Welcome New GD: Clare Lloyd #1 Altered Wooden Spool

"Hi everyone, Clare here with my first project for PaperArtsy. This week I am using some Squiggly Ink stamps in a variety of ways, I hope you find these projects might trigger your muse to adapt the ideas into something you could do too.

There are a lot of little elements that all go together to make my finished project so lets start with the wooden spool base.

To begin with I painted the wooden spool with some Snowflake which would act as a base coat. Once dry I painted both ends with Little Black Dress.

Next, the decorative panel that will wrap around the spool. I measured and cut some card to size with a bit extra to overlap. 

and then stamped with Squiggly Ink: Tops and Tails (Plate 3) 

Next I painted the panel with a watery layer of Inky Pool. It's a translucent, but by watering it down further you can control how much pigment goes onto the cardstock.

The flower detail is painted with Tango, Inky Pool and Tinned Peas.

Tips: If you want the orange to contrast more, then put a little bit of snowflake under the orange flowers first, or don't wash the inky pool over the actual flower heads. And if you find painting small areas like this tricky, then dip the hard end of your paint brush handle into the paint and dab spots of paint onto the flowers.

I decided to add little extra stamp detail to the top and bottom of the panel using a flourish from the Squiggly Ink Collection: Tops and Tails (Plate 2).

Once everything is dry wrap it around and glue it down.

Now, I wanted to create a little altered 'character' to add to the top of the spool. I chose 2  images from the Squiggly Ink Collection: Tops and Tails (Plate1) 

and thought it might be fun to use the centre bird house from Squiggly Ink:Flora and Fauna (Plate 3), as the character's body.

 They were stamped using Black Archival Ink,and then base coats painted using blush...

and my already selected colour scheme of Tango, Inky Pool and Tinned Peas

Next I added a little extra depth and shading using some complementary pencils.

I then cut them all out and used some twisted black wire to build my little altered character.

wrapping the wire doubled up around a pencil to get the spring for the neck

You can adjust the spring/ neck quite easily, this can be a neat way to give her some personality by cocking the head to the side too.

I decided to add some additional layers to my base spool using Prima Finnabair VintageTrinkets. These were painted black with Fresco Acrylic Paint.

I buffed on some Indigo Treasure Gold 

and added a little flourish stamp from Tops and Tails 2.

Okay so now it is time to put it all together so you can see the inner workings of my mind!

The Prima Finnabair Vintage Trinkets were glued on the top and bottom of the spool; then my character on the wire was threaded through and the wire folded to one side under the base.

To fasten everything securely, I squeezed a large blob of hot glue onto my craft mat,

pressed my altered spool firmly into the hot glue and peeled it off the mat when cooled. This gives the spool the stabilty it needs, as the wire would leave a bit of a lump.

As luck would have it, this embellishment has a slight recess for the wire to sit in too

The finished altered spool.

Hope you enjoyed this project, I'll see you all again tomorrow night.

Clare

Leandra Says: Hi Clare, great to have you here! Awesome job with those Squigglies! I love how easily the pencils add depth to the painted base, and the Prima Bellies make a great addition to the detail of the spool base. Fabulous and welcome!

Gillian Says: Welcome Clare, lovely to have you kick start the GD adventures for 2014 with such a fun/quirky project. The Squiggly Ink images are perfect for such a project. Love it.

If you would like to join in this week's challenge and play along with Clare's techniques, then do link up your creativity here, and go in the draw to win some PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by 17:00, Sunday January 12th 2014.