The Octopode Factory Challenge, Girls just wanna have fun. "I love a Smartie Party!"

I initially typed Girls just wanna have fur by mistake, I don't think that's true for many girls do you?
I can't say I have any desire to have fur unless I was really really cold and even then it'd be a toss up between frostbite and fur.
I suppose there might be the odd girl wanting to be a werewolf, I nearly said dog... yikes,   I'll change the subject.

So this picture is called

"I love a Smartie Party!"

This is Audrey Hepburn Octopode style but without the cigarette, sorry the scalpel came out and the cigarette was vamooshed off the rubber.
She loves smarties; particularly the orange ones and it's even more perfect for her, when combined with a party.
She came in her ordinary clothes which is a shame.
I thought she might have dressed up a bit.

This shiny black card is just impossible for me to photograph, yikes.

I've used Hot Tropics Card Candi for the heart frame (which is the third largest Spellbinders nesting heart).
Now I don't know about you but I have quite a lot of card candi that I have struggled to find a use for apart from the ubiquitous 3 in a row.
Does this sound familiar to you?
But I have found I like using it to make frames for things.

I'm also looking forward to trying some of the new mini card candi which sounds great because the current candi is often just too big for the project.
If you buy the white icing card candi you can colour it with any ink to match your project, even dye inks, which surprised me, they just need to be allowed a longer drying time. Hold the card candi with your tweezers and use a bit of sponge to colour them.  You get a nice uniform colour this way.

Now to prevent you from repeating my tantrum, you have to do a trial run and place them around your frame to see if they will fit nicely before you glue them down. I know, who can wait?  but it'll save your stash and card if you do this.
Unless you know you are going to do an overlap with something else, in which case make sure you start gluing from that point, so if they don't fit together when you come to join them up no one will see.

The crown stamp is Artemio from the London set with Tower Bridge on it.
Big Ben is from the Papermania Portobella Road Stamp set.

The Octopode challenge blog is here.

Happy Creating!
Gini
xx

Tando Creative September Challenge, Rustic Charm. Crafty Individuals September Challenge Hanging about.

Second Post today.
The Tando Creative challenge this month is a project based on the theme Rustic Charm.

And the Crafty Individuals challenge this month is Hanging about. A project made for hanging up.

 I was the lucky winner of last month's challenge and I am now able to make things with Tando Creative chipboard hooray!
Thank you so much to the lovely Di at Tando Creative.
Just as I received my winning goody pack I saw on the Crafty Individuals website that they are now stocking Tando Creative Printer's Tray's - swoon - I have been wanting to alter a printer's tray for ages so I ordered some of the different styles they have in stock at the Crafty Individuals webshop here.

First I'll show you what I made for each challenge then I'll tell you how I used the printer's trays if you are still reading by then.

For the Tando Creative challenge I made two printer tray wall hangings because I just couldn't decide on which style of Rustic I wanted to make.

Firstly I made one up as what I would describe as an Old English Rustic Charm Hen House.
Click on any image to make it bigger.

I used K & Co designer papers (sorry I don't know which range but it is an old one), Artemio hens stamps and a little chipboard house covered in designer papers from the Tando Creative Mini Houses and Fences pack. The frame was first given a coat of white gesso then a coat of Juniper Adirondack acrylic paint dabber.

My second is a Dainty Floral English Rose Rustic Charm Hen House.

 This hen house includes step 2 of the 12 step programme for finding your inner grunge.
Step 2: Splodge different colours of acrylics RANDOMLY on your project.
I don't know if I will ever be able to do Step 12 which is colouring outside of the lines, (are you shuddering too?) but baby steps, just baby steps.

Do you have a favourite? Mine is which ever one I am looking at...
But they are both up on my kitchen walls so thankfully I don't have to choose.

My Crafty Individuals Challenge make is another project based on the seashore.
I used the C.I. seaside background papers book 6 (which I have mooned over enough in previous posts) and their seahorse stamp from one of their plates beginning with a C (hmm) and then some numbers *cough*.
The other stamps used are made by Inkylicious, Hero Arts and Chocolate Baroque.
 

Are you wondering how it hangs up?
Well I'm not going to tell you.





Just kidding Mrs.
When I first starting making hanging things I used to make a beaded wire hanger for my projects but they need a nail or a hook in the wall to hold them up.
If you are anything like me, you make lots of new things to hang up and frankly some of my early stuff has needed retiring to the attic but I don't want a wall full of holes as projects come and go, so my cunning plan which has worked well for over 2 years now is to use Scotch Magic Tape.
Do I hear you cry "oooooh do tell!" or was that just wind.

WARNING this only works with Scotch Magic Tape and on emulsion painted plaster walls, there is no substitute tape out there.
You tear off a piece about 2 inches long and then use your fingers to curl it around to make a circle of it with the sticky side facing outwards like this, make sure you stick the two ends together by overlapping them. Thereby making double sided tape.

You then stick this to the back of your project or card, use as many evenly spaced circles as you think you need to hold it on the wall.
For my printer's tray I used 5 circles of tape. One on each corner and one in the point at the top. I usually use 4 to hold a card unless it is particularly heavy for a card.
I have had projects stuck on my emulsion painted walls for nearly 3 years without any bother and when you take them off they do not pull off the paint.

Do NOT use this method to stick onto wallpaper or emulsion painted lining wallpaper, that will only end in tears (in your wallpaper) and tears (in your eyes).

Now onto the Printers tray itself.
It looks like this when it is out of the packaging. I have used the universal size guide dew drop ink to give you an idea of size.

Now the wonderful part of this product is that the tray part comes in 3 pieces that you can either glue all together and make a 6mm deep printers tray OR you can make 3 separate  printers trays that has 2mm deep printers trays.
Seeing as I have no deep items I wanted to display in it I was able to make all 3 trays out of one pack. The pack cost £7.25 so with the help of my trusty calculator each tray cost me only £2.42 to make plus I have a display holder left over that I can use to hold projects for photographing or another project. Happy dancing here.
All I had to do was cut an extra 2 back panels out of thick card for each additional tray.

Happy creating!
Gini
xx

Opus Gluei Challenge #67 Dog days of Summer

I know its more birds BUT I don't care.
Aren't these stamps just the most fun you've seen in ages???
This is a tri fold card and I got the instructions for making one here  Thank you Jayni.
I know it is the rose tinted spectacles view of Summer that I've represented in this card.

I can't see that even if I did a shiny version of mossie bites on a leg that it would be greeted with much joy nor would a shiny sweaty armpit, but the truth of keeping hens is that unless they have a VERY large grassy area to strut their stuff in, it will end up a brown patch of dirt very quickly and no flowers would survive either.
So this is the shiny version of keeping hens.
I used pencil crayons to colour it and edged it with cut and dry foam using Adirondack dye ink in clover. The black ink used is my favouriteVersafine black.
Click on it to make it bigger.

Shiny shot that shows the glitter.

These are the fabulous stamps.

Did you know that hens from Belgium  make a different noise? Kot kot kot.
Is that a silent "t" then? And do you pronounce the "ko" bock?
Because that's the noise they make?
It's a shame I can't do you a sound bite of my hen impersonation.
Maybe as a special Christmas treat I could do one, because I am lead to believe by my loved ones, to hear it is life changing.

Hmm, thinking about it they don't go cluck either, they really do go BOCK.


Happy creating this weekend!
Gini
xx