Altered Cigar Box

Sometimes you just have to make something, just because

 you want to, or as Benice says: Just because you can!

 

 

Cigar boxes are wonderful to work with and a excellent object to alter.

This is what I have done with mine.

 

Remove all the existing paper. Take the all the measurements and cut

the paper into the different sizes. I took my guide from the box itself.

 

Plan the cover carefully and don't glue anything down until you have a

place and a space for everything.

Move it around until you are happy with your layout.

 

 

I used:

Prima Paper

Silk ribbon

Antique lace

UTEE

Distress stains

Distress paints

Glimmer mists

Embellishments from my stash

 

 

A sneak peak of the indide of the box.

You will find more detail in the latest Scrapping & kie

magazine. Issue 57.

 

 

International Charm Day 2012

This year I will be missing International Charm Day.
The reason is that I am taking a trip with my husband to Namibia for a few days.

My mom and dad (which are both 86) will be going with us.

So instead of hosting a class on the day,
Benice and I decided to make and share our charms this year
- just the way Amber Dawn had intended when she started this initiative!!

Remember those stretched canvas stabilizers?

Well this is what we are turning them into.

 

 

 

 

Prrrrretty little charms!

To all our followers in South Africa:
Send us an email with your vital stats and postal address,
and we will send you one of these pretties.

(We hope to get them out by May 15th!)

For our blog followers from abroad, I am really sorry that we cannot send

you a little charm, but here are a few tips on how to create your own.

 

 

Paint the wood with gesso and the paint colour of your choice.

Then use gel medium to adhere the tissue paper to the wood.

Sand off the extra overlapping tissue paper, once your gel has dried.

Drill a small hole with your Dremel in the top corner.

 

 

Choose a small stamp and your Archival ink to stamp an image onto

both sides of the charm.

Paint the sides and add some dangles or silver charms.

I will be back in May with a few photos of one of my favourite places, Namibia!

Easter Postcard

My grandmother lived in Pretoria before she got married and moved to Stellenbosch.
That was in the early 1900's.

This postcard was send to her in 1913.

She worked at Law's C. College.

 As you can see her cousin Charlie lived in Johannesburg and
the fast way of corresponding was by mail.

The postcard's date is in October, but Easter is in April.

 OK....

Anyway, the images are pretty and you are welcome to download both.

(Just do the double click, copy and paste thing.)

I have not mastered the border or border less thing with my Picasa,

but hopefully you will be able to reuse the images.

Happy Easter everyone.

May you be blessed.

First attempt.

Yes , everybody has a first attempt.

Some are so lucky that the first attempt is a masterpiece!!

But for most of us it is a learning process and the start of something that can develop into a masterpiece. Even if it just a personal masterpiece.

This year you will create your own masterpiece on a tiny piece of wood.

(I had to frame the picture, because I downloaded the new

version of Picasa and had to try the "fame thing")

In the meantime the creative process has evolved

and as I said yesterday,

stamping, painting, decorating and much more has now

become part of these little treasures.

International Charm Day

Like I said... I like to gather stuff, sometimes you just know you

can do something with these things that you have gathered.

This time it really happened!!

I did find a use for these...... I don't even know what you call them?!

Canvas stabilizers!?

I used a scroll saw and some sandpaper to transform and alter them.

Now it is time to paint and stamp and spray and doodle and drill and glue!

 

I am sure you can also now see the potential........ !!

Nature's Findings

Sometimes we find beautiful things in nature, but we put it away
somewhere and after a while it gets lost within our stash.
We also gather "stuff" because of it's sentimental value.
I do that quite a lot.

 Then one day you find the paper that can bring it all together.
The only thing you then need is the time to create something.

When you have everything ready and you mix it with a friend
that knows where to find some more stuff and knows
how to combine things, you end up with something very special.

This is a sneak peek of one of the canvasses that we created.

All together there are three canvasses. Two smaller ones and a larger one.

We have mixed something old, something new, something borrowed

and something blue.

These canvasses are featured in the new the Bead Book.

So girls... sometimes you do need to clean out your stuff,

but be careful, rather find a friend and some paper and create something special.

Thanks for stopping by and tomorrow I will share

some of the charms we will be making this year on

International Charm Day.

ELNA

The old (rusk) baking pan.

I was looking for something to display a few rings, so ..... I went searching in my cupboards and

found this beautiful well used rusk baking pan that belonged to my mother in law.

She used to spoil us with buckets full of rusks when we went to visit her. At one stage -

those were the only rusks my hubby wanted to eat!

Just look at the detail, I think that it was handmade...

maybe not, but I know it is very old.

 My mom and dad are also thinking of moving again, so she is throwing out a lot of things.

I know she has some treasures, things like these that I would love to have.

OK... so, I cut five layers of black foam to fit into the tin and glued them together.

(like sandwiches)

For the top layer I made two slits wright through the foam, lengthwise for the

rings to fit into and then glued the top layer to the rest of the foam.

On the outside, I put down some double sided tape. On top of that, two ribbons and then I tied a sugar spoon to the tin and there you have a display box for the rings!

Don't disregard the old things that comes your way, re-use and recycle them.

Keep well.

Reviving an old wooden coathanger

For a long time I have been wanting to do this project. It is fun and easy and the best of all I can now organize my everyday jewellery in a better way!

I saw some old picture frames covered with dictionary paper and

decided to cover the hanger in the same way.

You will need:

a wooden coat hanger

some fancy drawer knobs

a bookplate

dictionary paper

gel medium

glitter spray

rhinestones

two small nails

Do your layout and drill the holes for the drawer knobs.

Cut or tear the dictionary paper into workable pieces.

 Start at the bottom section of the hanger and cover the undersides first.

 Then do the top, rounded sides. Gel only the piece where you want to put down the paper.

I like working with my fingers, so I rub out the air bubbles by putting gel on my fingers and smoothing it out by hand.

Then, cover the back of the hanger.

Let each section dry before you carry on to the next section.

Lastly, cover the front section. I layed out the pieces of paper, did the incisions and the started glueing them down one by one. Cut into the paper that needs to cover a rounded area, it will be easier to get an even and smooth look by doing this. Give the hanger a final coat of gel medium just to seal it.

When everything is dry, find the holes and open them up with an awl.

Spay the hanger with glitter spray and let dry.

Screw on the drawer handles and adhere the bookplate with stamped image.

I also adhered a charm to the bookplate.

 Lastly the bling! And TA... DAAA !