Transforming your stash

I love to alter things.  I am not sure why, but I really love to watch something transform and come to be.  I decided to write a quick post about my most recent innovation with my supply stash.

As you know I design for Alpha Stamps, an amazing supplier of crafty goodness.  When a package comes for a design kit or special mission, it is like Christmas.  I am stalking the mailman for a package today with that same childlike excitement.  Anyway, one item I have fallen in love with are paper flowers.  I recently took these little guys to another level with the help of a melt pot and UTEE (ultra thick embossing powder.)

My favorite are the red ones.  I think they almost look like glass now that they are coated.  I bet you could take them a step further and add a bit of guilders paste and add more depth now that I think about it... Another trick I used on the red ones was to pull some of the petals back before dipping them.  This helped them to have some unique shapes. 

The black ones would be nice for spooky projects. White guilders paste on the tips is all I can think about now, I can't wait to try it!

These ones did not turn out the best.  I think it is because this is a thicker, more substantial flower. It is still fun to experiment.  I bet there are lots of other embellishments that would do well with an UTEE bath.

There are tons of ways to stretch your stash.  Think ink, glitter, sprays and mists.  So you don't have the right color item, change it up and see what happens!

With this as my inspiration, I am off to make a spooky cluster of charms for one of my altered bottles for Laura Carson's big event.

Cheers, 

Rhea

Christmas Envelope Book

Not all that long ago I received a delightful parcel of Christmas crafty goodness from Alpha Stamps.  Inside I found lots of delicious Christmas paper, ephemera and trim which quickly took shape into this cute little envelope book.

I love the fancy latch, it works perfectly for this style of book.  A bit of patina coloring was added to the latch and the edges of the book with a little help from guilders paste. 

Each page of the book is made of a sturdy policy envelope.  I tucked some of my larger ephemera bits inside the book, but you could add tags, cards, personal notes etc.

I used lots of different trims throughout the book to add lots of depth and texture.  I got out the spray adhesive for the first time in a while.  I love the easy application, but I did find that it did not stick well in a few spots. 

I mixed in holiday imagery from many places.  I used Christmas Dresden and Christmas Collage Sheets as well as the ephemera I linked to earlier. 

In the envelope above I layered the trims.  This is another great way to stretch or transform your stash, and you know I am always trying to find ways to do that.

I love the moon on this page.  I have been using him over and over again in lots of spots, I have always been fascinated by the moon and the stars.  And yes, that is exactly where my blog title comes from!

Welcome to the holiday season folks!

Cheers, 

Rhea 

Christmas Assemblage

I am amazed that I caught the holiday crafty bug as early as I did this year.  I think designing for Alpha Stamps really helped that along, since we have to get all the delicious eye candy ready for the crafty community.  Anyway, today I am going to show off (gasp) a holiday piece I made to show off all kinds of new Christmas charms that Leslie got in the shop.

I started with one of Tim Holtz's configuration boxes.  I really love these things!  You can change up the pattern of the box to suit your needs.  I chose to leave out a bunch of the smaller compartments to create a spot for a larger scene up top.  This gave me the perfect spot to showcase my Dresden Santa, deer, Santa sack and one of the new woodland trees.  These are really cool as they come white and you can color them however you want too.

I had an idea straight away to make some sort of Santa sack and have the charms spilling out.  Now I am not much of a "fabric-ey" person, but a crafty pal coached me.  Thanks Brittney!  I simply took a bit of her scrap fabric and stuffed it with some of that white fluffy stuff and tied it up.  I then manipulated it to get it to lean in a way that worked for me and got to gluing.  

Now my wise pal Brittney advised me that this may happen, but my sloppy crafting ways made this inevitable...lots of glue showed up on the fabric.  I simply covered up my mess with little bits of vintage mica snow. This subsequently added a bit of shimmer and a lot of texture, which I love.  

Here is a close up of the bottom compartments.  I am always on the search for tiny things.  The drum was found on a Christmas pick at a big box craft store.  The deer focal was scored in a giveaway I won last year.  I am happy to have found a great spot to show him off.  

Here is a shot so you can see how the outside of the box looks.  I covered it in paper from Tim Holtz that was colored with red stain.  I also used some really cute decorative tape to edge out the box.  To add more distress and depth copper guilders paste was buffed all over the piece.

I hope you all are embracing the upcoming holidays in your crafty world as well!

Cheers, 

Rhea