Saturday 31 October 2015

HaPpY HaLlOwEeN: Samhain Blessings. By Zuzu

Well the last time I posted a project, I said it was my last Halloween project for calico Craft Parts. But then I realised I was due to put in a post ON Halloween. well I could hardly put up a christmas project on the actual day could I?

I know Halloween is not as popular south of the border as it is here in Scotland. it was always a Celtic tradition with the festival of Samhain. Autumn/Fall honouring and remembering our departed loved ones. sharing food and treats. disguises and carved lanterns. It is the Irish and Scottish immigrants who took the tradition to America; although it has changed quite a lot there now that it includes "Trick or Treat".
Here in Scotland, the children dress up but they must EARN their treats by singing a song, telling a joke or a scary story etc, and not use blackmailing tactics by threatening to play a trick if they dont get a treat. they would be sent off to think again if they dared lol.




Anyway I digress(again). as it is halloween I quickly put together this altered matchbox with two fun little creepy (in a nice way) scenes inside.


Calico Craft Parts Used:

Cobweb/ Spiders web corner
Bat
Sitting skeleton
Mini insects
sugar maple leaf (a few leaves broken off)

Thursday 29 October 2015

A Skull Named Norman - by Lesley

Only a few more days until Halloween........still time to sneak in another project, so i made this!


I started off with the medium size box, the one with the arch style front (even though i didn't end up using the front!) I painted both sides with black gesso and then added some crackle glaze to each side. Once this was dry, i glued the box together. I used red gilding wax, and rubbed it around the edges and into the cracks of the glaze.


I used a couple of the mini bats and crows and ravens for a bit of decoration on the sides.


Little wooden legs painted black were added to give the box some height.
Next came the fun part....the skull!Just a bog standard plastic one. He was painted and off white colour, and then i used a fine black nibbed pen to highlight his teeth and the cracks of his head.

I am not a flowery type of person whatsoever, but once in a while its nice to push myself to use them. The flowers were originally green but were splodged with a blood coloured paint!! I wrapped them around some wire and gave the skull a headpiece.


The skull was glued to a bottle top painted black and then glued inside the box. This is when i realised the big fat error i had made! I had glued the legs on the wrong side of the box, meaning the shaped front panel would only fit sideways (looking pretty stupid) I'd like to say this is the first time i have done this, but i'd be lying! Because of this stupid mistake i moved the skull forward to front of the box, which allowed him to have his mouth open.


For the top of the box i used a cobweb, a few more flowers and a teeny skull from my stash.


Without the frame on the front of the box, it looked kinda empty. So i added a pair of feet and some hands.
And then as a final touch, a nice pair of wire glasses!
Although this will be my last piece for Halloween, i can see a few more skulls cropping up in the future......i just love them!


Happy Halloween from me and Norm.......and thanks for reading!

L.xx

Ingredients used
Arch style ATB cube
Spiders Web
Colony of bats
Mini crows and ravens

Monday 26 October 2015

Winter Branches ATC - by Alison

Hello all, Alison here from Words and Pictures with a crackly ATC for you today.  It's no secret that I love trees at all times of the year.  I love the young spring leaves so fresh and vivid, the luscious summer growth at its height, the glorious array of colour as the leaves turn in autumn (there have been plenty of creations celebrating that lately), but I also love the bare branches, stark against the winter skies.  This ATC celebrates that particular beauty.


I love working with these ATC blanks.  They are sturdy and beautifully dimensional in themselves, and so lend substance to a small piece like an ATC.  I've used the Plain ATC but there are lots of designs to choose from.


I started by applying a coat of DecoArt Media Gesso and Crackle Paste in varying thicknesses across the ATC.  Once that had dried, I wanted a bit more crackle around the edges so I added some Media Crackle Glaze (which also has a glossier finish) and waited for that to crackle too.


Regulars at Words and Pictures will know I've been having a bit of a purple phase... adding Wilted Violet to my autumn colours with great joy.  I've played with a similar autumnal range of colours here, but using DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics, applying them in washes to build the layers of colour.  The paints involved are Dioxazine Purple, Cobalt Blue Hue and Phthalo Blue coming down from the top, and Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, English Red Oxide and Quinacridone Gold coming up from the bottom.


The gorgeous Skeleton Tree Style 3 has also had a touch of colour - a wash of Quin Gold and then some Dioxazine Purple to add the darker shadows.


I wanted some scraggy meadow grasses, so I stamped them in Sepia and Black Archival inks around the foot of the tree.


And up in the sky the affirmation of the eternal beauty of trees - some ChitChat stickers with the same paints creating shadows around them to bed them in to the wintry sky.


I love the dimension of the Craft Parts - they give this little ATC a real presence - and the delicate cutting is so intricate and detailed.  I hope you like my Winter Branches - as you can probably tell, I'm rather fond of this one myself!


If you're tempted to go shopping, you can click on the links in the text to go straight to the Craft Parts I've used.  Do go browsing while you're there - there are always new treats on offer.  And of course as we're heading towards the end of autumn there's a whole new Christmas & Winter range arriving!  Thanks so much for stopping by, and I'll see you again soon.

Alison xx
Words and Pictures

Thursday 22 October 2015

Here's one I prepared earlier..... by Trish

Hello!

You have NO idea how badly wrong this project went...... did you know it's really not a plan to think a quick waft of the heat gun to speed up the drying time will be absolutely fine even though its a plastic skeleton?......................  His leg then melted and fell off.

So.... plan B!

This little fella is clearly showing off his prowess in the pumpkin department...


The 'plinth' for the pumpkin is created from an ATB cube kit, lots of puff paint and crackle going on to give some rather spooky texture...


The pumpkin itself is actually really easy to create, you can do these in all kind of sizes and then paint them up in an array of colours, really good for seasonal decoration!

How? Like this...

Take a rectangle of fabric. Any size, as you can see this hasn't been measured or even cut straight!


Fold over in half, then sew up the two ends. No fancy sewing needed!


Next, sew a running stitch around the whole of one end..


Pull the stitches tight, then secure with a tight knot...


Turn the fabric inside out....


And fill with wadding/batting....


Sew a running stitch around the top...


And again, pull tight and secure with a knot.....


Next, take some embroidery floss and sew up through the centre of the pumpkin...


Take the thread over the side and then up through the middle again. Pull tight, then repeat 6 times around the pumpkin to create the 'sectioning' effect you're after....


Tie off the thread, then you're ready to paint it! I used white gesso first to give a nice tooth, then used orange acrylic paint..


I glued on a bit of twig for the stem, and a scrap of green fabric for the leaf.  My plastic skeleton looks rather pleased with it...


Have a good day!
Trish xxx

CCP used: ATB cube Kit

Sunday 18 October 2015

Autumnal Fairy Light by Astrid

Today I want to share a little night light I made using one of the gorgeous ATB Craft Parts. I am using the one with the Arch shaped aperture. They come in a set of 3 and I used the largest one of the set.

Now if you are one of those people that owns the original Eileen Hull ATB die, you may ask yourself, - do I really need one of these?.... Well I am lucky enough to own the die, but I tell you, these cube kits are brilliant, easy to put together and so sturdy, you can alter them in ways that would be almost impossible with one that you cut yourself!
Anyway, I'll give you a quick step by step of how I made this one.
I started by edging all of the parts with black gesso and then lined the bottom and 3 of the sides with pieces of scrapbook paper.
Next I fitted the cube together and then painted the whole of the outside first with  Black gesso and when dry with Decoart Media line Burnt Umber acrylic paint. When that had dried I gave everything a very rough coat of Decoart Crackle paint, spreading it unevenly on purpose, so I would have large and smaller cracks. Finally I painted around the edges with more of the Burnt Umber, spritzt with water to let the paint seep into the crack and then scraped and sanded a bit off the edges for a distressed look. I wanted a kind of tree bark effect.

I hope these close ups show the effect of the crackle and paint a bit better. There is no way you could do this with a cube made from card, as no doubt it would start to warp.

Don't get me wrong, I love making ATBs from card too, and they are great for sending in the post, but the wood cubes are great for projects like this.

To decorate my cube, I stamped and fussy cut a fairy (the stamp is by La Blanche), coloured him with watercolour pencil and then cut a little card wedge to make it possible to glue him to the top of my lantern.
Next I chose some craft parts and other bits and pieces to decorate the rest of the cube.
On the top I used these
little pumpkins. They come in outline only, but because I wanted them a bit more solid I painted some orange card and just glued them on top and then cut around the edges. I tucked them in between some other little autumnal pieces from my stash and also added one of the lovely Oakleaf Branches.
I love how the Craft Parts can be combined with die cuts and other embellishments to great effect.
I coloured them very lightly with Distress Markers, just to give them a hint of colour.
The front was further decorated with Ivy Leaf garlands Style 1 and 2, and again lightly coloured with Distress Markers.
Now all that was needed to finish it off was a little LED tea light. I coloured the sides of it with more brown paint, as the stark white looked a little odd.
And voila, one little lantern that can be used as a child's night light or to decorate the table of a harvest meal.
Thanks for visiting like always and hopefully see you next time.

Friday 16 October 2015

Moon Booth Scrapbook page: By Zuzu

I am a very keen member of the Steampunk community and recently my husband and I went to an event dressed as a pirate and his fortune-teller/soothsayer. they had a "moon booth" photo service so we got some photos taken.
As a reasonably new scrap-booker, so pretty much a beginner, I find 12 x 12 scrapbook pages somewhat daunting so I did this one as an 8x8.
This will probably be my last Calico Crafts "Halloween project" this year (awww how sad as I love doing halloween stuff). but we get to start playing with Winter and Yuletide stuff next (YAY cos I also love Yuletide.)
Calico Craft Supplies used:

Cobweb corner
Bat
leaning skeleton
words
spider
maple leaves



Wednesday 14 October 2015

Spoonful of Halloween - by Lesley

Its nearly Halloween! Yay!!
So....this week i created a little Halloween assemblage!


The base of this creation is a chunk of rusty metal that my bossman found down on the marina.....a remnant from an old, old boat. The colours on it are so beautiful!
Keeping with the colours of the rust, i added some different size leaves which were painted with Decoart colours. 


I used a spoon from my stash and bent the handle and gave it a coat of black gesso. Then i glued it to the metal base......which took some doing!!
The pumpkin was painted and randomly stamped on and a wash of black paint on top.
I used sand texture in the scoop of the spoon and wedged the pumpkin in it. Once it was dry, i gave it a coat of paint and sprinkled on some teeny tiny beads.


I added random patches of black sand to the weeny bats and used rusty wire to attach them to the handle of the spoon.


Little finishing touch was a few weeny skulls painted black and gold.


And there you have it........a fun Halloween altered piece!

Thanks for reading.
L.xx

Ingredients used
Carved pumpkin
Various leaf shapes
Flying bat colony