Merry Christmas!

Hello!

I am popping in for a quick post just to wish you all a merry Christmas and happy new year!

My next post will now be on the Friday 6th January as it is now the school holidays and there are so many other things going on.

Thank you to everyone who has visited my blog in the past year and especially the lovely comments, they have been much appreciated!

This year has been a fab crafting one for me as I have taken the plunge to apply for design teams and been so lucky and proud to have been accepted onto some great teams that I am really loving :)

Next year I plan to continue my crafty journey and to celebrate having my blog for a year and almost reaching 50 followers I will be having a giveaway during January (hopefully it will also help beat those post Christmas blues!) so do keep a look out!

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and enjoy celebrating the start of 2017,

Jane xx

A Vintage Journey: Winter Magic

Hello!

I am really proud today to have one of my projects over at 'A Vintage Journey' challenge blog, as I was chosen as one of their pinworthy projects a couple of months ago!
The theme at the moment is 'Winter Magic' and the blog challenge focuses on shabby chic; mixed media and vintage type projects so my one is very mixed media and a bit shabby chic.  Click HERE to go on over to the blog.

When I heard the theme of winter magic it immediately made me think of ice and snow as I think these are truly magical parts of nature.  I already had an IndigoBlu mannequin that I had previously decorated but wasn't happy with so I took it apart and started again!!

Here is my finished project...

I started by preparing the mannequin body and base with white gesso then painting with Imagination crafts silver starlight paint.  Then I applied some paverpol wrappers with Powertex fabric hardener to create the layers of the dress.  I wanted to give a dripping ice feel to the bottom so layered the wrappers to create that effect.  At this stage I also added in some Powertex art balls to create extra texture...

This was left to dry thoroughly for a few days and then I added some crackle paste with a pallet knife.  Once this had dried I used a selection of starlight paints to create different icy colours.  Silver Pebeo gilding wax was blended over the top to bring out the texture and some sprinklings of cosmic shimmer iced snow glitter which adds a sparkle that is easier to see in 'real life'...

Then I die cut snowflakes using a spellbinders pendant die and snowflake dies by Sue Wilson and layered them up in matching card colours, finishing off with some creative expressions sparklers...

Finally I added sections of some pearl strings from Anna Marie designs as a finishing touch...

I absolutely loved making this project as I felt I could add as much sparkle and texture as I wanted and hopefully it has captured the theme of winter magic!

Thank you for reading and do please pop over to the vintage journey blog to see what else has been made.

Jane x

Bird Song Icon

Hello!

I am back today with a mixed media piece that I made a while ago but have not shown as it was an article in the Mixed Up Media online magazine last month.  If you love mixed media this magazine is a new online publication with a wide variety of projects and tutorials, many interactive, if you are interested in finding out more you can click on the link at the top left hand side of this blog.

As the new issue has now been released I think it is ok for me to show you what I made!

I really enjoyed using my decoart paints on this as well as lots of other mediums, I even used some stamps that I carved myself after seeing how easy and fun it was in Kate Crane's 'Journal Soup' (an online class that is available from her ETSY store, click HERE to go straight there).

I decided to decorate a wooden icon from IndigoBlu as it gives you so many surfaces to play with. Here is the view when it is opened up...

There is  mixture of stencilling and stamping in the background as well as marks made with bottle tops etc.
When closed here is the front and the back...

There is also some gelatos and liquid pearls added for extra colour and texture.

Finally a couple of close up photos...

I love Dina and Dyan's stamps from Ranger, and they seemed to go together well.

There is more info about this project plus some photos of how to carve a stamp in the article that is in issue 2 of the Mixed Up magazine if you are interested to read a bit more.

I will be back on Friday with a special mixed media project that tries to capture some winter magic!!

Hope to see you then ,

Jane x

Delightful Dahlias

Hello!

 

Today I thought I would show you my remaining design team samples from this weekends Hunkydory shows.  These were all created using the 'For the Love of Stamps' set Delightful Dahlias, which is a lovely classic set ideal for so many occasions.  As there are also coordinating stencils for the sets in this release I wanted to show a range of ways to use the stamps and stencils, both in the end products as well as the mediums and techniques...

 

This was one of my favourite samples as I wanted to try a bit of mixed media and create a vintage/shabby chic look.  The stencil was used on the MDF with light modelling paste, then once it was dry and been painted I added crackle glaze and antiquing cream.  I used the leaf stamps with flitterglu and gilding flakes and brought out the texture of the flowers with gilding wax.  I stamped the main outline image onto patterned paper with gold embossing powder and cut out the various layers to create a decoupaged flower.

 

I wanted a much cleaner look for this card so used only the stamps.   The outline stamps were used with Versafine then embossed with clear powder.  The images were coloured using Spectrum Noir Illustrator pens.

 

I always try to create a range of projects that are not just cards as I think that stamps are so versatile and can be used in so many ways, so my next project was to use the stamps to create the pattern on a handbag gift bag.  The bag was made using the Crafter's Companion Big Score board and project DVD and I used A3 centura pearl cardstock, but stamped on the reverse side (not the shiny side).  I used the bolder flower image this time with distress inks and then also used the ink through the stencil to fill in the blank areas.  The main flower on the flap was created by stamping the bold images with distress ink then over stamping with the outline image in a darker colour.

This final project was created using silver card for the box and the instructions from a youtube tutorial which I have previously linked up HERE.  The decorated panels were made using both the bold and outline stamps again, but this time the outline was stamped with versamark then embossed with silver powder.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing the projects and hopefully had a chance to catch some of the show on Create and Craft.  The live shows have now finished for the weekend but I am sure they will be available for a while on the catch up facility.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Jane x

For The Love of Stamps -Out of this World!

Hello!

I hope you are having a great start to the weekend!

I am really excited today as on Create and Craft Hunkydory are launching their next set of stamps from the 'For the Love of Stamps' range, and I have to say that the two stamp sets I had to work with this time I absolutely loved!  What made it even better was when we were told each set also had a coordinating stencil, which for me was the icing on the cake!!

Today I thought that I would show you the samples that I made using the 'Out of This World' set.  This is a really gorgeous set that has so many elements to create fantastic space scenes or more simple cards...

 

I couldn't resist starting with a pop up box card, especially with the rockets which are brilliant for attaching to acetate strips for flying!  The background to the flaps was created using sparkle pens and also used the stars from the stencil with sparkle medium.

 

As soon as I had the stencil I knew that I wanted some form of home décor with a mixed media feel, and thought that a space themed door hanger would be great for a child's room.  The stencil was used with modelling paste for the background before being painted over with Starlight paints and a touch of gilding wax.   Then the elements were added after being coloured and coated with glossy accents.



 

As there was this fantastic moon sentiment in the set I really wanted to create a circle easel card.  The background was again created using the stencil, but this time with distress inks.

Finally I wanted to create a more simple card to show how a couple of the elements could still create a really effective card.

Here are the details for when the show starts, but do please check the Create and Craft schedules for all the shows throughout the weekend as they are sometimes subject to change.

 

 

I will be back tomorrow with the samples that I made using the Delightful Dahlias set, some different types of projects were created with this beautiful flower set, so please do come by for a look.

 

 

Jane x

Creative Artiste: A Winter Door Hanger

 

Hello!

 

It is the first Friday in the month so it must be time for a new challenge over at Creative Artiste!

To find out who the winners were last month and to see all the inspiration projects from the team please click HERE.

 

This month the sponsor for the challenge is

 

 

 

Here is the project that I made, with a distinctly winter feel...

 

 

 

I started with a blank MDF door hanger that I primed with white gesso then added snowflakes through an Imagination crafts stencil with light paste from Finnabair.  I also added some Golden glass bead gel for extra texture...

 



Then Starlight paints were added for some frosty sparkle...

Using the same stencil I added more snowflakes this time with the Imagination sparkle paste...

Finally I die cut snowflakes using dies from Spellbinders and Sue Wilson and added them to the door hanger along with a sentiment from Creative Expressions.

It would be great if you take a look at the challenge and even better if you are inspired to enter a project!

I will be back tomorrow with some design team samples for the launch of Hunkydory's 'For The Love of Stamps' latest range, you can take a look over on Create and Craft...www.createandcraft.tv

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I hope you have a great end to the week and are looking forward to the weekend.

Jane x

Altered Eclectics - Christmas Wreath

Hello!

Well it is December!  Time for the advent calendar and Christmas music to start...
It is also the start of a brand new months challenge at Altered Eclectics, please click HERE to go straight over to the challenge blog where you will see inspiration from the whole team.  The theme is always 'Anything Goes' but NO cards or ATC's.

As it is that festive time of year I decided to create something to reflect the season and one of the things that I love is snowflakes, especially the patterns and the icy colours.  So I made an altered MDF wreath trying to create that feel...

 

 

I started with a blank MDF wreath which I primed with Decoart white gesso then added some texture using light paste from Finnabair through an Imagination crafts snowflake stencil, and then for that extra frostiness added some touches of Golden glass bead gel...

 

 

The wreath was then painted using blue and pearl starlight paints from Imagination crafts... 

 

I wanted to create a really icy look to the wreath so used the Decoart crackle glaze in places and once this had dried added white Decoart antiquing cream which was then wiped back leaving some areas whiter, especially within the crackles.  At this point I felt that something was still missing so added some more shimmer using Imagination sparkle paste through the same snowflake stencil as before.  Some gilding wax was also added to highlight the texture...

 

To finish I wanted even more layers and dimension with some more snowflakes, so used a spellbinders snowflake pendant die and some Sue Wilson snowflake dies to create layered embellishments from different pieces of card.  These were sprayed with some pearl diamond spray then finished with a gem each and a touch of silver Pebeo gilding wax in places...

 

 

The sentiment is from Creative Expressions (heat embossed with silver detail powder) and was die cut then coloured with a brush of distress ink...

 

 

Finally some white satin ribbon was added to hang the wreath from and I adapted an embellishment to add to the centre of a bow...

 

 

I hope you enjoyed seeing how this was made as much as I enjoyed creating it.  I really liked the different layers and texture, and I was happy that I achieved the frosty look I was going for.

Please do pop over to the Altered Eclectics challenge to see what the design team have made and hopefully you will also be inspired to enter a project!

 

I hope you have a fab start to the month and please pop by again tomorrow when I will have another project to share for another new challenge!

 

Jane x