Matchbox Skeleton Shack

I'm running a swap over on UKScrappers at the moment to mak a little Halloween matchbox of horrors because )a) there are no other Halloween swaps on there and (b) I do love me a good matchbox.

The swap is to decorate a matchbox and make a little book to fit inside it. I may (ahem) have gone a little overboard this time as here is what I've ended up with. I was aiming for the look of an old abandoned haunted shack, and although I'm not too sure about my attempts at cobwebs I'm happy with the overall result.

There are three medium sized matchboxes glue together to make the house as you can see below. All covered with hand cut and inked paper to look like old weatherboard.  I used one of those plastic rulers with an image that appears to move as you move the ruler (sorry, I have no idea what the name for them is) to line the matchboxes. The ruler has marching skeletons on it which,, if you take the little books out can just be seen through the windows of the shack (hence skeleton shack).

The roof is made with a straw chimney and two smaller matchboxes inside - these hold little Halloween tickets that came from here and here which I resized to fit.

Inside each f the larger matchboxes are some little books that I made, and I will leave it for the recipient to find out what's inside.

I hope my swap partner likes it and thanks for looking.

Not so weird ...

Now I know that we here at the weird scissors usually like to bring you something a little different. This project - well not so much - but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I do love me a matchbox so I couldn't resist the mini matchbox swap set up by the lovely Sian. My partner wanted art journal prompts and, after going round the houses somewhat, I got there in the end even if I did make not one but three matchboxes.

So, here they are ...

A little glimpse of what's inside ...

This is the first one I made by cutting up some magazines, a few stamped images and a lot of ink. It's basically a collection of mini art journal pages. Not really prompts, more inspiration perhaps, so time to do another one.

This probably fits the brief the best, although it's actually the last one I did. Lots of inky, painty, stencilled and stamped backgrounds with a some prompts and a bit of washi tape thrown in for good measure. There are over 30 cards to keep my partner going for a while.

And finally a little bonus box. I went completely off piste with this one after I had some success making faux leather out of paper. It came out really well, although I was just experimenting and have not been able to recreate the results since! Anyway, I used the faux leather as the cover for a little mini journal. It's the first time I've actually done proper sewn in signatures but it won't be the last.

The book is just a collection of papers, many from vintage books and maps, with bits and bobs added here and there, plus some more quotes paper clipped in that can be used in the book or for further inspiration.

I hope my partner likes it. I've had a lot of fun so I may just make some more for myself.

Have a good one and thanks for looking.

Bex

Sci-fi month and comic boots

No, that's not a typo in the title - I really do mean comic boots.  I love my comic books and you can't do sci-fi and fantasy without getting them in there somehow.

Now, I have this pair of rather boring black boots that I jus don't wear anymore. I also have some old French comics (Bayard) and Mod Podge.  I cut the comics into individual pictures, covered the back with the Mod Podge and stuck the pictues onto the boot, then covered the front of the picture with more Mod Podge to seal. Leave to dry and easy peasy lemon squeezy you have a new look for some old boots. Plus, if I get bored when I'm out I can do a bit of reading now.

A couple of things. Firstly, you may want to check that the comics you are cutting up are not valuable. I only had a few (enough for the boots at least) and they were in terrible condition anyway. Secondly, test the ink for fastness by smearing some of the Mod Podge over it and letting it dry. You don't want to end up with an inky smearing mess now do you. Thirdly, have fun with them. I wouldn't suggest that they will stand up to heavy wear and tear, but they certainly are a talking when you when them on a night out.

Don't forget, you still have a week to share your sci-fi/geeky/fantasy creations here or on our facebook group for a chance to win crafty vouchers worth real money.

Live long and prosper y'all.

Bex

Star Wars Sunday and another giveaway

Welcome back fellow geeks and today we have another Star Wars project using moulds and this time it's Han Solo encased in carbonite (check on ebay for the mould).

For these, I used liquid Fimo although normal Fimo would work as well. I filled the mould and baked as per the instructions. The liquid Fimo comes out a semi-opaque white, so I added some dark grey paint with a little white to highlight bits. I tried adding some glossy accents to one, but some of the detail was lost so best to avoid that with such a small piece. See, I do these things so you don't have to!

The end result is small enough to make into a pendant which I will give away to one randomly chosen comment made here or on our facebook group during sci-fi month.

By the way, the mould can also be used for chocolate which I also made (don't worry, I have two of these) but the chocolate did not hang around long enough to be photographed!

Anyway, get yourself some moulds and have fun playing with them. Remember we would love to see any of your sci-fi/fantasy/geeky creations and there is a chance to win craft store vouchers if you share your work either on our FB page or you can use this linkup tool

Have a great day and see you soon for more sci-fi madness.

Bex

Star Wars Saturday and a giveaway

Welcome to the next instalment for super sci-fi month, and this time I had to go for Star Wars. This should probably have gone up on May the Fourth but you can't have everything, right?!

Today's little project is a Death Star candle. The best part about it - you don't even need the Force and can destroy it with just a match.

Now, you're going to need some equipment for this - namely a Star Wars Death Star mould. You can pick them up for a couple of quid from ebay, as long as you're prepared for a long wait for them to come from a galaxy far, far away (aka China), or a little more if you want them a little closer to home.

If you're into candle making or want to give it a try then there are loads of helpful instructions out there on the web and this is not the post you are looking for. If you're like me and don't have all these things, then just take an existing candle, grate the wax into a pyrex jug and put the jug into a pan of simmering water until the wax melts.  The mould comes with a little hole at the top which you can carefully pour the wax into until it's full. I used the wick from the candle and put it through the hole whilst the wax was still molten, then chill until it's set. As this mould is spherical just trim a little off the bottom so that it stands up and that's it.

Looks much better in real life but my camera and I do not play nicely together, and looks great lit up.

I also think you can use this mould to make soap and bath bombs - o many ays to destroy the Death Star :)

The giveaway bit - leave a comment here or in our facebook group for a chance to win your own handmade candle, plus don't forget to show us your own sci-fi/fantasy creations for a chance to win some craft store vouchers. This is the address for the Linky tool

Back tomorrow with another little post and until then, may the Force be with you.

Bex

Left of Center and Kenny K

Another Friday challenge at Left of Center, this time using Lady Victoria from Kenny K. I know it kind of looks like a card,but it's actually a cover for one of my many plain black spiral bound journals. I love this image - I think she looks pretty sassy - and I found a quote from my bag o' quotes that seemed to fit. Actually, it was my second choice, but an unfortunate accident with some red ink rendered my first choice unuseable! Sometimes the best things come out of these happy accidents.

I coloured her with my new copics as I had to have a play with them. Love having some darker colours new and only wish I could afford the whole set! Need to win the lottery (need to play the lottery first perhaps). Matted onto a few sheets of DCWV Once Upon a Time paper and added a few bits and bats that I had lying around and bob's your uncle. 

I'm glad I made the effort and it certainly has livened up my rather plain journal. Off to do some more soon, but first I'll be finishing off a few projects for sci fi May, so stay tuned.

Also remember to show us your project* for a chance to win real life craft vouchers. (*see previous posts or facebook for terms)  You can now use this link up tool to participate.

Bex

Left of Centre 75 with A Day for Daisies

Another week, and another new challenge over at Left of Center. This time the challenge is Fun Frights and is sponsored by A Day for Daisies. Now, I had something completely different planned which would have suited the challenge better, but sadly it just didn't pan out, so on to plan b. I used the holding fireflies image which is a freebie at the time of writing. I also used a sheet of paper from the DCWV Once Upon a Time series, wich had this great window scene. I printed her in sepia sized to fit so that she looks like she's sitting on the window sill. I coloured her with copics, although only having a few colours means that it's a little off IYKWIM, but hey ho - you get the idea.

Now for the fun part. I cut a little hole in the paper slightly smaller than the jar of fireflies then stuck the jar on to cover the hole. I then put a small batter operated tea light behind the jar and put the whole lot in a shadow frame. When you turn the tea light on you get the effect of the fireflies glowing, and because th DCWV paper is so thick, the light only shines through the jar and not the rest of the scene. Looks cool in real life, but sadly my camera thinks otherwise and this was, believe it or not, the best picture I could get! You get the idea hopefully.

Anyway, have fun and hope to see you again soon.

Don't forget, next month is sci fi month over here with the chance to win some real prizes. Also remember to show us your project* for a chance to win real life craft vouchers. (*see previous posts or facebook for terms)  You can now use this link up tool to participate.

Bex.

Left of Center 73 - a little something different

Over at Left of Center this week we have a challenge to use spots and/or stripes. I must admit I cheated a little as I only used the stripes on the image I used, which is Grimm Doll 2 from Limited Runs.

I was wondering what to do with this lovely image (I also have Grimm Doll 1 which is equally fab) when, in a rare moment of actually trying to tidy my craft space, I found my last sheet of printable fabric. Not I have only used this once before but I'm going to order some more now. I printed the doll twice onto the fabric, one image reversed, coloured with my copic pens and cut about a 2cm border all round. I pinned them together inside out and sewed around, leaving a small (about 0.5cm) border of plain white around the edge and a small gap at the top of his head. I then turned it inside out and stuffed it through the small hole, added a little ribbon to the top to hang him from, and sewed up hole.

Now, I am no seamstress and this is my first attempt at doing something like this. When I get my new supply of printable paper I will do it again and probably not leave so much border around the edge. Also, copic pens need a much lighter touch on fabric so the colouring is a bit off, but hey ho, you learn from your mistakes right? Anyway, he seems a bit lonely so I can't wait for my new fabric to arrive so I can make Grimm Doll 1 to keep him company.

Thanks for looking, and see you again soon I hope.

Bex

Mermaids - Left of Center 71

Another Freaky Friday and another Left of Center challenge for you all.

 The theme this week is mermaids. I know I did a mermaid last week too but hey ho! I chose this Jayna stamp from Nikki Burnette and used it on a couple of things. First was an art journal page, and the second was some six word story ATCs for a swap I am running on UKScrappers. I wanted a watery type background for both, so out came the trusty distress inks/waterbrush combi, then coloured the images with my oh so few copic pens. My I need more of those!

I covered the ATCs with glossy accents and now I'm not so sure about that effect so I may redo them so that they are less fuzzy looking!

Love the image though, and even though my colouring skills are nowhere near those of the artist herself, I do like how they have turned out.

Thanks for looking, and see you soon I hope.

Bex.

Dark Dreams - Left of Center Challenge 70

It's time for another challenge over at the very lovely Left of Center and this time the theme is dark dreams (although anything out there is always welcome). For some reason I instantly thought of the story of the little mermaid , and how she dreamt of changing her tail for legs and being with the one she loved, and how that didn't exactly work out well for her.

I used this fabulous stamp from Rebecca Sinz at Sweet Pea Stamps which I thought was so appropriate. 

The card is very simple - a bit of sequin waste (sorry, just don't like the word punchinella!), a small bird charm and a little light stamping with some matting and layering - as I really wanted to focus on the image. I have just treated myself to some neutral markers so I decided to have a play with them and overall I'm pleased with the effect (although the example from the other Rebecca is better). A little crackle accents to the tail and job done. The quote is from the Disney film of the little mermaid, but I think it works well with the darker theme.

Well, that's me for now, and have a lovely day.

Bex

Spiders - Love the Unloveable

Well it's Friday so that means another challenge over at Left of Center. This time I've used a great image from Sami Stamps called Spider Hugs. I love spiders but I must be one of the few people who do (many of my friends are arachnophobes). So, I decided to make a little tag to show how loveable they really are. I used distress inks splodged around with some water for the background, then ambossed it with a spider web embossing folder and highlighted parts of the web with black ink. I added some black pompom ribbon to the bottom, coloured the image using whatever I could find (having a bit of a clear up at the moment!) and stuck it on. Now, his little spindly legs got a bit lost amongst the black of her dress and the web, so I made some in the same style from green wire. Finally, I so wanted to add googly eyes but I can't find mine, so I used some glossy accents and little pearls instead, added a wee spider charm to her hair, and job done.

I hope you enjoyed it, and do pop over to Left of Center if, like me, you appreciate our little eight legged friends, as the theme this week is spiders so there should be lots of inspiration for you.

Let it burn! Let it burn! Let it burn!

A quick little Festive Friday post from me - the last one before the big day - so I just wanted to show off a a couple of projects I made for the Left of Center Challenge blog. Firstly, here is my festive evil snowman candle - just light it and watch him melt. Mwwah hah haaa.

To make the candle, you're going to need a nice chunky white candle, some white tissue paper, and an image. I used the evil snowman from Delicious Darkness who are sadly closing down (although there is still time to get 50% off all their images before they do).

If you're using a normal rubber stamp, then you would just stamp your image onto the less shiny side of the tissue paper and colour as desired. If you're using a digi stamp or any other printed image, you will need to iron your tissue paper and then tape it, shiny side down, onto some regular printer paper as below. Make sure that there are no bits of tape sticking out - you don't want to jam up your printer.

Colour your image (I used Copic pens) and cut around it. You can leave a small border - it's not a problem.

To fix the image onto the candle use a small amount of glue from a non-toxic glue stick just to hold the image in place, then use a heat gun and gently run it over the image to slightly melt the wax underneath. This will seep through the tissue paper, binding it to the candle. Any of the tissue paper itself, such as the border, will also melt into the candle to become invisible. If you heat too much, the candle will distort, so start gently!

I'm entering the candle into the Altered Eclectics Challenge Blog and the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers for naughty Christmas.

The other project is just a wee card for a friend who always found Santa a little, well, creepy. I used the Skully Santa from Smeared Ink as it was the perfect creepy Santa Claws. I used the music from "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" - he sees when you are sleeping, he know when you're awake. Creepy or what! I hope they like it.

Anyhoos, have a lovely Christmas everyone, and we will be back soon with more weirdness for ya!

Bex

Let it Snow!

Fantabulous projects from Lou and Jas. Thos lights are stunning and I am so going to use one of the products I've used here to make me some skullflakes.

Excuse the poor pictures but this is a bit of a rushed post as I have not been nearly as productive as my weird sisters when it comes to the Christmas preparations.  The only thing I've managed to do so far are snow globes with a little twist.

Now, there are loads of instructions out there on how to make your own snow globes so I am not going to reinvent the wheel by giving more. All I will say is make sure you have strong waterproof glue, some nice jars (mine were mayonnaise), a few drops of baby oil if you haven't got glycerine, and florescent Fimo clay. For the first globe, the Dr Who snowman (thanks for the inspiration Jas), I modelled it from the florescent Fimo, used a cocktail stick to rough up the surface and make the mouth and eyes, then dipped the cocktail stick in a little black paint to get it into the holes and baked. Thankfully it's a very simple shape as I am no Fimo artist! It's not as sinister as I would have liked but because of the florescent Fimo it has a wonderfully eerie glow in the dark quality when the lights go out and in no way will it induce sweet dreams!

I have tried to capture the glow, but my camera says no. However, the picture below was taken in the dark with no flash and you can still make it out, but the effect in real life is sooooo much better.

The second globe requires no modelling skills at all, other than making a base of the florescent Fimo so that it too glows in the dark.  I sacrificed a couple of Star Wars lego minifigures  to have a stormtrooper in the snow trying to help his buddy who seems to have fallen in head first.  Play around arranging the minifigures, then press their feet into the Fimo before you bake it so you have a better setting for the glue.

I did make a third as an homage to Calvin and Hobbes eggplant casserole snowmen but sadly in my impatience to let the glue dry, one of the snowmen became detatched and is now floaing around in a rather strange fashion! Do experiment and have fun making snow globes with something a little more off the wall than the normal Christmas ones but do wait for the glue to dry too!

I am entering this into the Corrosive Challenge Blog for anything goes. This is also entered into the Altered Eclectics Challenge for the countdown to Christmas.

See you soon.

Bex

Bad Hair Day Collage and Festive Friday Giveaway

It's another Festive Friday here and another giveaway! The winner of last week's giveaway of the matchbox keepsake box is Carmen. Well done - I will send your prize as soon as possible.

Now, another one for the Left of Center challenge blog now, using the Sadness Walls stamp from Ike's Art. Now, this stamp is fabulous as it is, but especially versatile for the unadorned face. I so wanted to do something art journally with it, but sadly my painting mojo is nowhere to be found this week. However, there is always collage.

No step by step photos this time but I just printed out the face on watercolour paper, fixed the ink with oil pastel fixative spray and coloured with distress inks and a waterbrush (my favourite way) and cut out just the face part. Then out came a handbag sized Marie Claire and I just started placing the head over various pics and cutting out the ones I liked. I decided that she was already having a bad hair day (as she had none!) so it's called it's going to be a bad hair day. Stick the whole lot together with Mod Podge (although be careful as too much will cause the ink on the magazine pages to smear), clean the Mod Podge off your hands, the table and the cat, then you're done. I mounted mine onto a piece of corrugated card which I inked a bit to finish it off. Collage is great if you're not good at drawing, and you can still get creative. Her necklace for example is the roof from a stadium picture! So find a magazine and have fun cutting it up!

Now, my plan was to make a cover for a sketchbook I have from this, but I have misplaced the sketchbook! Still, if I don't find it tomorrow I will get another and add this as the cover and that will be the giveaway. Just leave a comment here or on our facebook group before 12 midnight (GMT) on Wednesday 10 December and I'll pick a winner at random to be announced next Festive Friday.

Until next time have fun and be happy.

Bex

Matchbox Keepsake and a Festive Friday Giveaway

And we're back after our little break with some news. We are now on the design team over at the Left of Center Challenge Blog so we'll be popping by every Friday with something new for them, as well as some of our one off projects. See the end of this post for our new Festive Friday Giveaway.

The first project is a matchbox keepsake box. Now I love my matchboxes and alter them all the time. If someone knows a good use for like a gazillion matches please let me know! Anyway, here's what I did with four of them and an image from A Day For Daisies.

 Looks like a plain old card from the front.

But it's actually a keepsake box that could be filled with treasures.

Really simple to make. Take four matchboxes and line them up like this.

Measure two pieces of card a little bigger than the boxes and glue them to the top and bottom.

Cover the sides of the matchboxes and the front of what will be the drawers with card and add brads to the drawers to act as handles.

Finally, line the drawers and add your chosen decoration to the front, and you're done.

A quick and simple project for these busy times and it would make a nice alternative to Christmas or birthday cards, with the drawers filled with little chocolates pr other little gifts.

I am giving this away to one winner - just leave a comment here or on our facebook group before midnight GMT on Wednesday 3 December  and I will pick a winner at random and send them this box. I made even add a few goodies to the drawers. Winner will be announced next Friday so good luck.

I'm entering this into the following:

Robyn's Fetish Challenge Blog for use a digi

Artistic Inspirations Challenge for warm and cozy/anything goes

Cheers for now and see you soon.

Bex

2. Dia de los Muertos Part Three and giveaway winners

Love the memory quilt Lou and a great tutorial on making tissue paper fabric. I still have some left after my project here so I will be having a go at that.

Firstly, the Wicked Wednesday giveaway winners of the canvas/card/pendant sets are:

Pauline Davidson (from facebook)
Donna (Snarky Stampers)

I will be in touch shortly for address details.

Now, my final project before we have a little break - mini matchbox pinatas. Remember the mini matchbox monsters I made? Well, I still had some matchboxes left and I love pinatas (and always have them whenever we have a party) so I thought that some mini ones would be fun.

Now, these are just the matchboxes, covered in fringed tissue paper at the top and sides.

I wasn't sure what to do to decorate them, so I looked to my shower curtains for inspiration. Yes, I have Mexican Folk Art shower curtains like these!

I did my own interpretation of the couple in Posca and Sakura gelly roll pens. I wanted them to look a bit naive so they are deliberately rough. That's my excuse anyway.

Next thing to do was to poke a hole in the centre of both the top and bottom of the inner box. I threaded one loop of ribbon through the top and knotted it on the inside, and a few different ribbons at the bottom, again knotted on the inside of the box. Fill the box with little sweeties and then just pull on the bottom ribbons to open them up.

Fun as little table decorations just as they are. However, if you want to hang them up and make them open more like real pinatas, cut the inner box in the bottom two corners as shown below, then use some sticky tape to stick the box back together,

Hang them up and pull the ribbons at the bottom. As the bottom is now weaker than the top, the taped flap should open up spilling the sweeties out of the bottom. You could of course just bash them with a stick too I guess!

There are other ways to decorate them too. Here, I used some skulls cut from a napkin.

The other thing to do is the classic sugar skull. Here, I used this picture drawn by my super talented daughter Alex (thanks Alex), scanned and reduced in size on some white pinatas. Loads of possibilities so have a go.

Finally, a big thanks to everyone who has worked to make this blog happen, both the lovely contributors and the equally lovely people who have taken the time to read and comment here. It's been a lot of work but huge fun.

I have entered this into the Left of Center challenge because, well I can!

We will be back after a little break with some Christmas crafting on the dark side.

Thank you all.

Bex

1. Dia de los Muertos Old School Style

Wow Lou - what a fabulous canvas yesterday. It has a really spooky, ethereal look which is stunning. Jas, those pumpkins were to die for, and the little bats from Tazz were super cute.

Halloween may be over but the fun isn't yet as we still have Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) to celebrate for the next two days. So here is the first of our offerings, and I make no apologies for it being seriously old school!

Now, Halloween my be concerned with all that is ghostly and ghoulish, but Day of the Dead celebrates the lives of those who have passed on, and one of its most iconic images is that of the sugar skull. Google it, and most of the images that come up are white and colourful, so I decided to twist it around a little and make the skull black.

Now, here's where it goes old school. Does anyone remember that black paper you used to get when you were a kid, and you could scratch through the surface and underneath would be a rainbow of colours? Well, you can make your own with just some oil pastels, black poster paint and washing up liquid. 

Take a piece of thick watercolour paper and cover it with splodges of oil pastels in your chosen colours. I went for the traditional bright and vibrant shades associated with Day of the Dead, which are ideal as they show up well against the black.

Then, cover this with a thin coat of black poster paint to which one or two drops of washing up liquid have been added. I used a sponge roller to get a nice even coat. Leave to dry, then add a second coat and let dry.

Now, your paper will be black, and unless you're confident enough to scratch out the design freehand, you'll need an image. Find a sugar skull you like (there are loads of free images out there) and print it out on thin photocopy paper. You're going to need your oil pastels again, to cover the whole of the back of this image with white pastel. Then lay the image on top of your back paper and trace over it. This will transfer the white pastel to the paper. I used a red biro just so that it was easier to see what I had already done.

Next, take a cocktail stick or wooden skewer (something with a nice pointy end) and scratch along the white lines and anywhere that is black in your original image to reveal the coloured pastel underneath and you should end up with something like this. I chipped a few bits of the paint of around the image by accident, but if it bothers you, just touch it up with a little of the black poster paint.

Now, I liked this as it was, but I also decided to experiment a little with different looks.  With a white Posca, I added an outline to the main features and coloured the teeth. I like this look too, but it made the background seem a bit bare.

So, I then decided to add some flourishes. Taking the photocopied image (which still had white pastel all over the back) I stamped some swirls and flourishes using the stamps you can see next to the image above. You can then trace over these stamped images and scrape them off to produce a more lively background like this.

Hmm - I'm not so sure about this one, but it may grow on me and if not I can always just paint over the background again.

I have entered this into the Left of Center Challenge.

Anyway, back very soon for another Day of the Dead project.

Enjoy, and thanks for looking.

Bex