Secret Garden #2

Ok - so here is my next project with the Secret Garden papers from Graphic 45. Of course, The Secret Garden is a book by Frances Hodgson Burnett and the papers have quotes from the book. So, I decided I had to create a book which contained a secret garden. The library at school were throwing away a load of old hardback books (they cull the old and least borrowed books every now and then) rather than see them end up in a skip, I rescued them and this one was the perfect shade of blue to turn into my secret garden.
Here's the outside...

Layered and tattered papers and handcut flowers make for an interesting cover. The spine and back are the blue paper which has 'Secret Garden' written all over it.
As you open up the book you see little pieces of green string which pull up the two stand up cards and hold garlands of flowers...

 

Looking down into the book you can see the recess I cut in the pages and how it is now filled with a selection of bought, hand cut, die cut, punched and home made flowers...

Here's a close up of the flower detail...

 

Thanks for looking, more Secret Garden projects to follow.

 

Jane

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Secret Garden #1

So I've been getting over not getting through to the Graphic 45 design team by... crafting with Graphic 45 papers - the Secret Garden papers to be exact, so I have a few things to show you over the next few blog posts.
I'll start simple by showing my Layouts. Actually they are my least favourite of all of the projects I have done so I'll start with them.
I loved the title paper and in particular the white picket fence, so I decided to recreate the fence using white Bazzill for this first layout. I had bought two packets of perfectly coloured Primas while I was at the retreat so I used them to embellish along with some other flowers and the ash leaf punch...

The picture is actually me...but a LONG time ago - I think I was seventeen when this was taken.

In the next layout, the picture is of an acorn nestled in some oak leaves which I took looking up into an oak tree when we visited Quorn. I used the Tim Holtz tattered leaves die and the birdcage die...

I love the background paper from the Secret Garden collection with the bluebirds and the cages - but I worry that it is too busy for the layout.
I cut the letters using the Tim Holtz alphabet die i have and then edged them with 'forest moss' distress ink and covered them with crackle glaze.

I have a pop up altered book, a secret keeper mini book in an altered box and a whole load of cards to share too - so please come back again!

In the meantime, check out the new releases on the Graphic 45 blog - I especially love the Steampunk Spells - I have lots of plans for that!

Jane
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Graphic 45 Design team 2013 Auditions

For my Graphic 45 design team 2013 audition I wanted to get across my crafting personality but I’m realising that it’s a hard thing to do when your style is as interactive as mine. I’ve never been the sort of person to just stand and look at art – I need people to interact with my creativity. That said, it’s hard in a photo to get across the fact that I like to make my projects practical. I like doors that open, things that pop up, hidden drawers, buttons that you push to make music start up or lights come on. I love to see clean lines and white space in other people’s work but in my own design work I’m all about busy and interesting which is probably why the Graphic 45 style suits me so well.

I had a little panic when I thought I was only allowed to include six projects (how to choose!?!) but then I re-read and noticed it was a minimum of six - phew! Anyway -  here they are and whatever the outcome I hope you like looking at them as much as I enjoyed making them.

My first project is my most recent (and the only one I have done since I decided to audition). This is for an Easter present and uses the latest Graphic 45 French Country papers. I’m also using these papers for one of my classes at the ‘A Trip Down Memory Lane’ retreat in a couple of weeks – but that project (a flip over display book) has to stay under wraps for a little while longer. This is a French Egg cabinet I found online and I have used the French Country papers to decorate it – now it’s all ready to add a dozen chocolate eggs to ready for Easter…

 

 

The egg holder in the drawer is removable so that the drawer could be used for other things instead!

 

From Easter to Christmas… I loved the Nutcracker Sweet Papers as soon as I saw the first ones appear on the Graphic 45 blog and knew I wanted to teach a class using them. In the end I taught two – one was a tealight holder class that I taught at the ATDML retreat in November 2012 and the other was the Nutcracker book with pop-ups and a hidden drawer to hide chocolate which was for the UK Scrappers 10^th birthday cybercrop…

 

The altered book which features a hidden drawer full of chocolate...

Inside the first page...

the pop-up page...

 

 

 

The recipe page...

 

One of my favourite all time Graphic 45 projects was my little altered gift box which was for a retreat competition. We were given a small necklace box to alter. When I opened it up the flaps on the box reminded me of a theatre or a big top and I decided that I would make my box into a miniature travelling circus using the Le Cirque papers. I decorated the box as a big top and made extra flaps that came down for the circus ring. I mounted clowns and acrobats onto acetate sliders so that they could be moved about and ‘played with’. For the final touch I downloaded the ‘Entry of the Gladiators’ music which people would recognise as ‘Circus music’ I then recorded it onto a voice recorder which I stuck to the back of the box. I just love the look on people’s faces when they open up the box and then the smile when the music starts!!

The box we started with...

And after I had altered it...

check out the roll of tickets on the side...

Remove the paper band and open sesame...

Finally, pull down the circus ring and let those clowns and acrobats perform...

Don't forget to play the music...

 

I have made several projects with the Olde Curiosity Shoppe papers including a one twelfth scale apothecary shop filled with lots of glass bottles. But since that’s still a work in progress I decided instead to include my scrapbook album cover which I made last Spring. I love little things and as one of my other hobbies is making dolls houses I have a healthy collection of lots of little bits and pieces. I used quite a few of them in this project. It’s not really interactive like lots of my other pieces (although being an album it is a practical item) but it’s one of those things that you can just spend ages looking at because there are so many little spaces that have been filled with things. I used a bare scrapbook album which I covered with Olde Curiosity Shoppe papers before attaching a printer’s tray. I then lined the compartments with different papers and images from the collection and filled them with interesting and fun things…

 

Ok – so I have to include some layouts here because at the end of the day these are scrapbooking papers! This first one was made using the Curtain Call collection and features a photo of some street Jazz musicians I saw when I was visiting Norwich. Being a saxophonist myself, I love swing and jazz music. I really wanted a record on my page but couldn’t bring myself to use one from my collection so instead I used a circle of black card which I then covered with glossy accents and used a nylon brush to brush grooves into the surface – painstaking but worth it!! Oh – and before you think it’s not interactive – there’s another voice recorder on it so that you can play a bit of the jazz while you look at the layout…

 

Here are another couple of layouts based on the same sketch which I did for a crop competition, one with Tropical Travelogue papers and the other with A Ladies Diary papers. These are not interactive - but they're not flat either - I have to at least have an element of 3D in my work!

 

 

And another couple of Layouts with Graphic 45 Papers...

One of my cats in a 'Once Upon a Springtime' page, with hand cut flowers and a hand rolled paper rose...Both this layout and the next featured in The Scrapbook Magazine when I did their budget challenge...

 

An interactive Layout featuring the Victorian classroom at Beamish Museum - so of course the ABC Primer papers were perfect for this...

 

 

I find that I use lots of Graphic 45 in my card making too – the rich papers make for very luxurious looking cards. This was a very special card I had to make since a friend and work colleague was appointed last year as head teacher of an independent school in Glasgow. I was very proud of her and wanted to make her a card that she could keep. Again the ABC Primer papers seemed to be the most appropriate choice for the card and I made it in the style of an easel card…

 

Also with the ABC Primer papers I designed this little book for another class I taught. The book is bound together with pencils using the Japanese stab method of binding. The pencils just seemed to go so well with the papers and added some bright colours to the otherwise muted project…

 

There are so many mega talented paper-crafters and artists out there that ‘pigs might fly’ before I end up on the design team – so in homage to that here is one of my other Olde Curiosity Shoppe projects – an altered chocolate box featuring a flying pig which is attached with a strip of acetate – I love that little pig!

 

 

Thanks for looking and good luck to everyone auditioning.

 

 

Cricut Cake Premier!

Today I had a go with my Cricut Cake machine - I was expecting to have a lot of hassle since everything I'd read online had said how difficult it was to use but my first go at cutting letters out went well.
I made a two layer cake in the shape of a book and covered it with brown and gold icing for the cover and pages. I used the brown food colouring as a type of distress paint to make the book look older and added a red icing ribbon 'bookmark'.
 I cut the letters and rat out of black fondant icing. I just coloured the ready made white fondant icing from Tescos using gel food colouring. I rolled the icing out fairly thinly and then rolled it onto the cricut mat (which I had covered in vegetable oil as a substitute for shortening which is what was suggested). Once on the mat I rolled it again to make it even thinner and to give it a better grip to the mat. The letters cut first time though I found getting them off the mat and onto the cake the trickiest bit! I ended up using my Nick Nairn cook school scraper which is really thin.
I had to hand cut the rat since there was nothing like it on any of my cartridges.
I'm pleased with the result. In March I'm hoping to make a cake which is a stack of Harry Potter themed books with a sorting hat on top - this first attempt at a book bodes well.
I should say that I chose Pied Piper because I am producer for one of our school shows which is rehearsing tomorrow - the play? ...Pied Piper! I have made 80 cupcakes to go along side the book cake to feed the cast during their break tomorrow.

Tag Challenge

Here is my Layout for the tag layout challenge on the Scrapology blog. I wanted my tags to be functional so I decided to make my layout a puzzle. Roxy and Skye are so similar, both being brown spotted Bengals. One day, looking at photos of both of them I had to look really carefully to work out which was which.I mounted the photos on pockets and the tags at the top pull up to reveal the name of the cat in the photo. Can you tell who's who?

The background is Tim Holtz kraft resist paper with vintage photo distress ink swiped over. I cut the tags and clocks from Jillibean Soup Kraft patterned paper.

Scrapology blog candy!!

There's still time to enter the Scrapology Blog candy give away over on the Scrapology blog. They're giving away this....

I'm now off to my craft room to have a play and join in their tag LO challenge. Hopefully I'll have something to upload tomorrow!!

 

drawing everyday in 2013

So I haven't done that well with the drawing every day - though I have managed to finish one drawing by doing a little bit most days, here she is...

Hopefully you can recognise Madonna from her Vogue days.
For those who didn't see my earlier post, I was inspired by blogger Penny who decided to challenge herself to draw every day. You must check out her drawing - she is SO talented!!
My next drawing project is going to be something for one of my Pay-it-forward people on Facebook (I'm giving a gift to 5 friends on FB who in turn will give a gift to 5 friends and so on...)