Boxing Clever

Boxing Clever

Hi There!

Are you beginning to think of

getting away for a long weekend

or maybe even holidaying in the

UK this year?  

Louise Thomson has been

thinking the same and has sent

us a project reminiscent of 

summer holidays .............

"I painted a wooden box, first with 

a couple of coats of gesso, then with

 some fresco finish paints. 

The edges are stamped with a

 Carabelle stamp. 

I painted in all the details, rather

 liking the idea that it could be 

a little Cornish fishing village with

 multi coloured cottages. 

Some subtle detail was added to

 the top by sponging paint on to an 

Impression Obsession cover a card stamp

 and printing it over the lid (I'm afraid it 

doesn't show well in the photo).

 A little distress oxide ink was blended 

around the edges and I finished of

 with a couple of io die cut gulls."

Thank you Louise, a timely 

reminder of summer holidays

and trips to Cornwall.

Impression Stamps Cover-a-Card stamps

can be found here

and IO dies here

Carabelle Expressions stamps are here 

I can almost taste that Cornish clotted

cream .......... dreaming on.....

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

The Christmas Table

The Christmas Table

Hi there!

Expect you've been too busy

to notice that the final item in

The Christmas Table wasn't

there on Saturday.......mea culpa

so, here it is today and well

worth waiting for I can assure

you!

So over to Louise Thomson to

show us how to finish our table:

"It's nearly Christmas!!! 

My favourite time of crafting :)

Today I'm sharing a technique that 

you can use for a Christmas table

 centrepiece, or to make lovely gifts.

I started by cutting lots of shapes from

Bazill card using Sizzix tiny tattered 

florals and winter greens dies.

On the flowers I tapped my clear

 embossing ink pad, then

 sprinkled with gold embossing 

powder and heated to give them

 a varied texture and colour.

I fixed the flowers together in groups

 of two or three using gold brads.

Next I spritzed some of the greenery 

with colour bloom shimmer spray.

To the holly I added a good coating of

 glossy accents and left them to dry 

draped over various things on my desk

 so they would have a bit of shape.

Finally I added dots of liquid pearl

 to the branches with berries.

With all the greenery prepared and set aside,

 I cut further die cuts from a gorgeous

 Impression Obsession die. 

I laid  the die cut over a large church candle 

and wrapped this in a piece of 

greaseproof paper.

I needed three hands to photograph the

 next bit, so you'll have to take my word for it! 

I used my heart gun to gently heat the surface

 of the candle (through the greaseproof) until 

I started to see the colour on the die cut 

change. It does a similar thing to embossing

 powder, you'll see a corner start to change

 and darken then it sort of spreads across

 the whole image.

 Once the whole image was a solid colour 

again it was done. 

I learnt the hard way... 

DON'T TAKE THE GREASEPROOF 

PAPER OFF YET! 

count to ten slowly giving the wax

 time to set a little, then remove it.

 You should find the die cut has

 embedded itself beautifully on to

 the candle.

I repeated this in the other side

 of the candle too.

I ran a couple of strips of double sided 

tape along the bottom of the candle 

and started to adhere the greenery.

With all the greens stuck down, 

I added the flowers back in.

Here's a close up of the

base of the candle:"

Materials:

Sizzix winter greens die set

Sizzix tiny tattered florals die set

Brads

Clear embossing ink

Gold embossing powder

Liquid pearls

Glossy accents

Colour bloom spray

Impression obsession reindeer die

Heat gun

Sizzix big shot

Thank you Louise, this would

look lovely on anyone's table

Our Christmas Table is now

complete - leave you to cook

the turkey/goose/nut roast

or whatever else is the tradition

in your house - but don't

forget the sprouts!  

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

For the Girls

For the Girls

Hallo Everyone

Hope your week has gone well

and you are ready for the

weekend!  Hooray for Friday!

Here is the next instalment

of our current theme, which

I hope you are enjoying and

gaining inspiration from

Helen Chilton has a shrine 

for us today so sit back and

watch the magic unfold....

"I chose the Shadow Box Shrine 

for my Art-C project.

I've started by painting the pieces white 

and sprinkling with Pixie Powders.

Just rub it into the wet paint. I also used Teal Wash.

Then I scraped some Crackle Paint onto one side.

For the flowers, colour some thin card 

with Distress Oxides....

......and then cut out loads with the 

Impression Obsession dies.

Curl them up and wire them with a 

bead in the centre.

I thought the back needed a bit more oomph,

 so I stencilled it in black.

The twirly bits - all provided in the kit - 

have been painted with some of the 

Indian Pink Cosmic Shimmer Metallic Gilding Polish.

The base is painted white and coloured with

 Pixie Powder as before. I then doodled on it in 

black mainly to cover up the fact that I

 can't paint straight lines!

Add a few more loose flowers and 

stick it all together."

Products used:

ART-C 
Cosmic Shimmer Pixie Powders:
Cosmic Shimmer Metallic Gilding Polish:
Impression Obsession dies: 
Imagination Crafts Art Stencil:
DecoArt
PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Paint: 

That is a delightful gift Helen

thank you

You know Everyone, those

flowers are nowhere as fiddly

to make as they look - and

they are quite spectacular 

when wired into a bunch!  All

you need is the die and bits 

of paper from your stash to

get started.......

Just saying....

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx


PS:  Helen will have us making trees 
at Inky Fingers on 18th October at the
Memorial Hall, Lingfield.  If you would 
like to come and join us please follow
this link   :

and if this is more your style:

Helen will be teaching this at Kit n Kaboodle

on 28th October.  Here's the link if you want

to be there.  Again the venue is The Memorial

Hall, Lingfield.

Mxx

Drunken Chalks

Drunken Chalks

Hi There!

Good to have you with us today

and every other day you can

make it too!  

Continuing our crafty inebriation

theme this week is Claire Jackson

and this is what she has to say on

the subject:

"As I’m always experimenting to see if

 I can get new effects using well loved products 

I was keen to find out if the Distress Oxides 

blend with alcohol...and they do on yupo at least. 

If you haven’t used yupo before it’s a non-porous 

synthetic paper.

 First stamp a background using 

broken china Distress Oxide ink onto Yupo.

Stamp leaves around the top and bottom. 

I used cracked pistachio and peeled paint.

Spray the yupo with isopropyl alcohol. 

I used an IPA aerosol spray for cleaning 

computer parts. 

Surgical spirit will work but it has some 

oil added which will leave a slightly greasy finish. 

You must follow the instructions on the spray 

and do this in a well ventilated room. 

Allow the colours to blend to create a soft image. 

Before all the alcohol evaporates use a baby 

wipe to blend the centre section.

Build up more stamping and spray again 

with the alcohol to let it blend. 

Blot it after a few seconds to give a 

slightly harder image. 

Add centres to the flowers using a 

cotton bud.

 With a cotton bud add dots of colour

 between the leaves.

Use black Memento ink to add a sentiment 

and stamping to the edges.

Add white highlights in paint pen. 

Before mounting it give it a spray 

with acrylic sealant. 

This will stop the inks continuing to migrate

 on the yupo and eventually becoming a faded blur."

Materials used:

Yupo:
Distress Oxide inks:
Memento ink:
Impression Obsession background stamp:
Carabelle Studio and PaperArtsy rubber stamps:
White paint pen:
Sealant:

Lovely card Claire, thank you.

Who would have thought that

such loveliness could come from

"drunken" chalks...........😉

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx