The first of many...

... cards that are required in March (wedding anniversaries x2, mother's day x2, birthdays x 4 (at least! lol))..

I taught a workshop at That's Crafty this past weekend where we created a canvas with a Bokeh inspired background... I was 'in the zone' so used the same technique to create a masterboard/background for several cards.. (created with Fresco Finish paints)

Here's part of the masterboard background...

I made 4 cards using this background including these two cards for my Mum and Mother-in-Law - love the flowers on these (from the stash - I think they are Prima).. great to have all the colours on the background to choose matching embellishments for.. (cards measure 12.5x12.5cm - this is a favourite card size for me - not too big, not too small)

Thanks for popping by

x

Its beginning to look a bit like Christmas!!

On the first Saturday of each month The Craft Barn has in-shop demonstrations and this month I was providing one of them... I had a lovely day, lots of lovely peeps came and watched the demos - bought the products I was demo'ing which was great - but in the afternoon it meant that it was as much an improvisation as a demonstration! lol
Here are some sneak peeks of my samples - a few of the originals will go to the shop...

Lots of techniques & products on these - Rosettes - created with Tim Holtz die (I think I've mentioned before how much I like these! lol); Distress Inks (antique linen, frayed burlap, weathered wood, black soot); dry embossing - with Sizzix folders - these give a really good deep impression; die cutting - Spellbinders - great flourishes (love); and wet embossing - covering the die cuts making them look like metal - this effect was achieved using Stampedous 'Fran-tage' embossing enamels in 'aged silver' and aged black (which is a really lovely colour.. we're talking reeeeeeally nice! (& so is the 'aged silver' judging by how fast it sold out!)

Thanks to everyone who watched the demos, I hope you were inspired.  Demo's wouldn't be the same without you!

xx

Introducing Agatha - My She Art Girl!

 I recently took Christy Tomlinson 'She Art Girl' online class.  I love how she builds up layers of background, and creates these 'art girls'.  My one, Agatha, is created on recycled mount board (6x12in) - I'm proud of the fact I didn't use a pattern - I just drew her, cut out the pieces and stuck them down - normally I would make sure the everything was symmetrical (like her dress and body shape) but ooh no this time I just stuck the bits down!  Very liberating.

I really like her boots! - she was going to have slouch socks too but, ahem, I forgot to stick them on before the boots! oops - nevermind - I'll just use them on another Art Girl.

 I like the fact that she doesn't have a face - if the face is wrong it can spoil an image - so best to leave it off. :o)

I thought I'd show you Agatha and her sketch - it helped to sketch it out so I could see where everything would sit on the canvas and how/if it would look balanced (I reeeeaaally like the sketch! - its just pencil on a board - I might sketch over it in pen & keep it...)

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.

Scrap Cards...

I was trying to tidy my workroom the other day and I started with all the best intentions..... but I was constantly side-tracked by the bits and pieces I kept finding in the piles (which I swear arrive overnight and have nothing to do with me... at all).... I found a booklet of Making Memories notelet thingies and in another box I was clearing I found the matching flowers! Kerrching... so I made the above cards (stamps are Banana Frog, Basic Grey, Imagine That & I think the spots is Hero Arts..??)
Excuse the crease on the first card I didn't notice that until I photographed them - & thats because I didn't have my nice new glasses (reading glasses!!!  for goodness sake - I know they say it all goes wrong once you're 40 but seriously- its only been 3months!! gggrrrr)
(the glasses are nice tho- got sparklies on!... no not Dame Edna Everidge stylee.. but I thought if I had to wear them then I might as well have statement ones! rofl)
aaaanyhoo, the cards are the Kraft type from DoCrafts/Papermania - not as thick/heavyweight as I'd have liked - they've gone a bit bent - I'll put them under something heavy and flat which will hopefully sort that out - & I hope so 'cos I've got 100 of the devils! lol

Christmas cards...

...this year's cards are sooo simple - in previous years they've been stamped, sewn, embossed (dry and wet),  but this year I've gone for a 'less is more' approach! - I was a cats whisker away from buying cards to send - shameful I know! shock, horror! Simple was the best way forward.
I  really like the papers by My Minds Eye and the Martha Stewart punch. The sentiment is Hero Arts.
I did consider stitching around the paper squares but remembered that I was on a deadline, and have a longish to-do list before christmas and so no stitching will be involved this year! ("Jo, put the cards down and move away from the craft table")

I love the traditional, slightly Nordic, feel of the cards... I love a bit of Kraft card stock.

ho ho ho

WOYWW - its been a while!

Here it is - my desk - do you notice anything about it? go on, look carefully.... yep thats right - its clearer! I was going to say tidier but then that might be pushing the believability a bit too far - but it is clearer - less 'stuff' around the edges... oh come on course there is look at the white bits- that desk top!  So other things on there are my little sketchbook (in centre with pink spots on page), essential cup of coffee, coloured rubons (recently dug those out of the stash (buried deep!) I'd forgotton how nice they are!), PaperArtsy stamps, Hero Arts stamps and samples for a class, oh and not forgetting the very important general 'stuff'

Right you lovely snoopers - I need your help please (no not another plant identification - got my sambucus!) - I'm planning a trip to New York (oh yeah! New York baby - so good they named it twice!) and I'd like your recommendations for what I should do while I'm there - not the obvious stuff - I've already got a list as long as my arm of that (Statue of Liberty etc) but unusual stuff.... answers on a postcard, sorry, in the comments section please!

Thanks muchly in advance for any info!

And if you want to know what all this desk snooping is about head on over to Julia's blog and she'll explain everything, and you'll find a list of all the other desks that are open for viewing...

Right, other peeps' worktops here I come!

WOYWW

Today I've been doing a bit of this'n'that - finishing up some projects that I've been asked to do which means that... wait for it.... yes I actually tidy up!!!!!!!!  Sometimes the desk get a bit too cluttered and I can't think straight/ clearly and so I have to tidy up before I can carry on.. and the project/ work I have lined up for tomorrow takes quite a bit of desk space so another reason for a bit of a tidy up - I'd also hate to have you thinking I'm a complete slob in the studio! lol 'cos I'm not - untidy yes but also quite organised...

So here's the pictures - before the clean up with work in progress still in situ

so all is pretty much as untidy creative as last week, the mug on the desk actually holds coffee! no tools, and in the top right is an addition to the desk: a small portable dvd player that I sometimes have playing instead of the radio - nothing like a good mgm musical to occupy part of the brain while working! Today it was Calamity Jane and 7brides for & brothers... love them!

and this is how it looks now after the clean up- ready for tomorrow..

and one final photo showing the other desk - not so much for the desk but to show the little terror sitting on it looking like butter wouldn't melt, but who generally arrives on the desks all of a rush and univited, walks around hunting for cotton buds and/ or blue tac! (or cut'n'dry) I have no idea what the appeal of blue tac is but he loves it! His name's Bertie - as in Bertie Bassett, cos he's black like licorice. 

Hope you've enjoyed another poke around my space, and meeting one of my cats... I'm off to to peek at what your spaces are looking like today.. take care.

Card Inspirations....

... is where I spent a lovely couple of days (fri & sat) teaching and getting creative with the ladies - much fun had with shaving foam, inks, stamps and the Cuttlebug! (not all at the same time you understand! lol)

But there was a small hitch in the plan when one of the sample cards I'd made was awol from the shop - so to the ladies from that class who wondered what the card looked like...

...  here it is - its simple but v cute (even if I say so myself! lol) - its only a sneak peak because the class runs again towards the end of the month.... (and by then the card - and another thats m.i.a- will have been found - or I'll have recreated them... I think the latter will be the case! lol)

any questions - please email using the addy under photo top right.  (love the stamps used by the way - the detail inside the petals)

enough about cakes how about a nice cuppa...

... its more about a nice cup actually - how cute is this cup that I bought in Primark the other week - too cute - they put these things in the racks along where you stand in the huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge queue!  I love it - its going to sit on my desk providing somewhere to keep the camera and my mobile phone out of paints way.  I love the retroness of it.

So the mug inspired me to make these cards - the one of the far right was M's valentine card.. I couldn't decide which way to spell 'pair / pear' so in the end I left the picture to do it!  Lots of Kraft card stock, and my new favourite punches make quite a few appearances on these cards.

I particularly like the tall slim card on the right of this picture - all the little elements... its got a bit of everything going on - cuttlebug, text, nestabilities, stamping, buttons, sewing and of course more punching from my new favourite sets!  The stamps are from Hero Arts and the paper is Lemonade from Basic Grey.

Perfect Pearls

Love Perfect Pearls!!!!!!!!!

I was working with these at Card Inspirations before Christmas and I created a couple of sample sheets in preparation to show how different the same pearls look on different coloured backgrounds, and I thought I post them here... I've masked off the background (Heidi Swapp Butterfly masks) and then spritzed onto the page using distress ink mixed with Perfect Pearls, and then finally stamped snowflakes using VersaMark ink and brushed on Perfect Pearls powders. The effect is so lovely on black...

Round up...

I'm sorting out my home studio and so its time to tidy up! and I keep coming across projects that I've completed but don't seem to have posted about - such a lot going on and a lot of it I can't share because its going to be published, used for classes etc etc etc ..... So here are some pictures (apologies if I have shown them before - I did do a quick check back through the blog - which has made me realise I must start tagging things....)
(btw:I'm not supposed to have a 'home' studio because I have studio space that I rent and therefore all my creative bits and bobs should be there but over the past month or so a lot has made its way back home (in my defense the studio can be quite cold)

Firstly here are some of the spreads from a mini-book I made of a day trip M & I took to go and see Seth Lakeman perform at the open air theatre in London's Regents Park - fantastic day and a great concert. Its 6x4in (approx) & I love that the pages show around the front cover - not all the same size.. books like that make me want to look inside! lol (btw - the flowers on the last 2 spreads shown now have buttons or pearls in the centres)

Next is a card I've made for my new nephew. I'm loving using acetate for cards and minibooks but they can be challenge to photograph! Aaaanyway his name is Ethan and he's bundle of cuddly loveliness! - though I may be biased of course! lol