Mantle Clock Tutorial

I made this mantle clock is made entirely from scratch using chipboard and a clock kit.

 

All flowers were white paper flowers that I dyed with Antique Linen Distress Reinker & Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls (see flower dying tutorial here)

You will need:

• Clock Kit with 5.5cm hands
• Medium weight chipboard (approx 4 sheets)
• Light weight chipboard
• Tools - Craft Knife, Ruler, Scor-tape, liquid glue (Mod Podge)
• Distress Ink (Vintage Photo) & Ink Blending Tool
• Optional embellishments - Long Fasteners (brads), Flowers, Vine, Tim Holtz Ideaology etc

Download the mantle clock template

 

  Measurements:

• Clock face circle: approx 3 3/4" (90mm)
• Lightweight chipboard side strips x2: 2 1/8" (55mm) x as long as possible
• Lightweight chipboard clock face strip: 1" (25mm) x as long as possible

Base Box

• Front & Back: 1 7/8" x 6" (50mm x 150mm)
• Sides: 1 7/8" x 3" (50mm x 75mm)
• Top: 6" x 3" (75mm x 150mm)
• Front Trim x1: 1 1/2" x 5 3/4 (40mm x 150mm)
• Side Trim x2: 1 1/2" x 2 3/4" (40mm x 70mm)

Supplies used in shabby version:

• Pattern paper
• White paper flowers dyed with Antique Linen Distress Reinker & Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls (see flower dying tutorial here)
• Artificial Vine
• Long Fasteners
• Adage Ticket
• Vintage Photo Distress Ink

Supplies used in masculine version:

• Kaisercraft Pattern Paper
• Long Fasteners
• Vintage Photo Distress Ink
• Tim Holtz Sprocket Gears & Mini Sprocket Gears
• Tim Holtz Mini Numerals
• Tim Holtz Stamp from Stuff To Say set

  
Watch Part 1 on you-tube - http://youtu.be/zlG4yHp924c

Watch Part 2 on you-tube - http://youtu.be/h5TeAOSIBCM

Watch Part 3 on you-tube - http://youtu.be/-toORuyySkw 

Steampunk Debutant Print Tray

 

This is a Tim Holtz Print Tray that I made using Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutant paper. It turned out so grungy and just how I wanted it. I have considered whipping up another one but using a smaller configuration.

The inspiration for this came heavily from the Graphic 45 Blog. I had been holding on to this paper stack and print tray for the better part of years waiting for the right idea.

The last couple pictures below explain how I did the grungy black and green edges on the print tray before I started decorating it.

I filled each compartment with all manner of stuff. I used quite a few Vintage Findings like the wing key on the right, vials and oval frame in the center. I also used Tim Holtz Numerals, Game Pieces, Keyholes, Word Sticks, Sprocket Gears, Plaquettes (coloured with Alcohol Ink), Time Pieces, Game Spinners, Memo Pins, Foliage and made a few ribbon spools from left over chipboard. The chipboard gears are from Make It Crafty.

Don't count anything out when you are putting together a project of junk. With a bit of paint you can colour it to match your project and having odd things in it just makes it more interesting. I used a spring that my friend found on the ground, a large key I found in the homewares section of Overflow, a blown light bulb from my friends Hilux and a 1918 penny that my dad gave me. I gave it the patina look by rubbing a bit of the same green paint on it then wiped it off. The high heel in the bottom center was a keyring from the Post Office that I painted black and then rubbed green paint over the lace pattern.

Where I have used tags and elements cut from the paper stack, I have glued it to thick chipboard and mounted it on foam tape so they sit up inside the compartment rather than to the back wall.

Some of the compartments have been turned around so they are no longer holes which I thought was an excellent idea from the G45 blog. I covered the edges of all boxes with a layer of Tissue Tape so that the gaps were hidden then covered the whole thing with a lot of molding paste with my fingers to create texture.

I then painted it with black and green/teal paint and sanded it back roughly to expose some of the paste. Then I sponged on some Vintage Photo Distress Ink to colour the exposed bits brown.

Scrunched Flower Tutorial

Here is a quick video showing how to make Donna Salazar's scrunched and puffy flowers. They look fantastic on 3D projects that can allow for quite a lot of dimension.

 

Watch this video on You-tube - http://youtu.be/bVmWvyDQ13Q

Supplies:
Spellbinders Cutting Die - Scalloped Circle
Text paper
Tissue Paper
Liquid Mist (Perfect Pearl Mist or Glimmer Mist)
Mix your own liquid mist (Mini Mister, Distress Reinker & Perfect Pearl Powders)
Liquid Glue (such as Mod Podge)

What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more

 

I love How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the Jim Carrey version of the movie) and watch it every year. This year I took some inspiration from some Christmas signs I saw on Pinterest and made a sign to hang on the wall.

I used photoshop to create the text for my sign which is 90cm high and about 40cm wide. Then cut a stencil of the text using my Cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot 2 from Cricut Decor Vinyl. It probably won't hurt to do a video one day so I will remember that but next I took my sign (that I had already painted the white base coat on, removed the letters themselves from the stencil and discarded them and then stuck down the negative space around the letters on the sign. I then painted in each individual letter instead of sticking the vinyl letters on the sign and painting the back around it. Painting the letters takes longer but gives a much cleaner result as you don't get a heap of paint build up around the outside of the letters.

Now, this all sounds easy enough but I did this all three times before I was happy with the end result. My font was the issue the first time and I decided I wasn't a fan. I can't remember my issues the second time. Oh, that's right. I decided I wanted to colour and change the font of some words but by then I had decided I was sick of sanding the white paint back and repainting it so I just sanded the green words I had painted and left it aged and a sanded mess. Turns out it made it look a lot better that way anyway.

Supplies:

Cricut Decor Vinyl
Claudine Hellmuth Brushes Artist Quality
Acrylic Paint

Rolled Rose Christmas Tree

 

This year I decided to embark on an epic project of a tree decorated entirely in rolled roses. I got the idea from the Teresa Collins blog but ended up making the tree bigger and ultimately ended up needing a lot more rolled roses. I think I spent about 20 hours inking, scrunching and rolling roses from double sided Kaisercraft Twig & Berries paper, then glued them on a cone made from poster board and finally glued on a candle holder as the base. It was worth making all of the rolled roses. I have no idea why but I have even started working on another project with heaps of rolled roses so fingers crossed I don't lose my mind before Christmas even gets here!

Supplies:

Ink Blending Tool
Vintage Photo Distress Ink
Distress Ink Pads
Spellbinders Sprial Blossom Die
Spellbinders Bitty Blossom Die
Mod Podge Matte Glue

How to cover wood or chipboard with paper

I often get asked how to cover chipboard with pattern paper and here is how I do it.  

Watch this video on you-tube - http://youtu.be/U54q0L9gUtE

 

I made this JOY project using some MDF letters that I cut with the jigsaw and a giant bauble decoration. I covered the bauble with rolled roses made from Kaisercraft Twigs & Berries paper. I lost count of how long it took to ink, scrunch and roll the roses at the 25 hour mark! I also made a bigger bauble top with a loop of copper wire and covered the letters in pattern paper. 

 

Supplies:

Ink Blending Tool
Vintage Photo Distress Ink
Retractable Craft Knife
Making Memories Craft Knife Blades

Metal Christmas Bauble Tutorial

Oh how do I love Christmas crafts!  This year I made a bunch of these Christmas baubles by covering a paper mache ornament with Ten Second Studio Metal coloured with Alcohol Ink.

Check out the tutorial video on you-tube - http://youtu.be/_S0vP80RDJg

Supplies:

• Paper Mache Bauble
• Ten Second Studio Metal (any colour, they are all silver on the reverse)
• Humungo Killer Adhesive
• Alcohol Ink
• Alcohol Ink Applicator
• Tonic/Tim Holtz Non-Stick Scissors
• Spellbinders M-Bossabilities Holiday Magic
• Paper Stump

Vintage Book Tutorial

Here is a video on how to make a vintage book with a curved spine. It is a fun little project and will be great for a notebook, journal or a gift for someone.

 

View this video on you-tube - http://youtu.be/-MZR3fucuME

Supplies used:

• Pattern paper
• Medium weight chipboard
• Paper towel roll
• String
• Material and light interfacing
• Mod Podge
• Album Posts
• Distress Ink (Vintage Photo)
• Ink Blending Tool

In the next video you can find out how to tea-dye ordinary printer paper to give it an aged look. This is the process used to make the pages inside the book.

 

View this video on you-tube - http://youtu.be/NclJQpQs14M 

Supplies used:

• Printer paper
• Tea Leaves
• Strainer & Muslin Fabric
• Dish to fit paper
• Heat Tool (optional)

1, 2, 3, 4, I declare a thumb war

 

I made this thumb war stadium for a friends birthday. It is simply a piece of chipboard covered in pattern paper with two thumb holes. I then cut bits of dowel, painted and drilled holes in them to thread string that I painted red. Pretty simple!

Wire Tree with Paper Leaves Tutorial

My first attempt at a project I have found on Pinterest.  It is a tree in a vase and what I thought was going to be a quick and easy project turned out to be a long but easy project through no fault but my own. 

I was too lazy to brave the outdoors and find sticks so I made the branches from wire then cut strips of hessian (from my wedding table runners last month) and frayed them and wrapped them on the wire.  I then sprayed them with some Vintage Photo Distress Ink in a Mini Mister. 

I cut the leaves on my Cricut from Kaisercraft paper and glued two together with a thin piece of wire coming out from the inside.  I then poked a hole in the hessian, squeezed in some mod podge and inserted the leaf.

The tree doesn't look as 'messy' in real life.  The camera had trouble seeing the depth of the project but in real life the branches spray out nicely and don't mush up and blend into one like the picture shows.

Shabby Drawers

 I finished my Shabby Drawers!  I started these ages ago but got busy planning our wedding.  That was last weekend so now I have more time to finish things again!  Woohoo.. bring back the papercraft!  

The pattern for these drawers can be found at Laura's site.  She is the constructive genus behind their chunky design that I love.  I'm using them to store my ribbons.

The pattern paper is by Fabscraps and is the Shabby Chic Collection.  I also used Shabby Chic paper flowers and a couple of handles I found at the hardware store.  The brads in the middle of the flowers are Graphic 45 Stamped Metal Brads.

Curio Cabinet

This is another epic project from Follow the Paper Trail (Laura Denison). Her patterns and ustream classes are fantastic. She makes everything so easy to construct. The whole cabinet is made from scratch using chipboard. I covered it in Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutant paper

The crown piece has a time piece, game spinners and adornment wings.

The left side has a memo pin and an adage ticket, a philosophy tag and some little books that I made from chipboard scraps covered in paper.
Each cupboard has a plastic sheet window. It is thicker than acetate and perfectly clear. I like it because you can cut it, do what you need to then peel off the blue protective covering right before you are finished so it doesn't get damaged or scratched.

In the middle is a bird cage, game piece, vial, scissors, a bracelet from Diva and some muslin. I made the little boxes using chipboard scraps and covered them in pattern paper and the flowers are from Petaloo.
The right side has a memo pin with an adage ticket, corked vials and a vintage key.
The bottom is a drawer. The original pattern has a mini album that slides in and the spine of the mini is the drawer front. I just made it as a slide out drawer.
My partner is an electrician who loves playing with gadgets so he whipped up three LED lights to sit in the roof under the crown and wiring goes down the back to a small battery pack and a switch hidden underneath the drawer.

Trunk Full of Recipes

Call me lazy! I can take it. I made two of these trunks before Christmas but I have only just taken a photo of mine now. I gave the other one to our friends and inside is a mini with heaps of pages for us both to write our wood fired pizza recipes (aka Pizza Inventions!).

The trunk is made using a pattern by Laura Denison from Following the Paper Trail and she has weekly ustream classes showing how to make each project. I'm currently working on her Shabby Drawers now. Everything she makes is from scratch using chipboard sheets so you don't have to look high and low for a box in the shape of a trunk. The surprising thing is that they are always easier to make than they look.

The paper used is Bo Bunny Et Cetera. There are a million Tim Holtz Long Fasteners and I used my Bind-It-All for the mini.

Life

I made this little journal (for lack of a better word) using my Bind-It-All and it was my grungy project that marked the re-entry into crafting after my hands decided they didn't want to work properly a number of months back. I didn't do any craft for a few months and it has just taken a few months in addition to get some photos! I made it as grungy and messy as I could because that was easier on the hands than attempting precise and deliberate.

I got the idea for the flowers from Donna Salazar's tutorial on puffy flowers. The cover is made from Corrugated Board and Steampunk Debutant pattern paper. The blue paint is gorgeous, shimmery Jacquard Lumiere paint and I put some Snow Cap paint over the top to make it a little bit more blotchy. The little leaves poking out under the flowers are Leaf and Swirls Doohickey Die from Magnolia.

The stamp inside is Tim Holtz Urban Tapestry and I was selective where I put the different colour Distress Inks to make the bold words stand out more. I then put some Glossy Accents over them for some dimension. Each page is stamped top and bottom with various stamps from Tim Holtz sets.
The stamp on the back inside cover is from Stuff to Say with 'Possibility' and 'Imagine' accented with Glossy Accents.

Christmas Displays

These Dusty Attic 3D Displays were made by combining both the Santa Sleigh and Christmas Trees sets and they turned out to be great little Christmas decorations, if I may say so!

The sleigh display has pattern paper covered houses, sleigh and reindeer but I think brown paint would have sufficed for the deer because it is hard to see the pattern anyway and they were very tricky to cut and sand. You could always paint the deer brown and still use some red pattern paper for the sleigh. I also put some Glossy Accents on the reindeer and sleigh to make them stand out a bit against the houses.

The trees are painted with green Jacquard Lumiere Paint (which has a beautiful shimmering, metallic look to each gorgeous colour) then dabbed with Oregano Alcohol Ink to give them a bit more of a grungy, mottled look. There are transparencies glued behind each window.

The second tree farm display was made using the left overs from both kits. I made the trees and houses in the same way as above but I put some Tacky Glue randomly over the trees and houses and sprinkled on some Polar White Flower Soft.

Possibility to Imagine...

I whipped this up today using the new Tim Holtz District Market Burlap Panel - Memoirs. They are a great starting point and are way more interesting to look at than plain canvas.

I used Tim Holtz Corners, some TH Lost & Found paper mounted on some chipboard, 7 Gypsies Tissue Paper, Filmstrip ribbon, Stamps - Curiosities and Stuff to Say, die cut flourish Grungeboard that has been sprayed with Distress Reinker and Perfect Pearls and a few bits and pieces I had lying around. The two coins are just a penny and a three-pence from the 40's that my dad gave me.

Vintage Suitcase

Check out this awesome project! I keep an eye on Follow The Paper Trail on you-tube and when Laura showed this vintage suitcase I had to make it straight away. You can buy the pattern at Laura's site and she shows how to make the suitcase and decorate inside on her u-stream channel. Also check out the Trunk Full of Memories project too... it looks excellent!

The straps are made from Grungepaper using D-Rings and Hitch Fasteners.

The top has a Grungepaper pocket and I have put some Pen Nibs, Vials, Film Strip Ribbon, Hinge Clips, a Pocket Watch with a Timepiece and Game Spinners.
Laura's pattern has a mini album in the bottom section but I made some postcards using Tim Holtz stamps sets, Postcards and Stuff to Say. There are also some pieces of 7 Gypsies Mini Ephemera.

Wishing Well

I made this fun little project using the Make It Crafty Wishing Well Kit. It is so cute and it actually works lowering and lifting the bucket with the handle. The chipboard has been cut so precise and everything fits together perfectly it is great for people like me who like everything millimeter perfect!

I covered all of the pieces in Basic Grey and Imaginisce pattern paper, put some flowers on and some artistic wire poking out. There are also some little faux bubbles in the bucket too.

Plywood Mansion!

This was one monster of a project but it is now complete... after only five days and three trips to get more paper! (You can click the pictures to see them larger)

My friend called me the other day and said that Cotton On Kids in DFO Cairns has plywood doll house kits marked down from $39.95 to only $5.00! I raced in there (luckily I was parked just on the other side of the road anyway) and picked one up. I had NO idea how big it was! The picture on the box was only a black and white sketch and there were no real instructions so it was quite interesting seeing it take shape. Quite a surprise to find it had a bay window on the side because the box didn't have one of those!

So anyway, I covered it all in Ruby Rock It paper and put some transparencies in the windows and some artificial vines on the sides with some little paper flowers.
The mansion before:

1000 miles and a parking space

I just finished covering a high heel in Ten Second Studio Metal and I am so excited by it I had to post immediately! The inside of the shoe says 'A journey of 1000 miles starts with finding a parking space'.

I made a rough template of the side of the shoe from tracing paper then embossed the silver side of the metal with the new Kabuka Mold #15. When I had agonised over the colour for about two hours I jumped in and inked it with Cranberry and Lettuce Alcohol Ink and burnished the raised areas.

Then came the fun part! Had I have known before I started I wouldn't have spent so many hours trying to make my first template of the shoe and just got to work but I put some Humungo Killer Adhesive on the back of the metal which is CRAZY strong then pressed it into shape. Turns out, you don't need the cut lines exactly right, just lay it on with some overhang then use a craft or stanley knife to cut it to shape. The part where the shoe and the sole come together is really thick so you can use that groove to cut a nice clean line without cutting into the shoe.

If you are new to Ten Second Studio, they have a bunch of great videos on how to work with the metal.