Let's Get Organised by Abigail Lagden

It's been a magical summer for me running many workshops for children (and adults) during the holidays. I've helped budding wizards create over 100 wands and 50 spell books!

But now, as they all head back to school, I felt it was time to treat myself to some special storage for my everyday essentials. And this fantastic MDF storage caddy by Candy Box Crafts fits the bill perfectly.

As it comes flat packed, I started by trying to work out how all the pieces fit together to make the organiser and I have to say it was quite a bit easier than I expected.

Once I knew where all the pieces were going I used bronze Powertex to glue them together by painting a very thin layer on the joining surfaces and fitting them all together (I also painted all of the inside surfaces with bronze Powertex as I wanted a dark interior). 

Top tip - I used elastic bands around the outside of the organiser to hold all of the pieces tightly together whilst the Powertex dried.

I confess, with this project I didn't really know where I was going with the decoration at the start, I just knew that I wanted it not to be too bulky so that it would fit onto my already jam packed work surface. So I started by using Easy Structure paste through stencils to add an embossed pattern to all four sides - as well as some other stencils from my stash, I used the fabulous Fossilized and Wonderland stencils by the Secret Art Loft.

The structure paste was allowed to dry before all four sides were painted with Lead Powertex and small 3D Balls sprinkled into the wet Powertex.

I then mixed a paste using Lead Powertex and Easy 3D Flex which a spread over some of the blanker areas of the sides using a palette knife and pushed some pieces of a jigsaw puzzle into the paste on the front. This was left overnight to allow the paste to dry and crack.

I then used Powerwax mixed with Powercolor pigments to apply layers of colour using a sponge. I used the following pigment colours - turquoise, green, white, blue, burgundy and lilac. And finally dry brushed using Rich Gold Colortricx mixed with Easy Varnish.

To brighten up the centre piece I decoupaged it using EasyCoat Mat and pieces of this gorgeous rice paper.

Once it had all dried it was time to put it to use. Apologies for the state of my bottles and brushes but was made to be a working storage caddy so it would have been unbelievable for everything to be brand new and spotless. Two 1kg Powertex bottles fit into their compartments perfectly and then there is still plenty of space left for brushes, and your other crafty essentials.

Hope you have enjoyed this month's project and have been inspired to get organised. 

You can see more of my work, my workshops and my antics on my Curiously Contrary facebook page and website.

Until next time, Abs xx

Alice in Wonderland Clock created (by Anne)

I have had so much fun joining the Alice in Wonderland Tea Party with Powertex UK. I love fantasy themes and wanted to make a working clock full of bright fun colours and sparkle. Hope that you like my Alice Clock. It certainly fills me with cheer and makes me smile.

I had an old heart shaped MDF working clock that really needed a revamp. I combined it with the Pocket Watch Kit to create my crazy clock. The kit contains a stand, solid back and frame to make up a 3D pocket watch. Also included are lots of smaller embellishments for decoration – great kit.

The stand was put together using Black Powertex to coat and glue everything together.

The open watch frame was coated with Black Powertex.

The back and outer rim of the solid pocket watch shape were also coated with Black Powertex. The central area was painted with Ivory Powertex ready for adding images. When dry, pocket watch images from a decorative Rice Paper were applied using Easy Coat Mat decoupage medium. The sheet I used does not appear to be in stock at the moment but the Victorian Steampunk sheet is similar. The surface was spritzed with a little Green Bister to knock back the harshness of the Ivory colour. 

I coated my recycled MDF clock with Ivory Powertex on the front, Black on the back. Again Easy Coat was used to add Rice Paper images. You can still see the original painted numbers on my old clock face.

A layer of Crackle Accents (Ranger) was added onto the clock face images to give an aged crackle effect. When dry, more Green Bister was added to emphasise the crackle (the wet colour seeps into the cracks). Texture was then applied using Easy Structure Paste through the Wonderland Stencil. I dabbed over with a little black Powertex to cover some of the bright white colour. Easy Structure Paste was also used as a strong 3D glue to attach the watch to the stand.

Rice paper images were also applied to my recycled heart clock. Layers of kitchen paper were applied around the decoupaged images using ivory Powertex to give added texture. I also added Easy Structure Paste through the stencil to add hearts.

Several of the new Acrylic Inks and Paints were used to add colour to my project (Acrylic Inks in Egg Yolk, Tangerine, Golden Metallic, Viola Metallic and Aqua Metallic; Acrylic Paints in Raspberry Sorbet, Orange Marmalade and Key Lime). The inks are gorgeous fluid transparent colours ideal for painting over other colours or patterned papers. The medium bodied acrylic colours are semi-translucent and are great for heavier colour and layering. I LOVE them.

A piece of tree bark was treated with Transparent Powertex. I have had this piece in my stash for years (so it was fully dried out) just waiting for a suitable project to use it on.

The pocket watch frame was glued in place with Transparent Powertex ensuring that it was well centred. Easy Structure paste was used to glue 3D elements onto the base stand. Bronze Powertex was used to cover and colour the Easy Structure Paste where needed. At this stage I checked that the clock hands would be able to move freely around the clock face (once it’s all glued and dry it’s well and truly glued!).

The small MDF heart (from my recycled clock) was treated with black Powertex. I added some 3D Sand and Balls into the wet Powertex for texture. When dry I coloured with Easy Varnish and Interference Lilac Pearl Pigment. Have you seen these new Pearl Pigment colours? WOWeeee!  I rubbed over a little Pebeo Gilding Wax (gold) to cover the edges and highlight the texture more.

Gilding Wax was also rubbed over the Pocket Watch tops and tree bark. A thick greyboard frame and rectangle was coated in Black Powertex to create a table. A piece of lace and scrap of knitted cotton was also coated in Black Powertex to fill in the base of the ‘tree’ and to create the table cloth. I started placing other MDF elements from the Pocket Watch Kit (but not glued down yet).

More colour was added with the Acrylic Paints. The metal clock hands were coated with Jade Patina (Ranger).

….. and yes my craft stash is encroaching inwards – tee hee.

I continued to build the scene, coating elements with Black or Ivory Powertex then colouring with Acrylic Paints before gluing down with Powertex.  

The MDF sentiments and Flamingoes were from the Alice Collection; the butterflies, dragonfly, numbers and spirals from the Pocket Watch Kit. The sentiment plaque was a greyboard piece from my stash. I added some 3D Sand and Balls to the Flamingo wings for extra texture.

A layer of Glossy Accents (Ranger) was applied over some of the painted elements and fine crystal glitter dropped into the wet surface for added bling and sparkle. The piece was then left overnight, propping it in a horizontal position.

I also added an MDF Heart Flower, Lion, cat and small bird from Mini Hieroglyphs, MDF flowers and leaves plus greyboard flowers (from my stash). The little signposts were made from recycled wooden canvas stretchers and black alcohol marker used to write.

Then I had fun with my dies. Each element was built up using 4 layers of either black or Kraft card and layers glued together with Powertex to make them thick and robust. Coffee Archival Ink (Ranger) was used to stamp the chairs (Sizzix). The cake stand, cupcakes, small cup & saucer, spoon & fork and teapot cut (Intricutz); the larger cup & saucer and top hat (Sheena Douglass); the chandelier (Crafters Companion) were built and glued in place with Easy Structure paste where needed to give added depth. More Glossy Accents and glitter were added over some of the elements.

Finally a little dry brushed colour was added over some of the textured surfaces using Easy Varnish and the Pigment colours (Iridescent Lilac, Violet Valentine, Rich Gold).

I will leave it for around three weeks for everything to fully cure, then finish with Easy Varnish to fully seal everything and give added protection to painted surfaces.

I’ve popped in some close ups for you. Ooooh sparkly flamingos.

I am always running late so this sentiment is perfect for my clock – tee hee.

You can see that crackle texture on the watch faces here.

Lots of layering and sparkle.

I absolutely love my new clock. I hope that you love it too, Anne xxx.

Down the rabbit hole

I was very excited when I got to create my Alice inspired pieces because I was up in Tracey's studio at Powertex hq. I thought I had been really clever and taken step by step photos but alas no. I had not been that clever. So I will therefore walk through the steps I took to create my piece. Have you got yours yet? Find them here.

I actually started off with Ivory Powertex and gave everything a base coat. Apart from the Cheshire cat grin and the 10/6 which I coated in Black Powertex . 

TOP TIP: If you coat both the front and back pieces your working on it will help prevent warping. Being good quality mdf this is unlikely to happen but it will enable you to strenghten the piece if you are loading it up with a lot of embellishments and texture.

Once dry I placed the rice paper to the top of the hat by applying Easy Coat to the base, laying the paper and giving a liberal coat over the top. 

In the middle of the brim part of the hat I place some patterned wall paper stuck with and re-coated with Ivory Powertex.

I then dipped some stockinette into the Ivory Powertex and stuck into place on either side of the hat all the way down to the brim. I dipped some lace which I scrunched up and put in place underneath the band of the hat.

I took some Easy structure through the Alice stencil on the card shapes and the band of the hat and then applied another coat of Ivory Powertex over the top once dry. The texture on the feather was created by pulling some Easy Structure over the surface with a palette knife and then once dry was coated in another layer of Ivory Powertex.

I created the 10/6 sign by using the mdf rectangular shape as a template around some cardboard and then covering in linen which had been dipped in Ivory Powertex. I used the rose and the daisy mould to create some embellishments from stone art clay and then painted up in the Raspberry Sorbet and Orange Marmalade acrylics on the roses and the feather and the Lemon Meringue and Orange Marmalade on the daisy shapes. 

I then painted the band with the Key Lime acrylic and the base of the hat and sides with a mixture of Orange Marmalade into Raspberry Sorbet into Blueberry Pie. I also used all the colours on the words fading in and out of one another. All the pieces were then stuck down with Transparent Powertex and left to dry.

I'm really please Leonie liked my journal I thought for a moment it wouldn't be coming home with Tracey. This one was fun to create with multi-layer stenciling, on the cover and rice papers. Green and blue bisters to give it a softer finish. The rabbit uses the crackle effect you get with Ivory Powertex, brown bister and a hair dryer. I used the rice papers on the inside covers too. Hope you enjoyed the Hochanda shows, I certainly had fun creating my art to inspire. Toodles Anna xXx

Teatime in wonderland, wearing my best hat!

Hello lovely people.

I hope you enjoyed the show on Hochanda and it has got your creative juices flowing.

I was lucky enough to try out the project packs before the show and I have to say I really enjoyed doing them.

I created the hat first as my muse was screaming at me to do that one.

Sadly I did not do step by step photos as I was way too excited to crack on and play.

I had a piece of quite chunky crochet material I wanted to use and this was just the job.

I first laid out all the parts of the kit and decided how I was going to display them, before getting out the Powertex and going for it.

My muse already knew what colour theme I was going to do, so first I painted the top hat in the BLUEBERRY PIE and MOJITO LIME

Paint and Powertexed my crochet material and laid it on the hat.

I used the green and did a bit of blending with the blueberry and dry brushed with the white pigment to highlight.

I added the rice papers to the playing cards and added texture in the form of sand balls to the top part of the cards.

I took the feather and added texture to that using stone art and Powertex and used a pokey tool to make it look like a feather, dry brushed with black.

I used more of the crochet material to the bottom part of the hat and then measured and soaked some material to give it a more 3D effect to the middle part of the hat.

I used easy 3D FLEX on the tag and gave it a crackle effect using some brown bister and added the MDF numbers and painted them with easy varnish mixed with black pigment.

And my mad hatter's hat I felt was completed.

The next kit I found more of a creative challenge and my muse was stumped on how to go about this one, I think as the rice papers are so pretty, it kind of threw me a little, as this is not more normal style!

 I sat and played around with combinations for a while until I decided upon a design my muse liked but once I started, I did not stop until it was done.

Firstly I wet ripped the rice paper, by this I mean if you dunk a fine paintbrush in water and run it around the part of the rice paper/tissue paper you want to use, it comes away quite easy and looks a better finish when laid down on a structure.

I then added lace to other parts of the teapot and cups and saucers and decoratively painted the flowers and flamingo and the little mouse on the top. I added a piece of string dipped in transparent Powertex. I painted the MDF wording in the blue paint and stuck down using Powertex as my glue.

I forgot the mention I added a few lace butterflies as well.

It turned out very pretty (for me) and I loved incorporating the rice papers into my design.

I hope all the design team blogs on this theme have inspired you all.

Until my next blog .... Go be creative

Jinny x

Mad Mad Hatter by Fi Potter

Just a quick blog today to share my Mad Mad Hatter project with you.  This is the second of the pieces I created for Tracey's Hochanda show on 30th March.

We had a very colourful kit to choose from which is just perfect for these Alice Theme project kits.

As always, I played with some layout ideas before I for the Powertex out. First I used some Easy Coat Matte to attach the Queen of hearts rice paper on the hat base and on one of the mdf card blanks. 

I then coated everything in black Powertex.  I then made up some stone art clay for the band and added some lace at the top and bottom of the band. I also added stone art clay to the top hat for depth and texture. 

Next I coated and placed the embellishments.

  

Once everything was totally dry I got the Secret Art Loft acrylics out and added several layers of colour.  Next I used a variety of The Secret Art Loft and Powercolor pigments mixed with easy varnish to really make the embellishments pop.  Below are some close ups of some of them.

Here's the finished piece. 

Hope Tracey and the Design Team have inspired you to have fun with your project kits.

Look forward to seeing your pieces in the Powertex Studio Group.

By for now

Fi