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

Saturday 28 March 2020

Handle With Care 3D Challenge Craft Stamper AND FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY

Hi all
I'm almost at 40,000 views on my blog - when I reach that I'll be doing a giveaway - a little box of art goodies to one of my followers! To be in with a chance, complete the 'follow by email' box on the right hand side bar! And when I reach the magic number I will pop up another post with the prize and winners name. Good luck!

A while back I was invited to make a 3D project for the Feb 2019 edition of Craft Stamper. Small wooden hearts were the challenge - and with it being the February edition and Valentines and all.....I just had to use broken scissors and a broken candle holder! I know, I'm a bit strange. But it made perfect sense to me! It was because I'd chosen a stamp 'Handle with care' that perfectly fitted the largest heart....and I thought my scissor handles would be a quirky fit for the 'handle' bit. At the same time I had also been teetering on whether to throw away the broken ceramic candle holder - there must be a way to use it, I thought, I'd paid good money for that, before dropping it, ooops!  So .....here is the finished project.....
                                                       and here's the process....
Sat looking at them for a while.....put the scissors in the broken candle holder hole....how can I make the scissors secure?
 Left that problem for a bit and painted the hearts white....
 Decided to make a gelli print to decoupage onto the hearts.....thought all red would be a bit too obvious for the hearts....so to my usual fab colour of cobalt teal hue! I added a little red, just as a token nod towards Valentines day.
 Then for the fun part! Neon green dabbed onto the print, dried , then neon pink. I LOVE those colours! Especially when it is November and you are making lots of wintery,  Christmas stuff, lol.
Paper dried, Andy Skinner text stamps at the ready, (to see his full range click HERE ) on to the stamping platform. Bit tricky as the paper moves a bit as so thin and I forgot to use my anti static pad (doh!). But I got all the words stamped onto the paper in the end.
 Popped the hearts on top and tore round them, it was just a rough tear for positioning. Once I'd done that I used a sanding block to tidy up all the edges.
 And a sudden idea on how to stick my scissors to my broken base......air dry clay! I pulled some out and shaped it around the scissors, smoothing it down onto the base. Then left it to dry overnight. I was still a bit nervous about this breaking in the post when I sent it off for the magazine pictures...so I then used some plaster roll to strengthen it all even more.
Cut a strip from the roll (you get lots!), then cut it lengthways, dipped each strip in water and draped and moulded them to the scissor base. You can get this quite smooth if you work it, I left some a bit textured as I love that look.
 So that I could paint onto the metal scissors, I coated them with DecoArt Multi Purpose Sealer. I did the hearts too….not sure why! Once all that was completely dry I painted the whole thing with white gesso - but forgot to take a picture.
I cut fairly long sections of 4mm jewellery wire and twisted some spirals a few centimetres from the top of the wire.  I used a tiny drill bit to drill a hole into the bottom of each of the hearts, then pushed the top of the wires into the holes, they were a really snug fit! 
 Having decided where I wanted them, I took them in turn and wired each of the hearts onto the scissor handles.
 Next wire added to have a smaller heart in the middle above the largest....and then the final two to the sides.
 I added more wire to the base to tie it in with the top half, then used Andy's window stamp as the criss cross middle is a fab pattern for texture, stamping randomly between the wire with an Archival ink pad.
 Here's another pic of the base
 I also stamped onto the scissors.
 Loved the movement the wire gives - hoping it survives being bent for posting!
 A pic of the finished piece.
Thanks for looking!
And good luck out there.
Suz
xxx

2 comments:

  1. Hi Suz Fantastic design hunny,
    What I could with is spending a day in your creative head!!! Love and hugs xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fabulous project, so bright and cheery x

    ReplyDelete