Riddle Me This By Mandy Chilvers

Goood Monday Morning! Didn't we have a gorgeous day in England yesterday? and... the weather allowed me to get some good photo's of my next project.... An altered zetti Shrine.

A friend of mine had sent me some of these Tim Holtz cabinet die cuts. This is the negative space the cabinet card was cut out of... As soon as I saw it I knew what I wanted to make. I love Zettiology stamps and using lots of bright colours.

On this shrine, I gessoed the cardboard first, then used artist spackle through a Crafters Workshop stencil. Painted it with some green acrylic and then spritzed with some mica sprays (my life is SO complete with sprays! much lush-ness)

This zetti stamped image fits in perfectly with the shape of the shrine. I was going to add words ~ Riddle Me This... but I was unsure whether it would ruin it or not.

Stamps I used were Zetti Art Diva, Artistic Outpost, serenity flowers.
Mask I used is Crafters Workshop
Paints are Viva Decor.

TFL

Mandy x

' Home Sweet Home ' by Annette Goatley (nettyscraftings)

Hi, for my second project this month for Happy Daze, I chose to alter a Black Ikea Photo Frame, you know the ones I mean..........the cheapy plasticky ones.

Products used:  Suzi Blu -  La Belle stamp, gesso, acrylic paints, serviette, patterned paper, watercolour paints, multi matt medium  and bits from my stash.

Am so in love with this Suzi Blu -  La Belle stamp as she is so versatile.  If you remember on 3rd June when I used her last I cut off her hat and gave her a bandana.  This time have paper pieced her hat, I have many looks in mind for this fab stamp she is now available at the Happy Daze online shop.

Wishing you a happy and crafty week, Hugs Annette xx

UTEE Texture Tread Necklace By Moira Sutton

The new texture treads available in the shop are really lovely and as you can see from this necklace they give fantastic results with UTEE.
This was made using memory a 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 is finished with perfect pearl highlights.
A simple chain and jump ring were added to make this one of a kind necklace.

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 

The Girl with a Pearl..... by Julie Dandy

As soon as I saw this stamp set I had to have it!!!
I love the painting by Vermeer.

I started by colouring the wooden box with distress stain in broken china, when dry I painted on Picket fence crackle paint.

I stamped  my image on to tissue paper with coffee archival ink and adhered it to the box with a glue stick

I tinted the image with distress markers scribbled on to my craft mat, spritzed, then painted on with a brush to give a nice soft colour. 

I glued on some scraps of lace with glossy accents. then inked the bottom right corner with versamark ink to create a sticky surface for my frantage embossing powders.
They are designed to be heated from below so you need to start with a thin layer and add more while its still hot to build up the layers on a 3d item like this.

If you aren't happy with the areas covered with the embossing powder, brush off before heating.
Because I used a small inkpad I found I had a lot of harsh lines, so softened them this way.

I worked my way around the sides of the box and highlighted areas on the top of the box with the gold powder - I love the way it beads when you heat it slightly or on areas like the lace - you could brush away the extra powder to have a more beaded effect.

To finish off I added distress stickles and added a philosophy tag  embellished with seam binding coloured with the left over distress marker spritzed stain from earlier.

Here's a few more pics for you....

Hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

If butterflies could talk . . .

. . . I'm sure they would say "Leave room in your garden for fairies to dance".

To achieve a proper butterfly shape I printed one from the Internet and stuck it on some balsa wood, you could use chipboard or cardboard. I then cut it out and covered it with a canvas sheet, these are great for different sized projects as they cut easily and neatly. I then used some old patterned papers, paper punches and  oil pastels to make a colourful background. I printed the words on my computer and used some 7 Gypsies Conservatory stamps for accent details. Last but not least I thought it had been a while since Moon Girl came out to play. I gave her some acetate wings to make her more ethereal along with a sprinkling of gold glitter, then I covered the whole thing in a thin layer of beeswax and distressed it a little by scratching and stamping in the beeswax and applying some water soluble burnt umber oil paint and rubbing it off leaving it in the imprints of the wax. To age my string I wiped some brushed corduroy distress ink on it.

Don't forget this months challenge 'June Bug' click here for details, good luck!

Wishing you a very happy day, Sam xxx

Journal It By Carol Fox

I made this note book simply because I fancied playing with some stash I have.
I have used stencils and masks for the background. I used the Dylusions Stencil Dotted Flowers and the crafters mask harlequin. I used spray inks with the masks.
The stamps used are Stampotique originals Minky Girl and the swirl is so old the label has fallen off the block...see that's how old it is, its on a wooden block lol.
It was all edged with black acrylic paint.
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 

Altered Cigar Box by Paula Tidman

I've had an old cigar box lurking in my crafting stash for a while now and I decided to give it a make over. I gave it a base coat of black gesso, then as I couldn't find quite the right shade I wanted for my box, I mixed a few different colours of my matt emulsion together to create a custom shade. I gave it a couple of coats, then sanded it down to reveal some of the black gesso. Next I used vintage photo distress ink and a crafters workshop template to create the harlequin pattern. I distressed some old book pages and used this fabulous vintage bird plate by blockhead stamps (as they are really thick rubber, you don't get any ink transfer on the edges of the stamp, which seems to happen on a lot of unmounted stamps) to decorate the lid of the box, using distress inks and coloured pencils to colour the images. I glued in place with matte medium then I sealed the box by rubbing in a small amount of Judikins microglaze, which is perfect for protecting your inky creations, then I buffed a small amount of inka gold around the deges of the box.

That's all from me I hope you enjoy the last day of the Jubilee celebrations. xx