Pebble-Dashed!

Its fair to say that when I find a new thing to make, it becomes an obsession...at least for a while, so we'll see how long before I get bored of this one..

Pebble / Stone / Rock Painting

There has been a craze going around Basingstoke recently called "Basingstones" where people paint a stone or rock with a pattern or picture, or just paint it a colour and add some words. The stone is left somewhere for someone to find, and they post it on the Facebook 'Basingstones' or 'Hidden Rocks' pages.  Some of them are amazing, so I thought I'd have a go at painting some pebbles myself.

For my friends's Birthday in April I decided to have a go at a painting a stone with a Beatrix Potter design, because she loves Peter Rabbit.  This is how it turned out and I was pretty happy with it.  She was over the moon with it apparently. :)

I was using alcohol pens over a chalk paint base, and trying to get a watercolour feel and sealing with water-based varnish.  I liked the result, but it would not stand up to being outdoors.  

For my Sister's birthday I wanted to make her something for her garden.  She's big into her vegetable patch at the moment, she's done amazing things, creating it from scratch and spending every spare minute in the greenhouse.  So I decided to make her some plant markers for her seedlings.  The plan was originally to make 6, but unfortunately I ran out of time as it was harder than I thought.  So I settled for four. 

I would have to use exterior varnish for these to stand any chance of surviving the outdoors, so I would not be able to use alcohol pens.  I decided to bite the bullet and have a go at painting in Acrylic - not something I'm particularly comfortable with.  I also decided I would leave the backgrounds in the natural stone.  This is what I came up with...

I started with a Tomato, which bar a few teething problems went quite well, so then I got a bit cocky and tried a Raddish which was a NIGHTMARE!  It was way harder to paint than I thought it would be!

The Carrot was surprisingly easy after this, and the Courgette wasn't too bad either.  

By this time I was just about getting the hang of mixing and applying the paints.  

With four finished I gave them a coat of outdoor varnish, which was supposed to be clear but wasn't and after 3 coats was starting to affect the whites, but luckily I think for these, it gave a warmth that worked quite well.

My Sis took some photos for me in her veggie patch and I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. I'd love to know what you think...

Coming soon... Pebble-Painting obsession continues with a new theme - 

'Natural History'...! :)

Pebble Picture - The Needles

Here's one I made as a gift for a friend. It was my first attempt at a pebble picture and it was well received I'm glad to say. :)

Sea Glass Butterfly Framed Picture

Sea Glass is one of my favourite things.  I love all things glass anyway but I think what's so special about Sea Glass is that's a man-made product that nature has crafted into something even more beautiful.  No two pieces are ever the same, its free, and that you can only find it by spending time on the beach.  What's not to like!

Alli xx

Halloween Haunted House

Its Autumn again and that means Halloween is just around the corner. I wanted to make a Haunted house, so decided to see how far I could adapt the Tim Holtz Village series dies from Sizzix.

The house is constructed from parts of the basic Village Dwelling dies, with the Chapel Tower and dormer windows from the Village Bungalow die set.

I made a custom base from card, big enough to take the various items I wanted to add - grave stones, pumpkins etc.

The fence is constructed from recycled coffee stirers. The Bottlebrush trees are handmade from sisal string and wire, and coloured with Ranger Distress Spray Stain.

The footpath is made from torn card and the gravestones are adapted from the doors cut from the die sets. 

The base is painted in acrylics, all other details are painted with household emulsion paints. Tester pots are perfect, they are inexpensive and with the added benefit that you can get them in matt finish. The crackling effect is made using paint over pva glue. There are many videos on how to achieve this on You Tube.

I used air dry clay to make the pumpkins and crows and added a tealight holder inside the house. Faux cobwebs give some added atmosphere.

I hope you like the finished result? Thank you for visiting my Blog, please check out my other pages.

Alli xx

Watercolour Beach Hut Greetings Cards

I'm still loving the Tim Holtz Brownstone dies and keen to try something new with them I thought I'd try using just the fronts of the 3d houses and decoupaging them onto cards.

I prepared them the same way I did for the 3d Beach Huts on my previous blog, but added a roof. I also needed a background so I hand-drew and watercoloured a simple seaside design for each one.

 

Each card will be subtly different as they are all hand drawn and painted. I have more ideas for these Sizzix dies, they are so nice to work with.

I'm pleased with how these turned out, I hope you like them. :) They would also make nice gifts as an original artwork if mounted in a small frame. If you would like one, please check availability via my Etsy and eBay stores or get in touch via either store or via Twitter.

Thank you for visiting my Blog, please check out my other pages and pop back soon. Alli xx

Beach Huts and Pink Houses

These are the latest little makes using the Tim Holtz / Sizzix Brownstone and Village Dwelling dies from the Village collection.

As you can see I've been going all-out with the pink theme this week.

Beach huts are some of my favourite things so these Brownstone dies are just perfect for making little huts. I happened upon a crackle technique quite by accident and thought they looked really cool, so I've stuck with it. 

I think these will be my favourite things to make for a while yet, so I apologise now if I get a bit boring!

Brownstone / Dwelling Combination

This one was a bit of a headache, so might be a one-off. Joining parts of both dies together wasn't too hard to figure out, but for some reason I just couldn't get the colour scheme right.

I ended up with pink and white which I'm happy with.

I love the shuttered windows that come with the Village Cottage dies. I've yet to try out the picket fence or dorma window add-ons.

And of course it wouldn't be complete without my trademark tealight holder. :)

And finally...

I re-painted one of my first efforts. It features in my header photo (the dark pink one with brown windows) but I hadn't liked it much since I finished it. But a quick paint-job later...

...I am so much happier with it. 

Thank you for visiting my blog. Please check out some of my other pages and you can find me on Twitter and Instagram too (@svalleycrafts)

Alli xx

Two more Village Brownstone Houses

Here are the latest additions to my newest collection of houses made from the Tim Holtz Village Brownstone dies. I love making these, they're quicker than the Dwellings and I just love the quirky style.

Houses, chapels, beach huts...

...sheds, they could be so many things.

Thanks for visiting! Please take a look at my other pages.

Alli xx 

Greenhouse - Variation on a Tim Holtz Village Dwelling

I'm very excited to share this with you at last. I've had to keep it under wraps for a couple of weeks because I made it for my Sister's Birthday (Happy Birthday Deb! xxx).  I had been wondering for a while if I could adapt the Tim Holtz Village Dwelling die to make a greenhouse and this is what I came up with...

I cut out the standard Dwelling walls, then cut out sections with a scalpel to make the panes and squared-off the door and removed the front porch section.  I painted it in a pale lilac colour, added a hinge to the back and used frosted acetate for the glass.

On the inside I created a bench using some thin strips of wood and made some terracotta pots from air-drying clay.

The watering can was made from cardboard and PVA glue and painted with "Brushed Pewter" Distress Spray. This is one of my favourite Distress Inks, its such a clever product.  The metallic effect is amazing for a water-based stain/paint. The nozzle is made from a small brass eyelet.

I painted the base to look like gravel and added feint brickwork-effect stepping stones with a paintbrush.  I purposely left this quite pale as I didn't want it to overpower the pots and the greenhouse.

I made two matching Bottle-Brush trees to frame the greenhouse and dyed them green.  I will add a blog on how I make these soon.  Using the same method I made matching Lavender bushes which are made in exactly the same way but trimmed flat on one side.

The flowers are made using "Flower Soft" - 'Crocus' for the Lavender, 'Sweat Pea' for the two big pots and 'Spring' for the two smaller pots. I also used some Reindeer Moss in the pots sitting on the bench inside.

I hope you like it?  More importantly, I especially hope my Sister likes it!!  I'm actually quite missing seeing it on my windowsill where its been the last week or so.  But there are other things rapidly taking up the space which I will share over the weekend... :)

Thanks for visiting, please check out my other pages.

Alli xx

Brownstone Church / Chapel with Bell Tower

How excited was I to receive my brand new just-released Die from the Tim Holtz 'Village' range yesterday - 'Brownstone'?! I straight away set about creating my first little house and as with the Village Dwelling, the first one had to be the Chapel / Church with Bell Tower.

I chose to paint this one in one of my favourite chalky finish paints - 'Vintage' by DecoArt.  Its fast-drying and gives a lovely matt finish. I used Vintage Photo distress ink on the walls just to make them look a bit more lived-in.  For the roof I used a Sizzix Texture Fades 'Notebook' embossing folder to give the appearance of wood panelling. I gave it a coat of silver grey paint and covered it with Glitter.  

I did the same for the Bell Tower roof.  The little bell was added before the roof was glued on.

The doors and windows were left white but again I used 'Vintage Photo' distress inks to tone them down and age them a little. I glue frosted acetate behind the windows and doors just to soften the look, especially if using an LED tealight inside.  

I hope you like this one?  I love the simplicity of this design by Tim, its a joy to make and I think leaving this one quite plain has worked well. I'm already on my second Brownstone, this one won't include the Bell Tower but will be more detailed.  I'll post that soon. :)

Thanks for visiting.
Alli xx