Graphic 45 Voyage beneath the sea altered book

Hello and welcome to the Fruit Pixie blog. My name is Katrina Rollings and I design for the Fruit Pixie as her design elf.    Today I have a big project using the beautiful Graphic 45 Voyage beneath the Sea papers and stamps to share with you.   As soon as I opened these papers and stamps I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them. An altered book! I love it when inspiration strikes like that, don't you? It turned into quite a project so I decided to show you in too parts.                   Voyage beneath the sea altered book part 1 -    To start with perhaps you don't know what an altered book is? Well it is a wonderful project to do. You take a hard backed book, you want to choose one that has been stitched together, if it is a glued binding they tend to fall apart half way through so I avoid those. Then cut out some of the pages, don't pull them out or you might damage the binding, to compensate for the papers etc you will put into your project. I then like to divide up the book into sections, you won't want to decorate every page in a book so perhaps 5 or 6 pages or sections. Create your pages and then glue the spare pages together to form your altered book. This will all become clear when I walk you through mine.    So, here it is -  

I like to work on the cover last, mainly because I don't want to worry about getting any paint etc over my beautifully decorated cover. For this book I wanted to look like it had come from the bottom of the sea. So I used a very old technique of using alcohol ink on top of silver aluminium tape ( you can get it at DIY shops on now and again at Lidl ) 

 

To make the rivets I used some of the Craftwork cards Candi. I stuck them to the book cover using the small 3D foam before I put the tape over the top. The great thing about the aluminium tape is that is has a lot of give in it and so you can cover the Candi then gently run a ball tool around the Candi and it looks like a rivet.

 

Choose your alcohol ink colours, I use 3 at a time, apply to your felt applicator tool and then dab all over the tape.

 

Once the ink is dry I used a couple of the toppers from the 12x12 Voyage beneath the Sea and a stamp from the 12x12 deep blue sea.

 

I also highlighted the rivets using the Ranger distress stain in gold.

 

 

 

For the first page I wanted to make some pockets and tags. So I used some scrap card and cut it to size I needed, then stuck it to the books pages to form pockets.

 

I then painted and stencils and stamped to my hearts content, adding images from the papers and die cut cogs.

 

For this seahorse tag I cut a tag out of Kraft card and then covered it with the 12x12 Ocean quest paper. I then painted over the paper in the middle part of the tag and used a steampunk stencil over the top.

 

I cut the sea horse out of the 12x12 Voyage beneath the sea paper and collaged him onto the tag.

 

 

For the mermaid tag I made the tag in the same way as the seahorse but used a shell stencil instead of a steampunk one.

 

I stamped the mermaid from the stamp set. The mermaid quote is also a stamp stamped onto a piece of book paper and coloured using Ranger distress crayons.

 

I then added some white paint splats to the tags and book page too.

 

 

A great technique when altering a book is cutting or folding the pages into all sorts of shapes so you can revel or cover up parts of the book which adds interest and surprises for the reader.

 

For the left hand page I simply used one of the quotes from the 12x12 Wild wild waves paper. Then I have folded part of the right hand page up so you can see part of the next page and the giant octopus peeping out.

 

I have used paint and stencils for the background of the right hand page then stamped the man riding his fish using one of the stamps and added some colour to him.

 

He needed something to ride through so I used some seaweed die cuts and cogs which I highlighted with distress crayons and white pen.

 

 

 

This is the page you had a glimpse of before. I also folded the right hand page too so, again you can see on into the book.

 

I used the mermaid stamp again and the giant octopus is a die cut as are the bubbles.

 

Then background is made up using paint and stencils and highlighted using distress crayons and white pen.

 

Again you can see on into the book but that will have to wait.

 

 

Now a secret.......sometimes your book begins to fall apart as you work with it, as mine did, so if you look very closely you can see some washi tape down the middle of the page. If this happens to, you don't worry. You can either use any paper tape like masking tape or washi tape and either cover it up or let it add to the design. It all adds to the feel of your book at the end.

 

So that is almost half way through my Voyage under the sea altered book. 

 

I will return next week with part two!

 

If you have any questions or need some help I am only too happy to help. You can ask them here or over on the Fruit Pixie face book page.

 

You can find the beautiful papers in the shop here -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/voyage-beneath-the-sea-697-c.asp

 

White pens here -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/white-pens-415-c.asp

 

 Candi for the rivets here -

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/craftwork-cards-8-x-8-collection-pack-time-flies-25760-p.asp

 

So, until next week when I return to show you part 2 of my book,

 

                              Take care, love Katrina 

 

 

Paperartsy spring tulips

Hello, design elf Katrina here again with another spring project to show you.    We have had some beautiful spring weather here in the southwest of England and all the spring flowers look beautiful in the sunshine. They have inspired me to make my own spring tulips using the Paperartsy Tulip die set and matching Paperartsy stamps.  

 

I made a pot for my tulips on my Silhouette Cameo die cutting machine but a real pot would be even better. My hubby is a very keen gardener so all pots were taken!!

 

The tulips are very easy to make! First I chose my coloured cardstock and found two different shades of each colour. 

 

The stamp set has two different styles of Tulip and each Tulip has three sections. I chose the style that has a outside line to the design. I stamped each stamp in that set three times and then die cut them all out using the corresponding die. You will find it easier if you stamp first and the use a piece of low tack tape (or tape you have de tacked by sticking it to your cloths a couple of times ) to hold the die in the right place before you run it through your machine.  If you don't own a die cutting machine then you can just cut them out by hand but with the dies you get the same shape each time.

 

Fold each layer of Tulip in half from left to right. The tulips are not symmetrical so they won't meet up perfectly but this doesn't really show when the Tulip is finished.

 

Then stick the two layers of each flower on top of each other so the folds are in the same place. For the third layer I only stuck the bottom half down so I could curl it over when my Tulip was finished.

 

You now need to make the stem. This needs to support the Tulip so I used a bamboo skewers. I used some green Washi  tape to cover the skewer and make them more stem like.

 

Now take one of your tulips and stick its petal to the second Tulips petal. Take your stem and stick it on the inside of the Tulip along the line of the petals you glued together. 

 

Then stick the third petal over the top and stick all the petals together giving you a 3d Tulip as in the photo. You might need to use a couple of pegs to hold the petals together while they stick. I used a normal PVA white glue and had not trouble getting them to stick. Once they are dry curl the top petal over as shown on the photo.

 

 

For the leaves I used the same stamp and die as the last layer of the flower but stamped it onto green card. I then stuck it together with the stem in between.

 

The little flag was simply made by cutting a strip of paper into a long thin rectangle, folding it around the wooden support (that came from a pot of hyacinths we bought, it held the variety and price attached to it. It was just the job so I saved it as I liked the shape) I wrote spring in green pen and then stuck it around the little post and tied some garden string to the top. You could use another bamboo skewer for this.

 

To get them all to stand up was a bit of a battle. In the end I used Blutack at the bottom of the pot and pushed the end of my skewers into it. I then scrunched up some old tissue paper to support the skewers and fill the pot. I then could just cover top of the pot with dried moss it give it a realistic look.

 

This is such a nice bright cheerful project which would make a lovely gift or as I have done with mine, something for your own home. They need no light or water so can go anywhere. Mine are in the hall to welcome you home. They are also perfect for anyone who is in hospital too.

 

If you would like to make your own tulips you will need-

 

Paperartsy Tulip stamps 50% off at the mo!

 

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/eclectica3-collection-lin-brown-elb08-23263-p.asp

 

Paperartsy matching die set also 50% off

 

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/paperartsy-die-tulip-1-23274-p.asp

 

Cardstock - 

 

http://www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/coredinations-core-essentials-brights-15533-p.asp

 

Washi tape -

 

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

 

Have fun making your Tulips and have a very happy Easter

 

             Love Katrina

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

Easter Carrot treat boxes

Hello, welcome to The Fruit Pixies blog. I am Design Elf Katrina and today I have a really cute fun Easter treat box idea that will put a smile on anyone's face.

   I made these using the Graphic 45 Bohemain Bazzar papers but any orange paper or card will do as well.

  All you need to do is cut a rectangle of your carrot paper, mine was 5.5" x 6",  roll them into a tube and stick the seam down using red line tape. I then sealed one end horizontally.

   Cut a rectangle of green paper and feather cut it to make it look like carrot tops. I also put mine through a paper ribber as I found mine the other day at the back of a drawer. I then folder my carrot tops in half to make them look thicker.

  Fill your carrot with Easter treats and seal the other end encasing the carrot tops, this time vertically.

                       So there you are a cut fun way to give your loved ones a sweet treat this Easter.

                                              Have a great time this Easter
                                                                           Love Katrina x