distress stain, paint & marker storage part 1

 We're going to start off firstly with how I made the little boxes to hold the distress stains & paint.  There is a  slightly different sized step by step on my inkpad rack tut if you get a bit stuck and need different pictures. 

Start off by cutting decent weight a4 card into a piece 14cms by 25cms.  This will give you a column of 5 boxes when finished.  If making the exact same box as I did you will need 7 columns, plus 4 columns of 3 boxes (cut the card at 15cms not 25)
Holding the card in the same orientation as I have score down at 3, 6, 9 & 12cms
Rotate 1/4 turn and score at 5, 10, 15 & 20 cms.  Use a bone folder to burnish all the scores remembering that the side you scored on is the outside of the "box".
I find it easier to add the 2 long strips of dst now.  Try and get as close to the score line and outer edge as possible.
Now you need to use a sharp blade and cut where I've drawn the black lines.  If you're having trouble seeing them the boxes with the dst n shape are the only sections which you do not cut under.  Place dst as close to the cut edge and both score lines as possible.  It doesnt need to be super accurate and cover perfectly as long as you have most of the edges covered.


Remove the backing of the top n shaped dst and carefully fold the piece so that it lines up with the box below.  The more accurately you line the edges the tidier your finished box will look.  Repeat with each of the n shaped dst sections until you have something which looks like this.

Use the bone folder to burnish each of the folds and make sure the 2 pieces are firmly stuck together.

nb, this looks a lot more fiddly and difficult than it really is.


Now you need to bring all the sides in and one by one attach them.  Be careful to align the cut edge to the fold of the box otherwise you'll get very wonky boxes and they wont stack tidily.

You should end up with a column of boxes like this,

NB In my altered box I stuck 4 columns together to form a 4 * 5 group using a mixture of glue and dst.  I then made an outer box by cutting a piece of card 25.4cm by 22.4cms and scoring 5cms on each side.  And stuck the glued columns in place with a few dabs of glue before pulling up and attaching the box sides.
The 3*5 section was made in the same way but the outer box only needs cutting at 19.4 * 25.4  I would suggest you dont glue any together until you have the outer box and know what configuration you want to make.

If you dont have many stains/paints or you havent access to the large bought box laundry tablet boxes make great storage. The Bold and Persil 20 wash box is the exact size needed to hold 18 bottles.

Simply make 3 columns of 5, and 1 of 3 no need to stick together.
Cut the tablet box to 5.3cms high (cut at 5 and the dividers will poke out as in the pic below)
Paint the inside bottom of the tablet box and the outside.  There is no need to paint the 4 inner walls of the tablet box as the dividers will cover them and the paint may very well make it impossible to add the dividers.  These tablet boxes are just about long enough to fit distress markers so it's possible to make a drawer unit however I think I would be more inclined to make a single large drawer rather than fiddle about trying to add inner shelves to allow several drawers.  I will have a playaround during the week and see how much fiddling it is lol.













If I'm being honest if the box I'd bought had been the right size I would have filled it with these tablet boxes and if I hadnt been so gung ho about buying the box I could have made it myself, however to get the same size I would have needed a cutter capable of cutting a2 mountboard.


Next part will be the chest of drawers using mountboard & brown gummed tape.  You will need 2 a3 sheets.

Distress stain, paint & marker holder

This is the advance warning of a step by step coming up over the next few days.

You'll need
1 ready made box 10 * 14 * 3.5"  I bought mine at Homesense.  If you want to make your own box that'll be fine but you might have to adjust the sizes and layout of the cubby holes to suit.
2 a3 sheets of mountboard
14 a4 sheets of boxmaking weight cardstock.  I used Annamaries.
Brown gummed tape, tombow (or other strong quick drying glue) and strong dst
hougie,
score tool
bone folder
handles for drawers

This is how the box will look once you've finished the initial construction

Doesnt look good with the white boxes showing against the inside.

I would highly recommend you get in a good supply of gesso and a 1" brush ready to decorate.










This is my first bodge job..

I came across a couple of issues decorating that I should have thought of... Not all of the surfaces were going to react to the paint in the same way.. the gesso on the drawers took the docrafts metallic black paint fine, the cubby holes are only 300gsm card and if you add too much paint they start to cockle & warp... paint in a checkerboard fashion, let dry for a few hours then paint the rest.

I also found that drawers that were quite smooth when first made started to become very stiff once the gesso & paint had dried.   I'm going to try turtle wax on them tomorrow to see if that helps (it's supposed to stop acrylic painted surfaces sticking together) if not I'll amend the sizes for the drawers down by about 2mm when I write up the how to..  But the worst disaster was the drop down front...  I'd originally wanted the red to show through thin layers of metallic black and adding lots of guilding waxes to create an oriental feel.  All was working great until I touched the dry paint with a damp thumb.. off came the paint.. right back to the original red design.  Not even a hint of colour staining. Change of plans.. I sprayed it all with various cosmic shimmer mists hoping that the biner would help.. didnt like the colours as the ones I really wanted to use were bunged up lol..  Plan c time lol  alchi inked (stream, raspberry, melon & pearl) over the drawer unit and lid, straight over the dried mists.  If I'm honest I'm really liking the way it looks irl but the ink is only sitting on the paint and although it now seems waterproof it's not scratch proof... hence the couple on pink scratches you can see.  I'm going to call it quits on the rest of the decorating until I have some black gesso then I'll redo the lid and not even attempt to do anything with the outside of the box (poppy paper) until it's been well gessoed.

more tags

Bit of a mixed bag with these 3 tags but I was determined to use some of my new stash.

Lots of distress ink (frayed burlap, dried marigold & black soot) and distress markers with the Jofy flower & sentiment & a small section of Dylusions vine border cut, coloured with brass distress paint mixed with some scribbled forest moss ink and mounted with pinflair gel glue.  The centre of the flower has been covered with glossy accents.  In real life there are lots of rolled stamped sections of the vine border stamp which have been mildly bleached with water.




Another of the Jofy stamps,  This time I distressed with tumbled glass, evergreen bough & dusty concord.

Stamped image with versafine and used the picket fence marker, several copics & some watered down silver distress paint to colour in the baubles.

The motif at the bottom has vivas silver pearl pen "pearls"

The ribbon is inch wide organza which has been shrivelled with the heatgun.






This one is thanks to a pma quote that came over my fb feed...  " Life begins at the end of your comfort zone"

Seeing as it was a pma quote I had the bright (ok cheating) idea of finding another quote to theme the tag on.

The tag base was coloured by slodging distress paint on my craft mat, spritzed with water the squidged around. I've then inked through Tims clock stencil in the top right to simulate sun rays and in the bottom left to add texture to the "bush".
 Next up came Dylusions stencil again and some texture paste.. coloured when dry with brass distress paint mixed with forest moss.

I had the base now I had to think of how the heck I could draw a caterpillar.. ding.. hungry caterpillar.. dead easy as it does matter if it's a mess and the colours suited the base.  I trimmed a couple of pieces of cut n dry into thin ovals and played about with mixing different green acrylic paints then dabbing them into a vague semblence of the body.  A thumb print in some bright red chroma paint formed his head and I added eyes, feet and antennae when it had dried.  Next I printed the quote onto card, cut into sections, distressed with old paper & black soot before sticking down with pva.  The butterfly is one of Tims stamps, coloured with markers and huff stamped onto card which doesnt like blending.  Cut, shaped and triple embossed before sticking to the tag with glossy accents.  Really not sure on it as it's gone way beyond my comfort zone and into outer space lol

12 tags of 2013 September

Not quite sure what happened to this one I filled my bag for playday this morning with the intent of doing summery and bright...

As per Tims September tag I started off using embossing paste and a few of Tims new stencils to add a bit of texture to the blank tag, dried them off then used some picket fence distress paint with another of his yummy stencils to create the resist.  Quick mist before adding picked raspberry, peacock feathers and bundled sage distress stain.

Another quick blast of the heat tool then I used frayed burlap over another couple of his stencils, stamped with a crackle and wood edge background in frayed burlap, his drippy butterfly in black archival before going in with the blending tool, more frayed burlap and some black soot.   Then I used the same distress ink & frayed burlap on some of his crinkle ribbon,  originally it had stencilled black soot dots but I forgot that DI isnt waterproof and went in with the mister to crinkle the ribbon.  Ooops I waited til it dried and redid the dots.  This was attached with a word pin and charm.  Finally I used some of those wonderful word stickers, they read encourage, imagination, possibility which totally described Tims fab class at Coventry.   These were outlined with a black soot marker.  Oddly the texture is showing more in the photo than it does in real life.



Not sure if I'm going to add anything to this one or not as I quite like it as is.

I started off by glueing a poppy diecut from Memory box before covering the tag with embossing paste.  While the paste was wet I used a serated plastic knife to scrape off the excess and gouge wavy patterns.  Quick blast with the heat gun (then a quick dash to the shops)  I chopped the flower heads from another diecut and glued them in place to raise the flower detail.  I then used 3 distress paints, seedless preserves, spun sugar and chipped sapphire and blobbed them over the dried paste, massive mist with some water and I tipped the tag this way and that to allow the paints to run into each other.  Lots of heatgunning later I managed to bubble and blister the paint in a few places for a bit more texture.  I then used blue, pink, teal & white gilding waxes and rubbed over the flower and a few small patches of the wavy pattern to highlight the textures and went in with some black soot distress ink.  Time to test my new white Dylusions ink spray because it was getting a bit too dark, yay I like the way this ink gives a nice spatter instead of heavy centred splodge.

It was really fun spending playday actually playing lol

Lantern gift box

2 posts in a few hours, it is me posting honestly lol.

 I made this one last week to hold a bag of cadburys choccie buttons for Martine at Oysterstamps.  Sadly the bag of buttons was just a wee bit too big for the lid to stay put properly, I did tell Martine it meant she needed to munch a few ;o)

White stardream with holo mirri.

Mesh die from spellbinders
Frostyville border, and Precious snowflakes
Pine branch from Cheery Lynn
and tattered pinecones from Tim Holtz
Couture Creations embossing folder
Wooden knob painted with silver distress paint.

Shedloads of glamour dust glitter on the pinecones & snowflakes because I know Martine likes her bling.

what an amazing 3 days

I bless the day I found the docrafts forum, nope I'm not keen on their products but I have made the most incredible friends and I have had 3 days of absolute fun and laughs thanks to some of them.

Friday morning was road trip day and after a few
hiccups (thanks Ade.. not lol)  me, Jackie & Tracy set off from Bristol at just gone 9 to pick up Noreen from the south coast then it was a up to one of my very favorite show & internet shops... Oysterstamps for about 2pm.  We were met at the door by the man who thinks he's boss.. Graham, he must have recognised us from the Sincerely Yours shows in Taunton as he instantly said.. "you must be the docraft Bristol ladies on a road trip to Brighton" and proceeded to escort us in and bellow for the real boss, the lovely Tracy.  Kettle on and I was whisked upstairs to say hello to my absolutely fabulous buddy Martine.  It was really great to see them again, havent seen them since Taunton in March and they're such a hoot to be with.  Then it was back downstairs into the shop where I have to be honest I just stood and stared... omg there was way too much to choose from, which first.. ink or rubber??  rubber or ink??  The ladies that work there are soo friendly and the other customers were very chatty as well.  You can tell how chatty they were... it was quarter of an hour past their closing time and we were still teasing each other.  Tracy, next time just say bugger off we're closed lol.   I'm not going to tittle tattle on what anyone bought other than Kay.. who'd kept sending texts asking if we'd remembered to get her dies.. yes Kay.. they were the first thing in my sticky mitts lol.

Me, at Oyster Stamps.. I'm totally befuddled by the choice and really cant make my mind up lol.

I havent got the foggiest about which motorway we hopped on then for the quick trip down to our hotel at Burgess Hill, just like the rest of the day it had been nonstop chat and laughs in the car but I will admit to being pleased to see it when we got there, 6+ hours of driving and I was knackered.

Booking into the hotel was pretty quick and we soon sorted out who was sharing with who and even more importantly which had the big bed and which had the lil one under the window.  Quick head down to the restaurant where we spent the next few hours eating and drinking.  We were quite good and only had 1 proper drink.. the rest was tea or water.  It was decided that we'd have a little wander to let our dinner go down and at 10.30 we headed off out.. to Tesco!  If anyone had seen us messing about they'd have thought we were drunk or high!!  Tracy wanted to climb into one of the kiddie rides then we were all screeching at a headline in one of the trashy gossip mags...  something about leeches and multiple orgasms!!  How who wouldnt have laughed at that!  I bet Tesco were glad to see the back of us when we left.  Back to our rooms we went and I was asleep within minutes.

Next morning we were up bright and early, quick shower and dressed before spending a leisurely hour eating brekkie then heading off to meet some of our docraft friends, Alex, Avril, Pauline and Peter at the Glitterpot.  We'd already met Alex before so I knew (and liked) at least one person... sometimes when you meet folk off the net they really arent the fun people you thought they were, instead they're miserable old buggers who you can't wait to see the back of but this certainly wasnt true this time. 
Within just a couple of moments of meeting it was just like being with best mates that you've known for years.  I dont know what glitterpot were expecting but I bet it wasnt a bunch of grownups screeching and howling with laughter or the smutty remarks about Noreen holding Peters "bits" for him, or his remarks to Avril that it's been so long the she wouldn't know what to do with it!  Poor Vickie from Docrafts was supposed to be demoing that day but with us lot stood by her table I dont think she had a cat in hells chance as we were scaring the other customers away lol.  All too soon it was time to say cheerio, amidst hugs and kisses.. and a few damp eyes.


 Alex, Tracy & me.


Jackie texting Kay back for the gazillionth time lol

Noreen, we're not sure what's tickling her fancy but a lovely candid shot.

Avril with her jar of lemon curd.


Avril chatting with Vickie while Pauline is laughing at something.. not sure what but chances are it was nawty lol












Alex had to go home to hubby and her boys (who I met a few years ago and Alex assures me are still as incredibly nice & well behaved).  Peter & Avril went off for lunch, not sure if Pauline joined them or not and we headed off for the CraftBarn.

I must now publicly apologise again to the lovely lady demoing the Tando range....  I was sat by the table.. leaned over and a huge box of teeny shapes went flying through the air!  Thankfully most landed in my lap and I very carefully, to avoid flashing my knickers, managed to tip them from my skirt back into the box on the desk while Jackie got the rest from the floor.  It did break the ice tho and there was a lot of laughing going on at the table. Once we'd made our choices from the vast array of inks, paints & stamps we headed over the road for a much needed cuppa befo
re heading back home.

This wasnt the end of the trip though as we had playday today... homage to sir timmy where we were due to play about with inks & tags while regaling (making jealous) the others with our tales from the class with Sir Tim and our road trip.  Jackie has a handy little gadget on her phone that measures noise... 74 decibels wasnt uncommon today!!  We hooted and hollered all day long, and get this... I made 2 tags!! I never make anything at playday as I'm always making sure everyone is managing to do the project ok but today.. stuff it.. I had new inks, paints, pastes, stencils and stamps to play with and by gawd I was going to play lol.

From 9am on Friday until I said my final cheerios at 4.30 today I have laughed all day and evening and the only time it's been quiet has been while we were sleeping!  I can honestly say this has been an amazing 3 days, roll on next spring when not only do we do it all again but this time it's going to be a convey with most of the other playday ladies coming to join in the fun. Once Jackie lets me have the incriminating photos I'll edit this post so everyone can see.

Huge huge thanks to you all.