just playing

 At an inter-federation WI meeting this week we were talking crafts, and inspecting everyone's samples, and having a lovely lunch (provided by the ladies of Suffolk West Federation) into the bargain.
Margaret from the host Federation showed us this little box, demonstrated how she made it, and kindly provided us with the template too - originally from a Craft Stamper article. I have checked the downloads on the mag website but couldn't find it, so can't give the designer the acknowledgement. I had to have a go that same evening, when I didn't really have the time to do a decent job, but this is how it turned out.
 Margaret recommended using double -sided scrapbook paper as the base, and it really worked well - originally it felt very flimsy, but becomes very sturdy once the card top, bottom and sides are added. I didn't have any mountboard, but found that a heavy sheet of card backing from a pad worked fine. I only had a gold Adirondack paint dabber, so used that to coat the card pieces instead of ordinary acrylic paint. For the top panels I randomly stamped a sheet of white card with 2 of the flower stamps from the SU Everything Eleanor stamp set in black, with second and third stampings without reinking to give depth, and then cut this up.I used more of this to cut the flowers out (from the blossom party die) and also a couple of layers in black to layer up for the lid. The seed beads I coated the central mini circle with did have some blue in the mix, but no way was I going to pick them out!    I shall be a lot more careful about cutting out next time   ......                                                                                                                        
The owl keyrings I saw on Jo's blog ages ago, got the instructions, and finally got around to trying to do them. I borrowed the nesties to cut out the backing as I didn't have a suitable punch, but had a great time playing with these - I used Anita's clear glaze to coat them with, and this dries in about 4 hours, which suits an impatient creature like me just fine.

butterfly squares

I was wondering what image to use for the Less is More challenge this week of  use 3 squares when my new issue of Craft Stamper arrived - the free stamp was this lovely swirly butterfly designed by Glenda Waterworth for her new company Chocolate Baroque - problem solved!  I used the colour scheme from Playdate challenge 70 - I haven't got around to many of their challenges this year - and soon had a pile of rejects; this is the only one that survived, despite the inky squares being on the dark side. The one absolutely perfect pastelly one had the stamp dropped  on it, and of course it landed inky side down...........now I remember why I was never that keen on stamping directly onto my card in the first place!
The squares were sponged in distress inks - wild honey, tumbled glass and shabby shutters - through a punched mask - and I found that a cosmetic sponge worked better than the tool or cut'n'dry, but that was probably due to the card surface more than anything else.