More melt pot

I'm still loving the melt pot.  Here's another little hanging I made.  The background is covered in beeswax again and the flowers in UTEE.  The original background had 3 flowers on it so I replaced these with the UTEE blooms.  The hessian ribbon was dyed with spray inks to match.

Is anyone watching Paul Hollywood's bread series on a Monday night?  I'm not a great bread maker but the soda bread does not need yeast and was so quick to make (no proving or rising needed).  So I made one yesterday in double quick time and it got eaten just as quickly too.  Accompanying it I also made the smoked salmon paté.  I can highly recommend both.  I've got a soda and stout bread currently baking in the oven!

Melt pot fun

I borrowed my friend Pen's melt pot a few weeks back. Played with it for a while and then put it to one side but if anyone's been watching Create and Craft this week, you will have seen the great workshops that Hels Sheridan has been doing with the melt pot. So out it came again and I've made a couple of canvases.  Boy oh boy oh boy have I enjoyed doing this!

You can buy beeswax pellets that dissolve quickly in the melt pot but I knew I had some blocks stashed away somewhere.  So I rummaged around and found them and got to work with the cheese grater and ten minutes later had a nice pile of grated beeswax.  The cheese grater wasn't very happy though lol.

The two background images are free digi downloads from the internet.  They have been covered in beeswax.  It's the first time I've used this but it gives a lovely matt finish.

I made the flowers from a Spellbinders die and the leaves are Memory box as is the Madera Corner which you can just see underneath.  The flower above is made from some stiff fabric I've had in my stash for years.

This flower got dunked in the melt pot. (Into UTEE not beeswax).  It give a wonderful porcelain finish. See the pic below to show how it catches the light.

I've entered this for this week's Anything but a Card challenge which is "Inspired By".  I was definitely inspired by the melt pot (and Hels too!)

Memory box madera corner

Memory Box tender leaves

Spiral blossom

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Just playing..

It's still feezing here so I'm quite happy to hibernate with my craft stuff.  My Hobbycraft had some Tim Holtz dies on sale (yes really!) So I snapped up a couple including the hanging sign.  I couldn't find it any cheaper - even on the internet.

 The tag is was cut out from one of my inky backgrounds.  I put Golden's Micaceous Iron Oxide through the leaf stencil (similar to Viva Ferro).

Here's a close up on the flower. The leaves are Memory box covered in platinum UTEE.  The seam binding was dyed to match. The flower was cut from a thick felt with a Spellbinders die. I also lightly brushed the leaf  with Versamark and embossed it with some platinum UTEE as well as running the UTEE round the edges.

Follow your (He)art

I really enjoyed making this tag... it just came together.  It's a slightly strange colour combo, not one I would normally use and I'm not sure it would be everyone's thing but as the sentiment says "always follow your ART."  The actual stamp is an Andy Skinner and it should say "always follow your HEart" so I cut off the "h" and "e" and now I have a stamp I like much better lol.  I'm also entering for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge which is Water as there was a lot of spraying and spritzing in creating the backgrounds.

Here's a close up of the flower.  Not sure why it looks so blue...

Glitter and Glue

Last time I played with my Flitter Glu (Indigoblu) and gilding flakes, I just couldn't get it right but this time the results are better and I'm pleased with the finished images.  This image is called Ella Bella.  The  flower is made with one of my spray ink backgrounds, using the TH Tattered Florals and Pine Cone die. 

(This was made using wax paper in the centre of the flower). The ripped note book edges are a Spellbinders die and the film strip is TH.

Much as I love these dimensional cards, they are such a pain to post.  You really need a box and it does increase the postage cost by quite a lot.  I'm curious if anyone has a solution to this - other than not sending dimensional cards! lol

I managed a photo in the garden - its so nice to have some blue sky and the temperature a few degrees higher!

Here comes Hallowe'en

Having whinged for years how much I dislike Hallowe'en, I'm now really enjoying all the ghoully, creepy,scary side of it.  I think it's the children knocking at my door that I really can't cope with! Now is a great time to stock up on your cheap skeletons and anatomical parts as they are available, mass produced and cheap.

It's been really difficult to get good photos because it's very dull and the lower half is quite dark.

The skeleton is from a pack from the local pound store, the dies a mixture of Spellbinder and Cuttlebug, papers from a pad by My Mind's Eye, spray dyed seam binding, the embossing powder (which I love) on the metal label is an ancient one from Judikins, crow and word stamp also My Mind's Eye.

A close up of the top of the tag..

... and the lower half

I've also entered it into a couple of challenges Fashionable Stamping (Hallowe'en) and Anything but a Card (incorporate black into your project)

I almost forgot..... this is for Karen(!)

Enjoy the Journey

I've been playing with this project for a while and finally finished it. The idea came from this video  on YouTube.  If you've never come across Laura and Following the Paper Trail and want a book template, she has a huge amount of projects and mini books on YouTube and can often be found broadcasting live on UStream.  The book pages are basically made from envelopes so you can put inserts (tags, mini-books etc) inside the envelopes which are open at the ends. I used basic bookbinding techniques and mat board for the cover.

To avoid a picture heavy post, I've spent the day playing with Windows Live Movie Maker for the first time and I recommend it if you've never tried it before.  I've had great fun.  Interestingly, I lost some clarity uploading into Blogger so it's not as high definition as I would like it to be but it's all a learning curve!

I used some gorgeous double sided Paper Artsy papers which I've had in my stash for ages.  I'm not actually sure if they're still available but they are a good weight and it takes the stress out of trying to match everything.  Now I just need to arrange a trip somewhere so I can fill it with photos and journalling :)

Birthday cards

Here are a couple of cards I made recently.  The first layout has been posted before but it looks very different with a colour change and the numbers added.  The dies are Memory Box.  I've covered the numbers with gold UTEE and only partially melted it.

For this one I've used a Gecko Galz collage sheet, corrugated card with gesso spread across it, a Spellbinders label die, Tim Holtz rosette and a couple of pieces of paper from my stash.

An afternoon of die cutting...

I do enjoy using my Big Shot and cutting dies.  Most of the time though I end up just cutting things out and not doing a lot with them but today I got to grips with it and produced some cards...

The first one is a gatefold card Tim's Distressed Doily, then I made an insert using the Spellbinders Fleur de Lis die ( which is VERY fiddly to use) and one of the Fancy Tags.

I've also finally worked how to emboss the dies properly in the machine and am now using 2 rubber mats instead of 1.

This is the Memory Box Madera Corner cut 4 times.  I've totally stolen this idea from here but thought it would look really good in black and white. I can see me using this layout quite a lot

And then there's the reverse version.  I used some Memory Box Pinwheel dies dipped in glitter for the centre of this.

Hope you like them!

Steampunk'd

Recently I bought a stencil frame which has cogs all round it (can't remember who's) but did you know that you can run your stencils through an embossing machine? So along with all my other stencils which I obviously had to try out, I came up with a couple of backgrounds from this one and from there evolved the two cards below.

The cut out images are Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante and I've used Spellbinders cogs dies.The metal corner embellishments are upholstery tacks.

I raided my other half's supplies of sticky aluminium roll from the garage, stuck it to some card and ran the dies through the machine and then dabbed them with alcohol ink for the metallic effect.  The shrink plastic words I have had in my stash for about ten years!  If you enlarge the pictures, you can see that I've coloured the TH Idea-ology word bands with brown Staz-on to match with the rest of the colour scheme and to make the words stand out I highlighted the words with picket fence Distress Stain.