Saturday 10 March 2018

Fairy Boxes and a new discovery

Hello friends, hope life is treating you well. Today I have somewhat of a personal post. Many of you know that I have two little granddaughters who live in Australia, and as I only get to see them at the most twice a year, presents are always part of these visits.... (I am going over again at the end of this month).

You may remember that I made them each a little mini album with photos of themselves using the G45 Fairydust collection, well, here are a couple of little treasure boxes to go along with them. They are little wooden boxes I purchased at a craft store, I painted them and then used some of the leftover papers to decorate them.

I decorated both the out and the inside of course and tried hard to make them match their little books more or less.
One of their favourite things to do is "craft" as they call it. Anything that involves colouring, painting and sticking, so each of the boxes will have some crafty goodies inside.
I found these great little kits online, and I thought I would just tell you about them in case you are interested. They are basically woodless coloured pencils, some strips of sandpaper and a little wire brush. And this is what you can do with them: You rub the colour on the sand paper over your paper substrate. Some colour will come off, but then using the wire brush, you can scrub way more colour grains off onto the paper, then you rub with your finger and you get super colour effects.
At its most basic you can just blend the colours together, so easy to do and a great tactile experience too:
Here I did a little picture on watercolour paper, but I soon came to the conclusion, smoother paper is better.
The next one I copied more or less from their website, it was done on smoother paper which I think is much better.

Stencilling of course works great too:
I used a slightly different technique for the stencilled ones, on the one on the left I stencilled first and then blended colours around it, on the one on the right I put colour down first and then used the stencil on top of that, it creates a slightly softer effect.
Any smudges can be removed with the help of a normal eraser.
 Here is a link to a video that shows you many more techniques.

The website is in German but here  is a link that takes you to an English pdf. There are many more gorgeous examples in their online shop. And they ship internationally too.

Now before I finish I want to make clear I am not affiliated with this firm in any way, I just thought it would be fun and something different to share. With the little ones we will use them for colouring Easter Eggs, we will also make some little lanterns, I may post some of the results at a later point.

Thank you for popping in, your visits are always very much appreciated!
xxxxx

15 comments:

Kate Yetter said...

I love the boxes that you made for these beautiful albums.
Your watercolor paintings are so soft and pretty. The little girl under the tree is in such a serene setting. And the stenciling is such a great idea. Love the bright red.
Kate

Tracey@Hotchpotchcreations said...

Oh Astrid these will be adored so much by your Grandchildren, a perfect match with their mini albums. What a fabulous idea to fill them with crafty things. The woodless pencils remind me of ones i used to work with whilst at College around 30 years ago but mine had a plastic wrapper around them. I actually still have a pale blue one left and it still works in exactly the same way as it did all those years ago.
Love how you have shown how different papers can affect your outcome, I'd be interested to see if they are the very same thing. Thank you so much for sharing.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend..
Creative Hugs & Wishes Tracey xx

chrissie said...

Wonderful idea Astrid to carry on the theme for your presents. So beautiful and also so special to have so much of you in the projects. I am sure they will be treasured for a lifetime

Love Chrissie xx

Annie said...

Your boxes are beautiful Astrid and I love contents, which I am sure the girls will too. I can tell you are going to have such fun x The projects using the woodless pencils look amazing xx Take care and see you Monday xx

Hugs Annie xx

Redanne said...

The little boxes you created are beautiful.. such a treat for your granddaughters! What a great find those woodless pencils were and the results you achieved with them are wonderful! I can't wait to see more when you get to Australia... the girls are really in for a wonderful crafty time... Hugs, Anne xx

Meggymay said...

Your grand daughters will love those gift. I am sure you will be looking forward to seeing them soon.
The woodless pencils sound a good product, you shared super inspiration pieces using them.
Yvonne xx

My name is Erika. said...

Those are gorgeous little boxes! I have never heard of this colored pencil technique but it produces some amazing results. Of course I don't know much about using colored pencils except for coloring. :) Your practice pieces are really gorgeous. I have seen these woodless colored pencils before and wasn't quite sure what to do with them! Thanks for the info. And I also wanted to comment on comment you left on my blog about your husband being a keeper as he snores next to you. I know what that is all about. I've been keeping my husband for the last 36 years and he snores too! Happy weekend. Hugs-Erika

Maryann Laursen said...

What an awesome idea and sooo beautiful these pictures turned out too. And I just absolut adore the small fairyboxes, you´ve made for the girls too, they´re absolut darling. I´m actually going to make something simular, just bigger and as a jewelrybox for my granddaughters confirmation here next month, so it was really nice with some great tips here just before, I get on it. Your work are always sooo gorgeous and amazing.
I hope, you´ll have a wonderful time with your girls here soon, it´s sooo precious to be able to craft with grandkids, and I´ve always been soo lucky, that all mine has loved it and still do, and get on with all their own ideas as they grow older, so save these memories, they´ll make an awesome album, for when they grow older too, that´s for sure. Enjoy your time down there. And I´ll love to see, what you´ll be doing with them.

Patty O'Malley said...

Beautiful projects, Astrid!

Dorthe said...

Thank you for sharing dear Astrid, and for showing your stunning outcome- I love them very much... the softness of the colors is so lovely .
And oh your kids will love to have the boxes to hide their special books from grandma, - so so gorgeous the sets are, you have so much talent.

I will check your link , dear friend- I`m sure the last weeks before leaving ,can`t go quick enough :-)
Hugs from Dorthe

Paper Creations by Shirley said...

The 'altered' boxes for your granddaughters are beautiful, how lucky are they to have such a talented Grandmother. And the crafty gifts are wonderful as well. I love the drawing in the blues with the moon, gorgeous! Take care, Shirleyx

pearshapedcrafting said...

What beautiful and brilliant idea! Not only will the girls love that they match their albums they will be able to 'craft' along with you! Loved seeing how you used these pencils! Hugs, Chrisx

Let's Art Journal said...

Wow, these fairy boxes are so beautiful and I'm sure your granddaughters will love them! They match their little books perfectly 😁. I bet you are so looking forward to seeing your family again, how exciting! Thanks for your kind wishes on my blog and have a wonderful week! J 😊

Unknown said...

Wow love these!! Your Granddaughters are very lucky to receive such presents of love!! Have a wonderful trip!!

Margaret Mifsud said...

These little boxes are gorgeous all by themselves Astrid but, along with the beautiful little albums you created, your Grandies are going to be over the moon. Those woodless pencils are a simply fabulous find! I love what you created using them! Such beautiful little pieces of art! Your grandie girls are not just going to be over the moon, they will be in seventh heaven!!! LOL!! hugs x

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