Soul: The Immortality of Being by Carol Fox

Each day we have a post from a That’s Crafty! Design Team member and a Relics and Artifacts Ambassador and the blog posts will go live every day at 11.00am GMT and 6.00am EST.

We hope you will join in the collaboration each day, as there will be two very special prizes! One lucky winner will receive a Gift Certificate for £25 from That’s Crafty! and the other lucky winner will receive 3 sets of Relics and Artifacts Matte Resin Craft Blanks of their choice, from Relics and Artifacts!

Here’s what you have to do for a chance to win:

1. Visit both blogs each day and leave a comment.

2. Become a follower of the That’s Crafty! blog.

It’s that easy! The winners will be picked at random on Tuesday 2nd May 2017.

We've 2 posts today on the That's Crafty! blog. The first is a truly stunning book box from Carol Fox and the second is from Laura Holland, featuring a sneaky peak of some new That's Crafty! items coming soon.

Soul: The Immortality of Being by Carol Fox

There is a legend that if you can manage to capture a piece of a soul as one is dying it can be stored in a ceramic heart until such time as suitable vessel can be found to house it. The ceremony has to be performed at a certain time in the celestial calendar that occurs only every five years. Therefore the heart must be stored in a safe and hidden place. I found such a hiding place when I took over the management of a large library.

As soon as I found it I knew what it was, the hollowed out book with the overly ornate cover and the warning on the front made my heart race as I opened it with trepidation, expecting to find it empty of it’s hidden treasure.

But it was complete, but it had been sealed never to be used for its intended purpose. The heart sealed with a sacred cross so the evil within could never walk the earth again, a blessed jewelled icon added above the hidden heart, and an iron coil added to tether it to the earth forever, further condemning the enclosed the soul to a lonely purgatory.

You can see how I made my Book of Souls in my YouTube video

Supply List

That’s Crafty! Dinky Stencil - Honeycomb Background - TC002 
That’s Crafty! Surfaces MDF Uprights - Decorative Top
Grunge Paste 
Infusions – Rusty Car
DecoArt Media Paints – Various Colours
Joggles Stencil - Rosettes
Artistceller Stencil - Sacred Hearts Series - Divine
Relics and Artifacts - Cross Icons
Relics and Artifacts - Rising Spirit 3
Bohemian Jewels – Aquamarine
Dresden Trim - Daisy Chain
Black Ink
Gesso
Glue

Carol x

Listen to the Waves by Laura Holland

It’s been an absolute pleasure to take part in this collaboration with the Relics and Artifacts team and it gave me the chance to use the Relics and Artifacts for the first time and it certainly won't be the last! They are so smooth and are a joy to paint.

First I assembled the shrine and then gave it a very quick coat of gesso. I then painted DecoArt Texture Sand on the back and sides of the shrine and when this was dry, I used Prima White Sand Paste through the Dinky Fossil stencil. The Prima Sand Paste is nice and thick and holds its shape really well, so was perfect for creating the fossils.

Next I painted the front panel of the shrine with an aquamarine shimmer paint (coming soon!) and when dry, I brushed on some Pentart Crackle Medium. Once the crackle glaze was dry, I painted on a medium to thick coat of an ivory acrylic paint and waited for the cracks to appear!

While waiting for the magic to happen, I painted the shells from the Relics and Artifacts Coquille set. I used black gesso on the largest shell, leaving the inside the natural resin colour and painted the outside edge and back black. I also painted one of the smaller shells with the black gesso and left the other 2 small shells natural. I gave the unpainted shells a coat of Prima Art Alchemy Paint Opal Magic in Violet-Green and the gessoed shells a coat of Pink-Blue. These paints are brilliant for getting a different effect when using the same colour but a different base colour. I then used a patina paint set from Pentart on another of the shells and one of the small icons.

Next I stamped Marina (who is from one of our 2 new stamp sets that will be launched very soon) onto stamping card with Memento Ink and then embossed her with clear gloss embossing powder. I coloured her in with a mixture of Distress Markers and shimmer paints and then cut her out. I cut the seahorse off from her hair and stamped and embossed him again and coloured him in with a mixture of two colours of shimmer paint.

I then moved onto the inside of the shrine. I painted this with the paints from the patina kit, graduating the colours as I moved down the shrine. I spritzed it with water and then blended the colours more. When this was dry, I stamped and embossed the fish and coloured them in with Posca pens. I then stamped and embossed some phrases from the Marina stamp set onto the front of the crackled shrine and then it was ready to add all my elements.

I glued some Prima Art Stones to the bottom of the shrine and added a large pearl to the center of one of the shells. Another two of the shells were glued to the bottom corners of the front of the shrine and the patinated shell and icon were glued to the top. Next I glued Marina to the largest shell and popped her in place in the shrine. The seahorses were added to the front and for the finishing touch, I added some netting to the front of the shrine.

PRODUCTS USED: 

That's Crafty! Surfaces Large Art Shrine - Round Top

That's Crafty! Dinky Stencil - Fossil - TC081

Prima Relics and Artifacts - Coquille

DecoArt Media Texture Sand Paste - White

Prima Art Extravagance Texture Paste - White Sand

Pentart Crackle Medium

Pentart Patina Paint Kit

Memento Ink – Tuxedo Black

WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder

Prima Finnabair Art Alchemy Acrylic Paints – Opal Magic Pink-Blue, Violet-Green

Black Gesso

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Baubles

Glue

Spray Bottle

Please hop over to the Relics and Artifacts blog to see the fabulous project from Milagros.