The Introverted Crafter

I've made a few things this week, the first is a card I made for a friend. I've said before how hard it is to make cards for males, and this was no exception. I decided to go for a clean card, with a nautical motif as we live in Cornwall. I used some free stamps and my new stamp platform (this is a fantastic piece of kit, well worth the money.) I started by stamping some compasses on a piece of card and distress inking it, then cutting a smaller piece of card and stamping a lighthouse, sentiment and cloud. I mounted the smaller piece onto a black card then onto the compass paper, and finally cut some seaweed out, spraying it with lindy's sprays and adding clear embossing powder. I've also made a few vases out of wine bottles. I painted them black, before adding molds, thinlit die cut card, texture paste and art stones (as well as shells on one) and some other bits and pieces, before painting it with black gesso again. Once dry I used a paint brush and either

A quarter of the way through a project at the moment, but as it is a calendar there are technically three separate pieces completed out of twelve, so I am able to show you them. I got the G45 Time to Flourish set the other day and, as I had six hangers left, I decided to make a hanging calendar. So far I have completed February, December, and April. The flowers are all from Wild Orchid Crafts, but they all came white so that I could paint them myself. I've used alcohol inks and Lindy's sprays to do this. The flowers (I love the trellis rose) were coloured with Lindy's sprays and a coral distress spray. The leaves were die cut from spring greenery. The flowers here were inked with alcohol ink to give them a poinsettia look, with a little bit of gold wax to make them more Christmassy. I was hoping that the alcohol ink and distress sprays I had were more yellow than they ended up, but it still worked well with the April theme. I decided against leaves f

It's been an unusual week for me. After fourteen years I have handed in my notice at my job. I'm feeling a little ambivalent about it at the moment; nerves are overriding the excitement I am feeling, so I flit between the two with startling regularity. Even with that, I have managed to do some crafting. A simple bracelet, made with items from the latest Beadhaul box and a clasp from my stash. I made a set of drawers, starting by adding some moulds, then some glass beads and art stones. I then painted it all black, including the inside drawers. I left the inside of the set as I have found in the past that paint tends to make these swell so the drawers don't fit in. I then painted the whole outside gold. After painting it gold I painted it with one of my chalk paints, wiping off the excess and using prima gold and silver waxes to highlight certain aspects. I was going for a faux patina look, as if this piece had been dragged up from the depths of the