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Sunday 27 March 2016

That Craft Place Challenge - Anything Goes

Hello lovelies!

It's time for another challenge over at 


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


for some


The Candy Collection is fantastic!

Happy crafting,
lot's of love
Nicola
XXX

LINKS YOU NEED TO KNOW





Tuesday 22 March 2016

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.,,




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

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



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...