Frame with Art Mould Elephant, More Moulds, and an On-Line Course

This is a frame I made with the gorgeous new elephant stamp from Crafty Individuals. As soon as I saw it I thought it would go with my elephant art mould. I have used bronze mica powder on him. A couple of my friends have been crafting here this week and they both fancied this particular Krafty Lady mould (out of the millions I have collected over the years!). I love this new stamp as when I first saw it I thought it would be difficult to stamp out as the design part is in the recess so there is a lot of negative area to ink up, but in fact it stamped up perfectly the first time. I used Crafty Individuals' background papers (which I stamped directly onto) and their copper German scrap.

This next 'make' uses one of the very inexpensive mini frames from Crafty Individuals' Must Haves range. I covered it with tissue tape then smeared on some Rub Ons to add colour. The frame was made with one of my home-made moulds taken from a Tim Holtz ornate frame, and the fairy cameo is a beautiful mould kindly lent to me by Petra. I used the same Rub Ons on the raised areas.

 

I've have been giving this a lot of thought over the last couple of months and have decided to offer an on-line course. Several kind people have written to me asking for tutorials specifically on moulds and some of you are too far away to come over for a Play Date (although I will do an airport pick-up!), so I thought I would offer on-line tutorials for a very small charge to take account of my time in putting it together.

As you know if you have been on my blog before I use a lot of bought moulds but increasingly make my own. So I will cover both, as well as the different mediums you can use in your moulds, how to colour them, how to choose items that will mould well, and finishing off with some projects to use them in. I won't bore you with loads of items I have already blogged, but here are a few moulds I have picked out from my 'home-made 'bellies box'!

The little doll is a mould taken from the Tim Holtz fractured doll. Of course by making it yourself you can have whatever finish you want, and as it is flat-backed you can pop it on a wider range of projects.

As I was laying things out to photograph them I thought, 'how about the bird wings on the doll?'

Or Angel wings? This could be fun!

And finally, a little project made with a bird and a keyhole mould, and a home-made mould bird house!

I am going to offer another class on using tissue paper but I have gone on long enough for now. If you think you might be interested in either course and would like to know more,  please do either leave me a message here, or e mail me at lucy@cedmondson.net

Gift Box with Frame for Brenda

I had a wonderful visitor today, a new friend, Brenda. We had such a great day and she is such a talented and warm person. I had made her a gift box to house some little feathered birds I had picked up. Sorry about the terrible photos but I suddenly realized this morning I hadn't photographed it and I think I should have put my glasses on!

I used Paper Artsy Fresco Finish paints in Pansy and Dolly Mix, and a layer of their crackle, and then stamped with Crafty Individuals' flourish stamps (CI 235) with purple ink. The main purpose of the box design was a vehicle for the frame art mould which I got a couple of weeks ago when I went to the Stamp Bug sale weekend. I just love it, but it is quite large and 'in your face' so it needed a plainish and quite large box to show it off. I used mica powders to colour the clay. Around the sides I used Crafty Individuals' flower stamps (CI 206), stamped onto their background papers and cut out, to look like they were coming off the fronds of the flourishes. In the centre of the frame is a Crafty Individuals' image from their People and Places image book, and I glazed it with Glossy Accents.

Crafty Individuals' Bird Cage in a Frame

Crafty Individuals have brought out some great new stamps, two of 1920's style ladies, one of elephants, which I am working on at the moment, and this beautiful bird cage stamp, CI320. I coloured it with Pro Markers and then cut around the ornate frame, and set it against a sheet of Spring background paper. The shadow box frame was coloured with crackle paint and Silkies (from Imagination Crafts). The bird cage was made from a mould made from a Tim Holtz Alterations Die which was made out of shrink plastic, and then the mould made up with Fimo clay.

The flower top left was made from a mould made from part of a Primark necklace, then made up in friendly plastic, and likewise the centre of the lace flower bottom right. The lace had a flower pattern within it so I cut out just the flowers and layered them up and gathered them slightly. I then added a resin rose from a Primark bracelet which I coloured with alcohol inks, and the leaves are cut from a strip of lace which was mainly made up of a leaf pattern.

Crafty Individuals' July Challenge

I have made this box for the Crafty Individuals' July challenge using CI 238 and 258, Spring Background Papers, and their Chocolate coloured German scrap, together with some cream lace, and crackle paint. I stamped the Spring papers with the background text stamp (one of my favourites!) and then glued it onto some grungepaper cut with the Tattered Florals die, so that the flowers had some shape and strength. The flower on the left is made of clay, from a home-made mould from some of my ubiquitous Primark jewellery!

I've just edited this post as I see the challenge is now up on the Crafty Individuals' blog. The theme is to use pink, brown, and cream, and to use at least one Crafty Individuals' product as usual. There is a good chance of winning a prize of your choice of stamp so do have a go! I have really enjoyed seeing what people have been making each month. If you haven't seen them yet, there are some gorgeous new stamps out including an ornate bird cage and some 1920s ladies.

June Crafty Individuals Challenge - Vintage with Hearts - Memories Box

Today is the launch of the June Crafty Individuals challenge, with a theme of Vintage and Hearts. I hope you will play along! Here is my contribution:-

The idea behind it was that a woman whose husband is away fighting in the war, keeps her letters from him and other mementos in this box. I started off by painting a lovely wooden casket which was a present from Alison, using Eco Green acrylic paint in Ocean:-

It's difficult to see in the photo that the surround on the lid of the box is actually a fabric frame, and I applied a little of the paint using a baby wipe, then stamped it with CI258 word stamp and adhered it to the top, with a piece of Travels in Italy paper behind it. The frame encases a picture of her husband, from the People and Places book of images, and the frame itself was a Poundland one which I took a mould of and re-made in friendly plastic and added some rub ons. Because of the curve of the casket it was difficult to adhere it so I softened it very gently with the heat gun to mould it into place. I made the flowers from a mould taken from some Primark jewellery, made up in friendly plastic. I edged the box with Distress Stain in Vintage Photo and some copper Viva Gold.

Here's a photo of all the contents of the box together

And another one!

This next photo shows some of the items in more detail. The locket was from a Primark charm bracelet and I added images from People and Places of the woman's wedding day and their children, carefully cut into heart shapes. The perfume bottle is made from a mould I took of a perfume bottle, the heart shaped padlock to lock the treasures away is another Primark charm, and the frame is a different shaped Poundland one made up in friendly plastic again, with a great grandfather image inside, again from People and Places.

These are the love letters he sent to her, tied with ribbon. I used CI214, together with the postcard, CI302:-

Here I used the Day Out ticket, CI022, and a mixture of tickets from CI239 as Mementos of his visits home. They are coloured with Distress Inks, and held together with a Primark hair clip. The cameo was made from a mould taken from a Primark ring, and dusted with mica powders:-

I added pieces of replica memorabilia, a pen nib, and a piece of her wedding dress veil to add to the story.

I had such fun making this, and I hope you will join in!

Tissue Tape Tags

I really enjoyed watching Tim Holtz on QVC Craft Day on Tuesday; the demos were really inspiring and I picked up lots of tips and ideas. In particular I wanted to try out covering tags with tissue tape. If I had to nail my colours to the mast though, I am definitely more of a Crafty Individuals girl than a Tim Holtz girl, so I thought I would combine this idea with their pretty and delicate stamp designs - sort of Tim meets Jean!

 

This is the first one, and there will be loads! 

This turned out to be a great way to use up card stock in colours you don't like, as just a little of the colour shows through the tissue tape, in this case pale blue. I have the Tim Holtz Alterations die which cuts the tags (mainly because it has the lovely book plates on there also) so because tissue tape doesn't adhere very firmly, I wrapped the ends around the back, then cut another identical tag to stick to the back. This makes it more robust but also covers any ink you pick up on your work surface along the way (not that I would be messy ......!). I found it worked best to have the tissue tape running in different directions.

I stamped the beautiful butterfly image (CI 061) and coloured it with Pro Markers. I am finding that the thicker end of the pens is lovely for colouring the backgrounds - do you do that, too? I then tore around the image and added some fibres, and then friendly plastic butterflies and a rose I made from the moulds of the Primark jewellery - do you think I have got my money's worth from my cheap jewellery yet, hee hee!

Shopping Trip Part 2 - Primark

These are the other part of my shopping trip. I was so pleased that Minxy put me on to buying jewellery from Primark for craft projects. It is a great source of dangling bits for wall hangings, and for charms and resin flowers which you can take moulds of so that you can make them up in different finishes. And it is very cheap!

Shopping Trip for the Tin Man!

You know I said the biggest problem was getting a funnel for my Tin Man? Well, of course I will see them everywhere now!

I went into town (more of that later as I bought some bargains for other projects!) and asked on the off chance in the kitchen shop if they had tiny metal funnels. They are very helpful in there and they know me a little as I keep sending students in for meringue non stick craft sheets! Anyhow, I spied these cake decorations! I couldn't believe the axe, wish I'd seen that a few days ago, but why do people want one for the top of a cake?! The tiny candle holders would work well for the hat on a smaller version of the project, and for a larger one I thought I could take a mould of the two horns for future use, and then chop the end off for a funnel shape. The shoe would be perfect coloured with red alcohol ink or pro marker for a Ruby Slipper. The daft thing is, I don't know why I bought these as I am not planning a similar project, so let me know if they are any use to anyone!