HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE, AND WE WELCOME IN 2014 WITH A STEP BY STEP PROJECT TONIGHT...

Hope 2014 is a great year for you all, and thank you so much for tuning into the Crafty Individuals Blog - the first posting for the New Year!  Our current Festive Challenge is nearing completion - only 1 day to go - so if you have a Crafty Individuals themed card or project to share with a festive flavour please link it in HERE as soon as possible.

Firstly a little catch up on website new stuff previously mentioned.  We now have lots of very cool 'hardware' on offer, such as little gold feet for boxes, filigree corners, corner protectors, and suchlike - all soooo adorable - and they can be found in the 'Must Haves' section HERE.  In addition we added small wooden jewellery boxes - perfect for the little feet and corners and handles.  I had tremendous fun decorating one such box in a 'distressed' way, and here it is:

 

I used Farrow and Ball matchpots to paint my box - firstly in a dark colour (dark red), and then with a light top coat (a pale blue).  Then I sanded the box all over the outside to reveal the darker colour underneath here and there.  I repeated this procedure on the four little corner feet and also on the handle.  I then stamped my box with CI-302 on the top (coloured with Copic pens), and with CI-017 on the four sides, after which I glued the metal items to the box (with strong glue), and added a little gold gilding wax with my finger to complete.

We have since added a few more items to the site like larger 'old gold' metal corners, for larger boxes, and wooden icons for decorating:

And we now have packets of lovely TAP paper back in stock too!

Our current special offer is on a spend of over £12, before shipping, which will entitle you to receive a selection of FOUR very pretty butterfly or dragonfly charms picked from the array shown below..

Okay enough shop talk for tonight, as I also have a very colourful and detailed step by step project to share now, put together by Helen Chilton, especially for us and for you, and here it is - enjoy!...

Title: GOOSE ON THE LOOSE

Stamps Used: Alice Palace CI-380 Fine Day, and CI-374 Hello Cupcake

Other Materials:
StazOn inkpad in Jet Black
Dylusions Spray Inks in Bubblegum Pink, Squeezed Orange and Lemon Zest
Prima Stencil: Flourish
Glossy white card
Matte white card

Method:

Choose your stencil and sprays..

Lay stencil over matte white card and spray..

Although you are not going to use it now (put it aside for another project), this is what you will get..

However your stencil will also be covered in inks..

So flip it over and press down onto glossy card to create a background like this..

Repeat this process and then, when dry, overspray one of the pieces with the yellow spray..

Cut a panel of 'unyellowed' background and stamp the goose collage over the top in black.  Add extra bits to the top and bottom..

Stamp some of the border bits on scraps of card, colour with the sprays and cut out.  Stamp the goose and words again and colour.  Arrange on the panel as shown..

Note - Helen has also doodled round some of the stencil pattern with a black pen.

Stamp the words around the edges in black to create a border..

Layer onto a piece of the yellow sprayed background card..

Take the stars from the cupcake collage stamp - Helen cut hers out to make them more versatile..

And stamp them onto some sprayed card..

Add words around the edge again in black, then cut the stars out and arrange on the card..

Finish off by layering the image onto yellow and pink card..

 

And there you are - lots of lovely colour and lots of lovely pattern!

Back soon with a step by step calendar creation by Sylvie, plus the Festive Challenge results!

Jean x