Little Things

Morning all
I hope the weather where you are is better than here, cold and damp is an understatement. Middle of April and anyone would think that spring is still ages away.

More pain management therapy here in the way of crafting. It does help me and I know it helps others.  I made a tag. A mini canvas in a way that is bigger than an ATC so more can be thrown at it.

The tag is from Tando Creative. Their greyboard is second to none, so many mediums can me thrown at it and it always stands up to them. Decoart mediums and paints for me - never disappointed with the quality.

For this one I started out by attaching some corrugated card torn from a packing box. Some grey board strips - had to soak the greyboard with water to get this to tear - with the first layer of modeling paste. Next I mixed up a bit of the modelling paste with some texture paste for the next layer through a France Papillon stencil (Rusted Rivets) then some crackle paste. I had in mind some old tree bark and the mixture of textures that you get on some old trees subjected to years of whatever mother nature hurls at them with a touch of man-made pollution thrown in.

Next - loads of different paint layers - both in the form of neat paint and washes until I had the effect I was happy with. Sealed with three layers of matt varnish

A France Papillon moth stamp from the Chocolate Baroque Illusionary artists range Creepers and Crawlers coloured with water colours.

The words from the same range but the Perfect Words plate. The words were stamped onto cream velum and torn out before attaching.

A faux leather cord and done

Thanks for looking

I'd like to enter my tag into the challenge at

Make My Monday #68 - Things with wings
A Inky Mess - Anything Mixed Media Goes

Broken Time

Morning all
Managed to escape the kisses and cuddles from our dog Nala for 5 mins. As much as I love them, it's hard to type a blog post or craft when 20kg of staffie is needing her fix of her hoooomans on a lap.

Soooooo, what have I got today?
A little plaque. Substrate and bits from Tando Creative with the stamped words from the Andy Skinner side of Illusionary Artists stamps from the Word Up plate made by Chocolate Baroque and the background stamp of the Clock Collage from Stampendous as is the Aged Ochre embossing enamel on the word frame. Decoart paints/mediums used.

The base and frame were first painted with black chalk paint then crackle then vintage and timeless paints respectively.  A little bit of rubbing back to show that black a bit more before stamping the clock collage in sepia archival ink.

The cogs and "clock hands" given various coats of paynes grey and quin. gold media paints. The clock hands started life as keys but as I had no clock hands, I improvised.

The clock dials had texture paste used before the paints.

The word plate - the frame was triple embossed then Andy's word stamp from the stampendous "steampunk" set pressed into the hot enamel with versamark.

To get those words to fit nicely with more control , I pressed the painted greyboard piece onto the stamp as opposed to stamping onto substrate. A couple of brads to complete then all glued together.

Thanks for looking

A Toxic Plaque

Good afternoon and a Happy Easter to those that celebrate it.
Crafting is not only enjoyable for me, it also forms part of my own pain management. Drying time can be made to fall into those periods when I need to lie down so I have a win win situation most of the time. For those out there, and I know there are many, BIG gentle hugs to you all.

It's been a week since my last visit. I've been busy but can't share my makes just yet as they have not been received by the people they are intended for.
The piece I am going to share with you came about by chance really. I was searching for a particular roll of ribbon that I need for another project and came across a little package of MDF and grey board that was in a goody bag at one of the Ministry of Mixology retreats that I love going on. This bit donated by Tando Creative. It seemed to good an opportunity to put it to some use as this ribbon has still not come to light.


I started off by damping the edges of the greyboard and distressing thoroughly. Then left to dry.
All four pieces were painted with Decoart black chalk paint and when dry some crackle medium applied to some areas. Lighter coloured chalk paint in different colours applied to all pieces.
Rust effect - more paints. The stamp set I used is from Andy Skinner's stampendous range - "Toxic". It felt good to go back to some older stamps for a change. Why buy stamps if they are going to be used a few times then put away, never to be seen again, just because newer toys are at hand?
Some close ups of those distressed edges - they are solid now because I've sealed with ultra matt varnish.

The scratch and "toxic" stamps used here can be clearly seen.

The rivets are just aged brads. 

The finished plaque can be hung up with the rusted wire. The smallest piece is going to hang funny because it's already lost two rivets so no - I didn't mis-stamp.

Thanks for looking