Stencilfied journal challenge 14

I have skipped a few of the challenges of the Stencilfied journal challenge as I couldn’t really do them due to the products I have used or the lack of stencils. StencilGirl stencils are not easy to get hold of here in the U.K. and the postage from the States is more than the price of a heap of stencils but I have just about managed with the StencilGirl stencils I can buy here and am now on challenge 14.

Now this looked quite straight forward until I looked through my StencilGirl stencil collection and found that every single stencil bar 1, which was one of the large multi pattern stencil, had curved lines!

In the end though I did manage a page I was pleased with

Plus I love this quote!

Travel journal using Craft Consortium Winter Woodland papers

 I am so sorry I have been AWOL lately but between internet problems and life, the summer has just flown. Now though everything , except the internet, is back to normal and ready to craft, craft, craft!!

   If you have read this blog before, you might have noticed I love Austria, it’s our second home. This summer we have had two wonderful holiday there. For each holiday I make myself a journal. This is the one I made for our week in Obergurgl Tirol.

     I made the base of the cover from recycled box card so it gave me a nice stiff cover.

I covered it with the beautiful Craft Consortium Winter Woodland papers and added some decorations cut on my Silhouette Cameo.

I added pockets for keepsakes and then for the journal itself,  I folded A4 paper in half and cut a cover from one of the Craft Consortium papers and stitched it all together.

I used elastic to hold the journal into the cover so I could remove it to write in it each day.

I couldn’t resist the cute little metal acorns from Craft Consortium and tied them onto the elastic. 

I also made a elastic wrap to hold the cover shut when it full of keepsakes.

Thought it would make a nice wrist wrap too!

You can find the paper pad in the Fruit Pixie online shop here-

https://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/craft-consortium-premium-paper-pads-714-c.asp

Blackboard tags for my homemade marmalade.

I have fallen in love with homemade marmalade! It is a lot of work but it’s worth it in the end. The thing I really hate though is having to soak all the labels off of the jars, we always use re- cycled jars. So I don’t put labels on my finished jam and marmalade but tie tags around the neck of the jar. 

So,when Bower very kindly sent me a pack of their chalk pens I thought I would make some chalkboard tags and then I need only change the date on them each time.

These tags are so easy to make. You can get blackboard vinyl easily.

I stuck the A4 sheet of blackboard vinyl onto a sheet of card and cut tag shapes out from the blackboard card.

Then all you need do is choose your colour and write your tags

Then tie them around the necks of the jars of marmalade.

The chalk pens will wash off with a damp cloth so keep the tags from the empty jars and change the date when the next batch is ready.

Art journal using gilding flakes

I appear to be on a roll with gilding flakes! I really enjoyed making this page for The Fruit Pixie, along with a video on my new YouTube channel The Arty Parrot. 

All the products, except the shine bright piece which is from Tim Holtz, were from The Fruit Pixie online shop I design for. You can find the shop here.

https://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/

Please visit my new YouTube channel and subscribe to my channel. 

Stencilfied journal challenge week 8

Week 8 in the Stencilfied journal challenge from StencilGirl was to stencil with glue!

O

I decided to use my quickly glue pen and gilding flakes to make my page.

Once I had finished the background, I just had to add the cockerel to finish it off!

Stencilfied Journal challenge week 7

For challenge 7 of the Stencilfied Journal by StencilGirl we had to stencil a page rip it out and tear it up and then make another page with it.

Here is the first page I ripped out and tore up 

Here is the finished page

I think this is my favourite so far.

Fabric luggage tags decorated with Bower Fabric Pens

I was so impressed with the Bower Watercolour Pens I bought and now they have sent me some of their new fabric pens to try.  I just had to put them through their paces.

  After paper crafting my second craft love is to sew. I had been wanting to make some fabric luggage tags for ages. The Bower fabric pens were a wonderful way to decorate them how I wanted and to see how the pens performed at the same time.

  So to begin.

 1.  Cut 2 pieces of thick Calico fabric ( or any cotton fabric ) to the size you want your finished tag plus 1/2 inch seam allowance. Don't make your tags too small or they will be difficult to sew and turn later.

 By seam allowance  I mean add 1/2 inch to all 4 sides of your tag. Then when you stitch the tag together sew 1/2 inch in from the side all the way around. This is called a seam allowance.

  2.  I wanted to see how well the pens did when using them with rubber stamps and through a stencil.

  First the stamps.
               I carved myself a little aeroplane stamp, you can use any stamp you have, and then just used the fabric pen to scribble over the stamp until it was well covered in the ink, then I stamped it onto my calico fabric.

    I chose to use the light blue for my Aeroplanes.

      I also stamped onto the second piece of Calico for the back.
   
      I then needed to cut an aperture out of the middle of my front piece of fabric.

    To make the aperture I drew a rectangle onto the reverse of the stamped fabric where you want your aperture to be. I then drew a cross from corner to corner and cut along the lines and folded the triangles back along the lines as shown. If the tops of the Triangles poke out over the edge of your tag, just snip them off.

    Then I tried the pens with a stencil.

This worked well too. I chose the red pen and a star stencil.

    3. You need to set the Fabric pen ink by ironing your fabric. I recommend doing as they say and cover your fabric with a cloth to protect your iron. If you do get ink on the base of your iron, let it cool and then wipe it off. Do check that you get it all off your iron before you iron hubbies white work shirt though!!

   4. Now to sew our tag together. 

          First stitch around the aperture to hold your triangle flaps down.

          Then, with printed sides together, sew all the way around your tag. You don't need to leave a gap to turn your tag as shown in the photo, you can use the great big aperture to do that. I would of worked that out if I had thought about it!! I did realise after I had struggled for a while to turn my tag through the tiny gap I had left.

   5. So turn your tag the right way out and then give it a good press with your iron, not forgetting the cloth.

  

    6. I then sewed a button hole through both layers of the tag, I found that quicker than doing 2 separate ones on each layer of the tag before I stitched the tag together, as I had done on my star tag here.  If you don't want to do a button hole then just stitch your ribbon to your tag.

    7.  To finish my tag I cut a piece of card and added my details. I also cut a piece of thick plastic to cover my details and protect them from rain etc. I used a piece of plastic packaging you get on everything as this will hold the tag stiffer. Once I was happy with the fit I used a fabric glue or any strong glue and glued the plastic piece in place by applying the glue around the edges of the aperture and then putting something heavy on top until the glue is dry.

    8. Then add a nice piece of ribbon through your button holes and attach to your bag!  You might want to put a couple of stitches through the knot just to make sure you don't loose your beautiful new tag.

So now we have a finished the tag what did I think of the pens?

Well, to be honest I have not used many fabric pens before but I found the Bower Fabric Pens -

* Nice and easy to use and come in nice sturdy carry case too.

* They didn't bleed into the fabric and the colours came out nice and bright.

* They worked very well on the stamps.

* Didn't bleed through the stencil.

* Great price too

Only one down point -

* The nib did felt up as you used them. I don't know if this was the fabric I was using but it was a bit annoying. I could just remove the fluff and it was fine again. Although you did loose the point from the nib a bit.

I don't think the felting would stop me recommending then though. At £8.99 for 10 pens, 8 different colours and 2 blacks ( when this blog was written) on Amazon they are a great price and if you want to try fabric pens out they are a great set to go for. They would be great for children to use too.

Bower are a young British company who sell through Amazon. 

you can find their fabric pens here -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fabric-Pens-Permanent-Markers-Vari-Detail/dp/B078TGK4WL/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1532774992&sr=8-2-spons&keywords=bower+pens&psc=1

Bower Watercolour pens here -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Watercolour-Pens-Artists-Brush-Markers/dp/B0713SMN55/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1532774992&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=bower+pens&psc=1

Thank you Bower for sending them to me.

Attack puppy sign

My sister has the most beautiful little Labrador puppy at the moment, she is so full of fun and mischief and loves to show you how much she loves you by licking you half to death! So when I saw this saying in the Silhouette design store I had to do something with it.

The sign itself was a barging I found at the post Christmas sales. It’s was a wooden plaque with Happy Christmas on it. 

So I painted it over with white acrylic paint and then covered it with some Craft Consortium decoupage paper in a wood effect.

I then cut the saying out from vinyl on my Silhouette Cameo, along with a Labrador puppy and some doggie bones.

I added some garden twine so you could hang it up and it was done!

Stencilfied journal week 6

The challenge for week 6 of the Stencilfied journal challenge from StencilGirl is to stencil a page and then poke holes in it.

This was quite a fun one to do. Here is my page.

Not sure if I like it, I love the quote but......... ? Perhaps it will grow on me.

All the stencils used are from StencilGirl. 

I poked holes in the star bursts and have placed silver paper behind them, which doesn’t show up on the photo.

You can join in the challenge too, all the pages from all the people playing along can be found at 

#stencilfiedjournal and #StencilGirl

Stencilfied journal week 5

This week, is week 5 of the StencilGirl Stencilfied journal challenge. Each week we get a new challenge to create a journal page using StencilGirl stencils.

   This weeks challenge is - 

Here is the page I created

StencilGirl stencil are not that easy to come by here in the U.K. but as soon as I saw this one I knew I had to have it.

Decopatch Hare

I found this wonderful plastic Hare in the pound shop, he was originally painted bronze and looked really convincing from afar but with a little bit of crafting magic the looked even better!

I covered him with the Craft Consortium English Garden decoupage papers available from The Fruit Pixie -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/craft-consortium-decoupage-papers-716-c.asp

The way you work with these papers is to tear them into pieces and then using a wet glue that dries clear, like the IndigoBlu Slap it on glue here-

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/indigoblu-slap-it-on---gloss-26803-p.asp

Glue the torn pieces to your project, also covering the surface of the paper as you go.

To finish my hare off I used a brown pastel pencil to add some shadows and then rubbed in a pearl paint to seal in the pastel pencil and add a little shimmer. 

I then couldn’t help but add a die cut bow tie!

What do you think ?

Stencilfied journal week 4

The challenge for week four in the Stencilfied journal challenge from Stencil girl was to use your least favourite colour and write about the things you love. 

    After a lot of thinking I decided on black as my least favourite colour in the end. I never wear black or have anything in my home in black. I do use it in my art work but only really for lettering. I wouldn’t say I hated it but it is just not a colour I naturally reach for. So that was the colour I chose.

Here is my page

Which colour would you choose?

StencilGirl Stencilfied journal

I am taking part in the StencilGirl Stencilfied journal challenge this summer. 16 challenges, one each week using StencilGirl stencils.

 We are up to week 3

I decided to cut a leaf out on my Silhouette Cameo and used my Gelli plate to print onto it

I think I might add it to the inside cover of my journal which I made for the challenge.

Mini nature journal

I have been battling with the blog app I have been using for a while now and lost, so I am a little behind with my blog posts. Now though I have a new app so, cross fingers, I can get back on track with my blog posts.

 

    So to begin with my blog post for May for Tangie and Co Art Journal Emporium. Using the beautiful artist pages that comes as a small part of your monthly subscription and a piece of folded card I made this sweet little journal

   

  The background was made using watercolours and outlines were made with Bower watercolour brushes.

You can find my full blog post with my tutorial on the Tangie and CO blog here -

https://shoptangiebaxter.com/blogs/news/nature-mini-journal

   You can find out more about the Tangie and Co Art Journal Emporium subscription here

 https://shoptangiebaxter.com/

Bower watercolour pens here -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bower-Watercolour-Brush-Pens-Set/dp/B0713SMN55/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1529231997&sr=8-1&keywords=bower+watercolour+brush+pens+set+12

 

Busy as a bee altered custard powder tin

   Today I have an altered custard powder tin to show you that I made for The Fruit Pixie, who I design for. I covered the tin with the wonderful Craft Consortium “Tell the Bees” papers and then stamped some of their wonderful bee stamps onto scraps of the paper and cut them out. Then glued them to the outside of the tin. 

 

The letters for Busy as a Bee were cut on my Silhouette Cameo.

 

I stuck some of the ribbon from the collection around the top and bottom.

I also added some of the collection sequins to add a bit of sparkle!

 

 

You can find the Craft Consortium “Tell the Bees” collection in the Fruit Pixie shop here -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/craft-consortium-tell-the-bees-collection-715-c.asp

 

 

 

 

Art apron

I wouldn’t call myself a messy crafter but I have had a few accidents along the way. So I thought I would make myself an apron. Nothing special, out of calico, two pieces stitched together.   Then I decided to add some machine embroidery. 

Then I found this wonderful free SVG on the net that I cut out of iron on vinyl on my silhouette Cameo and it became  an art apron to be proud of!!                    Shame its going to get covered in paint! Oh well!

Paint brush roll

I have been meaning to make myself a brush roll for my art brushes for ages now. As the machine was out this weekend, I am taking part in a sew a long, I got to work!

I worked on three different projects, my brush roll, an art apron ( I want to finish that off with decoration ) and the latest step in the sew along.

 

I was really pleased with my brush roll! Three projects in one weeked and no pattern for any of them! 

Puppy countdown

My sister is collecting her new puppy very soon and to say she is excited is an understatement! This little pup will become a school dog so we are all very excited to get to know her.      I thought it would be nice to make her a countdown so she can count down the days to collection day! So I made one as my weekly project for The Fruit Pixie.    Here is what I made. Of course you don't have to be collecting a puppy, it could be anything you are looking forward to, a holiday, baby or just a day off!  

The papers are from the Craftwork cards Bohemian Dreams, as are the flags.

The chalk board is a piece of Chalkboard card.

The letters and other die cut shapes were cut from scrap card on my Silhouette Cameo.

I then used a white pen to add some detail.

 

You can find the paper pad in the Fruit Pixie online shop here -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/craftwork-cards-8-x-8-collection-pack-bohemian-dreams-25673-p.asp

The chalkboard card -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/chalkboard-paper-25905-p.asp

  

3D Beehive Card

Well here in the South West of England spring is finally here! The birds are nesting and the bumblebees are busy in the flowerpots. Perhaps that is what inspired me to make this card for the Fruit Pixie.        Its a 3D Beehive shaped card. I designed it myself in the Silhouette software which comes with the Silhouette electronic cutting machines. I have designed it so it will lay down flat to post it.  

The papers I used for my card are the “Tell it to the bees “ papers from Craft Consortium, which are back in stock!

I used the gold hexagon paper for the hive and the bees I cut out of another paper which has rows of bees on it. 

I wanted my bees to hover over the card front so I attached some craft wire to them and then wrapped it around a pencil to make a kind of spring.

All the beautiful sequins are also from Craft Consortium Tell the bees set.

 

You can find the Craft Consortium Tell the bees paper pad in the Fruit Pixie online shop here -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/craft-consortium-paper-pad-tell-the-bees-26864-p.asp

 

The Craft Consortium Tell the bees sequins here -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/tell-the-bees---honeycomb-sequins-26880-p.asp

 

Jazz it up card

This weeks blog project for the Fruit Pixie is a card for Jazz fans!!   I made this card using the Cosmic Shimmer Pixie Powders, this time using them on photo paper. They really swirl around on the slick surface of the paper, just make sure you tape it down on all 4 sides before you begin as it will want to warp.

Once the background was toughly dry I used the Visible image Jazz it up stamp set to stamp the main image in an archival ink.

For the mat I cut a piece of white card a little bigger than the main topper. I mixed the gold Pixie Powders into a paint by adding water and painted a strip around the edge of the card piece and left it to dry.

The card base I stamped with another Visible image stamp set, Soul music.

Once the mat was dry I layered my card up stamped and the Jazz it up stamp again on the card blank to finish it off.

I hope you liked my Jazzy card.

You can find the stamps in,the Fruit Pixie shop here-

Jazz it up 

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/visible-image-jazz-it-up-25144-p.asp

Soul music -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/visible-image-soul-music-25141-p.asp

Archival ink -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/archival-ink-pads-339-c.asp

 

The pixie powders can be found in the Fruit Pixies Etsy shop.

 

Any questions I am happy to answer, best to hop over to our Facebook page.

Until next time, take care,

 

Love Katrina x

Easter treats for Nephews

My nephews are all grown up now but when I approched the subject of being too old for sweets now the answer was a definate “No! We’re never to old for sweets!”          So here are their Easter treats, the white rabbits for the boys and pink for the girlfriends. The little baskets for my Mums. All filled with mini eggs.  

They were all cut on my beloved Silhouette Cameo and the files can be found in the Silhouette design shop.

 

Austrian Easter bread

Those of you who follow my blog will know I love Austria, we holiday there as often as we can and I can even speak the language, on a good day!!!

 Austrian bakers must be the best in the world, so many different breads and cakes, I love visiting them for kaffee and Kuchen in the afternoon. As I enjoy baking I like to use my language skills to bake Austrian bakes and most of the time they even work!   For Easter I made an Austrian Easter bread  

                                  

 

Delicious with a cup of tea!

 

Easter Bunny

Its not very often these days I make something just because, I am usually busy with design team projects, which I love to do, or family birthday cards etc. But today I have something to show you that I made just for me!    Last year or perhaps even the year before, in the sale on Create and Craft they had a set of Dreamees MDF Easter shapes along with a stamp set. The price was good and as I looked at the MDF shapes, an egg, bunny head, square plaque and a sign I knew exactly what I could do with them.    Here it is, all the shapes together to make my Easter bunny                                  

I used the egg shape for her body, the square for the base and the head and sign as you can see.

Her features and the word carrots were cut on my Silhouette Cameo, along with her pink inner ears.

Her jacket I cut from scraps of Scrapbook paper. The collar and pockets from scraps of coloured card.

A few buttons finished her outfit off.

To stand her up I glued a cloths peg to her back, hubbies idea, and disguised it with white paint and a strip of the paper I used for her jacket. I also added a little pom pom from some pom pom trim to give her a tail. The peg just made her easier to glue to the base.

The carrots I got from the £1 shop and the fence was cut out using an old Sizzix Ranger on the edge die called on the fence.

Her little bow was also cut with a die and finished with a glittery button.

It was such fun making this little scene and I am sure I will use it every Easter for may years to come.

Happy Easter x

Easter bunny broaches

As Easter is just around the corner I thought it would be nice to make something for Easter for my Fruit Pixie blog project this week. So I designed these cute little bunny broaches which I thought would make a nice little gift. As they are quick and easy to make they would make a perfect little project for the Easter holidays.

 

I made them with the Ranger sticky backed canvas, an amazing product that you can do so much with. Using canvas means they will be supple and so you wont have to worry about them becoming bent while wearing them.

 

Making them is very simple. 

 

I made myself a template using a scrap piece of card. I drew around 2 round objects  (I used my round die set) one smaller than the other to make the body. I then drew and bunny ear and drew around that to make my second ear. I glued the ears onto my bunny body to finish the template.

 

Then I cut a strip of the sticky backed canvas, using the template to judge how wide I needed it. I then folded the strip in half bottom to top, peeled off the backing paper and stuck the two halves together. If you start at the fold and smooth up, you wont get any bubbles.

 

Using my template I drew my bunnies and cut them out.

 

I used the Cosmic Shimmer paints in pastel colours to paint both sided of my bunnies.

 

When dry I drew around the outside with a crayon.

 

I decided not to draw any features on my bunnies but just added a little bow and a pompom from a pompom trim I had for his tail. You can add what ever you have to finish them off.

 

I added a broach back to the back using a small strip of the sticky backed canvas with a little PVA glue to add extra strength. If you don't have any broach backs then a safety pin works just as well

 

 

 

I made my bunnies into little broaches but you could put them onto slide backs, key-rings or on cards too. There are all sorts of ways to use them.

 

Here are the products I used from the Fruit Pixie shop-

 

Ranger Sticky backed Canvas -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/ranger-sticky-back-canvas-white-11684-p.asp

 

Cosmic Shimmer paint -

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

 

Bows -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/craftime-enchanted-ribbon-bows-16531-p.asp

Or

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/craftime-flower-bows-regency-20919-p.asp

Or

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/craftime-bitty-bows-violet-21435-p.asp

 

Broach backs-

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/30mm-gilt-brooch-pin-back-516-p.asp

 

 

Sunday walk altered tin

For my March blog post for Tangie Baxter & Co, as part of my creative team duties, I wanted to make something bright and colourful. It was quite ironic as the day I altered my tin snow was falling outside my window! Here is my project, an altered sardine tin using Tangie’s Wonderland kit and a few of her collage sheets. Her products are all digital but as you can see digital products don’t need to stay on your computer! 

You can find a full photo tutorial over on the Tangie Baxter and Co blog 

https://shoptangiebaxter.com/blogs/news

Snow fairy art doll

I really enjoy making art dolls and was inspired by the beautiful traditional dresses that the women wore for the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang this year.

  So my Snow Fairy art doll was born!  I made her as a project for the Fruit Pixie who I design for.

For the body of the fairy I used the Artistic Stamper Art Doll rubber stamp set - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/artistic-stamper-art-doll-medium-8021-p.asp

For her dress and coat I chose to use the Craft Consortium Winter Woodland papers -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/craft-consortium-paper-pad-winter-woodland-27414-p.asp

Her wings were cut using my Silhouette Cameo electronic cutting machine. I cut them from card then glided them in places using the IndigoBlu Megaflakes-

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/indigoblu-megaflakes-533-c.asp

Her wand was made by cutting out the flowers from the Craft Consortium Winter Woodland paper and then built up to look like a snowflake.

Once she had her wand she was all set to sprinkle her snowflakes.