Inspired by Finnabair

 Hello peeps.  Over on the Snazzy's DT blog (a fabulous craft shop in Swindon...I recommend it if you are looking for the unusual and are in the West country) they have a challenge to be inspired by Finnabair.

Well, let be honest, its not difficult to be inspired by her work (if your are unfamiliar with her amazing work check out her blog)

So I decided to do a page on thick watercolour paper (its so thick I though it would be able to take the gesso and all the inks I planned on using!!).

I have not tried anything like this before and I was quite pleased with how it came out.

I started by using some texture paste through a butterfly necklace pendant and some sequin waste.  I added some fabric, flowers, beads, homemade resin flowers and hearts, washers, 2 hot glue cogs (I LOVE using hot glue like this) and then added some hot glue lines for even more texture.  I then gesso'd the whole lot (but forgot to take a photo of this stage!!).

 

I then used a selection of Dylusion inks and Tim Holtz DI to colour the page.

 

I then flicked water to add some distressing and flicked some black dylusions too.

I added a photo of my dad and me when I was first born, scratching the ink away and adding a little colour to help blend it in.  I finished with a hand drawn frame around the picture.

I think i will definitely try this technique again.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Altered and upcycled box tutorial

Hello, everyone.  I do hope you are having a lovely weekend.

If you follow me from WOYWW you may have seen an altered box hiding at the back in various stages of altering.

Well, I finished it and thought I would do a tutorial.  Its a little photo heavy as I still cannot fathom why youtube takes so long to upload (hrs for a 3 minute video!!), but if you'd like to learn how I made some embellishments for pennies then read on.


 I started with an empty box.  It contained a natural sweetener and the box seemed too good to chuck so I thought I would alter it and turn it into a treasure chest.

This is the before

 This is the after.  It cost virtually pennies to make!

 

I painted the box with acrylics, a mix of brown, black and green.  I then dried it with a heat gun and added some gold, black and green wax to the edges, buffed it up and painted a satin water based acylic varnish over the box to seal it.

To make the embellishments I made some moulds from a metal cog and a skull and cross bones pendant.  

I used a hot glue gun to fill the moulds

 When dry, pop them out of the moulds, there may be some overspill but there is a real easy fix

Tidy up the embellishments with scissors.  I use my Tim Holtz scissors, they have amazing micro serrated blades and this means they are a great work horse.

 When they are all tidied up I covered them in black acrylic dabber and then rubbed gold wax over them and buffed them up.  I sealed them with the same acrylic  sealant and now they are ready to use.

 I glued them to the box with multi medium and added some hinges that I stamped with a paper artsy stamp onto grunge paper and cut out.  I coloured the hinges with copper distress stains and attached them with mini brads

I also made a lock with a paper artsy stamp on grunge paper and added a couple of larger brads at the front which I texturised by walloping with a hammer!!

So there you have it.  A treasure chest ready to fill with whatever you choose.  I was thinking scrunching up some brightly coloured tissue paper inside and filling the box with chocolates!!  

Either way, I think this is a great gift box, a one off and best of all its upcycled and cost pennies...whats not to like?

I'd love to know what you think.

Happy crafting

Kyla

Embellishments for pennies

So, in an attempt to keep using up my stash (rather than saving it and stroking it) I thought I should use some of my 2 part moulding compound (especially since I have had it for well over a year and it DOES have a shelf life!!  In fact, I find that I keep the nice stash and some of it goes off-take my crackle paint, that dried up until it was a solid mass, same with my silver clay!!! These are not cheap items, so now I intend to keep Using It Up, it you haven't taken the pledge yet, pop over to the UIU blog and check out the projects we are all making in an attempt to use stuff up).

So I decided to make a mould out of 3 metal embellishments I have been saving (too nice to use....hmmm, I'm seeing a theme here!).

 Once the moulds had set I went about looking for what I could use to cast them from.  I tried UTEE but with no melt pot I tried melting it in a tin foil dish heated from a heat gun, that didn't work so I decided to use hot glue (well I use it for everything else, so why not!!).

I melted the glue into the mould and with my asbestos fingers I smoothed it out to try and get rid of any air bubbles and let it cool and set.  

When cool, I painted them with black acrylic and then used black, copper and gold waxes to add highlights and a sort of metallic finish.

Then to seal it all I added a thin layer of matt studio-medium gel to make sure the wax doesn't wear off.

And in less than an hour and for only a few pennies I have some lovely embellishments to play with!

Happy Crafting

Li'l Pidge