At Random

At Random

Hello Again!

Shaking things up a tad this

month - not necessarily sticking

to our usual days!  Have to keep

you on your toes..........Hehe!

Here is Claire Jackson with a

rather beautiful perfume bottle...:

"I stamped the Blue Fern Studios 

Bottled Sentiments stamp in 

Distress Oxide inks.

 I over-stamped in different colours using

 a stamping platform.

 

I then masked off the images and added 

the background, with a mixture of sponging 

and stamping, before adding the

 sentiment and layering it all up.

I made a little tag, from one of the other 

stamps in the set, using shrink plastic

 and glossy accents."

Thank you Claire - I love the

simplicity of the design and the

colours you have chosen.

That little bottle tag sets it

all off very well.  Just goes to

show you don't need mountains

of stash to start you off

Of course if a highly developed

stash mountain is your goal then

step into the SALE and see what

you can find............

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

For the Girls

For the Girls

Hi There!

So here we are with the 

final project in this strand

and what a project it is....

Here's Jane Castle to

show you what she made:

 

The project I have made does take a little time

 to make but then if you are going to give 

someone a handmade present your 

time is the main part of the gift. 

So grab a cuppa and we will make a start.

One of my main hobbies is gardening 

and I like to save seeds for the next 

growing year. 

A very close friend and neighbour is 

a keen gardener also and we

 always give each other birthday and 

christmas presents, nothing expensive but 

always something with a special thought. 

So I decided to turn this wonderful 

mini house into a seed shed for her.

Using Art-C mini house box kit I gave

 the outsides of each part a coat of white gesso.

The inside of the base, back and 2 sides 

were then covered with some of 

Imagination Crafts Rice paper.

 This was attached using 

Ranger Distress Collage Medium.

The distress medium does make the background

 quite a bit darker as you can see 

in the photo above.

Next I made a start on the seed envalopes. 

For these I used some ordinary brown

 wrapping paper as this helps to keep the 

seeds dry. 

Cutting pieces 10cm x 10.5cm, I then made 

folds so that the finished size would be 6cm x 4cm. 

the corners were cut away so as to 

remove some of the bulk.

In the picture above you can see the various stages, 

the last one has the bottom sealed and 

the top open ready to be filled.

I stamped the labels onto white card using 

black ink and a stamp from JM15. These were then 

lightly coloured using Chalk Cloud blending 

ink before hand writting. 

The envelopes were stamped and heat embossed 

with white powder using various PaperArtsy stamps.

The tag was made from kraft card and also 

heat embossed.

The seed packets were then filled --

and immediately sealed. 

Poppy seeds can go a very long way !!!

At this point I decided to make a sign for 

my shed, so masking off a stencil I 

inked onto a strip of shrink plastic.

This took about an hour to dry and then

 I cut it to shape and punched the holes

 in the top before heating

Now onto decorating the outside,

 the roof had a coat of Granny Smith paint 

before adding Grunge Paste through a Tando mask.

 I added a little Slate paint to the paste 

before applying it to the roof. 

Once dry I lightly sanded and 

added some Treasure Pewter.

The sides and the back were painted in 

Blush paint and then sponged with the 

Chalk Cloud blending ink in Toasted Rose. 

Stamped flowers were added using

 Carabelle Studio 'Zinouk du Jardin'.

Using the same stamp set I made a 

little figure, she was stamped onto

 300gsm card and then cut out. 

Her dress was stamped onto an off cut 

of painted card and stuck on top. 

Colour was added to the figure with 

Distress Markers.

Self adhesive gems for the ear-rings and

 Liquid Pearls for her buttons. 

The spade was stamped from JM 43.

There are holes in the 2 roof pieces so I 

added a ribbon bow and attached the 

'Don't eat the Daisies' tag.

The 'Seed' sign was threaded with some 

silk thread and tied to the decorative edging 

which was painted in China paint.

Zinouk and her spade were stuck on 

with some glue and the seed packets

 popped inside.

As this is a fairly small house/shed

 it's hard to catch the detail of the 

inside on camera.

I have been very impressed with this kit, 

it all went together very nicely.

I might include a battery nightlight to go 

inside for when the seeds have 

been planted.

The bow could be untided and then

 it could hang from a branch on a

 summers evening.

Thinking about it several would look

 very cute!!"

Items Used

Art-C Mini House Box Kit

Brown Parcel Wrapping Paper

Imagination Crafts Rice Paper

Ranger Distress Collage Medium

Shrink Plastic

Brilliance Ink Pads

Tando Creative Mask

PaperArtsy Stencil

PaperArtsy Grunge Paste

PaperArtsy Rubber Stamps

Carabelle Studio Rubber Stamps

Ranger Liquid Pearls

PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylic Paints

Cosmic Shimmers Chalk Cloud Blending Ink

Treasure Pewter

Stampendous Embossing Powder

and some seeds!

Thank you Jane - I can

just see these little houses

dotted about the garden

holding those little battery 

operated night lights!

Another delightful present

don't you think?......

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

New Home

New Home

Hallo There!

I read somewhere that

the school holidays are

becoming the time to 

move house.  It seems

that nowadays pupils

should live in the

right catchment area

Fitting the move in

with the family summer

holiday must take a bit

of juggling...........

Here's Hazel Harler with a

super tutorial for us

"Hi there, today I'm sharing with you a 

New Home card and gift tag using a 

Riley and Company Mushroom Lane stamp.

First I stamped the image onto white card

 using black Archival ink.

The image was coloured with watercolour pencils

 and a water brush.

I coloured a piece of white card with 

fossilized amber distress oxide.

I stamped some dots round the edge using a

 Paperartsy/Lin Brown stamp and

 fired brick distress oxide.

I then matted the background onto some

 red card and then onto a yellow card blank

 - if you haven't got a yellow card blank 

colour the edges of a white one with

 fossilized amber distress oxide ink.

I matted the image onto some red card

 leaving the bottom a little longer than the image.

 I wrapped some yellow ribbon round the bottom

 and then I attached it to the card blank. 

I attached the sentiment [stamp unknown], 

some tiny flowers and ladybirds

 that I found in my stash.

Now for the key fob:

I stamped the image onto shrink plastic 

with black Stazon ink.....

 ....then coloured the image with watercolour

 pencils but didn't use any water. 

I punched a hole at the top and used 

a corner punch to round the corners.

I made a tag to match the card and 

heated the shrink plastic with my 

heat gun to shrink it then 

I attached a key ring.

I punched a hole at the top of the tag 

and attached the key ring with some ribbon.

 I added a few flowers and a ladybird.

The finished card and tag."

Items used:

Card blank.
Red and white card.
Riley and Company Mushroom Lane stamp.
Black Archival ink.
Watercolour pencils.
Water brush.
Distress Oxide ink pads - fossilized amber and fired brick.
Paperartsy/Lin Brown stamp.
Shrink Plastic.
Black Stazon.
Key Ring.
Hole punch.
Corner Punch.
Double sided tape.
Flowers, ladybirds and sentiment stamp.

Thank you for a lovely card

and gift tutorial Hazel

I rather like the key fob -

might also go well in a

Christmas cracker..........

Oh my goodness!  I've used

the C word - I'd better go

before anyone notices.....

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Collage

Collage

Hi there!

How're you doing?

Good I hope.

It's all good here

Ae you enjoying the Collage

theme as much as I am?  Some

great ideas here for sure and to 

keep things going, here is a

collage from Jane Castle

When the topic of collage appeared on the DT’s list I

 had a vague idea as to what I wanted to make 

but decided to look up the definition in the dictionary;

Collage - a form of art in which 

various materials are arranged 

and glued down to a backing.

Hmmm, lets begin ---

For my base or backing I started with a small 

chunky hanging  board 

which was given a coat of white gesso.

The first layer was made up of a torn page 

from an old dictionary, 

some tissue tape and a pot of 

distress collage medium in matte finish

Once the medium was dry I sprayed parts 

with a mix of 50/50 Distress reinker and water. 

The next layer was then added 

and this time I used the vintage collage medium.

A strip of lace was added to the top.

The paper, tissue tape and lace was added to all 4 sides of the board.

I then tore some areas from a sheet of Imagination Crafts Rice paper 

and added these with the vintage medium. 

Paint was applied to the lace in Inky Pool 

and a dry brush with some Snowflake paint was added 

to the main area to tone the turquoise down slightly.

The side was stamped using a Lavinia trailing ivy stamp and peeled paint DI.

Treasure pewter was applied to the lace at the top.

Then using just the flower seeds of the Lavinia stamp 

I randomly stamped the top and the lefthand side

 using Archival watering can ink

Next using this gorgeous stamp set from Carabelle Studio 

I stamped the images onto waxed tissue paper in

archival inks and using clear embossing powder, 

heat embossed the images.

Parts of the images were also stamped onto coloured card 

ready to cut out and add to the whole images 

once they were stuck on the base.

The tissue paper stamped images were coloured

on the under side using Sakura Gelly Roll pens 

as I was not sure as to whether the inks would bleed 

once the distress medium was applied.

I found a couple of tiny wooden flowers 

which I gave a coat of embossing to

and added some Treasure gold to the edges 

The sentiment was stamped onto some shrink plastic

then once shrunk stuck onto some gold card and 

Treasure Gold added to the very edges to disguise the 2 layers.

I made a tassel and threaded a couple of wooden beads

 and a metal jewellery spacer together 

and added these to the top righthand edge

My only regret with this project is that 

depending on the light it’s not always clear 

that the top righthand piece of rice paper 

is a bird sitting in a nest ---- 

but then it does make you look more closely!!!

Material List

Carabelle Studio Stamps

Lavinia Stamps

Treasure Gold

Imagination Crafts Rice Paper

Sakura Pens

Tim Holtz Collage Medium

Tim Holtz Tissue Tape

Archival Ink

Tim Holtz Reinker

Waxed tissue Paper

Shrink Plastic

Lovely project Jane.  Liked the dictionary

definition too

That's all for today folks.........

See you all again tomorrow

Mickie xx