Woodcuts ATC

Hello all, I'm celebrating the fantastic return of Calico Craft Parts again today.  (If you missed the Garden Tray, do check it out.)


Although Calico Crafts suffered a terrible fire last year and had to close down, I'm thrilled that this fantastic line of wood and MDF shapes is now available again, with a brand new website which you can find here.


This Woodcuts ATC was created for the Calico Crafts Design Team using some of the Calico Craft Parts designs, and I thought it was about time I added it to my crafty scrapbook here.


Please don't feel you have to comment again if you saw last time around!

The fabulous laser-cut MDF Wood Mini Plaques come in sheets, so you also get brilliantly useful "leftovers" - there's stencilling potential, or you could use the frames in all sorts of other ways too (and they're only £1.99 for a sheet - bargain!).

I'd had the idea to create a dimensional ATC - layering up the Mini Plaques onto a thick piece of card cut to 2.5 x 3.5 inches in size.  Fantastically, the new-look Calico Craft Parts includes a wide range of ATC blanks - including a plain one.  I'll definitely be stocking up on some of those great designs!

I took six of the Mini Squares, and applied DecoArt One-Step Crackle to them.  Once it had done it's magic, I inked over the top to highlight the crackles.

The other plaques I used were the Primitive Stars...

... the Primitive Hearts...

... and the Ovals.

I stuck them to an old book page with Mod Podge Matte from my little Mod Podge Starter Set.

When the glue was fully dry, I pressed down hard around the edges, and then used an emery board to trim away the excess paper.

You need always to stroke downwards with the emery board so as not to risk the edges of the paper getting caught and peeling up.

I inked the edges just for extra shading, and once I was happy with the layout I added a couple of Chitchat stickers to the ovals.

My base was just some thick card I had hanging around.  I covered it with pages from the same book as before, and used some Raw Umber paint to make the edges a rich dark brown to match the edges of the laser cut Craft Parts.

I won't have to do most of that now that I can just get one of the Calico Craft Parts ATC blanks to fit the bill!

So, a simple enough make, but I think the fantastic Craft Parts make it look pretty cool.  I hope you like it too.

Head over to Calico Craft Parts and check out these and many, many more designs now available... with new ones arriving all the time.  I'm so happy they're back!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I'll see you again soon.

We all come in different shapes and sizes, and that's fine by me.
Kristin Scott Thomas

Long Live Calico Craft Parts!

Hello all!  I'm absolutely thrilled to share some fantastic news with you... After the awful fire which put the much-loved Calico Crafts out of business last year, I'm delighted to say that the Calico Craft Parts have arisen from the ashes.  This brilliant line of gorgeous laser-cut wood and MDF shapes is now available again, with an ever-expanding range of even more designs to choose from.  Check out the brand new website here.

To celebrate the wonderful news, I thought I'd share some of my Calico Crafts Design Team posts which used the Craft Parts - posts which hadn't yet made it over here to Words and Pictures and need to be added to the crafty scrapbook - starting with one of my favourites, this Garden Tray.  (If you commented last time, please don't feel you have to again!)

The tray itself is part of a range of self-assembly Printers' Trays - they're being re-designed at present and should be available very soon.  It's so cool that you put them together yourself, because it means you can decorate them beforehand, which makes painting and papering much easier.  So here's what I came up with for my first tray - it's a country garden, moving through the seasons, in a tray!  And it uses other wonderful Calico Craft Parts available now.

I'm afraid I forgot to take photos at the early stages... but I started with the DecoArt Chalky Finish Paints.

I gave the walls of the tray a coat of Enchanted - an earthy garden green, then a coat of the Decor Crackle Medium (specially formulated for the Chalk Paints), and then the white Everlasting over the top.

Eventually they had added shading using all sorts of colours, which you'll find out about further down the post.

On the back wall, I glued a piece of the Tim Holtz Menagerie 8x8 paper using the matte Mod Podge from my Mod Podge Starter Set.  Because the pattern on the paper varies, it looks as though I've carefully chosen different papers for different sections of the tray... nope, it's just one piece! 

I decided it was time to glue the tray together.  Because I had added both paper and some quite thick paint layers, I had to do a bit of sanding around the "teeth" where the pieces join to get them to fit snugly.

You might be better not gluing the paper right over the teeth, but just up to the edges of them - that's what I'll be trying next time - you live, you learn! - or maybe that's what they're working on in the redesign!

I added some shading with green paint, a wash of DecoArt Hauser Light Green, on the corners, both external and internal, adding a bit of colour to the background paper too.

Next, I started filling my compartments with lots of rustic goodies.

I altered some Buttons with paint - the Enchanted and Everlasting chalk paints again, a little touch of DecoArt Forest Green - and a tiny touch of Florentine Gold Treasure Gold.

I threaded Rusty Tin Wire through the buttonholes, and layered some of them up over different sizes of the Rusty Tin Hearts. 

The smaller heart is mounted on a cork from a glass vial which smashed.  Naturally I saved the cork, and now it's doing good service creating great dimension in this little section of the tray.

The smallest rusty heart is mounted over one of my favourite Punched Metal Heart Danglies, which has had the same painty treatment as the buttons.  And I curled a bit of rusty tin wire through the hole at the top.

In the tall segment at the top, with the largest rusty heart (mounted on some padded tape), I added one of these fabulous shiny yellow pears, so that became a sort of autumnal section, especially with those pods looking like sycamore wings, of which more later.

Just below that, it's Spring!  I created a little nest of green jungle moss and someone clearly took advantage as there are now some miniature speckled eggs nestled in it.  I also added some of lovely Sun Daisies in Golden Yellow, Yellow, and White and Yellow.

And there are some more daisies up in the summery corner, top left.  These I left with longer stems, rather than chopping them off as I usually do, and I used some masking tape to stick them into a UTEE moulded pot I'd made a while back and which had been sitting on my craft table, waiting for a chance to come out and play.  

The moulded UTEE is painted with DecoArt paints in Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber with a little dark shadow of Raw Umber at the edges and some highlights of Florentine Gold Treasure Gold.

The final touches include some more of the wonderful Calico Craft Parts - one of the grasses, Wild Grass Shape 2...

... and a snippet of seed pods, cut off from the Maple Leaf and Twig shape that I used in the orchard frame which I'll be sharing with you soon.  It's playing the role of autumn sycamore seeds here!

Both of them had a coat of DecoArt One Step Crackle, and then I inked with Vintage Photo Distress Stain to intensify the crackles.  You may also spot little shimmers of the Treasure Gold too (as well as the button hiding in the dappled sunlight behind!).

I used lots of Rusty Tin Wire to attach an Idea-ology Word Band which I'd altered with the Hauser Light Green and Forest Green paints, as well as some Quinacridone Gold paint and Florentine Gold Treasure Gold.

I almost forgot to tell you the paints for the shading on the outside!  I used the Quinacridone Gold and some Raw Umber around the corners of the tray, so that the edges also have a good rustic feel to them.

So that's my rustic garden Printer's Tray for you... From what I hear, various styles of tray will be available at Calico Craft Parts soon - definitely worth keeping an eye out for, and great fun to play with.

In the meantime, I can only recommend that you head over to Calico Craft Parts and see what fabulous bits and bobs are available, and all for temptingly reasonable prices.  You have been warned!

Thanks so much for dropping in, and I'll see you again soon.

Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it.

Rumi

Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes.
Anonymous

Textured Tags for Artistic Stamper

Hello all!  Thanks so much for your lovely comments on the Krafty Busy Bee - sorry if I sent some of you off to the honey pot for a feast on top of all that chocolate last week!  I'm here with a sneak peek today, hoping to tempt you over to The Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog to see a pair of textured tags.

They're full of texture and gilding and - unusually for me - 3D flowers...  It doesn't happen often, so I hope you'll have time to hop over to check them out.

I'm looking forward to fitting in some blog-visiting this weekend, and if anybody's at Ally Pally this Sunday, you might just find me doing some demo-ing over at the PaperArtsy stand.  If I don't see you there, I'll hope to catch you here or elsewhere in Craftyblogland very soon.

The truth worth of a man is not to be found in man himself, but in the colours and textures that come alive in others.
Albert Schweitzer

A busy krafty bee!

Hello all!  I'm back with my second offering of the month to inspire you to come and play along with our Use Kraft Card theme at Country View Challenges... and I found myself with a very busy bee on my hands.

It started (as lots of my tags do these days) with the Mixed Media thinlits - and this time it's the honeycomb I've been playing with... and from the honeycomb it was a small but obvious journey to the Tim Holtz Layered Bee.

The background is actually one which has been sitting around on my craft table for a while.  I was having a play with my (then) new Mini Bee on Time stencil, and created various backgrounds.













This one involved gesso and lots of Wild Honey and Scattered Straw Distress Sprays.

Looking at it, I'm pretty sure this one was a flipped-over print to use up leftover paint after gessoing through the stencil onto another tag (the bee is non-gesso, and the surround is textured gesso).










Then it was onto the kraft card and the honeycomb Mixed Media thinlit.

Having cut it, I inked the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, and a little Rusty Hinge in places, I think, and then reassembled some of the pieces (not necessarily back into the right holes, though some of them have made it there).










I applied Glossy Accents to some holes and pieces, and Rock Candy Crackle Paint to others.













I'm really happy with the effect... like glossy honey ready and waiting to be harvested.











The large bee was also cut from kraft card, embossed, edged with Vintage Photo and then given his own coat of Rock Candy Crackle Paint.

After it had crackled, I added sweeps of Rusty Hinge, Vintage Photo and Wild Honey Distress Stain to give a little more depth to the cracks.

He had to be positioned very carefully so as to allow his gesso cousin to be visible beneath.

The WordBand has been altered with some Wild Honey Distress Paint as well as some rusty and gingery alcohol inks...














... and there are some dyed crinkle ribbons to top it off.









I hope you're inspired to Use Kraft Card this month.  Remember, there are new projects from the team almost daily over at Country View Challenges, so hopefully you'll never be short of ideas and inspiration.  We hope you'll come and play along.

For now, I'll love you and leave you, and I hope to be able to come and do some visiting soon!

There is one masterpiece, the hexagonal cell, that touches perfection.  No living creature, not even man, has achieved in the centre of his sphere, what the bee has achieved in her own; and were someone from another world to descend and ask of the earth the most perfect creation of the logic of life, we should needs have to offer the humble comb of honey.
From The Life of the Bee by Maurice Maeterlinck, 1924

The keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.
Henry David Thoreau

Find the ingredients at Country View Crafts:
Tim Holtz Layered Bee
Sizzix Mixed Media Thinlits
Distress Spray Stains - Wild Honey, Scattered Straw
Distress Stains - Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge, Vintage Photo
Distress Inks - Vintage Photo, Rusty Hinge
Distress Paint - Wild Honey
Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Inks - Ginger, Rust, Teakwood
Gesso
Glossy Accents
Rock Candy Crackle Paint
Idea-ology WordBands - Observations
Idea-ology Crinkle Ribbons
Manila Tags
From my stash: Kraft card, TCW Mini Bee On Time stencil

Through the Looking Glass

Hello all!  Don't be deceived by the title - it's not an Alice project, it's the new challenge theme over at A Vintage Journey.

Our host is the lovely Julia, and she's taking us Through the Looking Glass, with an invitation to make a project using glass (acetate) or mirrors (metal sheet).  You'll find all the details of the challenge, plus some fabulous inspiration pieces from my amazing team-mates, over at A Vintage Journey, so do check it out.

But for now, here's my offering.  I toyed for a while with ideas of mirrors, but ended up with bottles - and it only occurs to me now that they might have been inspired by the Alice connections of the theme title.

Perhaps I should have added some little labels saying "Drink Me"!  I did play with adding various labels, but I liked the purity of the glass vials without interruption, so they all got discarded in the end.









As you can see, I used the Tim Holtz Apothecary Bottles die.  I cut some discarded packaging acetate and started experimenting with various crackle and gloss mediums to create a dimensional glass look.











There are layers of DecoArt Crackle Glaze, Rock Candy Crackle Paint and DecoArt Triple Gloss Glaze involved in the final look.

I love the bubbles of imperfection...











... as well as the fact that some of the crackle layers peeled off in places...

... it all adds to that vintage glass look, I think.  They're now pleasurably hefty - a good 2-3mm thick, with a good dimensional curve to the edges, and they catch the light beautifully!








The background tag was a mop-up piece, sitting around on the craft table.  I've no real idea any more of exactly what colours went into it, though I do know that there was some Picket Fence Distress Spray reverse stencil printing at one point. 

That's what gives you the lovely cloudiness in places.  I just thought the watery look of it would be a great background for my glass bottles - tricking the eye into putting liquid inside the bottles too.










I did add some flourish stamping using Glacier White pigment ink.  Again, it's fairly subliminal, but it adds a nice swirling movement to the tag.










I used Inktense pencils to provide some shading under the bottles, so that they could stand more firmly.

We wouldn't want the glass to break, after all.











The words are stamped in Versamark and embossed in Seafoam White, and I also added a little touch of the powder around the edges of the tag.












And the ribbons at the top are dyed with Tumbled Glass (of course!) and knotted around themselves to stay in place.

I hope you'll check out all the inspiration, and then join us Through The Looking Glass at A Vintage Journey.

Remember you now have a whole month to play, so there's plenty of time.




As always, you could be in with a chance at the prize voucher, generously sponsored by Country View Crafts, and you might be selected as one of our three Pinworthy projects.  Hope to see you en route!!

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.
Anton Chekhov

Among the many thousands of things I have never been able to understand, one in particular stands out.  That is the question of who is the first person who stood by a pile of sand and said, "You know, I bet if we took some of this and mixed it with a little potash and heated it, we could make a material which would be solid and yet transparent.  We could call it glass."  Call me obtuse, but you could stand me on a beach until the end of time and it would never occur to me to try to make it into windows.
Bill Bryson
And yes, I know I've used that one before, but do I love it!



It's been a busy start to the month as always...

If you missed my Flora and Fauna for the new Artistic Stamper challenge, or the Krafty Butterflies for Use Kraft Card at Country View Challenges, do check them out.

Have a lovely Easter weekend everybody, however you celebrate.