Inspired By Cazz -#3UP newbie

I failed to make the cut for #3UP this time, loved every minute of it last year and aim to try again later in the year, my heartiest congratulations go to those that did get through and for the tremendous makes you all made. For one in particular, my best mate Cazz, whom I  met on twitter about 4 years ago.  We chat on BBM mainly now, and we craft along at opposite ends of the country via BBM.  The marvels of modern technology.

For this make I used a Tando Creatives Stationery chest, and following construction (not the easiest thing to build) I based the exterior in  Do Craft white acrylic, and the interior in pale blue.  I then covered the exterior in Do Craft Lilac acrylic and got out some stencils and got busy with Grunge Paste.

I then walked away as I had no idea where it was going, the only thing I was sure of was the stamp I wanted to use.

Following a trip to B&Q to purchase door knobs, I set about painting in.  The sides were covered in a mash up of Chutney, Seaweed, Chartreuse and Limelight Frescos.  The birds I painted in Space Cadet.  The top was a mash up of Space Cadet, Beach Hut, and Chartreuse.  The fronts of the drawers were lilac, Chartreuse and limelight.

I then covered the dragonfly and the flower seed heads in Green Amethyst TG and the birds in Sapphire. and stamped the sentiment from ELB05

Thanks again to all the #3UPers for their fab makes this week.  Here's to the next round

Follow @jax1369

PaperArtsy still a #PATwit

Well you will have all seen it on PaperArtsy's Blog by now, and you'll have read what I wrote there, as there is not much to add other than thank you to Leandra for this opportunity.

Here are the pics

Follow @jax1369

Jo Myhill Inspired

For this project, I will admit now that I used nothing at all on the list that Jo Myhill used on PaperArtsy blog on Thursday, mainly because I own not a single thing on the list (there may be one or two Fresco Finish paints that are the same, but that's all)

I got a 12X12 paper, no idea who's it is as I've had it so long, I then cut it down to 8X8 and I stencilled the Trpoical leaf design from imagination Crafts in Pumpkin Soup, I then watered down some Beach Hut and painted the main square and, the Scraps off the sides as these would make the flahhrs later.  I then coated a tag in Bora Bora, overwashed it with watered down Beach Hut, Pumpkin Soup and Limelight then stencilled the tropical leaf again in Pumpkin Soup.

I then set about cutting out the flowers and the leaves. For these I used Bitty Blossoms and Foliage Spellbinders and a Marianne die that is swirly roses.  Decided these weren't big enough on their own so I stamped various hearts from EDY01 in Teal Blue Stazon and cut these out to build the flowers.  While these were drying I stamped the sentiment from Chocolate Baroque Words of Wisdom series.  I then constructed the whole thing and added a ribbon to the tag.

I am also entering this into

Aloha Friday #18 Monochrome
Come and Get It Challenges - Flowers Galore

Follow @jax1369

Julie Anne Lee inspired Warm Fuzzies box (also Hazel and Cazz)

Firstly I will apologise for the pics, I waited for the promised brightness and it is yet again heaving down, grey and dark, so I did my best with what I had.  I was going to artistically pose these outside, but rain is not the best thing for Acrylic paint.

A couple of weeks ago a twitter buddy Hazel mentioned she was looking through her Joys Jar (well it was actually a box she had made, but I thought Joys Box sounded oh so wrong!) and she explained it is some where to store written down happy memories throughout the year and then to look back at the end of the year/beginning of the next year, or when you feel a bit down during the year.  My best friend Cazz  then shot off and made herself a "Pensieve".  She had also been reading a post on the darkside (facebook) from her niece who had done a similar thing.

I then went away for a few days to the Lakes and came back to see a beautiful secrets casket made by another twitter buddy and esteemed Guest Designer for PaperArtsy Julie Ann Lee.

I started my Warm Fuzzies box by covering it in Fresco Finish: Mudsplat, Toffee and then a wash of Stone. I painted the interior with Stone.

 I then used Grunge Paste through a Stamps Away stencil, and I managed to get all the fluer de lys pointing into the middle (smug me).  I left the top to dry and used some Rennaissance Treasure Gold on the edges of the base ( I should say I had removed the fixtures and fittings and had two halves).  Once the top was dry I painted around the Grunge Paste with Chocolate Pudding to give it depth, I then used washes of diluted Chocolate Pudding and Stone to knock back the severity.  While this next bit was drying I made my feather, drawing round a feather twice (I now had two tops doh!) so I used one of the tops to draw round again to make the bottom.  These I cut out of some sheet music card stock and coloured it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and set aside t dry.  I had prepainted a Heart embellishment some week ago in inky pool and gone over with Treasure Pewter, but it didn't quite go so a quick swipe with  Rennaissance and voila Bob's your Aunty.

Now it was time for the Final Florishes I had happened upon a piece of browny copper embossed card stock and I covered it with Patina Treasure Gold and buffed it back, cut it into strips the width of the lip of the lid of the box and glued these in place, went round the Grunge paste with Patina followed by a dash of Pewter.  I put the box back together and added the Sentiment "Warm Fuzzies" from HotPicks Extra 03 in black archival, postioned and glued the Heart and feather and added a gem to the top of the heart.

Follow @jax1369

Upcycling Twitter challenge stylee

Many of you that follow my blog also follow me on twitter and you are well aware that I can't keep my mouth shut and will volunteer for just about anything.  You will also probably remember that Paper Artsy challenged a number of us #PATwits to the #3UP challenge.

As you may have guessed we couldn't leave it at that and @LIN1923 decided we needed something to channel our crafting energies.  so she challenged us to upcylce some items of her choosing and posted them out to us.

This is what I received in my "kit"

The rules were as follows: Use everything, Make as many projects as you wish, must be shades of one colour with one accent colour used once and send one picture of the completed project/s.

I started by seeing which colour I could get the most tones/shades from in the inks etc I had, so went for browns, as I have distress inks, distress stains, alcohol inks and an archival inkpad in sepia.  I dyed eveything in various shades of distress stains and/or alcohol inks and Gesso'd the tin and the folder and left them overnight to dry (giving me thinking time).

Once everything was dry I backed the folder with 7 Gypsies papers and then embellished it within an inch of it's life

I then set about the tin, which to be honest, given the size and the embellishments could be nothing other than a sewing kit tin.  I covered it in papers inside and out and painted the base of the tin in brown acrylic paint.

The two finished items

You can see all the other projects made for this challenge here: Lin's blog

Challenges entered :C.R.A.F.T challenge - anything but a card
Happy Campers - Use metal (tin, zipper pull and brads)
Everybody Art Challenge, Refurbish

Follow @jax1369

#3UP #PATwits and be careful how you use a hashtag!

Those of you who have known me for more than half an hour will know that I like to muck about a bit.  On this occasion mucking about along with a number of other twitter loonies got me, and them, roped into a secret challenge.  The best of it is, none of us knew that the evil Leandra of PaperArtsy fame had an ingenious and cunning plan.

For the few days prior to Ally Pally we were all using #PATwits as a number of the said PA twits were going to tweet up there.  I wasn't because of various reasons, not being sure if I was gonna be in paid employment after the end of March being a big one!

Said tweet up duly took place, and following it another hashtag appeared from nowhere #3UP, none of us knew why, but we played along.  Later that week, those that had used the hashtag were contacted coovertly and offered the chance to participate in a secret challenge.  Crafting's version of mission impossible if you will.  Well obviously, a dare is a dare, so I said yes, as you do.

A few days later a Frame, some Idealogy numbers and 3 butterflies arrived.  This is what they looked like 5 hours later.

Follow @jax1369