Tick Tock by Amanda Southern

Hi Everyone

I thought I would share with you this week one of my design team makes that supported the launch of the fabulous new range of That's Crafty! stamps designed by Kelly Horton. Kelly Horton has a range of colouring books that feature her unique 'Little Darlings' characters and in collaboration with That's Crafty! has, for the first time, produced a range of stamps in her unmistakable style named the 'Steampunk Darlings'. This made their debut on Hochanda last Thursday 2nd July and you will still be able to watch all the Thursday and Friday shows through Hochanda's rewind service. So for this week I have a couple of my makes that supported the TV launch, obviously all items featured in those shows are now available in That's Crafty! online shop. Along with the launch of these new stamps, and there are 6 sets to choose from, was the introduction of new skinny MDF Shrines and new Craftyboard pieces.

Here's What I Did:

I started with the stamped image, stamping in Archival ink on stamping card and coloured her in using coloured pencils, these are fabulous images to lose yourself in colouring. Once coloured I just added a little blended Distress ink around the outside of the clock and then cut her out. Now to create the space to display her.

I chose to use the cogs tops MDF Skinny Shrine, these glue together really easily. I glued together the shrine part and then used one of my That's Crafty! Perfect Background papers to cover the inside. I also used the same paper to cover the front. Now this was more a labour of love as once I had glued it on and let the glue dry I had to remove all the paper within the cogs and around the cogs, this I found easiest using an emery board and a small metal file and sanded them to a clean edge. The addition of extra cogss come from the same kit as you get 6 MDF cogs with the frame. These I rusted up using a combination of Multi Surface Paints, Grey, Sandstone, Orange & Chestnut Brown, which I layer up using a piece of washing up sponge. The large cog, that my image sits within is from the Craftyboard sheet of cogs and given the same paint treatment.

In the background I have used more of the new Craftyboard pieces, these ones being the clock faces which I painted with Black Multi Surface Paint. I wanted the clocks to have a back to them so I created a sheet of crackle card with a base layer of Grey Multi Surface Paint, then a layer of Crackle Glaze which you let dry to the point of touch dry and then a top layer of Sandstone paint and then just watch it crackle. Once that was dry I glued the painted clock faces to it and trimmed around. I cut down the clocks to fit in a staggered way within the box, they are all at different depths within the shrine. I use waste pieces of MDF to build up the 3D effect.

Once all my Craftboard pieces were in place I glued on the front of the cog shrine, added my painted cogs and placed my image within the frame. 

The final addition were the words 'Tick Tock'. These are also Craftyboard pieces and I also gave them the same crackle effect that I did to the backgrounds for the clocks, the crackle is a bit more subtle as the pieces are smaller, and I added some shading with Distress ink.

Here's What I Used:

That's Crafty! Clear Stamps Set - Steampunk Darlings Set 2

The complete range of Steampunk Darlings stamps can be found HERE

Archival Ink Pad - Black

Ranger Stamping Card

That's Crafty! Surfaces Skinny Art Shrine - Cog Top

That's Crafty! Multi purpose Craft Adhesive

That's Crafty! Craftyboard Cogs Sheet

That's Crafty! Craftyboard Clocks Sheet

That's Crafty! Crackle Glaze

That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints - Grey, Black, Sandstone, Orange, Chestnut Brown

That's Crafty! A4 Perfect Backgrounds SET 2

That's Crafty! Craftyboard Alphabet Set 2

Distress Ink Pad - Black Soot

Ranger Blending Tool

Coloured Pencils - I used Prismacolour pencils

Sanding file & emery board

Have a fantastic week and I will see you all next Tuesday

Love

Amanda X