E is for Elegant, Embellish & Emboss

But first I'll have a little ramble
Craft tote

I picked up a bargin today in The Range. I've been toying with the idea of getting a craft tote, and I saw the big Papermania totes which usually retail at about £49.95 and it was in The Range for £39, so I got it.  I'm planning to take some of my crafty stash on the C&C cruise.  There's just some things you can't live without if you're crafting.  I'll have to make it unique to me though by putting something on it, I don't know what just yet, but you can guarantee I'll put it on here when I do.

Paper mache addiction

Can you get addicted to decorating paper mache? And if so what do they call it? Mache mania, or papaholic or something daft like that....maybe alphaholic :-).  I think my little project of decorating the 12 letters which spell 'The Hobby Room' has turned me into some massive procrastinating shirker.  

There is loads of housework that needs doing, and I did the bare minimum this morning, i.e. hoovered and tidied up as fast as I could, just so I could get back into the craft room and do another letter! It's like I have to get my letter decorating fix.  I'm even thinking of what else I could spell out!  I need help.

'E'  is for Eeeeeee Howay man, deeas a nice letta man! (In my best Geordie accent, I don't have any other).

I went for a more elegant, girly, bright feel with this letter.  I really wanted to put a little crown on the top too.  

I started off with drawing around the letter onto a piece of card and then cut it out.  Then I painted the paper mache letter with white acrylic paint and left it to dry while I coloured and stamped the E shaped card.  

I stamped the white edges of the letter with Crafty Individuals (CI-293) flowers rubber stamp set.   I didn't have any bright pink ink pads so I used a bright pink Promarker on the stamp and stamped it on the letter before it dried. I used distress ink pads on the other colours of the stamped flowers to match the colours on the front. 

    

I used Tim Holtz masks before distressing the edges of the E shaped card with, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint and Mustard Seed distress inks.

I stamped the front of my cut out with Crafty individuals Flourish stamp (CI-182) and the Tim Holtz ornate corner stamp with Versamark and heat embossed bright pink embossing powders on the top and bottom of the card. I also stamped the front of the card with The Stamp Man's Aspects of Design (58) Fancy Flourishes, these are the green and yellow grasses and dotty flourishes.

I bought some wooden butterflies and birds last week from Hobby Craft and I coloured in one of the birds with distress inks and put this on too.  The stars on a chain is from a necklace I spotted in Primark, and thought I could use that for embellishing...and so I did.

The finished article. 

However, the pink does not show up well on these pictures, it is much more vivid with the naked eye. One day I'd like to have a bricks and mortar shop, and I'd put these letters on the wall inside........I have to believe in my dreams. x

I have entered this letter in the Stamp Man Challenge, Embellish it. http://thestampmanchallenges.blogspot.com/2012/01/stamp-man-embellish-it-challenge.html

And Also

Crafty Individuals February 2012 Challenge.

http://craftyindividualsblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/our-first-challenge-of-2012-starts.html