Quadruple Slide Mailer Hanging for Happy Daze

Over on Happy Daze Blog I have a Quadruple Slide Mailer hanging with a Steampunk theme, which I hope you will like! I am so chuffed, they have kindly taken me on as a permanent member of the team after my guest month. It has come at a good time for me as it has made me feel more motivated and hopefully that will make me more creative. Need to get my old self back!

If you want to see how I made it and what I used, it is here.

Crafty Individuals' Quadruple Slide Mailer

I was in the mood to make something textural and I thought I would use a quadruple slide mailer. I used an image from one of the Crafty Individuals' miniatures books, People and Places, and poured UTEE from the melt pot onto it, into a cookie cutter, and removed the backing by dropping it in water and rubbing the paper away with my finger. I then glued it to the centre of the mailer and melted it again, letting some of the UTEE drip, then dropping in seed beads. I rubbed Inka Gold, from Happy Daze, onto the raised areas of the texture paste, which I also rubbed over the pink seed beads as I thought they were a bit brighter than I wanted.

For the inside of the mailer I used loads of stamps from Crafty Individuals, CI 171, 188, 182, 203, and 258, layering them up in different shades of ink. The little girl collage stamp was a present from Petra and I love her; thank you Petra! For the book text I did an experiment, which I was really pleased with. I covered some book pages with clear packaging tape and obviously it had text on both sides. I wanted something more transparent that would blend in so I popped it in a bowl of water and rubbed off the backing, so it just had one layer of text. I have done this with images before, which was a brilliant tutorial by Ali on Gingersnaps,  but not with book pages. I then applied it in little pieces using gel matte medium, which also had the effect of mattifying the shiny tape so it blended in further.

The microscope slide images are also from the People and Places book. I don't have many images of this size though - does anyone know where I can source some please? I was really pleased with my experiment here. I used the same method to rub the backing off the images so that they would look like transparencies and then adhered them to book paper using gel matte medium, so that the text showed through, but you still have the lovely colours that are part of the Crafty Individuals' design. On the second one from the left, unfortunately I let the tape touch the image before I had stretched it flat (I don't have a tape dispenser and I get in a real tangle). I was going to do another image to replace it but I quite like how it adds to the worn look! If you open up the photo I hope you can see the book text.

To finish off, I added glossy accents to the top and bottom of the slide apertures and sprinkled in some seed beads. I have a new crafty friend, Susie, who took a fancy to this whilst I was making it, so I have gifted it to her today. She said her husband hadn't understood why he had been asked to look out for microscope slides for us, so now he will know why!

Here's a photo of the slide mailer standing. As the beads are very blingy, I am entering this fot the Stamp Man challenge which is Bling it On.

A Moth to the Flame - Happy Daze June Guest

For my final post as June Guest for Happy Daze I have decorated a candle using an Icarus stamp by Lost Coast Designs, to represent their June Bug Challenge. There is still time to join in this challenge and there's a great prize!

I would be delighted if you went over to visit me at the Happy Daze Blog!

Crafty Individuals' June Challenge - Summer Ball

The June Challenge over on the Crafty Individuals' blog is 'Summer Ball'. I only had one stamp which I felt was particularly appropriate so I wanted to use it in a slightly unusual way by using this box with a 'bubble' aperture to also represent the Ball, and to highlight the lady in the beautiful dress (CI 346). I used papers from the Summer Background pad and a selection of stamps, and gave her a fan made of shrink plastic from CI 335. I did a bit of fiddling about with my stamping as I wanted the 'dance card' part of the stamp repeated around the edge of the top of the box, and I also wanted to line up the chandelier on the outside and the inside of the bubble, but to also stamp it twice and layer it up to make it look dimensional. I then added some gems for the bulbs.

The box is lined with the Forget Me Not paper from the Summer Background Paper Pad, and some pearl trim:-

The flowers are made from shrink plastic and embossing powder, and the perfume bottle and label are from CI 335 again:-

The little 'feet' are links from a broken bracelet that look like diamond rings:-

I do hope you will join in the challenge!

Jane Austen Canvas for Happy Daze

Today I have my second post for my guest month at Happy Daze. I have decorated a canvas with mini canvases on it, with a Jane Austen theme. The canvas was a very kind present from Brenda and she had beautifully wrapped it with a piece of Tim Holtz Tissue Wrap and some beautiful faux porcelain melt post flowers. I haven't used the tissue wrap before but I am a huge fan of his tissue tape and I really loved using this! Happy Daze sell the two different designs as individual sheets if you don't want to buy the whole roll, which I think is great. I also used Glassine paper for the first time.

And Terry, I have used shrink plastic again! I hope you will like it.

Happy Daze June Guest - Altered Bottle

I've often mentioned on here that I buy all sorts of interesting goodies from Happy Daze. It's the main online shop I use as it sells all the unusual bits and pieces for altered art that are hard to find, and is also the UK stockist of one of my favourite stamp ranges from the US, Artistic Outpost. I've also mentioned how much I have been inspired by the Design Team, for example with the clasp handbags they got me into. I follow their blog postings regularly as I really admire this particular DT who make such original and varied items.

So you can imagine my delight when they asked me to be their June guest! To be asked to be a part of something you admire is such a lovely feeling. I have been asked to make three items over the course of the month, and today's is an altered bottle, which started life as a bubble bath bottle. My wonderful best friend, Elaine, bought me this bubble bath as she thought I would like to decorate the bottle afterwards - this was such a thoughtful gift as she is not a crafter herself, but she takes an interest in what I do and understands me!




You can see the finished bottle and how I made it here.

The bottle at the painted stage:-

I enjoyed making this project more than anything I have made since our flood. I was so excited about the invitation, it motivated and lifted my spirits. So thank you very much, Happy Daze, for asking me!

Luce Change - Fancy Floral Footwork

Over on Unruly Paper Arts, my alter ego Luce Change, has made these shoes! Pop on over to see how they were made!