The Introverted Crafter

One of the perfect uses for Tim Holtz' shatter stencil is a spiderman birthday card!   Simple to make, I just used the shatter stencil on black card with some red chalk ink. I then cut out shapes in white and trimmed them with black for the eyes, then stamped a sentiment.   Now for the decluttering! This post is a little ahead (tomorrow's and Monday's already on here.)   A Guerlain body milk. Finally used it up after what seems like years. Obviously bin bound.   Mitchum deodorant. To be honest it's not as good as it is made out to be. Ran out, so bin bound.   A door hanger. This came in a Sarah Millican gift pack, but I don't really need it. Bin.   Thriller Live programme. The show was excellent admittedly but I don't need to keep this. Bin.   Instructions for a chair. Pretty sure I don't need them. Bin. A British Museum souvenir guide. Couple of interesting tidbits but nothing you can't find out onlin...

First things first, this weeks decluttered items. I decided to go with the same theme for all items this week. Books. It's hard for me as I love keeping as many books as possible but things have to go or I'm going to end up like Mr Trebus.     Stephen King's Finders Keepers. I liked this book but it's not my favourite of his, so not one I felt the need to hang onto. Went to a charity shop.   The Faraway Tree collection. A remnant from my childhood, this went to someone I know who has grandchildren. I hope it gives them the same pleasure it gave me as a child   A Mind of it's own. Popular science book, but not one of my favourites. Charity shop.   The Loney. Bought this a few months ago in a supermarket with a tip. I liked it, but I don't think I would read it again. Charity shop.   We are all completely beside ourselves. Fascinating idea for a story. I think I gave this to the same charity shop I bought it from so it's a...

First things first, I've made a birthday card for my friend. Now I had no idea what I was going to do here, so I winged it. I started off by cutting some purple paper with a baroque thinlits die, and backing it with black card. I then sponged some red chalk ink through the shatter stencil (will be doing this again with the next card but in a different way) and put it in a baroque frame. The frame was painted first with distress paint, then with perfect pearls. One flower is made with a die cut, the others were in my stash. All were sprayed with distress sprays. I took a photobooth picture of some friends, cut them out and put it in the corner. The heart is grungeboard, painted red and coated with holographic embossing powder. The skull was painted white. The sentiment is stamped, inked and cut out, then backed with black card. Finally the cat was painted black and coated with black soot distress stickles. Something different here though, cos I immediately heated it with a heat gun,...

Not crafty related which is why it's in a separate post. When I mentioned about not decluttering in a recent post it got me thinking. When I have been successful in completing something it's because I have broken it down into manageable chunks, so I have decided to attack decluttering using the same method. So, from now until the day I can't decide what to get rid of, I will be getting rid of one item a day. Here are the rules. 1. It cannot be food - obvious reasons there 2. A photo must be taken of said item - there are exceptions to this rule. I am not going to subject you to a picture of my old underwear should that be an item I get rid of. 3. Once chosen I cannot change my mind - this is relevant when I am in the middle of filling up a bag to give to charity. I cannot dig through it, once an item is in there, there it stays. 4. I must explain here where I got it (if I remember) why I am getting rid of it and where it is going. So, with that in mind here are the f...

I was making a Christmas present for somebody the other day and I got an email from That's Crafty for their latest challenge, which is feminine, so I decided to enter it into it. I'm also going to enter it into Finnabairs denim journal challenge  using blue as my inspiration. I started off with a plain wooden chest of drawers, coating it with white gesso then with tissue paper. After it was dry I inked it with distress pads and coated it with crackle texture paste. The interesting thing here is that I then had to take away the wooden lines between the drawers as the glue had swelled them so they wouldn't fit!! Lesson learned.   This is one side. I used some Docraft Parisienne blue paper for the 'blue' of the box, using a thinlits mixed media die to make a negative image and allow the tissue to shine through. The panel was inked with walnut stain on the side. Finally I cut some flowers and butterflies out, adding a gem in the middle of each flower. ...

There's some clickbait for you! Don't worry, my embarrassing confession is craft related. Until yesterday I had never used a glue gun, something that is practically fundamental for a crafter. I managed to burn myself a few times but got the hang of it eventually! Before I start on the normal craft stuff, here is the update on the Disney stitch. I've somehow wrenched my shoulder so am having a little trouble doing it at the moment, but here is where I'm at so far.   I've also been making some jewellery, specifically two necklaces. I found a couple of necklace kits when I was in the Isle of Wight so bought them and added something from the latest Beadhaul box to add my own spin on it.     I thought the robots lent themselves well to the cogs and time hands, and if i'm honest I didn't want to make another pair of earrings.   I'm working on a papercraft project at the moment, but am only halfway through, so hopefully that'll...