Proud Guest at A Vintage Journey - Going Round in Circles

Hi all,

So proud to have been asked to contribute over at A Vintage Journey, it's my first time as a Guest there, and I couldn't be happier!  The theme this month is 'Going Round in Circles', and I went 'small' for this one!

The matchbox was treated inside, and on the top, with DecoArt Media Crackle paste.  Once dry I painted in Media fluid acrylics in Prussian blue hue, and Quinacridone gold, using a wash of each colour, and letting one dry in area's before adding the other.  This gave a distressed old look.

I stamped the postmark and stain stamps in raw umber paint.  And dripped more quinacridone gold down the sides of the box.

The crackle and antiquing process was repeated onto a simple piece of card, to use in the circular necklace.

I cut the card to fit my circle bezel, glued and sealed with matte medium.  I stamped the Toxic word in raw umber onto a piece of card, and aged with quin gold.  Some cogs were added and glued in place, and then resin was added to dome in the bezel.

Inside of the matchbox and underneath were also aged, and the necklace fits perfectly to give as a gift.

I so enjoyed making this and following the theme, don't forget to check out the rest of the projects over on A Vintage Journey's blog.

Best Wishes,

Nikki

xxx

Products used:

DecoArt Media:

Media Crackle Paint

Media Fluid Acrylics - prussian blue hue, quinacridone gold, raw umber.

Stampendous/Andy Skinner Stamps - Toxic, Shabby

IndigoBlu - Diamond Resin

Matchbox, bezel, chain & cogs from stash.

Craft Stamper July TIMI Challenge Reminder - Take a Stamp

Hi everyone,

It's Take It, Make It, challenge reminder time over at Craft Stamper, and the theme this month is 'Take a Stamp'.

We have two prizes on offer, as always. The first is the Sponsor Prize, and the winner of this will be randomly chosen from all the eligible entries of the challenge. To make sure your project is eligible to win, make sure you have followed our challenge guidelines.

PLEASE REMEMBER: We only want to see ONE project in each individual blog post entry (a set counts as more than one), and you MUST link back to Craft Stamper Magazine in your post. 

This month's sponsor prize to our random winner is: Calico Craft Parts, and the fab prize is 3 aperture ATB kits, 4 beach/nautical mini shape sheets, seashell frame ATC blank, nautical shrine kit. They arrive flat packed, you have to assemble them yourself, it's very easy.

As always, we will also have a Design Winner this month.

This winner is chosen by our DT, who all vote for their favourite design from all of the entries. This winner will have their winning project published in Craft Stamper Magazine, (with a 2 page spread of their very own!), they will have a GDT slot for an upcoming challenge, and will also feature in their very own Winners Profile blog post!

My inspiration for you is a little bracelet I made from the lovely new Indigoblu stamp, Dinkie Rose, bought out for their 5th birthday.  I simply stamped onto shrink plastic, cut each rose out, and coloured with Marshmallow and Lemon Meringue paints, watered down. 

I punched holes in each with a cropodile before shrinking the plastic one at a time with my heat gun, and used an acrylic block to make sure they were flat on my heat mat.

A jump ring was attached to each, then attached to a bracelet chain.  Some freshwater pearls were added on headpins.

I made a simple pair of earrings to match, think this is a really summery set!  

So don't forget to join in over on the Craft Stamper blog, we'd love to see your entries!  It can be any kind of artwork/make, as long as you have used rubber stamping on it. 

Have fun!

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xxx

Craft Stamper TIMI Challenge April 2016 - Spring Flowers

Good morning everyone,

Today is the start of the new challenge over at Craft Stamper Magazine.

Our sponsor this month is Traplet themselves, where you can get your very own copies of Craft Stamper Magazine.

We have a HUGE prize for you this month, this is truly awesome and well worth entering for!  The winner will receive ALL SIX Kate Crane Art Journalling DVD's!!

I so wish I could enter!!

I do have some inspiration for you though, as do my teamie's over at the Challenge, so come and join in the fun.

Our brief this month was 'Spring Flowers', and I love the yellow and green of this time of year, so decided to make a tag using these colours.

My background was created on a lovely Tando tag, with Decoart Media fluid acrylics, in hansa yellow light, primary yellow and blue green light.  I added some texture paste through Indigoblu's Laurel Leave's stencil, and coated with hansa yellow light, which gave them the yellow tone but they still blended in to the background.

I then stamped in primary yellow with Andy Skinner's Toxic stamp set, using the peeled paint/crackle stamp.  On top of that I stamped in blue green light with Paper Artsy's Eclectica 18 by Emma Godfrey stamp, using the small circles.  I then used Indigoblu's script stamp from Tasty Textures, and first and second gen stamped all over in Stazon Cactus Green.  To finish I used Andy's other stamp from the toxic set, scratches, and stamped in Stazon Emerald City all around the edges and a few across the tag.

The flower's from Paper Artsy were stamped several times in different sizes onto a masterboard which was sprayed with Decoart primary yellow decoart mister, turquoise shimmer mister, yellow shimmer mister, and ...... Over the top I stamped with the tasty textures script in Emerald City stazon.  I cut the flowers out and layered them up.

I painted the stems in black, and doodled round them in white acrylic Sharpie.  I added some white dots to the flower centres, and doodled round the sentiment (also Paper Artsy).

Here is the tag all finished.

Hope you like it, we'd love it if you joined us over on the Craft Stamper challenge to see the DT's amazing work, and join in of course!

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx

Hope - an Art doll.

Evening peeps,

Today I'm sharing a creation I made for a challenge, and because I had this large cotton reel hanging around the house for the last five years..  I knew she would be an art doll, but it's taken until now for me to see how she would come to life.

The spark of inspiration came from the Andy Skinner/Tracy Weinzapfel collaborative Dare to Create challenge, called 'Skinzapfel', that they are doing in their respective facebook groups this month.  (Click on links on names to find groups).

The challenge was to create something a little bit Andy, a little bit Tracy.  So Hope was born.  Except of course there is a little bit of my brain in there too, hence the weirdness..

The body is a cotton reel, and the head a little silver plated photo frame from a cracker.  Both were treated to Andy Skinner's rust treatment, using Decoart Media paints and texture pastes.  The chain around her neck was done in the same way.  I used sand texture paste around the frame and the base of the cotton reel, which also had it's own texture to add to the rust feeling.  Her little 'arms' are Tando tree branches that come with the little birdies!  They too got the rust treatment.  This is the pic I shared a couple of days ago as a teaser, so you can see how she turned out now.

Her face is a print of one of my original paintings, and I just touched up her lipstick and gave her a coat of ultra matte varnish.  The flower's are from a masterboard I created in 'Tracy' colours, using Decoart mister's and media acrylics.  The little bird is a Tando Creative bird, and is sprayed in misters, and stamped in primary yellow with Andy's Toxic stamp set, the peeled paint/crackle effect.  The heart is also Tracy style, for the wing.

She has huge heart wings, which I glued dictionary paper to a metal frame, painted in pyrolle red, and coated in Decoart crackle glaze.  I didn't like the crackle effect at this point, it was too shiny.  I tried to antique it with the white antiquing cream, and again, didn't like my result.  So I repainted in pyrolle red, which led to a much more muted effect, and then antiqued with the black antiquing cream, which gave a nice grungy feel to her red heart wings.  (And those cracks are awesome!).  It's protected with a coat of ultra matte varnish.

The reason for calling her Hope, was that from all that rust, things can still grow.  So she has a little stem climbing up her body, painted in white gesso first, then Green gold.  It's doodled around in black micron pen.

The bird brings colour, as do the flowers in her hair.

I hope you like her, she posed a few problems for me but I'm happy with the outcome, and I thoroughly enjoyed the creative process, especially as it was so many ideas that have been bunched up in my head a while..

Right, I'm off to do some more rusting....  not personally of course...

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx

Kevin's Gang & Diamond Resin for Indigoblu

Morning everyone,

Over on the Indigoblu blog today I'm sharing a make with their new Diamond Resin, and Kevin's gang stamp set.  I had immense fun making this, and didn't want to part with the necklace for my DT piece either.  Just going to have to make one for myself.

Diamond resin is a new two part epoxy resin which is crystal clear and sets hard, and is very easy to use.  I am a big fan!  You will need to visit the Indigoblu blog to see how I made these guys, there is a step by step over there for you, but here's a pic or two of the finished piece.

A bit closer - spot the dictionary pages I used? 

Right, I'm off to make more goodies for upcoming demo's, hope you like these.

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx

Happy Easter

Morning all,

Just popping in to wish everyone a Happy Easter, or Happy weekend, whatever you are up to.  Hoping the weather isn't going to be too rubbish!

We've just celebrated Luna our staffie's 4th birthday, she had a cake, which of course she couldn't eat much of as it was a normal cake, hubby bought it so we could 'share it for her'...    Here she is closing her eyes and making a wish...

I want to get to take her out over the weekend, she loves her walks.  Apart from that it's a busy time at the moment.

I have some news too that I have joined Lindsay Mason's Design Team, mega excited to be using her fab digital stamps, and will show more of that later too.  I have a shiny new badge for the blog sidebar too :)

I'm working on a project to enter into a competition, it's the 'Skinzapfel' collaboration between Andy Skinner and Tracy Weinzapfel Stratton, using Decoart products.  I've been having fun with Andy's rusting techniques which you can find on you tube, they are brilliant.

I can't show you very much, as it's work in progress, and with other things going on it won't be ready for a couple of weeks probably, but this is a snippet of the rust.  It was a photo frame out of a cracker, in silver colour when it started.  This will be a slightly odd creation, as is sometimes normal with me....

I used Decoart paints, and texture sand paste for this, and Andy's new Toxic stamp set.  I'm pleased with the effect!  Can't wait to put it all together and show you, but it's secret for now.

I do have more news, but another time :)  

For now, have a good weekend,

Best Wishes,

Nikki

xx

Craft Stamper Take it, Make it Challenge April - Bottles!

Hi all,

If you already have your copy of May's Craft Stamper magazine, you will have seen the fab bottles and bottle related cards, and the ace free stamp this month.  The April monthly challenge has also been running a week now, and we would love you to have a go yourself, and join in the Craft Stamper April Challenge, and show us your makes.

All you need to do is use a bottle as a main feature, whether it's a real bottle, a stamped bottle, a bottle tag, or label for a bottle, it's fine.  We just need to see stamping on your make.  Hop across to the blog for some more inspiration, and the dreaded rules.  (There aren't many I promise, you just need to use bottles in some shape or form, and blog your make, with a link back to the actual post, not your general blog please).

Any paints, inks etc are allowed, run riot!

Here is my DT piece for the reminder, I took an old Port bottle (courtesy of the husband), and covered it in music paper, just like paper mache.  At that stage, I didn't know I would end up covering it all up, but it's a surprise if you look through the bottom of the bottle.  I then pasted different types of lace, doilies, and material all over the bottle, to give the textured look.  I was going to show you step by step, but forgot to take photo's as I got carried away on this one.

I gesso'd and then sprayed the bottle with Indigoblu Cottage paints in Townhouse Teal and Banana custard, mixed with a little water in a spritzer bottle.

The stamp set I have used is Under the Sea, by Indigoblu also, it's one of the newer sets that came out in February at the Trade show, and as I'm a seaside lass at heart, I can't resist it.  The shells were stamped in Versafine Sepia, and then sprayed with a little paint to co-ordinate the colour.  I cut them out and arranged them around the bottle.  I stamped the tag in Deep Lagoon, and clear embossed the sentiment.  It's matted onto a little lable, and a ribbon added and tied at the back.

Let me know what you think, and don't forget to join us in this month's challenge.

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.
xx

Wow!  Did it really take me from January to now to get over doing the Tax return?  I didn't realise how long it had been since my last blog.

Well, Fairy Elephant Headquarters has been very busy over the last two days.  Firstly to the left, my second piece ever of altered art, using a combination of tools, pictures, charms and found items.  Let me know what you think? 

I will be making jewellery from this art, it's in progress as we speak, I will post pictures when it's all set and ready and polished up.

I used a couple of the pictures from the amazing Graphics Fairy, who tirelessly provides pictures for free, and has a great shop of her own, please visit her at http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.co.uk/ and please respect the terms of use - which are very fair and it's a fab reference site, as well as promoting other crafter's and artists.  She also has some great links to tutorials and supplies sites, so if you want to start making your own unique style of jewellery or craft, this is the place to start.

Well, I'm off to do some more work, and to get an advert submitted for a magazine, more on that later. ..

Have a great day whatever you do.

Best Wishes,
Nikki

Fairy Elephant (that's me that is. . )