Sunday Stampers week 264; Home - Wednesday 3rd July

Good evening Friends!

A late posting for me today - I had one of those days where I seemed to be working on so many projects in my craft room that I didn't  feel as if I was getting anywhere very quickly! However, I did complete a commission (I'm getting near the end of them, then I can relax a while - though I do already have Christmas orders!); I think I have decided on my group's card for our next workshop; I made my bro-in-law's birthday card and I made my Sunday Stamper project - so looking back, I guess it was a productive day afteralll!

This week, Hels Sheridan gave us the theme of 'Home' and I discovered that amongst all my stamps I don't have one with any quote or sentiment with this word! I set out to make a card, but last week when I was having a rummage in Bristol, I found a plain wooden little birdhouse ornament for just a few ££'s - of course I bought it just so I could alter it in some way!

It really was a blank canvas and half way through painting it I realised I should have photographed it in its 'naked' state! Hey-ho :)

I gave it a coat of  Wild Honey distress paint and after making a pattern for the measurements, especially as there is a heart 'hole' in the front and a little step, I cut some  pretty Teresa Collins paper to cover each side. After sticking in down I inked all the edges with Wild Honey distress ink.

The owl stamp is by Woodware; I stamped the image several times on different scraps of patterned paper and then paper-pieced them. The sentiment is a digital stamp by Pink Petticoat. I cut the sentiment into a banner shape and attached it at a slight angle to the front of the bird house. The owls and sign were also given a coat of glossy accents (or actually in this case Modge Podge). To finish, I die cut some little flowers in felt.

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting - I have a busy day at work tomorrow and we are out in the evening, so I may not get around my next blog hop until Friday,

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

Weathered Shell Box - Thursday 20th June

Hello Blog Friends!

I hope you all managed to enjoy some sun yesterday, because I don't think Mr Sunshine is coming out this morning (at least not here in the Southwest, where it's pouring down!). Yesterday was a non work day for me, so the hens enjoyed a wonderful day in the garden, whereas I spent most of it inside making up my packs for the ladies at our workshop tonight and finishing off this little box that I started last week!

My regular followers will know how much I have have been enjoying using this stamp from Crafty Individuals and tonight is the second workshop where we will be using it - my group of ladies (a different group to last time), will be making the twisted easel I posted here.

When I saw that this month's Crafty Individuals Challenge had a beach theme and having made quite a few beachy projects lately, some of them using this stamp, I knew I wanted to create something other than a card. This wooden box had been on my altered art stash shelf for a while and looking at it, the idea of a shell box came to me...

First of all I sanded the box and then gave it a coat of Claudine Helmuth Gesso, both inside and out.  I made masks of the stamps from post it notes and positioned them on the box where I wanted to stamp them, then using a dotty mask I stencilled through with embossing paste. Once dry, I  sanded slightly and gave the entire outside a coat of acrylic (parchment colour); then I stamped the beach huts, sentiment and bathing belle and gave a wash of colour with promarkers.

Next I coated the front and sides with crackle accents to give a protective finish and left to dry...in an attempt to make the box appear as if it had been around for years, I rubbed it inside and out with gold rub n' buff and the edges with Patina metallic gilding wax.

 To decorate I added shells, starfish, some little metal charms and hessian to the top and sides and knotted some craft ribbon rope before tying around the box. I also decided to use a piece of knotted rope for the 'handle'.

I rubbed some of the gold relief inside the box leaving areas of parchment paint showing to create and worn look.

I stamped the quote 'May you always have a shell in your pocket' from the same stamp set(love this!) on card, tore it, distressed it and fixed it to the inside of the box lid. Then I stamped the postcard from Crafty Individuals stamp CI-119, a few times and inked with distress inks to make them look old. I distressed the edges and crumpled them up before tying with vintage lace (which I coloured with Vintage Photo distress ink)

To add finishing touches, I used some bottle tops, added a starfish to one and little shells with the others and filled with UTEE heated in my melting pot; I also made a cast of a shell from heated UTEE and added some shells collected on my own travels.

Well I think that's about it!!! Thank you so much for stopping by!

I would like to enter this project in the Crafty Individuals June challenge: Sun, Sea & Beach

I would also like to enter this project in the Our Creative Corner June Challenge: Recipe and have used:  

List A: Fabric: Hessian, craft rope and lace

List B: Wooden box, metal embellishments

List C:  Inks, Acrylic paints and rub n' buff stain

Love and Hugs

Carole X

Sunday Stamper wk 243 - Friday 8th February

Hello Friends!

Sorry I've been missing most of the week - it was the usual 'thing', I  said yes to more commissions than I should have and was also really busy at work, so have been really tired this week and not much time for crafting for the fun of it!

Believe it or not, I started this week's Sunday Stampers project last Sunday. For those who don't know, this is a weekly challenge set by the oh-so-talented Hels Sheridan and I just always have to try my best to take part. The theme of this week's challenge set by Hels is 'Animals' and when I saw the project Hels herself had made I couldn't believe it - Hels used the "Crowned Bunnies' stamp by Alice Palace from Crafty Individuals, which along with another AP stamp 'Favourite Ducks' is my favourite stamp right now!

You saw me using this stamp on the Indigo Blu Cog Clock I made a few weeks ago..ithis stamp really cries out for more that simply using to create a card (though I have made many!). Anyway, even if Hels hadn't used it, I would have, so I decided to go ahead and use it anyway! I knew what I wanted to do: I picked up this little frame for just a few ££'s in Bath before Christmas and it has been sitting in my 'art parts' box ever since and now was the time to give it a life!

However, As soon as I started I knew that I may not finish it, so late one night at the end of a crafting session I even made a quick bunny card - just -in -case - I'll share that over the weekend....

The photo frame was brown so I gave it a coat of Claudine Helmuth Gesso and then a thin coat of acrylic. Then I gave it a light sanding just to give it a 'roughness' and bring the base colour through  - ever so slightly. The hearts were already on the frame, so I left them alone!

Next I stamped the bunnies, coated them with clear embossing powder and heat dried.

The flourish stamps were actually sent as a freebie from Crafty Individuals when I bought the bunnies, so I thought that I would use them fairly randomly over the frame.

I stamped them with Indigo Blu Flitterglu and then coated with gilding flakes, I also stamped the sentiment  (which comes with the Ducks stamp) on black card with flitterglu and gave it the gilding flake treatment too.

Finally, I stamped the hearts. I used some  'you' and 'me' stamps from a set by 'Inkadinkadoo' that I picked up in a bargain bin somewhere last year. I used a Versamark pen and then heat embossed with a mixture of gold and Ranger 'Old Paper' distress embossing powders. Finally I added the little metal butterfly!

So there you are! Hope you like it and thank you sooooo much for stopping and commenting!

Crafty Hugs,

Carole X

Sunday Stampers week 242 - Friday 1st February

Hello again Friends,

Welcome to my new follower...thank you so much for choosing to join my tiny part of this massive, warm-hearted creative part of blog land, I very much appreciate all of you!

As promised earlier  I am back with my Sunday Stampers project for this week...this time Hels Sheridan set us the theme of including the word 'Wish' in our projects. I have a confession about this one, it's still a work in progress! I had the idea on Sunday, started it Monday night, then got caught up with all the workshop preparations, plus I've had a lot of commissions land in my email box...so it was a bit of a hurried attempt to get it posted today.

I decided to make a grungy craft wish list book, somewhere to jot down all my craft desires and this what I have come up with so far...

 The cover is just a piece of cardboard I had saved in my 'art parts' box, from some packaging. I gave it a quick coat of gesso and after it hd dried inked it with Brush Corduroy and Vintage Photo distress inks. I wanted it to look quite grungy and like  a rough piece of wood.

I then inked the printed list with a Studio 490 stamp by Wendy Vecchi and distressed the edges. The typewriter stamp and letters are from a set by Sam Poole. I stamped the letters several times to use on the cover and index sheets. The corner element is a Teresa Collins Stamp. I stamped everything with clear embossing ink, fixed with clear embossing powder.

You can't really see it in the photo, but I did use a Cog Mask and put it through the Grand Calibur, the result is quite faint but does add another tactile element to the card.

The flower and butterfly  were in my box of die-cuts I'd already made and not used and the little button is something I made from salt dough after watchin Ali Reeve on TV a few weeks ago! I coloured it with Promarkers.

I wanted the cover to me a mix of all crafty items I love using..so we have stamping, Spellbinders, embossing, distress inks, masks and I had to get the Promarkers in there somewhere! I need to add more pages and index titles, but this was a fun little project!

Thanks for stopping by!

Carole Z X