Spirit Of Christmas for my Andy Skinner DT Post

A cynical Christmas journal page for you today, just for a bit of fun!

Take a blank journal page.....

 Brayer on layers of paint

Dab Prussion Blue Hue and Cobalt Teal Hue through a large stencil using a bit of kitchen sponge.

 Here' what that looks like...…..

 Crackle Paint through a star stencil...

 Here's what that looks like, lol.....

 To make a Father Christmas Hat for the skull head, I used the stamp to guide me on the size...

 Snow tex a punched circle and strip of card.

 Dab metallic gold onto the stars....smudge around a bit....use a stamp from Andy's Tech Tauma set with the same gold paint stamp to decorate the hat. And a red pen for a bit of depth. Clean your stamp straight away when using with paint. 

 Stamp the skull onto white card, use a pencil to discolour the teeth (I painted one gold too after this). Then I added die cuts of money symbols to the eye sockets. 

 Highlight the stencil image with a white Posca Paint pen, to bring it forward on the page. 

 Stick on the skull and hat. I used Cosmic Shimmer glue. Start adding a shading to the stars with a Stabilo All Pencil, and add water to blend into the page. This makes the start look like they are even more dimensional.

 Around all the letters I used a black brush Pitt Marker, then again my water brush to blend. Then back over again until I had the depth of black I wanted.

 A Sakura Quickie Glue pen and glitter to highlight the stars, and a gold Pilot Marker to bring back out the gold of the letters and symbols (which had dulled a bit with the shading) 

and to give him a gold tooth!

 I also went around the whole image with the pencil and pen to bring out the images.

 White gel pen around the money symbols in the eyes..... not sure if I will leave it like that...

 A few close ups....you can still just see the crackle with the gold paint in the cracks.

 Oh and then I added a bit of white to the letters with the white Posca pen.

 

Black archival ink around the edges.

So here is my finished fella. I hope your Christmas isn't filled with a spirit like this one! 

 

 Thanks for looking! Happy Christmas to you.

Suz 

xxxx

Christmas Home Decor using Upcycled sideboard parts for the Craft Stamper Challenge

Hi all!

My project for the December Craft Stamper Blog Challenge is this Festive Wooden Forest

made from scraps of wood and a few basic craft supplies! There are some fab prizes to be one and the chance to be featured on the blog. Have a look here.

You probably know by now that I LOVE upcycling! So when hubby and I decided to give our old wooden furniture a make-over, we ended up with a few spare bits of wood which I HAD to find a use for. So this project is made with the feet and drawer front of a very old sideboard. All because the feet, when turned upside down, looked to me like trees.....so here's what I did with them.

We chopped off the 'feet' of the sideboard after painting the legs white so they had a bit of paint on them already, but not all over. I painted over the whole piece with DecoArt Chalky Finish paint in a gorgeous green called Enchanted and after two coats they were fully covered and even.  

 A wipe over with an anti static pad, then clear ink and stamp at the ready! 

 Heat embossed using a lush gold glitter embossing powder by WOW for a bit of bling! 

 Here are all the wooden bits I ended up using. 

After painting the feet, I added gems all the way around.

 I needed toppers for the trees, so out came some gold jewellery wire and flat nose pliers!

 About 12 twists of the wire using the pliers as my mark.....

 I cut the wire from the reel, then bought the two ends together and tweaked the shape to form a star.Then I had to work out how to add the starts to the tree tops. Got out my mini drill and put a hole in the top of each trees that was deep enough and wide enough for the two ends of the wired star to plus another section piece of wire that I wanted to wrap around the tree.

 Gave the cut out section of the wooden drawer front two coats of chalky finish in white (Everlasting). There was a split at the front but that just gave me somewhere to stick a sign! A generous coat of Matt Medium then lots of snowy stuff sprinkled on and patted down into the wet medium.

 To make the little sign, I stamped and embossed white card with Clarity 

sentiments and gold embossing powder.

I cut out the embossed words and added them to a rectangle of white card, 

matted with red card, then stick that on a section of a coffee stirrer and popped into the gap. To finish off I used a piece of Christmas ribbon to edge the front of the wooden base

 to add a little more colour.

This is where the base section was cut from.....following the drawer handle. Needed this cut out so the remotes would still work with the DVD and boxes (clever hubby!). 

 And here is one of the legs minus the 'foot' which is now a tree!

And here are 5 of the 6 'feet' and the front of the drawer, made into a cheap, fun, 

upcycled home décor piece!

I hope you like this fun piece. Thanks very much for looking and good luck with your entry to the competition which, as usual, has some lovely prizes for the winners! x

Peony Card for the November Craft Stamper challenge.

Hi all

My project for the Craft Stamper November Challenge is a bit of an antidote to all the Halloween stuff that has been around for the last few weeks - a huge pink peony! There are fab prizes to be won, AND a chance to be featured in the Craft Stamper mag for the challenge winner! 

Have a look here.

The huge flower and the leaves are by Indigo Blue, background text by Stampers Anonymous. These are things that I haven't used before - 

that is my current self challenge; to use those things!

 Stamped out the flower three times and fussy cut each to layer up.

 Base colour was Worn Lipstick distress ink (onto craft mat, 

spritzed with water and flowers pulled through). 

 To add depth, I used a Koi Brush Pen, both watered down and then neat 

as this gives a variation in the colour. 

 With such a large image, I saved a fair bit of time with the shading by working out 

which areas would be hidden, and leaving them with just the base colour.

 I coloured the spare card from the original stamping with distress oxides 

(again on the mat, spritzed with water and the paper dragged through).

 Stamped on the leaves (better to do this after colouring when smooshing with Distress Oxides as they are quite opaque and can obliterate the stamped image if added after stamping. Cut them out. Then I added more colour with waterbased markers.

 More Distress Oxide smooshing with the background card.

 This buckled a bit, but I popped it under some heavy books once dry 

and it flattened out enough to use. 

 I went over the dried/ flattened background paper with an anti-static pad. 

Selected a text stamp and embossed it with white embossing powder. 

 To stick down the flower, starting with the largest layer first, I used double sided tape which I went over with a glue stick to give me a bit of wiggle time. 

I only added tape and glue in the middle as I wanted the edges to lift up.

 Slipped the leaves under the main flower.... 

Added the two smaller flower images to the centre to build up the peony, 

stuck the base card to the 8 x 8 card blank and that's it finished.

A nice card to send to someone on just about any occasion. 

Thanks for looking! 

Suz

x

Paper Heart on Fabric

So come on, how many of you have crafty items you've never used, and things you've had in your stash for YEARS? I know I do! 

I'm really trying hard to deal with both those 'crafty problems'! So this project made me very happy - and at the same time another birthday card ticked off the list of dozens to make - even better it's for a crafty girl who I know will appreciate each layer!

Finished card....here's how I put this one together.

A crumpled old book page, dyed with out of date coffee granules (thanks Dad!) , dried and brayered over with white paint on the base layer.

Another piece stamped onto. I finally used these two stamps from a magnetic 'making memories' set. I kind of avoid this set as it's a bit of a faf setting it up - but looking at them again there are some fab words so I must remember to use em! 

 Another stamp I've not used - a wooden one with a map on it, I used this archival ink, brayered on the back of the paper to get a better impression, then tore around the edges. Base layer done!

 You guessed it - another stamp I've never used! This time one by Finnabair. I was looking for something to stamp on the little heart I made (watercolour card, painted and cut to a heart shape while travelling on a bus to the Grand Canyon!). 

 The heart in the stamp was a perfect fit for my little shape - bit of a fluke!

 I have sooooo many scraps of material! So I pulled out a few and worked out how I wanted to layer them up. I took a hammered card blank and inked the front to soften the white before I began gluing.

Tape runner and glue stick to adhere 1st layer. Then cosmic shimmer on top for fabrics...

Large, open weave hessian, frayed around the edges, then a scrap of a thinner open weave material....then I found a couple of small scraps of pretty organza so those went on too!

 A torn piece of wallpaper, then my little painted, stamped cut out heart shape.

Torn, stamped sentiments added next.

and finally a tiny flower that I pressed a couple of years ago - I only found these when I got my flower press out to do some others, such a lovely surprise!

I so enjoyed making this, using things I hadn't used and
 also little bits and pieces I didn't want to throw away!
Thanks for looking.
Suz
xxx