The Male Room Challenge #166

 Good morning all, 

Thanks for joining me today as we announce this month's challenge at The Male Room. The theme is 'Song Title'. 

Oh my, what a wide open theme! What springs to mind for you? 

My card sort of evolved naturally without me having to think too much because I was using up some of my patterned paper stash plus some elements I had already stamped an coloured. When I had finished I realised it would work well for this challenge and the song ‘London’s Calling’ by The Clash sprang to mind.

So my background is a map of central London taken from an old diary I once had. It’s amazing what you can use to make a card! The smaller London elements are from a stamp set by Clearly Besotted and I added a signpost and sentiment from a set I received with a UK magazine. 

Now I challenge you to not only join in with our challenge over at The Male Room but also to search your stash and look for inspiration from it too. Head over to The Male Room blog and check out what inspired the rest of the Design Team and their song title choice. Leave them some love! 

Much love

Steph x

Something a little different - Up-cycled Suitcase

Morning all

It’s a quiet one here. I think the children are making the most of the last lie in before they go back to school tomorrow. Either that or the very long walk I took them on yesterday has completely wiped them out!

I’ve finally been back in the craft room but not for card making. About three years ago I rescued an old wooden suitcase or travellers box from a bonfire. I spotted it on a pile that was being set up for a community event and it was just too good to burn. I figured no one would miss it as they had thrown it on the bonfire. So for the last two days I’ve been up-cycling it.

Here’s the before photo:

I removed the old hard leather from the corners and removed the tacks and screws where possible. Others I just had to hammer further in to get rid of the sharpness. Out came a power tool and I sanded the whole thing down and painted with grey paint we had left over from painting the shed! I found some black metal paint which was ideal for the handle. 

Stage one photo:

Looking much better already! 

Following this I decorated the top with some left over wallpaper (literally never throw anything away!!) and then I set about making new corner details. Now I didn’t have any leather so I decided to use black card die cut into a circle, embossed it and used gilding wax to give it a leather or even metal look. This worked really well so I also added some ‘straps’ to make it look like you could fasten the case. In true crafter style, this last portion of the work took me the longest...😂

And the finished product:

I’m really pleased with how it turned out and glad I was able to save it from being burnt on the bonfire. It’s going to be used to store the girls keepsakes and also as a TV stand in our guest room as we need something low with it being the attic room. 

Hope you like it too and thanks for visiting. 

Steph x