Thursday 28 January 2016

Big Hair Day: By Trish

Hello!

Did you see the new corner shapes? I saw this one:

and my first thought? HAIR! Turn it around, and that would make the most fabulous hairdo for an art doll.

So.... that is exactly what I did!


I sketched out the face shape based upon the size of the hair...


then added in the rest of her body. I decided to use an ATC blank as the base shape for this...


Once the sketching was done, I coloured the face..


The weird 'sort of hair' shape on top of her head at this point is the area that will be seen underneath the MDF corner once it is added on top. As the MDF shape has gaps, these need to be coloured to match so the hair is consistent. The hair will be black and shiny, so that's what happened on top of her head....


Yep, looks very odd!!!! Once the hair is on it looks much better...


(well it will once it's been coloured!)

Her dress was painted green, with white dots added. This ATC blank is a Christmas one, but I think the mistletoe 'dangly bit' looks like a decorative part of her dress! I added a collar as well..


I also used one of the create your own words, this one says 'love', and is a 20mm tall Coventry Garden font design.


The stand is also created from Calico Craft Parts. I used three plain baubles (large size), although you could do the same thing using birch ply circles. I cut the holes from the baubles using strong scissors....


The circles were then glued together, and painted.  I drilled a hole through them, and pushed a bit of thick wire into the hole. The Art Doll is then glued onto the wire to make her stand up..


So... all in all a bit of a random creation from me today... Baroque corner hair, and Christmas shapes used in non Christmassy ways! I rather like the randomness :)


Have a fab day,

Trish xx

CCP used:
Baroque Corner
ATC blank
Bauble blanks
Create Your Own Word

Monday 25 January 2016

Love, love, love by Astrid

Hello Calico friends, long time no see..... I've been away and so this is my very first post in the new year and it's nearly February....

Anyway, that being so, I thought I would share my first Valentines project with you:


Have you seen some of the new Valentines Craft parts? You can find them right on the home page at the moment.

I used the Mini Valentines Wood Shapes set 3, some amazing new corners
Baroque Floral MDF Wood Corner Embellishment - Style 35, and the word Love from the Create you own Word craft parts in the Coventry Garden Font, but that is a story by itself that I will tell you in a moment.

I started with one of the Shaped Profile Grey Board mixed media boards and started by adding some texture with the help of a couple of stencils and texture paste. I then gave it all a good coat of gesso.

Next I selected my chosen craft parts and arranged them on the board. I also used a metal embellishment from my stash to complete my composition.

Next everything was covered in a further layer of gesso.

And then followed my favourite bit, adding colour with the help of various paints and sprays from my stash.. However, before showing you some detail about that, as you can see, there is quite a gap on the left, and I felt it really needed a sentiment. Now I had a complete phrase "Love is in the Air" cut from the Coventry font, but...... I had not been careful when ordering, and it was huge and far to big for my project. I'm telling you that, because I know I am not the first one who has made that mistake, so beware and be careful, take out that ruler before ordering!!

Anyway, all I have space for was the word Love, but as it turns out, the good thing was that the shape of the word mimics the shape of the arch on the grey board, thus balancing the design quite well I think.

Here you can see what it looked like after I altered it, to give it a worn rusty look.

This was achieved by adding some Decoart Crackle paint and when dry colouring with various sprays and paints. I then added some Antiquing cream in Burnt Umber, and then when I buffed it and rubbed it off, also peeling some of the crackle paint away again. In order to stop more crackle peeling off, you then need to seal it.


Here is the centre part, while adding colour I had also added some glitter that was then covered over again to take away the sheen but just leave some texture. As that unfortunately obliterated the text on the heart (cut into the actual craft part), I then added a wood sticker to give it more of a focal point..
Below are a few further details still:


Shadows around the craft parts, to create more depth to the colouring.

In my world no project is complete without at least a bit of background stamping.

I love how the metal embellishment and Craft Parts seamlessly work together once altered in the same way with gesso and paints.

And here a bit a closer look at the final project once more....

Thank you for visiting

Thursday 21 January 2016

Face in the Stars by Lesley

Hey everyone....Lesley here with my little creation.........


The base is chunk of wood which was recycled. (used to be a floorboard in a previous life) I gave it a rough coat of white gesso to give the paint something to grab onto. 
Using a variety of colours paintwise..........i built up lots of layers until i was happy with the look of the wood.


The nails were rusted up before hammering into the side of the wood. 


The dolls face was a little vintage find which i very nearly killed! Due to lack of patience i took the heat gun to it to speed up paint drying, and managed to melt the top of her head. Poor thing. 
Anyhoo........after painting, i applied some crackle glaze randomly and then rubbed in some paint once it was dry. With the star garland, i used embossing powder in a black with gold specks. Makes it pop!
I packed the inside of the face with clay, so i had a surface to glue the face down with. And added some rusty wire. 



I used one of the mini plaques and a few rub-ons were added to the wood to finish it off.


Thanks for reading.

L.xx

Ingredients used.



Monday 18 January 2016

Flourishing Birdsong by Alison

Hello everyone, Alison here with you from Words and Pictures, and I've got a rusty panel to share with you today.  It actually started out as a simple tag and then grew!


Sometimes the Calico Craft Parts take centre stage on a piece, sometimes they provide a fantastic base or substrate, and sometimes they provide a fabulous background flourish... and that's what they're doing for me today.


There are so many fantastic swirls and flourishes and decorative corners amongst the Craft Parts - ideal for scrapbooking layouts or to add brilliant swirling movement to a journalling spread (as I did with my recent pages for Wanderlust, which you can see below - using Fancy Flower Flourish Style 3 and Curled Vine Fancy Flourish Style 4).


I don't scrapbook (not really being a photo-taker), but the flourishes can also take their place in mixed media work - canvases, altered frames or, as here, a layered papercraft panel.


As I say, it started out with a simple tag.  I'd wiped some leftover gesso onto it, and then stamped some of my favourite wild grasses.


I started to add inky colour, and when you spritz and flick you get really white spots because of the gesso underneath.  I also added some flecks of inky colour.


In the long run, I had to add quite a bit more stamping so that the grasses would show behind the bird, and the white spots were a bit too much, so I inked over them (I'll be working with the look another time, though).


I knew I wanted to use the bird, but he looked a bit too much for the tag, so I decided I needed some background layers to create a larger piece...


... so it was out with the corrugated cardboard and some paper scraps, and that of course is when the flourishes became inevitable!  All the layers are glued down with corrugated cardboard in between so that you get lots of dimension, but also lots of room to slide the ends of the flourishes between layers too.


The flourishes have been altered quite simply and yet the effect, I think, is pretty dramatic.  All the pieces used are from the Fancy Flower Flourish Style 2.


I just applied some DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic in Quinacridone Gold with my fingers (which takes longer to type than to do!) - a pretty rough coat - and then some sweeps of gilding wax over the top and around the edges in places.


I really like the warm glow - especially when the sun hits it.


Some stickers add the equally important (to me) word element.


And some extra little ends of flourish take their place with some of the words.  There's no denying these flourishes are delicate - they have such intricate cutting - but if you do lose a curlicue you can either simply glue it back in to position, or with a project like this you can tuck it around another corner!


The corrugated cardboard has had some Quin Gold too, and various other paints and embossing powders, to create a rusty look.  And some real rusty wire means you can hang the whole panel up somewhere to wait for spring.


I hope you like it.  It does change look quite considerably according to the light on it.  It's one thing when it's in the shade...


... but it almost seems to have an inner fire when the sun hits it full on!


Thanks so much for stopping by today.  As always, you can click on the links to go shopping at Calico Craft Parts, and I hope you have a wonderful week.

Alison x
Words and Pictures

Thursday 14 January 2016

ATB's for 2016! By Trish

Hello!
Oh yes... I haven't left them back in 2015... they're definitely here to be shared throughout this year too!
So... ATB cube kits. 3 different sizes, some with funky apertures, some without. Can be used singly, or... stacked up!
I have a 'stacked up' project to share today!

 

 A slightly different angle  shows just how 3D (and fabulous!) the cubes are..


I used a plain cube of each of the three sizes in this assemblage, they're not actually stuck together, simply placed on top of each other!

The decoration on the sides was done by creating a masterboard on a large bit of card. Smeared paint, stencilling, stamping and splattering! I then cut up the card into squares, and glued them to the sides of the cubes..


I drew a face and a body, then coloured them. They were then glued on as well!
The smallest cube is a crown...


Twisted wire, bent into shape around the cube.

Once she was finished, I had a better idea.... create a different face for each side of the cube so it can be turned around to show a variation of expressions! It's on the 'to do' list..... :)

I hope you like her!
Trish xxx

Thursday 7 January 2016

Live Life In Colour by Lesley

Happy New Year peeps! 

Lesley here with my first post for 2016........and its a riot of colour!!


I wanted to make something bright and colourful......i think i've achieved it!


The base is actually from the drop box slider kit. I was making something with it a few months ago.......and we had an arguement which resulted in the drop box being lobbed across the room of stash! 

I'm not one to throw things away......so the base of the box has been reused in this creation. 
I gave it two coats of black gesso and then a layer of Decoart crackle glaze. Once dry, i splodged on some white paint, getting into all the cracks. 

I then painted 4 ATC's with black gesso as well. Then the fun part........


Using fluid paint pens, i splodged on a blob and blew!...........Laying up different colours. I did this to all four ATC's (nearly passed up half way through). Once they were all dried i then blew a really fine spray of ink over the top. Like this effect so took a different colour and did the same to the base.


I added little hearts painted, splattered and wrapped in rusty wire to the corners before gluing to the base.


I used mini plaques to create the words, using the same colours as the ATC's.


Had lots of fun making this....who knew i like colour this much!!

Thanks for reading!
L.xx

Ingredients used

Dropbox slider kit
Plain ATC blank
Primitive heart mini plaque
Notched rectangle mini plaque