Rivited

I'm a big Andy Skinner fan.  I'm new to mixed media crafting and don't have much of a stash yet, so I am still working my way up to doing one of his workshops.

This box it heavily inspired by one that he has made.  It's no where near as good, but I enjoyed making it.

I started with a wooden box onto which I stuck a number of different textures and shapes and I then covered it with Idenden tape (yup, plumbers tape). This is a technique I adapted earlier this year having watched metal tape tutorials on Youtube. It isn't as thick as normal craft metal, but it is so versatile and cheap to work with.

I went for a grungy, dug it out of the basement look.  It's very easy to do.

All of the detailing is my favourite part of making these boxes.  I have used cogs both on top of the tape and underneath it.  I caught my eldest trying to turn the cogs, so I think i will try one with moving parts as soon as I figure out how.

I don't have a cog die yet so I am using build  a snow flake dies.  I love by bronze coloured cogs.  They are so easy to use.

I'm entering my box for the challenge over at The Craft Barn

Golden Treasure

I'm so Excited.

I've been decorating heart shaped trinket boxes for a while, but this is the first chance I have had to decorate wooden boxes in new shapes and sizes,  My delivery came on Monday and I could wait to get stuck in.  Unfortunately, real life intruded and I have only been able to do a small amount each day.

This is how my box started out

I painted my Box with white acrylic, then roughly edged it with my gold Krylon leafing pen.  I have then stamped and inked with tea dye distress ink.  I had a fridge magnet that I wasn't overly fond of so i have taken the back off of it and removed the picture, created a new "face" for it and coloured it with my krylon pen.

To finish off I have used flowers, lace, stick on pearls, part of a broken necklace and some gems taken from an  old belt.  Lots of recycling on this one.

I can't wait to try another one of these.

I am entering this one for the following challenges:-

The Crazy Challenge - Lace and or  pearls

Fab n Funky - Recycle it

Everybody Art - Shabby

Crafty Creations - Something new
Creative Inspirations - Swirls and Pearls

Heart of Devastatia

Every now and again I like to try my hand at altering.  If you have been on my blog before, you may have seen one of my trinket boxes.  Well I made another one.  I love decorating these.

I'm loving Kenny K at the mo and his digis are featuring on a lot of my projects right now.  I love using intense colours.  They give any project a rich feeling.  This is Devastatia.  I have coloured her in red black and silver.

I have inked the box using Fired Brick distress ink, which I then went over with my heat tool to help set it. You get quite a good effect as you can still see the wood grain.  I might try adding embossing powder too next time.  Heating the ink changed the colour a little, but I still love the effect. I hadn't planned to use so many flowers, but once I got started, I just couldn't stop.

I have edged the top of the box with black velvet ribbon.  I have then edged around the bottom section with black lace and more black velvet ribbon.  I have added deep red gems for a bit of glamour.

 I am entering my trinket box for the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge Blog - Anything but a card
CRAFT Challenge - Gift
Kaboodle Doodles - Primary colours
Papertake Weekly - Grow your own - use flowers

Girly Favorite

Moving along with the times asked us to use our favorite things for this weeks challenge.  Where to start.  There are so many things that I love crafting with.

I have recently discovered Lili of the valley stamps and have fallen in love with them.  Such cute images and very affordable.  This one is coloured , for the main part, using Tim Holtz distress ink.  I dabbed the colour on using a make up sponge.  You get a really soft effect on the colour this way.  I have used pens for her socks and shoes as those areas needed to be more precise.  Distress inks are probably at the top of my favourites list and have been for a long time.

Flowers are a must on any project.  I feel a bit lost these days if I don't add any.  A few of my other favorites that I have used are: lace, stick on pearls, the colour purple and buttons.  I have more favorites, but I couldn't fit them all onto one project :o)

Totally Papercrafts asked us to do something for a girly girl and I thought that the image that I used fit right in. Simon says said anything goes, so I thought a wooden box would be ideal for the challenge.

Box of Roses

This is my second attempt at one of these trinket boxes.  I have to admit that I have been looking for more in other shapes, because they are so satisfying to make.  Here are a couple of  before shots.

I stared buy DS taping the natural cotton lace around the top edge and then I used my hot glue gun sparingly around the top so that the top of the lace would create a nice soft edge and cover the wood a little.

I wanted some height in the middle, so I have padded the top with a bit of make up sponge and then  I went a little crazy with the flowers.  I have used the last of the pearl beads from my broken bracelet on this one (I have a feeling that another one may get broken soon) and have dotted them about to cover the gaps between flowers.

To finish off, I added some deep purple lace that I have had forever and lilac flat backed pearls.   I think that I need to invest in some glimmer mist as I think that a bit of a gold sheen would have finished this one off nicely.

I am entering my box in the following challenges:

Charisma Cardz Challenges - No cards allowed

Papertake Weekly - Anything goes - My pearls are round

Craft your passion - Anything goes

Fab n Funky - Put those papers away - No patterned papers