Crafting Musketeers Challenge - Anything Goes

Hello lovelies!

It's challenge time again over at the 

Crafting Musketeers 

The theme is 

'Anything Goes'

Our fabulous sponsor this month is

The Paper Shelter 

I've made this Christmas Card using a lovely image from The Paper Shelter.

Such a cute image!

Don't forget to hop over to the Crafting Musketeers challenge blog and see lot's more goreous design team inspiration.

Have fun and happy crafting,

lot's of love

Nicola 

XXX

Petal Lu Challenge - Anything Goes

Hello lovelies!

I can't believe we are in December already. This year has just flown by. It's a busy time at  work for me, I do enjoy the Christmas rush. I have to confess though that I've hardly made any Christmas cards except for design team ones! It's a time thing...eek!

Anyway so as usual, the challenge theme is anything goes.

So, I've made a quick and simple Christmas Card using one of the gorgeous trio stamp sets from Lili of the Valley. I've used the beautiful Petal Lu flower at the top of each stamp.

Hop over to the PETAL LU CHALLENGE BLOG  to see lot's more gorgeous design team inspiration. You can buy the beautiful Petal Flowers HERE 

Have fun and happy crafting,

lots of love

Nicola 

XXX

Petal Lu Challenge - Anything Goes

Hello lovelies!

It's challenge time again over at 

PETAL LU 

The theme is

'Anything Goes'.

I've made a Christmas card for my design team project this time.

I love this cute digi, this bear is adorable from Lili of the Valley. 

I've coloured using Promarkers.

You can buy the beautiful Petal Lu flowers HERE 

Hop over to the challenge blog to see lot's more gorgeous design team inspiration,

have fun and happy crafting,

lots of love 

Nicola 

XXX

Crafting Musketeers Challenge 43

Hello lovelies!

Well, it's a while since I posted for the CRAFTING MUSKETEERS challenge. I had a year out and the lovely girls on the design team welcomed me back this month. I'm really happy to be back and  working alongside a lovely team. 

So, the challenge theme this time is 

' Christmas Wishes'

Our sponsor this month is 

Sunsational Stamps 

I've used a lovely cute gingerbread image for my design team card

I've coloured using Letraset Promarkers in shades:

Cinnamon - Terracotta - Pastel Pink - Red - Mustard - Ruby

Flexmarkers: Cappucino - Blush

I've also used Sakura gelly roll pens Clear Star and Red Star.

The papers are First Edition Festive Treats 6 x 6 paper pad. The finishing touches are gingham ribbon, a cinnamon stick and red pearl gems.

We would love to see your creations for this challenge.

Hop over to the CRAFTING MUSKETEERS to see lot's more design team inspiration.

Have fun and happy crafting

lots of love

Nicola 

XXX

Petal Lu Challenge - Anything Goes

Hello lovelies!

It's time for another challenge over at 

PETAL LU 

The theme is 

'Anything Goes'.

For my design team project this time I've chosen to decorate a plain black 2017 diary.

I have used one of my favorite digital stamps from LILI OF THE VALLEY called 

JAMES DAISY 

I've coloured using Letraset Promarkers in shades:

Frozen Lake - Capri Blue - Rock Pool - Pastel Blue - Ice Grey 1 - Ice Grey 4 - Rose Pink - Pale Pink - Baby Pink - Apple - Green Shoot

The papers are from the Tanya Whelan 12x12 Rose Paper Pad. The 2017 numbers are from the stamp set Inkadinkado Gem Stone numbers. I've also used muslin, a black sketch pen, Sakura gelly roll pens Clear Star & Pink Star and finally Cosmic Shimmer Colour Cloud ink in Rose Blush. 

I've used a selection of dies, a ribbon slider and ribbon to create a page marker and of course the gorgeous PETAL LU FLOWERS 

We would love to see your creations for this challenge and don't forget to hop over to the challenge blog to see lot's more gorgeous design team inspiration.

Have fun and happy crafting,

lots of love

Nicola 

XXX

Petal Lu Challenge

Hello lovelies!

I can't believe we are now into October, this year has flown past.

The challenges soon come round too!

It's time for another challenge over at 

Petal Lu 

The theme is

'Anything Goes'

I've made a card for my design team project using a Saturated Canary image.

I've coloured using a mixture of Copics and Promarkers.

You can buy gorgeous Petal Lu flowers HERE

Such pretty flowers handmade with love and care!

Hop over to the challenge blog to see the rest of the design team's gorgeous creation's!

Have fun and happy crafting,

lot's of love

Nicola
XXX

Petal Lu Challenge - Anything Goes

Hello lovelies!

It's time for another challenge over at Petal Lu

As always the theme is anything goes.

I love these flowers, so gorgeous.

I've used a Little Darlings Candi Bean stamp called Daisy and Bassett.

Such a cute stamp! The Petal Lu flowers go perfectly with this...

I

I've coloured using Promarker's.  I love these colours together!

Hop over to the Petal Lu Challenge Blog for lot's more gorgeous design team inspiration.

Happy Crafting,

lots of love

Nicola 

XXX

Petal Lu Facebook

Petal Lu - Shop

Petal Lu Creations

A new facebook page (to show off those designs using Petal Lu Blooms)

Petal Lu Challenge - Anything Goes

Hello lovelies, it's challenge time again over at 

Petal Lu  

I've used Papermania Capsule collection paper's and ribbons and teamed up with the gorgeous Petal Lu flowers!

Hop over to the Petal Lu Blog to see lot's more gorgeous design team inspiration!

Have fun and happy crafting,

lots of love

Nicola 

XXX

Petal Lu Facebook

Petal Lu - Shop

Petal Lu Creations

A new facebook page (to show off those designs using Petal Lu Blooms)

Petal Lu Challenge

Hello lovelies!

It's challenge time over at

Petal Lu  

I've made a card using the Creative Expressions Stitched Birds stamp set. The papers are Tanya Whelan Wild Rose paper pad, which I bought from That Craft Place.

The Petal Lu flowers team up perfectly with these stamps and papers.

Hop over to the Petal Lu Blog to see lot's more gorgeous design team inspiration!

Have fun and happy crafting,

lots of love

Nicola 

XXX

Petal Lu Facebook

Petal Lu - Shop

Petal Lu Creations

A new facebook page (to show off those designs using Petal Lu Blooms)

Petal Lu Challenge - Anything Goes

Hello lovelies, it's time again for another challenge over at 

Petal Lu  

The theme is for challenge 16

Anything Goes.

I've created a heart shape using gorgeous Petal Lu flowers. The stamp is one of my favourite sentiments.

Hop over to the challenge blog to see lot's more gorgeous design team inspiration!

Have fun and happy crafting,

lot's of love

Nicola

XXX

Petal Lu Facebook

Petal Lu - Shop

Petal Lu Creations

A new facebook page (to show off those designs using Petal Lu Blooms)

Petal Lu Challenge - Anything Goes

Hello lovelies, it's time again for another challenge over at 

Petal Lu  

The theme is

Anything Goes.

This fortnightly challenge soon come's around! 

I chose to make a card for this using a lovely stamp in my collection from

Saturated Canary, it's called Sitting Pretty!

I wanted to do something a bit different so I've coloured her using just sketch pencils. I wanted a bold contrast so used these gorgeous red Petal Lu flowers.

Hop over to the challenge blog to see lot's more gorgeous design team inspiration!

Have fun and happy crafting,

lot's of love

Nicola

XXX

Petal Lu Facebook

Petal Lu - Shop

Petal Lu Creations

A new facebook page (to show off those designs using Petal Lu Blooms)

Petal Lu Challenge - Anything Goes

Its challenge time over at 

Petal Lu challenges 
     

The theme this fortnight is 

Anything Goes 

I've used the 'Happy Hour' Digi Stamp

This fortnight we are also sponsored by 

 KennyK Stamps

In addition to a 30% discount from the Petal Lu store, The winner will also receive 3 Images of your choice from our sponsor!

KennyK - SHOP!
Club KennyK - Facebook Challenge Group
KennyK - Facebook Page

Petal Lu Facebook

Petal Lu - Shop

Petal Lu Creations

A new facebook page (to show off those designs using Petal Lu Blooms)

Looking forward to seeing what you all enter.

Happy crafting,

lot's of love

Nicola 

XXX

Petal Lu Challenge - Anything Goes

Hello lovelies!

It's time for another challenge over at the 

PETAL LU CHALLENGE BLOG 

The theme is

'Anything Goes'

This fortnight we are also sponsored By 

 Conie Fong Art & Design

In addition to a 30% discount from the Petal Lu store, The winner will also receive $10 discount from our sponsor!

Connie Fong Etsy Store
Connie Fong Facebook

I've used the really cute digi called 
Puppy Love

We look forward to seeing your creation's for this fortnight's challenge.

Happy crafting,
lot's of love
Nicola 
XXX

Petal Lu Facebook

Petal Lu - Shop

Petal Lu Creations

A new facebook page (to show off those designs using Petal Lu Blooms)

Petal Lu Challenge - Anything Goes

Hello lovelies!

I am very happy to say that I am now on the design team for Petal Lu 

A wonderful place where you can buy so many pretty flowers!

It's challenge time over at the 

Petal Lu Challenge Blog 

The theme is 

'Anything Goes'.

The challenge this month is featuring the new Button Box Fairies release from 

That Craft Place 

who is sponsoring the challenge this month and will be giving a prize of 3 images for the winner. 

I've used the cute Butterfly Magic Button Box Fairy

I've coloured her with Letraset Promarkers. 

I love the colour of the Petal Lu flowers I've used. I love all things pretty!

We would love to see your creation's for the challenge, so hop over to the 

Petal Lu Challenge Blog 

to see lot's more gorgeous design team inspiration. 

Have fun,

happy crafting,

lot's of love 

Nicola 

XXX

That Craft Place Challenge - Anything Goes

Hello lovelies!

It's time for another challenge over at 

THAT CRAFT PLACE 

The theme is

'Anything Goes'

I've made a card for the challenge using one of the fabulous Candy digis. 

I've coloured with Promarkers and Copics, and used Graphic 45 Bohemian Bazaar papers. The flowers are Petal Lu.

There will be 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes of images for this challenge.

Make sure you hop over to

THAT CRAFT PLACE 

for some

HUGE NEWS!

The Candy Collection is fantastic!

Happy crafting,

lot's of love

Nicola

XXX

LINKS YOU NEED TO KNOW

THAT CRAFT PLACE FACEBOOK SHOP 

THAT CRAFT PLACE NATTER CHATTER PAGE 

THAT CRAFT PLACE ETSY SHOP 

Heart Wreath Tutorial

Hello lovelies!

I am going to show you how I decorated this beautiful MDF heart wreath.

First of all, here is the product list of everything I have used on my project...of course available from my favourite THAT CRAFT PLACE 

MDF Heart Wreath  ~ Gesso ~ Cosmic Shimmer Crackle Paint's in shades Saffron, Vanilla, Corinth Blue ~ Tim Holtz Distress Inks in shades Tea Dye, Antique Linen, Shaded Lilac ~ Creative Expressions Metallic Gilding Wax in shades Graceful Mustard, Cast Bronze, Pewter ~ Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue ~ Collall 3D Glue ~ Petal Lu Flowers

The butterfly embellishment and the vintage brooch are what I already had in my crafty stash!

Step by Steps...

1. Paint the wreath and hearts with gesso.

2. Paint the wreath circle and large hearts with Vanilla Crackle Paint. Paint the heart frames with Corinth Blue Crackle Paint. Paint the smaller hearts with Saffron Crackle Paint. Leave to dry overnight.

When it's thoroughly dried you will be able to see the cracks that have appeared.

3. Use the Antique Linen Distress ink and a blending tool to dab over the Vanilla hearts. Use the Tea Dye ink and dab over the saffron hearts. Use the Shaded Lilac ink and dab over the Corinth Blue heart frames. You will see how this really shows up the cracks more. 

4. Use your finger to rub Graceful Mustard Gilding Wax on the edges of the circle and the Vanilla hearts. Rub lightly over the circle and the hearts with the wax too. Rub over the wax using kitchen paper to remove any excess wax, and to buff the wax up. Use the same techniques with the Cast Bronze on the Saffron hearts and the Pewter on the Corinth Blue heart frames.

*If you find your guilding waxes have dried out and gone quite hard, add a tiny amount of turpentine into the pot, leave for about 10 minutes. This should then have softened the gilding wax ready to use.

* A little tip for getting into small corners and crevices with your gilding wax ~ use a cotton bud. I stick the bud into the wax pot to pick up a smalll blob of the wax. I then force the blob into the corner and push it into it using the bud. If it is a smaller corner than a bud will fit into, I then use a cocktail stick. 

5. Now to glue the hearts onto the wreath. Depending on how you wish to hang your wreath, if you want to use a ribbon or twine, now is the time to thread it through the hole at the top. This is because we will be glueing a heart over the hole. I want to hang my wreath with the hole straight onto a hook on my wall, so I'm not going to use any ribbon.

Before you start to glue, lay all your hearts on the wreath until you are happy with the position. 

Once you are happy with the position, start to glue them in place with the acrylic glue. Leave to dry.

6. To finish, glue into the heart frames the flowers using the 3D glue. Glue the ornate butterfly to the top middle heart and the vintage brooch to the bottom middle heart. These two embellishements I already had in my stash, you could use whatever you already have. 

I love these colours together. I wanted to show you that you can mix cool and warm tones together and they can look really nice and pretty!

The great thing about crafting and art ~ you can use whatever your heart desires!

I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial, I look forward to the next one.

Lot's of love 

Nicola 

XXX

Links you need to know.,,

THAT CRAFT PLACE 

THAT CRAFT PLACE CHALLENGE BLOG 

THAT CRAFT PLACE ETSY SHOP 

THAT CRAFT PLACE FACEBOOK GROUP SHOP 

THAT CRAFT PLACE NATTER AND CHATTER GROUP 

MDF Tool Caddy Tutorial

Hello lovelies!

 I'm going to show you how to decorate an MDF Tool Caddy.

Product's I've used are of course from my favourite shop

THAT CRAFT PLACE 

Product List...

MDF Tool Caddy ~ Americana Decor Chalk Paint Primitive ~ Craft Consortium Decoupage Paper White Crack Texture and Wild Meadow ~ Cosmic Shimmer Matt Glue, Seal & Glaze ~ Americana Decor Ultra - Matte Varnish ~ Cosmic Shimmer Colour Cloud Ink Decadent Oak ~ Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue ~ Cosmic Shimmer PVA Dark Bronze ~ Ornate Pearl Sticker ~ Flowers ~ Flowers Linen Cotton Ribbon ~ Collall 3D Glue Gel

Already in my crafty stash...

Create Quote ~ Ecoline White Paint ~ Rigger Brush ~ Tim Holtz Findings Memory Key

Step By Steps...

1. Paint the inside of the two end panels, making sure you paint the edges. Paint the inside of the front & back panel, make sure you don't paint the tabs. Paint the edges of these and the edges of the middle section. Leave to dry. 

* I've left the base of the Tool Caddy unpainted. If you like to be a frugal crafter you will understand why. There is no point wasting paint on the bottom when you won't even see it. On the other hand, if I was giving this as a gift, then I would paint the bottom!*

2. When the paint is dry, paint over all the pieces with the Ultra-Matte Varnish. Leave to dry.

3. Paint the Matt Glue, Seal & Glaze onto oneside of the MDF centre panel. Tear a square of the crackle paper to fit the panel, leaving the tabs. Press onto the MDF, then sand away the edges. Paint over the matt seal glue and leave to dry. Repeat the same with the other side. Leave the glue to dry.

4. Use a sponge to apply the colour cloud to the handle and rub over the crackle paper.

5. Put the caddy together. Then paint glue over the joins to secure everything together.

6. Lay the caddy on it's side. Use the rigger brush, dip into the white ecoline, then tap the brush over the handle. This is really random, the little paint splatters will go on other parts of your caddy, but I quite like this. It's arty! Do the same on the other side, then leave to dry. 

7. Tear two pieces of the Wild Meadow Decoupage paper big enough to fit the outer panels and the front and back panel. Lay the paper on the front and back panels before applying glue and use a craft knife to trim to size.  Now cover the panels using the Matt Glue, Seal & Glaze. Smooth over the paper, sand away the excess paper and cover with another layer of the glue seal then leave to dry.

8. Carefully paint the Dark Bronze PVA at the bottom edges to finish off the panels. Use a fine brush and paint swirl lines along the edges of the sides.

9. Apply the ornate pearl sticker to the panel you want to be the front of the caddy.

10. Tie the cotton ribbon to the handle and tie a bow. Glue the Create Quote to the opposite side of the bow. Use a length of ribbon to thread through the key. Attach just below the bow at the front. Tie another bow at the back of the caddy. I know the key says 'memory' but I like it for this. Finish off by gluing the flowers on to the caddy. Finally fill the caddy with your tools!

I think the Tool Caddy looks very pretty sat on my desk!

I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial today. 

Happy Crafting,

Lot's of love

Nicola

XXX

LINKS YOU NEED TO KNOW

THAT CRAFT PLACE FACEBOOK SHOP 

THAT CRAFT PLACE NATTER CHATTER PAGE 

THAT CRAFT PLACE ETSY SHOP

Bead Box Tutorial

Hello lovelies!

I have decorated a lovely wooden box to make a bead box.

The materials you need from That Craft Place 

Wooden Box ~ White Gesso ~ Texture Paste ~ Cog Stencil ~ Cosmic Shimmer Crackle Paints in shades China Pink, Heather , Jade Mint ~ Petal Lu Flowers ~ Pink Ruffle Edge Ribbon ~ Lilac Spiral Stems ~ Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue

Materials already in my own crafty stash...

Spatula ~ Old credit card ~ Daler Rowney Interference Colour Shimmering Green and Shimmering Violet ~ Selection of Beads ~ Pearl Beads on Stems ~ Piece of Broken Jewellery

Step by Steps...

1. Paint the box all over, inside and out, and the dividers with gesso, Leave to dry.

2. Lay the Cog Stencil over the left half of the lid. Use your spatula to add a blob of texture paste onto the stencil.

Use the old credit card and spread the paste evenly over the stencil.

Flip the stencil around so that the pattern joins in the middle. Repeat the same steps  for the right side.

Leave this to dry thoroughly.

3. Paint the box lid with the Jade Mint crackle paint, the base with China Pink, and the inside with Heather. Paint the divider China Pink. Leave to dry. I left mine to dry overnight, you will see the crackles appear when dry.

4. Put a blob of each of the Interference paints onto your craft sheet. Spritz with some water on each blob. Mix each colour with the water to create a wash. Paint the violet on the inside of the box and paint the green interference over the lid and the rest of the outside of the box. Leave to dry. This creates a lovely shimmer effect.

5. Put the divider into place inside the box.  Glue the pink ribbon around the bottom edge. Embellish the top with your Spiral and pearl stems, flowers, beads and broken jewellery using the glue to stick everything into place. Finally fill with some pretty beads.

I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial for this pretty bead box. I really enjoyed decorating this. You could decorate these boxes as a gift for someone and fill it with pretty things they like.

Have fun,

Happy Crafting,

Nicola 

XXX

LINKS YOU NEED TO KNOW...

THAT CRAFT PLACE FACEBOOK SHOP 

THAT CRAFT PLACE NATTER CHATTER PAGE 

THAT CRAFT PLACE ETSY SHOP