Christmas in September

The new challenge starts today on the That's Crafty Challenge blog. This is my make for the blog. 

An upcycled coffee jar altered with Fresco Paint and a Dinky Stencil. Details can be seen on a video on my Youtube channel.

See it HERE

Thanks for your visit today, Carol x

Icon Lolly Sticks

I made these for a swap I am joining in with on a Facebook group I belong to called Mini Marvels.

The swap this time was to alter 6 lolly pop sticks. I was recently given some lovely images by a friend and I decided to do an Icon theme for my sticks.

I started by covering both sides of the sticks with a bit of left over Gelli print before adding my image and then layering little pieces of collage over the bottom are of the stick.

I then applied Grunge paste through a stencil to the top and bottom before adding gold colour with Gelatos and Treasure gold.

I then sealed them on the front and back to make them a little bit more hardy to handle.

Starry Night for Stampotique SDC209

It is Wednesday so that means a new challenge at the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog which my lovely teamie Sam is hosting this week.

She has asked us to repeat ourselves and I have used only one stamp on my make this week, again, and again and again.

I have used one of my favorite stamps Text Star by Jo Capper-Sandon. This is one of the first Stampotique stamps I got and it is one I go for time and time again for a background or a focal point.

I stamped it repeatedly onto my jam jars using black Stazon, outlined it and then filled the shape in with Decoart glass paint. Winding wire around the top to make a handle and to give it a bit of a rustic look.

The full details of the Challenge can be seen HERE. Including details of how to link your items for the challenge and be in with a change to win a $30 voucher to spend on Stampotique Rubber stamps.

Stampotique Rubber Stamps are available to buy directly from Stampotique originals and other on-line shops.

Enjoy the challenge, Carol xx

All you need is love Challenge

It's time for a new challenge at That's Crafty and the theme is All you need is love.

I picked up a bag of decorated hearts last christmas in a charity shop and I have used on for my project today. I painted it cream to cover the design printed on it and then sponged on DecoArt Multi surface paint.

I then used the stamp plate Collaged Hearts and black archival ink to decorate it, filling in the gaps with elements from the Dina Wakley textures set.

Finishing it with a quote, a few flat back glass beads and some string.

I added a large magnet to the back to use it as a fridge magnet.

Full details can be seen on the Challenge Blog

Hope you have time to enter, Carol x

Stampotique - It Must Be Love SDC153

It's Wednesday so it means it's time for the new Stampotique challenge. This week the lovely Kim who keeps us all in check is the hostess for the challenge and she has chosen the theme of anniversary/love for us this week

I have decoated a purchased heart this week. I picked up a few of these last year as I liked them and they have sat in a draw since then, but as soon as I saw the theme Kim had chosen I dragged one out to use. The ribbon is stamped with Daniel's hearts using stazon ink, and I love this quote. I have stamped and embossed it with an opaque embossing powder, I love the way this white looks as it looks like chalk on a blackboard and is not raised at all, it looks how I wish I could get a white inkpad to stamp keeping the density of the white.

I used the following stamps on my tag

Daniel's hearts
Whole Heart text

The full details of the Challenge can be seen HERE.

Stampotique Rubber Stamps are available to buy from Stampotique originals .

I hope you get a chance to join in this week, Carol x

Scribbly Women Door Hanger

This week for my Project for That's Crafty, I have used the Scribbly Women stamps to alter a wooden Door Hanger.

Full details can be seen on the That's Crafty blog.

Thank you for visiting, Carol x

That's Crafty on a Thursday

This week my project for That's Crafty is an upcycled picture frame that I picked up in a 2nd hand shop. Full details can be seen  on the That's Crafty Blog.

Have a Happy Thursday, Carol x

New Challenge at Craft Stamper

The new challenge starts today on the Craft Stamper Blog, it runs for 2 months and full details can be seen on the Blog.

I have altered the ceramic tile to use as a drinks coaster using paints and ink.

Hope to see you joining in with the challenge, Carol x

Stampotique Something New

It's Wednesday which can mean only one thing, it's a new challenge theme at Stampotique Designers Challenge blog and this week my fellow teamie Kaz is our hostess and here is what she has to say:

"I am just a little bit nosey, so for this challenge I'd like you to use something that Santa brought you! Don't worry if you didn't get crafty stash, just use something that you recently bought for yourself. If you really want to, you could make something with the theme of something new as well. Just make sure you enjoy making it."

I didn't get any crafty goodies for christmas, but I did buy myself a copy of Cloth, Paper, Sissors to read over the holiday and on one of the pages was a lovely project using wooden blocks and this made me revisit something I was doing a lot a year or so ago, which was decorating these little bits of mixed media heaven, so using the four blocks pictured below.

 I made the finished item that you see at the start of this post. For four little wooden blocks it made a terrible mess on my desk!!!

I used the following stamps

Birdy Up

elemements from France's Carousel stamp

Design Cube

Please check out the BLOG for details of how to join the challenge and for how you can possibly win $30 of Stampotique vouchers.

Hope you have a lovely day, Carol x

Two Ducks for That's Crafty

I love these two ducks on this stamp plate by Alice Palace for Crafty Individuals . I have used them on my DT piece for That's Crafty this week. To see the full post and details of all the items I used please have a look on their blog HERE.

Thank you for visiting, Carol x

Flying Pigs at 6 O'Clock For That's Crafty

I have altered a Tando clock this week for That's Crafty, please do pop on over to the blog to have a better look.

Thank you for looking, Carol x

Hanging about With Alice

I have been pondering about getting these set of Alice stamps for ages as I already own lots of Alice in Wonderland images. In the end I gave in as I really love this image of Alice and the White queen.
The stamps are Wonderland Collage and are by the Artistic Outpost.

Thank you for visiting, Carol x

Wedding Memory Box For Unruly Paperarts

My First post for the Unruly Blog. The theme this month was wedding, so I have altered this larger sized box to be a wedding memento box to keep all those little bits and pieces in that you accumulate from your special day.
I personally have lots of bits and pieces including all the usual bits, one of the corks from the bottles of champagne, some of the decorations from the cake and some more random ones, some of the confetti thrown at me that one of my little bridesmaids collected and gave to me, and a small collection of six  hand drawn pictures that one of the guests did for me during the reception.
To see more pictures and a small tutorial of how it was done have a look on the Unruly Blog.

Carol x

Jubilee Suitcase For Happy daze

I have made a little Jubilee Suitcase for my project for the blog this week. You can see the full details on the Happy Daze Blog.
Dont forget the current challenge is May Queen, Full details of the challenge and how to enter can be found on the blog , there is a £15 gift voucher to spend on the shop as a prize.
Carol x

A Little Bit of Alice

I have had this half finished for ages, along with a pile of other stuff. So before I start anything new I am going to finish off a few things. I had about 10 micro slides half done, all different designs and this is one of them, on which have used vintage Alice In Wonderland images from collage sheets by Alpha Rubber stamps.

As I have just noticed via an email that the Theme for that altered Alice this monht is anything goes....so this is going in for the challenge, also pretty fitting as Alpha rubber Stamps are their sponsor this month too.

Carol x

Octopode Sun Catcher

A little hanging sun catcher using octopode's Glinda and some of her Oz Friends. This is the remake of what my cat laid on in the previous post. It is a glass shape that has been stamped and then viva Croco applied over the top of the image. the viva reacts with the alcohol inks and give quite a cool stained glass effect as it splits all the alcohol ink up. I have run a line of solder round the edge of it. I also soldered jump rings to the bottom edge so I could hang Tim Holtz fragments with the Tin man, Lion and Scarecrow images on them.
It now hangs in my window and looks pretty.

Carol x

Birds Of A feather Bird House

I have used one of the wooden Bird Houses for this. All of the images used are from the Artistic Outpost Plate, Birds Of A Feather. apart from the music for the roof, which is an old acrylic stamp I have had for ages and I have not idea who makes it.

I first gave the house a coat of Claudine Hellmuth's Sky Blue Paint. I then thinned some of the paint on my craft mat and gave a bit of white tissue a quick coat of it. I dried  it with my heat gun and then cut pieces to fit all the sides and roof of the house ( I do these houses a lot so I have a little set of templates that I keep for this).

I stamped my images directly onto the tissue masking as needed.
I then glued them to the house using multi medium, also giving it a top coat to protect it.
I gave it a quick rub over with Picket Fence distress stain and ran a Black Dabber around all the edges.

Dont forget this months challenge theme is music themed pieces. To see all the details and to upload your creations the post is on the Blog HERE.

Alice In Wonderland Altered Bottle

The glass bottle has had a layer of multi medium applied to it before a coat of clear viva crackle was added to it, when this was dry I alcohol  inked over it and its given it a lovely aged look.
I did have real problems getting the wire hearts to attatch to it. In the end I had to resort to winding them around the handle, I am not really happy with how this looks and it maybe one of those things I rip apart again to have another go at. It also needs something else but at the moment I cannot see what it is. But as I have been faffing with it on and off for a few days between other projects, and I wanted to enter it into the simon Says stamps and show challenge, and it ends this evening, so this is it for now, warts and all.
The little wire hearts were inspired by something I saw on my friend Julie's blog.

Paris Exposition Vanity Box For Happy Daze

This Box is for the happy Daze Design Team Blog
I have used the Artistic Outpost stamps Paris Exposition and French Flight to alter this Box. The Box is one of the Vanity Boxes available from the shop.

The background has been created by using a crackle paint background, I found the blue was too bright when this was done, so I applied a coat of Picket Fence distress stain which gave it a lovely aged look.

Viva Inka Gold in Hematite was applied through a crafters Workshop Stencil.

All the stamping was done using black archival ink.

Acrylic fragments and arrows were added to the lid.

The challenge this month is "March To Your Own Tune" use anything musical. For full details of the challenge have a look HERE

Steampunk Time Travellers Book For Happy Daze

Pop the key in the keyhole give it a quick twist to turn the cogs that have been revealed by the aged and torn cover, the engine on the back will start and wizz your off to the destination you have written in the book.
Just be sure that your key number is the same as your book, or who know's where you could end up.

II have used the new Artistic Outpost stamps Industrial Backgrounds on this book available from Happy Daze.

For full details of how this was made check out the post on their blog.