Home is Where the Heart Is...

I had a great find in my local charity shop...in a plastic bag in a box I found the four letters that spelt HOME. They were in a sorry state, like some one had tried different techniques then gave up...so for a few pennies I bought the letters.
They were just perfect for my design team project over at Altered Eclectics

 I stripped as much of the previous decor back, almost down the the bare mdf...then gave each letter a bit of sanding and a coat of black acrylic paint.
The next day I found they needed another coat,which I did,then decided once dry that I would paint two of the letters in red.

After the paint was completely dry I used a stencil to paint the diamond pattern on randomly on each letter...then left them over night to dry...the next day I sprayed each letter with spray & shine.
I found two hearts in my stash and painted those and added them to the first letter.
I am really pleased as the texture of them isn't completely smooth due to previous decor, but for me its just added to the effect as I didn't intend to make them too fancy.
                                             Do pop over to
                                          Altered Eclectics
       as they have just launched their challenge for April....

Rhedd's March Tutorial

For my tutorial this month,which you can find here at Rhedd's Creative Spirit I altered some dominoes....
I love how these can be altered...for this tutorial I made 3 charms..either for a handbag or key ring, or to use for a necklace.

If you would like to see how I have altered these,then please pop over to Rhedd's Creative Spirit for more information....and if I have inspired you to alter some dominoes, then why not enter them in to our challenge.

Pretty Altered Domino

Just a small post from me today to tell you that the March Challenge is now underway over at
                                   Rhedd's Creative Spirit
As always it is for altered art, mixed media, upcycled/reclyed etc...definitely no papercrafted items.
It's my turn this month to do the mid month tutorial and I have chosen to alter some dominoes...
This is just one of the dominoes that I have altered.....

This is one of three that can be seen in my tutorial...so I do hope you will drop by the blog for the monthly challenge and again on the 15th March for my tutorial...
You can find the blog here at
                             Rhedd's Creative Spirit

From the Table to the Wall....

Time again for another Altered Art Challenge over at Altered Eclectics the months are just flying by, bringing us ever closer to Spring, which is one of my favourite times of the year.
For my design team project this month I have altered a place mat..I have quite a stash of them, I mentioned to a friend once that I was going to alter some and she bought me in 6, plus I had some of my own, so I must make use of them.

This is how the place mat started out...I got my grandson to drill a couple of small holes at one end...then I set to sanding down the glossy top layer of the laminate, it did take a while by hand and if you suffer with a dust allergy or a breathing disorder, make sure you wear a mask.
Brush all the dust off the place mat when you have finished sanding.

The next stage was to cover the place mat with black gesso, once dry I went over that with black acrylic paint.

I dried the paint with my heat tool, then added some terracotta acrylic paint in a few places and pulled that through using an old bank card...I liked the effects as it gave a scraped effect to the paints.

Again I dried the paint with the heat tool.

I mixed some terracotta paint with some texture paste and swiped that over some stencils...leaving everything to dry completely overnight.

The next day I used gilding wax ( Hematite colour) over the textured areas and a few places on the board, which gave it a nice gunmetal blue to the areas that I applied it to.

All the embellishing items came from my stash, I used Tim Holtz backing papers and a small photo booth photo that I distressed, the main image of the boys was a freebie that I've hanging around for years. I also added some hessian and rusty paperclips.

 I found a leather boot lace that was just perfect to use as the hanging strap...

You can find the challenge over at 

Altered Eclectics

Dark Stories....

Hope you are all having a great sunday...I've been having a play with some digi images  this weekend.
My friend June over at Dezinaworld is just about to release her new digi kit named " Dark Stories"
I was very honoured when June sent me the new kit to have a play with...and here is the result...

The background image is one of my own photos...everything else is in the" Dark Skies" kit...

I absolutely love the images, although I admit I have tweaked  the colours a bit to suit my theme...

So do pop over to Dezinaworld and check out the new kit that is launching today...you won't be disappointed.

I am entering this creation in to the challenge over at..... Dream in Darkness

Love Dosen't Live Here Anymore....

I'm posting this at Silly O'Clock because I fell asleep on the sofa and now I am too wide awake to go to bed...lol.
On the plus side I have been able to catch up on a few crafty projects...this digi creation being one of them.
This is for the challenge over at Dream in Darkness  and I am so pleased I have been able to find the time to return to their challenges.

I have used one of my own photos and some images that were free/in the public domain...I think this young girls face is beautiful...vintage images at their best with barely any make up.
Anyway I hope you like it...you can find the challenge here at
                                   Dream in Darkness

Pretty Altered Keys

Wow, so where did January go...lol.
The February Challenge has just launched over at Rhedds Creative Spirit and boy there are some fab projects from the design team....

My project was to altered a couple of keys...I have inherited a bag full of them from my father's house and they are just in the cupboard doing nothing...and as I've never altered keys before it was time to give them a go.

First I painted each key with Croco Crackling Colour, one key in the deep turquoise colour the other in a lovely pomegranate colour.

I left them to dry over night.

The next day I had noticed that there wasn't much crackling going on, probably because I didn't apply a thick enough coat, however there was some texture there so I rubbed some gilding wax in to each of the keys,

All the embellishing came from my stash, the bird, the rose and the filigree embellishment were all highlighted  with copper gilding wax.
So if you like an altered art challenge why not pop over to......
                   Rhedd's Creative Spirit

Love Heart

Yay...Altered Eclectic Challenges  are back after a nice break, that we teamies were so pleased to have...so many thanks to our Boss Lady Elaine.
My project for this month...seeing as its the month for love, is a Love Heart.

I have several of these folky style hearts and I thought I would use one for my project.

I gessoed the heart, once dry I stamped some script over the heart.

I then splodged pale pink acrylic paint over the script, then immediately went over that with a baby wipe...I dried the paint with my heat tool, then applied cream acrylic and again wiped over it with a baby wipe.

I then gave it a very light spray with Raspberry Glimmermist.

I randomly added some texture with a stencil...leaving it all to dry over night.

To embellish I added the cupid and the heart die cut, I also gathered up some pretty lace and adhered that in place.
The bead spray and the rose were added with the rose  petals covered in Rock Candy for a frosting effect.
So are you up for an Altered Art Challenge...if so we would love to see you over at
                           Altered Eclectics