Guest Designer for July

We are really pleased to announce that the talented kaz Broughton is our guest for the month of July. To get a little preview of the her work you can see it all on her blog.

Also don't forget there is still time to enter this months challenge, entries are accepted until midnight tonight, for all the details the post can bee seen here ( note my cute misspelling there)

UTEE Texture Tread Bag Charm By Moira Sutton

The new texture treads available in the shop are really lovely and as you can see from this Bag Charm they give fantastic results with UTEE.
This was made using a memory frame which was placed onto the texture tread and then Cosmic Shimmer UTEE was poured into the frame and when set the Texture Tread was removed.
It was finished with perfect pearl highlights.
A simple Ball chain and swivel clasp were added to make this into a lovely bag charm.

Don't forget the current challenge is June Bug and there is a £15.00 voucher to be won for the shop. For the challenge details click here

Frozen Dragonfly by Julie Dandy

Well there isn't long left to enter the June Happy Daze challenge so if you want to be in with a chance of winning a £15 gift voucher upload your JUNE BUGS HERE!!!

I decided to try a little bit of assemblage for this cutie dragonfly piece featuring THESE fab wooden spools and the large TH FRACTURED DOLL which is a repro frozen charlotte doll, which is why I called this piece frozen dragonfly :D

I started by selecting graduating sized buttons in various vintage colours (big -or bug surprise LOL!!!), a few beads and some art wire.

I cut a long piece of wire and folded it in half then threaded on my beads, buttons and spools giving the wire an occasional twist to make the shape more flexible.

The ends of the wire made the anttenea by twisting around a pokey tool and adding beads to the ends.

I made the wings by threading the art wire through a cheap lace doiley I bought on ebay, in wing shapes then cutting roughly around the outer edge.
I left enough spare wire to wrap around the main spool so that the wings were secure.
I then wrapped more wire round the fractured doll and added ribbon and lace to the spools.

I coloured the wings by dabbing on versamark ink randomly then used  FRANTAGE embossing powders over the top of it, then heated it gently as the doiley was made of nylon and I didn't want to burn it.

I added a few embellies including more buttons and some ideaology and to finish off , spritzed the whole piece with a spray made from distress re-inker in victorian velvet, then added a splodge or two of distress stickles in bundled sage.

 Here's a few more piccies :D

This is going to look so pretty in my bedroom :D

Hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

Lots of News

As I am sure a few of you now know, due to family commitments Paula has made the decision to leave the happy daze DT, but I am sure we will welcome her back as a guest in the future, I will bombard her with emails until she gives in.
But I am very happy to announce that our Guest for this month Lucy has accepted Moira's invitation to join us as a permanent member, so we shall see lots more of Lucy's lovely work in the upcoming months.

I am sure we all wish Paula lots of success in her future endeavours and thank her for sharing her work with us on the Happy Daze Blog.

June Guest - 'A Moth to the Flame' by Lucy Edmondson

For my final guest posting, and my contribution to the 'June Bug' challenge theme, I thought I would use the imagery of Icarus as my winged creature. I have always loved the story, and this Icarus stamp by Lost Coast Designs is so perfect, the way he seems to be falling through the sky. I wanted to continue the imagery by using a candle, to represent the wax which held his feathered wings together, and the light from the candle as the warmth of the sun he is drawn towards, like a moth to the flame.

This is a very simple make, but I think stamped candles make such a quick but appealing gift. First of all I tore a strip of tissue paper with wavy edges and dabbed it with Ultramarine, Azure, and Teal Staz On inks to represent the sea. I cut a rough semi circle of tissue and dabbed it with Mustard and Pumpkin StazOn to represent the sun, and lightly adhered these to the candle as shown, using the tiniest dab of matte medium. I stamped Icarus on tissue with Black StazOn and coloured him on the reverse with pencils, cut him out, and added him to the candle by the same method. You only need to hold the pieces in place long enough to melt the wax. I tore a strip of wax paper the same height as the candle but a little wider so I could wrap it around tightly with an overlap to hold it by. I then applied the heat gun, moving it on to another section as soon as the images started to become transparent, and then removed the wax paper. My friend, Jack, who taught me how to decorate candles gave me a tip. If there are any lumpy areas where a blob of wax has melted, warm a metal palette knife in boiling water and smooth it over the bump.

I then made a matching tag out of shrink plastic. Sorry, but I do love my shrink plastic! I stamped Icarus onto frosted shrink plastic using Jet Black Stazon, cut a tag shape, punched a hole, and coloured the image on the reverse with Pro Markers, adding the sun and the sea. I kept the colours very pale as I wanted them to intensify after shrinking to match the main images on the candle. After shrinking with the heat tool, I ran a gold pen around the edge.

To present my gift, I wanted to wrap it in cellophane but I couldn't find my roll, so I used an A4 size self-seal bag, the kind you buy to sell your cards in. I folded the adhesive edges at the top and twisted them, and tied the twist with twine. I threaded the tag through and tied a bow. Once I had done this I realized I had stamped Icarus in a different orientation to the image on the candle, but I decided this happy accident added to the sense of him tumbling through the sky, and plummeting into the sea.

I hope you like my 'Moth to the Flame' and that you will join in this month's challenge if you haven't done so already - there's a great prize!

Thank you so much for your kind support of me and lovely comments during my guest appearance. I have appreciated it so much.

Aviator Optical Lens Pendant By Carol Fox

I have made this using images from the Artistic Outpost sheets Charles and Amelia and Industrial Backgrounds both of which can be found here. The dog tags are die cut shrink plastic that I have stamped onto and punched holes in, once shrunk I have sealed them with Glossy Accents. I have used a vintage lens for my pendant, but these in the shop will work great on this project.
The optical lens has been sealed with Ice Resin to protect the rubber stamping.

Ice Resin Pendants By Moira Sutton

The Ice Resin that is now being stocked in the shop is the perfect medium for your jewellery making. It domes easily on your hand made jewellery pieces and gives a crystal clear non yellowing finish that not only gives your jewellery a professional finish, it also protects and seals it against knocks and chips.
Here are a few examples of Jewellery pieces made using Ice Resin.

Altered Domino Necklace's with a bale for hanging.

Bazel Necklace with Beadazzels

Double Domino Necklace's with Bale

Don't forget the current challenge is June Bug and there is a £15.00 voucher to be won for the shop. For the challenge details click here

Beeswax and Bugs

This may be the shortest blog post ever but here is a little box I decorated using just a couple of stamps, Prismacolour pencils and some beeswax.

First I stamped the images on to white card and traced with ordinary tracing paper and transferred the images to the box. I then coloured using Prismacolour pencils and then covered with beeswax and distressed it by scratching into the beeswax, applying paint and then rubbing off and buffing up with a soft cloth.

  I used the Pretty Girl Stamp by Suzi Blu

Loopy Borders by Lost Coast Designs

and a Wooden Box

It smells divine too!

Apologies for the short post, I've damaged my back and at the moment I'm unable to sit or stand for any length of time, I do hope you like my little box.

Wishing you a happy day, Sam xxx

June Guest - Lucy Edmondson - Jane Austen Canvas

For my second 'make' for my guest appearance, I have made a large canvas featuring mini canvases using the Jane Austen's Countryside stamps by the Artistic Outpost:-

I started off by painting the canvas, which was a bit smaller than A4 in size, with some vivid colours of acrylic paint in orange, pink, turquoise, and lime. I knew they would be 'muted' a little when I added the tissue, which was Tim Holtz tissue wrap in 'Terminology', which I applied using plenty of matte medium to adhere it, and over the top, so that it really soaked in. Now I know a lot of people at this stage would have added some gesso and maybe stamping or stencilling over the top of this layer, but I really loved the tissue wrap words showing through so clearly - the first time I have used this product and I love it! The great thing is, Happy Daze is the only place I have spotted where you can buy just a sheet of the tissue wrap if you don't want the outlay for a huge box, and this would be plenty for the whole project. I gave the mini canvases the same treatment and then stamped some of the Jane images onto shrink plastic, coloured them on the reverse with Pro Markers, and cut round the shapes carefully before shrinking them.

I rubbed a little Teal StazOn ink onto my finger (the only tool I can always find!), and ran it round the edge of the big canvas and the baby canvases for a bit of definition. I stamped the cameo from the stamp set onto white card and coloured it with Pro Markers and cut it to fit into one of these adorable little frames here, filled it with Glossy Accents, and let it dry overnight.

For the mini faux Jane Austen book, I stamped the pattern design from the stamp set onto Glassine paper using VersaMark and embossed it in gold, and scrunched it up in my hand. I folded the rectangle so it wasn't quite in half, then folded it not quite in half from the other end, to form a spine, and filled it with some pieces of book text to look like a book. The scrunching gave the glassine a slightly leathery 'book' feel. I then cut some faux book corners from some bigger metal embellishments and added them to the corners, with the Jane Austen wording from the stamp set.

To assemble the canvas, I splodged some white paint onto the middle of four of the mini canvases using my finger, so the images would stand out better, and adhered the three shrink plastic images, and the little cameo frame. I used glossy accents to add a couple of little pieces of ball chain to the frame to look like a necklace. I stamped the quote, 'To sit in the shade on a fine day is the most perfect refreshment' onto white card in black ink, and matted it onto a piece of glassine embossed with the pattern as before. I adhered this, and the faux book, to the final canvases, and grouped them together towards the centre of the large canvas.

To finish off, I added the metal photo corners you can find here.

Butterfly Arch By Paula Tidman

I used the lovely lost coast design Butterfly stamps for my Junebug project. I had an off cut of plywood on which I drew an arch shape and asked if Hubby would kindly cut it out for me as I wanted to keep my crafting fingers intact LOL.

I layered on various colours of  studio acrylic paint with a roller and then used the edge to give the impression of tall grasses. Once dry I used black archival ink to stamp the butterflies. Then I used the crafters workshop template and versamagic chalk inks and outlined the flowers with a white gel pen. I stamped the sentiment with archival ink and then I had my first encounter with beeswax, had fun getting very messy.


There is still plenty of time to enter the Junebug Happy Daze Challenge. 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

Queen BEE

HI all... have you all got that happy monday feeling? I overslept this morning and it's thrown me for a loop. Anyway, I've made this house and housed this cute little sassy Queen Bee in it. I really love it... the colours are very bright. 

It is for the Happy Daze monthly challenge theme of JUNE BUG.

 I knew I wanted to use the new set of stamps I've got from Artistic Outpost... Whimsical Melange , This is a brilliant set for making houses, hanging pieces and shrines. The Sassy Bee is from Catslife Press and the rooftops at the bottom are from this Zetti stamp. It's fab.

 I drew the zetti border around the house and then stamped the ruler from the Artistic Outpost set a few times and made a frame.

If you join in with our monthly challenge you've got the chance to win £15.00 to spend instore at Happy Daze! All the deets are here 

TFL

Mandy x

Altered Picture Frame and Cards by Annette Goatley (nettyscraftings)

Hi, today would like to show you the before and after photographs of a small picture frame which has been altered.

Bought from a charity shop for 10p

Products used:  Stamps by Lost Coast Designs, Inka Gold, Copper and Cobalt Blue, Viva Croco Crackling Transparent, Embossing Folder,  Distress Markers and Studio Multi-Matte Medium.

Continuing the theme for this month - June Bug -  here are a couple of very easy cards which take minutes to make

Products used:  Stamp by Lost Coast Design, X Cut Heart Nesting Die, Embossing Folder, Sheet Music, Lace, Studio Multi-Matt Medium and a canvas sheet (used this to stamp the butterfly onto)

This time using the Cabinet diecut and two embossing folders, sparkly net and once again stamped on a canvas sheet.

If you have any questions please email me as am very happy to answer any questions relating to these or past makes for Happy Daze.  Looking forward to seeing your entries for this months great theme.  Take care of yourselves, hugs Annette x

Canvas Tag By Moira Sutton

The background for this canvas tag has been created by using colour wash inks over a Prima mask. The stamp used is Becky and is by Scroll Works.

Don't forget the current challenge is June Bug and there is a £15.00 voucher to be won for the shop. For the challenge details click here

VerDay Flower Tutorial By Carol Fox

I do really enjoy making my own flowers and embellishments for projects, so I thought I would share with you how I have made these flowers using the New Verday paint available from the shop, and some mulberry paper ( yes I too have a mountain of this) The Verday paint works really well on mulberry paper as the paper is porous, so it soaks into it, which gives a much better patina finish.

Step 1

I  cut my shapes using a flower die, but if you don't have a die cutter just cut them by hand. You need 3 shapes for each flower.

Step 2

Now cut them as shown in the picture.

Step 3

Glue them together using a glue like glossy accents, PVA can react with the verday and stop the patina working so well. Snip the bottoms of all of them except the smallest one. Now using something small and round, the end of a paint brush is good for this, curl the petals under. Your shapes will now look like this.

Step 4

Start with the small center one that has not had its bottom bit cut off, put some glossy accents onto the point and twist it, so it is quite stiff, now start to layer your flowers up. Put the point through the cut center of the next smallest, pushing it down well into the center. Add some more accents to the bottom rim of the flower and layer the next piece onto the bottom, placing it so the petals are spaced around the flower, carry on with the  remaining flower shapes until you flower ends up looking like this.

Step 5

It will dry quickly, and when it is give the petals a bit more of a roll back to define their shape. Paint the flower with the Copper verday paint. Give it two thin coats letting it touch dry between coats. Now put it to one side to dry throughly.

Step 6
Once Dry, place it on a craft mat and give it a spritz with the patina solution. I use mine in a mini mister as it gives a nice light spray, which is all you need. Once they are thoroughly dry they will look like this and have a nice stiff feel to them. They even feel old as well as looking old.

Add anything else you want to them, distress stickles look lovely on these, or add random spots of glossy accents and add Beadazzles, glitter or Frantage Shaved ice would add a lovely morning dew appearance to them.

Don't forget the current challenge is June Bug and there is a £15.00 voucher to be won for the shop. For the challenge details click here

No Bugs Please!

I confess to not liking spiders at all and have been known to squish them in the past so when I saw this months challenge theme is 'June Bug' I immediately thought of spiders. Yuk!

I thought I try something I'd not ever done before and made an easel ATC, it was really easy and it's a really cute size to work with.

Start off with some card 7 inches x 2 1/2 inches. Score at 3 1/2  inches and again at 5 1/4 inches, this gives you the basic easel ATC, then decorate as desired.

Firstly I glued on some old book pages and coloured with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink, I then stamped Spider Girl on white card, coloured her and glued her on also. I stamped Floral Flutter on tissue paper and used PVA to stick those in place. Finally I used an old alphabet stamp set for the wording, which I stuck in place using foam pads, these give a raised surface for the easel bit to rest against.

 This is the same ATC lay down, almost flat, notice I used the Floral Flutter stamp on the inside without the butterflies saving them for the front.

It was a super quick project and I hope you try, it could quite possibly become another addiction for me as it gives ATC's a whole new perspective!

I used:

Stampotique Spider Girl

Stampotiqe Floral Flutter

Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink

White Card

Details of this months challenge can be found here go on join in the fun, with a chance to win £15 to spend in the shop!

Wishing you a happy day, Sam xxx

June Guest - Lucy Edmondson - An Altered Bottle

I was so thrilled to be asked to Guest for Happy Daze this month, and for the first of my three contributions I have made this altered bottle. I wanted to go for a giant perfume bottle look. It started life as a glass bubble bath bottle like this:-

After removing all the labels, I painted it with a pinky beige acrylic paint and then stamped it with the Prima en francais script stamp in Victorian Velvet Distress Ink. I then used the pattern stamp from the Artistic Outpost 'Jane's Countryside' set and wrapped it around my hand and used a dabbing motion with Sepia ink, blotting it as I went along. These two stamps created more of a texture than a pattern. I dabbed a bit of Sepia on my finger and ran it around the raised circular part of the bottle to emphasize it. So at this stage it looked like this:-

These are the stamp sets I used:-

Next I used the Lost Coast Designs 'Labels' stamp set. I stamped the 'Violette Flor' perfume bottle label onto a cotton coaster (I buy these in packs of 10 from Poundland), using Sepia ink. I then used the other two perfume label stamps to make shrink plastic tags for the neck of the bottle, colouring them on the reverse with Pro Markers.

A better view of the shrink plastic tags:-

I adhered the coaster to the centre of the bottle and added a pressed Viola flower, sealed with a little matte medium. I wrapped a pocket watch style necklace from a car boot sale around the neck of the bottle and added the tags on jump rings. To finish off, I added a piece of lace to the neck, and some Liquid Pearls to the opening. I had planned on replacing the original stopper but it didn't look right. I was also going to add lots of little flowers etc, but Mr Less Is More told me to step away from the craft room!

I am using my finished bottle to hold artificial flowers:-

Verday Patina Door Hanger by Carol fox

One of the wooden door hangers from the shop, painted and altered using the new Verday paint products now available.
I started by glueing some Cog Die cuts to the wooden hanger and then gave it all a coat of brown acrylic paint and then it sat in my half done box for about 6 months :(

Then one morning through my letter box arrived a sample of the Verday paint from Moira which made me randomly look around for things to try it on and I spied this half done and looking all unloved. So here it is, all Verdayed up and looking pretty good even if I do say so myself. It's very seldom I like the things I make, but for me this is the exception.

I gave the brown painted hanger a dab over with all of the colours as I wanted to see how they all worked, they dry quite quickly so I was able to layer them up and over each other quite quickly, I applied the Verday with a sponge.

I let it dry according to the instructions and then spritzed it with some of the patina solution which I used with a mini mister, I then let this dry over night.

I applied the copper Verday to the Book plate and Dragonfly using a paint brush and once dried I spritzed them with the patina solution again leaving them to dry overnight.

The flowers I made myself and I will be sharing how I did these on Friday, so do please come back and have a look.

When all the pieces were dry, I was delighted with the finish that the Verday had given to everything. I added an Adage ticket to the book plate, I bashed a couple of  brad fasteners to make them look like screws and then added them all to the door hanger using crafters pick glue.

Don't forget the current challenge is June Bug and there is a £15.00 voucher to be won for the shop. For the challenge details click here