The Introverted Crafter

Finally decided on my resolutions for this year. With any luck they will be more successful than last year's ones. Before i get to these, here are the makes for this week. Here is the update on the stitch. I am on page three now, although i have screwed up the positioning of the flower on the left hand side so i am going to have to do some improvising.  Everything else i have made this week has been jewelry. I apologise for the quality of the photos but in the winter i leave for work when it is dark, and it is already dark by the time i come home. All of these were made from a grab bag i got from Beads Direct - they are still on sale so grab one while you can!  Onto the resolutions. As usual they are two-fold. The first is relatively simple. To find something happy in every day. I am going to write the day's subject on a scrap of paper and stick it in a jar, then at the end of the year i will read them all. The second is going to be hard - no buying ...

Just a short post to say I hope everyone has a great Christmas and gets loads of new craft goodies! Ems

Managed to get a few bargains this week, among them a couple of Beads Direct semi precious grab bags. Amazing company that they are, they even managed to accommodate my choosing certain colours. You were supposed to do this on the comments bit when making the order but i did not realise so i emailed them. Emailed them half an hour before the package was dispatched and i had them the day later in the colours i asked for! It's amazing to get post that quick when you make an order during normal times. Coming up to Christmas it's downright miraculous. As soon as i saw these blue bead rings i knew i wanted to use them to do some winter themed jewellery. I had some snowflake charms in my Craft Box stash, and i managed to dig out the last silver clasp i had (more now on order). The hard part was trying to get a clear bead into the middle of the ring beads in the earrings. It was much easier on the bracelet, as i was using beading wire instead of eye pins. The pictures don'...

Only a short post today, as I am typing on my phone again. Nothing wrong with my computer this time, I just can't be bothered to turn it on. Here is the update on the stitch. As you can see I've just got the light blue part on this page. I've also used g45 sunkissed papers to make a new piece, with a wooden heart as the base. Took lots of fussy cutting, but it works quite well.  Until next time Ems 

Now for the rest of the makes. First, as always, here is the update on the stitch. Now i decided to make a wintry themed clipboard the other day, using Calico crafts items and also things from my last Craft Box (at least my last for a while). I started off by getting a Tim Holtz clipboard and adding some Christmas themed newspaper to the back. I added some silver snowflakes to the front. Once I had done that i picked out two calico craft pieces. The first was a frame. I left this as it was, adding paper to the inside of the frame and a snow sentiment Snipart across the frame. I also added some clear snowflakes. I added snowflake paste and distress glitter to the bottom of the clipboard, and to the antlers of the deer. To the other bit of calico crafts i added some sparks paint, some white crackle and clear crackle, letting it dry before adding some antiquing cream. I also did the same with a Tando creative arch, which i stuck behind the Calico craft piece. I assembled it and then ...

Decided to enter this piece into  the countryview craft christmas challenge . I love CountryView Crafts, especially this time of year as they do the fabulous advent calender, where there is a new special offer every day! Anyway, here is the entry. Everything is Tim Holtz aside from the spray i used for the crinkle ribbon as that is Lindy's. I started off by die cutting a tag out of Christmas paper, then added various bits of ephemera, one of which i coloured with distress inks. I then added a die cut tree and a Christmas paper doll before adding the ribbon at the top.  Ems

So i said at the beginning of the year i would be gaining pounds and losing pounds. Well, as December is never going to be a month for saving money or losing weight, I am officially giving up on my resolutions this year. I don't like to admit i have failed but i have, so I've not got a month to decide if and what i want to do next year. Craft wise i have not done much this week. Here are the makes. I am in the middle of making something else, as i found a great company called Calico Crafts, but as it is not finished i am not posting it. First, here is the update on the cross stitch. Not much progress but then there never is to start with. The next is a keyring. Nice and simple, i grabbed a few things from my stash. As you can see it is sea themed.  Finally, here is a winter themed necklace. The pendant in the middle has blue stones in it like on the necklace itself. There are some crackle stones which nicely mimic ice, and i had to use seed beads at the end as t...

I've been off this week, so have managed to make a few things. To start with, I have finished page one of the poppies stitch. Here is the update. I also got a new sun moon mold, so decided to make a notebook. I started off by gluing a wire fence background, as well as the sun moon paper clay, some Tim Holtz ephemera, and other things from my stash, onto a notebook. Once dry i painted with black gesso, then used various Prima waxes until i was happy with what I had. I added a spoon head in a space I had purposefully left, mixing together art stones and snowflake paste and adding it to the spoon, before dripping a Lindy's spray on it. When that was dry i added a metal clock charm and a paper doll, and finally added some snipart stars that i coloured silver, and a Tim Holtz saying.  Finally, I made an advent calendar. This was one from the Works. I started off by painting it black, then brown. I added some distress glitter glue along the tops of the drawers,...

So post two and the rest of the makes. Sorry that the picture is not great for this one, but the problem with this time of year is you go to work when it is dark, and by the time you come home it is dark, so you are stuck using artificial light. These are three pairs of Christmassy earrings, all made with items from my stash. I forgot I had the stars, but they lend themselves well to the theme. It would be a nice little stocking filler for someone, with minimal spending.  Here is the update on the poppy stitch. I can now see where the orange comes into it, but at the moment I wish it would be a little more subtle between the shades of red and orange. Still, I may change my mind about that when I finish it. I'm still on the first page at the moment, as there is a lot of background stitching to do.  Until next time Ems

I made a tag the other day, and then the new  That's Crafty Winter Wonderland Challenge  came up, which was perfect to enter the tag into. So I started off by cutting a tag out of Christmas Vintage paper. I had a SnipArt frame that I was going to originally use for a Halloween themed tag, but lent itself perfectly to a frozen frame. I did this by spraying it with Lindy's Sprays, then using Crackle Glaze with a little bit of distress glitter. I coloured a sentiment gold, and painted a Tim Holtz wreath style trinket. I added some paper dolls that I coloured with chameleon pens, and cut out some Christmas style foliage. I coloured the misteltoe with chameleon pens and the flower with a mix of chameleon pens and distress crayons, adding some pearls for the centre. Finally I used some snowflake paste along the bottom. 

My computer is playing up today, which is a bugger when I'm trying to update this, and trying to do nanowrimo, which is amazingly on target at the moment. I'll do my Best, so here are this week's makes. The first is the poppy stitch. I'm still not sure about that Orange, but then I haven't actually finished a flower yet. I also got an MDF violin the other day. I assembled it, painted it white then added a layer of crackle paste. Once dry I dropped some blue lindys spray, painted the bridge and other parts with sparks paint and added some snipart pieces and some berries, One snipart piece bridging the gap on the violin, in place of strings.  The smaller snipart pieces and the bow were coloured with lindys embossing powders, and the larger flourish was coated with white embossing powder then a layerof holographic embossing powder. Finally I added snowflake paste and distress glitter in various places to make it look like I had just removed it from the snow....

Just a quick one this week; I have had no time and no inclination to do anything other than stitch. On the bright side this does mean that the photo stitch is finished! Here it is... That was a lot of blue on that last page! It does mean that I can now move onto my next one. I had wanted to get this one finished by November as it is poppy related, but obviously that cannot happen now. I have made a nice bit of progress on it this week though.  There's an unusual amount of orange here, but I'm sure that's part of the plan. At least the first page is starting to take shape now.  Until next time, Ems

Had to use my Disney dies to make cards didn't i? I had a plan originally to have the characters with a sleigh, but after painstakingly colouring and cutting out the sleighs and characters i realised they didn't work scale wise. Instead, i used the sleigh for the envelope. The cards had a Christmas background, then an embossing folder and distress ink. Finally i added the character on the side, and some Mickey decorations along the top.  I have also been making some jewellery. Just some simple stuff; these leaf charms came with my latest craft box and just screamed earrings.  This chain was attached to a pumpkin (which i don't like but will adapt to something else.) As well as the pumpkin, in the box was this lovely owl charm which i added gems to, so that the poor thing had eyes. Finally, i added a resin leaf which i coloured with copper paint and fairy wings sparks paint to give it a slight tinge of green.  Finally, here is the update ...

First post of this week is a challenge one. I wasn't going to enter  That's Crafty Spookalicious challenge  but then I got my Craft Box, which was full of spookalicious goodness, resulting in this tag. I started off by painting a tag with black gesso, then using Prima waxes and using a make up wipe to give it a grungy look by wiping off some of the paint. Then I used white embossing powder and a crackle stamp. The skull is a snipart one, which i painted black and coloured with waxes. It didn't look right when i put it on the tag so i added some paper to the back of it, using red alcohol ink to colour in the rose at the top. I added a bat a Halloween charm and some black lace, and finally a sentiment that i coloured with alcohol ink.  Ems

Been making a few things this week. Before i get onto those, here is the progress on the photo stitch. Doesn't look like much progress from last week but there are only three colours left on this page, so i think at the moment i am ahead of schedule.  I've made a couple of birthday cards this week: This is using G45 Steampunk Spells, the 1st G45 papers i got. I decided to dig them out to see if i could get a little inspiration. As well as using the papers, i used some snipart cogs that i sprayed with Lindy's sprays, and a Tim Holtz sentiment die.  I used a Visible Image stencil on this one for the background, then added some snipart pieces i embossed with either white or holographic embossing powders, a sentiment, some pearls and flowers.  Sorry for the short post this week, but I haven't been doing much craft wise. I will say that i have been planning for Nanowrimo - not for a novel but to get myself back into writing. I love my job ...

Managed to get my craft mojo back this week, but lost my healthy eating one and subsequently put on weight. I'll get it right one of these days! So, onto the makes. To start with, i decided to try my hand at a 3D box card, after seeing a great one on Pinterest. If you search for exploding box cards you will find it, and the ones on there are far better than mine. I started off by cutting black card into 21cm by 21cm, then scored at 7cm intervals before cutting out the squares on each corner. I then cut out squares of white card, 6.5 by 6.5cm, decorating them with stamps and distress ink, as well as stencils on the inside ones. Once they were on the card i made a lid and added a decorated square to that, as well as some flowers that were stamped and cut out, and some dies and sepals. I stamped some butterflies, coloured them with Lindy's sprays and cut them out, before attaching them to the inside of the card using acetate. I then assembled the box. For my secon...