Anything goes!

We met a couple of weekends ago as the Crafty Boots Design Team. It was just lovely to meet everyone face to face. We made swops and Tom and I did brooches. They were all different and it was interesting to see who snapped up which one.We were thrilled that everyone popped their brooches straight into aprons and tops.

This was the one I had..



I really enjoyed making this one and used the fabulous "melt it" from wow embossing to make the rose. I forgot to take a photo of them all together but they included skulls, Venetian masks more flowers, buttons and print on all of them.

Thanks to Stephanie-Emma for organising the day.

The Crafty Boots challenge this time is anything goes! What not have a go?

Happy crafting

Bev

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Remember

I picked my Crafty Boots Challenge theme as Remembrance a long time ago. I planned to show a scrapbook I've started of my Grandparents, Nan would have been 100 this year. I love remembering all the lovely things we did together but as life sometimes does other things take over.. If you read my blog you know I find crafting very personal and I made this card for the most wonderful lady, Myra, when I found out she was ill.

Myra was a bit like my second Mum, as Mum to my best friend Jenny. We were pretty inseparable when I was growing up. Although I made the card I dallied about what to write as I knew she was so poorly. I was too late and Myra never saw the card but I sent it too her husband and put all the things in I should have written earlier.
 

 I know that she will be looking down on us and urging us on to do all the things we hesitate and doubt over. Thank you for everything Myra, we love you .


 The stamps were Wendy Vecchi's and the Small "all you need is love" came from the unmounted stand at Ally Pally and the rose is paper pieced to add dimension and lots of love was added.



Bev

Halloween - BOO!

I have wanted to make a Halloween wreath for a couple of years and actually found time to do it this year.. on Halloween! I looked at loads of Google images and on pinterest and there was lots of inspiration. We, me and the kids, settled on using an old decoration, BOO and a large polystyrene wreath from Hobbycraft.

The wreath was wound with multicoloured wool (unpicked from a started scarf)  - this takes longer than you think... Once that was done I hot glued the spiders (Poundstretcher, 4 for a £1.99, brilliant) and the word Boo on.

To be honest I love it, so it was a great hour of crafting with the kids in a rather busy and emotional week.

Bev

Home - Crafty Boots Challenge

I have to admit I thought I would do a new home card for the Crafty Boots Home challenge and then changed my mind when I spotted these lovely mdf letters at the Big Stamp Ally Pally show in September.

I knew they would look great as a home warming present for my gorgeous Sister and Brother in Law who have bought their first house together. I did call and ask for a colour scheme and too my horror Claire said cream and gold! I am not a cream kind of person,  I'm a more is more kind of person so a challenge it was!

The letters were originally plain MDF and I gave them 2 coats of cream acrylic paint. I stamped  script in saddle brown stazon across the letters and the stenciled over sequin off cut with the new metalic distress stain in gold and added some chicken wire stamping in the metallic silver.

The buttons are all made from WOW melt it and the pearl embossing powders. Perspective Thomas and I saw them demonstrated at the Big Stamp show at Ally Pally and were intrigued. The inspiration was the heart below from the Sugar and Spice crafts stand so knew that something nice in cream was possible. We had a go and made several buttons. It was great fun!

 

My sister loved the letters and they have pride of place in their new hall way. Unfortunately the C wouldn't stand alone so we have to swop the letters round. As a cream challenge to me it was a big one but I'm pleased with the results. Why not see what you can produce for the Crafty Boots Home Challenge and have a go!

THREE..

Crafty Boots challenge this time is THREE. I've gone a bit Halloween mad and created a triptych.



I found that I did not have any spooky stamps but had lots of sizzix dies of bats, rats, ghosts and ghoulies! I bought in November of course.









In the end I found some stickers (oh my goodness!) of spiders and skeletons that seemed to fit well.. I know that Halloween's not for another 30 days but hey it's my birthday I can do what I want, can't I? Anyway I'm off to make a book pumpkin.. I'll share if it's any good.
Bev

Back from BIG stamp at Ally Pally

We couldn't make the BIG stamp show at Ally Pally on the Saturday so @Crafty_sara, Perspective Tom and my Mother Outlaw headed off to North London. I spent most of my primary school years in Wood Green so it's always nice to go back.. not so great for the passengers who hear my anecdotes every time.. chuckle!

We were warned of the change of hall by @stampingbyh (thank you!) and gazed at Ally Pally's Great Hall. It was interesting that there were the same amount of stalls but so much more space it seemed almost empty. I am pleased to say the layout was the same so when we rushed to buy craft card the stall was in the same place.  I had a strict shopping list and managed not to go too mad. I might have thrown in a couple of good value stamp sets but basically came back with what I went for.. oh and the obligatory double of something, this time actually it was 2 distress stains!

I was a very lucky girl and for my birthday my lovely Out-laws bought me some WOW Melt it embossing powders. Tom was fascinated by this (and Sam Poole demonstrating her stuff)  and we can't wait to have a go! Thank you.

It's a creative world - Alice fest!

The last couple of week at IACW there has been an Alice in Wonderland theme running, this is a sneaky peek at my contribution.

There have been the most wonderful ideas for tea parties and everything.. perhaps I can find an excuse to throw a party?

Bev

Crafty boots fairy tale challenge... Run, run as fast as you can!

The Crafty Boots challenge this time is set by Dionne and is fairy tales or nursery rhymes. It's caused me a few troubles.. I started off with James and the giant peach ideas, then moved onto Hansel and Gretal (sort of a dark forest style tag) and eventually mooches through my sizzix dies and found this cute little gingerbread man and a one off stamp of Mother Goose's house.



Run, run as fast as you can you can't catch me.. I'm a gingerbread man!


I used..
Tim Holtz pine tree
Sizzix gingerbread man #3
Cuttlebug You're not the Boss of me alphabet
Distress stain Picket fence
Stickles




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It's never to late to find out who you want to be!

For a traveller

What do you make for a man? I struggle with this regularly. The man in question is my daughter's GodFather. He is kind and very caring and I wanted to show him I appreciate all the postcards he sends from his travels not just to my daughter but my son, one each from all over the world - the cricketing world that is!

 I came up with this. I love the faded denim and weathered wood colour scheme and included some musical influences, watch parts and the travel theme. The main base is grey board and the circle the back of an art part. The stamps a mixture of Tim Holtz and Wendy Vecchi.

I did add a sari ribbon hanger at the top but forgot to photograph that, opps.

Tweet Tweet.. The Crafty Boots Challenge!

I've  had this plain little bird box sitting around for a while, when the Crafty Boots challenge came up as Tweet Tweet I decide to have a go and alter it.

I used some old book pages to cover the sides and a nifty metal technique on the roof that I learnt at a Crafty Thoughts workshop with Gabrielle.

I used a bit of sequin off cut as a stencil to do the blue spot bumping, another great technique learnt at a Crafty Thoughts workshop.

The mosiac butterfly is a Tim Holtz technique that I have used on a couple of things and decided to use music paper, coloured blue this time and silver jewel metallic embossing powder. The powder melts wonderfully.

The stamps were from various sets Tim Holtz, Indigo Blu and Paper Artsy. The final flourish was a Hels Sheridan flower made from grunge paper with a pearl popped in the middle. All in all a really enjoyable little project. Why not join in the Crafty Boots Tweet Tweet challenge, it's great fun!

Sneek peak - It's a Creative World, Wire and Bead Statement Rings

I've posted today at It's a Creative World, why not have a look at how to make these really easy wire and bead rings.

Metal work! Peg that.. - Crafty Thoughts Class

I find it hard to finish a class in the time allowed so brought this one home to finish. It was another great class with Gabrielle at Crafty Thoughts and we learnt techniques for rusting. There were a couple of things you could do and I went for this large peg.

I used Plumbers metal tape all over the peg then embossed it with a pencil and a couple of metal embossing tools. To rust it I used alcohol inks, rust and gold and then rub over some black acrylic paint. I got very messy, yuk!


The ART letters were rusted with distress embossing powders and edged with black soot distress ink. I am very pleased with the result.

How do you say you care?

Making things has always been really personal for me. I have cried when journaling scrapbook pages and everything I make and give is intensely special. Some times you need to make things for sad occasions. I made this for a friend; I struggled to find the right things to say he's not a gushing type of man so I wanted to let him know we are here.

 I used the Tim Holtz Alteration Matchbook die, the larger of the two on the plate and cut it in grunge paper. This lovely flexible stuff worked well. I then coloured it with Broken China and Picket fence distress stains and distressed just about everything in sight with Vintage photo ink.

The stamps are a mixture, Paper artsy clocks 5, Tim Holtz and the Thinking of you a Creative Expressions wooden stamp. Some I stamped in Pumice stone Distress ink and others in Black archival to give the pages some depth. The last page I wrote on. To hold it all together I used 2 eyelets and a bit of twine to run through the eyelets. Not too frilly for him, now to pop it in the post! (I'm not always good at that bit!)

Bev

Postcard challenge!

Crafty Boots challenge this time is Postcards set by the lovely Gabrielle. However much I tried to convince myself I would not do the seaside I was drawn back!! I bought a Create a Scene stamp set - Seaside by Sheena Douglas ages ago. Not my normal thing but I liked the pier and have used that part of the stamp set.

I have spent many happy hours on the Norfolk coast at Winterton-on-sea and the ice-cream van than drives the beach is pink hence my inspiration. I used glossy accents to gloss the van windows and painted with worn lipstick to get that wonderful pink. To create depth I paper pieced the pink part of the van.

 It was good to play with perspective; I tried different colour inks to help this along with the pier in pumice stone and the foreground in archival black ink.

The sand is scattered straw distress ink and the sky broken china with salty sea as the sea. To give the corners dimension I used a sequin off cut and just added another layer of the same ink.

Have a go at the Postcard challenge and see what inspires you.

Bev

Not just the card..

I find that often once you have made a card you need an envelope or in this case a box for it to go in because it won't fit in anything else!

 

This was the box for a friends 40th card. The card above was made with 2 sheets of grey board and then covered with patterned paper. I then stamped butterfly's from the Dark Room door set - Butterflies  in Saddle brown and Delphinium blue Staz on ink. I stamped once and then again to get the depth  of colour.

  

The rosette on the card has Tim's paper tape with moths on it and after a friend mentioned a strip of it on the back of the rosette was a handy way to keep the rosetee together, I promptly manged to stick it on the wrong side! Saying that I liked it.. A large sparkly stickon from the pund store was the bit of bling I wanted. The stamp inside the card was another Dark Room Door set and was great for the friendship quote. The card was held to gether wither book rings and I tied as many ribbons as I could to it.

The Box was made using the Crafters companions Top score board with plain cardstock and then stamping the same butterflies on. I also used a small amount of Stickles in rock candy to jazz it up.

Thank you

It's the time of year when I want to say thank you.. a lot! To teachers, music teachers, Brownie and Scout leaders etc.

I used a really simple design with my new funky flowers set by Wendy Vecchi studio 490 purchased from the Crafty Boots stash savers club. I'd made quite a few and given them away when I realised I hadn't blogged them. The flowers were all different colours and I got a chance to try out my Tim holtz spring and summer distress inks. Quick simple and cute.

On a similar theme I did some bunting cards using the free bunting stamp from Craft Stamper which is just my favourite magazine at the moment. A little distressing with seedless preserves and a trio of pearl stickies finished them off!

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Babies

Crafty Boots Challenge this time is Babies. It is a very poignant challenge. 

Babies are such a gift. I made this tag with friends in mind who have just had their beloved son after many years of waiting.

I cut a tag and a page of a childrens encyclopedia found in a charity shop. I struggle cutting up books but this ones cover was mouldy so fair game.I used my favourite Tim Holtz flourish stamp and a wooden satmp of a cradle I picked up in a sale bin.The distress inls I used were broken china and vintage photo. The flowers were light pink so I inked them to a light brown. The metal plate was finished off with brads and the New Baby stamp.