Debbie and rust it up!

A few days ago i was ever so sad to hear about Debbie and since finding out i have not stopped worrying. It's great that Ben is keeping us all up to date and i know we all appreciate this from him. Debbie is a wonderful friend and hoping she will soon be back on the mend and home again.
Poor Ben though mentioning the washing machine and how it works, lol. I'd say i would come and give him lessons but i'm equally not in the know about keeping up with the mountains that are thrown at me every day. It seems a task i'm not cut out for.


Anyway onto mini's which i know always pleases Debbie.

I've not really had a chance to work for a few weeks and so far I've only squeezed in one day. Mostly i did prep work and a few potion boards but it was great just to sit at my desk.
We have been going out on day trips, shopping and just enjoying the summer break and by the time the day has finished, all the house jobs have been done there has been no time for working.
The kids go back to school and college next week so come 9am i will have a few good hours to get going again every day. The school day has been shorted though so instead of the six and a half hours it will now be just five and a half they are out.

I went to a craft village last week. Here's the link: http://www.barleylands.co.uk/craft_village.htm. Sadly the dolls house shop was closed but almost everything else was open. There was on particular shop i really liked and the lady was ever so helpful giving me quick tutorials on various products that are new to me/
Here's the link to my fave shop there: http://www.craftarena.co.uk/home.html
I loved this one product that you can use on various surfaces like paper, card, metal, material, plastic etc. Its rusting powder and similar to the product made by deluxe materials but you get much more in the pot and its cheaper.


I forget the name of the glue recommended for this product but i just used watered down pva (white glue). I painted on the pattern i wanted on my material with the pva and then sprinkled the rusting powder over, then tipped off the excess onto paper and put back in the jar.
Then you spray with white vinegar and wait 10 mins for it to rust up.
I also bought a lovely stamp that you can paint with the pva and press onto material then do the rusting again. You can see this on one of the smaller bits of material in this pic. It the one with the tiny swirl pattern.

I'm going to be using this procuct for quite a few of my larger potion jars (not minis) and hoping to have them ready for sale long before Halloween.
In the picture above you can see the material with the blue background which i dyed using these products.

These can also be used on card and paper and probably other surfaces like wood, wool and tissue etc. I only have these three colours but there was a vast rainbow of colours available and most of them with a bit of sparkle added.
I dyed the blue material using these and then did the rusting once dry. You just spray where needed and wait for it to dry. The material has a subtle sparkle with specks of bronze and specks of extra sprarkly green.
While shopping i also picked up a selection of grungy material, twines, thread, banana tree fibres, beads and accessories for the new big potion jars. Hoping what i see in my head works when i finally get to make them.



Heres a pic of the crows feet potion boards i managed to make. The light is not great here today and can't get a good photo.



Heres a great link to a blog where the blog owner has also been using the above products mixed with various other materials and paints etc. Beautiful things happening there!
http://purplemissus.blogspot.com/2009/07/crafty-notions.html


Heres a link to crafty notions to buy the rusting powder: http://www.craftynotions.com/rust.htm
They also have some other great products for mixing with all the above and some great ideas. It's going to become i reckon a fave website of mine.