Guest Designing for Noor!

My turn to be Guest Designer again at Noor! today. I made a vintage Christmas decoration and above is a sneak peek - you can see my full post here.

Katy x

These are the Noor! Design products I used for my make:

Tough Textures Paper Pad	MDF Essentials Ovals	0459-Cutting & Embossing Flower Frame Die (4pcs)	8 Point Die 6002/0358
2055-Old Dutch Skates Die	012-Craft Art A5 Christmas

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I Love Halloween!

It's true - I do :). Today I am sharing a little something made from Graphic45 papers and an arched frame kit from Tando Creative. It's currently sitting on my mantelpiece ready for the 31st.

There's not a whole lot to say about this piece - it's just lots and lots of layers of papers and fussy-cut elements forming a spooky collage. The papers are a mix of the Steampunk Spells and Rare Oddities collections.

Although it's simple I do like the impact of all those patterned paper elements - I was going for a look suggestive of a spooky apothecary's library so hopefully I achieved that.

I am entering this for the following challenges:

That's Crafty Haunted Halloween Challenge

Our Creative Corner - Halloween Horror

Simon Says Stamp - Monster Mash

That Craft Place - Halloween

Mixed Media Monthly - Halloween Wordsearch (words bat and skull - and probably a few others!)

Thanks for stopping by - and Happy Halloween!

Katy x

Guest Designing for Noor! Design

I am delighted to have been asked to guest design for Noor! Design UK this month. I was sent some lovely goodies and I started out with some seasonal makes with the Let It Snow Paper Pad.

Details of the card are on this post and details of the scrapbook page can be found here.

Below are links to all the lovely Noor! goodies I used in my creations.

Katy x

0708-Let it Snow Paper Pad

Cardboard Art A5 Hats and Gloves

Distress Inks

0085-Rustic Wood Paper Pad

Circle with Flower Die

0051-Vintage Flourish Snowflake

Wish Canvas for Rubber Dance

Here's a sneak peek for you of my tiny canvas - the full tutorial can be found over on the Rubber Dance blog today.

I used a range of media including ColourArte Silks and Gelatos, and of course Rubber Dance stamps including my Affirmations set.

Readers of my blog can use code katy15 on the Rubber Dance website to get 15% of your entire order!

See you soon,

Katy x

Affirmations set, designed by moi!

Bird on the Block

Today I am sharing a wee little Christmas decoration with a vintage feel. I love the vintage look at Christmas!

I used Rubber Dance stamps (of course) for this creation - including one of my own sets called Christmas Cheer and Tags.

If you'd like to make this little birdie he's available as a kit from my etsy shop for just £5 plus P&P.

Katy xxx

I used these Rubber Dance stamps:

Christmas Cheer

Cozy Christmas

ColourArte Sneak Peek!

My turn over at the ColourArte blog today - here's a sneaky peek of my creation. We are creating for Breast Cancer Awareness this month, hence the pink!

K x

Spooky Spells

I LOVE Halloween but I haven't had a lot of time for Halloween makes this year. I have however found the time somehow to make this fun altered book box for the DecoArt Haunts Challenge!

Now, seeing as the judge is Mr Andy Skinner I obviously won't be in line to win! But still, having joined the fantabulous Helping Artist Programme at DecoArt, I wanted to take some time to experiment more with the DecoArt range of products and this seemed like an ideal opportunity for a good old play.

The box is covered with lightly scrunched tissue paper to give it a creased leathery look then coated with DecoArt Media Black Gesso - ONE coat my friends - this product is awesomeness in a pot. I then added some stringy fabric I got in the Halloween section at Wilko's and added more gesso over the top. I followed that with a light smearing of DecoArt Metallic Lustre in Silver Spark then Champagne Ice to bring out the textures of the tissue and string. The webs are die cut (Tim Holtz for Sizzix) in white card and given a wash of Payne's Grey paint from the Media line. I blended the edges of the webs into the background with more black gesso before highlighting some areas again with the Metallic Lustre in Silver Spark. My spiders are plastic kiddies ones given a coat of black gesso then a touch of Quin Gold Media paint.

Behind the aperture I added some book page covered in strips of mummy's bandage! The bandage is created with torn pieces of calico dyed with Distress Sprays in Antique Linen, Hickory Smoke and Tea Dye, then glued down in rows onto the book page. I love this!!!

My MDF skull (The MDF Man - he does the NEC show amongst others) is painted with white gesso to undercoat it before I slapped on a great load of DecoArt Media Crackle Paste with a palette knife. I varied the thickness to get an uneven crackle - the thicker paste gives bigger cracks. Cool or what? Only thing I don't like about this crackle is I need patience with it (patience I do not have in spades!) as this took a good 8 hours to dry properly (it was VERY thick). Worth it though, heh? When dry I covered the whole thing with DecoArt Antiquing Cream in grey. I didn't actually let it dry as per the instructions because I wanted the skull to have plenty of white remaining, so I wiped it straight back with a baby wipe so mostly it was left in the cracks. I then added black Antiquing Cream around the edges and under the eye sockets - again I didn't let it fully dry before removing the excess as I didn't want it too dark (I also didn't want to scrub too hard at the crackle as it can come off if you are very heavy-handed).

Finally (did you get this far? Well done!!!) I did some faux metal effects on this die cut bookplate and also on the metal corners and keyplate. This is black gesso, then DecoArt Sand Texture Paste, then DecoArt Metallic Gold paint, then more black gesso then Quin Gold - the latter two just applied in places with my finger. On the metal items, I used Metallic Lustre instead, adding it last after the Quin Gold rather than before. The brads are bashed with a hammer and then brushed with black gesso. Hard to see here but the insert in the bookplate is also distressed with Distress Sprays - same colours as used for the bandages.

Phew! Sorry that might be information overload!!

Thanks for visiting today! And if you want to learn more about DecoArt stuff I have just started out doing workshops in Bromsgrove (England) - info on my Facebook page.

Katy x