She Remembered to Smell the Flowers by Moira Sutton

Prompted by Ann Briggs who organises a monthly play day craft group I recently did a "She Art"  online class with Christy Tomlinson.  I must say it was fun and I was delighted when she collaborated with Pink Paislee to bring out a range of new products which arrived in stock this week.  You can find them in our "She Art" section.

'Sing Little Birdie' - by Annette Goatley (Nettyscraftings)

Hi, have to tell you am not best pleased with my alteration of this Wooden Pencil Box.  But sometimes it doesn't always work out as planned does it...........boo hoo

Products used:  Pencil Box  Viva Croco Crackling  Acrylic Paint, Charms and stamps.

But like the Bird in the picture am going to sing a Happy Tune because I can't whistle........totally rubbish at that.........lol and move on to the next project and hope I can do better...........

Take care of yourselves and hope to see you soon. Hugs Annette x

Forget Me Not - Canvas By Moira Sutton

There are now a great selection of canvases available from the shop. One of them has been used for this lovely canvas by Moira.
Claudine Hellmuth paints have been used for the background which has been stamped and texture has been added with gilding flakes and Tim Holtz Tissue tape.
The little bird is a hand made embellishment and it has been created using Pardo clay with a sugar craft mould,  after baking it has been coloured with Inka Gold paints.

Songbird Designed by Paula Tidman

Inspired by Sam's altered altoid tins, I thought I would make my husband an altered tin. He plays the mandolin and is always misplacing his plectrums LOL, this little tin is the ideal size to store them in. I bought two of these tiny mint tins from Aldi for just over a £1.

I started by giving the tin a coat of gesso. Then two coats of cream matt emulsion.  I then stamped the cute little birds from Prima Songbird and the text stamp from Artist outpost Bluebird plate, in archival ink on the sides and the bottom of the tin. I painted the stamped images with distress inks in Barn door, Dusty concord, spiced marmalade and broken china. Then I buffed more broken china all around the edges.

I used a gold leafing pen around the top edge of the tin and finished with a coat of varnish.

A quick reminder about the current Happy Daze Challenge which  you still have time to enter. It is "March to your own tune" So anything with a musical theme.  One lucky winner will be drawn at random to win a  £15 voucher and free P&P to spend in the Happy Daze shop. Maximum of 3 entries per person & you must use at least one product which can be purchased in the Happy Daze shop.

• You can enter by blogging you address to the linky widget here, 
• emailing your picture to info@happy-daze.net
• uploading your photo to their facebook page

  

Dance by Samantha Read

Whoo hoo! Here in the UK we set our clocks to British Summer Time and that makes me feel like dancing!

I've made a similar piece to my last which was Sing as I will display them together as a pair. I did try to make it the same but different. Sing has quite happy colours whereas Dance is a little bit more spooky.

Again I covered the whole thing with beeswax and embedded some musical note sequins and this time some Bedazzles.

I used:

Lost Coast Designs, Loopy Border

Stampotique, Great Moon
Bedazzles, Waltz
Lost Coast Designs, Angel In Disguise

Crafters Workshop, Cherry Blossom Template

Journaling Tickets

Claudine Hellmuth Studio Paints: Purple Palette and Sky Blue and 

Black Archival Inkpad

Wishing you a happy day, Sam xxx

"Sing" chunky ATC by Julie Dandy

This is my first attempt at a chunky ATC so I hope you like it LOL

I used Artistic Outpoost Serenity stamp set as this months Happy Daze challenge is Music themed items.

I started by colouring the short sides with distress stain and then glued on some lace with multi matte medium.
When dry I added some distress stickles to the lace to give a more vintage aged feel to it.

I drilled tiny holes in the bottom and glued on my feet - I used beads and bead caps on a head pin.

I coloured my Pink Paislee chipboard letters with distress stain and glued them on to a piece of acetate.
When dry I cut the acetate around the letters and added a long piece with DST to make a dangler - no idea what the techy term is sorry LOL :D
I glued it on to the back of my block which was then covered with patterned paper.

I stamped my Artistic Outpost image with coffee archival ink on to a piece of Tim Holtz patterned paper, distressed the edges and glued on to the front of my block.

I coloured my ribbon with the distress stain so that it matched my piece and tied around the edge of the block.

I then bent a metal filigree corner to the shape of my block and glued it down with the matte medium.

I have a feeling these fabby chunky ATC's may become an addiction LOL :D

Hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

Cat Who Got The Cream - Canvas By Moira Sutton

This canvas has used one of the new size canvases that are now available in the shop.
The Background has been done by using Texture Paste through the  Crafters Workshop Harlequin Screen.
The background was then painted with Claudine Hellmuth paints.
It has been embellished with a large Antique bronze Filigree Corner.

Birds Of A feather Bird House By Carol fox

I have used one of the wooden Bird Houses for this. All of the images used are from the Artistic Outpost Plate, Birds Of A Feather. apart from the music for the roof, which is an old acrylic stamp I have had for ages and I have not idea who makes it.

I first gave the house a coat of Claudine Hellmuth's Sky Blue Paint. I then thinned some of the paint on my craft mat and gave a bit of white tissue a quick coat of it. I dried  it with my heat gun and then cut pieces to fit all the sides and roof of the house ( I do these houses a lot so I have a little set of templates that I keep for this).

I stamped my images directly onto the tissue masking as needed.
I then glued them to the house using multi medium, also giving it a top coat to protect it.
I gave it a quick rub over with Picket Fence distress stain and ran a Black Dabber around all the edges.

Dont forget this months challenge theme is music themed pieces. To see all the details and to upload your creations the post is HERE.

Diesel Punk Card By Helen Chilton

Helen  has made this lovely card using the new set of Artistic Outpost Rubber Stamps, Diesel Punk.

Don't forget the current challenge is music, for all the details see the post HERE

Little dancer gift bag by Joanne Wardle

Continuing with the music theme for the March Happy Daze challenge, I decided to use some Tim Holtz tissue tape and lost Coast's Ballerina 2 to make a simple gift bag from a A4 envelope.

To make the bag cut the envelope to 9 inches long. Use the cut off part to make the tag.

score the sides and base of envelope at 1.5 inches and fold. Score 3 inches from the top and fold this to the inside of the bag. Do not make up the bag until all the inking is done. Attach the tissue tape all the way around the bag leaving a little space.

Fold back the bottom 1.5 inch and ink with vintage photo distress ink below and just above the tape.

Stamp Abstract foliage along the bottom with vintage photo.

Fold into the bag shape, glue the base triangles to the base of the bag.

Punch holes in the top, attach the tag (which was simply stamped, inked and coloured with pencils)

Tie ribbon through holes.

' LAUGH' - The Musical by Annette Goatley (Nettyscraftings)

Hi, going with the theme of Music this month I chose to use that fabulous stamp 'Laugh' by Paperbag Studios available at Happy Daze for both my makes, am so loving this happy face.

This card was made with sheet music which has been lightly stained with Antique Linen Distress Ink. Heat embossed the Laugh stamp.  The flower is made up of sheet music, flowers from stash, glitter spot net and filled with micro beads which were alcohol inked with gold.

The wooden box is something I picked up in Portugal, but I found a better one in the Happy Daze shop which is the same ..........darn it  wish I had seen that one earlier. First Gesso was used,  acrylic paint and then rubbed down to age it a bit.  Heat embossed the Laugh stamp .  Lined with patterened paper.  Lacquered to finish it off.

A tip -  give at least 3 - 4 days for the lacquer to properly dry otherwise you won't be able to open the box easily.  Am telling you this because I found out the hard way................won't tell you the words I used over this as they are not for your angelic ears.................lol

Look forward to seeing your creations for this month's theme.  Take care, hugs Annette x

Renaissance Plaque designed by Paula Tidman

I bought some fimo recently and decided to make a small Renaissance inspired project. I used the non bake variety and rolled out to about 1cm thick and then stamped with one of the houses on the  artistic outpost whimsical melange sheet. I used a script stamp in the centre, then left to dry for about 24 hours. It was then painted with studio acrylic paint in blue, zapped with a heat tool and distressed with the studio black paint. I highlighted the lettering with a krylon gold leafing pen. Then brushed on some heirloom gold perfect pearls. The plaque was coated with lisa pavelka magic gloss resin. The image was downloaded from the internet and placed in a chipboard frame which was given the inka gold treatment. Finally adding some gold german scrap, pearls and a filigree charm similar to this one

A quick reminder about the current Happy Daze Challenge which  you still have time to enter. It is "March to your own tune" So anything with a musical theme.  One lucky winner will be drawn at random to win a  £15 voucher and free P&P to spend in the Happy Daze shop. Maximum of 3 entries per person & you must use at least one product which can be purchased in the Happy Daze shop.

• You can enter by blogging you address to the linky widget here, 
• emailing your picture to info@happy-daze.net
• uploading your photo to their facebook page

HERE'S LOOKIN' AT YOU KID........by Annette Goatley (Nettyscraftings)

Hi, the new Artistic Outpost Stamps available at Happy Daze  are wonderful.  I bought the Diesel Punk Set and love it even though am not a Punky type of person.

The image was stamped with Archival Ink on Gloss Card and mounted, as are the words.  Punched the banner from some of my left over Acrylic Paint Squishings.  So there you have it a very simple card which doesn't take long to make, brilliant.

Take care and be seeing you soon. Hugs Annette x

Sing by Samantha Read

The theme for this month is music, music means many things, but to me it means singing and dancing. The quote that immediately came to mind is this famous Mark Twain quote,

“Sing like no one's listening, love like you've never been hurt, dance like nobody's watching, and live like its heaven on earth.” 

I have a very talented music friend whom when she hears musical notes she can see colours, so I chatted to her on the phone and asked her what colours she could see whilst talking to me and her reply was yellow, orange and red. Below is my creation combining the quote and chat to my friend. It's a decorative hanging measuring 8 x 10 inch. I covered the whole thing with beeswax, my latest most favourite thing to do, and embedded some musical note sequins. 

The contrast between the waxy wax and smooth shiny sequin in lovely.

What's even more lovely is the beeswax smell.

I used:

Lost Coast Designs, Loopy Border

Craftters Workshop, Cherry Blossom Template

Stampotique, Moon Girl

Journaling Tickets
Melt Pot

Crackle Accents
7 Gypsies Conservatory stamp set

Lace Guipre and 

Black Archival Inkpad

Wishing you a happy day, Sam xxx

Note to Self by Samantha Read

I absolutely couldn't resist any longer! A chunky, wooden atc and one of my favourite colour combinations, pink and brown.

I started by painting the whole thing with ordinary emulsion paint left over from decorating, this seals and smooths the wood. I then cut and decorated the paper, adhered to the atc and added embellishments. The embellishments were vital to this project, without them it just looked really naked.

The memo pin went into the wood really easily, I just kept tuning and pressing into the wood with the pin, it would be good for holding photo's too.

Yet another new addiction!

I used:

Chunky Wood ATC (thank goodness these are now available, I had a go at cutting my own and it was tricky!)

Artistic Outpost Stamp Sheet, Serenity

Tim Holtz memo pin

Birdhouse charm

Prima Crystals and Pearls Pearlescent Pinks

Distress Inkpads, Brushed Corduroy, Antique Linen and Worn Lipstick

Wishing you a happy day, Sam xxx

Paris Exposition Vanity Box By Carol Fox

I have used the Artistic Outpost stamps Paris Exposition and French Flight to alter this Box. The Box is one of the Vanity Boxes available from the shop.

The background has been created by using a crackle paint background, I found the blue was too bright when this was done, so I applied a coat of Picket Fence distress stain which gave it a lovely aged look.

Viva Inka Gold in Hematite was applied through a crafters Workshop Stencil.

All the stamping was done using black archival ink.

Acrylic fragments and arrows were added to the lid.

The challenge this month is "March To Your Own Tune" use anything musical. For full details of the challenge have a look HERE

Diesel Punk Tags By Helen Chilton

Two Gorgeous tags by Helen using the new Diesel Punk Set of stamps by Artistic Outpost. This set of stamps are available in the shop here. Other Artistic Outpost stamps are also available to buy. There have been some great additions to the range in the last week and these stamps are very up to the minute and very versatile. Including some great UK themed stamps that are perfect for any Jubilee projects you have planned.

There is now an allocated section for all things queenly under the heading of Queens Jubilee and this can be found in the shop side bar under the heading of Themed Stash,

Music Card by Joanne Wardle

To fit with the "march to your own tune" theme this month, I have made this easy music themed card using Scrolls Work Stamps. Scrolls Work Stamps are not trading anymore, but Happy Daze still have a limited amount in stock.

for this card I used Sheet Music and Knapp music Chart.

To make the card I masked off a strip of the card and inked with various brown distress inks and overstamped with the sheet music stamp. I then stamped the knapp music chart with sepia versafine ink. I embossed two lines down the sides of the strip to make it stand out more,

to make the embellishment, I stamped the sheet music stamp onto white thin card. I ripped it into strips, and inked with distress inks, rolled it up and glued the rolls. I tied a ribbon around them added a charm (these are similar to what I used)and then glued to the card. I have left it sentiment free, but a sentiment could be added for any occasion for a music lover.

Craft Stamper Magazine: April Issue

The latest issue of the magazine is now available to purchase from the shop.

This month there are four articles by members of the Happy Daze Design Team. Paula has altered one of these bags in a stunning style on Page 14 and this is also featured on the magazine cover. Sam has a lovely Glitter Girl Shaker on page 68. Carol Fox has an altered Domino Bag charm on page 24 using Tim Holtz Ideaology, charm Fragments and shrink Plastic. There is also an amazing spread by  Helen Chilton, called The Big Reveal featuring her lovely cards. 

February challenge: A winner

There were lots of lovely entries to the challenge for February. I am very glad it is chosen with a random number generator as it would have been a very hard decision to make.
The lucky winner this month is number 6 Inkypinkycraft with her lovely chunky ATC, you can see her entry again here.  If you would like to email Moira with you details she will send you your gift voucher for the shop. sales@happy-daze.net
I also know that Moira has Chunky ATC's available from Happy Daze, you can find them here.

March Challenge - March To Your Own Tune

This month give your items a musical theme, use anything musical on your piece for this challenge. Just remember that at least one item you use must be available from the shop.
This Month Julie has given us inspiration with her fantasitc Altered Shoes.
Julie used the Artistic Outpost set of stamps Songbirds and has this to say about her project.
I decided to treat my old scuffed dancing shoes to a vintage makeover instead of sending them to the bin.
This is how they started out - Poor things.

I started by randomly covering sections with  musical TH Tissue Tape. I trimmed away any excess and tucked some pieces over the edge.

Once I was happy with how it looked I gave them a few coats of Claudine's Multi Matte Medium making sure that all the edges were sealed and smoothed down.

The really fab thing is once it's dry the tape is now waterproof.

I glued on lace trim and then smeared on distress stickles in faded denim - I love doing this as any unwated gluey bits are hidden as well as adding a pretty shimmer and a touch of colour.

Next I made my little frames from Pardo clay using my own mould. Once baked it was a little darker that I wanted so I coloured them with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls.

I stamped my images onto white tissue paper that I had coloured with watered down distress ink and glued it onto Claudines Canvas. I did the same thing again with the same image bit this time glueing it down upside down so I had a matching pair.  I used the multi medium to glue them onto the canvas, burnishing it down really well so the canvas texture showed. I then stuck these onto grungepaper, cut them out and glued them into my frames. I attached these to my shoes with jump rings. ( I made holes in my shoes with a cropadile)

I added gems and ribbon to finish them off.

I love these, they really suit my vintage style and if I scuff them I can just add more tissue tape.

Share your musical make with us here on the blog this month. As usual there is a £15.00 gift voucher pluss free P & P to spend in the Happy Daze shop which will be awarded by a random number generator to one lucky entrant and the winner will be anounced on the 2nd of April.

You can enter up to three projects for the challenge and each item must contain at least one item that is available from the shop.
You can enter either via the linky widget below, by uploading your project to the facebook page or by emailing it directly to me a waynemonster@gmail.com