Altered Tin

I finally got round to finishing an altered project!  I spent New Year's Day crafting and up to my eyes in paint, inks, tissue paper and varnish.

The tin before a few layers of gesso primer and acrylic paint.  A few colours of alcohol ink (purple, blue and brown) along with blending solution were applied over the top.  Some stamping was done directly onto the tin with black Staz-On ink - dots, stars and flourishes.
Further fluorishes and two types of script were stamped onto white tissue and applied to the tin with  decoupage medium.

A frame was embossed in gold onto tissue and applied with decoupage medium, allowing the image to follow the contours of the tin.  'J.R' were die cut letters from thin black card.

Labels and bottles were stamped onto white tissue which had been previously coloured with alcohol ink and then back filled with cream acrylic paint to create a solid image when decoupaged.  The 'DANGER' sign was stamped onto white tissue paper and painted on the back with white acrylic paint.  The tissue was crumpled a number of times once the paint was dry to crack the paint and give an aged look when stuck to the tin.

The skull image on the lid, was stamped onto white tissue then shading was created with Promarkers in yellow and brown before painting on the reverse with cream acrylic paint. 

The tin was lightly sanded on the corners and brown alcohol ink applied to create a 'rusted' look.  A few coats of varnish were applied to the tin to seal all the elements.

The book plate on the front was made from an aluminium foil food tray, die cut and painted with black patina paint.  Dripping alcohol ink over the painted bookplate, dissolves the patina and leaves the colour behind where the paint has cracked.  Contrasting green card was stamped with 'KEEP OUT!', varnished and placed under the bookplate.
The tin was finished with some charms, chain and pink brads.

Christmas Card 2012

I designed the Christmas card for last year in the summer, buying the stamps at a rather hot and humid craft show.  I normally like to have all my Christmas cards made by the end of September, but last year I was still finishing them off in December!  Hopefully, I will do better this year.

To build the background I used my favourite Distress inks, applied with foam, in blue and black, masking out the moon area with a circle.

Once the mask was removed, a full moon.

To build the remainder of the image for the card I used a selection of Inkylicious stamps.  Although a clear stamp they are wonderful quality and stamp as well as rubber, with the added bonus that you can see where you are stamping (they are good value too).  

It was then just a case of stamping out the elements of the skyline, Santa and reindeer and the stars in a jet black ink...............on all these.

Once all the ink was dry, the 'postcard' was simply mounted on a plain white C6 card, then a little black glitter was added to the back of the sleigh.

Festive Charity Event.....Update

Just before Christmas, myself, along with some of my crafty friends set about raising money towards the new Cystic Fibrosis unit at the Nottingham City Hospital.  Even though we were still in November and on a farm it had a very festive feel about the day!

My make and take was a very simple tag with snowflake stamps and Christmas sentiments.  Including an easy masking technique to create a 'clean' area for the sentiment, everyone's efforts were great, especially from the children who had a go.  I was rather pleased to get one of these tags made by my nephew on a Christmas present last week.

Clare from The Craft Studio did shimmery, shiny Christmas card make and takes - with real fairy dust!  Lots of lovely angelina fibres, sequins and glitter.  What more could you want on a Christmas card?

Extra materials and kits to take home were available for both tags and sparkly Christmas card make and takes from Sticky Tiger Supplies.

Make and takes by Sarah at The Sarah Manton  were Christmas tree baubles. These were made from strips of paper and were really effective - unfortunately I never got time to make any!
 
April showed off her chrochet skills with her stall - April Marie Textiles and demos.  The little chrocheted robins were so cute. 

Dell had a stall selling crafty bits and bobs and jewellery etc. and of course there was cake to buy - the busy stall run by David.  There was also a jewellery make and take, raffle and a crafty lucky dip.

Thanks to everyone who turned up on the day to spend money and help, donated things to sell and raffle off, gave us cash because they couldn't make it, baked cakes, scones and biscuits............we raised the grand total of £438.36.

Tis the Season

No surprise that the ATC swap this month is based on Christmas!

I created my ATCs using a few different colours and stamps, including this freebie from Craft Stamper magazine, made up of hanging stars.

The ATCs were cut from good weight stamping card and backgrounds were created with the turquoise ink and a selection of other colours.  For this example the turquoise was mixed with purple.  Ink was applied with foam, followed by random over-stamping with the dotty 'Fields of Sky' stamp and a snowflake in both colours.

 

The hanging stars were stamped twice across the top of the ATC in clear embossing ink and embossing powder sprinkled over.  The excess was tapped off and heated.

The card was edge in turquoise ink.  An embellishment was made by stamping the 'tis the season' stamp and heat embossing in the same colour embsossing  powder as the stars.  After cutting out the circle it was also edged in turquoise ink. 

A few more in different colours; silver, bronze, blue and  pink, ready for the swap.

Winter Wedding

I like the idea of using a single colour of card for wedding cards.  With a winter wedding, what better than an icy pearlised, textured white?

Unfortunately it was so shiny it didn't photograph at all well - so just extreme close-ups....... 

Rather simple, with a number of different die-cuts,  these were layered up with gel glue to create a dimensional card.  The card and a slightly smaller panel, as well as all the elements (other than the flower) were cut from the same type of card.  A strip of circles was placed across the centre of the card, two nesting die panels layered on top of each other with letter die cuts spelling out 'WEDDING DAY' was glued to the top and this was placed in the centre of the strip die cut.

A rose was made from co-ordinating pearlised paper using a number of punched flowers and mounted onto part of a die cut flourish at the edge of the central panel. The flower was embellished with white seed beads.

To finish, the card was placed in a matching box lined with silver and white snowflake tissue paper.

Printmaking with Gel Printing Plate

The ATC swap this month was Stripes and Spots, so I thought it would be a good excuse to try out my new gel printing plate from Gelli Arts.  Although not completely happy with the final ATCs, I enjoyed the process of the print and some of the effects achieved printing from the plate, especially as it was my first try.


Acrylic paint was applied to the thick sheet of gel and brayered over the surface.

Getting the correct amount of paint was tricky - the print is not good when there is too much paint and different brands of paint have different consistencies.

Using the straight edge of some mount board I lifted paint from the printing plate in stripes all the way across, placed some white card onto the plate then pressed lightly to transfer the paint to the card.

 

My first print from the gel plate! 

Once the yellow stripes were dry, I over printed in black through a spotty mask.  I love the texture from the paint and how the spots have stripes.

To create some more depth to the final ATCs I embossed some more spots using an embossing folder through an embossing machine.  I also lightly sanded the embossed areas to remove some of the paint.

I punched some circles of various sizes and strips of various widths out of black paper and card to embellish the ATCs.

Five ATCs for the swap, all very different from each other due to the nature of the printing and the positions of the stripes and spots.

 

Festive Charity Event

Please come to our Festive Fundraising Event to raise money for a new Cystic Fibrosis Unit at Nottingham City Hospital.
There will be some mini-craft workshops, raffle, handmade gifts and craft materials to buy, as well as cake!