Workshop at That's Crafty...

A couple of places are still available on this workshop this coming Saturday (17 March 2018)... 

This is my first workshop of the year and I'm really looking forward to it - using LOTS of new products to create a very lovely floral board canvas... The colours shown are my choice but you can create the project in colours of your choosing.

Contact the shop to book a place - click on the photo above to go to the website.

March Classes etc...

Oh my goodness!  March already!!

I have a page on this blog with all my workshop dates (button in the banner at top of screen) but I thought I'd bring March's dates to your attention in case you're in need of a day of inky painty fun as a remedy to all this grey, cold snowy weather we're having here in the UK

On 17th March 2018 I'll be at That's Crafty...

In this workshop we'll create an A4 canvas featuring lots of my new JOFY releases - stamps and stencils.. and we'll be using Infusions, paints and inks - I think this is one of my favourite projects so far.. you can follow the colours in the sample or choose your own.
I hope you can join me..  click on the photo to go to the That's Crafty website and book your place.


On 31 March 2018 I'll be at The Artistic Stamper for their Easter Extravaganza where I'll be running one of the make'n'takes - always fun days

Hop along and join us (hahaha did you notice what I did there... hop.. bunnies... easter?! no? oh, nevermind..) 



I look forward to seeing you!

ALBOTAT...

This spread in my small Dylusion journal started as a place where I was painting areas to clean the paint off my paintbrush and so it looked like this... Prawn, Squid Ink, a yellow (I lost track of which!) and Gold Fresco Finish paints...

I had a stencil from That's Crafty (TC8005) which I was itching to use but the dimensions, when laid straight, didn't suit the page.....hhhmmm tricky... what to do??....  oooh lay it on the diagonal!!

Which I did... all over the double spread using Chalk Fresco....

And to separate them out and make it look more like tiles I painted a black strip between the panels with a smudged pencil lines either side to soften the black and give a bit of dimension (hopefully).

Not bad for 'wiping the paintbrush clean' pages!

Thanks for popping by

ALBOTAT: Sometimes you just 'need' to make something...

.... and today was one of those days... the lovely postman delivered my Eileen Hull Sizzix Travel Journal die and my (small) to-do list was sidelined for a while as I set about making a 'simple' version of the journal - I call it simple because I made it out of basics to create a 'working' version - something that I could refer to when I make more later on.. and I will be making more later... I can feel a version with corrugated cardboard covers coming on... lol

I made this journal out of kraft card and I cut and glued & sewed two layers together to give the covers more strength (and sewed the centre join).  I painted it black (to keep it clean - its a travel journal, & will be in my handbag so may get grubby), stenciled on the letters (a That's Crafty stencil) and sewed on ties - I really like using ribbons to wrap around and keep the journal closed.
There weren't any directions about how big/thick the books should be that fit inside so I made mine 10x21cm (20x21cm folding at 10cm) which made them nice and easy to cut out.  I cut 3 books of 6 pages each - different types of paper giving it a junk journal feel.

Because I cut the pages from larger sheets of paper I ended up with lots of smaller pieces which I used to make little journals...

Can't have too many books ready to be painted & doodled into, can you?

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else is creating with their dies.

x

Workshop....

... Saturday 24th June 2017... 

I'll be teaching a workshop at That's Crafty, Romford creating an A4 box canvas (with a difference!) using paints, inks, Grunge Paste, Stencils and.. oh.. NEW STAMPS!!!

I'm really looking forward to sharing this workshop with you so please contact the shop (HERE) to book your place.

Hope to see you!

x

WHAAAT!!!

How is June already?!?!  and how is it June 12th??!!?!

Seriously, I don't know where the past couple of months have gone, and they haven't been the easiest of times - but June is filling me with optimism (well apart from the large vet bill BertieCat has created by getting into some kind of mischief last month... very glad he's insured!). The garden is looking all green and lush - the plants are all flowering and we're having glimpses of summer weather - I say glimpses because I swear we had a monsoon for a couple of days last week! lol  Got to love the English weather!

I have a few teaching dates lined up (you can see them all if you click on the 'Teaching and Demonstrating' button under the main banner at the top of the page) I just wanted to let you know about a couple coming up later in June...

17th June:  I'll be demo'ing at Birds in the Barn, Marks Tey, Essex

24th June:  Workshop at That's Crafty, Romford, Essex - In this class we'll create a box canvas with a difference, and it will feature new (oh yes: NEW!!) products....   click HERE to go to the website to book your place.

I hope you can make it to either (or both!) of these events, it would be great to see you!

x

Ho Ho Ho...

... getting ready for my class on Christmas workshop on Saturday at That's Crafty... because the class booked up Laura has released a few extra places, so contact the shop if you fancy joining us for a day of festive fun creating the niche box below...

... and for those of you who are booked on to the course - thank you and I look forward to seeing you on Saturday - please bring the following items with you:
wide flat paint brush (you'll only need 1), detail paint brushes (similar to those in photo below), detail/ fine scissors, pencil, ruler...

(don't worry if you don't have the above - we'll have spares for you to use in class)

HO HO HO!!

Its beginning to look a lot like christmas......

... especially on 15 October when I'll be at That's Crafty in Romford running a very festive workshop...

In this workshop we'll create a lovely niche featuring this year's JOFY snowman.... using inks, stamps and paint.. and yes, there will be glitter/sparkliness!!

There are still a few places available - contact the shop to book a place...

ho ho ho!!

New workshop

Hi

I have a workshop booked at That's Crafty in Romford on June 11th when I'll be running a Gelli Plate workshop:

Are you interested in buying a Gelli plate but not sure what it can create? Do you have a Gelli plate and want to get more out of it?

Then this a class for you!

In this class we will explore the Gelli plate: We'll use paints to make positive and negative prints, & use opaque and translucent paints to create different effects. We'll use stencils and other mark making tools to create interesting backgrounds for cards, journal pages or home decor pieces. 

The possibilities are endless with a Gelli plate! .. and a little addictive - but in a good way). 

You can use these techniques with whatever size and shape of Gelli plate you have.

I hope you can come along - armed with a Gelli plate and a brayer. If you don't have these you can purchase them on the day - you won't regret it! :o) 

Contact the shop to book your place

Deck the Halls...

... with festive bunting!!

This project was created for a class at That's Crafty in Romford.

It's made from greyboard, painted, stenciled and stamped with touches of glitter and sparkle ...  all very festive.

Pennants were given a frosty look with snowflakes (JM07) stamped in Metallic Glaze - I like how the snowflakes are only visible when the pennant catches the light. (The spotty background was created with the That's Crafty 'Bubbles' stencil)

Twiggy took centre stage against a snowy stenciled background (That's Crafty 'Snowflakes'), The tags on either side of him and text along the top of the pennant are from Emma Godfey's EEG12.

Round tags were decorated with stars from JOFY39, all the tags were stamped and painted on both sides just in case they turned around when hung.

This bunting was a lot of fun to create.  I really like the pieces as a length of pennants but the designs and layouts could easily transfer to cards or a canvas (I have an example that to show you in the next day or so)- or they could be tied as individual pennants onto a christmas tree.

ho ho ho

x

Inky painty indeed!

A day spent at That's Crafty, running my first workshop at this great craft shop (where they have probably the biggest range of stencils I have ever seen in one place! and lots of paints, inks, and other 'stuff' to work with them!) :o)

We created this cute canvas combining JOFY stamps with a Prima Julie Nutting girl stamp - I have a couple of these and they're adorable and, I think, work really nicely with the JOFY stamps.

Everyone in the class created lovely (and finished) canvasses - and had free range to choose outfits for their 'girls' from a pad of My Minds Eye papers - nice small designs which were perfect for dress fabric.

Here are a couple of boards:

I really liked the bold geometric of this dress (on Linda Carpenter's canvas) (I would wear that dress, if I was younger!), and the blue bee-hive.

This girl (Janette Smith's) also wore a largish print, this time with co-ordinating flowers - really fresh and summery.

People were sometimes undecided on how to layer up the dresses - with contrast pockets or without, with or without contrast sleeves so I suggested (because lets face it nowadays most people have a camera phone with them and its a useful tool) they photograph the dress with the options and then look at the photos - which is what we did with the cute blue yellow dress (on Liz Riding's canvas) shown below - love this option... (by the way: the contrast pocket option was chosen)

This was a fun class - & its always interesting at the end of a class to see how the canvasses are all so similar but all different at the same time.

x