Topsy Turvy blooms

Evening everyone, I'm sharing a fairly quick to make project over on the PaperAtsy blog tonight where the current challenge is all about white space and here's a sneaky peek...

Thanks as always for stopping by. Ruth x

From Trash to Treasure at Stamps and Stencils

Hi everyone, welcome to our next challenge over at Stamps and Stencils. It's the turn of the very talented Autumn to host and here in her own words is the new theme.

 Don't we all love a good upcycled project?  This month we'd love to see how you take something that you'd normally discard and give it new life in your art.  Whether it's glamorized boxes, Styrofoam turned into a stamp, packaging that's been die cut, or another altered idea you have.  Bring on your best mixed media repurposing!  We can't wait to see what you come up!  Don't forget to use stamps or stencils in your project.

Some of you may remember me altering some tiny tins in the past, the first had a sewing theme and the second had a flower and butterfly theme. Towards the end of last year I was lucky enough to find another tin and I have been wanting to alter it in a Steampunk style ever since but never quite got around to it...until now. What a perfect opportunity to turn trash into treasure and at the same time complete my trio of tiny tins.

I've explained how I've prepared the tins in my previous posts but just wanted to show you their size.

The ingredients.

I used distress and archival inks to create the inserts. Some tissue tape and vintage photo distress embossing powder created the card band for the outside.

Crunchy wax Kraft paper was put through an embossing folder and then I used treasure gold to create a patina.

Then it was just a case of layering up inked, gilded and rusted embellishments until I was happy. The insides.

Quite a few layers in the base.

A side view

and finally with the lid back on hiding it's contents.

To finish I thought I'd share the trio with you. A reflection of some of my favourite subjects all with a vintage flavour.

As it is a Steampunk tin I'm also going to take the opportunity to join in with SanDee&amelie's Steampunk April challenge. 'Anything Goes' - Steampunk/Industrial

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to hop across to see what the rest of the talented design team have created to inspire you. Can't wait to see what you'll turn into treasure!

Junk Journal part 2.

Hi, hope you're all enjoying a crafty weekend. Following on from the previous post I'm back to share the rest of my junk journal pages and a few more details. Warning! Photo heavy and you may need refreshments for the journey.

Inside the back cover

Thought I'd start off with sharing the tags from the journal. Whilst I did use manilla and kraft tags as well, below were all either die cut, altered tags or pieces of card cut to fit the pocket but with the addition of a file tab and some chit chat stickers.

The aqua tags below are cut from a piece of watercolour card stock which I'd used to press flowers (think it was  a technique in Craft Stamper yonks ago...can't even remember how I did it now) I do remember using some distress ink to add some colour and that was as far as I got.

Partly painted kraft card and crunchy wax paper strips, Graphic 45 papers, embossed paper and the feather card turned into a tag with a little tab.

The tabs on the side and if you look at the very bottom tab, it's made from the off cuts from using an envelope thumb notch punch.

As well as stitched card pockets I altered small money envelopes.

More pockets

I enjoyed incorporating short or narrow pieces of card as a page, giving a hint of whats coming.

A scrap of canvas makes an ideal pocket for some mini tags.

A vellum pocket

A vellum envelope

Tabs were also used to create detail inside.

Incorporating an altered slide frame.

I used strips of  card as another way of holding a tag in place, either glued or stapled.

The background on this page is a piece of cotton stained with wax and rust patches....results of a previous experiment.....or maybe it was an accident!

On these pages I used lace as a tag holder.

Using book text can break up blocks of strong colour and very useful at the edge if the adjoining page is a short one as the text is neutral and will compliment the page.

A trimmed down index card above and the other side of it below trimmed with cotton tape. The gelli print background just seemed perfect for some more K&Co.

Overlapping several elements and connecting them gives cohesion and grounds them on the page.....nearly there now.

Last but not least another bistre page. These were A4 sheets of cartridge paper cut in half and then turned around to create some white space in the middle.

And breathe....congratulations you've finished the journey!

Well there may have only been a couple of posts from me recently but I've hopefully made your visit worth while this time. Thanks so much for stopping by and hope to see you soon. Ruth x