Christmas Wreath

I wanted to have a go at making a wreath to hang over my fireplace at Christmas, i saw this idea on a blog somewhere and thought i would have a go, i used silver and white to compliment my colour scheme for this year.

Here is a close up of one of the flowers i made by heating some voile till it crinkled.

I want to enter this into the Arty Inklings Christmas challenge

Thanks for looking.

More Festive stuff

Well while i was in the Festive mood yesterday, i made this bottle to go with this years Christmas colour theme of white and silver, i saw the original idea in Craft Stamper magazine and this is my interpretation

i would like to enter this into the Arty Inklings Christmas challenge

Thanks for looking

Its that time of year!!

Well i thought i better make a start on some festive creations and over at Arty Inklings they have a Christmas theme for their current challenge.

These started life as some papermache blanks that i bought from Paperartsy at the Dome, i have never made my own decorations before so thought i would give it a whirl.

I wanted to make them as sparkly and blingy as possible and i think i might just have succeeded!

Here are some close ups so you don't miss any of the bling!

Thank for looking

Hi

Over at PaperArtsy its the turn of Alison to wow us with her creations, her first project was a tag due and here is my interpretaion.

I used my new fresco colours for this one, brown shed, autumn fire and haystack, obviously i had to mix a bit of pink distress ink in there too. It was also the first time i had used my arch dies that i bought a couple of weeks ago. I forgot to add my fibres in the holes before taking my photo too!!

Thanks for looking

Challenged by Sam

Hi

i have been set another challenge by my mate Sam, the brief this time was

I was also instructed to use at least 1 die-cut, text/scrip and at least one stamped image.

This is what i made

I painted an mdf cog in little black dress and stencilled some script on it in stone, i used one of Lin Browns Ecclectica 3 die cut flowers, stamped a Lynne Perrella image on the face and coloured the stem with some postbox Dylusions spray, i then stamped over the stem with the Finnabair chequerboard stamp in black archival. I found some metal butterflied in my stash and painted one in snowflake, i liked the idea of stamping a butterfly onto a butterfly if that makes any sense? it didn't quite fit but i actually don't mind that too much.

Looking forward to Sam's creation!!

Hi

Over at PaperArtsy they are celebrating their 10th Birthday this month, and i was delighted to be asked to participate in the #3UP challenge.

We were all sent a surprise package containing items from the PaperArtsy range and given a colour pallet to work with, and given strict instructions to keep it a secret!! We were then asked to create something and this is what i came up with.

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I used grunge paste on the mdf base to give the project a texture like a wall, i then painted it to coordinate with the colour pallet. I stamped the window frame twice and cut out the 'panes' so that i could place the faces behind them, i wanted to try to recreate the look of a school window so i placed a window sill underneath the windows and some flowers growing around the window.

Hope you like it, thanks for looking

Challenge time

I saw this colour pallet from design seeds and suggested to Sam that it should be the next set of colours we use for our challenge.

As I had set the last challenge too, i suggested she came up with the other criteria and these were, an arch, a bird, some lace and wait for it.......a flower!!

here is what i have come up with

I didn't have anything arched shaped so i downloaded the shape from the Internet and used it as a template for my tag, i use grunge paste through a stencil to add texture then use various shades of blue fresco's to colour it.

I died the lace to match the pallet and coloured the cage and bird to tie in as well, the flowers were from an artistic stamper set i have just got and i coloured these with distress markers.


The only reason i have finished first this week is that Sam is really busy!!

Thanks for looking xx

Take time

Another gorgeous project by France over at PaperArtsy inspired me to make this box frame project

I adapted the project, using book paper for my background as i didn't have tissue paper. I used some prima mechanicals for the centre piece and put some 'schizzle' (not sure if thats the right word) randomly around the frame as i thought it looked a bit bare without anything on it.

From the heart

Over at Paperartsy its time o say goodbye to France, this is her last week as guest DT and has come up with some lovely projects.

The first was a heart coloured with alcohol inks, here is my version

The second project she did was a tag but i wanted to use my journal for this one, so after many failed attempts with the crackle and a lot of help from Sam here is my version

I would like to enter both of these in Paperartsy challenge this week.

thanks for looking.

Me and my clever ideas!!

I saw this design seed colour swatch and though how lovely the colours were on it,


I thought they would transfer really well onto a craft project, so i challenged Sam use any/all of these colours on anything but a tag, i also wanted her to use a flower as i knew this would be tough for her!

Well i don't know about tough for her but i really struggled! I wanted to work in my journal as i hadn't used it in a while.

Here is my effort

I use sage for the background, and used some sepia archival through a stencil, i achieved the caramel colour by using some 7gypsies tissue paper i had.

The flowers are by Paperartsy and i coloured them with a mix of distress pens and an adirondack caramel ink pad.

I had real trouble finding a match for the grey colour so i used a cloudy blue adirondack ink pad for the words which read 'challenge yourself'

Believe me this was certainly a challenge!

Pink butterflies

Over at Craftyboots it was my turn to pick the theme for this fortnights challenge and i chose pink butterflies. I did this because i had just ordered the amazing Papillion stamp from stamping up and knew that i wanted to use it for this challenge.

Please excuse the slightly blurred photo my hands are very shaky at the moment, must remember to drink more wine!!

Thanks for looking x

Upcycling challenge

A few weeks ago i agreed to take part in a challenge set by Lin.

All the participants were sent an envelope containing the same items and we were told that we had to use all of it but could add items from our own stash. We were also told the project had to be in just one shade of colour and we were provided with a list of colours to choose from, i am sure everyone expected me to choose pink for my projects but when i looked at the mediums i had i realised that brown was the colour that gave me most shades, i also knew that i wanted to use one of the projects for a Fathers Day gift.

Thanks for looking.

Another challenge

I was set another challenge by Sam to use blue, a bird and some script in a project and this is what i came up  with.

The birds are actually blue in real life and made out of shrink plastic.

Thanks for looking

Tims June tag

Hi all,

I ma spending a couple of days at my friend Sam's house and first on the list of things to be made was Tim's June tag.

Here is my attempt, it may have a few extra additions such as teeth mark courtesy of Sam's dog Fraz who clearly wanted to be included in the crafting fun so stole my tag and wouldn't let it go.

We also played with some memory glass which I learnt is just a posh term for a microscope slide!

Finally I had a lesson in blending Paperartsy paints.

Thanks for looking

Journal page

I have just treated myself to some distress stains and wanted to play with them in my journal.

I also felt the need to actually write something in the journal, which is very unlike me! How often do we say to people 'i will be fine' are we really??

The other project i wanted to the use the stains for was another attempt at the May edition of Tim's tags, my previous effort had turned out very muddy, well here is my second attempt.

Am much happier with this version.

Thanks for looking

Paperartsy Challenge

Over on the paperartsy blog this week its been the lovely Carols week to show us her talents.

First up was a beaded hanger, here is my interpretation of it

Am not really a 'beady' person so used some rhinestones instead, much more my cup of tea!! The colour will also perfectly compliment my downstairs toilet.

Carols next project was an oriental themed tag, i didn't think i had anything oriental to play along with but then remembered a set of Paperartsy stamps i had.

Carol used a fabulous technique with UTEE but i couldn't seem to achieve the same effects, couldn't resist using my shrink plastic again though.

Thanks for looking.

Time Flies

I created this journal page because i realised how much time i waste every day, i often feel like my whole day is wasted and its time i wont ever get back again.

I knew i wanted the colours to be quite subdued as this suits my mood very well at the moment. I used distress paints in weathered wood, broken china and picket fence on top of some grunge paste applied through a stencil. I then added some weathered wood into a mini mister and added some black ink and water and sprayed blobs and allowed them to run,

I stamped some circles in distress in and then some clock faces using a versafine pad, i then used my Tim Holts rub ons to add some detail. The clock face is a maya road one that i sprayed with ink to tone it in to the colour scheme more, i painted the wings and then used a script stamp with white ink to stamp. I chose not to put hands on the clock.

Finally i coloured some wooden scrabble tiles with distress inks, they all took the ink a bit differently but i quite like the effect actually.

Spool challenge

Over at Paperartsy the wonderful France had designed some spool key charms, i found a poor solitary spool  lurking in my ribbon drawer so thought i would give it a go

My spool was a lot smaller than the ones France used so finding a word to fit was quite a challenge! this actually says dream. This was also my very first attempt at shrink plastic too.

Sams challenge

I was challenged to use this colour pallet on a project today, i have to say the colours are lovely

This is what i came up with

I had recently bought some moulds and clay and had been playing with them so thought i would like to incorporate some of the images i have made.

I ran the tag through an embossing folder then coloured it with distress inks, i then ran an embossing ink pad over the top and heat embossed some frantage aged purple powder.

I coloured the moon face with Lumiere paints and the stars were sprayed with ink.

I attached a piece of coloured gauze coloured with ink around the tag, painted the 'dream' with green Lumiere paint and stuck it on top. I then coloured some ribbon and couldn't resist a bit of sparkle!!

Inspiration

I have been following the guest designers over on the Paperartsy blog and was very taken with a project i saw last week, unfortunately i didn't finish it in time to enter the challenge but i enjoyed making it anyway.

I used a paper mache substrate, cut some diamonds out of corrugated cardboard and stuck them on, i then added some grunge paste and painted the whole thing with a neutral base colour.

I then use guacamole and limelight paint to add some layers, i didn't have the blood orange paint that was used in the original so i chose the closest i had which was barn door distress paint, i watered it down and sprayed it onto the canvas.

I painted the cage in various shades of brown and added some gold shimmer spray, the bird was painted and then edged with treasure gold. I added a small charm to the bottom of the cage.

I cut some flowers using the paperartsy flower die, one from grunge paper and one from coffee filter paper which i then sprayed lime green.

The sentiment is from paperartsy and is stamped onto some foil i had coloured with alcohol ink, my good friend Sam said it looked a bit plain down the left hand side so i stamped some script in black.