Pinch Punch the first of the Month

Sorry a childhood memory there of my Mum greeting me on the 1st of March with that little wake up call.    Of course once she had done it to me it was to late to do it back and yet it is a happy memory!

Recently I achieved the First Aider at Work qualification, thank you.  Why I waited so long to do this is a mystery it is such a useful course even if I did almost pass out on the first day!   Anyway back at work I was given my first aid box, as well as the remains of the 2 boxes one of our predecessors had.   Yes 2 boxes, one of which was almost empty so the contents of that were decanted into the other box and the empty one came home with me.

Handsome thing isn't it, not.   But it is sturdy and useful so it simply had to be given a facelift.

Step 1 Paint the whole box with White Gesso, twice.

Step 2 Paint the box with Spectrum Noir Aquatint, the Orange from the Grunge set.

Step 3 Coat first section of box with decoupage (modge podge type) glue.    Lesson even when dry watercolour paint will reactivate when anything wet is added.

Step 4 Cover glued area with patterned paper.

Step 5 Apply 3 coats of decoupage glue allowing each coat to dry.   The watercolour trapped in the glue at each coat re-activates.

Step 6 Repeat steps 3, 4,& 5 to cover all sides of the box, care needed along all the sides so the box will still open and close.

Step 7 Apply tissue tape along the edges.

Step 8 Apply more glue all over.

Step 9 Stick a panel of contrasting paper to the top and bottom.

Step 10 Apply 3 more coats of the glue, by now the watercolour has pretty much been thinned out.

Step 11 Add a strip of green ribbon down one side of the top, background for the embellishments

Step 12 Receive in the post with a Jewellery Maker Order, a gift of copper coloured petal shapes with a hole punched at one end of each of them.

Step 13 Thread 5 of the petals onto a piece of dotty green ribbon.   Use DST to secure.  Repeat to make 3 'flowers'.

Step 14 Add these flowers to the box with silicone glue, you need to make a blob of glue and work the petals into it spreading them you might need a touch more glue on the outer petals.

Step 15 Rummage through stash of embellishments and add to box all secured with Silicone glue.

Step 16 Finishing touch make a coil using green wire and a Gizzmo tool, add to box.

Step 17 Complete decoration with self adhesive gems, secured with yet more Silicone glue.

The box, which tool a week to complete, is my sample for Altered Eclectics Anything Altered Goes Challenge.   We are always inspired and amazed by your entries it is wonderful to share the journey with so many gifted people who so obviously enjoy making beautiful things out of somewhat mundane round the house items.

Sharing this with 

Rhedd's Creative Spirit - Another great Anything Altered Monthly Challenge.

The Friday Mashup - Create a Project with an Antique Style, Element, or Theme.

Altered Eclectics DT

1st of February it always amaze me how one day it is 1st January and the next 1st February.   Here we are 1/12 of the year behind us.   Time for me to let you know that I am now on the Altered Eclectics DT.   Think I had previously entered this challenge every month after it started, around the same time as I felt my old challenge was coming to an end for me AE had a DT call and I applied, so here I am.

Been in the house now since November, found the craft room and started looking at making jewellery especially wire working.    These slabs of Agate are about a centimetre deep and banded with some sort of gold foil.  I love the pattens in the stone so not wanting to cover their beauty, and not been sure of what I was doing, a simple design making the linking loops and the straight forward cage for the green piece.   The chain that the piece is suspended from was on some cheap jewellery in the sale, might use the decorative part of that on something else.   My first wire work and sample for Altered Eclectics.

Simple to enter the challenge, anything altered will always be welcome, anything that is except cards and ATCs.   The challenge is for those of us who love to see what things can become with a little this and a little that.

Anything can be altered, and you are just the people to do it and share it.

Playing with colour and Woodware

This was Saturday's fun.

3 water colour postcards.   Aquatints Brights all 6 colours.  Archival black ink and Woodware stamps.    Glossy accents with a light sprinkle of glitter.   Whisper pens to enforce the detail.

Result fingers and hands beautifully multicoloured.   Hardest part finding the seed head stamps used on the 2 outside postcards.  The joys of moving home, still have not found my crocodiles.

Backing a piece of card from some packaging saved because I might have a use for it.   Painted with white gesso and a scrap piece of DP laid over the middle.

Great messy fun getting m back into the game.

There was a lot of cleaning to do, the paintbrush and the little trays the paints were dripped into.   A baby wipe did the job same one for all tasks and colours.   So pretty when it dried.

Trimmed baby wipe to size with a piece of acetate (it used to be part of a report cover) matched to go over the top stamped with stayzon and Woodware stamps.   The edges of the white card blank lightly dusted with pale Adirondack dye based inks.    Some very old flower topped brads hold everything together.  

The background reminds me of the shaving foam technique without all the mess and drying time.

Challenge's

Red Rubber Inspirationals - Anything goes with Stamping Focus.

Mixed Media Card Challenge - New Stamps and Aquatints.  Can use tissue I haven't unless you count the baby wipe.

Green Ombre

It's a card!  Made with one of the terrific new Woodware stamps, got mine from the Stamp Man.   3 green pens, my new Chameleon Pens that I am still getting to grips with, 1 green ink pad, Memento A Stamping' up stamp, green ribbon and a little shabby shutter dusted around the edge of the tag.   Bit of a green theme going on here, well it is my favourite colour.   The sentiment from the Woodware set reads, "of all the gifts life could send ... ... the best is knowing that you're my friend" There are quite a few people that sentiment applies to.

So what inspired this burst of creativity?

Less is More - Friends
Inkspirational - Ombre

Then I saw that the CASology theme this week is also Friends, gotta be done.

Think now Christmas is out of the way my Mojo is resurfacing, mind you one cuckoo doe's not make a spring.

Black and Gold Mask

I do not like the way pictures work on blogger from the newest operating system from Apple.   The tidy version of these are not accepted by blogger some learning needed me thinks.

This mask blank has been travelling with me for years, just did not know what to do with it until recently.    All the masks I still have (I love giving the away but have kept a few special to me ones), are now on the wall of my new home.

As you can see there is a bit of a hole in the middle, well the previous owners had other things, lots of other things. hanging all along the hall and up the stairs and probably filled that gap.   Anyway having  a gap stirred me into using the largest mask blank in my stash.

2 coats of black Gesso, freehand stamping and the use of gold ep and the basic design is done.  More ep used to outline the eye sockets a black rhinestone and some gold ones added with silicone glue add to the design.   Finally a piece of cord wrapped in gold foil of some kind threaded through the eye sockets and glued in place.   The completed whole sprayed with spray and shine varnish.  It took a week to complete with drying time!

So did it work? Or will I have to do another one?   Oh yes the pink walls!  The previous owners must have liked pink they used it all over this house.   Another altered art project for my future.

Sharing my Black and Gold mask with

Rhoda's Creative Spirit - Always Anything Altered

2 Creative Chicks - Always Anything Goes but no cards

Right there is no getting away from it any longer the house is demanding some attention, no not with paint but the sucky thing and it's companions.

Happy 2015

Boxing day saw me driving over to Hull, I just love going over the Humber Bridge.   Of course I bagged some goodies, including this 30cm x 100cm box canvas.  I've never worked on a such a long thin surface though and was not sure what I was going to do with it.   The Popart sunflower idea presented itself before I had left the shop.

Once home I looked on line a lots of images of sunflowers, taking inspiration from these the flower was drawn onto the canvas.    Outline in place I started with Spectrum Noir AquaTints, mistake.   Even when dry between different colour applications the colours would bleed and blend.  Not so terrible with the stem but did not think the petals would look so great with green blurred outlines.   Good thing I have such a great range of good quality acrylic paints.

Once the basic background and stem were laid down a small tube of no nails was used to outline part of the flower head.   When that had gone off the basic yellow and orange/yellow mix filled the image.  Next Bronze colour acrylic filled the centre, if you look at the head of a sunflower you will see a patten in the seeds which I tried to emulate with the paint.   I used to have a great stencil with graduated circles it had to be cut down so that it could be used in the centre here, black felt pen applied through the holes for the seed head.    A line of Emerald coloured acrylic paint runs up the stem, with a thinner line of copper texture paint beside it.   Orca yellow paint applied in the same way outlines petals not marked by no nails.   Finally when everything was dry (pretty much) tacky drying glue and gliding flakes were added to the leaves and parts of the flower.

Now hanging in the living room.   There are not really any challenges to share this with so I'm simply sharing it with you.

Happy New Year.

First projects in my new home & good by to Craft-Room Challenge

Hello, finally back and settled in and started to get into the craft room.   Oh yes the new home very comfortable most importantly the IMPs have settled and seem happier here.  I could wish everything in my life was going so well but it never was a smooth path to life was there.  So new craft room, just getting to find my way around has any seen my Cropadile?  Yep found new safe places and promptly forgot where they are!  

If you have been one of our lovely Craft-Room followers you have probably seen that we are closing the challenge site.   It has been more 3 years of fun and friendship but changes in out lives have brought us a parting.   My thanks to Julia, Maria, Esther, Debi, Hazel, Mervi, Suzanne, Annie, Amber and Christi for their support and help with the challenge over this time.    Not all of these special people have active blogs now so there are no links on their names.

I would also like to thank out sponsors without whose support we would not have been able to offer the great real prizes that we did over the life of the challenge.   The Stamp Man, Tando Creative, Crafty Individuals, Ali Craft, The MDF Man, Flonz , Rogue Redhead, Tanda Stamps, Rarebird, Stamp Addicts & Indigo Blue.

On to our last challenge then, this started last Tuesday but I was not able to make a sample until yesterday.   The challenge is a wonderful inspiration picture created by Debi.

I love this collage, it is so romantic beautiful winter images and gorgeous dreamy women.

Not having any paper mache models to hand I thought I'd use this artists model.   The dreamy floaty feel of the picture with the delights' of winter came to me from the picture.   Using Bigz Wings Dies and a Spellbinders feather die the dummy has been given a floaty white robe, and wings that have the look of movement all cut from white light weight card and tissue paper.