A Christmas Wish to All - Part 2

Hello Friends! I hope you had an amazing Christmas period, enjoyed together with your family and friends. Ours was lovely, too - spent with family, friends and... a leaking radiator! Not exactly my choice of Christmas entertainment if you ask me but it could've been worse :). We moved into our new home earlier this year and the house is still throwing surprises at us here and there!

As promised, here's the second companion from my Christmas Lights set - in my previous post I shared this Christmas lantern and I have one more item to share :).

I love how church candles can be altered with stamped images - they can easily transform ordinary candles into magical ornaments. I've previously shared on my blog another set of altered Christmas candles and I also have one in my Easter Home Decor set.

Stamped images can easily transform ordinary candles into magical ornaments

For my altered candle I stamped this beautiful image onto tissue paper and I coloured it with Spectrum Noir markers first. I also used the alcohol ink markers and an air spritzer to give my Crystal Angel a whimsical look. Then I adhered the image to the candle by gently melting the tissue into the wax.

Use alcohol ink markers and an air spritzer for a whimsical look

To melt tissue into the wax evenly, wrap the candle tightly with grease-proof paper, carefully heat with a heat gun until the image underneath looks sharper and continue to hold the sheet until the wax cools down.

As a finishing touch, I added a glittered 3D foam snowflake, some handmade poinsettia flowers with glass glitter 3D DODZ centres and some lace and seam binding ribbons.

Add handmade poinsettia flowers, ribbons and lace to create a shabby chic look

Supplies:

Stampendous: cling Crystal Angel; Crystal MicroGlitter; Champagne Crushed Glass Glitter

Memento Ink: Tuxedo Black

Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L®: 3D Foam Snowflakes; 3D DODZ

Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Die: Tattered Poinsettia

Crafters Companion: Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers

Church candle

Seam binding ribbon

Pearl lace

Cheese cloth

Spray of foam berries

Decorative pins

Tissue paper

Air spritzer tool

I hope you've enjoyed today's post. Thank you for stopping by and for your lovely comments!

Big hugs


I would like to enter the following challenges:
Mixed Media Place - December mood board
Country View Challenges - Christmas
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Make It Sparkle
Fashionable Stamping Challenges - Anything Goes
Mixed Media Monthly Blog Challenge - Merry and Bright

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Better After And Coffee Table Interventions

Do you remember my coffee table makeover I blogged a while ago? I'm soooo excited to say that my little beauty has been featured on Lindsay's fabulous Better After blog, which I absolutely adore! Yay! Thank you so much Lindsay!

If you've never visited her blog, this is a must-visit-site for any kinds of furniture and home decor makeovers. She's got heaps of inspirational features from real bloggers all over the blogosphere. 

I guarantee you will find something there that will inspire you to start rolling your sleeves up right away! :). To visit her blog, hop over here.

Happy crafting everyone! 

Big crafty hugs





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Sitting Pretty & Simple Re-upholstery On a Budget Tutorial

Hello Friends! Apologies for being so quiet for the last couple of weeks but I have been sooooo incredibly busy that there just weren't enough hours in the day for blogging. I've been doing some decorating and DYIing and general life got in the way, too. 

Some of you may recall me mentioning decorating the living room a very long time ago. And that's true. We finished most of the work months ago but still had some little 'finishing' touches that needed to be... errr.. finished :).

One of those 'outstanding' projects (meaning incomplete, not super pretty) were our dining chairs. We're quite fond of our chairs so we didn't see any point in buying new ones. But Hubster and I both agreed that the seats really needed refreshing. The seat pads can be unscrewed so we knew it wouldn't bee too difficult to recover them with new fabric. 

But what we found most difficult was sourcing a reasonably priced fabric, that wouldn't end up costing more that a set of brand new chairs... Quality upholstery fabrics we've been looking at were about £50/metre. We needed 3 meters of fabric. Ouch!

But one lovely summer afternoon we stumbled upon some curtains on sale at Dunelm. They had an interesting design which matched our colour scheme and the fabric seemed quite strong and durable. And most importantly, they only cost £25.00!  For our project we only used one curtain so all in all we spent £12.50 on having our chairs reupholstered. Can't be bad, can it?

I was so excited with the end result and how easy it was to do, that I just had to share it! So I prepared a short tut, which I hope will inspire you to inject some new life into your upholstered furniture - and you'll have unique 'designer' pieces for a fraction of the cost! :)

1. Start by preparing a template for cutting. On a large piece of paper draw an outline of the seat pad, adding about 3 inches on each side for wrapping the fabric around the pad. Depending on the thickness of your seat pad you may need to alter this margin.

2. Using chalk or a pencil draw an outline around the template. Cut it out using a rotary cutter or scissors.

3. Wrap the fabric around the seat pad and secure with a staple gun. And that's it! Simples!

I'd love to know what do you think! Was it better 'before' or 'after'?

Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

Big crafty hugs




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You Are My Anchor - Vintage Nautical Card Tutorial And a Giveaway!

Hello everyone and oh boy, I am sooo happy (quite overwhelmed, really!) to see so many new friends joining my blog! Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart! 

In case you've missed my Monday's post, this card was my offering for this week's blog collaboration of two amazing companies. The Design Teams at Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L and Graphic 45 have been playing together to spoil you with a whole week of great inspiration and amazing prizes. To find out more, hop over here!

As promised, I am back today with a tutorial for the nautical anniversary card I shared. And if you keep reading on, you will also see that I have a little 'thank you' surprise for my 'tutorial survivors' lol. 

Ok, let's get started with the tutorial, shall we?

1. Prepare your card blank from kraft cardstock and a selection of background panels and elements from the By The Sea and Place in Time paper collections. Distress the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink and a paper distresser. Make some bigger tears in a few places to show the background fabric scraps.

2. Add some stamping using Stampendous stamps (Loving Messages) and StazOn Midnight blue ink. Cut a few small pieces of burlap fabric. Arrange the elements until you are happy with the layout. 

TIP: I always keep my phone handy to take a quick snap. This way I can refer to my planned layout during the assembling stage, in case I forget how I wanted to arrange the elements :).

3.  Adhere your burlap scraps to the back of your biggest background panel with E-Z Runner® Permanent Strips, making sure to leave some fabric showing outside the edges. Pull some treads out for a tattered look.

4. Run your E-Z Runner® Permanent Strips along all edges of the panel and adhere it to the card blank. Repeat with the smaller background elements and attach them to the card.

5. To adhere flat metal tags and fabric embellishments use Adhesive Sheets.

6. Using the White Crafty Foam Tape and E-Z Runner® Permanent Strips adhere the remaining background elements, varying the layer heights with additional foam adhesive.

7. Continue to build the layers.

8. Fill a small vial bottle with torn strips of papers and a mixture of Stampendous Frantage powders, glitters, mica fragments and sequins.

TIP: I always keep my leftover powders, glitters and fragments from the encrusted jewel technique in a small container - they come very handy in small embellishment bottles.

9. Wrap the bottle with a small rope embellishment tied in a sailor's knot and secure with DODZ™ - 3D.

TIP: I saved my knots from another project (you can read about it here) but you can easily create them yourself - you can find some cool examples and instructions here. 

10. Secure the bottle to the card with a handful of DODZ™ - 3D. To cover any adhesive showing tuck in some cheese cloth - this will also add a nice nautical touch.

11. Add a few photo corners from Creative Photo Corners - Mix Pack to imitate beach huts. Layer the sentiment panel over them, leaving only the 'roofs' showing.

12. Weave a nautical ribbon bow through a big ship's wheel brad embellishment and secure to the card.

13. Use the ribbon to cover a handful of 3D Foam Pennants to create a nautical banner, do not peal the back protective sheet yet. Punch a hole at the top left corner of each pennant and weave through a red cord. Peal of the back sheets and layer each pennant onto the card over the previous one.

14. Add a few blue and turquoise sequins to imitate water droplets. Secure with DODZ™ - Small.

And that's it! You can also use the left over pieces and scraps to decorate the inside of the card, like I've done it here :).

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Now, something you've all been waiting for! lol :) Giveaway time! Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L have very kindly offered a $25 shopping spree to one of my blog followers - how awesome is that? Imagine the delight in browsing all the fabulous photo corners, designer shapes, adhesive dispensers and so much more...!

All you have to do to enter the giveaway is to follow my blog, comment on this post and enter into the drawing using the Rafflecopter app below. There are also additional ways to gain more entries so have fun and good luck!

The giveaway will be open until midnight on Sunday 10th August 2014 BST and the winner will be announced shortly after.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you for stopping by today and have a wonderfully crafty weekend!

Big crafty hugs




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You're Amazing Mixed Media Dry Decoupage Box & Video Tutorial

Happy May Day everyone!

Oh my goodness! I haven't been this excited about my project since errr... the Geisha fan in my last post lol :). No, but honestly - I am super excited about this one!

This is my newest DT offering for Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L and I am sharing a full tutorial on my 'dry decoupage' technique. But wait - it's not just any tutorial - it's a video tutorial!

Yes, you heard me correctly - I've finally made my second crafty movie! It was a bit of a bumpy ride this time but I hope it will get easier in the future :).

So.... You are all cordially invited to view my newest video when you have a moment to spare. Or two moments, perhaps :).

To see the video, hop over here.

Supplies:

Adhesive Sheets 6x12",Dodz™ Small, Medium and 3D, Creative Photo Corners - White;

Stampendous Ice Blue Micro Glitter and Stamps Angel Wings Stack Art & Quotes; Americana DecoArt acrylic paints (Pink Chiffon, Spa Blue, Tropical Blue, White) and Medieval Iron Accent Stencil; Faber-Castell Whipped Spackle; Tsukineko Blue Hawaii StazOn;

wooden vanity box, decorative napkins, flowers and embellishments.

Big crafty excited hugs!

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Challenges for this project: 
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
Country View Crafts #15 - Nature's Glories

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Creative January Blues - How To Beat Them With Magazine Cutting Theraphy

Warmest greetings in my first blog post for 2014! I hope you've all had a wonderful festive season and started the New Year with a positive bang!

After all the choccies have been eaten, pressies opened and celebratory champagne glass risen to greet the replacement of the 3 with a 4, my creative January blues have finally caught up with me... That's why I've been so quiet in terms of crafting, blogging and commenting. I have been visiting and admiring your beautiful creations, I just couldn't find the right words to express how much I loved them - I hope you can forgive me.

My craft withdrawal symptoms did not let me feel 'sorry' for myself for too long, though. I just HAD TO do something. And I suddenly thought that I might as well share that on my blog - so that's what this blog post is all about :).

One of my 2014 resolutions is to do more mixed media and art journaling stuff. To kick start this resolution I've decided to look through some old magazines I no longer want to keep and cut out random words and quotes I could use in the future. 

I had no idea how therapeutic this could be! I can just sit comfortably on the sofa, watch the telly and cut away happily :). Seeing a big pile of lovely magazine clippings and clearing the shelves has given me a super mahoosive sense of achievement! (I know, I know, a bit sad really ha ha ha!). And after I've read this post it was quite refreshing to see that I'm not the only (crazy) one lol.

Having a big pile of mag clippings meant I needed to find a way to organise them, most importantly a way where I can easily see what I have. Otherwise I would never look through them again lol :).

That's when an old self adhesive photo album came really handy! NB. when I say 'old' I mean I've had it for years but never taken the wrapping off until now rofl.

I've organised my pages into separate letters for individual words and also pages where I can keep full phrases. It was a bit tricky to decide which letter would need an extra page so I turned to the trustworthy Mr Google to find out. Which letter do you think is the most frequent initial that English words start with? I would never have guessed the correct answer!

If you like the idea of using quotes - the magazine clipping style - but you're not into doing the clipping itself (or don't have the time), this link will be very handy! This blog post includes a large collection of phrases clipped over time and put together into helpful templates that you can download for free. For ease of use they have been put into separate categories. Highly recommended!

I am now really hooked on magazine cutting. I just hope all the effort will make itself evident in some future crafty endeavours!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! If you know of any other ways to beat the crafty January blues, I would love to hear them!

Big crafty hugs




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