Laser Cut Bedroom Set

Hello Bloggers,

Welcome to my blog today where I will be sharing with you a two piece bedroom set that I made from Laser Cut MDF from That Craft Place.

So here we have it in it's natural form and I have to say that not only am I addicted to wood I am also addicted to the smell of wood, yes I had to go and open the storage box lid again just for one more smell.

This was going to be transformed into a remote, glasses and pen holder and coaster for my butterfly filled bedroom so it was time to make them pretty.

I covered each piece with some Shallow Sea Batch Chalk Paint and gave it two coats just to project it from getting knocked about while looking for the remote in the middle of the night.  With the chalk paint there is no need to prime your MDF first and one coat should be enough to give a good covering.

I then cover the pieces in Deco Mache Decooupage Butterfly Papers.  I tore the paper into lots of little pieces this is a good job to do while watching TV and once I had enough to cover all areas I took myself back into my craft room.

Using Cosmic Shimmer Sparkle Glue, Seal and Glaze I started layering up the pieces of paper.  I love the little bit of sparkle you get with this glue, my bedroom is all about the sparkle.  I completely covered the butterfly and the heart both front and back and then lay on a further coat of the Cosmic Shimmer Glue to seal it.

On the remote control holder I covered the back and sides but decided to take some of the sparkle glue over the edges of the paint still showing.

I stuck the decoupaged butterfly paper to the back and the sides of the holder and I cut out some Tim Holtz Butterflies to decorate the sides of the holder with the largest in pink on the right and two smaller ones in teal on the left all of which were covered in lovely gems from my stash.  To enable me to use the heart as I coaster I added two coats of Americana Triple Thick Glaze once set this will now withhold hot cups of coffee on it.

All of these products are available from the lovely Lisa and Danny at That Craft Place and they are very happy to look at cutting custom made pieces if you have ideas of your own for a project.

Thanks once again for dropping by my blog please leave me any questions or comments as I do appreciate you taking the time to look at what I am getting up to.  If you would like to follow me on my crazy crafting journey feel free to join in.

TTFN
Ria

My Tag Bag

Hello fellow crafter's,

Thank you for dropping in today to take a look at my tag bag that I decorated and had so much fun covering in handmade flowers by Heartfelt Creations.  I love making tags and find myself reaching for a tag if my mojo isn't with me on the day that I get to play in the craft room,  My problem was, what to do or where to put the tags once they have been made so that is how the bag came in to play.

I have to confess that I can not remember where I bought this paper mache bag from but I just remember loving the shape of it.  It is rectangle in shape with the two sides dented in slightly giving it a great shape along with a string handle.

I painted the bag all over inside and out with Americana Decor Chalky Finish Paint in colour Remembrance.  I then went over it once dry with one coat of Americana Decor Crackle Medium and left it to dry.
I then went over the outside with Americana Decor Chalky Finish Paint in the colour Lace.  You have to not overwork the top coat of paint just load your brush and do one stroke with it and move on. The more paint you put on as the top coat the bigger the cracks you get.
I have to say that this crackle medium is one of the best I have ever used, the cracks started following my brush stokes going from top to bottom of the bag. Once the paint had dried I painted with three coats of Americana Decor Ultra Matte Varnish.  I purchased all the Americana Decor products from That Craft Place

I used the Heartfelt Creations Delightful Daisies Dies and Stamps, Botanical Wings Stamps and Dies, Butterfly Medley Paper and Delicate Asters Paper to make all my flowers, leaves tags and butterflies.

I also decorated a large peg from That Craft Place with some papers and added a large wooden butterfly to it and covered it in gems from my stash.  I am very please with how the flowers turned out, I really enjoy making up Heartfelt Creation Flowers they can be shaped to look like so many different flowers.

I hope you have enjoyed this step by step and would be happy to answer any questions that you might have and would love to hear any comments you have on my project.  I appreciate you all visiting my blog and would love you to let me know you stopped by.

Have a great week in this lovely weather whatever your plans are.

Ria

Fathers Day Gift Plaques

Good morning Crafters,

It is a bright warm sunny day as I sit and write this enjoying the sound of the birds singing.  I hope whatever it is you are doing is as enjoyable for you.

I am going to give you the breakdown on how I made two different plaques that I used DecoArt products on mainly and some Crafty Notions rusting.

The plaques have been cut by Lisa and Danny at That Craft Place Ltd and are the best quality of laser cut MDF that I have found.

I will start with my very rusty Worlds Best Daddy plaque first as this was so much fun to make and the end result in the flesh was amazing.

I started by painting the MDF with Black Gesso and once dry I then used DecoArt Crackle Embossing Paste.  I left this to dry naturally as heat drying it could cause it to bubble up.

Once the embossing paste was dry I used the DecoArt Black Mister and sprayed all over the plaque but not trying to cover it all just giving it a sort of dusting of black splatters over it.  Once this was dry I then covered it with DecoArt Quinacridone Gold.

Here you can see how the quinacridone gold starts to make this piece look rusty and old and the embossing paste gives such a great texture to it.

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These are all the pieces I made rusty using DecoArt Sand Embossing Paste, Back Gesso, Titan Buff fluid acrylics and Quinacridone Gold.  These pieces are brand new nails, screws, Keys, wood, grey board, metal and glass tiles.

These pieces were made rusty using Crafty Notions Wax Acrylic, Rusting Powder and Vinegar.  These are all wood or grey board and they looked and felt so old and rusty in the flesh.  I love that I have also been left with bits of cheese cloth that have lots of lovely rusty marks on it ready to be used on another project.

This is the back view of the plaque and I am so pleased that my Dad now has this and loves it and he has put it on show and will never be taking it down.  This was such a fun project to do it was amazing to see what was paint or powder turn in to what looked like years old rust, totally amazing.
I also used Patina Paints in Verdigris, Moss, Jade, Cinnabar and Rust to give the patina look.

This is the second plaque that I did for Lisa and Danny at That Craft Place Ltd and this time I painted it with black gesso.  When this was dry I took a few of the DecoArt Fluid Acrylics in yellow, orange and green and painted these colours over the whole piece with the No1 Dad and stars stuck down. Once dry I went over the whole thing with DecoArt Crackle Paint and left it to dry naturally.

I then used the DecoArt Fluid Acrylics in Primary Yellow, Green Gold, Cadmium Orange Hue, Cadmium Red Hue and Cobalt Teal Hue.  I allowed these paints to run from the top of the plaque spritzing it with water to help the paint move.  I then turned it upside down and did the same from this end moving it with water.

I took a black pen around the edges of the No1 Dad and Stars and then covered the whole thing in a couple of coats of DecoArt Matt Varnish to seal it all.

So there you have my two Fathers Day Plaques laser cut at That Craft Place Ltd and decorated using DecoArt products and Crafty Notions Rusting products.

Thank you for taking the time to come by my blog to find out how these were made, if you have any questions please feel free to ask and I will answer as best I can.  I appreciate you taking time out of your day to visit my blog please leave a message so that I know you have been here.

TTFN
Ria xxxxx

Change / Alter

Hello Crafters,

Thank you for dropping in today to take a look at the Design Team Challenge over at That Craft Place Ltd.  Our brief this week was change/alter and although I had a lot of ideas going through my head of things in the craft room that I could alter, I really wanted to have a go at making rust.

I did a workshop in March at That Craft Place which was run by Andy Skinner and I am a big fan of his works.  He showed us at the workshop how to create rust using Decoart products and I needed a bit of a play in my craft room.

So as you can see I decided to make a card but I used Foam Board and made it rusty.  I had seen foam board in the shops but wasn't really sure how to use it and I knew that Andy used it in his projects so I was thrilled that he bought it along to the workshop for us to use.  Of course I had to go straight out and buy some in both black and white.

Using a Tim Holtz die I cut out two hinges, a keyhole and a key and these were going to become my rust babies.  To make the rust you first have to cover your pieces in some Decoart Texture Sand Paste and leave to dry.

While this was drying I spritzed a piece of card lightly with some Decoart Carbon Black Mister and put that to one side to dry.  When the texture sand paste was dry I used some Black Gesso and some Decoart Titan Buff Fluid Acrylics with a bit of cut and dry foam and mixed the two colours together to create a grey colour to add to the cut out pieces.  Again this was left to dry at no point did I use the heat tool as I didn't want any bubbling and I wasn't sure if the foam board would melt or not, (I will have a go another time and see how the board stands up).

I then started working on my card topper which was a piece of white card cut to 7.5"x 7.5" using my distress inks.  I used vintage photo, spiced marmalade, ripe persimmon, tumbled glass and evergreen bough.  I kept working these colours in until I was happy with how the background looked and then started using background stamps and black archival.

All of my deocart products, the word stamps, some of the background stamps and some of the embellishments came from That Craft Place.

The piece of card that I had spritzed earlier was given a coat of Decoart Quinacridone Gold and when dry I stamped the words on to the card and cut to size.  I love how these have come out, you have to make sure you do not cover the card completely in the black mister just a gentle spritz.

When the board pieces were dry they were given a coat of the quinacridone gold and left to dry.  This is the stage where it really starts to look like old rusty bits of metal it has great texture and detail that I find myself in love with the result.  I wish you were able to pick the pieces up and feel them.

I used a bit of Decoart Cobalt Teal Fluid Acrylics to rub in areas of the rust and I used some with a stamp to make it look like a can had been sitting in it leaving a ring of the colour behind.

The edges of the topper card were distressed using the Tim Holtz distressing tool and I gentle curled a couple of the edges to make it look older and more distressed.

So there you have it my entry for this week and although it is not an altered object I think that taking a white piece of card and making it look so aged and distressed added with my pieces of faux rusted metal it can fit the brief.

I hope you like it and if you do drop by to take a look please do leave a comment about your thoughts on the piece.  I appreciate the effort you all make going through our blogs and it is nice if we can say hi back to you.  Don't forget that you can also take part in this challenge with the chance of winning and all the design teams work is on the blog to give you inspiration.

TTFN
Ria

Happy Birthday Trudie

Hello Trudie,

I am sure that you are having an amazing time with your family today on your 40th Birthday and a complete surprise that we are all joining in on your birthday.

I started this card with a piece of white textured card and inked it up using Ripe Persimmon Distress Ink.  Then using a text stamp and Black Archival ink I stamped over the entire piece of card.

Once this was dry I started cutting my pieces of paper into strips.  These were off cuts that I had left from some 12"x 12" sheets of paper and where I took the orange colour from for the additional elements.

I managed to cut a square from one piece which I turned to form a diamond and to this diamond I added a black and white picture I had of a girl on a garden swing.  To pull the picture into the card I used the distress ink to colour just her hat.  This meant that the black and white picture with the orange hat went with the orange background with the black stamped text.

I lay all the strips out on the front of the card to decide where I wanted them to go, stuck them down adding the diamond on top.  I had the cream flowers in my stash and I took some of the distress ink over them so that they tied in.  I also added the number 40 using Cosmic Copper ink.

This card is a great example of why as crafters we find it difficult to throw anything away.  I loved these papers and the colours in them when I bought them and I just couldn't throw the left overs away after using them on another project.  Paper piecing is a great way of making use of all those bits we have and love.

Trudie I hope the card arrived with you in time for your birthday and that you have a birthday that you will never forget.  You have a lot of friends that love you very much and it has been amazing getting to know you and to share this moment with you.

Happy Birthday Sweetie have fun and hope to see you in May.

Love and Hugs
Ria


P.S. As Suzie does not have a blog I have said that I would love to share my blog with her so here is the wonderful card that Suzie made for you Trudie.

Yah well done Suzie you are now a blogger xxxxx

Easter Design Team Piece

Hello you lovely people,

Today it is Easter over at That Craft Place Ltd and my design team piece is an Easter Wreath.

I started this wreath with an MDF ring that had been laser cut at That Craft Place along with the Bunnies and the Eggs.

I covered the ring in some papers from Heartfelt Creations both front and back cutting away the centre piece.  I sanded the edges and then ran ink pads around the inside and outside of the ring.

I put a coat of distress paint on the bunnies and the eggs and left them to dry.  While these were drying I started stamping and cutting out the flowers and making them up after shaping the petals with my ball tool and a foam mat.  The leaves were cut from embossed vellum using a heartfelt creations die.

I ran a lighter colour of distress paint around the edges of the bunnies to make them stand out and gave them all black gems for eyes.

I used a slightly darker distress paint and watered it down so I could splatter it on the eggs to make them speckled.

I attached all the flowers and leaves to the wreath and then slid in two ladybirds and a pretty little butterfly and finished off by adding the bunnies, eggs, gems and the ribbon at the back to hang it up.

At That Craft Place you can order/buy so many amazing laser cut embellishments to use on your projects and they really add lots of depth to your pieces.

I would like to thank you for coming over to my blog to see what I have been up to and it would be lovely if you would leave a comment or ask any questions.

I hope you all have a lovely Easter weekend when it gets here and that the weather and life is good to you.

Ria

Movies Design Team Challenge 15/2/15

Hello Bloggers and fellow crafters,

Well it is Design Team Challenge time over at That Craft Place Ltd and the title this time is Movies.  I wasn't sure where I was going to go with this but my good old mono mojo jumped out at me and here is my entry.

I started with a laser cut MDF frame with backing, a laser cut grey board film strip and some monochrome papers all from That Craft Place.

The frame and backing were given a coat of gesso and then painted using white acrylic paint and a piece of cut and dry foam, I have a thing about not liking brush stroke marks so often use cut and dry foam to add my paint.

I printed the picture on to smooth card and then covered it in triple thick gloss varnish for a high sheen.

I covered the film strip in black paint and then threaded a piece of actual film through the strip. That's my bonus having a daughter doing photography at University she always has a bit of film spare for her mum.

I added gems to the film strip and little black gems around the frame.  The words were typed on my laptop, printed, cut down and then squiggly lines drawn around the edge of each word.

So there you have it my entry for the movies challenge, I hope you will all join in with the design team and add your entries to the list so we can pick some winners.

Thank you for visiting my blog, please feel free to leave a comment to let me know what your thoughts are and you are welcome to follow me on my crafting journey if you so wish.

Hugs Ria

That Craft Place Ltd DT Challenge 1/2/15

Hello Bloggers,

Today I will share my make for the anything goes challenge over at That Craft Place.  If you go over to the blog you will see the work by the Design Team members and have the chance to enter the challenge also.

This project has been made using the DoCrafts French Lavender Capsule Collection and some flowers and gems from my stash available from TCP.

I started with a black 8"x 8" card and cut a sheet of the capsule paper to 7.5"x 7.5" and went around the edge of the page with my dusty concord distress ink.  Next using a mask I used the dusty concord and shaded lilac distress ink to leave the diamond pattern on the paper.

I placed a tag inside my vintage embossing folder and ran it through my ebosser.  Once embossed I used dusty concord, shaded lilac and milled lavender distress inks to go over the embossed words.  I did this twice drying with my heat tool in between coats of ink.

Once the ink was dry I carefully went over the tag with gloss medium trying not to move the ink on the card.  I used a sponge applicator and went straight up and down.  When this coat was dry I applied a second coat going in the opposite direction and there is no need to worry about the ink moving as the first coat has sealed it and made it waterproof.

I painted a wooden laser cut heart with some purple paint and when that dried I stuck the self adhesive crochet border around the edge of the heart.  Using pinflair glue I stuck down some flowers and leaves from my stash.

Before sticking the sheet of paper to the card front I wrapped around the jumbo crochet trim down the middle of the paper securing it on the back with double sided sticky tape.

I finished this card off with gems and raffia and the use of one of the die cut notelets on the inside of the card.

These capsule sales are great value for money if you have a lot of quick cards to make or if you want to make box sets of cards as you get everything you need to make multiple cards but with the ability of changing the look of each card with just the use of some inks, masks and embossing folders.

I hope you will join us over at the blog challenge and share your craft with us, as it is anything goes it really is all in your hands.

Thanks for dropping by it is lovely to have your company and I would love to hear what you think about my card.

I will be doing another blog post during the week showcasing a faux metal book I made and then used papers designed by Lisa at TCP to sit between the covers.

TTFN

Ria

That Craft Place DT 4th January2015 - Mono

Hello Bloggers,

It is time for another That Craft Place Design Team Challenge, the first one of the year and the theme for this challenge is Mono.

People that know me know that I love anything Steampunk and today I have steampunk with a difference as this one is very girlie.

For all my cards that I make I decide what size it is going to be in this case 8"x 8" and I cut another piece of card to the same size.  This piece of cut card is what I work on when building my card and once built this is then glued on to the main card.  By working in this way, if something were to go wrong with what I was doing or if I had a spill or damaged the piece I am working on it means only a single piece of card gets thrown away and not a full actual card.

For this card I have used a set of stamps by Chocolate Baroque called Punky Romance.  This set of stamps are so pretty and there are so many stamps that I know these will be used over and over again.

I started by gently blending distress inks on to the background of the card using Victorian Velvet and Worn Lipstick.  Once the background was coloured I then did some faux bleaching by flicking water onto the ink, leaving it a minute and then blotting it which lifts some of the ink.

I stamped all the images on to the base card using Plum Archival Ink and then stamped them all again on another piece of card which has also been coloured as above so that these could be cut out and used to layer on top of the base card.

I raised the cut out pieces using foam pads and I bent the butterflies and just used glue down the middle of them so that their wings lifted up giving depth to the card.

The card was finished off by adding some gems to the centre of the flowers which added a bit of sparkle.

The items used to make this card are available from That Craft Place they have a great stock of card, inks, stamps and many other items.  It is a proper shop but they have the ability of being able to sell the shop items to you through Facebook.

Thank you for stopping by my blog and taking a look at how I made my DT piece, please do leave a comment to let me know your thoughts on my make and to let me know you dropped by.

I hope you will take a look at all the other Design Team Posts to see what they made of the mono challenge. It would be great if you would like to take part as well and enter your project for us to see.

TTFN
Ria