Arty match boxes and ATC's

I have been hosting a swap over on UKS which is just about to end.

Here are my two matchboxes and matching ATC's. I loved making this as i got all the paints out, stamps, gel medium etc and just got creative.

The first was wing themed









The second was nature themed









I will certainly be making these little works of art again

A little altered project on the go.

I found this item whilst rummaging thru the carboot sale cupboard again at clochan. I believe its a spoon rack but i could be wrong. It have yucky red velvit backing but when i saw it i immediatly knew what it was gonna be.



So whilst the boys where off school on Monday for a local holiday, i got Alex to do the preping for me to keep him quiet.

He sanded all the frame then painted it with black and green dabber paints. He did a great job on it.







Later i painted it with Blonde Moments crackle glaze then over painted with white acrylic paint. I sanded the edges to reveal the green and black in places.

Today i backed the red velvet bit with my most special prized much stroked 7 gypsies paper and prima paper. I have had both pieces for over a year just for that special moment. I just need to age a little with walnut ink and then its ready to go.

Can you guess what it will be. How about a small RAK for the closest guess, lol.

Edited to add: Here are the finished herb and spice rack pictures.







Sarah

A bit of stamping

Ok so as you know i am a scrapbooker and not a card maker or stamper. I only own two sugar nellies, a large alphabet set, a tiny alphabet set, a fleur de lyl type thing and a large Tim Holtz Harlequin stamp.

Now this said harlequin stamp is my all time favourite stamp. I use it all the time. I confess, i often dont know what i am doing with the stamp but i try, lol

So hear are two little projects i have been working on recently. The first is a journal page made on canvas. Again another Donna Downey inspired project from the Layers video i downloaded. Again only $5 and well worth it.

I stuck newspaper print all over the canvas and then layered up with paints, fabric and PP. I then used my harlequin stamp down the right hand side and shaded in the diamonds to add depth and texture with my water colour pens and inks.

Added a large rub on that i stole from my mum, lol



Next project was intended as my page for the stamp challenge for our scrap attack event but i think i will keep it, lol. For this page i painted a piece of 4 x 6 CS in light blue acrylic paint. I edged around the outside in a darker blue paint. I then inked up my stamp with black ink and pale blue paint and stamped on to the page.

I then took a sequin waste and painted over it with black paint. When i took the waste away some of the paint came away as well to reveal white spots every now and again. A happy accident.

I then took blues, greens and silver inks to edged around the outside and add depth to the harlequins.

I stamped some spare harlequins and painted then up in blue again before adding them to the harlequin grid with foam pads.

I coloured a stamped image in browns and added it to the page before stamping over the image with flower stamps. I embellished with prima flowers and do craft sparkly brads. I added text to the page to break up the area.



Oh and this was the same stamp i used on the Daniel Journal page from a few weeks posts ago. I just masked off one section down the middle and stamped away.

So there you have it, different ways to use the same stamp.

TFL as always

Sarah

Donna Downey Art Quilt

I really love donna Downey and her projects. She is so modern, fresh and funky and i go on her blog and site on a weekly basis for inspiration. There is a link on the right for Donna (the image isnt showing for some reason but the link still works)

I downloaded the art quilt video last week and i can tell you it was the best $5 (£3.65) i have spent. The instructions are great, clear and easy to follow. In fact me and mum whipped up our quilts at our last crop and fully embellished that night when we got home.

See here is my version of the quilt













And here is my mum's quilt



Both very different but using the same instructions. It was intended to be a hanging but it could easily make a journal/ album cover.

TFL

Sarah

Getting ready for xmas

I have been making a few decorations recently in readyness for the festive season. My latest project is a mirror inspired by Tim Holtz.

Fiona, from our crop, got her husband to get us all lots of Ikea mirrors whilst he was down that way recently. What must he have looked like with a trolley full of mirrors.

Anyway, i adapted sir tim's idea to suit my own colours and as i dont pocess any stamps to make my tiles or memory glass etc, i am quite pleased with the result.

I learnt the technique of mounting an image on to chipboard, and then embossing with ultra thick many times from our scrap attack weekend with Dyan Reavly from art from the heart and blonde moments.

I embellished with a few small grungy board bits, metal frames and buttons. I added glitter to some of the plane pp tiles as well for added bling.

I had fun doing this and it only took the whole day cutting, glueing and embossing, lol







Dodgy photo's, I know. The camera didnt like the flective surface at all.

And just look at this to get you in the christmas spirit. What i nice surprise when i opened the door this morning to go to college.





Sarah

Memory storage box

I have been working on this for two weeks. Not that it was so complicated that it took that long, i was just doing a bit of glueing and sticking each night.

I followed the craft tv instructions to make this little box that i will send to the MIL full of a years worth of pictures.

I decorated with the love elsie Claire papers from Carolinez june kit which you could find here but has now sold out.







Thats all for now folks

Sarah

I have been so impressed with Ladybirds beautiful matchbox advent calendars over the last few months, that i decided to have ago.

These calendars are based on a class by Tracie Hudson over on Bubblyfunk craft website.

I spent the day painting all the little boxes on saturday and then put it all together at my crop yesterday. I went for non christmas colours of brown, blue and gold as i wanted it to match my living room and my deccy's are those colours as well. This little box is for me this time.

I asked the boys if they wanted one last week when i showed them the instructions but they said no, looked to girly. But oh now, low and behold, they both want one each. DH has asked for one for his mum as well. I said as long as he goes and does the shopping for all those matchboxes, then fine, lol.











I might try the swann vesta ones next time which are the next size up and then the really big boxes as well. We will have a family of them on the fireplace, lol

Bye for now

Sarah

my advent calendar screen

Here is my advent calendar. I made it from 3 sheets of a4 mount board, 3 sheets of 12x 12, brads, paperclips, number stickers, ribbons and rub ons. I saw this originally in a magazine as a 12 days of christmas screen but i adapted it into a 3 screened version.

here is how i did it.

1. Lay the 3 sheets of mountboard down flat and draw a border around each one. I went for 1.5 cm on the sides and top and 3 cm on the bottom. This wall form the guide for the top, side and bottom edges of the doors.

2. Now is the time to draw the doors. sketch out the doors in pencil. I gave the first and third pannel 8 doors and the second panel 9 doors.

3. The doors should be around 5 x 7cm each with a larger one filling the space, but you can chop and change at this point. I left around 1.5 cm gap between each door to allow for the hinges.

4. Now is the time to cut all the doors out. I found using a craft knife, mat and metal ruler worked best for me.

5. Once all doors are cut out, decorate the fronts. I used plain cardstock on the fronts. Use a wet glue to cover the front of the frames. Add the cardstock. Turn over and cut out the windows from the cardstock.

6. Sand down the edges of the windows to give a distressed look. i also inked with brown ink as well. If i was going to do this again, i might miss this stage out and just paint the screens in my chosen colours.

7. set aside and leave to dry.

8. Now to tackle the doors. Sand down the edges of each door by a few millimeters. This allows the doors to go back into the windows loosely.

9. Cover the doors with patterned paper and again sand and ink the edges. I had about 8 different designs which i tried to mix up per screen.

10. For the openings per door i made mountboard circles. i again covered in the pattered paper and inked.

11. To some of the circles i super glued large brass paper clips and to some of them i attached coordinated ribbons.

12. To attache the doors to the windows i made paper hinges. I cut 2 cm strips of brass coloured card. I then scored each one down the middle with a embossing tool. I cut them into 2.5 cm pieces.

13. Using my eyelet setter, i punched 4 holes into each piece.

14. I used a dab of herma glue on each hinge to attache temperarily onto the door and frame so i could mark my position for the pilet holes for the brads.

15. I again used my eyelet maker and the smallest diameter to make my holes on the door and frame.

16. Now is the time to put it all together. Use small brads to attache the hinges. I went for brass coloured ones.

17. I used the same process to make 6 larger hinges to attache the 3 screens together using larger brass brads.

18. The calendar screen is almost complete now. Attach the mountboard circles randomly around the 3 screens and attach numbers also in a random manner.

19. Add rub ons and ribbons along the bottom edge to decorate.

20. I have decided i would like photographs of the boys behind each door in my advent calendar. This year i want to have the boys in silly hats and poses holding up numbers. I will herma these pictures in place behind each window.

21. As i want to be able to change the pictures in future years to make this a memory keepsake i think the backing covers of each screen will be on same kind of velcro so it can be opened and shut without damaging the back.

This was relatively easy to make but very time consuming punching all the holes.

I hope you like it. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think.