You Wouldn't Want To Live Here! - by Lesley

This week, I have been playing about with one of the little cube house kits......

The was assembled and covered with textured paste to give it a cement look. 

The base is an ATC which I painted with green textured paint to give is a moss like finish.

I have a huge box of moss and twigs in my stash which I used to decorate the house and and base with.

The little skulls are actually beads, painted grey. 

A little cross was added also. 

Thanks for reading,

L.x

Ingredients used

Block style cube house kit

Plain ATC

Coffins and Gravestones, mini shapes

Summer Storage - by Julie Ann

I don't know about you, but as time goes by, I seem to acquire a variety of art materials I need to grab for those odd moments when there's just time to do a lightning sketch. Calico Craft Parts have proved invaluable when it comes to desk storage  you can assemble in no time. Not only are their storage boxes brilliant for ensuring tiny bits and pieces don't go astray, but their ATC display and storage boxes are great for storing pencils and pastels too.

Here is a little peek at my desk with its array of Calico Storage - left to right: tag/ATC storage box; stack of cube storage boxes and tag/ATC display box, which I use for my charcoal sticks. I love to work on altering these little boxes so that they can sit on my desk and tell me their stories as I work.

For this project, I assembled my box first. If you are planning to use the box for storing ATCs,  you might want to decorate the inside of your box. You can do this before constructing it and sticking the whole piece together.

With my charcoal box, I painted the interior with black gesso, but as this piece was going to store some of my pastels and pencils, I decided to keep the natural wood for the inside. I am loving this contrast with the decorated exterior.

The box is so solid - and how neatly and easily the pieces fit together.

With all the compartments firmly in place and the glue dry, I found this beautiful, blue and white napkin tissue for the side panels. I use a fluid matt medium as an adhesive.

For a quick and easy 'Shabby Chic' look, I painted the front panel with white gesso, stamped this with a script stamp and sponged the edges with the same silvery grey pigment ink.

The finishing touch was provided with this little label holder.

Now it was time for some imaginative fun. I used an old school photo of my daughter for reference and using acrylic inks, water colour pencils and some more napkin tissue turned her into a fairy tale heroine.

Roses have always been Matilda's favourite flower and 'Beauty and the Beast' her best loved fairy tale.

Re-discovering the tale as an adult, I fell under its spell all over again too. There is something so compelling about the discovery on a stormy night of the magic and mystery of the Beast's garden and castle tended by its invisible servants. Beauty is such a strong and courageous heroine too as she learns to love the Beast for himself rather than for his outward appearance.

Even the roses in the Beast's garden need the visiting honey bees.Ultimately Nature is undoubtedly the most magical force we will ever encounter.

Thank you so much for stopping by my studio today and taking a peek at Calico Craft Parts handy storage. I wish you sweet scented creative days until we meet again.

Calico Craft Parts used in this Project
MDF ATC/Tag Storage
Sheet of Mini MDF Bees and Bee Hives
Sheet of Mini Label Holders
Flowering Dogwood Sprig

Romantic lighthouse by Kerstin

Welcome!

Today I would like to share a very special inspiration -  a lighthouse not only to customise yourself, but also to assemble yourself. You can paint and decorate it to match your home furnishings. You can use it as table decoration and when adding some lighting it also becomes an atmospheric evening light on every balcony or terrace.

You can find the Assembly instructions here

 

The kit comes as 3 flat pieces, on the plate with the balustrades

 are also spare parts, so please don't get confused.

Used materials

Engraved Lighthouse model

And of course a selection of small maritime parts from Calico Craft Parts

How-to:

first of all I built the tower without balustrades

 and covered the side panels with a crackle medium

then I assembled the balustrades; there are overall 18 pieces (3 x 6)

 the longest go on the lowest floor and the shortest on the top floor

There are two parts which are simply plugged together.

I also covered all these pieces with crackle medium and after drying with white acrylic paint

My lighthouse needed a proper entrance gate

 so I built a door frame out of some leftovers from the plate.

Afterwards the whole lighthouse was painted with a chalk colour.

I chose 'Vintage' Chalky Finish from Americana Decor.

Finally I added the balustrades with two pillars each.

Illumination

 

I was inspired to illuminate the lighthouse so all I did was only take off the top to insert a battery operated tealight. For greater stability I have additionally wrapped the upper part with thin jewellery wire.

And now the decorating began :-)

I recommend the Mini sheets or very small parts, but of course everyone you are free to use whatever pleases you most. 

In the shop you will find a rich selection for each taste and liking.

Some close up's

I hope I could inspire you to try your very own illuminated lighthouse.

I'm very inspired myself and plan to create another tower in Autumn/ Halloween look, 

Let's see if I can realize my imagination.

Wooden shapes used:

MDF Lighthouse Kits - Engraved

Sheet of Mini MDF Window Wood Shapes

Sheet of Mini MDF Wood Birds - Seagulls

Anchor & Rope Outline - MDF Wood Shape

Wild Grass MDF Wood Shape - Style 3

Ships Wheel Style 3 - MDF Wood Shape

Word Elements - Summer & Seaside

Thanks for your visit!

Happy crafting!

Kerstin

Creature house - by Magda

Hello crafty friends! My first post for Calico Craft Parts blog. I feel very lucky to be here. I hope to show you many colourful and fun projects in next few months.

The moment I saw a tall house I knew that I need to create something using it. It's absolutely perfect! I had plenty of ideas but only one house...I decided to use some small animal stamps inside it and add a forest mushroom ( it looks like a magic mushroom,  isnt' it? ) at the front.

As always many textures and even more bright colours. I used only acrylic paints, a little bit of crackle glaze and gloss medium for special effects.

I'm ready to make another one. I can't wait for my next post to show you more.

This time I used:
Plain MDF House / Shrine Kit - Tall
Long Stemmed Field Mushroom 

Thank you,
Magda

Thistle Flower Tag - by Claudia

Hi, servus and thanks for stopping by!
I hope you have been enjoying a great summer so far!

Today's project spotlights one of my favourite flowers - the thistle.

I love its shape and the beautiful contrast of the delicate and tender blossom against the thorny leaves and stem. I love that thistles seem to thrive in hot, dry and meagre places. And thistles remind me of a lot of lovely hikes and warm, happy, sunny days spent outdoors.

Calico Craft Parts used:

- Thistle Flower MDF Wood Shape - Style 54
- MDF Tag Shape - Round Top
- Sheet of Mini MDF Label Holders Wood Shapes
- Sheet of Mini MDF Wood Butterflies - Style 6


I especially enjoyed creating the tag's background as I just love creating gorgeous crackle. I used DecoArt Chalky Finish paint "heritage" and put a thin coat of DecoArt Weathered Wood on top once the paint had dried.

In the meantime the thistle wood shape was primed with a dry brushed layer of DecoArt Chalky Finish paint "timeless". I love the Chalky Finish paints as primers as these provide great tooth for paints to adhere to and you can also gently sand them if you want an especially smooth and even surface to paint on.

Once the Weathered Wood had dried to the touch (which took about five minutes - maybe less - as it is already quite warm over here in Vienna and I had only applied a very thin coat), I took a soft flat brush and gently spread a thin layer of DecoArt Americana "Light Buttermilk" acrylic paint. The crackling process starts almost immediately once you add the paint on top, so you should avoid going over the same area twice with your brush.

As I had applied the Weathered Wood quite thinly, I got small, delicate cracks (which was what I had been aiming for). I used walnut stain Distress Crayon to softly darken the tag's edges.

The thistle flower wood shape and the butterfly were painted using DecoArt media fluid acrylics Dioxazine Purple, Sap Green, Green Gold, Titan Buff, Titanium White and Carbon Black alongside DecoArt Americana acrylic paints Lavender and Mulberry.

I sprinkled diluted DecoArt Americana Golden Straw and media fluid acrylics Burnt Umber and Titanium White onto the tag to create more depth and let that dry before I glued everything in place using matte DecoArt Decou-Page.

The label was written by hand (using a permanent black ink PITT marker). The label holder was given some a base layer of Light Buttermilk Americana paint and then treated with a wash of Burnt Umber media fluid acrylic paint.

Some detail shots: 

...and once more the finished tag. 

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx