Thursday, December 21, 2017

Folded Christmas tree decorations

For my Christmas post over on Tangie Baxter and Co, I am a member of the creative crew there, I have made these sweet, quick and easy folded Christmas tree decorations using Tangie’s beautiful Christmas digital papers.

You can use them as tree decorations as shown above. 

Or

Use them as a table decoration or place setting, just write the persons name on the tree.

The larger the circles used the larger the tree.

You can used lots of glitter or as above leave them natural.

They would also look great as present tags.

They are so easy to make, it would make a great project for children to make too.

What ever you do with them they always look great

If you would like to make these cute folded Christmas tree decoration you can find my photo tutorial over on the Tangie Baxter and Co blog here -

https://shoptangiebaxter.com/blogs/news

If you would like more information on the Art Journal Emporium you can find,it here -

https://shoptangiebaxter.com/

Saturday, December 16, 2017

Glittering pütz church

You might of noticed I love to make 3D projects especially little houses. I have been collecting the Tim Holtz village dies and have been dyeing to make the little church. As it is my Mother in Laws birthday in December I thought it would make a nice present for her.
I have put it together a little bit differently as shown on the box and also make a stronger base for it to stand on. I always make the building out of strong card and then cover it in my chosen paper, this time it was music paper. Once I was happy with it I paint it all over with PVA and cover it in glitter.
My Mother in Law loved it and thought we had brought it back from Austria! They really are a lovely project to make.

Friday, December 15, 2017

12 days of Christmas stamped decorations

Well Christmas is gradually creeping up on us, preparations are being made for the big day and I have some stamped decorations for you to add to your tree. I made these for The Fruit Pixie who I design for.
 
To make these decorations I have used the Creative Expressions 12 days of Christmas stamp set, along with the matching paper set.
 
The base of the decoration is stamp board but you can easily use thick card.
 
I painted the bases with the wonderfully shiny Cosmic Shimmer Pixie Powders. I used them as a paint this time by adding a couple of puffs to a drop of water then mixed it together into a paint. I then painted the fronts and backs .
 
The stamps were then stamped onto a sheet of the matching paper pad and cut out. I then stuck the different days of Christmas on the front and the 12 days of Christmas stamp on the back.
 
Then i drilled a hole in each of them and added some bakers twine and a bell, I love bells at Christmas!
 
Here are all the different decorations together.
 
 
The eagle eyed of you would of noticed the is no partridge in a pear tree. I must admit I did find that a bit annoying. It is included in the matching paper pad but it would of been nice to have the whole set in the stamps to.
 
They do look good on the tree though
 
Here is the back
 
I finished mine off with a coat of glittery varnish to seal them.
 
So, if you would like to make these decorations you can find the products in the shop.
 
The 12 days of Christmas stamps
http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/creative-expressions-clear-stamp-set-12-days-of-christmas-25850-p.asp
 
The matching paper set
http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/creative-expressions-8-x-8-paper-pad-12-days-of-christmas-25854-p.asp
 
Cosmic Shimmer Pixie powders
Can be found in the Fruit Pixie Etsy shop
 
Bakers twine
 
 

Thursday, December 07, 2017

Upcycled corner bookmarks

This is a wonderfully quick project for you that I made for the Fruit Pixie and would make a great extra little surprise if you are giving books as presents this Christmas. Upcycled corner bookmarks.    I have been making these for years and find they are actually better at keeping your page than other bookmarks as they slide onto the corner of your page and when the book is closed they stay there.    These corner bookmarks couldn’t be easier or cheaper as they upcycle the envelopes all those bills and letters that fall thought our letterboxes daily. All you need then is all those offcuts of papers we keep as crafters from our projects and some glue.    First collect together your envelopes and chop off their corners
Then all you need to do is cover them with paper. You do need to keep it flat and not too many layers of paper. One tip though, you might want to put something on one side that tells you its that side of the bookmark you were reading. Of course if you are using them in cookbooks or other reference books, I use them in my German course book, you might not need to know that.
 
Here are some I have made using different Craft Consortium papers
 
As you can see they are super easy and look really pretty. These would be great projects for the children to make, especially if they are bookworms!
 
 

Sunday, November 26, 2017

Christmas birdhouse decoration

This is my first Christmas 2017 design project for the Fruit Pixie.   I have used the Tando mini chipboard birdhouse along with the Tando mini birds and branches to make this cute Christmas decoration.
This is such a fun little project to make, the birdhouse is so easy to put together and you can then add whatever you like to match your Christmas colours.
 
For my Christmas birdhouse I decided to use the wonderful decoupage papers from Craft Consortium. I chose the Merry Christmas papers as our Christmas tree is the traditional red gold and green.
 You will find it easier to cover the pieces before you put the birdhouse together. I painted all the pieces white on the outer side so the colours on the decoupage papers will be brighter.    I just use a PVA glue, you can water it down if it is very thick. Apply the glue to the surface of your birdhouse and then place it glue down onto the sheet of the decoupage paper. Roughly cut it out and leave to dry. Once dry trim off any excess paper and apply another layer of the PVA over the top of the paper to seal it and leave to dry again.  Once fully dry I painted all the edges with the Cosmic Shimmer paints and put my birdhouse together. Before you put the roof on, which I had painted white using the Cosmic Shimmer paint, I painted the inside of the birdhouse.   You need to think about how you want to use your decoration. If you want it to hang its best to put the hanging string in now. I used a glittery red Christmas trim. I made a loop and tied a big knot at the bottom. I then put the bottom end into the birdhouse with the loop of the trim hanging out and glued the second roof piece in place. Once dry the loop can be pulled up and hopefully your knot was big enough to not be pulled out.
 Now you can add your decorations. I used the Tando mini birds and branches. I painted the birds and branches with the Cosmic Shimmer paint and the stamped over the birds with a brown ink using the IndigoBlu dinky holly flush stamp.   I also cut some Mistletoe using the Couture Creations Mistletoe die and used some of the glitter card I had used for the icicles on the roof for the berries.
 I used some green pipe cleaners I had to make a little wreath to surround their door and added little bows from the same Christmas trim as I used to hang my decoration.   Everything except the glitter card, the red Christmas trim and green pipe cleaners can be found in the shop. You can find the -

              Tando mini birdhouse -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/tando-creative-chipboard-mini-3d-birdhouse-15345-p.asp

The Tando mini birds and branches-

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/tando-creative-chipboard-mini-birds--branches-27191-p.asp

Craft Consortium decoupage papers Merry Christmas-

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/craft-consortium-decoupage-papers-merry-christmas-25860-p.asp

IndigoBlu holly stamp -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/indigoblu-dinkie-rubber-stamp-holly-flourish-24097-p.asp

Couture Creations Mistletoe die-

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/couture-creations-intricutz-die-mistletoe-25827-p.asp

Cosmic Shimmer paint -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/cosmic-shimmer-paints-644-c.asp

I really hope you like my Christmas birdhouse decoration and will give it a go. It would make the perfect project for children to do too

 

 

 

Saturday, November 25, 2017

Christmas countdown advent calendar

For my November blog post for Tangie Baxter's art journal Emporium as part of her creative crew I have made a Christmas countdown advent calendar using all the wonderful Tagie Baxter Christmas digital kits and a little creativity on my part.
The base of the advent calendar is made from corrugated box card and then covered with one of Tangie Baxter's papers
 
I then cut out and collaged 25 4x4 inch pages for the countdown
 
I also made a page for Christmas day and a cover page too.
If you would like to see my step by step photo tutorial for my countdown calendar, you can find it on the Tangie Baxter Art journal emporium blog -
 
https://shoptangiebaxter.com/blogs/news

Monday, November 13, 2017

Birthday card for 1980’s lovers

My sister and I were both teenagers in the 1980’s and so as soon as I saw the 80’s collection from Lettering delights I knew it would be perfect for her birthday card this year.       I love lettering delights SVG kits and use them a lot for all sorts of things. Of course you need an electronic cutting machine to use SVGs, I have my trusty Silhouette Cameo of course which I would not be without!

Friday, November 10, 2017

Remembrance Poppy brooch

 Here in the U.K. it is Remembrance Sunday tomorrow. Every year I buy a poppy, as we all do, and the 5 mins later its fallen off. Over the years I have made myself different types of poppies and then just added my donation to the poppy sellers tin but I have never been 100% happy with them. So this year I tried again and this time I am very happy with them. I made mine out of felt but of course you could make them out of card. This was a project for The Fruit Pixie as she sells wonderful mixed button packs which are perfect for this project. A link to her button packs can be found at the end of this post.  
I used red felt for my poppy petals. The black if also felt, a half inch strip cut with pinking scissors and then gathered into a circle using a running stitch.
Each petal is pleated and then stitched in place. I then sewed the petals to each other. 
The black centre I stitched to the petals.
I finished it off with a button from the monochrome button pack.
Stitch a brooch back onto the back of your poppy to finish.
 
You can find the button packs here -
There are lots of different colour themed packs to choose from that contain black buttons. It would also be a lovely if you had a button from your family button box to use too.
 
Brooch backs here -
 
I hope you like my poppies. 
 
If you are wondering why three poppies, well one for me, one for my sister and one for my Godmother who admired my poppy last year but by then it was too late to send one to her so I sent one this year instead.
                                                  Have a reflective and peaceful Remembrance day.                                                                                                    

Wednesday, November 01, 2017

Spooky haunted house

This was a project I have been itching to do ever since I had the Tim Holtz Village dwelling die last Christmas! I just managed to finish in time for Halloween.
I had such fun creating my Halloween house.
 
First I cut the house out of box card so it was nice and sturdy.
 
I then cut all the pieces out again in grey cardstock, cutting the tabs off and also cutting all the pieces apart.
I then painted them using my Geli plate in a solid colour to begin with then I used a stamp plate I had made using funky foam to give a brick effect, which I stamped onto the Gelli plate then printed onto my pieces.
 
I then used my painted pieces to cover the base of my house.
 
The windows and all the silver coloured pieces are cut from card covered in silver insulating tape.
 
I did the same for the roof but I first put the tape through an embossing folder and sponged black and green paint over the top. It was then left to dry and used to cover the roofs.
 
 I wanted my house to light up so the base cut by the die would not be any good so I made a simple box out of card and strengthened it with box card. i then covered it in moulding paste and when it was dry painted it in black and silver paint.
 
I cut the grave stones from a Quickkut die I have had for years and hot glued them to the base along with 3 of the Tim Holtz pumpkins.
 
I needed a tree, so I sent hubby out into the garden in search of something I could use and he came up with 2 twigs that wired together looked like a spooky tree!
 
For the lights I poked holes in the base behind the gravestones and the tree. I also made two holes where the house would stand. I used a small set of battery LED lights, poked them through the holes and taped them in place under the box base.
 
All that was then needed was some cobweb fibres to look like mist and to switch the lights on and enjoy!
 
I hope you had a spooky halloween!
 

Saturday, October 28, 2017

Trick or Treat art journal page

As I haven’t made an art journal page in my IndigoBlu Junk and Disorderly journal for a while I thought I would have some fun with a Halloween page for the Fruit Pixie online shop who I design for.
To start I chose one of the white pages in the album and used some of the Cosmic Shimmer paints to build up my background. I like to use a baby wipe to paint with as it blends the paint automatically and of course there is no brush to wash after!
 
I wanted a large bright moon so I cut a circle out of a piece of scrap card and used it as a stencil using the paints through the hole.
 
The haunted house is a Tim Holtz die cut out of black card.
 
For my witch I took the Creative Expressions butterfly girl stamp set and adapted her slightly.
First I stamped her body and cut her out, cutting off her wings and pony tail.
Then I stamped her again for her dress which I cut out and stamped the swirly pattern over the top using IndigoBlu Tiny backgrounds.
I cut out a witches hat and bat wings on my Silhouette Cameo.
All that was left to do for her was to dress her up!
 
Now that the background was dry I stamped some of the pattern stamps in the Creative Expressions Butterfly girl stamp set onto the background.
 
I also stamped the tree from Visible image.
 
I then built up the page making a hanging sign with the sign stamp from Butterfly Girl and the Halloween strip stamps from Stampendous for the house. I also added some washi tape and some bats.
 
The lettering was hand drawn using a black pen.
 
If you would like to make an art journal the Junk and Disorderly journal is great for beginners. You can find it in the Fruit Pixie shop here -
http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/indigoblu-junk-and-disorderly-art-journal-26811-p.asp
 
The paints here -
 
Butterfly girl stamp set for the witch -
 
IndigoBlu Stamps-
 
Stampendous stamps -
 
Washi tape -
 
Happy Halloween! 
 
 

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Spooky Halloween House hanging decoration

 Halloween is growing near and I have made a Spooky Halloween house decoration for the Fruit Pixie, who I design for.
The inspiration for this Halloween decoration was the Crafty Individuals chipboard houses and trees. I really love playing with these and I have made a couple of different things with them, I will add links below but I have never made a Halloween House before.
 
I used two of the chipboard houses to make my halloween house. I glued together after I had finished the surface decoration on them I also used a piece of the fencing and one of the tree trunks. 
 
I wanted to use lots of different mediums on my house but to begin with I painted the house using the Cosmic Shimmer chalk paints. I used black for the roof and the tree trunk then a purple for the house and white for the fence. For the windows I used a light yellow so they glowed!
 
To make the roof more roof like I used the midnight glitter texture past through a stencil. Its very easy to do, just lay your template down and scrape your texture paste through the stencil using a pallet knife. Then lift the stencil off gently and wash the paste off your stencil and pallet knife immediately before it dries.
 
I used the same method for the house but this time I mixed some of the Cosmic Shimmer silk glitter into some of the clear texture paste to make my own colour.
 
For the fence I just smoothed on some of the crystal texture paste over the shape to make it sparkle.
 
Once Everything was dry I could build up my scene.
 
The windows just needed a little something more, so I used one of the IndigoBlu tiny background stamps with a grey ink to add a pattern then put them into the windows.
 
The little die cuts are from one of my own dies from Cuttlebug. I have had it for ages but there are plenty of dies and embellishments you can add to your house.
 
I also added some of the Cosmic Shimmer glitter jewels ebony ice to the bottom of my house to finish it off.
 
Now of course you could leave it there, put your house onto a card or box but I decided to set it on the moon!
 
I cut a moon shape and using the gold glitter paste added some stars from a star template. Then stuck my house to the moon and went around the edge with some black ink.
 
So, you can find the chipboard houses and trees in the Fruit Pixie shop here -
 
The paints here -
 
The texture pastes here -
 
Glitter -
 
Glitter jewels -
 
I did mention that I had used these chipboard houses before. You can find my projects links below
 
My little street -
 
Sunshine plaque -
 
 
 

Friday, October 20, 2017

Halloween Witch

Each month I write a blog post for Tangie Baxter's Art Journal emporium. Being October it has to be a Halloween project!   So here she is, a Hanging Halloween Witch made from scratch using Tangie Baxter's digital papers that I print out and use as normal paper.     
 
 For the Emporium blog I have created a step by step photo tutorial with a template sheet for all the pieces you will need for your Witch as well as instructions on how to make her broomstick.
 
You can learn more about the Art Journal Emporium and Tangie Baxter's products here-
 
The blog here -
   

Saturday, October 14, 2017

Nightmare before Christmas button brooches

The Fruit Pixie sells some of the Dress-it up Disney character button sets. One of my favourite films is “ The Nightmare Before Christmas “  so when I spotted the Nightmare before Christmas Dress-it up button set I had to have a play with them. You get lots of buttons in the set, Jack Skeleton and two of his heads, as well as Sally and Zero the ghost dog.    I have chosen to use one of Jack Skeleton’s heads and Zero the ghost dog to make these cute rosette style brooches.
These are so easy to make.
 
All you need is some black felt and orange ribbon. 
 
To make the Zero the ghost dog’s brooch I cut a strip of the black felt using pinking sheers. I then stitched a running stitch along the bottom of the felt strip. This doesn’t have to be neat, so you don’t have to be a good seamstress to do this.
 
Gather your felt up into a tight circle by pulling on your thread and then stitch the two ends together to form your first rosette.
 
Do the same for the ribbon piece.
 
Layer the felt rosette on top of the ribbon one and put your button on the top with the shank of the button poking through the hole in the middle of the two rosettes.
 
Stitch the button to the sides of the rosettes to secure. You won’t see this so make sure its nice and secure.
 
Cut another small piece of felt and stitch that as neatly as you can on the back of your rosette to cover the hole. You can then add a brooch back to the back too to make a sweet brooch for your bag or coat.
 
The smaller brooch made using the Jack Skeleton head button was made in the same way but I used a thiner ribbon and thinner strip  of black felt.
 
Of course you don’t have to stop at two rosettes, you can build them up using different ribbons, lace and fabric strips as you wish
 
I hope you like my brooches and will give them a go. If you have any questions or need help then you can contact me here or over on our Facebook page.
 
These and other Disney Dress-it up buttons can be found in the shop here -
Ribbons and lace here -
http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/fibres-ribbons--trims-54-c.asp
Brooch backs -
 
I have a couple of other projects for the Dress-it up Disney buttons coming up so pop back again very soon to see what else you can do with these buttons.
 
           

Sunday, October 08, 2017

Have a batty Halloween card

 October sees the start of the busiest time of my crafting year. Starting with Halloween and then on to Christmas.    Halloween is not really celebrated here in the UK, even if all the shops try their best to convince us we do in order to sell us even more things. I love it though. We have a pumpkin lantern that hubby carves and then we sit and watch old halloween films and eat pumpkin soup. As I have been crafting for a very,very long time I have lots of homemade Halloween projects that come out each year to decorate our home.     So my project today is a sweet little card for Halloween I made for The Fruit Pixie.
This is a stepper card using the backing papers from Craftwork cards. The main stamped image is by Stampendous called Halloween magic.
 
I painted the image using Indigoblu luscious pigment powders. These are beautiful powders that can be used in many ways. I just added a spot of water to a minute amount of the powder and mixed it into a wonderful pearlescent paint. 
 
I then added some cogs, to match her hat and some bat die cuts and finally stamped another of the Stampendous stamps to finish it off.
 
You can find the stamps I used here in the Fruit Pixie shop here - 
 
The beautiful luscious powders here -
 

Monday, October 02, 2017

Craft Consortium Tell the Bees decoupage paper covered box

  Here is my new box I have covered with the beautiful Craft Consortium decoupage papers that I have made for The Fruit Pixie. These are not just normal papers, these are tissue thin but strong enough to be worked with then they are wet. They are very easy to use and very forgiving. I have used these sort of papers before on other projects, I will leave you the links of the other blog posts I have written at the bottom of the page. The papers I have used this time are the Tell the Bees papers.    The box I used I bought from The Works and is a wooden box. I prepared the box before I began by rubbing down the wood with sandpaper and then painting it with white gesso. I painted it white so the pattern and colour of the paper came through more.
The way I work with the decoupage paper is to cut it to size and then apply a runny PVA glue, I water the PVA glue down till it is like single cream, I paint the glue mixture on to the surface and also the back of the paper. Apply the paper to your surface, gently rubbing out the air bubbles if there are any and then paint another layer of the watered down PVA over the top. 
 
Once the box is covered with the decoupage papers and then left to dry. I then painted the sides and edges of the box with Cosmic shimmer paint.
 
 
For inside the box I painted it with Cosmic Shimmer chalk paint in a colour that matched the paper.
 
I wanted to add some interest to the lid of the box and the inside. I had made this box to keep my little bits of hand quilting and sewing in, so I used hexagons cut from the Tell the Bees paper pad. I inked their edges with a brown ink and when I had decided on the pattern I glued them into place. The hexies on the top are 1 inch hexies and the ones inside are 1.5 inch hexies.
 
Before I use the box I will add another layer of the PVA mixture to seal in the paper hexagons as it will get a lot of handling.
 
You can find the Tell the Bees decoupage papers in the Fruit Pixie shop here -
http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/craft-consortium-tell-the-bees-collection-715-c.asp
 
Cosmic Shimmer paint-
http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/cosmic-shimmer-paints-644-c.asp
 
As I said I have worked with this type of paper before. Here is a post I did a few years ago using another of the Craft Consortium decoupage paper and a different shaped box
http://thefruitpixie.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/craft-consortium-decoupage-paper.html
 
This post is showing my candle holder jars I made with the wood design Craft Consortium decoupage papers -
http://thefruitpixie.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/craft-consortium-candle-jars.html
 
   

The Haunting journal pages

I design for a very talented digital kit designer Kyrsty Scrapbook Designs. As part of the halloween collaboration of all the designers at Mischief Circus, a wonderful online shop where you can buy her digital kits, Kyrsty has just released this spooky halloween                                    kit - http://www.mischiefcircus.com/shop/product.php?productid=24771&cat=&page=      Here is the first of the two pages I made for the release of her kit - 
I had great fun playing with this kit. I loved the cat and rat skeletons!
 
Please don't dismiss digital kits, they can easily be resized to what ever size you need and printed out on a normal home printer for your craft. The huge advantage, apart from having as many of any one paper or element you want, you have no storage at all!!

Friday, September 29, 2017

The Third Man fan book

As those of you who very kindly read and visit my blog regularly will know that I design for Tangie Baxter and Co. Each month I write a blog post for her showing how I use her digital products in mixed media form.    My Septembers blog post was due just after we returned from Vienna, Austria and as I always have to take some art work to do whilst I am away I thought I would combine the two.    I decided to make a The Third Man fan book. The wonderful film The Third Man is one of my all time favourite and it is set in post war Vienna. This film has to be one of the best films ever made, in my humble opinion and so I took this as the subject of my little traveling art book which I worked on in our down time whilst in Vienna.
I made the little book out of Watercolour paper and painted the background using my Gelli plate and a homemade stamp made to look like bricks.
 
For each page I used stills from the film, found on the internet, die cuts I cut out on my Silhouette Cameo and collage pieces from Tangie Baxters digital kit Read all about it.
 
Here are my pages
 
I also used some of the Ranger Distress crayons and white pencil and pen and a good black pen to give the book an arty style.
 
I took the photos, with the help of my Hubby, in front of the famous Prater in Vienna.
 
I added one of my die cuts as an extra page in the book using Washi tape. It is not finished in this photo, I finished it on the flight home.
 
I had such fun with this book and it was wonderful to be in the city where the film was set as I worked on it.
 
The back of the book and the end. It all takes part in the sewers of Vienna!
 
If you haven't seen the film then I really recommend it. It is such an iconic film, beautifully shot with the background of old Vienna. What more could you want? 
 
I love Vienna, it is my favourite city in the whole world, so I can recommend a visit here too.
 
Before I add all the links I thought you might like to see the Prater in all her magnificence without my book in front of her. It is the same giant wheel as is in the film, she is almost 200 years old and still looking beautiful. Yes of course I have ridden on her, a wonderful experience with beautiful views of a beautiful city all round too.
 
 
If you would like to read my full blog post you can find it here-
https://shoptangiebaxter.com/blogs/news/the-third-man-fan-book
 
Find out more about Tangie Baxter and Co and the Art Journal Emporium here-
https://shoptangiebaxter.com/pages/art-journal-emporium Untill my next post, take care x