March Crop Challenge - Wooden frame

I have spent a very enjoyable morning in my craft room as next week is the March Bramford Crop.  This month's challenge was set by Karen (http://daisymaycreates.blogspot.com/) and we were each given a 6x6 inch wooden frame to alter.  To start with I wondered what to do and looked at several different techniques described in the Craft Stamper magazine.  All I knew was that I wanted to use my newly purchased Artistic Outpost London Underground stamp set.

I started off by painting the edges of the frame with the Ranger Snow Cap Acrylic Paint Dauber.  Next a cut a piece of white card stock just smaller that the frame itself, rounded the corners and cut the centre out plus one small strip for my sentiment.  I stamped the white card with each of the stamps in the set except for the 'Keep calm and carry on' which I stamped in the middle of the card I cut out of the centre.  I used Tim Holtz Barn Door and Faded Jeans Distress Inks on both pieces but left some of the white card showing through.  Next I spritzed some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Marshmallow, Sapphire and Black Cherry.  Once happy with my outside piece I distresses the edges of the card stock and covered the entire piece with Ranger Distress Crackle Paint Rock Candy.  Next I cut a piece of corrugated cardboard and stuck this to the frame using Claudine Hellmuth Studio Multi-Medium.  I also painted the Multi-Medium over the top of the Rock Candy and rubbed a small amount of Ranger Perfect Pearls - Perfect Copper in the top corner.  To finish my centre piece I wound some Stampin'Up Linen Thread round the bottom of my 'Keep calm and carry on' sentiment and placed this square behind the glass.  I attached a crown charm to some twine and glued this to the cardboard so that it hangs above the sentiment but on top of the glass.  Finally I glued the main stamped frame to the corrugated cardboard and I used foam tape to give some depth to my 'London calling...' sentiment.

Normally I wouldn't post my finished challenge piece until the day after the crop but most of the other girls have posted early so here is my finished frame: 

Thanks for looking!

Tracey x

An introduction to Altered Art - Secret Santa 2010

I'm going back in time for today's post but wanted to share with you what I believe was my introduction to Altered Art.  It was a natural progression in my crafty journey which started with cards during a period living in the USA back in 2000/2001, then after very many years (almost a decade) I finally made a move to try Scrapbooking and very quickly from there on to ATC's, Tag's and Altered Art.  Really the later came about after joining the Bramford crop and becoming involved in the girls monthly challenges.

So 2010 saw my first Secret Santa with the Bramford crop girls and it was all about altering boxes.  As I said this was my first real experience of Altered Art.  We picked names out of the hat and I was making mine for Nancy (http://kittyscrapper-nancy.blogspot.com).  The girls told me where I could find plain wooden boxes and the shape I chose came as a set of 2, one larger box with a smaller one inside.  I knew that this would take some time to complete but had the opportunity to undertake the challenge whilst at my annual Belstead House weekend in the November.

I decided to alter the smaller of the 2 boxes as it seemed such a large project for me to complete anyway.  At this point my Altered Art stash was limited with no paints so my first challenge was how to cover the box...in the end I used a brown paper bag, I usually get these bags when purchasing my crafting goodies from the Papermaze (http://www.papermaze.co.uk) shop and they just cry out to be altered in my opinion.  As you can see I used loads of Tim Holtz products on this project such as masks, distress inks, dies, fragments, stamps, grungeboard, sepia accents, glossy accents, rock candy, memo pins, brad, ticket etc.  Obviously my addiction to all things Tim Holtz was well established by this point!!  I also used a Stampin'Up stamp for the sentiment in the middle of the tattered floral and ribbon to go round the lid plus a few clear accent beads and glimmer some mist.  Once completed I was so pleased with it that I went on to do the same for the second box so that I could keep one myself.  The photo's below are of the box that I kept and it still sits proudly on the dresser in my living room.

Needless to say I was immediately hooked on altered art and nowadays I spend most of my time wondering and dreaming what the next project is...I just need the time to bring my ideas to to life but work tends to get in the way most of the time.

Thanks for looking!
Tracey x

Altered Wooden Block

So February was Carol's (http://kraftypieces.blogspot.com/) turn to set the Bramford Crop girls challenge and she presented us each with a small wooden block.  Each side measured 1.5 inches and mine was blue and a bit battered.

I spent quite a while trying to decide what to do with it and my first idea was to cover it in paint and to go from there.  In the end I decided against painting and instead for the base I first covered all of the edges with Tim Holtz Tissue Tape. Next I cut 6 squares from White card stock, 6 smaller squares from Brown Bazzill Card Stock and finally 6 even smaller squares from the Basic Grey Basics range.  I  rounded the corners and inked the edges.  I glued the first 2 layers but before adding the final layer I ran some Stampin'Up Twine around the block. 

The for the top I asked my boyfriend to help me push a Tim Holtz Memo Pin into the block.  I stamped a Tim Holtz saying onto a ticket puched out of Kraft card stock, inked the edges and placed it in the memo pin.  For thetop of the block I added a piece of lace and covered it with 3 white flowers which I inked tomake them brown and finally I added a dress pin and some glimmer mist for a little bit of sparkle.

For the front I added a clock face and a Tim Holtz game spinner.

For this side I stapled Tim Holtz film strip ribbon using the tiny attacher and on top added 3 buttons through which I had threadedand knotted some twine.

For the back I cut out a flower in Stampin'Up papers using a set of Cuttlebug dies.  I inked the edges and used a Stampin'Up flower brad to hold it together

For the final side I punched a Brown base using the Stampin'Up Scallop punch.  Next I stamped a small Tim Holtz cinema ticket on Kraft card stock, added a Tim Holtz Mini paperclip and covered it with sepia accents.  I also added a gem.

Unfortunately I wasn't there for the Crop last Saturday and handed over my block a few weeks ago.   I took the photos prior to handing it over but didn't download the pictures until later and sadly these are not the best photos I've ever taken so apologies that they are a little blurry.

At the moment. I'm not sure who received my block but I hope they enjoy looking at it as much as I enjoyed creating it.  I really loved this challenge and was really pleased with the finished piece.

Thanks for looking!

Tracey x

January Crop Challenge

So I've finally almost caught up with my pending blog posts and today is the turn of last month's challenge.  It was my turn to choose the alterable item for the January Bramford Crop girls challenge and I decided on a Door Hanger... 

We put names in the hat before creating the piece this month and my chosen paper said Nancy (Kitty Scrapper).  Although I've made a few door hangers over the past couple of months, I wanted this one to be different.  Now Nancy likes pink and so my theme was born.

Firstly I used the Snow Cap Ranger paint dabber for the edges of the wooden hanger and then covered the front and back with Basic Grey Basics paper and distressed the edges with Tim Holtz ink.  I stamped a flourish in the top corner and covered the image with Ranger Sepia Accents to give it a raised glossy effect.  I used the Martha Stewart Lace border punch to make a strip to go near the bottom of my hanger.  Next I cut two shapes using the Stampin'Up top note die, one with pink Bazzill card stock and one with the Basic paper and then I put the paper one through the Big Shot with the Stampin'Up Manhattan Flower embossing folder and once done, I cut the image just to include the flower and run a distress ink pad over the raised area to make the definition of the image stand out.  I stamped a Tim Holtz phrase on a punched ticket and layered this on a Tim Holtz journaling ticket using a Tim Holtz pin.  Finally I added some bakers twine wrapping it round two brads, added ribbon, tiny staples, dress pins, inked flowers and gems plus some small alphabet stickers to spell 'Nancy'.

Thanks for looking!

Tracey x