The Introverted Crafter

Just thought I'd do a quick one today, showcasing my latest cross stitch update. I've been doing a little bit of stitching every day this week, and here is the result I usually work one colour at a time, as those of you who follow my blog will know. For this page I had to find the right colour to start with, so that I could plot out the points easily. From there it makes it a lot easier to work on subsequent colours. I think I'm the only person that does it like this! I've also been working on birthday presents again, finishing this one. It started off as an altoid tin. I started off by finding objects, some chipboard and resin, and a metal anchor. I glued them onto the lid and then painted it blue, left it to dry and sealed with acrylic spray. I then dry brushed different metallic distress paints onto the tin, and sealed it again. Here is a look at the back of the tin. I purposely left it a bit bluer. Here is the inside of the tin...

Ok today I'm showcasing the final two tags of my task. For this pair, I dug out a pad of papers I got a long while ago as a magazine freebie. The pad is called classic elegance. For the first  tag, I had the name of the famous Maya Angelou book stuck in my head, so I used it as inspiration. I started by choosing the background paper and inking it around the edges, adding some remnant rubs. I then painted a cage gold. The words were stamped with my new alphabet stamps (which I technically don't have yet as it's not my birthday!) I stamped them onto another paper from the pad, cut them out, then inked round the edges with tattered rose.  The fairy is actually from another magazine freebie paper pad, called fairy belle. I cut off her wings as I didn't need them. Here is a close up of the wing. It's a grungeboard wing, painted white, stamped with musical note background stamp and coated with rock candy glitter.  The second stamp, and the ...

The best laid plans.... Haven't been as productive as I'd like to have been this week. In fact, haven't really been productive at all so far, not all of that my fault. Still, I have a couple of days left so I still have a chance. I'm feeling stressed today. Constant promotion (and lacklustre sales) of my book is getting me down and sapping my strength. I'm having one of those days when I wish I had never written it. Anyway, me moaning about my life is not why people come to this blog. So I'll share one thing that I have done this week, the other half of my tag. As I've said before, I have three double sided tags to do, each one with a certain paper. The first was Madame Payraud, the second one is a Docraft clocks one (not sure what it is called) So here is the second half of that tag. I used hot air balloon backgrounds (blue and grey) cutting out some of the grey ones to layer over the blue. I then cut out the umbrella man three times, on...

First day off of a week today (aside from a 3 hour course on Thursday) and the day before payday, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to post a few things I've done and to summarise my spending this month. First things first, the latest project from the project book. This one is called Kraft Moon and is designed by Sue Wilson. Here is her version Here is mine. You can see I'm still lacking in straight edges! This is a simple card to make and is perfect for a sympathy card, or alternatively, for a birthday card for an adult male. The simplicity of it is really effective. I actually used a quarter for the template for the moon, and as I didn't have any trees I dug some plant stamps out instead. Second thing is another birthday present, this one using a combination of shrink plastic, polymer clay, and jewellry findings. This one smudged a little, due to me being over zealous with the acrylic sealing spray. Sharpies are supposed to be per...

Wasn't going to post anything today, then I decided that it's been ages since I've entered a challenge! So I looked around and found  That's Crafty  were hosting a challenge with the theme of time. So here is my entry to that. See if you can spot the time link... Got it yet? I decided to celebrate my favourite Time Lord, Doctor Who! (The Eleventh incarnation to be precise) The star is symbolic of Galifrey. It's chipboard, painted with tarnished brass distress paint, stickled with the same colour, then edged with weathered wood distress pad. The blue symbols are foil, embossed and sanded. The embossing folder just reminded me of Galifreyan writing! The background is clocks *(not sure but I think it's a Docraft set) to which I inked the edges in weathered wood and added some remnant rub ons. Bow tie. Cos bow ties are cool! This was made from Sew Lovely paper. You can also see a shrink plastic keychain Tardis here, complete with bea...

So I've been productive this morning, and finished off one more project, and the first of three G45 tage I need to do. First of all is the project. The original version is called Love Hearts, and is designed by Tracy Evans. Here is her version And here is mine I didn't have any spackle so I used some grungeboard hearts, added stars to them, and painted them black, before dry brushing them with barn door distress paint. I then painted grungeboard words with the same paint, and stamped them with black ink. I used the same crackle stamp on the background of the card, then stamped and distress inked a butterfly. I'm definitely more pleased with this one than the last one. The other thing that I've completed today is the first of three tags. I've decided to do both sides of each tag with the same paper collection, to showcase each collection as it were. The collection I used with this one was Madame Payraud by Docraft. For the first side I kept it rela...

A couple of projects today; the first from the project book. The original is called Bon Voyage and is designed by Tracey Evans. Here is her version. I don't have any embossing powder so I couldn't do the background the way it was. I tried using versa mark ink aon a white card then distress inking it but it didn't really work unfortunately. To be honest, I'm not sure what would work other than embossing powder which I don't want to fork out for. Anyone got any alternatives? I'm gonna come right out and say it. I am unhappy with this piece. I couldn't get the distress ink to blend properly (need to work on that), for some reason the crackle accents turned the blue ink on the sentiment brown, and the inking round the picture frame is just awful The blue is far too heavy. I like the picture though, as a stamp it really works.  Onto project two. This was the first birthday present. It's recipient is a seven year old girl. I got a biscuit tu...