Sizzix – Tim Holtz Curio Box – It’s A Big Fat No From Me!

As you know I love a shadow box/diorama so when I saw the Sizzix Tim Holtz Curio Box die  I was very excited. I shopped round for the best deal and a considered purchase was made,  I rarely buy dies these days, so you can work out just how excited I was.  All I had to do was wait for it to arrive while planning the wonderful things I could make.

However, it’s hard to say, but after giving this die what I consider to be a really good go, I think it’s destined for eBay, I just can’t get on with it.  Perhaps I am picky, but as soon as I  put my first box together, I immediately found that the top and bottom didn’t fit as snuggly together as I had hoped, in fact the fit, in my eyes, was downright baggy, so I tried again, using a thicker card only to get the same result and if I glued the sides of the base to the inside of the lid it simply created a misshapen box. Aghhhhh, what to do?

I looked on YouTube to find other crafters tutorials in order to try and find out what I was doing wrong. I found a couple who had also had the same results as me, which they had overcome with some degree of fiddlefart, like filling the gaps with other small pieces of card (????).  I suspected it might be a case of using two different thicknesses of card, which a  blog tutorial I found later appeared to confirm, so not wishing to give up without a fight, I duly purchased a pack Sizzix Matboard and a pack of Distress Mixed Media Heavystock as recommended, if not a little begrudgingly.

I also wrote to Sizzix to find answers, their representative pointed me to their own YouTube demo, however they used and recommended the same weight of card for the top and bottom, which, as I went on to tell them, doesn’t give the precise and professional fit I would expect.  In the demo they didn’t even show the back of the finished project, in fact they used what appeared to be a different unglued bottom from the glued one they showed at the beginning …….. I am still waiting for their reply.

When the two packs of card arrived, I girded my loins for another attempt. I think I followed the blog tutorial pretty well, covering the card on both sides with decorative papers before cutting out the base and lid.  Yes, the two fit more snuggly, but the gaps still got to me ……..  was it me?  In the end I simply covered the back with a separate  piece of paper …… but I was not a happy bunny.

I had expected to make up the box, bish, bash, bosh, so that I could get on with the really good stuff of filling and decorating it, I never anticipated messing about with different weights of card or having to cover said card with other papers, only to then find it’s not the sort of finish I had hoped for, perhaps I am too impatient, too exacting  or perhaps simply not a mixed media sort of a gal …… but this die just aint for me, it’s just toooooooooo much fiddlefart!!!

Any suggestions, as always very gratefully received.

Christmas Joke Christmas Card

This card measures 5ins x 5ins and uses a pre scored, white card blank from a bulk Hobbycraft pack.

 The idea for this card came to me as I removed the Christmas jokes from crackers I refilled and used for Halloween. I am not sure if the idea worked, something isn’t quite right with the symmetry or perhaps it’s the sentiment, perhaps the letting is too black and heavy against the red text of the jokes?

Anyway, I covered the front of the card blank with a black, red, green and white print paper (Poundland Christmas paper pad last year).

Then I mat and layered the cracker jokes on red and then silver card.  Arranging the four toppers on the card proved difficult, trying to get them to look balanced was made all the harder when I then added the sentiment, using black peel off letters (£1 per sheet Hobbycraft)  ………

…… and then the holly confetti ……….. aghhhhhh!

For me it’s just not gelling, maybe a smaller card, just one topper and a Dymo label sentiment instead …… and no holly …… perhaps I just need to go back to the drawing board.

Feeling A Little Smug and Apprehensive

I started November with a smug sort of feeling ………

The Towers has looked like a bomb site for past few weeks while I made a concerted effort to finish all the Christmas decorations etc. I had started but not got round to putting the extra fiddle-fart on them. I almost forgot what my dining room table looked like!

Some projects went right back to the last time I stayed with Marc at the cottage just after lockdown was eased ………

……… but now, woooo hooooo, they are all bagged up, along with everything else ………

……. ready to go ……

…… and I have got my table back!

All I think I need to do now, crafting wise, is about a dozen, “just in case” Christmas cards, because this year I am planning on giving most people one of said decorations, a fairing to keep rather than something that will be chucked away or recycled at the end of December. However, my mind is currently very blank, try as I might, there is just no inspiration or inclination there.

I also spent three whole days sorting out all the craft cupboards and drawers in my spare room.  I can’t find anything anymore, but it’s all very neat and tidy with two large shoe boxes full of stuff taken to Iris and Bertie’s school. I know I say it every time, but I need to rein in, I have enough stuff to craft 24 hours a day for the next twenty years, I really don’t need any more!  Famous last words!  One thing in, should mean, one thing out!

And the reason for all this organisation? I have finally committed to doubling my spare room as a craft room.  At the moment the room remains largely unused, apart from when someone is staying over. The drawers and cupboards are filled with all my craft stuff, so I simply pass in and out whenever I need something and in the meantime, when I am in a crafting frame of mind, my lounge/diner becomes a total  mess, unless I tidy everything away at the end of each session, which I don’t always want to do.

So, the bed is going to my niece, who is just setting up her first home and I have ordered a sofa bed (above) to replace it. It’s going between the two sets of drawers either side of the room and I know it’s going to be a TIGHT squeeze.  I have measured the space at least a hundred times, and I think I have 1cm wiggle room, agghhhh!  However, if it won’t go, one set of drawers can be removed quite easily and moved somewhere else in the room, but hopefully it won’t come to that.

I will then move the table I craft at, in the lounge, into this room as and when, and if it all works according to plan, I can leave everything exactly where it is when I have finished “playing” and simply shut the door.  Having the extra space, will also give Iris and Bertie somewhere else to play other than the through lounge.  Well, that’s the theory anyway. When it’s all set up trust me you’ll be the first to see/know, just keep your fingers crossed the sofa fits first time! 

Christmas Tree/Snowman Shadow Box Decoration

Another Christmas Tree decoration today using the tiny, 50p, 5cm x 5cm Daler and Rowney canvas from Poundland, but to be honest, I am not happy with either version.

I also have to limit myself to one canvas per idea until I can get to Poundland, (goodness only knows when, now we are in lockdown again) to buy a few more, if they still have them, so that if an idea is successful I can make a few more of each design. The canvas’s have a lot of potential for so many occasions and when put against other cheap multipack canvases I have bought in the past  there is no comparison in quality i.e the depth, canvas material and the fact that they are glued rather than stapled together.

I started by painting the back and inside of the canvas white, before adding a snow scene background using scraps of blue patterned paper and white glitter card. 

When the paint was dry I then covered the back and sides with Aleene’s True Snow, sprinkling with ultra fine iridescent glitter while it was still wet. 

The little, flat back snowman came from China, and was so much cheaper than buying in the UK.  The bristle brush tree came from a pack from The Works.  I trimmed the back of it so that it would lie flat against the canvas when stuck down in the wet snow along with its red bead base (swopped from the original base which was much bigger), adding a holly confetti leaf with red, flat back pearls in the corner……. but by this stage I could see that it didn’t look right.

I then substituted the bristle brush tree with a flat, painted wooden one, adding a layer of Ranger Glossy Accents and some white Glossy Enamel Accents but things were going from bad to worse …….

….. and the addition of tiny polystyrene snowballs at the bottom of the aperture didn’t help much either, it just looked bitty, thrown together and nothing gelled. It’s the embellishments, too many glaringly different materials, wood, plastic, polystyrene and bristle, and the snowman should be at the front rather than the tree, which just looks flat and plonked there, but then the proportion would be all wrong!!!

So, it’s back to the drawing board to sort it all out, but seeing as I’ve got all my 2020 Christmas crafts done and dusted, I know I have at least another ten months to get it right.  Happy days!

Little Tooth Fairy Matchbox

Well, it had to happen, Iris has lost her first tooth ………

…… so I decided to make her a little box for the Tooth Fair to leave her payment for the tooth.

There’s no great shakes to it, I simply covered a blank craft matchbox (from The Works a couple of years back) with a pink, patterned paper inside and out, followed by a lot of tiny faux stitching using a black fine liner pen.

I then added a silver, metal, filigree corner to the box sleeve with an added plastic, pink rose (The Works) with another one on the front of the drawer, before adding her name.

I put a £1 coin, which I believe is the going rate for teeth these days, inside a tiny, 4.5cm x 4cm white, organza bag, the last of so many I bought quite a few years ago now.  The final touch was an equally tiny “thank you” note.

Let’s just say she loved it, she held it close for the rest of the afternoon/evening after I gave it to her, saying that the poor fairy had dropped it off at mine after she got blown off course on the way to theirs, knowing that if she didn’t make it, she was certain I would get it Iris instead.  With another tooth wobbling the box is set safe on her bedside cupboard ready for another, hopefully, less precarious visit.

A Wonderful, Wonderful Surprise

I woke up this Monday morning greeted by another dark, damp and dismal lockdown day, when I would have given anything for just one mooch round a cluttered charity shop but instead my only looming pleasure was steam cleaning the floors of The Towers and taking the oven shelves out of their cleaning bag to hopefully reappear spotless, ready for cooking the Christmas lunch in a matter of a few weeks time ……..

However …… things took a different turn when I went to the front door and found a parcel, containing the most wonderful and thoughtful treasure from Paula a friend and blog follower of goodness knows how many years. 

The parcel had been delayed because I had sent Paula new my address with postcode all mixed up, part Wolverhampton and part Evesham aghhhh, but when it did arrive it contained two beautiful Halloween Trick or Treat bags for Iris and Bertie.

They are truly stunning and I promise will become family heirlooms for Iris and Bertie to use with their own children and maybe beyond. Made of black velvet and machine embroidered in Glow in the Dark thread ……

…….. and they are reversible, with a silver spider lining  What can I say? They are treasures, and although they missed Halloween (all because of me) they  will be used on our New Years Eve Midnight Sleepover Walk filled with a flask of hot chocolate, biscuits, torches and all manner of glowing trancklements, with many other occasions to follow.

Paula also remembered that poor Bertie, who loved playing with my cactus erasers sadly lost them when I decided to turn them into Christmas tree decorations a while ago.  Paula’s daughter Louis was having a clear out and decided that she was too big for erasers so Paula thought Bertie and Iris might like them.

Well, yes they would, but not until Nanny has  plundered them first!  I already have my eye on a few, particularly these two reindeer who are destined for greater things, but will still go to Iris and Bertie in a different guise.

Thank you Paula, this kind and thoughtful present really brightened up my day, the floors had to wait, as did the oven shelves ……. you managed to waylay me in such a wonderful way!

Snowman Let It Snow Christmas Card

This card measures 5.5cms x5.5cms square.

I’m not too sure about this card ……….  there’s nothing to it, as you can see, but you might see it again in another guise further down the line, as I think it could look better with perhaps a bit of mat and layering?

Anyway, the background is not an actual Christmas design, I thought the pattern lent itself to a more contemporary style of card.

My apologies, the 3D snowmen embellishments came from eBay and cost £2.60 for a pack of six, but I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the company that produced them.  I just added a little Ranger Glossy Accents to his hat and his string of lights.

The self adhesive letters came from Hobbycraft (£1 per pack). I added a little Ranger Glossy Accents to each letter, however, with hindsight, I think I should also have trimmed them off square to help  them look more balanced. 

The silver sequins are OK, but would they have looked better if they had been white?

There is nothing at all wrong with this card ……. all the elements are there, I just think it could just be improved upon in some way or another, I just need to work it out.

Tiny Snowman Shadow Box Christmas Tree Decoration

This is another idea that I came up with using the 50p Poundland Daler and Rowney  5cm x 5cm paint canvases I bought from Poundland the other week, but using the back instead of the front.

I started by painting the back of the canvas with white acrylic paint .........

....... I didn't particularly like the finish of the paint but quickly thought of a way to cover it up ……

..... but before that, I found a tiny, glittered, wooden Christmas tree embellishment that fit perfectly in the space at the back then made a little background scene using scraps of patterned paper and glitter card to mount it on.

I then covered what was now the front of the canvas, plus all four sides with a good dollop of Aleene’s Glitter Snow with an extra sprinkle of translucent ultra fine glitter for good measure ……..

……. and while the "snow" was still wet added a wooden Hobbycraft snowman (£1 for a pack of 6) and some tiny iridescent polystyrene balls along the bottom for added dimension, texture and interest.

I applied a layer of Ranger Glossy Accents to the snowman and then three small, black flat back domes for his buttons and eyes.

I had originally thought about putting a snowflake in the corner of the frame, but it was lost in all the snow, so instead used a confetti holly leaf with three red flat backed pearls for the berries. The last detail was putting a tiny star on the top of the tree.  I added a screw eye hook on the top of the finished decoration to hang by, soooooooo chuffed!

The Works - Halloween Sleepover Bunting–Guest Crafter Iris

My Halloween Sleepover bunting for this year was made by Iris …….

…… using a foam kit from The Works last year, for just £1 it provided a whole morning of intense activity.

…… all we added from Nanny’s craft drawers were some googly eyes.

My apologies for the “pants” pictures, but getting a good angle in a good light was almost impossible, but needless to say, after the event all the faces were carefully put away to be used again, hopefully, next year.

And, the packaging didn’t go to waste either, all the faces on the front were cut out carefully and put on a card for Auntie Lulu.  Please note that Iris has now picked up the scattering of three dots habit!!  There seems to be an unseemly amount of blood on said card, coming from the witches mouth and hands, goodness only knows what she has eaten, not to mention the ominous red smudges on the inside of the card too!