Song Bird Fly

It's been a while, I really am a terrible blogger anyway thought I'd show you my first altered jigsaw piece. It started off with the inchy which is an ongoing challenge over at Craftymess this weeks them being birds.

I used a inch square piece of stampboard then inked with alcohol inks, stamped with Paper Artsy image and made the little bird with the Tim Holtz die and shrink plastic, edged in gold krylon pen.



The jigsaw piece itself was triple embossed in various colours then stamped with a crackle effect background. Added shrink plastic sentiment and beaded charm.

Really pleased with this for a first attempt.

First altered tin

My good friend Caro bought me some lovely little tins for altering for Christmas. Having never done one before had no idea what to do with it apart from using alcohol inks to colour.

I got an order from Fruit Pixie last week including some fabulous bargain Viva Alcho Inks for a pound a bottle! I set too with the violet and pink then had the brainwave to spray the inside with the copic air brush - it worked! I used Paper Artsy stamps and a selection of flowers for the inside.

Vintage Book

A few weeks ago I popped round to a crafting friend's (Viv of Viv's Visual's) to collect some stamps she was selling, whenever I go she has always made something amazing and I come home loaded up with bits and pieces and ideas to try out.

Well this is one of them, an altered book come treasure box

from this



to this



I picked the ancient book up on a market stall, I loved all the detail, it was a shame to cover it, but it does still show, pulled all the pages out and made a box to fit inside.



I painted it with gesso, acrylic paints in cream and metallic gold. The papers are from the Tim Holtz "Lost and Found" stack covered in Modgepodge to seal it, the image is a free download from Craft Stamper. I have no idea why this turned out pink but I love it. I printed it onto a transparency sheet then used the transfer technique on to a piece of Calico. Finally added the embellishments.

They aren't the best photo's as my photography is rubbish but I'm really pleased with how this one turned out.

I'm going to enter it into my first altered art challenge over at Cindy Adkin's Whimsical Musings for her Creative Spirit Challenge

Labour of love - Memory Box

I spent the weekend making something really different.

Last week at the car boot I bought two of these lovely boxes, I knew they'd be perfect for putting stuff in but wasn't sure I was brave enough to alter them. Anyway thanks to Bowlingbelle who suggested I turn them into Memory boxes that is what I spent my weekend doing and loved it.



I sanded the box down and gave it an undercoat of Gesso, then added layers of pink and purple acrylic paint with baby wipes inside and out, apprently this helps give a distressed look. Next I took some of my favourite Kay & Co papers and tore them sticking them down with Claudine Hellmuth's multi medium (I only had the gloss one and I say had because I've now used it all!), then gave it a coat over the top to seal it. The letters were cut with Cuttlebug alphabet and again sealed with the multi medium.



I didn't like the grooved edges once they were painted as they looked too rough and weren't very easy to sand down so I made some panels and again used the multi medium and Kay & Co papers to cover the side. Added some corners on the lid as a bit of a feature.



Finally, I added the dregs of my Tim Holtz Rock Candy Crackle Paint and inked with Old Paper distress ink and added some embellishments. I just love the TH lock and keys and this was the perfect project to put them on as it means I get to keep them!



I hope you like my box as much as I enjoyed making it. I'm going to keep some of my childrens little treasures in this one and make another to keep all my bits or altered art in.

Thanks for looking and thank you to Viv for the inspiration and advice on making it.