Cement Jewellery

Cement jewellery I hear you say?  Yes - using jewellery cement by Rayher.  It is quite lightweight.

I ordered the kit and some extra bits and bobs back at the beginning of August, but there was a delay on delivery, so was hoping that I would remember how to use everything!   Fortunately there are some very simple instructions in the packs.

Having caught up with all the washing from a long weekend away with the family, I was itching to get my fingers on the goodies that arrived yesterday morning.

Here are last night's castings:

The turned out castings

When I had filled the rubber molds, I dropped some little sticky gems from my stash onto the top, when the clay was beginning to "crust" over.  (As you can see the molds are designed so that you have a hole for your cord.)

This morning came the "fun" bit - decorating them.  I had no idea where I was going with them.  The kit comes with some "adhesive milk" some fine very sticky double sided tape, gold leaf, paintbrushes and varnish.

The decorated items

Below are individual photographs and how I did each one.   (I will add that I started off by trying some brushos on them mixed with Brusho Aquawax, but wasn't completely happy with the result - so left the backs finished with that.   I used the gold leaf, adhesive milk and the double sided tape on some, and then experimented with Gilding Flakes and various Pebeo Fantasy paints.

Oval: using adhesive milk and gold leaf, and then Pebeo Vitrail and Prsmé

Heart: Using adhesive milk and Gilding Flakes, and a stripe of unicorn sparkles
(shows up better in the group photo)

Diamond: Gold leaf stripe using double sided tape and Pebeo Prismé

Oblong:  using Pebeo Moon and Prismé

Round:  Stripes using double-sided tape and gold leaf;  Pebeo Prismés at top, and
adhesive milk and unicorn sparkles at bottom

Hope you like the effects.  I have plans to try some stamping on the clay blanks and perhaps using some peel-offs and acrylic paint/ Pebeo Fantasy paints......... Watch this space!

Another Male Card

I came across this image whilst making yesterday's card, so thought I would use it for a friend's card. The inside says ."....... and have a great Birthday".

Hopefully simple but effective - sometimes less is more.

Birthday card

As you know I do find male cards difficult, especially for youngsters.    I decided to revisit a technique of splitting a word for this one for one of my great nephews.  I have no idea what he is interested in, so kept to a neutral theme.

Christmas Tree Shelves ..... completed

Do you remember these?    

Well now they look like this:

I spent the afternoon, painting little angels, snowmen, deer, robins, trees, teddies and gingerbread men, and with the addition of some imitation snow (white gesso and cornflour) with some sparkle sprinkled over it, the shelves are completed.

another view

Christmas Eve Box

Finished Project

Sorry for all the Christmas project postings, but it has been so nice the last couple of days, have spent my time in the garden painting.

First build your box

My first job was to give the box a thin coat of white gesso, and then paint the inside of the box and lid, and edge of lid and the corner edges of the box, in case the paper didn't meet properly.   I used a blue deco-creme paint, and then went over it with pearl paint,

Next I printed off some freebie papers that a pal had created, and applied modge podge to the box to stick them on.  They then had a sanding block applied to the overhanging edges to give a neat finish.(Even the bottom of the base is painted).

I wasn't very happy with the edge of the lid, so I went over it with some sparkle kiss, and I also carefully applied a little of this to the corner edges and lip to the box.

another view

The next job was to paint the words.  I started to paint the letters, but wasn't quite happy with the result, so changed my mind and applied gold gilding wax.   I then painted on some eXpandIT 3-D foam for the snow and details on Father Christmas.  

I painted everything with Universal Medium to seal it, and attached the words, applying a little Glossy Accents to the holly berries on the top lettering

another view showing painted inside, and top decoration
(confess when I took this photo the glossy accents on the berries hadn't quite dried)

Christmas Fireplace

I have had fun making this (well after I managed to work out how to put it together as although there were supposed to be instructions, there weren't any - fortunately I managed to watch the programme again and used the snipping tool to capture the relevant bits).

The finished project

Here are the various stages:  (yes I managed to remember to take some photos as it was decorated over a few days!)  I had to paint some of the parts before putting the whole thing together, after applying gesso to all of it.

I used a stencil for the brickwork and sand texture

Close up of hearth

next stage - modelling paste through the stencil

colour added to the "brickwork" and painted wood effect for mantlepiece

and just to prove I don't always get it right - spot the mistake!   (Clue look at the stockings). However, I am including the photo as it shows a different angle to the finished project.  You can see the wood effect on the top shelf, and the different stencil effect on the hearth base

The kit came with the imitation moss and the fir cones (some of which I glittered).   I also raided my cake decorating stash for some dried gypsophilia, which hadn't seen the light of day for many years. (Just as well I never throw anything away!)

There are also two holes in the back of the Fireplace to take two battery operated t-lights so it can be illuminated at night,

 Hope you like it.

Playing With Clay

I have been child-minding the youngest granddaughters a couple of times recently.  Last week, I got the clay out and the made these items

duck by 8 year old

Plate by 5 year old

 Yesterday as they had dried and it was lovely and sunny we sat outside and two of them painted their items.  (Eldest was away at Guide Camp)

All done with Pebeo paints - some decocreme and some DYNA iridescent.   The red on the plate doesn't really show up in the light - it was done with red/blue DYNA and it changes colour as you move the plate.  The duck was given a coat of Pebeo gold glitter paint, before we varnished it.

The 11 year old still as this one to paint at some point

New Baby Girl card

Just thought I would share this card I made in Craft Artist for the arrival of my great great niece.

Below is the original design that I created. which is slightly more realistic for the colouring compared to the photo of the finished card.

Christmas Hearth - Work in Progress

Having fun working on this Christmas Hearth.  Fortunately, although it came without the instructions that were supposed to be in it,  I managed to use the snipping tool and save the relevant bits from the demonstration!

As you can see I have started to paint it - as some of it needed painting before I did the final gluing together.  The front will also have brickwork effect on it.

close up

Here is a close up of the brick effect I have done so far.  I shall add a bit more shading to it.  The effect was created using pebeo sand gel and texture paste mixed together and then spread through a stencil with a palette knife.

The black was painted with black Pebeo gesso and then over-painted with Pebeo Pearl Black.   I painted the flames with black gesso and then I used various DYNA paints for the irredescent effect as well a the gold sparkle paint.

So that's it so far with this project.   Really pleased with the effect so far.   Eventually it will have two battery operated t-lights inserted behind the top of the hearth (holes already precut in the kit for this) and it will have stocking hanging from the top of the hearth.   I really am going to have fun with this!

Christmas Eve Box in the making!

I also bought this kit at the same time - which will be a Christmas Eve Box - and I have decided that I will cover this with paper in a snowflake design.  As you can see, I have only got as far as putting it together and gluing it!

Christmas "tree" boxes/shelves - Work in progress

My daughter and I fell in love with these little display boxes/shelves, and bought a set each.  They are made from pine.  I have decided to paint mine with a Christmas theme, but you could paint/decorate them any color for any time of year.

you can arrange the boxes anyway you want.

  

I decided to paint mine rather than use paper.  I knew I wanted an "icy" blue and snowflakes on them.

I applied white gesso all over to start, and then I mixed some blue Pebeo deco creme with more white gesso to make it paler,

When dry I applied Pebeo modelling past through a snowflake stencil.  Loving me new stencil from Daisy Designs.  (It came with a holly stencil and a lovely random brickwork stencil)

Today I decided I would add some snowflake/winter papers to the inside.  (That was a bit of an interesting exercise cutting them to fit!)  I am also hoping that the wrinkles that occurred when I stuck them with modgepodge will disappear when fully dried.  The papers were some freebie ones from Anntaurus.

I then applied some Creative Expressions Frosty Sparkle Glitter Kiss over the sides, which highlighted the snowflakes and I also applied it to the front edges.

With the Glitter Kiss applied, although it doesn't show up well in photo

Now to decide how to finish them off - I am wanted some sort of a scene inside the shelves - so will have to get thinking cap on.  I do have some little mdf shapes, and a tub of eXpand-iT and some glitter, which would give me a nice snow finish on the shelves which hopefully I can then stand some shapes in it.

So ........ more to fully when inspiration strikes.

Christmas Tea Light Holder

I bought some little tealight holder kits the other day, and this is my first one finished.  White gesso applied to start and I put all the side and the bottom together and glued them, so that I could apply gesso to the inside.  I then applied gesso to the top and stuck that on,

I used Pebeo deco creme acrylic paint in blue and then overpainted with the pearl finish paint.  The deer was painted in various shades of brown and cream, the lettering in red and the star in yellow - and then went over with the Pebeo gold glitter paint.

showing top and sides

You can't put a proper tea light candle in it, but you can use the battery operated ones, and the cut out fits snugly over the light,

with battery operated tea light in situ

I have two more to make - now to decide what colours to do - this one was painted to work with my daughter's decor.

New Home Card

Another less is more card for the front of this new home card.  The insert said everything that needed to be said.

A couple of Anniversary Cards

I had two anniversary cards to make this week.  I decided to go with the less is more approach.  The backgrounds started off similar - I just changed the colours.   I then added different images - love those butterflies

Another Male Card - Sea Theme

Created with CAP2

Male Birthday Card

A card for a young man - created with CAP2

Mixed Media Canvas

I have been playing with some metal items from Chocolate Baroque today.    I started with a black canvas.

I then added some black texture paste to it through a stencil with my finger.   This smudged slightly in one corner, but as it was just a random texture that I wanted it didn't matter.  I also added some dots of texture paste around the canvas, using what was left on my finger!

Whilst this was drying, a applied black gesso to the metal elements, and also applied a coat of black gesso to the canvas.

The metal items were then coloured - either with pebeo DYNA paints or some metallic lustres, (blue, greens and white frost).   The canvas then had a coat of Pearl Black Pebeo Creme paint applied to it. Then it was the fun part sticking on the embelishments using a hot glue gun, and then adding some little diamantes to the centre of the flowers

I designed the canvas as in the top picture, but it could be turned to view this way: