Craft and Art - I love it all....

SOME OF MY CREATIONS - 

Over the next few days I thought I would show you some of my home made creations that adorn my house here in the south west. As I love all forms of both Craft and Art I often paint, use my Stained Glass to create something for the house, or just go for a walk on the beach, collect Driftwood and create something new for my home. 

These two creations are a few of the many things that I have created. I love crafting so I'm running out of space to put my home-made things.  I love to recycle too and use up old things as much as possible. This picture was put into an old frame which I had lying about. 

This painting is of my favourite beach down in Cornwall where I got married. Hubby and I spent the afternoon just playing about on this beach, he in his suit and me in my wedding dress. We must have looked a right state but it's one of the best afternoons Iv'e ever spent on the beach. We even sent off a message in a bottle which is floating around the world somewhere... Who knows it may turn up somewhere in time one day.....

The Driftwood Mirror was made using local Driftwood I found on the beach in Charmouth. 

It was made using an old mirror that had a damaged frame. I used the pieces of local Driftwood to create a new frame and added dowls and wood glue to secure it together so that you don't see any unsightly nails.

Iv'e made lots of different things with Driftwood from jewellery to Christmas Trees. 

It's so versatile. Perhaps my next venture will be a massive creation for the garden. Now there's a challenge Iv'e set myself ......  

More creations to come in the next few days..... some stained glass projects and some mixed media too. 

Imagination Crafts September Challenge

Hi again folks,

For this month's Inspiration Post Iv'e made a Felt Needle Case.

Whilst playing with my craft stash I happened to drop some Sparkle Medium onto Felt and it stuck solid. Wow - yet another medium to work alongside the Imagination Craft Sparkle Paste - Whoohoo.

To make this Needle Case I cut a small piece of Felt big enough to take the "Butterfly Flight" Stencil. I then spread Silver Sparkle Medium over the top and waited for it to dry (I left it overnight just to be sure) Once dry I cut a smaller piece for the centre to take the needles.  I then stitched the centre with running stitch and cotton to attach the inside to the decorated outside piece of felt.

I attached an embellished ribbon to the top and added a Sparkle Medium Butterfly to the end of the ribbon. Embellishments were added to give the piece a bit of bling too. Lots of ideas now mulling around in my head for other projects to make with Felt.

Why not get out your craft stash materials and felt pieces and see what you can come up with for the Imagination Crafts Challenge in September. Don't forget to check out the rules - you can enter up to 7 Challenges including the Imagination Crafts Challenge and if you use Imagination Crafts products you could be in with a chance of a lovely prize too. Click here to be taken to the shop where you can find lots of bargains, sale items and much, much more..

Products used for this project were:

Sparkle Medium Diamond
Butterfly Flight Stencil 
Spatula

For more ideas check out the Imagination Crafts Inspiration Blog and follow us on Facebook for all the latest news.

Imagination Crafts - Inspiration for August.

Hi everyone,

Here I am again working with the lovely stamps from Imagination Crafts. Iv'e made a Funky Foam Booklet for you this month. You can add papers inside to create a notelet holder. For this project I used the Decoupage Stamp Daisy on Gold Metal Sheet - I embossed the image with an embossing tool firstly on the front following the lines of the stamp then again from the back, then coloured in the flower with a permanent marker. A small wire swirl was added for decoration.

The booklet itself is made from Funky Foam. I cut out the foam using deckle edge scissors and snipped into the sides to give an old vintage effect.  I heated the foam with a heat gun, stamped the small flower from the set into the foam whilst it was hot,  let it cool,  then coloured the raised bits with gold paint to highlight the  surface.

I then added a side binder made with black cord and beads (your pages fit inside the booklet held in by this cord binder) Also I stamped some Shrink Plastic with the small flower stamp and added these to the side binder for decoration.
I particularly like working with metal sheets. Copper is great too as you can heat it and it changes colour. Perhaps I will use copper for another Challenge coming up soon..... Why not visit the Inspiration Blog to see more ideas from the Design Team. Click here to be taken to the Inspiration blog or visit the Challenge Blog and have a go yourself - you never know you may just win a prize. Click here for the Challenge Blog. .

Product used in making this booklet:
Funky Foam
Stayzon Black
Black Cord
Gold Wire
Gold Metal sheets and the lovely Decoupage Stamp Set - Daisy  from Imagination Crafts.

Next Month's Challenge is all about Butterfllies so watch this space for more creative ideas to come very soon...

Imagination Crafts August Challenge - Flower Power

Hello again,

For this month's Imagination Crafts Design Team theme "Flower Power" Iv'e used an Imagination Crafts Decoupage stamp to create the flowers on this Notelet Hanger.

I used a small piece of mount board for this wall hanging which I painted with black acrylic paints. I then brushed over the background with beige paint roughly to create texture.
I then coloured some Sparkle Gel with yellow mica powders and spread this onto the Honeycomb Stencil to create a textured background.

I stamped the Decoupage Flower stamp onto green vellum, embossed the images from the back to make the petals stand out and added these to the bottom left of the card. I also stamped the image onto some yellow cardstock with green ink and wrapped this round a post -it note to form a cover. Two holes were punched into the top of the mount board and decorated ribbon threaded through to create a hanger.


Why not join in with the Imagination Crafts August Challenge and see what you can create. Take a look at the Imagination Crafts blog too  - click on the Imagination Crafts Challenge badge on the right to be taken to the challenge.


Check out the Inspiration Blog too for ideas throughout the month  from the Design Team.

Imagination Crafts products used:
Honeycomb Stencil.
Decoupage Flower Stamp Set Daisy
Sparkle Medium of your choice

Rings and Things.

Hi all,

Iv'e been busy making some jewellery and thought I would show you a couple of things that Iv'e made.

I love making jewellery as you can make almost anything with just a few bits and pieces and one or two techniques. Here, on the left,  you can see a ring that I made which only took a few minutes. Below you can see a scarf ring that Iv'e made too using seed beads and wire.

Jewellery is so easy and with a little imagination lots can be created.

I am also starting to use beads on material and felt so keep an eye on this blog for more crafty inspiration.

. Back soon with more crafty images for you.

Imagination Crafts Design Team Inspiration Project - Tag Card.

Imagination Crafts - Design Team Inspiration Project - Tag Card.

Hi again,

This inspiration project "Tag Card"  was made using Imagination Crafts Diamond Stencil and Sparkle Gel Medium mixed with mica powders to add colour.

To create this Tag Card - Spread plain Sparkle Gel Medium over the Diamond Stencil onto dark brown cardstock to create the background for the card.  Then, mix Sparkle Gel Medium with coloured mica powders and spread this onto light brown cardstock and white cardstock.  Once dry, cut out tag shapes from both the light brown card and white card and layer up. (Glitter was added to the white stencilled image before it was dry to add sparkle).
Raffia ties and Forever Friends Die cuts were added to the card plus quilled and rolled flowers to decorate the corners and tags themselves. A Thank you sentiment was also added.

These tags can be used for parcels or presents if you carefully attach them to your card with brads or using the raffia.
Go to the Imagination Crafts Challenge Blog and Inspiration Blog for more ideas. There is a new challenge every month so why not join in and have some Imagination Crafting fun and share your ideas with us.

Imagination Crafts Products used for this project were:
Mica Powders
Sparkle Gel/Medium. There  are lots of lovely colours to choose from. 
Diamond Stencil
Spatula

Summer Lantern made with WoW Embossing Powders

Summer Lantern - use indoors or outside to enhance your garden with colour.

Hi again,

Iv'e made this Summer Lantern to hang either indoors or outside with a T-Light inside. These  look fab if you make lots of them using different coloured embossing powders and you can recyle all your old jars too.

They look stunning in the evenings when the sun goes down if you have a T-Light inside and really brighten up your garden with colour.

Iv'e also added flowers to this jar which were made using a silicone mould and melted embossing powders. I also twisted some wire and added that to the top of the jar for the hanger.

Go the the WoW Embossing powder blog to see lots of projects using the lovely range of powders.  You can access the shop from the blog too to see all the lovely colours and varieties of powders that are available.

Happy crafting and more ideas for you tomorrow.