I Don't Do Cute!

I really had to get something done for my next workshop (just to take along as another sample, not for them to make) so I decided to cover a bird box I had bought from Paddy a few weeks ago. Bought, I might add, with the intention of painting it - ah well, it is now covered in clay.

These bird boxes come in several different shapes and Paddy will order them for you (0161 798 5115) if you want to have a go at making one similar to mine above. They really are quite easy to cover in clay (Makins Air Dry is what I used as this is what Paddy sells at the moment) but you could always paint one if you wanted.

1. First of all I painted it all over with black acrylic paint. Not necessary but at the time I was worried some bits might show through. Here below is how I covered it - I used my pasta machine but it is not necessary as you can roll the clay out to different thicknesses.

2. Roll out the clay to pasta machine setting #2 (my thickest setting is #1).

3. Cut one long and one short edge (about 5 cm x 10 cm on the one I decorated) and put on one side of the roof. Makins will adhere to the wood so no need for glue and things.

4. Trim (this is a bit like marzipanning a cake).

5. Repeat with the other side but this time SLIGHTLY ANGLE ONE SHORT EDGE - this meets the top point.

6. Texture - I used a Tanda Stamp from the Klimt borders.

7. Roll out a larger piece of clay to a more square shape that will cover the front of the bird box (still on pasta machine setting #2) and place over front of house.

8. Gently push to fit. Remember fingers are your best tools. Use anything you have to push into the point of the roof gently. I used a simple pencil along with my fingers. Trim off excess on sides and placing palette knife up to roof push gently to cut into shape.

9. By gently feeling you can find the hole in the centre. Cut an X and begin slicing away with a craft knife. Smooth edge with fingers and along joins. Texture as before.

The picture above shows the rubber stamp being pressed down to achieve the texture.

10. Cover sides in a similar manner, pieces being approx 6.50 cm x 3.50 cm. I always texture after adding each piece as it helps with the joins when each piece of clay has been added.

11. For underneath the eaves I rolled a long sausage, flattened it, put it through the pasta machine, this time on setting #4. I put a piece on 7 cm long and then another similar piece at the base of the eaves 1.50 cm x 4.50m cm.

12. Roll another sausage the same thickness, flatten as before and cut to 14 cm and fix to front outside edge, wrapping around and continuing under the eaves at the side. Repeat on the other side.

13. Cut a strip (this time setting #5) 2.25 cm x 7.50 cm and put inside the hole (I left the back painted black). Smooth with your fingers to make a nice join and then texture.

14. Roll out clay thinly (setting #5) and cut tiny circles (I used a cake icing cutter), putting one circle at the top and then cutting each in half and affixing to edge of roof. You might need to put a drop of water on the back of these to make sure they stick.

15. Decorate as desired. I put some acrylic paint on mine to try to make it look weathered (the one outside on the tree in our garden is a kind of nil green), made some tiny flowers and a little bird. I also cut a tiny piece of bamboo (skewer), painted it brown and adhered it with some Glossy Accents.

I hope you enjoyed this and will have a go at making one yourself - it is good fun doing it. Just remember if you use Makins Clay that it cannot be put outside or you will end up with a sludgy mess.

Made on Sunday

I got on a bit of a roll yesterday and had to stop myself making even more cards than these three. This (above) is one of my favourite stamps which I bought in Germany last year. I do think she is beautiful - not sure who she is modelled on but it is a lovely stamp.

I am still in the mood for using Broken China and Brushed Corduroy (Distress Inks) and after stamping the image with Sepia Archival Ink I blended the two Distress colours around the image.

The upper section was a stamped image from the star book (a trial stamping which turned out fine) gone over with my two Distress Inks again and then put through the Cuttlebug with one of the folders.

To finish off I added three flower heads touched along the edges again with the two Distress Inks.
The card above was due to my having got out my Cuttlebug folders and was simply one of them on plain white cardstock which I then went over again with the two Distress Inks. I mounted it on this Teal cardstock with the two sides wider than the borders at the bottom and top. It is then mounted on white cardstock although it is hard to see from the scan.
This last card started off again with me using my Cuttlebug folders. The cardstock was a sort of semi-gloss and after embossing it I swiped over the music with Encore Gold Metallic ink and then went over it with Black Soot Distress Ink. This rather obliterated the gold so I heat dried it and then went over, swiping with the Gold Metallic. It has made a lovely finish which, sadly, does not show in the scan.

The Beethoven Collage stamp was done using Archival Black embossed with clear embossing powder. I went over it with my Encore Metallic Gold and next I swiped Black Soot Distress ink over it and then rubbed over it with a paper towel.

It is such a shame that the scan does not show up the effect as it looks really nice in real life. Why don't you try it?

Today I have been using my Makins Air Dry Clay as I must get something done for my workshops which are coming up shortly. It is drying out at the moment and then I am going to decorate it. What is it? You will just have to wait and see.

It is Finished

The Star Book is finished, all sewn up and ready to go. I had forgotten just how easy the coptic stitching really is, had to remind myself how to set off but then it took no time at all.

Being Saturday I haven't had time to do anything else and now I am actually itching to get going so watch this space - might possibly get some cards done tomorrow.

Loadsa Stamping

Today (well last night really) I started making a Stitched Star Book. If any of you have done one of these you will realise they take quite a bit of time to make. As these pictures are quite small you might find it advantageous to click on them and open them up much larger in another window.

I have all my pages cut and ready and now have stamped on my inner pages which I have scanned for you to see.

The person I am making this for likes "sparkle" so I decided to use my Brilliance inks for the stamping so that it will have a little bit of "glitter" about it (translate as "sparkle"). I used nothing but green colours as I think she likes green - Pearlescent Ivy, Gamma Green, Thyme and then Jade for the main images as I wanted them to remain pale rather than bright and in your face.

The ink I used for the backgrounds was Peacock (one of the tricolour inks). Again it is rather pale but as a subtle background it seemed to be the best choice.

I am lucky that I have lots of "word" stamps - this includes short verses and so I had lots to choose from. The nature of the star book and its recipient rather steered me away from some of the stamps I would normally choose.

Some of the faces images I have had for simply ages but they remain firm favourites with me as there are enough of them to use on the seven pages which will make up this book.

I am not going to assemble the inner two pages as yet because tomorrow I may decide to add something else such as eyelets, brads or even paper flowers to some of them.
Hopefully then I can complete the book and get it on its way. If it looks ok I will take a photograph and upload it.

Did It Work?

Well, whether my mojo is on its way back or not I don't know but I got some cards made yesterday. I made this one, a thank you card, for someone I met in America who has lots of Native American Indian memorabilia in her house. I hope she likes it. I used Twinkling H2O's to colour it in but then used a gel pen to highlight the feathers on her skirt and in her hair.
Then I got playing about with my favourite Distress Inks. I made several backgrounds, and this is for someone, again in America, who is hoping to go into the wine producing industry. They make lovely beer, or so Chas thought when he sampled it. I decided to colour some of the "drinks" in with Twinkling H2O's but then found I needed to colour them all in - took ages.

This is for a friend who has just come out of hospital and is using one of my friend Jo's designs of bird houses (JoZart - www.stampattack.co.uk). I spritzed water using a mini mister over the top letting tiny drops of water fall on the cardstock. I quite liked the way it turned out.

My last one is for yet another American friend and this time I let drops of water fall on the background so it "wicked" out.

Maybe, if I get the time, I will make some more cards today - but then I have some claywork to get ready for my next workshop - so which will it be? Find out tomorrow!

An Altered Trip to Paris

Phew! Glad it's finished. This has been a monumental task for me - but let's step back.
Way back in January/February when I was at CHA I took a workshop with Jenn Mason using a Creative Imaginations Parts and Parcels Album and Christine Adolphi papers (the papers were too nice to cut up - you know the sort - the ones you look at and put back LOL). In the two hours allocated there was no way I was going to complete the task so it came home and sat waiting to be finished. I wonder if Glenda, Leandra, Linda and Carol ever completed theirs?

To begin with we glued two pink Eiffel Tower papers to the inside covers of the album to act as backdrops. Next we stuck two greenish papers, showing those lovely lamps they have in Paris, to two frames and cut out the inners (what a shame we could no longer see those beautiful papers in full, but I still have the bits and they will come in useful for making cards with) and made holes in the frames for our ribbons. The ribbons were coloured by dragging them against an inkpad and then they were threaded through the holes in the frames - which took forever.

Once the main part of the Album was complete we set about making our little books. These were covered with another paper and then a spine, from yet another paper, was glued on around the fold. Next we put the books together using a pamphlet stitch (easy peasy) and very waxed thread - well, I did one to remind me how to do it. The front of the booklets were to be decorated with small squares of cardstock and Christine Adolphi stickers - this is as far as I got.
In an attempt to bring back my mojo I started to complete it the other day. Did it work? That remains to be seen but was an arduous task as I decided to decorate each page of the booklets.
During the workshop in America I did complete the Album and one of the booklets but decided they would look better if each page was decorated rather than left plain. This was the task I set myself the other day (two days to be exact) and I decorated them using my favourite Adirondack inks, wanting each pair of pages to be a different colour.

The colours and stamps I used were:
Terra Cotta - with an owl and a bare branch - Tapestry stamps
Pool - a branch and a hummingbird - Tapestry
Lettuce - a fern - Tapestry
Lemonade - using an unknown stamp of a corner decoration
Cloudy Blue - a swirl - Elusive Images
Butterscotch - A Field of Sky - A Stamp in the Hand
Shell Pink - raindrops - All Night Media
Cranberry - butterfly - Tapestry
Purple Twilight - pansy - Tapestry
I used a lot of Tapestry stamps as they are small and seemed to be better suited to the tiny pages of the booklets.

Now it is complete! What will I use it for? That is the question! I had thought of using it as a journal for a complete year but that means I have to write in it each month (there are 12 booklets) and also means I have to do something worth journaling each month. I have even been looking at fonts on the computer as I thought it would be nice to put a month on each one of the booklets - janvier, fevrier, mars, etc. carrying on the French theme. Any ideas out there?

If any of you are thinking of getting one of these kits, or making your own using foam core (think that is what it is called) and an existing album here are a few tips:

Tie one pair of ribbons first to ascertain the length you want - ours were way too long and I had to cut a lot off them.
Cut the waxed thread to 14 inches rather than the recommended 18 inches.
Leave 3.5 inches instead of the five inches it states at the centre of your booklet when doing the stitching.
Wipe your needle every time you have done one booklet as the wax rather 'bungs' the eye up.
Mark each page lightly with a pencil so you know what colour it is (I got out of sync a few times and had to recut pages).

Good Luck - and hope you like mine.

Don't Know What I Did

Yesterday I edited my post and somehow ended up with a load of stuff that refused to be published. This is my third attempt again this morning - something to do with HTML and a Tag! Fingers crossed this works.
Day three saw us beginning with a session with Dani. His session was called "scrap clay" and he produced the most wonderful beads from just that - scrap clay. Clay of all colours lay on his table and he sorted this out into colour families. By simply twisting and pulling he produced the most wonderful beads - very "art nouveau" in appearance. Because he showed us so much we did not have a great deal of time for making our own beads. As a "newbie" I did not have very much scrap clay but Irene did give me some of hers and I made the two square piece above.
One of the amazing things Dani did was to make a square block of clay and then by precision (very mathematical) slicing he produced a beautiful pyramid bead. He also showed us how to make "Natasha" beads and "Natalia" beads - the latter named after his wife. I could spend a whole day with Dani just watching and trying his wonderful methods.
Our next and final session we had been eagerly awaiting - it was with Donna (Kato). We were to make a bracelet, something we had watched others do, but realised there was no way we were going to complete it. I don't need to say here that Donna is a wonderful tutor but she is. She first of all showed us how to make the form of our bracelet and we got those cured as quickly as we could. Then she showed us how to apply a zip cane on the top and bottom edges. That is as far as we got.
My favourite of her samples had triangular pieces and curves on and she showed us how to make the canes for that one. Whoo hoo! When I get my replacement roller (yes, I have lost it) I need to try one of those. I have the photographs of her finished work but don't feel I can publish them to this blog without her permission. Sorry folks!
All too soon it was time to pack up - this was an earlier finish than previous days as the room had to be cleared on time and made ready for The Party.
We said our goodbyes to Helen who had to head back home as she had work the following day, and headed back to our hotel for a quick shower and change.
On our return we all swapped beads (we had to make 60 beads prior to attending) and the bottom picture shows my collection. Note the birds nest and the ice cream cone in the top left corner. There were some fantastic beads made by participants and they will be treasured and serve as a reminder of the wonderful weekend I spent in Nottingham.
Afterwards we had a fish and chip supper, cooked by our resident guys who had done a splendid job of feeding us each lunchtime - thanks guys! Then it was time for the lucky draw. At the start of the weekend we had been each given a lucky number (mine was 7) and these went into a draw which Dani supervised - I got a lovely Hansa keyring made by Iris which now proudly sits on my handbag with her signature on the back to show it is an original. Helen and Jacqueline got barettes, also made by Iris and Ciska got the most gorgeous ear-rings courtesy of Sylvie whilst Irene got a Donna brooch.
A wonderful weekend which ended all too soon, goodbyes and thanks were made before we headed back, some to their hotels and some to face the journey home. Helen had done a marvellous job of organising the weekend and thanks to her everything had run like clockwork. She really is Wonderwoman.