It was my turn to write a tutorial on the Pursuit of Craftyness blog. I've created these little magnets and the steps can be viewed HERE.
I've used Maya Road Blossom chipboard, Ranger Distress Crackle Paint and fabric.
Thanks for visiting, have a great week.
Cheers
Fiona xx
Easter is just over three weeks away, so its time to start some Easter craft. Though I'd share some of our Easter projects here on the blog over the next few weeks.
Project: Decorating Easter Eggs
I've used the white foam eggs you can buy from craft stores as I'm not very good at the blown eggs which are traditionally used at Easter time. I've used two mediums to colour the eggs, paints and inks, before decorating them. Here's the steps...
1. Collect supplies. Polystyrene (white foam) egg shapes, Ranger Distress Crackle Paints and Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks, acrylic paint and toothpicks.
2. To make handling the eggs easier while painting, stick a toothpick in the base of the foam egg.
Using paints to colour the eggs
1. Paint the egg with acrylic paint. Let dry.
2. Once thoroughly dry, paint the egg with Ranger Distress Crackle Paint.
3. Once completely covered leave to dry, again.
4. It's dry and the paint has crackled. On this egg I've used a fuchsia acrylic paint under a lighter pink crackle paint. At this point you could use a clear sealer to add a little gloss to the egg if you wanted.
5. Now decorate. Tie a ribbon around the egg and tie a double knot.
6. Tie a bow. If you need to secure your bow, use pins to hold the ribbon in position. Try to hide the pins in layers under the bow.
And it's finished.
Tip: I painted an egg with the distress paint (with no acrylic paint undercoat) and as the crackle paint dried, it peeled off the egg. It seems necessary to paint the foam eggs with acrylic paint or gesso first before painting with the distress paint.
Using inks to colour the eggs
1. Dab the Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink onto the surface of the egg. Leave to dry.
2. While you have your inks out, you can colour some old clear buttons which you can use to decorate the eggs later. 
Dab the ink onto the top of the buttons and leave them to dry.
3. Cut short lengths of fine gauge wire (I used some scrapbooking wire that I'd had in my stash for ages).
4. Thread the wire through the holes in the button.
5. Apply a small dob of glue to the egg where you will place the button.
6. Pierce the egg with the wire and push the button in place. Continue around the egg until a row of buttons is formed.
This one is finished too.
Another way to decorate an egg is to wrap with ribbon, form a loop (bow) and top with a flower held in place with a pin. This little crocheted flower is a new one from Maya Road.
The gingham ribbons used on these eggs are new in store at Ribbon Galore.
And now for the RAK
I'd love to see any of your egg-y creations that you make for Easter, either following my steps above or your own. Leave a comment to this post with a link to your creation. I'll draw out a name to win an Easter RAK next week some time.
Thanks for visiting, hope you're having a great week.
Cheers
Fiona
There are lots of sneak peeks from some of my favourite companies around with CHA just around the corner.
Maya Road have so many new fantastic products being released and it has been very exciting to work with a few of them. The new Maya Road CHA-W 08 catalog can be seen HERE.
Here's the first of some projects that have been sent to Maya Road for display at their booth.
This is an EASTER banner created from pages of the Round Scallop Sheer Book...
That's all for now, but I'll be back with more!
Thanks for visiting. Hope you have a great week.
Cheers
Fiona
Emily's year 6 graduation dinner was held the other night. A lot of work went into the coordination of this night. There was a decorating committee, a food committee, a 'security' committee and even a cupcake committee. The school hall was transformed into a fabulous venue for the kids. The theme of the evening was 'Reach for the Stars', so we did out best to make it as starry as possible. Here's the hall when we'd finished decorating...
I made the centre pieces for the tables. They were terracotta pots painted black with silver glitter on them. The pots were filled with sand to hold the mini balloons, then black crepe paper was crumpled on the top to hide the sand.
The cupcakes looked fantastic. Fondant starry shapes were placed on top of the iced cakes.
Emily looked beautiful. She was soooo excited about the evening.
All the kids had a fantastic night. Their only complaint... their evening was too short. I think they could have kept dancing for another couple of hours!
With the graduation dinner behind us now, it's time to relax... not. Christmas shopping was officially started on Tuesday, still quite a bit to do there. And we still have to make our gingerbread houses, which I'll be starting very soon.
I made these ribbon baubles yesterday for a few friends. They are clear plastic baubles which I found in my local art store (and have also seen them at Spotlight). I've bought them in past years and filled them with lollies for kids Christmas gifts, but this year I thought they'd look pretty with ribbon in them. There's also a sneak of some new ribbons coming the Ribbons Galore very soon.
Our latest design team project for Maya Road was to create a winter project. I don't really have many snowy photos in my album (in fact I only have a few photos of snow from my Europe trip in the 1990's). So I used the Maya Road Sheer Snowflake album to create these little guys: They'll be back later in 2008 after their publication.
The backs were covered with Urban Lily Oh So Merry papers and stamped with the new Maya Road Postcard clear stamps.
I have written out the instructions to create these little guys for your personal use: ETA: the instructions have been removed as the reindeers have been accected for publication.
Download fiona carters reindeer decorations.pdf (US letter size format)
Download fiona carters reindeer decorations.pdf (A4 size format)
And lastly, I think we have enough time for a very quick RAK before Christmas. I have some of these little sets from Maya Road which I'd like to send you.
Leave a comment before Sunday telling me your favourite holiday tradition (or just leave your name in a comment), and I'll put the names in a hat and pick a few out.
That's about all for this week. Hope you're all having a great week.
Bye for now.
Fiona
x
I feel the silly season is here. Not much spare time at the moment for blogging. There's lots going on in the Carter household and many end of year activities at the girls' school. Christmas shopping hasn't started yet, although I've seen a few Christmas "wish lists" around the house.
I'm busy making table decorations for Emily's graduation dinner coming up soon (will post photos when I have some). Emily has just over 2 weeks left of primary school. She is so excited about starting high school next year, which is great.
There have been quite a few "proud mummy moments" lately. Here's a few:
Yesterday we attended Presentation Day for the girls' school. Both girls received awards. First up was Phoebe who received the Academic Book Award for her class. After the ceremony she was allowed to choose a book and have her certificate placed on the inside cover.
And Emily received the Public Speaking Debating Award for the school. She was so excited. She speaks beautifully and can speak in front of an audience with ease, which is such a fantastic skill to have. We now lovingly refer to it at home as the Argument Award, something she's particularly good at, and obviously a requirement for debaters :-)
A few weeks back, Phoebe ran in the State Relay Carnival out at Homebush. She was part of the Under 10's 4 x 100m relay team for her Little Athletics club. They ran well, finished third in their heat, but missed going onto the final. She was happy to be out there and part of the action. That's her below just starting her run.
We were up at Hawks on the weekend. The weather wasn't great, but it was so nice to be away for a few days. Not much photographic evidence that we were there apart from these photos of the girls.
{mental note for next time, remind Phoebe to remove white socks before we take photos}
We've been visited by a few kookaburras in our back yard recently. There seems to be more around than in recent years. I took this photo while standing in my kitchen, looking through the shutters. He sat on our clothes line for ages (we think he was stalking the bunnies!). It's so nice to hear them too, laughing away so close to the city.
Are you still with me?
Paper Salon has released some new collections recently. Visit the Paper Salon blog to see lots of creations from the DT. I've created a few things with the new papers.
Above layout and the book cover below use the KN Sorbet papers. Some Maya Road products have also been used, the scalloped rick rack on the layout, and the chipboard letters painted with Ranger Distress Crackle paint. Paper Salon has also released Alphabet Rub-ons which are on the book below too. They are a really good quality and are easy to apply.
The next three layouts use papers and letter stickers from the Glad Rags collection.
I should mention that here in Australia, Paper Salon is distruted by Bumble Bee Crafts.
These are a few Christmas cards made as part of my latest on line class. The patterns and instructions are included in the class, and I've used Paper Salon papers again, this time it's the Christmas range, Ornamental Holiday.
And keep checking the Maya Road Design Team blog for lots of new projects.
That's about all for now. Thanks for visiting and reading my blog.
Hope you all have a great week.
Cheers
Fiona
x
I have received a few emails about the Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint from Ranger since my post with the Maya Road birthday tag. I've had trouble finding a good selection of these in Australia until last night, when I read Karen's Scrapping Kupboard's update.
KSK now has the full range (that's 24 colours) of the Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint available.
I have some Maya Road projects which I made for our DT October challenge (and all the DT member's projects are on the Maya Road DT blog).
The first two Christmas ornaments use chipboard pages from the MR Round Coaster Chipboard book. I've covered the pages (front and back) with Urban Lily Oh So Merry 'Frost' paper, (which I noticed KSK has in store as well, while I was there). The little birdies and branches are from the MR Birds of a Feather Chipboard set, which I've painted. The idea of these two tags/ornaments is that you can write your message on the back of the tag, the it can be hung on the Christmas tree afterwards.
This one uses the Aged Mahogany Distress Crackle Paint. I have painted the bird first with a fuchsia acrylic paint, then once dry, painted the crackle paint over the top and left it to do it's magic.
And a few more tree decorations using the Maya Road birdies and also some birds from the MR Birds Chipboard Key chain.
Above birdie uses Weathered Wood Crackle Paint (left), and right is the Aged Mahogany again.
Hootie the owl, above left has been painted with Shabby Shutters Crackle Paint, and right is the Weathered Wood again.
The little birdie above was painted with a red acrylic paint first, and I've painted over the top with some Tattered Rose Distress Crackle Paint.
Well, that's about all for today. Have a great day everyone.
Thanks so much for visiting.
Fiona x
