Seth Apter Tag 1

Hi everyone, I hope you are enjoying a few nice summery days. I have been squirreled away in my room creating samples for a special weekend hosted by PaperArtsy. This coming weekend 3rd/4th Sept, PaperArtsy is hosting the fabulous Seth Apter. Two days of workshops, it is going to be fabulous!

The second of the two days is just for retailers and teachers, and I will be there along with other PA designers, where we will be doing short demos during the day. 

I have several samples prepared ready, and over the next couple of weeks I will show them to you. 

In each sample I have used a mix of Seth Apter's products ( stamps, dies,stencils) and also other PA products, including my own stamps and stencils. 

For this first tag I cut down some old patterned paper to a tag size. I wasn't sure if I wanted the original paper t show through, in the end it didn't, but started with the text in the background gave me a great first layer. 

I added PaperArtsy Fresco paints in Teresa Green, Turquoise, Dolly Mix , more Teresa Green, and then a little Captain Peacock. These were all brayered on. 

The next later was Seth's bubble wrap stamp using Granny smith paint. 

To this I added his French script stamp using Dolly Mix and his spotty stamp using Green Patina Archival ink. 

To knock all this back I used one of his stencils and Snowflake paint. To finish the background I used my edging stencil PS030 with slick stix in blue and black.

Onto smoothy card I stamped my feather from EDY09, this remains one of my favourite stamps. I used Cornflower Archival ink, and then fussy cut the whole thing out. 

On black card I stamped Seth's square and small scratch stamp using Slate paint, overlapped these two now become an inkwell. 

The layered Splatter Proof die is crunchy wax paper. I like using crunchy as the bottom layer as it is so thin it adds very little bulk and so top layers glue gown nice and flat. 

The bottom spikey layer is crunchy painted first white and then with Bougainvillea. Over this I used the Robo ring die and smoothy card painted with Dolly mix and a little Bougainveillea. The centre is the Take Flight die, painted with Cpt Peacock and a little dry brushed white. 

I added some more stencilling just down the centre using Seth's Timeless and Past,present,future stencils. i then started to add some detailing using black and white pens. 

The right side looked a little bare so I added Coffee ring halves, painted in Dolly Mix. I overstamped some of the die cuts with black archival ink for more interest. 

I will have another sample for you on Friday. 

Darcy. 

Snowy Days Journal Page

hi, this is a journal page that I started a while back..and then got busy… and have now finished. it was created on a really cold, snowy day at a local crop. I didn’t take step out photos but i can talk you through it.

I used the winter Limited Edition paints from last year.

Step 1. Scrape a little of Turquoise, Marlin,Hint of Mint and Evergreen over the page. leaving some white gaps.

Step 2. Add background stamping of a cracked image using cornflower blue and  small numbers from Mini 23 using black archival.

Step 3. Add strips of washi tape in similar colours to the paint.
Step 4. Stencil some random letters using Slate.


Step 5. Add lines around the outer edges with ESN 10

Step 6. I then stamped the snowflake image from EDY 04 again using cornflower blue.

Step 7. Cover the whole page with a light layer of Metallic Glaze. This adds a gorgeous wintery shimmer all over.

Step 8. More snowflakes from EDY 04 , this time using Snowflake paint, then some stencilled spots also in Snowflake 

Step 9. The final step in the background was to mix some Grunge Paste with Snowflake and use that with a snowflake stencil. Once this was dry I added some glitter gel.

Now to create some wintery flowers.

I took a piece of regular smoothy and added some book text, music paper and scraps of patterned paper. Although this gets covered up it does give a great starting point and it adds texture.

Over the ephemera I blended Turquoise Cherry Red Marlin Evergreen and Plum. Over this I added some script stamps, and stencilled some Snowflake through a circle stencil and some star sequin waste.

This gave me a great piece of patterned card. I then stamped lots of the petals from EEV 09 plus the circle centres. These were all cut out and arranged on the page.

Again once these were dry I added a light brushing of glitter gel. It is very subtle but at the right angle it does sparkle.

So this is how it looked when I got home from the crop, and I loved it.. but it needed something more.. a title.


I took more regular smoothy and scraped on some Cherry Red Turquoise and Plum.

Then using a credit card I added lines of Marlin and some circles using a lid and Snowflake, I then added small circles using Slate.

I used the alphabet from Jofy 21 to stamp out my title, this was all cut out.

I decided where I wanted my words to go and then stamped then again onto the page. I did this because the letters have scribbly bits on the edges, these get cut off when cutting them out. So by stamping them onto the page and then glueing in the painted letters I still get the scribbly bits showing.

I am not too sure about the title, i think it blends in too much?


maybe it needs some shading?




The photos have bleached the colour a lot, in reality the Turquoise is very prominent.


Darcy x

Calendar Challenge 2015: January

Happy New Year everyone..I hope the year ahead brings you all that you wish for. 

 Here it is the first monthly link up of our altered calendars. if you missed the first post explaining what this is all about then pop back and see the intro HERE....

Here are the 4 rules in summary.. 

1.. Keep a part of the original picture and incorporate that into your design

2, Technique - Crackling, any brand of crackle glaze, or the pva crackle method.... or any other way you can think of to add crackling. 

3. Add some book text 

4. Blog your calendar page and link up from Jan 1st 2015

So this is the calendar that I bought.. 

and here is how my first page looked... to begin with.. 

Remember.. Rule #1. Keep some of the original picture, and incorporate it into your new page.. 

Calendars pages tend to be glossy, so I added a thin coat of matte gel over the page, this gives the paint something to grab onto.. I started with a mix of blues, greens and a little purple of Frescos paints.  I blended these in quite roughly leaving several circles of the original picture visible. 

next I added some strips of patterned paper to make stems. This paper is old painted scraps from my bit box. I also added in a couple more flower heads and started to add more colour around each of the circles. 

While I had the paint out I added some to the bottom half, where the planner part is.. Now you don't have to decorate this bit if you don't want.. the challenge is just to alter the picture..

however if you want to alter this part too then go for it..  I added paint and paper scraps.. 

Back to the top half, I added more paint around the paper stems to blend in the edges.. 

More splodging of paint, and blending. I then added white to the edges of the flower heads..

Rule #2. Include a technique. this month it is crackling.. I added crackle glaze to various sections, and once dry I sponged on more fresco paint. 

You could use any number of crackle glazes or pastes, or use the PVA method, or even use a crackled stencil or stamp... get your thinking caps on

Now it has cracks, in all different colours, but it's blotchy and needs more blending.. 

More Fresco paint to blend, and I started to outline the white bits around the flower heads. I used a black stabilo pencil. I then blended this a little with a damp brush. 

Rule #3. Add a theme or piece of ephemera. This month is is 'add book pages'

I stamped and cut my leaves from book pages. 

of course I used my own leaf stamps from EDY05, EDY06 and EDY10. 

I liked how it looked at this point, but it just needed something else to make it pop..

So I added dots in my favourite blue Pea Coat. 

Now to finish off the bottom planner part. I added more leaves and a die cut bird. 

I then brayered some Fresco paint onto printer paper and stamped some number from Mini 18. 

These were cut out, edged with a black pen and glued into the planner squares. 

Here is how it looks now.. 

I love it.. there is something missing though and that is the title..'January' and the days of the week. 

Here is the finished bottom half of the calendar, complete with Month and days of the week. These are sneaky peeks of new stamps that are coming out soon. 

Now for rule#4. Blog your altered calendars and link up here... 

See all this months entries HERE. 

You have a whole month to link up, please do go visit the other blogs that add their links. Some may link straight away, others will link up over the month, so bookmark this page so you can check back and see the new ones. 

NEXT MONTH

On Feb 1st, we will have the new link for February... so that you can get started on your Feb pages, here are the four rules for Feb. 

1.. Keep a part of the original picture and incorporate that into your design

2, Technique - Paint effect caused by using clingfilm or bubble wrap 

3. Add some corrugated card

4. Blog your calendar page and link up from Feb 1st 2015

Patchwork Money Box

This evening I have a project over on the PaperArtsy blog. We all need a place to save up for new pencils and paints and stamps right, so I decorated this money box which is from the MDF man. 

I love how it turned out, especially the metal flowers made with one of my new stamps. EDY10. 

and this butterfly made with matte gel is just the cutest.. 

Pop over to the PaperArtsy blog and see how it all came together. 

Darcy x

Bum Bag

Here is the 4th of my launch night samples. As I was off camping for the weekend I knew I would need something small but secure , big enough for my purse, phone and camera..

What else but a bum bag...

First off I had to find a pattern, that in itself was harder than I thought, for some reason there just aren't a lot of free bum bag/hip bag patterns around.. who knew?

Eventually I found one, but again I came up against a wall. The pattern was in German. After much translating and copying and pasting, and working out which bits of the pattern were relevant....I could finally begin. 

I cut some heavy weight white cotton, just a little larger than the pattern pieces. 

Next I mixed some Concrete Fresco paint with fabric medium and gave each piece a good even coat. 

My next layer involved a text stencil, this time I used Stone, Elephant and fabric medium

Layer 3. Slightly darker again, using  Elephant and a tiny bit of black Fresco and the fabric medium and the circle stamp from ESN 09. 

I also added the  scratchy lines from ESN10

I then added more black to my mix and stamped the circles from ESN10 This completed the background. 

Next I mixed Turquoise and Slate from JoFYs new limited edition colours, added some fabric medium and then stamped the feather from EDY09

and also the birds from EDY10

Next I used Red Geranium Archival ink to stamp the heart flower from EDY10.

I began to fill in the hearts, using  Blood Orange as the darker shade in the centre. 

Then I added Cherry from the JoFY range. 

I finished off by outlining the hearts with a permanent black pen. 

Now all the pieces were decorated, I let them dry thoroughly and also ironed them on the reverse. Then I was able to trim them to the correct size. 

Following the pattern I started to make the bag. Because the fabric is painted it is a little difficult to manipulate, but not impossible. You can see the bottom section is gathered, this was a challenge because of the stiffer fabric, but again it all worked out ok. 

Finally I added the straps and the buckle. This is the back of the bag. 

and the front..

As you can see it has 3 pockets, all with zips. Making this a really handy little bag. I had so much stuff crammed in here. Camera, phone, purse, toilet tissues, lip balm, mints, band aids. 

The wide top of the bag wraps around the hips perfectly. it was really comfy to carry around. 

I am so pleased with the way it turned out, and of course there is only one like it... It took 2 days to make, 1 to paint the fabric and the 2nd day to stitch it all together. 

If you would like to see the pattern then go to THIS WEBSITE , here you will find the 5 pages of instructions. There are lots of variations within the pattern so you can choose exactly what kind of pockets you need. It was originally a sew-along. The lovely owner of the blog has some great patterns, so go and check them out. 

Darcy x