Peeking Out From Behind Autumnal Leaves...

So.... It's been a while, hasn't it? I hope you're all keeping well! :)

I thought I would show you this little project I made a while ago but just haven't had a chance to share.

This is a little layered mini album / shadowbox thinggy I made as a keepsake from my nephew's Christening. I was inspired by the awesomeness of layered shadow card kits from Heartfelt Creations. I didn't have the exact supplies so decided to free style it and create my own thing using a selection of dies (Spellbinders and Marianne's Design).....

and punches and flowers from Hobbycraft and 49 and Market...

and Mini Prills and lots of other lush embellies... :). All secured in place with a range of adhesives from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L.

Thank you so much for your visit today...

Big crafty hugs!




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I would like to enter the following challenges:
Country View Challenges October - Plant-tastic
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything But a Card
JUGS #462 - Celestial Elements (stars)

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Crow's Woes - A Story of A Halloween Raven

Re-edited: Yeeppie!!! I am a Designer Spotlight with this project over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge! Yaaay!!!

Happy Halloween to all!

I haven't blogged for a long while but I've finally been able to find some crafty time and the inspiration came for this Halloween themed project! Just in time to join in the finale of 31 Days of Halloween!

I've decided to alter an old photo frame for this handsome fella. The stamp I used is the Raven Background from Stampendous. I took the inspiration from the JUGS #417 Challenge Photo:

The autumnal colour splatters, the bird theme, feathers...

The frame was first painted with DecoArt's black gesso and then treated with random dollops of alcohol inks in a range of colours.  When the inks dried I applied some Dazzling Mettallics wax in Iced Esspresso to highlight the raised areas, along with a touch of Cherry Red acrylic paint.

I also framed the image further with Black Glass Glitter from Stampendous.

At the top I added an ornament cluster with hidden bat wings, mystic medallion and raven's feathers, complemented by a smaller ornament at the bottom with a scull and crossbones. All straight from the pantry essentials for witch's brews and potions... :).

If you'd like to indulge in more Halloween inspiration, do also have a peek at my Halloween lantern and Halloween Witchcraft tag projects. And make sure to check out of the spookylicious projects over at the Stampendous blog with the links to the whole month's worth of Halloween inspiration!

Thank you so much for stopping by and for all your lovely (or terrrrrifying!) comments! Happy Halloween!

Big crafty hugs!




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I would also like to enter the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - All Creatures Great and Small
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
Frilly and Funkie - Trick or Treat (bat wings - treat for a witch)
A Vintage Journey - Crazy for Autumn Colour
Country View Challenges October - Mixed Media With Autumnal Hues 

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A Light-Bulb Moment - A Christmas Wish to All Part 3

Hello Friends! How have the first weeks of 2017 been for you? Mine quite eventful, to say the least, but all in a good way! The Christmas tree and all decorations are gone now but I still have a Christmas/winter project left to share with you. This make is part of the Christmas lights trio I created for the Craft Stamper Magazine and you might have already seen my Altered Christmas Lantern and my Decoupage Christmas Candle. If you haven't,  be sure to check them out!

This is an upcycled large light bulb turned into a Christmas bauble ornament. After painting the bulb with Chalky Finish paints,  the image was transferred using a dry decoupage technique with Adhesive Sheets rather than through a traditional way of wet decoupage with decoupage glue. Then I heat embossed it with Kaleidoscope powder and coloured it with Inktense pencils, before sealing it all with matte varnish.

There's lots more of wintery and snowy inspiration on the Stampendous blog this week. Be sure to check it out!

Supplies:

Stampendous: Snow Queen; Crystal Micro Glitter, Champagne Crushed Glass Glitter; Kaleidoscope Embossing Powder; Spoonful of Pixie Dust
Memento Ink: Tuxedo Black
Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L®: 3D Foam Snowflakes; Adhesive Sheets 4"x6"
DecoArt Americiana Decor ® Chalky Finish: Everlasting; Vintage
DecoArt Snow-Tex, DuraClear Ultra Matte Varnish
Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Die: Tattered Poinsettia
Derwent: Inktense Pencils
Large light bulb
Seam binding ribbon
Pearl lace
Cheese cloth
Spray of foam berries
Decorative pins
Tissue paper

Thank you for stopping by and for your lovely comments!

Big hugs




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Sharing Some Love - Mixed Media Magazine January 2017 issue

Hello Friends! If you are looking for my Seasons Givings post and giveaway please click here.

I'm just popping in to say that the new issue of the MixedUp Magazine is now available to download! This is not an ordinary digital mag - if you'd like to find out why, check out this post Why digital?

The mag is full of super inspirational projects and oh boy, you really want to see the AMAZING cover project by Helen Chilton!

I am also thrilled to say that I have a Valentine's Day inspiration project featured in the magazine and you can see some cheeky sneak peeks above :).

Be sure to get your copy of the mag - you will find all the details here!

Big crafty hugs

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A Christmas Wish to All - Part 2

Hello Friends! I hope you had an amazing Christmas period, enjoyed together with your family and friends. Ours was lovely, too - spent with family, friends and... a leaking radiator! Not exactly my choice of Christmas entertainment if you ask me but it could've been worse :). We moved into our new home earlier this year and the house is still throwing surprises at us here and there!

As promised, here's the second companion from my Christmas Lights set - in my previous post I shared this Christmas lantern and I have one more item to share :).

I love how church candles can be altered with stamped images - they can easily transform ordinary candles into magical ornaments. I've previously shared on my blog another set of altered Christmas candles and I also have one in my Easter Home Decor set.

Stamped images can easily transform ordinary candles into magical ornaments

For my altered candle I stamped this beautiful image onto tissue paper and I coloured it with Spectrum Noir markers first. I also used the alcohol ink markers and an air spritzer to give my Crystal Angel a whimsical look. Then I adhered the image to the candle by gently melting the tissue into the wax.

Use alcohol ink markers and an air spritzer for a whimsical look

To melt tissue into the wax evenly, wrap the candle tightly with grease-proof paper, carefully heat with a heat gun until the image underneath looks sharper and continue to hold the sheet until the wax cools down.

As a finishing touch, I added a glittered 3D foam snowflake, some handmade poinsettia flowers with glass glitter 3D DODZ centres and some lace and seam binding ribbons.

Add handmade poinsettia flowers, ribbons and lace to create a shabby chic look

Supplies:

Stampendous: cling Crystal Angel; Crystal MicroGlitter; Champagne Crushed Glass Glitter

Memento Ink: Tuxedo Black

Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L®: 3D Foam Snowflakes; 3D DODZ

Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Die: Tattered Poinsettia

Crafters Companion: Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers

Church candle

Seam binding ribbon

Pearl lace

Cheese cloth

Spray of foam berries

Decorative pins

Tissue paper

Air spritzer tool

I hope you've enjoyed today's post. Thank you for stopping by and for your lovely comments!

Big hugs


I would like to enter the following challenges:
Mixed Media Place - December mood board
Country View Challenges - Christmas
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Make It Sparkle
Fashionable Stamping Challenges - Anything Goes
Mixed Media Monthly Blog Challenge - Merry and Bright

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A Christmas Wish to All - Part 1

Hello Friends! I've been promising to get back into regular blogging routine and this is still to happen - please forgive me! Hopefully I will be a much better blogger in the New Year! :)

For now, please allow me to wish you all a very happy Christmas, full of love, peace and kindness and also hope that the magic of Christmas can conquer any obstacles and sadness that may be thrown your way. May this festive season be the happiest one ever, one to remember for years to come!

As I haven't done much Christmas crafting this year I thought I would share with you a winter project that appeared in the December 2015 issue of the Craft Stamper magazine. This is actually a trio of mixed media/altered items and today I'm kicking it off with this altered winter lantern. The idea was inspired by the Halloween altered lantern I created some time ago.

If you have an old lantern that has suffered some damage to the glass panes, this is a perfect up-cycling opportunity. You can alter and decorate the lantern to your heart's content, just like I did with layers of 3D foam shapes, crackle paste, paints and DIY shimmer mists. I make my mists quite subtle as I use them more for vintage ageing and delicate shimmer than for intense colour tinting.

You can also replace the glass panels with illusion film sheets - they reflect the light beautifully and guarantee an attention-grabbing look to the whole project. And yes, they are also perfect for stamping! I found that StazOn ink works great on them and the stamped image shows through on both sides. If you want to add more colour to your images, I recommend using alcohol markers on the reverse (unstamped) side – as the markers will make the StazOn ink smudge. The blending pen will then help you move the colour around the image.

The final touches were made with textural snow (toned down with paints after it was dry) and Glossy Accents glittered icicles. To embellish my lantern I added cheese cloth, seam binding ribbon and handmade poinsettia flowers.

Supplies:
Stampendous: Cling Sweater Snowman, Cling Sweater Square, Crystal Micro Glitter, Champagne Crushed Glass Glitter, Spoonful of Pixie Dust
StazOn Ink: Jet Black
StazOn Ink: Emerald Sky
Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L®: 3D Foam Stars, 3D Foam Snowflakes, DODZ 3D
Donna Salazar with Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L®: Pigment Powder - Gold, Pink, Brown
DecoArt Dazzling Metallics ®: Oyster Pearl, Silver Sage, White Pearl
DecoArt Americiana Decor ® Chalky Finish: Everlasting
DecoArt Snow-Tex, Texture Crackle

Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Die: Tattered Poinsettia
Crafters Companion: Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers
Rowlux: White Moire Illusion Film
Glossy Accents
Lantern
Seam binding ribbon
Cheese cloth
Spray of foam berries

Thank you so much for stopping by and for any kind words you'd like to share to let me know you've been here :).

With big warm hugs


I would like to enter the following challenges:
Mixed Media Place - December mood board
Country View Challenges - Christmas
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Make It Sparkle
Fashionable Stamping Challenges - Anything Goes
Mixed Media Monthly Blog Challenge - Merry and Bright

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Shabby Chocolatier - Stampendous and DecoArt Blog Hop Finale

Hello everyone! Welcome to the big Stampendous and DecoArt blog hop finale! Throughout this week both design teams have been very busy tempting you with delicious designs and inspiring projects to get your creative juices flowing.

This collaboration has always been one of my absolute faves as I absolutely loooove playing with stamps and paints! I hope you will enjoy visiting the other posts published earlier this week, if you haven't seen them yet. The week has been packed full with fantastic projects - you really don't want to miss seeing any of them!

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

So what has this week really been about? The whole Stampendous gang along with our friends at DecoArt have joined forces to show off some fantastic stamps designed for Stampendous by Andy Skinner who's a great mixed media artist and DecoArt International Education Coordinator.



Andy will join us along with his team of international mixed media artists including Julia Stratford-Wright, Mark Gould, Mel Hookham and Jools Robertson. Plus there will be posts this week on the Stampendous and DecoArt blogs as well.

And let me tell you. You’ll want to get your commenting fingers ready… Each comment on a post this week will enter you to win a fabulous prize package! (one comment per post, per person). Contest open to everyone! We have three packages and each has a Fluid Media Starter Kit, all three of Andy Skinner’s new Stampendous Stamp sets and a Jumbo Acrylic Handle. Look at this great prize!

I have a super sweet project for you today! I altered an ordinary, boring, metal CD tin and created this choccie tin instead! Needless to say, the chocolates are long gone - just say'n, in case you wonder...lol.

Stampendous Supplies:

Andy Skinner - Shabby Chic and Toxic stamp sets 

Detail Embossing Powders - Black and Gold

VersaMark Watermark embossing ink pad

DecoArt Media: Titan Buff, Quinacridone Gold; Ultra Matte Duraclear Varnish

Other:

Color Solution Alcohol Inks: Pearl White, Creme Brulee

Ribbon - May Arts

Metal tin, self adhesive pearls

StazOn Mini inks - Spiced Chai, Ganache

Directions:

1. Using felt alcohol ink applicator cover the tin with Creme Brulee alcohol ink all around the edge.

2. Cover the top of the lid with Pearl White alcohol ink.

3. Using a cosmetic sponge dab Titan Buff paint all over the tin.
4. Add more Creme Brulee in places for more rusty look.
5. Stamp the 'scratches' with a texture stamp from the Toxic set using Spiced Chai and Ganache inks.
6. Add a wash of Quinacridone Gold paint, wiping some off with a baby wipe.
7. Stamp the labels from the Shabby Chic set and heat emboss in black and gold.
8. Finish off with a small bow and accent pearls.
9. Add choccies.
10. Eat choccies :).

So here's the full line-up of the blogs playing today:

Stampendous Blog

Wendy Price

Asia King (that's me!)

Pam Hornschu

Janelle Stollfus

Pam Bray

Jamie Martin

Louise Healy

Alison Heikkila

Lea Fritts

Amy Hurley-Purdie

Tenia Nelson

Debbie Cole

Laura Drahozal

DecoArt Blog

That's all from me for today. Your next stop is Pam Hornschu. Enjoy the hop and good luck in the draw! And have a wonderfully creative weekend! :)

Big crafty hugs

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Get Your Glitter Ice Skates On!

Hello everyone! How was your Christmas? I hope you had a magical time! I really wanted to use this time to have a proper hop around your wonderful blogs as I have shamefully been neglecting my visits lately - please forgive me. Unfortunately my Christmas joy was taken over by a horrible cold and I am still fighting hard to get rid of it. But I promise to catch up on my visits as soon as I am back on my feet...!

A short post today just to let you know that I have a project tutorial over at Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L® for these Easy Glitter Ice Skates Ornaments.

Supplies:

Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L­®: Adhesive Sheets 4x6"

Other supplies: Ice Skates and Snowflake Sky rubber stamps , Crystal Micro Glitter (Stampendous); DecoArt Americana Decor Chalky Finish Paint - Everlasting; Brilliance Pearlescent Poppy ink; water brush; wooden flat coasters; baker's twine

I hope you will get a moment to check out my easy-to-pin tutorial! Thanks for stopping by and for taking the time to comment - I always love and appreciate reading your comments! :)

Big crafty hugs



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Easy DIY Shabby Chic Bauble Ornaments

Re-edited: Yaaay! My baubles are within the top picks for the 'Wish Upon a Star' challenge at Our Creative Corner! - Yippie!!! :-) :-)

Hello my lovelies! How are your Christmas preparations going? This year I am far more organised that I have been for years, yet still plenty to be done - will I ever be happy with the progress of my pre-Christmas prep? :)

Today I am over at Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L's blog sporting a tutorial for these super cute and super easy Styrofoam bauble ornaments. I made these for my BFF who's just moved into her first very own home :). To see how I made these you'll need to hop over to see my tutorial but I'll secretly mention that there is some glitter, Donna Salazar and DecoArt magic going on there!

Supplies:

E-Z Stars Runner - Refillable Donna Salazar with Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L®; Home and Hobby: Quick and Easy Dual Tip Glue pen.

Other supplies:

Stampendous Crystal Micro Glitter
DecoArt MagiKote medium, Metallic Lustre Radiant Red, Americana Dimensional White Writer

Styrofoam balls, pins, ribbon, bells

Thank you for stopping by today and for all your heart warming comments - I read every one of them and they make me very very happy!

Big pre-Christmas hugs




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Also linking to:
Live & Love Crafts #42 - Sparkle
Our Creative Corner - Wish Upon a Star

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Craft Stamper December 2015 Issue And My Most Exciting News Ever!

Hello Friends! Just popping in to say that the awesome Craft Stamper December 2015 issue is out in the shops now and it's packed full of jaw-droppingly gorgeous projects!

And I am super, over-the-moon excited to say that I have a 3-page feature there with a trio of Christmas Lights! I am still jumping with joy clapping my hands like a small kid! It's always so humbling to see my work in print alongside some truly amazing artists :) :) :).

My Christmas trio is full of craftylicious goodness from Stampendous, Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L and DecoArt - here's a sneak peak what to look out for lol :).

But that's not the end of the good news yet - yes, there's MORE!

The super talented artist and Editor of the Craft Stamper Trish Latimer recently asked me if I would like to join the Craft Stamper's DT gang! Whoa! I mean, whoa!!!!!!! How could I refuse the invitation to design for my favourite crafty mag ever???

I've been sitting on this news for quite some time now but I can finally share it officially - thank you sooooo much Trish for this fantastic opportunity!

I can't even begin to tell you all how overwhelmed and touched I still am and I hope you will look forward to seeing my projects in the future issues!

Lots of crafty love xxx




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