Gosh, two in one day!

Following my last post, I remembered that I had photographed some follow-up work I have done. The first is a bound notebook which I made as a small gift for my neighbour Gill. She likes quirky stuff and is quite arty, so I hope she will like this! It was bound with my Zutter bind-it-all which is a very useful and easy bit of kit. The panels are all embossed with cuttlebug folders as before, and the inks are stazon again.

The others are as yet only panels, waiting to have something done with them, but I was pleased with the look of them and will definitely use them soon. I really like the red / gold one and will use that for someone special, perhaps on the front of a card.

Metal Magic

Well as promised here is a write up on one of the workshops I have been to in the last few weeks. This is an accordion book I made at a Sue Roddis Workshop at Paddy's Stamping Place. It was probably one of the best I've been to, the technique gives amazing results. There were about 5 of us there on the day, and we were all delighted with the end result. Sue has repeated the workshop, and is repeating it again in the New Year at Paddy's. The best example is on Sue's own blog, but here is mine. Both sides are decorated as you can see. We used Cuttlebug embossing folders and Elusive Images Stamps. The inks used were Stazon. We got very messy - great! Not great photos though I hope you can see what is going on

I'm still here!!!

Well I don't seem to have had anything worth posting for ages, or have I just been too busy? Too busy I think 'cos I have done some workshops, been to some shows, done some (a lot) of crafting and been to work (a lot) !! Have been making Christmas cards for what seems like a decade (sound familiar?). I took part in a card swap on a forum, which was great fun, and lovely to see all the work done, on the forum album. Here are the cards I received (pink) which is so perfectly made and lovely! and the one I sent (blue). Strange we both picked un-christmassy colours. Was a bit scary because the other members are all avid crafters and expert card makers.

On another topic, several posts ago I mentioned that my friend Eddie had commissioned me to make some jewellery for various of her relatives as stocking fillers for Christmas. Well I finally got them finished and she seems to like them. I hope her relatives do as well. Here they are, three pendants and a bracelet. The pendants are all on stampbord bases, coloured, stamped, sanded, scratched, embellished and finished with beeswax or glossy accents. The bracelet links are stamped and coloured shrink plastic, joined together with spandex thread and finished with silver fixings. Here are pictures:

That's all for now folks, as I have exhausted my limited supply of energy! and my ability / such as it is, to spel and puntuate;

Next time, more about workshops, been to some superb ones at Paddy's.

Chinese Windmills, Peacocks, chips and burgers!

This was a lovely workshop I went to at Paddy's Stamping Place a little while ago, the tutor was Sarah Anderson. It's a lovely idea, Sarah had researched it and gave us a lot of info about the history of these books, which predate bound books. Ours were made with different types of paper, including silk paper which we made on the day from silk coccoon and coloured with spray lustre paints. We also used Glitterati and hand made papers, which were coloured and stamped and glittered and embellished! We added coloured text pages, sparkly chips of plastic and I used Elusive Images Peacock stamps, from at least two of the unmounted plates. Then all the pages were put together, cut or torn to different lengths, and bound with the aid of sticks and ribbons. The finished item was rolled for storage and transportation, as it would have been in ancient times. Then ribbons are added to hold it in its roll and make it look even more glam. Mine is shown in the pictures pinned to the beam in my attic bedroom, where it catches the light and breeze, and spins colourfully and soothingly above my bed. I love it. If anything the back is as pretty as the front! We all enjoyed the workshop, Sarah is very cheerful and knowledgable and we all had lots of laughs as well as learning lots. It was a lovely day, even down to a burger from the sandwich shop and chips from the chippy! And of course, Paddy's shop to browse and buy stuff we NEED at the end of the day.

If we frame Nature, can we call it Art?

This is a thing I've been working on for ages on and off, and have now finally decided that it's finished! Or at least as finished as it ever will be. The idea was to look at images and artwork that reflected nature - who is the artist, us or nature? It's about 50 x 35 cm. The background was made with spray lustre paints, and each of the four larger panels were stamped, embossed, coloured and embellished over Basic Grey papers, using various stamps with a natural theme, then they were mounted on cream card and glimmer paper. The Stampbord pieces down the middle were mounted onto a pre-coloured strip that was printed with a leafy Rollagraph stamp and mounted onto glimmer paper. The Stampbord pieces themselves were pre-coloured, stamped amd triple embossed. Various small items were used to embellish the larger panels, such as ornate brads, die-cut corners, and a small epoxy frame and matching corner stickers. Crystal laquer was applied over various images for emphasis. I'm quite pleased with it, for a first attempt at "Wall art". My Dad is a brilliant artist, so I have a lot to live up to, which has always been a bit daunting, though this is nothing like his work. I shall definitely have another go though! I have just won a Unicorn stamp set from Elusive Images, so maybe I shall use it to make a picture for my little cousin's sixth birthday in December! (Sue, don't read this to Em, it will spoil the surprise!). Anyway, here it is! I'd be delighted to get any feedback.

On another subject, I have a commission to make 3 pieces if Stampbord or shrink plastic jewellery for Christmas presents, so will be putting in some thought about those over the next few days (between working of course) - it's nice to be able to earn a little cash from this expensive hobby of mine!

Manchester Central

I went to the Stitch and Creative Crafts exhibition last Friday, along with lots of other people. I went with Freda and we bumped into several people we knew, and got talking to quite a few others that we didn't know! Crafters are always friendly, especially over a cup of tea! Most people seemed to be enjoying themselves. I'm not at all into needle crafts - neither my eyesight nor my patience are good enough, so there was too much of that and not enough stamping for me, but it was still good fun, and great for embellishments and equipment. I did get some stamps from one of my favourite companies, Invoke Arts. Also picked up a kit to try to make a "paverpol" picture. If it turns out any good, I'll put the result on here! Also picked up some molds for friendly plastic faces, never had much success with that stuff, so I hope the molds will improve my technique. Neet, the demonstrator, was very helpful & encouraging. I'd love to know what other people thought of the show anyway. My biggest bugbear is the cost of parking, travelling there by public transport is just not an option from the out-of-the way place where I live! There's the Happy Stampers show to look forward to soon as well.

Another Artylicious Comp entry!

I don't know whether we can enter the Stampbord Challenge more than once!! If we can, here is another attempt, this time a card. As well as Stampbord, I have been playing with my new Cuttlebug. The Stampbord has been coloured with pumpkin & mustard Stazon, then stamped with a Filigree Fusion stamp and clear embossed before being sprayed with black lustre paint. It is mounted on a piece of gunmetal mirri, then on a Black Magic core'dinations board which is black with a gold or mustard core and has been embossed with the paisley cuttlebug folder and sanded. This in turn is mounted on a backing paper from Filigree Fusion, with the same design as that stamped on the stampbord, then the bottom piece is gunmetal mirri again with a cuttlebug-embossed corner. The ribbons and stampbord have been decorated with a few stick-on jewels for a bit of bling. Hope you like it!

Workshop

Well today has been loads of fun, but a bit exhausting. I was at a workshop at Paddy's Stamping Place, the tutor was Sue Roddis, and there were six of us workshopees! We made a fab folded book, using a paint technique which looked like faded beach huts, which is one of my favourite looks, maybe because I grew up by the sea (lol). The stamps are all Tanda in this instance though people used different ones, Elusive Images in particular. The paints were Stewart Gill and the inks were Distress. One lady made one with african animals and images, which was beautiful. They were all lovely and very different from each other. Sue was fantastic, friendly, encouraging and informative and everyone left happy I think.

Artylicious Competition entry

This is a booklet I made, which I think is appropriate as an entry for Glenda's competition. The photos show the cover, the back and front covers and all the pages laid out in order before being assembled. The front cover is decorated with a stampbord panel, stamped with a recent Graphicus guild Limited Edition stamp, and four tiny tiles made with mountboard and glazed with Crystal Laquer. The pages are made from lots of different papers, mulberry, parchment, handmade and papyrus. Many are torn and the edges inked, then stamped in various ways with the Wild Meadow set. The overall size is 4 inches square.

Palooza

I was at a workshop yesterday and made a palooza which was loads of fun. We used Crackle paints which are great, but are best left to air-dry. We had to apply the heat gun, which was a bit dodgy, caused the paint to lift a bit, but it could be squashed back with your finger and none the worse. All the objects are "found" items, and mine came from many sources - bits of old jewellery, part of a belt buckle from when I was slim enough to wear a belt, some pen nibs of my father's and a broken watch, shells, buttons, anything interesting.

(thanks to Neet for the photo)

Initial thoughts!

Well I seem to be creating a blog of my own, having read a few others'! Time to jump in the water, no more prevaricating. I shall mainly use this blog to share craftwork and ideas, comment on products and shows, all craft related, though occasionally something else of interest to me may creep in!