R is for Retro

I'm a child of the 70's born 1971, I have many fond memories of playing outside, with my flared trousers on and my incredibly long collars! I remember the heatwave in the summer of 1976, and the Silver Jubilee street parties. The music was pretty awesome too. When It's crafting Time said that this week's design team theme was retro it just conjured up happy memories of always playing outside and not so many rules as we have today.

70's retro colours to me are brown's, mustard yellow, red and blue, and here they are on my altered Decopatch letter R for Retro.

I've used Tim Holtz Cirque stamp set, they all work brilliantly with this theme.

I've also cut out the letters from a Tim Holtz Seasonal Paper stash page to spell Retro.

I have to thank Kate Crane for the black liner I used around the letters. Kate kindly gave me a black Stabilo aquarellable pencil after using one in one of her classes at Art from Heart. Its brilliant because you can rub it with your fingers to make a grungy grubby black shadow around things or use a fine paint brush with a little bit of water to blend the black into the edges, which I've done here.

I've also used one of Tim's idea-ology metal sentiments dabbed with blue alcohol ink and rubbed with white gesso in the letters to make them stand out. I've also used music note tissue tape on the inside edges.

It's far out man!

M xx

Why not decorate a letter?

I thought I would revisit my Decopatch letters and pick up where I left off a few months ago. The next letter I needed to decorate from my series in "The Hobby Room" was 'Y'.  I went for a grassy letter this time with daisy's.

I used railway flocking for the grass and a flower punch for the daisy's.

Here are the other letters I've done so far, not the best picture in the world I know, but I've hung them a bit high up on my wall and the desk lamp is turned round to light up the letters.

Here are the other posts for the other letters if you wanted a closer look with more detail.

T is for Tim

H is a wash with colour

E is for Elegance

H is Craft from the Heart

O is for Ornate

B is for Beach

B is for bling

And Y is this one.

My next project is going to be using something I bought from the MDF man from the last show I was at.

I feel another painting moment coming on.

Michelle x

B is for Beach

Well it's about time I put another post up, it's been too long, about 10 days I think.

Been very busy with Wedding invitations, Mother's Day cards and birthday commissions. It's  not that easy to be able to update the blog every day is it? I don't know how some of you guys do it everyday, and make wonderful things too. I just never seem to have the time. And of course I work full time too.

Oh well it's better late than never though so here is the next instalment of my decopatch letters.  I am up to the second 'B' of  'The Hobby Room'. This time I went for a summery beach theme, with stamped shells and small pieces of driftwood.  I think I was the only person walking along Seaton Carew beach on Sunday morning in the strong wind and sleat. The things we do for the love of crafting eh? My face was so numb from the cold that I couldn't even feel my hands touching my skin. Probably because my hands were just as cold as my face!

Anyhoo, I got my acrylic paints out and began being arty again, painting my background colours. I added some decorative sand and tiny stones I'd picked up from Internationale, or some place like that about a year or so ago. It was only about £2 for a big tub of it, I knew I'd be crafting with it at some point or another.

I was just experimenting with a word stamp and some Stazon ink to see if stamping onto shells worked, and I quite liked the effect so I went with it. I have an old dictionary that I cut the sail out of, and I just had to cut it  out of the words, beach and beachcomber. I stuck it to a thin piece of driftwood, and then stuck that into a bigger piece of driftwood, which I wanted to be the boat. I also used a punch to cut out my palm tree.

I glossy accented my waves, so they look wet. I really love this effect it looks great.

I love shells, so I just had to put some shells on, and a little star fish too. They are all real. I picked up the mussel shell at the beach on Sunday too. Oh I nearly forgot my silver fish charm, which incidentally has some random word in another language for fish I think. If you know what it says, please tell me?

Hope you like my shelly, beachy, B. 

Michelle x

B is for Bling

I have been working hard on my commissions this weekend, they are mostly for children. One with Upsy Daisy from In the Night Garden, George from Peppa Pig, and Princess Aurora from Disney. The other two are grown up cards. I think I'm really enjoying doing the kids one's, I'm getting back to my girly roots as a child, playing with glitter and pipe cleaners! Sometimes its nice to get away from the grown up stuff all the time.

B is for Bling
Strewn with jewels and glitter, this letter had to be blinged up. Not much explanation needed for this creation other than I used, glitter, gems, beadazzles, beads, ice Sparkles and a few drops of alcohol ink.

I love these strands of hairy glitter. The black glitter on the inside of the B shape is also hairy glitter.

Another 'B' to come next, i'm thinking B is for Beach........

O is for Ornate

Oooooo it's about time I did another letter, and here it is, an eternal circle of ornateness. I took some sneaky pictures of the 'O' while it was being made on my WOYWW, and now here's the finished letter.  I keep meaning to take more pictures of the making process, but it's so hard to remember to take a picture.....well what I mean to say is, it's so hard to get my head out of my crafty behind to stop for minute and think that I should take a picture.  I will make more of an effort for the next one.  I had to stand the letter against a bottle of glue to help it stand up as the ornate plaque makes it want to lean over to the right a bit.

So for the ingredients of this recipe:
I painted the letter with white acrylic paint first as a base. Then I used a wonderful pink shimmering mist by Lumin Arte inc. called Radient Rain Pink Grapefruit. It has the most fantastic gold mica shimmer with a soft pink colour underneath. I was so surprised with the finish of this mist, I loved it. I know I will use it over and over again, so pleased it comes in a big bottle too.  It looked fab just like this, but not interesting enough to look at. So I used a contrasting pastel blue Cosmic Shimmer chalk mist over the top, I like the mottled effect it gives (use a heat gun to dry in between coats).

I stamped a few flourishes using a pastel blue Brilliance ink pad too here and there.

The most exciting part for me was using 2 new products I bought at the weekend from The Paperlane in Northallerton, unfortunately for me they were having a reshuffle of the shop when I turned up on Sunday morning and I didn't stay long......wait...not unfortunate for me at all....very fortunate on my bank account! I always spend, spend, spend in there, they did me a favour.  Thanks a bundle!

My 2 new products were Indigo Blu's Gilding Flakes (and flitter glue.. I know that makes it 3, but the glue goes with the flakes, come on, that doesn't count) and the Hummingbird clear stamp set from Kaiser Craft. The effect is amazing on the letter, and the camera doesn't pick it up so well, but it looks really great up close.

The ornate plaque is a Tim Holtz Idea-ology plate. I used Sail Boat Blue Adirondack alcohol ink, and dropped it a few times over areas of the plaque. I cut out some card, stamped an ornate O on the card and wrote the rest of "Ornate" out (I know it's not perfect, but I like it warts 'n all) . Distressed the edges of the card, stuck it in the plaque and filled the oval with Glossy Accents. Which takes an age to dry.

The stamped bird and flourishy flowers are Tim Holtz as well as the ink dyed bauble. The crown is a charm I picked up at a craft show.  The cat stamp is a Lavina Stamps cat, coloured with dark blue acrylic paint, and outlined with a thin black pen.

I picked up on the centres of the stamped flowers with some Cosmic Shimmer pearl pva glue and some yellow liquid pearls (I need an excuse to use liquid pearls on everything).  

Around the edge of the letter I painted bright yellow acrylic paint and flicked it with purple mica powder, the letter shimmers from lots of different mediums. Oh I can't forget the centre of the letter O which I coloured with blue Broken China distress ink.

 B is the next letter, I know what the first thing springs to mind beginning with B is, what do you think?

A wash with colour

It's the weekend again, oh how I love them, I wish I had a Saturday Groundhog Day and wake up on a Saturday morning every morning, until I had crafted myself out. I reckon I could keep going for a few years!

Below is letter No. 4 of  the 12 I intend on decorating.  My intention with the design of this letter shifted from my initial ideas. I wanted just a monochromatic letter. I painted it white, and stamped the words all over it, distressed it a little with Scattered Straw Distress ink, blackened the edges, and made the little book, I was going to leave it like this. I thought it looked simple and I liked it. But then I went to sleep and woke up the next day, and I thought it needed colour. So I went for a splash rather than changing the colour of the letter completely.

Do I want to stick with trying to decorate the letter with a theme associated with the letter itself  i.e. 'H' is for Happy, 'E' is for elegant. Some ideas I want to do don't even begin with that letter, I'll just have to go with the flow and see what happens.

The book was a little bit of fun to make. I stamped up an A4 sheet on both sides with a Debbie Moore written word stamp, it looks quite Medieval don't you think? Then I cut the sheet up into rectangles. When I thought I had enough pages, I stapled them twice in the middle to secure them, then glued them to some brown card. I distressed the edges, and stuck a small square of the text on the front for effect. The butterfly is a Tim Holtz stamp and the pen nib is also from T!m's idea-ology range.

The next day, I decided that was it, the letter had to have colour on it, colour made me happy and I would always want to put some on.  So without thinking I put a paintbrush in some thick white acrylic paint and painted a lightning streak across the letter, much to my son's horror. I then got my Adirondack alcohol inks out and dropped ink on my lumpy acrylic paint.  

I could see it taking shape, it was just what I wanted. And then......Happiness is a splash of colour!.....The sentiment was born.....I knew it felt right now, it was the colour it needed all along.  I did the words by painting a blank piece of white card with a thin layer of white acrylic paint, then dropping the same coloured  inks I used on the letter on the piece of card, then dried it with the heat gun. I then got my Hampton Art alphabet set and stamped my words out. I cut each word out and matted them onto black card.

I had been inspired by Dina Stamps Ponderings blog with the white acrylic circles and wanted to put a few circles on my letter too. I find myself going back to Dina's blog nearly everyday, I just love her artful creativity, really inspiring. http://dinastamps.typepad.com/ponderings/

The next letter is 'O'. I have a couple of ideas, but no doubt they will change. I'm at a wedding all day tomorrow, so won't get chance to craft or upload. :-(

Happy colourful crafting folks!

Michelle x

Here's a blog with a great monochromatic challenge, my creation falls out of their rules, seeing as I chucked a load of colour at it. But just wanted to share their lovely creations on here because they are all so inspiring. http://fashionablestampingchallenges.cottagecrafts.ie/?p=2541#comment-274

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

H is for Hearts & Heat Embossing

Not triple embossing but rather Dodeca embossing meaning about 10 times heating the embossing powders and then stamping into it. My little message on the 'H' is "Craft from the Heart". Don't think too much about what you're going to do, just make a start and go with your instinct, it usually ends up being right.

This is the second Decopatch letter in my series of 12 that I plan to complete. The Tin Man stamp is from Artistic Outpost, absolutely fabulous Wizard of Oz stamps!

There is 3 embossing powders in this leg below, a blue metallic cosmic shimmer embossing powder, then a Papermania white one, then a Debbie Moore pink (I think it was scented too!) embossing powder. Not sure if I was a fan of the smell though. The letters are a Tim Holtz Typeset letters die, I used tartan card to cut out the letters.

The blue/purple metallic Cosmic Shimmer embossing powder has a great effect here, and I used some metallic paint inside the heart. The heart and the sentiment was stamped with Tim Holtz stamps.

I don't remember where I got the blue hearts, they are from an old stash of craft stuff I have, and the glass vial is......you guessed it!........Tim Holtz. I filled it with little sequin hearts.

I got the chipboard heart from an old stash too, but the dots around the heart are the pearl Cosmic Shimmers glue.

Next its the letter E mmmmm. It can't be more embossing can it?

T is for Tim

I have made a start on the 'T' for 'The Hobby Room'.  I couldn't resist doing all things Tim Holtz. It was inevitable really. I started off spraying the 'T' with (not a Tim product) but Cosmic shimmers, red and green based colours. Which gave the letter a rather nice rusty look, and looked great on its own, but then I started to stamp and embellish it. Us crafter's can't leave anything alone! I wrapped the letter in a metallic blue florist wire, and fitted everything else in around it.

I used Creative Expressions screw top brads on the corners. I snipped off the brad backs with some wire cutters because I didn't want to pierce the letter. I used some Journeyman Tissue Tape, and distressed it with some Broken China ink. I used some black Glitz It glitter glue and spooned some beads into the glue. And a sprinkle of gold glitter. I cut up a blank ticket and stamped the 'enjoy the journey' stamp on it with black Archival Ink. 

I used Tim's mini branch and leaf set on the bottom, then put some cogs and a spinner on top, as well as some glue and beads.

You can really see the lovely cosmic shimmers of the letter base here, as well as a wooden bingo counter, distressed of course with Walnut Stain distress ink and the copper tassel. The bingo counter actually is my age too. shhh keep that one quiet.

I stamped Tim's butterflies onto a piece of butterfly embossed Kanban Card and snook it under the blue wire. Then I attached the inspire tag with the blue wire too.

Crafting like this is just addictive, and hard to stop embellishing. I'm looking forward to doing the next one.

Letter's Craft

I bought 12 decopatch paper mache letters to spell out 'The Hobby Room' and I'm going to decorate them and  document the progress on my blog. Don't quite know why I started with the 'H' but I just started somewhere. I thought I could follow a theme with each letter which is listed below.

I'd be really interested in hearing your suggestions for decorating any of my letters, so please leave me a comment if you have a random epiphany and I'll add it to my list.

T = Tim Holtz, tags, tissue tape........
H = Hearts, heat gun
E = Embossing powder, Embellishments, eyelets

H = Hands, holographic, handmade paper
O = Ornate
B = Bling, Beadazles
B = Buttons, brayering
Y = mmmmmmmmmmmm haven't thought of one for this yet. Something yellow maybe.

R = Ribbons, resist, rubber stamp, rub-on
O = DOOOOO crafts, oriental
O = Olympics (I'm thinking Papermania Protobello Road stuff)
M = Mixed Media, all about Me (thanks for that suggestion EE), mulberry flowers, masking