Sunday 20 September 2009

Altered Board Book

I have been working on a altered board book, that was given to me. This is only the second time I have worked on altered books so a bit rusty at the moment. The theme of the book was my favourite things and vintage is one of them. I have also made the book a 2 page spread so it matches. More photos of the book and some of the pages are on my flickr slideshow, you can view them all by clicking on the slideshow.

The other favourite theme of mine was the sea so I created 2 sea life pages, some of the pictures do not show all the colours as they should be but the there was too much light in my conservatory
today. My camera is not working at the moment good excuse to spend some more money on a new one ..lol!
But as usual the bills have to come first. I have
added one of the sea life pages here I really enjoyed
making this book its larger than most board books
it was originally a childrens book. I used white gesso to build a base then worked in metallic acrylic paints to add some colour, with the help of finger painting...lol...using inks. The silhouette for the mermaid was cut out from the Once upon a time scrapbook papers and altered to make her stand out. The stamped swirls are from the Personal Impression range.
For the Vintage page I used Alcohol ink for the background and swirled it around with a paint brush had to be fast with this as it dries so fast! I then cut out some lace so that it was more effective and decorated, I then covered the page with Anita's 3D embossing varnish and placed the lace into it so it then changed colour to look older. For the photo frame I used a piece of card that was embossed using the Cuttlebug folder and then inked the embossing with Cranberry alcohol ink to brink out the embossing more, then went over it gently with Impression stamping ink fawn colour. I then covered with the varnish and added a little sparkle that you cannot really see in the photo onto the raised embossing using Sparkles glitter glue bronze colour. Phew think thats about it! Its been ages since I have created something so arty never thought I would be able to get my imagination back but it seems making all those cards...lol...has worked...the cards also did well out of the 70 I made while recovering I sold 33 to one lady and another 8 to others...so a big thankyou to all who bought them from me.
Holly

Tuesday 8 September 2009

Altered Beer Mat


Thought I would have ago at altering a beermat, Pattie had given me ages ago, so trying to catch up with things. I am looking forward to my week off next week so I can venture more on all arty stuff.
No need to explain how I made this mat as I am sure most of you have made one at some point. But just incase here goes. Covered the beer mat in white gesso and thin glue to give it a base, pva glue is what I used. Then when dry added some alcohol inks and blended them all in. Then added some stamping in stazone black. The little pictue I found in one of my scrapbook books and inked that too then used gesso to lighten it up a bit. It's all glossed over to try and give the effect of glass.
Phew! Then I ventures onto more and made a front and back of a board book. Pictures to follow when it's put together so watch this space!....LOL!
Holly

Wednesday 2 September 2009

Altered Bird House

Well finally at last I have stopped making cards..Phew! I bought some plain wooden bird houses way back and found them in my craft room so thought its about time I got down to altering them. I found some cute pictures of birds and thought they would match perfectly. I painted the house in acrylic white as a base then used antique gold metallic arylic paint for the roof and the base. I gave the roof a look of moss effect by using some green ink which took forever to dry even tried the heat gun ...lol. Anyway I added some lace to the roof and then added some green gem stones. On the sides I added some pretty heart shapes and painted and inked them you can see from the side view picture. The size is about 4 to 5 inch tall and about 3 to 4 inch wide. In the middle I added some brown leaves I am not sure what to put inside may add a nice heart shape or if i can add a couple of eggs, for this I could get some sugared almonds and decorate. The house is standing on a stamp to get the best view for the pictures...lol. Its given me a boost making this house I have another on the go now. I may do this on as a wedding theme or new home theme.
Well thats about it... hope you find this as interesting as
I have making it.
This picture is of the side view I found some tiny wooden garden pots and painted it antique gold then in my box of tricks I came across some imitation Ivy and fixed that into the pot. Gives it a more homely feel...lol.
Holly