Kids Pencil Case

Hi all. Jodie here again with something a bit different today. One of my sons had a homework challenge from school that had to be a craft item. Hence he came in the door calling straight out to me. It had to involve some kind of recycling or up-cycling, so we put on our thinking caps. As a typical 7 year old boy Beau decided that it HAD to contain something to do with the Avengers or Captain America. Yeah, cause that comes so naturally for me! Anyway, we were able to fulfil the brief and as he also had to report on how he went about creating his masterpiece, we thought why not put some step-by-steps up here so you too could have an awesome up-cycled pencil case.

Captain America Up-Cycled Pencil Case.

Materials Required:
* A chip tin like that of Pringles.
* White Gesso
* Gel Medium
* Printed pictures of your choice (in this case Captain America)
* Scissors
* Paint brush or foam brush.

Step 1: Time to eat some chips.

Although Beau did have some competition with his dad for this job.

Step 2: Rinse out the chip tin to remove any left over crumbs and seasoning.

Step 3: With your paint brush / foam brush cover the outside of your chip tin in gesso. Let this dry between coats. You will likely need about 3 coats.

Step 4: Carefully cut around your images to use on your tin. Children may need some help with this bit.

Step 5: With a paint brush / foam brush apply a layer of gel medium to the section of tin that you want to apply your picture. Stick your picture onto this and smooth out any air bubbles. Then apply a layer of the gel medium over the top of your picture to ensure it gets stuck down. Continue to do this until your tin is covered in pictures. Let this all dry.

Step 6: Apply another coat or two of gel medium over the top of your tin to seal all of your pictures. Let this dry.

Step 7: Put the lid back on and it is ready to go. Enjoy your own custom made pencil case.

I must say that I am incredibly proud of Beau as he did the majority of this all by himself. Once shown how to do the steps he did the rest all alone. His big brother was so impressed that we now have to go through the process again for him.

Feel free to let Beau and I know what you think of his creation, and I will pass your comments on to him.

Until next time,

Happy Crafting,

Jodie.

Prima Marketing DT Call

Hi again all. Well it is that time of year again when one of my favourite companies has their Design Team Call, and this year I thought 'Why Not'! So my emails been sent away, and as part of the entry they wanted to know some of the areas that entrants were most comfortable working in. There were 6 categories to chose from:

1: Clean and Simple
2: Layouts and Pocket Pages
3: Altered Projects, Home Décor and DIY Projects.
4: Cards and Tags
5: Videos
6: Mixed Media

And if you have been following me at all either here on my blog, here on my Facebook account or on Pinterest, then you would be aware that I have undertaken many of these styles before. That is all with the exception of videos, but I do plan on rectifying that situation before the end of the year. Some examples of previous projects are:

But Prima Marketing wanted to see what you could do with their products, so a new challenge was set. I gathered some supplies and came up with some new items trying to showcase some of my skills. I was able to use the Love Tag that I created earlier in the month and adorned this on top of a slider box. This box was my own design and measurements, and was made specifically to house a box of Roses chocolates. I thought this would be ideal for Mother's Day that is coming up in 2 weeks time. (Mum if you are reading this it is for Nan not you! LOL). So do you think she will like it? I have left the slider tag blank for the moment as I contemplate what to write on it. I'm thinking that I might get my children to write their Granna a special message on it, as they share such a close relationship.

Next up, (once again my own design and measurements), is a Princess Castle Waterfall Folio for my daughter who is 3. Prima's Princess Collection was just perfect for this. This isn't exactly how I had envisioned it looking (unfortunately it is that time of year when I am required to get my flu shot, and afterwards I spend about a week in bed trying to recover from it, but if I didn't have it then no doubt I'd get the flu!), but in the interest of meeting the deadline I had to make some very last minute changes. It's not quite as decorated as I would have liked, but there is always the opportunity to add to it later. Now the difficult task is to try and pick which of my daughter's favourite photos to display within the waterfall section. No doubt she will want to have some input on this. LOL!

 

My third creation is a set of simple 6 inch cards using the Butterfly Collection. These were very quick and simple to make up, and I love the way that they match, but are still unique. The insides have also been decorated, but have got space to provide a statement/ sentiment at a later date.

 

 

So I would love to hear what you guys all think. It would be a completely surreal experience to become a part of the Prima Marketing team, to be able to play and experiment with all of their delicious goodies and to be able to promote the company. Good Luck to all of you that have decided to give it a shot this year.

April's Stick It Down Challenge

With a new month brings a new set of challenges over at Stick It Down. These are for scrapbookers and card makers alike providing a single page, double page and card challenge. As I am on the card making DT this was the challenge before me for this month.

With the sketch in mind I headed to my paper stash and found some papers by KaiserCraft. They are beautiful and florally. They were added to a white card base from my stash. This was my end result.

It would be great to see what others can come up with for the challenge, so why not check out the site over at www.stickitdown.blogspot.com

Ocean's View Canvas and Love Note for Memory Maze

Hi all. I know it has been a while since my last post. Sorry about that, but the first part of the year is always bedlam around here. With birthdays galore, Christmas, New Year's, Australia Day, Easter, school holidays, it is just never ending! I hope you all had an enjoyable and safe Easter break. Now I must admit that I did have some help with todays items. All of my kids love being able to come and craft with me in my craft area, but Miss 3 hasn't quite got grasp of the concept that sometimes mummy needs to do 'Mummy Only' craft. Anyway you will see what I mean a little into the post.

 

Ocean's View Canvas

 

This Ocean's View canvas does contain quite a few Memory Maze pieces so this will be quite photo heavy. I warn you in advance. The idea for this canvas actually started a while back when our DT members had a little challenge. I made these adorable little seahorses.

 

I covered the chipboard pieces in green acrylic paint, then the magic begins. After cleaning some egg shells and allowing them to dry, I have added a layer of tacky glue to the top of the chipboard pieces. The egg shells were then placed onto the top of the chipboard and then pressed down into the glue. This process will crack the shells into small pieces. Let the glue dry completely and then place drops of alcohol inks over the top. As the egg shells are porous they soak up the colour and you are left with this great mosaic like effect. I have added a layer of glossy accents over the top to finish them off.

 

So with my seahorses in hand, and a stash of other sea related chippies on board also, I set about creating a mixed media style canvas of the ocean. Here is the finished product.

 

 

And a few close-ups.

 

 

 

 

I initially set about working on the layout for the canvas. I roughly worked out the skyline, sea bed and where each of the chippies would be placed. I wanted to add a bit more dimension to the canvas so found a heap of nautical themed stencils and added some texture paste. As you can see from this next picture I turned my back for a minute and Miss 3 decided that the canvas needed a little something extra. LOL! Note to self - hide the pacer next time you go to the kitchen for a drink of water and leave Holly at the craft bench.

 

Never mind. Nothing a little gesso and some water colour paint couldn't hide.

 

 

All of the chipboard pieces were covered in a layer or two of white gesso to begin with.

 

The stars were created in the same manner to that of the seahorses above.

 

 

The sharks were just covered with dark grey ink. The anchors, beer bottle and wheel were covered in alcohol inks and then sat in salt to give a distressed look.

 

 

 The seagull and pelican were coloured with felt pens and then the white sections were covered in a layer of white glue and then some fuzzy flocking was added to the top.

 

 

It really gives a great appearance of feathers.

 

 

 

 After it was all glued down I covered the canvas in a layer of matt medium to finish it off.

 

Love Tag

 

This one is a nice, quick and easy one. To begin with I covered this leafy swirl in liquid chalk ink.

 

 

Then stamped on some of my favourite stamps.

 

 

 And finished off with a layer of star dust stickles. Add some papers and a few other embellishments and ta-da!

 

 

 

 You'll have to tune in later in the month to see how I am planning on using this for a mother's day present.

 

Until next time,

 

Keep Crafting.

 

Jodie.