December Post for Memory Maze and Stick It Down.

Hi all. I hope this finds you all well. If your family is anything like mine life is absolutely hectic at the moment, but with the buzz of Christmas excitement in the air. My kids are all on the annual countdown until Santa comes (and so is my mother). To be perfectly honest, I think that she is just as excited as the kids, as she will be here on Christmas Eve to spend some time with them.

 

Year End Teacher's Thank-you Canvases

 

 This week I was lucky enough to be able to take a bit more of a back seat job with these creations. In our house we prefer to give handmade presents when we can, and my kids will never say 'no' to a chance to get creative with me. So as a 'thank-you' to their teachers, the kids jumped at the chance to make up these canvases.

 

The first one was made by my 7 year old son, Beau. The second canvas was by my 11 year old son, Zachary. Now as a creative type I love getting into this type of thing, but when it comes to my kids having their creative time I really do TRY to take a back seat. I ask them what colours they'd like to use, and then find what I have in the colours that they want. I'll show them how to use what they were wanting to, and maybe give them a suggestion or two, but other than that - this is all them!

Beau's teachers present.

Zachary's teacher's present.


Just to add to the fun of it all, this year we made a process video of them busily creating. To see how they went about making these please check out this video.

  

I sorry....We hope that you enjoyed what the boys created, and they can't wait for the Christmas holidays so that they can share some more wonderful creations with you.

 

 

Quick Christmas Card

 

As this is my second last post for Memory Maze and my last post for Stick It Down I thought I'd combine the two and have used the December card sketch from Stick It Down as inspiration for this quick and simple Christmas card. The Santa was one that I had left over from a few weeks ago (you can view the technique video here), and the silly season has simply been covered in gesso, some green H2O's and a black marker.

 

 I hope that this has inspired some of you to get creative, no matter what your age.

Until next time,
 

Keep creating,

JODIE MASON.

 

Wedding Mementos Picture Frame

The idea for this frame is something that I have been wanting to work on for quite some time now. Surely some of you out there know the feeling? I mean you get that brain wave but just have no time to make it a reality. Well I finally had a chance to make one of mine come true. I wanted something that would not only help to preserve some of our wedding day mementos, but could also serve as a nice decorative display. The following is what I came up with, and I must say that I am pretty pleased with it (if I do say so myself. Lol).

Now this was not just a quick and simple process by any means. I think it took me about a week to do from start to finish (as you can probably tell from all of the clothing changes in the videos), but the end result was well worth the effort. I hope that you enjoy the videos and I'd love to hear what you think of the frame.

 

Memory Maze supplies used:

We are getting hitched
Wedding Set 1

Wedding Set 2

Wedding Set 3

Wedding

Other Supplies Used:

KaiserWood MDF Frame
Assortment of charms (mostly from Tracy at my2angels)
Prima resin heart
flat back pearls
flat back rhinestones
egg shells
plasterers tape (permanently borrowed from hubby's stash)(Shhhh!)
lace
modelling paste
KaiserCraft 12" Damask Template
TCW Mini Leaf Frame (226s)
White Glue
Glossy Accents
Liquid Pearls - Royal Blue and White
Isocol (Rubbing Alcohol)
Adirondack Alcohol Inks -Indigo, Peacock Feathers, Sail Boat Blue, Stream and Mermaid.
Alcohol Blending Solution
Adirondack Mixatives - Snow Cap
Glimmer Mist - Riptide, Patina
Viva Inka Gold - Silver

 

I hope that you enjoyed my project and I'd love to hear what you thought of it.

Until next time,
Keep Creating,

Jodie Mason.

 

Stick It Down October Post

Hi all. Yes it's that time of the month again, reveal time over at Stick It Down for the card team. As those of you that follow my blog know Stick It Down provide a monthly sketch challenge for cards, single and double page scrapbooking layouts. This was the layout for cards this time round. 

Now as some of you know my craft area has been packed away, cleared out and to be honest completely demolished. Hubby is turning what was originally a double garage into a bedroom, an 'official' craft room for me and a study area. To say that I am excited is a complete understatement, but in the meantime I am having to contend with creating in the family area, with the three kids (and hubby) under my feet. Oh well. With very limited supplies that were not packed away in storage this is what I came up with.

And while I was at it I figured that I might as well turn the leftovers into a second card.

 

That is it for me for now. Hopefully next time that I get to write, it might be from my new room. Fingers crossed anyway.

 

Until Next Time,

Keep Creating.

 

Jodie.

Bag in a Box and Quick Christmas Cards for Memory Maze

 Welcome back for my final post of the month for Memory Maze. Now I know that Christmas is still a few months away, but with handmade gifts it's never too early to get a start.

 

Bag in a box

 

This is a design that has been doing the rounds of many paper crafting groups lately, and I just had to give it a shot. With my kids school fete coming up I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to try some Christmas designs. As the name suggests these start off as a box, but then have all of the great qualities of a bag. If you search 'bag in a box' on you tube there are plenty with instructions there. I gathered a selection of Christmas style Memory Maze chipboards and covered them in a coat of white gesso.



Gesso covered chipboard pieces

 This Santa piece was coloured with Copic markers and then glued to the outside of the bag. I used E00, RV02, R27 and 100.

This buckle was coloured with a black (100) copic marker and then had crystal stickles added over the top.

Here is the finished 'Bag in a box'.



Front View

Top view

Memory Maze supplies used:

Santa

 

 

Buckle Oval Medium

 

 

Quick Christmas Cards

The bag in a box above is perfect to hold a few quick 4" cards. Using some of the left over chipboard pieces from above I put together these quick cards.

The bauble was coloured with copic marker RV02 and had Neon Flamingo stickles added to the top. Tis the season was coloured with marker G05 with Crystal stickles added.

 

 

The bells were painted in gold acrylic paint, with copic markers R27 and G07 used for the ribbons. Some chunky gold glitter was also added.

 

This Santa was coloured in the same way as before only I added some flocking powder to his outfit.

 

Memory Maze supplies used:

Christmas Bells

 

Santa

 

Bauble Tear Drop

 

 

Tis the Season

 

And when you put them all together you have a nice little handmade gift for someone.

I hope that this has inspired you to try and create some of your own gifts in the future.

 

Until next time,

 

Happy Crafting.

 

Jodie

Stick It Down September Card Challenge

Today I'm here with my September Card for Stick It Down challenge blog. You get given the sketch and then get to create. Here is the card sketch for this month.

 

 

 

And here is what I came up with (with a little help from one of my kids).

 

 

Here in Australia September is Father's Day, so with the sketch in mind I took my 3 year old daughter out into the back yard and she created these patterned squares all by herself (well almost). It was so much fun that we very quickly had both of my boys hanging over our shoulders wanting to have a turn too.

 

We lined a baking dish with alfoil and then filled this with shaving cream. The kids used droppers to drop some watered down food colouring onto the shaving cream, after which we swirled around. Once we had a cool pattern in the shaving cream, we placed a piece of watercolour paper over the top and carefully pushed it down onto the foam. We let it soak up the foam and colour for about a minute and then carefully lifted the paper back up. Now some of the foam did come up with the paper, but that is normal. We laid it out on the trampoline and then used the edge of a palette knife to take the majority of the foam off the paper. A quick wipe over with a dry cloth or rag and then we just left the paper to dry overnight. As the cream/foam comes away from the paper you are magically left with glorious colourful patterns all over your paper. The shear look of wonder and amazement on my kids faces at what they were able to create.

 

Don't forget that Stick It Down do a single page and double page scrapbooking challenge also.

 

Until next time,

 

Happy Crafting.

 

Jodie Mason

Tea Bag Holder for Memory Maze

Well I'm back after my long break with my first post for the month for Memory Maze.

Tea Bag Holder

To begin to make this 3 section Tea Bag Holder you will need to cut each of the pieces out of chipboard sheets. I have included all of the details in the first few pictures for you. The measurements are all in millimeters (mm).

One Back Panel (154mm * 200mm), Three Inside Back Panels (160mm * 50mm each) and Three Ramp Supports (38mm * 50mm each)

One Outside Lid piece (80mm * 170mm), Two Inside Lid pieces (68mm * 152mm each), One Base section (103mm * 160mm) and a Front Plate piece (30mm * 156mm).

Three Ramp sections (50mm * 71mm each), Two Inside Panels (120mm * 197mm each) and you will need Six Inside Ramp Pieces (the triangular sections seen in the right lower corner of this picture) (58mm * 38mm each). One of these Inside Ramp Pieces gets stuck to both sides of the Inside Panels.

 

One Outside Front Panel (154mm * 177mm) and Three Front Inside Panels (50mm * 177mm each). NOTE: I did end up increasing the size of the cut-out windows to about 36mm wide and 20mm high for the Three Front Inside Panels.

 

Two Outside Side Panels (200mm * 123mm) and Two Inside Side Panels (118mm * 197mm). The Two remaining Inside Ramp Pieces get stuck to the inside of the Two Outside Side Panel pieces as shown on the far left.

Please keep in mind that some of these measurements may need to be tweaked slightly depending on the width of the chipboard that you are using. I have also used some leftover pieces of paper that I had remaining from another creation. The few larger pieces that I had have been used to cover the main (outside) pieces, with scraps used to cover the other pieces. All papers were stuck to the chipboard using Gel Medium and then once stuck down had another 2 coats of it applied over the top to seal it.

 

Let's break it down into sections to make it easier to work with.

 

The inside back section: 

I began with the 3 inside back panel pieces. The papers for these were the same width, but slightly longer than (by about 20mm) the chipboard pieces as can be seen in the following pictures.

 

TIP: I actually cut all of my papers a little bit bigger than the pieces and once they are stuck down and dry either cut or file down the unwanted excess. This way your chipboard pieces are always covered completely.

 

Inside Back Panel pieces (inside section)

Inside Back Panel pieces (outside section). The overhang has been stuck down at the top.
 

The base and outside back section:

 

The Back Panel and Base Panel with markings to show where the inside pieces will sit. I have also marked in dotted lines the placement for the beads which I used as feet. For the feet I came in 10mm from all sides and then divided the remaining space by the number of feet you have.



 Start by sticking your paper onto the Back Panel making sure to have some overhang on each side with the most at the top. Cut the corners out of the top overhang so that the paper is in line with the edges of the chipboard. Fold the top over to the inside and stick it down. Place a bead of glue along the bottom of the Back Panel and stick this to the back of the Base Panel. I have used a few pieces of double sided tape to keep it in place while it dries. Stick the overhang from the Back Panel to the underside of the Base Piece. Stick the paper to the Base Panel leaving about 10mm on the front and both sides unstuck. Make sure that you have excess paper on both sides, but any excess on the front or back can be removed. You can also glue down the two outside Ramp Support pieces into position on the Back Panel.

 



An outside view of the Back Panel attached to the Base.



I have pocked holes through the Base where the feet were to go and slipped jewellery headpins through the pearls and the holes to the inside of the Tea Bag Holder. The ends of the headpins were bent to lay flush with the Base and glued in place with some Glossy Accents.

 



For feet I used some large pearl beads and headpins.



The back lots of headpins can lay to the sides as this area will be hidden under the Ramp Sections. 



The inside view of the headpins holding the feet in place.



 With the front lot of headpins I have stuck these down fairly straight as only paper will cover these.

 



The inside view with all of the headpins stuck down in place. I have used some double sided tape to hold them in place while the Glossy Accents dried.



 

The inside section:

 

These have been covered in paper on both sides, with the papers folded over the sections that will be showing at the top. It is not necessary to cover the areas where the Ramp Supports are.

 



Side view of the covered Inside Panel.



Once the Two Inside Panels have been covered you can glue the remaining Ramp Support between them at the back. TIP: You may want to use a scrap piece of chipboard cut to the same size as the ramp support and place this between the two panels at the front. This will enable you to put an elastic band around them to keep them in place while the glue dries.

 

 

 

 For the Inside Base Section you will need a piece of paper that measures at least 185mm * 165mm. On the reverse side of this I have worked out the placement for all of the pieces (as can be seen in the following picture). Allow at least 75mm for the 3 Ramp pieces, 40mm for the Base piece, 2 lots of 31mm for the Front Panel and the extra gets glued down under the paper covering the Base. For the width you will need 154mm with some overhang available on both sides. Stick down the 3 Ramp Sections and the Front Panel piece as shown in the picture. Remove the excess paper from between the Ramp Sections and fold over and stick down the excess. Trim the excess that will be stuck under the paper at the base to 154mm. Fold the excess on both sides of the Front Panel over and stick down.

 

The placement of chipboard pieces on the Inside Base paper.

 

The Inside Base paper from the other side.

 This Inside Base Section can then be glued to the Inside Panels firstly by gluing the Ramp Sections to the Inside Ramp pieces. I have once again used double sided tape to hold these in place while the glue dries.

 



A side view of the Inside Sections joined together.



 



The rear view of the Inside Section.



 



Another view of the Inside Section.

The Front Panel can now be tucked under and glued to the other section of paper, so that both sides of the panel are covered.

 



Now to join the base/back sections and the inside sections:

 

To join these sections put glue along the back of the Inside Panels and slide the Inside Section onto the Base/ Back Section so that it fits between the 2 outside Ramp Support pieces. Glue the central Inside Back Panel into place. Glue the top of the Ramps to the Ramp Support Sections attached to the Back Panel. Put some glue over the Base where the paper will be sitting and glue the base of the Front Panel to the Base Section. Stick the excess paper under that of the Base Section and stick this down. Glue down the other 2 Inside Back Panels.

 

The Base/ Back Section and Inside Sections joined.

View of the joined sections from the other side.

 

Top view of the joined sections.

 

Frontal view of the joined sections

 Place a bead of glue to the underside of the Inside Panel pieces and stick these to the Base and Front Panel pieces.

 

Side view of the completed Inside Section.

 

Other side of the completed Inside and Base/ Back Sections.

 

The outside side sections:

 

These need to be prepared in a similar manner to that of the Inside Panels. Paper should be stuck down to the inside of the Inside Side Panels and folded over at the tops (this includes the tray section). The remaining edges can have excess paper removed. Prepare the Outside Side Panels in the same way only you need to have a small excess at the base (this needs to be stuck under the paper covering the Base piece). The Inside Side Panels can be glued into place (along the base and back edges) of these panels. With glue along the same edges on the Outside Side Panels and also on the inside where the Inside Side Panels will stick to them, stick these down also.

 

TIP: I used clothes pegs, rubber bands and spare chipboard pieces to hold these sections in place while the glue dried.

 

A side view of the sections so far stuck together.
 

Alternate view of the sections so far.

 

Frontal view of the sections so far.

 

Now for the front section:

 

The paper for the Outside Front Panel needs to be about 25mm longer and about 20mm wider than the chipboard panel. Stick this to the panel and make cuts to the paper as seen in the pictures so that it can be folded over and stuck down.

 

Frontal view of the Outside Front Panel.

 

Back view of the Outside Front Panel

 I have used small pieces of acetate to cover the window panels, and have folded and stuck down the top and bottom excess papers. For the Inside Front Panels the paper should be about 10mm longer than the chipboard and the overhang folded over at the top.

 

The 3 Inside Front Panels.

The other side of the 3 Inside Front Panels.

These then need to be glued together.

 

The Front Panels glued together.

 

Now for the lid:

 

The 2 inside chipboard pieces were stuck together and paper wrapped around them. The Outside Lid piece was prepared in the same way with paper wrapped around it. These were then all glued together.

 

The Outside Lid piece.

The Lid pieces stuck together leaving a small gap at the back and a larger section at the front.

The completed and decorated project:

The Inside:

 

 

The Lid:

 

 

The Front:

 

 

The Back:

 

 

And The Sides:

 

 

 

Wow, that was a long post. Hopefully it wasn't too much for you and it was easy to follow along. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this creation/design and even better yet share your pictures if you do make one for yourself.

 

Until next time,

 

Keep Creating,

 

Jodie Mason.