Pressies!

It's a beautiful day here, clear skies, fresh air and no snow, woohoo! I'm tidying up some files, and came across these presents I made for Christmas. Thought I'd share!

These mirrors were made for my friend's two boys.

Both are Ikea mirrors, sprayed with Cosmic Shimmers, then stencilled and embellished with lots of bits and pieces and stickles for extra glitter and shine.

This is a Tissue box cover I made for my sister in law.

 Again, sprayed with gorgeous green Cosmic Shimmers and then stamped with a green Stazon ink pad. I found that using unmounted stamps without an acrylic block enabled me to be a little bit more flexible where the box wasn't precisely flat. The more precise images I stamped onto tissue paper and then adhered to the box with a good coating of modge podge. The modge podge went all over the box to seal it and then dry I put some Stickles on to make it sparkle.

They all went down well! This year I'm starting my present making much earlier, so that it's not quite so rushed.

Mirror, mirror on my desk.........

Another mirror! This one is a commission- a present for a little girl who likes turquoise and pink.

The mirror frame is misted with cosmic shimmer mists and then sponged through a mask made with some different sized flower punches with a blue Stazon. The letter L and the Tim Holtz flying heart are both inked with cranberry, silver and pearl alcohol inks.

The mirror itself is lined with crystal beads, stuck on with my beloved Glossy Accents. The corner decoration is a die cut- I think it's one of my mate Kay's- we had a die cutting session a few weeks back where we pooled out dies and made ourselves a huge pile of die cuts each! I pulled it all together with a sprinkling of adhesive gems.

First time I've been paid for making something- I could get used to it!

Industrial Grunge

Well, seeing as I won the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge last week (and no I haven't spent my money yet, there's WAY too much choice!!!), it's only appropriate to give this week's challenge a go as well. It's Inductrial Grunge, and I've used the technique on some die cut grunge board to use on a mirror I've altered as a Christmas present.

Here it is, already attached to the mirror..... I didn't use the industrial technique on the whole piece, as I want' to give it a bit of contrast, so some of the die cut grunge is coloured in a brighter silver.

And here's the full mirror.....

This is a basic Ikea wooden mirror, and I'd painted it and sprayed it with Cosmic Shimmers weeks and weeks ago (if not months and months......). It's been hanging around waiting for inspiration, and once I'd made the heart with wings it all seemed to work out. The background is stencilled with a Tim Holtz music mask and red Stazon (less permanent ink pads don't stick to the cosmic shimmers). 

The black corner edging is waste from a die cut panel, the swirls and flowers are die cuts and punches and the M was inked in back then stickled all over for added sparkle!

My painting wasn't so hot around the edge of the mirror itself, so I covered it up with lots of shiny red, silver and gold beads (sssshhhh, don't tell!).

As ever, I overdosed on stickles and sticky gems, but then it is for a girlie!!!! 

Another wings ATC for the Stamp Man swap

I enjoyed this theme so much I went mad and made two........ here's the second one.

I used the Aspects of Design Butterfly Beauties stamp plate from the Stamp Man stamping over another smacked acetate background. I used the small swirl of flowers and circles to add lots of stamping  in red, blue, black and white to build up depth. Finished with Stickles, as ever!!

Ingredients


Stamps- Aspects of Design- Butterfly beauties
Inks- Stazon Blazing Red, Versafine Onyx Black, Brilliance Moonlight White, Distress Ink Tumbled Glass and Fired Brick
Stickles- Aqua

WOYWWAC- Happy Anniversary!!!!!!

WOYWW (What's on your workdesk Wednesday) is a year old, and to celebrate Julia asked us to make something with the WOYWW initials on it and show it off on our desks this week. Can you spot mine? It's not very big.....

Can you see it??? In amongst the usual rubble on my desk? Some Paperartsy stamps out- I used some on my project and going through my PA drawer inspired me, so I got a few choice sets out to use this week. Plus a bit of tissue paper and ribbon that was on some bath bombs (ah, stop laughing, when was the last time YOU left a potential bit of stash still wrapped around something????).

OK, here's a bit of a close up......

Now can you spot it? Extreme close up in a mo. Firstly, what do you think of my new ink/Promarker storage???? An absolute bargain from Dunelm, it used to be 6 TV remote storage boxes. Turned them on their side and everything fit perfectly!!!!! OK hold on, I'm zooming in....

Here's my little canvas. The eye is watching you!!!!!! I shall hang it above my desk I think.

Huge thanks to Julia over at Stamping Ground and everyone else who lets me nose around their desks each week. I really enjoy myself each Wednesday, which would normally be a boring middle of the week sorta day. Long may it continue!!!!!

Art Journal- I've started!!!!

Hurray!!!! My art journal is green for go!  I'm sooooo pleased with myself. I painted the base colours yesterday and finished it off this morning. It's now drying happily on the table. I used a sketchbook, as the pages were nice and thick, but the ring binding is at the top (short edge) of the page, so it was a bit tricky to set out. Well, you'll see that a bit later on........

First step- create a background.


I painted the pages with white gesso for a textured base, then smooshed around some acrylic paints until I was happy with the effect.

I chose blue and white paint to try to get a bit of a wintry sky feeling. Looking out of my indow right now, the sky is a gorgeous blue and the sun is shining, but I know it's freezing cold too. So I watered down the warmer blue with a lot of white. I wanted some sunshine in there too, as a reminder that sunnier days are on their way, and also because this is the month where I get blinded on my way to work in the morning when the sun is sooooo low it glares through my windscreen......




Next step- decorations!

One must have element- the month! I love this See D alphabet- Typewriter font in Stazon Teal.

I stamped some bare trees across the bottom of the pages (Crafty Individuals stamps), in Stazon black and Teal, and added some spots by sponging through sequin waste in Distress Inks (Scattered straw and Faded jeans).

Excuse the 2 little squares, I'd started sticking them on before I remembered to take a photo.

I decided on a bit of ripped up book to accentuate the sun rays, and then added a couple more random sections- they're sponged with a little bit more of the Distress Inks.









Step 3 - Journal space

Like most crafters I have lots of odd bits of offcuts that I'm saving to use on something- well now I've used lots of them!! I ended up with 1.5" squares. i'd have liked larger, but they wouldn't fit......

So there are squares with cosmic shimmer mist on, squares that have been watercoloured with Distress inks and overstamped, all sorts of bits and bobs. I tried to use the same ones several times, to give a little bit of continuity, and chose a lot of the yellow and bluey green squares to tie in to the background. That said, it needed the splashes of purple and red to lift it.




So..... that's it. What do you think? I just need to fill in the 31 squares now. Next thing is to number them, and fill in yesterday's square.....can't wait!