Thinking Inside the Box

After my last project which was well outside the box (for me) this time I got back inside it, or rather my project did. I started with a Making Memories Shadow Box that I have had for years, a local store was selling them cheap, and combined them with the rather lush Tea Break range from Kaisercraft.

 

I decided to think of the box as a shop window but actually the whole thing is something of a comment on how I feel about society's expectations of women; we are supposed to take on so many different roles that it is sometimes difficult to remember that the most important thing is to be yourself.

 The actual box is not very deep but by using the die cut mannequins from Craftwork Cards I was able to get a lot in that relatively small space. The bunting across the back and the 'posters' in the window are pieces from the collectable pack.

 It might look like I have something of a corset obsession at the moment but I wanted to do something that would represent the sexualisation of woman and this is really simple made by tracing the mannequin adding a curve top and bottom and cutting it out. The 'trim' is actually black diamond stickles.
The second mannequin represents the glamorous side of womanhood and again I started by tracing the outline and then extended the lines to form the skirt. The belt and corsage details were made using the reverse of the dress paper. The corsage is layered up punched flowers with a brad covered in white lace stickles to finish it off.
The 'poster' basically says it all as far as the message behind this piece and I just had to use it.

 The final mannequin represents the domestic (I could have chosen many other faces of womanhood but these spoke strongest to me) hence the addition of the apron over the dress. The clothing I have made is very retro in appearance but that was deliberate because that is the style of the papers.
The message this side is to live your life i.e. not the life anyone else expects you to lead.
This photo also gives a good view of the back of the box which I covered in paper and then added a piece of trim to the bottom because it needed something to finish it off. The bunting is there both to add another dimension and to suggest celebration because every life is worthy of being celebrated.

Once the mannequins were in position it became clear that I needed something else to fill the space and after sharing a few ideas with my crafty guru I went with a very abstract version of a flowering shrub. The stems are made of green coated wire and then the 'trunk' was some woodgrain sticky backed plastic (this holds the stems together so is there both for practical and aesthetic reasons).
This part of the piece reminds me of the saying 'bloom where you are planted' so again builds on that message that was always in the back of my mind as I made the piece.

So there we have it a glimpse into the unusually profound depths of my crafting.

Sexy Steampunk

This is yet another project from me that started with a club at Crafty Bunch. This last week we got papers from the Kaisercraft Miss Empire line and I got the idea of making a corset in my head. It didn't go away and so I combined the papers with a papier-mâché torso and this is the result. It was difficult at times but I love how it turned out so it was well worth it. 

I added a skirt of sorts to my original corset idea because I wanted to make it a complete piece. The pieces of ribbon have a die cut gear and one of my favourite finds glued to the bottom.

Punched scalloped circles formed the basis for decorative rosettes on the corset. Oh and the finish on the corset was achieved using a coating of glossy decoupage glue. I had used the glue to stick the strips that make up the corset to the torso but the paper was too dull for the look I wanted, I wanted the idea of a shiny fabric like satin. I had already painted the torso with Ivory emulsion because I wanted a dull finish for that.

The lacing at the back of the corset is actually a piece of the printed strip from the bottom of the paper. The lace around the top and bottom is ideal for hiding the messy edges.

I decided that I wanted to give her a piece of jewellery and since the little copper 'gears' were something that I had been hoarding in my jewellery supplies for years it seemed appropriate to team then with glass seed beads. This was actually one of the hardest parts of the entire make and in order to get it to sit properly I have glued the 'gears' to the torso. I also added an extra 'flower' to the back of the necklace to cover up the fastenings. By the way those 'gears' are actually spring washers, I am informed, but they work beautifully at this scale.

In this view you can see the strips that form the corset and the piece I fitted over the top to form the basque front. The corset was treated to a coat of pewter gilding wax to emphasis the gloss.

She needed a hat to finish the look and so I made one using more die cut gears and love the look. It needed decoration so it got a band of the ribbon I used for the skirt and a bow at the back, finished with another 'gear', the flowers at the front are punched scalloped circles again. I sprayed them with perfect pearls spray and once they were glued together added a liquid pearls centre.

She is on a stand made from a wooden cotton reel. This has been wrapped with a piece of paper and trimmed with the laces I used on the corset. The final touch was another die cut gear and some more 'flowers'. This time I inked the gear with Distress Ink, stamped over it with Archival ink and then added a coat of rock candy distress crackle paint.

I hope you like her because I do.

Happy crafting

Getting ahead of myself

I've been working hard to try to feel at least a bit festive this year and so wanted to do some Christmas scrapping, but the photos from my recent Christmases have all been scrapped. So I got my lovely Graphic45 12 days of Christmas papers out and set to preparing pages for photos that I've not taken yet.

 

 I only added some cardstock, wooden embellishments, ribbon and sequins to the papers and banners from this gorgeous range. I also used a single Cuttlebug Alpha across the pages to further link them.

I took my prompts from the photos I usually take at Christmas; so the tree, decorations and the Christmas meal are the intended subjects of these pages. I also have enough paper left to do extra pages if there are other photos I want to add into my Christmas album.

When I get the photos taken and printed I'll be back to show off the finished layouts :)

Happy Crafting.

Another First

And a few years after my first Christmas. This time it was my first time singing karaoke. It's not something I do any more but back when I was a student weekly karaoke nights were a big part of our social life and although it took me a while I did eventually take the plunge.

 

This LO has been waiting on my desk for a while now for me to share but since I am having a big share session at the moment I thought I would add it.

 The papers are from the original Maggie Holmes Crate Paper range. I just love the background paper and thought it was ideal for a LO about my moment in the spotlight. I inked a 7gypsies card for my journaling as it was just too bright in it's original state and created a little embellishment cluster with an October Afternoon sticker, a die cut canvas flower and a Prima flower centre that had been in my stash for ages. Oh and a brad that I've also owned for far too long! The title is a combination of Thickers and words from the Tim Holtz chitchat sticker book.

Time to get back to the scrap desk. Happy Crafting all!

First Christmas

So this is another scheduled post, fingers crossed that they work ok!

 

This LO came about from a Crafty Bunch craft club kit back in November that gave use some gorgeous Kaisercraft papers to work with. I decided to go with a couple of photos from my first Christmas.

I really wanted to make the most of that gorgeous die cut paper and so kept the rest of the LO quite simple. I did cut along the edge of the holly in the top right corner so I could slip my layer underneath.

All I added to the papers in the kit was a bit of gold cardstock and the alpha stickers.

Happy Crafting!

Something for the Christmas Tree

This project started with a kit of Kaisercraft Christmas papers at Craft Club at Crafty Bunch. I didn't really want to make more Christmas cards so recalling that there was a sample in the shop done using this same range of papers to cover a blank decoration that's what I set out to do.

The vintage feel of these papers makes them ideal for these shapes and allowed me to cover up any little errors with a bit of Distress ink!

I started by drawing around the shapes and cutting them out so I had two pieces of paper for each shape. I glued the papers to one side of each decoration and once they were dry trimmed them to size with my craft knife. I then repeated this for the second sides but then sanded around the edges with a file to get a nice close finish. A little brown Distress Ink and I have a lovely set of ornaments to add to my tree.

Happy Crafting!

A Button Tree

This was one of those projects that didn't go the way I intended but unusually for me I didn't give up I took it apart and took it in a completely different direction.

 

When I bought a polystyrene cone I had a very definite idea in mind but it quickly became clear that it just wasn't working however thanks to a project by the lovely Sue at Craft Bunch I came up with a new plan. Sue has made a couple of wreaths using polystyrene rings covered in yarn and decorated with buttons I wondered if it would be possible to do the same with a cone.

 

It was but thanks to the need to glue the yarn into place it was a messy process wrapping it. I think the result was worth the effort though.

You can see that my wrapping wasn't perfect but it looks less obvious in real life than in the photo. I punched a couple of stars out of gold cardstock and joined them with foam dots, this allowed me to add a pin between them to stick it to the top of the cone. The decorations are simply buttons. I think they came out of huge lot of old buttons I got ages ago off of eBay and were the kind with a shank to stitch them on with. I cut the shanks off quite easily (they were only plastic) and then used my hot glue gun to attach them to the tree.
And there you have a modern cone tree that is probably going to spend the Christmas season on my kitchen window sill.

Happy Crafting!

Joy to All

I want to begin by admitting that I spotted this idea on the internet and had to have a go. Sadly I don't remember where because it was late at night during one of my unable to sleep net wanderings but thanks to whoever inspired me.

 

So here it is my own 'Joy' banner expertly modelled by the doll's house.

It is actually really simple and made on a chipboard base. I took five pieces of chipboard cut to 3.5x5.5 inches and notched the bottoms to form that distinctive banner shape, I measured half way along the bottom and then the same distance upwards to get my centre point.
I covered them in paper left over from Christmas 2012 from the Boofle Christmas range by DOCrafts. I then layered a plain gold circle with scalloped circles cut from the same papers but reversed the colours. I cut the letters with a Cuttlebug Alphabet in the same gold card and added an extra gold circle and a dotty red button on each of the end pieces.
Finally having punched the holes with my crop-a-dile I threaded the pieces onto a length of ribbon.

Obviously it would be easy to change the colours to match your own holiday décor and even to change the wording by increasing the number of pieces to suit.

I've got a few more Christmas themed projects to share and if I have got this right they will appear as if by magic over the next few days and I might even get to sharing some scrapbook pages too.

Happy crafting!

Christmas is coming

And it means it is that time of year when I actually move away from the scrapbook page  and make other things. It also means that I start the build up to the festive season with great plans to share what I make, plans that often get abandoned. With this in mind here is my first project for December 2013.

The more observant amongst you may notice that I've not gone far from the scrapbook page because this canvas based décor item is in fact a 12x12 page from Graphic45's twelve days of Christmas range.

The canvas was painted around the edges with green and gold paint and ribbon added. I then stuck on a full sheet of this wonderful paper and set about cutting a second to give it dimension. 

 Pretty much every detail was cut out by hand and layered up with sticky dots.

The final touches came from a combination of stickles glitter glue and glossy accents neither of which are showing up very good in my photos.

The song the twelve days of Christmas brings back wonderful memories from my childhood and I am so pleased that I can make it a part of my current Christmas.