Very late Quirky Reminder post

You have until Saturday midday to enter your altered vintage Christmas themed item into the Quirky Crafts challenge and win a prize from our sponsor, Stitchy Bear Digital stamps, and I am so late reminding you but there has been a lot going on, in my life. As well as working on next year's challenge schedule with our sponsors, we have been decorating our bedroom and bathroom, and searching for soft funishings, and we had to take my Dad to Salisbury hospital, he has a melanoma on his face which is to be removed, so he had to see a consultant, but they didn't have the results of the biopsy done in Bath so he had to go back next week. It is very worrying for all of us, Dad told Mum he isn't worried, but we would rather drive them there as driving when stressed isn't good. So we spent all afternoon mostly waiting, then stopped for a meal on the way back after which I was so tired I couldn't function and forgot to place my Riverford order in time!

So for the challenge - I had an idea on Friday that I would use Kroma on a box I had painted gold to give it an antique green crackle overlay, then to add an image, but when I re-read the Kroma instructions I realised it would take days to dry! Now it has dried it didn't really work and I think I put most of it on too thinly. So Projects number two and three, alter a watch box I found in the wardrobe when clearing out, and alter a sweetie jar.

I am showing you the end results of both, I am ashamed of the box, I spent hours on it and only when I looked at the photos could I see how awful it really is! 

You can see the watch box above, and I used cheap gold acrylic paint on it, which was a bit bright for vintage so...

I first added Rock Crystal crackle glitter by Tim Holtz, and some dabs of Tim Holtz crackle paint in old linen, and let that dry and crack. Then I applied some distress ink in soot colour to age the cracks, which worked better on the sides than the Lil Angel who ended up with a sooty fingerprint on her skirt, whoops, and her hair looks awful and unblended, when I thought it was fine, must get a magnifying glass or new glasses! I did add a bit of Crafty Ribbon's ribbon to the front., 

and a die cut (Spellbinders) poinsettia to the top with a gem in the center, and it is cut from pearlescent card.

I was happiest with the sides which I did first, using Poinsettia corner.

On the back I used the tree image and I clearly didn't paint the distress glaze over it properly because when I applied Distress Ink the poor nymph's legs ended up very sooty indeed. 

The front opens to reveal the original black velveteen inside of the box, I am thinking it would be funny to use it for a gift card, which would slot into one side of the watch slot. Poor Lil Angel ended up a  mess. I think the whole box is a total mess, nothing really worked but sometime it goes like that, just have to write it off to experience and carry on!

After that disaster I decided to share the altered sweetie jar I also make, using Winterville from Stitchy. I painted the brown lid gold, added the image which I had added some colour to, and sealed it, and tied on some glitter ribbon from Crafty Ribbons. I should have done this one first!

So if you have something to share with us at Quirky Crafts please do, so far we have only two entries that qualify for the top three, because no cards are allowed and all the other entries are cards!