Demo day!!....

... just a quick reminder that I'll be over at the lovely Birds in the Barn, Marks Tey, tomorrow...  where I'll be getting inky & painty with Gelli Plates, Fresco Finish paints, PaperArtsy stamps and stencils...

Really looking forward to visiting the shop again - its been a while - I hope you can join me!


x

Time well spent at The Craft Barn.....

.... on Saturday..  Thanks to everyone who came and watched the demo's yesterday - lovely to see everyone and to get painty with new products...

I'll post photos of the samples when I have better light... (tricky in the uk at the moment - we either have blazing sunshine or pouring rain!)

I'll be back at The Craft Barn next Sunday for a class of Beginners Stamping - looking forward to it - there are still a few places remaining - contact the shop to book a place.

xx

oooh I do love a day of demo'ing...

... and this Saturday (01 March - oh my goodness MARCH!!!) you'll find me at The Craft Barn where I'll be demo'ing my new PaperArtsy JOFY products - stamps, stencils and paints.. oh my!
:o)

I'm really looking forward to demo'ing the new products- I hope you can come along - it'll be lovely to see you.

x


I also have a workshop booked at The Craft Barn on 09 March:

"Get Stamping - This fab class is aimed at beginners and those who feel they are not getting the most out of stamping. You will learn how to stamp, how different ink pads work and when to use them, heat embossing, creating focal points and basic backgrounds"

Love to see you on that too - its nice to go back to basics sometimes!  

:o) 

What are you doing next weekend?....

.... just asking.. incase you are free and fancy a day or two of crafty/arty fun.. then you could maybe join me on...

... Saturday when I'll be at the Craft Barn (10:00-4:00) where I'll be demo'ing my new Christmas stamp designs with a focus on Christmas cards.. there will be other demonstrators too - go to the Craft Barn website to find out more details..

... or on Sunday when I'll be running a workshop at Crafting Time - creating a lovely box canvas with a summery beachy feel (I'm hanging on to Summer as long as I can! lol) - there are a couple of places left if you'd like to come along - contact the shop to book a place...

Hope to see you!

xx

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!

All season in one day....

....well, two of them at least - I'll be at Colemans Warehouse this weekend - Saturday I'll be demo'ing my latest stamps - the Beach Huts...

... and on Sunday I'll be teaching a summery floral class in the morning and in the afternoon its all about a wintery Christmas!  Yes.  I said it.  CHRISTMAS! which according the cheery little ap on my phone is only 116 days away! DON'T PANIC!!
We've got the rest of the summer to get through yet.

Hope to see you there!

oooh I do like to be beside the seaside Part 1

.... It felt quite seaside-ish sitting at my demo table at The Craft Barn on Saturday surrounded by beachy images, stamps and samples... It was a lovely day- time to chat with customers about the new stamps, Fresco Finish paints and whats coming up in the next month or so (taps nose in I've-got-a-secret-type way).

But, note to self, DON'T FORGET THE CAMERA! doh because I did forget my camera so, for some of the samples I made on Saturday, the only photos I have were taken on my phone - apologies in advance:

Started the day with a book cover.
I love using the Stix2 Stamp Masking sheets for masking off images - such good thin surface to stamp futher layers over.. Paints used are Nougat, Beach Hut, Elephant, Haystack (lightened) Baltic Blue, London Bus and of course last but not least - Tinned Peas.

Then a wooden thermometer - the photo of the whole piece wasn't quite in focus so here's the detail shot: The letter are corrugated card board die cut using the Sizzix/Tim Holtz 'word play' die.  The hut image was stamped onto scrapbook papers (my minds eye) which was then painted with Baltic Blue and detail added with Aquarelle pencils (faber castell).

Next it all got a bit shabby chic - this is an idea I've had right from when I was designing the stamps - I wanted to be able to paper-piece the images together - creating an almost patchwork effect:  Created using My Minds Eyes papers (a 6x6 pad - love these pads - 12x12 sheets shrunk to 1/2 size - perfect!) with a bit of Claret & Elephant Fresco Finish (bit of Tuape and Nougat on the canvas board base) (canvas measure about 5x7 cm):

... and this is the mini23 version: again with scrapbook papers and this time each roof is coloured using the Aquarelle pencils:

... and every day at the seaside should include a bit of sandcastle building:

This card - lovely and simple card, coloured using the Aquarelle pencils as part of a demo to a customer - it makes me smile - lovely bright sunshine colours...

I'll have a couple more samples to show you tomorrow.....

x

Beach Huts at The Barn....

... The Craft Barn, over at South Nutfield which is where I'll be getting inky painty tomorrow between 10-4pm... with my new stamps - beach themed which seem really appropriate considering the glorious weather we're having at the moment....

Come along if you can - it'll be lovely to see you.

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

Samples, Samples, & more samples Part 3

... made in advance for AllyPally and for the up-coming demo days that I have - the next one is at Colemans Craft Warehouse (Northampton) on 27th April (next weekend) - looking forward to that very much...

...here's the samples:

Left to Right...
Left: Taking the time...
Fresco Finish base (Baltic Blue, Tinned Peas, bit of Guacamole & Nougat), dried, stencil of clocks (Crafters Workshop) with Grunge Paste (love love love), dried, swipe of Treasure Gold, and then I sanded the whole top area over the clocks to smooth it out, knock back the gold and weather/distress the tag.

I stamped the 'dandelion' heads (JOFY12) in black and touched the flower tips spots with a gold gel pen, and stamped the phrase along the long edge.  I like the crisp black stamping against the distressed background:

Centre Tag:
I love the pink flower heads against the blue background - so cool  & fresh.  The long white flower stems are stenciled again with Grunge Paste (I told you I love it!) (Crafters Workshop stencil) but this time they haven't been sanded back...lovely and crisp with a nice matte finish.

Right hand Tag:
This is work in progress - created while I was demonstrating at the show... Corrugated card tag (stripped at the edges), painted in Nougat Fresco Finish, stenciled the background with coloured spots (Blue Blue & Guacamole) and overstamped the stenciled spots with mesh (go here to find out more), stamped dandelion heads and tipped with London Bus (lovely accent colour - zingy!)... Stamped 2 flower heads/stems and leaf - painted the leaf but covered one of the flower heads in a flower created with  leaf images.

Pretty spring/summer tags which, unfortunately, is a near to those two seasons as we seem to be getting here in the UK at the moment!  While I was out and about yesterday (I live in south-east England) - in the space of 60-90 minutes our weird and wonderful weather had delivered high winds, brilliant sunshine, a hail storm (and I mean storm with pea sized hail!!), thunder and lightening, torrential rain and then back to glorious sunshine!! Gotta love it!

Thanks for popping by...

I'm off back to the studio.....

Samples, samples and more samples Part2....

.... the first batch of tag samples - I do love a tag (or 2)...(you may have noticed!) these are, for me, functional rather than inspirations samples - tags where I have created little 'testers' or simple 'techniques'...

Spots are another favourite of mine - love a bit of spotted paper, or fabric, or ribbon! On these tags I used a stencil to create the spots.  I had planned to add flower images or embellishments to the tags - but I've decided to leave them like this - for reference...
Left tag:I used Mini15 to stamp words (2nd generation, black archival ink) over the background of the tag leaving some area unstamped. The spots are stamped in Fresco Finish Pansy and a mix of Guacamole and Tinned Peas.  The mesh stamped image is from the long mesh panel on JOFY10

Centre tag:

The corrugated card tag had the edges and bottom edge randomly stripped of the outer layer, the surface was then painted with Nougat (love!) paint - great base colour.  The flowers- Mini14- were stamped using Archival Green, then the spots were painted in Pansy with a spot of Pearl Glaze added over the top... just making little spots of colour pearlised adds that little bit of subtle 'bling'.

Right tag:

Base of tab was randomly painted with Pansy, Guacamole, Nougat and Tinned Peas (probably a bit of Hey Pesto in there too!)(that list sounds like a weird salad recipe doesn't it! lol).. tag was stenciled in a similar way to the tag on left but the square/rectangular spaces were filled with text.

I enjoyed making these tags - creating one inspired another (love it when that happens) - i could've created more (I think) but I had to move on to other things... another time maybe

Samples, samples and more samples....

..... made in the lead up to AllyPally this weekend.. I had a lovely time demo'ing on the PaperArtsy stand - where Leandra was demo'ing next to me (giving me a little bit of stick - I wasn't quite the 'tidy' demonstrator she expected lol).  It was a chance to meet lots of lovely crafters, put faces to twitter names, answer lots of questions - it was a really great day... I didn't get a chance to look round the show (apart from a quick dash to the MDF man - very lovely things) so I might go for both days of the September show - shop the first day and then work the second - that's if PA/Leandra will have me back (I'll work on my tidiness! lol)
There has been a really positive response to the JOFY stamps so thank you to everyone who has bought them and I hope you are all enjoying creating with them.

I took a grand total of 3 photos on the day (shocking for the person who normally takes photos of everything.. twice..., but it was too busy to take photos) and two of those photos were of the beautiful stained glass window in the large hall.  AllyPally is undergoing a huge refurbishment to bring it back to its former glory... its a wonderful landmark in London and has THE most amazing panoramic views of the city.

I'll show you my samples over the next few days - the first sample is a double icon - the most detailed sample I made (and possibly my favourite.. but don't tell the other samples - it might make their colours fade in disappointment lol):

The icon was painted with Fresco Finish paints (using one of my new favourite paints - Tinned Peas)(more gorgeous new colours have recently been added to the range... Blood Orange is another must-have). I stamped directly on the icon itself and also onto papers that were painted, cut out and then glued onto the icon. This helps to create a subtle depth...

The surface of the icon needed to remain flat so it could be closed- normally I would 3d mount some of the flowers or attach a button (or two!) but on this piece I had to resist.

All the shading is created with Fresco Finish paints - using mainly the translucent colours.

Pink & green is one of my favourite colour combinations... I could happily use it over and over again.

EDIT:

I forgot to show the sides of the blocks :o) - painted with Tinned Peas (of course!) and stamped with the long hessian strip from JOFY10 (Archival Coffee)

That's today's sample - I'll be back tomorrow with some more...