Halloween Time! Altered Alarm Clock

Today I'm sharing a project I actually made a few weeks ago but thought I'd save up for today! When the sneak peeks came around earlier this year of all the new company releases, my eye was immediately drawn to the Tim Holtz Alarm Clock, I had so many ideas for them that I ended up buying a few when they were released (oops!) My first one though, is this one...

Halloween is one of my favourite holidays and I love to make projects for it (even though we don't really do as much for it here in the UK!) For this I used the October Afternoon Witch Hazel line (one of my faves!) the back of the clock I covered in the black star paper before cutting and layering my gravestones and witches and pumpkins and cats to build up my Halloween scene inside...

The edges of the clock I decorated with foliage cut from coordinations distress card using one of my favourite ever Sizzix dies, the Tim Holtz Autumn Gatherings die, reminds me of crunching leaves!

 

I also used the Sizzix mini daisy die - these little dies are great as it cuts out all the petals individually and you can build it up as much as you need with Pinflair glue! I added some Stickles for sparkle too

 The little 3D spiders and webs are from some older Jolee's Boutique stickers that I had hoarded away

I used a combination of Pinflair glue and Glossy accents to layer everything together before adding my flying witch to the outside...

 Here is another little peek inside...

I loved making this and can't wait to start on my next Clock, I have another idea (or 10!) in mind already...

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Tim Holtz's Tattered Floral Challenge!

Today I'm sharing my entry for the Tim Holtz Tattered Floral Challenge! I've actually only ever entered one other challenge before (by my lovely crafty friend Fab) can you believe that?! but as soon as I saw this one, an idea came to me and I just had to do it! So here is my altered vintage wooden spool...

I don't often craft with flowers, I'm not really a 'flowery' type of girl, lol, but I'd had in my head, a picture of metal flowers, I tried cutting them from aluminum but I couldn't mould them as much as I wanted to so I had the idea of covering grunge paper with one of the Ranger foil sheets before die cutting with the Tim Holtz / Sizzix Tattered Floral Die, and that worked a treat! Once cut, they looked exactly as I'd pictured all along (and how often does that happen?? lol) Here are a few more close ups...

I wanted the metal finish to be more aged and not too bright and shiny so once I'd made the flowers up, I dabbed a tiny bit of the new Distress paint in black soot onto my craft sheet, misted it with water and then used my finger to dab it onto the petals before drying with a heat gun. I then finished them off with a dab of crackle accents to make them even more vintagey (yes, it's a word! lol) and the tiniest hint of Rock Candy stickles. Here's a close up...

The vintage fabric label is from Rico, I scrunched it and aged it with Distress stains in antique linen and tea dye, then done the same to a ticket. I added a layer of crackle accents to the ticket and then cracked even more after by re-scrunching (also a word... ;o) )

I joined the label and the ticket together with a little paperclip and added one of the tiny game spinners and a vintage glass button, tied through with some cream button twine

I didn't do an awful lot to the vintage spool (available in my shop) just added a touch of tea dye distress stain to the edges and the coated in rock candy stickles before drying off with a heat gun. I added a length of twill ribbon around the centre, plugged the centre with a scrap of the grunge paper that was left over to create a little step for the doll (also from Tim Holtz) - I love broken and disembodied dolls (weird, right?) so had to include this one! I filled the gap with Beacon Adhesives 3 in 1 glue and held him in there for a few minutes until it dried around him, then added blobs of Beacon 3in1 around the cotton reel and to the bottoms of the flowers to secure them in place around him on top of the cotton reel.

I finished it with a hint of rock candy stickles on the dolls hair...

Thanks for bearing with me through that epic post! I hope you liked my creation.

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

p.s. scroll back for the DT call details and new Create & Craft TV show dates! :o) x 

Home Decor with Basically Bare

Today I'm sharing a home decor project I made using Basically Bare chipboard elements

I made this canvas using the Heart chipboard shapes in 3 different sizes, some packaging from a parcel I received that day and lots of white paint, all onto a blank canvas that I'd laying around for a while. To see how I made each element, pop over to the Basically Bare blog for a step by step run through

This is now hanging in my bedroom and I love it! 

Thanks for stopping by, don't forget to drop by again tomorrow when I'll be sharing more Halloween projects and I'll have a little freebie for you :o)

Sarah x

An Altered Book

About a year ago I bought a papier mache book from Hobbycraft, I've been waiting for the perfect project for it and finally it came together with a chipboard house and some die cuts from my Cricut Expression...

 

First I covered the outside of the book with torn book pages using medium to stick it all down - I made sure to open the book half way through drying to ensure it could still open and that there was no cracking or bubbling of the paper. While that was drying I made the chipboard house and used a strong glue (Bostik) to glue it to the front of the book and painted it with a coat of white gesso.

When the medium was dry I run some fine sandpaper over so that the surface wasn't so shiny, then I sprayed it with my ink sprays in Midnight, Teal, Imperial Purple and Lipstick - I sprayed randomly and then used kitchen towel to blot and spread out the colour. When that was dry I painted the house in white and brown with acrylic paint and used gold acrylic paint for the side where the pages should be (the book reminded me of the old Readers Digest ones that my grandad used to collect - they all had gold edged pages - very fancy!)

I then cut shapes from the 'Heritage' expression cartridge for the fence (can you imagine trying to cut that by hand? eeek!), birds and trees and handcut the grass from a scrap of green bazzill. I cut the trees and braches from cream card and painted them to keep the hand painted look of the project consistent. It only took a few minutes to paint the leaves and trees. Once all the paint was dry I used glossy accents to attach all the die cut shapes.

 Finally I run some gold paint over the birds and butterflies just using a fairly wet brush so the colour wasn't too strong and it was more of a glaze.

I think the back still needs a little something but I've not decided what just yet - maybe some journaling when I've made the mini book to go inside (like a book synopsis) but I'll keep you posted once I've decided!

Today I've been locked in my studio again all day working on crafty projects until I had no drying surfaces left! This evening I have some designs to work on and emails to catch up on!

Sarah x