Fuchsias

Fuchsias are one of my favourite flowers, and I have a few in the garden. So, as this week I am working on "F", I decided I wanted to include them in my project. That way I cover flowers and the colour! I also decided to make a Fold Over Box, following the sizing guide from Beccy's Place.

I have never made fuchsias before, so found a great tutorial from Archana Joshi. I was surprised at how straightforward they are to make, and how effective they look.

So, you need a rounded petal flower and a pointed petal flower. Archana uses punches, but I don't have them and after rummaging through my dies, I found these old Crafter's Companion Classiques dies called Forget Me Not. The most Fuchsia colour I could find in my inks was Picked Raspberry, and I decided to use Distress Oxide. This is for the outer part of the flower and needs inking on both sides. For the inner part of the flower, I used Spun Sugar, but only inked the central part.

    

One of the interesting things from the video, is the detail for the stamen. One of the stamens needs to be longer than the rest - and this one should be white. I used a bit of wire to secure them together, and wrapped it in a bit of green floral wire. This might be better done afterwards, but I though it might give a bit of stability. The inner part of the flower needs to be like a cup - and although she used foam, she didn't heat it. I did heat it as it kept the cup shape better. The outer part is shaped using a very small ball tool. I didn't have one that small so used the end of my Crafter's Companion quilling tool. You move the ball from the tip of the petal to the centre of the flower.

  

I love that she showed how to make a bud too. I started with some green floral wire as this is much stronger than the wire I used for the stamens. I didn't have any white floral tape, so used (as she suggested) white tissue paper. You then thread on the flower top, and use glue (I used a hot glue gun) to stick down each petal in turn. 

 

  

The next step is to wrap the piece just below the flower in white floral tape or, in my case, white tissue paper. This is then coloured with the same ink as the flower. The same is done with the white part on the bud. I would highly recommend watching the video as it was so helpful and I am so pleased with how these turned out. I shall definitely be making them again. And also checking out more of Archana's tutorials.

  

For the fold over box, you need a piece of card 10"x10" and two pieces 6" x 9". I used A3 Centura Pearl Hint of Gold.  The two smaller pieces are scored at 3" on one side. The small panel provides an overlap for the spine, and these are stuck together.  The box is scored at 3" on all sides, and cut and folded up.

      

For additional F's (and E's) I used a Fairy topper from Crafter's Companion Faerie Poppets CD, and Fussy Cut a couple of the layers. The Embossed card is (although it doesn't show very well) the paler pink card that I mat and layered with.

 

In her tutorial, Beccy shows a way of fastening the box, but I chose to go with fuchsia ribbon. This was taped onto the inside of both sides, and the covered with the decorative mats and layers. including the fuchsia coloured card, the pink embossed card, and a patterned paper from the Faerie Poppets CD.

    

The outside of the card , and the outside and inside of the box were decorated in the same way.

 

The Faerie Poppet and the Fuschias were added to the front, with a bow and some pearls.

So, there you have my Fuchsia Fold over box with Fuchsias, Flower Forming Foam, a Fairy, Fussy Cutting and elements from the Faerie Poppets CD. 

Happy crafting!

Cxxxx 

The start of something ......

A new decade is upon us, and the last year of the previous one saw lots of change for me with my crafting. I stepped down from my Design Team and Demo work with Crafter's Companion, and took on more in the realms of the teaching day job. It all became very busy and I lost track of crafting just for me (and this blog), and I was just keeping on top of cards for family and friends. 

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed making my Christmas Cards with my absolute favourite product from the past couple of years - my Foilpress. But that is all past and it's time to get back to where I was before DT's and Demonstrations made crafting feel harder and more pressurised that it needed to be. 

So, here is my first card of the year - and indeed the decade - a birthday card for my Mother-In-Law made using Hunkydory's Square Little Book of Florabunda. There's nothing quite like a bit of fussy cutting to create your own decoupage!!

I love the colours of this topper - and reflected that in the mats and layers - and the sentiment (Crafter's Companion Essentials Sentiment Dies).

Will hopefully not leave it a whole year this time, before posting again.

Take care,

Cxxxx

Mixing it up!!

Have been working on a few bits and pieces - really messy, mixed media type stuff. This is the first of my pieces. A canvas with the focal point being a gorgeous rose image. 

What I used

8x8 Canvas                      

White Gesso                           

Crafter's Companion Textures Elements Stamps- Words to Inspire 2

Brilliance Ink - Galaxy Gold

Memento - Espresso Truffle

Prima Finnabair Art Ingredients - Melange Art Pebbles

Metal Butterfly

Imagination Crafts: 

Starlight Paints - Clotted Cream, Topaz, Mint; 

Mix Media Ink Sprays - Light Blue, Sunshine, Dark Brown;

Structure Paste;

Starlight Wax - Diamond, White Gold;

A4 Stencil - Past Times;

Art Stamps - Distress Set 1;

Just Pearls - Antique Brown;

Magi Bond Decoupage Glue.

I started by wetting the rice paper to take out the piece I wanted for the canvas.

 I mixed Clotted Cream with white gesso, and covered the background.

I also mixed Topaz with white gesso and dry brushed this on, creating a vertical and horizontal texture.

I did the same with the Mix Media Sprays, to create a green paint for dry brushing on the canvas.  

I cleaned up the mess by spritzing my mat with water, and then smooshing a piece of card over the top.

 I'm sure it'll come in useful for something!! 

The border part of the stencil was all I wanted to use so I taped it off, and spread structure paste through the stencil onto the canvas.

As ever with me, I then got carried away and forgot to photograph the next couple of steps. So, once the Structure Paste was dry, I added the Rice Paper in the middle with Decoupage Glue. I then put the stencil back over and sponged Dark Brown Mix Media Ink Spray through, and over the Structure Paste.

I also used Topaz over the stencil to add depth. More Clotted Cream and Gesso were mixed, and used to stamp texture over the structure paste and other areas.

 With the script stamp, I used Diamond Starlight Wax to stamp onto the canvas.

The word "sentiment" was stamped once with Brilliance Galaxy Gold, and then re-stamped with Memento Espresso Truffle. I used the washi tape to help stamp in the correct place the second time.  

White Gold Starlight Wax was used to add highlights to the Structure paste, and also brushed on to areas of the rose. The final touches were: Just Pearls - Antique Brown, highlighted with White Gold wax, a metal butterfly and the Melange Art Pebbles.

Phew!! Have a few more step by steps in the coming weeks. Looking forward to sharing them with you. 

Cxxx