No More Shopping Sins. . . . . . . . . . At Our Creative Corner

Hello Everyone and a very happy and healthy New Year to you all!

(I'm hoping that 2014 brings more good times to our family than perhaps some of us experienced in 2013.) 

A new challenge begins at Our Creative Corner today, hosted by the wonderfully talented Claudia. You are asked to search out supplies which you bought but have yet to use - we all have those little goodies hiding away somewhere don't we? We may be holding onto them because they are so precious or perhaps you bought something and then wondered what on earth to do with it!

This month we have a wonderful sponsor on board too for a randomly drawn entry. We are delighted to be able to offer a prize, kindly provided by Crafty Individuals! Not only is Claudia's challenge a great deal of fun but you get the chance to win a lovely Crafty Individuals treat just for entering. No brainer really isn't it?

Why not pop over to Our Creative Corner and see what my other teamies have come up with? I promise that you're in for a treat if you do. The best part is that you get to see all the design team's work now,  at the start of each month. A feast of inspiration for you all!

I had absolutely no problem fishing something out of my cupboard. I bought these flowers when I first started crafting with any regularity so they have been hanging around for nearly two years. They are very pretty but I have never found a way to combine them in my work - I prefer to make my own these days!

Delicate 'baby's breath' flowers which were just asking for a makeover!

Here's what I made to help show off my 'new look' flowers:

A beautiful sunny day took me outside to take my pictures. Some detail was lost in the shadows but you can see the details in the coming photographs.

The flowers were coated with acrylic wax followed by some rusting powder. This was left for a while then sprayed with vinegar and left to dry. So simple! The flowers were mounted on a painted scrap from my 'bits' box.

Some rusty wire was used to make springs and tiny rusty bells were attached to the ends.

I've had a number of rather battered bracelets for sometime now and decided to cut one and use it to finish the bottom of the tag. Some DecoArt Lustre was smoothed across the bracelet and buffed.

An oval shape was cut from card and coloured with distress ink. This beautiful Chapel Road stamp was then added using VersaFine ink. The edges of the oval were roughly embossed with gold powder.

The tag background was coloured with distress ink and then architectural and floral images were stamped using distress inks in various tones. The edges of the tag were shaded with Versafine ink. Embossed gold script was used randomly in the background of the tag.
A little rusting powder was used around the edges of the stamped oval too.

I still had a few of my leaves left so decided to use one to mount the oval on. Before using the leaf it was coated with some matte medium to help preserve it and prevent it crumbling.
The top of the tag is finished with some chunky jute and rusty wire.

I hope this inspires you to go and have a look over at Our Creative Corner to see the gorgeous pieces made by the other members of the team. It's over to you then to rummage through your craft stuff and find something that you've never used before in a project of your choice. Link up with us at Our Creative Corner and you may be the lucky winner of the Crafty Individuals prize; you may be chosen as one of our top three talents by Claudia and you could even be our 'top talent' next month! What are you waiting for? Can't wait to see what you come up with!