Rose Box

This little box has a big impact because of the rose on the box. I used Rich Red Foundations card from Creative Expressions, and also Ivory Foundations for decorating the top. Click on the picture to take you to the video of this project.

The base of the box is made from an 8 1/4" square of card, scored on the Box Base side of your scoring board at 1 5/8" all round.

The lid is made from a 6 3/4" square of card, scored on the Box Lid side of your scoring board at 7/8" all round.

For the top of the box, I used Precious Marieke: Cuddling on the Farm - Chicken Wire Frame. I cut the die twice out of the Ivory card. One is used as it is. The other I cut into four pieces - halfway along each edge. I arranged these so that the corners created the points of the diamond shape that you can see. I also cut it out of the red card, but only needed the inside part that is cut out. There is also a smaller die which is used to cut the little ivory mat. 

I drew around the die on red card to create the mat for the frame, and I used a piece of patterned paper to just separate that from the red of the box.

To make the rose, I used Elizabeth Craft Designs: Garden Notes - English Rose. There are two leaf dies that I didn't use, along with the two 3-petal dies, four single petal dies (my picture only show two of them), and a larger petal die that makes the centre.

 

The petals need to be pinched in at the bottom, then curled over at the top.

 

The three petal dies need an embossing tool running over the petals, and then the tops are curled over. The centre petal is rolled, with the end folded back, and the top curled over.

Stick the 3-petal pieces together - I used two of each, and then put glue in the middle (I used 3D glue gel) to stick the centre part in. I added more glue in around the centre and added all the petals - I used several of each.

I then quilled (I use that term loosely, as I am no quiller) some little leaf shapes to arrange around the rose. I cut thin pieces of the same paper I used on the top of the box - cutting it down the length of the A4 sheet. Using a quilling tool, I rolled them up and put them in the size 3 hole on my board (this was a magazine freebie many years ago). I then flattened one side of the coil, and fixed it with glue.

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 all the videos, pop over to the Hixxy Studio YouTube channel to subscribe. And FB lives are streamed on both the YouTube channel and the Hixxy Crafts FB page. The main items I use can be found on the Hixxy Crafts website - have a look under the Hixxy Studio tab.

Happy crafting!!

Cxxxx

Birthday Tea

It was my lovely sister-in-law's birthday a few days ago. I made her this card using Hunkydory Pick and Mix - A Tea-licious Day.  

Behind the topper, I used Crafter's Companion 5x5 Tea Party Create a Card, cut in pale blye card. The other matts and layers are matt gold card, pink dots from Sara Signature Little Angel, and some pink Core'dinations. The flower is Sara Signature English Country Garden Lazy Daisy and Grand Floral.

I also dug out some Card Candy, and added a few pearls. 

Will be back in the next couple of days with the new challenge over at Use Your Craft Stash.

Happy crafting!

Cxxxx

Anything Goes!

Monday morning, and another new challenge over at Use Your Craft Stash on FB! We've gone for and Anything Goes theme this week - so..... Anything Goes. Whatever crafty project you are making with your old stash, join us and enter the challenge- just remember to add your photo to the album and tell us what stash you've used. Here's my inspiration for the week.

At first, I was thinking "We don't have a theme! I don't know what to do!", but then though, what do I really want to play with from my stash? Two things came to mind - rice papers and my melt pot. So

I used them to create the canvas.

The rice paper is an A4 one from Stamperia called Rose Garden with Fence, and I've used a 10x12 canvas.

As the canvas is larger than the paper, I used a palette knife to splodge white gesso and Imagination Crafts Menthol Starlight paint, onto the canvas. Then, rather than using a brush, I used the knife to spread it across the canvas. The paper was then stuck down with IC Satin Decoupage Plus.

The next step was to make some embellishments using the Melt Pot. I found the receipt in with the instruction book, telling me I bought this back in 2013, and I bought all the stuff to go with it - I have loads of large tubs of UTEE and some small ones too. I have the large tub of clear. I have the beeswax with a separate pan, the texture treads, inks designed to colour UTEE and a few moulds. But I am obviously out of practice as I managed to get the stuff on me twice - and that is very painful.

I never throw the unused UTEE out - and consequently I have a collection of things I never used, or ends of batches that I pour into little silicone moulds to set and keep for later. I wanted green leaves for the canvas, so gathered all the green and light coloured pieces from my scraps boxes, chucked them in the pot, and poured it into the moulds. There was a lot left over, so that has been saved for another day.

   

I didn't have much pink, so used the little bit I had, and mixed it with white, blue raspberry and clear UTEE. The little balls are UTEE Flex. The UTEE can be quite brittle when set, so this helps to stop it shattering if dropped.

Once made, the top can become matt from being in the mould. You can heat with a heat gun which slightly melts it and makes it glossy, but I decided to drag something else out the cupboard - my Cosmic Shimmer Mica Powders - which I dusted over the top. I used Golden Pear and Pearlescent.

 

And then, as always happens with me and mixed media, I forgot to take any more photos. But the next steps were stencilling the corner details on using Sheena Create a Flower A Leaf of Graph Paper stencil and IC Shabby Chic Relief Paste in Sage and Ashy Rose. I dusted these with Mica Powder too.  A little bit of stamping with an IC art stamp and Distress Oxides in Bundled Sage and Worn Lipstick added a little more to the background (but would have been better if done before the stencilling. And then I attached the embellishments with Finnabair Art Basics Heavy Body Gel, as they are quite heavy in relation to the canvas.

And there you have it. We hope to see all your amazing creations this week. 

Cxxx

I have entered this into: 

Mix It Up Challenge Blog #37

Love to Craft Challenge Blog #46

Things With Wings

Where has that last week gone. Despite lockdown, I seem to be so busy with a never ending list of things to do!!  Far too much baking and eating in there!! Anyway, this week's theme at Use Your Craft Stash is Things with Wings. Quite a broad theme covering anything from birds and bugs to fairies. 

I dug out a really old X Cut Large Owl die. I've had it years and probably only used it twice before.

I have also been trying to use scraps of card and paper rather than cutting into new sheets (although heaven knows, I have enough new sheets), so I dug around and pulled out some colours I like the idea of.

I went for pink, cream and brown - and pulled out what I thought went together.

I cut the pieces for the owl, in predominantly brown card, with just a bit of the patterned card left over from a Hunkydory kit.

I wanted to have some flowers on the front, and decided to use a new die - yes I know, we're supposed to be using stash up - but this is one I really wanted for using with flower forming foam.  So, I cut the three sizes of flower from a mixture of cream and pink card, and the Hunkdory patterned card, and an offcut of Crafter's Companion A3 card - I think it was Shabby Chic.

As you can see from the end photograph, everything looks quite grungy, rather than the clean colours of the scraps, and that's because I inked it all with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. 

Having dug out my box of Cut and Dry - and I discovered yet more unused and forgotten stash in the form of Distress Mica Sprays!! Oops!!

I think I was a bit heavy handed (as usual) with the ink - but am happy with the grungy look.

The flowers dies are roses (Sara Signature Garden of Love) so I folded one of the smallest size into a bud for the centre.

Finally, I assembled it all  and added some large pearls for the eyes, and decorated the edges with more pearls.

Take care and stay safe, 

Cxxx