Last ever Compendium Challenge :(

Sad times, it's the last of the fabulous Compendium of Curiosities Challenge. But what a fab time we had.
So for the last entry I have made a little grungeboard bracelet. I just embossed and die-cut the ends of some grungeboard and painted them, then sanded and inked over.

I stitched the pieces back together and here it is wrapped round. Unfortunately I couldnt take a picture of it around my wrist, I was home alone so it proved rather difficult.

Many, many thanks to Linda for such a fab Challenge it has been great. Thanks for all the effort you put in, commenting on everyone's project and sorting out the prizes too. Thanks so much!!! Wish we could do it all over again!

Something blue, something new, something metal

As mentioned before I finally got to play with some metal over the weekend. Well, I had the tools and everything here for a while now, like half a year but never really managed to create anything worthwhile with it. I have always admired the Paper Artsy projects using metal and I've been inspired after seeing a frame at a recent Artsy Crafts Event. I embossed some blue metal and sanded it to make the script "pop".
The flower was made from silver metal with a flower stamped on, cut out and made into a rose type flower (with my added extra bits in the centre). Check out the Paper Artsy videos on You Tube, there is a great tutorial for making your own.
The little shadow box frame has just been coloured with Viva Inka-Gold Paste, I love that stuff.

This is being entered into a few challenges. First of all there is The Stampsmith Challenge where the challenge is to use something new. And as it's my first proper metal project I reckon it qualifies. Also the Simon says Stamp and Show Challenge where the theme is Metal. And last but not least Happy Daze have started a challenge on their facebook page. It's a fab shop I have been ordering a fair few stamps from recently and they also stock the metal and Viva products I used on this projects.

Mothers Day is approaching fast

It's nice having time to be making cards again. I seem to have neglected that a bit recently, always working on frames and mixed media stuff but after all my obsession with stamping started with card making.
So as Mothers Day is approaching fast I got making on some cards. Inspiration for this actually came from the Stampin Up gallery on flickr. I love browsing all the galleries there for a nice card idea.

I am entering this into the Artistic Stamper Challenge where the theme is Spring this month. Can't say it feels like spring outside, still soooooo cold. But hey, I'm off to work now and I certainly don't see much daylight in my job.

New Art Parts and catching up.....

I've just had a 2 day weekend, it's amazing, everyone should try it! Oh hang on, it's just me who normally only gets 1 day off a week. Bugger.
So I finally had a full day crafting today and I managed to catch up on a lot of things like my magazine contributions and Alter it monthly. And got a chance to play with some metal (more of that later in the week) and also had a little play with the new art parts pocket watch, when I first saw it I knew I had to have them! It's amazing. I used an Artistic Outpost image here and filled the whole thing with UTEE afterwards and sprinkled some beads on top. I really like these, but still not quite sure how to display them. Any great suggestions please leave a comment. Maybe stick a few on a canvas and display them on the wall?

I also managed to bring my Flickr Gallery up to date and got to put all new pictures on my Website next. Still keeping busy and plenty more overtime hours at work to come but at least I feel like I'm on top of things again. Yeah!!!

Also really wanting to do more workshops this year, maybe artsy crafts or something to do with art journalling. I'll have to do my research and get planning!!

MEN - AFFIRMATIVE

As the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge is slowly coming to an end I really am trying to make the effort to join in even though crafting time is rare at the moment. But I am loving this challenge and have learned so many new things from taking part. Techniques I wouldnt have tried otherwise even though I had the compendium sitting here on the shelf.

So I got the super chunky fragment out for this one and stamped onto it the 3 men, I laid some aged music paper behind them to give it a little contrast from the dictionary paper. I added some filmstrip ribbon here and old stamps and a theatre ticket from Tim's sticker sheets. Where the dictionary paper reads " Affirmative" I coloured it on top of the fragment with alcohol ink. Works like a marker pen, just spread some ink and then wipe away til you just got left what you want highlighted. The hand is stamped in acetate and glued onto music paper.

I like this collage technique, I should do it more really. Plenty of fragments waiting to be transformed.

I am also entering this into the Ephemera challenge at Simon says Stamp and Show.

CANDY WINNER

Morning guys....

this has o be just a quick post as I am still rather busy at work even though the show has now opened and it went well, we are now rehearsing all the covers and it doesnt leave much time for crafting and blogging (yet again).

So I popped all the names from the candy post in a hat and the lucky winner is .....

........ Annelies.......

Congratulations!!! Drop me a line at anikraft@hotmail.co.uk and I'll get that in the post for you asap!

Thanks everyone for all the lovely comments!

xxx

Alter it monthly - March Theme - TIME

This month the theme over at ALTER IT MONTHLY is Time. A theme that has been done many times before and will be done many more times in the future, cause it's just timeless.
It's a particular favourite of mine and I have many ideas and thoughts on that theme but just not enough time to craft......

So I decided to make a clock, very fitting I thought. I used Terra texture paste for this and stamped into it. I dried it with a heatgun, quite closely so it bubbles up and gives an extra bit of texture and bumps. I then painted it quite roughly with Precious metal paints. I then rubbed over some silver Viva Gold paste, so I basically used all Viva products. I just love them, they are fab.

Come and join in this month's challenge with a chance of winning a great prize too!!!