Altered Round Box

Last week it was a tin, this week, it's a box. After a break from altering, I now find myself having a go at it twice in a row. Well, it helped pass an otherwise dull and wet bank holiday afternoon. Better than clearing out the books in the attic which is how Nick chose to spend it. I thought about drawing and doodling away but decided instead to cut and paste pretty papers.

Again, I used all the wonderful stash from Jodie Lee's Nature Garden Collection. Well all except the pale blue buttons and beaded trim which are from my own horde.

I love the pale colours in this collection and how they beautifully blend together. It's so nice to have all the work done for you. Really I could have chosen any of them to match together and they'd seamlessly complement each other. You can't tell from the photo but there are four different patterned papers used in this. 

Well I hope that those who had a break yesterday managed to find something pleasant and distracting to do and weren't put off by the miserable weather. 

Enjoy the rest of the week :)

Pxx

Its all about the timing

There is a fantastic friend in my life, Lemon, who years ago gave me a gift of an empty cigar box to do with as I pleased. I loved it but it got put onto a shelf in my art room, gathering dust & awaiting my attention. But maybe these things are waiting for the elements to align themselves perfectly. So it is that four years later, I dig this box out and begin to decorate it. It's obviously been biding its time waiting for the moment I drift into the "Clean & Simple" design world. The papers are K&Co and are wonderfully warm colours. They just make the box cry out to be filled with something cosy and joyous. I'm not sure what but that's why I've labelled it "Stuff" on the lid. I have to say, the way the lid is hinged onto the box made it an awkward object to cover in paper and I had to carefully fold and glue tiny sections and corners. Worth it in the end though. However I may have stuck too many elements onto it for it to pass in all purity as "Clean & Simple". Its a hybrid of messy meets clean. A transitional piece shall we say.

Nesties are now nestled

A couple of weeks ago I was in the fortunate position of being able to help a friend out a demo. This is where I first saw how she stored her Nesties which were in plastic CD cases. I was pretty impressed and took the idea home with me. Instead of plastic cases though, I decided I could make some simple CD holders out of card and insert magnetic paper inside to hold the dies in place. Having them organised in such a fashion brought home to me how many I actually own. Eeek. Daren't work out what that cost is and here I am saving pennies with their storage haha. Anyway, rather than just plain envelopes, I added patterned paper to spruce them up, front and back and finally used the dies to cut out a shape which I could stick to the outside instead of a label, to indicate which shapes lie inside.

Mannequin Queen

A very special girl is the inspiration behind this piece. It was through her that I found myself in a Sue Ryder Charity shop in Ramsbottom last week. By chance, I came across these wonderful 4" high mannequins at the extremely tempting price of only £1.99 each. The altered artist in me knew I had to have them. And now I am the proud owner of three of these little beauties. Well the designer in me knows I have to do these things in triplet :). Having absolutely zero patience, I began on the first one straight away which is the resulting 'Queen' doll above.

I began by sanding and painting the whole doll in black gesso before adding three layers of purple cosmic shimmer paint. When dry, I dappled perfect pearls over it. I then stamped a swirly design onto violet coloured patterned paper and heat embossed a darker purple onto it. I ran this sheet through my cuttlebug with a die template several times until I had enough pieces to string together to make the skirt.

I attached this to the mannequin with ribbon and tied some black fibres around it. I added the word 'Queen' and glued two feathers to the back. I melted UTEE over a jigsaw piece and laid a pattern stamp over it. When cooled, I added more perfect pearls and three gems, then stuck the whole piece to the skirt. Finally I added a jump ring round the neck area.

From glum to glam in several easy moves. Now to think of a couple more ideas for the other two. Watch this space as they say.