Altered Bird Cage

Good morning folks, halfway through the week already. Where is it going? lol. 

Anyway today's post is the second in my little list of altered projects for my daughter. This time a purple birdcage candle holder. 

As she no longer has anywhere purple, she wanted it changing to match somewhere in the new house. So I thought if I did it fairly neutral it would go just about anywhere. Now it's finished though I think it will go in the living room.

I gave the cage a quick rub over with some fine grit sandpaper, and then gave it two coats of white spray paint. It wasn't the easiest of shapes to paint lol, so it's not perfect, but I sort of like it that way as it's a little bit shabby chic.

Once the paint was dry I decided to give the base a bit of further treatment and used some Pebeo Paint in onyx to change the colour. 

Then all I needed to add was a bit of bling and some ribbon and it's all finished.

 K just needs to add a candle now lol.

Hope you like it. Take care and I'll see you soon.

xxx

Let it Snow

Morning all.  Doesn't Monday come around quickly?

It has been a hectic weekend here.  The kids, grandkids and fur babies all seemed to have moved in at once - it was bedlam!!  It was actually a nice distraction from a pretty tough week but it did mean Jen and I didn't get much crafty time.

When I did eventually force my way in to the craft room I made a Christmas card using dies and embossing powders.  What do you think?

In a magazine we bought last week were several free stamps.  These included the snowflakes and Let it snow stamps used here.  Having layered three matching papers on to the card blank, I randomly stamped the snowflakes in Versamark over the papers and added sea foam white embossing powder.

I also tried it on top of the topper I had made but it didn't work out as well as I had hoped.  The topper is gold mirror card and purple centura pearl cut with the Spellbinders peony die set.  The sentiment was made with the stamp and gold embossing powder.

I repeated the stamping and embossing twice more using the white again.

I thought the edge of the card needed something so I cut it with a Tonic border punch.

This card took quite a bit of work so I don't think I will be repeating it in a hurry, but I like the idea so may adapt it a little.

TTFN Jude xx

Christmas in purple and gold

Welcome to Wednesday peeps!

Yesterday Jen and Mum bought a couple of new stamping magazines for us to try out.  Jen is trying to bully encourage me into subscribing to them! They were quite nice as they both had Christmas stamps attached and some lovely ideas for very simple cards.  I thought I would try one of the ideas out.  What do you think?

I took a piece of dark purple centura pearl and embossed the pine tree branch across the centre three times, using Versamark and gold embossing powder.  I then cut the piece to fit a white DL card blank.

 Next I stamped the word circle and white embossed it. Once I had the circle I thought it needed something else so added a snowflake, again embossed with gold before cutting out with a circle die.   I never get tired of the alchemy of embossing; watching it change from a dull powder into a shiny image just by adding heat.

 A piece of purple gingham ribbon finishes it off nicely.  I might try some other stamps in a similar layout.  I can see this featuring in a few Christmas cards this year.

Hope you like it.  TTFN Jude xx

Distressed paint

Happy Saturday peeps! Can you believe it is the last day of August??

 

Yes it's Jude, back from my travels.  I've spent a few days in South Norfolk, riding my bike, visiting interesting places and eating too much.  Just what a holiday is for lol.

 

Before I went away I started a key cupboard for my niece which I intend to finish this weekend.  However I thought I would share the early stages with you.

This is how it started, and below is the first layer of burnt sienna acrylic. 

 

After it dried overnight I sanded it back. 

 

Then over coated with white. 

Yes I know it started white but there is method in my madness!!

I actually did 2 coats but you can't tell.

The next stage is to sand back the white to reveal some of the brown layer.  I can then add the paper decoupage layers to the front.

 

I'll share the finished article later.

TTFN Jude xx