Vintage Drawers!



After

Hi Bloggers

I wanted to do something other than a card this time.  I have done some boxes before as you will have seen in a previous post, but I wanted to go one step further.  So ... inspired by an article in the Craft Stamper, I decided to try my hand at something a little bit vintage.
I started with a completely blank box and painted it with a wicker white acrylic paint.  I used a buttons masking template to emboss on to background card and them found some vintage looking paper and stamped images from Joanna Sheen's Haberdashery stamp set and Creative Expressions Antique Dress Forms stamp set. 


Before

I used Distress Inks aged mahogany for the stamping and then around the edges of the images to give them a distressed look.  I have also sponged the edges of the box and drawers with aged mahogany. 

I am really pleased with how it turned out, although I did have to smile when my son asked me if I wanted my box to look all 'messed up'.  He is learning about packaging at school at the moment and I had to explain that the 'messed up' look was called vintage!

Let me know what you think.

Until next time,

Happy Crafting!

A little bit of Clarity on the Water

Hi Bloggers

Ever heard of Clarity Stamps?  They are hugely inspirational and I have been taking a few lessons in using them from the very helpful range of DVDs that the creator, Barbara Gray has made.  The website is www.claritystamp.co.uk and is well worth a look.

The first DVD shows a technique to create water and I have tried it out using these stamps.  What do you think?

The technique is not that hard to master, all it takes is a bit of practice to get it how you want it and then you are away. 

I made the card with the ship by rolling the 'water' on first and using a piece of copy paper to cover the top half of the card.  I then stamped the castle on the horizon and placed a circle post-it for the moon and used the brayering technique to get the night sky.  The blue ink I used for both the water and the night sky was Adirondack Stonewashed.

The card with the little boy fishing with his dog, I used the reflection techinque taught by Barbara using the brayer.  Basically you ink up your stamp and roll your brayer very carefully over the stamp to transfer the image onto the brayer.  You then roll the brayer on the bottom half of your card to create the reflection. 

It looks pretty cool, don't you think?

Now I have the Clarity 'bug', you will be seeing some more cards and perhaps boxes using Barbara's techniques. 

Until next time,

Happy Crafting!

Time - Gap

Hi Bloggers

Just want to say sorry for the time-gap. 

There has been a delay in between this and my last post.  I have been busy creating a website and learning as I go along and that is taking more time than I anticipated.   The new website is all about creativity, inspiration with fun tips and techniques and loads more. 

The great news is my website is taking shape and I am hugely excited about it.  I hope to announce the launch very soon.  I am tempted to give myself a deadline but I am too chicken. 

I will, however, keep you posted (excuse the very lame pun!) on this blog about my progress. 

Thanks for your patience.

Until next time,

Happy Crafting