Something from Nothing

Something from Nothing!

Hello again,from me in Shelagh-land. I was overseas for a spell earlier this year and set off with an extra suitcase filled with crafting goodies as I knew I would have some time to fill in. One afternoon I'd had my fill of cards etc so decided to go off on a tangent and make a pot for my brushes and pencils to sit on the desk. 

Cut a crisp carton in half and glue the lid to the open top so you now have two cylinders.

Stamp, heat emboss then blend Festive Berries, Worn Lipstick and Ripe Persimmon over a sheet of super smooth paper to wrap around each cylinder.

Stamp a number of flowers and butterflies, colour and cut them out, then use them to decorate the cylinders.

To hide the plastic lid rim, I ran a line of super sticky double sided tape around it then applied a sheet of gilding leaf. 

Stamp, heat emboss and ink another sheet for the base. To give it substance, I triple mounted it onto black, white the black card before attaching the cylinders to it. 

To finish, I stamped and inked another sheet to place inside the pots. 

Et voila! Something from nothing. 

Thanks again for your visit. I will be adding some other items I made whilst away over the next week or so, so please come and visit again soon. Meantime, happy summer crafting.

                                                            Best wishes,

                                                               Shelagh. 

                                                                   ;~}

Anything Goes Clarity Challenge July 2015

Clarity Challenge – Anything Goes

July 2015

Hats Off to Fascinators!

Hello once more from Shelagh-land. Where did June go - I blinked and missed it! This was probably due to travelling from one end of the country to the other visiting Mum and Mum-in-Law as Mike was, and is, back for a short break. July and August are going to be equally travel-intensive with a few trips lined up on the horizon.

As for this month's Clarity Challenge I knew months ago what I was going to do as it is garden party, racing, regatta, wedding season with lots of 'dressed up' events and what more topical than a fascinator -  I just did not have a clue of the 'how.' 

I brought back a couple of little hair decorations from Kuwait to use as bases but they proved difficult to adapt.

I fruitlessly searched charity shops, trawled major stores eventually finding my base on a reduced shelf of a well-known high street department store. The silk flower had seen better days and one of the beads was coming loose but that was of no consequence as it was to be stripped back to basic form anyway.
The colouring of the material threw up a few problems as an iron on Vilene stiffener showed, silk on its own was too flimsy and the starch spray made the black ink run. Solution - colour with alcohol inks first, starch, iron, stamp, iron again.
The rose done, now to put it all together.
Having tried and failed to get the right spider web ribbon shape as a base for the rose, I happened upon a brooch I'd removed from a jacket before it went into the wash. This was indeed a 'Eureka' moment!
Below I have written in detail how the project was achieved.
If the system allows me to add more photos, it will be done.

Materials:-

Stamps: - Filigraphy Petals Stamps

Inkpads: - Versacraft Real Black

Ranger Alcohol Ink: - Stream, Juniper, Lettuce, Meadow, Denim, Butterscotch, Sunshine Yellow

Spray starch

Reduced fascinator

Spider web ribbon, silk lining material:- all from craft stash

Instructions :-

1.       On a work-surface covered with plastic wrap then kitchen roll, I dripped a medley of alcohol inks onto a small piece of silk lining. (Mine was about 8ins x 6ins.)

2.       The material was then sprayed with starch and ironed between double sheets of kitchen roll.

3.       Using ‘Real Black’ Versacraft ink, I stamped the ‘Yin and Yang’ Filigraphy stamp as many times as possible onto the inked material. (I ironed the material on kitchen roll again to ensure the ink was dry.)

4.       The petals were cut out using a new pair of embroidery scissors to ensure a clean edge.

5.       I repeated 1-4 until I had enough petals – I think I cut out around 76.

The above photograph shows a number of trials I did before settling on my final method at (2).
1) and 1A) Coloured and stamped silk with the interfacing backing
3) Coloured silk petals/ leaves

To form the rose:-

6.       I cut a small circle approx. 3-4 cm from an inked remnant and using a low-melt glue gun, attached petals around the edge, slightly overlapping them and repeating with a second layer.

7.       More petals were folded and stitched to make the centre which was glued in place.

The fascinator:-

The original fascinator

1.       I stripped the original fascinator of all embellishments. I spent several days playing with the ribbon, trying to get the design to complement the rose but to no avail. All was salvaged however when I spied a brooch I'd taken from a jacket prior to washing it and hey presto! the design came together. 

The inspirational brooch!

2.       Grey spider web ribbon was folded and sewn into place on the straw (sinamay) base.

3.       The rose was attached to the side of the decorated base and various petals glued on fore and aft.

4.       Five faux feathers were stitched into the ‘web’ layers. These were made by sandwiching a piece of black florist’s wire between two petals.

 I used a few dots of Glossy Accents along both sides of the wire to attach the petals as this is almost invisible. A pair of diamante beads salvaged from the original fascinator were sewn on to each faux feather to create interest.

5.       To complete, more salvaged beads were sewn onto a few areas of the ‘web’ to add a bit of bling.

I designed the fascinator so it can be worn on either side, giving two different looks.

I hope you enjoyed reading this, as I thoroughly enjoyed the project. I have lots more photographs I wished to share but there seems to be an upload go-slow problem at the moment.

A variety of alcohol inks and of course the Clarity Filigraphy set are available from the Clarity website as well as the fantastic new Groovi plates I just had to play with (and used the results to decorate the box I made to house the fascinator.)

Very much looking forward to viewing your ingenious projects which reflect this month's Clarity Challenge brief  'Anything Goes.'
Thank you for your visit to my blog. Until next time - happy summer crafting!
Shelagh ;~}