10% discounts at the Altered Element during England games

Read more about how you can get 'World Cup discount' on all Altered Elements orders of wonderful goodies during England games:

http://alteredelement.blogspot.com/

Altered Element Upcycle

My purple pack of pure pleasure arrived from the Altered Element last week - each item is beautifully wrapped in brown paper bags and purple tissue, and it always feels like opening Christmas presents!

This month's Upcycle element was a very old booklet of sheet music, and I did use some of it in the hanging ATCs in the last blog post, but I also used it more obviously to create this little heart box.

I cut the sheet music and glued it to the box with gel medium - I like to use this because it is 'drier' than glue and tends not to make the paper bubble when adding it to a solid surface. Once adhered and trimmed, I painted a fabric flower, the rim of the lid, and the interior of the lid and box with Radiant Rain in Jasper Red. I gave the whole box a coat of acrylic wax to give it some protection, and added the flower with a tiny brad.

Altered Element April Upcycle pack

Each month Lynne at the Altered Element will be sending something found in a charity shop, and which I will need to recycle into something completely different!

This gorgeous William Morris fabric was in the April pack, along with several toning lace ribbons, ric rac and bias binding.


This Upcycle pack was clearly a sewing project. Only one problem - I don't really think of myself as a textile artist, or even somebody who sews!!!!

Oh, and our house is so upside down because of building work, that I can't get to a table to put the sewing machine on it. Which is how I discovered that I can use a sewing machine on top of a kitchen worktop, standing on one leg, whilst pressing the sewing machine's pedal with the other...

After considering various options - a book cover, a cushion - I decided to make a shoulder bag. I have a book of bag designs, but they are all so SQUARE! Surely it wouldn't be any more work to make a bag with a different shape? And much more interesting...

I cut a shield shape from some scrap card and used it as a template to cut 8 pieces from the fabric. I cut the remaining long strip into two, and used that to make the straps.

I sewed the ribbons, ric rac and binding onto spare pieces of fabric paper, using embroidery stitches for the pale green ribbon. I made a 'flap' for the bag using more fabric paper and the rest of the ribbon.


I decided the ribbon panels and flap needed a bit of a lift so I covered them all with some sea green/blue organza, and sewed a few silk flowers here and there. I sewed the bag together with the panels, and added a magnetic closure under the flap. There are deep gussets at the sides of the bag, so it can hold quite a lot!


When I started making this, I thought it might make a gift for somebody else. By the time I'd finished, I'd changed my mind and decided to keep it for myself!!! Although I didn't think a patterned bag was my style, I do have a couple of pretty plain turquoise outfits, and this will be a nice bag to use when wearing those...

Thanks again to Lynne for lovely things to play with, and taking me in an unexpected direction!

Altered Element April DT pack

My April DT pack arrived from Lynne at the Altered Element, and when I looked at the contents, I must admit that my first thought was 'What HAVE I done?'

I loved the colour combination, but didn't have much of a clue as to what to do with the contents of the pack! I recognised the black lightweight Lutradur, and the copper coloured metal and wire, but had no idea what to do with the stretchy twisted wire stuff (bouillon wire), or the curly shredded wire stuff (lametta curls)!


I thought I'd start somewhere in my comfort zone, so I applied some Golden light moulding paste to the Lutradur using a Crafty Notions stencil.



I added copper colour with a Moonshadow Mist Incandescent Copper spray.


I laid the Lutradur onto a spare piece of fabric paper left over from another project. I liked the look, so I sewed them together, then used my heat gun to distress the Lutradur.


I liked the heart shaped leaves in the tree, so I punched some hearts from the metal sheet, and shaped them using a wooden stick sharpened to a point.


I added these to the area below the tree, and sewed some beads around the tree, and the twisted stretchy wire stuff (bouillon wire) onto the tree. I decided that the focal piece needed a background to complement it, which also gave me the opportunity to use some more of the pack contents.

I painted the edges of some thick card with copper acrylic paint, laid some more Lutradur over the copper, added the lametta curls at the corners, and covered the whole with some copper and blue two toned organza. I added a ribbon hanging loop and backed it with velvet paper.



Finally, I glued the focal piece to the background. I never imagined producing anything like this, so am pleased that the contents of the pack took me out of my comfort zone and made me combine metal and textiles.



The pack also contained some gorgeous Cosmic Shimmer thick embossing powder and some knitted wire tubing, but I didn't manage to incorporate those - I'm sure they'll come in handy for another project!