Repurposed Brandy Glasses for Andy Skinner's Creative Team

Today's project is soooo simple.  Anyone who knows me will know that I LOVE taking things destined to be thrown away and making something useful out of them. So good bye ridiculously oversized brandy glasses and hello plant bowls!!!

Hubby also knows me so well. He was in a bar at a golf club and they were chucking these out! He asked if he could have them and brought them home to me and says 'I wondered if you could use these for something'...well I like a challenge
I'd recently been to a little 'Victoriana' exhibition in the glass house at Wisely Gardens, where they used all sorts of household items for fabulous plant displays so that's where the inspiration came from.

I mixed the AMAZING quick grab glue 50/50 with water in a little plastic pot (which I will, of course, reuse) and literally brushed it on the glass with a wide flat brush. It stuck to the glass like glue! Hahaaa, but it did; it just stayed there, didn't run off and it stayed moist long enough for me to apply pieces of torn rice paper all around the bowl. And funnyily enough, it seemed to grab those pieces of rice paper super quickly (quick grab and all that!). It also dried completely clear and is really strong too!

 I used less than one A4 piece of Andy's rice paper for each glass. Once dry I went over the whole thing again with another coat of the glue, then some watered down chalky paint to lighten the papers and bring out the texture. The layers of rice paper and glue also strengthens the glass , which is handy as I'm quite clumsy.

I added a little compost into each glass, then popped a primrose plant on top - perfect fit! A great way to brighten up a dull day. If you've got odd glasses, why not see how you could repurpose them?
Thanks for looking.
Suz

Valentines Card - look how bright the stars shine with my love for you.

A valetines card for hubby. Using a beautiful stamp by Tracy Easson.

I wanted a romantic evening for this scene.

 Distress inks, oxide and brusho for the galactic background

 Stamped out the image lining up the card in my stamp platform as I knew I'd be stamping again after a bit of work.  DecoArt paints to fill in the moon, white first, then a bit of pearl shimmer. 

Re stamped the image to get the detail on the moon. Pitt pens to colour the mice. 

 Stamped some stars then coloured and highlighted areas with pens.

 Trimmed the card and inked the edges. 

 More detail on the mice, white penwork and gold.

All finished.….hope he likes it!

 Thanks for looking. Suz

Rice Bike canvas for Andy Skinner's Creative Team and Creative Expressions

Here's my first project using Andy's February 2020 releases! So much fun.

First up was the rice paper. I watered down a little of the Quick Grab Glue and it stuck down beautifully with no crinkles (glue applied to canvas and on the back of the paper) stick down and brush from the centre out to release air bubbles.  

 Then my first time using the new structure paste - gorgeous stuff, creamy, easy to use and dries quicker than other pastes I've tried.

I used the new chalk paints - first a wash of the Chestnut.

 Then a gentle dry brush with warm white, several times, layering up to bring out all that fab texure.

 I stamped the Rice Bike stamp onto calico and also onto a vintage book page. Layered up some organza and old bandage from my fabric stash and had a play around with layout.

I tore out and stuck down the stamped vintage book page onto the calico. Added torn paper and a strip of tumble dryer sheet (removed this in the end). I glued down thin strips of paper above and below the bike image. But they seemed a little bare, so they were stamped with the 'Cracked-Up' stamp using the chestnut chalk paint (wash paints off stamps straight away). 

Mini metal cogs, jewellery wire, left over bits of torn fabric and an old clip-on earring to embellish, needed something at the top so I used an old bulldog clip too for a bit of fun!

You can check out the other fab projects on Andy's blog HERE.

Thanks so much for looking.

Suz xxx

Stamp and Stitch! Jam Jar Canvas for the Craft Stamper DT Feb Challange Blog

Hi all
Todays project for the Craft Stamper February Blog Challenge is a 'stamp and stitch' piece

using a stamp and die set by Aladine. 

The prizes for the challenge winner this month are a fab 6x6 stencil and stamp by Carabelle Studio! For details on how to enter the challenge click HERE.

I was given this gorgeous set of stamps and dies and some fab Izink ink pads and sprays by Aladine which I've used in this project.

I'm loving textiles at the mo, so I grabbed a piece of calico, and using my stamp platform, 

stamped the jar until I had a crisp image for stitching over.

I used Izink Textile ink diluted with water to colour the jar and gold pigment ink to colour the metal ring around the top of the jar. I made the cloth a bit wet so there was a little seepage over the lines, which I rescued with the Izink white ink.

 Stamped out the first foliage stamp, theses are so cute!

Then stamped out the second using the same colour, but overstamped each for a more intense colour. Using white 300gsm smooth card, I stamped and die cut several of the daisy type flowers, I coloured the flowers with the Izink dye sprays in Cerise and Pearl to give a little shimmer. Then pierced holes in the flowers and stitched on small buttons.

I hand embroidered over the leaves in green and yellow and stitched around the outline of the jar.

Then taking an 8x8 canvas, I glued on lace, flowers and vintage book pages using DecoArt Matte Medium. Then a coat of white gesso once it was nice and dry.

 A few spritzes of Aladine Izink Dye Spray in Cerise that I'd used for the flowers- such a strong colour it took a while to knock it back again with gesso.

 More heavy dry brushing with gesso helps the lace really show up.

 Crackle paint for even more texture. It also toned down the pink a little more.

 I added the stitched project, but with a layer of old curtain material, an organza type material, underneath, this adds a softness to the piece, with folds of fabric over the flowers, framing the stitched work.

 Some buttons on the organza to tie it in with the stitched piece.

 Had to weight the buttons down to make sure they really gripped onto the fabric and canvas beneath!

 And here is the finished piece. I may add words at some stage too.

Thanks so much for looking. Any questions just drop me a comment.

Suz

xxx