Lacy Box

Hello again folks
I'm on a bit of a roll this month with getting some of these hoarded boxes actually decorated. Some of them have been sitting on the shelf for a year or more!
Time to use up some of my bits of lace as well. The sides and top of this box have been decorated with lace and flowers that have been in my stash for many years.
Time to use some of that stash hoarded so carefully, never seeing the light of day, even through two house moves.

A single sheet of lace to cover the top before adding all the other bits

The top was just some narrow lace in my stash with some flat backed pearls glued all the way round

All the bits glued on, for the lace I used matt medium so that there would be no shiny bits from glue seepage that anything else added would find it harder to adhere to. The embellishments were adhered using heavy gel medium for that 3-D property. When all was dry - a good coat of white gesso.

The fun has only just begun

Now for the paint

I used Prima Art Alchemy paints here for a change. I felt a bit more sheen appropriate for the lacey look. Metallic "Dark Velvet", "Black Berry" Opal Magic "Violet-Gold" and Sparks "Unicorn's Hair" all played their part.

Of course the inside was not left untouched. Those that know me know that the inside deserves some love as well.

More Prima paper from the "Timeless Memories" paper pad. I have stroked these pads for so long!!

Thanks for looking

Another Box - Kind o' Industrial

Hello again peeps
I have another box for you today. I have so many bits of MDF left over from an old DT position (company no longer trading) and I really oght to get them used up. What better way than to decorate a few boxes needing a face lift from their original, boring, basic unfinished wood look?
This one starts off using the scraps of the embossed card stock from my previous posted box, plus a few other plain scraps. There are "straps" of yet more card scraps; shaped with scissors and holes punched, rivets are little gems. A bit of stencilling with decoart crackle paste and Andy Skinner's "snakes web" stencil. Then a layer of burnt sienna paint, then dry brushing raw umber all over.

the MDF bits were given a touch of texture paste in places before being painted silver then given a coat of crackle glaze and then antiquing cream in patina green, raw umber and red oxide. The creams then wiped back.

Some micro beads then in a few places for "that" look you get when pipes haven't been touched in years.

The sides were all given a stippled gesso finish before painting in the same burnt sienna paint, then dry brushing with raw umber.

Yet again - I never leave the inside unadorned - more prima paper - this time the ledger paper stack.

A bit of wax round the edges to make sure the paint doesn't stick when closed. before putting the hinges and clasp back on.

July DT Project for A Inky Mess

Hi guys and gals.
I hope you are all dealing with your weather ok and not letting heat stroke take a hold. There are advantages to living in Scotland - among many other things - we seem to be getting 10deg C cooler than even England, so I would hate to live further south at this time. It's just comfortable here as far as I'm concerned.
My AInkyMess DT project this month comes in the form of a 14cm (across the parallel lines) by 9cm deep, hexagonal box.

The whole box was first covered with a dry exbossed card stock. Then painted silver after which I painted black Decoart antiquing cream. Wiped back slightly with damp kitchen towel. Then protected with satin varnish.
The "retaining bands" are more card, some small flat backed beads form the rivets, then all painted with burnt umber and quin. gold after some texture sand paste on some places before more black antiquing cream and wiped back before adding to the box.
The top was were the real fun lay.  Lots of TH cogs and a key - rusted up, some dry wall tape painted to look rusty, some rusty wire coils -  of which one is as a "barbed wire" (as inspired by my gorgeous friend Fiona Randall) and the other just a twisted wire. There are a couple of wooden laser cuts from my local craft shop (McOyster papercrafts in Cupar) that were given a rusty finish to match on there as well. A larger rusted home made coil of wire then that cute little light bulb from Artful Days.

Of course, I always finish off my boxes inside as well.
The paper I chose to use here is from the Prima "Timeless Memories" paper pad. Just the right kind of "worn" look for me.

I hope to see you all over at the AInkyMess challenge this month with your mixed media project.
Thanks for looking

I'd like to enter my box into the challenge
A Vintage Journey - Precious Metal

Anthing Mixed Media for A Inky Mess in June

A day when I had to go to my place of paid employment so this post going up a bit late. Sorry guys and gals.

My DT piece for A Inky Mess challenge blog this month.
Yet another little Tando Creative kit. OK I'm biased. I just love the little kits they bring out. They are so versatile. So many ways they can be decorated. Lending themselves to covering with papers or loads of different mediums.

This is one of their little trinket boxes.

The top

The bottom

When opened out

There are little books inside but could easily be some trinkets

The top was decorated first with some crackle paste through a stencil (France Papillon) then given a few layers of Decoart paints. then some stamped and heat embossed elements Some metal embellishments and 3 little flowers. The swing clasp takes the place of a tied closure.

The inside and bottom were covered with Stamperia rice paper before securing the little box sides that had been painted and inked prior to fitting.

The little mini books are from another Tando kit - I cut these mini books to size so they would fit in.
Covered with a handmade paper (purchased, not made by me) that had been stamped with an Andy Skinner stamp (one of his new range in collaboration with Creative Expressions.) In each of the books I made 6 little signatures and glued in - as per the last photo.

I hope you like my project this month.
Please go look at my teamies' beautiful projects - out of this world, as usual. Then we would love to see what you make - just link into the challenge and we'll come visit your blog.

See you next time

More projects made in the last few months

I really cannot think what happened to the posts since January so still adding photos.

I think the best thing would be to go through my photo files and add when I see one that needs to be on here.

This project was made for a facebook challenge on the Artful Playdays group. "Wonderland"
It features a mini book from Tando Creative and papers from Vectoria Designs. The wooden embellishments are from a company no longer trading (boo hoo)

This is another Artful Days kit in collaboration with Katy Leitch of Mixed Up Creative

Another Artful Days project. The little box frame was decorated in the form of an Apothecaries shop with quite a few extras from stash.

I had a lot of fun with this Tando Creative "Faux Printers' block clock".

Decorated with a real mixture of different paint techniques.

I'll add more pics to this post as and when I come across them

More Wedding projects made

As a lot of yu will know, planning a wedding is very stressful and, of course, the outlay can spiral. My daughter couldn't find a lot of the bits she wanted to use at a reasonable cost so asked for my help. What mum wouldn't? First up was a postbox she had bought in kit form. So that the guests could post comments etc on the day.

The little baubles hanging on the wall were purchased blank Christmas baubles - using half a bauble for each

Table decorations included these little tealight jars

Another little pressie given to the happy couple was a box for the bulky bits that they wanted to keep

and in it I added this little 4x4 inch book with the story of The Dress in pictures

From the first photo when my daughter said "yes to the Dress" to the final fitting with her daughter in her dress. The resin dress was bought from Artful Days.

This next project was among my favouites - a little "shrine" from a kit from Tando Creative (with added extras).  Although the original design by Andy Skinner was intended to be a lot grungier, When I attended the original Ministry of Mixology weekend and completed Andy's project, I had a thought that this would be ideal for my daughter's wedding. I think I was proved right

There are more things made but I need to find the photos

So that was our Wedding of the Year.  Everyone said they had a great time

Memory Book For My Daughter's Wedding

This is a project That took a lot of hours! I was working on this sporadically between other projects and finally worked out how to use my new video camera. Now I need to work out how to edit the film - baby steps Helen.

My daughter was married to her beloved on May 4th and I did make a lot of the decorations for the reception as well over the last 9 months or so. Of course I couldn't publish pics of these until the wedding.

First up though is the Memory book that I managed to get uploaded to Youtube and share here.

More makes from deleted posts

My make for A Inky Mess Challenge blog for May

A tag

Using a few "scrap bits" from various Tando Creative kits 

Some plaster cast wings from a mould from Artyco Crafts 

Some lace from stash. Crackle paste, paints and various other mediums from Decoart

 Stamps are from Andy Skinner

Some gilding wax on the wings and lace to highlight the texture

That's my A Inky Mess DT work posted again

Now to work out the other projects that "went missing".  Facebook will be consulted as I post there as well.

Some posts appear to have disappeared

Here I am about to post my make for A Inky Mess Challenge Blog for this month and I see that a load of posts appear to have disappeared. How did that happen?
Just so that I can keep track I am going to post a few things at a time before my DT work for A Inky Mess goes live.

February I was out of action totally after a nasty fall. Broke my humerus and femur and needed a hip replacement. Anyone that knows me on facebook would have seen some of the photos of my bruises. Not a pretty sight I must say as well as being extremely painful. I still suffer the aftereffects but soldier on we do.

First that I remember was the March post for A Inky Mess.

A little trinket box with modelling paste through a stencil, painted and various embellishments as seen. The "book pages" were covered in gilding flakes.

April's make - I needed more storage for my embossing powders. This 25x20x10 cm box was sitting there waiting for a makeover and just the right size.

Stenciling again with modelling paste. Some cogs and clock face from Tando Creative on the top with a bit of chain from stash. The corner embellishments are also Tando. The stencil round the sides is one of Andy Skinner's and the two stencils on the top are from Andy Skinner and France Papillon.

Acrylic paint (decoart) is my colouring medium of choice in mixed media hence the many layers of it here. Finished off with some patina antiquing cream before sealing with matt varnish.

Top of the box

 No project of mine is finished unless the inside is finished

This is paper from Prima in my stash

That's 2 month's briefly caught up with.

Stay tuned for the rest

Happy New Year

Oh my goodness! Where has January gone? Already we're near the end and Christmas is a far distant memory. The 25th and AInkyMess challenge blog has a new challenge started after the break. Anything goes as usual - as long as it's mixed media. My teamies have, as always, come up with some gorgeous pieces for inspiration. It's always worth your while to go visit and swoon over them.

For my part, I made a little desk calendar/photo frame. I used some 4"x4" pieces of MDF and perspex that I have in my stash and joined them all up with my zutter binder.

This has a picture of my gorgeous 3year old granddaughter but this can be removed and changed at will.

 the MDF pieces have stencilling and paint for the decoration 

 The inside has room for little notes/ pieces of memorabilia in the paper bag inserts

and, of course, it all folds into a neat little booklet for my handbag, should I wish to carry it around.

The other little book I made as part of a swap in a facebook group I am in. The challenge was - "Alter a paper bag"
Here's what my swap partner received from me

The cover

and the inside pages

Again - more of those 4"x4" MDF book covers with more paper bags.

I suppose one project inspired the other and so much fun to create.

Thank you for looking

Don't forget to join us over at A Inky Mess with you mixed media project

I'd like to enter my projects into the challenge at
Bleeding Art  January Challenge - Anything Goes