Monday 29 July 2013

Altered Tins

Good Afternoon Crafty Friends,

I have altered some tins... they have turned out more beautiful than I thought they might!  I first used some recycled book pages which I glued to the tins using impasto gel. I then painted gesso and later white acrylic paint on the edges.  I have decorated each of them differently using flowers I handmade, ribbons, laces and bling....



 
They all started out white and I have spritzed the gold and pink flowers and the tin to suit. I also spritzed the white ones with perfect pearls so they are all really glamourous looking!  Sorry about the slightly blurry photos!!   In the future I will make either tag books or concertina books to go inside them.  Each tin measures 7cm x 8cm x2cm - so they are quite small.   
 
Enjoy the rest of your day!
Shell xox

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Stampscapes Trees flag book


Hello again
I have something a little different to show you today. I love trees, and these stamps were where I started my stamping and inky journey.
The front and back covers and the accordion folded spine are from black Stampin'up card and the flags and matting for the paper on the covers is from vanilla card.

The papers have been overstamped with Stampscapes images and sentiments.
The flags were coloured with distress inks, stamped with various small background stamps and the trees and sentiments were then stamped in stazon black and coloured inks.
The booklet was then assembled with the flags being attached in rows on opposite sides of the accordion folds.

I hope you enjoy this creation.
Barb.

Friday 19 July 2013

Re-purpose, reuse, recycle

Hello there
Call it what you will, but don't you hate to see things go to waste?
I was given these discarded packaging boxes, and with the addition of stamps(of course) paper, ribbons, die cuts, bling etc., have created these wonderful Keepsake boxes.

from this -to-



Stampin'Up images


 I know the recipients enjoy them, I hope you like them also.
Thank you for looking. Until next time.
BaRb






I Love Owls

Hoot morning... hehe ... I mean Good morning!  I have not told you yet -  I am also an Owl addict! Owl pillows, owl bags, ornaments, pictures, did I mention jewellery...  and just a few other things!
As part of my Christmas Gift from Barb, I received some Owl Sticky Notes - I had them sitting on my craft table for a while until - I saw in a stationery shop one day - a folder with co-ordinating post-it notes in - what a brilliant idea - so I went home found the perfect thick paper and this is what I created... 
 

The Owl sticker on the front was clear so I matted it to make it stand out more.  I used a strip of green owl ribbon - which was actually part of a Christmas ribbon range.  Double-sided taped the sticky notes in and aren't they beautiful!

Have a Hooty Day!
Shell xox



Tuesday 16 July 2013

Stampin'up set Morning Meadow

Hello again
I have recently had several stampers say to me, that even though they love the individual images, they don't choose to buy the Hostess sets, (when they have the opportunity), as they can't see how to use the seemingly unrelated designs.
Here are a few ideas for the Morning Meadow set. Those people who have had the opportunity to make them love them, so I thought I would share them with you.



I hope you enjoy them, and thanks for looking.
Barb

Saturday 13 July 2013

100% Addicted

Good Morning, a friend of mine once said to me that in everything that she does she always gives 100%.... and that had me thinking.... do I do that ???  Mmmmm - do I give 100% (or does anyone give 100%) in say doing the washing or other equally exciting (haha) housework activities.. no I would have to say that - in doing these fun things on auto-pilot I guess I don't give them 100%!!!
Do You???

 Boring activities aside - do your hobbies count when putting in 100%?? I hope so because so many of you - very talented and creative people out there in blog land appear to me as though you give more than 100% - and that is amazing!!!

I organised some of my Jewellery the other day and then had to take some photos to share with you.  I think - and please tell me if you feel otherwise - that I have given my 100% in my beading addiction I mean my beading hobby!!  (Now please don't get me wrong I am not sharing these to show off - I am just... well... sharing .....)













Admittedly, I had made some of these earrings to sell and there was left-overs, when I added my own earrings to this collection it was a bit scary!!  It's amazing how many earrings a utensil holder can actually hold!  Now onto the bracelets....




Who said you needed to use a wine rack to hold wine?? I grouped the bracelets roughly in their colourgroups or their style whichever I was happy with and (shhh I am not going to tell you how many their are...)  but I will say I have worn every one of them at least once.. that is at least!!!

I have not hung all of my beaded necklaces - because as well as the beaded ones, I also have a few (yeah I said a few) pendants on chains as well.

  My friend did say to give 100%!! Got that covered!!

Do you give 100% in all you do??  There's your thought for the day....

Bye
Shell xox





Tuesday 9 July 2013

Altered Book - Love this idea!

Hi there, do you have any old (maybe I should say Vintage?!? - anything that is old these days seems to be labelled Vintage....) hardcovered novels - well I suppose any book will do?  I have come across - as you do on the internet - a fantastic idea on how to alter them and re-use them for journaling etc.

I think most of my inspiration has come from the amazing Finnabair - wow so talented ... you should and I mean you should - check out her creations - I was awe-struck when I first happened upon her site.

Following is the cover I created for my book front and back.


 
I used a mixture of embellishments that I had made over time, I went through and picked out different things that would work together, I am still unsure as to whether I will put a Quote in the middle of the frames - haven't decided yet.  I may even leave the spine as is ....



And this is the first page in the book - I glued many - approx. 20 pages together to make the pages thicker and to create the "frame' where I will add a photo later.

 
 
 
There are many different sites you can search for ideas and images on altered books, so thank-you to all those amazing people who showed me (via you-tube) how to go about altering a book.  Thanks!!
 
See you again soon
Shell
xox
 
 
 
 

Monday 8 July 2013

Mini Album - Japan Trip

Hello, I was looking around my craft room deciding what to blog about next and spotted this Mini Album I created after my family trip to Japan in January 2012.
If you are anything like me...  there was more than 1000 photos to choose from eeks, but digital cameras are just the best thing!  Anyway, I printed out all the whole family photos and created an album to suit - adding pages as I needed them.  Of course I had to do it in my fave colours... red and black.  I had purchased many 'trinkets' as my Husband calls them and have hung them all on the rings on the side of the album.


I painted the edges of the chipboard pages and covered them with dragon paper,used lots of ribbons, stickers etc.  The words and numbers were die cut and covered with diamond glaze and I made the flowers on the front with punches using the same dragon papers, and of course bling...
As always a splash of gold to add to the black and red gives it that little bit extra sparkle.
Hope you like it as much as we loved the holiday....

Enjoy,
Shell xox