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April 25, 2010

Boxes, Boxes, Boxes

The company I work for is moving offices next week so this week has involved packing loads of crates and sorting out files - which has been a nightmare while trying to carry on with day to day work as well.  Not had much time to do any crafting :(  One of the presents for my older DD's birthday was in a plain black gift box, which I thought was rather boring, so I jazzed it up a bit:
I gave it a coat of transparent Croco Paint (for Carmen, here is a link to the product page for it at The Craft Barn, basically it's a crackle medium which you can get in colours or tranparent. I like it better than any of the other crackle paints and mediums I have tried because I get a great effect with it).  Anyway, once that was dry I spritzed it with lots of different cosmic shimmer mists.  Can't remember all of them but I know I used Mallow Blush, Golden Fish and Peacock.  I took a chipboard shape and covered that with Blackberry Ferro which I then stamped with a text stamp.  I gave that a couple of spritzes with different shimmer mists as well, then rubbed some treasure wax over the top too.  It looks better than plain black, anyway!

April 17, 2010

Alter it Monthly challenge 1

So there's a new blog in town - Alter it Monthly.  You can visit from the button in my side bar or click here.  Basically, it does what it says on the tin - issues a monthly challenge for altered artists.  This is so cool because I hardly ever have the time to make something from scratch for a weekly challenge, so I only get to enter if I have made something that happens to coincide with the theme.  A month gives plenty of time to think of something and get it made.  This month the challenge is to alter a matchbox.  Well I happened to have one sitting on my pile of stuff - probably left over from one of those matchbox altered calendars.  So, I gave it a coat of gesso, then sprayed it inside and out with a few different shades of cosmic shimmer mist.  After that it sat there on my desk looking at me for a few days and I had no idea what to do with it.  I gave the bottom of the inside a triple coat of UTEE with a sprinkle of a few different mica powders in the last layer, and then it sat there again and looked at me, and again I had no mojo.
Finally I was playing with some tranparent Croco on something else, and inspiration struck.  I coated the outside with the transparent Croco and, once it was dry, gave it a coat of pink Precious Metal Paint.  I smooshed some black paint into the cracks to highlight them a bit then ran a gold Krylon pen around the edges.  I've had this corset charm for a while and thought it looked cute inside, and the rose is leather from my treasure chest (aka the box with the broken bits of jewellery and other interesting tat) which I seem to have edged with some kind of frosty looking stuff at some point.  I thought it looked good on the top.  So here it is, my entry for the first challenge on the Alter it Monthly blog!

PS- please excuse the crappy first photo, I think I have the shakes today!

April 14, 2010

WOYWW

Here we are again, Wednesday already!?!!  I'm back at work :( so it's sneaking on to post again and I will catch up with everyone when I get home tonight.  ok, here we are:
What a mess! Lots of new cosmic shimmer mists from Ally Pally, a half complete matchbox thingy for the Alter it Monthly  challenge, some gilding flakes I got out and haven't put away again, lots of other things I got out and haven't put away again.... you get the idea!

Ah well, it was tidy once upon a time, lol

April 11, 2010

Circling Around

I've been messing around with this all day.  I'm in a circle journal, or at least I will be, it hasn't started yet - first posting date is May 1st.  Anyway, I have chosen Fantasy as my theme, anything fantasy related, dragons, fairies, fairy tales, wishing to own your own tropical island - anything goes really (except whips, leather and bondage - it's not THAT kind of fantasy, thank you!).  My book is a 6 x 6 and this is my DLO for it.  I was inspired by Tracey Dutton of Lavinia Stamps, and read her article in the August 09 issue of Craft Stamper to get some tips, then I tried brayering a background.  I've tried it before, and it was no more successful this time *sigh*, so I ripped my 'hills' and used cut n dry foam instead (but don't tell anyone!).  This is actually my third attempt.  The first one was, to be fair, just a trial run to see how different greens worked for the hills.  The second one I just wasn't happy with, and then I buggered it up (technical term) altogether by smudging one of the stamps, so I started again and I am happier with this one.  I have used, of course, a Lavinia fairy plus the castle and some mushrooms which you may be able to just make out in the foliage at the bottom.  The runny babbit is, of course, from Sir t!m's Spring Sprung set ( a purchase from Ally Pally yesterday) as is most of the foliage at the bottom.  The birds and the tree branches down the side are Crafty Individuals.  The mouse (is it Hunka Munka? I'm a bit rusty on my Beatrix Potter) is from a set of die cuts I seem to have aquired from somewhere - think it might have been free with a magazine.

Ally Pally was great.  The weather was fantastic and was lovely to be able to sit outside to eat lunch looking over London.  Unfortunately I didn't manage to find Helen :( but I did bump into Carmen a few times which was great.  I also got to see Hels demoing on the Artistic Stamper stand and while I was there was lucky enough to meet Alison as well.  Of course, the divine Ms Linda was beavering away on the LB Crafts stand and I got to meet her too. It really is amazing to meet people from blogland in real life, you feel as if you already know them!  

Enough waffle from me, off now to try and make the rest of my book for the CJ before I run out of time!

April 07, 2010

WOYWW - back to normal

It's Wednesday and I'm on leave (yay!!) so no sneaking about posting from work this week :).  Some of you may still recall the freakily clean and tidy desk from two weeks ago, but normal service has now been resumed!
I've made another note book with my BIA and a coverall for my older DD for her birthday.  She is more of a pink girl so I went pink!  LOL. The heart and wings are grungeboard triple UTEEd and stamped.

Anyway, this feels much more like home again with all my mess and clutter.... much nicer than all that strange neat and tidy place!

Off now to link up over at Julia's place then visit everyone else's desks.

Happy Wednesday

April 05, 2010

Another Card!

I'm getting in to this card lark now.  This one is for my older DD, her birthday is two weeks after my younger DD's (there is only 11.5 months difference in ages between them, so for two weeks each year they are the same age!)
I took a white glittery card blank (not sure why I have those, must have been drunk when I bought them!) and matted some black card and then some blue mirror card (obviously purchased on the same alcoholic spending spree as the card blanks!).  I'm improving on the matting slightly too since buying myself one of those clear rulers with a metal strip and markings on them (no, not the one by Sir t!m, but similar).  I then made a sparkly, grungy background by dabbing some Brilliance inks onto my craft mat, spritzing them with water then plonking (technical term) some white card onto the wet ink, drying, then plonking some more.  The frame is, I think, a Maya Road one, painted with crackle paint then, when that was dry I rubbed on some walnut stain DI and then some gold wax.  I used a Crafty Individuals background paper with butterflies on in the frame then stuck that on to the card as well as the pink and brown butterflies which are from a haberdashery dept somewhere.  The chipboard butterfly is again Maya Road.  I painted it with viva precious metal paint then stuck on lots of bling.
Hope everyone is having a great Easter.  I'm looking forward to Ally Pally on Saturday where I shall head for the LB Crafts stand and pull faces at Ms Linda E :)

April 03, 2010

A bit of a book

It's my youngest DDs birthday in just over a week, so I decided to have a play with my BIA and make her a note book.
I blended some brushed corduroy, aged mahogany and a little bit of walnut stain DI all over a bamboo spine cover-all, then I stamped a Crafty Individuals flourish with versamark on the top left and bottom right from corners and brushed on some antique gold perfect pearls.  I used a Basic Grey bling-it-on on the top right, then I blended some more brushed corduroy on the chipboard letters then spritzed them with golden fish cosmic shimmer mist.  The crown is a Maya Road chipboard one that I have covered with gilding flakes in yellow and rose gold then added some prima gems.  The heart is chipboard triple embossed with clear UTEE with some cosmic shimmer powders sprinkled in the last layer, then I pressed in a text stamp on to it all while it was still hot.

I put some more gilding flakes on the knobbly bits on the spine so it sort of looks like faded gold tooling on an antique leather book (well, sort of!!)


I used some K&Co 6 x 6 papers on the inside and stamped a Wendy Vecchi sentiment embossed with gold.

Happy Easter bloggers!