The Introverted Crafter

Two posts today; one very quick one (this one) because it's an entry to the That's Crafty Rustica challenge  and one a lot longer with plenty of pictures which is the normal one. So, onto my entry. I started off by gessoing a prima heart in black, then spraying it with Lindy's sprays. I then added a black heart into the centre, and used Prima wax to colour the whole thing a deep blue. You can't see it in the pictures but the Lindy's spray has gotten into the little engraved bits in the heart, and it really shines. I made two wings from paperclay, and used Prima wax (it's the purple one - not the opal ones but the other ones) to colour it. For the background I layered dictionary pages onto the back of the focal box, then gave it a quick spray with a Lindy's spray, before adding some art stones in the corners and painting them with brass. For the outside of the frame I cut a lot of cogs out, then used the prima rusting set to rust it up ...

For some reason, it's been another unproductive week. It's not that I am doing nothing, just that I am...unfocused. Scattered. I can't seem to concentrate on any one thing craft wise. I am in the middle of something, the only bit that I can show you at the moment is... Not much I know, but it's part of something bigger. I was trying to finish it today, but underestimated the time it would take for the 3D gloss gel to dry properly. So it'll be next week's post. I've been flitting between the safari stitch and a new one. Here are the progresses for both this week. This is the new one - tiger in planets. You can see by the paper that it's only one page not four like the safari, so hopefully it won't take too long to complete. One thing I love about cross stitching is that one moment it's a random assortment of stitches that seemingly have no connection and the next it's a realistic picture. The elephant is coming ...

Not done any crafting in the last week. At all. It was actually quite nice taking a break. Unfortunately it means I have nothing to put on here. I did treat myself to a few new cross stitch kits in a bank holiday sale. Beautiful aren't they? There's a poppy one as well but I can't find the photo of that to share with you. With these and the ones I already have I have enough stitching to last me for a good while yet! want no distractions as I feverishly write until I finish The plan this week was to start, and finish, editing the ghost lights. So all my free time was devoted to editing my work using a red pen, then typing up the changes. You have to look really carefully when you edit; not only for the presence of too many that's and very's, too many commas, but at the continuity of the story as well. It's time consuming, and I had forgotten how time consuming it is. Suffice to say, I haven't quite finished, but I am exceedingly close, a...

I've been getting into the Christmas spirit this week, by designing a couple of Christmas cards. Initially I was going to do a snowglobe design for all my cards this year, but it takes a lot longer than I thought it would, so instead I have also designed an alternative one. I just have to decide who gets what. Here are the two designs. This is made using a Tim Holtz snowglobe die. I used kraft cardstock for the houses and trees, some paper I had in my stash for the mountain, some dictionary paper for the snow, and some wood paper for the globe base. The background is white paper coloured with sprays. I added a few stars too. The phrase is also Tim Holtz dies, cut out of black card and coloured with silver wax. This is the second, and simpler card. I used a white card and a snowflake embossing folder, using distress ink and silver wax to highlight the snowflakes. I then die cut and embossed some snowflakes and coloured them using the same items. Finally I cut out the n...

It's been a more productive week this week craft wise. I've actually managed to finish the calendar tags. Here are the last five months. I wanted the flower here to look more like autumn leaves in colour. I love this one. I didn't want to go too far down the Halloween route, so I added a black cat and a little girl with a pumpkin at the top. This was the nearest I could get to daisies. I love the little butterflies on here. The butterfly on this was actually from the May page, but March is my mum's month, and purple is her favourite colour, so I put it on here. The last month was May. Butterflies again! Good thing is I have plenty of extra things from the Time to Flourish papers, including some beautiful poetry that I will find a use for. I've also made a birthday card, which will not fit in an envelope. I started off by stamping my own background, with stamps from a magazine and my new dewdrop inks. I aged them with vin...

I don't know what's wrong with me at the moment. Creatively I am in a major slump, and as for the weekly tasks, I can't muster up the energy or the enthusiasm for them. Everything seems to be a slog, something to struggle through rather than something I am supposed to be enjoying. Struggle through I have done, and I do have things to put on here this week. This box was from The Works. I started by adding some paper clay moulds - flowers, leaves and a label. Once that was dry I thought it was too plain, so I die cut some leaves out of cardboard for the top, and some butterflies for the sides (mainly because the leaves were really hard to cut!) Once I had attached those I coated the whole box in black gesso, then washed it in chalk paint (which has separated a bit, but it added to the effect.) I then added some burnt umber stain (sorry I have forgotten what it's called but it's that one that you put on, wipe off the excess then seal with a varnish) ...

I'm settling into the new job. A few niggles, the worst being I don't seem to have the creative energy I need at the moment, but I am getting there. I have managed to make a few things this week. This is a gothic style birthday card. I sprayed some card with Lindy's sprays, then added black soot distress ink using a stencil. I glued on some fabric at the bottom with soft gel, then stamped a raven skull, colouring it with distress crayons and cutting it out. Finally I added a sentiment from Tim Holtz chit chat range. Card number two. This is Lego inspired (obviously). I used a hole punch to make the bricks. I was going to cover the whole card till I realised how long a few took! Instead I cut out Happy Birthday in the same colours. I decided to make a little poster for work, as it is a little dreary. I started by stamping, distressing and mounting some sentiments. I then got an A4 piece of paper, stamped and embossed the Visible Image stamp, then sprayed...