Saturday, 20 December 2014

Time with my daughter and here's what she did!

Hello again,

A different post from me today as its the first time I am sharing one of my crafty makes with one of my children :D
I don't normally post family stuff, don't know why, I guess its coz I don't want to bore you lol but this was a project I had been meaning to do for a long time (probably 2 years! lol) and this past week we finally got time over a couple of days to do it.

So, my daughter Zoe (one of my 15yr old twins) and I sat down and started to put together our Christmas ornament...an addition to our Christmas display...and its important to say that Zoe did most of the painting, made most of the small elements and final placements :D

So I present Zoe and Mummy's project:
(apologies first, this post is going to be picture heavy as I am so proud of her xxx)




Isn't it just fabulous for her (and mine) for project like this :D

Here's what we used:
Tim Holtz Configurations medium rectangular box - I picked this up from the NEC show about 2 yrs ago!
Christmas ornaments collected from our overflowing decorations box and a couple of bits I picked up from The Range
Miniature cotton reels, flowers, grey board keys, mini pegs, coloured glass drops, grey board circles, leaves, beads and charms are all available from That Craft Shop
White Gesso, bronze acrylic paint, black acrylic paint, matt medium, gold Buff It by Pinflair and hot glue gun; all available from That Craft Place

Here's how:
We first covered all the inside boxes and the external lid with white gesso to give it a key and then we glued on the texture to the outside box.  This is a random placement of old book pages (coated in pva/water mix so they could be scrunched), keys, circles, flowers and leaves.  We wanted the top to have leaves flowing over to that was how we placed them.
We then took a metal stencil and used matt medium through the stencil on the top to leave a raised presents design (in hind sight, this was not deep enough, but for our first go I think we did ok lol) and then we left it all to dry.
Once dry we painted over the whole think, including the inside of all the internal boxes with bronze acrylic paint (two coats) and left it to dry.
We then dry brushed the outside with black acrylic paint in random places to age the bronze and then using her finger, Zoe added flicks of gold Buff It to the raised places.  And that was the main part done :D
Zoe came up with the bottles on the shelves!  She used hot glue to create the pile of green glass drops and then up turned the small bottle and adhered it to the pile!  The drops left in the bottle still move!  So clever of her :D  The other bottles were filled with seed beads and clear glass fragments.  The small cotton reels were covered with 3 different thin ribbons and she added a needle for realism.  In the bottom right box she threaded 3 tiny Christmas bells to a ribbon and used mini pegs to make a garland.  Another cotton reel was used as a stand and then we used the wires from the flowers, pushed it through the reel, then added beads to the tops...voilĂ  a Christmas tree!  The Christmas tree has an elephant charm as they are Zoe's favourite animal!
The final element was the hanging angel charm (which is actually cupid because it looked better lol).
I think that is it!  Due to the drying time, we did this over a couple of days :D

Here's the close ups:












It was hard to show the brushed and gold ageing as I couldn't get the lighting right!  But I hope you get the idea from the pictures :D

Thank you for visiting and taking the time to view Zoe's and my project, and I hope you leave her a comment before you go xx

Happy Crafting :D

Sandie (and Zoe) xxx

Challenges:
Crafting for all seasons - 92 Christmas but not a card
Inspiration Destination - 12 ag
Creative Fingers - 61 ag
Laura Craft challenge - 12 Vintage; aged ornamental shelf
Sparkles Forum challenge - 63 (Dec15th) ag
The Craft Garden - Dec. Christmas
A Crafty Mess - 2 Christmas
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Extra - Dec Christmas
Tuesday Throwdown - 225 Christmas

Wednesday, 17 December 2014

Diva's by Designs launch there final challenge, so lets go out on a high....

Hello Again,

It's a sad day, and not technically my turn to post but both teams decided that on the farewell post for Diva's By Design Challenge blog we would all pull together and support Rebekah and the team to go out with a bang!

We really hope that all of you will join us too, enter the challenge and show Rebekah and the team how you've loved the blog and send it on its way with a smile on its face (if blogs can smile lol)

The theme is Anything Goes, so let your creativity go wild and join our final farewell challenge....

Here's my make:



I was asked to make a card that said 'To my Wife' at Christmas so this was what I came up with :D

Here's what I used:
Image: Pulling Crackers due from Festive Hollybobs by Polkadoodles
Coloured: with my Graph'it marker pens, and printed on 300gsm super smooth card from That Craft Place
Background: DCWV papers I have in my stash, still trying to use some up lol and tags from the same collection
Embellies: perfect pearls, lace, ribbon and resin bird from That Craft Place

Here's how:
Easy one; again I used a 7x7" card base (an 8x8" cut down) to allow hangover elements to add dimension but still allow for it to go in the envelope!
I layered DCWV papers, distressed the edges with the Tim Holz/Ranger distressing tool thingy and layered them random style.
I added the image raised on 3D foam and as I had printed on 300gsm card there is no need to add a matting layer so I chose not too.
I then added matching tags and banners to coordinate with a little added bling and perfect pearls.  Then Voila!

Here's the close ups





Thank you so much for stopping by and please do leave me a comment as I really really appreciate reading them all xx

Don't forget to check the challenge blog to see what the rest of the teamies...all of them...have been up to...click HERE

Happy Crafting :D

Sandie xxx

Challenges:
Crafts Galore - Dec, AG optional Christmas
Scrapbook stamp society - 56 ag with Christmas
A Crafty Mess - 2 AG with traditional colours of Christmas
V's sweet ideas challenge - 29 holidays
Crafty hazelnuts Christmas challenge - Dec Christmas
Ohh la la challenge - 170 Christmas
LolliLulu Crafts NEW Challenge - Dec Naughty or Nice; definately nice!
Cheerful Stamp Pad - 101 Signs of Christmas
Chocolate, coffee and cards - 80 Christmas
Jo's Scrap Shack - 12/12 Happy Holidays