The Introverted Crafter

Ok I have never tasted egg nog in my life, but I know that it is a) a christmas drink and b) can be alcoholic so I thought it would be a good segue into my first make of this week. Another vodka bottle turned up at work last week (wish I could figure out who was drinking them but that's not the point of this) so I decided to alter one again. This time I chose a winter/christmas theme, hence the title. I started by decopaging the bottle, as I did with the last one. However, i did not add shapes this time pre-decopatching. Once it was covered I used picket fence crackle paint on the whole bottle except the lid. While waiting for that to dry, I got some grungeboard snowflakes, coated them in flowersoft, then coated with glossy accents and distress glitter. Those of you who have seen my configuration box posts will notice that this is the same technique that I used for the word ice in the November part. I used the same technique on the lid of the bottle. In retrospect, I would h...

I'll admit I haven't done much this past week; the ideas are there but the energy isn't. I hope to remedy that this week, but if not I will be able to the week after when I am off work! Anyway, as the only thing that I have done is finish the Gorjuss stitch, I thought I would do a little review of it, for anyone who is thinking of buying it to do themselves. This is the finished picture in it's entirety. Obviously it needs ironing. The thing that I love about these kits are the finishing touches, such as these beads for the buttons on the coat. One thing that Gorjuss kits seem to use are metallic threads. I HATE metallic threads. They snag and knot up all the time. I tried thread heaven, which works to a certain extent, but I still have to work really slowly when I'm using it. This kit had more metallic thread than I would have liked but I did stitch all of it. As well as the beads, there are also the stars and the signature Gorjuss...

I'll be honest, I was always reticent about the theme of this month's box, which is Apocalypse. However, on receiving it this morning I was so disappointed that I have cancelled my subscription. Here is the contents: A ghastly yellow colour t shirt; not fond of the design either.  World War Z book A twinkie, the only food that will survive an apocalypse A glow stick Finally a Walking Dead figure Maybe I was expecting too much, but an apocalpse does not mean zombies necessarily. There's Planet of the Apes for a start. There are tons of post-apocalyptic Stephen King novels. They could even have thrown a plush ebola virus in there. I like the idea of getting a themed box every month, and I've given these a fair shot, but I have been getting steadily more disappointed each month. The animation box was ok, the Quest box had potential but wasn't executed correctly in my opinion but this one is just disappointing. 

You know that you're a crafter when you spot something and immediately start thinking of what you can do with it. I was at work the other day, and happened to find an empty bottle of vodka hidden somewhere. Pre craft days I would just be incredibly annoyed that someone had done this, when I found this bottle I immediately thought 'what can I do with this?' So here is a step by step of what I did. The first step was cleaning it of course, and getting rid of the labels. I didn't scrub the label off entirely, as it made it easier to do my next step. I chose some grungepaper shapes and glued them onto the bottle. Once they were dry I moved onto my next step. I got some decopatch paper I didn't have any other use for, and covered the bottle from head to toe in it. I then painted it black. Doesn't it make such a difference? I hadn't quite finished with it yet, so I coated it in crackle glaze and left it to dry overnight. Once t...

My craft mojo came back! I decided to treat myself the other day to a new paper pad, and chose G45 Steampunk Spells. Graphic 45 papers are expensive but boy are they worth it! I wish I'd got into them sooner as there are some older pads that are gorgeous, but unavailable now. Anyway, once I got the pad and overcame the urge to just admire the paper and do nothing with it, I got to work. I decided to try to make something to enter into a couple of challenges, namely the  Craft room something old, something new challenge  and  That's Crafty! Girl power challenge . The first thing to do was to decide what to make. I was going to do a card, but then I found this: This was a cutlery drawer that a friend gave me. To be honest I have been using it to store sharpies in, but no more. Here it is now: What a change! I started by painting it in black acrylic, then got to work on each section. I used the Clockworks paper for the background, cut out some cloc...

My creativity is still at a low ebb today, so I looked around for inspiration, and decided to do a challenge. I found  this one  , which seemed like a brilliant one to start with! I've never done a card before using a sketch as inspiration. As I got the new Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine this morning with some stamps, I decided to use those, and chose winter as my theme.  All the paper used came free from various magazines, as did the stamps and the bow (template from a magazine) I also used stickles on the frame. Sorry for the short post. Unfortunately my creative block has extended more than I thought it would, although I have a new project in the pipeline I hope to work on this week. Happy crafting everyone Emma x