Latest Crafting

I thought it a good idea to raise money for my work funds,by making some craft items. I set off to buy some Bare Basics frames by Papermania. I bought these last year and made family members a special photo frame each.

The frame shown in the photograph is the larger frame, I started by giving the frame a good coat of normal matt emulsion. You can use acrylic paints and many others, but this seemed to give the frames a good base. Once dry I used rub-ons, this was to give the effect of wood grain. You may be able to see this in the larger picture. Once dry I covered with Anitas embossing fluid. (This I have since discovered has been discontinued dissapointing really) Once the varnish was dry or while it was drying I adapted some deep red petals into the shape of poppies, using buttons for the centre. I used plain white rubbed down with a nail file to remove the shiney surface, then used black acrylic paint.

The shapes are once again bare basics and you can find this set in most good craft stores. These were painted with gold acrylic metalic paint then brushed with glitter glue. The petals are available from Hobby craft they come in all colours, they also do a plain white, of which can be sprayed or painted different colours. This is the cheepest option.

All of the frames sold very well, a good way of making some money I raised £30.00 less the cost of the frames, they are not that expensive.

Hope you enjoy making a little project like this.

Holly

Busy Bee's

Been quite some time since I added to my blog. I have been busy crafting as well as visiting facebook too much. Recently I have been helping the people I work with to produce fabric artwork, they have been creating fabric books and fabric items. They are now working on patchwork quilt squares. You can view my work blog here .
I need to get the camera working again and take some pictures of what I have been creating. I have recently altered a ring folder, we were lucky to find some that were of a smaller size and been thrown out. I have covered it with a blue and white check gingham, then made a patchwork square to go on the front, adding wording in felt and cut out items. It is now going to be a baby book that you can add clear sleeves and place photographs, as well as other items. I will place the picture on here when it is finally completed. I am still making my cards but since the lack of steroids have not been so creative, now the warmer weather is with us I may be able to create some more. I love sitting in the conservatory with all my craft items around me. So there may be a chance of more items to come, I dont like to be stuck in the one room all the time. Apart from that I am still struggling with my Crohn's but getting used to it now, there are good days and bad days so I have to take it as it comes...lol.
Hope to catch up with my crafting sooner rather than later...lol
Happy Crafting all of you!!!

Holly

Remember to Feed the Garden Wildlife

Due to the really cold weather this Winter many of our garden animals are suffering and struggling to find food. Here is one little hungry character finding some seed and nuts on the garden table. He was the last to arrive, at one point there were so many birds all feeding in my garden it was hard to list them all.

This morning I got up early to make them some fat balls simple and easy to do, using old scraps from the kitchen. These I have now put in the nut feeder which is safer for them to use.

For the fat balls I used, chopped up nuts, breadcrumbs, old dried fruit, biscuits, some grated cheese and melted fat. Mixed it all together and rolled into ball shapes then placed in fridge to harden. Although, it was probably cold enough to just leave them outside...lol. Dont forget to feed your birds this year, I did notice they were going mad for stale bread as well as water, they were even taking to eating the snow for a drink. Bless them.

Keep warm everyone

Holly

Seasons Greeting's

What a wonderful Christmas it has been this year, lots of visitors and presents, plus so far good health, apart from the odd slip up of over endulging in such rich and wonderful food...lol. My own fault really..but can you blame me after such a downer last year! Anyway feel alot better today. So a new year is almost upon us and we head into a new decade, lets hope it is better than the last one. Now I have completed my NVQ3 I can concentrate on new ideas and designs in my crafting, I cant wait to start...lol. So to begin with it has to be a special birthday card for my dear elderly neighbour who will be celebrating her 90th birthday on new years day. So think I better get off rabbiting from here and gather all my craft stuff and get creating..lol.

Happy New Year to you all and all the best for 2010

Holly

Christmas Gifts

Continuing my Homemade gifts for Christmas, here is a small selection of some domino keyrings I have been making. My favourites are the shoes and rose ones. These I stamped the image onto the domino once inked up and then embossed using the glitter gold embossing powder so they sparkle. These keyrings have been so popular when shown to my friends, I just cannot make enough! To add a special christmas touch to the wreath and Santa I found a tiny holly leaf gem stone and a tiny bell.

Hope you are all making homemade christmas gifts this year I found it to be more cost friendly and so personal to the individual it is made for. The programme on Channel 4 this week Kirstys Homemade Christmas was so inspiring and well worth watching, if you missed it you can go to channel4.com and see the episodes, 3 in all and well worth it. Although I felt it was a bit late in the year to make some of the ideas...lol!
Holly

Altered Photo Frame

I wanted to give something different this year as Christmas presents. I found some bare basic items from papermania. So I got down to altering this photo frame, I actually bought 2 frames so will add the second one to my flickr when completed. The frames come as bare brown, I began by painting the frame black using liquid gesso, this gives it a good base. I then covered the black in Anitas 3D embossing fluid. I then added a hint of gold by using a rub on. As you can see I did this around the oval and around the outter sides of the frame. I then found some silk flowers in my box of tricks and decided to paint them using metallic paint, thus giving them a nice gold look and a bit of a shine. I then added tiny diamonte gem stones. For the shapes I found these in the Range also from papermania, these I painted with the gold metallic paint and then used sparkles glitter glue to add some christmas effect. The skeleton leaves also had a hint of sparkle by using the glitter glue. I then completed by adding more diamonties to the oval area of the frame. Now all I need is a lovely photo to go inside. I enjoyed making this frame and it looks better in person than in the photograph.

Holly

Crafting like crazy

At last I have been able to get back into my crafting. Just in time for Christmas. As you can see I started with the traditional Christmas stockings..lol. These are made of felt and cut out shapes. I added some beads and sequins to finish. There are more in my flickr photostream.
Finally I have completed my NVQ3 now and just awaiting all my work to be verified and eventually will get my certificates. I am very pleased that I completed it on time, as when I was ill it was such a hard task to keep up with.
I bought some plain photoframes at the Range and decided I would alter these to make as Christmas presents, when they are completed I will add a picture here. It seems to have been so long since I last added to the blog, but at the time my camera seemed to have given up the ghost, but now I am able to use the bosses camera...lol!
Well thats about it for now hope all of my followers are keeping busy and I do visit your blogs often.
Happy Christmas crafting everyone!
Cheers
Holly

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

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

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