Thursday 27 February 2020

Baby Hut - by Lesley

Hello everyone. This week, I cleared my desk up and gave myself the challenge of only using bits from desk from leftover projects.....


The house was left over from Christmas ornaments I made. No idea where the roof parts went! So I made my own with some copper wire mesh!


The house was originally green and silver! I added a part of a flourish to the back and a small handmade flower.


The house had lots of texture on it from layers of paint, crackle paint and waxes.


The wire mesh holds its shape, so was easy to add the curls to it. 


I had loads of these baby doll heads. This was plain, so I added paint and micro beads.
I think I'll add something to the top so I hang it!


Thanks for reading
L.x

Ingredients used

Monday 24 February 2020

Spring Altered Book by Jannet


I was recently looking through some old books in a charity store, when I I came across an old Enid Blyton book “ Brer Rabbit Again” I thought this would be perfect to use with the cute little Calico rabbits.


I thought it would be nice to create a little scene in the book. I began by turning over the first page, as I decided this would become a tree trunk later. I began by sketching out some hills, and tore the pages from the outside edge towards the spine to create the hills. After edging the hills with various shades of green ink, I adhered the torn pages together.

The empty hills needed some rabbits so I painted three different sizes of rabbits. I completed the bunnies by adding flowersoft to each tail, which, made them nice and fluffy. I glued the rabbits onto the hills, some tucked into the tops of the torn pages and some sitting in front. I also added a selection of dried flowers into the hills. A little twig became a branch on top of the page, and a little Bird happily sat amongst the leaves. 

I returned to the first page, and I used a bark texture stamp all over it. When the ink was dry I rolled the page up, and adhered it to the left side of the scene.



There were lots of beautiful illustrations in the book so I lightly coloured them with coloured  pencils, and fussy cut them. One of the images from the book was of the rabbit swinging from a tree I glued him onto some card to add some strength to the fragile paper. After colouring and fussy cutting him I adhered him around the tree trunk so he appeared to be swinging over the scene.
The inside cover was looking a bit sorry for itself so I cheered it up with some of the coloured images and painted Calico Craft Parts mini hares, birds and leaves. 

Thank you for visiting xx

The Calico Craft Products I used



Mini Garden Birds







Saturday 22 February 2020

Spring Home Decor by Kerstin

Welcome!

I was inspired to create an altered art springtime picture frame in shabby chic style, 
suitable to my spring home decoration this year.
Especially in this grey and gloomy weather you cannot start early enough.

 I used some elements which were made with silicone moulds 
together with some awesome shapes from Calico Craft Parts.




How I worked with DecoArt products


1. Weathered Wood Crackle Medium
2. MDF wood shapes and some elements made with air drying modelling clay and moulds
3.Chalky Finish Paint 'Vintage'
4. Creme Wax brown
5. Vintage Effect Wash white
6. finally highlighted with Metallic Lustre 'Champagne Ice'


some close up's









You know I've always been in love with the

Because you can use it as roots stocks too!


 So I just turned the wood shape over and removed part of the trunk.


 Calico Craft Parts used:





Happy crafting!

Kerstin

Thursday 20 February 2020

Triangle bunting by Magda

Hello crafty friends!

Today I want to show you a triangle shape bunting. It really works for small projects. Join a few triangles, for something bigger. Fantastic home decoration!

In the shop you can find various shapes, they would look fantastic together.

For this triangle I only used acrylic paint. Purple for a background and very pale blue for some spots. On top of it, I stuck stencilled paper and stamped image with some words.



Magda :)

Monday 17 February 2020

In These Very Woods - Door Hanger Box - by Claudia

Servus, dear Calico Craft Parts friends, and thanks for stopping by today!

I've recently spent a wonderful week in a true winter wonderland in Hinterglemm and the loads of beautiful snow inspired me to decorate a winter wonderland themed door hanger box this time.




Calico Craft Parts used: 

- Door Hanger Box Kit
- Rooted Winter Tree & Bird - MDF Wood Shape (medium size)
- Winter Fir Tree - MDF Wood Shape (medium size)
- Stag Deer MDF Wood Shape Style 4 (medium size)
- Gothic Arch Shape - MDF Mixed Media Board (100mm x 60mm)




The Door Hanger Box Kit was easy to assemble. I used DecoArt matte Decou-Page to glue all the pieces together.

While that was set aside to dry, I glued the Rooted Tree with Bird wood shape onto the arch shaped Mixed Media Board and glued that to the front of the assembled door hanger box. The arch shaped mixed media board is an exact fit!

The fir tree and stag deer were glued to the box sides. I made sure that I applied glue to the smallest details and ends of the wood shapes so these would not come off when painting over it all with a sturdy brush!

Once all had thoroughly dried, I used DecoArt Chalky Finish paint "lace" and a sturdy bristle brush to paint all the out- and insides of the door hanger box. The quite stiff bristles of the brush allowed me to get the paint into all the nooks and crannies from the wood shapes!


Voilá - the painted door hanger box all in delicate chalky "lace" white!


I only applied a thin layer of the lace paint and rather "dry brushed" it instead of applying an even coat of paint, so the MDF would bleed through a little and add a shabby brown-ish tint.

Next I used DecoArt premium Burnt Umber acrylic paint and Americana Primary Red to paint the bird and the roots of the tree.


I also dry brushed the other two elements at the box sides with Burnt Umber.







Finally I applied brown archival stamping ink to all the box edges (using a piece of cut'n dry foam) and glued a quote in place that I shaded in using my Stabilo All black aquarellable pencil and a water loaded brush.



Done!








I hope you like my winter wonderland make! 




Hugs and happy crafting!
Claudia
xxx





Thursday 13 February 2020

Documented Book - by Lesley

Hey everyone, this week I have been playing around with a little handmade book I made years ago!
It was heading towards the recycling bin, but I decided it was too nice to just throw away!


I used lots of the mini craft shapes on, and bits of watch parts from my stash.


Its ended up being quite a tactile piece.



My craft room is in the basement and its super cold down there at the mo......I didn't think the crackle would crackle!


I think i'll get cracking on the insides next week!


Thanks for reading.
L.x

Ingredients used

Monday 10 February 2020

Valentine Animals Printer Tray by Jannet


I am so happy to join the very talented Calico Craft Parts team.

For my first project I decided to make a printers tray with a topical Love theme. I adore animals, so the the gorgeous mini Calico animals are the focus of my tray. 


It takes no time at all to assemble the printer tray. The pieces pop out really easily, and then they slot together perfectly. You can also add an optional frame to the tray.


I used acrylic paints to add some colour, my favourite technique to add some texture to the painted surface is to scrunch up some plain paper and then unfold it before pressing it
 down onto the wet paint. It leaves lots of lovely lines and textures. This also works well with water colour paints.


I decided to create a small scene in each section, using the animals and spelling out the most important word LOVE. I enjoy painting details onto the animals, but they can also be painted in a solid colour.They look fabulous as silhouettes.There are also larger sizes of the cute animals available.

Luckily I had some tiny stamps of various animal paws and hoofs, so I stamped them as if they were wandering around the edge of the frame. 


 I adhered the animals and elements into the sections, holding each piece carefully with tweezers until they could stand alone. For the floor coverings I used torn little pieces of dried rose petals, sunflower petals,and dried lavender.

I finished my printer tray by adhering the frame onto the tray. 

There are so many different themes you can use in a printer tray. A special birthday, anniversary, beloved pet, favourite hobby, new baby. You can make it as simple or as detailed as you wish. 

It was a lot of fun to make xx 

I used the following Calico Craft Parts


Saturday 8 February 2020

Spring awakening - Home decor by Kerstin

Hello, dear crafty friends!

January is finally over and the first snowdrops
 are blooming in my garden -
the first hope of spring with more light and warmth.

I was inspired to create a new home decor piece with a shabby shed, some sparrows and these wonderful snowdrops.




Tips & Tricks 


1. I used two  sizes of
 Jagged Edge Birch Ply Wood Plaque - the larger as 
my base plate, 
the smaller got a special treatment (see next step)

 2. I sawed the smaller one into two parts as shown in the picture above and placed them flat on the larger base part, leaving a gap, because...

3. ...into that I glued the Tudor Arch Shape - MDF Mixed Media Board

4. everything then got glued together and onto the larger Jagged Edge Wood Plaque (=my "base plate").  

I always use cold glue; this takes a little longer, but is very stable after drying

 


backside



Painting tips:


  • if the colours are to be bright and radiant, it is advisable to prime with acrylic white paint first
  • often it is totally sufficient to just pick up a bit of paint with a dry brush and distribute it randomly,
 this way the trees look more natural



some close up's












Calico Craft Parts used:

Tudor Arch Shape - MDF Mixed Media Board

 Jagged Edge Birch Ply Wood Plaque

 Snowdrop

 Engraved MDF Garden Shed Kit - Tall with Sign

Songbirds in Spring 

Skeleton Tree MDF Wood Shape - Style 3

 Leafy Vine MDF Wood Corner Embellishment - Style 37




I hope I could inspire you to look forward to spring with me.

Thanks for your visit!
Happy crafting!

Kerstin