One green bottle

I have a pretty simple taste in alcohol.....gin, lager, martini, Pimms, and champagne, yes rather an eclectic mix isn't it. The challenge over at PaperArtsy for this fortnight is bottles, so I needed a bottle to decorate. After singing 10 green bottle countless time I finally got round to creating a piece for the challenge which also fitted in with some lovely new June challenges out in blogland. The themes everywhere are summer sunshine which suits me fine. The first thing I associate with bottles and summer sunshine is sipping lager on our wonderful annual holidays in Rhodes. Lots of you will have seen these photos but for those who haven't ...............this  really is a drink with a view.

This photo was taken last September and it really made me think of the beach. Now I don't have any Mythos bottles but I opened my fridge and took out one of these......

a small bottle of french lager or "Golden beer" as the label states. I had no empty ones so I made the brave decision to open this and pour away the lager as I wanted the bottle to decorate...well I could not really be drinking lager at 1pm at home, now could I?

I went down to my studio and decided to recreate my Rhodes sunshine memories on my bottle.

I spend hours walking along the beach looking for shells when we go the beach on holiday and I always bring a few home to add to the jar I keep in my studio. I had one of my light bulb moments...why not add some to the bottle? I would make a treasures of the sea bottle. I can remember as a child decorating flower pots with shells by pushing shells into plaster. I thought about what I could use as I don't have any plaster. I decided that grunge paste might work.

 I chose some beach like Fresco finish paints (I won this set in a challenge)

 I painted 2 coats of Caribbean blue, added some crackle paint and then a coat of Banana

 and watched the crackles appear

 I love the way the blue sea colour shines through

I found some sea themed charms and coloured them with alcohol inks and I filled a tiny corked bottle with glitter which could be "Mermaid scales" (I still believe in mermaids just like I do fairies and Father Christmas :0) I also tied in an interesting shell which had a convenient hole. I added strings and some remnant rubs to the tiny bottle

I then started attaching some shells to the base using grunge paste and added some stamping. 

I bet you are wondering if this all worked out..................................................................................................................................................................................................................yes I am delighted to say it did and here is my finished beach treasure bottle.

 I went over the Grunge paste with yellow and brown acrylic paint to look like sand. I just love the way the crackle paint worked.

 Here are some of the charms. The beach themed stamps are made by Crafty Individuals.

 I could not resist adding one of my lampwork glass beads from my stash.

 You can see that I added "bubbles"with white acrylic paint dabbed on using bottle tops. I even added some of my doodling with a thin paint brush to add to the effect.

I would like to enter my one green bottle into the following challenges;

Paper Artsy #10 Bottles

Love 2 Create anything goes mixed media

Allsorts vintage

Mixed Media World Vintage

That Craft Place shabby chic

The artistic stamper summer is on its way

Vintage stamping hot sunny colours

Our creative corner what makes you smile just looking at my bottle makes me smile and remember sunny days on the beach. Roll on the summer!

Rhedd's creative spirit anything goes

Craft my life anything goes but cards

Creative Inspirations for a friend

Noor! UK Here comes summer

Crafting Muskateers Shades of summer

If the forecasters have got it right we may be heading into a really flaming June here in the UK...I hope so.....I adore the feel of the sunshine on a balmy summer's day.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

A rock pool treasure niche

During my studio time this week I have been working on a little project, or rather a niche, as this is the theme over at Paperartsy. I was very inspired by Leandra's introduction last Sunday but quite challenged as to what I would make. Now that that I am back outside in my garden studio I can just leave WIP on my desk, which I love. No pressure to clear anything away. I also wanted to combine a couple of other fun challenges including "Through the looking glass" over at A Vintage journey.

Initially I rather struggled with these themes, Niche to me means a little hidey hole to put something treasured on display. I also wanted some different ways of using "glass". I had a brainstorming few days of trying to think of a theme and finally came up with an idea to make a little whimsical piece for my Hb.

As my blogging friends know I always love to collect shells when we go on holiday and my very patient Hb tolerates me very well and sometimes accompanies me on my little searches along the shoreline.
This just one of those moments a few years back on Kephalonia.

Sometimes I spot sea glass which is always a pretty find. We often holiday on the Greek Islands and I always bring a few of my treasures home. I have a big glass jar in my studio and after carefully washing I put them in there. I often use them in my crafting but the rest of the time I just love to look at them and remember our wonderful sunshine filled holidays. When I Iift the lid there is still a slight smell of the sea...mmm. I decided I would make a little niche to display a few of the shells and include a piece of sea glass as a little sunshine reminder for him.

I had no real plan of how I would do this when I started but I often find that my inspiration starts to flow once I get going. I wanted to play with my new Mermaid lagoon Distress ink and I also chose Cracked Pistachio, Tumbled glass (of course for the VJ theme) and Vintage Photo DIs too. I wanted a beachy browns and blues theme.

I made a little round niche box from 2 round die cuts and a piece of card which I added some book pages and stenciling to for texture.

These pages are actually from  Dicken's A tale of two cities which my Hb gave to me for my crafting. He is an avid reader so it was perfect to use for texture.

 I blended the inks and also added archival ink through my latest TH stencil. I used the great free Visible Image stamp from Craft Stamper as it could represent waves. They have a great competition for using it on FB running. I also had a plan for a quote to include on the other side of this piece of card on the right.

I gold embossed my Visible Image stamp quote on the lid. I added perfect pearls too for some shine.

 I didn't want to use ribbon so I used twine and when I added this to the edges of my niche, inspiration stuck me........I would make the inside like a little rock pool and even make a message in a bottle.

 I put teeny weeny shells in the bottle and a little key and tied the neck with twine and a heart which I altered with alcohol inks. This would be "the keys to my heart". This little bottle is only about 1" or 3cm tall.

 Yes I'm sorry I am a born romantic and after 36 years of being with M, I won't be changing.

So here is my finished niche. It was so hard to photograph so thought I would show some photos as it is opens up.

This is the lid tied with twine. To give an idea of size it is 8cm or 3" in diameter.

This is a side view showing the pearl fastening I made

untie the twine....

and here is my love message to my Hb. It's a T Holtz quote stamp.

Underneath you can see my little rock pool niche emerging

Take out the message in a bottle, complete with the keys to my heart ;0)

and these shells and piece of sea glass sit glistening in their rock pool niche

In case you are thinking I have filled it with water...the secret is Glossy Accents and a sprinkle of frantage. I had such fun making this, my always vivid imagination got really carried away. I gave it to my Hb this evening and his initial silence as he opened the lid and read the love letter made me think he quite likes it and it stirred lots of our seaside memories.

I would like to enter my rock pool niche into the following challenges.

Paperartsy Niches
A Vintage Journey Through the looking glass
Rhedd's creative spirit anything goes
Simon says stamp Monday In the middle my rock pool is in the middle of my niche
Inspiration Journal Everything goes
Papertake Weekly words words words
Stamps and stencils  anything goes
That's Crafty  grunge grunge grunge
Simon Says stamp Wednesday make your own background
Cute card Thursday charmed I used a heart charm and a key charm in and on my little glass bottle.

Thanks for visiting me and a warm welcome to my latest followers, it's great to see you here  following my creative journey. I'm off to my Finnabair inspired/Prima workshop on Sunday....I am really excited. I will share my makes with you next week.

Tomorrow we're off to Southampton for some Daisy Jane time. A pretty perfect weekend in my books.

Enjoy your weekend and I hope you get some crafting time yourselves.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

To the Beach

How exciting that we now have a new King-to-be, born yesterday afternoon on the hottest day since 2006. Many congratulations to Kate and William and welcome to the as yet un named Prince of Cambridge. The world's press had been camped outside the hospital and it was so joyful to see the news announced live on TV last night just before 9pm. It makes the arrival of my darling grandbaby in November feel even closer. I can't wait.

The girls over at the Ribbon girls have even hosted a great blue giveaway for the Royal baby, take a peep here

Unbelievably this is my penultimate card as GD for the ladies of  Loves Rubberstamps. This week the challenge is called "How Charming" in other words you need to use a charm on your project. Do pop over to join the fun. As you all know that is never difficult for me as I have lots and lots of charms as I use them to make my bag charms with. I decided that I wanted to make another of the amazing accordion cards again and inspired by the summer weather and wanting to use some of my pretty holiday shells I set to work on my latest piece.
Here it is;

and here are a couple of close ups

The stamp is a Whimsy Wee stamp called Goldie. She is such a sweet mermaid. I coloured her with my Promarkers and highlighted with Prismacolor pencils.  I fussy cut her out and have used Glossy Accents to make her bubble appear real. The Smile sentiment is from my Lili of the Valley Pretty Vintage sets. You will spot 2 charms here, an anchor and a sweet little sea horse. I have also used for the first time some Stampendous Frantage embossing enamel...OMGoodness I am in love, this is such fun to use. I really thought it worked well as "sand". I made another Craftwork Card Candi flower too and there are more of my sweet holiday shells here.  I had such fun making this card.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Heck of a Challenge The Sea

Country View Crafts Summer sizzler

Rhedd and Rosie's Challenge anything goes

Visible Image Inspired by a song my song is that fab summer beach song "Under the boardwalk" by The Drifters...I now can't stop humming it ;0)

Crafting with Dragonflies unusual folds you can see my tutorial  for this on my blog post here entitled Happiness is...

Simon Says Stamp By the Sea

Charizma Cards Girlie

Penny Black and More Dies/punches

Stamping Sensations Summer Colours

Make it Monday Linky challenge #150

Continuing the theme of using charms I thought I would  show you some of my recent bag charm commissions....I have also got a seaside themed bag charm for sale here in my Etsy shop using a mermaid charm.

and here is a whole bunch of others...I thought they looked fun together. If you would like any particular themed bag charm made for yourself or as a pressie do email me, I can cover most requests. The beads I use are one of a kind handmade artisan glass lampwork beads. Each bag charm is totally unique. They cost £6.75 each, postage is extra depending on your location. I post worldwide. 

The sun has continued to shine every day and this is the longest heat wave we have had since 2006. My daughter lives near the sea and I thought I would share a couple of photos from our recent visit.

 She's just like her Mum, fascinated by shells...

There's nothing quite like a visit to the seaside is there ;0)

And if you wondered what Billy is getting up to in this heat

Yes he is "flat out!" ;0)

Do pop back here on Thursday as I have a jewellery giveaway planned...celebrations ahead ;0)

Bye for now,

Jane x