've done rather a lot of steam punk items for the AE so I thought I would go for something pretty and ornate and feminine as a contrast. The baroque style was quite over the top which suits me fine, and means I can use my new Baroque Alterations die as the base for this hanging:-

 

I cut the die in mountboard, made holes with my Crop-o-dile, and then covered it with Golden Crackle paste, and added some torn French book text. Once it was dry I painted it gold, and added Crackle Accents over the book page. I added a rubber stamped shrink plastic clock, some pink roses, and finally a tassel.

Steam Punk Collage

I was delighted to receive the new Eco Green Paris Trunk Ink Pads and Eco Green Steam Punk Accessories stamp set for my Altered Element DT pack this month. These new ink pads have very soft colours and are easy to blend. They are not as wet as Distress Inks but that seems to make them stamp quite crisply so I was very impressed with them. I was delighted with the stamps as they combine very well with the Vintage Aviation set I already had, and the Playful Gents Artchix images I had left over from a previous month's pack. I found the Eco Green stamps very good quality and I liked the fact that they are already mounted and trimmed.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may possibly recognize the tray. Do you remember the marzipan and dried fruits in the New Year? Well, I had to eat my way through them all to empty this out. I could be very cool and trendy and say it is a printer's tray, but no, it was from a French supermarket!

First of all I cut pieces of mountboard to fit the sections and inked them up over Tim Holtz Cog and Compass masks, using the two Paris Trunk inks and a DI Dried Marigold, then did some water flicking. I stamped a selection of the images from both stamp sets, and popped the Playful Gents behind some microscope glass and added memory foil tape. I cut some Tim Holtz Alterations Cogs in both black shrink plastic and mountboard, and gold embossed the mountboard ones.

I had problems with painting the tray itself. I have been looking for a while for something akin to Tim Holtz Crackle Paint but I think I will just stick to the real thing. I bought this two stage crackle in France and the whole process took ages. The idea was to start with a pale colour, in this case white, then mix the coral acrylic paint with Step 1, then when it was dry, paint on Step 2, and wait for that to dry. The whole process took an age and all I was left with were some very, very subtle white cracks, which looked nice close up but weren't really that exciting. I went over it with sepia ink on a sponge partly because I wanted to soften the colour, but partly to emphasize the cracks, as you would with the Tim product. Unfortunately as you probably guessed, all that did was camouflage the white cracks completely so now it looks very bland.

I hope you like it. Overall I am ok with it, just disappointed with my crackles! Definitely love those stamps, though!

Steam Punk Double Slide Mailer

I made this double slide mailer (from Imagination Crafts) with some of the remaining items from a previous Design Team pack from the Altered Element, with a steam punk flavour. They have recently starting stocking the Creative Expressions Vintage range of rubber stamps which I love, and I thought the Vintage Aviation set would work well with this theme.

I started off by painting the whole thing with a grey/blue acrylic paint and used Weathered Wood Distress Crackle Paint on the corners of the outside, and added some Distress Inks and some shimmer sprays. On the corners I also rubbed on some Pebeo Gold Outliner, which is a new fave thing of mine. I used the Tim Holtz Sissix Alterations Cogs die to cut the grungepaper cog and the two black shrink plastic ones, and added some of the remaining items from my Professor Sprockett's Craft Emporium cogs and watch pieces box. I also used a small circle hole punch to cut a circular piece of the design from the Playful Gents ArtChix sheet and added it to the centre of the one of the cogs and filled the top in with Glossy Accents.

Then for the inside I used two of the Playful Gents images which were microscope slide sized, and popped them behind the slides in the apertures, and used the gold outliner around the edges, and on the corners of the mailer. I stamped a selection of the text from the Vintage Aviation set, and two of the hot air balloons.

I find with slide mailers you get that pretty little shape at the top and bottom of the slide aperture but you can't use anything too dimensional as the mailers don't have a deep spine so you want it to close neatly. This was where another new fave of mine came in - Deko Ice glass glitter from the Altered Element! I only have this in one colour, Amber, and I found that if you pop a teaspoon full into a little jar, add one drop of alcohol ink colour of your choice, and swirl it around, you can have any colour you want, to match your project!

Vintage Sewing Card with Metallic Thread

I was so pleased to find that the Altered Element are now doing one of my favourite ranges of stamps, the Creative Expressions Vintage ones which are unmounted A5 rubber: they stamp out beautifully every time, and there is such a good selection on each plate. Today I have just made a simple card, using the Vintage Sewing plate, and some very well priced metallic thread.

I made a spritz and dab Distress Ink background first, and stamped a selection of the images in Sepia ink, then some of the images in black on white card and sponged them. I cut out the cotton reels and wrapped them in pink metallic thread. I stitched some of the thread through the row of buttons bottom right. I found it easier to do this by making holes with the needle first. I stamped the four bodices a second time on various co-ordinating papers and cut them out, then adhered them over the top of the white panelled version.

There are some other lovely sets in this range - Photography, Games, Art, Aviation, etc. I am always drawn towards Vintage Sewing themes, though, as you may have noticed, as this is something genuinely nostalgic to me. As a little child I used to go to sleep to the whir of Mum's Singer sewing machine, which she inherited from my nana, and she still uses today. I am not sure actually if she knows that you can get electric machines now - seriously. She loves hand sewing as well, particularly hems as she has lost a lot of height, and she often sends me out to buy a reel of cotton in a VERY specific colour - 'Somewhere between Raisin and Sultana, please Lucy, you know what I mean'.

I hope you like my very simple card - I did feel when I added the metallic thread it lifted it a bit.

Collaged Oriental Tin

I mentioned before that we were sent such a generous box of items from the Altered Element DT this month that it was difficult to use them all in one project. The theme was stamping on different surfaces, and I still haven't used the Tyvek and the Metal so they will be for another day, but have used several of the materials provided for today's project.

For this tin, which will house a mini album, you will need the following items from the Altered Element:-

Translucent Shrink Plastic
Grungeboard
Angelina Fusible Film, Shimmering Raspberry
Stampbord Dominos
2 ins sq Canvas Board pieces
White Inkssentials Opaque Pen
Glass Tiles
Deko Ice, Amber
Artemio Clear Stamp Set, Bird and Butterfly
Alcohol Inks, Raspberry, Wild Plum, Sunshine Yellow, and Gold Mixative
Stickles or similar
Large Tin

Chipboard Squares
Distress Inks, Wild Honey, Worn Lipstick

I also used some pieces of card left over from the He Loves Me daisy game project.

What I did:-

1. Alcohol ink the tin.
2. Ink the canvas and stampbord pieces with co-ordinating colours of Distress Inks.
3. Stamp blossom and fronds onto stampbord.
4. Stamp the daisy on tissue paper and adhere to canvas. Fill centre with Deko Ice.
5. Make a butterfly with grungeboard and fusible film, layer together, and add Deko Ice to spine.
6. Stamp cherry blossom on rectangles of shrink plastic, shrink, and colour flowers.
7. Adhere pieces of card remaining from He Loves Me project to chipboard squares and behind glass tiles.
8. Stamp the bird on grunge in pink ink, cut out and add Stickles.
9. Add white pen where needed, and scratch back detail on Stampbord, to give white highlights.
9. Assemble as shown.

This was quite a quick project by my very slow standards. I feel collage is something I need to practice as I really admire people like Hels, who do it so well. I don't find it difficult from a technique point of view, just the composition and making sure there is a pleasing juxtaposition of colour and images. I left a few blank areas as I tend to over-do things, plus I aimed for a deliberate lack of symmetry. It is something I want to persevere with. I have a few of the components left over to make another tin, or similar, for a friend.

Oriental Wall Hanging

In our DT packs from the Altered Element this month, we were sent a range of surfaces to stamp on. I used the same stamp set as for the He Loves Me Daisy game yesterday, the Artemio clear stamps, which feature flowers, a bird, and a butterfly, with an oriental feel to them. For this hanging I used the following items from the Altered Element:-

Tea Dyed Calico
Fusible Film, Shimmering Raspberry
Artemio Clear Stamps
Deko Ice, Amber
Grungeboard
Cosmic Shimmer Mists
Inkssentials White Opaque Pen

I also used:-

Contrasting Lining Fabric
Chopsticks
Gold Braid
Marker Pens
Small Circle Hole Punch
Chain from Primark Necklace
Gold Leaves Trim
Sequin Waste
Gold Wire

To make the hanging:-

1. Tear a rectangle of the calico, encouraging the edges to fray, spray with Cosmic Shimmers and dab ink through sequin waste.
2. Stamp with a selection of the Artemio stamps, adding fuchsia marker pen to the centre of the tiny flowers.
3. Colour daisy petals with white pen and fill centre with Deko Ice. Add stem with black pen and white pen.
4.Stamp Butterfly onto Grungeboard with Fuchsia StazOn, make another with the fusible film using an iron, and stick just the centre onto the Grungeboard version, adding Deko Ice down the spine. Shape Grungeboard wings with fingers and adhere spine to calico piece.
5. Cut leaves from the scraps of fusible film left from fusing the butterfly with the iron. Use the tiny hole punch to cut out 'sequins' from the remaining waste. Adhere as shown.
6. (At this point I added the white labels from the chopsticks as I liked the oriental writing. You may like to add some white highlights or white stamping instead)
7. Stitch the gold leaves braid or similar to the bottom to weight it down slightly.
8. Tear a slightly larger piece of contrasting fabric (I used brown silky lining fabric). Place the chopsticks end to end so that each end is equal and not tapered, fold the two layers of fabric over them and stitch in place. Cover stitching with gold braid or similar.
9. Twist some gold wire around the end of each chopstick.
10. To finish, stitch a piece of necklace chain in place behind the chopsticks, as a hanging loop, and add a sparkling gem to the bird's eye.

'He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not' Daisy Game - Upcycling Project

When I first received this item from Lynne at the Altered Element, for this month's DT Upcycling project, I didn't immediately realize it was a child's noughts and crosses game. It may just have been me being thick, but I prefer to think of it as 'thinking outside the box'!! as I thought the symbols X and O depicted Love and Hugs!

I decided to go with my first thought, and also that I wouldn't dismantle the box as I liked the mechanism with the cubes spinning round within the compartment, and I knew I couldn't replicate anything with any kind of engineering! I thought of the children's game where you pull the petals off a daisy and chant, 'He Loves Me', 'He Loves Me Not' and see what you end up with on the final petal. As there was a daisy and other flowers in the stamp set provided, I though this would work. Here are the stamps:



They are very 'clean and contemporary' compared to my usual choices, but that was ideal as the purpose of this month's product challenges was stamping on a variety of surfaces, some of which work best with simple and open designs without too much detail.

What you will Need:-

Translucent Shrink Plastic
Grungeboard
Deko Ice in Amber
Narrow ribbon to co-ordinate
White Opaque Pen
Distress Inks
Cosmic Shimmer Sprays
Artemio Flower and Bird stamps

All available from the Altered Element.

You will also need an alphabet set of stamps.

What you will Need to Do:-

1. Make 3 A4 masterboards using the distress inks spritzed on a craft sheet method, and sponging through sequin waste to add interest - have one dark, one medium, and one paler sheet. Do some water flicking as well. Stamp a selection of the floral stamps from the set onto the darkest piece.

2. Ink or paint any edges of the 'box' that will show after card has been applied. Cut and glue strips of the darkest masterboard piece around the edges of the box, and the dividing struts, line the inside of each compartment with the medium coloured piece, and the fronts of the spinning cubes with the palest colour.

3. Cut the shrink into rectangles, 6 x 5 centimetres. Stamp half with 'He Loves Me' and half with 'He Loves Me Not', on the glossy side. Spritz a pale colour Cosmic Shimmer onto your craft sheet and sponge colour onto the rougher side. Heat to shrink and adhere to the cubes as shown.

4. Stamp the daisy onto the grungeboard. Colour the petals with a white opaque pen. Cut out and cut into the petals so that they splay out a little. Fill the center with the Deco Ice.

5. To finish, adhere ribbon around the edges of the sides to give a neat finish, and add your daisy.

Monogrammed Passport Holder

In our design team kit for the Altered Element this month, we were sent a selection of media to stamp on, and there was plenty to enable a number of items to be made. This is my first item, a passport holder made from Grungeboard. It will be a useful item for me (I don't often keep/use things I make) as we keep our passports together, but Colin often goes to France ahead of me and I follow him out, so I always worry he will go with my passport instead of his. No worries now, although he might not want to be seen with me at passport control!

As usual for me, this item 'evolved', which is my way of saying, I sat down to make something and didn't have a clue what it was going to be! I had in mind folding the Grungeboard piece in half to make a book, but once I had done so, I immediately thought it was the right size for my passport. Grungeboard is ideal for this project as it folds perfectly, forming a nice spine, and is very strong, and gives a lovely suede/leather effect. I like the fact that using Gesso on Grunge enables you to use paler colours and makes it look a bit different.

I used the following items from the Altered Element:-

One sheet of Grungeboard
Grungeboard Letters
Grungeboard Hinges
Decorative Metal Corners
White Gesso
Tim Holtz Compass Mask
Distress Inks in Brushed Corduroy, Tumbled Glass, Shabby Shutters, and Mustard Seed

I also used sequin waste, and brads, and Creative Expressions' Vintage Aviation set, although any travel-themed stamps would work.

What I did:-

1. Cover both sides of the Grungeboard with slightly watered down gesso, using a cosmetic sponge or similar, and allow to dry.
2. Sponge inks over the Compass mask, in several positions on both sides, overlapping the edges in places. I used all of the colours except the Brushed Corduroy. Fill in the gaps with the Distress Inks and sponge some through the sequin waste.
3. Ink the edges, the letters, and the hinges with the Brushed Corduroy.
4. Pop the brads through the hinges, and stick them into position, along with the 'Monogram' and the decorative corners, using strong glue.
5. Stamp 'Enjoy the Journey' or any travel related text onto the holder, using Brushed Corduroy.
6. Make two pockets inside, one to slip the passport into, and one opposite for boarding cards or tickets.

Upcycle Challenge - Coaster Memo Pot

One of the fun things about the Altered Element DT is that Lynne finds us a charity shop item each month for us to alter. I may have mentioned before that I was so keen to be on this DT so I could challenge myself in this direction, as you never know what you will get. This month it was this set of melamine coasters. My immediate thought was to focus on the cork backing, which made me think of the cork notice board we have in our kitchen for notes and reminders. Because there were five of them, however, it also made me think of an open box with four sides and a base. So I decided to go for a memo holder to go by the 'phone so you could take a message and leave it for someone else in the house using a pin, clip, or magnet. My theme was then influenced by the remaining Artchix Playful Gents images, some of which I had used on the shadow box in the last post. Some of the images feature playing cards, and this made me think of the four suits. I had also been sent some gorgeous Metallic Cosmic Shimmer mica powders, so I wanted to include these too.

I started off by re-covering the tiles with cork paper, which my kind student, Jude, had sourced for me from Craft Island. I then stamped on each piece, with an inexpensive Card Suits stamp set I had. On Sunday I was at the Biggin Hill Sincerely Yours Show and when I spotted a pack of four Style Stones featuring the four suits, I thought these were ideal. (These were from the Imagination Crafts stall where I chatted to a lovely lady called Sue, who was doing a brilliant demo with Silkies, but that's a story for another day).

I covered the reverse of the coasters with cork paper and stamped the suits, and painted all the edges with bronze paint, by adding water to one of the Cosmic Shimmer powders. I then assembled the box using strong glue.

I cut out all the images which had a 'card' element, to decorate the box, using tiny clothes pegs and pins. I painted the Style Stones with the bronze paint and stamped them with an old script stamp, to further echo the background on some of the images. I adhered a different Style Stone 'suit' to each side of the box using a magnet, so they could be used to attach messages. I wanted to add a bit of interest to the shape of the box, rather than just a square, so I curled a piece of gold wire around a pencil, alcohol inked a bulldog clip and attached the wire to it, added two images stuck back to back on the end, and then clipped it to the edge of the box.

Finally, I added some notepaper to the inside of the box. I wasn't too sure if I liked this, but my students liked it today and have asked to make one next time.

The Cosmic Shimmers and the Artchix images can be obtained from the Altered Element.

Steam Punk - A Light Bulb Moment!

For one of my Altered Element DT projects for May I have made this little Inventors' Shadow Box. The Shadow Box is by Twiddleybitz and can be found here. I was also sent this sheet of Playful Gents by Artchix, and a box of cogs, a light bulb, watch faces, and other ephemera which I have used in this item. When I received this pack I also received some other gorgeous goodies for other projects, but immediately put these items together for a Steam Punk theme. Sorry I should have photographed the sheet of images before I cut the two out I was going to use, but I'm sure you get the idea. Some of the men are 'playful' as the name suggests, but I chose the most serious ones with the handlebar moustaches for my Inventors, Professor Hydraulious Hornblower, and his friend, Dr Luddite Sprockett.

I was very impressed with the shadow box, which comes in very solid pieces which you just pop together in a tongue and groove sort of way, so you can decorate the pieces before you assemble it if this is easier. I started off by making an A4 sheet of background paper, using the Tim Holtz Timeworks masks, Distress Inks, a background stamp, and sequin waste. I covered each piece with some of this paper and edged it with gold paint and Vintage Photo Distress ink. I made two large cogs up in black shrink plastic, and adhered the two images to my microscope slides. I stamped the frame with some phrases from Creative Expressions Vintage Aviation set, and also used some computer-generated words, some of which I added to the frame and some to the slide images. My student, Jude, said that the technique we had been doing recently with image transfer worked a treat with computer text, allowing the background to show through, so this is what I did. I made a clock from one of the watch faces with a gold cog surround, and brad legs for hands, and adhered this to the hanging section. I stuck the whole box together and stuck the cogs from the set, and the shrink plastic ones to the frame. I then stuck the microscope slides to the base of the frame, and added the words 'A Lightbulb Moment', as my inventors have just made a wonderful discovery (they didn't tell me what it was). To finish off, I punched a hole through the top of the back of the frame and dangled a light bulb above their heads with invisible thread.

There is such a choice of steam punk elements at the Altered Element, and it is great fun to look back on this period in history.

Mould n Pour Friendly Plastic Moulds

I have had great fun the last couple of days with a batch of Mould n Pour I've just bought, and Friendly Plastic. It's only the second time I have bought it and the first time I wasted a lot of it and didn't do very well, but this time I am much happier with the results.

This is a friendly plastic frame taken from one I bought in Poundland, and a Tim Holtz Ornate Frame:-

And here are some musical instruments and a dressform and sewing machine which were novelty buttons, and the dolls house sewing machine from the other day.

So here is the canvas from a few days ago, but with the sewing machine and dressform replaced with the ones I have made, and another mould I made of a pair of scissors:-

I found it really satisfying and fun to make these items myself, as I felt more of the project was done 'from scratch'. I made some more moulds today but they are drying as I used clay and have glazed them. When I bought Mould N Pour before I thought it was expensive but that's because I made such a mess of it. Having managed to make a dozen moulds this time, it was well worth it. You can get the Mould N Pour from The Artistic Stamper or The Altered Element.

Slide Mailers

Have any of you ever been asked to demonstrate something without preparing for it, and made a start thinking, 'I don't know where this is going'? Well, this happened to me with these slide mailers. I had my class on Tuesday and had planned on doing something else, but one of my students had brought along some slide mailers and asked if I would show them how I would approach them. So I made this single mailer, but had no idea what colours I was going to go for, stamps, etc:-

I slapped on acrylic paint in two shades of pink, then some smears of gold, and gold crackle paint on all the corners. I added Crafty Individuals crackle stamp all over, front and back, in Brushed Corduroy and Victorian Velvet, then the same with their flourish in Sepia Archival. I used a large tag shaped Hero Arts stamp which has a clock and the Eiffel tower and the word Time, but just pressed the microscope glass into the piece of the image I wanted, and adhered it in the aperture with a little bit of French book text. I had intended to use accent beads to fill in the little space above the slide aperture but I couldn't lay my hands on it quickly enough so I used Heather Mix Flower Soft as it was on my workdesk. I then added a Pewter Friendly Plastic Eiffel Tower art mould to the front (you can get Friendly Plastic from the Altered Element). I thought I would use a bit of artistic licence and used more Flower Soft at its base, as a sort of jardin des Tuileries effect!

This double one was made in a similar way, but colouring the mailer with Distress Inks instead of acrylic paint, and using some image transfers I had prepared, on the front and inside the mailer.

I did Slide Mailers a while ago for a magazine article but it was fun just to have a little play this time!