Something a bit different........

There is a burgeoning Altered Art section over on the Docrafts forum, and varous challenges have been issued ... the latest from Nicks is to alter a frame. Well I have had a very simple frame for some time - in its previous life it was pink and silver and in my daighters bedroom - well we have moved on from the days of everything must be barbie pink to 'Shabby Chic' (clpothes are still all over the fllor though, but I digress...) and I've been hanging on to this thinking I might just do something with it. Last year I saw a project like this in Craft Stamper magazine and so Nicks' challenge spurred me on to dig out the article, check my stampboard stocks and have a go. This is what I've done..



The reason I didn't do this last year was the article actually stated they used 1.5" x 1.5" stampboard for the project - a size which does not appear to be actually manufactured. It would have fit perfectly on my frame at that size, but obviously that was not to be so the whole thing got put on the back burner. Having decided to go ahead, I needed to take stock of what sizes stampboard I had and design a sort of balanced random layout!! In the end I used 2 x 2s, 2 x 1s and stuck in a couple of other playing tiles I had for good measure cos I ran out of other stuff!! It's basically coloured up with dye inks, then stamped, sometim4es in layers. I started off using stazon for the 'black' bits but kept smudging, so went on to an archival ink which seemed to work better. To finish off, before I added the embellishments to the tiles I followed the suggestion in the article to coat it with beeswax. I have n ever done this before, I am not exactly sur how you are supposed to 'rub' hardwax on to a surface (in the end I used the heat gun!! and after I buffed it up I wasn't entirely sure I hadn't just rubbed it off again. However, it looks OK, I think it works, it's certainly the kind of thing that would catch my eye if I was looking for something. I am wondering whether to add some metal, or perhaps have some dangly charms to the bottom right.... will let that idea ferment for a while and see what I come up with lol.



Had some good news yesterday as a friend of mine had her first baby - yay, way to go Michelle!! At the time I got the text I was looking at a new challenge site called 'Tuesday Taggers'. As Tuesday is a day I am often around, and I'm starting to get in to tags, I thought it might be worth giving them some support - as the theme was 'New Beginning' it seemed appropriate to make a new baby tag. Until I realised I don't really have any baby stuff...... well, it's not too bad, but maybe I should look out for the odd teddy bear stamp or something, you never know when they'll come in useful lol.

Don't forget to enter the May giveaway if you haven't already done so - details on the side bar - just a few days left!!