Crafting prodigy

We have not had that great a summer this year but I have manage to craft outside a few times which is always nice to do. We live next door to a lovely family who's youngest member, Megan, is 8 and likes to come and have a chat over the low fence. One afternoon I was crafting away and Megan popped up over the fence and was amazed at what I was doing, she had never come across adult crafting before and we ended up crafting together over the fence, which I have to say is not easy!!  This has bloomed into a friendship and she has become my little prodigy! We have crafted together a couple of times since, we gave up the over the fence idea in the end.

   After teaching her stamping and paper piecing, which she is amazing at, we went onto stencilling. Megan loves to collect the little rubber animals and so I had promised her we could make homes for them.

I found a nice cutting file in the Silhouette store and cut them out in white card. A great deal of thought went into who would live with who and then what they would like on their house.

Each house was painted inside and out with watercolour and then a design was stencilled on the outside with ink. The Penguin's home was stamped with snowflakes,

The whale and octopus had a wavy pattern like the sea, the cow who is looking out the window, a zigzag farm style pattern.

Monkey and elephant wanted bamboo to remind them of the jungle

and hamster just liked the pink!

They all had house numbers from book pages and a door handle of course!

We completed the houses with removable roofs so they can be played with, which we covered with scraps of scrapbook papers.

We both had great fun doing this project and you can't tell which house I did and which was Megan's works, she is quite amazing and a complete natural. No one else in her family is crafty in any way but she loves it. We will get together again soon and have a crafty afternoon, I have so many ideas!

  I have always loved Origami, I spent most of my revision time for my exams making origami animals with the paper pad rather than notes on history and commerce! I did pass my exams but also fell in love with paper folding.

   Then a few years ago I bought a kit at my local craft shop to make Shiori dolls. The trouble was the papers were so lovely I just didn't want to spoil them, so they went away in my craft cupboard but I have been in quite an oriental mood recently with all the dies and cards I have made so I dug out the kit and made one of the dolls up.

  I then remembered how well the Far and Away papers, from The Fruit Pixie, folded and so decided to make one up using them...............   Trouble is I had so much fun I couldn't just stop at one!

These are very easy to make, there are lots of instructions on the internet.

The Far and Away papers make lovely dolls. I used the scraps left over from the cards I have been making over the past few weeks

Its always nice to do something different with your papers. These make great bookmarks too.

The papers are available from the Fruit Pixie here -  http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/

Dancing Lantern Card

       I just love these dies from Spellbinders, the Dancing Lanterns dies are such fun, I love the 2 different designs and they have even given you the lantern holder to hang them on, how cute is that!

            I also used the wonderful Far and Away papers, these papers are beautiful and were just made to go with these dies.

      So here is my card -

I made the card using a 5"x5" card blank and the Far and Away papers - White Dragon, Red solid and Pink character shimmer. 

As I have already mentioned you have 2 different lantern designs, which are separate dies. The small shapes in the middle can be found with the handle which is the 3rd die in the set. I didn't use the handle this time but instead hung the lanterns on some bakers twine.

I then finished the card off with a greeting.

All the products used in my card are available from The Fruit Pixie online shop - 

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/

Spellbinders Plumb Blossom die cards

I have been playing with the Plumb Blossom die by Spellbinders for the Fruit Pixie and mixed it with a piece of the lovely Far and away papers, this one is called Navy Blossom, they also sell to make this card.

I covered the card with the Far and Away paper and cut an oval aperture and then placed a piece of acetate behind. I then built up the bird on the branch and stuck that to the front of the card. I cut extra branches and built up the flowers on them to frame the aperture.

It dose take a bit of time this card but I was happy sat watching Arrietty, a Japanese Animation film by the fantastic Studio Ghibli. I love all their films, this one is the story of the borrowers and the animation is just breathtaking. If you haven't seen one of their films then try one, you won't regret it. I prefer the Japanese folk tales they do but Arrietty is still a beautiful film. Not all animation is aimed at children.

If you would like to try this die then you can find it here - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/spellbinders-dies-648-c.asp

Funny Farm Pages

Kristy Scrapbook Designs, who I design for, has a new kit out as part of the Mischief Circus Designer collaboration. While the other designers on the team make digital pages I am much more a paper and scissors gal. So here are my pages

You can find the kit here -http://www.mischiefcircus.com/shop/product.php?productid=23103&cat=&page=

Musical cards

We have a lot of music players in the family at the moment. My youngest nephew plays the guitar and then his cousin plays the drums and another cousin plays the flute. So when it comes to birthday cards for teenagers its nice to give them something they are interested in.

My nephew was 16 and loves his guitars, so this shaped electric guitar card, I made on my Silhouette Cameo from the Silhouette store, went down really well.

This one for our drum player was also made up from elements from the Silhouette store. The background was drawn by the machine and then the die cut applied on top. The sentiment is a die from Spellbinders

Adventures down a rabbit hole book

    This is quite a project I made for The Fruit Pixie using the Visible Images stamps. It did take me a while to complete, so grab a cup of tea, check for door mice asleep in the tea pot and come with me for an Adventure down a rabbit hole!

I wanted to make a peek through book using the story of Alice. The cover is very simple, I used the largest of my circle dies to make the first hole and chose the paper from Ruby Rocket to cover the front and some of the lovely washi tape to add some definition.

The title for the book was printed out from the computer. I tried to get a font that was as close to the font in the stamp sets and this was the closest match. The font is from Lettering Delights called, rather appropriately Red Hatters Hand. 

So the first page had to be Alice, the hole is the same size as the covers, I then just chose the next size down to cut the page after and continued like that until I had finished my book pages. All the holes have acetate sandwiched between the embossed card and the backing paper on the reverse side. I coloured all the pages using watercolour paint first then chose an embossing folder that I thought would match the character on the page. Once embossed I used an ink pad to bring out the highlights of the emboss. 

I then stamped, coloured and cut out Alice along with the other small stamps in the set.

It was fun to find and cut die cuts to build a little scene around each character to help tell the story. Of course my Silhouette Cameo electronic die cutting machine helped a great deal!

On each page I cut up the quote for each character and stuck it over the window.

Page 2 is the white rabbit of course! He has a Tim Holtz clock embossing folder for his background and as well as the character of the white rabbit I also used a clock die and of course that wonderful quote and the tic tock stamp that comes in the set too.

Now page 3 is a character I haven't used up until now but I loved this page, the Cheshire cat! I added a branch for him to sit up in and grin down on us. He has a swirly background and I just love that quote too! He also comes with just his grin as a stamp too.

Page 4 is another character I haven't shown you yet, Twiddle dum and Twiddle dee. You only get 1 stamp but by stamping them twice and colouring them in differently they become the twins. They have a number embossed background and I used a piece of Washi tape to give them somewhere to stand and kept the page simple with just their quote. Sometimes if you have lots of busy pages its nice to let your eyes rest on a simple page.

Then onto page 4 with our very glamorous Queen of hearts. I used the small Tim Holtz card embossing folders for her background and the just cut some hearts that I used as wings for the Jar of hearts and her quote that comes in her set.

Then at the last page we come to the Mad Hatter and his tea party. Funny I wasn't sure of him at first but as I have used these stamps he has become my favourite, he really is quite Bonkers!! So this page has a crazy background and of course it had to have tea cups and a tea pot all grounded by a strip of washi tape. Then these wonderful Ha Ha's floating about around his quote, which I just love!

Well there we are a trip down the rabbit hole. I had a great time making this book, OK its not a quick project but it is sometimes nice to pull all your craft items together and make something fun. This would make a great gift for someone who is a fan of Lewis Carroll's wonderful book.

 Happy 150th Birthday Lewis Carroll!! 

New York journal and bag

My sister is off to New York this summer with her family for a holiday so I thought it would be nice to make her a little journal to keep all those little bits you always pick up on holiday and as I had a wonderful new digital kit called City scapes from Daisy chain I also made her a tote to put all the shopping in too.

I made up a New York skyline in Craft Artist pro using the New York City scape kit and printed it onto transfer paper.

I then ironed it onto the front of a white cotton tote bag. 

For the journal I made the book using my Silhouette cameo and then decorated the pages using the same New York Kit as above mixed with some cuts I found in the Silhouette store cut on my machine. Each page has a pocket to slot all those treasures you collect in. 

Bonkers Mad Hatters Tea party Hat

I don't know if it is the summer heat or just me but as soon as I got the Visible Images Mad Hatter Stamp set from the Fruit Pixie I just had to do a Mad Hatters Hat!  I found a wonderful hat, the mourners hat, in the Silhouette Cameo shop and along with the stamp set and a couple of the die sets from the Fruit Pixie too I was all set!

The Mad Hatter was stamped, coloured in and then cut out. I also stamped the quote that also comes in the set and cut that out too. I made a mat for the Mad Hatter to make him stronger as I wanted him to stand out from the hat. I also cut a teapot boarder for the hat band on my Silhouette, you can just about see it.

The bow came with the hat file and I used the Sue Wilson dies Corn flower and Splendid swirls. The cornflowers made the flower in the middle of the bow and the Splendid swirls comes with the swirls I used at the side but also the wonderful silly springs . I just added some teapots and cups cut with my silhouette too.

It was such a silly project I had such fun making it.

The Stamps and dies are available from The Fruit Pixie online shop here - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/

Hogwarts witches hat

For my birthday back in April my wonderful little sister gave me a ticket to go to the Harry Potter studios. I was just sooooo excited to go and to have a fun day out just the two of us, something we hadn't done in years.

    I wanted to make her a keepsake to say thank you, so I made her this witches hat using my wonderful silhouette cameo machine and a cutting file from SVGcuts that do amazing 3d cutting files.

I didnt want it to look too halloweeny so I added a flower and a bottle top embellishment I had made ages ago that fitted right into the colour scheme.

of course I had to fill it with chocolate frogs!

We had a fantastic day, didn't get lost getting there, tried butter beer and took hundreds of photos       ( you think I am joking!)

Such a wonderful day out and my sister loved her hat too!

Sweet card using Couture Creations Vintage Rose papers

I love these papers from Couture Creations, they are so easy to use as they all go so well together and are double sided too. I made this card using a card base I cut on my wonderful Silhouette Cameo and then just collaged it using the papers.

I added some of the fronds cut using the Sue Wilson Cornflower die set to poke out over the collage pieces to finish it all off.

The papers and dies are available from the Fruit Pixie online shop - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/sue-wilson-die-cornflower-24674-p.asp

Visible image Alice in wonderland cards

I have the wonderful stamps from The Fruit Pixie, which are made by a British company Visible Image, and inspired by Alice in Wonderland, so you just cant go wrong really!

    Here are two cards I have made,

This one is made using the Queen of Hearts set. You get the Queen herself, a nice large stamp of about 3" and also the jar of hearts and the quote "Off with you head" which I didn't use on this card. The background is also a Visible image stamp called Grunge Harlequin.

Then the second card is using the Alice set, you get Alice and the piece of cake and the great quote too. The quote comes as a whole stamp but for this card I stamped it twice and cut it into two. 

There are lots of different stamps available from Visible image, check them out here - 

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/visible-image-640-c.asp.

Decorated travel case

The more I use my Silhouette Cameo the more I love it. One of the things I love to do with it is make 3d projects. So as soon as I saw this cute little travel case I had to make it. I also knew exactly what I wanted to make it with. The Fruit Pixie, who I design for, had just sent me the new Couture Creations Vintage Rose garden papers and I knew they would be perfect.

The papers are 6x6 and you get 48 double sided sheets so are perfect for any project

You also get these lovely vintage postcards and stamps and words you can cut out and collage

Now do you think I will get everything in here for my holiday to Austria?

I think I need to make a larger one!

If you would like to see the papers they can be found here - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/couture-creations-6x6-paper-pad-vintage-rose-garden-17145-p.asp

White rabbit door hanger

The Fruit Pixie sell the wonderful Visible image stamps and one of my favourite stamp sets is this White rabbit set from their Alice in wonderland series, although to be honest the whole series is great! So when I also received a set of the new Creative expressions MDF door hangers as well I knew they were a match made in heaven!

The stamps are high quality stamps that stamp like a dream and are easy to colour in too

I even stamped using the Cosmic Shimmer chalk paints with them to give the background extra interest.

For the pocket watch I used the Artistic stamper time and keys set, also available from The Fruit Pixie.

To finish it off I used one of the Fruit Pixies clock charms hung from a ribbon bow.

All the products, except the diamond boarder, that is a Tim Holtz strip die and the labels I used to stamp the quote and tick tock onto, they were cut on my silhouette, are available from the Fruit Pixie online shop - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/

Stamps - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/visible-image-640-c.asp

Lucky cat wedding charm

As I was saying in the previous post we had a family wedding the other weekend. It was always a tradition to give the bride a lucky charm after she was married, so I thought it would be nice to make the bride a lucky black cat.

   I found a cat shape in the Silhouette shop. Cut him out twice in chipboard and twice in black card and stuck all the layers together. Their save the date and invitation had a piece of ribbon , the wedding colour theme, on it so I pinched the save the date piece and popped it round his neck with a tiny shell charm from the random button collection from the Fruit Pixie.

I think the tradition has died out because I was the only one who gave her one and I think she thought I was slightly mad! I think she liked him though as he was hung on their wooden name over the fireplace.