To celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee I used red, white and blue paint on this wooden heart plaque.  Starting with a white base I used the red and blue paints to stencil and splatter colour to the background.  I stamped the image on tissue paper and used Mod Podge to stick it to the background.   Mod Podge gives a protective finish over all of the heart too.

Although the heart has a smooth background I used the tissue as a safer technique.  The paper flag is from a cake decoration and I used a clock face with a spinner attached which also had the paint treatment.   I finished off with the typed words “Queen of my heart”.

The strong hook on this heart can be used as a hanger for many things and the heart itself has a hanger on the back and can be fixed to a wall.  I added a key with the word Heart to finish this Coronation Heart plaque.

Products used:-

Wooden heart  Here

Paint  Here

Mod podge Here

Clock face Here

Spinner  Here

Trinket pin Here

Calico Crafts - Purveyors of Fine Altered Art and Craft Supplies

I took all the bits out of the printers tray from last week and gave it a new look. This time it was inspired by the Graphic 45 papers and stamps… it has a bit of an “Optical theme” now and is ( I think) still suitable as a masculine themed object (sticking with Calico Crafts Altered Art challenge over on the blog).

Speaking of the challenge on the DT blog… Why not have a go?  Its for altered art (in keeping with the shop) and you must feature something that Calico Crafts supplies. The theme is a “masculine” one, in celebration of the fast approaching ‘Fathers Day’…. the prize is a voucher to spend, worth £30 !!!! wow.

You can find the challenge by clicking  HERE

Supplies used from Calico Crafts:

7 gypsies printers tray HERE

Graphic 45 papers  HERE

Graphic 45 stamps HERE

little glass vial HERE

7 gypsies industrial gears. HERE

Calico Crafts - Purveyors of Fine Altered Art and Craft Supplies

Here is my second “Masculine” themed project for this month. Focusing on, not just fathers day, but all the men in our lives. Lots of people find male themed things tricky but, with Altered art, I think its much easier than with card making and scrapbooking. I actually prefer it to feminine themes.

This little printers tray was covered  with some lusciously rich looking “vintage decor” papers, then I sanded the papers back a lot to help the piece look aged worn and distressed.  I actually felt reluctant to fill it as it looked so cool with just the distressed paper.

But filling these thing (printers trays, shadow boxes and configuration type items) is the fun part… I used stamped images, primitive labels, apothecary bottles, metal cogs and gears and a few other random bits… the bottles have 7gypsies ‘rubbings’ as their labels.

Supplies used:

7 gypsies shadow tray HERE

Vintage decor paper HERE

glass bottles HERE

7 gypsies hardware gears and cogs HERE

7 gypsies rubbings HERE

7 gypsies paper (for ticket) HERE

primitive labels HERE

the little stamps were cut out from a large sheet of collage paper HERE

Calico Crafts - Purveyors of Fine Altered Art and Craft Supplies

Yay!  Our first blog challenge.    Father’s Day in the UK is on Sunday 17th June, so we’re running our first challenge with a masculine theme – enter for your chance to win a £30 voucher to spend on goodies in the shop (see end of post for full details).

Our aim with running a blog challenge is to promote altered art in its many forms, to inspire creativity and encourage seasonsed artists and beginners alike to showcase their talents.   We hope to make challenges a regular feature of the blog so don’t be shy folks!

You can enter projects specifically celebrating Father’s Day, or maybe a tribute to a father figure in your life (past or present) or any project with a strong masculine or male theme in keeping with the styles we promote – this could be steampunk, primitive, victoriana, vintage, rustic or any combination… (you get the idea lol).   Endless possibilities – a plaque, an altered box or tag, a shrine, an assemblage, a card or gift idea…..

The challenge starts NOW and runs through to Wednesday 13th June so that gives you a full month to get busy – the winner will be randomly selected and announced on Friday 15th June.

Here’s a few ideas from our Design Team to inspire you and showcase the various styles we promote.  Entries will be posted below the Design Team examples in order of receipt.  More DT projects in the pipeline so we’ll continue to add as projects are posted:

  The rules are simple:

• You can enter as many different projects as you like but they must comply with the challenge theme
• At least one item in your project should be an item you have purchased from Calico Crafts – please state in your entry
• Submit 1 photo per entry – photos must be clear (can’t post fuzzies or pictures that are too dark for obvious reasons)
• Email one entry at a time to blogchallenge @ calicocrafts dot co.uk (take out the gaps and put a . where it says dot)
• Please state “Father’s Day Blog Challenge” in the email subject line and make sure you tell us your name!

Entries must be received by midnight on the closing date of Wednesday 13th June 2012 to ensure all photos are added to the blog in time for the draw.  Unfortunately we cannot include entries which do not comply with these requirements.

Winner will be randomly picked on Friday 15th June.  Good luck everyone!

Helen & the Design Team x

Calico Crafts - Purveyors of Fine Altered Art and Craft Supplies

I love decorating little boxes but I have to admit at not being that good with using paints, so I decided to take a risk and use an old technique but a new one to me to create this distressed wood box.

To begin with, I took the hinges and the clasp off from the front of the box and gave it a light sanding. I then gave the box two coats of red acrylic paint. Once dry, I then took a candle and rubbed along the edges and sides where you would think there would be wear and tear.

Finally, I painted over with blue acrylic paint. Once dry, I took a bit of sandpaper and rubbed over the box…..the one thing I did learn while doing this, was that you should rub the candle over quite well, I dont think I did and found the paint didnt come off where I expected it to.

I then wrapped some rusty wire around the box and twisted the ends together to keep it in place.

I coloured the rusty heart with some Walnut Stains ink, to dull the brightness down and then adhered to the top of the box.

By Paula Whitttaker

‘Ingredients’ list:

Wood Square trinket box

Rusty Tin Craft Wire 20 gauge

1.5″ Rusty Tin Primitive Heart

Red and Blue Americana Acrylic Paints

Calico Crafts - Purveyors of Fine Altered Art and Craft Supplies

There are not many crafting weeks left before the UK Fathers day in June… so this month I hope to be showing some altered art projects that are still vintage and distressed (my usual) but highly suitable for the men in your life. This ticket box could contain a gift to make it more suitable to the hobbies and loves of the recipient. eg: shaving set and aftershave for the well groomed man… shoe polishing kits for the man who likes to be turned out well… spices and preserves for the cook…  etc etc

The large wooden box (from the set of boxes) was altered by, first, giving it a coat of paint. Then I glued on some 7 gypsies papers. When the glue dried, I sanded back all the paper edges to give them an aged worn look. I used my Versamagic chalk inks to add more distressing (gingerbread and turquoise gem).

I continued decorating the lid using a fabulous “vintage label”. The label is self adhesive. I glued one of the beautiful metal crowns in the middle and then decorated some wooden numbers, using collage papers and versamagic inks. The rusty star is the finishing touch for the lid….

I added some randomly placed tickets and ‘rusty hearts and stars’ around the edges then wrapped rusty wire around the whole box…..

Supplies used from Calico Crafts:

Wooden box HERE

7 gypsies papers Camden papers HERE

Vintage label HERE

rusty wire HERE

rusty hearts and stars HERE

crown HERE

wooden numbers HERE

collage paper (For covering the numbers) HERE

versamagic chalk ink HERE

Calico Crafts - Purveyors of Fine Altered Art and Craft Supplies

Just for a change, I’ve made a card!  AND, there’s no paint involved!

Lots of detail on there though, with the main focus being the flowers! Two different ways of creating flowers, firstly the text flowers.

Glue some wooden flowers to text paper. These have a design etched into them, but this won’t be seen because of the text paper!

Cut them out roughly, then use an emery board to file away the edges until neat. This way creates a better finish to the edges of the petals.

The flowers are then sponged with brown ink, and a pearl placed in the centre.

The rosette style fabric flowers are very simple to create. A length of gingham ribbon is coiled around and around on a sticky circle base. I’ve just used double sided tape, and it seems to have held perfectly well!

The rosette flowers have small punched out text circle in the centres.

The flowers will be added to the background, which looks like this…..

A strip of corrugated card had twine wrapped around it, then was secured to a square of patterned background card. This card has a strip of tissue paper overlaid with a thinner strip of number cardstock on its right hand side. The cardstock was edged with red ink, and a little brown ink. Lace was added to the bottom of the corrugated card. This lace is cream to start with, so I dyed it red using Distress Stains…

Add some stalks for the text flowers….

Position the rosette flowers, and finish by flicking the whole card with gold paint. I use a toothbrush!

Lots and lots going on, but everything pulls together nicely to form a rustic card suitable for any occasion!

Ingredients

wooden flowers

twine

lace

gingham ribbon

tissue paper

My Minds Eye background papers

Pearls

Love Trish xxx

Calico Crafts - Purveyors of Fine Altered Art and Craft Supplies

I decided to alter one of the cool little houses and turn it in to an assemblage with a garden shed theme. And because garden sheds are outside all year, I focused on giving it a loved but weather worn look.

I started by applying a few paint techniques to it.  It needed a base coat first as I was unsure if the paint would happily adhere to such a smooth surface (the untreated house has a light shine to it). SO a base coat was put on.  You can use any kind of suitable base… even home decor undercoat… I gave mine a coat of acrylic medium; no idea why I chose that but it worked. then i gave it a coat of light green. I let it dry and then did the rest in sections. The first technique i applied to one part of the roof. I used weathered wood crackle glaze followed by white  and achieved the following look:

The next effect I did was on the other side of the roof and it requires a heatgun.  Apply the white paint and heat dry it with the a heatgun. But over heat it and let it really bubble up (without scorching).  Allow the area to get covered in these blisters then let the paint cool and get hard again (acrylic paint is quite elastic when warm). Once its dry and cold, roughly sand the blisters off.  It gives a good weather worn look.

I also did the Vaseline (petroleum jelly) technique. Smear random blobs of Vaseline over the green paint then apply the white top coat. when the paint has dried, wipe away the Vaseline to show the green underneath. You can see that effect in the next photo.

Once i had all my “effects” done, i began to decorate it. I used sequin waste ( I think it can also be called punchanella ?) I laid the sequin waste on to the little house and dabbed over it with various Versamagic Chalk inks. I chose bright citrus like colours mostly, as well as a nice dark mossy green. After dabbing through the sequin waste to create spots, i flipped it over and utilised the excess ink on the sequin wastes reverse side. It gives a nice honeycomb effect. Both effects can be seen in the photo above.

I used the same chalk inks to colour some wooden shapes and attached them to my little garden shed.

All I had left to do was fill it up……. I used moss, drift wood, rusty items and decorated a wooden heart in the same colours as the house, to dangle from the branches.  I filled little bottles and used some ephemera to create my little garden shed assemblage.

Note, versamagic chalk ink will smudge if you do not let it dry before touching. It will dry in a short time, but can also be heat set using a heat gun.

Supplies used from Calico crafts:

Chipboard House display unit. HERE

DecoArt Americana paint: ‘foliage green’ and ‘white wash’. HERE

Weathered wood Crackle medium HERE

Versamagic chalk inks: HERE (I used  ‘turquoise gem’ ‘gingerbread’ ‘pumpkin spice’ ‘key lime’ ‘Spanish olive’ ‘mango madness’)

wooden rabbits and little wooden flower HERE

wooden  bird on branch HERE

wooden tree HERE

drift wood HERE

moss HERE

rusty shapes and wire HERE

little bottles HERE

wooden heart HERE

Ephemera HERE

Calico Crafts - Purveyors of Fine Altered Art and Craft Supplies

I turned one of the little white muslin bunnies in to a rustic, rusty fairy princess. It all started with a rusty tin and a bottle of white vinegar….

The tin has to be rusty to start with or you must pop a few rusty nails etc in to encourage the growth of rust in the vinegar. the longer you leave everything in there, the richer the colour you will get.  I wasn’t very patient (I never am) so managed to leave it in there for 6 or 7 hours at the most. I am ashamed of myself. no self restraint. had I managed to leave it for a couple of days  i expect the results would have been richer…

well I didnt so here is how I made her despite under rusting.

I rusted some white linen from a very old table cloth, some strips of lace, the bunny and a lovely crown. once they were out of the vinegar, I rinsed thoroughly and let them dry and pressed them with the iron.

I decorated the linen by stamping stars on it, then turned it in to a little dress  adding the lace and sewing on the little heart buttons (they are sewn on very loosely so the wiggle about when you move the bunny…).

I also made her an underskirt from hessian (burlap) with a linen band along the bottom, stamped with hearts. this helps keep her dress puffed up nicely. I glued on little rusty stars on the hemline too.

I glued the crown to her head, sewed some little rusty bells to her feet and attached a rusty star to her hand…the finishing touch was to attach two large rusty stars to her back to make her rust fairy wings.

Supplies used from Calico Crafts:

Muslin Bunny HERE

lace  HERE

rusty jingle bells    HERE

rusty hearts and stars    HERE

crown  HERE

star stamps from the 7 gypsies Lille set HERE

primitive heart buttons   HERE

elastic  HERE

hessian (burlap)   HERE

Calico Crafts - Purveyors of Fine Altered Art and Craft Supplies

This little matchbox shrine is made from two matchboxes and holds an assortment of little ‘treasures’

I started by sticking two of the large matchboxes together then carefully opened one of the long edges so the top opens and the little drawer opens at the side  I used mod podge to stick the paper to the box with a top coat for protection  I added the mini lock, the drawer pull fastener and the brass clock face (with a brad) before sticking the inside papers

To decorate I  used a selection of rub-ons and german scraps a little mask and a piece of the fabric tape

The little drawer holds a mini book made from scrapbook paper from My Minds Eye

The treasures include a clock and spinner a dagger charm  two filled glass bottles and a fragment doll ‘dressed’ in a scrap of tissue from the 7 gypsiesbird tissue sheet and a piece of fabric tape.  I’ve a long list of what I’ve used  for reference but the shrine can be used to store your own treasures

products used:-

Large matchboxes Here

Music sheet  Here

Scrapbook paper Here

Mod podge  Here

Book paper  Here

Ruler ribbon  Here

Clock face  Here

7 gypsies rubbings  Here

Fractured doll  Here

Corked vials Here

lock  Here

Time piece  Here

Game spinner Here

Filigree mask  Here

Steampunk dagger  Here

Calico Crafts - Purveyors of Fine Altered Art and Craft Supplies