Time Travel Card

I treated myself to the new Sheena Douglass Time Traveller stamps, and had a play for a card for a pal this week.

I stamped the balloon, and inked it with Stazon Stone Grey.  I then put it back in the die and embossed it.   It was coloured with Memento ink, in various shades of purple and green, and grey for the shadow on the netting.  I then highlighted the purple part with a purple glitter pen, and the green with the clear overlay glitter pen.

The "machine" was  coloured with various shades of brown and orange, with highlights applied with gilding wax.

I created the background with a wash of various Memento inks and then gave it another wash with the overlay glitter pen.  Hopefully it looks a bit like a sunset, which was what I was aiming for!

The whole card is very glittery, albeit it doesn't show in the photo!

The sentiment was stamped in black Stazon and given a wash of yellow memento ink.

Everything was then mounted on red pearlescent card, and then onto a pale cream pearlescent card   I also added a peel-off for the persons age (although this isn't shown in the photo -  just in case they happen to see this blog before receiving the card!).

Part of the insert for the card, using the clock background stamp and
the clock face die

Owl comes to visit

You may recall seeing a sneaky peek of this fairy door on the table in the work in progress photo I shared of some of my clay work the other day.

I have been gradually working on it over the past week or so.   The door was painted with Pebeo paints and crackled using DecoArt Weathered Wood and Crackle paste, and then more distress inks were rubbed into the finished crackle.

I painted the owl using Pebeo paints and distress inks.  Using a random layer of ultra thick embossing powder over his body for some texture, and then triple embossing his eyes. and nose.

Originally I had intended making the flowers and leaves from card, but then decided to use cloud clay and some of my old plunge cutters.  I experimented painting the Christmas roses, winter jasmine, holly and ivy with Memento inks with an overlay of clear sparkle.

I used some white puffy paint for the snow, which I heated with my heat gun to make it more interesting, and then applied some glue and sprinkled  Eiskristall over it as well as treating the fir cones (real ones) in the same way.

The cloud clay leaves, flowers and berries before painting

Angel Charms

It's ages since I played with my jewellery stash.  I suddenly remembered that the last time we went to jewellery show, I purchase some angel wing kits - crikey that was probably October lat year!

Anyway today was a little miserable outside, no rain just a bit of a grey day, with the sun trying its utmost to peep through.   I needed to tackle the dreaded ironing pile, but first I decided to sit quietly and play!

Voila 10 little angel charms.   They were mainly from a kit from Riverside Beads, but I had also purchased some separate wings to create my own with tear drop beads, so although they are basically all the same I used some of my other wings for a bit of variation.

Playing about with Clay

I treated myself to some air drying clay.   It is called pot clay, and it has nylon running through it for strength.      (I say air drying, but apparently it can also be used like normal clay and fired, in which case the nylon melts away )

Having said that - my efforts weren't being fired.   I have never worked with real clay before and it was a baptism of fire so to speak.   I invested in the spacers and rollers so that the clay would be the correct thickness, but it was still a lot thicker than the other sorts of clay (and of course sugarpaste) that I normally work with.   The hardest part was leaving the objects alone to dry properly before I painted them!   (Crafters will know that feeling - we are so impatient!)

My bucket list is to try as many crafts as possible - and as I said I have never worked with "real" clay, although I know my children did at school.   We never had that luxury.

The first picture was work in progress (together with a couple of other things I was working on - hopefully more on those another day when finished.)

Ghost made from Hobbycraft air dry clay.  The  darker clay is the pot clay

And here are the finished results after painting - manly using Pebeo paints:  I painted the plate using the double loaded brush (paint fusion) technique.

My plate, moulded over a rippled glass plate, and design made using cutters

Plate sitting on a stand.

Ghost made from the whiteHobbycraft air dry clay and painted
I had tried using this clay before, but didn't get on with it - so  decided to try again and use some of it -
sorry but I still don't like it.

Ghost with battery tealight inside

In the dark!

Pumpkin tea light holder

In the dark

OK those of you that were really observant probably noticed that there was something else made from the pot clay in the first picture.    Erm  ....well it's like this .... it didn't really turn out quite as I had hoped, bearing in mind that I have made these frogs using sugarpaste and creme eggs or even cloud clay for years; and I can now see why you have to keep the clay fairly thick!   I was only messing about with the left over bits of clay on my mat,  and I really could not get it to shape like I wanted - BUT I will be good and share my disaster too!

The disaster!  (I am not even going to make it a large picture!)

Thanks for popping by

Art Deco Anniversary Card

A very simple card created using Michelle Jackson-Mogfords Clarice Cliff inspired digi kit.  I added a little sparkle overlay to parts of the leaves.

Trying a reflective effect.

I watched a video on this technique and decided to try it out.   Men's card's are always a bit of a struggle, so I thought I would try this.   Am pretty pleased with how it turned out.   I originally tried it just using the background in the top half of the picture, but decided I needed to use something dark at the bottom to get the idea that the letters were reflected in a polished surface.

I can see I will use this idea again - now if I could only work out how to get the reflection to sit at an angle - reckon that would be quite cool!

Freestanding Fairy

 I managed to have a little play with one of my fairies today - she didn't turn out quite how I wanted.

She was painted with Pebeo paints, and then I made a skirt for her with one of Leonie Pujol's flower dies.  Made from water colour paper and painted with Pebeo irridescent paint.   For her wings I cut out some leaves from copy paper using the leaves from Sheena Douglass's anemone die set. .   These I coloured randomly with various of the iridescent paints.  I then applied a few stickles for decoration.

I think I should have drawn in the other side of the top of her dress, so that albeit her arm is supposed to be obscured by her wings, the wing would appear to be more behind her shoulder.   (Very difficult to work out where the division should be with no guide lines marked on the blank fairy.

I may attempt to cut out a bodice for her dress and stick it over the top to make more definition to the bodice.  (On the other hand as I made this for my youngest granddaughters I am sure  they won't even notice and will love it as it is.)

Proud of my Superheroes

Something a bit different for my blog today and non craft.

Today was the last of "firsts" that the family have had to deal with following the sudden death of my husband a year ago today.   My daughter decided she would mark the day by abseiling 100 ft down the wall of a hotel in Crawley, together with my eldest grandaughter, raising money at the same time for the local hospice.

My son, my other three granddaughters and I went along to watch.   After the event we all went out for lunch, and a family meal is planned tonight.  A Chinese meal as that was my husband's favourite and what he had planned to celebrate our wedding anniversary last year, but never made it.

A lovely family day to remember the man I miss so much.

My daughter on the left, and eldest granddaughter on the right

and finally my daughter's favourite photo of her Dad, being his usual funny self wearing his version of "bifocals" !

Playing with candle paints

I treated myself to some candle paints and some stencils the other week, and this is what I got up to, on some cheap candles from one of the pound shops.

and here they are in close up:

Using a stencil -  first view

second view

third view

masked with tape for the stripes

Using stars from a stencil

splodgy effect on the other side

Using the stencils on the curved surface was a bit interesting even when they were taped down.   so I think I need larger candles or smaller stencils!  I also think I would have been better using a sponge with the paint rather than a stencil brush.

Having done the first three, I then went in search of any other candles around the house that I could paint!

A burgundy square candle with stencilled swirls

created a mask from a die, and painted  this candle - because of the colour of the candle the wording didn't
show up that well so over-painted it that with white and added a few splodges to the candle

Reverse side - another mask cut from a die, and before it didn't show up that well, so it was over-painted with white
and a gold centre stippled on

I only bought four colours - think I need to treat myself to some others.

Thinking of You

After much deliberation, I treated myself to the new Michelle Jackson-Mogford digikits.   I loved them, but have been trying not to buy any new craft stash.

The kits have been inspired by famous artists. (Lilies & Light inspired by Monet; Bizarre inspired by Clarice Cliff; Sunflower & Stars inspired by van Gogh, and La Senora Mexicana inspired by Frida Kahlo)

I started off by using a layout from Lilies and Light, but removed most of the elements and added some new ones.  The majority of the embellishments came from Lilies and Light, but a few crept in from the other kits.

This card is for a friend going through a difficult patch at the moment. and I wanted something bright to cheer her up.

for more info on Michelle's kits to to Daisy Trail or visit her blog::  http://mjmdesignstudios.blogspot.co.uk/