An Old Tale

Jumping from Autumn to winter...

A second post today with a non Halloween make for you!

 The paper I used is from an older collection by Stamperia, Winter Tales, magical and so beautiful with its icy blue colour scheme.

The panels have been die-cut with the Shadow Frame Box die set by Tonic.

To show you all sides of the box I had my glamorous assistant's help to create a video, alas, the lighting conditions were not perfect!

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the Simon Says Stamp Monday, Allsorts, 

                                                         and Polkadoodles challenges

Autumn has arrived

Hello crafters!

Today I have a first inspiration make for our Country View Challenge held in the Facebook  group. This month the theme is "Autumn Richness" and to celebrate the new season, not that it's my favourite, I chose to make a decor item. 

The base has been recycled from a particularly big wooden packaging, the lightweight kind that comes with some ready made dishes. It was round but I cut it as an Octagon and flattened it (I have worked out that an ordinary steam iron works well for that). 

For the background to the "Autumn" I used the AALL & Create die set Infinarty (#39) and the Lavinia stencil Leaf Trails (ST017) with Distress inks.

I added my title, die-cut with the Sizzix Alpha set 662228 and stamped 2 leaves (stamp from my own collection).

The 3D elements are the fantastic mushrooms moulded with the Stamperia Silicone Mould Woodland Mushrooms (KACMA502) and the fallen leaves a mix of die-cuts and punched leaves from cardstock inked with Distress Oxide inks.   

For now, I have left the knots of the twine as you can see them whilst I mull over how I am going to transform the back into a Winter/Christmas decor piece, but, if possible, I will hide them with metallic leaf brads.

To give you an idea what it looks like in situ in the house: 

To enter the challenge, hop on to our friendly group here and upload your project to the challenge album. You could win the Paper Artsy bundle seen below from the Country View Craft shop.

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield     I am entering the  Allsorts, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday

                                                        Stamping Sensations,   We Love Stamping, 

                                                        Simon Says Stamp Monday challenges 

Rice Paper Christmas decor

Hello crafters, 

I am back again for a 2nd Country View Challenge inspiration make, where the theme is "Christmas". I have upcycled a coffee jar again for another Christmas table centre piece. Warning this a photo heavy post... 

I used 2 of the postcards from the Stamperia  All Around Christmas Rice Paper (DFSA4808) and scraps of translucent paper with inclusions (at least 20 years old...). I applied the DecoArt Decoupage matte medium to the glass, smoothed the rice paper down and applied a layer of medium on top of the paper as well. 

  

That layer allowed me to add some white Distress crayon on the mistletoe berries to make them pop.	I used a silicone tip to smooth the crayon. I couldn't resist adding some light touches of Distress crayon on the leaves and the bells.	On the tree side I added Enamel accents on the tree, here and there,

Distress crayon on the bells and liquid glass on the baubles.

On the top of the jar I applied gel medium and dusted both glitter and Glamour Sparkle for a frosty effect. 
Some twine and a snowflake pendant serves as finishing touch.

Do click on the photos to get a closer look.

Some photos at night...

  

I hope you will join us in the Facebook group to enter our challenge, anything Christmassy will be welcomed for our Country View Crafts challenge, as long as you use products or brands stocked at Country View Crafts. If you do you could win a £25 voucher to win...

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the Creative Artiste challenge

Christmas decor piece

It's Saturday!! A weekend of crafts awaits... 

To start you off I will share my Country View Craft Challenge  inspiration make for the Repurpose  challenge. 

The glass container is an instant coffee jar, onto which I have spread gesso, gel medium mixed with sparkles and glass beads.

The piece de resistance is of course the collection of leaves, acorns and berries I have moulded with the Stamperia Silicone Mould A5 Woodland Mushrooms : 

If you wondered, the other half of the mould has the mushrooms!

I stuck the elements on the jar with a mix of gel medium and white paint and added varying mixes on top as if covered in snow.

I'm hoping it will be a nice table centre piece for the holidays, especially at night...

The other side of the jar...

What will you make to enter our Country View Crafts challenge and be in with a chance to win the very mould I used? The challenge is run in Facebook and you will have to join our friendly group first.

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the Creative Artist challenge

12 Days of Christmas Treat box

Today I am showing  my second inspiration piece for our Country View Challenge. 

Initially my idea was to create an advent calendar with 24 boxes but I realised the finished article would be too big and as I could only gift the calendar after the 20th of December it was a bit meaningless. So instead, I figured a "12 days of Christmas box" would be an adequate replacement. 

I used Graphic 45 papers to make 12 match boxes and covered 2 sturdy pieces of cardboard to serve as top and base for the box tower.

Before assembing the boxes I added a brad through an eyelet to create a draw knob and die-cut numbers from 1 to 12. 

Finally I glued a first layer of boxes on the base, alternating the position, which create a square shape, with an empty square in the middle. Then I stuck the other layers on top and added the top cardboard to finish.

 I am planning to fill each box with an array of treats, mixing the traditional chocolates with dried fruits all wrapped in tissue paper.

Your turn now to create something on the theme "Christmas" in our Country View Challenge. You could win a £ 20 voucher if you link your project...

 Plus there is still 4 more days of Advent offers at the Country View shop!

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield   I am entering the Allsorts challenge

Personalised gift

For my second inspiration make for our Country View Challenge, where the theme chosen by the lovely Monika is Birthday (card or gift), I made a keyring tag and a box to present it with. 

The box is actually quite small, 7x5x2 cms (approximately 2"x2"3/4x3/4"), just big enough for the gift. 

This is a matchbox style made out of sturdy cardstock and decorated with scraps of paper. 

You can find a matchox die by Tim Holtz here. 

Enough with the box, if you came from the Country View Challenges blog you will be on tenterhooks to see what is inside!!!  so there you are: 

I have used thin pieces of leather, offcuts of the materials used for the hardcovers of books as "standard leather" and some thick pleather would require steel rules dies to be cut properly.  

Or you could fake it with embossed cardstock, Tim Holtz has designed a fabulous 3D folder this year... 

  

Since I was using thin dies my tag needs a core of a flexible but tough material and I used a bit of my Grunge Paper (Ideology), sadly retired, for my first die-cut. 

I then die-cut 2 more of the tag shape from the thin leather (for the front and back of the Grunge Paper tag) and die-cut the initials from one of them.  

Then I die cut just the letters from a contrasting piece of leather.

The only thing left to do is assemble the layers, add an eyelet and the keyring mechanism (mine was recycled).

You can vary the shapes, circles, hearts, birds and more are all suitable..., decorate the back as well as the front (reverse the colours for example), change the materials stiffened (or painted) fabric would also work... let your imagination run wild!  

Over to you now, have a look at what the DT made on the Country View Challenge blog and link up your project to the challenge for the chance to win a £20 voucher for the Country View Craft shop.

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield    I am entering the Allsorts challenge.

Burst of flowers

More flowers coming this way... 

Our Country View Challenge theme this month is Mother's Day and is hosted by Evelyn.
This is what I made for my second inspiration make: a box card full of flowers.
fun way to offer a bouquet from far away...

I won't tell you the ins and outs of the box card construction... there are plenty of tutorials on the web. My own method relied on partial die cutting and although it worked, I wouldn't recommend it! 

In my defence this is my first.... 

The box is decorated with papers from the Studio Light Memories of Summer pad. 

The die-cut flowers inside were made with Sizzix/Tim Holtz die set and an unidentified freebie die from a magazine. I also added a butterfly on a strip of acetate for that flight effect.

You now have less than 2 weeks to link up your project to the challenge for the chance to win a £20 voucher for the Country View Craft shop, so hop on over to the Country View Challenge blog for more inspiration and details on how to enter.

Thanks for coming by,

 Craftyfield  I am entering the Allsorts, Addicted to Stamps,  SSS Monday and SSS Wednesday Challenges

More coasters

Some organised people have all their Christmas gifts bought and wrapped by now, having used the whole year to scour the shops for that perfect present....  Well, not me and certainly not this year!

However, WHAT do you buy for the person that has everything? How about a crafty gift made by you and and for that special person? Christmas gifting is the theme of our Country View Challenge this month, chosen by Miriam and I hope you will get ideas from our DT. 

 

My first idea is coasters, I have been creating a few, each time in pairs, and this is my latest offering:

My base is recycled coasters but your can find fresh ones with a holder here.I created the background with Cosmic shimmer matt acrylic paints, this took several layers as I changed my mind... including adding some copper paint here and there. 

My choice of image is from 2 Visible Image sets: the spiral clock from Ahead Of Our Time and the shattered clock and matching background from the Somewhere In Time.

Once dry I stamped my motif with Cosmic shimmer Flake and glitter Glue using a piece of Distress foam and applied my flakes. You can find similar colours to the one I used with these mixes: Silver Dream, Warm Sunrise both from Cosmic Shimmer. Now being the control freak that I am I don't just dump the flakes haphazardly on the image... noooo I try and place a gold flake here a copper flake there etc... but you don't have to do that! 

Once all the image is covered I start removing the excess with my fingers , then with a dedicated sponge (it looks a bit like wire wool but made of plastic thread).

For the shattered clock I first stamped the background stamp with black to enhance the contrast with the foil.

I added a bit of darker colour around the coasters with a Pitt brush pen.

Now these will join the other pairs to get their hard core varnish so they can be used for hot or cold drinks.

And of course let's look at the SHINE.... 

Over to you now, have a look at what the DT made on the Country View Challenge blog and link up your project to the challenge for the chance to win a £20 voucher for the Country View Craft shop. Just remember that cards do not qualify for this challenge. 

Thanks for coming by,

I am entering the Paperbabe, SSS Wednesday challenges.

Mr Handsome episode 2

I am back with 2 more projects I created for the LG Crafts show on The Craft Store (Hochanda) with the "Mr Handsome" collection by 13 Arts. 

A few papers in the collection have denim in different forms and I wanted to create some sort of wearable art. I took a real wallet as model and set about making my own, as a gift card holder/greeting card combination.

  

Once I decided the size of the wallet I cut a piece of 12x12 paper of TWICE the height of the wallet, with a seam allowance of 1/4" all around. I scored the seam allowances and the middle of the paper vertically and horizontally.

Not sure the score lines are readily apparent in the picture of the inside of the wallet!

Next, I drew where I wanted my card slots and cut them with a craft knife on the bottom half of the paper.

Again the slots are difficult to see on this picture of the outside of the wallet (click to enlarge). Note that the slots that show on the left in this picture will actually be on the right when the paper is folded in two and reversed to show the inside.

Like this:

To finish the wallet I simply sewed along the top and sides, added a tab with velcro to open and close the wallet and a few decorative touches, including the made up Gift card and Crafting club membership!

For these I used my printer to add the words on the paper from the collection. 

A fun make (and actually not too difficult) for a special birthday or Father's day, and one certain to get a "wow" from a non crafty male!

******

Next a shadow box with a full 6x6 sheet as the background and many pieces of the Ephemera pack as well as some fussy cut elements from the papers. 

The 3 larger silhouettes are propped on a piece of cardstock folded into a rectangular shape. 

I coloured the "Walking in the rain" chipboard with the 13 Arts Metallic Color Glow in Smoky Quartz mixed with 13 Arts gel medium and the gears from the same Mr Handsome chipboard set with a mix of Jadeite and Smoky Quartz Color Glows on top of black gesso. Without adding water the Smoky Quartz retain its silver appearance so it is easy to get a distressed metallic look with both rusted and non rusted areas!

I hope you like both of these, do let me know in your comments!

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering both makes in the SSS Monday and Allsorts challenges.

Squared UP

Roll on the New Year, I am not sorry to see the back of 2020 and I suspect a lot of you feel the same way. Anyhoo... We have a new challenge at Country View Challenge, 

which this month is hosted by Corrie, who chose "Use a square" as the theme. 

A square you say... 

I went the whole hog and added power to my square and turned it into a cube, well a box really but with lots of squares!!! 

The ta-da moment:

I created my box base by scoring a 12x12 sheet of black card every 4" horizontally and vertically. I traced some hearts in the corners and cut them out with scissors. 

I also made a lid and before putting them together I stamped and embossed in white EP my badger (Lavinia) and elegant border (Paper Artsy HP) what will be the outside of the box. 

For the inside, I stamped 5 images, all from the same collection by Imagination Crafts (they are called Art stamps and quite old so probably not on sale anymore) .

Over to you now, have a look at what the DT made on the Country View Challenge blog and link up your project to the challenge for the chance to win a £20 voucher for the Country View Craft shop.


Thanks for coming by,

She

Hello a special post today as I am showing a make with a new STAMPlorations product. The CRAFTplorations line has now laser cut embellishments in MDF, chipboard and Baltic birch (see this introduction post here).

I received a few samples to road test and this is the first project I made, a display sign to put on a princess' bedroom door. I used the Beautiful Silhouette and one of the Mini Rectangle Tags.

I first gessoed both MDF pieces, the tag with white gesso and the silhouette in both black for the face and white for the flowers.


I then applied crackle medium to the face and painted over with a
flesh colour of acrylic paint.


For the flowers and leaves I kept it simple and added colour with Inktense blocks, sprayed with water and used my fingers to spread. Finally I added a bit of black pen for the eyelashes.

I spelled SHE with bubbles alpha on the tag, origins unknown (very old).

For my base I chose to use a piece of thin wood, recycled from a food container to continue the theme. I wondered if it could be embossed with a folder and the answer is yes, although to avoid breaking the fragile wood it is important to add shims progressively.
Here I used  the Sizzix/Tim Holtz 3D Lumber folder and I finished with a light application of Distress ink to highlight the wood grain texture.

Ironic that I used embossing and ink on real wood isn't it....

Working with the MDF is a real joy as it is both very light and very smooth but so much sturdier than paper!

Don't forget to comment here and on the STAMPlorations blog for the chance to win the Beautiful silhouette in 1.5mm mdf !

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Whenever you shop for STAMPlorations products you can get 20% off with my code: STAMPGIRLCRAFTY
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Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the SSS Wednesday challenge.

 
Note: I couldn't find my regular crackle medium and I used this Docrafts one which a lot of people, including myself, have had trouble with. As you can see, this time it worked and the recipe for success is, I believe, to apply thick layers of both the crackle medium and the paint. The paint also needs to be sufficiently fluid so it can be applied quickly, with as few brush strokes as possible, as that tends to disturb the crackling.