Art in a Carton & Shaving Foam

This is the latest Art in a Carton I received from Jan. The carton itself was beautifully decorated and I can't begin to describe the treasures it contained inside. Jan was most generous in her gifts and each one was made exquisitely. There was a fabric summer sandal bookmark containing a paper parasol at the back in a specially made pouch. It was made in hot summery colours and is such an original gift. I've never seen anything like this before and consider myself very fortunate to have received it. Then there were some hand moulded papers in various designs, a beautiful little handmade book with folded pages that pop up when you untie the ribbon and open it, a gorgeous charm with a vintage image and a fabric beaded square with a vintage image printed on to it.

All the gifts were handmade by Jan and you could feel the love and care she'd put into creating each piece - Thank you Jan! :-) This project has been such fun to participate in and I've received some wonderful pieces of Art created by some very talented people.

MARBLED PAPER USING THE SHAVING FOAM TECHNIQUE

I visited my local craft store over the weekend and they were demonstrating this new method of marbling paper (well by new method, I mean relatively new method - not everyone's heard of it). Anyway, I watched the demo and then had a go and do you know what? I didn't have to even buy anything to get started at home - well, no, actually I did and that was just the shaving foam - but hey sometimes you might have that in your home already.

So, I got home and got out the necessary materials (shown above). All you need are:

• some scraps of card or paper (works best on card or watercolour paper)
• selection of inks, paints, shimmer sprays
• kitchen roll and baby wipes on hand for cleaning up
• a container (size depends on what size paper you're going to marbleize) I used those plastic containers they give you when you get a takeaway.
• can of shaving foam - (cheapest will do)
• sticks for mixing and marbling

You'll need to protect your work area with clean paper and then keep your pieces of card or paper ready to marble.

all the materials you need to create wonderful marbled pieces

Give the can of shaving foam a good shake before squirting generously into your container, filling it approximately a third full.

shaving foam coloured with inks, paints and glimmer sprays

With your stick comb it through the foam to settle it a bit and now here comes the fun bit - add the colour drop at a time on top of the foam. It's best to keep it to a max of 3 colours at any one time or you'll end up with a murky mess.

Comb your stick through the foam distributing the colour into a pleasing pattern (this is where you use your own discretion and eye)

Take your piece of card or paper and lay on top of the coloured foam and push and rub the card or paper slightly to pick up the colour - lift carefully with your fingers or tweezers.

At this point the card will look a mess all covered in foam and murky colours, but don't worry! It's only when you scrape off the excess foam onto the side of your container and then with a dry wipe or cloth, wipe the rest of the card.

What you see before you will be a gorgeously marbled card with streaks of ink, paints or shimmer (depending on what you've used). Leave this card aside to dry and move onto your next piece.

You don't have to keep adding colour each time you marble your card - just use your stick to create different patterns in the foam and lay your card in. You can add fresh colours to the same foam and spray in glimmer sprays and create swirly patterns in the foam and then lay your card on top and press and lift to see what wonderful marble designs you can create. Believe me no two designs will ever be the same!

Now for the science.... The foam acts like a carrier for the paints or inks - so, basically the foam wipes off and the colour remains on the card - clever huh?

You can further enhance these marbled cards by spritzing over with glimmer sprays or just keeping them as they are and use them as ATC backgrounds, for greeting cards or any host of crafting projects.

This is a really fun technique to do with kids as they'll enjoy them tremendously trying to out do each other to see who can create the best marbled designs. It's very enjoyable and is suitable for even the youngest of kids. Just make sure you have plenty of wipes on hand as it can get very messy :-)

Bits and Pieces

ROBIN
This is a little fledgling robin that I discovered nesting on the shelf of my workshop where all my jars of mosaic pieces are. The workshop is in such a state that I haven't used it as a workshop at all for ages and it's become more like a shed. The mother robin probably thought "oh this is a nice uninhabited place for me to build my nest" and so she did. I caught sight of this scrawny little thing sitting atop an empty tin of chocs -it was so cute and wasn't in the least bit scared of me - it just stared straight at me.

I went outside and then I took this pic of it sitting by the window looking out (bottom left hand corner) - it just looks like one of those ornaments you put up at Christmas time :-D Well, the little thing has flown the coop now (so to speak) coz I haven't noticed it in the shed for a while.

ART IN A CARTON

This was the "Art in a Carton" I received from my good friend Shakti, in Spain. You can tell the time and love that she has imparted in creating this beautiful carton and all the wonderful ART inside. I was just "gobsmacked" with the colours and the exterior of the carton itself and the way Shakti had created the closing with eyelets and beaded ties - it truly is a work of ART!

Inside the carton was treasure of beautiful handcrafted goodies, just waiting for me to lovingly unwrap and admire: a gorgeous Art Doll made from what I think is balsa wood and trimmed with fibres, beads, sparkly stones etc, a small handmade book tied up with dark blue satin ribbon that matches the box, a beautiful ATC and a glittery gold leaf - everything was most impressive and I loved it all!

ANOTHER BIRDY STORY

Last week I discovered a birds nest in amongst my passion flower and honeysuckle bushes and sitting in it was what I thought was a blackbird, but now I'm not sure what it is. Can you make out from this pic of it peeking up? Anyway, I didn't disturb it - well, only took this photo but without flash, so as not to scare it. I noticed it would fly away for a while and then return again and sit in the nest but all this week it hasn't been there and I think it's abandoned the nest. Today my hubby checked the nest and sure enough there was one solitary speckled blue egg -cold. It made me feel so sad. We've left the nest there as it is - don't know what else to do really.

Art in a Carton

This is the carton I received from Jill. It was decorated really simply but effectively and the contents inside were just gorgeous. There was an Art doll (I think they're called), a butterfly ATC and a beautiful small square quiltie. You can see a lot of thought went into this and I really loved receiving it - Thank you Jill!

Well, I've completed my 3 cartons and have made the gifts to put inside and now they're all ready to be packaged and posted. Only thing I'm left with one carton that I don't know who to send to. If anyone's interested in taking part in this ongoing art sharing project then you can get further details from Susan J Letham's site
www.art-in-a-carton.blogspot.com


Here are my 3 cartons ready to be packaged and posted. Each carton contains a handmade book, an ATC and a ceramic hand with an incense cone. All items are made by me except for the incense cone.

These are just close up of each carton and their contents. The cartons look plain black, but I've actually painted them with balck gesso and them stamped them using the Brilliance range of inks, which have an irridescent quality about them and show up more when light is thrown upon it.