Well, I impressed even myself last night! I am in a a swap in one of my Facebook groups called a Circle Banner swap. It sounded really fun so I joined. This is the video that was our inspiration for the swap.

Circle Banner Swap

At any rate, the first two flags that I had to make were supposed to be mailed out by Monday, but with my busy week and our camping trip this weekend I didn't think I was going to make the mail out deadline. However, I decided to go down to my craft room and at least get them started. But what do you know? In an hour I had finished them! Pretty happy with them too. So I went from thinking I would be late mailing them out to being able to send them early! Check out what I did.

The second one still looks a bit too much like a pencil for my liking, but I am still pretty stoked that I banged them out in an hour! Of course it helped that I had one of the Ephemera kits that I purchased from Treasured Memories (check out their link I have below). That is where the elephant and much of the bling came from.

So once I get the flags from my partner and complete them I will post more pictures. In the meantime, stay crafty my peeps! 

I finally got the chance to finish off the last swap I had started - my I am a Nut for Julie Nutting Doll/Tag swap. I had the same partner for this one as for the Triathlon swap so wanted to get them done to mail out together. I am pretty happy with how these came out.

I decided I wanted to give her two different types of dolls - I wanted to do one with paper piecing and then the other one I wanted to colour with my Copics. I decided to do the card as the paper piecing one and I was even able to do a little matching dog to go with it. The first step was to do the doll/dog.

Then I had to put the card together. My card ended up a bit bigger than the envelope that was supposed to go with it, so I ended up finding a bigger envelope and then just decorating it to match the card. I hope my partner is happy with it!

Then I finished off the tag for this swap. I used some texture on a basic tag and added some of the Finnabair Art Alchemy paints to give it some shimmer. I then coloured the Aubrey Julie Nutting doll and added some sparkle in a few places to make it pop. I added embellishments and flowers to finish off the tag. Here are some close ups as well as the whole finished tag.

I was able to get everything in the mail yesterday - which was the mail out deadline! Pretty proud of myself.

Now I have a few more swaps to start and my top hat to finish! So till next time, stay crafty my peeps!!

Got more work done on my Steampunk Top hat that I have been working on. It still has a way to go, but I am pretty happy with it so far!

So to start off, I thought I would share where I got the inspiration for the project. I knew I wanted to do the hat in a steampunk style, but as soon as I saw this on Pinterest, I KNEW this is what I wanted to do with it.

It was done by a wonderful artist named Riikka Kovasin and her blog is called Paperiliitin. She does absolutely PHENOMENAL work and as soon as I saw this picture I had my inspiration for my project.

This is how the top hat started out - just a paper mache top hat.

So the first step was to paint the top hat - I used black gesso so it had a bit of texture

Then I added more texture - I thought I was using Black Lava so that when dried it would be dark. But low and behold, I used Black Sand! Hence why it was still white in the morning when it dried.

This was an easy fix though - just sprayed it with some Black Marabou spray and I got the look I wanted after all!!

Next step was to add some colour - as per my inspiration guru Riikka, I used the Finnabair Impastoo paint (Azure) for the blue and then the Finnabair wax in Rich Copper for the colours on the hat.

And then I had to place were I was going to put the pop can tops - I had originally thought to put them all over the top, but I didn't want to hide all the texture, so was more strategic in my placement - LOL! :)

Then my final step I worked on this weekend was to do the hat band. I had some bathroom tiles that I got from another class and I used those, along with some bling I found at Michaels.

So this is what I have done on the hat so far. I hope to do more work on it this week, so till next time, stay crafty my peeps!

I got spoiled this week - and I haven't even had a chance to open all my packages yet! I got one of my swaps from my partner Gena and she did awesome. This is the Umbrella she made for me, along with all the fun goodies she sent!

And she knows me so well - she got me a MOOSE MOUSE PAD!!! So FAB!!!

Going to the mail today I got more goodies, so I will post about them when I get a chance to open them! Till then, stay crafty my peeps!

PAINT NIGHT!

So my weekend started off pretty crafty! The library organized another paint night with the fab Mary from Messy Joys and Arts. And we had an AMAZING turnout for it being summer - we had 18 people!! This class was a bit more challenging, but in the end I really love what I ended up painting.

Look at all these eager learners!!

So we started off with an orange background. Was interesting for sure!

Had trouble with the sky but I think it is coming along. Was a bit more stressful than some classes, but as usual I did learn some neat stuff

And here is the finished painting. I can't believe how realistic my shadow looks! Go me!!! And of course thanks to Mary for helping me draw my sailboat! LOL

So I got more crafting done on the weekend so will post more pics later. Till next time, stay crafty my peeps!

I FINALLY got the rest of what I wanted to do for the Umbrella Swap finished! Even though I followed the tutorial instructions for the umbrella, I must have done something wrong as I really was not able to stuff it as I saw the other do. So instead, I made my partner a funky box to put all the extras in. It helped that I needed to use it in the process video I wanted to make for my design team swap. Here is the finished project!

Getting it in the mail after work, so I hope she likes it! Till next time, stay crafty my peeps!

SAIL AWAY DESIGN TEAM PROJECT

Happy August Everyone! This is my Design Team Project for Mixed Media Mojo Challenges. I used some texture pastes and the new Finnabair Patina Effect Pastes to alter a picture frame. I am also going to be teaching this as a class at the 3rd Annual Craft N'Scrap crop in Grimshaw in October. I will be doing a process video later for my designated design team post for the month, but in the meantime here is a photo of the pastes I used, as well as pictures of the finished frame.

I am hoping the croppers like it - and everyone following the Challenge group too! Till next time, stay crafty my peeps!