Catch up post 1....

... i'm still a little bit obsessed with houses - in whatever form that takes...and christmas gives lots of opportunity for little houses .... (if you'd like to see the other houses click 'houses' on the labels list on the bottom left of the blog...

This house is one I altered for a class at Birds in the Barn a few weeks ago - a lot of fun - and quite a challenging shape..

Created with Fresco Finish paints & Crackle Glaze, JOFY stamps: mini27, 29 & JOFY20,18 & 19.  

The snowflakes around the edge are Sizzix/TimHoltz on the edge snowflakes die- now discontinued (which is a shame), the stand is created from a box of slices of wood by Artemio- they're surprisingly useful! great for stamping onto and for creating structures like this stand.

xx

A fun filled weekend...

... full of arty-craftiness..

Saturday was spent at The Craft Barn as one of the demonstrators for a festive MiniFest - was good fun - lots of people came and watched the demos - lovely to see everyone....  and thanks for all the lovely comments about the new Christmas JOFY stamps.
If you fancy a day of card making using the stamps then come along to the Craft Barn on 10 November - call the shop for more details.
ho ho ho!

(Please remember:  designs shown in demos are to inspire & encourage you to get crafty.

please don't recreate for classes or projects for publication online or in print. ta muchly)

I'll blog better photos of the samples in another post.

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Sunday I ran a workshop at Its Crafting Time - 'Sun, Sea & Sand'.. a fun day - nice to see everyone.. and one of the lovely ladies bought some VERY yummy bakes! too yummy! Thanks for that! (yum yum yum)

Lots of lovely beach huts were painted by everyone (and 2 of the ladies gave the sand on their project a 'pebble' effect because that's what their local beach has, instead of sand - love the effect they created):

Thanks to everyone for coming along!

What better way is there to spend a weekend!

xx

A lovely inky painty time.....

.... pretty much sums up last weekend where I spent the weekend running 2 workshops...

I think I walked through the door twice before I noticed the writing on the door (after it had been pointed out to me)! lol   oops - sorry & thanks!

I completely forgot to take photos on Saturday's card making workshop! sorry everyone! here's a detail photo (mine) of one of the cards they made.. lovely cards were created in all sorts of colour options - love it when that happens!

In Sunday's workshop we decorated a triptych... and here are the inky painty participants with their lovely creations:... those smiles are ones you get from saying 'tinned peas and guacamole' instead of 'cheese' for a photo.. lol

The photo shows the inside of the triptych's - my sample had minimal decoration but time allowed for additional painting and decoration:

Helen painted her outside flowers in lovely green with orange 'berries':

 I love Elaine's doors with additional bud heads:

... and Judy painted the flowers inside in  lovely shades of blue and green and so used the same colour scheme outside.  Love it:

:
Everyone created very lovely projects!  Gold stars all round!
Thanks to everyone for coming - hope to see you at the 'Christmas' classes - 23/24 November - cards and a project.

xx

PS - on the way to The Stamp Attic I was driving on the M25 - the MAJOR London FOUR LANE, VERY BUSY motorway... when I watched the most muppetry piece of driving, only ever normally seen on the TV:  a 4x4  realised it had taken the wrong exit and so had REVERSED BACK DOWN THE SLIP ROAD, DRIVEN OVER THE GRASS AT THE END WHERE THE CHEVRONS RUN INTO GRASS & REJOINED the M25 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh. my. word!! what goes through peoples heads! lol where in the highway code does it says thats a good idea! numpty! lol

This is a Christmas free blogpost....

... well almost.... its a 'round-up' post so there may be a slight/ brief mention...

Last weekend I demo'd and taught a class at Colemans Craft Warehouse in Northampton.. a shop packed full of all kinds of crafting loviness. On Saturday I demo'd using JOFY16 - the Beach Hut plate (or affectionately known as 'sheds...' lol)
I created a small wooden box frame (what's not to love about those!) - great opportunity to use the Fresco Finish Crackle Glaze! (again what's to love about that product).

 ...the starfish is a small die cut embellishment.... painted in Haystack Fresco Finish...

The Warehouse stock small wooden panels.. a really nice smooth surface to paint onto:

 The little row of beach huts is one of my favourite images on the plate - such dinky, detailed little images..

I have another sample from the day - a shabby chic canvas that I need to add some detail/embellishments to before I can show you - its more shabby chic than seaside nautical like the projects above... quite a lot of paper piecing involved.... I'll blog it and then send that and the panel above to Colemans to put on display with the stamps.

Sunday was a day of classes.. spring summer in the morning....

... and {brace yourselves} Christmas in the afternoon..

I'm sorry to use the C word but people are actually starting to make the Christmas cards already - don't moan at me - I'm just responding to the requests! :o)

Then there was a brief visit to hospital, resulting in several days of rest....

... and then yesterday I taught a class at The Artistic Stamper.  A lovely group of ladies came and stamped, painted and inked their way through the day to create these:

Love how they are all so different!..

... and today I am mainly resting, getting ready for the next week - Christmas doesn't make itself you know - ooop sorry - there's that word again! lol
Is now a bad time to tell you that I bought 3 decorations on Thursday... for purely crafting purposes!  lol

Enjoy!

I don't think we could have been more inky painty...

.... than we were today in my Fresco Finish workshop at Birds in the Barn... but just to make sure I'll do it all again on Sunday with another group!...

The group created a selection of tags using various surfaces, paints, glazes, JOFY stamps, & pastes...

... which were then all tied up nice and safe in a cardboard wrap:

Looking forward to running the workshop again - and if you're coming on Sunday its advisable to bring an apron!... just sayin!  lol

:o)

A Crafty Day at Colemans....

... is what I had on Saturday... Its called Colemans Warehouse but I'm not sure that does it justice! Soooo many great craft items under one roof ....

It was a really enjoyable day.... & a busy, creative day (judging by the amount of paint and ink that was on my hands!)  Thank you to all the lovely people who came and watched my demos - with JOFY Stamps- thanks for the lovely comments, & the PaperArtsy Grunge Paste (whats not to love about that product!) and the general 'oooh'ing and 'aaaaah'ing at the reliability of the Crackle Glaze!  it works I tell you... every time!

Speaking of Crackle Glaze & JOFY stamps:

The crackle on this wooden block (liked these blocks a lot) has been painted on in areas rather than all over to demonstrate that its possible to do that - you don't have to crackle an entire surface...
The flowers are painted with Fresco Finish, stamps are from JOFY12

This smaller wooden block is a perfect size to use with a Mini stamp - Mini10

Towards the end of  demo days I seem to create what I'm going to start calling 'scoop up' creations - items that I make from all the bits that are left on the desk:

Gotta love a tag!  especially a corrugated cardboard tag, with flowers and a button - the second button of the day!  I only used two buttons all day - very restrained for me! lol

Look at the size of my demo desk!!! I laughed when I saw it - now that's what I call a demo desk! lol - lots of space to spread out and get messy on.. ahem not messy - no, creative on...

Its lucky the desk was this big as I took lots of samples with me and I'm always happy to do that- items that have previously been posted here on the blog.  But, I hope that the people who watch demos, look at and photograph the samples understand that as a demonstrator I make and show samples not to have them copied but to provide inspiration that hopefully acts as a springboard for their imagination, so that they can go home and create their own projects.

* * * * *

I'll be returning to Colemans on the 30 August for the demo day, and on the following day (01 September)(duh, sorry to state the obvious! lol) I'll be running 2 card making classes - JOFY Florals in the morning and Christmas Cards, yes Christmas Cards(!) in the afternoon.


aaaanyhoo - back to the studio - things don't design themselves do they! ...

Enjoy your day