Free Stamps

We spend all this money on craft products and just once in a while, free stamps come your way that just work so well together. My friend gave me the Stampendous cling stamp called Parasol Portrait as it was just not her thing and she thought I would like it, I do, I really like it.
The free stamp that came with Craft Stamper magazine this month is by Visible Image and is a grunge flourish which I thought would work perfectly with the portrait.

The background is distress ink : Weathered Wood, Victorian Velvet and a touch of Milled Lavender.
Stamped the flourish part of the freebee stamp in sky blue memento around the edges of the A6 shiny card to get a pale and interesting background.
Then I added the image in black stazon and stamped the grungy part of the stamp around the edges. I like the graphic look of it stamped in black. The sentiment and rose text was added later and the roses coloured with distress markers.

That's all for today, the Sunny day sent me outdoors so minimal crafting has been done.

Night and Day

My post today is to show the results of my mixed media panels that I made at the Craft Barn yesterday in Helen Chilton's class entitled Night and Day.

We got to play with the DecoArt interference paints and DecoArt mixed media fluid acrylics, Lin Brown stamps, stencils, Frantage embossing enamel and more.
The stamps used to build up the scenes were PaperArtsy Lin Brown 13, 14 and 16.

Night

Day

I loved doing that class and highly recommend if anyone gets the opportunity to do a class with Helen, don't hesitate.

12 Tags of 2015 : March

Here is my offering for the March TH tag.

Step by step instructions for Tim's beautiful butterfly version are on his blog:
http://timholtz.com/12-tags-of-2015-march/

I had to improvise this month as I have no texture paste for the stencilled lettering so I used Imagination crafts sparkle medium through the TH Schoolhouse stencil, I quite like the result but will try the texture paste and embossing powder technique on Tim's blog when I get hold of a pot of that paste.
I also have no butterfly stamp, at least not large enough for a focal image on the tag so I decided to use a cameo and frame. The loop pin I used to attach my butterfly charm was one I saved from a price tag on some clothing I bought recently, I knew that would be useful at some point. Always a good idea to save these things.

Here is a close up of the embossing.

I like the texture and Tim's tip to use clear embossing powder on black archival ink to avoid embossing powder dots.

The distress paints I used for my marbelled background are :

Crushed Olive

Evergreen Bough

Scattered Straw

Cracked Pistachio

I really enjoyed this one, good use of a few hours on a Saturday.

12 Tags of 2015 : February

Last day of February and I have managed to finish my TH tag just in time.
I am not planning on writing details as the step by step tutorial is on Tim's website :
http://timholtz.com/12-tags-of-2015-february/

I really had to do this tag as I already had most of the ingredients. I improvised with the heart as the idea of using the sewing machine that has lived in the cupboard for years is a step too far for me. I loved doing the collage part of this tag and especially like the shadow effect using the black soot distress pen and smudging it around the collage parts. I have added a close-up of that.

Good fun to do this tag and I managed the deadine too!

Romance

I am feeling rather proud to have been recognised as Runner Up in the Artful Times Challenge for my Recycled Christmas card and it reminded me to try much harder to enter these challenges more regularly.

The Challenge 74 is Romance, not unsurprising as it is February. I actually completed this project on the 14th day of Feb and here it is :

Materials used :
MDF heart covered in paper from Tim holtz Menagerie paper stash.
PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paint : Nougat
Tim Holtz mini die : Cupid and heart
InkyDoodles clear stamp sentiment stamped and embossed in black.

I wanted to get a shabby effect on this so dry brushed around the edges of the heart and the die cut images. I used Ranger Glue N' Seal to stick the paper and die cuts on the heart and highly recommend it, best glue I have found for this type of work with a nice matt finish.

New PaperArtsy Products, Brushos and Demos

Having spent some time each evening watching the videos of the new PaperArtsy products launched this month, I was really looking forward to browsing them at The Craft Barn yesterday. I wasn't disappointed, a fabulous new range of plates.
Check out the PaperArtsy blog if you haven't yet seen the examples from the design team :
http://blog.paperartsy.co.uk/

The demos yesterday at the Craft Barn were particularly inspiring this month. The demonstrators are so generous with sharing their knowledge. This month we got to talk with Helen Chilton, Kay Carley and Carol Cockbain demonstrating the new Lynne Perrella stamps, Brushos and Sue Wilson dies.

So, I bought new stuff (no surprise there) and was determined to try the techniques I learned about yesterday. Fortunately I have some Brushos already so here is a little card inspired by Kay's examples. All products used in my projects today are available from The Craft Barn.

I used the same Woodware stamp as in my last post : Bubble Blooms

The image is stamped with a versamark ink pad and embossed with white embossing powder first. Then sprinkle some Brushos, a tiny bit of Brilliant Red first in the flower heads, spritz with water and dry with a heat gun. I added some Leaf Green roughly around the foliage and repeated the same.

To finish off, I added some Stampendous Shabby White embossing enamel. Kay uses that Shabby White a lot on her artwork, nice effect, I love the little gold bits in it. 

Here's a close up :

My second project this weekend was inspired by Helen and for this one I played with my new Lynne Perrella stamp plate : LPC033. I tried Helen's technique of using the same stamp for the background as used for the focal image. My panel is a bit messy but I had loads of fun with it.

The background was made using the same stamp coloured with Distress Markers : Peeled Paint, Broken China and Worn Lipstick. The focal image is stamped with Stazon ink on glossy card and colured with distress markers : Broken China, Worn Lipstick and Squeezed Lemonade. Some of the elements from the LPC033 plate added to the background and border. My Stazon ink pad is a tad juicy so I might try this again using second generation stamping.

I had some of the background left over so made a bookmark:

Many Thanks to Helen and to Kay for the inspiration for the above. I am feeling quite pleased with my crafting productivity this weekend.

Enjoy what's left of Sunday. x

Dotty Demos

My first visit to the Craft Barn for a demo day was last Saturday and the theme was dots. The demonstrators were using the new Woodware stamps and alcohol markers. Copics were used for the demonstrations but Promarkers work equally well.

Follow this link for Jane Gill's example from the demo.

Here are my attempts at using dots.

Woodware : Love Tulips

Promarkers : Forest Green, Lime Green, Pastel Blue and blender pen.

Woodware Clear Stamp : Bubble Blooms

Promarkers : Burgundy, Walnut, Coral, Marine, Oasis

Black dots added with a Sakura Micron pen

Many Thanks to Jane Collman and Jane Gill at the Craft Barn for the inspiration.