Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light...

I can't think of my own titles, so I thought I would borrow one of the most well-known lines from Harry Potter for this entry. The writing exercises are working slightly, but as this has been hell week at work (purely the longest shift pattern - I actually like my job) I haven't done much. I have made a few craft pieces though.

I decided to go simple for my second growing crystal pendant, and use seed beads in white and blue. I've got loads of seed beads, and I bought a loom last year so that's another thing I need to work on but this wasn't the time for it as I wanted the pendant itself to be the focal point. The beads are strung on beading wire, and crimp beads are used to seal the ends.

Here is the latest update on the tiger in the heavens stitch. Not as far as I would have liked to have got, but it is harder with the light on this one. I've got the threads for the next one ready for when I have finished this one.

I've also used one of my new dies - the luminary one. I started off by cutting the appropriate pieces (you need 4 of the sides and 2 of the triangle bits for the top) and using a floral stencil and the white sand texture paste on the sides. When that was dry I painted all the pieces with sparks paint. I then used Docrafts tissue paper for the windows, before assembling the luminary. There was a small issue here; I used double sided tape as instructed but the combination of the sparks paint and texture paste meant that this was pretty useless so I got out my trusty glue gun instead. Once assembled (and once I had figured out the roof part of it) I die cut some leaves and painted them with sparks paint (fairy wings I believe) before gluing them to the luminary. I wanted to do things a little differently here, so I didn't colour any of the flowers I used, instead leaving them white. Finally I added a Snip Art phrase that I painted with yet another sparks paint.

You can see on the last picture that I purposefully used a purple flower on the tissue to keep the theming. One thing I forgot to add was that I also used a tiny bit of rose gold metallique wax on the paint before I assembled it, just to give it a little bit of an added depth.

I'm hoping to have two blog posts this week - I have started subscribing to a new craft box and the first one has been dispatched so I would like to devote a post to whatever goodies I get in it.

Ems

Comments

What to do when you hit a wall?

Sorry guys, this is gonna be another pic-lite one. This is for two reasons. The first is because I decided to be a complete idiot the other day and crack my head open on the door at work, so I have to take things easy for a couple of days. The second is strange. I woke up the other day and it was as if someone had flipped a switch. All of the self-confidence that I had built up through my crafting over the last year has disappeared - just like that. I've spent the large majority of my life thinking that I am not good enough; in what I do, what I say, in short, in who I am. With crafts I was finally starting to believe in myself. So it is very hard at the moment, as I feel that I am right back at square one. I am hoping that this is temporary, and that I will soon feel myself again. I have to remind myself that I am very early in my crafting journey, and there are bound to be bumps along the way. I am aware that it is probably linked to my current state of high anxiety, as susta...

Altering again!

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...

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 chi...

The Introverted Crafter

Search This Blog