Tuesday 26 April 2011

Steampunked!

 
Steampunked box

Had a lovely Easter Weekend, great weather in the UK during a Bank holiday for a change!

I had planned to paint my hallway but a trip to Hobbycraft and lunch with friends was much more appealing :)

Sunday was spent with friends Sam & Bibi - another crafting session at Sam's this time. 
Sam had bought us all some lovely goodies for Easter - nesting wooden boxes to be altered, beads and charms, a sketch book to alter, a canvas and inkjet transparencies to use for a transfer technique project. Bibi gave us a goodie bag with Hotel Chocolat Eggs, chocolate, cheese biscuits and a skooshie bottle - really handy when your paint dabbers dry up :)
Metal rose, embossed with steampunk texture fade

Cogs and gears - blinged!
  We steampunked our boxes, I actually started out with the top of the box painted in a mix of pink and blue - not my normal style but as you can see it didn't stay that way for long - I had to grunge it up with expresso paint and heirloom gold perfect pearl mist.  The sides are covered in kraft resist paper and tissue tape, and gears cut using the Tim Holtz cogs and gears die - I love my vagabond, makes cutting metal and grungeboard so easy.  Used dressform cut from Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante papers  and stamped Gibson Girl with gears to decorate the top, which I'd covered in metal foil.


Gears




My mobile phone chargers now live in this box, instead of falling on my head when I open the cupboard door!


Sunday 17 April 2011

Good Day Sunday - Easter basket's and Altered Books

 We'd been planning this crafty get-together for a while, a trip to Kervan - a Turkish restaurant in Edmonton then an altered book project based on a Prima class by Marion Smith.  I put together a little Easter gift for Sam, Bibi and Yasmin.  Sam's not a fan of chocolate (mad woman :), so I put together a selection of cheeses and biscuits.  Bibi and Yas had Lindt Rabbits, Lambs and mini creme eggs.  Each basket is decorated with glimmer misted flowers, felt rabbits and monogramed labels painted with fresco paint and crackle glaze.

L to R - Mine, Bibi's, Sam's
 We tore the original pages out of the books and cut various types of paper to size and some smaller random sized pages to add interest.  The pages are sewn into signatures (my sewing machine protested against sewing paper).  As you can see, we all came up with different styles for our front covers, I went for a SteamPunk theme.  We didn't have the prima book closures so I decided to make my own version using some chain, Tim Holtz jump rings and mini bulldog clips.  We then hung charms from the chain - looks great I think!
Bibi's

Sam's

Yvonne's(mine!)

DIY book closures/charm dangler

DIY book closures