Nautical Altered Board Book

Here we are,another month has passed and we are now in to June...hopefully for some, the sun will shine as it is the start of our summer, for me I prefer the cooler months...
The challenge has been set over at Rhedd's Creative Spirit...as always altered art / mixed media / recycled projects only....definitely no papercrafts.
My project this month is an Altered Board Book...and I decided on a Nautical theme.

I took several photo of my progress with it, so hopefully you will draw inspiration from them...
The book was a charity shop find, a little dogged eared,but overall quite sound, especially the spine of the book.

I would normally tear away the printed layer on each page,but the pages weren't overly thick, so I just sanded them down a bit to roughen them up so they would tolerate the glue/ mod podge.

I glued the 2 pages either side of the centre to each other and left them to dry over night.

The next stage was to add some torn book pages and some die cut chicken wire shapes...once they were glued in place I then went over with a coat of gesso.

 I covered both pages with white tissue paper and mod podge...and left it to dry overnight.

It was at this point I realised I would have done better to have added the chicken wire die cuts after the tissue stage...lol.

Time to add some colour...so I brushed on some blue acrylic paint and wiped over some areas with a baby wipe...dried that using my heat tool....

Time to add some green paint...again wiping back with a baby wipe and drying with the heat tool.

I dry brushed some white paint over the green to lighten it a little more.

Time to play with the sprays...the green spray is a chalk one, which I had to decant in to another bottle...I used that very lightly as my board was beginning to become too green...I then sprayed the Ocean Blue by Docrafts...that gave an amazing shimmer and covered really well and I didn't have to decant that spray either!

 I did dab some areas with a  baby wipe so the green would show through.

I dried as before then went all over with the shimmery white spray...again drying with my heat tool.

For the left side of my book I stamped this fab image ( Rubber Dance Stamps) coloured her and cut her out...I assembled some nautical embellishments around her and then glued everything in to place...the grass effect was created by using some type of mesh. I've had it in my stash for years, an orange strip and a green strip, I can't remember where I got it from...anyway, I shredded some pieces out of it to create the grass.

Using some of my Crafty Individual stamps I added the birds and the verse.

The right side of the book I decided to use a bigger stamp  by Impression Obsession, which I coloured and then distressed the edges...I layered that over some muslin...finally adding some nautical embellishments.

Hope you like my Altered Board Book....don't forget,if you fancy a challenge, then I would love to see you over at 

Rhedd's Creative Spirit

Little Boxes.

The first of the month sees a new challenge over at Altered Eclectics....as always altered art & mixed media only, definitely no papercrafts.
My design team project this month was to sort through my craft stash and make use of some items that I've had what seems like forever,lol...
So I chose two boxes to alter, both completely different....

The Blue box turned out really well, it's the papaermache type box and the paint adhered to it really well. I loved the fact that I could add something in the window,which I protected using a square piece of acetate. I added a few flowers ( I dotted some Rock Candy on the flowers to add more interest ) and wire coils and finished it off with an Inkylicious stamped sentiment.

The little Pink Box...well things didn't quite go to plan with that one..it took a fair amount of prepping and painting as the edges were pretty rough and the grain of the wood caused slight ridges on the lid, despite all the sanding down.

I used Rose Pink for this box and then lined it with a rose patterned paper. The stamp I used for the sides and lid is from the same single stamp by KaiserKraft,  I just used different sections of it for the sides.

To finish I rooted through my trillions of buttons until I found a nice fancy one.

So if you fancy a challenge why not pop over to the challenge here at 

Altered Eclectics

Tag Book...

Due to unforeseen circumstances,my day out today was cancelled...however,it hasn't been a waste of a day because I spent a few hours in my craft room...bliss,lol.
I made a Tag Book...especially for the challenge over at Artistic Outpost
I do enjoy their challenges and I just love their stamps. I've become quite a collector of them over the years,

       I die cut 10 Tags and coloured them using distress inks.

Using Archival inks in Black and Coffee,I stamped the images, adding extra stamped images on some spare card to colour,cut and add to the Tags.

Here are the Tags individually so you can see the images I chose to use.

You can also see the Artistic Outpost wording...this was on a sheet of stamps that I've had for quite some time and I chose to save it and I'm glad I did as  has finished the tags off nicely I think.

You can find the challenge here over at

  Artistic Outpost

Beside the Sea

Summer seems to be on it's way, well that's quoting the weather man...I'll believe it when I see it as I am sat here with my central heating on tonight!
I want to share my Tag with you all...I made it especially for the Crafty Individual Challenge.

The theme is " Anything Goes"....but you must use at least one of their products....easy for me as I have a stack of their fabulous stamps.

The base for my tag was die cut from a sheet of art card that I had been experimenting with...a lovely mottled background of greens and yellows with a speckle of blue, not that you can see much of it.

I used stamps from two sets,the postcard was one stamp,then the lady with the parasol,beach huts and post mark were from the other set....I went around the edges of the tag with distress ink.

Couldn't resist using a little mixed media and added some mesh,shells,drift wood etc,finishing with some raffia and bakers twine for a bow...

Hope you like it...

You can find the challenge here at 

Crafty Individuals.

Flapper Girls

Just a quick post from me tonight...showing you three of my favourite things...Artistic Outpost Stamps, Atcs and Stamping.

The theme for the Atcs is Fashion and I can always find Artistic Outpost stamps to fit the bill...

All the stamped images are from their "Flapper" Set...

These two Atcs are for a group swap....and I am also entering them in to the challenge here at 

Artistic Outpost

A quick Tag

Just dropping in to share a Tag I made for my group Creative Girls on Facebook...Each month we make a Tag, any size or shape and set to a theme by Sammy, who is running the monthly event.

The theme is Numbers or Letters,or you can use both...which is what I have done.

The Tag base is actually a scrap of thick art card that I had left over from playing with some Inktense blocks...not that you can even see it now as most of it is cover with a collage of images...

I rubber stamped the numbers and the two letter S&W

Pencil Box

Woohoo...the May Challenge has just been launched over at Rhedd's Creative Spirit....do pop over there if you can, the art projects there are fabulous...
I decided to alter a Pencil Box for my design team project this month...

I bought several of these cases online about 2 years ago and I have dragged them from the depths of my craft room and decided to get some spruced up so I could actually use them.
Using a damp sponge I dabbed a selection of acrylic paints all over...the inside I painted red and added some Tim Holtz ruler backing paper inside the lid.

I left the box to completely dry over night before adding some stencilled decoration, again these were done with acrylic paints...I then set the box aside to dry before adding the labels on the lid.

Once I was sure that every area was dry I used Crafter's Companion Spray and Seal all over to add a shine to the box and to protect it as it will be used a lot...after the first coat was dry, I sprayed it a second time, which gave it a more glossy look.

Do po over to the challenge blog...altered art, recycled, mixed media entries only,no cards or papercrafted projects.

You can find the challenge here at Rhedd's Creative Spirit

Bird Cage Canvas

There are some fabulous design team projects over at Altered Eclectics for their May Challenge...I am very proud to be on their design team...
My project this month is a canvas...which I recycled...it was one that I had started quite some time ago and I put it to one side because I just lost my mojo after painting it pink!

This is a 6" x 6" box canvas...love the box style as they keep their shape and don't warp when you apply lots of paint.

As I mentioned earlier, this canvas was previously pink and not a nice shade of pink either...so I gave it several coats of white gesso.

I then painted all over with Docrafts pistachio acrylic paint and wiped it back with a baby wipe ( due to the light,the photo shows the pistachio as light turquiose! )....once dry I randomly stamped some script ( Crafty Individuals ) and post marks in black archival ink.

Using white acrylic paint and an old bank card I created some lines.

I decided then to add texture and using a Tim Holtz stencil and crackle texture paste...once that was dry I daubed yellow acrylic paint over some areas of the canvas and wiped some of it back with a baby wipe.

Then it was set aside to dry...well it was dinner time and I had to cook,lol...

I found a bird cage in my stash,no idea how long I have had that...I gave it 2 coats of black acrylic paint and sprayed it twice with Crafters Companion spray & seal to give it a shine.

The bird, again in my stash, I do know  I had bought a set at a craft show a long time ago from Anna Marie Designs.
Using the Pistachio paint I daubed some on the bird and dried it using my heat tool...then I stamped a swirl on it and gave it a black bead for it's eye...this too was treated to spray & seal.

I used the spray and seal as the glossy mod podge tends to leave brush strokes which I didn't want especially on the bird.

I stained  a small piece of lace yellow and glued that to the canvas...on the top edge of that I added a narrow strip of pale green cotton lace.

Adding the birdcage,bird,flowers and some wire coils.

The sentiment ( Artistic Outpost  form their Outpost set of stamps ) was stamped on some card I coloured yellow, that was then added to the canvas.

To finish I used my finger and rubbed some white acrylic paint to the edges of the canvas,again wiping back slightly with a baby wipe.

The above image shows the actual colours of the canvas...apologies for the lighting on the other photos

Altered Eclectics Challenge can be found....HERE