Poor neglected blog....

.... 'sidelined' because life takes over sometimes doesn't it?! 

Among the paint brushes, pens, rolls of tape, bits of paper, & work-in-progress-projects on my desk (and the occasional cat ) there are a couple of books that I've made following patterns I've found in books or on the www to see how they are made (i like making books). I use them to put little tests and ideas into (and sometimes I use them as a 'work avoidance' technique.. lol).. but they are just little books of stuff. They sit on the desk for a while and get worked in as and when the mood takes me etc etc etc.

This is the one I've just filled up, its reads like a snapshot of projects, articles and classes I've designed & planned over the last 6 or so months, and its quite small - 9.5x11cm.
Its almost like a mini journal.. a notebook about what I've done and lessons I've learned...

I like that the book doesn't close - that bits & pieces stuck in have given it lovely touchy feely quality.  It was made from a single sheet of paper that has been folded several times, then the folds were roughly seperated and the formed pages were sewn together at the centre. I like the 'rough' feel this gives the book - the pages don't quite match up but thats makes the book quite unprecious to work into - a bit rough and ready.

 Bits and pieces left over from my many projects with the Claudine Hellmuth 'Bloom' stamps sets - and there's a bit of PaperArtsy in there too.

This is a Papermania (DoCrafts) die that I wanted.. no, needed when I saw it in a magazine.. but then couldn't find it.. so I forgot about it... until I saw it in a shop last week - so pleased: it was like finding treasure - I couldn't take it to the cash desk quick enough! lol I especially like that it die cuts the entire alphabet in one go - makes a great stencil which is what I was playing about with on the pages.

One of my favourtite spreads - LOVE!! ('flight' was a recent addition - new die, so i was using it on anything I could! lol)

 This is where this book became useful - the right hand page of the spread has been gesso'd.  The same colour distress inks where used on both pages - look how differently the inks sit on the pages - who'd have thought they would be so different!?!

The colour on these pages are so lovely - they were left over from something and I didn't want waste them so I stuck them in...

... same goes for the tag & butterfly on this last spread.. they'd been on the desk, on the pinboard, back on the desk - I was getting fed up with moving them about so I've put in the book!  Waste not want not.

So there you are - my little book of stuff.. and now that one is finished I've made myself another, this time slightly bigger - with doodles, sewing, sprayed pages, more sewing, tabs & comic book pages - love it already - here's a sneak peek:

I'm off - got to make flags for cupcakes (what else would you do on a Thursday evening! lol)

Take care

A 'bloomin' marvellous day at the Craft Barn...

Yesterday I taught for the first time at The Craft Barn - I've demo'd there a few times but yesterday was my first class.  The 9 lovely ladies made this (and another project):

I luuuurve this canvas!! - so cute'n'pretty!  Here are a few of the ladies working on their canvasses - up to their elbows and well covered in PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints - love those paints!! They painted the flowers (Claudine Hellmuth 'Blooms') onto Claudine Hellmuth/Ranger sticky back canvas which means that sticking all the flowers down onto the base canvas is a doddle - just peel of the backing and stick down! Sticky-back-canvas - another product that I love!

The classroom is great: light, airy and in the roof space of the Barn which means there is a bloomin great big horizontal beam running through the space - I managed NOT to hit my head on the beam (which is covered in several 'mind your head' signs but even so more than once my head was only about an inch away from the beam before I saw it! lol)
Thanks to everyone who came to the class - great to see some familiar peeps and meet some new ones.  It was a good day - I'm looking forward to teaching at the Craft Barn again soon - but before I do that I'll be demo'ing there on the 3rd December - projects with a Christmassy theme - Oh Yes - Christmas!!! its only about  8 weeks away!!!!

Class at The Craft Barn!

On Sunday - 30th October - I'm teaching a class at The Craft Barn - I'm really looking forward to it - here's a sneak peak of one of the pieces we'll be making.

So if you fancy getting all painty with me ring the shop and see if there are any places left, the more the merrier!

ooooh I do love a box canvas!!...

... but I'm not fussy - I think canvas (any type) may be my new favourite surface to work on...

Back in June I showed you this:

and teased you that I'd made something else but couldn't show you what it was... well I think that was a bit rude of me! and so here is what I created..... 

Its a box canvas created with Claudine Hellmuth's Bloom stamps - clear and foam. Love these stamps.  Paints are PaperArtsy's Fresco Finish.
It makes me smile each time I see it - so summery and pretty... and I think, judging by the amount of rain we've had recently, this is as close to summer as we're going to get at the moment! lol

Exciting Plans...

Back in May I went to Spain for a few days to discuss teaching residential courses at Artizan...  This is a new venture, run by the lovely Karen Dawton, to offer a variety of residential courses based in Gerona (in Catalonia, Spain).
The venue is a fabulous Spanish farmhouse set in a valley of lush forest where the only noise is birdsong - seriously - no. other. noise!  Apart from, when classes are in session, the sound of a good time being had by all! lol 
The venue is easily reached by air - only a short flight (2hours).  (I travelled with Ryanair who were good but don't get me started on the 10k of carry-on luggage - 10k!!!!!!!! imagine me pulling 'the scream' style facial expression... lol)

The farmhouse has been beautifully refurbished - 12 rooms most with en suite - and when its time to relax after (or before) a 'hard' days crafting a quick dip in here will do wonders...

I'm going to be teaching mixed media classes - the first course is planned for September.  This residential (all inclusive) course will be for 3 days (4 nights) and among the projects we'll be creating is a box canvas, and a masterboard to use as a base for other projects. 
A trip to the nearby beautiful Mediaeval town of Besalu could also be factored into your time at Can Jan - its well worth a trip!

Here are some sneak-peeks of the canvas options to wet your crafting tastebuds :o) 

 If all the above sounds tempting go to the Artizan website for more information about the courses, venue and area http://www.artizanonline.com/
I'm really looking forward to teaching these courses - hope you can join me!

Sweet Pea Project...

The flowers from my last post proved to be quite inspiring - I made the above tag (& another project but unfortunately I can't show you that... sorry!).. you must think I spend all my time making tags - I don't - honest guv!
This tag features Claudine Hellmuth's Blooms stamps and PaperArtsy Thorndon Hall papers and Fresco Finish paints (& I've told you how much I luuurve those haven't I?!!)  Its sooo pretty!! V girly lol
I thought the tag and flowers were nice and summery - & its JUNE for goodness sake & I'm still putting my heating on!! on Sunday I had on trousers, socks, tshirt, long cardigan and a scarf because I was so cold! its JUNE!!! somebody tell the weather please...
Especially as I'm going to a garden party family celebration on Sunday!! lol  maybe I should pack wellies and a mac just in case.....
Hope its summery where you are...

'Bloom'in Marvelous

.. is the way I'd describe the Craft Barn weekend!
For those of you that stopped by after I had managed to get paint on myself (& I was trying to be so clean!)(note to self - make/buy/find an apron!!!)  I can report that Fresco Finish (Sky Blue) has come out of my tshirt (dark grey so any residual staining is probably masked by the fabric) and my black linen trousers (tho still a little worked in - but thats 'cos I rubbed at it!)...  but lets get this straight - ahem, I intentionally got paint on my self to illustrate that Fresco Finish paints will work on any surface! obviously.... I like to provide a full service demonstration... lol  The lengths I will go to for my craft! lol

Four of the tags I made on day 2 when I had to switch to Claudine Hellmuth's 'Blooms' set of stamps because the 'Domestic' sets had sold out.  Love these stamps!! Quick & easy samples...   Houses tomorrow....

I'm off to Imagine That today to get all inky & painty with 10 lovely ladies - cracking open the Distress Stains, Fresco Finish paints, and Claudine H's stamps again....  the fun in my days never stops....

Have a good day!

Oh be still my 50s design loving heart!!....

Sanderson's have a FAB.U.LOUS 50s designs range!! I've resisted looking because I wasn't thinking about decorating, but now I'm starting to and some/one of these designs will be cropping up somewhere in our home - even if its just as cushions (the Festival print (below) would great on our black leather sofa!)....
here's some eye candy for you so that you know what I'm getting excited about:

 

I wish this blog had sound  - you could hear me happy clapping and squeeling a little - LOVE these designs!  I really like the 50s surface designs.

Which is probably why I like this artist so much (her lino prints are delicate & gorgeous!) and find her work really inspirational:

And why I reeeeeaaaally like Claudine Hellmuth's 'Creative Layers' stamps... the combination of foam & clear rubber stamps allows you to create the slightly offset lino/screen print look of 50's illustrations..LOVE..LOVE..LOVE!!
This is the first tag I created using the Dwelling stamps set... keeping it quite simple (but not completely simple: two colour on the foam).. The tag was created with Sticky back canvas stuck to a chipboard tag and stamped using PaperArtsy's Fresco Finish paints (LOVE these!) which went really nicely onto the canvas (another surface they'll work on, but I don't know how stable they'll be for washing (I'll ask PA) so maybe just use them on decorative items for now....)

Little book of things with wings.....

Another ArtsyCraft sample.. and the last... a little tag book (gotta love the tags!) ... measures 12x6cm.... using distress stains, Paperartsy stamps, Tim Holtz embellishments, Claudine Hellmuth canvas.....

The bindings on this book are Tim Holtz 'Hitch Fasteners' - cute little things! and great for binding a slim book.. & also on this book they work really well becuase they something to hold onto while you flick through!

I really enjoy making things like this - they're quick (-ish) and such a cute little size.. maybe I should work up to making bigger things which I do try to every-so-often but I'm much more comfortable making smaller things...

Page fronts:

Page backs:

The samples of work I've shown over the last week have been quite simple, 'quick & easy' - I do make more comples things - honest guv'

Have a great day

You can never have too many hearts....

When I get a product I like to try it out on & with anything I can get my hands on... The above are what I made before (and after) I went to ArtsyCrafts with one of the new PaperArtsy Heart dies - like this one a lot...
So these dies cut through:

Claudine Hellmuth sticky back canvas

Brooch I made with the stickyback canvas mounted onto Grungepaper for stability (might even've been grunge board?!?)

Grunge Paper

PaperArtsy's Metal Card

Metal Card embossed with a Tim Holtz embossing folder (its also been painted with acrylic paint, sprayed with Perfect pearls in several colours and sanded back)

Card stock (stamped with PaperArtsy images and coloured with distress inks)

Card stock (stamped with Fresco Finish paint & coloured with distress stains (Fresco Finish paints resist the stains! lush)

Shrink plastic x 2

Just wanted to show you how versatile these dies were (and no prizes for guessing which of the hearts were cut from shrink plastic! lol)

ooh - corrugate cardboard  - cuts through that too... how could I have forgotten to show that - I do love a bit of corrugated cardboard! lol

Tags... Part 3

Today's tag is decorated with the lovely new PaperArtsy OakLeaf dies - love how they've made them in 3 sizes!

Went a bit old school with this tag - scrunched up and distressed the tag - haven't done that for ages - I liked it! - Looks the tags been under a leaf pile for ages.. lol
The word 'nature' is printed with the PaperArtsy Words plate 2.
I've always wanted to use the plate to create words, and toyed with the idea of cutting the plate up to use as an alphabet, but I really like to use it as a background and so didn't want to cut it up. But, after seeing Joanne Wardle use it to create words it made up my mind - I bought another one and cut it up - really glad I did!! ("its only rubber - cut it up!" said the little voice in my head!!)
So now I have 2 - one for building words and 1 for creating backgrounds! Ta Daaa. Simples! lol
The leaves are sticky back canvas stamped with the co-ordinating images for the dies, and coloured with distress inks - very autumnal. Little leaf is attached with a Tim Holtz teeny tiny safety pin, the big leaf with a clip.  The tag is also stamped with a Tim Holtz image - from the new Papillon plate.

Just playing....

I bought Kelly Rae Roberts' 'take flight' book a while ago - great book... & yesterday decided I was going to make something - nothing in particular - just something - just play around and see what happened and I took my inspiration from the book & made a mixed media panel.

Started with this:

I added pretty much every type of medium I had at my disposal and made this.  I cut the panel into 4 and accented each panel with different colours of pencil...

I really enjoyed making this - kept thinking ooh I'll add this and then worried about what if went wrong... so what?! - paint over it and try something else - its only cardboard & paper covered in ink & paint!
(and if its really terrible I'll keep it to myself and not tell anyone! rofl  but I quite liked it (well, liked it a lot actually) so I thought I'd show you....)

In case you're wondering what I used here is the roll call:

we are memory keepers scrapbook papers

watered down acrylic paint (blue - horrible, babywiped that straight off - though it did stain a little)

watered down acrylic paint - white

Glimmer mists over a flower stencil

Pearfect Pearl mists

CraftyNotions Shake'n'spray

CraftyNotions Opaque white

masked circles

stamping & embossing in white

Stamping & embossing in pearlescent green

colouring pencils - blue, black, green, white,

Phew that's a lot of stuff - could have used more...
and there still time......

but maybe i'll save that for the next masterboard.....

Thanks for popping by... I'm off to tidy my poor neglected craft room.

Suze Weinberg, Claudine Hellmuth and Tim Holtz....

I finally finished it - my sampler frame from Saturday's workshop... well there's only so many times you can move tiles around until they look just right! lol  I added a few elements of my own in place of a couple of those created - but only because they were outside the finished colour palette.. I created a cute little canvas resist panel (one of Claudine's elements) that was too close to the background colour so I'll use that on something else further down the line 'cos I really liked how she achieved the resist.  I added the silver buckle - bottom right, the clock face and of course some buttons (well how could I not!)
(and I'm sure you've realised but just in case - the centre bit of cardboard is just to cover the mirror while I photographed).
Colours on the frame itself are stronger in reality.

I went, I learned, I looked and got inspired..

.. at Stitches.  The show was smaller than previous ones... but still lots of eye candy:

Couldn't help but stroke and touch these on the Button Company stand:

Look at the lovely colours of felt!  I couldn't help but stroke those - charcoal grey is hard to get and its soooo lovely!  And thats not just rik-rak its HUGE rik-rak - measures about 2.5cm on the band - would make such a cool embellishment - LOVE IT - but it would be hard to choose a colour wouldn't it! lol

Buttons and button display - love this vintage mix! things that make you go mmmmmmmm.

Now for my next pictures we must speak in hushed tones so not to upset my Cuttlebug, who I am very fond of as we know, but look at this:

This is the Big Shot Pro... a brute of a machine! Its a BigShot on steroids! lol. the paper laying to the side is a sheet of 12x12!!!!!! I can almost hear my little Cuttlebug shaking on its little suckered feet! lol

The Sizzix stands are always dressed well with great use of their dies and products and if my camera wasn't playing silly whatsits I'd show you pictures of nice things! So I'll show you Tim Holtz's new line of Sizziz dies and embossing folders and projects made from them instead! loving the birdcage and birdie (reminding me of my Tweets from way back - see here and here)

and while we're speaking Mr Holtz check this out: this is my friend Rachael, Tim and Me at the end of the Ranger-on-the-road workshop on saturday - I'll post a picture of the project we made when I've stuck all the pieces down....

The workshop was good - I've never seen Suze Weinberg and Claudine Hellmuth demo/teach and I really enjoyed it.  It was comfortably fast paced and enjoyable - lots of tasters of techniques - made me want to go and get busy with all the products - but thats the point isn't it! lol

All in all its been a busy and knackering weekend - but well worth it!!

Snow or no snow we are going....

.... to Birmingham this weekend for the Stitches trade show.... its going to be good - hopefully lots of new exciting products to be looked at - i'll try and take lots of photos.
Saturday morning is going to be spent at the 'Ranger-on-the-Road' workshop - Suze Weinberg, Claudine Hellmuth and Tim Holtz - how good does that sound!!
I also received this morning a copy of Tim's new book - I haven't had a good look through but from my quick flick - its looking quite inspiring.... v hard not drop everything to go and play with ink, stamps and powders (oh my!)