Pinks and pastels

We bought this paper a long time ago and every time we had to do a project, Benice said:

We must do something with this paper!

So finally we did !

 

 

During Saturdays class each group made five cards.

It was great to see some familiar faces and to

have card making beginners in the class.

I explained the different glues and the basic tools.

  

Before I packed the kits, I did a lot of extra cutting

and sprayed the doilies with glimmer mist so we would have more time

in class to complete the cards.

 

Remember you can dye the seam binding ribbon with

Distress stains and other inks to give it a more vintage look.

 

 

Enjoy your Monday and do some crafting!!

 

How to - Bath and Beauty Gifts for Christmas

On Saturday, November 10th, 2012,

Elna taught at the Pretoria branch of Soul Sisters.

The ladies made their own 

Atomisers (Spritzers),

Bath Salt Tea Bags and

Body Scrubs.

Most of these products can be "concocted" from supplies which are

available at you local pharmacy or health shop.

Here are the links for the 

Bath Salt Tea Bag

and Salt Body Scrub.

For the Atomiser you need to mix:

a tablespoon of Rubbing Alcohol (or Vodka) and

7 drops of your favourite essential oil

in a mister bottle before

filling up the bottle with distilled water

(We used a 50ml (2 ounces) bottle)

Another one of my favourites is a 

Sugar Body Scrub:

 Pour 160ml (5 ounces) of sugar into a jar with a wide neck;

Add 60ml (2 ounces) of Soluble Bath Oil (Mineral oil / Technical Oil),

a teaspoon of Vitamin E Oil and

10 drops of your favourite essential oil.

Stir with a wooden stick until it forms a paste

(the sugar will remain gritty).

Apply to hands/feet, rub and rinse with warm water.

********

You can also make your own 

Diffuser Oils

Mix together 60ml (2 ounces) Mineral Oil (Soluble Bath Oil / Technical Oil)

a teaspoon of rubbing alcohol (or Vodka) and

10 drops of your favourite essential oil.

These recipes are ideal for making inexpensive handmade gifts

for family, friends, teachers and all the other special people in your life!!

For great labels to use on your gifts, go to the Graphics Fairy website.

Karen has some amazing labels that you can download!!

"Kitchen Closed" - Bonus project

Here are 2 greeting cards to go with the "Kitchen Closed" twinchie canvas.

 The base of both cards measure 6" x 4" and are cut from craft card-stock.

The patterned paper is from the same "Sweet as Cherry Pie" range by Webster's Pages.

 Stamp a quote and some flowers onto a seed packet

and place over a doily onto the patterned paper.

Some blue baker's twine finishes it off.

For the second card we used patterned paper from the same Webster's Pages range.

Stamp cherries and "Recipes" onto the back of a seed packet,

wrap string around the bottom and place a piece of scrap paper inside.

Fold about half an inch of the bottom of the packet back

and cover with some left-over paper.

Use a border punch or a "Borderabilities" die from Spellbinders 

to add interest to the top of the patterned paper.

Wishing you a week filled with lots of creativity and joy!

Thank you for popping in....

"Kitchen Closed" Twinchie Canvas

 Some of you may remember this project from a Soul Sisters class we did in 2011.

 An 8" x 8" stretched canvas was covered with paper from the Sweet as Cherry Pie range by Webster's Pages.

Because of the lovely wording on the bottom left of the patterned paper, we decided to decorate only six squares to fill up the upper right-hand part of the canvas.

 The six twinchies were cut from craft card-stock and matted onto dark red card-stock.
Each square measures 2" x 2" when completed.

1a to 1c.

Stamp flowers onto a small piece of calico, rouge and staple to one of the squares,

place oven mitts cut-outs strategically over the staple and finish off with a spatula brad.

2.
Stamp "RECIPES" onto top of a craft square and place recipe card cut-outs below.

3.
The jam jar image is from a paper napkin (serviette) and the circle text from a stamp by Just Rite.

4.
Stamp a tin image to upper left of square and place a strip of brown patterned paper below.
The mini bottle can be filled with spices, dried herbs or even a secret recipe before attaching it to the square with silk ribbon.

5.
Stamp an image of a coffee pot and a teacup to upper half of a craft square and place a strip of red patterned paper below to mimic a tablecloth.

6.
Stamp image of an apron twice to left-hand side of last craft square and staple a strip of turquoise lace to the right-hand edge.

Attach the six twinchies to your canvas as per the photo at the top (or in whichever pattern makes you happy).

 Mat "Kitchen Closed" sign onto red card-stock and then onto the same patterned paper used for the canvas.
Attach two picture hooks to the bottom of the canvas and punch two holes into the top of the sign.
Use string to tie the sign to the canvas.

I cannot think of a more appropriate time to hang this in my kitchen!?

Here's wishing you all things wonderful and creative for 2012
and Thank You for your support and feedback.

Pre-Christmas Inspiration Class

On Saturday, October 29th, Elna and I hosted a Pre-Christmas Inspiration Class, 

together with the very talented Jaclyn Venter, author of "Scrap it! / Plak dit!".

29 very talented creative souls joined us for the day, where they made

8 Christmas Cards in Elna's class,

4 quick handmade gifts in my class (more of this in a later post) and

a tea-tray, where the bottom of the tray was decorated with 3D flowers and patterned papers.  You will find a similar project in Jaclyn's book or you can view the video clip from Pasella by following this link.

There was even time for some retail therapy in-Between Cupcakes and Tea...

Thank you for stopping by, and may you have a very creative week!!

The week ahead...

Elna and I are hard at work with preparations for our Women's Day class on Tuesday!  The response has been amazing and we cannot wait to spend the morning with our friends & followers...

On Saturday we will teach for the last time (this year!?) at Soul Sisters where the ladies will make their own Altered Tekkies, 

as well as a canvas with "Twosies"!?

At the beginning of September we will be teaching at In2Crafts, which is taking place in Midrand this time.  Use this link to go to the entry with all the relevant information.

There are also a number of other events in the pipeline, which we will publish as soon as we have more to share...

May you have a creative week!!

International Charm Day - A South African version

We hosted our second “International Charm Day” on April 28th, 2011 at my studio in Centurion, South Africa.

(Or as Amber Dawn from Inventive Soul calls it - International Handmade Art Charm Day!)

Guests were treated to Turkish Delight and Passion Fruit cupcakes in honour of our blog name!!

(Elna and I did a whole lot of baking on Wednesday!?)

Ina brought her friend, Tessa, along for the day.

Eretha, Teighler and Jeannie proudly displaying their “Bobbin Fairies”!!

Donè, Dawn, Marnè, Maryke and Rita relaxing after a very creative morning!!  Dawn decided to bring her daughter, Maryke and her two granddaughters with for the morning.

Dawn and Rita attended our workshops at Soul Sisters where they caught the "Bead Bug" and, if you look closely, you will Rita wearing her Soul Sister "Fiber Watch"!?

Guests made a "Bobbin Fairy" - to keep and...

... a "Message on a Thimble" which was swapped out for one made by another guest.

Maryke, Dawn and Marnè trying hard to get the split-pins attached to the ribbon-clasp!?

The studio was a hive of activity with ladies scratching for beads, ribbon and fibers.

Oh, what fun we had!!

A huge "Thank You" goes out to Amber Dawn for starting this wonderful opportunity to share with others!!

Please hop on over to the International Charm Day website to see other related events...

A story to tell

This morning a friend phoned and after a while asked me what is happening in my life. I replied, "not much at the moment, I don't have a story to tell you...." That was this morning, by 3 o'clock this afternoon it was a different story.

My dog ate some ant poison, my car had a flat battery when I wanted to take her to the vet, so my friend that was here for class had to rush me to the vet. The dog stayed to be treated, my husband came to fix the battery and asked if I could "mom sit" my mother in law tomorrow afternoon and that he had to take refreshments to work tomorrow, because it is his birthday this weekend.

Benice was here at that stage and I could hear her laugh. That is about all you can do when all of this happened in a matter of 4 hours. And in between all of this we are both busy with a project for the Bead Book that needs to be finished by tomorrow! Luckily we are not going to work on the beehives tonight! (yes, that was also on the cards!)

****

This weekend we are having Fibre Watch Class, so I thought I would show you a picture of what mine looks like. I decided to go for white, grey and pink.

Ok, my dog is fine, for which I am very grateful! The Bead Book projects are looking lovely and

I will buy, and not bake the necessary refreshments for tomorrow (and I have taken some Rescue Remedy), so everything will be ok.

Decoupage on Canvas Sneakers.

At last!!

My studio is again neat and ready for a new project.

After Hobby-Ex my studio looked like an explosion in a haberdashery store. 

Today is our Blog-aversary! We are one year old!
So this is a gift for you, something many of you have been waiting for.

The Tekkie
(Canvas Shoe, Sneaker) Tutorial

 

You will need:

a pair of white cotton canvas shoes

hot strong coffee

diluted paint
water spray bottle

craft paint

paint brush golden long synthetic hair 

plastic dropper

serviette (paper napkin) picture
scissors
gel medium

foam stamps

rubber stamps

archival ink

diamante

glue for diamante

fabric liner 

Ribbon

1. Drop hot coffee in certain spots on the tekkie.
2. Let it dry. (hairdryer)
3. Spray the places you want to cover with craft paint with a bit of water mist.
4. Drop some diluted paint on an area and let it flow, spray more water if needed.
5. Let it dry.
6. Cut the pictures from the serviette. 
7. Remove the 2 or 3 back layers.
8. Do your layout on the tekkie.
9. With enough gel on the brush, start from the inside of the picture and work to the outside.
10. Go over the same area a few times until the gel has gone through the paper and onto the canvas.
11. If you see baubles, there is air underneath the paper. Spray a little water and rework the area.
12. Let it dry.
13. You are now ready for foam stamping with acrylic paint.
14. When that is dry, you can do some rubber stamping.
15. Finish the project off with some rabric liners and some diamante.
16. Replace the laces with ribbon that matches your colour sceme.
17. Spray with Scotchgaurd or paint with Dala Waterproofing Medium.
18. Clean with a damp sponge.

*****

Also for the anniversary, we deceided to give away an apron to alter.

*****

All you have to do is to leave a comment on the blog

about what you think you will do with your apron to Zush it up.

We will use the random number selector to choose the winning number.

 

 

Another Soul Sisters Class

I received an urgent SMS (text message) from Jaclyn on Sunday to ask if I could teach the beading class for the next series of Soul Sisters workshops due to start this Friday...

So instead of having a quiet week before attending  Hobby-X on Thursday, I am knee-deep in counting beads & charms, measuring ribbons & waxed cord, checking watch faces, gathering all my beading tools and freaking out every so often!?

This is just a hint of what we plan to do at the class...

... a Fibre Wrist-Watch!?

Elna is also in the throws of packing kits for her In2Crafts workshops at Hobby-X, so I guess we will "see you" next week.


Thank you for visiting...

Soul Sisters Project

Elna & I presented a mixed media project for the Gauteng branch of Soul Sisters over the last couple of weeks...

Our inspiration came from Lisa Pace's book "Delight in the Details" and the students just loved their completed works of art!!

This is what the final product looked like.  There were also additional kits available for purchase in five different colour-combinations...

 

We had  a wonderful time and cannot wait to present our next class in July / August!?