Box of flowers

The challenge this month over at Let’s Squash It is to make or repurpose a box and use a floral embossing folder. I’ve had this idea in my head since the challenge launched and finally managed to get it made today. 

 

I used a large matchbox (you might know the brand Cook’s Matches if you’re in the UK) as my base. I painted the tray with black acrylic paint and added a ribbon tab pull. This floral folder makes me think of chrysanthemums and to me those needs autumnal shades (they were my mum’s bridal flowers for an autumn wedding) so I rubbed a gold ink pad over the raised areas and brushed on copper, gold and bronze Perfect Pearls. The embossing wasn’t quite wide enough to do the full top and sides of the box but I managed to centre the embossing and I think the flat margins look as if they’re meant to be there along the bottom edges.

Supplies:
Empty match box
Bold Floral embossing folder by Darice
Delicata by Tsukineko (Golden Glitz)
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (Copper, Gold, Bronze)
Black cardstock
Ribbon
Small copper brad
Black acrylic paint 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Celebrating 10 years!

I'm helping Caroline to celebrate 10 years in business with Bubbly Funk with this big paper mache 10. All the details over on the Bubbly Funk blog today - hope to see you there!

Time for PaperArtsy

I'm delighted to be guesting with PaperArtsy today where this fortnight's theme is "time". Here's a wee sneak peek of what I decided to make with PaperArtsy stamps, paints and Grunge Paste. Pop over to the PaperArsty blog if you'd like to see the whole thing, it would be lovely to see you there!

Deconstuction - PaperArtsy

The current challenge theme at PaperArtsy is "deconstruction" - all the details and some great inspiration starts here.

I let a few thoughts brew for a while and eventually settled on a plastic bottle and a net bag as the basis of my project. I eventually threw in some toilet paper (deconstructed with water and glue, nothing more radical!) for good measure.

The toilet paper got used to make a paper cast of the sentiment. The cast worked OK but the words "and" and "wait" were missing a couple of high spots and since I wanted to dry-brush (making height difference crucial) I used a tiny paint brush and some glue to build those areas back up.

I cut the top off a plastic bottle "on the wonk" and then Mod Podged some torn netting bag onto it. Some texturising medium, spots of glue and the paper cast sentiment provided the texture and I heated one side of the bottle to get it to collapse a bit.

The whole lot got a couple of coats of Prussian Blue acrylic paint. Once that was dry, I dry-brushed with Mermaid and then Snowflake Fresco Finish paints and finally glued on the fish charm and some glass "bubbles". The charm started life as a brassy gold so that got a coat of Prussian Blue acrylic and then some silver Rub n Buff so it tied in better.

I'm not sure if this is destined to be a wee vase or a pen pot. I shoved some rosemary prunings in to take the photo but we'll see.

Supplies:
Clocks Plate 3 by PaperArtsy
 Empty plastic bottle
Netting bag from garlic
Toilet paper
PVA glue
Prussian Blue Americana acrylic paint by DecoArt
Mermaid and Snowflake Fresco Finish paint by PaperArtsy
Texturising Medium by DecoArt
Mod Podge Matte
Silver Rub n Buff by Amaco
Glass bubbles
Fish charm

Thanks for stopping by!

Steampunk snowflakes

Handling lots of cog shapes for Andy Skinner's Book of Secrets workshop reminded me of the fact I've always thought that the smallest snowflake in my Spellbinder set looks like a spiky cog. That set me thinking about steampunk snowflakes and this is the result.

It started life as a coffee tin and I had fun trying out a different colour combo for a more silvery/gunmetal style finish. I  added some detail like a line of glue at the "shoulder" for a welding seam and cheap Christmas bead chain in the groove around the top of the canister where the original lid would screw on because I decided that one looked too heavy on it once I'd done all the decorating. I made a new lid that just rests inside the top rim (it's several circles of cereal packet board glued together - the texture is scrunched up tissue stuck over the top - with a little wooden knob glued into place).

Supplies:
Coffee tin
Die cuts
Flat back pearls
Bead chain
Deep midnight blue and Prussian blue Americana acrylic paints by DecoArt
Shimmering Silver metallic acrylic paint by DecoArt
Texturizing medium by DecoArt
Cardstock
Wooden knob
Tissue paper

Gosh - no stamping! It's been a while since that happened.

Thanks for stopping by!

Book of Secrets!

I've been doing something new! I've never taken part in an online workshop before but I'm currently doing Andy Skinner's Book of Secrets one and having fun! Andy gets some fantastic finishes on his projects and steampunk is way outside my normal comfort zone so I decided to sign up and see what I could learn.

This post is a bit picture-heavy - sorry!

Andy uses a wooden box as the base for his tutorials but I decided to take the "book" part of the workshop title literally and I've used a real book as the base for my project. The people who owned our house before us left behind loads of "books by the yard" and we've never done anything with them. I chose one that looked extremely unlikely to have any financial or cultural value and set to work!

One of the things I struggle with on steampunk is the "more is more" aspect. I find it difficult to add lots of stuff and still feel happy with the overall composition. I think I did OK here and I didn't go for a straight copy of Andy's sample (trying to copy something is always a recipe for disaster at my craft table!).

The "power indicators" (flat back gems) were something that struck me as a fun addition to the mechanical components.

Andy adds dates to his large compass with metal punches. I liked the idea but didn't have the punches to achieve it. What I did have was an embossing tool with interchangable tips that my dad picked up for me at a car boot sale (thanks Dad!). I used it with a hammer to add detail right round the inside of the compass. I think it works quite well.

The spine has been given a leather-look makeover. It's not easy to tell that the book started life as a blue cloth-bound hardback and I think this would probably look quite convincing lined up with other volumes on a shelf!




I carved out a niche inside the book for the inner workings of the machine. I thought a butterfly would provide a suitably unexpected power house for a steampunk contraption and the light/bright colouring makes a nice contrast to the industrial tones.

Lessons for niche carving - be prepared to even up the right hand side once the pages are glued together as there's a surprising gradient on the pages of a closed book!  The slope on the left goes towards the spine and can't be seen but the slope on the right obviously goes into the niche itself.

Here's a detail of the texture on the cogs - nice and rusty!



Supplies:
Old book
Tand Creative chipboard shapes (Compass Duo and Cogs grab bag)
Die cuts
Cardstock
Lamp black, Burnt umber, Burnt sienna Americana Acrylic paints by DecoArt
Texturizing medium by DecoArt
Brads, googly eyes, flatback pearls and gems
Sun charm (saved from a freebie chiffon scarf)
Wings stamp set (Darkroom Door)
"Engine" and number from a retired B&O Railroad set (CHF)
Ranger Perfect Pearls
Copic markers

This is not quite complete yet - I need to do the back and as the niche only goes about half way down the depth of the book I've stuck together some pages so I have a couple of surfaces to decorate. I got distracted into trying a second project though, I'll share that soon!

The Book of Secrets workshop is running again at the end of the month - details of what it entails are here if anyone would like them.

Thanks for stopping by!

Kid's stuff

The challenge this month at Tando Creative is to "Alter it". Now I'm in the camp that says to be really altered, something must be changed beyond its original use rather than just decorated in a certain style. Others are in the other camp and that's fine!

I started with a child's board book picked up for 30p in a charity shop. I'm not sure I would have given it to a child (a bit too much evidence of its previous owner's snacking habits!) but it was ripe for a bit of cutting and sticking.

The pages are covered with scrunched tissue paper and then painted with acrylic paint for a textured, leathery sort of effect.

On the front, I've added a bookplate with a stamped sentiment (Time to Stamp was one of my very first purchases from Cornish Heritage Farms way back when so I'm delighted that it's formed part of the first release now that CHF has new owners).

I painted the bookplate with gold acyrlic, beat it up with an embossing stylus and added a tiny bit of brown paint for the textured look.

The little stud on the right of the plate is actually the book closure - a Sam Browne stud (that's a hitch fastener if you're in the world of Tim Holtz but a whole lot cheaper if you're in the land of leather supplies).

 I cut a niche by removing the centre of most of the pages and sticking them together. Versamark dabbed through a mask and brushed with copper and bronze Perfect Pearls adds some pattern over the scrunched tissue paper texture.

I added sketchy circles with gesso on the inner page to suggest a clock face and added the ornate chipboard hands, painted with gold acrylic. They're positioned so that the thick bit where they are stacked on top of each other goes inside the niche when the book is closed.

Inside the niche I've sponged over a clock mask, added a stamped sentiment and a "rusty" chipboard key (coloured with a copper Krylon leafing pen and then given a coat of Vintage Photo Distress embossing powder).

A bit different for me but I had fun doing it and it's certainly not going to be used by a child to learn about colours and shapes so it fits my altered requirements!

Supplies:
Board book
Keys grab bag, Clock hands, Bookplate, Bamboo mask  (all Tando Creative)
Time to Stamp and Key Expressions stamp sets (Cornish Heritage Farms)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black) 
Versamark by Tsukineko
Acrylic paint (Dark Umber and Gold)
Gesso
Perfect Pearls (Copper and Bronze)
Distress Embossing Powder (Vintage Photo)
Krylon leafing pen (Copper)
Timeworks mask
Tissue paper
Lace
Paper roses (Wild Orchid Crafts)
Sam Browne stud
Crop-a-Dile

Thanks for stopping by! As ever, we'd love to have you play along with the challenge and be in with a chance of picking out some lovely Tando goodies as a prize package if your name comes out of the hat at the end of the month! Details here: Alter it

Dream home

There's a competition over on Fiskarettes to make a project with hidden eggs. I thought it would be fun to make something a bit different to the usual card for new home owners and came up with this little altered box!

I dowloaded the template for the large matchbox here (thanks Dee!), stamped the outside with Woodgrain and made a liner for the inside stamped with Weathered Wood. I cut a reverse mask for the ticket stamp so that I could add the birds inside the frame then added some little words with stamps.

Some raffia, twigs, skeleton leaves and a key charm finish off the panel and I've machine stitched round the edge. I used the same technique with the ivy as I did for the card in my last post but I cut these out once I'd "stamped" them.

I had fun with the inside! My hubby can only shake his head when he asks "What are you doing?" when I'm sitting on the step outside the shed in lovely sunshine and he gets the reply "Making a nest!". I soaked some birch twigs in warm water to make them a bit more pliable and then wove them together to make the tiny nest. It's lined with a feather and the eggs are jelly bean sweets. I added more ivy leaves, a sentiment strip and a feather.

The little scroll unties to provide space for the message to the new home owners.

Stamps (all Cornish Heritage Farms):
Tree Swallows
Wood grain backgrounder
Weathered Wood backgrounder
The Ticket Counter (Rummage Bin line)
Everyday Petites (Mona Lisa Moments line)
Script Essential Expressions (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso and Stonewashed)
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Vintage Photo)
Memento by Tsukineko (Bamboo Leaves)

Paper: smooth white and premium weight copy paper

Other:
Raffia
Key charm
Sewing machine and thread
Skeleton leaves
Birch twigs
Ivy leaves
Feathers

Thanks for visiting - I had fun making this, hope you had fun looking!

Make a Wish

Over on the Bubbly Funk forum, Karen has decided we need to be challenged out of our pure papercraft zone! The first challenge is to alter a tin. I scratched my head for a while as I didn't fancy tackling the great big tin that had amaretti biscuits in it last Christmas and then remembered I'd bought a little candle in a tin in Poundstretcher a while ago, intending to turn it into a little Christmas gift but didn't get round to it.

I'm going to start here with "things I have learned about tomato paste". I made a card last week using a tomato paste tube and uploaded it to Splitcoaststampers. I was feeling quite pleased with myself as I remembered to call in "tomato paste" rather than the more typically British term "tomato puree". Little did I realise that its name was the least of the differences!

Tomato paste in the US typically comes in cans so most people had no clue what I'd used. I did a little research and apparently some Italian grocery stores stock it in tubes and I even tracked it down on Amazon.com in the "gourmet foods" section - so, if you're reading this in North America and want to get your hands on this stuff, you now know where to try! It's much less wasteful than a can if you're cooking for small numbers, BTW - just pop the top back on and put it in the fridge for next time.

So, all that was by way of telling you that I used a tomato paste tube here! Just snip the top and bottom off your empty tube with kitchen scissors then slit up one side. Flatten it out and wash it and you're ready to go. I have yet to meet a tube that was not a rich gold colour inside - the acid from the tomatoes apparently oxidises the metal and turns it that colour. The circle for the lid here is cut with a Nestie and the whole lot is embossed and then sponged with Stazon which is then polished off the high spots. It's all glued down with Bostick.

I stamped a plain Prima hydrangea with a script stamp and sponged the edges with Vintage Photo ink.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Spanish Script backgrounder
Birthday Centers

Ink:
Stazon by Tsukineko (Timber Brown)
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Other:
Candle tin
Tomato paste tube
Cuttlebug Embossing folder (Textile Texture)
Hydrangea by Prima Marketing
Vintage button
Classic Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinder
Linen thread

If you're blowing out a candle today, don't forget to make a wish! Thanks for stopping by!

Is it time for tea yet?

Now I work freelance from home, one thing I don't miss about an office load of workmates is the endless round of making cups of tea and washing up afterwards! It would be nice to have the social aspect of the tea ritual without the actual making and clearing up wouldn't it?!

The Crafty Secrets member forum challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week has a new host - Darlene is challenging us throughout June and her first challenge theme is: dots.

I hope she'll forgive a fairly liberal interpretation of the theme!

I started thinking about dots and thought it would be fun to have one big dot as the base for the project so I reached for one of the freebie CDs that are stacked up beside my craft table as they're bound to be useful someday! I made clocks as Christmas gifts a couple of years ago and still had a couple of movements left so I decided on a CD clock and added more dots to mark out the hours around the edge.

Working days are often divided up by meetings and (sometimes hasty) cups of tea so I thought it would be fun to have a clock to reflect those "Is it time for tea yet?" moments with the kind of lined paper you might be jotting notes on in a meeting (it's from the Earthy Paper pad). It has dotted lines as well as solid ones - think Darlene will let me count those towards my quota of dots?

Supplies: Kitchen Classics, Tea and Coffee and Story of Me (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets), Earthy Paper Pad (Crafty Secrets), Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Walnut Stain), Prismacolor pencils/OMS/stump, office hole punch, eyelet punch, CD, clock movement

Right, time for tea I reckon - thanks for stopping by!