The Best of Friends!

Welcome to the weekend,
I'm so pleased it's here, yay! No alarm this morning and a scheduled blog post so I can relax after a hectic week.
Today I'm sharing a special gift and card I made for my best friend of over 30 years who celebrated her 60th Birthday last Sunday.
We met as next door neighbours around 35 years ago and have been friends ever since.
Our children grew up together and we've all been on some super holidays.
Shared lots of laughter and some tears along the way, we're like peas in a pod with our likes and dislikes and still enjoy our lunch dates as much as ever.
The distance between us now Kent to Hamphire doesn't keep us apart and we've faced life's up's and down's the best of mates together.
So I knew I wanted to make an extra special keepsake and after much deliberation this is what I came up with.
A Candy Box Crafts Notelet Box which of course can be any kind of keepsake or trinket box and a matching theme card.
I also used another of my favourite products, Americana Decor Chalky Finish Paints.
An idea based around the photo and on all things we love, vintage and feminine.
The photo was taken when we were on a weekend away together celebrating my 50th.
I had the little brass teacup and saucer, kettle and teapot charms in my stash and the oversized bottle top made the perfect tea tray for the card.
Happy days and Very Happy Friends!
Thank you for joining my reminiscing today,
Love and crafty hugs xKx

Getting Folky!

Morning,
Hope you all enjoyed the weekend, did you do anything nice?...
On Saturday I did a few chores and decided to bake a Mary Berry Victoria Sponge for our crafty session yesterday.
It seemed to be a success as the tin is now empty!
I do love GBBO!
Anyhow we had a super Sunday all inspired by the lovely ladies over at Folk It and for my involvement with Déco Art Helping Artist, which was quite appropriate as we have invited new members to the group recently and yesterday a young new member and her mum who are very keen to come along and join in again next time.
That's what it's all about a mixed ability group of all ages, getting together, having fun and enjoying crafting.
So with the help of my other half Paul, whom I couldn't do this without and I thank enormously for always supporting me in every way, we got set up for the day in our bright, all mod cons hall.
I bring along and set up a "mobile shop" we all love to add to our crafty stash!
The early birds are already tempted!

As a bit of a Thank You and a gift I supplied the crafter's with a plain journal book and some black and Kraft card to practise their "Folk Art" and use as a class book for jotting down hints and tips shared on the day.

After a catch up and a coffee to get us started it was down to crafty business before lunch and cake and finishing off in the afternoon.

I was so impressed by all the wonderful results, I know it was really out of the comfort zone for some but hey here's a glimpse of some of the results and works in progress.
We all loved Dotting!
Thank you all for a wonderful day and creating such stunning home decor pieces.

 

Below is my demo sample MDF box which uses Americana chalky finish paint in Timeless and Relic for my base coat.

I sponged Relic on then used the scourer to distress with Timeless.

Americana acrylic colours used, Tomato Red, Warm White, Baby Blue and Hauser Light Green.

The Tall Gift Box is from Candy Box Crafts

 

Further projects and ideas

We practised techniques for our Folk Art Journals

and used a whole host of DecoArt products...

Our next session on September 13th is Altered CD's.

October is our Christmas project 

November and December are brand new projects...

We've started our project list for next year which will include by request

Triple Beach Huts and revisiting Tarmac!...

Have a good Monday, I'm off to make a start on a new project! 

Love and Hugs xKx

Creating Masterboards

Afternoon all,
A midweek blog post with another of my samples from last weekend's demo day, showing how to create a Masterboard.
What's a Masterboard?
Quite simply creating your own background papers to use however you choose.
We have had great fun at the workshops and demo's using them to decorate MDF projects, like the Brusho Box.
For this one I used the lush Dylusions Paints and Kaisercraft clear stamps.

I'll be back with what's in store for this Masterboard in a later blog post.

Have a good afternoon.

Crafty Hugs xKx

 

 

Cath Kidston style jewellery/sewing box

Morning all,

Hope you're all doing well so far this week and had a good weekend.

I'm chasing my tail this week with lots to fit in! Lol
So on my list today is to share a project I demoed on Saturday at Colemans Craft Warehouse using products from Jones Crafts.

I was using items from Candy Box and Kaisercraft.
One of my demo pieces was showing how to decorate the Candy Box jewellery/sewing box or even use for crafty bits and bobs!
Among the papers I'd been given to work with were Kaisercraft, Secret Garden 12 x 12 which includes a sheet of gorgeous stickers for embellishing too.
After using chalky paint the papers can be selected and cut to size, they are all so lovely it's hard to choose which ones to use first!
Candy Box MDF kits are made so well and go together wonderfully, they're 3mm thickness so not too chunky but still very sturdy once assembled.
Feedback was super for this project and I look forward to sharing more makes, news and ideas from the day over the next few days.
I love Cath Kidston and I achieved the look I was hoping for with these products.
Hope you like it and feel inspired.
Thanks so much for popping by today.
Crafty Hugs xKx

 

A messy painty workshop full of fun and such laughter! Think I'll rename this workshop Fifty Shades! Lol

Welcome to Monday and the start of a fresh week.
I hope you enjoyed a lovely weekend, did you do anything nice?...

I started a new workshop yesterday and was so proud to introduce my lovely ladies to a super venue that fits the job just perfectly.
Despite horrendous journeys due to unforeseen traffic chaos caused by an accident and jams everyone arrived safely and definitely in need of a reviving cuppa before getting started.
It was super to welcome Laura and Anne to the group and see that they enjoyed themselves so much.

Part of the layering technique used torn book pages, well my goodness what a story unfolded there!
I had picked at random what looked like a nice romantic novel, ummmm lets just say that reading the snippets being glued on the work was hilarious!
They were supposed to be gluing randomly and not reading! Lol
These ladies made me blush like I haven't done in a long long while! Lol
It was hilarious.
We got more than we bargained for with this story, I might just as well of picked up a copy of Fifty Shades!
Haven't laughed so much in ages and that was before the "zip" jokes started...Jan! Lol

Anyhow we did get lots of work done and I was thrilled with the creativity and inspiration from everyone, all so talented.
We concentrated on painting and layering techniques using the lovely Candy Box Crafts Notelet Box.
Also using Decoart Americana Chalky paints, Pebeo Irridescent paints, Decoart modeling paste and doily stencil, Sizzix dies and all sorts of embellishments.
One project takes on a whole new look when everyone's creativity kicks in, it's wonderful to watch.

I'll leave you with pictures of the day and sneaky peeks of some of the projects.

Enjoy your craft and I hope you have a good week.

I'm taking the opportunity to catch up with friends.

Crafty Hugs xKx