Cameo Silhouette Halloween Lantern Votive Holder

Boo!  There are creepy goings-on over at an Oldie But A Goodie, it's new challenge time and the theme is Spooky.  The full rules are over on the challenge blog post, but in a nutshell, you need to create a new project following the theme and use on it at least 1 item that is at least 6 months old (what a great excuse to use up some old stash).

For this challenge, I've made a Spooky Halloween Lantern.

Project Recipe:
Tools: Cameo Silhouette, Spellbinders, Grand Calibur
Colouring Mediums:  Tim Holtz Distress Ink Black Soot
Paper and Card: WRMK, Stardream, Textured Card, pearlescent vellum, coloured vellum
Embellishments: Glittery spider, glitter, rhinestone gems, Prima Got Flowers

I made this project largely using my Cameo Silhoutte, which is great for specialist projects when you may not have readily to hand a lot of subject material.

I've add photos of each side in daylight so that you can see the detail but also with the votive candle lit, so that you can see the effect when in use.  Please remember, if you do a project like this, use only electric candles, not bare flames.  On this side my orange moon is actually an orange vellum circle mounted behind the witch.

Next side features a rather spooky skull.  The Cameo Silhouette shape that I used had lots of detail on it, but I find that this doesn't always cut so well if you've shrunk the shape to a small size.  So I edit my shape before cutting by un-grouping and then removing the very smallest cuts.  I think it's still effective - here I removed the smaller teeth and then re-spaced out the remaining ones.

I love these pumpkins!  I like grown-up Halloween (it's not just about the children) and I think these pumpkins are classy!

Finally, Halloween wouldn't be complete without a Spooky House!  Also, I've previously written a tutorial on how a Poinsettia (Die) is for Life, Not Just For Christmas, and my Halloween Poinsettia is a case in point!

Everything used in this project is over 6 months old (I think some of it's over 6 years old, lol), so it was a great way to use up old stash and hoarded scraps.

Hope you enjoyed this project.  Do come over to an Oldie But A Goodie Challenge and join us for this fortnight's theme of Spooky.  I would like to enter it into the following challenges as well:

Cameo Creations - Spooky/Haunting
Clear it Out - Halloween/Orange
Crafty Calender - Halloween
CountryView - Something Spooky
Use It Tuesday - Scraps, Pieces, Odds and Ends Pin It Now!

Altered Christmas Cannister Tin

It's new challenge time over at an Oldie But A Goodie, but before I get onto the new challenge, can I just say thank you to all the wonderful crafters who entered my Dies and Punches challenge.  With well over 200 entries, I think it's been our biggest response ever!  If you pop over to an Oldie But Goodie to see this fortnight's challenge, you'll see the winner of the fantastic prize from Tonic Studios and the top picks.

I partake in a Secret Santa Swap on a craft forum and I always use it as an opportunity to do something a bit different from a card.  This project alters a canister of Biscotti Biscuits into a really feminine festive treat.   


So this was a perfect project to showcase the current challenge at an OBAG, which is a BINGO grid and I've chosen Ribbon, Pearls and Glitter. The "oldies" on my project include stamp, DCWV paper and card, lace, ribbon, crystals, charm, pearls, beads, promarker pens, ink and more!

I've also used a number of techniques including

Paper piecing ● Ribbon threading ● Fussy Folding ● Digital Die Cutting ● Manual Die Cutting ● Glittering ● Spritzing ● Charm Making ● Inking ● Accenting ● Decoupage ● Chalking ● and Lace Colouring 

Project Recipe:
Stamp: A-may-zing Crafter's Companion
Colouring Mediums: Memento Black Ink Pad, Promarker Pens, Cosmic Shimmer Mica Mist, Peebles Inc Chalk
Paper and Card: DCWV, Sateen Elegance
Tools: Spellbinders, Grand Calibur, Silhouette Cameo
Embellishments: Lace, Organza Ribbon, Double Satin Ribbon, rhinestone crystals, glitter, eye-head pin, glass and pearl beads, silver-tone charm.

There are quite a few stages to altering this canister, so I'll take it step-by-step.

Step 1 - Altering the Cannister Tube

I choose as my inspiration an absolutely gorgeous sheet of DCWV Christmas Glittered Card Stock that came in a QVC TSV year's ago - I loved both the beautiful images and the striking combination of black, magenta pink and white colours.  I carefully measured the height and diameter of the cannister twice before cutting, with only 1 sheet of this lovely card, I couldn't afford any mistakes.  I used Collall glue to adhere the sheet of card to the cannister.

To make the trimmings, I first coloured a piece of lace with one of my Promarker pens. Although I had used Cerise on my stamped image (see step 3), when I tested that on a small piece of lace, it looked to neon for my taste, so I used a softer pink instead.  I then threaded a narrow band of 3mm black double satin through the lace.  

Finally, I layered this onto the top and bottom of the cannister, starting with a wide band of black organza, and topped this with the lace threaded with the black satin.  On the top trimming band, I added a triple bow made from more wide black organza and 15mm magenta double satin.  Finally, using a eye-head pin, I created a hand-made pearl and crystal drop with snowflake charm.

Step 2 - Altering the Cannister Lid

I chose a cannister where the lid went inside the tube rather than fitting over the top.  This helps when doing an altered project as once you've added the extra papers and trimmings to the tube, the original lid may no longer fit if it needs to go over the outside of the tube.  If you are altering something like a Pringles canister, you may need to make a completely new lid to fit over the extra thickness of the tube once altered.

I used an origami fold to create the outer circle of the lip topper.  This is made by fancy folding 8 circles (in 2 patterns) and then adhering them to a scalloped base.  It would have been preferable to have had double-sided paper for this element but more coordinating papers were single-sided, so I colour-washed the back of the black patterned paper with a very pale shade of pink with a FlexMarker pen. 

On top of this layer, I added a layered Spellbinders Poinsettia and hot pink rhinestone  crystals.  Finally, I spritzed the whole lid with Cosmic Shimmer Mica Mist to give it a subtle shimmer.



Step 3 - The Stamped Topper

I love this sassy boot stamp made by Crafter's Companion in conjunction with Nigel May and have been itching to use it since I bought it in a sale in the New Year.  I started by stamping the image onto a piece of Elegance Satin stamping card.  I also stamped the image onto hot pink textured card, and patterned paper.  Using the paper piecing technique, I layered together the different cards and papers to create the boot.  I then coloured the rest of the image with a promarker pen before adding glitter accents and tiny rhinestone crystals. Finally, I chalked around the image and also spritzed it with Cosmic Shimmer Mica Mist.

I cut out the image with a spellbinders label die and created the matching narrow mat on my Silhouette Cameo using the trace technique.



Here's one final look at this Altered Christmas Canister:














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A Poinsettia’s For Life Not Just for Christmas!

Today’s tutorial is on making paper flowers but it’s also about using your dies all year round as well. So, I’m making a paper flower using my spellbinders poinsettia die set, but the finished result can be used on any paper project not just a Christmas one.

These paper flowers come out particularly well if you follow the 3 D’s - Distinction, Dimension & Depth.

Firstly Distinction - well, I took a little alliterative liberty here, as I’m really talking about contrast.  Before I began, I backed an A4 sheet of rich Antique Gold Stardream paper with an offcut of Chiyogami patterned paper and a co-ordinating plain blue.  I find a glue stick is best for this task as it is not too wet but does provide edge-to-edge adhesive, just leave to dry for a couple of hours. Alternatively, use double-sided paper. I then cut the poinsettia bracts in alternating colours, patterned and plain, but making sure I finished on a patterned piece for the top (and I cut 2 of these).  If you don’t have a flower die, then pre-cut flowers such as Petaloo, can also be layered up in this way.

On the plain bracts, I sponged through the die with Brushed Corduroy distress ink using a small piece of Cut & Dry.  My final task to help me achieve Distinction, was to ink the edges of all the die-cut pieces.

Step2 creates Dimension.  Using a bone-tool (or the blunt edge of closed scissors), I shaped and curled the petals.  You can see from the photos how this has started to give the flower layers real “life”.

Next, I layered up the flower – to provide the final D – Depth.  Using a small dot of a wet glue or glue gel, layer the flower bracts on top of each other, offsetting the petals of each layer. 

You may find you need to press the middle of the layers together until the glue “takes”. 

Finally, finish off the centre of your flower with a button, brad, or, in this case, small flat-backed crystals. 

And here you can see that all the effort that you put into achieving the 3Ds results in a lovely 3D embellishment, so much better than the flat version to the left.

Hope you enjoy.

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