WOYWW #533: Paper lantern

Here I am again for WOYWW, or as Julia likes to call it, Whizzday. That's the day when we whizz around each other's desks - and also the day that marks a new week in the WOYWW calendar following the one that has just whizzed by. And there's no whizzday without a desk share, so here's mine:

I did a good tidy up and unearthed a few bits and pieces that I was going to use for a mini project, but never got around to it. I did finish my lantern though, which I can show you today. I wish I could give you a tutorial as well, but the truth is a bodged my way through it. I know there are some Sizzix lantern dies, but much as I wish, I can't keep buying all their dies, so I make do with what I have.

This was done with an old frame die and the pediments bigz die. It's sitting in a shadow box that I made out of paper. Similarly, the top is an upside down shadow box. They're easy to make just the right size. There's a tutorial here. I covered the whole thing in crackle paste and then inked it up with acrylic inks and used a bit of gilding wax to bring out the highlights.  I used vellum in the windows and gold embossed some stamped images. Metal corner embellishments complete the look.

And here it is in action with some LEDs inside - it comes off the base for that purpose. 

In order to restore Oreo to his rightful place on my blog following last week's K9 feature, here he is lounging in my husband's reading chair - who's currently on his way back from LA (literally sitting on a plane somewhere over the Atlantic as I write this), so he doesn't know! Oreo is allowed on this chair under strict supervision with a zero tolerance rule - one dig of the claws and he's booted off - and he knows!

Happy #533! Hope you have a good week!

WOYWW #532: Faux batik technique

Good morning lovely people of WOYWW! I can't believe we're almost halfway through August now but I can really appreciate the slightly cooler temperatures. I'm on holiday at the moment, but I'm  confined indoors due to my injured ankles. I'm glad to say, they're healing nicely and I hope they'll be as good as new by next week, when I return to work.

My husband is in California for a conference this week, and son and I are really enjoying having the house to ourselves! OK, we miss him a little bit, but not enough to stop us from having fun, staying up very late, having midnight feasts and watching films together. Last night he had some of his friends stay over -  they're all sleeping downstairs like not-so-little angels, probably until mid-afternoon as they were still up at 5 o'clock!

I have several projects on the go at the moment and a few more in the pipeline. I took this photo of my desk on Monday night, trying a 'faux batik' technique that I'd learned about in this month's Craft Stamper magazine. A perfect opportunity for me to try my new Tim Holtz travel stamp platform - I must be the last crafter in the world to get one! I never realised I needed one before!

The faux batik technique involves clear embossing a stamped image on watercolour card, then using watercolours for the background - so far just a simple resist technique, but here's the twist - you then remove the embossing with a hot iron and a sheet of copy paper placed over the design. This melts and lifts all the sticky embossing, leaving you with a smooth surface, which creates a look similar to batik designs.

In the first example I used watercolours on the background, but then I moved on to distress oxides, which created stronger colours, as you can see.

Then I tried the same technique with a stencil. I didn't get a good result putting the embossing ink through the stencil, but then I had an idea to use the inked stencil like a stamp which worked much better! Nice and grungy - probably my favourite of all these attempts.

Gardening news: We bought this lovely plant just a few weeks ago for only £2 from our local garden centre run by the agricultural college down the road. It has since tripled in size and doing very well in its new spot. It's called Campfire Coleus according to the label and looks a lovely orange/red/purple when the sun shines on it.

Instead of an Oreo photo today, let me share a Facebook post by my dear friend, Jackie! This is her dog, Chum - isn't he just the coolest dog you've ever seen? Pssst, we mustn't let Oreo see this post! (edit: if you can't see the photo of Chum in the embedded FB post below, you can find it on Jackie's blog HERE.  He's really worth a look - not just your average dog!)

Have fun everyone and enjoy the last few weeks of the Summer! xx