Petite Chaises

OK ... so I definitely get the prize for Airhead of the Week!!  Despite being ill last week, I had (rather unusually for me) got one of the DT projects ready and finished well ahead of time.  

For those of you who are regular visitors, you will know that I had ALL DAY yesterday to focus on crafting.  Well, despite this, I managed to entirely forget to upload these little lovelies onto the TioT website.  I even made a note to get this page organised and STILL my pea-like brain didn't register that they weren't uploaded.  That is until midnight!!  I jumped out of bed having had one of those awful OMG moments and uploaded it.  But alas, too late!  So I definitely win the Airhead's Crown!

So, the theme this week at Tiot is Recycle It.   What a great challenge ... I'm sure we all have lots of things which we can re-use in our projects.  Certainly I have a box of tags on pins and chains from clothing, gorgeous packaging with punched designs from Prima blister packs and ribbons and feathers from boxes of chocolates.  I even have an outer wrapper which came on our newspaper which is made of vellum or similar which I thought would come in useful.  So, crack open your box of 'kept' items which you thought would come in useful one day and make that day TODAY!!

My project is a recycle of Champagne tops.  I know what you're thinking ... and Yes, it was a tough job drinking all that fizzy but I take my creative responsibilities VERY seriously!!!  

I re-worked my tops to make little chairs with backs and sanded some of the black coating on the wire back to the bare metal.  I then used alcohol inks to tint them lightly.  I used a coat of shellac and some god leaf to embellish the seats.

The cushions were cut from cotton and sewn on my new machines (which is a dream to use unlike it's predecessor!).  I filled them with a little soft toy stuffing to plump them up and hand sewed the final seam.  I then stamped them with miniature images on both sides using Stazon.


Ooh ... and before I forget (don't let me get started on that again!!) all eligible entries to our challenge are entered into the prize draw to win £10 store voucher for Crafty-Emblies who are our kind sponsors!  

Please read the rules so your gorgeous creations are not disqualified! 



I hope this project tempts you to up-cycle some of your stash or if all else fails, drink loads of champagne and make some cute chairs!!!

I'm entering my little chairs into the Craft Room Challenge - In the garden Anything But a Card as these do remind me of the little cafe chairs we all love to perch on with a cuppa in the summer!  

x

 

Pomp & Pageantry

Good Monday Morning Everyone!

Today I am hoping to get all day to be creative which is a great prospect as I've a lot I want to get achieved.  However, when DH left for work he announced he may be back mid-afternoon to work from home (oh dear!) so that will put an end to my plans as we share a workspace currently ... say no more!! 

Anyway, I decided to get started and have a play with my alcohol inks  - I always love the vibrancy of their colours but I'm not always sure what to do with what I create on 12 x 12 scrap pages.  I do use them on metal which is great but I want to expand their uses on cardstock.  So, I hatched a new plan (in the middle of the night!) and had a play using my inks and clingfilm with some heat and Voila! 

I decided to couple my inking with my Indigoblu stamps so I can enter both the Alcohol ink challenge at Artful Times and also the Words and Phrases challenge over at Indigoblu.  

Well, got to dash and make a start on my next project whilst I have the house to myself!  Hope you are all having a good Monday too!

x

 

Mother's Day

I saw this wire-work idea and was really keen to try it myself.   I am fascinated with birds' nests eggs and so the wrapped wire conjured up a nest in my mind which had to have some lovely eggs perched on it!!

I hadn't got any wire in my stash of the gauge I would really have liked so I had to make do with this thinner one which worked fine which was very easy to work (and hence very easy to mis-shape!!).

I painted my background on watercolour paper using acrylic paints and then acrylic inks and spritzed water.  I stitched my heart to the background with embroidery silk.

The eggs were tinted with alcohol ink onto which I glued the small wording printed from my computer.

The title was stamped with Lost Coast Designs alphabet in Staz-on Timber Brown and then distressed with Vintage Photo and Peacock Feathers.

I like this wire idea so there may be more to come ...

I'm entering this into the first challenge at the new site Country View Crafts blog - Challenge 1 - Pick 'n' Mix 


Enjoy your week ... xx

After 39 ...

No, I'm not a fan of spiders either but Mr Stripes is way cute!

This is my entry for the challenge this week at the Stampotique Designers blog.  It is entitled SDC38 Humorous Birthday and is a stampotique only week so only their stamps are allowed.

I've had the web for some time but Mr Stripes arrived this week (he had been languishing on my wishlist!) so I wanted to get him out to play!

I created my background using alcohol inks first and then acrylic paints and perfect pearls mist in heirloom gold so it does have a shimmmer (hard to pick up with a camera!).

Thanks for visiting ... hope you all have an artful week.  x

Stand Side By Side ...

What a fabulous image!! 

When I saw it, it jumped out at me and I just LOVED it!!

Viva Las Vegas Stamps are our sponsor at Gingersnap Creations for all of September and this is one of their stamps.  This week it is a colour theme so no prizes for guessing the palette ... Blue, Turquoise and Purple.  I love those colours in combination so this was always going to be fun.

I built the background up with alcohol inks (which I am getting to love more and more) and then used acrylics with stencils and stamps.

Confession time comes next ... I intended to stamp my image in a very pale area I had built up and which I had blended to a perfect fade.  Disaster stuck however when my stamped image turned out imperfect :(   Well, it happens - so plan B swung into action and it all turned out good in the end.

If these colours appeal to you then why not put them together and join in the challenge - how you use them is up to you and we always love to see what everyone comes up with!

xx

Birthday Greetings From Under the Sea

I love these mermaid stamps ... except for the cutting out part!  

This is my daughter's birthday card which I created using alcohol inks for the watery background.  I put a pearl layer over it which doesn't really show up in the photo but gives it a lovely sheen in real life.  I used acrylic paints and a stencil and bottle lids to create the circles.

The stamps for the top and bottom borders are also Stampotique.

So, that's two cards made and just one to go!  At the moment, I haven't got any ideas for the last one so better get my thinking cap on and quickly!!

x

Rainbow Birds

I recently bought the Stampotique 'Strut Your Stuff' stamp.  One of my sons fell in love with it so I decided to give it it's first outing on his birthday card.  I love their stamps as they always give such a strong clear result and so my birds are strutting decisively across his card!!

I had an idea to give them all large rainbow plumes using alcohol ink which, after a few trial runs, turned out well.  I think they look like Indian Chiefs now which will make him laugh!

Hope you are all having a crafty time - the rain here in Dorset is fairly constant today so apart from stopping to feed my hungry monsters, I'm planning to craft all day - Yippee!  x

Love

I did a tutorial over at Gingersnap Creations on making stampboard frames for little treasures and this page was the basis for adding this frame. 

I created a little secret love message for my husband and popped it in a bottle.  I then added a little Vintaj brass tag with the has the word imagine stamped into it.

I created the background paper using alcohol inks and blending solution and I inked some shells onto it using a Crafters Workshop mask.

I inked up some watercolour paper with distress inks and then spritzed it with water and sprinkled rock salt over it.  After the paper dried, I brushed of the salt and was left with lovely watery patterns over my paper.  I used this in the centre of my page.

The tag was inked with distress and then I used molding paste in green, brown and yellow over the shell mask to make my nautilus shells.  The starfish was clear embossed before I inked the paper and then the embossing was removed with a hot iron to leave a flat white image. 

 

A quick pop to the beach to find mussel shells actually turned up the lovely razor shell (for which I always feel very privileged to be given by the sea) and which was fantastic for this page. 

I am really pleased with this project as sometimes using very dark shades of inks can be a bit scary (!) so this layout did take me a few days to get it to come together.  It's another one for my Isles of Scilly album which is now nearing completion (about time too!!).

If you want to know how to make the frames, use the link above to my tuturial where you can also find an earlier tutorial on how to use masks to create 3D images using molding paste.

Have a crafty day everyone ...  x

Look East

This page is for the Red & Gold Challenge at Gingersnap Creations.

I wanted the gold to be really bold and so I used gold leaf and beadazzles around the edge of page.  I embossed the backing paper for the photograph with gold bamboo images.

The cherry blossom was created using a stencil by Crafters Workshop. 

The lanterns were folded from very thin gold paper which I splodged with alcohol inks.  They are hanging on gold crystal chains from the cherry blossom.

I used some oriental newspaper to back the photos which I had printed onto a transparency and for my embossed 'E'. 

If you would like to know more about how to create this kind of texture on a page, I will be posting a tutorial on Gingersnap Creations blog - why not hop by and take a peek!!

Wish

I made this to meet the challenge for the April art swap run by Craft Stamper magazine.  The theme is Fun and Games.  It colour scheme is olive, rust and cream and up to 5" square and include a game piece.

I had lots of fun doing this project and used loads of different techniques to get the result I wanted.  The initial background was created on glossy paper with alcohol inks and I then painted half the page with Antique Linen distress crackle paint.  Once this was dry I used pastels to colour it and then sheet metal and distress embossing powder in small areas.

I stamped the windmill and used distress embossing powder on the spinner before attaching the scrabble pieces on the windmills sails.  Complete and ready to mail ...

Hare

This is a quick thankyou card made for a good friend of mine. I only had 20 mins to put it together and I'm really pleased with the outcome.

The stamp is by Crafty Individuals and I stamped it onto gloss paper twice and cut the hare out of one.  I coloured some of the areas with alcohol inks and 3D mounted the hare.

I matted the image onto two contrasting papers (patterned one by Black Market Paper Society) and stamped the backing card with a bare tree that was by Graphicus.

Job Done! 

Blue

How I love to mess with inks and mediums!  I created the background for this card using Shimmerz sprays which I built up in layers and dried off each time with a heat gun.

I used various items around my desk to create patterns on the background using acrylic paint and then I infilled two of the circles with glass bead gel medium which is a fantastic product as it dries clear and leaves the most fantastic dimensional effect created with minute glass beads.

Moth Fab is a Stampotique stamp and I coloured her with alcohol inks before mounting her onto the background.  The title strips were printed from my computer and edged with white caligraphy ink and a black sharpie pen.

I mounted the finished piece onto a plain card which I stamped with script in Chipped Sapphire and distressed with a little Victorian Velvet.

Tick Tock

 

I've created this card for the Stampotique Designers Challenge which is to create a piece  which includes an animal stamp.  Not sure if a fictional White Rabbit meets the brief but I'm about to find out!

I started by stamping and clear embossing the clock before creating the background using Adirondack inks and a brayer.  Once I was happy with the background, I ironed off the embossing to give a faux bleach result.

The stamps are all by Lavinia Stamps and I built up the scene with various images, using parts of the stamps where necessary.  The rabbit is stamped onto gloss paper and coloured with alcohol inks.  His watch is highlighted with a gold stickle (hard to see on screen!).   

The background card was coloured with distress ink and over stamped with script.  I splashed colourwash in cranberry randomly and then edged the paper with rusty hinge distress.  The final step was to edge the card again with a gold leafing pen.