It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

After being sick for over a week, I finally felt well enough to go back in my craft room.  This little box has been sitting around for some time now.

The plexi glass top slides off so you can get to the insides.  

I started by pulling out some Christmas bits to see what spoke to me.  I ended up going with a pink theme, rather than traditional reds and greens.  With my major inside pieces picked out I grabbed my paints.

A very light wash of pink went on the entire box.  I started very light and went back in to make it a stronger paint finish, not just a wash.  Once I had the entire piece painted I went back and flecked the box with the off white.  I also used Tim Holtz's distress paints in Brushed Pewter and Tarnished Brass.  

Now it was time to layer up the inside.  I pulled pages out of an old dictionary and glued them down with Matte Gel.

Once they were glued down and dry I did a wash of the off white paint just so the words weren't so prominent.  

Flecked the paint inside too.  

Now to make it pretty.  I just love bottle brush trees and plastic ballerina cake toppers.  

I dyed the trees pink using Distress Stains in Pickled Raspberry and Worn Lipstick.  I watered the stain down a bit and then just dipped the trees in until they were a color I liked.  Then I got out my mercury glass beads and pearls to decorate.  

The ballerinas are cute, but I wanted them to be a bit fancy for the shadowbox.  I grabbed my sari silk and dyed that to match the pastel colors.  

Worn lipstick and antique linen made the pink silk.  Broken China and a touch of Peacock Feathers made the blue.  I just wet the silk using my spritzer and ran it through the colors that I had smudged on the craft sheet.  I dried them with my heat gun. 

Fancy party dresses.  

Now I just had to put everything in the box.  

I had some of these vintage houses that used to be part of a light set.  I put some mica snow on the roof and the base.  The ballerinas got glittery crowns and shoes.  The background also got some Christmas remnant rubs.  I just tossed them in there randomly.  Once I was done I realized I made it too fat for the plexi glass top to slide back in! Now I have a piece of plexi glass for another project.  

I added one more ballerina to balance things out. 

 I got the Merry Christmas tag in the dollar bin at Michael's.  The star pin is jammed into the wood and holding up the tag.  

I think this will make a lovely addition to my Christmas decor.  I can't wait to pull it all out.

Have you been by The Robin's Nest? They have a great store and fun blog too.  Great tutorials.  

What have you been crafting?

Jess

Linking to:

Simon Says Stamp A Walk Down Memory Lane

Inspiration Emporium Happy Holidays

Halloween bling swap

I recently participated in a Halloween swap hosted by Jennifer Hayslip and Jessi Nagy.  The theme was Ghouls, Ghost, and Glamour Girls.  I was partnered up with the lovely Lori.  She has an Etsy site you must check out.  Here is what I sent to Lori.

A rusty coffin served as the packaging.  

Once again I used my ten second studios patina paint to rust it up.  

Here is the necklace I sent her.  I love the pink, it is such an unexpected Halloween color.  There is a vintage chandelier crystal and some silk sari ribbon for the bow.  

Here is what Lori sent me.

So stunning! I love this necklace so much.  I have already worn it several times.

What have you been crafting?

Jess

Dia de los Muertos

I took a class a couple weeks ago and made this Day of the Dead doll.

She totally rocks and I have been working on a bunch more.  After I made her I was inspired to make my Tim Holtz October Tag  and came up with this...

I followed what Tim did pretty closely.  The background used Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers, and Pickled Raspberry Distress Spray.  I also used some Perfect Pearls Mist to give it a bit of shimmer.  

She has some colorful forget me nots in her hand.

She has glossy accents on her hat to make it pop.  I couldn't get the camera to really catch the shine.  

The letters were painted with several different distress paints.

A little monocle with a remnant rub and another flower. 

There you have it.  This was really fun to make.  The image is from Invoke Arts.  

Other challenges I am linking to:

Artist trading Post

Try it on Tuesday-Spooky Challenge

Craft Hoarders Anonymous- Happy Fall Y'all

Rhedd's Creative Spirit Halloween or not

A Vintage Journey- Halloween to Die for

What have you been crafting?

Jess

Altered Worn Cover

Have you seen Tim Holtz's Worn Covers? They come in a bunch of styles and a couple sizes. They are great for mini scrapbooks or just to hold little projects you have made.  I have a couple that I use to store my completed tags.
The covers look great the way they are, but I decided to dress one up.
This is the current challenge happening over on Linda Ledbetter's blog.  As always, I can't tell you exactly what I did but I can show you lots of pictures.  If you want to make your own Worn Cover you can still pick up your own copy of The Compendium of Curiosities III.  This challenge is being sponsored by the lovely Inspiration Emporium.

I love these flowers I made using the tattered floral die.  The washi tape adds an extra pop.  There are some vintage millinery stems in there and some funky green fiber stuff I thought looked like leaves.

This little lady is on an altered playing card.  

Industrious stickers, remnant rubs, tissue wrap, and stencils can all be seen here. 

I love this charm.  

You can see all the ribbon exploding out of the top from all of my tags stored inside.  The ring clip is held in by dyed seam ribbon.  

This is the back cover.  

Close up so you can see some of the detail work.  

There you have it.  My take on a worn cover.

I am also entering this into The Mixed Media Monthly Ribbon Challenge

What have you been crafting?

Jess

Halloween shadow box

We've had a couple days that were under 100 degrees here so Fall must be coming!  Time to start working on Halloween goodies.
I have had this box kicking around for some time.  I knew when I got it I wanted to alter it, but I was saving it for just the right project.

I started by painting the box with a very light coat of black paint.  Once that was dry I painted it with my Ten Second Sudios patina paint to make it look rusty.  Once the rust was dry I put on a coat of Crackle Distress Paint.  The crackle flaked off on parts, but I think it works perfectly with this project.

I added bits and bobs until I came up with this...

Creepy, right?!

I have a box of these little birdcages that I found at Goodwill.  The bird is white and the gold is nice and shiny.  A little black paint took care of that.  Now I had my raven.  

Next came Charlotte.  I have a couple of these giant Charlottes that a great friend gave me.  I haven't used one before this project.  I added a Remnant Rub spider to her shoulder.  

A skull in a corked dome. Evidence number 73362.  

The skeleton image was spritzed, crumpled, dried, and inked before being used in the back.  I stamped "nevermore" down the side.

A rusty finial and a painted bingo number complete the top.

The bingo part was red so I had to paint it.   You can still see some red peeping out.  I think it adds to the creepy factor.  

Check out that rusty, chippy, cracked paint.  Awesome.  

There you have it.  

Don't get too scared. 

What have you been crafting?

I am entering this project into a couple challenges.

Frilly and Funkie Haunting Halloween Challenge

Vintage Journey Heavy Metal Challenge

Our Creative Corner GO Rustic Challenge

Craft Hoarders Anonymous Happy Fall Y'all

SImon Says Stamp Falling in love with Fall

Rhedd's Creative Spirit- October-challengehalloween-or-not

Jess

Meet Hazel- Compendium of Curiosities Photo Tinting Challenge

She's a lovely witch isn't she? 

This is just a tiny wall hanging I made using a beer coaster.  The photo is tinted according the the technique you can find in the Compendium of Curiosities III.  

An industrious sticker frame surrounds her. A vial label and remnant rub gave her her name.  An itsy bitsy spider crawls down the side to add a dash of Halloween creep.  Crinkle ribbon was died to match her pumpkin.  

This challenge is sponsored by The Funkie Junkie.  If you haven't ordered from Linda you must run to her site.  She is so prompt AND she sells at 20% off MSRP!  

As always you need to stop by to see all the other creations on the lovely Linda Ledbetter's site.  She does this challenge just because she and the Curiosity Crew love to create.  

In addition to the CC3 challenge Hazel will go in the finishing touch challenge on the Simon Says Stamp blog,  the Mixed Media Monthly Ribbon Challenge.,  Frilly and Funkies Halloween Challenge, and Rhedd's Creative Spirit- October Challenge

What have you been crafting?

Jess