A little "Dark"

Well, here goes,you'll either love it or hate it...my entry for a new challenge.
This new challenge blog ....Dream in Darkness.....is partly owned by Nanette, who is one of my fabulous design team over at...Rhedds Creative Spirit...as this new challenge launched the 1st May...I wanted to support Nanette and her friend in their new venture.

My entry has been digitally created, no theme,but it must lean towards the Darkside...as you can see I'm not that experienced with digital work, but I so loved the images I wanted to use them for this challenge.
So if you like a bit of the Darkside do pop over to
Dream in Darkness
and join in with the fun.

Not quite Shabby Chic

Over at  Rhedds Creative Spirit  the new challenge for May is now under way.
As always it is for Altered Art only, so definately no paper-crafting.
My design team project is this gorgeous glass topped box....an unexpected find in TKMax.

What I like about it is the glass is actually real glass....so I decided to alter it as a trinket box for my dresser.

I gave the box a light sanding before applying 2 coats of gesso.

Once dry I painted it using Docrafts Artiste Acrylic paint in Sage.

I allowed the paint to dry over night and then stamped the images using a lovely postscript stamp and another of the butterflies.

Using frayed burlap ink, I distressed all the edges.

Leaving the whole piece to dry thoroughly before I added the embellishing on the lid...for this I used some glass beaded spray,which I cut down to suit, some lace that I stitched to give it a bit of a ruffle, finally adding the flowers...

Do pop over and have a look at the challenge blog, you may find enough inspiration to join in with the challenge,would be lovely to see you there.

You can find Rhedd's Creative Spirit HERE

The Smell of the Sea....

The May Challenge has just launched over at Altered Eclectics...such a fabulous blog, I am privileged to be on their design team.
As always the theme is Anything Goes, so long as it is Altered Art/Mixed Media...definately no paper-crafting.
Here is my design team project, which I hope will give you some inspiration to enter the challenge....

I've had this fabulous large chunky wooden heart in my workshop for well over a year, was never sure what I was going to do with it, it was one of those spur of the moment buys, lol.

The Nautical theme hit me one day when I took my great grandson out for a stroll in his pram, I ended up overlooking our beautiful bay and I could smell sea...had a flash back to when I was a small child collecting shells on the beach...

The whitewashed background was all that was needed as the base, which I distressed around the edges with dried marigold ink.

I stamped the Paperartsy stamp in coffee Archival Ink and mounted that on some dark brown card.

Using a hot glue gun I  added some hessian and scrim and some shredded orange netting.

To finish I white washed some small pieces of driftwood and tied them off with sting...added the star fish and a selection of shells,

I've now got this hanging in my bathroom......

You can find the Altered Art Challenge here at...Altered Eclectics

It's a Girl Thing....

This is the theme over at Mandy's Tagalong Challenge this week...

I'm not an avid TV watcher,so have spent most of the evening in my workshop...While I was sorting through my stamps I thought this one was perfect for the Tagalong theme...so I made a Tag,lol...

You can find Mandy's challenge here at....Tagalong

Artist Trading Block

I was challenged to make an Artist Trading Block for a "Fun Challenge"....I call them cubes or blocks, I never knew the correct title for them.
So with a free Graphis45 paper pad, measuring 6"x 6" that I got a while back with a craft magazine, I set too and designed my cube.

                              From this 3"x 3" wooden cube.......

to this.......

The papers were just perfect for this project and so were all the little images...each side depicts a month of the year, May,June,July,August and September....the underside holds my details...

Two Tags....

I'm having a real problem with my sinus's at the moment, can't breathe properly and my eyes are streaming, not a thing I suffer with usually.
So rather than sit around I've done a bit of spring cleaning and then made a Tag for a challenge....only to find out afterwards that it was the wrong theme. Well I am blaming the blocked sinus's for that,it stopped the oxygen reaching my brain, so I couldn't think normally,lol
This Tag has a Music Theme...I love the image of the couple, so vintage and so romantic.

Now here is the correct Tag I  have made for the challenge...the theme is "Time"  I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do,being brain dead for the lack of oxygen, thanks to my sinus's...then as I looked through my stamps I found this Tulip Girl that I bought from a friend last year.

So I distressed the edge of the Tag with Mowed Lawn distress ink, stamped the girl and coloured her....adding a sentiment that I computer generated.

Thank you to all that drop by my blog and leave a comment,it means a lot...

My Junk Journal

So here we are, going in to April, it's the start of Spring, the second of my favourite seasons, Autumn being the first and my favourite.

I wanted to try something different for my design team project for Rhedds Creative Spirit this month,but it didn't actually go the way I wanted it to so I ended up making a junk journal instead.

 I got a standard sized hard backed book....which I gessoed then covered in scrim, crinkling it up a bit as I glued it down.

Once completely dry I added texture with a mask and texture paste and then sprayed it with Artiste Spritzing Inks.

Once completely dry I used bronze gilding wax on some areas of the cover.

I lined the inside of the book cover then I gathered a selection of papers and envelopes etc to make  5 signatures for the inside.

These were all tied in with string,which I fastened off on the spine of the book.

I used  ribbon, torn cloth and some card to make tabs for some of the pages.

To completely finish my Junk Journal I tied some torn cloth and trinkets to the string.

I'm quite proud of my very first Junk Journal, it is now being well used, and I do intend making more.

Do pop over to Rhedd's Creative Spirit for our Altered Art Challenge.

All Male Book Box

I've had this little Book Box in my craft room for ages, each time I picked it up, nothing creative happened so I kept putting it back on the shelf. Then I had a moment, like we do and I had the perfect theme for altering it.
I was inspired to making this book box in to an odds & ends box, something my father always had, he also used his old tobacco tins too.
So here it is,my All Male Book Box, which is my design team project for Altered Eclectics...their challenge starts today.

 I gessoed inside and outside of the book box, then painted it several times with cream acrylic paint.
Once it was completely dry I dry brushed over it with brown acrylic paint. After leaving it over night, I lavishly applied Korma Crackle to age it, leaving it in a warm room to speed the crackle up...I was really pleased with the effect, well worth applying the Korma Crackle quite thickly in a couple of areas.

The images and labels and tickets are all from my stash, some of which I used for a topper for the box, adding a large brass paper clip for effect.

All the trinkets inside the box are also from my stash, in fact  the keys, button and buckle strap were actually my fathers and the collar stud in the bottom right was my grandads.

You can find the Altered Art challenge here at Altered Eclectics