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