A Magic Roundabout - February Kit by Kim

 Fondly known to the design team as the spinny, roundy-round thing, I present my version of Tando Creative's Twirly Whirly Art Stand ...

Please note the curved round boards and circus top are not included in the kit - they are constructed from off-cuts and spare parts. See 'Bend it like ...' on tomorrow's blog for details of forming the curved surfaces.

Assembly of the greyboard kit is straightforward but note there are two large discs - one has a larger hole than the other - the larger holed one is the bottom, the smaller hole is atop the X section. 

  

Also note the upright end pieces that slot into the large X have their tabs downwards and slot to the top (see picture).

My first job was to base coat the whole thing in white, to make sure the colours are bright and vibrant.

Next I painted a 'leafy glade' scene as a background. I used three greens, first a mid-green dabbed on all 

over but leaving gaps. Next a darker green dabbed on but mainly in the lower half, finally a lighter green, mainly to the upper half. There is no skill needed for this, it is just dabs of colour to give the impression of leaves. I added some brown lines to suggest branches, and brown 'ground' for it to stand on.

Next I worked on the round boards and side panels. I started with a base coat of Primary Yellow, then using a dry brush technique added a boarder of Tangerine, and a slightly narrower boarder of Calico Red. This gave me the basic fairground look I needed.

Using Primary Blue, Festive Green, and Calico Red I added the brush stroke design to the round boards and side panels. I added dotty scrolls in Venetian Gold to complete the design. To make sure the scrolls were all the same I sketched out a suitable size and shape on stiff card, and using a pokey tool pierced the design. I used this as a reversible template to mark the shape in pencil.

Last I added the large white dots - reminiscent of the bright lights found on fairground rides.

To make the circus top I used a cog wheel left over from Tando's Industrial Elements kit and six wooden coffee stirrers. I glued these with all purpose glue as in the picture to make a cone shape. I glued a large washer, also from the Industrial Elements kit, inside the cone for strength. I left this overnight to make sure it was dry.

I measured the height, to get the size for the circle needed for the 'canvas' cover. It just fitted an A3 sheet of paper. I estimated how much of the circle I would need and painted on the red and yellow stripes. I wrapped the paper carefully around the legs of the cone, using PVA to glue it to each one as I went round.

Rather than horses, I thought butterflies would be more magical, so I used a set of Tando Butterfly Minis.

While they were still in their original frame I base coated them in white, and then with Primary Yellow, Calico Red, Primary Blue, and Festive Green I dry brushed random areas over the board, ensuring each butterfly had some of each colour. A little gold edging to finish them before gluing them on poles made with jewellery wire to hang in the carousel.

A Magic Roundabout

I added flags on cocktail sticks, just for fun.

See the carousel in action on my Instagram page

Products:

Tando Creative Twirly Whirly Art Stand Kit

Tando Creative Mixed Media boards (for the round boards, see tomorrow's post)

Tando Minis - Butterflies

DecoArt Americana Colours - White, Primary Blue, Primary Yellow, Calico Red, Festive Green, Burnt Umber, Leaf Green, Foliage Green, Forest Green, Yellow Ochre

Spare parts from Offcuts and Industrial Elements

Coffee stirrers

February Kit - Vintage Twirly Whirly

 Hi this month's kit is really special. There's lots you can do with it as you'll see in the great inspiration coming up from the team. When I opened mine I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it and that was vintage. 

So my first step was to paint it all with black gesso. I put most of it together except the lid part just so I could get into the back. 

Next I added dabs of copper metallic paint.

I then added the rust effect by using rust effect paint in gold, red and brown. Once these were dry and I added a little turquoise paint too.

For my first compartment I used the rust effect on two mini bottles and cut a piece of hessian which I frayed. 

 

I then arranged the hessian so the bottles stood and sat on it. Next I added some little beads and ribbons.

For my little book I used an old gardening book and cut it to size, rubbed it over with vintage photo oxide ink and stamped some ink blots.

I made a little bracket for the book to put at the back so it stood upright and glued it into place. I added some inked lace and used Tando leaves from the mini 1& 3 sets. I also used some ink on them.

 

For the third compartment I used a Stamperia Art mould with air dry clay. Once the clay was dry I used the same rust effect on the pieces that I had broke off.

 I adhered the pieces to the back of the compartment and to the floor along with some little pieces of hessian. I adhered the brush to the front of the piece.

Next I made a little picture frame for my last compartment. I used a frame and base from a Tando off cuts pack and painted them and added a little gold wax. The picture was from the same old gardening book which I added the vintage photo ink.

For this one I adhered the frame to the base and ripped and inked some papers to go under it. Next I inked some flowers from the Tando mini packs and adhered them. 

To hide the nut I made a little frame. The piece on the right was actually attached to the bottom of the main frame but I cut it off to use on the back of the frame so the nut was hidden. The frame is also from Tando. I painted it with the gold and brown rust paint and added some gold wax. I then added two square, gold brads to the holes in either side. I just had this always in my stash, which I added to the middle. 

 And here you go my finished piece. 

Products: 

Tando February kit - Twirly Whirly

Tando mini leaves 1 and 3

Tando mini flowers

Tando offcuts

Distress Oxide Ink - Vintage photo

Air dry clay

Tando small book plates

Black gesso

All other products from my personal stash. 

I hope I've inspired you in some way to use the February kit, it really is a fun piece to craft with. 

Sharon 

Twirly Whirly February kit by Julia Baker

As it’s the middle of Winter I decided to do a summer sea-shore theme

..

I started by gluing the main structure together with a good quality PVA glue.  

Keep the three top circles separate and decorate before gluing to the top

Paint with white gesso. 

,

When dry paint with gold acrylic paint.

Using air dry clay I made some rock shapes.  Using moulds and Stamperia cream paste I made shells and sea creatures.  Leave overnight to dry.

Going back to main structure, cut eight 6 1/2 centimetre square papers.  Edge with distress oxide, and glue inside structure.  Cut circles of patterned paper for top, and glue on.  Cut four pieces of patterned paper for side pieces and glue on.  

On the base of each quarter, add PVA glue then I sprinkled on Stampendous fragments to imitate the sea bed.  You could also use beads, glitter or anything else from your stash.

H '

Glue top circles together and add small shells around the top.  Stamp six small fish  ( Chocolate Baroque). Colour and glue round largest circle.

Colour clay stones and sea creatures.  Glue a seahorse to each of the upright sections.  

_

Tear small pieces of brown paper, roll up and put in four of the bottle’s to look like messages.  Fill the three larger bottles with glitter, beads or coloured water.  Glue on sea themed charms.

Glue rocks, sea creatures and small bottles each quarter.

Gluefine gold thread to some of the fish and glue threads to roof to give the impression of fish swimming.  Glue large bottles and some shells to the top and add a phrase to finish.

This is a great kit - the possibilities are endless!

Have fun x

24 Boxes of Advent (January) - by Kim

 The best definition for Advent I could find was basically a count-down to Christmas. So I thought, anything goes!

My inspiration for this one is, finding an old rusty safe and not knowing what treasure lurks inside. I started with an outside all-over base coat of grey (DecoArt Zinc), with the inside black (Ebony).

From my 'Tando's Leftovers' stash I found screw heads and a keyhole from Industrial Elements and stuck them on the front of the drawer. These were base coated with grey, too.

For the 'industrial decay' I used DecoArt Media Fluid acrylics. I tried to replicate the way corrosion runs down. First I used Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide, then Quinacridone Gold, then a little Green Gold. On the top, where the rust meets the paint I used Paynes Grey to define the edges.

I thought the idea of an interior lid would be fun - like a safe deposit box, so I made one with coffee stirrers, hinged at the back. 

To bling it up a bit I cut a No1 from waste grey board and painted it a bright, shiny gold.

Products:

Tando Boxes of Advent

Coffee stirrers

Offcuts/leftovers from Tando Industrial Elements

DecoArt colours - various Americana and Media Fluid Acrylics

My Spinney Thing by Nicky Roussou

Hello lovely people and welcome to my blog. 

So this is the new Kit for February 2022 and I must say.. When I got it and popped it all together I thought "What the heck am I going to do with this" lol

Once I decided on my theme, it was REALLY great fun to make! So much fun that I actually forgot to take photos during the process and it didn't leave my craft room until 3am lol

SO..... MY THEME...... ALICE IN WONDERLAND! 

Step 1**** MOST IMPORTANT**** Raid your children's Sylvanian  Family collection for items needed for a mad hatters tea party! 😂 They are the perfect size for this project and look great too! Failing that, I'm sure little elements could be made with Fimo clay or you can use the stampieria die cuts.

I started with my favourite good old fashioned Black Gesso...(got to love this stuff lol)

For the top I used a Tim Holts stencil. I really wanted a black and white checked paper but do you think I could find one? Nope! So if any of you lovely people know of anywhere I can get some please comment below  I also added some moss that I had in my stash which looks very effective.

The Alice papers are by Stampieria and are just absolutely lovely. It kills me having to cut them up lol. I distressed the edges and added some watered down paint to age the colour of the paper. 

I also like to add some chiffon to the backs of papers. burnt with a heat gun or a naked flame, 

this technique was used for the sides too where I added a white rabbit charm too.

Inside this little cubby I have used the Stamperia Alice in Wonderland Papers and the packet of Die cuts.  I distressed the edges with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink. Added some twine tot he pocket watch and some lighter coloured moss I had in my stash. and finished off with a key.

In the above cubby I again used the Stamperior Papers for the base. I 3D embossed the brick wall and added the die cuts playing cards and some more green moss. I also added a little jar with green glitter which looks very cute. 

In the above phot you can see the burnt chiffon more clearly. I love this rustic effect. The table I stole again from my childrens toy collection (I'm sure they wont miss it lol)

I used gilding waxes to give it some texture. The tea pots are from the pack of die cuts too. And some more moss!

The above pics I used some more of the beautiful Alice papers and the chess pieces are from the die cuts and the metal pieces from my stash.

This has been a great project to work on and I cant wait to make another one!

I hope you have enjoyed my blog!

Nicky x

TANDO-CREATIVE SPINNY THING

TIM HOLTZ STENCIL

TIME HOLTZ DISTRESS INK

STAMPERIA ALICE IN WONDERLAND PAPER

STAMPERIA ALICE IN WONDERLAND DIE CUTS

Sew Special Whirly Twirly Art Stand

 Hello there, I hope you are having a great day 😘

So being a kit ambassador for Tando Creative I was sent the February kit....!?!? What on earth is it?? So it comes flat packed and looking at it I couldn't work out what it was.

I started building and it soon became obvious just how cool it was and even better, something to stretch my imagination.

I figured I could go decorative or functional....then it came to me 😊🧐 I had a birthday coming up for a family member who loves to sew so I decided to go for something functional but would also be great to look at on display in her sewing room.

As always DecoArt americana acrylic paint was my chosen paint, so many colours to choose from and only one coat required because of its pigment and fluidity.

What do you think? and more importantly what will you do with yours? Let your imagination run wild 😉

Lots of love

Sharon Quinn xx