Tick Tock - Craft-Room Challenge

Hi, I hope you enjoyed our Oriental theme over at the Craft-Room Challenge, your entries were gorgeous.  However, it's now time for a new theme, which the lovely Suzanne has chosen, which is:

 "Tick Tock"

we would like to see a clock or timepiece on your creation. 

For my creation, I have done the first page in a "Piggy Tales" board book which the lovely Julia gave to me.  I had never seen one of these before, the little windows slide open and closed so you can hide pictures behind.  I thought it would be lovely to use this theme to start off a sort of keepsake book for my grandson, Ethan - nursery rhymes and stories are becoming more and more frequent in our house, lol, and I had just the stamp!

I've coloured the base with Weathered Wood DI and stamped the Crafty Individuals image (CI  onto some white cardstock coloured with Antique Linen.  The footprints inside the "clock" were also stamped in weathered wood and the "tick tock"cut out of Kraft on the Cricut.  I've restamped the image a couple of times and cut some of the mice out and used them for 3, 6, and 9 on the clock - these are no ordinary mice, they're very special as some only have one ear (and some may have none!), and they all have jute tails as their original ones were chopped off (my cutting skills leave a lot to be desired lol).  Some lace has been added to finish.  When the whole book is finished, I will share it with you.

Our sponsor this fortnight is:

who stock a range of rubber stamps, masks, dies, and so much other gorgeous (and hard to resist) stuff!

(usual challenge rules apply)

Please pop over and see what stunning projects the other ladies have created for your inspiration, I hope you can join us.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Maria xxxxx

With Gratitude

Hi, I hope you're enjoying your week.  This is a short post I'm afraid, and time is running short for me to enter The Stampsmith Challenge, with only a few days left.  The theme this month is  "With Gratitude", using at least one Stampsmith stamp on your creation.

My entry is a little wall hanger which I've made for someone as a thank you gift:

A heart-shaped piece of mdf, painted in white Gesso then covered in Viva Decor transparent Croco paste.  Once this stuff is applied, it needs to be left to crackle for about 24 hours.  This is the first time I've used it, and I love the result, it seems to self level.

A close up of the crackle

 The image I've used is Maude, and I've cut her out with a Spellbinders die, and matted onto a second die cut from Kraft cardstock, turned on it's side.  Pearls were added down the left side but I realised I didn't have enough for the other, so I used some lace instead.  A resin, glittered flower attached to the bottom, some minature roses attached onto some music paper and a shabby bow with some white chain strung behind the image and threaded through the bow, and left to hang down.  Some more shabby ribbon attached to the back to hang from.  Although not visible on the photo, Maude's lips have been tinted with a pink watercolour marker.  The back has been covered in some french vintage style dp, and edged with a gold gilding pen.

I hope you like it!

Bye for now, and I'll hopefully get my last two calendars finsished and uploaded over the weekend.

Maria xxxxxx

Going Oriental - Craft Room Challenge DT

Hi, it's time for another challenge this fortnight over at the Craft-Room Challenge.  Your altered creations for the last theme were stunning, Julia has a very tough job choosing a top 3.  This time our lovely, and so very talented, leader Zoe has chosen the theme of:

Going Oriental

I chose to use an mdf plaque as a base for my creation, painted with black gesso and edged in a gold gilding pen:

The three Stampbord atcs were coloured with alcohol inks in Lettuce and Mountain Rose and edged in the same gilding pen as the base (these Stampbord pieces will take absolutely anything!).  The Japanese rubber stamps (unfortunately I cannot find the pack and don't remember who they're from) were stamped in black Stazon and coloured in Claybord/Stampbord inks - these are new to me and come in a pack of six, with a mixing chart for further colours.

The colours are beautifully vivid and extremely concentrated, so a little really does go a very long way.  I've added a little distress stickles here and there, a beautiful fan charm courtesy of Julia (thank you!), a couple of red jewellery beads between images, and an oriental rose (Marianne Creatables) with a dark red tassle hung from it.  To finish, I've used some dark red satin ribbon to hang.

This fortnight, we're very kindly sponsored by:

Manufacturers of unmounted rubber stamps 

and

there will be a prize for one lucky winner of the random draw!

(usual rules apply)

Please check out the other stunning DT creations for some more inspiration, and I do hope you'll join in with us.

Enjoy your week

Maria xxxxx

Style Icon

Hi, just a very quick post - after a dreadful bug and a dose of bronchitis, yesterday was probably the first day that I felt anything remotely like myself, so I decided to finish my week 2 calendar for the Craft Barn Challenge.  The theme is "Bright Colours" - not really something I use a lot of, in fact when I went to dig out my "bright colours", I couldn't actually find any, lol, apart from in my distress inks.  Now this was definitely becoming a challenge!  What I did find though, were four little pots of stencil paint, by Imagination Crafts, which I've had for over a year and never used, so this was about as bright as things were going to get.

My intentions of 12 "vintage style" calendars didn't last long, as you can see below, but I am sticking to my mdf for these (if I can).  This is my bright and colourful mdf (non-vintage) entry:

I lined my block of mdf with some SU text paper, then used the stencil paints to paint randomly everywhere, blending together as much as possible.  Lady Audrey (The Octopode Factory - I bought this in error, I thought I'd removed it from my basket, but  it turned up three months later, with an apology for the delay,as it had been out of stock!) was stamped on the same paper, but with just a wash of gesso, and cut out, and adhered with matte medium.  I added various alcohol ink coloured bits of a small time piece to her head and eye, and a piece of chain, some texture paste coloured with acrylic paint through a stencil, and some small, circular letter tiles, along with some other bits of stamping (CI & Kaisercraft), including circles done with the lids from the paint dabbers.  I edged it all with Dusty Concord DI, and lined the back in the same paper, but uncoloured, and folded the ends like gift wrap (I hope the recipient doesn't try and open it - with only a block of mdf inside they'll be a bit disappointed, lol):

Now I know this is not my best creation, but I'm happy that I've ventured out of my comfort zone and actually got something made at all with my limited supplies.  As the Craft Barn are offering 15% discount on everything in their shop when you enter the challenge (check out their rules), I might just invest in some Dylusions or Oil pastels, as I'm starting to feel a bit left out now after seeing the other gorgeous, bright and colourful entries....

I'd also like to enter this into the following challenges:

Crafts and Me - Anything Goes
Sweet Stamps - Altered Item (mdf)
PanPastel UK - Altered/Recycled Item (mdf)

Enjoy your weekend.

Maria xxxxx

Enjoy Life's Moments - Craft Barn Calendar

Hi, hope you're all enjoying your weekend.  A very short post this evening as I'm still feeling a bit under the weather - I decided during the week that I would do my best to enter the latest challenge over at the Craft Barn, and as Week 1 closes tomorrow, I had to get my skates on and finish my entry:

Click the pic to visit

It runs for 12 weeks, and you can either make a complete calendar each week or one month of your calendar per week, following the weekly theme - I've opted to make a complete calendar each week.  Week 1's theme is Vellum, not my favourite crafting material at all to be honest which is why I've not used a lot, so here's my entry:

I thought it would be nice to make some simple, free-standing, vintage style calendars for small gifts at Xmas from the larger mdf offcuts I recently acquired.- it can't be bad if I'm saving money AND recycling :-)!  Choosing a green, pink and white colour scheme, this one has been gessoed and painted with green acrylic, Melissa Frances dps were used, along with a TH on the edge die.  The lovely young girl with the kitty is a Stampsmith rubber stamp (Dave thinks she's scary, lol) and I've tinted her dress with a water-based marker - she is edged with glass glitter and matted onto white patterned vellum and embellished with a handmade ribbon rose topped with a sparkly stone..  The calender is matted onto pink vellum, and some little decorative hearts added along with some pink ric rac.

This one is about half an inch thick and quite weighty - I've used Tim Holtz Tissue Tape around the edge. 

I've finished it all off by edging the front with Inca Gold in Platinum.

Unfortunately, I had to take the photos inside as it had gone dark, so I may take them again tomorrow to show the colours better.

I'd also like to enter this into the following challenges:

Alphabet Challenge Blog - R for Recycle, Repurpose
Simon Says Stamp - Glimmer & Sparkle
Shopping Our Stash - Go Green (use green or recycle - my main colour is green and I've recycled mdf)
Crafty Bloggers Network - Anything Goes
Anything But A Card - Shiny, Sparkly, Blingy (I've used Glass Glitter around the image)
Vintage Stamping Challenge - Anything Goes


I do apologise for not getting round your blogs and commenting very quickly these days, life still seems to be manic with a baby in the house, but I would like to thank you for your continued lovely comments and for bearing with me - I really do appreciate it.  I also have a few new followers, so would like to say hello to you:-)!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Maria xxxxx

Precious

Hi, the weekend at last, and it's been a long week, I'm full of a cold and feeling really sorry for myself, so you'll be relieved that this is a short post, lol.  We recently had some joiners in work and when I saw them using mdf, my little eyes lit up, particularly when I saw the scraps/offcuts they were chucking to one side!  Not wanting to waste an opportunity, I asked them if I could have these and they were happy to oblige.  They kindly left them stacked up in a corner for me to collect later, and there was quite a nice little pile when I got there. All smallish pieces in different sizes, but definitely useable.

This is the first one I have had a dabble with is quite simple, measuring about 3.5 in wide x 4.5 in high:

A couple of coats of Gesso on the base then distress inks in Fired Brick, Dried Marigold and Scattered Straw.  The Art Journey image was stamped in Jet Black Stazon then, using a waterbrush, I removed as much of the colour from the image as I could to try and give the illusion of some depth, although this is more pronounced in real life.  I have embossed around the edges in Aged Gold embossing enamel and stamped "Precious" in Jet Black Stazon directly into the enamel whilst it was still molten.  This piece is just under half an inch deep so I have used TH tissue tape around the edges, touched with some Fired Brick (not visible).

Before I go, here's the first of a few pics of my grandson, who is now 9 weeks old (hasn't he grown!) - it seems that he has been doing some modelling for Tricky Little Stitches, would you believe!  Here he is showing one of Karen's little numbers off, the Little Leo hat (Karen is the sister of the very talented Marie of Baileyrosy):

Soooo cute!

I will share another with you next time :-)


I'd like to enter this into the Shopping Our Stash Challenge, whose theme is "Go Green", as I've recycled the mdf offcut, Creative Inspirations Paint as they have an "Anything Goes" theme, and a 3rd entry into the Fashionable Stamping Challenge's "Alter Something" theme.

Don't forget that the Craft-Room Challenge also have a current theme of "Alter It" at the moment.

Enjoy your weekend.

Maria xxxxx

Alter It! Craft-Room Challenge DT

Hi, it's time again for a new theme over at the Craft-Room Challenge, and hope you enjoyed our Childhood Memories.  This fortnight, it's the lovely, and very talented, Julia's turn to choose the theme, and she has chosen:

Alter It

Now, those of you who know me will realise that this is probably my favourite type of theme - I love using bits of wood and mdf, and stuff like that.  My DT piece has actually changed three times now, lol, so I will share the first two with you at a later date.

My creation was made from one of those pieces of wood cut from a tree with the bark around still around the edge, commonly used for house plaques, something I got from Julia when she had the shop:

 I've had it for quite a while and was saving it for the right project, which I decided was to be a wedding gift:

Painted in alternating coats of white gesso and cream acrylic and sanded back, I stamped some script with Picket Fence distress stain here and there.  Just a touch of Stampendous Aged Ivory embossing enamel was added either end, along with a tiny amount of Walnut Stain DI around the edges.  A touch of Milled Lavender was added to the three large roses on the left, as purple was one of the wedding colours, then on some white muslin fabric, before attaching onto the plaque.  

To the left, I coloured some white card with Old Paper DI and stamped a Hero Arts letter script in Stazon Stone Grey then edged with Vintage Photo.

The central piece is a Stampbord ATC coloured with Old Paper DI, stamped with a SU swirl background stamp, and a piece of an old book page added.  Some SU lace was added across the top, the beautiful Stampsmith Wedding couple image was stamped on glossy card in Stazon Jet Black and mounted onto it, along with intertwined wedding rings.  I added a beaded trim (Dunelm Mill) across the bottom then attached to the plaque.  

The sentiments "Remember This Moment" and "Treasure These Memories" (Kaisercraft) were stamped in Versamark on Kraft cardstock and embossed in white, torn out, and edged with Walnut Stain DI then attached in their respective places.  A bunch of small roses was bound in lilac ribbon and attached to the right.  

I hope the happy couple like it :-)

Our theme for this fortnight is sponsored by:

 (click the image to visit their store)

who are offering a fabulous prize for the winner of our random draw!

Please pop over to the Craft-Room Challenge to see what the rest of the Design Team have created to inspire you - they are truly amazing.

The Fashionable Stamping Challenge have a current theme of Alter Something, so I would like to enter my plaque into this, and also Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog who would like to see Vintage.

Have a great fortnight!

Maria xxxxx