Leonardo Lovelies!

Hoping to see the Leonardo Da Vinci Exhibtion at the National gallery soon, in the meantime I have satisfied my craving for all things Da Vinci, by making this little shrine. I used the little wooden arch which I gessoed and painted in matt emulsion. Then using black archival ink I stamped the Lost Coast designs Mona Lisa and Door and Window set. The other lovely lady is from my collection. I used inktense pencils to paint the images and background. Finishing with a touch of Inka gold in copper.

A quick reminder about the current Happy Daze Challenge which is Try Something New for the New Year. It could be a new technique you have recently discovered or some new stash you can't wait to to use. There is still plenty of time to enter. 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

Mixed Media - ' Dance ' by Annette Goatley (nettyscraftings)

Hi, have been longing to show you my Mixed Media Piece.

The stamp is by Lost Coast Designs (available at Happy Daze) the background has been triple embossed plus Viva Croco Bronze added.  The left hand dancer has been stamped and embossed and the multicoloured dancers were stamped on the back of an old tissue box, cut out and placed.

I love the whole effect of this piece.  Hope you like it as well.
Take care and have a good week, Hugs Annette x

something new by Joanne Wardle

The challenge theme here at Happy Daze this month is "something new"
I saw this technique on Pinterest recently and knew I had to try it.

It's so quick and easy, yet I think it's really effective. Just stamp, cut some detail with a craft knife and then just tear!

The stamp is from Jo Capper-Sandon's range at Stampotique.

Polymer clay pendants by Julie Dandy

Hi everyone and Happy New Year :D
For my NEW technique this week I coloured white polymer clay using perfect pearls pigment powders.
I used white clay and manipulated it until it was nice and soft. I put my perfect pearls on a piece of clingfilm and squished the clay in to it, then neaded it in.
Polymer clay is much softer than it used to be so is much easier to get to a workable texture.

I added in some clear glitter to see how that would look baked, you can't really see it though on the front of the piece, but I rather like how the back turned out with the crinkles from the clingfilm :DIt could quite easily be made in to a reversible piece by adding detail to the back (which I have just thought of now by the way LOL ).

While the clay was still unbaked I cut it in to the shape, made my hanging holes, then pressed my butterfly stamp in to it.

I baked it according to the manufacturers instructions and left it to cool.

Once cooled I added alcohol inks, I started with greens and blues all over but didn't feel the text stood out enough, so I covered it in black soot.
I then removed the excess by wiping over the surface with a paper towel with a little bit of blending solution on leaving behind the ink in the stamped image.
I added a little bit of perfect pearls to the butterfly.
When everything was dry I coated it with layers of Lisa Pavelka resin.

I tried a couple of other pieces some succesful, others not.
This is the same blue as my main piece but I added beadazzles to it...
This piece didn't work so well as I added the resin just to the indented area first and it puddled the alcohol ink ...And these little birds turned out rather nicely.
The one on the left is just the perfect pearls, the one on the right is swiped over with black ink.

The great thing about this technique is that you only need to buy white clay and colour it any colour with your mica powders.

Whats your something new going to be this month?
Upload it to the launch post to be in with a chance of winning this months prize :D

Hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

Steampunk Brooch By Carol Fox

I have been having a bit of a faff today tidying up my desk from christmas and I found this buried under a pile of stuff. I made it for the blog in December and them promptly lost it before it was photographed but it was very handy to find it as what I was making has gone horribly wrong. ( I put something down on it by mistake before the glossy accents was dry)

This  little brooch I made using one of the Bezel Frames in the shop. A few reclaimed watch parts, a new Tim Holtz game spinner and a swooping bird charm. It's all sealing into the bezel with Lisa Pavelka resin .

December Challenge - Gifts, cards and Tags - Winner Announced

There were 16 entries this month for the challenge. I Used a random number generator to choose the winner and out popped number 3. This is Meggys Way: Book In A Box .

If you would please email Moira at the shop sales@happy-daze.net she will arrange for your gift voucher to be emailed to you.

I personally loved your box and I expect your friend was thrilled with it.

New Challenge for 2012 - Try Something New For The New Year

First of all to wish everyone a Happy New Year for 2012, thank you for your support of the challenges in the past year and we hope to see lots more of your lovely creations in 2012.

The winner of December's challenge will be announced tomorrow.

To start of the new year the challenge is, "Try something new for the new year", either try a technique you have fancied having a go at or just make something with some new stash you have.

To inspire your Sam has altered this lovely box.

Sam says about her project.

I can't remember decorating a box before so this was completely new to me, there's so much to think about because there are so many angles it can been seen from. The stamp set was a present to myself last week.  Although altering the box was new to me I have used one of my favourite techniques on the box. I love stamping onto tissue paper, overlapping the different images and building up the layers. It's an extremely quick and effective way to add your layers and depth to any project.
"No Butterflies were harmed during the making of this box"

Items Sam used

Wooden Box 
7 Gypsies Stamp Set - Conservatory
Archival Ink Pads - Black and Coffee
Clauding Hellmuth - Gesso and Tan and Yellow Paints

As usual you can enter the challenge up to 3 times, either by using the linky widget below, via our facebook page or by emailing your entries directly to me at waynemonster@gmail.com.