Dangly birdcage necklace

I picked up this little birdcage with bird (pack of 2 cages and 4 birds) a little while ago but only just got round to making this necklace. I knew the cage would be perfect to make into a long dangly necklace with a bunch of other charms.
It is very easy to make, I used all golden charms and chain and matching jumprings and just put it all together.

The birdcage set and idea-ology pieces are available from Happy Daze and I am entering this into their DANGLY THINGS Challenge.

A bottle of inspiration

Sometimes ideas just come to you when you least expect it and that was the case with this bottle. The grungepaper top was an idea by the amazing Lin of LB Crafts, she had made little glass vial bottle trees like that and added them to a project and I liked them so much I wanted to make some too.
So there was me sitting at work one day drinking a bottle of Firefly and I peeled the label off as it's one of those shrink wrap labels that come off easy and I was left with this perfect clear bottle. I thought that be really noce to paint with the Paper Artsy paint just like a project we did at the Artsy Crafts event and I could make a big grungepaper tree and decorate the bottle. And there you go.
I made this for the Happy Daze Challenge where the theme is Dangly Things. And Simon says Stamp and Show wants to see Words this week.

My crafty year so far and new adventures

With half the year almost done (and didn't it fly by?) I thought it was time to look at my year so far.
It's been a bit of a rollercoaster ride. I started the year with a much needed new job and that meant 13hour days sometimes at least to start off with. So no crafting but I so wanted a new job for the past year that that was a sacrifice worth making.
Craft wise the year started extremely promising. I became a part of the Alter it monthly team, having admired the blog and challenges for a while it's great being part of it.
I also became a permament member of the Design Team for Just stamps - Einfach Stempeln. It's a small(ish) German magazine aimed at stampers and mixed media artists. It is also the only German magazine I have come across. It has such great potential to become much bigger and it's fab being part of the team. And of course it's such an honour to see my stuff in print every month.



I also had my first UK publication this year with a reader submission in Craft Stamper. My frame got accepted last year but wasn't featured til earlier this year.

My mum sometimes asks me what I get from having my things published, but it's just such a great feeling having something in a magazine and that other crafters out there may be inspired by my piece.

With this being my 2nd year of my craft madness I thought I should try selling my things at a craft fair this year as so much stuff accumulates around the house and at some point I will run out of wall space, so may as well sell some. Everything just fell into place and within days I had booked a local fair. It was all going too well I thought as later the fair was cancelled due to lack of stallholders. But I spent hours searching the net and found plenty more, from small fairs to big summer festivals. Many of them were already fully booked or I couldn't get the time of work but I am in a great position to start planning my fairs early next year and pick out the best ones. And I have still got 1 booked for this summer, it's a bit daunting but also exciting.


As it's a year of firsts, I also booked my first craft workshops this year. First one, of course the Artsy Crafts Event with Tim Holtz, he's been such an inspiration and it was great meeting him in person. It also inspired me to book another workshop with Lin and Leandra. The projects may not have been that much up my street but they were still fun and it was just so lovely being amongst crafters and I talked to a lot of lovely ladies there and made a new friend - Alison of Craftytrog's Inky Adventures. Check out her blog, she makes some great things and is so lovely to chat to.

A couple of months ago I had a very exciting email about a project, not wanting to jinx it I won't tell you any details but it got me very excited. It took up a lot of my time and my blog has suffered the effects as I had less to show on here. But everything was wrapped up and posted off last week and fingers crossed it goes through ok. If not then I have created some beautiful things on the way and learned some new skills and tried out products and things I may otherwise not have tried. It's all about the journey after all.

Having posted that project off seemed a little like something was ending and I had completely lost my mojo for a week or two there. But every end is the beginning of something new.

I have been eyeing up art journaling for a while and admired the messy and colourful doodles of many artists. I didnt think I would be able to do that. For starters I'm not a journal writer and I don't like my handwriting but I loved the style too much to give up so quickly.
I can always use stamps and quotes for the writing bit.

So I have watched many videos on you tube for inspiration and browsed many blogs and decided to give it a shot. I ordered Kate Crane's dvd as I love her style and I can't wait to watch the dvd and try out some techniques.

In the meantime I got all my art supplies and just had a go at it. I started off with some tags to make it a small and easy project. And I just had a go with gesso, paints, matt medium, stamps, ink, splatters, rim marks and all sorts of messy things. If I didnt like what I made, I painted over it and it just added to the texture and feel of the piece. So the tags you see here are my very first samples of my art journaling, doodle, messy art style that I am getting into. I liked them so much that I went straight onto another piece, bigger and better. I will show it on my blog when it's finished so check back.

All I can say is, if you like something, try it. You might suprise yourself and be a natural at it.

And here is to the next 6 months of inky hands and messiness!!!

Candy Draw..... who's the lucky winner?!

Hey there,

thanks for everyone who entered my candy draw. It's been lovely to see old and new faces signing up and I've discovered some lovely new blogs on the way.

But there can only be one winner. So I put all the names in a hat (cause I'm old-fashioned and dont trust linky technology) and the winner is......

MILLA

Please contact me on anikraft@hotmail.co.uk with your address.

Also apologies for the severe lack of blogging, I have misplaced my mojo, I think I may have left it in Germany 2 weeks ago.... hope it comes back soon!!!!

Simon says Stamp and Show a tag - Part 2

Another tag for Simon says Stamp and Show and as I already explained in my previous post I am currently working with limited stash at my parents house. It's not easy. Then again I'm here to chill and not go mad with my stamps like I do at home..... so many things to make so little time.

Inked background with some ferns and greenery, some spiced marmalade script, butterflies and a german sentiment thats also been glossy accented. Add 2 little flower brads and done.

Simon says Stamp and Show a tag.....

It's tag time at Simon says Stamp and Show and I've given myself an extra challenge this week. I am at home at my parents house at the moment and my mum has a limited stash of inks (how am i supposed to work with just 6 distress inks?!?!? HOW?!?!?!) and stamps and stuff. So I thought thatll make it that little bit extra challenging. I made this little birdie tag after one of Tim's christmas tags last year.

Distress Inks, shimmer mist made up the background with a Tim letter mask that I inked through. A sideways tree with fibers for a nest. A keycharm and some random little leaves.

Monochrome plus one colour challenge....

Whilst working on some cards and ideas the other day I ended up with this background that I inked with a mask using black distress ink. I quickly grabbed my Art Journey writing stamp and popped it on and voila, a really quick and easy card.

And it goes perfectly with the theme at The Artistic Stamper this month - monochrome plus one colour.

My first card was black with aged mahogany lettering, so I decided to make another one with aged mahogany spots and black lettering.

My nephew is turning two....

niklas birthday2
Originally uploaded by Anikraft

Blogger is being a bit of a pain again today not uploading my photo the right way round so instead I had to do it via flickr. Anyway.....

So my little nephew is turning two this week, hence I am going home for a bit to bring a lot of presents and also catch up with the family and on some much needed stamp shopping with my sis. And of course I need to introduce my nephew to a family tradition - grandmas hazelnut cake. It was always my favourite when I was little so what a better excuse to make a yummy cake and eat it too.

I am entering this card into the Stampsmith Challenge. I can only ever enter their challenges that allows for any stamp company to be used as I dont own any stampsmith stamps yet but they are high on my list of things to buy, I love photo stamps and theirs are just fab, so bank account watch out, I'm gonna do a big order soon!

Dreaming Dolly Keyring

It's another altered art themed week at Try it on Tuesday.... well it is until midnight tonight, I am a bit late with my entry this time, but nevertheless I created this little dreaming dolly keyring.

The theme is Dreams and it's sponsored by The Craft Barn.

I've not made any keycharms in ages so it was about time. I love them really full of little charms and things. The silver charm reads "Follow your dreams".

New Blog Home Candy from Moira

Hey everyone,

there is some awesome candy going from Moira. She has just moved to a new blog home so make sure you check it out here.

The frame you see is one of her lovely creations so its well worth a visit for some awesome crafty inspiration!

Finding the time to enter challenges.....

It's difficult finding time to make things for challenges these days, I seem to never stop being busy. One project I'm currently working on should be completed in 3 weeks so I hope there will be plenty of time for more challenge makes.

Today I sat down and created this card. The challenge at Creavil is scrunched up backgrounds, it's something I've never really tried before but I'm glad I did as I like the vintage look it creates. It's simply crumpled up paper which is then inked with distress inks and it picks up all the creased bits nicely. I then stamped some script over it but didnt press the stamp to hard, that way the paper only picks up the script on the high points.

This card will also be entered into The Stampman Challenge where the theme is Men. Same theme over at the Simon says Challenge. And last but not least The Stampsmith is asking for birthday creations this week.

Alter it monthly - June - Canvas

It's time for another month at Alter it monthly and this month the theme is canvas. This could be a piece of canvas or a canvas frame, use your imagination. We look forward to seeing your entries. And as always there is a prize to be won!

I had some fun with sticky back canvas and as I recently found out you can print on the stuff very easily I printed another old photo. This time it's my sister outside my grandmas house. I covered some chipboard with the canvas, distressed the edges and spritzed it with some silver shimmer mist. Add some fibers, a type charm with my sisters initial and there you go, a lovely little present.