I can read you like a book...

Hi blog friends, thank you for visiting.  I've been a bit quiet lately as DT duties have taken up a bit of my time and also the real life has been busy...fun, but busy, what with the dancing exam looming and OH deciding that we should get back into Star Trekking and cosplay after 12 years absence and we were both a lot thinner then so none of the costumes will fit (actually scared to look as I think some of them will have rotted) and guess who makes the costumes?  (not sure Star Trekkin and cosplay count as real life but you get the idea.)

Anyway, the challenge at Anything But A Card is "Hit the Books".  I am a bookworm by nature.  I can't remember not loving reading and books and stories - my parents were both great readers, especially my mother.  I also love boxes - I can spend an afternoon just taking things out of boxes and putting them back in again...I suppose it is a bit sad....

So, this is my faux book box.  It's just about big enough to hold a pack of playing cards (and it came with an even smaller version as well!)  I used a technique learned from Andy Skinner's Book of Ruination online workshop (and if you want to know how it's done then you should sign up for the workshop!) I painted the sides in Aged Silver EcoGreen paint, put some silver gilding flakes on redline tape on the spine, added some chain and embellishments, with a couple of magnets to act as a closure, and a Tim Holtz keyhole for effect.

I lined inside the box with some marbled paper from Joanna Sheen, which I have had for years.  What will I keep in the box?  Well, Lady Ermintrude has her eye on it to store her keepsakes from the Major...

Precious Time

Hello blog friends, and welcome to my bit of the Blogiverse.  With Father's Day fast approaching, there are quite a few blog challenges that have set masculine/father type criteria.  And as Craft Supervisor Mysti is scrupulous in her observance of Father's Day, quite apart from bring Daddy's Cat and having missed him TERRIBLY when he was in hospital recently - well, something had to be done!

The Love of My Life loves pocket watches;  he has quite a collection. So when the Alterations Pocket Watch die came out, I had to get it - and it was just perfect for this year's FD greeting.

Open the cover and inside -

The cat face stamp is from Stampendous and the kitten has been stamped with a Creative Impressions stamp and the cut out from its background.  Open the inner frame-

to reveal the concertina fold album inside, featuring CS Mysti herself!  (she's going to get me to write a special message inside!)

If you'd like to see the "How I did it", you can see the details here -

This is being entered into the following challenges -

Anything But A Card - Masculine

The Artistic Stamper Blog Challenge - Makes for Men

Country View Crafts Blog Challenge - Use Die Cuts

Thanks for visiting!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

Out of my comfort zone!

Those nice people at the Anything But A Card blog have challenged us to make something using a very specific colour palette this time, and the colours they've chosen are light-years away from my usual preferences!

As you can see, not me at all!  However, I gave it a shot.

I coloured the background of the tag with DI's in Pine Needles, Peacock and Broken China, which gave a good approximation of the green, and when stamped with water (using a bold stamp designed for home decor!) lifted enough colour to get close to the turquoise.  I painted some crinoline fabric with acrylic paints and inked over the top to try to match the pink, cranberry and the beige, and when they were dry I die cut the flowers (Alterations Tattered Florals, of course!) and layered them up.

I stamped the man with cane (from Lost Coast Stamps) and the sentiment ( Tim Holtz from Stampers Anonymous) in Cranberry Adirondack, then added the flowers. I finished it off by gluing some pearls into the centres of the flowers. 

And that was it.  Not a colour combination I would have chosen, but you know, I rather like it!  I hope you did too!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

A Cameo Appearance!

I knew as soon as I saw the Tim Holtz Alterations Cameo Frame that it was going to be one of my favourites.  There's just something about the shape that says "days of Yore".  And the movers and shapers ovals work so well within the shape...I just LOVE it! 

So, I've been playing.  I started by embossing some Kraft card (some packaging material, as a matter of fact) with an embossing folder, then once I'd die cut the frame I gave it an undercoat of off-white acrylic paint.  (I was aiming for a ceramic effect, but it didn't work out that way!) I love this embossing folder - it's got a real William Morris feel about it, and I do so like William Morris...

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Once it was dry, I gave it a few layers of very well-watered paint to antique it, dry brushed  the highlights, and repeated until I was happy with the effect.   (In real life, it's a warmer colour than it looks in the photo.) The Kraft card I'd started with gave it a texture that was a bit like wood, so  I abandoned the idea of making it look like ceramic and gave it a couple of coats of Klear floor wax (now called Pledge Multi-Surface wax).  It doesn't really show in the photo, but the Klear gives it a lovely satin finish.  I die- cut a piece of chipboard for the backing, and glued a strut from the same material to the back of it.  Once I added the photo and glued it all together, the job was done!   

 

So -as I was inspired by William Morris to put this together, I will enter it into the "Inspired By" challenge at the  Anything But A Card Blog challenge.

(The photo is of  me, aged three.  I'm wearing a dress my sister made for me, and strangely enough, I remember it- it was turquoise blue cotton, and she did the smocking on it herself.   Isn't it funny how some things stay with you? )
Anyway, I will be making more of these little frames and will show them to you as they're done. I do hope you enjoyed your visit here - thank you for stopping by, and please do call again!

Green as Grass

Hi all, thank you for stopping by.  Today's offering is for the Anything But  A Card blog challenge, and this time the theme is - green.

Green isn't may favourite colour, I have to say.  I wasn't even thinking of entering the challenge.  In fact, I was trying to overcome crafter's block that had set in while trying to produce my mum-in-law's Mother's Day card. When I was making my tag for Tim's 12 tags, I'd accidentally printed out too many sheets of the background paper (from Sheena Douglass's Paint Fusion CD), and was trying to base the card on the papers I had left over (waste not, want not).  I eventually abandoned that idea, but used some of the paper to cover a tag I'd made a mess of for another chllenge (Tag- You're It!) - so this is green in more ways than one!

What else?  Well,  I stamped the fern frame around the edge of the tag (stamp from Kanban) with some Peeled Paint Distress ink; the roses are from My Paper Stash, the silver mesh was a scrap left over from another projct, and so was the silver bead chain.  A scrap of ribbon from my stash and that was it - and I wasn't even trying!

Feel the Love - 1

I admit it, I'm a big softy when it comes to Valentine's Day. Yes, even after years of marriage.   The second time around, too.  In my head I'm still 18 and as romatic as ever.  So I like to make a bit of an effort with The Love Of My Life's Valentine and as there are a number of Valentine/romance/hearts and flowers related challenges going on right now, well...

Having said I'm a big softy, I don't like giving TLOML something that is too sweety-sweety.  In the past I've done mini-albums, minimalist white-on-white, a CD slideshow - all sorts of things.  This year I've gone Steampunk (we both love the style - just as well really!)

I began with a papier-mache box (one of a nested set of three.  This is the middle-sized one) and covered it with aluminium insulating tape (I got some 50 mm wide from the DIY store, and I also got some 100 mm wide from Ebay).  I followed the technique demonstrated by Tim Holtz here. 

I die cut some gears (from the Chronology range by Docrafts) and the letters (Sizzix Bigz XL - Word Play) rubbed on Gilder's Paste in shades of gold, silver and bronze and antiqued them all with a very dilute wash of black acrylic paint.  When they were dry, I stuck them all to the lid of the box.

That's part one done and dusted - now I just have to make the card to go inside.  But before I go on to make the card, I'm going to enter this in the Anything But A Card blog challenge nd the Hostshot Craft Blog Challenge.

 

See you in Part 2!

Tempus Fugit..

...which, in English, means "Time Flies".  The Anything But A Card Blog challenge is to make anything but a card (naturally!) including something that has wings.  So of course, I made a clock.  With wings.

I was inspired to make this by a project in the latest Creativity magazine from Docrafts, which was based upon altering a carriage clock.  I didn't have a carriage clock to alter - so I made my own out of chipboard.  The main part lifts off so treasures can be kept inside - I'm thinking of maing a mini album to fit inside but I haven't decided yet!  Just for once I took photos so I could show you what I did - you can find them on my website here. 

Apart from the wings, which were cut with a Tim Holtz Alterations die, and the chipboard, which came out of a box of envelopes, the whole thing was made using items from the Chronology range from Docrafts.  I'm a Steampunk fan so this range is totally my cup of tea - I hope it's around for a while, but I'm taking no chances and I'm stocking up!

Anyway, thank you for visiting and I hope you enjoyed.  You're welcome to drop by at any time!

 

My Favourite Thing...

I don't normally revisit my posts, but those nice people at Anything But a Card have set an "Anything Goes/Favourite of 2012" challenge to finish up the year.  So what was my favourite project of 2012?  It has to be my final assemblage for the Timeworn Techniques course - Davy Jones's Locker (or, The Dead Man's Chest).  I'm really glad to have the opportunity to show it again, because I am particularly proud of it!

I learned such a lot from Andy Skinner's course and for the final assemblage I wanted to showcase as many of the techniques as possible.  The effects are mostly achieved with paint plus a few other items and were such fun to do.  (If you want to know how and want to know more then have a peep over at Andy Skinner for his excellent online workshops, http://www.andyskinnercrafts.com/online-workshops.html.  Sorry, but I can't reveal techniques gained from the class, it wouldn't be right or fair on Andy and I would be in breach of copyright.)

The chest is constructed from chipboard which came in boxes of envelopes and is based on a paatern from Laura Denison (I altered the proportions a bit) and the whole thing took me nearly two weeks (on and off) to complete (mainly because I kept thinking of other things to add to it!)  If you want to see more views then the original post is here.

Before I go, I just want to thank you for visiting my blog in 2012 - it's the first year I've really taken the time to share my creations and I appreciate all the lovely comments you've taken the trouble to leave.  Being a bit of a Blog Lurker myself I am always inordinately pleased when someone comments - thank you all.  Especial thanks to those of you who have chosen to follow me.

Anyway, hope you have a happy new year and I'll see you in 2013!

Black in style!

I have a week off work, which means I can get caught up with my crafting (I pour scorn on the suggestion that I could get caught up with the housework instead!).  I do like to enter blog challenges when I have the time - they make me try things I wouldn't usually attempt. 

 

The challenge over at the Anything But A Card challenge blog is to make something that features black.  So I'm hoping that this tag qualifies!

 

 

 

 

 

The background I embossed with an embossing folder then stippled some black acrylic all over to get a rusty texture, then employed some of Andy Skinner's Timeworn Techniques to make it all aged and grungy looking. I couldn't resist a bit of "decayed rust" along the bottom of the tag . 

The roses I made from velvet paper.  I LOVE velvet paper and I really like the texture it gives to the flowers.  The petals are die cut using the Spellbinders Rose Creations dies and my favourite method (see here for how-to's)  The leaves were cut from some Kraft glassine "gilded" as shown in TIm Holtz's Compendium of Curiosities Volume II. 

The gears I die-cut (using the Gadget Gears die from the Sizzix Alterations range - has to be one of my favourite dies!) from scrap greyboard before getting the timeworn treatment.

The whole thing came out looking a bit Gothic to me - what do you think?