A Shimmery Shadow Box - for Brenda

Brenda (Bumblebees and Butterflies) came to visit me last week which was lovely. We chattered and caught up, and popped out to a couple of my local charity shops to pick up things to alter, but more of that at a later date.

I had made a shadow box frame (available from Happy Daze) as a gift for Brenda:-

I thought I'd take a separate photo of the backdrop without the frame, so you can see it in more detail:

It's a dipped background, then stamped with Crafty Individuals' text stamp in Sepia, and the bird and flourish in black. The birdcage is a shrink plastic Tim Holtz alterations one with a bit of ball chain to hang it from. The flowers have been stamped and punched and then each layer dipped in the melt pot before assembling. The vintage image is a Crafty Individuals' one, from one of their image pads, with UTEE poured over it. Bottom left is a piece of lace coaster from Poundland.

I don't often get the melt pot out, mainly because it needs more than a four inch square workspace! So I had a bit of a session. In the first picture you will see a butterfly top right on the frame. I bought a pack of four layered butterflies from my local Tiger for £1. The top two have been dipped in the melt pot, and the bottom two are at the moment, as they came:-

You may be able to spot in the first photo something else from Tiger, the little bottle of seed beads. My lovely friend, Jack, knows how much I like Tiger and she bought me a pack of these. I knew Brenda would like them too so I went in and got her a pack! If you don't have a Tiger, Crafty Individuals have just started stocking a gorgeous version at a great price here!

Unruly Paper Arts Wedding Issue - A Floral Fascinator

Today I have my first column in Unruly Paper Arts Blogspot, for their wedding issue. I decided to make a floral fascinator you could wear at a wedding. The generic name for my columns will be Luce Change, as a play on my name but also because I like to alter the purpose of things as a way of economizing. This time I have used some scraps of fabric and some clear packaging material, along with a 50p headband from Matalan, to make my fascinator. I hope you will like it.

Great Britain Summer 2012 Frame

I felt in the mood to do something quite painty and textural, and I got some more of these lovely wood frames from Happy Daze which are great for slapping on lots of layers. To the texture paste and paint I added some puddles of little seed beads set in Glossy Accents. I went with a Great Britain theme as I wanted to use a combination of the Crafty Individuals' British stamps, and the Papermania Portobello Road papers and matching stamps, using the stamps to make the shrink plastic embellishments.

The flowers are dipped in UTEE in the meltpot. My favourite bit is the big ben which you can see peeking out behind the flowers.

I also used a teapot charm, with a circle of the Portobello crown paper.

I used the Crafty Individuals' coin stamp on shrink plastic and added it to a bottle cap and finished it off with a crown. I cut bunting from the Portobello papers and added it to a piece of red ribbon stretched across the roof 'ceremonial sash' style.

Nice Weather if You're a Duck!

Sorry for being so miserable yesterday and thank you for your support. I am not really much better today but I must pull myself together. So I thought I would share some lovely visitors I have just had to our rented house:-

Don't they look tall when they stretch their necks like that? They have come into the garden here before and I don't know where they have come from as I can't think of any local ponds. Maybe the amount of rain we are having, anywhere will do!

As you can see, they were only about two feet away from me, not at all shy, but very hungry! When they are this close to you, you can actually see the bread going down their gullets. Sorry, I wouldn't make much of a wildlife correspondent, would I? I probably shouldn't admit to being so stupid (I'm a bit of a towny) but I thought that ducks couldn't fly. Colin said they could. Argument ensued. Then he kept saying (this is when we are in France), jump up quickly, there is one flying over there! I have never caught them at it so I still think he is winding me up! So these ducks have obviously waddled from somewhere!

Blog Candy Clasp Bag Draw

Thank you so much for joining in my clasp bag blog candy draw. Well if you know me by now, you will have guessed I wouldn't be able to cope with a random number generator malarkey - way beyond me! But I can cope with writing names on bits of paper and drawing them out of a hat! I have never done a blog candy before (too poor!), and I am now thinking, oooh, I want to give something to everyone who has joined in. Do you feel like that when you do one?

Without further ado, the name pulled out of the hat is:-

Ephemera! And what a wonderful lady she is too. It is a bit 'Coals to Newcastle' to send you a bag, Paula, when mine are such a poor imitation of the gorgeous ones you have made which have so inspired me and given me such pleasure, but hopefully a fitting thank you. I hope you will accept it in the spirit of a gift from a grateful fan, and I hope one day we will get to meet and craft together. Please drop me a line with your address.

Hope everyone is having a good Sunday. I have hit another bad spot in our sagas, not for any one particular reason, just feeling low and that I have run out of steam with the chaos and everything that needs doing. The builders seem to be a good bunch and are cracking on very fast now with our house. I think the adrenaline kept me going for the first couple of months but the whole process has dragged on so long that my health and strength are not holding out and I desperately want some stability and to have my life back. I don't cope well with unheaval and uncertainty. I know I have an awful lot right now that I should be feeling grateful about, especially when I think how grim the outlook was at first, but I am afraid I have just had enough.

Yet Another Collaged Bag - Blog Candy!

As I have had such lovely comments on being a 'bag lady' recently, I thought I would like to offer one as blog candy as a thank you to you lovely people who have stuck by me during my continuing challenging time. I have used Crafty Individuals' stamps as usual as they work so well for this style, and it would be rude not to use the new butterfly and crinoline lady stamps!

There are no special requirements to be in with a chance to win the bag. If you want to become a follower or mention this on your own blog, that would be lovely, but it is not expected. I will draw a winner next Saturday evening. Have a good weekend!

Unruly Paper Arts Wedding Issue - A Wedding Memento Tin

Have you been enjoying the new Unruly Paper Arts Blogozine? The first issue focused on inky techniques and I was sad I had too much going on to participate in it from day 1. Issue number 2 launched yesterday, and the theme is Wedding Wonders. I have my first column up later on this month - something to wear at a wedding! My column will be concentrating on altered art, particularly economizing and upcyling, as that's me!

For yesterday's Reader Art Quest, where we are looking to you to make something with a wedding theme that is anything you like except a card, I have made a heart shaped tin into a wedding themed memento box. This came about as we have been trawling through our flooded loft to see what can be salvaged and came across some chocolate boxes dating back to our marriage in 1984, containing the cards and gift tags we received, together with other memorabilia of the day. There was a smaller box containing the sugarcraft floral spray from the top of our wedding cake which sadly was very soggy. So I thought this tin, with its aperture lid, would be perfect for a preserved wedding bouquet, or perhaps the bride and groom figures from the cake, or a 'something blue' garter. I'm pleased to say the marriage has survived our recent disasters, if not the memorabilia!

For the inside of the tin I drew around the heart shape onto card and inked it up with wrinkle free distress and then added a collage of Crafty Individuals' stamps. I used lace, and pearl trim around the inside edge.

I gessoed the tin then painted it with Fresco Finish paint and stamped with various text stamps from Crafty Individuals, and added pearl trim around the inside edge of the aperture. The large flowers are made from Crafty Individuals' spring background paper, using my clear packaging material technique to give a little dimension, and the leaves are cut from a piece of lace.

As you can see here, I used the brand new butterflies stamp from Crafty Individuals which I love! I also used an old stamp of theirs, the lady with the butterfly covering her bottom, which says Forever in my Heart, just for a touch of wedding romance.