Friday, July 31, 2009

A Knight at the Castle

Aren't these castles just the cutest things??? You can find Claire Brennan's tutorial for them here. They are about 12" in height including the flag pole!

I made this one using the fun Basic Grey Lime Rickey/Liquid Candy designer paper for the castle panels. The base is a green Bazzill card stock. The knight is from Lizzie Anne Designs and the trees and sentiment are from two different Cornish Heritage Farms sets - Making the Grade and Forest Friendzy. I adhered a tree on each side of the castle as well as a hedgehog or mushroom.

These are all the stampings I used on the castle and the card below.

Here is a card I made to go along with the castle - using the same stamps. I used the Forest Branches Cuttlebug folder on the back panel and a Labels Four Nestability to cut the piece of designer paper. All the images are colored with Copics. I used the small oval Stampin Up punch for the sentiment on the castle. For the card sentiment I juse used the corner rounder on one end and cut out a triangle on the other end. Everything is popped up on foam dimensionals.

I made this second castle a little more sedate. I thought it would be a fun Welcome to your New Home gift with some treats tucked inside. The sentiment is from Amuse and says "May your house always be too small to hold all your friends." Irish Proverb

This designer paper is Basic Grey Porcelain/bellamy. The base of the castle is Certainly Celery by Stampin Up. The chipboard trees are from Maya Road.

On this castle I used the Distressed Stripes Cuttlebug folder on the roof piece and inked it with white chalk ink as suggested by Claire in her tutorial. The flag is just a strip of designer paper curled and glued around a toothpick with a triangle cut out of the end.

And here is the coordinating card I made for this castle.
The uses for this cute castle are limitless - wouldn't it be fun in pink and purples with a princess stamp for a little girls b'day? And they aren't as hard to make as they look - Claire goes through each step with pictures and written descriptions. I made one up with computer paper first just to be sure I understood each step - that way I didn't waste good card stock in the learning process!
Thought you might like to see a few pics of our vacation: Here is a side view of my SIL's cottage in the woods from the driveway.
and here is the front view - we can see a little bit of Merry Meeting Lake through the trees - which is behind me as I'm taking this pic - the cottage is across the street from the lake but we have a right-of-way where we can access it. Here is Kent on the lake - and you can see the front of my kayak - we were out for two hours on this day - and just after we got back and up to the cottage we had a downpour! Rain can come quickly when you are in between the mountains here.And here's me! The water was pretty calm going down but on our way back we were heading into the wind - and we really had to paddle!

This is one of our cats, Boo, sitting on the favorite pet sofa by the picture window - watching Kent as he makes his way to the door!

Thanks for coming by today!

17 comments:

Lauri said...

This is great!!! Thanks so much for sharing this project!!! I agree...so many uses for it!

~amy~ said...

julia, what wonderfully creative projects...sheesh, the castles are absolutely fabulous!!! Love how you designed matching cards...fun pics too!

Happy Friday!

Esther Asbury said...

I LOVE your castles....so neat! I really like the idea of a housewarming gift with something tucked inside! Thanks for sharing.

Evelin said...

hey, thanks for dropping by my blog :)

I love your castle..my my, you really put in a lot of work on it :)

Crystal said...

WOW Julia this castle is sooo cool!!! What a great project and gift!!! Thanks so much for the tutorial!! I hope you have a great Friday!!

dpkennedy said...

Aww, you bring your cat? How sweet! Loved the pics...thanks for sharing!

The castles are over the top cute! I love the matching cards and filling them with candy idea! Awesome projects!!

Have a great weekend!

jdmommy - Anne Harmon said...

These are the most amazing castles! I love what you added to them and the cards to match! Just a fabulous project!! thanks also for the pics....you and DH are having a ball in the mts. for sure!! Come home safely, GF!!

Zgirl said...

I love the castle! What a great idea and great stamps to go with them. TFS.

Anne Harada said...

What a fun project my dear!! The castle is adorable! And of course you have the perfect stamps for it!! TFS!! Your vacation looks wonderful, clean cool air, beautiful mountains and clear blue lakes, what a wonderful place to visit!! Looks like so much fun!!

Pat (mspfd) said...

Julia, you are the best at making all type of containers and boxes! The castle is just the cutest .. kudos on a job well done!! I love the cards. Fabulous collection.

Anonymous said...

Holy cow girl!! You really know how to build a castle!! This is so amazing!! I love it!! Fun pictures!! TFS!! :) Have a fabulous weekend!! HUGS

Donna Marie said...

Hey,
Super Duper Cute!!
Have a great vaca!!!
Looks like fun.

yyam said...

Julia, this is a fantastic project! It turned out great! Thanks for sharing! :)

Susan said...

what fun, Julia! I love both of the castles and especially the 'bugged roof. So much dimension and texture.

And once again, the pics are lovely, what a great settin g for the cabin and your kitty gets to go off on adventures with you guys? How cool is that!


Happy Weekend

LeAnne said...

Gosh, Julia, these are awesome. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why anyone would want a castle! But when you suggested housewarming gifts, the light bulb went on! Very cool--I did see her tutorial a while back, but it looked daunting!!! You've made it look like a breeze! Love your choice of DPs and images!

Unknown said...

Hi Julia,
Thankyou so much for your kind comments. I think I might make this castle it looks fantastic.
Hugs
Michelle

Deb Rymer said...

Amazing project, Julia!