Playing with Metal

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I almost forgot about this, it's a little something that started out one way and ended up another!

Its a metal and canvas covered notelet necklace.

It was s'posed to be a mini metal book broach!

I guess you cant help how the mind wanders when creating lol

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This was made for my new friend Sam as a little thank you for a very sweet

Random Act Of Kindness she showed to me.

I wont go into how i made it now as it's late and I'm off to bed..

maybe tomorrow I'll add the info!

xx Hugz xx

No time for craft

OK who nicked all the days this week.....I've no idea where they all went!

I'm distraught as I've just not had any proper time to craft, i did go to a craft show @ Exeter which was a bit of a let down to be honest, although I still managed to gather a few supplies, but cheered myself up by putting in a order @ The Artistic Stamper as Jennie has lots of nice new Ten Second Studio goodies, would of been rude not to buy lol

I did however get a lovely award

from Alison which also cheered me up, so thank you hun.

Sorry there is nothing more exciting for you to view, but i do have stuff coming up soon as there are 3 fab challenges that i just have to do..

Check out the new Themes on

Big Art Adventure

Object D'Art

Lots To Do

Hopefully I'll be back blogging mid week with the pieces for each of these challenges!

xx Hugz xx

Me to U January

{And before you ask what happened to December, Well...it hasn't been sent to its new home yet as it took alot longer than planned.. you'll have to be patient and wait to see that piece}

But you still have this months piece to view.

I'm hoping it reached its destination before this goes out as I've not heard from the receiver in a while {sending hugs for you A}

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I decided to alter a Matchbox after seeing a picture in a book i had recently bought.

So anyway here it is

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I made this piece a while ago actually when i was messing about with my melt pot

I covered the outside with foil tape, inked it, then bashed it about with my texture hammer, inked it a bit more.

I added an ickle flip fold book to the top held on with ribbon. This also had a topper of the foil tape treated in the same way but with the added embossing of the word Friend.

I used the UTEE to fill the base and keep all the trinkets in place.

It has little wooden bead feet which i think finish it off nicely.

I hope the recipient liked it, i had fun making it so that's half the battle won.

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Thanks for looking in

& stop by again soon.

xx Hugz xx

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Ten Seconds of Fun

OK so it was alot longer than that, I'm actually talking Ten Second Studio fun.

If you haven't already guessed Metal is the new Black!
Everywhere you look someones doing something with the fab new {well to me} range of tools and coloured sheets of metal from TSS.
And I'm no exception!!!

Last week I treated myself to the basic tool set and medium eraser set with some xmas money i received. I had brought some sheet metal at one of the craft fairs but forgot all about it really till i started to see metal fab creations everywhere, and i discovered the TSS blog and TACO Tuesday.. wow these ladies are talented, go check out there site if you haven't already.

Anyway i digress..

So i just wanted to have a little play and see what happened.. and here is the results.

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The first piece i did was just me messing about really, seeing what each tool did, and also trying one of my fiskers plates with the paper stump. It was ok till i decided to add colour using my alcohol inks... oh my... disaster... i was ready to chuck it in the bin but decided to TRY and salvage it, which is just what i did with the use of my brown stazon.{thank you stazon} The whole thing was bright and vulgar but adding the brown overcoat just dulled it all down and somehow transformed it {really must learn to take in between photo shots so you can see what I'm on about}
I ended up with a frame type shape in the metal and decided to fill it with a swan as i thought my piece had gone from ugly duckling to beautiful swan!! {well kinda pretty at least} and i added the word Beauty to the hand made wire hanger i created {i have some fab shop brought ones from Jennie at The Artistic Stamper} but wanted something a bit bigger so made my own.

I love how it looks so different with just a switch of angle & light.

I will probably send this in for the UK Art Raffle as the theme this month is SHINY, so if you like it, and want a chance to win it pop over to the site and join in the fun.

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Now for my other piece...
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I used just cuttlebug embossing folders, Black and Brown Stazon and the basic tools i mentioned above.

{oh BTW the hanger on this piece is one of the brought ones to which i added the word Best}

{This piece also looks cool in different lights}

I am 100% happier with the second piece and cant wait to have more time to play again.

Although i think i need to watch a few more TACO Tuesday demos first.

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Thanks for stopping by

xx Hugz xx
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My very first Art Doll

Wow, where did the week go.

I cant believe its the Big Art Adventure and Lots To Do Challenges again.

BAA's theme this time is

BOTTLECAPS

and LTD's theme is

KEYS

And here i proudly present my very first Art Doll

Miss Domi Lockheart
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As you can see she is made up of Bottle tops, a Tin, Dominoes and Keys.

I'm not going to explain excatly how i made her as it would take forever.

But if you want to know anything, feel free to leave me a comment and i'll reply when i get a chance.
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My favourite view is of her is her insides, as it reveals her Heart

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I also just realised that i can enter this as another piece for

the Object D'Art Challenge as this time round it's TIN.

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Thanks for stopping by

Visit again soon

xx Hugz xx

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Magazine Inspiration

Token of my Affection Book

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Having finally received my copy of this months craft stamper i came across a fab little token/coupon book that i just had to have a go at

I'm not usually one for copying from mags, but i made an exception as it was just too darling to pass by.

Obviously i didn't make a direct copy, but the instructions were clear and easy to follow and i actually had a blast making it...

The only thing i haven't done yet is the favor coupons to go in each pocket.

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Thanks for checking my blog out, come back soon

xx Hugz xx

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Challenge Double

I had 2 challenges that i had to complete and decided it would be fun to combine them both into one project.

The latest performance on Object D'Art is

A TIN

and Lot's To Do's theme this time round is
NEWSPAPER.
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After trying different pages of an old newspaper, i finally decided on the games page.

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I cut out sections of the main games like the crossword and sudoku and applied them to the tin using copydex {this was really sticky and i managed to get it all over my fingers, but it was the nearest thing to hand that had a brush already in it, yes I'm lazy, i know, so i would probably recommend if your gonna try this to use another form of glue} anyway as i was saying..

Once i had got an all over coat of papers i added a couple of the words from the same page.

Next i removed the lid so i could ink the tin.

I used Pitch Black and Pearl alcohol inks to cover all the sides but didn't touch the inside or bottom.

I stamped the words "Game On" onto the plastic window in the centre using black stazon, then edged it using my Inkssentials white pen.

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To finish i used some wax linen thread to edge just around the window and lid & base edges and gave the whole thing {minus the window} a thin coat of Matt accents to protect. And popped a couple of Prima flowers and some ribbon to add texture.

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Now all i need to do is make a book or something to go inside.. but thats for another day.

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Thanks for stopping by, visit again soon.

xx Hugz xx

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Mirror Mirror

Just a quick post today to show my first attempt at using Ten Second Studio metal sheets.

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I decided to try and cover a mirror frame i had. And can i just say now.. NEVER AGAIN lol
Not having a clue what i was doing, trust me to pick something that was way beyond my limits.

OMG this piece was a total nightmare from start to finish, from sticking the metal on to finishing it, whatever could of gone wrong, i think did, but i stuck with it and i did finally end up with a somewhat OK piece!

{i wont bore you with all the details of how i messed this up as I'd be here a very long time}

Just that i placed some die cut letters onto the frame and then covered with the metal.

Rubbed over where the letters were to make them pop out of the metal. Then bashed the hell out of the whole piece with TH texture hammer, and finished with alcohol inks.

I'm defiantly no Cheryl Darrow but i finally have the right tools so hopefully my next experience with metal will be a better one lol.

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All feedback good or bad would be greatly appricated as need all the help i can with this metal melarky!

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xx Hugz xx

My Word!

Over at Big Art Adventure this time round the theme is

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A WORD on a SIGN

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Go check it out if your intrigued!

{it's easier than me trying to explain the title lol}

I absolutely loved this idea and set straight to work creating my piece.

I choose a mini canvas i received for Xmas, as i had it sat on display all bare just begging to be altered.

And my word..

Believe.

{As in, believing in myself that little bit more.}

And here it is

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This was actually inspired by an article in Feb's issue of Craft Stamper.

I wanted to have a go with Gesso & Bubble wrap, but to be honest that didn't go well at all and nearly ruined my piece! But in the spirit of the project i carried on believing in myself that i could put it right.

I started off by painting my canvas lightly with Denim & Hazelnut Dabbers

I then stamped a couple of Ticket stamps {Invoke Art} I tried using a normal ink pad but the results didn't come out quite as good as I'd hoped so i tried my Espresso Dabber which worked better, but where i had already stamped the first ticket, i patched it up by stamping another ticket onto kitchen towel, and then tore it out and stuck it over the original, this actually gave a nice texture to the piece.

Next came the disaster of the Gesso! I did it how it says in the mag to add some gesso to a craft sheet, then roller your brayer over it and roller it onto the bubble wrap etc etc etc, but all i ended up with was a horrible white mess in the corner... for a minute i panicked but then a light bulb appeared above my head {as they do!} and i applied some denim dabber to the bubble wrap and placed it over where the gesso had failed. Hurray! it looked 10 times better {sort of} and i was happy so i carried on.

I stamped one of my fav images {Paper Artsy - Dragonfly lady -i call her} onto a page of an old book and cut her out, but she looked somewhat flat, so i twisted a piece of wire to create a tail and stamped the image again but this time on acetate with stazon and cut out just the wings.

I glued the wings with silicone and then placed the wire tail on top stuck again with silicon {so i could have more time to position correctly} and once that was dry i added just little of my new vintage photo distress stickles. I actually like these so much that i also added some to the corners of the canvas, also using the faded jeans colour.

To finish i attached My Word, which was a Tim Holtz token, {i sanded the edges of this slightly} and i pinned it to the canvas using a mini TH kilt pin {am sure that's not what there called but that's what they look like to me} any hoow, that was that.

I placed it back on it's mini easel and ta da, It all came good in the end.

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Thanks for stopping by, visit again soon x

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xx Hugz xx

.{P.S. sorry for the all over the place letter sizing, blogger is obviously having a fit or something coz it all looks right until i publish the post.. oh well !!}.

Domino Art

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I'm taking part in my first Altered swap of 2009 over on UK Stampers.

The theme is Dominoes.

Basically all i have to do was to make one piece of art, be it jewellery, a canvas, a mini book with domino covers, basically whatever you fancied.

I choose to alter my domino and make it into a necklace.
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Firstly i used Butterscotch and Lettuce alcohol inks as a background base, then proceeded to stamp an owl {paper artsy stamps used} in brown stazon ink.

I let this dry and then stamped a different owl at the bottom but this time using white versacolour ink.

{i found that this didn't dry very well at all but i carried on anyway}

I then covered the whole dom with matt accents to protect it, taking special care over the white ink so as not to totally smudge the image as the accents kinda mixes with the white ink.

{i applied my accents using a brush}

When that was dry i went back over the bottom owl with glossy accents which then really highlighted it {in certain light} that would otherwise be invisible.

I added wire wings that i created myself by threading a piece of wire through the same hole that the necklace tie went through, and just played around till i was happy with the result, then to finish i added an owl dangle charm to the bottom corner. {i had already pre-drilled the hole before inking}
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I am quite happy with the way it turned out after the white ink nightmare

but it looks OK, and i hope whoever receives it likes it too.

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xx Hugz xx

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Quickie BIA Gifts

Here are just a couple of calenders i made using some Pretty Papers, Distress Inks

and my trusty {new pink} Bind It All

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On each page i tinted the edges with distress ink to match the choosen paper, and lightly stamped an image,{also colour matched}, one had a Cat theme, and the other was Quotes and Swirls.

I also typed up a memorable dates list for each,

with things like bank hols and Easter dates as the print

off calenders don't have them included on them.

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Thanks for stopping by.

xx Hugz xx

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Just Charming!

No I'm not about to start moaning about someone being rude to me, but more about the latest challenge over on Big Art Adventure.

Their first theme of 2009 is

CHARMS

And seeing as i just love making these i was well up for the challenge.

Here is my creation.. I called it

"Bags Of Charm"

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I started off with an old piece of jewellery {think it was a necklace} that not being silver had gone all dark and tarnished, perfect as it went so well with the other bits and bobs i had to add to it.

I joined an ickle glass bottle with the help of some twisted and wrapped wire - of which i added a tiny piece of script paper.

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Also attached were a couple of pieces i made just messing about with my melt pot, some UTEE and wire.

I finished it with one of Tim's clasps.

Not bad for my first bag charm attempt, think i can do better though.. watch this space lol

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xx Hugz xx

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TIME for my first challenge of 2009

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Over on Lots To Do the first challenge of the year is

TIME

Seeing as it has been a while, i decided to do a mini 4x4 canvas in my fave style...

"Ah La TIM"

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I coloured the canvas with distress inks, then splurged some crackle paint on, a few random letters, bit of tape measure and a clock embellishment, oh and my trusty label maker and i was done.

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xx Hugz xx

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Five... Four...

Three... Two... One...

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I would just like to take this opputunity to wish

all my Friends, fellow bloggers & followers a very Happy New Year.

Thank you all so much for continuing to stop by and support me in my creative journey, whether you leave feedback, or you yourself blog fab works of art, of which i gain inspiration, i just want you to know i am truely thankful.

May you all have a happy and healthy, not to mention crafty 2009 xx