Dream Catcher

Today I have a dreamcatcher to share that I made as a birthday gift for a friend to accompany the card that I had made. This follows on from my last post Friendship & Flowers.

Using one of the mdf dreamcatchers from my A4 carrier sheet and mdf words from the "Inspiring words" embellishment sheet by The Dreamees, I gave them both a coat of matt medium before painting them with my dinky inkie reinker in lemon drizzle by The Dreamees. 

It gave the mdf a golden shimmer.  I did give them a few coats, letting them dry between each coat to make the most of that shimmer.

I repeated this process for the mdf feathers using my dinky inkie sparkle reinkers and actually managed to get a picture with the shimmer which isn't always easy to capture. It's one of the reasons that I love these inks, especially in reinker form, they give just enough shimmer to a project without overdoing the sparkle.

As my dreamcatcher is about 95cm in diameter and 2cm thick I needed to be mindful about what I was going to hang on it. So I thought the organza ribbon would be perfect as I had lots of charms, beads, and gems that would catch the sunlight, adding a little twinkle.

To balance the dreamcatcher out and so that the ribbons would hang better, I added an embellishment to each side of the ribbons. This also covered up any glue from attaching the ribbon.

I die cut some tiny flowers from pearlescent card to sit on the base of the dreamcatcher and stuck a ring of gems in the centre of the dreamcatcher.

I also made sure that the back of the dreamcatcher was finished off neatly and added the same row of die-cut flowers. I then thread some metallic silver yarn through the holes in the dreamcatcher, making a hanging loop at the top and adding a few seed beads to the ends for decoration and to stop them from fraying.

I wanted the dreamcatcher to be light enough for the gentle breeze the catch the ribbons and the light reflect of the shimmer in the paint, along with the embellishments.

I made a box to match the card that I had made earlier, saving a few of the pink peony flowers that I had stamped and embossed with white embossing powder for the top of the box.

I didn't actually get around to making my own dreamcatcher, which was intended for my garden this summer, but there's no hurry for that one, as there's always next year now and it will be one thing less in my garden at the moment to keep that squirrel out of mischief.

Have a great day whatever you have planned

Happy Crafting

Brush Art

I was inspired by a lot of the paintbrush art that is about at the moment and as I had a paintbrush mdf embellishment sheet by the Dreamees, I thought that I would attempt to create my interpretation in a smaller form.

These 2mm mdf paintbrush embellishment sheets are really easy to store away until you need to use them and also prevent smaller elements from getting broken, as well as making it easier to colour whilst in the carrier sheet.  The paintbrushes are about 12.5cm tall.

To recreate the brush head, I used raffia/jute ribbon and added a panel to the brush which I created out of cardboard, then painted with a little Dreamees silver dinky inkies reinker.

For the splash of paint on the end of the brush, I mixed a little strawberry fields sparkle dinky inkie with some structure paste.  I used some mini scrabble letters from my stash to embellish. I saved all the letters from an old travel game.....as, like always, think these things might come in handy in my crafting.

I added a slender paintbrush and glitter bottle using gel medium to stick them down as it gives a clear strong bond, especially on mixed media surfaces.  The 'Inspire' wording was also from one of my Dreamees embellishment sheets and mixed a little structure paste with my dinky inkies to get a textured topping on the letters, not forgetting a little drip on the button that I used for the 'i'. Another really handy mdf embellishment sheet they have are the faux bulldog clips; which I have painted and added to the base of the brush.

I covered the handle of my brush in some remnants of glitter paper that I had and really liked the colourways. The mdf brushes are light enough to add to a card if you just wanted to paint or just add your papers to them too.

I am enjoying making smaller projects, perhaps as my crafting pace has had to slow down to a crawl now at times, as long as I feel inspired to create something, no matter what it is then I will keep going.

Have a great day, whatever you have planned

Happy Crafting

Dreamee Flower Hanging Plaque

Today I thought I'd share a hanging plaque that I made for one of my lovely crafty friends who has been through some very testing times lately, putting all the recent world events aside.  I wanted to make something to cheer her up so about three weeks ago I decided to make something for her and as it was  through crafting with Dreamees that brought us together, I decided that was where I would start.

 I had just purchased some Watercolour pencils from the Dreamees website using my membership voucher and although I am not a fan of colouring I do enjoy painting with my inks and have seen the Dreamees ladies demo with these pencils many times and seen how well they blend when mixed with a little water or a little of their clear sparkle reinkers.

First I heat embossed the Dreamees Forget Me Not flower stamps with super fine silver Wow embossing powder on some Hunkydory Colour Me cardstock which was 250gsm. Great cardstock for stamping, super smooth and unfortunately down to my last 2 pieces.

I partly and lightly coloured the flowers before using a fine paintbrush and a few drops of water in a dish to blend the colours. This was my first attempt at water colouring. Room for improvement but I was really happy with the result. These pencils have lots of pigment which made it easier to blend the colour for a more toned look.

After cutting these out, I gently curled the petals my ball tool to add a little shape.  I find a quilling tool really handy for curling the petals and leaves sometimes when you want to give them a more natural shape and add a bit more dimension. 

I used a little of the Dreamees Sparkle Silver Mist dinky inky reinker with a few drops of water and painted the tips of the flowers and leaves to add that simmer, morning dew to them.

Dreamee pearls in the centre of my flowers 

In the Dreamees First Issue of their Live to Craft Love to Craft magazine, there is a selection of lilac toned papers, as in  the luxurious lilac pad on their website. I have used one of these papers to cover a deckle edged heart Dreamee mdf piece from a collection I had and the decorative topper die by Sara Davies own collection from Crafters Companion.

I had a think about the sentiment for the plaque and thought this one would be an inspirational one for someone who always manages to find the strength inside to pick herself up and carry on no matter what life throws at her.

This stamp Reach for the Moon is by Inkylicious. I made the little heart out of kraft card and used some of the Dreamees sentiment stamps.

I added the string pearl strings weaving them around the flowers on the plaque, finishing it off with some pearl stars and a piece of pink satin ribbon to hang it from.

Intended as a surprise to brighten my friends day.

Happy Crafting

Michelle

x