A reminder it's 2014!

A slightly belated Happy New Year to you and yours! I had a lovely Christmas and New Year - we spent lots of time, just the four of us, playing board games as well as seeing family but there is something that is inevitable - that at the end of the festivities, when normality begins again, I can never remember to write the new year in dates! So this year I made a reminder from Art Parts!

To make the numbers I used a texture fade on sheet of metal card (or you could use mirror card) and then coloured it with Alcohol Inks. I then stamped the numbers onto the card and cut it out. A really simple way to make the numbers look really effective - looks great on a child's birthday card too!

Whilst I had some Alcohol Ink left on my dabber I painted the Art Part frame with white paint and then dabbed the left over ink over the top - looks ever so effective! How are you remembering to write the correct date?

Gabrielle

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How many more sleeps?!

Christmas is in full swing here in the Price household with excitement for the big day mounting! Tom, my son, always asks "how many sleeps..." and so I thought I'd make a countdown calendar for him!

I took some of my precious Art Parts and covered the background with Little Black Dress and Snowflake Fresco Finish Paint. I only gave it a light covering as I knew I was about to sand them afterwards but you might prefer to paint them more thoroughly. After a light sand I edged the white Art Parts with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The flower is a poinsettia stamp by Wendy Vecchi - if you have the Tattered Poinsettia die this would look fabulous (but that's on my Christmas wish list so I didn't have it to hand!) I read how Tim Holtz and Wendy Vecchi have recently put Frosted Film over Clearly for Art so I thought I'd have a go too and the flower is the result of that experiment! Over the top I added Wendy's fabulous Red Geranium Archival Ink and then heated to shape the flower. The centre is a hitch fastener.

The Christmas Tree is another Wendy Vecchi stamp - I have used the Pine Tree die a lot this Christmas so I chose to do something different his time but use what you have! The stamps at the bottom are actually rub ons which look fabulous! There is a black and white set of rub ons in the package and so I used the white snowflakes on the blackboard part.

I hope you find some inspiration in my project this month - we love seeing what you've made! I hope you have a very Happy Christmas and I'll see you in the New Year!

Gabrielle x

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Apothecary Bottles

As it's (nearly!) Halloween I decided to make a little hanging that will help give our home a 'spooky' feeling later this month! My children love Halloween, a lot more than I do, and so I am trying find ways of decorating the house! Also, this might give you some added inspiration to join in with this month's challenge over on our Challenge Blog as the theme is Something Spooky!

I took a large and small Art Part and sprayed them with Squeezed Orange ink. Then I added Spiced Marmalade and Vintage Photo Distress Inks on the edges. I then sprinkled them with water to make a mottled effect and once dry I embossed a spider and web. Make sure the Art Part is very dry so you don't have any embossing powder where you don't want it! I then added two eyelets and adhered the shelf with Glossy Accents.

I filled a variety of Apothecary bottles by 7 Gypsies (Amber and Clear) with Dylusion Inks and then I took the Domed Bottle and filled it with toy spiders raided from my son's room (why do boys always have gross things squirrelled away?!) and turned the bottle upside down as if it's a Bell Jar. The shark's tooth was bought home from a school trip somewhere - see I told you he had gross things!!! I used some shrink plastic to make the skull as my stamp was too big for my project but you can use Clearly for Art if you have a small sized stamp. I then added Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the skull - I tried doing this before shrinking it - it wasn't very successful! I suspended the skull using jump rings.

I hope you like my latest spooky project! I'd love to see what you have made for Halloween!

Gabrielle

Tag Book

Thank you for your good wishes following my accident - I'm on the mend though I've been "reassured" I'll take months to heal and so, for the foreseeable future I'm crafting one handed! For my first project back I wanted to make a tag book and this is it! Each page is coloured with Dylusions Inks and stencils with a mixture of Dylusion, Tim Holtz, Wendy Vecchi and JoFy stamps. I apologise that there's a few photos... I couldn't decide what I could leave out!

January, March, May

Each page is edged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink so there is a complementary feel as you look through the book.

February, April, June

The month name and phrases are typed on my laptop and printed out, before being edged in Vintage Photo.

July, September, November

To colour in the under sea animals I used water brushes filled with Dylusions Inks.

August, October, December

For the cover I used Tim Holtz Idea-Ology and Wendy Vecchi Art Parts which take Dylusions Inks beautifully! The binder is wonderful Ruler Binder kit with a little Vintage Photo ink added to knock back the 'just out of the packaging' look!

I hope you like my tag book and that you feel inspired to have a go yourself - if you add a quotation or saying you could enter it into this month's Country View Crafts challenge... Just saying! Oh! To prempt the question which are my favourite pages...!!!

Gabrielle x