Christmas Ornament Shrine Completed

Ta-Da! Finally finished, phew!:

I had a few technical issues with my Christmas Ornamental Shrine, as in I couldn't use the loose items like the icing snowballs and silver balls that I used yesterday because the shrine is for hanging on the wall and they'd all fall out! lol.  So I had to go on a hunt for other things to fill the spaces, which was not easy when you consider that most of our christmas items are still in the loft.


The first change, you may have noticed, is that I changed the 'Merry Christmas' title I had on the top for an angelic cherub, which I have 'dirtied up', I mean distressed, with black, along with the edges of the shrine.   

Another thing I did was to create depth with some objects being placed further forward than others:

To get this brad to be at the front of the box I put it into a bottle cap.  This bottle cap was also brought forward by sticking another bottle top behind it.

These glittery soft balls were brought forward by sticking them onto mini-dominos that I coloured green with a promarker.

The photos in boxes 3 and 4 were brought forward by sticking them onto some 'Cut n Dry' foam and the badge on the bottom right was also raised to the front using a bottle cap.

I had a bit of fun with this snowman scene:

To do this, I cut out a snowy background out of an old christmas card and stuck it on to the back and then I added 'artificial snow' (Snowtex) to the front. 

As you can see, this project was a bit more complicated than first appeared.  It wasn't just a case of finding things and sticking them down.  Every last bit needed its position to be considered...which took a long time and is why I was a bit late writing this blog post, so please accept my apologies for that.   

I like how it has turned out (and better in RL), but I didn't end up covering the side & back walls as I'd planned, maybe I'll do that on any future one I do.

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Mini Christmas Shrine

You've caught me still working on a project, but this is how its looking so far!

Its a thimble case that I am altering by putting Christmassy items in it. 

I sanded it down, gessoed it and covered it in gold paint.  So far I have only managed to paint the outside frames but I have plans to cover the inside pages with various Christmassy papers, stamped images, words, etc.  Its a 'do where my inspiration takes me' project.  I have put some objects in the boxes now to see what type of objects will work in my finished masterpiece.

Thanks for looking and any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Live well, Laugh often, Love Much

If you are waiting for my son's 'Morph' video, then sorry, it won't be yet - my hubby (the editor) has gone to Germany on business for a few days.  He's due back at the weekend.

Today, I've done a couple of things:

Live well, Laugh often, Love much - a lovely sentiment that I have stamped onto some vintage children's bricks...

...and I started to paint the clay beads and embellishments from yesterday.  They took longer than expected as I gave them an undercoat of gesso first:

Think I need to make some berries for the holly and after doing some further coats, I will probably stamp a sentiment on the heart.

Hope you are all keeping well. Thanks for popping by,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Make your own Whiteboard

...out of an old tablemat.  My children had outgrown this tablemat and I found it whilst having an extremely late (lol) Spring Clean! So I changed it into a much more useful whiteboard for listing my shopping:

This is what it was like before:

I used 'Stardrops' to clean it up, get rid of grease (everybody on MSE recommends it, its a cleaning wonder product apparently), and I covered it with Fablon White Shelf Covering.

The keen eyed amongst you will spot it still says 'Farm Animals' around the sides so my next job will be to cover that up with a matching coloured pen.

I don't know how readily available white fablon is, this was a charity shop purchase (surprise, surprise) at £1.50.  I already had the whiteboard pen amongst my (vast) stationery collection. 

Thanks for looking and for any comments you may leave, 

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave 



Qwiksilver Coasters

I lurve surfing gear! This might seem a little odd when I live slap bang in the middle of the UK and about as far away from the sea as you can get,  but I just love the designs on the clothes of 'surfing dudes' (lol).

This is why tonight for my craft I made 4 coasters out of a qwiksilver advertisement:

 I used some blank (fill your own pictures) coasters - 99p for 6 (new) from a charity shop.

Summer may be over (sigh!) but I will have these as a reminder of sunnier times all year round!

Also from a charity shop recently, I got an original acrylic artwork which was just my kind of thing:

It was painted by a South African artist and all that scribbly writing effect around the outside that looks like biro is what it looks like, biro!  I'm just loving all that texture going on and will be framing this one up soon.

Finally, today I altered the Christmas card that I put on yesterday.  It had far too much space!  I've added acetate and snowflake confetti and I'm much happier with it.  

Hope all is going alright with you and your world.

Thank you for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Retro Pegs

This is something that has been on my 'To Do Sometime' List for quite a while  I have often seen them on blogs and thought what a great but simple idea they were:

Decorated pegs.

The pegs I have used here are genuinely old ones so I haven't covered them completely as it seems a shame to cover up their genuine heritage.

In fact, in respect of their history, I used retro papers on them

I liked the idea of using matching buttons on them too.

I have used 3 layers of Modge Podge on the paper to protect them and strong glue dots were used to stick the buttons on.  At a later date I think I might make some matching accessories.

Hope you're having a good weekend,

Thanks for stopping by and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

 

Altered Dominoes

It feels nice to have got over little one's party - its something that you make lots of preparations for (stressing yourself out in the process) and then get relieved when its finally over.  To me it feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders, until the next one that is, and for me that will be January next year. 

So, its back to 'proper crafting' and today I decided to have a go at altering some dominoes:

It's not something I've done before so I looked up how to do it on the internet and I found this excellent tutorial which I followed a bit. 

I'd managed to get some cheap dominoes from a charity shop for £1:

and found the only two colours of alcoholic inks that I have, denim and terracotta. 

Great colours! I put a few drops on the felt applicator and dabbed them onto the domino.  They react against each other, its fun to watch:

I made four (see above picture)

and then decided that I would colour the edges with Gold Rub 'n Buff:

I also added some gold to the front of the domino too:

Lovely effect!

I didn't stamp over mine because I didn't want to cover up the pattern but I will assess them in the morning and see if they need anything 'extra.'

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave