Italianate cabinet...with mahogany effect.

 This is another of the units I recently decorated for Tonic Studios. This is their Verona unit. I chose to create a mahogany wood effect  for this unit using their Nuvo Acrylic Paints and Matt medium.
The base coat is Walnut brown. I applied two coats of this. Then I mixed up a glaze for the top coat . I used 5 teaspoons of  Burnt Umber, 5 teaspoons of matt medium and a half teaspoon of Black. I then brushed it with a large flat brush to create my woodgrained effect.

 I think it turned out quite effective. The die cuts on the top were cut from thin card painted in the same way and then the whole lot was varnished together with a gloss varnish.

 I laid out card cut to the size of the drawer fronts onto the design I had printed for the front of the drawers so that I could lay the design over the whole frontage.

 I think the crackle glaze looks amazing on this.

 And to think it started out as an MDF blank. It's amazing what you can do with paint, paper, glue and varnish isn't it!

Don't forget to check out the rest of my blog. 

Have a great day.

Vintage maps and letters

This is one of  my favourites from the most recent MDF units I have decorated for Tonic Studios. This unit is called the Lyon. I used maps from a vintage atlas and vintage clipart printed on my laser printer (mostly from the Graphics Fairy) .

I created the "air mail" border and printed it out and cut it into strips to go around the edges. I love the way it looks framing the letters.

I painted the drawers white, then colourwashed them with a blue glaze. I like the way the dragged effect looks. The little drawer pulls are strips of leather that was salvaged from a vintage chair that fell apart.

It would make a handy desktop caddy for stamps and other small stationery items. You could sit your pen pots on the top too. (If I'd had time, I would have made a matching map pen pot. )

Yup, I had fun with that one !

Have a lovely day.

Glittered drawer unit

I really went to town with the glitter on this Tonic Studios Verona unit and completely covered pretty much all of it with Tonic Studios Charcoal and Silver glitter. I can tell you , there was glitter everywhere for days ! I'm still finding bits actually !

It was hard to get a picture that showed off the sparkle properly. But you get the idea.

This would make a very glamorous jewellery drawer unit. (The little crystal handles came from Ebay, all the way from China. ) I know a little girl who'd love a pink glittery one...that is if I can ever face doing that much glittering again. I'm sure it's just like  having a baby, I'll soon forget the pain of it's birth!

Have a shiny day

Bits, Bobs and Buttons

This is Tonic Studios Tivoli unit that I decorated to make a little button storage unit. It should be on Create and Craft TV today.  I created the little button handles myself.

I used my new best friend (I know, I really should get out more )Beacon  Fabric Tac glue. It's really strong, and not just good for fabric as I have discovered. I always save the two little reels that come inside dental floss...and as you can see I had 24 of them. I glued these to the back of the buttons and left them overnight to cure properly.

I then inserted little brass screws into all the drawers...this is a kind of backwards way to do it, but it worked. The screws were a touch long, so I made up the space at the back of the drawer front using little eyelets.

I then filled in the cavity in the reel with hot glue and pressed it into place on my drawer front, holding it until it was set. The screw is then embedded into the hot glue and so it gives it a firm grip on the drawer. It worked a treat. This would be an ideal unit for sorting out all your pretty buttons.

There are so many other ways you can make up these units too. 

Wherever your imagination takes you! 

A couple of things

Here are a couple of coordinating cards I made for my delightful twin nieces. I've used my homemade glitter card for the butterfly and dragonfly diecuts. I am particularly fornd of that dragonfly die...isn't it gorgeous.

And I've used one of Tonic Studios transfers onto a candle glass to give what was a plain candle much more style.

In other news...I finally have a contract for our house build in my hands...now we just need to sign it...and pay the deposit! Ouch!

Have a lovely day

Is this card Gold and White or blue and black?

Of course it is gold and white...I'm just messing with you. I can't believe how much palava there was over the colour of a photograph of a dress, can you ?  This card has been inspired by the dress. It uses one of the dies from the Celtic Dream collectables die set by Tonic Studios which has only just been released.

Hope you are having a good day..whatever colour your dress is!

Art Deco and Art Nouveau

Here are a couple of cards that show a little part of Tonic Studios new die sets. There are three sets in the collection which are called Collectables. This card features a couple of the dies from the Art Deco set - they are lovely dies. 

This card features a couple of the Art Nouveau die cuts. I'll show you some of the Celtic Dream range in another post. 

Hope you're having a good weekend. 

Catch you later