Altered Photo Paper Tube

This week I decided that I would take an old cardboard tube that used to hold photo paper and make it into a decorative box.  Here is the result.

The roof is the lid and can be lifted off using the chimney.

Here are the items I used to begin the project.

Cardboard tube, two wooden coasters, tin lid.

I painted the tube with tissue and black gesso, then I used the Imagine If brick stencil and texture paste to add bricks over the painted surface.

I made a cone out of cardboard for the roof and glued it to one of the painted wooden coasters.  I then made a chimney for the roof. 

I covered a piece of card with metal tape and then ran it through an embossing folder and painted it red. Once it dried I sanded it back and then cut it into squares and glued it to the roof. 

I painted the bricks with yellow then dry brushed them with brown, then I painted the Imagine If chipboard trellis and glued it to the back of the tube.  Using a branch die cut I cut out some branches and threaded them through the trellis.  I glued on plastic leaves and then added some of the gorgeous Imagine If flowers and leaves to fill out the space.

I then painted a piece of Imagine If chipboard fence and added it each side of the trellis.
After die cutting a window and painting it I put lace behind it and glued it to the tube.  I then made a door and glued it between the two pieces of fence.  I die cut two small shrubs and added more flowers.  After painting up an Imagine If chipboard bird and a couple of rabbits I added them to the tube.

Hope you enjoyed this little project.  See you all next time.

Stencils - Imagine If design Team Project

Our brief for this week was to use some of the gorgeous new stencils that Jo has added to her range at Imagine If, you can check them out here.

We begin our blog hop as usual at the Imagine If blog and you can follow the individual blogs from there. Or you can jump back to Lilian's blog to see her altered CD or jump forward to Carol's blog and carry on from there.

Once again there is a giveaway. This week is two of Imagine If's quote sheets of your choice.  These are so useful and versatile and can be incorporated into many projects.  To enter just use the Rafflecopter entry at the bottom of this post and leave comments on the blogs.

This week I used one of the beautiful face stencils and the bubbles collection from Jo's new range of stencils.  Here is the finished project:

 

  Here is a close up of the stencils.

So for those of you who are interested here is the process.  I am really proud of this as apart from the chipboard this projects is made entirely out of recycled materials, as you will see.

Firstly I sanded a round wooden placemat and then I covered it with book pages, which I then gessoed with white gesso. I then used texture paste through the bubble stencil.  This stencil gives a really good clean image but I wanted mine to be a bit "smudged" so I dragged it off rather lifting it cleanly.

I then added black paint to the texture paste and stencilled the woman's face on to a calendar page.

Once it was dry I glued the page to a piece of black card and cut it out on the stencil lines leaving enough at the top and the back of the face to lay my doilies over it.

Once the paste on the placemat had dried I painted it black, dried it with a heat gun becuae I am not the most patient person and when it was dry I swiped over the "bubbles" with an embossing ink pad and sprinkled white holographic embossing powder over the top which I then heated with the heat gun to set it.

I glued the face to the placemat and then I cut up three old crochet doilies and dipped them in black paverpol, if you do not have paverpol then you could use fabric stiffener or even white glue and water will do the trick and once the doily is dry it can be painted black.  This picture shows the doily just after it has been dipped in the paverpol so it looks a little grey, but one the paverpol is dry it will become a strong black colour.

I painted two pieces of chipboard from Imagine If, the beautiful flourish and the the muddled clock and then I covered them with the holographic white embossing powder and heat set them.   I added them to the project and then used pieces of recycled costume jewellery to "bling" it up a bit.  I drybushed a small amount of metallic blue on to the doily and then brushed stickles over the top to give a bit of sparkle.  To finish I gave my woman blue eyes and bright red lips as a contrast. 

I hope you enjoyed this project and I look forward to bringing you another one next week. Don't forget to check out the blogs and comment and go in the drawer to win this week's prize.


I have entered this project in the Altered Eclectics August Challenge
Rafflecopter: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mini Baba Yaga House - Version 2

You may remember a short time ago I completed a project using an MDF house from Imagine If that I called the Baba Yaga House.  Check out the original house here.  Well I had such fun making the first house I wanted to try making a smaller version. Using a small gift box I glued the lid of the box to the base and then I cut the top of the box into a roof shape.  Using another gift box I I cut the corner on the join to make the roof and I glued it all together, decorated it, cut a hole in the back and made drawers, glued the whole thing to a coaster and ended up with this version.  I used a lot of the same techniques on the smaller version that I had used on the larger version eg I added drawers in the back, I used popsicle sticks to get the weathered wood look and I used embossed metal tape for the roof. This version is about half the size of the previous version and is pretty cute.  I am really pleased with how it turned out and now I am going to try a good fairy version of the same thing.  Here is the finished project.

 

 

Looking around the internet I have found a few neat challenge sites that I am playing along with, so I am entering this project in the challenges at:

Haunted House Design - Macabre Monday Deja Vu Doo Challenge

Left of Center Creative Challenge No 39

Rhedds Creative Spirit August Challenge



Time to Live - Imagine If Design Team Project

Welcome back to our newest blog hop. I really hope you are enjoying the projects that Jo and the wonderful team of ladies have been bringing you.

Our blog hop begins as usual at Jo's Blog at Imagine If and you can follow on from there or you can check out Carol's creation and work backwards from there or you can jump to Brenda's project and follow on through the rest of the blogs.  Again this week there is a prize made up of 2 packets of Jo's amazing felt flowers.  These flowers are so versatile they can be used as embellishments or they can be shaped into beautiful 3D flowers. (see my post How Does My Garden Grow).

On to this weeks project:

 

 

A little less dark than some of my latest projects, but that is the great thing about Imagine If's products there is something for every style of crafting. 

 

When my kit arrived for this month I found all of these gorgeous goodies. Isn't the clock just stunning.  It would look great on a 12x12 scrapbook layout but that is not the road I wanted to take. 

 

 

The windows above come in two pieces, the frame itself and a backing sheet  measuring 12"x12".  Both are made from MDF.  I wanted to use the clock and I wanted to use the frames. My first thought was to hinge the MDF and make a layout book, but I had already done that on my last project It's All About Olley.  This could be made into a similar book so easily but I digress.  I thought about putting photos in the frames which would also have been a great idea, but I wanted to incorporate the clock and I wanted it to be seen so I decided not to add in photos.  I wanted to use all of the elements shown above and I wanted the project to have some depth and I wanted to showcase the clock.   So here is what I decided to do.  I painted the chipboard clock with caramel paint, then I added a layer of crackle medium and when that was ready I sponged on raw umber paint to give the aged rusty look. 

 

 

While the clock was drying I modgepoged a sheet of  K and Company Daffodil Glitter Paper  on to the sheet of MDF.  Just a tip when modgepodging or glueing paper onto another surface, using your paintbrush put the medium all over the back of the paper first using a crosshatch pattern, this stretches the paper slightly, then apply medium thinly to the other surface and apply the paper working out air bubbles using a cloth (a bit like wallpapering) or a roller.  This prevents air bubbles and creases that can occur when putting a dry surface on to a wet surface. 

 

The next step was to paint the MD frame with yellow ochre paint and when that was dry I again used the crackle medium and a top coat of green acrylic paint, sponged on to give a softer look to the finished crackled effect.  I sealed the clock and the frame with a mineral sealer.  If you try to seal crackled paint with a water based sealer it will cause all of your crackles to disappear.  I painted the birdcage the same way using raw umber and warm white paint.  The trellis I cut into two pieces and painted with the caramel paint and finished off with raw umber dry brushed over the top to give it a more rustic look.

 

I then began to assemble the pieces on the frame.  I didn't want the pieces just sitting flat so I bent the birdcage so that is curved out over the frame.  The beauty of the chipboard that Jo uses to make her pieces is that it is strong enough to manipulate in this manner.

 

 

 

I then kept adding elements until I was happy with the overall look. I glued the frame to the backing and then added the other elements on top of the frame to get the 3D effect I wanted.  I diecut what felt like hundreds of leaves, sprayed them with ink and then screwed them up while wet then let them dry a minute and opened them out to give a more realistic effect.  I glued these to bare branches, also a diecut and added small diecut flowers in the same tones as the backing paper.  I extended the sign so it reached to the top of the frame and I added red dyed baby muslin to the bullrush heads to give a more organic touch.The signpost and fence I painted with black paint and then drybrushed silver over the top.  The little dragonfly is a chipboard piece from Imagine If and the ladybirds are diecuts. I also curved the fence lightly before glueing it in place.

 

 

 

I have purposefully left areas of the clock uncovered. I wanted the clock to draw the eye in and around the piece and I think I have achieved that. 

 

One again thank you for visiting my blog and I hope I have inspired you to try a project like this for yourself. 

 

Don't forget to visit the blogs and leave comments and be in to win that fabuous prize from Imagine If.

 

 

 

 

 



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Two New Torsos

Finally got these two torsos finished.
I love the simplicity of this one.  The map and the birds give it a light airy feel.

This second one is simple but there is a lot going on.

I am going to have start rehoming some of these as I am running out of wall space but they are so addictive.

Thanks for looking be back soon with more projects I am finally getting finished.