Altering things..

I've always loved the idea of buying something and doing it up but haven't done it till now. I bought a bird cage the other day from Store Twenty One for a fiver, and then got to work.

I started by finding some paper for the inside of the cage. I ended up using the free paper that had arrived that morning from Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine, and some kraft card. I also found some blue ribbon to which I added some more kraft paper that had been die cut. I then got my only set of framelits, and cut alternate sizes of the patterned and kraft card, all inked with tattered rose distress ink and then stamped with a sentiment. The only other thing on the inside of the cage was a length of twine to which I added some blue pegs. 

On the outside of the cage I added some yellow flowers. If you look closely you can see some droplets of water on them, another plus with the choice of glossy accents as a glue is that it makes perfect raindrops. I coated some chipboard swirls with peeled paint distress ink and then stickles, which I attached to the cage by the flowers.On the other side I added some bunting made from Sew Lovely paper, and some more paper flowers. I didn't have any blue ones so I inked my craft sheet with distress ink in China Blue and then sprayed water to activate it (a very important point I keep forgetting) before applying it to white flowers with a paintbrush. I also attached some hinge pieces to the side of the cage that I had painted with picket fence crackle paint and inked with a couple of light distress inks to give it a leathery effect.

I was so pleased with this that when I popped back into Store Twenty One today and found the bigger cage on sale for four pounds I snapped it up!

Aside from the cage, I have also been working on a necklace this week. I originally had an idea to do a void necklace, that is, to die cut a shape out of shrink plastic and then use the rest of the plastic for a necklace. That in mind, I chose the umbrella man as my die. I first background stamped the square of clear shrink plastic, then cut out the umbrella man. I coloured him grey, and the void section blue. I also cut out a lamppost and coloured it black.

Unfortunately, the void didn't work in the way that I had hoped, so I rethought, and decided to use the umbrella man himself to do a memory frame necklace. Here is the result.

The thing I really love about memory frames is that you can have two necklaces in one. The first side is Docrafts paper, inked with fired brick and victorian velvet. To that I added a strip of film ribbon, and some rub-ons, which I coloured with gold distress stitckles. I also added fired brick and peeled paint distress stickles to the paper. On top of the glass I attached my umbrella man, and then used blue china distress stickles and glossy accents to make raindrops.

The other side was Docrafts papers again, but, instead of inking them, I added rub-ons to the glass sheet. I then added the lamppost, and used gold distress stickles and glossy accents to give the lamp some light. 

The last thing I did was to add an extender chain to the necklace (unfortunately not the same colour but I have to make do with what I have) and attached some charms, which were a key, a tree, a crown and some buttons.

Looking back on this past eighteen months, my depression has waned on occasion but always been a presence. However, since I have been crafting I have started to believe in myself in a way that I never thought possible. It would never have occurred to me that I would be able to create items such as this; items I am really proud of. It just goes to show that it is never too late to unleash your creative side.

Until next time, happy crafting

Emma x