Away with the Fairies !

so yesterday it was Unicorns, today I am away with the Fairies!  lol!

I bought a couple of Tando Fiary Door kits and this is one of them.    All the elements came in the kit, it was just a case of painting them and putting them together.

another view

The kits comprise mdf and greyboard.

I coloured the door sections with distress inks, and applied a little UT embossing powder to get the blistered look.

The "stonework" was created by using Pebeo sand gel on the different sections before they were stuck on the base shape.  They were then painted with various shades of Pebeo Deco Creme to get the weathered look.

The hinges were painted with various shades of Decoart Media paints to get a slightly rusted metal look, and the door knocker had Pebeo guilding wax applied to it.

Finally the ferns and toadstool were painted with Pebeo paints, and the toadstool had UT embossing powder applied to give it dimension.

I have another fairy door as work in progress - this door was purchased from the works.   I used a stencil for the stone work.  More details when I get around to posting the finished item.

work in progress

w.i.p another view

Unicorn

on black canvas

Playing about with some new goodies - Creative Expressions Glitter Kiss.

I applied the Sea Green Kiss first of all, and then went over the top with Silver Chrome Kiss.  I also added a few random bits of Cosmic Shimmer Texture Paste in Gold Pearl.

I then took some twine and some of the Costmic Shimmer Clear Texture paste and made the mane and fringe (In hindsight I should have done the tail too).    The twine was coloured with various shades of DecoArt Metallic Lustre and some Luscious Poweders.  The horn had twine wrapped around it and painted with Luscious Powders, and some jewels added.  The tail and hooves were decorated with paper effects and puffy paint.  Finally more jewels stuck on the body.

Not quite the effect I had envisaged, but I don't mind sharing failures (although it does look better in real life)

I couldn't decide how to mount the unicorn, so tried it on a white canvas as well as the black.  I prefer the white canvas, and when it finally gets stuck on to it, I shall probably edge the canvas with silver.

on the white canvas

More Poppy Troll Headbands

Having seen the headbands I made for my youngest grandchildren, an old friend asked me to make some for her grandchildren.   She wanted them to be purple and similar in finish.

My friend and her granddaughters came to visit to collect them during the Easter holiday, on a day I had my grandchildren with me.  The girls loved their headbands, and also new friendships were formed. (which was great as my youngest granddaughter is about to join Rainbows this week, and one of my pals granddaughters already attends the unit - which her Mum runs - so it won't be so scary as she will already have a friend there)   😁

My pal also brought me a a pressie - this lovely hand made box from Poland.   Just had to share it as I love it!

Rings for the Girls

I treated myself to a set of ring sizers and a mandrel the other day, so my youngest granddaughters and I made some rings, when they came over for the day.

They had fun choosing their beads, finding the right size and then  watching me make the rings.  Not bad for a first attempt, and by the third one I was getting the hang of it and even improvised on the pattern (middle ring in the picture).    They are prized possessions now!

Might have to make myself one next!  

Up-cycling a biscuit tin

I needed a new container for my Memento Inks, and whilst tidying the Den, I cam across an old biscuit tin that I obviously intended to upcycle some time.

I applied a bit of Pebeo concrete paste to the top to try and obscure the impressed name of the biscuits, and then applied black gesso.

I then painted some free hand daffodils and leaves and labelled the tin.

Easter Goodies

Simnel cake

Well you can't have Easter without Simnel Cake can you.  Basically Mary Berry's recipe with a bit of a twist as I didn't have the correct quantities of fruit in the cupboard.   I also added ground almonds and flaked almonds into the mix!    There is almond paste in the middle as well as on the top (which was finished off with my cooks blow torch ........ and yes there are only 11 apostles on the cake before you try and check!

special Easter iced brownies

Well you also have something a bit naughty as well don't you.  I quite often make Brownies (I always cheat and use the Betty Crocker Fudge Brownie Mix - it is a lovely a moist cake mix and is also dairy free - so my son can eat them).

I decided to experiment and before I cut the slices up I spread some water icing all over the slab of cake, then having marked out the slices I added mini eggs.   I have to say these were incredibly scrumptious and moreish - I may have to do this again (but without the eggs of course - I am sure I can find something else to decorate them - like mini fudge pieces or whit choc drops.)

Granddaughter's "Thank you cards"

I introduced my youngest granddaughters to the art of gelli plate printing the other day,

The first three were done by the 8 year old

printing through lace

stamping again with residue on gelli-plate

stamping on to gelli-plae to remove colour

 The next three were made by the 5 year old

stamping through a leaf template

stamping using the residue on the gelli plate

stamping into the gelli plate (she did have a little problem with the edging, but then I taught
her how to turn the card round to do it!

The last few were made by the 10 year old - just playing - as she didn't have any thank you cards to make!

 and finally .... the one I did initially to show them how to do it!

Easter Card

I had fun creating this with my new Card-io stamps.

I masked off the cross, and then applied a little yellow/green background to start with, and then out came the stamps!  I love the effect when you peel off the tape.  I stamped and cut out one of the little butterflies from the set, and added a peel off.  I trimmed the card to side, edged it with a promarker pen and mounted it on to a green card.

Sympathy Cards

I had two of those difficult cards to make yesterday the first for a pal, whose husband lost his fight with a brain tumour a few days ago.   We have been friends for a long time, since we attended ante-natal classes together over 40 years ago.  Those babies went to school together, and we eventually became near neighbours

This second one was for her brother-in-law and his wife, who are also became good friends and neighbours.   I wanted the cards to be similar but different as they were for members of the same family.

Wooden Carry Organiser

I bought this little carry organiser last week in The Works.  Number 2 granddaughter rather took a fancy to it; so today I set to and painted it.

I have done a few other bits for her bedroom, as requested in black and white, so I kept with the same theme.  Having first applied Pebeo black gesso, however, I took a bit of a liberty of using my new pebeo black pearl deco-creme paint that arrived today .  (Well it would have been rude not to!)

The little embellishments also came from the Works.   I rather liked the letters (though if you wnted to spell a name you would need more than one set as only contains one of each of the alphabet and numbers 0-9.  I also bought a little pack of butterflies, albeit I thought these looked more like bees (and probably are as in the pack was some snails - one of which was used on a unicorn the other day).

The embellishments were painted with pebeo white gesso, and then pebeo white acrylic.  Finally I applied Pebeo pearl deceo-creme.

On the other side I used one of my wooden block stamps from Colourlicious, and stamped it in white pebeo acrylic, and then went over it with paper effects to make it in relief, and added the trail.

Fairy Door for a Train Enthusiast

I had great fun painting this (bought from craftwoodcreations.co.uk)  I saw this at the Farnborough Craft Show and fell in love with it (I must confess I have bought some of their fairy doors before).

My granddaughter was going to buy one, but I had already beaten her to it, so it was agreed that I would paint it and she would give it to her Dad for Father's Day.

I used some pebeo sand paste to create some texture on the outer stone work, and then painted it in various shades of grey and cream, finally going over it with some green memento ink to make it look a bit mossy.  I really love how it turned out!

The door comes in various sections.  The stone work a backing piece, the door and the clock, sign and door knob.

I painted the back arch (with grays, and other colours to create an old wood effect, and then stuck the stone arch on top.

The door was painted with decoart paints and memento inks, as I needed the wording to show through.  I confess I have forgotten what I painted the top windows with - I think it was the pebeo silver glitter paint, and then it had glossy accents applied.  The door knob had gold pebeo gilding wax applied and then stuck on to the door.

The clock and sign were painted with decoart paints, and a little gold pebeo for the arrow, and the rest had Pebeo gilding wax applied. I then highlighted the letters with a micron pen, and also added some detail to create a curved look to the posts.   The clock had glossy accents applied to it.

I am not sure whether my granddaughter will mount the door on a canvas or not, so I haven't stuck the door and surround together not added the clock and sign.  I am leaving these for her to decide what she wants to do with it. It may be that he door will go on the door of his train shed, but it if mounted it could be a "picture" on the wall of the shed.  On the website, the door is shown as in the first picture.

Shame we have got to wait until June to see if he likes it - lol!

an "0" Birthday card.

Not only was it one of my granddaughter's birthday this week, but also my nieces.   I tried an experiment to create the name.  I imported some different "materials" and then punched out the letters and created an edge to them and 3-D'd them.  Simple but effective

Pug Cake

Following on from the theme of the card, this is the cake created for the birthday girl.    A simple Victoria sponge with raspberry jam and buttercream, as this is what the girls like.  She also requested that the cake had a pug on it!

The topper was created in Craft Artist and then printed at Simply Topps (which happen to be situated a short way from where I live, so I am able to email the image and then go and collect if when printed on the sugarpaste).  

Continuing the Unicorn theme

As you will see from this post and the next post, not only are my granddaughters into Unicorns, but also love pugs!

This is the car I created for the birthday girl using Craft Artist.   It also features a little fairy house (I bought her a lovely wooden dolls house for her birthday - and I gather she loved it and she and her sisters were playing with it this morning!)

Unicorns

I had the three youngest grandchildren today and we did some crafting.  We did two shifts.  The first one was with the 10 year old and the 5 year old, whilst their sister was out buying her birthday presents, and spending birthday money with her Dad, and then I had the birthday girl, whilst her two sisters went out with Dad to buy their present for her.

The unicorn at the bottom was painted by the 10 year old, using luscious powders, a little gold paper effects and some unicorn sparkles (what else!).  

The pink unicorn on the right was the 5 year old's.  Originally she was going to have a white unicorm, so it was white gessoed.  She then decided she would have a pink unicorn so she painted it with luscious powders, the same as her sister.  She wanted black hooves, so they were painted with black pebeo, and she used gold pebeo on the mane and tail.  The horn was again painted with gold paper effects and unicorn sparkles added.  She also decided to add a wooden butterfly.  (I got a lovely selection from The Works during the week for £1).

Finally the purple unicorn was painted by the 8 year old.  again using the luscious powders, and originally the hooves and main were pink like the tail, but she decided to add some unicorn sparkles using some flitter glue.  The horn was done the same as the other two, and she chose a snail from the "butterfly" selection that her sister used.

Before we sprayed them with Spray and Shine, we applied some Pebeo Silver Glitter paint all over them.  (ooo  I love the silver and gold glitter paints - they are in a sort of transparent paint - a bit like the effect of pva glue - it goes on a sort of slaked white colour, and then when it dries you are just left with the glitter - magical!)

I think they made an excellent job!

PS:  The unicorn theme continued today for the birthday girl as you will see from the following posts.