Shabby Chic Altered Clock - Photo Tutorial

I altered this clock for a DT call for Lavish Laces on You Tube.

This is how the clock looked to begin with.

I took the clock apart, and sanded it, then painted it with white acrylic paint & Linen paint.

I tore strips of the Prima Fairy Rhymes paper and adhered them with Mod Podge, to give a textured effect.

I used a sponge brush to add white acrylic to the clock face, to give a shabby look.

I sprayed the entire clock with my homemade spray paint in red & pearl to give a pink effect.

I embellished the clock with WOC flowers & lace, & other embellishments from my stash.

I had a lot of fun altering this clock, and hope to do another one soon, but maybe more grungy!

Have a lovely day, & please let me know what you think!

Melanie x.

Altered Craft Projects I've Been Working on!

Hi Friends,

Here are some altered projects I've been working on for challenges:

Lace container for Zenderlee's March lace challenge on Youtube

Altered box using Prima Fairy Rhymes paper for Sabrina's challenge on Youtube (craftychica87)

A card for Sabrina's challenge too.

Altered cookie cutter for a challenge on Paper Craft Planet

I'd love to hear your comments on these projects!

Have a nice day, Melanie x.

Altered Shabby Chic Frame with Wild Orchid Roses

Hi, blog readers, hope you're having a lovely day!

I haven't blogged for a while as I'm really busy getting ready for my first craft event in March. My son's school is having a Treat Yourself Day, which will include crafts, jewellery, nail art etc. The event is been held at Wisbech Grammar School, Wisbech, Cambridgshire on 16th March 11.00am - 3.00pm, so if you're in the area on that day, why not come along. I'll be adding full details of the event on my facebook page nearer the time.

Shabby Chic Altered Frame.

I decided to see if I'd have any luck in finding some things for crafting in my local charity shops...and I was very pleased to find some nice frames for altering, some pretty lace, jewellery and a book box Yay!! So, the altered frame in the photo was my first find.

I painted the frame with white acrylic paint, then I used Tim Holtz Crackle Paint in Scattered Straw to cover the front of the frame, you can see a little of the crackle paint in the last photo, but I did end up covering most of it. The papers are Romance Novel from Prima, which are absolutely gorgeous!

I hot glued some beige lace around the edges of the frame, wrapping it around the back. I then used some flowers and leaves from Wild Orchid Crafts to embellish the frame. This was my first order from WOC and I was very impressed with the quality, and reasonable prices.

I tucked a tiny piece of crochet lace behind the flowers, which was from a larger vintage cloth. I sprayed the whole project with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Pearl to add a light shimmer to the frame, then sealed it with Mod Podge in matte.

If you have any questions or comments please leave me a message. I look forward to hearing from you :0)

Olde Curiosity Shoppe Altered Box

I'm really getting into altered art at the moment, I think it's probably a natural progression for most scrapbookers to move onto. When I heard about altered art, I thought I'd have to be an artist to try it, but in fact it's very accessible to any crafter. You can easily learn new techniques by watching You Tube videos.

I also love steampunk and vintage at the moment, so my next project has that kind of theme. I couldn't get the Graphic 45 Debutante papers, which have the steampunk theme, so I used The Olde Curiosity Shoppe 8x8 pad by Graphic 45. These papers are like nothing else I've worked with, they are so easy to use and distress...and are very detailed with vintage colours.

List of Materials.

Cardboard Gift Box
White acrylic paint
docrafts acrylic paint in Pearl
Graphic 45 Olde Curiosity Shoppe 8x8 pad
Tim Holtz Distress Ink pad Walnut & black ink pad
Prima flower
Square lacy die cut from my stash
Black braid trim from haberdashery shop
Lace from my stash and old belt buckle

I used a cardboard gift box, that was given to me at Christmas...the type you can buy in a card shop. I painted it with white acrylic paint and docrafts Artiste acrylic paint in Pearl.

I covered the box with the Olde Curiosity Shoppe papers, distressed the edges of the box and paper with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Walnut. I fussy cut some pictures from the papers and inked the square lacy die cut on top with black ink.

I added a Prima flower, skeleton leaves and a little bit of lace from my stash. The sides of the box were covered with black braid trim, an old button and a belt buckle from the 1960's.

I'd love to hear your comments on this project.

Have a lovely day,

Melanie :0)

Shabby Chic Altered Frame - Work in Progress

Just recently, I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos on altered art projects, particularly shabby chic frames and boxes. There really is some very talented people out there, making adorable things, that look so professional. Two channels that I watch all the time are mybutterflykisses12 (Arlene) and ILuvvintagescrap (Julianna).

So, for one of my New Year challenges, I've been trying my hand at an altered frame. I still have a lot to learn about altered art, but I just love all the different techniques, embellishments and flowers that can be used.


I was very pleased to find this frame in a charity shop, because usually I never find anything good. It had black wording engraved into the frame, so I decided to cover some of the words with white acrylic paint, and leave some showing through. Once the paint had dried I lightly sanded the frame in areas that would naturally be worn.

I wanted to cover some of the words up even more, and add some texture to the frame, so I  tore pieces of white crepe paper, and pasted it with Mod Podge. The picture above shows a subtle textured effect.

Then the fun could begin...I started embellishing the frame. I used London Market papers by Pink Paislee. These papers have a lovely vintage feel to them, with postage stamps, music script, butterflies and floral designs. I wanted the frame to have a worn shabby chic feel to it, so I used Mod Podge (love this stuff!) to paste torn and distressed pieces on to the frame. I fussy cut some images from the paper and glued lace and flowers to one corner. I still want to add lots more embellishments to the frame. Look out for the next post!

Have a lovely day!

Melanie x.

Altered Tin & Paper Rose

I've started the New Year with a couple of new projects. Over the Christmas period, I used some free time to look at some ideas on YouTube. I'd heard a lot about altered art, and was keen to find out more. I saw some lovely altered Altoid tins, and thought I'd have a go! I wasn't sure if you could even buy Altoid mints in the UK, so I used an old tin I had which looked like it was from the 60's, that originally had lozenges in it. I had a few glitches with this tin, I used Mod Podge to glue & seal the papers, but it wrinkled up quite a lot. I'm reasonably happy with the way it came out though.

I wanted to give the tin a vintage look by inking the edges.

This is a photo of my cat Suzy & a handmade red rose.

The second project was a handmade paper rose. I saw a very good tutorial on a website called The Scrappe Shoppe Blog. The rose should have a ceramic look when finished.

Wet a piece of cardstock (approx 5"x5") under the tap & carefully scrunch into a ball, open the card out & allow to dry. Once the card is dry brush a layer of Mod Podge Matte over both sides, allow one side to dry before covering the other side.

Cut the card into a circle & then cut a spiral from the circle, Starting with the end of the spiral, roll the card into a flower. Glue the bottom to secure, & coat the flower once more with Mod Podge.

My rose came out much tighter, because I cut the spiral into narrow strips, but I was pleased with the ceramic effect finish. If you want to see a more detailed tutorial, click on The Scrappe Shoppe Blog link above - Michele's roses are beautiful!

I'm going to make myself a cup of tea now and have a look at Handmade Monday on Handmade Harbour, & see what crafty projects everyone else has made this week.

Happy New Year!

See you next week,

Melanie x.