Flowers & Happiness (book page swap 11 of 12)

Welcome to another of my blog posts showing you the wonderful pages I made as part of a wonderful book swap with 13 fellow crafters dotted all over the world!

More about this swap can be found in my Book Swap Introduction HERE.

So, onto the eleventh page of 12! This page was for Marilyn Honicke, using her chosen theme of FLOWERS & HAPPINESS. Hopefully she should have received this now! 

I used the following materials/steps for this page:

The background of this page is made from nail varnish.  It is done using a technique I used to do on my own nails at one point (before my hands got too shaky to keep the nail varnish on my nails and not half way up my fingers!).

Anyway, that is a technique called water marbelling and a well ventilated HOUSE is recommended!  I think I was high for a day or two after doing this!

The key and lock are laser cut from greyboard by Lisa at That Craft Place.  I painted them both white before heat embossing with Ranger Snowflake Embossing Tinsel. 

I added black glitter card to the back of the lock, face down so that the glitter shows through the keyhole and flourishes on the lock.  I painted the back of the lock black before adding the "HAPPINESS" to the back and heat embossing using the Embossing Tinsel by Ranger.

The flowers, bakers twine, paper and cardstock were all from my stash.
  

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Here are photos of the rest of the book page:
   

  

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A big thank you for stopping by!  Please come back tomorrow to see the final book page in this series and check the home page for ones posted already!
   

xxSAMxx
   

MDF Printers Tray - That Craft Place challenge!

Good morning!  It is time for a new challenge over at the
That Craft Place challenge blog

This fortnight the theme is

ANYTHING GOES

This month I had a torturous time trying to make the perfect creation to hopefully inspire you folks and tempt you with the That Craft Place laser cuts! I made 3 creations in the end, the first of which was the "Joy to the world" door hanger that I blogged about a couple of days ago. I then set to altering a wicker heart I'd had for some time, which I blogged about yesterday. Both of these I'm very happy with, but weren't quite what I was aiming to share for this challenge.

Finally, I managed to create this wonderful project using one of Lisa's MDF Printer Trays along with lots of other goodies available from That Craft Place. It took me some time to get this to a stage I was happy with, but I got there!

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I used the following materials:

  

THAT CRAFT PLACE MDF / GREYBOARD: MDF 8" x 8" Printers Tray (comes with the 4 corner brackets included). Greyboard flourish. MDF musical note. MDF flower. MDF scallop edged circle. MDF "Inspire" & "Memories" words.

OTHER PRODUCTS USED: Gesso, Archival Ink (Watering Can & Tree Branch), Distress Ink (Gathered Twigs), Mod Podge Matte, Crackle Accents, Glossy Accents, acrylic paint, spray inks, alcohol ink, gold embossing powder.

Map decoupage paper by Craft Consortium. Patterned papers. Paper flowers. Metal embellishments. Springy thingies (those blue things in the bottom left!) Crochet trim.

All products above available from That Craft Place.

ANYTHING ELSE: Greyboard tree from Hobbycraft. Thimble, skeleton leaves, chipboard "S", butterfly embellishment, mini pegs and tiny bottle of gems from stash. Vintage sheet music. Brown twine from my Pa's garden shed!  Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous grid stamp.
       

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Summary Process:

All MDF & greyboard prepped with gesso.

Printers tray heavily inked with Archival Ink in Watering Can.  Crackle Accents added to corner pieces.  Flourish also inked with the same Archival Ink.

Papers adhered to back MDF piece. Distress ink brushed on and grid stamp added with Tree Branch Archival Ink before being sealed with Mod Podge Matte. Same process followed for the reverse of the piece.

Greyboard tree trunk painted with a mix of brown acrylic and PVA to make more of a thick glaze. Top of tree painted with green acrylic paint and a darker green spray ink sponged over. Crackle Accents added.

Other MDF and greyboard pieces decorated with acrylic paint, spray ink and/or gold embossing powder.  MDF words finished with Glossy Accents.

Springy flowers and paper flowers sprayed with blue alcohol ink.

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Here are some more photos:

And finally, the reverse of the completed printers tray:

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LINKS YOU NEED - THAT CRAFT PLACE
   
Website
Facebook Shop
Facebook Natter & Chatter Group

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 The papers and embellishments were chosen to represent various aspects of my memories growing up.

The map paper is to represent holidays I took to the Isle of Mull with my family, and the sheet music and mdf note signifies my musical upbringing with singing and piano lessons as well as involvement in the local amateur operatic society. Then the scissors and thimble represent my crafting, which was encouraged from a very young age!

Thank you as always for popping by, I hope you enjoyed looking at this creation as well as reading the thought process behind it.

Myself and the other That Craft Place DT very much look forward to seeing your creations!

  

xxSAMxx

   

Please can I enter this project into the following challenge(s):

   

2 Creative Chicks - #27 ATG, No Cards (1 July)
Altered Eclectics - June ATG (1 July)
Art Journal Journey - Masculine/Feminine (1 July)
Our Creative Corner - What makes you smile (1 July)
Petal Lu - ATG (15 June)
Rhedd's Creative Spirit - ATG (1 July)
     

Shabby Wicker Heart

Good morning! I've scheduled this post for this morning as I'll be out at the vets with my sweet little guinea pig Winnie for her post op check following surgery to get 2 huge lumps removed. Thankfully she's doing fantastically well and now we just have to wait for the biopsy results to really know what the future holds for her.

   
So, this project was made with my wife in mind. She very much admired the Shabby chic heart I made a couple of weeks ago, but have away to my Mum! So I was feeling rather guilty and made this for Claire instead! Thankfully she is very pleased with it!

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I used the following materials:

  

THAT CRAFT PLACE MDF / GREYBOARD: Greyboard birdcage, greyboard feathers, greyboard key.

MEDIUMS USED: Gesso, PVA glue, Distress Ink (Spiced Marmalade), Archival Ink (Watering Can), Glossy Accents. Acrylic paints.

OTHER PRODUCTS USED: Gold embossing powder, gem sprays, giant gems, other gems.

All products above available from my favourite craft shop ever, That Craft Place.

ANYTHING ELSE: Wicker heart from Hobbycraft. Old book pages. Greyboard owl from stash. Alphabet stamps. Brown twine.
       

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Summary Process:

All greyboard prepped with gesso.

Birdcage distressed with Watering Can Archival Ink.

Feather 1 crackled using PVA glue crackle technique. Undercoat of grey/brown acrylic paint. Then a thick coat of PVA glue followed by the top white coat of acrylic paint. Edges then inked with Watering Can Archival Ink.

Feather 2 stamped with script stamp and edges inked with Watering Can Archival Ink.

Owl painted with acrylic paints.

Paper flowers cut by hand. Inked with Distress Ink in Spiced Marmalade and Archival Ink in Watering Can.

Gold embossing powder applied to the gem sprays and loose gems as well as to the greyboard key.

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Here are some more photos:

   

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Thank you as always for popping by.

  

xxSAMxx

   

Please can I enter this project into the following challenge(s):

   

Altered Eclectics - June ATG (1 July)
Elizabeth Bell's World - Flowers (24 June)

Friendship (book page swap 9 of 12)

Welcome to another of my blog posts showing you the wonderful pages I made as part of a wonderful book swap with 13 fellow crafters dotted all over the world! I'm finally able to share this with you as it should have reached its recipient by now!
   

More about this swap can be found in my Book Swap Introduction HERE.
   

So, onto the ninth page of 12! This page was for Gill Sprooles, using her chosen theme of FRIENDSHIP.
   

I used the following materials/steps for this page:

 Let's start with Sugar & Spice, the gorgeous digistamp range from Lisa at That Craft Place. They have a That Craft Place - Etsy Store which you can buy all their digistamps from and have them ready to download immediately!

I just love Sugar & Spice, so different to other digi brands out there!  I used "SQUEEZE" for this project as it perfectly goes with the theme of this page!  The image was printed onto Neenah cardstock and coloured in Promarkers.

Staying with That Craft Place and their wonderful digis (they are a "normal" craft shop as well though!), I also used the "Hugs N Kisses" digi stamp from one of their Scrabble Tile sentiment sets, also available in the etsy store.  I fussy cut this out (although I believe these particular sets come with Silhouette cutting files included).  I added a layer of glossy accents.

Now onto the rest of the book page!  There are many different papers used, all from my stash, from goodness knows where!

The die cut flourishes and tags are by Tonic, and the lace trim is from That Craft Place.

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Here are photos of the rest of the book page:

And the back of the page:

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A big thank you for stopping by!  Please come back tomorrow to see the next book page in this series and check the home page for ones posted already!

xxSAMxx

Joy To The World

Good evening! I'm sat here at my monthly blogging group in my town so thought I'd better get a blog post published!

I originally made this as my DT make for the next challenge over at That Craft Place but since decided to make something else!  This is inspired by the Christmas hymn "Joy To The World", although I've not created it with a Christmas theme!

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I used the following materials / steps:

  

THAT CRAFT PLACE MDF / GREYBOARD: MDF Door Hanger. Greyboard Globe. MDF Musical Notes. MDF Flower.

MDF DOOR HANGER:  Gesso'd then brown paint thinly brushed onto it.  Sealed with Mod Podge Matte.

MDF GLOBE:  Acrylic Paint, Texture Paste, Spray Ink, Archival Ink.

OTHER PRODUCTS USED: Cardstock, Dovecraft Mini Alphabet Stamps, Archival Ink, Distress Ink, Glossy Accents, Vintage Sheet Music.
  

Most products available from That Craft Place.

   

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Here's some more photos:

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LINKS YOU NEED - THAT CRAFT PLACE
   
Website
Facebook Shop
Facebook Natter & Chatter Group

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Thank you as always for popping by.

  

xxSAMxx

   

Please can I enter this project into the following challenge(s):
  

IkesWorld Challenges - #39 Lyrics (16 June) ..... HYMN = Joy To The World
Not Just Cards - #20 ATG (8 June)