I don’t venture this far into Mixed Media normally but I needed to break away from the madness of Christmas Card Making (yes, it has begun). There’s nothing like getting almost all your crafty stash out on your desk in order to choose bits and bobs to team together so you can make a bit of Mixed Art, to stop you from becoming stir crazy when trying to produce many greetings cards which are all different, but on the same ‘theme’.
I began with a plain tag. The tag itself is quite a large-sized plain Kraft tag, from a book of Tags made by Craftwork Cards – which I bought quite some time ago, and am just coming to the end of the book.
To begin with I applied Gesso all over the tag, followed by; crackle medium; paint; some gauze; and once dry, I added a variety of doodads, trinkets, baubles, etc, in wood, metal, plastic and added a variety of sizes, shapes, and colours of pearls and glass beads.
I then used Brusho’s Crystal Powders (which I’ve talked about before on the blog here so won’t bore you to death banging on about how brilliant they are) to add colour and give the tag added depth.
The ‘Live Your Dreams’ message looks like a printed bit of paper in the photos, but in fact it’s actually an acrylic cabochon, which has a ‘diamond cut’ effect. I managed to take a close up with the flash on and I think you can see it a little better here….
…. all those white diamond lines are the ‘cuts’ of the cabochon.
I know the finished tag looks like it would be really thick and very weighty, .. but it’s actually not. Take a look …
I don’t often wander into Mixed Media Art, simply because I have no idea what to do with the art after it’s all finished! Although I love to play and make it … it doesn’t really ‘suit’ my wee cottage . . . so I have no idea what I’m going to do with whatever I’ve made, and … there are only so many bits of stuff that I can pass onto family before they begin to groan at the words: “I’ve made this thing … and I wondered . . .”.
So … I have another bit of artwork to add to the box labelled: ‘Pop it in here for Now’.
Anyhoo . . . HAPPY MONDAY! Thank you so much for coming for a visit. 🤗 Monday hugs to you. …. and … a joke: What do you call a tick that lives on the moon? A lunatic. Think about it … think some more … THERE Y’ GO! (I heard the penny drop from here!!)
I hope you have a truly great start to your week. May the rain (if you get any) be soft on your skin. May the sun warm up your world in such a way that it makes your mood bright. And may you find plenty of places to discover joy, love, kindness and gentle words.
Be nice to each other. It makes the world a far happier place to live in.
My last post told you about how a bad week was turned about by a token of incredible wonderfulness from an amazing fellow blogger, Mrs.Craft. (If you missed the post you can find itHERE – it will open in another window for you).
I wanted to make something to say ‘Thank You’ – but something a bit different from just a normal thank you card. I’d been working on an idea of making a post about Tag Art, and suddenly a little Fairy sparkle of an idea grabbed me and spurred me on to make a Tag Art card for Mrs.Craft. But I needed a theme. hmmmm
Something popped into my mind. Mrs.Craft is the maker of some extraordinary show stopping slippers…. knitted slippers. BUT STOP… don’t think of ‘knitted slippers’, instead think Fairy Boots.
Mrs. Craft calls her creationsCrocodile stitch slippers. What kind of name is that for something which belongs in the land of the Fairies?? It says nothing about the absolute fabulousness of those magical slippers. I mean to say … look at these Boots …
CreditL Mrs.Craft.
Credit: Mrs.Craft
All photographs of the boots belong to Mrs.Craft.
Every time Mrs.Craft posted about her ‘Crocodile stitch Boots’, I told her in a comment that she really should consider calling them something more wonderful. Fairy Boots. Unicorn Rider Boots. Elfin Creepers. That sort of thing. Of course … Green creations could be called Crocodile Creepers. But not these fantastical wonders!
When I was a child I can remember not wanting to wear my slippers which my mom had bought me. But had they been given a magical name such as ‘Samantha’s Slippers’ or ‘Bewitched bootees’ (both after the TV series Bewitched – which I adored to as a child), then I doubt very much that you’d have ever got them off my feet!
So with a nod to the Fairy vibe I decided to theme the Thank You Tag card around Fairy Land, and I share the resulting card with you here…
(. . . and to borrow the words of Willy Wonka himself . . .)
“Come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination . . .”
A Card for Mrs. Craft
The large red balloon was made by cutting out the same shape over and over, and then glueing them to each other so that the ‘half round’ shape for the balloon was achieved.
Oooo, yes please … ‘Admit One to Wonderland’ I’m all for that!
….and … of course,there had to be Fairy Dust, after all … we were in Wonderland!
What better place to allow your thoughts to take flight than when you’re DREAMING!
The Scroll on the front, to the right of the balloon reads: “How does one become a butterfly?” she asked. “You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a CATERPILLAR”.
All the butterflies you see on the front are hand-made from card, but with a mix of embossing powders on them, and heated over and over, in order to make them look enamelled. There are a couple of hidden ‘smiles’ on the front of the card, but I couldn’t photograph those as they were tucked away and pretty impossible to try to get a photo of.
Shall we go inside?…
A peep into the middle…
The centre is a tad less decorated … because well… one has to have a place to write!But it still has charm …
The ‘DREAM’ which you saw peeping over the top of the front of the card is actually a Bookmark which I made specially for Mrs.Craft, for this card. It simply slides off the top of the card, and can be used as a regular bookmark.
On one side of the inner card there is a ‘scroll’ which reads…
… and it continues on the other page of the card, and tells you exactly what you need to enter the Land of the Fae…
OF COURSE!! “… one must come with the right KEY“ … now why didn’t I think of that?! So … where do we get the right key from???
… look closely. ‘The Right Key’ is there … suspended on a cobweb thread, inside a tiny glass bottle, which has been sealed closed and dusted with Fairy Dust. The glass bottle is hung inside the card, on a length of woven Unicorn Mane Hair. (or something like that).
… And of course … no one would expect that a Tag Art card, made with the help of a Fairy who was sat on my shoulder, would have a plain ol’ boring back. Nooooo. Mrs. Craft deserved the full works … and the Fairy whispered into my ear and told me I was to tell her this …
“Your Wings exist . . . FLY!” …. so, Mrs.Craft, I know you’re reading this, and I wanted to tell you that the Fairy who was sat on my shoulder told me to tell you that your wings really do exist. Don’t be afraid to fly. (But I don’t think she meant jump off a ledge and fly… not that sort of flying. I think she meant that you can do anything you put your mind to. And … I agree with her. I think you can too. So then…. ETSY shop here you come!). 😜
Thank you again Mrs.C for the wonderful gifts. You won’t ever know how much your kindness meant means to me. Bless your beautiful heart.
Edit to add: Mrs.Craft has (a few hours before I did) made a blog post about this card and the fabulous Chutney which she had made and sent me a jar of. If you’d like to read her post too, you can doHERE<— click to be taken to Mrs.Crafts blog post.
And now you …. no, not Mrs. Craft, but you... you reading right now … I want to do a post about Tag Art. So … we’ll do that in a few days. You see a little while back … I introduced some folks to working in ATC size – which I was thrilled to pieces about. Seriously so. But … I kind of would love to also introduce those folks to TAG ART too. It’s another fabulous way to craft, and really very easy. So … that post will come in a few days. I promise. [holds pinky finger up]
Thank you so much for coming. I love seeing you here and love even more when I get to chat with you, so please say hello in a comment. Tell me what’s going on. How you are. How your cat/dog/bird/children/boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/parent(s) are. Failing that … tell me your current guilty secret. Have you bought something you shouldn’t? Or planning to? Do tell. I love the juicy bits! 😎
I hope your Thursday is a truly lovely day. Please … Do something which makes someone else smile. Pull a face. Cross your eyes and pull your tongue out. Just make someone smile. It might just make their whole day into something worth being alive for.
A smile is a magical gift. Use it. LOTS. It never runs out.
I have a ‘bought for the purpose’ scrapbook which, although it has a (sort of) ‘padded’ binder (cover) – in the centre of the cover it has a little cut out section where you’re supposed to slide a photograph into the ‘hole’ (from a little slit on the inside cover) so that it shows you what the scrapbook is about. Problem was that even though I loved the cover of the scrapbook, I felt that the ‘photograph’ section on the front was, well, a little too twee. A bit (kind of) predictable. I didn’t want a photograph on the front, I wanted something better than just a photo.
So I cut out that bit on the inside cover, and so got a ‘hole’ right through the front cover. (Think of a serving hatch into the dining room from the kitchen). I then cut up a scrapbook page saver, (one of those plastic page holders which you put your ‘made’ pages into to protect them) and carefully glued a square of that soft, pliable plastic to the front of the cover and then hid the glue with some pretty pleated ribbon.
Then… I made something which I was far happier with which would show through that window. I made … Page One of my scrapbook.
Page One of my Scrapbook
Such a simple idea. I kept the page white, but draped bakers twine across the page and attached it to little gold brads, which were to be the ‘drawing pins’ (thumb tacks) which held the bakers twine in place. Once I was happy with where the bakers twine was place on the page, I then glued it in place with some Anita’s crafting glue. (It’s white when you put it on, but dries clear).
I then cut out some little white ‘flags’ – from some thin cotton sheeting – basically the same weight as light weight shirt cotton, – which I then glued to the bakers twine and made Bunting!
I glued a little white doily to the centre of the page and while that was drying I made a little dream ‘diorama’ out of an old tin which I’d got when I purchased some ink powder. I’d saved the tin, not knowing what for, but knowing that it would come in useful one day. (I am SUCH a ‘crafter’). 😀
A couple of years ago I’d seen a picture of a little tin which was a tree ornament. It looked so pretty that it had stuck in my memory. When I decided what I wanted to use to fill that central space on page one – but something which would also ‘begin’ my scrapbook and give a taste of what was to come – the word ‘dream’ came to mind and so did the ornament. And that’s where the basic idea began.
The cover of the album is basically a mix of greens with a contrast of pink and white polka dot all put together in a (kind of) patchwork, – and with butterflies flying in various places on top of it all.
So the tin had to be complimentary to the cover, and since butterflies were going to be putting in an appearance further into the scrapbook then it was natural that they should be on the first page too! So I began with a scrap of pink polka dot paper, which I hand cut into a round to fit into the base of the tin. I then used some white glue, and glued some flower soft, in a mix of pink, green and white, into the bottom quarter of the tin. I wrote ‘dream’ on some paper and distressed it a little, then cut it into a banner and back it with some green card.
Thankfully I have a selection of butterfly stamps, some of them are really teeny tiny – so they worked perfectly with the tin and it’s lid. Just the right size in fact. The one inside the tin I stamped in an emerald green colour, but then coloured it in with a lovely fresh spring green.
But the butterflies which are outside of the tin, flying free (so to speak) I stamped using a grey memento ink (I think I used ‘silver’ actually) – and didn’t colour those, because I wanted them to look delicate, and pale to match the white of the whole page. I added some glue ‘squiggles’ and sprinkled some ultra fine glitter onto it – to sort of represent the flight path of the butterflies as they flew.
Pale silvery butterflies.
I glued down the lid using a little hot glue, and covering two of the pale butterflies, so that they looked liked they’d flown under the lid.
But I did have one slight worry. If the album, at some point in the future, had something heavy put on top of it, then I worried that the metal rim of the open tin might just puncture the plastic cover I’d put on the front of the album. If it didn’t puncture it – it might mark it permanently and it would then spoil the look. So I had to come up with an idea to solve that problem – just in case it ever did happen! (That’s me. I have to have a plan for everything in case something bad happens. If it does, then I have a plan. If it doesn’t then that’s great – but at least I had a plan! lol).
I got out the trusty hot glue gun again, and sorted through my white buttons to find some which had a vintage feel about them. I knew I needed to be careful about choosing the right ones – because the wrong buttons could spoil the whole thing.
Buttons found – I squidged a generous (but not a huge glob!) amount of glue onto the back of a button and carefully placed it on the rim on the tin, holding it there for a few seconds while the glue began to set. Then I did the next one. Then the next. Then … and so on until I’d glue four buttons, in descending sizes, on one side, and one further button on the opposite side of the rim of the tin. I left them over-night to see if they would do what I wanted them to do.
The following day I put my hand flat palm down, on top of the rim to see if, when I pressed, they stayed in place. They did. I then knew that these buttons would spread the weight of anything pressing down on the top of the album and so wouldn’t damage the plastic on the cover. Yay! I love it when a plan comes together!
I wrapped some rayon seam binding around the outside of the tin, in a fabulous warm olive-green colour, and then finally added a little rich, royal purple polka-dot bow to one side. The finishing touch. I loved the scrapbook already – and I’d only just began!
Page One was ‘finished’. I stood back and looked at it. It was perfect. It looked vintage. It had a friendly feel about it. It spoke of a promise which I knew was to follow in the pages, so far unmade, but I knew the plans I had for those pages.
Yes, this was going to be a scrapbook I loved. I could feel it.
I know that Scrapbooking is a fairly new type of photograph/memory saving way of doing things to the UK. Here in the UK we’re more used to photograph albums which we buy and pop our photographs into. But in the last few years Scrapbooking has taken off and it’s becoming more popular.
So .. do you scrapbook? And if you do … do you blog about your pages? If so, please leave me a comment and put a link to your scrapbooking page or to your blog in general, because I’d love to come and see your scrapbooks, and I’ve no doubt that others who visit this page would love to visit your blog too!
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The Art of Cobwebs 