Fan-fare Tail Turkey

     As Altered Eclectics is a mixed media, recycled challenge blog I decided to try making something for the festive season, this would work well for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

     I saw a book folded turkey on Pinterest and though it would be fun to make one, this one turned out a bit big for a table decoration, maybe a smaller book next time.
     This book was rescued from a recycle bin so I have not trashed a perfectly good book, it was going to be pulped, now it has a new lease of life.
     Half the book has been cut away and removed, retaining the hard cover for stability. Each page is folded over to form the front of the turkey.
     The tail is some old music manuscript, again rescued from pulping, rolled in to cones and glued to form a fan shape.

     The base of the tail was a little messy so there is a small semi-circle of music covered card glued on to tidy it all up. The bare spine is also covered with a piece of paper taken from the first page so that it matches the inside cover making it all very neat and tidy.
     The head is traced from a free digi and then mounted on card and tucked into the body. The surrounding hard cover could be decorated with fir cones, leaves, holly, or anything else you wish to use to add a little colour.
     Altered Eclectics is an anything goes challenge, anything BUT a card or ATC, so come over and show us your projects.

I would like to enter Bernard the turkey in the following challenges:

We Love To Create - Anything Goes

Crafty Friends - Anything Goes

Bootiful Norfolk Turkeys

     Great for Thanksgiving or for Christmas, these little turkeys can be used for place markers on your festive table.
     We are busy making them for the school Christmas bazaar, a little something the children can buy with their pocket money.
     The original idea came from Tim Holtz a couple of years ago but it's something I like to make every year. You can be as fancy as you like with the decoration, these ones are quite simple.
     Begin by cutting a large rosette, a medium rosette and a small rosette with the Sizzix strip Rosette dies. Tim had a download for the head shape on his blog but that was about two years ago, I'm sure a search would find it again.
     If you wish to stamp your rosettes do so before folding, it's much easier. I have used the brown folders you can get to go inside hanging files to keep paperwork tidy, nice and affordable plus not too thick to bend.
     Make all three rosettes, keeping a large rosette centre spare for the base. When gluing the rosettes together make sure you do this with them standing up so you get the staggered top and a level base. Glue the rosette tail to the base allowing a space at the front for the head to be stuck on. I have used my ever popular Cosmic Shimmer PVA glue to make the turkeys, it's quite strong and sets quickly so you don't have to hold on to it for ages.
     To make them into place markers add a cocktail stick with a name tag on the top by tucking it into the turkeys tail, these don't have them so that they are safe for small children.
     Strictly speaking these are Suffolk turkeys, the border is a mile down the road. For those of you not familiar with the term Bootiful, it was used by Bernard Matthews who was a Norfolk turkey breeder and it became his catch phrase.

I would like to enter my Bootiful Turkeys in the following challenges:

Cut It Up - Let's Talk Turkey

Try It On Tuesday - Home Made / Hand Made

Cuttin' and Stampin' - Thanksgiving

Die Cuttin' Divas - Thanksgiving

Craft Your Passion - Pumpkins or Turkeys

Dies R Us - Anything Goes Christmas

Christmas Collection Box

     This Christmas Collection Box was a kit from J&C Creations. It comes flat packed for you to decorate and assemble. The pieces are made from MDF which glue together very well, there are assembly instructions with it.
     I began by painting all the pieces white using acrylic paint. The front surround has also been sprayed with Crafters Companion Spray & Sparkle Iridescent which gives it a thin coat of glittery varnish, it doesn't show up very well in the photo but does when you see it in the wood, so to speak. If you are coming to Thetford show on Sunday then please come over and have a closer look.

      The little houses at the top have had their windows and door covered from behind with acetate coloured with Promarkers.
     In the main section there is a Christmas Tree made using the rosette dies from Tim Holtz, you can review a previous post on their construction here.
     There is also a turkey made using the same dies that can be reviewed here on a previous post.

        The present is a small box that once contained a car relay covered with some paper from a Christmas paper pad and tied up with curling ribbon. In the background there is some more paper with stockings hanging up along it.
     The snowman has been made using lots of bits and bobs that I will be telling you about on next weeks J&C Creations Sunday blog post, along with the details about the baubles and angel.

I would like to enter this box in the following challenges:

Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge - Anything NOT a card

CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Christmas

Table top Turkeys

This weeks challenge over on 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is 'Anything BUT a Card' so I would like to introduce Bernard (well I do live in Norfolk!!) This cute little fellow has been made using the three different sizes of rosette die from Sizzix Tim Holtz range.
I wish I could lay claim to his invention but this is an idea by Tim Holtz from last autumn, click on the link and you can see step-by-step instructions. I have made peacocks which you can see on a previous blog entry and I'm sure that a grouse would look pretty good too.
The rosettes have been cut from an old buff file divider I had in my cupboard, it looks a little like Kraft card. Each rosette has been stamped with Archival Ink Coffee using a swirl stamp before construction. The two smaller rosettes have been edged with a gold acrylic dauber and the large one with a white dauber. The eyes are a small drop of Cosmic Shimmer pearl glue in black.
The name tag is the smallest die from Spellbinders set Heirloom Ornaments 2011. Once decorated this is then stuck onto a cocktail stick which fits into the fan tail perfectly, it is easily removed so small children can then play with the turkey safely. I think he would look great on the table this Christmas along with a few other hand crafted crackers and decorations.

Rosette Peacocks

This little Peacock was inspired by Tim Holtz and his 'Quirky Turkeys' . You can find out how he made them by looking in November 2011 on his blog. I'm sorry there's no link, I tried to set it up but I couldn't get it to work.

All I did was to make the rosettes in peacock type colours. The biggest rosette was cut from an offcut of card that had been sprayed with Cosmic Shimmer misters in dark blues and purples. The second rosette was cut from a gorgeous pearlised card that I got at a craft fayre and the smallest rosette was cut from Bazill card.

The head had to be drawn differently from the turkey, so I used Tim's turkey head as a base shape and changed the neck and added a tuft on top of his head. He is assembled in the same way as the turkeys but gives a taste of summer. The eyes have been made using Cosmic Shimmer PVA pearlised glue in Black. I also stuck the whole thing together using Cosmic PVA dries clear glue and not a glue gun, it works very well. I have to say that for what appears to be just a PVA glue Cosmic Shimmer PVA really sticks !!

Once I've demolished my chocolate muffin I'm going to try some other variations.

Happy crafting, let me know if you've tried these birds, turkeys or peacocks, I'd love to hear about it.