Nicecrane Designs Spotlight

   Welcome everyone! Thanks so much for being here for the first Sponsor Spotlight in July. This month our sponsor is  -

Nicecrane Designs 

 Ignacio is giving a prize to a lucky random.org winner this month - He has some gorgeous designs for every style you can think of and I chose these beautiful Maude Goodman pictures....

     I decided to do a triptych style creation but it went a bit over the top in the end! I couldn't leave out of any of the pictures so ended up using nearly all of them!

     I began by painting the frame with Antique Linen Crackle paint mixed with Picket Fence DP to lighten it and make it a bit thinner and easier to paint smoothly. Once the crackle appeared and the paint was dry I dabbed some Walnut Stain DI into the cracks to highlight them.

     I chose the main two pictures and added them to the frame.

The center panel was decorated with a piece of card stamped with Picket Fence DP and when dry it was inked with Antique Linen DI. It was then stamped with Frayed Burlap and Bundled Sage DI.

    I wanted to use the other pictures too but with no more frames left I decided to make my own. Little miniature frames made out of balsa wood. Normally I would always paint the balsa wood with gesso or some other primer because it doesn't like having paint applied! But actually the Crackle paint applied very well. This time I used the Antique Linen Crackle paint undiluted to give a subtle colour shade difference...sadly it doesn't show up on the photos very well, but you might notice it...

For the embellishments I painted some diecuts with a mix of Old Gold and Chocolate Pudding Fresco Paint

 A  key was painted with Chocolate Pudding Fresco paint and rubbed lightly with Classic Gold Treasure Gold.

The same was done with a wooden button that then became a frame for yet another picture.

     I included a brass pendant with a picture in it too - I was determined to use the majority of the images!

     The last decoration was to be flowers....I had intended the project to be about friendship and of course yellow roses are a traditional symbol of friendship. I had some ivory roses with a tinge of yellow and was going to add them, but they swamped the creation and were too much. I opted instead for some ivory die cut flowers that were edged with Walnut Stain DI and had a bronze brad in the centers.

The theme of friendship was one I still wanted so I included the words "A lifetime of friendship" using chit chat stickers that were dabbed with Antique Linen DI and edged with Vintage Photo DI

        Hope you like my friendship creation! There will be more creations made with Nicecrane images coming along during the month - make sure you don't miss any!

       You could win some images for yourself to use in our challenge this month. One lucky person will be picked by random.org and receive a Nicecrane prize! So head over to Astrid's Handmade Flowers and Hand Dyed Ribbon challenge and get into a flowery mood!

Homemade Flowers and Hand Dyed Ribbon

Hello everyone, thanks for coming by, this is Astrid hosting the July challenge here.

It being the middle of Summer here in the Northern hemisphere I thought I would challenge you to create flowers, in anyway you like, and to complement those, please dye some ribbon too and make that part of your project. And of course if you live in the Southern Hemisphere you can play too, wintry flowers are some of the most beautiful

Not all of us are girly girls that work with flowers, but as my wonderful team mates have shown below, flowers can be created in all sorts of ways and even enhance masculine project!

Our sponsor this month is NICECRANE DESIGNS who will provide a voucher for his shop for one lucky random winner.

Now, and this is really important: To qualify for our challenge your project must include HOME MADE FLOWERS AND HAND DYED RIBBON, but apart from that you can make what you like, a card, box or home decor item, whatever you make is only limited by your own imagination. Please also read the very few other rules we have.

And now without further  ado here are our inspiration projects for this month:

Astrid

I love to create projects that have a purpose, so for this challenge I made a little box decorated with my own made roses and hand died ribbon, just large and deep enough to hold a matching tag. It will be a gift for a special friend.  A detailed step by step of how I created it can be found on my blog.

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Laura

I am such a 'flowers and ribbons' girl at heart. For this challenge I couldn't resist seeing if I could recreate a Victorian style Tussy Mussy from just card and tinfoil sheets. I loved every single fiddly, annoying, intricate, frustrating, challenging and very blissful moment of making this vintage bouquet.

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Claudia

As I am not much of a flower girl as most of you will already know, Astrid has put up a real challenge for me! But I decided to stand up to it and try walk in the footsteps of  wonderful Julia from Julia's Stuff (the "Mistress of the Crackle" as I love to call her) and give some of her crackle and embossing techniques she uses with flowers so brilliantly a try. I altered a small splint box to create a birthday gift for a very dear friend of mine.

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Kerstin

This is a fabric doorhanger in vintage look with four bags for storage of jewelry or tags 
with handmade organza blossoms. More details please on my blog.

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Alison

I don't usually make handmade flowers - though it has been known! - so this was a challenge.  But I gave myself an additional challenge... to try to do ribbons and flowers without being girly.  Come over to Words and Pictures to see whether you think I succeeded!

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Karin

This was a fun challenge for me, because I seldom use flowers or lace.

I used the self made flower as a skirt and the bow tie at the top of the tag is a dyed piece of lace. The backgrond of the tag is made with Bistre ( I like that stuff) and some embossed stamps.

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Susan

Astrid's challenge is quite a mouthful for me since I almost never make flowers, so thanks for the challenge, it is always nice to try something that you are not used to do.
See more details on Hand dyed Flower and Ribbon on my blog.


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Julia

I love making flowers and colouring my own ribbon so Astrid's challenge was a dream for me! I couldn't decide how many flowers to include but decided to go for one large, punchy floral which incorporates my hand dyed ribbon too. Yes, I've gone pink and girlie with a touch of grunge too - love it! To see the details of my flower and ribbon hop over to Julia's Stuff.

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Well, I hope you like what you see here and that we have given you some inspiration to play along with your own home made flowers and dyed ribbon. We can't wait to see what you come up with!! Do check out all the individual blogs of the designers to get all the details of their stunning project and get even more inspiration along the way. Also check out the calendar in our side bar to see all the other things in store for you this month!

Thanks for dropping by and see you around in crafty blogland, - happy July everyone!

Goodbye

     It is time to say goodbye to two members of the OCC Design Team who have been such an amazing part of the creative journey here at Our Creative Corner.

      Linda is moving on to focus on her Funkie Junkie boutique which is growing rapidly! Here's hoping we see Funkie Junkie Boutique craft stores in England at some point! ;o)

      .....and Jenny is continuing her crafty journey through blogland exploring new DT experiences along the way. We all wish them much luck and happiness wherever their path leads them...

      I am sure you will all agree that both of them have been amazing members of the Design Team and I hope that they leave with many happy memories of their time spent here sharing their creativity to inspire all of you.

       And so here, for one last time, are a few of their projects to amaze and inspire you once again....Please join us in wishing them a fond farewell and all the very best for the future adventures.....

Linda

Jenny

Tomorrow we begin a new challenge led by our wonderful Astrid! This is her first time being the Challenge Host for the OCC and she has come up with such a gorgeous challenge for all of you - I know you will all love it! Please stop by and take a peek!

Happy Crafting!

Laura xxx

Sponsor Spotlight No. 3 with Tando Creative

Hi everyone, Jenny here today with the last of this month's 'Sponsor Spotlights'. As you will know we've been featuring just a few of the many wonderful designs this company have created ready and waiting for you to alter.

I chose to work with the Andy Skinner Mini Reversible Clock and also took the chance to put some of my relatively newly acquired Americana Decor Chalky Finish paints to good use (gosh I love this stuff!)

As you can see you have the option of working on a flat surface or decorating each separate panel and the clock mechanism comes within the pack. Here's how mine turned out...

It has to be said this was a bit different for me as I kept on adding layer after layer of texture and colour. I'll not bore you senseless with a blow by blow account but will tell you which products I used along the way. The base had book pages applied with a mix of Vintage and Lace Chalky Finish paints and some tan ink spray. The stamping was done with Tim Holtz 'Distress Damask' set using Watering Can and Forget Me Not Archival Inks.

Although difficult to detect on camera there are large hearts stencilled with Primitive Chalky paint and smaller ones with the Relic colourway together with some using Red Geranium Archival Ink and a black fineliner. And then there's the stencilled damask pattern using Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi White Embossing Paste followed up with more splats of tan ink.

The numbers were painted with the Vintage paint and the whole lot was splattered with even more of these paints (slightly watered down of course). When those numbers went on they disappeared a little into the background so I used some of the Relic paint to add shadows to one side of them (and you'll see it around the edges of the Chit Chat stickers).

To add durability to the whole thing I applied a couple of coats of clear Americana Decor Creme Wax. Applied with a brush, this stuff is fast drying and doesn't smell. The finishing touch was to add some Rennaisance Treasure Gold to the clock hands and edge of the clock face. The slight pinkish tone worked well with the little hearts.

This wasn't what I originally had in mind when the clock arrived but by allowing those creative juices to flow (and with no 'theme' to follow) it was an absolute joy to complete. If you enter our current challenge 'Flaming June' you could win a fabulous prized generously donated by Tando Creative, but hurry as there are only a couple of days left!

Thanks for taking the time to drop by. Take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx