Shairon's Birthday Present & Lotstodo Week 9 - Alter It

I altered this jigsaw piece for Shairon's birthday. I covered it with gesso and used various shades of green ink pads with cut n dry to achieve the background colour. I then painted bottle acrylic onto a piece of bubble wrap and pressed the bubble onto the jigsaw piece. When dry, using olive green stazon I randomly stamped images of keys and locks. Using my heritage wizard die, I cut and embossed the key and lock and covered them in lettuce acrylic paint and wiped off the excess. When dry, I smeared them with pitch black acrylic and again, wiped most of it off. I wrapped silver wire around the left side of the piece and finished off by adding a couple of words, 'cherish' and 'believe'.

This will also fit into this weeks Lotstodo challenge - Alter it

A Couple of Cards - The Same but Different!!

This is a card I've made my mum for mothers day using acetate, alcohol inks and an embossing folder through the cuttlebug. The image was stamped onto white glossy card, water colour paints were used to colour and then I ripped around the image and attached. Safmat was used for the wording and a flower and brad were added to embellish

This card was made in exactly the same way except I attached 3 brads and washers and dented them with the texture hammer

Lotstodo Week 8 - The Eyes Have It

The background for this piece is the same as last weeks entry using the acrylic dabbers and corrigated cardboard. I coated the 'red' plastic frame with pearl acrylic, left it to dry, added some copper wire and beads and printed the quote 'seeing is not always believing' onto safmat. I stamped the eye image, using black stazon, onto a piece of background paper that I'd prepared when playing with my leaves and adirondack colour washes, for technique click here. The flourishes and moon are die cut from a coke can and the button has been painted silver. I meant to give the metal a bash with my textured hammer but I'd already stuck it down before I realised I'd not done it!!!!

Alison's Birthday Present

Another special birthday, two in a row. This one is for Alison, she just loves anything oriental and decoupaged, so it made sense to try and incorporate both. The oval is a piece of mdf which I painted with black acrylic and then covered with a blue and gold sort of waxy paper. I cut out all the little fiddly decoupage bits and stacked them as you do using silicone glue. I then added a couple of coins.

And just to prove it is decoupaged!!!!! Hope you like it Alison.

Chris's Birthday Present

It's Chris's turn to have a forum birthday, but it's a special one, but I best not say how old she is!!! I used texture paste to create this background. I applied bottle acrylic paint and when dry splodged a bit of juniper over the top. I stamped the image using olive green stazon onto the metal, used a wheel to make a frame around the outside and rubbed olive green stazon over the wheel impressions using a piece of cut n dry. The arrow is a piece of grungeboard from the stripes set, which I rubbed over with my Nick Bantock sapmoss green dye ink and attached. I added a couple of large eyelets and made a bit of a hanger with a piece of sturdy wire - hope you like it Chris (It isn't actually as dark and as crumpled as it looks, it's just the way the light caught it!!)

Messing with Eggshells

Have been messing around with eggshells today. For a full explanation visit here

Fraz After A Quick Brush

Got fed up and decided to play with his 'pink' ball!!!!

Then moved on to his bone!!

Altered Book RAK From Kath aka LazyKay

This altered book was made for me as a RAK (Random Act of Kindness) by my good friend Kath aka LazyKay. The front cover is amazing. The image is printed onto fabric. The outside 'frame' has been heated and bubbled to create a fantastic effect, it's all squidgey!!!!

Images and such wonderful quotes have been added to the inside pages. Kath is excellent at finding fitting quotes

The texture on the left hand page is stunning, and I just love the image on the right with the piece of the jigsaw missing - perfect

Another stunning textured background on the left and obviously I just love the colours

But this has to be my favourite page. The spoon set in the remainder of the pages is fantastic

The drizzle around the frame and the felt box inside - wonderful

Close up of the fantastic spoon, just look how the handle had been twisted

And the acknowledgement in the back accompanied by another fantastic quote

This is the back cover and the spine

The book from the side, sporting the thick piece where the spoon is sitting

Thanks Kath, it really is fantastic and I know my photos don't do it justice, but I just wanted to share your creation with everyone - Thanks again, Sam xxxxx

Lotstodo Week 7 - Wings

On a roll with this old cardboard box (don't worry, not that much left of it now!!) Background created in exactly the same way as the others. Image stamped with black stazon and cut out of white card, swiped over with antique linen distressed ink. Metal pieces (wings, crown, corner and jigsaw pieces) from a 50p bag off the Paper Paradise junk table, but I have ordered the wizard die too, brushed over with black acrylic and rubbed off again. The stars and arrow are grungeboard and have been painted with copper acrylic. Memories stamped onto white card with timber brown stazon and swiped with antique linen distressed ink. The clear plastic tag has been coloured with butterscotch and latte alcohol inks and attached with a brad.

A Day Out In Harrogate

Sue formerly of Paper Paradise as was, managed to get 4 tickets to the Tim Holtz demo day (Thursday 12 February) at Art from the Heart in Harrogate. We set off around 8am with the sun shining. We decided to call in at Centagraph as it was only around the corner. We bought some goodies from there and then moved on to Asda for a cup of tea and a piece of cake. Unfortunatley this particular Asda didn't have a cafe. So after obtaining some directions, we headed off into town. We got completely lost looking for the coffee shop, which was actually a blessing in disguise as we stumbled across a buttons, ribbons and lace shop, Duttons for Buttons. Where we all purchased a little something - some more than others - Sue!!!! By this time, the snow had started to fall and we were fed up of looking for this said coffee shop, so we piled into Mcdonalds instead!!! We then headed off to Art from the Heart shop and studio.

The shop didn't open until 1pm and we were booked in on the 3.20pm demo with Tim. This gave us ample time to take in all the fantastic samples that covered the walls and browse all the goodies in the fab shop. Again, we all managed to find a little something that we NEEDED.

3.00pm came and we started to form a queue, we were at the front, obviously. At 3.20pm we were let in and we got front row seats right opposite where Tim was working. There was a limit of 25 places as it was, but due to the damming weather conditions, people had been ringing to cancel. This meant in our session there was a grand total of 16 - brilliant!!!

Tim didn't do anything that I haven't seen before, but he was promoting all his new products, ie the new stamps, the mini masks, all the new idea-o-logy range, sprockets, gears, spinners, washers, long brads, saftey pins etc. He used a variety of products from the range including grungeboard, dabbers, distressed inks, alcohol inks, crackle paint all the applicators which go with each etc. But for me, it was just great to see him in the flesh.

In the demo

This is a sample he made using alcohol inks and the new mini stamps

And of course, I asked him to sign it

Sue holding one of his pieces of art

A close up of what Sue was holding - paper grungeboard

Then he came out into the shop with us and was even helping some people with their shopping. He is so obliging, so easy going and such a genuine guy.

He was happy for us to have our photo taken with him both after the demo
And in the shop

Then we had our photo taken with Dyan, the owner of Art from the Heart, who was also demo-ing all day

These are all the bits that I purchased both from Centagraph and Art from the Heart

We had been receiving texts all afternoon telling us that the weather was getting bad at home. But unitl we got about 10 miles away we really didn't realise how bad it really was. It took a little longer as the conditions got worse as we got closer to home and the snow had begun to settle on the carriageway of the A180, but eventually we all arrived home safe and sound, albeit a little later than expected.

UKStampers Atc Swap - Friends

These are my 3 atc's for the UKStampers swap that I'm hosting. Using my favourite stamp of the moment, stazon was used for all of them, timber brown, olive green and hydrangea blue. The the word 'friends'was masked off and stamped from the CI plate 156. Used coke cans were run through the cuttlebug to create the flowers and the the arrows. Gems and stickles were used to embellish. I rounded the corners off with my RIA. These are very similar to an earlier atc I made, but I was so please with it, I've made some more!!!!! And as you can probably tell, I'm also loving my metal at the moment!!!

Ang's Birthday Present

It's another forum birthday, AngC. Hope she likes this jigsaw piece that I've made for her. I used gel medium to create a texture then used twilight purple, cool peri and silver acrylic dabbers to create the background. Using black stazon I stamped the main image, the flourishes and the flowers. Using purple and silver stickles I went over the flourishes. I added a 'happy birthday' stamped onto a piece of metal and used a wheel to finish off the edges.

Paper Paradise is no more

Well the day has finally arrived. Sue has shut up shop to dedicate time to her own crafting and to spend time with the family.

I made this 4 x 4 just as a little thank you and farewell.

I coloured a piece of acetate using alcohol inks, adding copper and pearl, I then ran it through the cuttlebug in a folder to emboss it. Then I mounted it onto a dark green piece of mount board. Taking my used coke can, I ran it through the cuttlebug using various dies and attached them to the background. This time I remembered to bash the metal with my textured hammer before attaching!!!!

It's not as dark in real life, the lighting isn't great!!

Tags for the Bank

Made these tags for the Lotstodo Tag Bank. This set are for the happy bank

This set are for the hugs bank

Get Well Soon Dawne

In her haste to open the door to the postman Dawne fell down the stairs and broke her ankle. She still managed to get her goodies from the postman though, then went to hosptial. Unfortunately, a week later, she is still there and can't come home until at least Wednesday. So to cheer her up I've made her a 4 x 4. I run a piece of acetate through the cuttlebug, and used alcohol inks to colour. Used my new stamp from Paper Paradise as the main image, mounted it onto gold card. Coloured the metal flourish with gold alcohol inks and added get well wishes using a piece of safmat.

Lotstodo Week 6 - Metal Mania

The background is a piece of corrigated cardboard box with bits ripped out of it. I then covered it with various colours of acrylic dabbers, espresso, hazelnut, pitch black, silver and copper. With my new heritage wizard plate I cut and embossed the pocket watch, covered it in black acrylic and wiped most of it back off to give it an old rustic look. The stars and the arrow were cut from grungeboard with the cuttlebug and my arrow and snowflake dies, I then painted them in silver acrylic. The top right is a spinner from the idea-o-logy range by Sir Tim. Added the word 'time' using various different types of letters, painted the 'm' black and added some silver wire and painted the grungeboard 'e' with pearl acrylic.

Hilda's Birthday Present

It's my mate Hilda's birthday today - I won't tell you how old she is though!!! So I made this box frame for her. I cut a piece of corrigated cardboard 6 x 6 to fit in the back of the frame. I ripped pieces off it and painted it with various colours of acrylic dabbers. I made a smaller frame using my PA stamps and found an image of a little boy fit to be a little prince to sit inside it. I run a piece of metal through my dymo and stamped it with 'little prince' and attached it to the bottom of the little frame. I put bits of an old watch into a bottle top and filled it with diamond glaze and attached it top right, put an old rusty key with silver wires wrapped around it underneath and added a row of washers and a cog. I added the word 'always' top left with a piece of metal running through it. Using my cuttlebug I die cut the words ' what do you see?', stuck them to the outside of the large frame and added a few washers. I then covered the outsides of the frame with sticky aliminium foil and rubbed over with my brayer and paperstump. I was going to use alcohol inks to colour it but I decided I quite liked it plain - hope Hilda likes it.