Boxing Clever

Boxing Clever

Hi Everyone!

Haha!  No we are not taking up

bloodsports............... we are 

revisiting an old topic with a

twist or two

Next Sunday is Mothering Sunday

and in case you are wondering

what to do aside from chocs and

flowers here is Claire Jackson to

the rescue with a beautiful little

present .......

"I started by painting a small wooden

 trinket box with shades of green 

and blue chalk paint on the outside 

and pearlescent paint on the inside. 

I then stamped the flowers and leaves 

around the sides and a border flourish

 around the top.

The leaves were coloured with alcohol markers

 and white gel pen, before I added Glossy Accents

 to the leaves and stems and

 Enamel Accents on the flowers.

The border on the top was decorated 

in the same way. 

The centre piece was made from chipboard pieces

 painted and glazed. 

To finish off I put patterned paper

 on the bottom.

The little trinket box even has a small magnet

 to snap the lid shut. 

It would make a lovely gift on its own, 

filled with chocolate or with some jewellery in it."

Thank you Claire, that really is a

lovely box and fun to make I shouldn't

wonder

Have you noticed the links?  I have

linked some of the items in the text

to help you find them easier on the

website

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Crafty Emotions

Crafty Emotions

Hallo Everyone!

Good to see you!  Do you

know anyone with a pre-

Christmas birthday?....

You do?....

Well here's a gorgeous

card from Craftyfield

 "Succulent, or cactus (Cactii) as I know them,
 are in trend in the crafting world and as soon 
as I saw the Craft Emotion set I knew I wouldn't
 be able to resist!

 It has several elements, enough to build up
 a complete rockery...

I first stamped all the images on the sheet
 and fussy cut them to help me decide on
 a composition.

 I settled on using only 3 elements to keep
 things relatively CAS. I used my fussy cut
 images as masks to stamp on watercolour
 paper with Brilliance ink in black.

 I coloured the image with Inktense pencils.
 Keep it light, you can always add colour later...

I then used a wet brush to "melt" the colour
 on the paper. After this first wash was dry,
 I re-applied pencils where I needed more
 contrast or more intense colour.

For the background, I wanted lots of shine,
 so I used Starlight paints, applied with
 a brayer all over a piece of cardstock. 

You can see the shine, in fact that
 is pretty much all you can see, 
despite the weather being decidely cloudy
. 
I put together my card by matting the
 focal image onto Art-C glitter card in
 black, adding a sentiment stamped in 
black ink on a piece of white glitter card.
 
I really like that card it's non shedding glitter,
 sturdy but still die-cuts easily, and it shines...

So nice I added another piece of white 
glitter and used Enamel Accents to create
 faux brads.

Without proper sunlight it is difficult to show how nice
 the glitter looks, but I thought you might want 
to see how well it stamped, as I was concerned
 this would be a problem, especially as the
 script on this stamp is quite small. 

I should say that I did enlist my trusty stamping 
platform to stamp the sentiment and I did 3 inkings
 to get the intensity of black I wanted.

You may wonder why cactus for a birthday card
 and I'm mulling over several funny sentiments
 I can add to the inside. 
"No need to be prickly, you're not that old" 
or similar. 

I would be grateful for your suggestions
 so don't hold back and add your
 comments below...please... pretty please?

Supplies: 

Craft Emotions stamps:
Starlight paints:
Brilliance inks:
Glitter card: 
Water soluble pencils: 
Enamel accents:

Thank you for a great card

Craftyfield and also for making

us all smile.....

Well, I laughed out loud

I know a few people who 

are feeling a little prickly

over their birthdays right now...

'Till tomorrow 

Mickie xx

For the Girls

For the Girls

Hallo Everyone!

Present time is looming ever closer

and we thought we'd inspire your

crafty instincts.  

Claire Jackson has used one of

the Art-C Display Boxes to get

started:

"I started with the Art-C display kit box.

It comes in 8 pieces and the Perspex panes 

are covered in film to protect them.

I glued the two base, and two lid pieces together 

as per instructions, and gave them a coat 

of black gesso. 

I then decided that the top looked 

a little plain and added some Kaisercraft 

wooden embellishments before 

gessoing them too. 

It is really important that you don’t get paint

 in the slots for the panes or they won’t fit in.

 Next I gave the lid and edges of the base 

a coat of Imagination Crafts Rusty Patina 

in verdigris. This has a lovely gritty texture

I added a few more embellishments 

before using my fingers to dab on DecoArt

 worn penny and a little matte black paint.

While the paint was drying I started on the 

glass vials to go inside.

To get a deeper colour I first put a few drips 

of alcohol ink inside each vial and turned

 them around to coat the inside

Next I used a felt applicator to add the same

 colour to the outside. 

I then added a second colour to the outside

 of each vial to get a marbled effect.

 I then added drips of copper mixative.

 I lightly rubbed gold Alchemy Wax on the 

butterflies and added enamel accents.

 I added embellishments to the vials before

 assembling the box. 

The kit is so well designed that the pieces 

fit together very tightly without glue so 

if you wanted you could take the lid off 

at a later date. 

 With the reflection it was difficult to photograph. 

This project makes a pretty present 

in its own right but you could, 

if you wanted to, fill the vials with essential oils 

as an extra gift "

Materials:

Art-C display kit
black gesso
embellishments
Imagination Crafts Rusty Patina
alcohol ink
Alchemy Wax
Enamel Accents

Thank you Claire.  Love what

you have done with the bottles

I can almost smell the essential

oils I imagine are in them.......

lovely......

This particular display kit would 

also showcase a small treasure

or two..... you know the sort of

thing you have put away safely

in a drawer so you don't lose it

and then hardly ever see it....!

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

On the Beach

On the Beach

Hi There!

Hope you like our new topic

expect many of you are beached!

If you are on holiday - have a

great time, don't get sunburn

and come home safe

We have Louise Thomson here

today to start us off with a

delightful greeting card:

"You'll have to forgive me as I got all the

 shiny things out for this card and totally 

forgot to keep taking photos as I went 

along (oops!)

 Always have been easily distracted!

I started with a few distress oxides in 

shades of blue and green, smooshed onto 

my craft mat and spritzed with water.

 I repeated a few times to get the desired effect

 and made a tag while I was at it too... 

(waste not want not and all that!)

I placed the kaisercraft stencil over the

 blue and used a damp cloth through the stencil 

to remove some of the ink. 

Then I replaced the stencil and added grunge 

paste through it to create streams of bubbles.

 I also stamped some 'seaweed' in peeled 

paint distress oxide. (Technically the stamp is from

 Card-io's backyard blooms set, but I was using

 creative license) 

At the bottom of the card I added texture 

sand paste in quite a rough formation, 

then coated it in some yummy glitter and beads.

From this point onwards I basically went nuts 

adding every shiny thing I could find

 (which was quite a lot!)

Included here are metallic gel pens, 

stickles glitter, liquid pearls, wink of stella,

 glossy accents, and alchemy wax.

I also stamped parts of blue ferns' seaside 

stamp around the edges to add a border.

Next I cut some sea themed shapes using

 an impression obsession die set. 

Ever since I saw Helen Chilton use enamel 

accents on die cuts I've been wanting to try it

 - now seemed like the perfect opportunity. 

I used the enamel accents on some, 

and liquid pearls on others.

Time to add some text using some

 'ink-smooshed' card strips and a fine liner 

before mounting inside a card base. 

(I used a square die to cut the aperture 

from an ordinary blank card)

And that was it! 

Such a lot of fun to make, I hope it inspires

 you to get messy in the craft room 😃"

Materials;

Distress oxides

Card-io Backyard blooms

Blue fern studios stamp – seaside memories

Kaisercraft 12x12 mini mix stencil 

Grunge paste

Impression Obsession mini nautical dies

Stix 2 Seed bead mix

Stickles – diamond

Alchemy wax - Silver

Mister spray

Wink of Stella

Liquid pearls

Enamel accents

Sakura gelly roll pen – metallic emerald

Micron fineliner

A lovely card Louise - thank you
You did seem to be having a
lot of fun making this - I love
your embellishments


Amazing what you can do with
a die cut and some Enamel Accents
Nothing like making your own
embellishments!

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx