Flowers for a friend

A friend is leaving work tomorrow and I wanted to make something special as a parting gift. I love to give and receive flowers but, sadly, they don't last very long so I decided to make some that would last! I saw this idea on the Calico Crafts blog (made by Trish) and decided to try my own version. I bought the cardboard suitcase from The Artistic Stamper a couple of months ago and had been looking for a suitable idea for using it.

I painted the suitcase with cream acrylic paint to give it a base and painted the straps and handle with brown acrylic paint. I added Black Soot distress ink to the brown straps to age them and also rubbed small amounts of gold ink (from a gold mark pen) to add more depth. The suitcase was distressed and aged using Frayed Burlap and Scattered Straw. I kept adding colour until I was happy with the result. I used a sanding block to distress the edges of the case.

I used papers from my stash for the flowers and cut flower shapes in various sizes and styles using my Cricut machine. I distressed them using a mixture of inks to add muted colour. a faux pearl in the centre of each flower completed the look. The stalks were made using bamboo skewers and the flowers were glued to them using a hot glue gun. I cut the stalks into various lengths so that the flowers would be of different heights when glued into the case. I used a hot glue gun to glue the flowers into place. - you will need to hold them in place for a few minutes whilst the glue dries and hardens. To hide the glue at the bottom of the case I added thin strips of coiled paper which also finished the piece nicely.

Everlasting flowers...a pretty gift.

Electric Card!

Have been off work for a few days with a stinking cold and feeling sorry for myself! Feeling a little better today and thought that I had better 'get to' and make my son Elliot's birthday card - his 14th birthday is tomorrow! (I do work better under pressure!)

He enjoys playing the electric guitar and has a red one that is almost the same as the one on the card. I printed the picture onto card, sprayed it with shine varnish and added a black strap made of card. The piece of music ribbon was from my stash - I knew that I had kept it for a reason!
I am really pleased with the end result. I hope that he likes it.

I used Art parts large leaf spray from the Leaves collection which I coloured using a mixture of Tim Holtz Distress inks (I love these ink pads!) inBundled Sage, Pine Needles and Forest Moss to give depth to the colouring. I mounted this onto a plain wooden cotton reel, distressed with Vintage Photo and Black Soot. Around the edges of the cotton reel I smeared small amounts gold ink just to give it a lift. The butterflies were stamped using a free stamp from Craft Stamper magazine and coloured using Spiced Marmalade, Scattered Straw and Vintage photo. I used a water brush to add the colour as a wash. The butterflies were mounted into coiled wire. I stained the wire using Adirondack alcohol ink in Rust to give it an aged look as I only had gold coloured wire in my stash.
The phrase is taken from 'Thoughtful Sentiments' stamps by Creative Expressions, stamped onto white card and aged using Scattered Straw and Spice Marmalade.
I do hope you like it..my first attempt at Altered Art.
I will be entering this for the Artistic Stamper October challenge -Natural World and The Stamp Man fortnightly Challenge, Butterflies, Bees and Birds.

Welcome to my space

Hi, my name is Gini and I love to craft. I also love to share crafty ideas with friends. I hope you will enjoy taking a peek inside my craft room.