A day of Firsts!

I have had such a lovely day today. My sister came back from holiday and bought me a truly lovely birthday present. Even though she is not very crafty she kindly oohed and ahhed when she saw my fabulous Vagabond! Now that is the mark of a wonderful sister! 

We also finally made it to the infamous Concrete Cows which are such a landmark in Milton Keynes. We've been here for 4 years, 5 months and 7 days today - which means we really should have been to see them before now! Tom in particular loved being a 'cowboy' and riding his 'rusty steed'!!! Sooo cute!

Yesterday I went to see Lin at the too tempting LB Crafts and bought some PaperArsty Fresco Finish paint in Snowflake which I have had my eye on for ages. I bought a few other things, including some shrink plastic, and decided to combine them in my first 'inchie' (which is actually 1.5" square but no one will notice!) I covered a square of Grungeboard that I had left over from the ArstyCrafts day in February (OMG that was so much fun!) in Fresco Finish paint. 

I put it on liberally as I wanted a stucco/textured feel and then was too impatient to let it dry and used my trusty heat gun! I then inked it with Aqua Alcohol Ink and the edges with Denim (I am getting a little obsessed with Alcohol Inks - is there a self-help group - AIA perhaps?!) and added a little Gold Paint Dabber on the very edges. The Alcohol Ink really softens with the chalky paint and becomes very beautiful - a terrifically beautiful effect. 

I cut out a bird and birdcage from shrink plastic using my lovely Vagabond, lightly sanded them and then inked them with Espresso and Aqua Alcohol Inks. I have never used Alcohol Ink on shrink plastic before and really enjoyed the result - I liked how the colours stayed vibrant which is a good contrast to the Fresco Finish paint.

I shrank them (including the wing which I'd inked in Denim but it looked wrong so didn't use it - I will ink another in Aqua when I have a minute!) They shrank beautifully under the intense heat of my heat gun (it is a little industrial so isn't great at finer heating projects) and the birdcage came out all wobbly which I really liked! The picture shows a sort of 'before and after'! I just attached a key from Blue Moon Beads with a jump ring. Really pleased with results - am going to make a few of them and put them in a frame so will keep you posted as I do more! Off to clean my craft sheet now!
Gabrielle x