Exploding box (from the archives)

This oriental style exploding box is another project from a few years ago when I had the Paper Paradise. Those of you who have read my blog before will know I recently dug all of the old shop samples out of the loft. It seemed a shame not to show a few of them so here's another one.
Made with four sheets of Bazzill and Basic Grey ppapers. I think they were Scarlet's Letters, but it's that long ago I can't be sure. This is the lid. I used an inverted corner punch to meke the corners a bit more 'oriental' then made a shrink plastic embellishment to go with the charm and tassell.


This is the box open, containing 12 pages and a centre page.

I won't bore you with all of the pages, mind you it would take for ever to up load them and I am a bit hungry to say the least, so dinner is calling me. The tag has a pressed leaf, and the fan, by Judikins was stamped and embossed in gold. And the peel off's, well, don't ask!!!!!!!!!! My excuse is it was to promote sales, lol!!!!!

A stamped image and slide mount covered as a frame, with some ric rac braid.

Masking and direct to paper background with a coin held in place with thread.

A Paper Arsty image from the Asian plate, chalked for a subtle look, decorated with a bindi and a gold chipboard heart.

And that's it for now. Off to get some dinner, got the grumbles in my tum!!!!!!

Sue x

Wey Hey, What a Day!!!!!

What a fantastic day it's been today..........................................



Shopping, walking, eating, chatting, cuddles, family, friends, everyday things we often take for granted, but which are so precious.



The weather's been fantastic.



I spoke on the phone to lots of special people.



And to top it off I won some lovely 'stash' from Zandra. I was amazed and SOOOOOOOOOO chuffed. To say I was excited would be an understatement. It's got lots of 'Ranger' stuff in it, and you all know how I love Ranger products. Zandra will be posting them off to me soon, so as soon as the parcel arrives I'll be showing it on my blog. Can't wait. so thanks Zandra, you really put the icing on the cake!!!!!!

Right, I'd best calm down a bit now, lol, it's getting late and I need to finish this post.

Here's a couple of ATC's I've started using the new CI 'doors' plates. Not finished yet, but hope to carry on with them tomorrow.



The words inside are from the new 'words' plate, (I love words). I added some multi coloured gold leaf flakes to one of them.

Now, I have tried to refrain, but had to just add a couple of photo's of Josh. He's been an absolute darling today, and to celebrate his eight week birthday tomorrow, here they are.

with me

on his own, wearing a smile

and with his Great Nanna, (my Mum) here.

If you look closely you will see he is finally getting his hair back. It all rubbed off for some reason. I wonder what colour it will be? If it was sky blue pink I wouldn't care!!!!!!

Sue x

Cards and future altered book project

I've finished the cards for my class on Saturday, and here they are. All quick and easy and of vintage style. The packs are all ready, but need to get on with the instructions. I'm out for tea tonightwith a couple of friends that I made when I first started teaching card making for adult education about 8 years ago. So just a quick post today.

I have made a start on an altered book which I think will be a bit time consuming. I haven't a clue what style or theme it will take, but there is no rush. It's merely a 'for pleasure' project, so I will probably do a bit here and there when I fancy it, or if inspiration hits me.

I've managed to get a few blocks of pages glued together, and I have punced circles for a niche. I need to get the pages glued together before I do any more with this page.

I wanted to add texture with the pages, so did some simple folding here. Not sure how it will look but that's the fun part of an altered book. I know I'm looking forward to splodging the old paints and other mediums about in various ways. I seem to have been a bit of a 'clean crafter' of late, so need to get into 'slap dash mode' for this project.

I love torn paper, so have torn the pages here, again to add a bit of texture. Hopefully it will be more noticable when it's painted.

That's all I have done so far, but I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Sue x

Altered 'old' outdoor tea light holder

You might remember, (ages ago now), I found an old tealight holder which I planned to alter. Well, I finally got round to it today.

I base painted it black and then wax rubbed over to add a bit of depth.

It had glass windows which were really manky, so I cleaned them up as best as I could. I had some new 'bird' plates from Crafty Individuals which I thought I'd combine with older CI bird images, and here's the result.

I stamped the images, coloured them with distress inks and chalks then cut to fit the windows. They were secured with clear two sided tape. It needed more interest and dimension, so I decided to add elemants on the front of the glass too.

Here I added individual leaves cut from CI-248 and a flower with a flat backed pearl.

New birds plate CI-247 and couple of tiny words stamped and cut from the music plate, CI-194.

A different bird from CI-248 again, silk leaves and a flower.

CI-191, Wren and a couple more words and music notes from the music plate CI194.

A sentiment from the lovely new word plate CI-256, cut into sections so it would fit the space available. The two tiny birds are also from the word plate and were stamped on tissue, cut out roughly and stuck onto card, one turned over to get the mirror image.

CI-183, (wren in a frame), with simple flowers and pearls.


Done!

Sue x

Something Special

Well here is the layout I came up with using all the bits and pieces from the 'baby basket' shown in my previous post. I really enjoyed the challenge of taking it to bits and used almost everything except the florist ribbon which had been marked badly by the wire which was wrapped arond it. Considering it's 25 years old it hasn't done bad. Hope it remains for another 25 years now.


It's not easy to see, but I mixed a tiny bit or red acrylic to some pearly white and made the pink which I painted roughly onto Bazzill cream paper. I then stamped large Prima swirls lightly onto the page. I created a pocket with the photo of the basket, so I could add a tag. The heart shape photo was cut by hand, as was the heart 'frame'.

You can see the detail of the cherub and hearts set against the photo here.

If you look closely, you can see the basket on the bed with Faye, who was just two days old and dressed ready for us to take her home from the maternity home. Aw.....

Here's the tag from the pocket. It's a very VERY special part of the layout as it holds the actual card written by Gina, who is now 29. It also shows the shop details. It was called Simply Special, hence the name of the layout. I will be adding journalling to the back of the tag.

How special is this? Gina's hand written card when she was just four years old, front view....

and the back....................

Oh I so pleased I still have this, it means so much to me.........................

Hope you like it!

Sue x

Then, soon and now..........

I just had to have a tidy of my crafting bits, and ended up delving deeply into boxes of samples I had made when I had my shop, Paper Paradise. When I sold the business to Tracey, (Running with Scissors) I boxed the samples up and stored them in the loft. It wasn't until yesyerday that I got them into some sort of order and thought it might be a good idea to show a few of the 'then' pieces of work. My style was a bit, how shall we say, 'different' to the norm. Not lick n stick or peel off and plonkit type stuff. I always loved the idea of not really knowing what would evolve from my ideas.

The first piece is an altered MDF frame. The frame was covered in pieces of broken lasagne, uncooked of course! I originally came up with the idea whilst studying for my City and Guilds in Mixed Media and Design in 2000. We had been using spaghetti and twisted pasta in collage and I thought I'd try lasagne. It worked a treat. I have used this technique many times since, and had a four page project published in 'Simply Stamping' a few years ago. I'll show the piece at a later date.


The images are all on stampbord, another fantastic medium to work with. I love the way you can add white highlites with steel wool, sand paper and a scraper tool.

These are the four close ups of the tiles......

It gives you more idea of the highlites..........

The eyes stamp is by Paper Artsy, and the beautiful faces are wood mounted by Rubber Stampede, I love 'em!

That was the 'THEN' part of the post. The 'soon' relates to a challenge I have set myself to do 'SOON' lol. Whilst in my clear up mode I found this old, dusty, battered but absolutely special silk flower arrangement. It will be 25 years old on Monday and was bought for me as a present from Gina, my eldest girl, the day after Faye, my youngest daughter was born. I really can't part with it.

I decided to take it to bits and use the bits and pieces on a scrapbook page, so that the memory of this very special gift can remain in some way or another.

You can see some of the little bits from it now I have dismantled it. I'm still thinking on it but watch this space.......

The 'NOW' part has of course got to be my little grandson Josh. Here are a couple of shots taken yesterday on his SIX WEEK bithday lol. Oh bless!!!!!!!!

I still can't believe how lucky we are to have him in our lives, and could never ever imagine the feelings I have for him. He's been such a pleasure, seems so content with thing, but Faye and Ash are doting parents, I'm sure that helps.

I just had to end with this photo. I expect it's how most of you will be feeling after reading this post lol.........

BIG Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks all of you for visiting and especially commenting. I realise how hard it is to keep up with blogs, so I appreciate it so much!!!!

Sue x

Crafty Individuals 'bits and bobs'

I know, I know, I know, it's too long since I last blogged. I say it all the time, but I have so much to keep me busy. ALL GOOD THINGS!

My lovely niece Abbie is going away next week to uni in Lincoln and we've just got back from her 'going away do', which was lovely. Plenty of food, drinks, chocolate fountain and good company. What more can you ask for? So, this is a bit of a rush, catch up blog, sorry.

I've made a start with the new Crafty Individuals stamps, firstly this card using the floral background (CI-253 ) and the lovely word plate (CI-256 ) I tend to stamp the words on tissue, cut them out and then stick them in place. This makes it easier to use individual words, or cut the phrases and reposition them. The little tree is also from the words plate, and the swirl is from the swirly frames chipboard sheet.


The following photos are from a small book I made to show just some of the lovely Christmas stamps available from Crafty Individuals. Since I took the photo's, which was a couple of days ago now, I have added ribbons to the wire binding.

The image, (CI-240) was stamped onto clay. The words, 'Let It Snow, Snow Baby and A Snowflake is a Winters Butterfly are also on the plate, giving more options for use. In fact I have used 'Let It Snow' on the next page. The edges of the clay were 'curled' and it was left to dry before being coloured with distress inks and a water pen. I added a bit of detail to the snowflakes with blue stickles.

This has to be my favourite of last years Christmas stamps (CI-211), in fact it's the first time I have used it. She is so beautiful, I'm sure I will be using this stamp in my Ho Ho Ho classes this year.

Another favourite, (CI-138) is timeless. I used the full plate, then stamped individual snowflakes and embellished with gems.

I have used another saying from the snow baby plate here. I just love sentiments, especially this one. The snowflake background is a new plate, (CI-241) created with chalks.

I combined the stamp (CI-168) with a CI image from the Christmas book, (I think) and put it in a grunge board slide mount.

A couple of word plates, (CI-058) create the background, and this lovely old traditional Santa (CI-136) was just water coloured and 'believe was added from my all time favourite (CI-156).

Final page uses another of this years releases, (CI- 254). It's hard to see but I have, oooooooh let me whisper, shhhhhhhh, decoupaged, (oh I really don't believe I said that, lol) five of the house fronts to add some depth. The water colour technique works really well with the Crafty Individual images as they are quite detailed. I love the words at the bottom of the stamp too.

I have started a couple of ATC's using the new doorway plates. I have more to add so will leave it here and be back when they are finished.

Sue x

shabby chic challenge

I've decided to take part in a challenge over at 'Let's Get Shabby' http://letsgetshabby.blogspot.com/ and here's my entry.

A while ago now, I did a layout 'Ella' and have had a photo of Ella's sister Paige ready to add to a layout for ages now. The challenge was a perfect excuse to get on with it.

The rules were to use white and/or cream, with just a tiny hint of one other colour. Well it just had to be pink.................

Below are the supplies I used, all of which were altered to suit the requirements of the challenge. I began by randomly stamping a crackle background, my old faithful Crafty Individuals plate, in cream over the plain white scrapbook paper, then added colour to the edges of the page using direct to paper technique.

I used Jo Sonja acrylic to paint the large red flower head, corrugated card, yellow Bazzil swirl, bright gold button and the clay heart that I had made previously. I then added interest by using a white pen, pink dabber and liquid pearls with various techniques, and put the page together. I must say I really enjoyed the challenge and will definately do more in the future.

Sue x