It's a bit nippy out there

I guess we've all got used to this mild weather so the cold stuff came as a bit of a shock.  Yesterday was awful,  we had the lot, hail, snow, sleet, rain,  a gale blowing...  delightful it was not!   I would have preferred to stay put and do some crafting but had to do my voluntary work,  luckily I was in the warm.

So today the craft stuff came out.  Decided to decorate the two little notelet boxes I picked up on Monday.  Just plain old cardboard, just 4" by 2.5".   I decided to use some TH distress ink pads and the alcohol inks.  The distress inks make a good base, much better than poster paint.  So both boxes started off like the one on the right,  the other one had an apple aperture.  For the heart box I chose purple,  with the Pearl alcohol ink,  which gives a very lustrous finish.   Then I added some crackle varnish,  it makes the inks very glittery,  and then some paper flowers.  Think it looking okay by time I'd finished. I may paint the inside just to finish it off. 

Here is what it looked like.  I applied the first purple coat of inks with no blender, so I got a nice smooth finish, then I added the pearl with some blender.  The flowers are Petaloo, got them ages ago on QVC,  not sure when I will come to the end of them! 

Next came the apple box, just felt should be red.  Did same as above,  then used a copper ink,  which gave a nice muted effect.  Then as before I applied the crackle paint, then the flowers,  oh and the butterfly,  Anita's peel offs, plus a few gems.  All very easy,  and stuck some green card to the base of this box.  The heart box also needs the base covered as there is a large sticky label that refuses to budge!  

I had very inky fingers by the end of it all.   But it was also very satisfying.  I applied some of the crackle paint to the flowers on the apple box,  will do the same on the heart box.

Here's the apple box,   I also added some acetate,  I used some inks, copper and green on it.   The boxes only cost me 60p each!  A bargain. 

Then I did some brayering,  wasn't that happy with the end result,  sky was a tad too dark, as was my 'grass',  so will have to redo it tomorrow.   One of the CnC presenters got my hopes up when he said that Barbara Gray was on tomorrow, but he'd got his dates mixed up!  Twit.   I can't tell you how pleased I am with the Clarity stamps, they have to be the best I've ever bought.   Just so nice to use and a perfect result every time.   I'll have to save my pennies though if I want more,  they don't come cheap, but they'll last for ever.  Just one hitch, how do you store them?  When they are mounted it is confusing how to store them, and what in.  Think Barbara needs to come up with some storage solutions. 

More crafting tomorrow, not sure whether to make my tag, or my swap card?  Or both?   I know if I start brayering then I will just keep on going.   We've got snow forecast for tomorrow so I won't be going anywhere. 

Well all for now,  back tomorrow with more pics hopefully.