8 x 8 " canvas collage !

Many apologies for the lack of blogging, I've been struggling a bit lately with depression so not really felt like doing too much.

But I've managed to complete this piece! It's hopefully going to be a present for someone and I'm hoping they will like it, because I'm not really sure what I was trying to achieve here and i seem to have got a little 'lost'!

Anyway, I used blue and white acrylic paint to give the canvas a 'wash'! After it was dry I used the Large upper and Lower case Alphabet templates from Easi-score as a 'stencil, then dry brushed around them with Faded Jeans Distress ink. I then distressed the edges of the canvas with the same colour, then oversprayed with a 'Fireworks Blue' spray ink, this gave a gorgeous iridescent finish.

I drew around the plastic letters on some patterned paper and cut them out then embossed them with the Cuttlebug 'Text' embossing folder. I also used the Clear Rock Candy Distress Stickles to add some glitter to the letters.

The flowers were made using the Flower Power stamp Themeplate from The Artistic Stamper and also using a technique I found over the Artistic Stamper blog in the videos section. They were then backed by some Stewart Gill Glitteratti.

Here's a closer look






The butterfly is from the Elusive Images Patchwork Butterfly themeplate and is stamped using clear versamark ink and then embossed with black embossing powder, i also used the Clear rock Candy stickles to give it a bit of 'sparkle'!The 'Buttons'and 'Lace' are also an Elusive Images themeplate, 'Collage' i think it's called, I've had that set for so long i can't remember! lol.

I'm not really too sure if I like this piece or not yet, I think because I got a bit lost while putting it together is kind of putting me off it slightly. but I'll just put it aside for the time being. I'll make my mind up later maybe.

For some reason I can't seem to get any 'links' working today so please accept my apologies for not being able to let you see the products I'm talking about.

Thanks for looking in, take care everyone

Jackie x

Grungepaper cuffs!

I FINALLY managed to get my sitcky mitts on some Grungepaper!! Every time I went for this stuff it was sold out! Like goldust the stuff! Anyway, I've been having a little play and came up with these!

I bought the Tim Holtz winged heart die in a sale! lol..and as soon as I saw it I knew what I was going to do with it!

The cuffs are painted using the Blonde moments Gold acrylic paint (yes again! just love that paint lol) then over stamped using my favourite crackle background stamp with stazon ink. The top heart is stamped using clear versamark ink then heat embossed with black embossing powder, the bottom one is just stamped but the photo sadly doesn't show it very clearly. The wings are overstamped as well, I just added some clear Rock Candy stickles to give them a glitter effect. I added some gems to the crown to give it a wee bit of 'bling factor'!

Really quite pleased with the way these have turned out as it's my first attempt at having a go a these cuffs! Think I'll try and do some earrings and maybe try a pendant to match!

Watch this space!

Thanks for looking in and take care everyone

Jackie xx

Surprise in a suitcase!

I fell totally and utterly in love with these papier mache suitcases when I was browsing the other day and just had to have them!! They are just adorable!!

I also wanted to try my hand at using some grungepaper,and wanted to have a go at making some flowers. So I decided to just go for it! lol Here's what I used...


Papier Mache suitcases (pack of two) and the Flower Power rubber stamp themplate purchesd from www.theartisticstamper.com/, I also used Elusive Images Patchwork Butterfly stamp. Blonde Moments Metallic acrylic paints in Bronze and Suet Black,Distress inkpad Fired Brick, Distressed stickles Clear Rock Candy and a Black Archival ink pad. Inktenses Watercolour pencils. Some small paper flowers and some silicone glue!

First of all I made the grunge paper flowers following instructions from here http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/06/grunge-it-up-jennie.html
Then while they I was waiting for them to dry I painted the suitcase with the Bronze and Suet Black Acrylic paint! I stamped the Burtterfly onto grungepaper and coloured it using the Inktense Watercolour pencils. I just glued them all to the inside of the suitcase when they were all dry! It's truned out pretty nice for my first attempt and I just love it to bits! I was going to give this as a gift but think I'll keep it for myself! lol...how many times has that happened to you?...lol.

Thanks for stopping by, take care all,

Jackie x

Joanna Sheen's Bathtime Diva stamped mirror!

I bought this mirror from Ikea yonks ago! I've had this idea in mind for it since then, but every time I went to buy Joanna Sheen's Bath time Diva stamp it was sold out! I've finally managed to get a hold of it! Yay!!!!


I painted the plain wooden frame with some white acrylic artist paint, not thin enough for a wash but not thick enough for a full coverage, if you get my meaning! Let it dry, then gave it a good 'scrub' with some fine grade sandpaper.

I stamped the images all over the frame and let the ink dry! coloured them using the Marvy Le Plume Art markers. let them dry a little and then sanded it down again. I gave it wipe with a dry cloth then glazed the images with Glossy Accents! this will make them waterproof when cleaning!!!. I oversprayed with some Glimmer mists just to finish it off a little!

Here are some close ups of some of the 'distressing'




I love this little project, didn't cost the earth to 'make' and will look really good in my bathroom! :D

Thanks for looking in

Take care

Jackie x

A quick little Birthday gift!

I made this quick little gift for someone whom I don't see very often as they stay a fair distance away, and I usually try and send some recent photos to keep them updated.

Anyway, this was made using the Sizzix XL 'Favour box' die, I just printed out a photo and stuck it inside, I also used a cut off of acetate for the glass. the embellishments are just gold peel-offs and some paper flowers coloured using Pro-markers! Dead quick and simple!

Thanks for looking in,

Take care

Jackie x

Tall Stories Engagement card.

This is the first card I've made for aaaaaaaaages!! It's for my nephew who has just got engaged!

For this I used the the Keepsake Tall Stories (the pink board) and the Celebrations (the white board). I also used the "Cute Wedding" kit from the Serif Digital Scrapbook Artist CD rom! I, printed off an A4 sheet for the background. I used the same background to creat the embellishment, I added the lace frame,text, love heart and the engagement ring, just to finish it off, then cut it out and mounted over a feather, I just added a peel-off to finsish off the corner. The other side is done using the Champagne glasses from the Celebrations board, I just used gold glitter for the champagne, and white glitter for the 'froth', then added a couple of flowers to finsish off. A strip of satin ribbon with some gold peel-off 'waste' is used for the 'bookmark'.

As I said earlier, it's the first card I've made in a long time and I quite enjoyed it.

Thanks for looking in,

Jackie x

Travel memory album!

Well here it is! All finally finished and bound! I'm not going to go into details about the cover because I've already done that on an earlier post so won't bore you with the details again!





The first page! Now as this album is based on a recent trip to San Fransisco, this song by Scott McKenzie just popped into my head, so i just 'went with it', all very 'hippie' and 'psychedelic'!! Plus it gave me a great opportunity to finally use those Little Claire's VW stamps! The car is coloured using Promarkers. I just embellished the page with some Flora Doodles! The background is sprayed randomly with Glimmer Mist sprays by the way.




This page was done just the same as the previous, again spraying the background with glimmer mists. Only this time I added some views of the city and that gorgeous Camper Van again coloured with pro markers! And some paper flowers added for embellishment to continue the theme.


Now I can't really show you anymore just yet, because the other pages contain photos of my friend and as yet I haven't had the chance to ask permission for them to be shown, He hasn't received this gift as it's on it's way to France, so when he gets it I will hopefully be able to post the other pictures of the pages to let you see the rest of this keepsake.

Thanks for looking in

Take care

Jackie x



***EDIT***

Well! my friend has finally received his parcel! And has given me permission to post the photos on here! It seems that the 'unpronounceable' Volcano in Iceland has a lot to answer for! Hence the length of time in delivery!

Anyway...i digress.........here are the rest of the photos and some info on how it was done!




Just a very plain and simple background here, using colours to tone in the with the photos. The little saying was one I downloaded from the Internet.







These pages are done using Tim holtz 'Timeworks' masks and it is a very poor attempt at some 'Steampunk'! i also used Tim Holtz Gadget Gears sizzix die with some grungeboard painted in various metallic colours! Not brilliant but not too bad considering it's my first go at this kind of thing.






In Jail!!! A visit to Alcatraz! I just couldn't resist this using this photo! I distressed the page then over stamped with the Judikins artifacts cube 'stone' effect to give the impression of the wall. Used the Handcuff from Joanna Sheens 'Policeman Lofty' stamps but made the chain using jump rings! Just added the Key and some 'graffiti to finish off the page.









A very plain and simple page. A visit to the Star Wars exhibition! I just sprayed a few different colours on the page, along with some interference ink to give a 'starry' effect, which sadly the camera didn't pick up. used the sizzix filmstrip die to finish off.






Again another simple page, just prayed with inks to tone in with the photos. Added the brass 'cutlery' tied with black ribbon, the black guitar is a sizzlets die, the gold guitar is actually a wooden button painted gold, and musical notes are from a tiny paper punch and black card.






Now this was a tad more 'involved'. But many apologies for the lousy photography!

I sprayed then distressed the whole page, then overstamped it with the pawprint form Elusive Images 'What Cats Say' themplate. I then used the Heirloom Gold perfect pearls over the paw prints to make them stand out better, I drew round a heart shape and made a trifold base, i stuck down a photo of the cat in the middle, the saying that I 'cropped' from the photo says, "pets leave pawprints on your heart", the other side is the cat's name, done using a sizzix letters die. The tags were done the same way as the page and using the same stamps. I must admit to shedding a wee tear when doing this page because the little cat died/went missing(not sure which and was too scared to ask really) a couple of years ago and this was a kind of 'memorial' page.





And Finally the last page! Now this one i love...love the way the colours have worked on this. The Greeting is actually a Scottish Toast, so I sprayed the paper then printed off the greeting, I also printed and 'English' translation,and slotted it behind the image, as this way heading to France and would have difficult to 'understand' lol. The thistle is one of my all time favourite stamps! It's from the 'Flowers of Scotland' range from Stewart Gill and it's just gorgeous! It's stamped onto a sprayed background then coloured using Inktense Watercolour pencils

When this album finally DID manage to find it's was to France no thanks to an unpronouncable volcano in Iclenad, my friend E-mailed me ans told me how 'blown' away' by it he was. It made it all worth while because it's the first time I've tried creating my own backgrounds!

Thank you all for taking the time out to read this huge posting tonight. I really do appreciate it.

Take care

Jackie xx

More Blog Candy!!

Been doing some major Blog hopping this past few days and just look at what I've come across!


Over on The Artistic Stamper you will find this! Isn't it just gorgeous!!!! i must get me some of those to try them out! I Love them!!



And I also came across this at Crafty Goings On....Wow! So much in this pack!

Enjoy!


Thanks for stopping by

Jackie x

No crafting this week :(

Well I'm sorry, but I don't have much to 'report' this week.

I've been laid up with a rather nasty eye infection, so not really got a lot of crafting done. Just taking a little time out to some blog hopping, although I can't do too much as I'm gradually building a huge 'tissue' mountian because my eyes are constantly streaming!

Anyway, I digress......Check out Glenda's Blog

She has got some absolutley gorgeous Blog Candy on offer!

My brain just went on meltdown and my poor bank balance will be taking a hefty beating soon methinks!

Take care everyone and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Thanks for dropping by

Jackie x

Travel Memory Album cover

This is the cover for a memory album I'm doing from scratch! EEKS! But if the pages turn out like this I'll be dead pleased!

I sprayed the background with Glimmer mists,then stamped and used some Perfect Pearls over the stamps. Distressed the edges and then added the embellishments to the front. The tag is done the same as the cover, the little globes and sayings are offcuts from some scrapbook paper, and the VW Camper van and bug are wooden buttons coloured with distressing ink and perfect pearls. The Acrylic circle is stuck down over a map of the U K (in particular Scotland) As this album is heading off to France when it's finished.

Here's a photo of the inside cover,




This has just been sprayed,distressed stamped and again dusted with Perfect Pearls hence the rather nasty 'shine'.

I really enjoyed doing this, it's so much fun because you never really know what the end result will look like!

Thanks for looking in

Take care everyone

Jackie x

Altered Mirror - Joanna Sheen style!

Many apologies for the recent lack of blogging. I've not really been feeling very inspired these days. I've just been 'pottering' around in my craftroom for a couple of days trying out a few different things to see if I can get my long lost 'mojo' back!

I've managed to actually concentrate on something and finally finished this off!

The mirror frame is from Ikea! and just cried out for 'something' to be done to it!

I painted the frame with the Blonde moments metalic paints in bronze, then decided to be smart and added some crackle accents to parts of the frame, but when I 'highlighted the cracks I didn't like the colour so decided to sand it down and gave it another coat of paint! Oh well, I'll know not to do that again! lol

The rectangle, square, ovals and hearts are all chipboard frames painted with Blonde Moments metallic paints, overstamped with Judikins Artefacts cube stamp (the 'stone' effect) and then heat embossed. It gives a lovely looking texture to the frames. They are filled with clear UTEE to give them a 'glass' look! The other rectangles and squares are stampboard, these were bits I was trying out and made a total mess of! lol, so I just triple embossed and stamped into while the powder was still hot, again using the Artefacts cube. There are a couple of alcohol inked pieces on there as well.
All the images are from Joanna Sheen's Victorian Romance cd rom! I adore that cd! Soooo useful for sooo many things!

Here's the 'before' shot!





Thanks for looking in

Take care everyone

Jackie xx

Mixed media collage canvas.

Well what can I say! I've been playing today! Not really sure if I like this or not but I suppose it's not too bad considering it's my first attempt!!


I bought a pack of papers from a charity shop yonks ago and knew they would come in handy sometime! They are great, there's a copy of an old Exchange and Mart, old receipts, cigarette cards, catalogues advertising the mod cons of the day etc! All fascinating stuff!!

Anyway, I tore up the Exchange and Mart, Distressed it using Brushed Corduroy Distressing ink and then overstamped it with a pocket watch stamp from the 'Time and Keys' themeplate from The Artistic Stamper, then brushed over the stamped images with Gold Perfect Pearls. I then stuck the whole thing down onto an 8 x 8 canvas using the Golden range Gel medium!

I tore a couple of pages from the advertising catalogue distressed them using Brused Corduroy ink and Fired Brick, then stuck the little 'family portrait' on top, which is actually a 'cigarette card' and a sizzix diecut frame, which I distressed and the added some Crackle Accents to give it an 'old photograph' look!

The pocket watch is stamped and alcohol inked, then stuck down, I used Glossy Accents to give it a 'glass face'. I cannibalised an old hanging mobile for the chain and added a gold button to finish off! The Tag is just Distressed with Brushed Corduroy and Fired Brick inks, overstamped with a pocketwatch stamp, brushed with Perfect Pearls. I used alchol ink on an old key I had in my craft stash and stuck it to the tag.


The bottom left picture is a cigarette card, distressed and painted over with Crackle Accents. The top card is alcohol inked over but I added acrylic fragments to highlight the tins of 'polish'. The cutlery is actually little brass charms I've had stashed away for yonks!! I alcohol inked over them to tone them down a little and they just match perfectly!


It's the first time I've tried anything like this before and I'm quite surprised with the result! It certainly does have a lot of character though.

Thanks for looking in and apologies for the rather long posting tonight.

Take care

Jackie x

Simple Distressed Tags

I Purchased Tim Holtz Compendium of Curiosities TSV from QVC last week and it arrived on Saturday, so I couldn't wait to have a little play and try out some of his techniques!

This is just a simple set of tags, I wanted to start small incase I fluffed things up!

Anyway, the tags are plain white, which I Distressed with the Brushed Corduroy ink that came in the pack, the stamps are 'What cats say' from Elusive Images and are stamped in Fired Brick Distressed Ink from my own stash. I brushed over the stamped images with Gold Perfect Pearls that also came in the kit!

I must admit to really liking this technique and now I know how to do it properly it will certainly be used more often from now on!

I'm so pleased I bought that book, because even though this style may not be for everybody I'm finding the more I look at what's in my craft stash the more I see that what I do have can be adapted! The book is a wonderfull compendium of ideas and inspiration...and that's the whole point.

So I'm going to have another play today and see if I can put together something a bit more special, I have a couple of ideas that I would try out!

Thanks for looking in,

Jackie x

Joanna Sheen mixed media canvas!

This is the first time I've tried anything like this and I'm quite pleased with the end result, the only thing I'm not happy with is the colour! It's too pink! But that's maybe because I'm not really a 'pink person'!

Anyway, I painted the background randomly with acrylic paint, sprayed it with Pink Glimmer mist and then stamped Joanna Sheen's perfume bottles and evening dresses in Red Brick Distressed ink! I stamped the square perfume bottle with Stazon onto acetate and then glittered it from behind! While that was drying I used the Frame sizzix die and stippled it with paint, then sprayed it with glimmer mists, I cut the photo to fit the frame and then stuck it down onto the canvas, stuck the frame on top then just 'dotted' some Clear Stickles Glitter Glue and rubbed it over the frame with my finger.

The little heart in the top corner is done using the 'waste' from the die cut frame, I added some little gems, Flora Doodles and a bow to finish it off. I also highlighted the text and frame using a pink Stardust Sakura pen!

This piece is waaay different from what I normally do and I must admit to having some serious fun doing this! In fact I think I'll give it to my mum for mothers' day as she is the one in the photo with Joanna, it was taken at Graphicus open day in december las year, and I took her along for her birthday! She got to meet Joanna and Glenda so that really made her day!

Thanks for looking in

Take care everyone

Jackie x

Beaded Earrings and matching ring.

Just finished these to match the charm bracelet and necklace I did earlier! now I have a complete set!!

The ring was really simple, just beads threaded onto 1" headpins then attatched to the loops on the ring with jump rings.

The Earring were done in much the same way. 2" black Eye pins threaded with various beads and attatched onto earwires with jump rings. The heart charms were actually silver so I coloured them black using promarkers!

It took me half an hour to this little set, so it's very quick and simple, and if you've got the stuff handy, a great idea for that "last minute gift" lol.

Take care and thanks for looking in

Jackie x

Eclectic charm pendant!

Here is the pendant that I made to match the charm bracelet! And this has turned out much better than I expected, because I was just experimenting with some ideas and techniques so wasn't really sure what the end result would be.

Anyway, the base of the pendant is a chipboard rectangle which I have triple embossed and while the embossing powder was still hot I stamped into it with a crackle background stamp! The big black coil is just some spare wire I had lying around, I wrapped it loosely around a pencil then joined it by twisting the ends together, making a loop at the end. I made some glass bead charms and attatched them to the coil using some fine garden wire!

I made little coiled springs by just wrapping some black wire tightly round a pencil and looping the ends. I added more charms to the coils to give me more of a 'dangle'! I punched holes and added eyelets to finish off, and then just attatched everything using jump rings and added some faux leather cord.

I am really pleased with the end result of this, it has a slight 'industrial' look to it and it's very VERY different!

Thanks for looking in,

Take care everyone

Jackie x

Eclectic Charm Bracelet

I've been playing with my jewellery stash today and came up with this very eclectic charm bracelet! I do love this, just a mix and match of lots of different 'stuff' I had lying around in my jewellery making bag!

I had some spare fine black chain left over from another project, I wove it through the links of the bracelet and and then added some charms I'd made using head pins and some glass beads. I found a couple of charms that I'd bought yonks ago and couldn't think of what to do with, the Celtic knot and the Feather, I also used some 'japanese' coins for charms as well. The big charm in the middle is actually a 'twist off' beer bottle cap, I just put some seed beads and some gems in the bottom then 'filled' it with UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel)melted the UTEE and Bob's your uncle! A funky charm for the bracelet!

It's a bit different, but then that's what I like.

Take care everyone and thanks for looking in.

Jackie x