Recycled box

I discovered an old watch box and decided it would be a good idea to recycle it and turn it into a gift in itself.  I used one of the hearts from the Tando Creative chipboard cogs set to decorate the lid of the box.  Using two coats of acrylic paint and sanding back the top layer with an emery board to reveal the one beneath.

The box was covered and lined with vintage effect paper and I used adhesive ribbon around the edge.

The gifts inside include a handmade booklet with tear off pages....

and four corner bookmarks.

Thanks for looking...see you soon.

hugs

Chris xx

Flower mask card

I don't seem to have made a card for ages so I thought I'd rectify that using one on the new masks from Tando Creative.  I love this floral one and used a brush to apply the pink acrylic paint to a spare piece of card which I then cut down to fit the front of an A6 card .

I love cards that are tactile as well as pretty so I placed adhesive half pearls in the centre of each flower.  Quick and simple and fun to make.

Thanks for looking

hugs

Chris xx

Ribbon flower heart hanger

Making wire edged ribbon flowers is so relaxing and fun and the best bit is that you can then add them to your project to make something pretty.  I used a Tando chipboard open heart as a base for mine after covering it with black acrylic paint.  I glued the flowers around the heart with a glue gun as these are quite large.

I used black ribbon as it fits with my decor and added some black edged braid to hang my heart.

I think the heart would look equally lovely covered in tiny flowers in rainbow colours... but hey that's a project for another day.
hugs
Chris xx

Crafty Individuals challenge -Vintage with a heart

I decided to join in with Crafty Individuals' challenge this week which is 'Vintage with a Heart'.... only just managed to get it done in time... got a bit mixed up with my days this week lol.

Anyhoo I covered a sheet of Tando bare chipboard with this gorgeous sheet of Crafty Individuals paper ...

and added this gorgeous girlie from their glossy images... love her!!

I covered and added this Tando chipboard tree (cos it's one of my favourite pieces).....

...and to finish off I used wire with some tiny beads and paper hearts to hang my piece .

Have a great weekend all.

hugs

Chris xx

Plant kindness..Gather love

Sorry I haven't been around for a while but my head's been in a funny old place!!  Not been able to draw...or craft.... or concentrate on anything including blogging. I've watched more telly over the last week or so than I've done in years. It's been driving me crazy  (I KNOW...I'm that already...lol) but irritable is the only way I can describe how I've been feeling...oh and really frustrated with my inability to get things moving.  I spent a few days with my pal Chriss in the hope of doing some crafting and eventually managed to do ONE thing cos nothing else seemed to come together... usually the ideas are buzzing around like little bees gathering pollen... but not this time.  Poor Chriss had a lot to put up with as I was a bit snappy too... thank goodness my mood seems to be lifting a bit now and thank Heaven for good buddies who put up with me :D

Anyway on to crafting...I thought this little saying was cute and it inspired me to make this altered chipboard piece with one of the bare sheets of chipboard available from Tando Creative. The chipboard stands up to a lot of battering and is an ideal base for the crackled paint effect using pva glue and acrylic paints.

I applied the glue and paint quite thickly and got a fab result with some really deep indents which I love.

Adding some flowers and watering can seemed in keeping with the saying and I did intend to make a hanger with my piece but I have decided to use it as a cover for an altered book containing some favourite quotes now... so that I can keep out on display because I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Now then I have a couple of awards to share.  This one I received from Sandy (thank you sweetie)
I have to reveal something unusual about myself and then pass the award on to eight other peeps.

OMG what can I tell you ?????   errrrrm.... errrrrrm.... errrrrrrm......

 I'm not a full Shilling...rofl (does that count..No...OK back to the drawing board!!)

I HATE comedies...even though I love to laugh and have a MAD sense of humour.... most sitcoms and comedy films drive me even MORE insane.  I could scream out loud when DG stays with me and wants to watch things like 'Friends' and 'Fresh prince of Bellair'  They irritate me beyond belief and I just can't laugh at them... especially shows that have 'canned laughter' aaaaaargh  (I think something inside of me is switched off...ha ha ha) 

Ok peeps I pass this award to the following girlies...hope you have something more unusual than me to share :D

Sioux
Sally
Jill
Electra
Netty
Anisha
Linby
Karen

BLOG AWARD

I also received this award from Linby (Thanks me lovely)

I have to share this one with 3-5 other peeps so I award this one to the following girlies

Sandy
Lori
Shashi

If you made it to the end thank you for sticking with it... OMG was that a long post or what!! lol
I hope to be back with you soon but bare with me cos I'm still not creating much but I will be popping by to see what you have all been up to... you  just gotta have been more productive than me ;-)
hugs
Chris xx

Home hanger

I previously used the hearts from a Home hanging set from Tando Creative to make jewellery with and had the letters left over so I have used them to make this hanging plaque. 

I used some gorgeous Basicgrey paper to cover the base and to make the flowers and covered the letters with some metal that had been embossed with a script embossing plate.  The metal was coloured with peel off markers and then sanded to reveal some of the original silver.

I used more of the metal to add small hearts to the centre of the paper flowers.

Don't forget to check out the Tando blog to see what gorgeous things the other DT girls are creating.
hugs
Chris xx

Altered clock face

I was given a gift from a friend a while back... of an old clock to take apart.  I decided it would be fun to alter the clock face with some chipboard cogs from Tando Creative.

I re-did the numbers a little with a sharpie pen as they were wearing off and used a gold marvy marker on the cogs... layering the ink to give a stripey effect.

The cogs made lovely frames for these gentlemanly images from Crafty Individuals... they were a perfect size to just allow a glimpse of the images to wet the appetite.

I don't do masculine very often so this made a nice change
hugs
Chris xx

Kitchen canvas

A bit of painting going on today to create this kitchen canvas.  The chipboard shapes from Tando are a fabulous base for acrylic paint.  I used a canvas board which was also painted with acrylic... before adhering the completed kitchen pieces to it to create a faux clock. 

I love to create items that I can have on show at home but I think this would make a nice gift too.

Shame I won't be wearing a chef's hat anytime soon.... not being the world.s best cook IYKWIM
hugs
Chris xx

Christmas....

is coming... and so is Santa... you do believe in him don't ya ;-)  So in honour of the cuddly man with the white beard I created him a star of his very own.  I used gorgeous paper from Crafty Individuals....

as well as this gorgeous portrait of the man himself from the same place.  He deserved a frame and this wee frame from Tando was just the job.  I coloured it with copics before adding Tim Holtz crackle paint .  The two little hearts on top were removed from the sides.

Hope you are ready for him :)

hugs
Chris xx

Christmas is coming...

and I've not yet made one Christmas card.... slap my wrist and hit me round the face with a kipper...lol  At this rate I will be rushing to buy some...eeeeh naughty naughty !!  I can't help it I'm just not in the mood to make cards.... but I have made some Christmas decorations...lol

I covered this fab Christmas Stocking from Tando with some paper that I had inked, painted and splodged (technical term...lol) a while ago and forgot about.  I love it... and it's so different from the usual Christmassy colours of red ,white and green.

 I even managed to add a lickle bit of bling... whaddya think of that.... and now that the bling has resurfaced from my crafty stash you just never know where it will end up next ;-)

Have a great day

hugs

Chris xx

Vintage village

Tim Holtz papers are just yummy.... gorgeous... delicious and I just had to use them to cover this little mini village from Tando.  It seems like forever since I did anything in this style and I loved it.  The little family are from Lisa's Altered art...  aren't they just the cutest.

So they have new little homes... even if they can't go inside.... tis a bit like land of the giants....lol  (who remembers that t.v. programme )

I made the doors and covered the roofs with hand painted stamped paper...

and edged them with gold pen.

Mojo working well :-)

hugs

Chris xx

Flower power

Time to share some of the DT goodies I have been creating.  The little chipboard flower frames from Tando Creative  are just the cutest and fun to use. They also receive colouring with Copic pens delightfully. The chippie absorbs the ink so layering the colour produces a lovely varied effect and it's sooo easy!! I used the frame part of the flower on this arch ....

cos this little girlie from Lisa's altererd art deserved a pretty frame :D

I couldn't leave the center circle  that pops out of the chipboard flower so used it on this little mini tin that I covered with tissue and modpodge.

I added some wings to the flower centre piece and adhered this image ...also from Lisa's altered art ...onto it edging the piece with a gold ink pen.

Small is beautiful :-)

Check out more gorgeous projects on the Tando blog.

hugs
Chris xx

Chipboard jewellery and a little toot :D

A little bit of excitement today cos I can now share with you that I have been invited to join the Tando Creative Design Team.... whooohoooo with a cherry on top :D  That means lots of lovely lovely chippie will be coming my way to play with.  I want to say a HUGE thank you to Di  for the opportunity and I hope you will pop over to the Tando blog to join in with the gorgeous things that I and the other DT members will be sharing there.

I couldn't abandon my painting just yet... oh you just know that I can't...lol... so I was uber excited when I realised that the Tando Chipboard is sturdy enough to take whatever I throw at it... and as it also has a gorgeous white coating it's ideal for painting on. Yeeeeeessss!!  So for my first pieces for the DT I decided to create some heart jewellery.  I think Frida Kahlo is a wonderful artist and my brooch above is in honour of her.

I then decided to paint a little whimsy girl and turned the painting into a necklace before finally doing a mixed media brooch (below) too.   Lotsa fun... I enjoyed every moment.

This one was created by throwing bits of kitchen roll at it... ok ..ok I didn't throw them... I rolled them and collaged them and added swirls of fabric coated wire... but you know what I mean ;-)

The colouring is watercolour crayons and acrylic paint mixed.

Now for the best bit... I made these from the Tando Home hanger and I still have another heart and the words left to play with... heh heh.. I'm nothing if not frugal with my goodies!! 

I will share what I make with what's left soon.  TFL

hugs

Chris xx