MrsBeez

Being Lazy

Posted on August 28, 2013 by MrsBeez

Craft packages ordered =0, craft packages received =1

Today’s project is one I shall be sharing over at Sunday Stampers where the theme is metal.

You can probably tell that this started life as a scrap piece of corrugated card. I tore off some of the flat covering and then gave it a coat of black acrylic paint. Why black you may wonder? Well, pure laziness as I have a black paint dabber so didn’t need to mess around with a brush. Yes, shameful behaviour! Once dry I added a coat of pink metallic acrylic paint, wiping it off in places to allow the black to show through. Because of the black undercoat the pink ended up looking more purple than pink, but I didn’t mind that. Next, I stencilled some silver texture paste using a distressed diamond stencil from Dylusions. To tone the whole thing down I wiped on some more black paint over the top.

The flowers were created using one of Tim Holtz’ metallic sheets. I used a matching stamp and die set from Heartfelt Creations/Spellbinders. I first stamped the flowers, embossed the sheet, using an M’Bossabilities folder, then using the die to cut out the stamped flowers. It turned out I needn’t have stamped the flowers first as this became lost once the sheet was, but hey if you don’t try, you don’t learn. I have to say flowers were stunning, but very bright and shiny. I decided to colour them with some Vintaj alcohol inks in pink and purple then immediately wished I hadn’t! To try and correct my mistake, and again because I was being lazy and didn’t want to start all over again, I sanded the top of the flowers to reveal some of the silver and also added a touch of black paint. Now I like how these ended up, but I don’t love them as much as the original silver.

The bee was stamped onto some white muslin which I had frayed. I used watered down PVA to apply, adding a coat over the top. I couldn’t resist giving the bee a little crown.

The words were cut from a digital image that I have.The finishing touches were to add a couple of matching buttons and some seam binding.

I do like how this turned out but equally I would like to go back to the beginning and make one that was almost all silver, or as they would say in Sheffield, “I’d like to mek it reet shiny!” But do you know what? Today, I’m feeling just too lazy Thanks for buzzing by.

Do, re, mi – a yard of inchies

Posted on August 27, 2013 by MrsBeez

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Before I begin with today’s project, I have a little favour to ask. Voting has now begun on the Create for a Cause projects over at the Gecko Galz. The winning entry will receive a donation for their chosen charity, mine being Amy and Friends. You can vote for your favourite simply by emailing geckogalz@yahoo.com Of course I’d love it if you would vote for mine, and it would make Amy and Friends very, very happy.

This week’s word over at Every Inchie Monday is “song.” Having last week said that I can’t seem to make just one inchie, this week I have virtually a whole yard of them. That’s yard as in three feet (almost a metre if you work in metric) not a back yard! Actually, I’m exaggerating, but I did find that once I’d started I couldn’t stop. Here are the originals:

I decided to represent song by using notes and the syllables of the musical scale, made famous by the classic song in the Sound of Music. I hand drew these adding in decorative details. I probably should have done all seven but, to be honest, getting the first four right took me long enough! Once I had the four I decided it might be nice to experiment so I had a little play with some colour.

This design wasn’t my original idea, my first plan was to use swans and musical images (as in swan song) but it was hard to make four different ones. Anyway, I did get as far as making two, using images from The Graphics Fairy.

The swans are separate images which I cut out and glittered. I added blue Promarker to the music sheet images and a smidge of blue glitter which the camera doesn’t really pick up.

I never tire of watching The Sound of Music and when I was younger I was in love with Captain von Trapp/Christopher Plummer and thought making dresses out of curtains was a genius idea. I always struggle to remember whether Rolf gives them away whilst they are hiding in the convent. I still dream of recreating one particular scene from the film and Mr Beez worries that one day I will! Can you guess which?

Votive make over

Posted on August 26, 2013 by MrsBeez

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Another ridiculously early start, particularly as it’s a Bank Holiday Monday. This time it’s youngest Beez off on his travels so Mr Beez and he set off at 3am for Leeds/Bradford airport picking up the rest of the travel party en route. Had the car not been full up I would of course have gone with them for company. His leaving gift for me was of course, a big pile of washing – the gift that keeps on giving!

Today, I am sharing a candle votive makeover. I’ve had this set of candles for at least ten years, if not longer and as you can see from this picture, they are beginning to look a little worse for wear.

So time for a bit of a makeover. Here’s what they look like now:

These were so quick and easy to do and, if you can pick up some cheap votives, would make great gifts. Naturally, I have used an image from The Graphics Fairy and choosing just which image to use was the hardest part of this project. Love this vintage label with the little bee. I simply added colour to the background of the image, using Word, and then created a rectangle, with the same dimensions as the votive. I coloured the rectangle to match the label, combined the two together and printed them out.

I’ve run a strip of white crochet lace around the base of the votive, created matching bows and added a coordinating rose. The finishing touch was to pop a tiny black gem on the centre of the bow.

I just wish I’d had one more votive as I have also created a lilac label.

I will of course be sharing this over at The Graphics Fairy for this week’s Brag Monday linky party.

So, an early morning start and a pile of dirty washing - a perfect Bank Holiday eh?

PS – I have a favour to ask you. Voting has now begun on the Create for a Cause projects over at the Gecko Galz. The winning entry will receive a donation for their chosen charity, mine being Amy and Friends. You can vote for your favourite simply by emailing geckogalz@yahoo.com Of course I’d love it if you would vote for mine, and it would make Amy and Friends very, very happy. xx

Butterfly Bottle raising money for Amy & Friends – your vote counts

Fairy wish lantern

Posted on August 25, 2013 by MrsBeez

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This fortnight’s theme over at Anything But A Card is fairies. You will know that I love creating little fairy scenes so I was very excited about creating my design team piece.

I dithered A LOT about what sort of fairy project to do so I was thrilled when I came across this little lantern at a bargain price. I love the work of Nichola Battilana which inspired me to try this design.

The fairy image is from the Gecko Galz The Children’s Hour collage set and I gave her butterfly wings from the Pixie Children set. I printed the wings out in two different sizes and then glittered them. She has a silver crown and is holding a single glittery rosebud.

I’ve used lots of Icelandic light green moss both in and around the lantern plus some leaf ribbon trim and then dotted in some pink sweetheart blossoms and a glass toadstool bead that I picked up from Ebay. The words were made n my computer.

I couldn’t decide whether to allow the lantern to close or not, and in the end decided to leave it open which meant I could have the moss spilling out at the front and that I could also attach two pretty butterflies to the open door.

It was a shame that there was only one of these lanterns for sale as I would love to make a Halloween version…a Christmas version… a Valentine’s version… an Easter version … But you get the idea I’m sure!

Do take a look at what the rest of the Design Team have been up to over at Anything But A Card as there are some inspirational pieces. We’d love to see your fairy creations too. There’s also a link to a site where you can generate your own fairy name – mine was Juniper Vinetree -what’s yours?

Pink dragonfly

Posted on August 24, 2013 by MrsBeez

Craft packages ordered =2 craft packages received =2

Today I am sharing another of my Gecko Galz DT pieces that uses one of the beautiful images from the Book Covers ephemera collection:

The pretty dragonfly image is from the Darling Dragonflies collection. I’ve layered it on some super sparkly card and also added glitter to the dragonfly’s wings and body.

I also added some sparkle to parts of the book image using a Quickie glue pen and silver glitter.

I stamped Happy Birthday on to a piece of the book image and added some more glittery card.

The finishing touches were to add some ribbon, which was seam binding dyed with Worn Lipstick distress stain, and a little pink paper rose. I scrunched the ribbon up so it had a crinkly texture.

These pretty images seemed made for each other.

Thanks for buzzing by.

Crafting by numbers

Posted on August 23, 2013 by MrsBeez

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Why is that, if you are working, Friday just seems to go on forever? Add a Bank Holiday Monday into the mix and it’s even longer! Of course, Tuesday will arrive in a matter of moments and it’ll be nose to the grindstone again!

This week’s challenge at City Crafter Challenge has an interesting twist. You have to use 1 stamp, 2 designer papers and 3 embellishments. You are also allowed cardstock. I love these sorts of challenges but am terrified by the at the same time. I always worry I will infringe the rules in some way. So, here’s my entry:

I’ve used my bee stamp and Vintage Photo distress ink. Love the bee image using this ink – it has a nice vintage feel.

My first designer paper is some newsprint (this is from a designer paper pad, but I can’t remember where from!). This is great as by turning it sideways you get a different pattern.

My three embellishments are two sweetheart blossoms and a piece of ivory crochet lace.

The other designer paper is from my Tim Coffey collection. It the first outing for this particular paper, with lovely vintage bees, and it is the one that seduced me into buying the pad.

Thank you for buzzing by and enjoy the holiday weekend.

Jam today

Posted on August 22, 2013 by MrsBeez

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There is a scrummy summerfruit picture to use as inspiration for this week’s challenge over at Papercraft Star. My initial thoughts were to use cherries, as I haven’t done any cherry themed projects of late. Then I thought of watermelon. The one thing I knew I wasn’t going to do was strawberries, as I had done a couple of those already and thought I should do something different.

Oops – how on earth did that happen? Well, you know how it is! First I found this lovely label over at The Graphics Fairy, then I discovered some stamped and coloured strawberries left over from previous projects and before I knew it a whole card was born!

The jar image was something I found on Pinterest, I’m sorry I no longer have the link to the free download. I printed it out on off-white card and then a second copy on to vellum. The two together worked better than simple white, which was a bit stark. Both the jar and the label were edged with Vintage Photo.

I’d originally planned to use a doily but somehow found myself using a border of white crochet lace around the edge of the red backing paper.

In addition to the strawberries I used some die cut and punched greenery plus a little off-white sweetheart blossom from Wild Orchid Crafts. I love this combination.

There’s something about blue gingham and strawberries – to me they go together a bit like strawberries and cream!

So not the card I intended, but this sort of asked to be made, and I’m very happy it did! Thanks for buzzing by.

Sunset memories

Posted on August 21, 2013 by MrsBeez

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When I was little I had a fabulous book called Anthony Art Master. It was all about a rabbit (or it may have been a hare?) who was responsible for painting the colours of everything. It was a book I loved and I remember being fascinated by the fact that he painted the shadows of the trees in the snow. The final reveal of Anthony’s art work was the most fabulous technicolour sunset. I can’t be sure, but I have a feeling that he might have gone to a studio in the sky after this and handed his brush down to younger rabbits/hares. I still have the book and need to find it to check this fact and also to see if the pictures are as vivid as they are in my memory.

Why am I telling you this you wonder? Well, the theme for this week’s Sunday Stampers challenge is to use sunset/sunrise colours. I had several false starts with this and as I was playing with colour I was reminded of the story of Anthony and wondered if I had out technicoloured him! I wasn’t happy with my first attempts using proper canvas and Dylusions (nice colours but I ruined them with what I did next!!) I decided to go for a chipboard canvas and distress inks.

I started with manila card and then used Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, Worn Lipstick, Picked Raspberry, Ripe Persimmon and Seedless Preserves. Once done, I gave the whole thing a spritz of water. This allows different colours to show through and covers up any uneven blending.

I used a Lavinia stamp and black ink to create some shadowy undergrowth. You’ll recognise the toadstool stamp by Dylusions. I stamped this on to card and then used Promarkers to colour it in. I also decoupaged some bits to give the piece a bit of dimension.

The dragonfly stamp is by Hero Arts and after colouring the images with more distress inks I added a coat of crystal glitter glue.

I haven’t quite decided whether to add words to this yet, I quite like it that the colour is the star of the show. Just as Anthony Art Master would have wanted!

Thanks for buzzing by.

Pocket watch inchies

Posted on August 20, 2013 by MrsBeez

Craft packages ordered =3, craft packages received =1

The theme at Every Inchie Monday this week is pocket watch. It seems that I can’t just make one inchie but have to make them in multiples of four! Here’s what I came up with:

The white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland was the first thing that occurred to me and I just happen to have a CD, Very Important date by My Craft Studio, that is packed full of Wonderland images. It would have been very easy to just resize some of these to 1″ squares, but it is not in my nature to take the easy route.

I did resize the images – a pocket watch and the rabbit – so they were teeny tiny and then, after painstakingly cutting them all out, made them into mini collages. This is when a really good pair of craft scissors would have been a help – sadly, that is one craft essential that I don’t possess.

The words were printed out on my computer and I added in some Graphic 45 paper for a couple of the backgrounds. Everything was inked with Vintage Photo and the rabbit was applied using small 3D foam pads to give him dimension.

The finishing touch was to add a drop of Diamond Glaze to the pocket watches being held by the rabbit and then walk away so I wasn’t tempted to touch them before they had dried.

Thanks for buzzing by.

Shine a light

Posted on August 19, 2013 by MrsBeez

Craft packages ordered =0, craft packages received = 0

As someone who celebrates Christmas in July, I love any excuse to get festive early in the year. So I was thrilled to see that the new challenge over at Crafty Boots Challenges was Christmas in August. Here’s my design team piece:

I can take no credit for the idea for this card, all honours for the inspiration and very clear tutorial must go to Amanda at Krafting Kreations blog. To make my card I used sheets of A4 card. I measured 120cm on the short side and cut down the length of the card. I folded one piece in half to make the main body of the card. On the other card I trimmed it to 122cm in length and then scored a line at 2cm. This is the base of the card and the 2cm piece attaches to the back of the other piece to make the easel.

To cut out an aperture 2cm from the top and each side but 3cm from the bottom. This gives you an aperture that is 8cm x 10cm. I covered the front and base of the card with some deep red snowflake paper. I made a second frame from some olive card topped with gold glitter card, then stamped the tree on to vellum, using olive green ink, and suck this behind the frame. The frame is attached to the front of the card using 3D foam pads.

I added little red gems to the tree. The “stopper” was made by stamping and heat embossing the greeting, in gold, and then layering this on more red snowflake paper. I used more 3D foam to adhere this to a mat made from more olive green paper and gold glitter card.

Any self-respecting tree needs a star at the top, and this one is no exception! I punched one from more gold card and popped it on top of some olive green ribbon tied simply in a knot.

The finishing touch was to add some little foil wrapped presents at the base of the tree. These were table confetti that I bought a few years ago.

Finally, I put a battery operated tealight behind the card to add a festive winter glow.

I’m very happy with how this turned out, but I don’t think I’ll be making a hundred or so to send out in December! It wasn’t difficult, but cutting out the apertures was time consuming – if you had an appropriate die or were able to use an electronic machine it would speed up the process considerably.

There’s lots of festive inspiration from the rest of the Design Team so be sure to buzz over to Crafty Boots and take a look. Check out Dionne’s cards that she’s made with some of those amazing die cut snowflakes similar to the ones she kindly sent me last week.

Thank you for buzzing by.