Spring Showers

The theme this month for Eileen Hull's Inspiration Team is 'Spring Showers'.  If you live in the UK, we certainly get plenty of those!

But this is slightly different, we are celebrating Showers of a different kind - Baby Showers, Wedding Showers or different types of parties.  I chose to create for a Baby Shower/Party.

I made a Shabby chic card using beautiful Maja Design papers and Eileen Hull's Pansy Flower die (Sizzix 661109), and hand felted a little blue teddy to go into the Eileen Hull Book & Pages, Trinket Box & Frame die (Sizzix 662360).

Starting with the card, I simply mat and layered the beautiful Maja Design papers, added a Scrapiniec frame which I embossed with Stampendous Frantage Shabby Blue Embossing Enamel.  I die cut the word 'baby' and coated the letters with Glossy Accents.

The flowers are made from Eileen Hull's die - Pansy Flower.  Just a few steps:

1)  Die cut flower petals, 6 for each flower, 2 of each size

2)  Spritz the petals with water and scrunch up

3)  Carefully open the dampened petals and leave to dry naturally

4)  Layer up the petals and scrunch up again

5)  Add ready made stamens to each of the flowers

Next, I made the Trinket Box.  I covered the Mount Board with Maja Design paper and then die cut the elements for the box.  I followed the instructions on the die to construct the box and I added a button and elastic closure.  The word 'baby' was die cut and coated in Glossy Accents.

Here is a picture of the inside of the box, covered again in Maja Design papers.  I lined the 'floor' of the box with some beautiful soft felt.

Long before I had my wrist replacement I loved doing wet felting, but afterwards, I was unable to put the pressure required to rub the felt, so sadly, I stopped.  Once I saw my friend Rachel's beautiful felted creations (you can see one HERE) I wanted to see if I could make something using felting needles - much easier to do than all that rubbing!!  Thank you Rachel, I have had an absolute ball creating these little creatures! 

So, to complete my project, all that remained for me to make was the teddy, one that would fit in the box!  I had to make several before I got the right size to fit in the Trinket Box - and that just happened to be the blue one, the last one I made.

I thought I would share the whole 'motley crew' of bears that I made, the three sitting bears were my first attempts and to me they look a bit cock-eyed but I am happy with the three standing bears on the right hand side.

Thanks for 'bearing' with me through this post!  My team-mates have made some fabulous creations so far this month, you can check these out HERE on Eileen's blog.

I hope to see you soon!

Hugs, Anne  xxx

Video Inspiration - God Only Knows

Hello Friends

I don't often try my hand at shabby chic but I was inspired by the Video Inspiration

this month, chosen by Linda Ledbetter at Creative Carte Blanche.  The video was made by the BBC a couple of years ago, you can see the video HERE.  If you have never seen the video I do encourage you to look, it is very uplifting!

The wonderful video features the song - God Only Knows by the Beach Boys  and there are quite a few of my favourite artists singing in the video.

I was inspired by two elements of the video - firstly the angel wings on Lorde's shoulders and secondly, by the bird cage (and wings) in the part featuring Alison Balsom, the Classical trumpeter.

Since I changed my mind several times I only have a couple of process steps.

I distressed and layered up some gorgeous Maja Design papers from the Vintage Summer Basics collection and used DecoArt Media Crackle Paste through a Tim Holtz Gothic stencil.  The birdcage was painted with IndigoBlu English Cottage Acrylic Paint in Pantry White.

The wings were cut from the Tim Holtz Heart Wings die set, I cut two and layered them and then painted them with the Pantry White paint.  Once dry I applied a layer of Ranger Glue 'n' Seal and dusted the wings with Distress Clear Rock Candy Dry Glitter.

The bird was painted with IndigoBlu Grandma's Teacup paint.  The birdcage and the 'Use your Wings' are by Scrapiniec and I painted them with the Pantry White paint.  I tucked some gauze under the birdcage and added some vintage ribbon dyed with Broken China Distress Ink.

I am entering this into Creative Carte Blanche's September Adventure - God Only Knows.

Thanks, as always, for looking, hope to see you again soon!

Anne xx