Alter Box for Calico

Good morning everyone and welcome to you all! Lovely to see you here in my little corner of blogland.

I was happy and excited to be asked to be guest designer once more for Calico Crafts, a wonderful shop with amazing and unusual products for the altered artist.
I decided to alter one of their fantastic book boxes, using some of the new Graphics 45 Steampunk Spells collection.

To see the full project and how I made it, please head over to their BLOG

Hope you will like it and thank you for visiting!

All my Favourite Things

Hi everyone and thank you for visiting today. It's my turn to post over at The Artistic Stamper.
I called it "All my Favourite Things" because that's what I used.

Here is a little prview:

To see the full project, please click HERE

Thank you for visiting and see you next time, - have a creative day!

I did it!!!

Hello everyone and a warm welcome to you. Thank you for visiting. Today I am super excited because.....Yes, I did it, I made it to the Sin City Stamps Design Team!!

Some of you may remember that I posted my application project here about 2 weeks ago or so.

I was most grateful for all your support, both here and on Face Book, well they obviously liked it, because, here I am, one of their new team. Our term starts on the first of August and runs for 6th months. They are an awesome American company that make the most gorgeous stamps, check them out!!!

If you would like to see the full project that got me onto the team, please click HERE
Tomorrow will be the big announcement on their BLOG.  I will be in the company of some amazingly talented people, make sure to check it out!.


Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful creative weekend!!

Off to French Country

Hello everyone, long time no see... I am sorry I have been AWOL over the last week or so but I have been extremely busy with end of term activities and getting  ready before I go off on my hols to France on Monday.

Obviously that is the inspiration behind this little canvas.

I started with adding some Golden Brand molding paste through a couple of stencils. When dry I I added some Tim Holtz Tissue Wrap  (no longer visible really) and then painted with a variety of different brands acrylic paints, Golden, Tim Holtz and Fresco Finish were all somewhere in the mix. Next I stamped a couple of Graphics 45 French Country stamps onto some smooth stamping paper, blended with Distress inks and coloured further with some water colour pencils and my re-fillable water brush.

I finished by layering some of the elements of the paper collection, a die cut ribbon slider and some string and  my all time favourite ideaology bit, the inevitable pen-nib.

I carried the texture through on the sides of the canvas also and rubbed a tiny bit of Treasure Gold around the edges and over the raised bits.

 Well, that's it. We leave on Monday and will be on the road for about a week, traveling through Holland, Germany and Switzerland, so again it will be pretty quiet here. But whenever I can get online I will try and visit my favourite blogs and see what you are all getting up too.

Loads of art and crafty stash will be packed and I hope to do some art journaling while away and I might be able to show some work in progress.

Thank you for visiting, have a creative time where ever you are, may the sun shine on you and I'll see you when I see you...

I am adding this to a new and exciting challenge blog for people who love the alter things Altered Eclectics where the theme this and every month will be, anything goes, how fun is that!!

A Rusty Gentleman

Hello everyone and welcome, lovely to have you here and a specially warm welcome to all my new followers both of Friends Connect and on Bloglovin. Please know you are all very much appreciated!!
Today I would like to share a tag with you

I have been wanting to take part in Sandee and Amelie's Steampunk challenge block for ages, but every month I seem to run out of steam (no pun intended). This month the theme is rust, and though all I have to offer is a humble tag, it's all about joining in the fun right? I know I never have the time to do big complicated assemblages and such, and my steam punk bits and pieces are also limited, but I love rusty things so I knew I had to play.
So, as you can see there are many layers to this tag, the background was embossed and painted with numerous colours of acrylic paint trying to resemble something rusty, aged and worn. I then added some rusty wire, another bit of embossed paper (the bit at the bottom, with a Sculpey Clay tile on top).

The embossed bit was actually layers and layers of toilet paper, torn to bits and put on an embossing folder, spritzt with water and then run through a diecut machine. It was left to dry overnight and then turns into something resembling paper clay, very cool! I learned this clever trick from my friend Rita. It was coloured with Distress Inks.
Other layers include a photo from one of the papers from Tim Holtz's French Industrial collection, a rusty heart, some rusted steampunky bits, a couple of chit chat stickers and a sentiment from a Donna Downey set stamped on a Tim Holtz tattered banner. All the raised bits were high lighted with various colours of Treasure Gold.

Finally I added some lace and more curly rusted wire and a flower for just a little bit of a feminine touch and there you have it.

I am adding this to Sandee and Amelie's challenge "It's all about Rust"

Thanks you so much for visiting and have a creative day!

Inspiration Board

Hello all and thank you for dropping by my little corner of blog land. Before anything else, remember, tomorrow is d-day and Google Reader will disappear. If you want to keep following me, please click .

It is my turn to post as an International Blog Ambassador for Spellbinders and I decided to make an Inspiration Board

As you can see I used quite a number of different dies, but this is a project that can be easily adapted to the dies that you may have. One of the great things about Spellbinder dies is that they all seem to work together.

I started my taking a piece of mount board, 15" by 12" and coated it with Gesso. When that was dry I created my background with various colours of Distress Paints: Picket Fence, Antique Linen, and Weathered Wood. I spritzt them with water to let them marble, dried them with my heat gun and when dry, did some background stamping with a Stempel Glede swirl stamp. I stamped with the Distresss Inks, first Weathered Wood and then Frayed Burlap. I dried it once more with my heat-gun and then used my ink-blending tool and Distress Inks in Frayed Burlap, Weathered Wood and Stormy Sky to add more colour..

My two end panels were done in the same way. I cut and embossed the largest of the Decorative Labels Eight out of white card stock. I then cut some scrap book paper (K & Co) in a lightish colour with the second largest of the A2 Matting Basics B, embossed it and while still in the die sponged it lightly with the same colours of Distress Inks I used for the background. Next I cut and embossed the second largest of the Decorative Labels 8 from another piece of light coloured scrapbook paper, coloured it with Frayed Burlap quite darkly for contrast and then matted these pieces all together with foam tape. Each panel was finished with a cut and embossed butterfly from the Les Papillions set. I cut these from some delicate floral papers to add just a hint of colour and then highlighted the embossed bits with some gilding wax, and finished with some Viva Decor pearl pen pearls.

The central panel was done slightly differently, I cut the second largest of the Floral Ovals. Mounted it in the same way and then added a Tim Holtz ornate plate made to look rusty with a variety of acrylic paints and some gilding wax again. The little heart in the center was made from Sculpey clay, covered in the same floral paper I used for the butterflies and then sanded down once the glue had dried. Again I also added some gilding wax for a vintage effect.

The inspirational quotes came from the Donna Downey Empowered Words set and were stamped onto  one of the Just Rite Antique  Labels 10 dies.

 

Finally I added one of the Ribbon Banners with another Donna Downey phrase, a butterfly and one of the Tim Holtz pen nibs to finish it all off.

Well, hope you like my inspiration board and maybe it will give you some inspiration too.
I am linking this to Country View Crafts Challenge where the theme is Die=cuts

Thank you so much for visiting and have fun creating!!

Class Samples

Hello everyone and lovely to see you here. Later on today I will be teaching a class. We will do several projects: Alter an envelope using Gesso, paints, paper serviettes and background stamping; altering a tag using texture paste and embossing folders as well as paints inks stamps etc; making a mini book out of two A4 sheets of card; and finally making some flowers. The workshop will run from 10 until 3, so you can imagine, we will be busy.

Here are just some of the samples I made:

Altered envelope

Another envelope

Flowers using various Spellbinder dies. These were of course inspired by the flowers I made with Rita last Monday

Well, hope you will all have a great creative weekend and see you next time!

Friday Freebie Rosy Posy

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's Friday Freebie.
The paper I have created for you was definitely inspired by one of the papers of the Prima Romantique collection. This paper line is pretty much impossible to come by in the UK as it is sold out just about everywhere. So, I decided to design my own.... not quite the same I know, but then hey, I'm not a pro. Still, I hope you like it anyway. I have given you lots of different options: 6 x 6, A4 and some tags and things, - enjoy.

Travel and See the Adventure

Hello everyone and welcome to my second post today. Beware, this is a long and photo rich one as it includes an extensive mini book tutorial. So if you have the time, you may want to grab a cuppa and I hope you will find it worth your while.

I created this mini as part of my design team application for Sin City Stamps

This is what you will need to create the cover of a mini like this:
Chipboard:
2 pieces 5.5" by 4"
1 diecut piece cut from a piece of 3" by 4"
2 pieces 1" by 4"
Cut your pieces and lay them out like this:

I used the Tim Holtz Plaque and Postage die for my shaped piece, but you could obviously use different dies in the same way.
Next you are going to cover your chipboard with
Scrapbook paper. I used the Tim Holtz French Industrial collection. You will need:
2 pieces 5" by 6.5"
1 piece 5" by 3" (for the spine)
1 piece  4"  by 4.5" die cut (for the shaped flap and the second spine)
This is to cover the outdside
For the inside you will need:
1 piece 7.25" by 3.75"
1 piece 10" by 3.75" die-cut at one end as before
For the hinges you will need:
4 pieces 2" by 3.75" of Kraft card or other strong left over card stock.

 Start by covering the front and back covers with your chosen paper. Score at 1/2" around all 4 sides, miter and glue on to the chipboard with your adhesive of choice.

2. Next do the spine, I gave my paper a decorative edge:

glue the chipboard down in the center and then fold the two decorative edges around the front and back cover, making sure to leave a gap as shown in the top photo, if you don't the paper will start to tear.

Here you can see what it should look like from the inside.
Next take your 4" by 4.5" shaped piece of paper and fold it round the second spine and shaped chipboard flap in the same way then glue them altogether, again, making sure you leave gaps between the chipboard pieces.

Here you can first see the inside. The shaped bit is lined up exactly, don't try and wrap it round. Below you can see the outside with the shaped flap folding around:

Next cover the inside with your chosen papers as shown in the picture below:

As you can see, I inked all the edges for a vintage look.
Alright, now for the hinges:
Score them all length-wise in the center and glue them together concertina style:

Score the two end pieces again at 1/2" and carefully glue them down along the center of your spine:

Well that is the cover done.
Now onto the fun part the inside pages, for this you will need:
 6 pieces of  5" by 3.75 card stock of your choice. I used manila card stock by Ranger.
Here are my pages, - I used different types of stamps similar in style to the wonderful stamps Sin City Stamps make.

Each page was made in a similar way.
First I added some texture paste through a stencil. When dry I added different colours of Distress Paint, straight onto the card and then spritzt with water to let them marble

Next I added matching Distress Inks with my ink blending tool

Some background stamping with Picket Fence Distress Paint

And finally, the main stamped image, sometimes first stamped onto tissue paper and then added to the page with Glue 'n Seal, sometimes stamped straight onto the page:

I always tear around the edges of the tissue paper to make them merge better into the page.
Finally I embellished with flowers, leaves, a Sculpey heart, stamped before baking and coloured with Distress Paints and some Tim Holtz chit chat stickers. Textured bits were high lighted with gilding wax in gold and pewter
Here you can see still what the pages look like inside the book:

And here is some detail still of the front cover of the book, decorated with various bits and pieces including another little stamped clay heart. Love making these...

Well, that's it, thank you for sticking with me on this very long post and do check out both the Sin City Stamps Shop and their blog where you can see all their amazing stamps.

Thank you for visiting and see you next time

I am entering this to the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge, where the theme is Stripes.
I used stripy paper to line the cover of my album. The album itself was definitely inspired by SSSS DT member  Candy Colwell, who did a really cool mini book tutorial two weeks ago.

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