Last minute Christmas presents.

Well the big day is almost upon us and due to lack of funds this year all our christmas presents are handmade. You have seen the small candles with there matching boxes well I wanted to do something a bit more special for 2 important people so along the same lines as the smaller ones I decided to decorate large pillar candles and decorated papermache wine boxes for them to go in as they were so heavy. I started with a blank wine box from Crafters Companion and with some help from one of my cats, painted one with Teal Zircon Radiant Rain and the other with Apple blossom both from the luminart range from Crafters Companion.

Once dry I used a gold ink pad to go around all the edges to highlight them. The next stage was to stamp my chosen images onto each box. At the Craftaganza we had trouble stamping onto the box as they would give so I tried mounting the stamp on ezmount which gave it some extra strength and then using a Tim Holtz distress ink I stamped the images by hand without a block. I was pleased with the result. The next stage was to decorate the candles.

I stamped the images onto tissue paper and then attached them to the candle using stick and spray. Once I was happy with the positioning I wrapped them in baking parchment and heated the designs with my heat gun and again I was pleased with the results.

 




















The next stage was to decorate the boxes and the candles with flowers. For this I used the stunning Coordinations card and made up some flowers which at my 1st attempt was a nightmare but have now got the art perfected !!!

The start of a paper flower

Ready to be glued

The finished result !!

Once the flowers were dry I attached them using the Collall glue gel and put a border of co ordinating card around the candle and then added some ribbon. Once dry I wrapped them in cellophane and tissue paper and put them into the wine boxes. I am not sure if the recipients will be pleased or disappointed not to find a bottle inside!!!!!

I had a couple more gift boxes to make so along the same theme I painted them with the Luminart paint and distressed the sides with black/ gold ink pads and then decorated them and they have turned out well and Iam sure they will make lovely little keep sakes.

All of the products used including the boxes are from Crafters Companion.

All Crafted Out Craftaganza 2011

Sorry for not posting for a while but have been suffering from crafting overload after a fantastic few days in Darlington at Crafters Companion Craftaganza. Basically it involved 3 days of non stop crafting..sounds like fun but was actually exhausting especially as I was not feeling well to start with.

On day one we had a fabulous workshop with the wonderful Leanne Chivers making a stunning box using the Coordinations card and then we decorated a candle to match to go inside the box. She also showed us how to make wonderful paper flowers using the coordinations card and I cant believe how easy they were with stunning results. After a brief lunch break we then had the extremely talented Sara Davies, the creator of Crafters Companion. Her project was to make an advent calender made up of 24 little boxes then put together to form a cube which was then decorated. The results were stunning but sadly mine got rather squashed on the train journey home..lol. Our last class of the day was with a new recruit to Crafters Companion, Louisa Mc Lean who introduced us to the wonderful messy world of Luminarte, the latest in Sheena Douglass range. We decorated paper mache wine boxes wine boxes and ink and spray got everywhere but it was good fun and with some practice I am sure the art will be perfected.

Some of the decorated candles with matching boxes as shown by Leanne

Day 2 started with the wonderful bubbly Claire Hamer who showed us how to make a lovely little book with folded pocket . Each page was made out of 1 piece of 12 X 12 card I doubt if i can remember how to do it now but the results were great and we decorated them with the Flower fairies rub ons. Our next class was jewellery making with the talented Sarah Millsop from Beaders Companion, she introduced me to jewellery making at last years event. This class was trying something different and using a new technique of using cord and knots to hold the beads. The results were great and we were so lucky to be the 1st people to use these beads as they are the new range that Sarah and Sara recently purchased following a trip to India. All of the beads are handmade and are stunning!

The lovely necklace and bracelet with matching earrings

Our last class of the day was with the super talented and creative Sheen Douglass. We made a lovely wall hanging using the paint fusion tequnique and the results for most were great but I think i need more practice at that one..lol. The day was finished with a fabulous evening with everyone with  variety of challenges and quizzes and a great time was had by all.

Our final day was spent speed crafting....6 workshops in one day !! Our 1 st was with Leanne and she showed us how to colour and shade stamped images using the spectrum noir pens and the results were stunning. We were even lucky enough, as the 1st group of the day, to get some wonderful deals on the used pens....thanks Leanne!!!!! Next on the list was with Sara and we made a lovely box card, a slight adaptation of the tealight card that you have seen before on my blog. The result was great and we used a stunning embossing folder on some centura pearl card and the results were great, so much so the embossing folder just had to be purchased from the shop..lol. Sara had designed the card and box to hold the lovely jewellery set that we had made with Sarah.

Class number 3 was with Louisa, and this time wearing gloves after our previous messy day, we had a play with the range of Luminarte products and were shown a variety of techniques to use including stamping, colour blending and decorating white paper flowers..all with a wonderful sparkle of mica !!!
After a brief lunch, class 4 was with Claire and we made a 3 D christmas tree using the coordinations card and cutting out 5 circles and after numerous folds in each circle they were put onto stick and topped off with a bead. Again mine sadly got flattened on the journey home but will have another go as they really were impressive and who would have thought 5 circles could create a tree ?? Class 5 was with Sarah and we made some lovely christmas tree decorations which I must admit was great fun and Iam sure that next year numerous starts will be created. The final class of the day was with Sheena where we made a wonderful Poinsettia. Sheena had stamped out the images on coloured card and all we had to do was cut them out, distress the edges and then assemble and the results were great once they were shaped and some glitter added!!!

The Bead stars

The lovely Poinsettia

So that was the 3 day experience of Crafters companion craftaganza...will I be going again next year????Most defiantly, the deposit is already paid..lol. It was a fabulous few days meeting up with friends old and new and I must thank everyone in my group, The Outstanding Orange, they were all wonderful and we had such fun but most of all I would like to thank all at Crafters Companion for another wonderful few days. I just need a holiday now to recover.......