The UP-side of having false teeth and other inky antics!

No really, I do not have false teeth....although my goodness, I think that would have been preferable to never ending torture my dentist is putting me through - but I do have access to all manner of packaging which I am regularly liberating from work.

And this week, the lucky victim of the sue-bubbles recycle treatment was....




The Steradent display carton!

The minute I saw it, I was thinking....mmmm....Im guessing my Tim Holtz inks might just fit nicely in there - and what do you know, it was perfect!

I tested out different inks and colours on the underside, and found that the waterbased ones just disappeared into the polystyrene. But the alcohol ones worked a treat...good old alcohol eh! So I applied cranberry alcohol ink to the outside and top, and used some gold acrylic paint in the holes....just like this:



Now I dont know if I was just being impatient, but the acrylic paint just didnt want to dry. No worries - to the rescue came the Mod Podge!!! I coated the whole thing in the magic glue, and added a band of pinky paper to the outside...again Mod Podging over the top...thus:



I then told myself...'step away from the Steradent carton...allow it time to dry!', and I took myself off for a lovely long soak in some Christmas bubbles, and hooray...I came back to it well on its way to being dry!

I had my doubts at this stage however, if it would turn out pretty or a blooming great mess - but then I rootled for some vintage looking lace, and a Prima flower...and VOILA!



And here it is modelling a couple of inks...



I have to say, I am well chuffed with it! BUT...there is a problem...I do not have enough inks to fill it!!!!!! Oh no...I think that means I will have to go shopping...ha ha ha ha!

To continue with the Tim Holtz obsession, and to make use of some canvas on a roll that I bought in the 99p store some time ago - I made a canvas dotee...




I inked the body of dotee with green and red, and stamped vines using Stazon ink. The face is canvas inked up with 'tattered rose' ink, embroidered in my usual way and blanket stitched to the body using gold thread.

Here is a piccie of her rear so you can see the stamping...


Then...I went bonkers with beads, sequins, the odd button and whatever else I could lay my hands on, and I stitched her together right side out as the canvas would be too stiff to turn....I had to keep those stitches neat!

Having forgotten to add a ribbon at the sewing together stage, I punched a hole in her head (sorry dotee!) through which I threaded some twine for hanging. I didnt stop there - I tried out some clear crackle glaze here and there, but this seemed to soak in and didnt crackle, so I went over this with Rock Candy stickles - you can never have too much sparkle!

She's a bit mad, but a happy experiment!




Fancy some more inky stuff...? Here are some cards I made this week...







Not bad for a weeks work eh...phew!

Its been a busy old week - I worked 5 whole mornings...and for a lazy person like me, that really is going some! I had yet another visit to the dentist (aaaggggh!), with more to follow in April, x-rays on my hip....which appear to have cured my hip (?), oh and Dad exploded a plate this week by turning on the wrong hob! BUT...I did get out of the trauma of going shopping with him as he had to wait in for the new PC to arrive from Dell - oh joy! So I survived the week and enjoyed getting into a right inky mess into the bargain!

I think thats all for now folks...thank you for popping by, oh and BTW...only FIVE more sleeps!!!!

Sue x