MASCULINE VALENTINES TREAT BOX WALLET

Today is Saint Valentine's day and I'd like to share a project that I made to give to my husband to celebrate this special day. My hubby has absolutely no feminine side, so I wanted to make my version of this treat box wallet in a grungy masculine style that I thought would suit him better and I'm pleased to say he really liked it.

I used a tutorial by Arlene of mybutterflykisses on YouTube for making the box and you can watch this and find all of the cutting sizes here:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMCj-r-VAUQ&list=UUPo-HlgBo8lxdPWCF62E-2A&feature=share&index=12

She has made some lovely versions of this box herself in a more girly & vintage style which you can see in her video.

I made my wallet out of recycled cereal box which I covered in metal tape, purchased from a hardware shop, which I'd  put in an embossing folder and run through my die cutting machine. I then painted the whole thing with black gesso and then used Inka Gold in Lava Red to pick out the high points and give it a metallic look.

I freehand cut two hearts out of corrugated card, painted them with white gesso then added some Ink Gold Lava Red. I adhered them together and wrapped them with twine. I adhered some cheese cloth to the lid then some red netting. I then adhered my hearts on top of this and added metal cogs and small watch parts randomly. I stamped my sentiments on white card with individual alphabet stamps, cut these into strips and adhered them into place.

I added a button and elastic hair tie closure

I constructed the small box for the inside treat following Arlene's instructions and again covered it in the embossed metal tape and painted it as before. I adhered this into place, centered on the inside bottom flap of the wallet.

I lined the box with red tissue paper, then filled it with delicious heart shaped chocolates.

If you would like to see the step-by-step process of giving the chipboard a metallic look and making the button closure; you can watch my YouTube video below.

I WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a quicky to announce that I've just heard that I won the Craft Stamper Take It Make It Challenge No. 6 with my Ombré Plaque from my last Blog Post. Yippee!!!!!!!!! - I can't begin to tell you how happy I am. I'm bouncing off the walls.

I'm going to have my entry published in the superb Craft Stamper Magazine plus have a future Guest Designer spot for the next challenge. I've also won two fabulous Art Journalling DVD's by Kate Crane, which I can't wait to watch, as you all know how much I love to Art Journal.

Thank you Craft Stamper for choosing my work.

Craft Stamper Take It, Make It Challenge #6

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

For one of my new years resolutions I thought I would participate in some challenges in 2014 to stretch my creativity and where better to start than with a challenge from the wonderful Craft Stamper Magazine.

This months challenge is to use the Ombré Technique with stamping. The definition of Ombré for those who may not be familiar with the term is: having colours or tones that shade into each other - used especially of fabrics in which the colour is graduated from light to dark.

I have created a plaque using a gorgeous Paper Artsy stamp set by Jofy which I love. 

To create the Ombré background I blended several colours of Tim Holtz Distress Inks onto white card graduating down the page from light to dark. ( Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Salty Ocean & Faded Jeans).

I then, used a stiff paintbrush to flick tiny droplets of water all over the page then blotted with kitchen roll. Distress Ink reacts with water so this created a nice bubbly variation to the colours to add more interest. 

After this I distressed the edges of the card with the Tim Holtz Distress tool. 

I stamped my design using the Jofy stamps with StayZon black ink, masking certain areas as I went along with Post-it notes to achieve the design I wanted.

I drew over the stems again with a dark green Promarker pen then added tiny dots to the seed heads with a Wink-of-Stella clear pen for some sparkle.

Using white Colorbox Pigment Ink I took the crosshatch stamp from the same set and randomly stamped over the background

I  stamped the heads of the flowers several times more onto plain white card and coloured these with bright Promarker pens before I cut them out and decoupaged them with foam adhesive squares to add dimension to the flowers.

I did the same again with the centers of each flower to add another dimensional layer then covered these with Glossy Accents for a lovely shine. I also added more of the clear Wink-of-Stella pen around the edge of each flower.

I stamped the message with Black Soot Distress Ink onto thick white card then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.

I  blended the same various distress inks in the Ombré fashion over the words then cut them into individual word strips and adhered them to the top of my plaque. I darkened around the edges with a black graphite pencil to make them stand out.

The final step was to adhere the panel onto black card.

Here you can see a clearer view of the Glossy accents shining in the centre of each flower,  the water droplet effect with Distress Ink on the background and the distressed edge of the white card.

Win or lose, I had great fun creating this little plaque and I really like the Ombré look. I'll definitely be using it again in future projects. 

CHRISTMAS CARDS

I hope you all had a very good Christmas and have recovered from any hangovers or stomach ache from over-eating.

Here are a couple of cards that I designed for Christmas 2013. I had quite a few to make so I wanted a design that was pretty but not to time consuming to put together, but at the same time looked like I'd made an effort.

I stamped and embossed a red card base with snow flakes and gold embossing powder. I die cut a doily from silver mirror card which I overlaid with a square of corrugated card which had been stripped of most of the top layer and then painted with white Gesso. On top of this I added some small strips of cheese cloth around the edges then I  adhered a vintage Xmas photo that I downloaded from the internet. I had distressed the edges of the photo and added a border of Snowtex. Next I added a white Poinsettia flower, a snowflake cut from air dry clay, which had been painted white and glittered. I also added the number 25 die cut from the Tim Holtz Mini Reindeer & 25 Set, which I also painted with Snowtex.

My Second card was created on a green card base which I embossed with Silver & Angel Wings Peacock embossing powder. Again I added the square of painted corrugated card and the cheesecloth. I downloaded the tiny Silent Night music sheet and distressed the edges then added Vintage Photo distress ink. I curled up the corners and adhered it to the corrugated card. This time I added a red poinsettia flower and a reindeer die cut from white card and the number 25 die cut from silver mirror card once again using the Tim Holtz Mini Reindeer & 25 set.

Happy Halloween

I know I'm a day late, but life sometimes gets on top of you and there's no time for crafting.

I'd like to share a Halloween Art Shrine that I was inspired to make by an old project by Linda of LiveArtNow, that I've given a Halloween twist in my own style.

I've constructed the shadow box in the same way that I've shown in previous Shadow Box Stepper Card tutorials ( See my previous posts and  check out my YouTube Channel). I've constructed the box and wings from chipboard covered with Metal Foil tape, then run through  embossing folders. I then painted everything with black acrylic paint and once dry added some Inka Gold guilding wax to give it a metallic look.

The inside of the box is lined with paper from an old collection by DCWV. I've then cut out a web from a piece of Halloween organza that I found in my local Poundland store and adhered it to the sides of the shadow box. I rubbed the white skeleton all over with cream acrylic paint to age his bones and then dyed a piece of cheese cloth with Lindys Stamp gang spray and attached it to the skeleton as his old tattered clothes. A large creepy spider was then adhered to the top of the box.

A large bat was added to the top of the shrine and I added some bronze tones Inka Gold to highlight.

I hope you enjoy my project and look forward to reading your comments.

Mixed Media Canvas

I was inspired to make this canvas by CeeCee from Creations CeeCee on YouTube. She made a beautiful canvas using the same Poppy stencil by Donna Downey Studios and tags. I liked hers so much that I decided to make my own very different version. CeeCee  is an excellent artist and demonstrator for Scrapbookcentrale in Canada. If you don't know of her already you should definitely check out her Channel. 

I  adhered three white tags and their strings, which I placed into various positions onto the canvas, with Claudine Helmuth Studio Matte Multi-medium Gel. I then created the poppies using Artist Spackle modelling paste through a Donna Downey Studios stencil. I used various makes and colours of acrylic paint to colour the background, blending with my fingers. Once this was dry I stenciled through a piece of Punchinella with a sponge dipped into white gesso to add texture with the small white dots. The poppies were painted with Daler & Rowney, System 3, Fluorescent Pink paint, with darker accents added with Crawford & Black Acrylic paint in Rose. For the centers of the poppies I mixed together Artist Spackle and black gesso then added some seed beads to give it texture. I punched out the letters for my words from black card using a Martha Stewart set of Alphabet punches. I then used the remains of the punched out card as a stencil and using black gesso added random letters to various parts of the canvas. Using a Tim Holtz  Stampset "Papillon CMS106 by Stampers Anonymous, I stamped  butterflies onto tissue paper with StaZon black ink. Once dry I tore carefully around the edges of each butterfly and then adhered them to the tags with the Matte Gel medium. I added my letters in the same way to each tag, then gave them all a good coat of Gel Medium over the top,

I was very happy with the outcome.

Altered Box in a Winter Shabby Chic Style

I've been quite busy lately working on a few projects and Id like to share one with you today.

It's an altered heart shaped box which as the weather is turning colder has inspired me to complete it in a winter shabby chic style. I'm not a fan of the cold, but I do like the look of those winter frosty mornings when everything seems to twinkle with it's icy coating.

I used a blank white coloured chipboard box which I painted with dark- brown acrylic paint and left to dry. I then painted on a layer of my favourite Folkart Crackle Medium, then best to leave to dry overnight. The last coat was a cream coloured acrylic paint called Tapioca 903 by Folkart, which you must ensure is painted on thickly in even strokes, all in the same direction,   The crackle effect happened almost instantly. 

I made up some pine cones and roses from coloured card using the Tim Holtz  "Tattered Pinecone" die. I also cut several leaves from this same die in different leafy colours, some leafy flourishes from the Cherry Lynn  "Mini Fanciful Flourish" die in gold,  half a clock face & the hands from the Tim Holtz "Weathered Clock" die, which I painted dark brown. I also used some cheesecloth which I aged with Lindy's stamp gang spray in Creme Brulee Creme and some gold bead sprays from my stash. 

I worked out the positioning of all my pieces and then used hot glue to adhear them all down securely. Once in place I librally coated everything with Snowtex paste by Decoart and sprinkled on some glitter to give it an extra wintery sparkle. 

I  distressed the edges slightly with some Tim Holtz distress ink in Vintage photo, then hot glued some gathered lace and a line of gold Chinese braid to the sides. 

I added a touch of gold Run-n-Buff to the clock hands and Cut out the word "Memories" from designer paper and tucked it into place over the cheese cloth.

                                     

A step-by-step video showing how I created this box.