Dinky Circles

Today's share uses the Dinky Circle dies from Julie Hickey Designs. The flower is from the set, and I used Craft Artist - Flower Forming Foam - Pink and Purple. The sentiment is from the Floral Buttons set, and I used Crafter's Companion Stitched Circles to cut it out. Click on the picture to take you to the video demonstration.

Thanks for popping by, and I hope I have given you a little inspiration. Feel free to follow me here on my blog, or on FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest. For lots of video demonstrations, pop over to the Hixxy Studio YouTube channel to subscribe. The main items I use can be found on the Hixxy Crafts website - have a look under the Hixxy Studio tab.

Happy crafting,

Cxxx

Say it with flowers!

 It's been over a month since I posted - lots been going on and just didn't get round to it.

Today I am sharing the little flower boxes I made for my colleagues in my teaching bubble, using Crafter's Companion dies and Florist box template.

I have made flowers before - and they are on my blog from early last year - but I tried some new flower dies this time. All of them are from Crafter's Companion Spring Foam Flower collection. I also used my old travel iron along with the CC Petal Distress Tool set. The flower foam is a mix of Foamiroan and CC. 

Because I wanted to put them in the Florist Box (CC template from the same collection), I wanted a solid "stem". I created the flowers in pretty much the same was as last time (see my post from last year) although I didn't bother with ink or with the ball tool. To add a stem, I used Oasis green Hobby Wire, and used hot glue to attach it to the white ends of the stamens that had been pulled through.

I then used Florist tape (I got this from Amazon), to wrap the wire from the bottom, up to the flower.

  

  

I had four flower boxes to make, so used four different dies: Vibrant Dianthus (dark purple), Elegant Ranunculus (lavender), Pretty Peony (yellow) and Wild Poppy (orange). These sets come with 2 or 3 dies for the smaller petals, and with 3 templates for the larger petals. This is OK - but I think I would have been happy to pay more to have the larger dies for speed. The all have foliage dies too, but I feel that they are really only suitable if you are using the smaller petals. You can see from the pictures below that the poppy leaf is fine, but the others barely show (and not at all in the case of the ranunculus). I used several layers of each size for the larger flowers (mostly 3 - but sometimes 2).

  

 

I then created boxes for each, using the Florist Box template and Core'dinations card. I wrapped each one with Baker's twine (this is from Creative Expressions and has been in my stash for a very long time). I lost the piece of paper I wrote all my notes on - but I vaguely recall I used 50" of twine for each. Sounds a lot, so I may be remembering that incorrectly. I used red liner tape to wrap this around the box. 

  

I used an additional piece - this one I recall as being around 17" - to wrap round, and tie in a knot at the front.

I had some leaf and alphabet charms to add on. Unfortunately, the hole in the leaf charm was too small for the twine, so I added some thread, and tied a leaf to each side of the knot.

   

I then threaded the alphabet charm onto one piece of the twine, knotted it on and tied a bow.

  

I used tissue paper to "stuff" into the boxes and then pushed the flowers in. 

 

 

I am really pleased at how these turned out. 

Happy crafting,

Cxxxx

December Birthday

So, I have been working full time in school the past two weeks, which means I haven't been able to really focus on anything else. At Use Your Craft Stash, we still have a Christmas theme, but after the announcement earlier, I am really not feeling festive. So, here is the last of my 5 hat easel cards, made for my friend's December birthday. Instructions for making the hat easel can be found in a previous post.  The making of the flowers can be found in another post. 

For the base, I used A3 Centura Pearl, and the pink card is Crafter's Companion A3 Shabby Chic Classic. The other patterned card is from a very old DCWV Luxury Cardstock Stack. 

Happy crafting.

Cxxxx

J is for Jasmine

So, we're half way through our I and J challenge over at Use Your Craft Stash on FB. I did "I" last week, so here's my J. A "Just for You" Jar of Jasmine, with Jewels - and a bit of Jade green thrown in for good measure.

I started with the jasmine flowers. I used Crafter's Companion White Flower Forming foam, with dies from Crafter's Companion Classiques Forget Me Knot, Pretty Petal (Crafter's Inspiration 6) and Flowers For All Occasions 2.

I used my Spectrum Aqua Jasmine pen to colour the centre of the flowers, and to colour the white stamens to match.

I embossed a piece of white stamping card with CC 3D Rose Bouquet folder - for the jar! I coloured the leaves with Spectrum Noir pens - LG5, JG1 and JG6 (JG= Jade green).  You can see my little swatch at the bottom of the card. I then mixed Imagination Crafts Alchemy Wax in Peridot, with a bit of water, and painted the stems and swirls.

I used the Jasmine Aqua pen to put a wash over all the flowers and the ribbon, and the Charcoal Aqua pen on the jar.

I painted over the jar with glossy accents to give it a more glassy appearance.

I then stuck the jasmine flowers over the roses on the folder, with leaves cut from a small die that came with the CC Advent calendar a few years ago. I finished it with a big bow and some green jewels!! 

We look forward to seeing all your makes!

Happy crafting.

Cxxx

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