Alphabet Mirror....

Here is a project I had sitting here for a while now. I glued a lot of grungeboard letters to a mirror frame and painted on many layers of paint. I never seemed to like the colour so I just kept painting over it. In the end I spritzed it with a lot of glimmer mist anyway. It's a kinda blueish/bronzey colour, almost a metal effect.
I then added some distress embossing powder to pick out the letters ANIKA. I feel there is something missing here, hence it has been sitting here for so long, but my boyfriend assured me it is finished. So I'll trust his judgement and present you with my alphabet mirror. Ta da!

BLOG CANDY WINNER!!!

Hello there wonderful people....

today I reached 50 followers, so may I say thanks to all my followers! I have drawn my candy thanks to the help of random.org and the winner is......

ANITA WELLS..... Number 8

Congratulations Anita, can you please email me with you address.

Thia has been a fun experience and I enjoyed visiting new blogs that I may otherwise not have come across. So I reckon a new candy will be on the cards soon.... with a vintage theme. Watch this space.

ATC swap anyone?!

Just a quick message tonight. I made these last week.... anyone out there fancy a quick ATC swap? Then get in touch - anikraft@hotmail.co.uk

CCC #7

Just back from a weeks holidays in Spain I have been looking forward to playing with my stamps again and of course joining the CCC. It's not just that no.7 is actually my favourite number but it also happens to be my favourite technique - tinted vision fragments.


So for my entry this week I have made a keyring. I have not actually used a fragment but memory glass and a frame. The technique is still the same otherwise. I framed an old photo of me and my sister that I printed out in a sepia effect.

If you havent joined in the Compendium challenge yet then do so here.

Been wanting to play with acetate cutouts for ages now and the umbrella man is perfect for a little scene like this. Again I used the Cherry Pie Arts stamp for the skyline and this time I used tissue paper rather than tissues. The tissue paper is a bit stronger (also shows a bit more) and much easier to work with when using the glossy medium. The tissues tend to tear very quickly, you cam't smooth them out as much.
I added some words from the song "streets of london" and done.

Wendy Vecchi inspired birthday card

A quick post today, jut a little birthday card for my grandma.
It's done Wendy style without any actual Wendy stamps. I do enjoy her style, it's the vibrant colours I think and the many patterns used on even the smallest flower.

My Tim Holtz inspired matchboxes.....

In case you havn't heard yet I am hosting a matchbox swap, check previous post for all the details or join us at the All Things Tim Yahoo Group.

These are my entries for the swap.
Whereas the one on the right uses a lot of Tim's bits (paper stack, tickets, stamp, distress ink) the other one only uses the idea-ology key but it's in true vintage, grungy Tim style I would say. I bought brand new lace and needed it to look old so I stuck it in a cup of tea, works a treat.

If you fancy decoarting some matchboxes, join the swap, it'll be fun!

Honey, I got beeswax all over the dining table.....

So I got the beeswax out again, on the dining table. Maybe not such a good idea.
Anyway.
Had this triangular box sitting here for ages and just got some Cherry Pie Arts stamps through the door and thought they'd be the perfect match. I stamped the skyline 3 times onto tissue and fixed it down with beeswax. Pretty much like the beeswax mirror (see previous post). I love playing with this stuff, though I think I used too much again on one side. Practise makes perfect I guess.










Since it's an England themed stamp set there was also this picture of the queen with it so it had to be used. Stamped, framed and glossy accented. Done.

I've been decorating so many boxes I'm running out of things to put in them.

Wendy Vecchi inspired ATC's

I've recently purchased one of Wendy Vecchi's idea books and felt the urge to try some of her ideas. I don't actually have many Wendy stamps yet but so desperately waiting on a back order from the US. They should hurry up, stampers have needs!!!
But in the meantime I came up with these ATC's using various background stamps and some Hero Arts ones. I just love them Maya Road frames, they are a new favourite. And I love the colour of Wendy's work/my ATC's.









These three are a little darker but I still really like them. Loving the grungeboard alphas. The one on the left was actually an attempt to do some water stamping (you can just tell under the black stamping) but it didn't show much so I stamped over it and got a fab almost bleeding ink effect.

All I can say is that I WANT MY WENDY STAMPS NOW!!!!!

Old family photos.....

I recently scanned a load of old family photos, especially from my dad's side of the family.
I printed this particular photo on acetate, attached it to the front of the frame and decorated behind it using and old postcard printout, postage stamps, money, some old lace etc.
I picked up this idea in one of the Somerset magazines. Love the idea and it looks really fab and vintagy. Add a few idea-ology bits and it's done.

CCC #6 - More mini canvas art.....

It's monday and time for CCC #6.
So this week we are playing with medium and anything we can cover in it. Sounds fun, but then I went to work and it just wasn't working for me today. I covered various things in gloss medium (unfortunately I have no matt yet, it's on my to buy list) including grungeboard, but nothing wanted to stick properly and when it came to 'revealing' the shape afterwards it just went wrong.
So I consulted my compendium and Tim mentions canvas in there. So I thought I have a go at doing another mini canvas. I really enjoyed working with them recently and thought I make another little hangy thing. I bought an old 'little prince' book from the charity shop recently and thought that be perfect to make something for my nephew.
So got the canvas, stuck a grungeboard heart on it and covered it with the page. I placed the page so the title would be just above it. I painted over it and then wiped off the paint where it says the little prince. Red stickles over the heart and a little crown added.
That's the middle one done, the other two I used the back of and added photos of my nephew. They are filled in with utee by the way. I'm getting better at pouring it now which is nice. Looks much neater than the last one. Add some foliage, type charms and memory thread and it's done.
So bad start to this week's CCC, but it all turned out ok at the end.

Home sweet home....

I've had this design in my head for a little while. I just love the little house stamps from Paper Artsy. And I also wanted to make houses out of the memory frames and corners. The other larger house is actually made from them wedges that come with a canvas. You know the little bag of wedges that's always stapled to the back?! That's with A5 or larger canvases. I was about to throw them out and thought, hang on, 2 put together make a little house. So there you go. It's covered in book page and painted and stamped on.
The HOME letters are grungeboard painted with crackle paint and then spritzed with the chalkboard glimmer mist, I love the finish of that stuff, gives an actual coverage of the colour whilst still being glimmery. Gonna have to buy more of that, although at £6 a bottle is quite dear.
This is being entered into the Alter it monthly challenge. Check it out here.

Little treasures....

This is one of the many wooden boxes I bought at the QD store a while ago. I have almost run out. May need another trip there, shame my closest is in Romford.
I just used crackle paint and glimmer mist on this and then decorated it with the flowers I also made for the canvas art. It's very straightforward. Also used more memory thread, I just love curling that stuff!!!

Beeswax mirror.....

So I gotten myself a melting pot recently and then I was just looking through some old Craft Stamper magazines and discovered a beeswax project. So I got making.

I painted the mirror in traditional tan (getting on much better with it now than I did), then added some book pages with glossy medium and did another layer of paint over the top so that the pages came through. Then quickly swiped some timber staz on on the edges. Stamped some script and other things in black staz on in random places.

It's the first time I used beeswax so it's a bit of a learning curve. I used too much in places but next time I'll know better. Just painted it on, positioned some stamped images (on 1 ply of tissue) and got the heatgun on it. They just melt into it. I also added some torn bits of the book but it didn't wanna stick to well, maybe the pages are a bit too thick, compared to the tissue anyway.

The flowers are just cut from card and then dipped in beeswax. Very easy really. For a first time beeswax project I think it turned out fab.

I am entering this into the competition at The Stampman, the first theme is a free theme so anything goes.

Til next time!

Anika xxx

Grungy Tim Holtz inspired bracelet....

I got into making jewellery last year and even attended an evening course, although a lot of the time I skipped class to stay at home and work on a scrapbook .... naughty!!

But having discovered the Tim Holtz type charms I can combine my papercrafting with jewellery.

I punched out S I S T E R S letters from the Lost and Found paperstack and also printed out some photos of me and my sister and added them on.

I adde a few dangly bits made from copper and brown beads.

It's really quite simple, and I like the grungy look of it. I may have to get some of the link chain from the idea-ology range, it would make it even better I think.

Just wish the type charms were cheaper, does anyone know of anything similar that I may use in the same way?! Could be smaller, I wouldn't mind that.

Or if you come across any bargain basement priced type charms, let me know!!!

Quirky mini card.....

The Craft Barn is having a shaped card competition. I must say I haven't made many shaped card, except for 1 or 2 round ones. So I wanted to make something quite quirky and sweet that stands out. As I've been working with matchboxes recently I thought why not make a card that fits into the little box. And I love my paper artsy stamps so that's the result. I think it's a cute idea and is something a bit different to a normal house moving card I think.

A few more ATC's.....

I think I got myself addicted to making ATC's now. There are just so quick and easy and great to try new techniques on.
I bought some more paper artsy stamps the other day so i gave the tree one a quick test run on this atc. It's embossed in clear powder then inked over in a dark blue. I made this for Hels Sunday Stamper Challenge. The theme is BLUE (did you guess?!)

This one just "happened". You know when you got a piece of card, randomly ink it up, maybe grab a background stamp nearby, this one happened to be the script stamp. And then I thought WORDS! So I popped out a few grungeboard letters, painted them with traditional tan and inked them with staz on timber.

This one I made for the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge, this week we are playing with distress embossing powders.


And I just noticed I've gone past the 1000 visitor mark, yippie!!!!

Tim Holtz Inspired Matchbox Swap (International) - join here

Finally I have sorted all the details for the matchbox swap.
So here goes:

First of all I have to let you know I am located in the UK just so you can
figure out postage costs to get things to me and receive your returns of course.

For this swap you will have to decorate TWO (or multiples thereof 4,6,8, etc you
get the idea) matchboxes inside and out with something Tim Holtz inspired.
Whether that's distress inks, stamps, idea-ology or paper stacks anything Tim is
allowed and of course you can combine it with other products too. As for the
matchboxes I am talking about the 32 count ones which are roughly 3.5cm x 5.3cm
x 1.5cm. That may vary from country to country but it is to give you an idea
what kinda size we are working with. If you can't obtain matchboxes in the
shops, there is also templates available online (just do a matchbox template
search in google).
I would suggest that you also mark your name/initials and maybe blog or email
address on the piece if you can, I am thinking the underneath of the drawer.

When you have made your matchboxes, please email me at anikraft@hotmail.co.uk
for my postal address and please also include your full name and address so I
can build a database of people taking part. The deadline for this swap is 31st
August, that's when your creations should have reached me by. I will the give it
a wee for late arrivals and the mail being slow and then get sorting and sending
out. It is a larger time frame as it is an international swap I want to give
everyone enough time to make things and post them with plenty of time.
It's your responsibility to ensure you have enough postage on your letter and of
course include a return envelope with the correct return postage. If you can't
get hold of UK stamps you can buy postage online and print it yourself (credit
card required) from royalmail.com
If that's not an option for you, there are other possibilities such as paypal
etc so please contact me and we sort something out!

If you need inspiration you can check out one of my recent posts and there will be more coming up.
There is also plenty of pictures on flickr and other websites so just have a
search and a browse.

That's all I can think of at the moment, if I have forgotten any detail do
contact me. It is my first organized swap so be gentle with me. Any questions?!
Just reply here or email me direct!!!

Now let's get making!!!
Anika xxx

PS: This swap is being organized with the ALL THINGS TIM Yahoo group, if you're not a member yet, do join us. Over on the group there is a photo album entitled Matchbox Swap 2010 - post your creations there. If you want the swap to be a surprise and not see any of the makes at all, then don't look at the folder until after you received your swap!

Swap crafty stash and your makes with people around the world

Ever heard of swap bot?!
I discovered it the other day and love the idea behind it. Basically you can sign up for all sorts of swaps, whether it's things you have made or crafty stash, ribbons, colour themed swaps etc. For some swaps you will need a certain rating or have completed a number of swaps, others welcome newbies like me. I have signed up for a craft stash swap and can't wait to send mine and receive one too.
So, if you like sending and receiving mail and have some spare makes and stash then why not give it a go!
http://www.swap-bot.com/

A week of firsts ..... matchboxes

I remembered how much fun I used to have crafting with matchboxes when I was younger. I always used to stick things to them, like little cross stitches pieces and stuff. Or make matchbox drawers and advent calendars, I used to love it.
So I decided to alter these matchboxes I had lying around under the bed. I am also going to organize a matchbox swap with the ALL THINGS TIM group on yahoo. Details will be posted tomorrow so come back for that and join in, it'll be fun!




This is my favourite out of the three. I used some replica war memorabilia out of a pack I picked up at the transport museum a while ago. The stuff is fab, all old and vintage little cards, newspaper, leaflets etc. They have different themed packs, if you're ever in London, pop in and stock up. I'm lucky enough to work just across the road from there.
The map bits are leftovers from the mirror I did the other day and they came in handy for this. Also tried out the crackle accents for the first time but it didnt really crack much, only round the edges.

These two are a little random, but I was just working with what I could find around my desk at the time. And the numbers paper I just got in a paperstack I had won in a blogcandy.

Don't forget to check back tomorrow for the matchbox swap, I can tell you now it will be international and you will have to make 2 matchboxes. It'll be fun so join in!!!

See you then! Anika xxx

A week of firsts ..... canvas art

So I got myself an A5 canvas (as they are in the sale everywhere at the mo!) and just had a go .... I inked it up, then stuck a torn book page on it, wasn't too sure if I liked that so I thought I cover it in clear crackle paint. That turned it a bit pink from the ink underneath. So loads of glimmer mist over the top. Still not sure about it. Stuck some new tissue tape round the edges and it looked awful but somehow rescued it by putting copper tape over that. You know what, the only thing I like about this is the flower with the 3 buttons stacked up and the memory thread. Other than that there isn't much I like about this canvas. But as the quote says: Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes, art is knowing which ones to keep. I've learned things from this, I'll definitely make more flowers like this one, but I may not be keeping this piece. Not everything can turn out a masterpiece, eh?!

A week of firsts ..... distress embossing powder, memory thread and swooshy inkiness

Hows that for a title, eh?!

So here is another crackle frame, but I did try out a few new things on it. The background for example is made by "swooshing" some card through ink and water, all mixed on a craft sheet. I wanted to create a blueish sky for the background and it worked ok, I don't think you can tell very well from the photo. I also spritzed some glimmer mist over it and stamped some branches and a birdy onto it.

Now for the distress embossing powder. I never got on well with this, i like the shiny glossy embossed finished more than this but have found that it works so well for rougher textures like the tree branch and cage. I have invested in a few more colours of the stuff and will be testing it out on other projects for sure.

In the tree there's some curly wurly memory thread, purely for pretty cuteness. I used this on everything I made this week, I just love the stuff. It was given to me as a present but I love it so much I ordered myself another 6 or 7 colours. There will be more projects full of memory thread in the future!!

A week of firsts ..... memory bubbles

Here we go with another first. Memory capsules. I used old ideaology packaging for these and filled them with things that remind me of London. Top left has little underground signs in them, below that I punched out shapes of old train tickets. Then there is a bubble filled with beads, ok not strictly London but I do go to the bead shop in London quite a bit. The one with the game spinner attached to it has watch parts in it, that's my Greenwich inspired one, and you can see the Greenwich Meridian goes all the way up the mirror in red stickles. The last bubble is filled with money. Behind the bubbles I stamped London scenes like the London eye etc. Add a few stamps, some grungeboard letters and an old penny, done!

A week of firsts ..... meltpot & mini canvas

I finally got my meltpot the other day and already have a load of ideas in my head of how to use it. First one is these mini canvases. I used the back of them and painted them in pale umber as a base, then crackle paints and glimmer mists over the top. Pop a picture inside, these are from the tim holtz lost and found stack. I do wanna make more of these using actual family photos, I think it's a great way of displaying photos and only last year I dug out LOADS of old pic from my grandparents and stuff.

So anyway, I poured in some clear utee but it did set a bit funny and I re-melted the whole thing with a heatgun til almost all of it was liquid in the frame again and kinda swooshing around. It set a little better after that. But I was aiming for perfect anyway, it's supposed to look old and vintage.

Add some idea-ology and that's it!

I can see myself using a lot of utee doing this again. Also, I got to stock up on mini canvases whilst their on sale. Something to do in my break today I reckon!!!

A week of firsts .... ATC's

I'm having a week of first times, starting off with ATC's. Previous attempts to make them have kinda failed but this time it just worked. I made this butterfly ATC to enter a few challenges out there.

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge

I'm loving this challenge, it actually makes me look at the book and try the techniques rather than just having it sit on the shelf. So this week it's shabby chic and that's how the background was created. I made a set of 3 (see below) and all backgrounds were created using the technique.

Gingersnap Creations

One of their challenges is 'Shades o blue' so my little blue butterfly is fluttering over there too.

Stampman ATC Swap

Of course an ATC wouldnt be just that if I didn't trade it too, so I'm joining in on their ATC swap, the theme is 'Wings'.

Here is the whole set that's being sent off.

Rainbow mirror....

First of all I got to say that this idea was not mine, I saw it on someone's blog and fell in love with it so I just had to give it a go myself.

Check out the Artilicious blog here for the original idea.

Glenda is teaching this as a workshop so I can't post any instructions, it wouldn't be fair, but maybe you can work out your own way of making it. Unfortunately the white stamping in this picture doesn't show up much. But it's only my first attempt at this, I may have to make another one slightly differently. Must invest in more swirly stamps too I think. Any excuse to pop down to the stamp shop in town, eh?!

Have a fab day!

Anika xxx

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge - Week 3

So, it's week number 3 in the Compendium of curiosities challenge at Studio L3 and this week it's alcohol ink.

I do own a handful of alcohol inks but have to say I haven't used them much so far, except for colouring staples. I don't own any glossy card yet so I had to really think on how to enter this challenge but I found some coppee and silver coloured card that's fairly glossy so I just used that. And I think it makes a fab background for these flowers. The stamp is from this month's craft stamper magazine by the way, grab one now, it'll be one of those really useful little stamp that can be used for any occasion!

Basic Grey Candy

Some yummy new candy up for grabs at Artful Delight. Choose from one of the 2 new collection packs - Oliver or Olivia. Checke it out here.