My creation this week has nothing to do with card making or scrap booking. This is a prop for the Christmas play this year and you are seeing it before the cast and the rest of the school.Made from five cardboard boxes. and a whole lot of paint and glue.
The two uprights are the boxes that the fadeless display board backing paper comes in. If you work in a school you will know exactly what I am writing about
I mention this as so many Stampin' up! demonstrators work or have worked in schools.
The base is made from two similar shaped boxes just a bit wider and stuck together end to end, a sheet of card was then glued over the top to conceal the join and to give a little more stability.
The two side boxes were glued into position with PVA glue and I placed weighty objects on the top of each box while the glue was drying
I then painted the inside of the inside faces a of the boxes black and the outsides a creamy yellow (using school acrylic paint.)
Once the cream paint was dry, I added the brick work. This is easier and quicker than you may think. You just make a large brick stamp.
How to make the stamp Using a piece of fun foam (available from any craft shop)
Cut a rectangle approximately 3 1/2 " x 5" Using double sided tape stick the foam in the centre of a piece of grey strawboard which is three time the length of the foam,.... but the same width
At each end the foam on the card....score a line .... turn the card over so the fun foam is face down on your surface and is place length ways across your surface.
Fold both ends of the card back onto it's self . these flaps will be the handle.
Now in the centre of the two flaps score another line down the centre of both flaps ( the same as you did at each end of the foam.)
Fold the card outwards on the new score lines of the card.
Apply glue to the whole length of these flaps and stick together, The shorter flap at the end should stick up in the air, so when you look at the whole thing side on it looks like a letter T.
This sounds more complicated than it is and it should only take about 1 minute to make once you know what you are doing .... two if you don't.
When dry, smear a thick layer of brick coloured paint over a tray and use the stamp you have made to pick up the paint and to apply the paint to the fire place press firmly over the back of your stamp and lift off.
You don't have to use the whole stamp, I used either one end or the other most of the time and you don't want a perfect solid impression every time.
Don't worry if you make a a bit of a mess or you get some paint missing from your bricks you can fill in the big misses with a brush afterwards.
If you place your brick in the wrong position either wipe it off while it's still wet with some water and a cloth ( because you used acrylic paint) or wait for it to dry and tidy it up later with your base colour.
DO NOT fill in all the misses in the brickwork, some small misses help to give depth.
I found this a great way of getting my bricks fairly evenly placed and of equal size.
I think it took me less than twenty minutes to make the stamp and paint the bricks on and do the filling in. If I had done it by hand with a brush it would have taken much longer and not looked as good.
The hearth of the fire I painted black and allowed to dry before spraying it diluted white acrylic paint . I used a bodyshop, bodyspray bottle to spray the paint on. These bottles are great as they deliver a very fine mist
On a large sheet of Grey strawboard I painted the outer edges of the board black and left the centre of the board blank until the black had dried as I didn't want the black paint mixing with the bright colours of the fire and dulling them or worse .... everything turning into a muddy mess.
It's important to use acrylics and not school poster paints, as once the acrylic paint has dried it stays put. It is not re activated when it gets wet or by painting over it. I painted over lots of the black area s to create this fire. Once the painted fire was dry, I applied streak and dots of PVA glue and sprinkled glitter in various colours over the glue to add a little sparkle.
When all was dry I added a 1" wide line of PVA glue to the long sides of the strawboard and then adhered the strawboard to the back of the upright boxes, using a wall stapler and stapling the back panel to the back of the uprights this helps to keep the back panel in place while the glue is drying.
NB it's a good idea to measure the distance between the the upright boxes before you glue them to the base box to make sure you will be able to adhere the back of the fire place to the back sides of your upright boxes.
The mantle piece was a cardboard box which I had removed the tape from the bottom and folded flat. Lucky for me this box that looked as though it was going to be too short turned out to be exactly the right length once folded flat. I made use of the flaps that were already on the box to attach it to the back of the fire place, Before doing this I cut off the flaps at the other end of the box scored a line across the width of the box the same depth as the uprights as this mantle has to fit over the uprights.
About six inched out from this score/ fold line, I trimmed off the excess box. I now had a long narrow U shape piece of card which can now be glued to upright side boxes. Apply lots of PVA to the top of the upright boxes and position the U shaped card upside down over the uprights making sure both ends are even and that your uprights are still upright and not listing. Add weight to the top of the mantle piece to help the keep contact between the glue and the card.
Paint the mantel piece and decorate as desired.
The grate was created by cutting strips of strawboard approximately 1 " wide and gluing and stapling together. I then screwed up balls of coloured paper and foil and placed them in the grate.
Here I have used green tinsel and the Bow die from Stampin up to create my double bows. the stockings were cut free hand and stamped and heat embossed using the serene snowflakes stamp set. the label on the stockings is from an old stampin' up set called gifted.
I don't have a fire place at home.... maybe I'll be bringing this one home for the season. I'll have to be quick because a couple of other people have their eye on this piece too.
