My little crafting world....


Hi all
I'm a complete craft addict! I have a small business called Surrey Crafts teaching craft workshops from my studio in Esher, Surrey and at venues around the country. I teach mixed media, decorative painting, card making and papercrafts, jewellery making and creative embroidery classes. If you'd like to find out more just leave a comment, or take a look at my other social media pages:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/surrey.crafts
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/surreycrafts/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/surreycrafts/
Crafty hugs & stuff
Suz

xx

Friday 11 January 2019

Shrink Plastic Jewellery

Hi all
A very quick post today, and my first of the year for the Craft Stamper to show you how I made this Shrink Plastic Jewellery for the Craft Stamper Blog Challenge ! Some fab prizes to be won, along with the chance to be featured in the mag itself, !!!

 I took a small (A6) size piece of shrink plastic and dropped alcohol inks and blending solution onto it - great fun but you need to have a well ventilated area! Remember the colour intensifies so better to go lighter to start with or the pieces may end up very dark - unless you want dark of course.
 I chopped the piece in half lengthways and then into smaller pieces to shape a necklace and pieces for earrings.
 I stamped onto the pieces after cutting them but you can do this before cutting up if you prefer Do make sure the inks are completely dry before you stamp. I wiped them with an anti static pad and used an archival ink pad (you can use any oil based ink pad on alcohol inks).
I used a white Posca Paint pen to add lots of highlights, doodling and contrast over the stamping. I love how this completely changes it. And before shrinking the plastic, I punched all the holes needed to make up the jewellery - after shrinking, it becomes too thick and brittle, although you could possibly use a drill.
 I shank all the pieces down then added the 'jump rings' to link all the necklace pieces, and added chain and clasp to the ends. Finally 'fish hook' earwires to make up the earrings.
I did then use the white paint pen around the edges to make them look neater.
Fun, colourful and unique earrings. I might try this again and go a little wilder!

Friday 4 January 2019

Vintage Roses Upcycled Cheese Box

Hi All! Happy New Year to you.

I love upcycling and recycling so I wanted my first Andy Skinner Creative Team project for 2019 to be something I could upcycle from the Christmas period! And here it is; this was a cheese selection box! Now it is a really pretty vintage inspired box, minus the cheese! Hope you like it. Here's how I made it...…

Here's the original cheesebox!
 Masking tape to create a grid to cover the hole.
 Box base painted with chalk paint in Primitive.
Box lid also painted with chalk paint just to base coat the tape. Then I mixed made a pastel turquoise using Titanium white with a small amount of Cobalt Teal and Cobalt Turquoise Hue. I found a really old roll of vintage lace and glued it around the sides and over the top.
Then I started working on the elements from some of Andy's kit. (Tagtastic, Bike Chain and Industrial Elements). To see all the fab kits click HERE.
Rusted them up a bit using DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics.

Base painted the heart from the Tagtastic Kit with gold metallic. Then mixed these colours with white for a pastel tone. Dipped the heart into the paint to just pick up a little, but ended up adding lots more so pretty much covered the gold!
I wanted to add a large rose to the heart, so needed to tone down a large vibrant purple rose from my stash to match better with the teensy ones I'd chosen for the project. This pic shows a large rose the same as the original, and the one I painted after mixing a tiny amount of the yellow with the quin magenta and a generous amount of white. Once the whole thing was done I added a touch of diluted gold to the tips of the petals - see the first close up above.
 Took the tag from the Tagtastic kit and grunged it up a bit......

 Used crackle paint then antiquing cream (black then brown). Close up!
 Starting to layer up
 I thought the black added a bit more contrast....
Heart with roses, a rusty metal washer and some of the bike chain elements.
Gems and teensy roses added! Here are a few close-ups.




Thanks for looking. Hope you like it. Details of products used are below. Happy New Year!
Suz
xxx

Base/ Substrate - Tesco cheese selection box!
DecoArt Products used: Box was primed with Deco Art Chalky Finish. Painted with Media Fluid Acrylics (mixture of Cobalt Teal Hue, Cobalt Turquoise Hue and Titanium White). Feature piece had a layer of crackle paint, black and brown antique creams. Cogs had quin gold, hansa yellow light, paynes grey, raw umber, metallic gold. Heart based with gold, then pink and pale turq using Quin Magenta and Cobalt Teal separately mixed with Titanium White. Purple rose toned down with pink and hansa yellow light.
Lace, Gems and paper woses (for all us Donny and Marie fans) added around the perimeter.
Focal piece is a combination of Andy Skinner Kits (check then out here)