My Altered Box Won!

Had a really busy day today preparing for a Clay hand building workshop which I am running on Thursday at Country Love Crafts.  Delegates are going to be taught how to make 3d wall hangings, draped bowls and also how to add texture with rubber stamps, cant wait!
I checked my emails this afternoon and found to my amazement that my Altered box had won the Alter it Monthly competition….How happy was I! The prize was a gift voucher for Artchics Studio, I had a browse through there shop and found this…

A Steampunk goodie bag!  unfortunately they are out of stock at the moment but the site does however give you an option to be notified by email when the items are back in so that's what I will do.
Right it really is time to turn the laptop off and get to bed, another busy day ahead  tomorrow.
Andy.

From Trash to Treasure

Hi everyone,
A bit of topic this but I wanted to show you these bags that Beth, who works for Country Love Crafts makes along with her Mum Di.
These bags are made from cat food pouches which are not bio degradable and therefore not recyclable. The pouches are first washed and then bleached before being sewn together to make these brilliant bags!




To view more bags and a variety of trash turned into treasure here is their website and Facebook address.
Website
Facebook

Seize Life Tag Tutorial

Here is the first of the 11 tag tutorials

Making a Mess!

 

Playing with Distress Inks and acrylics tonight…to be honest I’m waiting for the Oscars and a bit bored so its time to splash some paint about!!!!

And The Winner Is?

Hello everyone, here is the prize!

Americana Matte Spray Sealer. 5 bottles of Americana acrylic paint, Weathered Wood Medium, Texture Paste, Triple Thick (Like Glossy Accents) Maya Road Fibres, Adirondack  Blending Solution, Adirondack Alcohol Inks, Brilliance Archival Inkpad, Treasure Gold Gilding Wax, 3 pottery heart plaques ready for decoration and the featured Tag.

All names were placed in a hat this morning,,well a bag actually! and the first name to come out was?? ………………….SID!!  Congratulations Sid the goodies will be posted to you this week. Sid if you could let me have a delivery address by filling in the contact form on the tabs at the top of this blog that would be great.

Tag No 7 proved to be the most popular so I have completed a tutorial for that tag.

Many thanks to everyone who posted there comments. I may run a few more competitions in the near future and ask the lovely people from Decoart to sponsor them.
Details of how to get the tutorial are posted below

Tutorial

I have added a new Page located on the Tabs at the top of this blog called  PDF Tutorials. The tutorial for  tag 7 can be found there.
I have decided to produce tutorials in PDF format as I think it is much more user friendly and easy to print out and work from. Please let me know if there are any problems.
Tag 7 is probably the hardest out of all the tags to explain the technique but hopefully it will make sense.

Have a great day,
Andy

Let There be Light! Altered Box 1.5

Just finished the Altered box and wanted to share a couple of pictures.

I decided to mount a battery operated LED light in the top of the box which really brings it to life, just need to find a wall to mount it on now.
I am entering this box into the Alter It Monthly Challenge so fingers crossed!

Click Images for a larger view.
 

Here is a picture of the inside as asked for,

Andy

Altered Box Part 1

Hello all,
I was given a Diesel perfume box a few weeks back shaped like a book and decided I wanted to make an altered box with it, I was asked lots at Stitches about the stamped Gesso technique but rather than use gesso for this I have decided to use a product from Decoart called Modeling Paste because its flexible when dry and more like fabric and would be perfect for this box.as it is flexible at the hinge.
Below is a picture of it applied to cardstock and it bends without cracking!


This tutorial is part one of two, and the technique is exactly the same if you were to use Gesso. In part two I am going to transform it into a shadow box. Here is a picture at the end of stage one..

Ok I understand if you are going to try this method you will be using a different type of box, if its wooden I recommend that you prime it first.

The box has a glossy paper finish so I first sanded it to give it some tooth for the modeling paste to adhere to and cut out the plastic window.


Apply the modeling paste approximately 2mm thick using a pallet knife, you don't have to worry about it being perfect as it is going to be stamped into.


Once the box is covered start to dry with a heat tool, this will dry the surface of the modeling paste but you still want it to be spongy. I recommend trying this on a practice piece before attempting it as it takes a little practice. Once the paste is ready spritz your stamp with a little water to prevent it from sticking.


Start stamping into the modeling paste using a variety of stamps, make sure you have a bowl of water to hand as there will be the odd stamp that sticks and you can clean the stamp immediately.


Continue to stamp into the modeling paste until completely covered. Allow to air dry or if impatient like me use a heat tool but be carful not to blister the paste.


The colour options for the base coat are up to you, I have used Red, Yellow and Blue with a different brush for each colour, blend them slightly but avoid muddying them.


Once dry I like to add a few metallic colours randomly onto the basecoat.


Next I have picked 4 shades of blue along with buttermilk, starting with your deepest shade load a flat brush but not to heavily and start brushing over the surface allowing some of the basecoat to show through. Allow to dry.


Repeat this process using less paint on the brush with each shade until you get to your lightest two colours. Now load the brush and wipe of onto a kitchen towel and dry brush the the stamped surface, finishing with your lightest colour.


Here are some close-up's after the final dry brushing, you can click any of the pictures to enlarge.


I then applied gold to the sides, once dry I applied one coat of Decoart Weathered wood and dried with a heat tool followed by a coat of buttermilk, almost immediately the cracks start to appear.


Finally I finish of with two coats of Americana Matte Sealer.

Stitches Workshop Samples

Just a quick post to show you the fabulous heart plaque and tag designs that Lindsay Mason and I ran workshops on during Stitches...It was all a little rushed as we only had 45 minutes to complete this workshop but the results were fantastic!

Andy

Stitches Day Two competition!

Hello all,
I have just returned to the hotel after a full on day at the show.
I have met so many lovely people over the past couple of days and many old friends also,  I  really have enjoyed myself here and have to admit a little sad that it's the last day tomorrow.

The meal last night was lovely, there were 26 of us gathered around 3 tables and not a dull moment! Tim Holtz entertained with an amazing trick...I will keep this secret but you could pop on to Lindsay Masons Blog and ask her as she was the magicians assistant!! :)  Thank you Personal Impressions for a fantastic evening!  I will post pictures as soon as I get time to transfer them from my phone.

Anyway here are some tags as promised.  I have produced these using my stamps along with Decoart mediums and distress inks.
I am going to post step by step tutorials on these tags here on my blog starting on Sunday...OK here is the twist! The tag with the most comments recieved will be the first tutorial posted and so on there after so get your comments in, just post a comment saying which tag you would like to see the technique for, there  are 11  tags  (the first picture No1 the last No11) The tag with the highest amount of votes will be posted here on sunday evening....hope that makes sence!!
One name will be drawn from the hat and sent one of the tags along with a selection of Decoart and Ranger goodies!!

Have a great evening,

Andy