Laser cut: Christmas Lanterns

I mentioned that I’d been working on some Christmas projects after hearing that I have been given a table at a very popular craft fair in November. Here are six MDF Christmas lanterns for tealights – they are 10cm cubed and will contain a glass tealight holder. I had a fair bit of brain ache when working out what would work without bits dropping out if they weren’t connected to anything else. I obviously got it right as nothing is missing, and I was chuffed to cut each design correctly on the first go.

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That’s Crafty! Show Samples: ATCs

I was on your viewing screens last Friday (you can still catch up at hochanda.com until 16th Oct, 8am & 11am) showcasing the latest releases from That’s Crafty! Part of the mega-pack was a bumper pack of greyboard ATCs, and also available were acrylic and MDF ATCs. Combining these with multi surface paints, shimmer paints, Sparklers and Lynne’s new affirmations clear stamp sets, here are the samples I made, some of which I demonstrated on air.

GIVEAWAY:
If you’d like a chance to win all of the ATC samples I made, comment on the blog post, and at the end of the month I will pick someone at random to receive them. UPDATE: Congratulations to Doreen, who won the draw.

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That’s Crafty! Show Samples: Christmas

Following on from yesterday’s post, here are the Christmas demo samples I made for the live Hochanda shows. Unfortunately, we seemed to enter a time warp for the final hour, and there was not much time to go through all the demos I had lined up.

Merry Christmas Wreath

That’s Crafty! Surfaces MDF Wreaths and Baubles Set
That’s Crafty! Surfaces Bits & Pieces Greyboard: Christmas Sentiments 2
That’s Crafty! Surfaces Bits & Pieces Greyboard: Holly & Mistletoe
That’s Crafty! Surfaces Bits & Pieces Greyboard: Christmas Florals 2
That’s Crafty! Multi Surface Paint: Christmas Red / Green / Purple / White
That’s Crafty! Multi Surface Paint: Antique Gold / Gold / Silver
That’s Crafty! Multi Purpose Craft Adhesive Pen

Try mixing different colours to make shades of green – red for a warm brown, purple for a rich evergreen. Use Craft Adhesive for a doming glaze over the berries, and a glaze for the leaves.

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Show Time! – for That’s Crafty! on Hochanda

I am live on Hochanda – the home of crafts, hobbies and art – available on Sky 663, Freeview 85 or Freesat 817, and on www.hochanda.com right now. With top tips for working with That’s Crafty! Surfaces, clock stacks and dreamcatchers, I’ll also be showcasing Pentart glass paints and Express Transfer medium.

I’ll be posting mini-tutorials for each of the projects over the next week. Don’t forget to check out the fabulous That’s Crafty! blog and the design team blogs (on the That’s Crafty! blog side bar)  for more inspiration and projects.

Oh, I’m on at 11am as well, or you can catch up or watch again for the next 10 days over at Hochanda’s online TV Schedule – just set the date in the drop down list for 7th October and look for my shows at 8am and 11am.

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As if that wasn’t enough… some typography & chalkboards

There’s just one day left before the Christmas Fayre (in case I hadn’t mentioned it recently). Though I have more items than I can fit on even a large table, the inspiration hasn’t stopped. I thought I would have a go at some mounted typography, so designed, cut out (ok, the Cameo did that bit), stuck together and mounted these two examples – which happened to be two verses from Sunday’s morning services (see the sermon sketchnote).

Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, I’m finishing off some MDF chalkboards – three down (one featured here), three almost done. The first is covered in old dictionary pages, and aged with a ‘dirty wash’ – a drop of DecoArt Media Raw Umber and a drop of Quinacridone Gold watered down, brushed over and splattered with water before drying and sealing with DecoArt Media Ultra Matte Varnish. The second started with squidged Distress Paints, sprayed with water, then dried and I used DecoArt Media Phthalo Blue as my dirty wash, before glazing with a watered down metallic blue acrylic paint. I then sealed with a gloss varnish with a bit of DecoArt Media Interference Blue mixed in. And the last – I’ve tangled it in Sakura Micron 08 black pigment ink over Dylusions Linen White paint (which when completely dry doesn’t clog the nib), sealed with DecoArt Media Ultra Matte Varnish.

[Disclaimer: as part of the DecoArts Helping Artists Program,
I have been provided with samples of their products to use for projects]

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