No More Shopping Sins! at Our Creative Corner

Welcome everyone and I want to start by wishing you all a very happy and creative 2014. It's the start of the month so that means a new challenge over at Our Creative Corner. Claudia is our host and has chosen the theme

No More Shopping Sins!

- Use (and show us) one of your former 'shopping sins'.

You may have received some fantastic new crafting stuff for Christmas, but we want to see one of those hoarded items that you have never quite been able to let go of at the centre of your makes! We need to know which 'shopping sin' you have used in your project, so 'confess all' -  you must name it in your post.

The intention is that you will find this challenge therapeutic. A popular pledge amongst crafters is "I will use up my stash". Don’t we all have cupboards and shelves groaning under the weight of things we’ve bought and decided to save for a project that never happens? And then you feel guilty so you hide it under a new pile of (new) stuff! So this challenge provides the perfect opportunity to finally get rid of that guilt. Find one of your former ‘shopping sins’, open the packet, stroke it one last time, and then USE IT!

This month we have a very generous sponsor;

Crafty Individuals will be donating a prize for one randomly drawn winner! 

I'm sure it would come as no surprise to find out that I have a 'thing' about buttons - seriously, those pearly kings and queens have nothing on me!! Some found their way onto projects in the past, but these Idea-ology ones have been in the DO NOT TOUCH pot for way too long. Not any more...

When I set up my craft stall way back in November the red and green beaded ribbon garland festooned the tent. It looked good but I knew more work would need to go into making it a work of craft in future.

I love that these little hearts have come out looking like enamelled jewels.

Hard to believe they started life as plain old hollow card ornaments.

I started by stencilling the flourish design onto both sides of each heart, adding three layers of Wendy Vecchi Translucent paste to get some real depth and strength to the pattern.

Then came the fun, applying metal foil tape over every inch of each heart. I found it paid to take it steady, using different sizes of embossing tools to ease the tape down in between the raised areas; you are effectively 'stretching' the foil tape so a little patience is required.

I'll let you into a secret; I added some Alcohol inks and Distress Paint at this stage but wasn't happy with the look.

Plan B. Every part of each heart was covered in a layer of clear embossing powder.

Then I could pounce Red Pepper Alcohol Ink over the top (allowing it to dry thoroughly).

This added the translucent colour I wanted but also let the tool marks on the metal foil show through - cool eh?

A final rub over with gilding wax and they were all ready to be embellished with those buttons (and some ribbon bows).

I went for broke and added all my favourite ones, tying some with some metallic embroidery cotton.

You might spot a 'rogue' button in this last picture - the leaf edged border one is a vintage button from my own collection. It came from my OH's grandmother and until now I couldn't bear to use it.

Gosh, that was a therapeutic exercise! Those buttons now have a purpose and can be admired by anyone visiting my craft stall in future. Plus I can still get them out and stroke them if the urge takes me in future - oh, how sad! I hope this has inspired you to reach for the DO NOT TOUCH items in your stash, and that once you've plucked up the courage to use them you will share them with us at Our Creative Corner this month.

Now all that remains is for me to urge you to head over to the main challenge blog HERE to see what the rest of the Design Team have created.
Take care of yourselves throughout 2014. Jenny xxx