Time Flies So Don’t Delay

A good Wednesday evening to one & all, Kirsten here.  I hope you’re having a great week so far.  I’m continuing my masculine-themed month on the blog with this altered frame.




I bought the frame from an extremely cheap shop – you know the ones I mean – and it’s been in my craft room for an age, after I dropped it & broke the glass front.



I sanded it slightly, then painted it with a few layers of black acrylic paint.  When that was completely dry, I sanded a few areas again & scribbled over the bare patches with an alcohol ink pen, in an orangey/gold colour.  I attached the ornate corner with silicon glue & set it aside to dry.



I embossed a piece of core’dinations with the keys embossing folder, sanded the raised areas & swiped Tea Dye & Vintage photo distress inks over the top. I tore the corner pieces from a piece of Graphic 45 kraft paper, blended Vintage Photo & Walnut Stain DIs on top, then flicked water over the inks, then dried with a heat tool.




The next step was to alter the Studio 490 Art Parts pocket watch.  I embossed a piece of metal card with the lattice embossing folder, attached it to the solid watch part, then painted it with a few different shades of brown acrylic paints.  I dried in between layers & used a baby wipe to remove some of the paint until I was happy with how it looked.  Then I used a piece of sand paper to remove some of the paint from the raised areas.




I painted the reverse side & the edge of the open watch part with black acrylic paint first, then repeated the layers of brown shades.  For the inside, I die cut a circle from the G45 patterned kraft paper covered it with Spiced marmalade distress ink, used a label writer for the words, glued them on & filled the inside with crackle accents.  I made a tiny hinge from a scrap of core’dinations.



I filled the tiny vials with an assortment of embossing powders & glitters, coloured the bottle cap with an alcohol ink pen, glued in the metal embellishment & filled it with Glossy Accents.




Here’s the finished frame again.  I found the piece of chain in my stash & attached it with a jump ring to the watch & with a brad to the metal embellishment.  I cut the ‘legs’ off the back of two other brads & glued them to the other corners.  That’s it.




               



Thanks for looking.  Don’t forget the blog challenge & until next time, happy crafting.

Kirsten.

Pretty Pocket Watch

Hello & happy Wednesday, Kirsten here with my weekly blog post.  Sorry it’s later than I intended, I’ve only just finished this project.  I have turned this post into a little photo tutorial.  The tag tutorial I showed you last week seems to have been quite popular, so Lisa & I thought that maybe I will try to do one each week.

This week I used the the pocket watches from Studio 490 by Wendy Vecchi.  I love Wendy’s work, she creates the most gorgeous embellishments, which can be inked & painted & altered.  She has a terrific stamp range too.  If her name is new to you, I recommend a visit to her blog; http://studio490art.blogspot.co.uk/

You’ll find pictures & links to everything I used at the end of this post.



This is what the watches look like.  They are made of layers of a kraft coloured material, very light, very sturdy & they can be inked, painted, stamped onto, anything you like almost.  Before you do anything with them, I recommend you wipe around the edges with a piece of paper towel, or a soft cloth, to remove the dusty residue caused by the manufacturing process.




I painted mine firstly with a thin layer of Ranger's Snow Cap acrylic paint, this seals your substrate & provides a base for the paint layers to follow.  You could also use gesso.  Then I added three or four thing layers of Ranger’s Shell Pink paint dabber, making sure to dry in between each layer.

I attached a scrap of Graphic 45’s  paper to the base & left it aside to dry.

I put a tiny amount of Indigo Blu’s Flitter Glue on a piece of cut & dry foam & gently tapped it onto the top of the pocket watch, making sure it went on a few areas only, to get a patchy effect.  Then I added the Chariot of Fire gilding flakes on top, pressing them firmly on, then rubbing off the excess.  That done, I set that aside too.



I stamped the quote, (from an Indigo Blu set of the same name) onto shrink plastic, die cut a large circle & used my heat tool to shrink it.  I covered a scrap of white card with Old Paper distress ink & glued it to the back of the plastic.




Now it’s time to put everything together.  I used Cosmic Shimmer glue on everything in this project, except for the brad.  I painted that with the Shell Pink paint, cut off the legs & attached it with silicon glue.





To make sure the two pieces were stuck together I pressed down firmly on them with an acrylic block, then wiped off any excess glue that seeped through.  When it was dry, I painted a few more layers of paint around the outside.  This gives an extra seal & stops the patterned paper being too noticeable.





I didn’t want a lot of embellishments, but I like these little birds & branches from Tando Creative.  So I painted them with Ranger’s Aqua & Willow paint dabbers, coloured the bird's beak with  black Spectrum Noir pen & gave him a black adhesive pearl for an eye.  When both pieces were dry I went over them with my distress ink blending tools, adding a little blue & green.





I added a few Petaloo flowers & here it is, finished.  I haven’t decided what I’ll do with it yet.  It could be a topper on a card, or on another altered piece, or I might add a chain or ribbon so that it can hang somewhere.




                        
Regarding the Indigo Blu stamp set, there is only one available on the website at present, but Lisa has ordered more, so they'll be available very soon.

That's all from me for now, thanks for looking.  A quick reminder about the blog challenge, we've had quite a few entries so far, but there's always room for more.  And also take a look at the What's New section on the website, Lisa has added a lot of new products in the last few days.

Until next time, happy crafting.

Kirsten.