Faith, Hope & Crafts

Hello Friends I hope you are having a great week so far!! I got some new stamps and I have been playing around with them. This one is called Flutter it is a lovely butterfly stamp. You know how much I love my butterflies right? I will be getting a lot of use of out this one I know it will be one of my favourites.  I decided to do something a wee bit different today. I always seem to be heat embossing and always seem to be using Turquoise. So I broke the mold ha :)  I went Pink! It is not my go to colour at all. I have a love hate relationship with the colour pink. The funny thing is when I do use this colour I usually end up loving what I made with it.  I made the  background by smearing acrylic paint with my fingers. I found this technique on Trish Latimer's blog Ink, Paint, Beads .  I saw it a few weeks ago and forgot all about it until today. So I got out my paints and gave it a try. Go and have a wee look she has a great tutorial on paint smearing.  I used

Hello Friends I hope you had a good week. I made this card a white ago and just got around to finishing it off.  I embossed this lovely flower stamp from Unity called  Insightful Meadows with white embossing powder. Then I used my  Brusho Crystal Colours Turquoise and Sea Green.  The Brusho does all of the work and creates this lovely background. I wanted to add some texture so I found some old seed beads just to give it a different look.  I love to experiment with different things. The  God's Timing sentiment  was stamped with the Hero Arts Ombre Ink this one is the Pool to Navy. I bought mine at Hobby Lobby and used a coupon.   I am not sure if I like it I need to play a little more with it.  But the idea is really nice where you have instant ombre without having to do it yourself. I love the end result of this card. I hope you like it too.  I so need to send this card to myself ha :) timing is a funny old thing.  Waiting is hard for me. As I am sure it

Hello Friends I was playing around in my craft room a few days ago.   I wanted to paint a butterfly but I ended up painting these wings instead. I had this bible verse stuck in my head too. So the two of them went perfect together. I painted the wings with gold acrylic paint and glitter. Then I typed out the words. I am not sure what I am going to do with it yet maybe I will put it in a frame. I find there is a lot of poetic beauty in the Psalms. Even if you are not a person of faith I think you can still appreciate them for what they are. I love the idea that someone is looking out for me and wants to give me refuge from the world at times. I think we all need a little refuge, a place to take some time out and just be. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today. Mandi xox Linking up to  Word Art Wednesday Small Wonder  

Hello Friends I am back with some more upcycled jars.  I have been wanting to make this trio for a while. I decided to paint them white and then trim them with turquoise. I used chalk paint that I had left over from another project. I love the matte surface that chalk paint leaves behind.   I  used a toothbrush and flicked some specs of turquoise paint on to the white since I wanted a speckled look. Then I stamped the words using archival ink and then outlined the words with a micron pen. The stamps I used are called Painted Sentiments from Unity. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today. Mandi xox

Hello Friends I had so much fun painting law week with my chalk paint I wanted to paint some more. So I got this wee set of drawers at the weekend at the freebie barn. It is a place here in Maine that people take there stuff they no longer want. It's essentially a thrift store only everything is free!! It's a great way to reuse and recycle and I love that.  I decided to make this one two tone. the previous owner had already stained it a nice chocolate brown colour and I quite liked it. So I only painted the drawer fronts and the top. I used the same Waverly Chalk Paint that I had left from my last project you can read all about that here . I applied two coats of paint unevenly then once it was dry I used scrunched up aluminium foil to distress it.  I love the way it came out. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today Mandi xox

Hello Friends Welcome back I am here to remind you about the Craft Stamper Challenge for the month of July. Come and join in the fun and be in with a chance of winning some goodies.  The challenge this month is take a stamp so you can pretty much make anything you want as long as there is stamping involved. There is a pretty great prize up for grabs it is four stamping plates from Art Journey. Hop on back over to the Craft Stamper Blog for all of the details. I got out my Paddington Bear Stamp for this card.  How cute is he? I used to watch the cartoon and the animation when I was wee. I also recently saw the Paddington film it was really good. There is something just too cute about a bear in a duffle coat he is hard to resist don't you think?   This is my first time using this stamp. I bought it in Glasgow when I was home a few month's ago. I got mine from Craft World but I am sure you can find them other places. I tried to look them up online but all I cou

Hello Friends I spent last night in my craft room and made five cards I was on a roll It is so unusual for me as I never seem to make a few cards in a row. I was testing out my new Metallic Gelatos . Oh how I love them. They are so creamy and lush to work with. This is one of the cards I made. I created my background with this lovely stamped flower from Unity it is called  Much Of A Good Thing .  The Sentiment is from another stamp set called  Every Way Beautiful. I stamped the image with distress inks Bundled Sage & Worn Lipstick. I then coloured them with two of the gelatos that were closet in colour  they are Iced Pear & Melon.  I used them pretty much like water colour paints. I rubbed some of each colour on to my craft sheet and added some water and used a paint brush to colour with. I wanted a messy look to it so I added some gelato splatters to the background. Next I stamped my sentiment with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink.  I then distressed the edges of the pa

Hello Friends I picked up this chair at Goodwill at the weekend. It cost me  $2!!!  Yes $2 I cannot believe it. This has got to be the bargain of the century. It is solid wood and very heavy. It is old and worn and I LOVE that, but what I don't love is the colour. I am not a fan of dark wood.  I am a fan of paint though! I have always wanted a distressed turquoise chair. This was perfect to make in to one. I love the look of distressed furniture but it can be pretty expensive to buy.  I don't know if you have been hearing all the craze about chalk paint lately.  I keep hearing how great Annie Sloan chalk paint is and how you do not need to prep with it. Now I LOVE the idea of NO prepping but the price tag on AS paint is a little too steep for me. I refuse to pay almost $40 for paint of any kind.  So while I was at Walmart I saw this Waverly chalk paint. I bought this purely for the colour and the price tag $5.97. You all know how much I love turquoise right??

Hello Friends We are back with a brand new challenge at the Craft Stamper Take It Make It Challenge. This month it is pretty easy anything goes. So you can take any rubber stamp you wish and create what ever your heart desires. I went with this lovely  Poppy stamp for my card  today. I heat embossed the flower and the Hope sentiment with white embossing powder. Then I got out my  Brusho Crystal Colours and had a lot of fun getting messy with them. I used the Vermillion and Turquoise Colours on my card.  You never know what the outcome will be using them as they kind of take on their own free form style. I really love the end result though. I hope that you come and join in this month. We have a such a great prize from  Art Journey which is 4 stamp plates.  This is such an awesome prize as they have some really lovely stamps. I have my eye on the Brushes and Pencils Stamp set as it is so unique. Hop on over to the Craft Stamper Blog for all of the details. Thanks s

 Hello Friends  Guess who has been playing with jars again??? Me! I am addicted to painting and stamping on to jars. It is my new favourite thing :)  It is super easy and they make some lovely decor.  All you need is a jar and some acrylic paint. Just paint the jar however you like. Let it dry and then stamp your image or sentiment with archival ink right over the paint. It is so easy.  I hope you like it :)  I painted the stripes free hand that is why they are a little wonky :) you can totally use tape though. I added some jute rope since I was going for that rustic Americana look. The stamp I used on my jar is from Unity called Home of the Brave . Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today :)  Mandi xox