Gifts Archives - Achelois.co

40th birthday altered book art

May 31, 2016Craftie Jellie

I altered this book as a birthday gift. The recipient is a big fan of The Lord of the Rings and I managed to find a damaged book with a map on the inside reminiscent of that great saga. I folded the pages to create the ’40’ and stained the edges with distress ink to help the numberd stand out. I used a ribbon to hold the book in place for display.

I created the scene for the back cover using Craft Artist and kept it within the fantasy theme. I’ve covered the sentiment for privacy reasons.

I’d like to enter this for the following challenges

Creative Loops- recycle

Craftin Desert Divas- Create a scene

Love to Create- Anything creative/ mixed media goes

Kitty Bee Designs- Fairytale/fantasy

Polkadoodles- Birthday celebrations

Trying something new- cake decorating

January 13, 2016Craftie Jellie

Good morning peeps,

This is the second project I did for the Creative Loops challenge. The theme is ‘new’ so this is a bit of a creative departure for me. I think this is the third cake I’ve tried to decorate in my life so I hunted around on Pinterest for some inspiration. I had spotted this cake when I was researching inspiration for the main challenge post

Original inspiration by Nathalie1970 on cake central

As usual I had a quick hunt round for ideas based on stars ecploding from a cake and popped them n a Pinterest board. Once I had decided on the style I wanted I found a couple of tutorials and gave the idea of stars exploding from a gift a go. A tutorial from www.rosebakes.com gave me enough info to give it a go- minus the superman!

I made a fruit cake and covered it with marzipan. I then added a layer of dark blue icing and a disc of teal icing on the top of that (only a couple of inches in diameter). I took a layer of white icing and randomly cut out 3 sizes of stars and set them aside to dry for a bit. I added the layer of white icing to the top- I really like the effect of seeing the blue through the cut out stars. I carefully cut a cross in the centre of the white icing and folded it back. I then cut a square of the teal icing into 4 and placed them into the folded area to give the impression of 2 layers of icing folded back. I measured, cut and added the teal ribbons (unfortunately one was slightly squiffy as I was a bit tired!). I cut 4 large stars from white icing and put them at the bottom of the ribbon base then I added some of the white stars I’d already cut out to the ribbons running across the cake (alternating 2 sizes). I put some teal sugar granules into the middle of the cake. I cut out some large stars and put them on bamboo skewers (I didn’t have time to go and get something more colour coordinated so I had to work with my stash). I then spent ages threading stars on wire and adding them to the explosion (in the middle I used longer wires with larger stars at the base through to the smallest at the top. Then I had lots of smaller wires with single stars- getting smaller as they moved out) I added a few left over stars to the sugar at the base. It took me ages but I was pleased with the result…..it tastes good as well 🙂

That is my new technique in a new creative area- an exploding birthday gift! I’d like to enter the following challenges

Creative Loops- new

Decorate to celebrate- anything goes

Get Creative Challenges- something new

We Love To Create- anything creative/ mixed media goes

Craft for the Craic- January Blues

16th birthday memory frame

March 20, 2015March 20, 2015Craftie Jellie

Hi!
I can’t believe the backlog of projects I’ve got to blog. You may have noticed I’ve been busy moving and redesigning my blog. I should be back to regular posting soon.
TodayI’m sharing a comissioned project for a 16th birthday gift. I was asked to make a one of a kind memory frame with blue in the colour scheme and for several reasons I decided an astronomical theme was appropriate.
I took the photos in a bit of a rush and they aren’t brilliant as it is difficult to photograph due to the glass.

I decided to use some cork in the layers.

I thought for a teenage boy it would be fun to use some wood stars with red beer bottle tops to add some colour.

I thought I could get away with a bit of bling to give a starry effect.

I cropped and resized the photos digitally and placed them to show the progression through the years.

The current photo was taken by his brother and I digitally merged it with some paper and overlaid the lyrics from my wish for you.

I made up the stars using layers of paper and a touch of bling to draw attention.

I couldn’t resist using the little kraft photo corners.

This is my first memory frame for a teenage boy so fingers crossed that he likes it and that he has a great birthday!

I’d like to enter my layout to the following challenges

Not Just Cards challenge 15

Craft My Life- all crafts challenge

Bimini Moose Scrapbook Challenges- Always anything goes

Scrapper’s Delights- Always anything goes

Scrapbooker PhD- challenge 21 bling

Crafting with Attitude- anything goes

Using a scrapbook layout to make a picture.

September 19, 2014February 19, 2015Craftie Jellie

Something a bit different from me today. My brother recently married and I wanted to make a scrapbook photoframe with a couple of the photos for our house. I’ve blurred several items for privacy reasons.
Since I don’t do much scrapbooking I thought I’d find a challenge layout to help. This one from Stick It Down was perfect as it had a couple of photos on it and the DT layouts sparked off lots of ideas.

This is what I came up with. The title and subtitle are the names of the married couple and the wedding date. Additional embellishments include a couple of our mementos of the day- the heart from the table setting and the wine glass charms we had with our names on them.
The initial photos are taken without the frame- I edged the backing board and edge of the paper with white Acrylic Paint using my fingers. The backing board looks a bit dodgy but there was no point adding another coat as you can’t see it with the frame on.

The 4 main images and papers were made using Craft Artist 2. The backing paper is a scan of the decopage paper my SIL had used for wedding decor.

The papers I used for the rest of the layout are Hobbycraft Love Collection. I used Barn Door Distress ink on the edges of all my layers. I used red and white Molotow acrylic paint marker pens for my fake stitching + and to write the title and subtitle. I have just bought these and I LOVE them. I am sick and tired of buying pens to use for white writing that are so useless I can’t use them and they end up in the bin. A complete waste of money! The only ones I have that are ok are my Sakura ones but they don’t give me a solid enough effect for many projects. These Molotow ones are amazing- write really well, beautiful for drawing and work on pretty much anything so great for my mixed media work. Sorry I’m gushing but it has been tough doing chalkboard effects without a decent white pen for it!

The large jewel accents were from Hobbycraft but I can’t find a link. I used foam pads on lots of the elements to give some variations in height. One of the papers had this perfect element to use. I used my Sakura Metallic and Stardust pens to go over several elements on the papers to make them pop more….like the frame for this element.

I took a 12 by 12 deep box wood frame and painted it with white acrylic paint (I know….should have just bought a white one!!). I then sponged various shades of teal (using Desert Turquoise and Bahama Blue) on it (some with texture paste added). I then sanded back to give a distressed look.

Not bad considering I don’t tend to scrap much!

I was inspired by the following challenges which I would like to enter
Stick It Down- scrapbook layout challenge.
Divas by Design- anything but a card
Through The Craft Door- anything goes

Bookmarks

January 6, 2013February 18, 2015Craftie Jellie

Hi!
First post of the year. Towards the end of last year things were really manic and I didn’t even have time to photograph and post my makes before they were given away! Then I manages to have a crafting accident and had to have a cut in my index finger stitched. This obviously slowed down my crafting for a few weeks but I was very lucky not to have any major or permanent damage. I’m back crafting now and I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone in blogland!

I have a couple of friends going through tough times so I made them pamper pails- a metal bucket filled with some pampering goods and a sewing magazine to read in the bath since they sew. I made these bookmarks and put them in the magazine.

I went for a vintage feel with muted colours in my design (made using Craft Artist) and a bright ribbon to match the colours in the pamper pail.

I would like to enter the following challenges. They’re anything goes since I haven’t got a card today!

Vickie’s Challenges

Papertake Weekly

Paper Shelter Challenge

Inky Impressions

Crafty Creations

A pirate gains a brother!

October 14, 2012February 19, 2015Craftie Jellie

Two makes for you tonight. A matching card and treat box to celebrate becoming a big brother! I designed everything based around a couple of photos where the recipient is dressed as a pirate using Craft Artist. I added a pirates hat to the baby and an eye patch to the recipient (as usual faces blurred for privacy)

On of the amazing things with Craft Artist is the way you can create the shadows- it really helps make it look like the boys are in my scene!It also adds dimension but with only 1 layer which helps if you are looking out for postage costs!The edges of the card are inked with distress ink.

I then altered a wooden box to make a pirate treasure chest for some treats. I painted the box with blue pearlescent ink. All the papers were designed on Craft Artist and were decoupaged on using Mod Podge. This is the top of the box.

I added some plastic gold coin trim around the outside.

Inside the top lid.

In the base…

Then full of treausre!!

I would like to enter these for the following challenges

My Craft Spot – Treat Packages

Sweet Stamps – Altered Item

Party Time Tuesdays – Anything but a card

Penny’s Paper-Crafty – Anything but a Card

Craft Room Challenge – Alter it

Simply Create – Always anything goes digitally

Craft My Life– anything but card/layouts

Cute as a button picture

October 8, 2012February 18, 2015Craftie Jellie

This is the picture I made to accompany the card for a new arrival! Once again I blurred the picture for privacy. I used a box frame from Hobbycraft.
I used some of the elements I had designed for the card. They are colour matched to the blanket on the baby. I used some bright DP from my First Edition Hideaway stash and used sage distress ink on the card edges. I wanted to use dots on the paper and pearls to match the button theme.

I used ribbons from stash and coloured them to match using soft green Promarker. The buttons were from stash.

I coloured all the pearls with Promarker to match and pull my elements together.

I would like to enter the following challenges

Through The Craft Room Door Anything Goes

Simply Create – Anything goes for digital papercrafting

Papertake Weekly -Anything Goes and optional celebrate

Cute Card Thursday Lots of ribbon

Happy memories as we look forward to Summer Holidays

July 18, 2012February 18, 2015Craftie Jellie

I’m finally getting round to blogging some of my makes from the last few months. Making cards for several of my classes plud making these gifts for my form took me a lot of time and it was pretty intense but it was really lovely to give them personalised things as they are great pupils and I’ve loved teaching and tutoring them. So these are for their Summer Holidays!

I got hold of a couple of photos of the form (I’ve blurred all the information for privacy reasons!).
I created the background for the photo using Craft Artist. I cut acetate to sit in front of the picture as the frames did not have any glass.
I took some plain wood frames and painted them with black or red pearlescent paint. I used a circles stamp with silver ink and then heat embossed with silver.

I found these cute rulers on sale in January so I glued them to the front of the frames for the lads.

The red pearlescent ink actually has a pink sheen at a certain angle!

For the frames for girls I made paper flowers using punches and added red buttons.

I would like to enter these for the following challenges

Delicious doodles challenge- Summer Holiday theme
Joanna Sheen Challenge- going round in circles
Paper Pretties- embossing

Spring Candle Holder

April 11, 2012February 19, 2015Craftie Jellie

Another make using Spring colours and flowers- this time I tried a candle holder. I have a ton of votives left from our wedding which I can reuse as gifts so I need a few different ways to present them!
I made the paper background for my Wee stamps digi using Craft Artist. The other papers are from First Edition Love Letters.

I coloured the digi with Pro and Flexmarkers with some glossy accents highlights.
I coloured the gems I put on the votive to match.

I would like to enter the following challenges

Can You Digi It – My Secret Garden Inspirational Photo

Celebrate the Occasion – Just Because (Must Use Pink)

Paperminutes – Spring Flowers

The Pink Elephant – Flowers

Karens Doodles – Something Spring

Everybody-Art-Challenge – Spring

Going Grey With Scrap-Creations – Spring

One Stitch At A Time –Use a Digi

Gingerloft – Anything but a Card

Use It Tuesdays – Anything Goes(stash of glass candle holders and card!!)

Anything Goes Challenge –Anything goes

Bookie door hanger

April 10, 2012February 18, 2015Craftie Jellie

This matches the card I posted yesterday. I used two saturated canary digis to show the bookhead in and out (at I library I’ve decided!!). I created the background to the digis using Craft Artist.
I sanded the wooden blank edges and coloured them with distress inks and then stuck on Tim Holtz dictionary pages. I then resanded the edges and coloured them with distress ink.

I coloured the digis with Pro and flexmarkers and highlighted with pearlescent ink. I used glossy accents on the eyes and lips.

I used ribbons from clothing and buttons to attach the base card. I punched two circles of the Tim Holtz paper and attached them together with foam pads with the writing facing inwards. I made the heart paper using Craft Artist.