Pen pot upcycle!

Hi everyone, Design elf Katrina here to show you what I have been up to in my craft nook!  Intact it was while I was tidying up said craft nook, well my craft table that I decided I needed to do something to the tins I had been using as pen pots for the past few months. To be honest I think it was a way to get out of tidying the rest of the room but less said about that the better!

              So as I said I had saved and washed a couple of tins and one of those cardboard instant gravy pots ages ago and they had been sitting on my table naked for ages, so I collected up my washi tape and some garden twine and got to decorating them.

   All you need to do is was out your tin and dry, remove the lable and any sticky bits on the outside. I only use tins that have the pull type lid so you have a nice top to your pot. If you are doing these with or for children just watch the inner rim of the tin is not sharp.

For this pen pot I just used the black stripe, polkadot and gold Italian script washi tape which I just stuck directly to the tin then filled in the gaps using garden twine which I stuck to the tin using PVA glue. I just applied the PVA dirrectly to the tin surface then wrapped the twine around. The bow was made from a piece of the twine and then hot glued onto the front.

As the pen pot was going to get a lot of use I did glaze the Washi tape. You could use watered down PVA and it will seal the tape and give a nice shine to the pot too.

This was my cardboard gravy pot, I just covered the pot with PVA and then just wrapped the garden twine around and around from top to bottom. Looks rather expensive I think!

This pot was made in the same way as the first, using the blue black and black and white dot Washi tape which a black stripe piece in the middle. I used Creative Expressions black and white bakers twine this time instead or the garden twine.

I then added my favourite die cut at the moment to the middle of the pot after I had glazed it.

The die cut is a Spellbinders die but all sorts of things could be used. The persons name would be fun!

You can find all the things you need on the shop website, except the tins of course. You can find the -

Washi tape - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/washi-tape-625-c.asp

Bakers twine - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/creative-expressions-bakers-twine-black--white-50-yds-16055-p.asp

Spellbinders dies - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/spellbinders-dies-648-c.asp

So get your tins out of the recycle and make them into something useful. These would be great for back to school gifts full of crayons and pens, depending on their age. Or even new teacher gifts perhaps. As I said watch the sharpness of the inside ledge of the tin, the cardboard pots would be best for children to decorate. 

Hope you enjoyed this project and will give it a go yourself

                             Happy Crafting!

                                                                                                                 Love Katrina

Spellbinders Bird Stand purse

Hi, design elf Katrina here to show you what I have been up too in my craft nook.

     Something a bit different today, I have been enjoying my sewing of late. I love to use my dies with fabric and felt and  as you can see the Spellbinders dies cut felt easily. Dies are not just for paper and for me the more you can do with a crafting tool the better.

     As some of you will know I LOVE Austria and spend as much time there as I can. So this is a Austrian inspired zipped purse I made using felt as a base and then added some red gingham and burlap. The ribbon I bought the first time I went to Austria about 20 years ago!!

To use your dies with felt or in fact any material there are a couple of tips you might find helpful.  Before I cut my die cut stag or any detailed die out I ironed a stabiliser, like heat and bond, onto the back of the felt or material. I wanted to attach the stag to the heart and this shape is far too intricate to sew on, so I could then just iron it onto the heart to attach it. I didn't bother with stabiliser for the heart as I knew I could stitch it on to the purse.     You also may need to pass the die through your machine to get it all cut out, especially if it is as detailed as this one. Take care when taking the cut felt out of the die as it can tear, if it dose no matter, it wont show when it is ironed down.

I put the stags head onto the heart, stitched the heart in place and then made up the purse. In hind sight I think I would of stitched the heart in place made up the purse and then ironed the stag head in place at the finish.

So there we are, try your dies with fabric. You don't have to use them in sewing projects, felt looks great on cards and scrapbook layouts too!

Happy crafting!

                                Love Katrina

Altered Fairy Book

Hi, design elf Katrina here to show you another project from my craft room.

     Do you remember the old Tea Card books? I used to love collecting the cards and sticking them in my book. Never seemed to get the whole collection though, did you? My hubby has quite a few full books, we had great fun looking through the different books The Fruit Pixie has for sale, he could remember almost all of them!!

     I love to alter books and have done quite a few different ones now, so when I was sent a wildlife book I just had to alter it and play about with it a bit to come up with this altered Fairy Book.


   As with any altered book project there is always perp to do. To begin with I removed all the cards, don't worry if it tears the paper. I then gave the cover a couple of coats of white Cosmic Shimmer Gesso primer.

To finish the cover I painted it using Cosmic Shimmer matt paints and stencilled using the Special touch of mica mask - birch trees. I added details using the Distress stains. The lettering is all done using rubber stamps, large letters U-Mount A6 mini alphabet and the small is the tiny alphabets we all have. I then just added a ribbon and the beautiful wings charm.

I wanted the inside to be a theatre style book that looked as if the fairy's were flying around inside. So I cut apertures in the pages which would be stuck together in pairs for stability. I then stamped the images on the waste from the inside of the apertures and cut them out roughly leaving little extra tabs which would be used to hang then in between the double pages before I stuck them together. Doing it this way just made it so much easier to cut the stamped images out and get everything in the right places. Once the images were stuck in the right place I then stuck the pages together using a wet glue. 

The inside pages were covered with book pages and then stained with Distress stain. I used the same alphabet stamps to stamp my story. All the other stamps used in the book are from Lavinia.

I stamped around the frames using the smaller Lavinia stamps

As you move through to the back of the book the picture changes.

All the backs of the images were also stained with distress stain.

The last page before you get to.......

The glittery trees! These were made by using the Cosmic shimmer sparkle paste - pink blush, through the Special touch of Mica mask - birch trees

So that is my Altered Fairy book made from an old Tea card book. These lovely books have many many uses. Using the Cosmic Shimmer Grasso primer you can transform it into anything you wish. Don't be scared to stick pages together and cut them about to meet you needs. I think these are perfect as a first altered book project.

You can find all the products I used in the following places - 

Tea card books - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/alterables-nproducts238curpage-2-238-c.asp

Cosmic Shimmer Gesso - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/cosmic-shimmer-primers-glazes--finishes-634-c.asp

Cosmic shimmer matt paint - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/cosmic-shimmer-matt-chalk-paints-643-c.asp

U-mount A6 Alphabet stamps - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/u-mount-a6-mini-alpha-clear-stamp-set-

17972-p.asp

Birch trees mask - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/that-special-touch-mica-mask---birch-trees-22623-p.asp

Lavinia Fairy stamps - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/lavinia-stamps-629-c.asp

Book papers - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/10-assorted-vintage-book-pages-18-p.asp

Cosmic Shimmer Sparkle paste Pink Blush - http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/cosmic-shimmer-sparkle-texture-paste-pink-blush-23010-p.asp

I think thats all of them!

Well I hope you like my Fairy book, please leave me a comment or ask any questions you have but give an altered book a try, you never know what you might come up with!

Happy Crafting 

                         Love Katrina