A (di)stress free weekend...

I spent Saturday at Birds in the Barn running a Distress Workshop - effects and techniques you can create with the inks, (paints) and stains... we painted, bleached (love the effect of the bleach!), resisted and marbled - all very inky!!

.. and relaxing and everyone went home surprisingly clean! .. must have been something to do with the bleach and shaving foam! lol

Sunday was spent in the garden - tidying it up, digging it up, moving plants and furniture about.... gardening is a great form of exercise! I ache all over! lol  but it was worth it - the garden looks great (especially the patio where MrJoFY removed all the weeds from between the slabs! weeds had grown a lot because we sprayed the flower tubs on the patio with 'miracle grow' so of the course plants and weeds grew! lol as if weeds don't grow fast enough anyway! gggrrr)

... and sadly we had to cut down the five sunflowers I'd grown - was quite proud of these - probably slightly misplaced pride because even small children can grow sunflowers so for a 42yr old (that's me!) to grow them is not overly impressive! (and especially if you saw my f-i-l's sunflowers - size of dinner plates - amazing!)

But I grew them, kept them alive (sunflowers are quite high maintenance- need LOTS of water!) and so I'm happy:

xx

Craft Barn Extravaganza....

... is where I spent last weekend demo'ing my little socks off and enjoying every minute.

Its taken me a while to write this post - life kept getting in the way - kept going back into the 'drafts' box...! lol but now, eventually (lol), here comes the catch up...

It was the first extravaganza at The Craft Barn's lovely new location - 3 marquees nice and close to the shop... really nice set up.

Here's my demo desk - tidiness is always a bit tricky during demo's (for me anyway) and so I decided to display my samples vertically rather than horizontally:

   

The shelving unit on the right was an ebay purchase- best £15 spent! lol- and it folds up flat. genius!  I forgot to photograph behind the desk but that was really organised - tiers of wire baskets holding all the necessary bits and pieces.

Here are some of the samples from the day - keeping them nice and simple.  I demo'd my 3 new A5 plates and 6 new minis...

 I love how this arch sample turned out - scrapbook printed papers mixed with Fresco Finish paints - a combination that makes me very happy!

 ...as does the combination of Fresco Finish and book text! :o)

back with some more samples in the next few days....

samples, samples, & more samples Part 4

...coming to the last of the tag samples.. more flowers which is good - if the weather report is to be believed we're in for some nice sunny days this weekend (fingers crossed! lol) (I'll still be packing my brolly though)

Left tag:
This is colour using mainly Distress ink, the flowers are stamped and cut from misc' papers (scrapbooking, book text etc)... the panel running up the left side of the tag is stamped with Mini12 - lovely to use as a backbround stamp or use the individual flowers:

The words are taken from JOFY11 - stamp them and cut them out - easy way to add a phrase - these have been 3d mounted to create dimension/layers on the card (as have some of the flowers...):

Centre Tag:

The colours on this tag are sooo juicy! the peachy pinks (created with the help of Blood Orange Fresco Finish paint) (love)... its also a version of one of my favourite colour schemes - pink&green... also a slightly different treatment used on the ball stems... are they pussywillows or are they seed heads??? I don't know - use them as you want.. that's how I designed the stamps - so you could interpret them however you want...   On the this tag I've coloured them to look like berries...

The 'summer' tag is created with MINI15... here it has been used as a stamped on to kraft card, cut out and attached to the tag..

Right tag:
This tag is in a completely different style (I think) - very simple - the images are stamped onto paper (Prima) featuring ledger paper.  The leaves have been coloured/painted with Distress Stains to create a watercolour effect.  The flower was created with leave images stamped onto a dull red paper - I painted over that with London Bus - this worked really well because it brightened up the red and because it's a translucent colour none of the stamped detail was lost.

Enjoy the weekend - fingers crossed for a sunny one! lol

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!!!!

A Journey...

... or two - PaperArtsy style:
I recently received some of the lovely, quirky, steampunky new HotPick stamps. Here are pic's of all 6:

 

 1106                                                1107

 

 1108                                              1109

 

1110                                                1111

I made some quick pieces with the stamps - just wanted to play with the stamps - a card and a tag (the tag might get a bit more attention (its missing 'something', but I'm not quite sure what yet....). 

I had a lot of fun looking through a book and cutting out random phrases - I have quite a few lined up so expect to see more (I prefer to cut them out as they read in the book rather than make them up ransom style (or to read down the lines as opposed to across) )

(there's one that says 'the cops with curious hindquarters' that made me laugh out loud but as yet I have no idea where/when I would use that - but I'm saving it just in case.....)

A this'n'that catch up.... Part 2

Here's another random selection of stuff that I meant to show you before now:

Ranger have brought out some more Distress Stains!! Squeeeeel! Love this product.
Thank you for the lovely messages I had about my article in this month's Craft Stamper - glad I inspired you.  I bought a few more of the Stains and played with the bleach on these too:

No great surprises in the remaining colour once bleached (eg walnut stain that has a great purple when bleached) but I do like the pale yellow thats left in the black soot - nice.

I bought Milled Lavender after I'd made these samples - it wasn't one of my favourite Distress Colours (not sure I even have it as an ink pad) (a bit of a 'non-colour) but the Stain is a really lovely soft pretty colour.  I'm converted.
Picket Fence!!! ooh thats a good one - its more opaque than the other stains - great for a white wash look over a surface.. very versatile.

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October ArtsyCrafts!!!

Oops  - can't believe I haven't blogged about this before now!! - well I might have mentioned that it was running but what I haven't mentioned is that its going to be another exciting event with another guest teacher!!!

In addition to the usual top classes by Leandra & Lin, Lynne Perella will teach 3 days of classes - a different one each day.

How fabulous is that!

Aaaaaand its very exciting for me because I'm not going to be working at the event* - I'm going to be taking 2 of the classes!!!!!!!  Beyond excited.
(* don't get me wrong I love working at these events)

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aaaand another exciting event - so much arty learning will be going into my head in October I may implode (but don't worry if I do it will be sparkly and there may be buttons..lol) - I was lucky to get a place on the Dina Wakley classes at LB Crafts!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Again, beyond excited! lol  I love Dina's artsy, splashy, colour rich, sprayiness (yes, I know that's not a word but I'm excited so forgive me! lol)

Dina Wakley. www.dinastamps.typepad.com

So many new exciting things to be learnt in October ( I love learning new things) I may have to lay in a darkened room for the whole of November! lol

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In my workroom there are lots of boxes with supplies in them, & it's sort of organised (& getting better, its an ongoing process) - I have several Moppe boxes (from Ikea - love these but apparently they don't make them anymore! The shock!) but these boxes aren't very interesting to look at - so I pulled out some of my current favourite scrapbook papers and covered the drawers in those!

I like looking at scrapbook papers!
I like storage.
Its a win win situation. I deliberately kept them simple and embellishment free so that if I get 'bored' of these papers I can easily change them.

Take care

Get inky painty with me...

... at my next set of classes at Imagine That (Upminster)...
I have 2 classes this term - not as many as previously - had to factor in some time for a house move. (fingers crossed! lol)
Damsel in Distress is a class using the ooooh so lovely Distress Stains (did you hear that Ranger/Tim Holtz launched 12 new colours at CHA this week - be still by Distress Stain loving heart! lol) - we'll be making 3 cards with several techniques, this time with a much 'daintier' finish....

In Fresco Finish we'll be using PaperArtsy's Fresco Finish paints to decorate a frame (and card)... we'll be working with the Crackle Glaze - this is a fantastic product that gets great results every time... LOVE it!

The classes are on July 27th & September 22nd - hope to see you there!  Contact ImagineThat to book your place.

x

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

Tags... Part 4...

Love the Tim Holtz 'Haberdashery' stamp set its right up my street!!  (anything with a sewing/ mannequin theme really!) (in our home there are 3 vintage sewing machines & umpteen mannequins (not all of which are full size I hasten to add!))
I really like how this tag turned out - that the image of the mannequin is faded out - like a ghost sign or fresco on a wall.... and the nice scrunched tag with bling and motif - its like a little swatch of a long forgotten design idea.... like a mood board (and I LOVE to make mood boards!! - it was one of my favourite things to create when I was studying interior dec' techniques.. pulling together all the bits and pieces to conjur up the 'feel' of a room...)
aaaanyhoo - that's all the tags I have to share now... I think... tomorrow its a mini book (again, created for AC)..
Enjoy your weekend!

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.