Time for Tea....

Evening all, continuing with my attempt at being a good little blogger who posts at least once a week  I'm back with another project share!  I go to quite a lot of carboot sales and a wonderful antique/collectable/curio converted mill and see all kinds of goodies. At the moment I'm loving Tea Cups. I'm not a tea drinker so I don't need them for that but a long time ago I saw randomly on Google images a picture of a teacup pincushion. So this isn't an original idea but I had to have a go at making my own. I now have around 10 teacups and I've altered 2 so far. I just followed a Youtube tutorial that was about making normal pincushions and altered it around to have it fit the teacup. So here are my two little babies

Seeing as I seem to be addicted to these I am predicting that there may be more of these to see in the future. I'm making a set of 3 the same next. One for my friend Heather, one for her mum and one for me. So even though we are at opposite sides of the world we are going to have things the same sat in our craft rooms.







Oh one more thing I have become addicted to Pinterest. It is a wonderful site where when you see a picture or a project or anything that just catches your eye you can collect all those images in one place. I spend a lot of time just mooching around the internet looking for inspiration and then quickly forgetting where I've seen it. But no more! Now I can just "pin" it to my Pinterest wall and it's there for as long as I want it. It's wonderful. I have it set up at home and at work so there's no more just having the images on one of my computers. I highly recommend you check it out if you haven't heard of it. I've not looked back since. It's a great place to have a virtual ideas wall. So long as there is a big enough picture you can pin it. I've got everything from pretty images to sayings to projects I'd love to try one day.

Well that's me for another post thank you for stopping by and speak to you soon.
Hannah

Captivating Canvas

Just back with a little project share. This is a canvas I made a while ago. I haven't had chance to photograph anything new recently but I may post some videos on here later.

I thoroughly enjoy making canvas'. They are quite quick to make and at the end of it all you have something pretty to put on the wall. Heck who knew an easy to store project!?! I don't have a lot of room in my craft space so storage is at a premium. I can hang these on the wall and make the place pretty while I'm at it.

I get my canvas' from a variety of places, craft shops, art shops and even carboot sales. I've recycled some going over prints with gesso then using it like a new canvas too. I suppose it's like making a 12x12 layout but I've never made one of those.

The one I'm going to show you was one I was inspired to make when I was making my Marilyn charms for Leonie's charm swap over at the beach. I'm not usually  pink girl. I love it with other colours, green and brown especially but not usually on its own. Have to say on this one there was no choice. The wonderful Marilyn wanted to be surrounded by pink and I just had to go with it.

 

You can't really see in this pic but the background was done with acrylic paint in pink and vintage white and then liberally sprayed with both sunlight mist and angel mist by Cosmic Shimmer. Very sparkly but not over the top and in your face.  

 

I used some of the Tim Holtz film strip ribbon as nod to her career in the movies. Going with the natural curl after you take it out of the tin (which is oh so cute!) I just curled it around the flowers giving it more dimension. I made a large organza flower and used some gorgeous Prima roses that I added lace to.

Ok just one more pic and I'm outta here for now.

I mean come on just how amazing is this picture! She looks so serene I saw it and had to do something with it. Thank you for stopping by and I'll be back with more soon. Possibly even tonight!

MY TOP 10 ONLINE SHOPS

 Good Morning! I'm a crafter in the UK and didn't know where to start to find supplies. We don't have so many actual brick and mortar shops from what I can find but we have some good online shops so I thought I'd share the ones I use incase they can help another crafter who is just starting out.  I've not got these in any specific order as I love them all. I've just written them in the order I've thought of them.


1. www.craftsuperstore.co.uk - if you join the mailing list you get an email every so often telling you about the current deals. I've got some really good things from them and are one of my frequent stops for goodies. You have to be quick with some of the deals as they sell out fast. I've bought prima paper kits and basic gray paper kits for £3.99 from there.

2. www.craftobsessions.co.uk - Great sales and great selection of goodies. Unfortunately I missed out on the smash books. They sold out before the email made it to everyone saying they were in. I got some of the stickers and things for them in hope that I'll get one when they come in next time.

3. www.craftyindividuals.co.uk - Beautiful red rubber stamps and papers and other goodies.

4.  www.craft-emporium.co.uk - Amazing sale on at the moment, I just ordered a pile of goodies and they always have great deals.

5 . http://cuddlybuddly.com/ - great selection of alterable items here. Good quality too.

6. www.thecraftbarn.co.uk - Lovely stamps and a great selection of cosmic shimmer products.

7. www.wildorchidcrafts.com - Everyone knows WOC, great flowers great prices and they are in the UK!

8. www.allthingscrafty.co.uk - Best selection of Prima bling I have found in the UK

9. www.thefruitpixie.co.uk/ -  Great ephemera and curiosities. Great £1 section too.

10. www.craftathome.co.uk - I've had several packages from these friends above the boarder (Scotland lol) super quick delivery and a great selection of goodies.


So people that is my list of shops I love. I'll probably add to them over time as I discover more favorites.  I hope they can help someone who is struggling to find the goodies they are looking for.

Charmed I'm sure....

Ok I apologise, I've been horrendously lax with my updates. As in I haven't done any! What with swaps and youtube and work and crafting I've just had no time. I've decided to set myself the challenge of updating this at least once a week. They may be long messages it might be a quick project share but I'm going to try and do it.

I thought I'd do a quick share on a couple of charms I've made for swaps hosted by the the lovely Leonie over on life on the scrap beach which has quickly become home away from home for me.

These are just a few I've made, I think I'm addicted to them. Though it may be cheating as I used to make charm bracelets so it's not too much of a change from that. I'll be back soon with more shares and random things I share so speak to you soon. Thanks for stopping by. xx

Back with a project.....

I know I've  been lax and haven't posted for a few days but I'm back with some projects I've been working on. I bought a load of things to alter and this last week I decided to alter one of the boxes I bought from cuddlybuddly.com  with my steampunk debutante paper. 

Here is a list of the supplies I used:

1 plain box

Steampunk Debutante paper

Tim Holtz gears

Tim Holtz watch faces

Tim Holtz box feet

Tim Holtz ornate book plate

Vintage sheet music

Clock background stamp

Distress ink frayed burlap,

Versafine antique sepia (something like that it's at home on the shelf in my craft room so I can't check)

Glossy accents 

acrylic paint

MODPODGE

Mulberry flowers from thehobbyhouse.co.uk

Just the one sheet of the flying man paper. I glossy accented the fish and added a couple of rub ons from a 7 gypsies rub on pack.

First I painted the whole box using a teal paint I mixed up myself as I didn't have the colour I was looking for. I rubbed a little gold acrylic paint along the edges for a bit of shine and then once try covered the whole thing in modpodge to protect it a little. 

I took a couple of sheets of vintage sheet music and stamped all over it with a clock face stamp. After cutting to size I used distress ink in frayed burlap on the edges to age it a little.  The charm I used on the front I just put together using a couple of beads and an eye pin. I hung it using a lobster clasp to the lock on the front. It's a tight fit but it does close properly

This is the front of the box, I've decoupaged of sorts using cut outs from the ladies collage page. Using a Tim Holtz sprocket gear I framed one of the ladies in the stamp. You can't really tell but I flooded it with glossy accents and let it dry. It's rather pretty I think.

 

    I made some gears using black card and drawing round one of the Tim Holtz masks.  I used glue and gilding flakes to give it a bit of shine. The watch face was glued on using Silicone glue to lift it above the decoupaged blue roses and gears.

Another of the gears made by drawing round the Tim Holtz mask and then using gilding flakes.  This is a closer view of the Prima flowers I coloured with my Verdigris Mist.

Tim Holtz ornate plate backed with some of the rose paper from the steampunk collection. A tiny rose on a sprocket and some bling. I only have 2 pieces of bling on the box the gems in the book plate and the 2 flower centres on the side.

Just a look at the side showing the Tim Holtz box feet.

The plain back of the box. I could have added details to the back but I like it as it is.

I had intended to put flowers and feathers on the top but each time I put something there it just didn't look right. Usually my work tends to be packed with decoration but this one seemed to want to be quite simple. So rather than force it and not be happy I left it and I actually really like it. If you want to see more I have  video on youtube about this box. 

Have a happy time crafting Hanxxx

Ok still no pictures...

No pictures again today but I'm getting there. I made my charms this morning (not that I know I am in the swap yet as it hasn't been updated) so I'm ready. The instructions were that they could be different and in any colour but I've made 5 of one kind and 5 of another as I asked for 2 spaces in the swap. I mean if I'm sending 5 charms I might as well send 10. I've also confirmed I am in a swap hosted by the lovely Leonie Castro for a Tim Holtz swivel clasp charm swap. I've been buying like a demon and I'm going to make vintagey steampunky lovelies. With a bit of vintage England added in (at least that is the plan will have to see if it works but I bought the drill bits required!).

I just have to decorate the tags for the ones I have already made and then I can take pictures of the completed things. Have to wait for the contact details of the hostess to send them off if I do get the places I asked for. But either way I'm going to put them on here so you can tell me if I am heading in the right direction with them. 

Also another discovery not only am I addicted to the mariposa papers the steampunk debutante papers have snuck inside and lodged themselves in my heart. I just bought 3 sheets of each of the 12x12 papers 2 of the tag sheets and 1 of the frames sheet. I have the 8x8 stack and I've used 2 pieces of that and it hurt I tell you! But I just had to stock up on them. But you know how it is lol. 

So not really much to say today, really just a quick note and a promise of better posts. Have a lovely evening and enjoy whatever you are doing. xxx Han

Swap anxiety....

Hey everyone. Happy Sunday to you all. Its beautiful weather here in the UK sunny and warm and here I am in work looking at it out of the window!!! What a waste but I suppose if I want to keep spending I have to do the work to earn the money.

For the past 2 days all I've done is watch videos on youtube on charm swaps. I've made the plunge and asked to be in 2 swaps from the life on the {scrap} beach website. Both charm swaps and now I'm in a panic over not making things good enough. I've got a background in jewellery making (mostly charm bracelets bursting with charms and beads ets) so I should be ok but I'm worried that I'll let people down. I think I know what to expect as I've watched all the videos I can find and I've read and re-read the information provided in the sign up pages. 

I know the lovely ladies out there in the scrapbook community are wonderful people and wouldn't jump on me like a bug but I just wanted to get it out there. 

Oh and another thing does anyone know how long it takes to ship things to America? I want to make sure I send them off with plenty of time.

I'm going to start making some tonight and I'll post some pics see if anyone can tell me if this is the sort of thing I should be doing. I might take some pics of the jewelery I've made as well seeing as I am still working on my altered box and it isn't finished yet and I haven't added any pictures for a few days. 

This blog seems to be diversifying day by day. I started it to become involved in something and to show off my scrapping journey but it seems to be more about my creative journey rather than just a scrapping journey. I've watched peoples videos and I see that people aren't just one thing. People are mixed media artists, scrapbookers, card makers, altered art makers jewelery makers. Perhaps I don't have to be just one thing perhaps I can just be a crafter and be happy.

So today I've had insecurities and revelations pretty good I think. I hope the day finds you well and enjoying the time off in whatever way makes you feel happiest. 

All My Love 

Han