Distress crackle paint frames ..... my findings

I've been meaning to decorate some picture frames for ages. I've always loved frames and old photos and having been inspired by Hels over on Ink on my fingers and her crackled frames, I thought I got to give it a go. Let me tell you now, it wasn't easy!!! To cut a long story short, I spent a whole day painting and re-painting some frames (cheapy ikea and other wooden frames) and spraying endless amounts of glitter mists and perfect pearls only to end up with some hideous frames. So that's when I decided to paint over them with a thin layer of my base colour, in this case an umber acrylic paint. And immediately the frames looked so much better.

I tried to take the photo on the left in the sunshine so you can see the glimmery shine on it, but not sure you can tell too well.

This is the blue frame. Im not even sure how it ended up blue, I have no blue glimmer mists nor crackle paint nor anything blue. Must just be a mixture of all those layers of mists and paints and stuff!

It's my mum's birthday this weekend so I made her a little frame of fun. I'm very pleased with it. Again I have to give Hels some credit for inspiration that comes from her blog.

This is being entered into the Sir Stampalot Challenge as my second entry. The theme is Butterflies and Blossoms so I think it's perfect.

This is the pink frame. I know why it ended up pink. I used bronze crackle paint and it looked really patchy. So i painted the whole thing in the crackle paint and sprayed vast amounts of red glimmer mist on it. (I think less is more here!!!) It looked awful. A thin layer of the base paint over the top rescued it and then i got some white acrylic paint and dry brushed over the crackly patches which picked them up really nicely. some glimmer mist over the top and this time i dried it with a heatgun as i went along (this was advice from Hels again) and it soaked nicely into the crackles. Done.







As for this one, I eventually emailed Hels and she had some more tips for me (and she also said shes doing a tutorial on this at Gingersnap Creations, so check it out when it goes up) I painted on an umber base. Then I did an even layer of old paper crackle paint, a little thicker in places. A mixture of walnut stain ink with golden perfect pearls was sprayed over and dried with the heatgun. Then again I picked up the crackle patches with a bit of drybrushing. And there we go. Didnt take a whole day and now I know what I'm doing. So it was definitely worth the effort. And all I can say is, give it a go. Even if it doesn't look right the first time round, just keep at it!!!

Basic Grey Challenge: Punch it!

This is the first time I'm entering the Basic Grey Challenge but with such a great prize up for grabs I just had to join in and the theme is punch it, I love my border punches, even though I only have 3 of them so far. Should put a few more on the shopping list for next payday I reckon.

Unfortunately the picture doesnt show the brown card "clipboard" very well. I stamped it with the hero arts wood grain stamp and it looks really nice.

Card Patterns Sketch 64....

Here is my entry for this weeks Card Patterns challenge. I do struggle when i get given sketches to work from, im just never sure how far to stray from the original sketch. So I guess it's a good excercise.

Giveaway you should not miss!

Vanessa from Wings of a butterfly is celebrating her first blogiversary and is giving away some candy! So go and check it out, there is $25 gift voucher up for grabs! xxxx

Flowery challenge entry....

Of course I have to enter the May challenge over on Sir Stampalot Challenge, theres and amazing price up for grabs. So as the theme is Blossoms and butterflies and a friend of mine needed a birthday card for his niece I got making and this is the result. The felt flowers i love, they are really thick and fluffy.
I am also thinking about entering this into the craft stamper birthday challenge, but may come up with something better by the deadline, we shall see. And I am entering this into Challenge 6 at Wee Memories. And not to forget the sketch idea came from CPS - Card Sketches, so it's being entered there too.

Stamp sale at Kip's cards

Hey, just wanted to let you know there is a stamp sale (ebay) going on over at Kip's cards. Having bought many of my own stamps on ebay i will definitely watch a few of them auction. So pop over and have a look at whats for sale and help raise some money for new stash!!!

Tim Holtz dies and a challenge win!!! How exciting!

So, I've only just managed to catch up on all blogging. Turns out I won the challenge on Lynne is in2crafting. How exciting is that!!! Also been going through a few blogs for inspiration and will be having some fun with frames and crackle paint on monday, hopefully for some nice bloggable things. But for now I wanted to share my fanciful flight die butterflies with you. I just inked them up with distress inks (mustard seed, aged mahogany and black soot) and stamped some script on the wings. Very easy but I think very effective, esp on a kraft background. It's a moleskine notebook (another one!).

And a slightly smaller butterfly for a birthday card. Im not sure why I chose to use the light green and black together but I love this card. Again, it's pretty easy to do. I don't do complicated. I guess I'm just too cautious.

CPS Challenge entry....

Another week over and another challenge entry. I do apologize for the lack of more creative items and my blogging about them, I really want to alter some frames and make some notebooks with my new ringbinder. But there hasnt been anough time to really do anything other than a bunch of cards. So anyway, here goes my entry for CPS this week.
I hope to be blogging about my new alterations die later this week or next week, i made a few things using the fanciful flight die.

My website is up and running!!!

Check out www.anikraft.co.uk if you have a spare moment, I will keep adding all my makes to the site as i go along. Let me know what you think!! xxx

Last challenge entry for the week...

My interpretation of the Card Patterns sketch this week. Love their challenges, they are good fun. xxx

Another challenge entry....

All my entries this week are very quick little cards as there isnt much time to be creating big art pieces. So here is my entry for Ink on my fingers this week, the theme is to use a key in the project.

CPS Challenge entry....

Just a quick challenge entry for today. Have been very busy at work and not much time to be getting creative. This is for CPS.

Some candy...

Just a quick late post to tell you about some amazing candy that can't be missed. Check out Crafty On Goings.