Paperbabe rag tails

Good morning friends.

Last night I decided to have a go with a Paperbabe stencil. I got a few early this year and apart from having a quick go of 2 of them, I never seemed to find the time to try out the others. 

So when I found I had a couple of hours to do some crafting, I couldn't wait to grab a stencil and some acrylic paint and start to play.

I didn't have a plan, just went with the flow, and this is what I came up with, I really enjoyed using these incredible stencils.

  

Once I had taken a photo, I decided to have a play with it in the photo editing suite on my phone. I really like this negative effect, its cool.

I am entering this into paperbabe stamps challenge -63 - anything goes

Thanks for looking

Hugs Sue xx

Festive makes...part 2

As promised, here's some more of my festive makes from this years collection.

Countdown to Christmas chalkboards, these are just some of the designs that I hand painted onto wooden hearts that had been painted first with 3 coats of chalkboard paint.

This is a wooden advent that I bought the blank from Hobbycraft last year, but didnt get round to decorating till this year. It has 24 little drawers that you can put a little treat in and reuse year after year.

I painted with white paint, then a coat of crackle effect, followed by a pale blue paint. For the drawers I used the same paints and crackle just the opposite way around and added a mix of silver foiled and glitter number stickers. 

I added a little corner display of flowers, leaves and berries and some snowflake jewel designs. 

The santa sleigh and reindeer were painted with Viva decor ceramic white and edged with a touch of blue. I layered up the base with scrunched up tissue, pretend snow, mini balls and loads of sparkle. 

I'm really pleased with the finished piece, very pretty and sparkly.

Thanks for looking
Hugs Sue xx

Handmade Monday #12

Happy Monday everyone! Well the children are back in school today, only for 4 days, then off again for the Easter break.

Its Handmade Monday again, where do the weeks go?

I managed to get some design team cards ready, although I did forget to upload a photo on Friday for the SSDS challenge. I had made the card a few days before and I scheduled it to post on my blog on Saturday as usual, but thought I'd already put it on the DT blog, whoops, sorry teamies.

 I was up till 3am on Sunday morning trying to catch up with all the lovely cards and creations that everyone has been making and I'm going to pop over to Wendy's blog - 1st Unique Gifts today and see whos been creating what and joining in with Handmade Monday this week.

I've managed to get some craft fair items painted over the weekend

Heres some pics of what I've made

Daisy coasters

This is a tissue box painted with roses and rosebuds and I embossed the edges of the lid with gold .

You can see the lid a little better in this photo.

This is my first attempt clock from scratch, I did have a go at painting a cheap plastic one, but this one is a wooden circle blank, that I drilled a hole in the centre probably the hardest part was trying to find the centre. I painted the crackle background, the poppies and used gold peel off's for numbers. Then I fitted the clock workings from the back and added the hands and battery at the end. Amazingly it worked, I am quite chuffed with myself.

More of the ever so popular poppy candles

This is a wooden box picture, it has a hanger at back or it can be stood up. It too is all edged with gold and has some gold embossed swirls. I love the effect the gold gives, it seems to lift the picture and gives another textural dimension. Ooh get me! sounds like I know what I'm talking about.

More of the poppy coasters, edged with gold embossing.

I actually had a mishap with 4 of these after taking this photo, after applying one coat of normal paint on varnish, I decided to use a spray on sealer for quickness. I left it all day to dry, it never really set, but worse it brought up the Staz on ink I use when working out positioning of flowers, etc. It looked terrible with all these lines showing through my lovely poppies. Nothing for it, I had to sand them all down to remove the spray sealer and repaint and re varnish them. Needless to say I used ordinary paint-on varnish.

Lesson to be learnt there I think!

I would like to enter a couple of these into some challenges

Wags and Whiskers - colour combo ( rose tissue box)

The Stampman - Embossing  ( rose tissue box and poppy box picture and poppy coasters)

One Stop Craft Challenge - Altered items ( tissue box, candles and coasters)

Handmade Monday #11

Its that time of the week again, Handmade Monday, chance to catch up with what some of us crafters have been up to.

This week the children have been off school, so I get very little chance to craft or keep my blog up to date and so what little time I do get I tend to use actually making and crafting, rather than catching up with everyone. I'm going to show you a few things now and then I'll pop round everyones blog tonight.

We celebrated my nieces daughters christening yesterday, I painted her a large box canvas to put in her nursery.

This is it with Alexies name on the banner

A close up of banner

A close up of the princess castle

A photo of mum and daughter, both beautiful.

I have been painting more candles and mirrors will up load more pics later, got to rush off now. Dont forget to pop over to 1st Unique Gifts and check out everyones crafty week.

I am entering the canvas painting into Make it Colourful challenge - Colouring Skies

Handmade Monday...#10

Good morning all its time for Handmade Monday #10. 

So whats been happening this week.? 

Well apart from having a lovely lazy day, with flowers, and cards from my two lovely angels and breakfast made for me by my gorgeous hubby, then spending the afternoon chatting and sharing a nice bottle of red with mum, I spent the beginning of last week getting some DT cards made ready for the coming week. A couple have already been posted on blog, but some are for later this week, so I cant put them in this post. I also had a few commission cards to make, once I had completed them I set about preparing for a craft fair yesterday.

I managed to get a few more painted gifts made.

Various coasters

A butterfly and wild rose candle.

A butterfly and wild rose notebook.

I'm very pleased to say that I sold nearly all these and all the poppy and previously painted things on Saturday and had one of my best craft fairs.

I even had to paint a poppy candle first thing yesterday morning to give to my mum as part of her mothers day gifts, as all the others were sold on Saturday.

Over the coming weeks I'll be out buying more candles,  mirrors and coasters and start to rebuild my stock ready for the next craft fair, which is in a few weeks so theres plenty of time. Thats good news really as the children are off school for 2 weeks, which usually means I dont get much time to craft.

Thats it from me today, why not pop over to 1st Unique Gifts and see what everyone else has been up to.

Thanks for looking

xx

Handmade Monday...#9

Its Handmade Monday time again.

Last week was mainly taken up with getting things ready for the craft fair on Saturday. I also had a few commission cards to make, I posted one of them in yesterdays post.

As usual I have been painting, I made more door hangers,

Close up of rose buds

Close up of daisies

Close up of wild rose and butterfly

I made matching coasters

Different butterfly coaster, it has been sprayed afterwards with glitter spray, the photo doesn't do it justice, it looks quite pretty in real life.

Another poppy candle.

I also painted a couple of daisy candles, but forgot to take photos.

A poppy notebook.

I also painted a large hessian bag with the poppy design, it was very difficult and I had to emboss the whole design afterwards as the painting didn't show very well. Think it will be one of a kind as I won't be attempting that again.

If you want to see what everyone else has been up to, then head on over to Wendy's blog 1st Unique Gifts she hosts Handmade Monday and has a list of other crafty blogs to visit.

I would like to enter one or all these gifts into Quirky Crafts Challenge - A gift for mothers day

Handmade Monday #8

Good afternoon all, hope everyone had a good weekend.

Its Handmade Monday #8.

Time to tell everyone what I've been up to last week and also pop over to 1st Unique Gifts to find out what other crafters have been making.

Well I've been very busy again this week, making cards for the design teams I'm on and some others for challenges. You can see pictures and details of some that have been posted already, if you look at earlier posts. I have also finally gotten round to putting a couple on ebay.

 I've also had the Paints out again. I've been trying to make a range of things that I might sell at craft fairs. I've got loads of ideas, but there's never enough time to make them all.

Here's a few pics 

I know this clock isn't very nice, but I just bought a cheap plastic one to have a try at taking apart and painting. I will buy one with a nice frame next or maybe just some wooden disc blanks and clock workings and make my own without a frame, suggestions please.

This is just a painting, I'm thinking of perhaps framing. I got the idea from a talented artist, Linda, who uses the Paint Fusion stuff and has been highlighted on Sheena Douglass' blog. She does a water coloured background picture and then the acrylic paints for the flowers. I used Copic pens to colour the background church stamp and then my Paint Fusion stamps and paints for the flowers.

Just been playing around really, will make a few things this week and might try them out at this Saturdays fair.

On Friday my daughter had to go to school dressed as a pirate for Comic Relief, so I spent most of Thursday trying to put a costume together. Unfortunately on Friday morning we were in such a rush I didnt have time to take a photo, but she looked really good and had a great day.

Yesterday I went to Harrogate Papercraft Show, spent a fortune, but had a great time watching demonstrations and picking up lots of great crafty stash. I always enjoy being in the company of other crafty, like minded people and getting all the latest stamps and embellishments,etc.
Well that was my week, looks like this one will be another crafty packed one.

I'm off to lock myself in the craft room and get the paints back out, before the children are home from school.

Thanks for looking, enjoy your week!

I'm am entering some of these into the following challenges
Secret Crafters - Anything but a card
Aly's Sunday challenge - Spring
Make it Colourful - Blend yellow and green( most of my leaves )
Allsorts - Make a gift box

Handmade Monday again...

Its Handmade Monday time again, not sure what that means?

Handmade Monday is a weekly event that happens over on Wendy's blog 1st Unique Gifts, where you can share your creative blog and have a look at what others have been making or doing this past week.

So what have I been upto this week?

Well I've been so busy that I missed handmade Monday altogether, last week, so I thought I better get this one posted today whilst I've got a spare minute.

 I've spent most of my time painting this week. I am toying with the idea of producing a new range to sell at the craft fairs, since the awful fair we did last weekend. Don't think it had anything to do with the nappy and towel cakes that I was selling though, just very poorly advertised, only a handful of people all day. Not to worry, we'll keep trying !

So here's a few photos of things I have painted and made.

Please leave me some honest comments and let me know whether you think they would sell.

A Daisy Wall / Door Hanger for mum

A Rosebud Heart- shaped Wall / Door Hanger

Berry painted Trinket Box

Daisy Tile - to be used as a large coaster or for standing pans, etc, on

Set of 4 Coasters - could do matching sets or each coaster different, as above

Butterfly Door Hanger

Poppy plaque - haven't made into anything yet

Wild flower plaque - I have since made this into a Mother's Day card

Daisy plaque

I have also painted a butterfly coaster and a poppy clock, but have not taken any photos yet.

As well as painting, I have been making cards for the design teams that I am on and also a few for entering into challenges for myself. Told you I'd been busy, but I feel so lucky to be able to spend my time doing what I love.

I would like to enter some of my creations into this challenge;

CRAFT - #93 - Door hanger

Thanks for looking and for any comments / advice you leave me. Hugs Sue xx