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Welcome to Snazzys blog where we hope to offer you regular inspiration using all the latest products both in store and the new Snazzys Online version. Plus, previews of upcoming workshops, product previews and reviews, mini tutorials and so much more.

Wednesday 29 August 2012

Sew Much to Do Part 2

Hello again Snazzy stampers.

As promised, here is the lowdown on how I made the embellishments for the workshop projects in yesterday's post.

 
The dress form is cut from Grungeboard or heavy cardstock using the Tim Holtz Alterations Sewing Room die and painted black. You then need to cut just the dress part of the form in metal and emboss it using his Flourish Texture Fade or similar. This then gets a swipe or two of Eco Green Crafts Black, and either Orchid or Lake acrylic paint, left until partially dry, and wiped away again with a soft cloth to reveal some of the metal base - I left the blue version a little longer than I intended lol! 
 
 
I painted the scissors Studio 490 Art Part with Ranger's Silver Acrylic Paint Dabber and when dry, stamped it with the scissors from Studio 490's Art by Hand LCS068 plate with Ranger's Black Archival Ink, heat setting it to avoid smudges. It is one of these occasions when it is easier to ink the stamp,  leave it face up on the desk and then carefully press the Art Part onto the stamp. 
 
The cotton reels are a mix of the Sewing room and Mini Sewing Room dies cut in Grungeboard or heavy cardstock and covered in scraps of the paper with some threads and trimmings from my stash wound on.
 
 
The buttons were again die cut and covered in the same way with cotton tied through the holes - I hate to see buttons without threads in the centre, silly really lol!
 
Trimmings from my stash were added to the top edge of each frame, and finally here is another peek at both finished projects.
 
 
These were popular workshop projects at Snazzy's, very different to last week's, which is typical of the variety we offer on our regular Tuesday evening dip into mixed media. I hope if this inspires you to give it a go you will share the results with us - I love to see what eveyone else is making! 
 
We are off to Manchester Central for the Creative Crafts Show this week so if you are going, do pop along to Stand C12 to say hello, and see these projects and many others IRL.
 
Take care xx
 
 
 
 
 
 

Tuesday 28 August 2012

Sew Much To Do with Chapel Road Artstamps

Hello again Snazzy stampers!

Both this week's workshop projects featured Chapel Road Artstamps new Sew Much To Do stamp sheet..........


............... and the Tim Holtz Alteration's Sewing Room and Mini Sewing Room dies with
his On the Edge Pennants and his Riveted Metal and Flourish Texture Fades, some Ideaology Grungeboard, Studio 490 Art Part scissors and matching stamp, some Studio Sticky Back Canvas stamped with some Hero Arts label stamps (CL398), some scraps of lace, embroidery thread, trimmings and Ric Rac from my stash, and some Eco Green Crafts paints in Lake and Orchid and WOW embossing powders in Vanilla White, Olive and Burgundy.

That seems a really long list of materials doesn't it but, I bet you all have similar products in your stash that could be adapted to this type of project, and I did make two versions!

 
The original workshop 'for instance' I made using Carta Bella's Beautiful Moments papers on a Orchid base, yes I know, pink - so not me!
 
 
I then recovered myself and made a second version with a Lake base to co-ordinate with Authentique's Loyal papers.
 

Both paper ranges are double sided so, to create the faux patchwork effect for the frame insert, I only needed a scrap of 7cm x 11cm of three papers to get six different designs to play with. I then embossed each piece with the same Riveted Metal Texture Fade I used for last week's Steampunk projects - versatile or what lol. I used the embossed design to create a mini patchwork of papers, sticking it down on the insert base with Herma repositional adhesive as I went. I added a mini label from Hero Arts CL398 stamped with Versacolour Bamboo/Cardinal ink onto sticky back canvas, frayed a little around the edges and smidged with a little Old Paper Distress Ink to shabby it up a bit.
 
 
All you have to do is paint your frame back & front, make sure it is completely dry, then stamp the images from the Sew Much to Do stamp set, and the mini doily stamp from Prima's Fairy Belle collection in Versamark. I used the same colour embossing powder each time for each image and added a swipe of Inca Gold in Pale Gold around the frame edges once the Embossing Powder was cool. On the pink version I used some of the leftover embossed papers to create a little border of randomly sized strips along the top edge of the frame, and on the blue one I trimmed the top of the frame and the insert with Pennants cut from some of the laftover Loyal papers.
 
That's all for today but if you pop back tomorrow I will run through how I made all the other embellishments.
 
Take Care xx 
 
 
 

Thursday 23 August 2012

Steampunkery Embellishments

Hello again stampers, two days in a row eh? Whatever next!

Yesterday I showed you my Tuesday evening workshop 'for instances' at Snazzys and I'm back today to give you the lowdown on how I made the embellishments using Chocolate Baroque's Steampunkery stamps. Firstly the steampunk topper,


which was stamped with Versafine Onyx Black onto the smooth side of some Ideaology Grungeboard which gave a good, sturdy base for a coat of Eco Green Crafts black acrylic paint and three layers of Snazzys clear embossing powder. I then restamped the wings from the stamp three times onto Ideaology Grungepaper and the turnkey once - much easier to cut out the detail, painted them with Eco Green Crafts Aged Silver acrylic paint and when dry, restamped them all again. I find it simplest when stamping elements from a stamp onto pieces I have already cut out, to ink the stamp, leave it face up on the desk and position the pieces onto the inked surface using an acrylic block on top to apply pressure to the piece before carefully removing from the stamp. I added a couple of gears cut from Ideaology Grungeboard and black shrink plastic, coloured with Viva Inca Gold in Silver, and topped it with a watch face from a selection of Snazzys Steampunk Bitz Watch Faces. I attached the whole thing to the aperture with Snazzys Black Foam Pads.

Next the caged Flying Alarm Clock,


which was stamped with Versafine Onyx Black onto Ideaology Grungepaper with the wings and the watchface restamped onto Bazzill Smoothie cardstock in Blackberry Swirl and embossed with Snazzy's clear embossing powder. The cage was cut from Grungeboard with the Tim Holtz Alterations die, painted with Ranger Adirondack Paint Dabber in Copper with just a smattering of black acrylic sponged on top to add to the grungy look.
The alarm clock was also painted with copper dabber and then restamped with Onyx Black as described above and after a swipe with the Viva Inca Gold in Copper I assembled the embellishment with Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue and topped it with another of the watch faces from the Snazzys Steampunk Bitz set.

Lastly, my favourite embellishment, the Steampunk Beetle


stamped like the others with Versafine Onyx Black onto Ideaology Grungepaper with the watchface and the wings restamped onto Bazzill Blackberry Swirl cardstock and embossed with Snazzy's clear embossing powder. (I didn't bother painting and restamping this one as all of it was eventually covered with the restamped wing pieces and the UTEE beetle). Yes, I made a mould using Ranger's Mold-n-Pour and a lonely brass Steampunk Beetle from my stash - I could have overcome that it was the wrong colour for my project with some black acrylic paint and Inca Gold in Silver, but I couldn't get past it's weight, which was way too heavy for the piece. I melted 50/50 Ranger Melt Art clear and black UTEE in my Melt Pan and poured very slowly into my beetle mould. I was surprised how quickly it cooled and set, all ready with the extra wings and watchface for a (rather heavy handed) smidge of Silver Inca Gold and a good dollop of Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue to assemble. The hanger is another Tim Holtz Alterations die cut from Grungeboard and painted with the Aged Silver acrylic paint and the jump rings are Tim Holtz Ideaology too! 



I love the way the embossing on the black cardstock wings was highlighted by the Inca Gold, and I'm sure I'll find a way of using that beetle mould over and over.

Thanks for popping by, back soon xx





 

Wednesday 22 August 2012

Steampunk Frame with Chocolate Baroque Stamps

Hello stampers, yesterday evening I ran a workshop at Snazzys showing a very simple faux metal, grungy finish on a simple wooden frame featuring images from Chocolate Baroque's Steampunkery stamp set.


The flat plywood frame is available as either a square with square aperture or in the rectangular version I have used. The cogs were all cut from the Tim Holtz Alterations full size and mini cogs, some from kraft card, some in Grungeboard and some in black shrink plastic giving a variety of sizes and depths to mix and match. All the pieces were arranged on the frame, including some scrim to give the effect of metal mesh, and once glued down, (with Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue of course), painted in black acrylic from Eco Green Crafts. The insert was simply black card embossed with Tim Holtz Texture Fades and both surfaces then had Viva Inca Gold applied as desired to highlight the textures and give the faux metal effect.


I had three workshop 'for instances', one using Inca Gold in Copper and two with Silver.


If you pop back tomorrow I will explain how I made each of the Steampunk embellishments using the clever Steampunkery stamps from Chocolate Baroque, some Bazzill black cardstock, Ideaology Grungepaper, Ranger's Mold-n-Pour and Melt Art UTEE.

Thanks for stopping by xx


Thursday 16 August 2012

Steampunk Challenge with Darkroom Door


Over at Snazzys Design Team Blog there is a Steampunk Challenge running this week and you could win a set of the fabby Steampunk Travel stamps from Chocolate Baroque that the DT will be working with this month.

To entice you to have a go at the challenge there are some samples over at the DT blog, and as I didn't have a DT kit this time  - the Headmaster can be a terrible meanie :0( - I have used the new Darkroom Door Frame (Postal 12 Up) & Collage (Mr Bright Idea) stamps with a Tando mask and some watchparts from my stash. The backgrounds are Pan Pastels in Paynes Grey and Ultramarine Blue Tints with the stamping in Versafine Smokey Grey and Onyx Black.


Do pop over to the DT blog and give the Challenge a go, you have a couple of days yet as it doesn't close until Midday on Sunday 19 August. I will be back with more workshop samples using these, and several other, great new stamps from Darkroom Door soon.

Thanks for visiting xx

PS you can win goodies each month over at the Snazzy's DT Blog just by taking the time to leave a comment!