Shades of Red

The challenge this month on the Artistic Outpost blog is shades of Red. So using an image from the Oz Collage Sheet which is available from the Artistic Outpost Site. I have made this little Microscope Glass Decoration, using the scarecrow image from the sheet 2 glass microscope slides, faux solder and of course a pair of Ruby Slippers.

Peacock Box For happy Daze

To fit with this months challenge theme I have altered a box, yes I love boxes, but better than that I have used another love Viva Inka Gold. So there is it, it's out in the open I have two loves, but it's ok they know each other and they are quite cool about it, and as they work really well together neither minds.

This is one of the larger sized wooden boxes from the shop. I have simply coloured it with Inka Gold in Lava Green and Steel Blue and together they give this lovely patina shade which I love.

I have stamped on the peacock stamp who's maker eludes me using Archival ink, you must use an archival ink over the inka gold or else the image just seems to disappear. I finished the image with a bit of glossy accents here and there just to highlight bits of it.

I have embellished it with one of the lovely peacocks which were a gift from a friend. I also used the Inka gold on this as its a brass tone metal charm. A large button from my stash for a faux knob and there is it all finished.

A lovely quick little project.

More Altered Pocket Watches

I have spent the last few days finishing of some projects that I have had on my desk since before christmas. I need to tidy my room up as I have to take some photo's of it and it looks a bit of a bomb site at the moment, so I decided step one, finish things off. Step two stuff the rest in draws. ROFL.

Anyway these were on the corner of my long desk needing finishing and here they are. I have used Ice Resin on these. Doing several layers so you get a lovely three dimensional effect and lots of depth with them.

The Captured fairy and the Paris one are authentic vintage pocket watch cases. I was lucky enough to pick up another box of these on my recent visit to the man I know in the next village who is a clock maker and now he saves me all his old bits and pieces and broken things that cannot be mended. The butterfly one, is one of the cast pocket watches I got.

I will be popping them all onto my Folksy shop in the next few days.

With the recent boxes I have finished off and these it's now looking a bit tidier, but still lots more to do, and a couple of bigger projects to finish off.

Altered Pocket Watch Necklace

Julie knows how much I love altering pocket watches and she recently pointed me in the direction of some cast metal replicas. They came the other day so I had a bit of a play with one today.
This was bright silver metal when it arrived and look at it now, looking all aged and old. I am very pleased with the way it has worked out, A couple of people have said it reminds them of Hugo, I have not seen the film, but I do know it has a steampunk theme, so I take that as a compliment.
I brought a few of these so I will be stocking my folksy shop with the finished necklaces.

Beads and Beyond - Optical Illusion

I  have an article in the March Issue of Beads and Beyond this month.
It features Necklaces made using optical lenses and Lisa Pavelka Resin that is available from Happy Daze.  ( it is showing as out of stock, but email the shop as it can be ordered).  This is a truly fantastic product and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It has now become one of my crafty must haves. I have also used the Optical lenses that are available here.
I have given you a teaser of the item, to see the whole article check out the magazine.

A Chunky ATC for Crafty Individuals

A new month so it's a new challenge for Crafty Individuals. This month the theme is Spring. I am not really a pretty flower type crafter so this was a bit of a challenge for me, so I went down the route of springs and a steampunk look, but given a bit of a lighter touch.

My idea behind it was of  mechanical butterfly machine. Wind the large key on the side, the spring wound around the main body of it tightens and releases the butterflies to fly around for 1 minute then they return to their spots on the block.

I have used the Crafty Indivdual stamps CI-333 on this, an additional butterfly from CI-231 which is a lovely plate of all different sized butterflies and one of the small elements from CI-308 under the Tim Holtz Fragment in the top corner.

I have also used, Alcohol inks,Ten second Studio metal, a wooden reel, Tim Holtz fragments, and grungeboard, all of which are available from Happy Daze . I have also heard  that Moira from the shop will soon be stocking the Chunky ATC wooden blocks, so it maybe worth sending her an email at the shop to pre-order these.

I have linked this to the Try It On A Tuesday Challenge this week which is to show some Texture.

Folksy Friday

I am doing a Folksy Friday today. I have been meaning to for ages to return all the lovely favours that fellow folksters have been doing by featuring me on their blogs.

As it's February and I am a big softie I have chosen hearts as my theme.


From Swirlyarts, some fab tags



A lovely mug warmer from Uniquely Yours 




From Little Red Press some great cards for your sweetie.


A hanging Glass Heart By Black Swan Glass

Peacock Microscope Slide Decorations

Someone sent me some of these peacock charms recently as they know how much I like peacocks and I thought I would try them out on some Microscope Slide Decorations.
The images I have used for stamping are a Tim Holtz one and the other one I have just had for ages and I have no idea who makes it.

                                       
The one with the unknown stamp is my favourite of the two, I am putting both of these in my Folksy shop, but I think I shall be making some more in the near future when time allows as I find my melt pot very relaxing to use and these are very pretty and I love all the shades of blue and green on them.

Altered Domino Fridge Magnet for Happy Daze

I have been experimenting for a magazine article and this is one of the little pieces that I was playing with while trying a few things out.
It's a little Domino Fridge Magnet. I have used new things on it so it does kind of fit in with the challenge theme for this month.,
The stamping is done with Teesha Moore Rubber stamps, I am so pleased that Moira has started to stock these as there was no UK stockist before and I always had to order from the US and they would seem to take ages to come.
I have used the little legs stamp and then masked them off to stamp the swirl for the background. Its coloured in with Alcohol inks and then given a coat of glossy accents which has sealed all the charms in place.
For full details of the challenge this month and how to upload your imaged have a look at the original blog post here.

Steampunk Chunky ATC

I have fancied trying one of these ever since I first saw one a couple of years ago. They now seem to be everywhere so I figured it was time to actually getting around to doing one.The wooden blocks are ATC sized 2.5 x 3.5 inches, they vary from the normal ATC in that they are wooden and 1.5 inches deep.
I have altered this one in a steampunk style. I covered all the sides apart from the front in Ten Second Studio Metal. I had first run this through my big shot using a cuttlebug steampunk plate, I then lightly sanded the texture to give it an aged appearance and to highlight the pattern. I stuck this to the block with The Crafters Pick Ulitmate Glue , this is the perfect glue for this as it just seems to fuse the metal to the wood                           

                                                                                                                                                                                   
The propeller goes round as it is fixed in place with a screw, these are in the shop but at the moment they are sadly  out of stock .

           

The large knob on the top is from an old chest of draws that I got out of a skip for all the lovely hardware on it, this is lovely and aged with a great natural green patina finish. The lotto number is from an old set I picked up in a 2nd hand shop.

     

All the Tim Holtz Gears and spinners are available in the shop as are the other various charms and all the inks I have used.
The challenge this month to try something new or to use something new. For all the details of the challenge and how to enter the post can be seen here.
All the items used are available from Happy Daze

The Stamp I have used is CI - 336  by Crafty Individuals .

I am linking to to the  
                                The Stampman Challenge, Use red 

Great Prize from Crafty Individuals

Work out the what rubber stamp is shown in the post and you could be in with the chance of winning one of  these four great crafty bundles up for grabs. For all the details take a look here.

Steampunk Brooch

I have been having a bit of a faff today tidying up my desk from christmas and I found this buried under a pile of stuff. I made it for the blog in December and them promptly lost it before it was photographed but it was very handy to find it as what I was making has gone horribly wrong. ( I put something down on it by mistake before the glossy accents was dry)

This  little brooch I made using one of the Bezel Frames in the shop. A few reclaimed watch parts, a new Tim Holtz game spinner and a swooping bird charm. It's all sealing into the bezel with Lisa Pavelka resin .

Take the pledge in 2012

 
Fran "The Lady of Lost Times" has set a challenge on her blog to cut craft spending. To use the items you already own, recycle and reuse instead of buying. I already use recycled things a lot and I am an avid charity shop rummager, even a spot of skip diving is not out of the question for that bird cage sitting at the bottom of the skip, but even so I still spend too much, so I pledge this year to cut my craft spending even further.

Stamp Man 3rd Annual Awards

The challenge is to show the craft item that you have most enjoyed making over the last year. I love decorating these little boxes and this one has to be my favourite of all of them and one of my reasons for this is in the original blurb on the box below.
I have used the new Crafty Individuals stamp plate CI-035 to alter this wooden box. I really got enthusiastic when I saw this image as its a tide clock and I live on the coast and we have the nearly identical clock set in the wall down on the prom and even more spookier only the week before I had picked up a 2nd hand job lot of stuff and in the box was an old tide barometer again with a metal face the same as this so its official I love this image.
I altered the box using paints and inks to create a shabby chic distressed look hopefully to look like it has spent years in an old cabin at sea. Well used and well worn with time and the tide.

Christmas Scrapping For Happy Daze

I don't scrap but I do love some of the papers available. As soon as I saw this set in the shop I just thought how well they would fit onto the little wooden blocks that I am in love with at the moment. I have a pile of these on a wooden chest of draws in my hallway. I add a set each year as it's lovely when I get the decorations out each year to see the older sets and it brings back memories of that year. I have been doing this for about five years now and I am getting quite a pile of them.

For this years set I have used the Pink Paislee sheet , its very good value for these as on the sheet you get 25 images and you only need 24 for a set of four bricks so you have a spare incase you cut of sants's head whilst cutting out.(blushes)
These are a set of 4 bricks which I painted with claudine hellmuth Paints using the crackle technique between the layers. Once dry I roughed up the edges of the cut circles using a paper distresser and then stuck one of each face of each brick using multi medium.

Once dry I aged them up a bit using Old Paper distress ink on an applicator. with out the drying time these took about half an hour to make, so they are a quick and easy project and not too messy if like me you have had a good tidy up of the craft room for Christmas.
I may add a some stickles to them I have not decided yet. But you can jazz these up as much or a little as you wish, they are fun to make and look really effective.

I used
Pink Paislee paper
multi medium
paints
stickles
Blocks
distress ink
paper distresser

Craft Stamper Teaser - Optical Lens necklace

I have an article in the New Issue of craft stamper (Jan 2012 Issue). It features altered art jewellery. I have used 7 gypsies optical lenses for these and 7 gypsies stamps for these. The stamps are available from Happy Daze.

These are just a few teaser photo's as I am not allowed to blog the whole thing.

Sneak peek

I have an article in the issue of creative Card making that comes out today. I cannot show the whole item but here is a little snippet.

It's an altered cheese box. The rubber Stamps used are the Road Trip set by Artistic Outpost and these and all the other items used on the box are available from Happy Daze.

I Think I feel an Obsession Coming On

I make some of these every year as I have a large wooden chest in my hallway that I have a load of them stacked up on, they always get a lot of interest when people come to visit and the children love them. I normally just make one set a year as I enjoy getting them out each year as they bring back memories of the time I made that particular set.

But I have discovered that the Crafty Individual papers fit exactly onto the blocks and I have already made my 2nd set to keep this year and now I have found the book of angel images I have too, and they have a new set I have just seen in the shop. Dilemma !! damn I will just have to do them all. Off to buy the new set of papers now....trotting off

Christmas Blocks

I have altered this wooden childrens blocks using scrapbook papers. I simply glued, sanded and distressed the edges. Quick and simple.

New Crafty Individuals Challenge - All Wrapped up

The new theme over at Crafty Individuals this month is all about the wrapping.
I have lots of little nieces and nephews a few of which live overseas so I always send them money so they can buy what they fancy after christmas, as its always nice to have a bit of cash to spend after all the presents are undone.

I usually make them little money cards and envelopes to send it in and this year I have made a very basic one using one of the new Crafty Individuals christmas stamps from this year CI-311 and a element from CI-326 .