box of drawers

The advent calendar has now gone to its new home, ready to be filled by ... well soon.

I had a lot of fun creating this off the page item even after the heart stopping paint spill. Instead of putting the small pictures from the paper border on the front of the drawers they now line the bottom of each drawer. They add interest when each has been emptied! With all the paint and paper some of the drawers got a bit sticky so I added crystal glass bead drawer pulls. These are also useful for bigger adult fingers.

Making Memories 'Poppy' paint is a really good match for the Graphic45 papers in this series. It is more a rust shade. Like their daffodil paint (a muddy pale yellow) it has the 'wrong' name. This poppy has nothing of the colour of the Flander's red poppy that we know and remember at this time of the year. As a matching ink, Colorbox Fluid Chalk Burnt Siena is a good shade for staining edges of the paper for this project.

I created another layer of the Merry Christmas greeting on foam tape and heavily frosted it with Rock Candy Distress Stickle. Tucked behind it is a stamp made from one of the miniature pictures. It is overstamped with a postmark in sepia ink and covers up the US flag postmark.

The best bit was adding the 3D Santa layers. He is tucked into a slit in the chimney of the second Santa layer. Yes, I went through three sheets of the paper! Three layers were used on the calendar pad in the middle too. Both Santa and his bag have been textured with an embossing tool and supported by silicon.

custom colour

I am in the process of finishing off a Kaiser advent calendar in the style created by Cassie and shown here on the Chandon blog. Already aware if the beautiful Graphic45 Christmas papers I wouldn't have been inspired to create a calendar for the family if I hadn't seen Cassie's creation. She should be proud of her work.

I was at the stage of adding the numbers to the drawers and found in my stash a sheet of craft stickers that was just numbers ... more than enough to get me from 1 to 25. But ... yes there was a but, the sheet was silver not the gold I aspired to. The calendar was already becoming a homage to Tim Holtz supplies when I realised I could recolour the stickers to gold using alcohol inks. Rather than using buckets of ink as I do when recolouring lace and metal objects, this time I applied the butterscotch and gold metallic mixative inks in a rather delicate manner using a felt pad on the blending tool. Not a smudge of colour on my fingers! So unlike me.

PS: The few numbers left over I will keep as they can be stripped back to silver and recoloured to suit another project when and if.

... more steps ...

There isn't just one kanzashi. There is traditional kanzashi made with silk and rice glue and then there is kanzashi with fabric and thread. The YouTube videos of traditional kanzashi are fascinating to watch.

... a different journey ...

Our household was selected to participate in the Victorian Integrated Survey of Travel and Activity. We were to complete a diary of the trips made on our designated day, Tuesday 24 November. Today.

From Sunday looking at the week ahead I would have little to tick for Tuesday. As it turns out I travelled to the end of the earth ... and back today, using up 11 of the 'travel stops' in the book of 13.

The most interesting questions ..to me.. were the last two. Who actually filled out this form? When was this form filled out? Accuracy and honesty!!

One doesn't know what is right and wrong about this but it reminded me of one of the fun questionnaires we have been known to run at training programs. First instruction says read ALL the questions first and at the end of them it says put your pen down.

On reflection I observed that the journey I made, at the time I made it, was along a very integrated transport route with very little waiting time between train, tram and bus rides with some exercise thrown in! An ideal journey.

a journey to find the answer

... and I found it.

Maya Road makes beautiful velvet trims for cardmakers and scrapbookers . Last year I used their velvet ric rac trim and for the November card class this year I used the scalloped velvet trim. The dusty pink, espresso and crimson ribbons are all in my collection now.

A while back on a Chandon visit I noticed their current velvet flower collection .

Loving the shape of the petals I wondered how they had been made. After a little bit of Julius Sumner Miller "Why is it so?", the search started. I am familiar with the technique for making pansies from ombre ribbon but this one was a puzzle.

The answer is Kanzashi - the Japanese technique of making flowers from folded fabric.

photo from here

Lots of beautiful samples here.
So far I have tried with some springy gauze ribbon. I think it is time to raid my patchwork fabrics and start with a slightly larger flower.

There is also a book to follow up: Kanzashi in Bloom by Diane Gilleland. I don't think that one will be in the local stores (big or small)!

Now the journey continues ...

all that is left

This is all that is left of the rhinestone bling strips left from making the class samples for the December Christmas card class.

It was fun developing this class and I am still amazed at the different designs I have been able to make from the Belle Collection papers . With the card finished and in the shop all that is needed is for me to write up the instructions.

To book for this class check details here.

tools + techniques workshop

Alchemy with Distress Inks ...

The next Saturday workshop is scheduled for November 28. In this class you will be getting up close and personal with Tim Holtz Distress Ink. Part of the dye ink family it has special characteristics and is very flexible.

Have you been collecting these inks? Are you curious about these inks? The workshop reveals some of the mysteries of the ways you can use it with a broad range of papers, stamping and embossing.

To join the class book at Chandon Craft.

is it true?

Perhaps it is just a rumour but I have heard that Christmas is on its way. Actually the crowds at the local shopping centre on Saturday were a bit of a clue!

I thought these tiny bells would look great on some cards or other artwork.