This was for a special occasion so worthy of a bit of effort. It was a ‘milestone’ birthday for Amy’s mum (Amy is my future daughter-in-law and the carver of the pumpkin on a previous post) and we’d been invited out to celebrate with Hazel and a lot of friends and family.

I used a lovely metallic purple cardstock for the card (and for the box) and some ivory pearlescent cardstock for contrast. The stamped design is from Elusive Images and I embossed in silver both the lady’s head and the wording.

I attached a tag on the back with the greeting and a little mauve ribbon finished it nicely. I struggled to keep the corners of the box glued together, it’s a heavy cardstock and kept popping open so I attached square silver snaps from We R Memory Keepers.

Reverse

Main image

Cherish

Boxed

Hazel and I

Everybody should have a brooch!

It really is mandatory to wear a badge announcing your age on such an occasion and so – to make sure she did have at least one – I decided I’d make one for her.

I warmed an old CD and cut a wedge out of it (warming makes the CD soften slightly and is easier to cut just using regular scissors) and then used UTEE in clear at first and then a couple of colours to build up a nice thickness. I then inked-up an illuminated ‘H’ stamp and pressed that into the warm UTEE. I put some purple microbeads around the edges and then wound some wired beads along a couple of the edges. I made the danglies from shrink plastic which I cut out in the Wizard with Nestabilities  and hung them from a couple of holes in the bottom of the ‘wedge’. I made the holes with my trusty Crop-a-dile, easy-peasy with that! The danglies were clear embossed as well to add some nice shine.

I made the octagonal box in the same cardstock I’d used for the Bookatrix and then pinned it to Hazels top so she had no choice but to humour me!!

H is for Hazel

Boxed Brooch

She *did* wear it

Dangly bits

Challenge Card

I’m trying something different…… throwing out a challenge to the ladies at my local Stamp Club. We meet once a month and I took a whole bunch of items with me last month and shared them out giving everyone two months to see what they can come up with.

The items I took were empty cat food foil trays, fancy plastic cocktail sticks and cleansing wipes. The trays were given to me via an offer on our local FreeCycle, the cocktail sticks I have had in my stash for well over 20 years (bought them when we lived in Southern California and we’ve been back a loooooong time now!) and the cotton wipes are actually just the ‘rough’ side of them – they come apart very easily and, as they were falling off and I was throwing them away, I decided that there really must be something I could do with them.

Here are some close-up photos of the items before I started doing anything to them – well, I did cut open the foil tray and start flattening it.

All had 3 of each

Cleansing pad

Cotton discs

Cocktail sticks

Tray

Altering Bits

I have recently been bought a Wizard and have succumbed to the lure of Nestabilities (not many – yet!) so had a play with the scalloped ovals and then a Sizzix embossing plate. Once I’d got them cut out I coloured them with some alcohol inks, chopped the ‘legs’ off the cocktail sticks and coloured them with the same inks while I was at it. I don’t have a photo of the latter on their own but you can see them when I’ve added them to the card with some fine gold wire curled around them.

Frames

Closer

Large Scallop

Embossed

Coloured

Sticks & Wire

Cotton Discs

As I added colour with the alcohol inks to these they distorted and became ovals instead of circles – not a problem as they echo the ovals I’ve punched out of the tins. They were very ‘floppy’ so I painted them with a few coats of pva and let them dry. I then embossed them with a clear/sparkle powder and stamped into them with a large stamp just to add a bit of texture.

Adding Colour

PVA

Embossed

Closer

The Card Design

A very popular card these days is this Tri-Shutter Card which I found at Crafts By Carolyn (who, in turn, links to Ellen from whom she got the idea) who has kindly posted downloadable files so you can make your own – thanks girls!

I cut the base from some plain card I had in stock and decided to decorate with a double-sided scrapbook paper. I coloured the edges of the card (which will be showing) with some brown inks, very roughly, and after cutting out all the small pieces I attached them patterned-side-up to what will be the front of the card.

Card supplies

Scrapbook paper

Inked edges

Papers glued

Different angle

The Back

As I was doing some ‘stamping’ for the reverse of the card I also used the reverse of the scrapbook paper. It’s a beautiful colour and I thought the black versafine ink was suitable for the sentiments and other stamped images. Also on the back I used some of the side pieces left from punching the ovals from the trays – smoothed them out and then ran them through the Wizard with a Fiskars Texture Plate in the feather design. I just cut small rectangles and rounded the corners before mounting onto some black card for definition. I stuck two of the cotton discs onto the large panel and curled some black wire into loops which I then anchored with tiny black brads.

Reverse

ART

Fiskars plate

Close Up

Faffing About!

Sometimes you can spend so long just faffing with details! I don’t think any card has ever taken so long to assemble but maybe that’s because I was chronicling it along the way? At Port Sunlight Stamp Festival I fell in love with a collage stamp set and so used the main image on the front of this card, again using the reverse of the scrapbook paper and layering on black card and adding some more tiny black brads. Behind it you can see I cut the scalloped shape in half and mounted that on the scrapbook paper and black card as well. I glued one of the embossed ovals to the centre panel and used some flower brads to attach it more firmly – they were gold so I dipped them into embossing ink and then black embossing powder and melted it.

My new stamp

Front

Brads

Finishing Touches

I have some wonderful glass mosaic tiles in lots of different colours so decided to add a few to the front, just glued them in place with some PVA. I then thought it may be nice to have a dangler from one of the creases so threaded a large bead (toned-down with a little alcohol ink) onto black cord and on the end of that used two small scalloped ovals – cut from the trays and slightly coloured – glued back to back. On the reverse of that panel I had to mount the stamped image onto some card as well as its paper and use raised sticky pads to get around the thickness of the cord there. I finished by wrapping some fancy yarn around a couple of the creases just…… well, just because!

Mosaic collection

Chosen colours

Tiles added

Dangler!

Front of card

Daisy Card

Last weekend I attended the Happy Stampers Spring Stamp Festival at Port Sunlight. As usual, there was a competition, this year entitled ‘Fresh as a Daisy’. It had a size limitation and the stipulation that it contain mainly stamped images, of course.

Over the years I have entered this occasionally (won once) and always enjoy the making of a card for this event. By just being given a ‘title’, it means you have to think a little about what exactly you’re going to do rather than being given detailed instructions.

I didn’t think I had any daisy stamps in my collection until I started searching. The main image on my card is the Daisy Tag Plate from Elusive Images, stamped onto watercolour paper and ripped along the edges. The body of the card is two junk CD’s hinged together, I coloured all sides of the CD’s with alcohol inks and then stamped miscellaneous small daisies in green versafine ink over the front and back.

I covered the hole in the centre of the disc with a punched circle from another stamping of the daisy – purple on purple and edged with purple. I did something similar inside the front cover and just a plain disc of purple paper to write a greeting on inside the back piece. On the inside of the front disc you may be able to see where I tried stamping the daisy script, it’s only faint but adds a little ‘texture’.

My crop-o-dile was used to punch the holes for the hinge and for the eyelets – I’ve included close-ups of these as someone was asking how to get them neat. It’s so easy to mangle the reverse of an eyelet if you use too much pressure, just a light squeeze is needed and, if it’s not quite right, then another light squeeze until you’re happy. It punches through the disc sooooo easily though, I love that tool.

I used some purplish eyelets on this project and dyed some beige cord with the alcohol inks to match the disc.

I apologise for the glare on the photos, the tag is very reflective! It was made with Fantasy Film and some fibres between the two layers. I stamped the tag  ( “Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them”, Eyeore) with green Staz-on and cut it out of the fantasy film sandwich. It’s attached to the cord with a jump-ring which is what you can just see through the eyelet close-up!

Hinge

Back cover

Inside

Eyelets

Closer-up

Coloured Cord

Tag

Front

Janet’s Entry

This shows the differing interpretation of the theme! My good friend Janet, who I went to the Festival with, entered the competition for the first time this year. I wanted to get a shot or two of the whole table-full of entries but, as permission hadn’t been asked of each entrant, then I was advised not to. Shame really, I have no idea which card won, nor of the runners-up – I shall ask the organisers if there’s a way they can show the winning entries in future.

Anyway, Jan used her Carols Cube (not only available here, of course, this is just where we both bought ours!) to stamp the daisies before cutting them out and glittering – wouldn’t be Jan’s if it weren’t glittered! The flourishes are from Elusive Images (I think!) and she’s used lots of daisy brads to attach the layers. You can just make out the lovely card she used for the base, it’s got some beautiful swirls of colour and shimmer all over it and she used the technique I taught at Stamp Club for the fold which prevents cards doing a ‘Bambi’ as I mentioned in another post about some Diamond Anniversary cards.

Bambi!

Daisies galore

Flowers

We have quite a few parties and unofficial meetings at our house and some visitors like to drink wine! Not me, of course, anyone who knows me will confirm that I never touch a drop!!!

One of the problems I find is that people tend to put a glass down somewhere and then can’t remember which one is theirs. So, I made a bunch of coasters which slip onto the bottom of each glass and every one is slightly different – if only people could remember which colour/gem they are it would be a great idea!

The Coasters

Now I take no credit for coming up with this idea, there are many of them available around the world – but I did design these myself to be stitched completely in the embroidery hoop with no extra sewing steps needed.

I used some black fleece fabric and the edging is all done with a variegated pink thread. The flower design is a different colour on each coaster and – when I ran out of obviously differing colours – I added some large stick-on gems.

The coasters also serve as…well, coasters! Guests can put a glass down on any surface without worrying about leaving rings etc.. very useful really even if they still don’t remember which is their drink.

Glasses

Close-up

All unique

3 of many

Same three

How to store them

This was the next issue, how do I keep them in the glasses cupboard neatly? Have you seen those dispensers they have for cups in cafeterias? That’s the sort of thing I wanted but on a much smaller scale, of course.

I wandered round the workshop looking for inspiration and found it in the guise of left-over drainpipe from the plumbing work we’ve just had done. There were a few pieces about 9″ long and a perfect diameter for the coasters so I grabbed one, got out my hot knife and cut a wide slit down the length of the pipe. It wasn’t easy and it’s not as neat as I would like but, as it’s hand-crafted, I decided it would be OK.

I also found a sweetie tin (travel sweets) which was a good size for the pipe to fit around and then dug out some braid, my alcohol inks and good-old crop-o-dile.

Pipe and Tin

Supplies

Decorating

I didn’t take any photos during the making of this but if you’ve used alcohol inks at all you’ll know to put them on the applicator with some blending solution and just dabble all over the item in question. That’s what I did, both inside and out and also on the braid to take away the contrast and on the brass paper fasteners (brads). I punched holes around the top of the tin, marked where the pipe sat on top of that and punched the holes to correspond and used the brads to hold it all together. The braid is just stuck on to hide the rough edges along the front and inside to hide the brads.

I know that the top of the pipe seems to fold in on itself, I guess that’s because the tin is just slightly too big and is stretching the bottom outwards. Never mind, it works and it looks quite nice sitting in my cupboard amongst the wine glasses…..which I never use myself, honest!

Back and brads

Braided

Inside

In use

Easy access

Sloping!

Completed Dish

I seem to have collected a few empty pate dishes (really excellent stuff from CostCo!) which I’ve been keeping because I was sure there’d be something I could do with them!

When I recently bought some flavoured tea bags (Lemon & Ginger etc) I decided not to store them out of sight in a cupboard but to have them in plain view so I would actually drink them now and again. They are all individually wrapped so won’t go stale exposed to the air.

Planning

Then I realised that I couldn’t have them sitting in a plain dish – not in my kitchen and so took a couple up to my craft room to play with. You can see what the original looked like below (and you may spot a few holes – I was wondering if I could add brads or eyelets and Crop-a-Dile said yes!!) and then how it was when I’d given it a coat of gesso. I only have white gesso so I added some red and some green and came up with this strange base colour (which looks very pink on some photos!).

I dug out some images I liked, some co-ordinating papers, a couple of die-cuts I’d just practised cutting out and a rhino (this is a nod to Twinings whose teabags I generally use, it came from one of their boxes).

Basic Pate Dish

Gessoed

Choices

Step 2

I ripped various papers into small pieces and cut out the printed images and then just glued them here and there all over the dish using pva glue. Got to say that it doesn’t look too exciting at the moment – I did think that maybe I shouldn’t have bothered photographing it as it wouldn’t be fit to share with anyone!

Twinings Rhino

One side

Black flourish

Leafy end

Spot the rhino

Other end

Step 3

The base colour does look very strange on these piccies, it really isn’t pink, more beigey….anyhow, I like a bit of sparkle so I sponged all over the dish and the images with some gold decor paint. You can see on the close-ups above that the pva pulled off some of the gesso but this sponging seemed to cover it.

Sponged

Rhino sponged

One end

Step 4

I had made a bit of mess of the top rim with the gesso, it wasn’t very neat and some had flaked off with handling so I got out my gold acrylic paint, put some in a little dish and sponged around the top edge and into the inside of the dish. I think this looks very rich, although it won’t really be seen much when it’s full of tea.

I guess I got a little carried away then and went over all the outside of the dish with the same gold paint, you really can’t see much of the beigey/pink gesso anymore but that’s fine, I love gold!

I have given the whole lot a couple of coats of watered pva and will do a couple more before I put it in use – hope you like what I did with something so boring.

There are several views of the inside and out of the finished dish below, it’s amazing what the different lighting does to colours.

Inside

view1

view1a

view2

view2a

one end

other end

Front Cover

At our Rubber Stamping Club last year we had a round-robin book exchange. Those taking part were split into groups of 5 or 6 people and we each chose a theme for our own particular book.

We made or bought a book and decorated the covers and the first couple of pages to complement our design – mine was Oriental and I made the cover with some heavy card, ribbon, strips of hand-made paper, leather and bamboo skewers.

It was finished with fibres and hand-made beads, some from shrink plastic (the black ones) and others from duct tape and wire (and UTEE). I didn’t see the book until it came back to me at the end of the project – I am absolutely delighted with the way it turned out and fascinated with the different interpretations of the same theme.

Back Cover

Ribbon

Fibres and beads

Beads

Beads2

Beads3

Inside Covers

Inside the front cover I used some  images which I printed onto glossy photo paper and the inside of the back has more of the same and also the front of a birthday card made for me by my friend, Janet.

Inside Front

Inside Back

Poppy

My Pages

My 2 Pages

This shows the first two pages of my book – the pages were all made from a heavy watercolour paper and I stamped lightly over the plain cream with a green chalk ink in a bamboo design.

The black shrink plastic strips distorted whilst shrinking but I think it gives quite a pleasing effect – nothing ‘hand-made’ should be perfect!

I used my favourite grid technique on the left side with several oriental images (just realised…they’re almost all Non Sequitur – again!) and a shrink plastic embellishment in the middle. The ‘crane’ stamp there was just stamped with black ink.  A few coins and a bit of ribbon on the right-hand page along with the same ‘crane’ stamp but this time I tired the ‘kissing’ technique with a decorative background stamp and some gold embossing powder and then again with clear powder over the green/black version.

Grid

Shrunken Cranes

'Kissing' Cranes

Rachel

Both Pages

Geisha

Mini Book

Gloria

Both Pages

Mizuhiki Knot

Gloria

Sue

Both Pages

flag Pages

Geisha

Jo

Both Pages

Kimono

Close-up

Jan

Both Pages

Caught-in-Crystal

Geishas

Honeycomb Paper

Close-up

Puzzle & Cushions

Finished Caddy

This was a challenge to alter a tin to make something to hold pencils. Well, I can’t resist a bit of competition so I thought I’d better have a go. Visit http://oorchallengeblog.blogspot.com/ to see other entries. I took photos of all the steps (well, most of them) so you can follow what I did if you’d like to.

Basic Tin

You can see what the tin looked like here, my sister saves all sorts of things for me thinking I could use them, and she’s so right! I dropped puddles of alcohol inks onto my craft mat and mixed them with the blending solution – I only used brown tones and some gold – and dappled them all over the tin with the applicator tool. I actually love the way it looked right now and perhaps should have left it just like this but I felt I had to do something more

Twinnings Tin

Gold inside

Alcohol Inks

Back View

Showing Lid

Adding Designs

I stamped some egyptian images (a Non Sequitur set) onto white tissue paper, the first two inks just bled into the paper and looked awful so I tried again with Versafine and got nice, crisp images. I cut them up and applied a couple onto the tin using watered-down PVA glue – they immediately got lost! Didn’t like that at all so I removed them with water and had a re-think.

Smudged

Crisp

Ready to glue

Two applied

Invisible!

Scarab Beetle

I stamped this image onto a circle of heavy card and then heat-set it to dry (I’m very impatient!). Gold Leaf pen around the edge for a bit of shine and then I triple embossed it with clear UTEE and added a sprinkle of Kaleidescope powder for interest. It curled slightly with the heat so when I pressed it flat I got the cracked glass look – I meant to do that, really! – so rubbed over the cracks with a little gold ink to make them show more.

I then tried stamping onto the tin – not the easiest thing to do as there’s no pressure behind it to enable a good impression. I then decided that rather than use the acrylic blocks, it would be easier to ink-up the rubber and just press it onto the tin and around the curves. The ink didn’t seem to want to dry so I embossed the images, some with gold, others with Kaleidescope.

Beetle on card

Embossing

Before it curled

Stamping

Before embossing

Shrink Plastic

I stamped some shrink plastic with green Versafine ink and then punched circles using Fiskars Squeeze punches, punched a hole to hang these with using my Crop-O-Dile and then proceeded to heat them. After they’d shrunk I flattened them with an acrylic block but, as you can see, the ink didn’t dry. So, UTEE to the rescue.

Shrink plastic

Shrinking

Flattening

Smudging!

UTEE'ing!

Stampbord

I coloured an oval piece of Stampbord with several shades of brown and then stamped with Staz-On – I purposely left the middle of the piece lighter (truthfully, this time ) as I was aiming for an ‘aged’ look. I scratched away just a little  here and there but there didn’t actually seem to anything obvious to highlight. I used the gold leafing pen around the edges and then tripple embossed it, mainly to stop it getting marked during use.

I had intended to put the scarab beetle on the top of the tin with the shrink plastic charms hanging off it – hence the holes. I curled some heavy wire and tried hanging the ‘charms’ and didn’t like that so took them off again. I used the wire at the end.

Stampbord

Krylon

Decision time

Finished

The wire that I didn’t use earlier is now hung on the lid (punched and set an eyelet in there) with a couple of beads on the end. It’s hard to get decent photos I’m afraid because of the glare but you can see the basic idea. I stamped on the inside of the lid with a Lotus design and black Staz-On before sticking on the scarab beetle with a hot-glue gun. The Stampbord piece and the ‘charms’ are glued onto the lid using hot-glue too.

My husband says it looks like I’ve just dug it up out of the garden!

Front and Top

Side view

Inside

Another Version

I had decorated this tin a few weeks ago – no details really as I didn’t have a blog then and didn’t think about it! It’s another Twinning Tea Caddy which I covered with white gesso at first and then added some acrylic paints, The red was a bit ‘loud’ so I added some green to tone it down a little and then I cut and punched various shapes out of some co-ordinating papers and glued them on. I went over the top of the whole thing with watered PVA and then again with some sparkle paint. I punched a few holes with my Crop-O-Dile and dotted some brads around.

This tin is the perfect size for my Rubber Stamp Tapestry Peg Stamp sets – for some strange reason I used to keep them all in their original packaging and yet happily mixed the sets up to use them! Finally decided that there was no point in keeping them sorted like that so they’re now in this tin and much handier.

View 1

View 2

Top

Art Nouveau Display

My second set of canvasses were inspired by some lovely embroidery designs I got from Embroidery Library. Absolutely gorgeous designs but far too big to be embroidered on any articles of clothing – though they’d probably look really good on something like a shopping bag.

Anyhow, I stitched them out onto some heavy white felt-like material, took a long time as my machine is just a home sewing machine, nothing industrial with lots of heads etc.. So everytime I change colour I have to re-thread the machine and that does take time. Still, I think they were worth the effort involved. I was going to hang them in a guest bedroom but decided they wouldn’t be seen enough there so I hung them in the upper hallway.

Lady Lida

The canvasses were first painted with white gesso and then I swept thick bands of other colours of acrylic paints across them.

I glued some plasterers joint tape in places (like Magic Mesh but much, much cheaper, especially when you’ve got builders/plasterers/electricians all over the house!) and then painted over the whole lot with some glitter paint meant for walls. I also squiggled some glitter glue on each panel.

Lady Aria

Lady Ana

Decorative Maya Road celtic shapes glued in the corners were firstly embossed with a few layers of powder and then I twisted some electricians wire (as described in ‘Bathroom Canvasses‘) and added beads here and there.

A hot-glue gun works really well for attaching this heavy guage wire and left some lovely cobwebs all over the place – as it always does! Horrible, stringy stuff but very effective.

Small glass mosaic tiles were glued here and there and then I thought about the embroideries themselves.

Lady Kati

I had been given some green velvet paper a while ago (thanks Gloria) and it added just a nice bit of contrast and texture to the ‘girls’, they were glued onto the canvasses and also held more firmly by some dragonfly and jewelled brads. The names, I guess, were given to the girls by the designers at Embroidery Library so I printed them out onto glossy photo paper in different font styles and then picked the uncial ones which looked most in keeping. I stared to colour them a little which made the ink smudge but I quite liked that – isn’t that what we always say when we make a ‘mistake’! I gilded the edges a little and glued them in place.

Four-square (almost)

To mount them on the wall I carefully made card templates so that I could hang them in a perfect square – they’re not too bad.

Step 1

Step1

This first photo shows the planning, I laid out the canvasses and put some small, round mirrors on them (bought these from Ikea a while ago). I staggered the placement of the mirrors, used some Maya Road decorative cutouts on the corners and the same brand of large letters spelling out the word B-A-T-H.

Step 2

Step2b

Step2a

Once happy with the general layout I sprayed the reverse of the decorative shapes with a temporary adhesive and then placed them back onto the canvasses. To add colour, I found my Adirondak colour washes and sprayed lightly – from a height – over all the canvasses.

Step 3

I only have 4 colours of this spray so choice was limited, I applied the spray to all four canvases and then had a cuppa while waiting for them to dry! (Actually, they were dry almost instantly but I enjoyed the tea break – my butler, Nigel, brought this for me in my current favourite china mug).

Step3a

Step3b

Step3c

Step3d

Step 4

Step4

This shows the effect once the masks were removed, I thought afterwards (which is the way I usually work – act first, think last!!!) that I should perhaps have coloured the blanks first so they weren’t so stark white but then, they are going in a bathroom with white tiles so maybe they’ll be OK.

Step 5

I moved on to the letters then. Coated them in embossing ink and then dipped them in clear UTEE – 3 times each to get a nice thick coating. Stuck my finger to the ‘T’ at one time whilst it was still very hot – Oh dear! I said!

While they were still hot from the final coating of UTEE I sprinkled them with a gorgeous kingfisher blue chunky enamel and heated them for the final time.

Step5a

Step5b

Step5c

Step5d

Step 6

Step6b

Step6a

Once happy with the way they looked I tried them back on the canvasses whereupon I had a revelation – I was hanging these in a bathroom without a bath! It has a lovely shower cubicle so really, spelling out the word BATH on them didn’t make a lot of sense.

Step 7

I found an old scrabble set and practised punching with a crop-o-dile – no problem! I played about with different words that seemed relevant and then coloured the chosen tiles with a dye ink pad and then embossed it with UTEE. Now I know you’re not supposed to use dye inks with embossing powders (dye/dry pigment/powders – that’s how I was taught to remember it) but it worked to add a little base colour.

After they were triple embossed I dipped the edges in the kingfisher crysals, while the enamel was still hot, and heat set that. They do look a little like miniature bathroom tiles.

Step7a

Step7b

Step7c

Step7e

Step 8

These are the words I chose: scruB, relAx, sTeam and sHower and Step8b shows how it was going to look on the canvas. I threaded beads on some fine silver wire and curled it and then found some heavy wire which our electrician had left strewn all over the floor while he was working! I stripped the outer layer off to find this lovely silver stuff and I’ve also got some copper from other work he did. I know he thought I was rather mad wandering around picking up his trash but I love to recycle stuff like this. Anyhow, it’s rather hard stuff to curl so I used the thickest mandrel in the pack and then wrapped some pre-strung, larger beads around it.

Step8a

Step8b

Step8c

Step8d

Step8e

Step8f

Step8g

Step 9

Did you know that if you heat Othello tiles with a heat gun they come apart? And that the white part is softer and more flexible than the black? What a fount of useless information I can be!

Well, I dipped the black half in that same dye ink I used earlier and tripple embossed it then stamped into it with my stamp inked with clear ink to help release. How worrying is it when one of your prized stamps has a hot, sticky mass adhered to it? And how hard to leave it alone until cool!!!

Some of them I didn’t stamp into and they look a little like seashells – if there are such things as black seashells.

Step9a

Step9b

Step9c

Step9d

Step 10

Out came the hot glue gun to firmly attach that heavy, twisted wire and the ‘shells’, I also used it to add some glass mosaic tiles I had in my stash and to attach the fine, curly, beaded wire onto the mirrors. I coloured round the edge of all the mirrors with that same dye ink just to take the starkness off the white and then stuck tiny tear-drop beads on the opposite edge with some pva. The little flowers were added to hide the hot glue dollops, and I put on a couple of pieces of shrink plastic ‘bits’ that I had in from previous playtimes.

The letters were hung onto the fine wire with jump rings and then ribbon brads pushed through the canvas (and glued in place!) were used to hang the wires from. I coloured these a little with some silver metallic rub-on.

Step10a

Step10b

Step10c

Step10d

Finished!

finished

call-this-a-bath

They will be hung on the wall at various levels, as shown here on the floor – mainly ‘cos it’s far too hard to hang four things in a straight line! And you can see here the ‘bath’ they refer to, it’s something you can scruB away your worries; relAx while listening to your ipod; sTeam open your pores and then sHower yourself clean in.

I just pray that, once they get hung on the wall, they look as nice as I hope. If you would, I’d appreciate your thoughts. Thanks for sharing with me. Joanna