Tuesday 26 May 2015

Canadian Guider Craft Articles

Hello blog Readers! I'm back...

 view Canadian Guider Spring 2015 PDF 

Owl & Toadstool crafts have , once again, been published in the magazine, Canadian Guider, Spring 2015! Woo hooo! It is always so exciting to see my blog post ideas in print.   

Thank You 
Canadian Guider!

The magazine staff had viewed my blog post "The Guiding Law" circuit board and asked if I would contribute the idea to the magazine. Of course I said Yes!  They also liked some of my hat crafts and a Brownie badge banner.  Take a look!


This Circuit Board idea is an oldie! I had made one of these back in my elementary school days...probably science class.  I now have a detailed pdf if anyone is interested. 
Here are some Hat Crafts:  The Trefoil brooch, the Knapsack, the Seahorse brooch, and the Owl Note Holder are my original creations.  The Campfire is an old idea.  The Sleeping Bag and Bag of Ice are NOT my ideas...they are from the awesome site Making Friends.com.  {The article may read as if I created those two as well but I did not}.
This adorable Brownie Badge Banner belongs to my sister-in-law Jane.  She made it when she was a Brownie.  A shout out to Sharon for her cool Guide Badge Pillow...I love it!  These are fab ways to display badges and crests.
That's all for this post my Guiding friends!  

Have a Nice Day!

Thursday 30 April 2015

GGC Magnetic Note Holder

Hello ! Just a short post about what I had received the other day...some "Happy Mail" from Girl Guides of Canada, Nova Scotia Council. They had sent all of their adult members a useful, little, magnetic note holder as a token of their appreciation.  Thanks GGC NS Council ! I appreciate it!

This is a neat little magnet to have on my fridge.

Monday 27 April 2015

Girl Guide Collage Book Part 4

Hello! Welcome back to the final installment of the Girl Guide Collage Book.  In Part One, I had shown how to put together a basic three-ringed cardboard book. In Part two, I had shown how to prepare the pages for the collage process.  In Part Three, I had shown how I had created my collages. In this final Part Four, I will show my completed collage pages and cover. 

Be forewarned...this post is photo heavy!

I coloured the cover with regular colouring pencils.  I then sealed it with Mod Podge.  

 The page above is part of a GGC cookie box so I did not think it needed to be collaged.
 On the above page, I had used a trefoil border that I had made in Microsoft Word.
 The page above is waiting to be collaged.  






 I used washi tape on some of the collage pages.



 The above verse is printed on a piece of crumpled paper bag and I used a sharpie oil paint pen.
 The map in the background of the above collage is from an outdated phone book.
 I had made the World Logo Trefoil strip in Microsoft Word.


I still have a handful of blank pages and a stack of images ready to be added to my book.  As you can see, I could still add more to some of my pages but that will be for a rainy day.  Whenever I complete more collage pages I will post them.

Thank you all for being patient with this project.  As I had mentioned before, most of these images were found on Pinterest and Flicker. 

I hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did and that it has inspired you to make a book of your own!  

Thank You for reading Owl & Toadstool !


Lee Ann

Tuesday 21 April 2015

Girl Guide Collage Book Part 3

Hello!  Welcome back to Part Three of the long awaited Girl Guide Collage Book post.  In Part OneI had shown you how to assemble a basic three-ringed cardboard book. In Part Two, I had shown you how I had prepared the pages for the collage process.  In Part Three, I will show you how I had created my collages.

Mostly all of the photos that I had used for this collage book were found on good ol' Pinterest. Like most of you Guiders I have a Pinterest board for Girl Guiding images...which I have named "Girl Guides". I like to collect images of vintage Girl Guides and Girl Scouts from around the world.  I may have a few Scouting images in there as well. 

To make the collage pages you will need:

Girl Guiding images, words {either cut from magazines, stamped, or hand written with markers, pens or paint pens}, scissors, glue of your choice {I used mostly glue sticks}, Mod Podge if you have it, more pattern and texture items as seen in part two, and a creative eye...or two! 

Decide if you want to do pages that have a common theme or have totally random photos on each page.  Some of my pages have a theme.  For example all photos on a page are cookie related, while other pages have random photos that just look good together.  Whatever you like to do is up to you and your imagination. Play around with your layout until you get the desired look then glue it down. Some of my pages are still not finished yet but I will add to them whenever I come across an image that I think would look good.

Next I'll show you a couple of my pages from start to finish.  


The page below started as a painted pink page.  I chose an image for the focal point. I then added pattern and texture using paper doilies and paint.  The choice of colour of the pattern and texture will depend on your image{s}.
Below, I used Mod Podge to attach tissue paper.  I used a brush to apply the Mod Podge to the page then placed the tissue paper on top, then brushed on more Mod Podge over top of it.  The Mod Podge seals the tissue paper to the page.  A glue stick does not give the same effect with tissue papers.
It doesn't look like much at this point but all these layers come together in the end.
I cut out the sections of the image that I had wanted {the two Girl Scouts and the pussy willows} and glued them in position then added polka dot stenciling. I also added a chipboard sentiment "it all matters". Use whatever supplies you have available. The pink striped pieces are from a napkin.
I then brushed on some Glitter Paint over everything except for the girls and the pussy willows just to add shimmer to the page.  I didn't know if this step would look good or not but in the end I liked it.
At this point I thought that my page was done but then I discovered a new pattern item at the Dollarama...this silicon pot holder. It creates such a neat pattern. I used a styrofoam tray as a printing surface and added black acrylic paint {from Dollarama} with a cosmetic sponge to get a nice thin paint layer. I then rolled the pot holder in the paint and stamped it on my page.  
I liked this effect so much that I ended up going back over several of my other pages with this pattern.  
Below is the finished collage page.


Here is another page from start to finish...
For this page I used a printed facial tissue applied with Mod Podge. {If you use tissues or napkins make sure to peel the layers and just use the printed layer}. 
I chose images that had the same theme for this page...cookie sales.  I placed the images so that one was not blocking another image.  I chose to cut around the image on the bottom right since the background was blocking the other images.
Not much of the bird printed tissue is visible underneath the images but it just adds another layer to the final look.  To finish the page, I added pattern from the pot holder with black paint. Don't be afraid if you go over your images with the pattern. 

Wow! I've discovered that I have quite a few photos of this book project so I think I may do another post after this to show the rest of the finished pages. I will also show you how my cover turned out!  


Stay Tuned for the final installment of the 
"Girl Guide Collage Book" 


Thank you for visiting my blog!  


Lee Ann