Crafty Individuals Bird Cage Frame

Crafty Individuals now have a Blog! Isn't that great news! I have made this little papier mache frame using one of their new collage stamps, CI301. I coloured the stamped image with Pro Markers and added glossy accents to the butterflies. I made silicone moulds from some of the jewellery I bought in Primark the other day - the bird from the ring, some flowers, and the butterfly. For the birdcage I used the Tim Holtz Alterations Bird Cage die on shrink plastic, which I have done quite a few times before, but this time I used the shrunk piece to make a silicone mould, then made it up with friendly plastic. That way you can have whatever finish you like on the piece. I used metallic rub ons on the flowers and birdcage, and mica powders on the bird and the butterfly.


The stamped image was exactly the right size for the centre of the papier mache frame. I painted it with acrylic paint and then added some crackle paint, and then different shades of Silkies. I stuck some torn pieces of Angelina film to the wet paint and heat gunned it. Then I splodged some glossy accents in places and sprinkled on some mother of pearl flakes, and some Deko Ice which I coloured with alcohol ink, to match the project. I added a glass nugget to the centre of one of the flowers, then superglued all the pieces in place, including a piece of brass chain for the bird cage.

Gingersnaps Challenge - Kings and Queens

Over on Gingersnaps today they are starting a challenge, featuring Kings and Queens in your artwork.

I thought it would be fun to depict the Queen Bee as my entry. I used a mask from Creative Expressions on the card blank to represent honeycomb, put it through the Cuttlebug, then inked it up with Distress Inks to highlight the embossing. I cut a Baroque shape from mountboard and inked this up, and stamped it with the frame and the word Queen from a Pink Paislee set. There are three sizes of bee so I used the largest to depict the Queen Bee and highlighted her body by using Deko Ice in Amber. I used the small bee all over, including some secondary stamping. I wanted the sense of bees crawling over the honeycomb. I also inked through some sequin waste.

The crown is a Tim Holtz charm which I pressed into some moulding silicone to make a mould, then made it up with clay and gold mica powder. I finished it off with a few adhesive gems.

Haute Couture Canvas - Gingersnaps Challenge

I made this little canvas for the Gingersnap Creations Blogspot challenge for this week, which is Haute Couture. I thought this new Crafty Individuals stamp, depicting two elegantly dressed ladies with a vintage Millinery advertisement fitted the bill. I added their scroll stamp and some little flowers to the corners, and some Deko Ice from the Altered Element, which I coloured orange to match the rest of the project. I used a vintage rose coloured braid around the edge, letting it sit slightly above the edge so it framed the image from the front.