Mushrooms in the House?

These are the mushrooms in question. They are flat birch ply which I have covered with yummy papers from My Mind's Eye. The mushrooms are from a company called Artemio and I got them through the wonderful Kerry in An Siopa Bui in Spiddal.

I think that they are fab growing out of the skirting boards, but a hole could be punched in the top and they could be hung as a wall hanging. All I need now is a little fairy to sit on one of them.

Sneak Peek #2 for GBCE

Sneak peek of House is a Home




This project will be great fun. Choose either the "Wedding" option or "Letter to Santa" option (Sneak peek of Santa house to follow).

This option is gold and white. We will be using techniques like heat embossing on timber and chipboard, using dies and punches and making a small box of tags to go alongside this one.

I hope you all like it! As before checkout the GBCE website for details and times

Great Big Craft Extravaganza Athlone

The GBCE 2011 is coming up rapidly and I have been asked to do a couple of classes again this year. The classes that I am teaching are both altered wooden items (my favourite thing to do!). The first class is a photo cube, but not just any old photo cube. This one is 6" x 6", and is for all the world like a 3d scrapbook page complete with a pocket for journalling tags and lots of other embellishments, all of which you will make yourself. Check out the sneak peeks below and go onto theGBCE website to find out all the details.

21st Birthday Cards

I was recently asked to make three 21st Birthday cards for the same person. I have to say it was a bit of a challenge as I wanted each one to be quite specific and different. The young lady in question was an avid reader and in particular she loved the classics, Jane Austen, Daphne duMaurier etc. She had also grown up reading and watching Harry Potter and was lamenting the fact that it was now all over. The other thing that I was told about her was that she was "a bit of a hippy!" Armed with this knowledge I had to decide how to use it. I didn't want to do the obvious card for Jane Austen, elegant Ladies with parasols etc., so I decided to make a card that resembled a classic leather bound novel.

I made the cover using grungeboard which I ran through the Vagabond with one of Tim Holtz embossing folders. These are fantastic as they even emboss heavy card and grunge. I then used inks to colour the cover. The corners are metal as are the numbers. The hinge and book-plate are grungeboard coloured with metallic alcohol ink.

Inside the covers were covered with script paper and the central leaves were made using paper from the Attic paper stack.

The back cover was chipboard covered with Kraft cardstock and inked. The hinge was attached with brads.

The second card represents the magical Harry Potter feel without being too childish.

The background paper is from the Eerie Collection from Basic Grey. The birdcage was stamped onto Wendy Vecchi moldable plastic and heated to shape. I attached tit to a branch using Tim Holtz chain. The 21 is a wooden bingo piece coloured with Dusty Concord ink.

Inside I used the same paper but edged it with ribbon.

The third card was similar to this one below with some variations to the flowers. I forgot to take a photo of the actual one!

I hope you like them. Three different cards which hopefully suited the personality of the young lady in question.