PaperArtsy Challenge - Miniature Art

Quite some time ago I started a project using one of the wooden house frames - if I remember rightly I actually bought it at one of the Artsycraft retreats in Warrington! It was one of those UFOs put away in the cupboard and forgotten about!

The latest PaperArtsy challenge reminded me about it and gave me the impetus to finally finish it and it now resides in my sewing room!

I painted the house with Fresco Rose and dry brushed with Very Berry and Snowflake, papered the walls with some scraps from my stash and then set about filling each of the 'rooms'.

 I found this vintage miniature sewing machine on ebay, The fabric bolts were made from cardboard and wrapped in scraps of fabric from my sewing room

How cute is this mini hat stand I bought on ebay? The hat was from my stash

I made the hat boxes from a template I downloaded from here.

I made a hanging rail from a wooden skewer. The dress form was a buy on ebay and the scissors châtelaine was a free gift from a cross stitching magazine may moons ago.

                                                    

This fab little pincushion was made using a bottle top! Here is the link for the instructions

       

The antique button cards were downloaded but unfortunately I can't remember where. The white flat backed cotton reel at the back is a plaster cast I bought from Leandra at one of the Artsycraft weekends.

Tiny spools and wooden basque

Mini basket filled with lace

Lace & velvet ric rac, a couple of TH mannequin die cuts on the sides finished off the project.

Thanks for the challenge Leandra - this might still be sitting in the cupboard, forgotten and unfinished!!

Take care  x

A Touch of Red for IndigoBlu Challenge

The current challenge over at IndigoBlu is A touch of Red and given that we have just had Valentine's Day my card for my husband fits the bill perfectly.

Coordinations card was used for the background and die cut heart and these were run through one of the new 8x8 Crafters Companion folders and then distressed. During a recent tidy up I came across a scrapbook pack of string and papers including some red mulberry paper. A bit of a blast from the past! It was the in thing to have in your stash one time but seems to have lost favour so I decided it might be good to use it on this card.

The large tag was painted with IndigoBlu English Cottage Post Box red and Metallic Copper stenciled over the top.The edges were stamped with the Poppy Heart stamp and then distressed with a craft knife. I cut the mulberry paper in a heart shape a bit bigger than the die cut and then frayed the edges by wetting and tearing it.

I made a tag from some bleached hessian stamped it  with "you are the gin to my tonic" stamp from the IndigoBlu Bear Hugs set and sewed it on to some mulberry paper which was cut slightly bigger and frayed the edges of both.

I added a TH metal arrow, a heart key and spirals made from string and finally a die cut "Love".


Quite pleased with the outcome, I hope you like it too.

I am also entering this project into the Craft Stamper Magazine February Challenge - Stencils

Paperartsy Challenge - Shiny Stuff

The new Paperartsy Challenge format has inspired me to start entering challenges again. Leandra's video brought back lots of happy memories of the retreats we did with her and Lin at Warrington. So sad when they decided to stop but hey I suppose all good things must come to an end at some point. 

The current challenge is Shiny Stuff  and as treasure gold is my most go to medium this was right up my street.

A couple of weeks ago my husband's cousin sent a photo she had found of him and  his two sisters when they were little. The younger sister died when she was 3 or 4 and the older sister in her mid 50's so the photo was quite nostalgic for him especially as he hadn't any photos of his younger sister. 

As a surprise I decided to use the photo (copy of it) in a project and this is the finished canvas.

The 7 x 5 canvas was covered in white gesso, some grunge paste stencilling and then painted with Fresco Chocolate Pud. More stencilling, this time using Fresco vintage lace. the photo was mounted onto burlap which was frayed and the pulled stands were glued onto the canvas for texture. I used  lace and assorted embellishments some of which were painted with Chocolate pud or Vintage lace and a few left bare. Lots of treasure gold was used to highlight some of the elements and raised areas.

I hope you like it - more importantly my husband certainly did!

Day 2 Finnabairs workshops

Sunday was two half day Finn workshops.

In the morning we did a canvas called Imagine and this was my version:

Oh my it was so scary when once we had put all the embellishments on Finn said "now we are going to paint it black" My jaw dropped I can tell you! We only painted half so that it graduated to light and then sprayed and painted over it. The end result though was fantastic, the picture doesn't really do it justice.

In the afternoon our second project was Everyday Treasures and there were more new techniques to learn.

This time I chose to use purple and gold, not my usual choice of colours but Finn inspires you to try different colours. This rocking horse is lovely and I have some  ideas of using it in a slightly different way.

Hope you enjoyed seeing my projects.

Take care

Joan

Finnabair Craft weekend in Derby

Good Morning everyone. Oh I have been such a bad blogger - but my excuse is that I have been so busy with my new craft ventures that blogging has taken a bit of a back seat.

However I had to tell you about the amazing weekend I have just had with Finnabair. That lady is so talented and I actually finished all my projects which is so surprising as I always have to finish off at home or maybe not and they end up  in the UFO cupboard (unfinished objects!!) But she has a philosophy of not thinking about the composition and just go with gut instinct and pushes you along so much that you don't have time to faff.

The workshops were organised by the lovely Sharon & Jamie at Artist Trading Post in Derby and a great job they did too. There were about 30 ladies on both days and I was with my daughter Rachel and my friends Freema, Kay (of IndigoBlu) and Lou.

I have a sneaky preview for you. Kay had a little present for me:-

These new stamps are being launched on Create and Craft on Saturday, aren't they fab?

Also to go with them there is this:-

which are from IndigoBlu's Altered Ego mount board range. Perfect for those stamps!!


Back to the workshops. The first day was the Grungy Spell book and here are the front and back covers that I did:

 Wow. So pleased, I have always admired Finn's work but didn't dream that I could produce anything anywhere near the same league. Shows you what a good teacher she is!!

We did both in the morning session and in the afternoon we did some journal pages.

This is me and my Dad on a trip to Bruges, oh he so enjoyed it there and was converted to Belgian beer!

Again this is my Dad the day of his 81st birthday, I took him out for a meal. Sadly this was his last birthday as he died the following year.

Well that's all for now but I will post another blog tomorrow of the other projects we did on Sunday.

Take Care and Happy Crafting.

Out With The Girls at Anything Goes

The new challenge at Anything Goes is "Out with the Girls" and we would love to see your projects.

My teamies have created some lovely cards so please do pop over and have a look.

I apologise for the poor quality photo but hope you can see the detail. I chose a black and white theme as you can see , the black shiny card is some Kanban card I have had in my stash for forever and  the white is centura pearl which I randomly stamped and embossed with creative expressions black aurora sparkle.

The stamps were freebies from don't know where! But they seemed to fit the bill. I decided to keep it simple and not colour the image just highlighted the flowers with a red promarker and added some red brads. The glittery spots on the ribbon looked to me as though they could be champagne bubbles? What do you think?

This challenge will run for 4 weeks and then hopefully we will return to our normal fortnighly challengs.

Take care! Have fun!