Bluebirds

Hello!
My last jewellery piece today over at A Sprinkle Of Imagination... next month I'm heading back to the messy painty stuff! I have made a mental note to share more jewellery makes on the blog though, I think it makes things more interesting to have a change now and again!
Anyway..... this is part of the necklace..

Please pop on over here to see the rest of it!!
Love Trish xx

Free to Fly - The butterfly version!

Hello!
You know when you get some new stash, and you then want to use it all the time? I got some of the Tim remnant rub ons...... how fabulous are they?! My fave phrase is 'free to fly', and this will be the second time this week I've used it!

This time I've used butterflies to go along with the 'fly' theme of the rub ons. The butterflies are wooden pieces by Studio Calico, I've painted them, did a little stamping then applied some rock candy crackle paint....

The gold is Treasure Gold wax, the bestest stuff ever for rubbing over crackles to emphasise them!
The background was given texture before painting. I glued on leftover strips of card that I had used to punch circles from....

And used texture paste through a fab dotty stencil...

I then used green, turquoise and white paint to add the colour. Bits of stamping and printing to give visual texture, then I added the butterflies. The image is one of my favourite Stamping Bella figures...

I've used paint and gilt wax to colour this piece, so I would like to enter it into the Simon Says Stamp And Show challenge: Colour
As there are a few butterflies involved, I think this piece qualifies for the Country View Crafts Challenge : Butterflies as well!
Love Trish xxxxx

Bezels!

My turn today over at A Sprinkle Of Imagination.. and I've more jewellery to share, this time lots of filled bezels. Like this one.....

Please pop on over there to have a look!
love Trish xxx

Free To Fly

Hello!
More 'out of the box' thinking from me today over at the Calico Crafts blog.... I'm sharing an Art Doll using the lid from a papier mache cake slice box! Please pop on over and have a look, and let me know what you think!

(Calico Blog HERE....  hopefully....links are only working now and again for some reason!)

love Trish xxxx

Delicate Daisies

Hello!
My DT piece for Creative Expressions this week has a much more delicate colour palette than my usual style..... I think I'm chanelling spring colours today!

The base is a chipboard square, which I prepared by painting white. once this was dry, I used white embossing paste to create the daisy design. I scraped the paste through a Thats Special Touch mask using a palette knife. You may notice my daisy design is leaning towards the left, when all the pictures of the mask show the daisy leaning the other way! Don't forget masks can be reversed, you can scrape paste through from either side, meaning designs can be 'flipped' if you wish. I just liked my daisies leaning this way!
Once the paste was dry, I painted the whole thing. I wanted my raised design to blend in with the background, hence adding it before painting. If you wanted the raised design to be bolder, or if you were using black paste for a dramatic accent, then you would create the background BEFORE adding the paste!
I used green and turquoise paint as my background, with accents of pink. I stamped with the paint too....

A few tiny dots, and the Chicken Wire and Plaid background stamps were used. Once all the paint was dry, I highlighted the edges and the raised areas with gilding wax. I used Patina, a gorgeous turquoise shade. Its really difficult to show you in a picture just how shimmery the gilding wax is.... this is about the best pic I could get...

 Very easy to apply too..just use your fingers!

I finished off my piece with a few white paint splats...about the messiest thing on there!
love Trish xx

Daisy Pendant

Hello!
I've been playing about with Vintaj again over at A Sprinkle of Imagination today. My DT piece this week is a Daisy pendant...

There are lots more step by step pictures over on the ASOI blog..... and you'll also find the winner of last weeks bracelet there too!
Have a great day,
Love Trish xx

"big hair" -for the Craft Stamper Make It, Take It Challenge!

Hello!
Hooray! Another Challenge has been revealed this morning over at the Craft Stamper Blog!
I really really hope you all play along with this one, its so easy and so fun!
The Craft Stamper challenges always focus on a technique shown the current issue of the magazine, the idea is that you take the technique and make it your own...hence the name, Take It, Make It challenge! This time the technique is a fabulous ripping and tearing technique, showcased wonderfully by Helen Chilton on pages 78-81 of the May 2013 issue. The DT have shared their takes on the technique on the main Blog post HERE.... My contribution is 'big hair'.....

Yes, OK, I admit it... this looks NOTHING like the other DT makes does it?!! I really wanted to show everyone that you can think totally out of the box with this technique. The ripping and tearing technique IS there.....

See?! That pic is a closeup of the top of my block, before I added her head!!
I decided to create a person because when I looked at the ripped and torn frame from the side it reminded me of a ruff, a kind of Victorian collar type thing. The whole body/wings/spool end project evolved from there!
I started by painting a wooden block and spool. White as a base, then turquoise and a grape colour smeared over the top. I stamped using paint and black ink, and added in a few bits of book pages here and there..

The heart on the front is metal, painted red then given a coat of crackle glaze. I typed the words then stuck them on..

My lady is Marie Antoinette by The Octopode Factory....Isn't that hair huge?! Not surprised there are butterflies nesting in it...

I glued the head onto the top of the block in the middle of my ripped and torn frame...

A pair of purple stamped wings later and it was done...

Something a little quirky and different!
Hopefully you'll be inspired to play along with the challenge, the winner gets published in the magazine, and there is a fab stamp from Indigo Blu up for grabs as well!
All the details can be found on the Challenge post HERE!
Good Luck!
Trish xxxxxxx

Monochrome 'love'

Hello!
This weeks DT piece for Creative Expressions has a distinct monochrome look, Kraft and white!

I've made a romantic hanging, very muted and with loads of subtle sparkly flowers!
My base is a square of chipboard with hessian glued to it. This gives fab texture and interest, and helps the 'natural' look! I stamped the large swirl from the Funky Flowers plate onto acetate using paint, then attached it to the hessian (which I had given a little coat of white paint!)

Stamping onto acetate is a good way of getting crisp detail over a surface such as the hessian. Glued using hot glue in one corner, this 'mess' can be covered easily with embellishments, in this case three tiny rolled roses!

My main image is the fabulous Steampunk Dressform by Sam Poole. As I've done before, I've 'unsteampunked' it by chopping off the cogs! I white embossed it onto Kraft card, cut it out then added a second set of wings....

These were also white embossed, but on acetate not card! I attached the hanger ( a bit of white painted driftwood) to the panel using wire threaded through some holes....

The word 'love' comes from the gorgeous Art Houses plate that the DT showcased last month...

The final touches were the hanging roses....

I thought I would give you a little 'how to'.... the roses are super simple to make, and its just as easy to turn them into dangly embellishments!
Start off by cutting a square of card. The bigger the card, the bigger the roses! If you want to create lots of similar sized roses, make sure you start with the same size of card!

Draw a spiral on the card. Don't worry about being precise, and experiment with both wide and thin spirals to see the different effects you get!

Cut out the spiral, and rub out your pencil lines!

I like to bend and roll the edges of the spiral as I find it gives a more relaxed, less rigid look. It's up to you!

Start to roll up the spiral. I like to start off the roll with my pokey tool to get a neat roll in the centre.

Keep rolling...I hold the rose in between my thumb and forefinger and wind the spiral around...

Once you've rolled all the cardstock, bend over the last bit to give a 'base', something for the rose to sit on..

Carefully turn the rose over, and place on your palm to relax slightly...

Once it has opened to give the look you want, flip back over and secure the rose by using glue. I use hot glue, and squish the rose tightly until the glue has set....

Now you are ready to decorate! I've sponged on a little white paint....

Then added Clear Rock Candy Stickles with some glue n seal.....

Now to create the hanger.... twist some wire into a loop shape, then glue to a circle of matching cardstock...

Glue this to the underside of the rose....

Looks a bit messy, but we won't be looking at the back! From the front it looks fine.....

See?! Now you can add your sparkly rose dangle to your project!

Phew...congrats if you're still here!!!!
One last pic of the whole thing...

See you soon!
Trish xxxxxx

Love Shack

Hello!
Today I'm sharing a little fairy house over at Calico Crafts....

Loads more photos, and a 'how to' over on the blog now...why not pop on over and let me know what you think!
Love Trish xxxxx

I brought you flowers....

Hello!
I want to share a tag today....got the paints out and had a messy playtime!

I've used PaperArtsy Fresco paints for this, namely Bora Bora, Limelight, Claret and South Pacific. I scraped Bora Bora (the paler blue) and Limelight (pale yellow/green) onto the tag using a palette knife, then added a little Claret (red) here and there. I then overstamped with black ink, as well as printing with South Pacific (dark turquoise) and Claret....

I coloured my Stampotique figure (Pigtails) with the paints too, using a waterbrush.
(The skin was done with Promarkers!)
I punched out a flower from the base of the tag.....

I backed the cut out hole with black card...and then used the punched out flower as an embellishment. I added some coiled wire to the flower, then attached it to my figure....

I typed the phrase, then added it to finish!
I would like to enter this tag into the Stampotique Designers Challenge 94- flowers
Have a great week everyone!
love Trish xx