Masquerade

Hello
I cannot believe that it has been that long since I posted on my blog!

Life really is so full of busy things and good intentions.  I have been crafting all year with my crafty friends and enjoying lots of new products and trying out different techniques.  I cannot promise to bring you everything that we have done, but here is our project for tomorrow.  It was created after going to a demo day earlier in the year at IndigoBlu.
The delightful masquerade mask was on show, created by the talented Mike Deakin.

I fell in love with this and thought that this is the right time of year to complete one for myself.... for the crafty showcase:)

You start off with a plain brown paper mache mask that you can buy from most craft shops, and mix with a box of trinkets, buttons and stash, black gesso, metallic acrylic paints and here you are.

For exact instructions pop along to the site of Mike Deakin.

I have included pictures here of the before and after for you to see how mine turned out. Can you spot the word 'MAGIC'?  I thought I would add this for fun.



 As you can see almost anything can be used for decoration, I have used some metal charms and also created some little embellishments using the modelling clay 'hearty soft' used by Katy Sue.

Once all your decorations are firmly stuck down, it is advised that you use a hot glue gun for this.  Do be really careful with the metal and heat combination - health and safety!
You should then give it all a really good coat of black gesso to cover all the shiny surfaces and to allow the paint to adhere properly. This can be heat dried.

I have used the english cottage range of metallic paints from IndigoBlu.  - Blue - sleeping beauty, Green - emerald city and Purple - aladdin.
Once this was dry I brushed gold and sliver highlights over the final mask and embellishments to make them 'pop'.

I couldn't call it finished until I had added the 'girlie' touches of lace and feathers.  I hope you like this, I am really quite proud at my first attempt.
Thank you for having a read... I hope to be back soon X x

A couple of close up pictures would be lovely too.

Christmas Memories mini album

Hello... and Happy New Year

I cannot believe how quickly time has gone, so many things have happened since I last posted, but I am hoping that I will be able to post again on a regular basis.

 

This week end I have had the most wonderful Saturday crafting with friends.  We created a Christmas Memories mini album, we had lots of fun tea, cake, lunch and more crafting.

 

I have posted below pictures for you to see.  The album was a flag book, made from scratch using paper from papermania called fun and frolics , we have also used contrasting plain paper and card to break up the many patterns going on!

 

This is the back cover on the left and the front cover on the right.  You can just see the concertina spine in the centre.  The tree is cut from glitter card using a Marianne die.  The envelope was made using a woodware envelope punch, vellum and then embossing it with a dotty embossing folder.

 

 

The next two pages include a vintage recipe found by googling 'vintage Christmas' and a spellbinders film strip die.  The snowflakes were made using a Martha Stewart punch. 

 

 

The pink mittens were die cut using a Marianne die and then embossed and gently smudged with white ink over the raised areas to pick out the detail.  They go really well with the little red and pink outfits of the robins I think you will agree.

We have stamped and smudged the edges of the lined paper ready for journaling to accompany the photos to be added to the chocolate die cut shapes later.

The stamps were many from my stamping up stash of Christmas's past :)

 

Again Marianne dies have been used to cut the sleigh and the fir branch from glitter card.  You can just make out the embossing on the plain pages here to add more interest.

 

I have cut up a Christmas card, winter wonderland to put behind the film strip die, the circle with snowflakes also came from the same Christmas card.

Many of the additional embellishments that you see came from a  papermania scrapbooking pack.

The stocking, sweet and parcel were die cut from mirror card using a cuttlebug die, one of the first ones I ever bought many years ago.  They have been coloured using permanent marker pens.

 

The 'let it snow' sentiment came from a set by Katy Sue and the poinsettia a spellbinders die.

 

 

I really hope that you have enjoyed looking at the photos and that it might have given you some inspiration to try something like this for yourself.

 

I will post some simple instructions later in the week, however I think you will find that there are many tutorials on the internet that will give you good advice.

 

Thank you for reading my post today.  I hope that you have a fantastic week and can drop by again soon. X x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A viary 'Appy Birthday

Good morning, I hope that you have had a wonderful week end whatever you did.  I had a really super time crafting at Hobbycraft in Tamworth with some lovely ladies.  These are the cards that we made during the morning, we have used the Aviary stamp set by stampin up. Don't you just loove the toppling birdcages - an idea from Jo at stampin n stuff... thank you Xx.  The embossing folder used was owl flourish from cuttlebug inked over with daffodil and old olive, the cages were stamped using soft suede.  The paper is stampin up, nursery nest.

For the second card the leaves were cut out using a die, sizzlets little leaves then inked over with soft suede to give the speckled look. Embossing folder was elegant boquet. We have stamped all in one colour using marina mist and added a matching ribbon. The sentiment is from Katy Sue.. really big and bold!

Brilliant ideas for Father's Day or even as Sarah did for a Wedding Anniversary card.  I hope you like them as much as we do. If you would like to make your own cards like these I am repeating the class at The Old Post on Monday 25th June... to book your place or order the stamp set please call me on 07968630827 thank you for stopping by X x.