Mermaids, Unicorns and a sprinkle of fairy Dust

After a bit of a blogging break we are back here's a quick catch up with what's been happening at fairy hollow HQ.

Here is my latest mermaid she is fully felted and suspended from a clear wire. I will be uploading a tutorial next week of how to make your own mermaid .

I have some new neighbours up at the studio on one side we have a photography studio and landscape gallery (3 and 4) some very stylish photography on acrylic and metal and TLChic on the other side (6) which is all things shabby chic, reloved furniture and afternoon tea treats in hampers and gift baskets. We especially love their wrapped lampshades (would be stunning in a vintage wedding)

In fibre focus news I have some fabulous wool locks that have been hand dyed, and I have some lovely British wool I have been using to make some fibre art pictures. I will be getting the website up and running and fibre and inspiration packs will be available very soon.

Christine

Pictures and Brooches February 2017 class

Last night I was over in Annan teaching a needle felting class. Big thanks to Laura at Mad Notions once again for having me.

beautiful Galloway beltie and heart brooch

sheep scene 

here we are having a riffle through my odds and ends bag I always let my students take home some wool to practice with.

some more finished pictures and a brooch.

Last night we were working on layering techniques to create wool picture from scratch. First select the main green you are using for background. Then pull small sections for a 3x3 picture roughly 4 inch pieces we then fluff out each piece We layer our wool and right angles then diagonals to start 5-6 thin layers  then add small amounts of other shades of greens greys and a touch of pink or purple for heather. This creates a more natural background as there are not many patches of grass that are all the same green. When felting a background be sure to felt lightly and lift your work off your foam pad and turn over regularly.

Wethen added sheep and Galloway belties (everyone loves a beltie cow).

The finished artworks are very good its amazing what you can achieve in an hour and a half.

Hope the little tips help
Christine

Thoughts of the day

Some past and present scene brooches I have done. I did my first sheep brooch like these about 4 weeks after I started felting. The reason was I've always liked to be outdoors although through my teenage years there was a time when I thought high heeled sandals were sensible forward (ask a certain friend of mine about long grass and cows and when she finishes laughing she'll explain how we went out for the day and I wore said 2 inch sandals and I was convinced a cow or snake was going to bite my toes off and I literally jumped Everytime grass touched my feet the cows were probably scarred for life.) now I'm slightly more sensible, having backpacked in the Lake District and visited the Scottish highlands I live in southwest Scotland and do a fair bit of walking when I can I have plenty of ideas and memories of places to keep me felting scenes for quite some time 

Exciting times more felting classes

Well after lots of hard work the studio is finally decorated and mostly filled so soon we will be able to offer a wide range of craft classes and workshops if you would like to be added to our mailing list of which classes are available and times and locations send us a wee message to fairyhollowcreations@gmail.com

Here is some of my latest work which we will be giving a class on how to achieve a similar look the techniques involved. We will be running a class on felt pictures at Mad notions in Annan in April as well as class at Drumlanrig castle stable yard studios covering the same topic. The class is roughly 11/2 hours long all equipment is provided and you will take away a completed picture plus a felting needle so you can complete other projects Classes are £10 per person. Suitable for adults or older children with supervision as needles used are very sharp. There will be some 3D classes, painting with wool workshop a Nuno felting and  wet felting classes along with other craft  classes through out May and June. Locations and times to be confirmed.

Fairy Liliana - cute as a button Rubber stamp release

First off a big Whoop whoop for Francessca at cute as a button having a fab week this week lots to celebrate. Her first stamps that have been made into rubber stamps are now available to buy. To help celebrate I made this card 

To make this card I coloured in the image using my spectrum noir pencils water colour pens and alcohol markers. 

I then fussy cut her out. I raised my paper stash and found some lovely paper with flowers on which I also fussy cut out I then mounted this onto some green paper doing the same in the bottom of my easel card I also mounted the sentiment on the same paper and cut out I then added 3 peach flowers and a gem to her lamp. Hope she inspires you :) 

January new release day at Cute as a Button

I can believe we are already at the 10th of January times flying by. 

Here is my new release card for January

And here's the how I did her :-

First off I printed out the digi and got out my spectrum noir pencils an water colour pens. 

Here she is all coloured for her skin I used 1,4,7, for her dress 31,33,35,36 same for her shoes and I used brown for her eyes and hair I then went along several outlines with my watercolour pens I then dipped my brush in water and blended in. Next I fussy cut her out . 

I laid out some papers from my stash including one from the faded florals collection I added some lace and then some gems and a sentiment on the easel part of the card.  And I die cut a present using my big shot and the bebunni present die from crafters companion

(Please excuse the mess on my desk) the with love sentiment and tag die I got with a craft magazine last week I cut it from the same backing paper as the card and some white card stock I had I then cut a frame for it to sit on. I hope you feel inspired by this card I had great fun making it. 

There is a discount code on all the new release images for te next couple of days so be quick and snap up a bargain. 

January Challenge cute as a button blog

It's that time of the month again time for a new challenge in the cute as a button blog here's the link http://cuteasabuttonchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/welcome-to-challenge-18-love-and-winner.html?spref=fb&m=1

This months theme is love 

Here is my card I used my trusty spectrum noir pencils. Some papers from my stash from a flower and romance pack and some lace and some paper flowers. My other half and me went on our first date on the 11th of Feb we had such a good time we had our second third a fourth date within a week. This year it's 4 years and we will hopefully be getting married later this year. When I looked at this stamp it reminded me of our first date (to think I almost never went!) at the time of our first date I was blonde so this is what I went with when colouring this stamp. I'm so glad I went and I hope you like the card. 

New beginnings challenge card

This month on the cute as a button halls he blog the theme is new beginnings. I chose to do the wedding couple as we are hoping to get married next year! 

First before I get over excited and go into wedding plans, here's how I did my card first off I printed off the wedding couple then I got out my spectrum noir pencils I used 1,4,8,9 for the skin. For his hair I used 112,114,116,118 and 120. The other half dos point out I did their hair the same as ours and was I trying to be romantic. I used some irreidesent glutter on the top of the dress. I coloured the dowse and tie in the same purple. I'm not  going with purple for our colour scheme. 

Next I went through my stash and I used some pink and grey papers from it. I fussy cut the bride and groom and the birds from one of my papers in my stash. I then cut the sentiment out the comes with the digi stamp and I mounted that and the birds on grey paper. To finish it off I added some pale pink and grey card candy.

I hope you like the card and I will deffinately be featuring some of my favourite pastel shades when we tie the knot.

If this has inspired you to take part in the challenge blog simply pop over to 

Cute as a button New Release Day

For this month I picked the digi stamp with I love Stamps on it.(of course) 

I decided that I was in need of a treat for me a new Desk calender for the new Year and my new workspace.

Here's what I did and how.

First off I printed out the digi and then got out my Spectrum noir pencils, I love these. I can see such a big improvement in my colouring. I used 1,4,5,9 for the skin 102,104 and 113 for her hair I then used several blues shading to do her a denim skirt. I then fussy cut her out and got several sheets of green backing paper from my stash. 

I then cut out several different circle sentiments I played around arranging them on the bottom and top.

I then used the same papers to mount my calender pad and I chose to make this into an easel one. I love this new Digi and there are several other beautiful ones to choose from this month. Pop over to http://cuteasabuttonchallenge.blogspot.fr/2015/12/december-releases-are-out.html?m=1 and have a look 

Hopefully I will some exciting news to share with you over the next few weeks hope you loves the deal calender as much as I did.

November cute as a button inspiration card

This is my November inspiration card using the Cute as a Button stamp Christmas elves in boots.

I have done a step by step on the cute as a button inspiration blog pop over to http://cuteasabuttonshowcase.blogspot.com/2015/11/november-inspiration-card-by-christine.html if you'd like to see how I did it. I can already see and improvement in my colouring.

Today I'm working on colouring in my chosen stamp for the December challenge, it's a gorgeous one and ties in with plans for next year! Squee it's so exciting but I shall leave that news for another day. 

Wool Christmas tree Angel - Free tutorial

This is step by step photo guide of how to make a wool roving Angel that can sit on your Christmas tree.

What you will need is a 36 or 38 felting needle 

15g wool roving roughly in the colours of your choice I recommend a flesh tone for face and arms and I use white for wings but you can use any colours you wish and some for hair 

A pipe cleaner 

And the inner from a kitchen roll or toilet roll cut to roughly 5cm. 

Double sided Tape, glue and gems 

To start split the flesh tone width ways so you still have a good staple length. 

The fold over into a triangle until it's roughly a ball.

Next felt this using your 36 and 38 needles until it becomes a firm ball but that still has some give (so you can add the hair later 

Now remove two small pieces of flesh tone to wrap the armature thin pieces roughly 1/2cm width at the most. 

Wrap this around the pipe cleaner apron 3-4 cm from the end when you get 1cm from the end fold the end in.

This makes your Angels hand wrap the pipecleaners until you get to the middle.

Repeat for other side.

Now take your remaining flesh wool and fold in half add the flesh ball like pictured and use your needle to,attatched this in a line 

One firmly attatched arrange to wool carefully so it covers the ball 

Now pull a tiny amount 3-4cm long and a few mm thick from the bottom and wrap around like pictures the use needle to secure in place.

Once secured you can add your arms I then split a potion of the wool and wrap around each side and use a tiny piece to secure as before.

Now lay out the wool you are using for the dress.

I pull each one into sections so it's roughly the same staple length then I split them in the middle making a hole 2-3 inches in size

I place it over my angels head layering as I go 

I then tightly hold the middle and use a small band of wool to secure.

I then fluff all the layers out 

If your wish to make a flying Angel skip the next 2-3 steps.

Next for your tree topper het your piece of kitchen roll or toilet roll middle wrap in double sided sticky tape I use double sided tape as it gives it rigidity and stops the glue making the cardboard soggy. Now add glue and place under your Angels skirt 

Now I use a jar filled with pencils or hairs spray can so I can arrange her skirt and make sure that it's sitting correctly 

Now I lightly felt in extra roving to my angels waist so her skirt stays nice and puffy 

Now add on hair lightly felting it to the head 

Then I add gems to her skirt and lastly her wings 

Split the white so it's 6-7 inches staple length band in the middle and the attatched to Angel using felting needle 

So the wings stay in place you can sparingly use hairspray or spray starch to protect from moths add 1-2drops of lavender oil before storing

For my wool Angel I used 5 green tones including moss forest lawn and jade 2-3 g of each roughly 3 g  flesh tone, gingersnap for hair only need a tiny amount and 2g white for the wings 

First step