The Introverted Crafter

I am agog sometimes at the sheer amount of things that people are able to create in such a short space of time. I am not one of those super-productive people unfortunately. This week, I had a little conundrum. I have been working on my configuration box but am nowhere near finished, so what to post on here? Then I thought, I have been posting my progress on my cross stitches all this time so why not do the same for any big project? So here are my finished components so far. As there are twelve boxes, I decided to allocate each box to a month, and the front cover to the seasons. The first thing to do is to cover the box. This is the finish on the cover. I didn't want to cover it with paper, and I have very limited paint so I improvised. I used salem blue paint, then coated it with rock candy crackle paint. Once this had dried I used pumice stone and peeled paint distress pads into the cracks. Finally I sprayed some interference green mica powder onto it. One thing ...

Well, I promised that I would make up for not doing anything last week so prepare for a pic-heavy post! A couple who are customers of mine are moving, and gave me a microwave, free of charge! So, to thank them, I made them this card. It's my first attempt at using flowersoft. I decided to leave the image colour free as the flower soft trees then stand out. The background is kraft paper, free papers from a magazine (always a great source) and a ribbon from my stash. The butterfly is also from my stash. This is my first attempt at layering different papers and I'm really pleased with the result. I promised my sister I'd make her some bats she could make into earring so here they are sis! This is another wooden box. I stained it with distress ink and then tried to add rub ons. No matter how hard i rubbed them they would not come off onto the wood! So some of them I managed to peel off, and some I scratched onto card. I then covered it with crackle gl...

I have two confessions to make this week. The first is that I have not been doing much crafting at all, aside from catching up with the photo stitch, so I will not be posting any new stuff this week. Rest assured, I will make up for it next week. The second is I broke my ban! In a  major way. To be honest, I lasted longer than I thought I would but I woke up one morning last week, took a look at my craft stuff which is currently strewn across my room, and bought a  Raskog trolley  . I also bought my mum a pair of Fitflops, as she has plantar fascitis and is having trouble walking, and a few new craft supplies for myself. I was thinking a good challenge for future posts would be to randomly pick an item out of my stash, and use that as a focal point for an item. What do people do with the items they have made? Some people seem to make new stuff every day, so do they gift it, sell it, or keep it for themselves? Anyway, although this post will be pic-free, I have decid...

Sorry guys, this is gonna be another pic-lite one. This is for two reasons. The first is because I decided to be a complete idiot the other day and crack my head open on the door at work, so I have to take things easy for a couple of days. The second is strange. I woke up the other day and it was as if someone had flipped a switch. All of the self-confidence that I had built up through my crafting over the last year has disappeared - just like that. I've spent the large majority of my life thinking that I am not good enough; in what I do, what I say, in short, in who I am. With crafts I was finally starting to believe in myself. So it is very hard at the moment, as I feel that I am right back at square one. I am hoping that this is temporary, and that I will soon feel myself again. I have to remind myself that I am very early in my crafting journey, and there are bound to be bumps along the way. I am aware that it is probably linked to my current state of high anxiety, as susta...

I have to admit, i wasn't feeling this one. Don't get me wrong, I love the tag; as always Tim Holtz has outdone himself. I juat had no idea how to approach it. For a start i didn't want it to be a tag. So i decided to make a card instead. Then I had an issue with the actual technique, purely because i don't have any stencils that are big enough to cover an entire card, so instead I picked out this stencil of a rose, and decided to use greens and pinks (distress inks) to do a reverse rose effect. I then cut that out and attached it to a background i got free from a magazine. I decided that, as I quite liked the rose, I wanted to use rub-ons instead of stamps as they are smaller. I then attached a metal crown to the top of the card, and the phrase 'Wisdom begins in wonder' which i actually got out of an Einstein quotable notable set that i bought in New York way back in 2009!  The ribbon has been inked with distress inks and the stars are actually shrink ...