I made the Card Patterns Super 6

First of all, sorry for the lack of posts this week, I have not had any time for crafting due to my sister being over and we had a lot of shopping and catching up to do!!!
But I'm delighted to say I made the Card Patterns Super 6 for the first time. Yippie!!!

I am currently working on some boxes, mirrors and frames, so watch this space. Will try to squeeze in a post this week f I can get anything finished (work always gets in the way!). I'm off to order a melting pot and some other goodies now!!

Catch you later!! Anika xxx

Addicted to crackle paint....

I think I have a serious problem, I am addicted to crackle paint!!!

So here's another frame, painted with above mentioned paint and spritzed with glimmer mists. I'm still grateful to Hels for introducing me to this technique, you just don't know what kinda crackle monster you created!!!

I had a little play with the alterations on the edge die and since I love anything laced up I thought the 2 pieces of swirly grungeboard be perfect to be laced together with some string. Although I did lace it up about 4 different times til I ended up with this result. So many different options. The birds are crackled too and the tree bunch covered in distress embossing powder (had that for ages and never got on with it until now, it makes the perfect texture and look for a tree branch).

Some detail here for you.

I added a little frame that has part of an old stamp behind it and then it's filled with glossy accents.

The leaves have been cut from card with a punch. I inked up some white card and splattered water over it to make that effect, then just punched loads of leaves from the whole sheet.

There is also a little light bulb vial filled with watch parts hanging in the tree. I couldn't get a good enough close up shot, sorry.

I'm off to crackle some more.....

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge and Card Patterns entry......

Where did the monday go?! I swear monday's go by so much quicker than any other day. I had another busy crafty monday, whilst also cleaning the house (visitors later in the week) and doing a stupid amount of washing! I don't know how I managed to make anything yesterday. But I just had to join in the Compendium of curiosities challenge at Studio L3. Fragments is what this week is about. To be fair, I'm not a huge fan of them, I just never know what to do with them. I liked them with the old photos in my Mary frame I made but other than that, I never know what to stick to them and when used on cards they always look odd. But I have 2 packs of them so maybe by the time I've used them up I'll like them more (or be glad to see the back of them!).

I also used a sketch for my card, from Card Patterns. The 2 challenges combined worked very well, I'm pleased with the card. And as I'm 'mass-producing' birthday cards at the moment it's another one added to the pile.

Question:

What other cards (other than birthday ones) do you make the most or do people need the most? Birthday is the obvious occasion that people buy cards for, but what other occasion is there?! Not counting christmas, it's only once a year, so not an all year round money maker. Anyway, let me know your thoughts.

Enjoy the sunshine!!!

Anika xxx

For my dad....

Since it's Father's Day (in the UK) today I thought I share this card for you that I made for my dad. even though it's not Father's Day at home (in Germany) I sent him a card anyway. I used an old photo of my dad as a boy with a little metal frame and filled it with glossy accents. I first filled it with crackle accents but when it had dried you couldnt see the picture at all anymore which was a shame, it was just so blurred. So I started again and used glossy accents this time. And of course I had to use the memo pins embellishments, I am loving them at the moment. So there you go, my dad's card.

Idea-ology storage box number 2 ....

As promised here is my storage box number 2.

If you missed my last post about my first box just scoll down, there is a before picture of this box too. Basically a plain wooden one.

So I had an old replica newspaper and covered the box in that, when dry I spritzed some glimmer mists and perfect pearls with water on it. Then painted some rock candy crackle paint over it. More glimmer mists over the top and then I gave that viva gold paint a go, it's like a thick paste, almost like shoe polish. I sponged it on and buffed it all up. Not quite sure what effect I was trying to achieve with that polish paint but it'll take a few more goes to really get to know it.

After that I just added some metal corners and made up the winged heart from one of my alterations dies. Not to forget some memo pins, see previous posts for the link to Wendy Vecchi's blog who had the great of making these embellishments with memo pins.

And as you can see, it very nicely holds all my little metal finding and keys and all sorts.

Vintage wedding....

My entry for Card Patterns this week is a wedding card. I did enjoy the sketch this week. Sometimes there's sketches I just can't do anything with. They just don't work for me, but this one was nice. cream and white card inked with distress inks, some idea-ology foliage and a sentiment, done.

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge

Linda from Studio L3 is running a compendium of curiosities challenge and theres a fab prize too. I hadnt looked at the book since i first got it so thanks for the reminder!

This week's challenge is using the water stamping/bleaching technique. And this is the first time I've tried it. I'm very pleased with the result I must say, it's simple, yet you can achieve stunning effects. I added some tattered florals and snaps and a hero arts greeting. The swirl is also hero arts. I'll definitely be trying out more of the ideas from the book.