Simple cards

 Hi there friends, I had been busy  playing with my masks a while ago and had a pile of bits and pieces and was wondering what I could do with them. Don't you find that sometimes you have a good time trying things out and generally just playing and experimenting with no real plan or purpose. I decided that these backgrounds would make great simple cards so that's what I did, I used 6 x 6 card blanks and made these cards. All they need is the addition of a sentiment and they are ready to go. Perfect for when I need a card in a hurry! The card above is made with my Shoal Positive mask.

 I just used a selection of different background "scraps" and cut and layered a selection of On the Edge die cut shapes for this card.

 I love this Funky Butterfly and shaped it and added it to the page with foam for dimension.

This card used my Winged Pattern and Shoal Negative mask and I added some JOFY flowers. I like the way the Shoal mask looks like grasses in the breeze when you apply it sideways.
So, just some fun ways to use up those simple backgrounds and pages that you make.
Hope you like them.
My masks are available from The Craft Barn HERE and HERE, if you are interested as well as other Tando Creative Stockists!

Tag time

Good afternoon friends.
I hope you are all well. Thought I'd share this tag I finished last night with you today. Not the easiest of things to photograph but still, hopefully you will get an idea.
I started off by creating a textured tag with a Tim Holtz folder onto silver card. This was then coloured with a selection of Distress Paints

 When the paint had dried, I sanded some of it back to expose the silver. I fixed the tag to a mountboard tag and then the tag was covered with a layer of clear UTEE

 The UTEE gives an amazing depth to the colours and dimension to the background. It's beautiful!

 I added a decorative edge using Tim's Metal gate on the edge die coloured with metallic stain and Black Soot Distress ink.

I used Distress Paint to add colour onto a metal flower and leaf. The paint adheres really well.

Then I stamped onto the tag with one of the images from Time Travelers onto the tag using black StazOn. I wanted to add some colour to the character, I used a couple of things, Distress Markers which gave a nice colour wash but not as intense as I wanted and I was too impatient to wait till dry to layer up so I used Copics too. However there is one thing to be aware of, being alcohol based, the markers can "erase" the StazOn so care is needed. Still the end result is a fabulously depth filled tag, which I think looks amazing, especially in real life!

Hope you like it and that you all have a great and creative afternoon.

Hi there friends, hope you are well.
Not much crafting this weekend as I was on garden duty, with a little togetherness time wife my wife thrown in so it was all good.
On Friday I was teaching at The Craft Barn. We were exploring different techniques to create a journal using my Geometric book kit.
Here are a couple of the ladies enjoying the class and the books they made.

aren't they great?!

Nothing much happened on Saturday other than work then on Sunday it was off to the bootfair nice and early to see what was there..... I love seeing what there is, and it's great fun to people watch too!
I did manage to pick up a few bits to add to my altering stash.

A little travel album, some jewellery bits, the flowers (which are great when added to canvasses and painted) and then of course we all know Tim has just brought out his alarm clocks to alter so these made me very happy! I've already dismantled them and can't wait to see what I can do with them!

Then we popped down to Lewes and explored all the fabulous antiques shops which was fun too and then time was spent working in the garden while the sun was shining. I've been enjoying some studio time this morning but can't share anything yet but I'll have something tomorrow to share!
Until then, I hope you all have a lovely day too.

Build it up at The Craft Barn

Good morning friends
I meant to share this yesterday but it slipped through the scheduling net so you get it today instead. Over at The Craft Barn blog this week we are looking at building it up and yesterday was my turn.

I've used the Tim Holtz on the edge die to create a tray and I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.
There is a how I did it on their blog HERE and this is the finished article.

Hope you all have a great and creative day. I'm off to pack for tomorrows class at The Craft Barn too. We'll be making a cool journal from one of my kits. There are still some places so if you want to join me the details are HERE

On The Edge Die - Butterflight

Tim Holtz Stamps - Spring Sprung

Distress Paints - Various colours

Tim Holtz Tissue tape

Ribbon

Archival Jet Black ink

6 x 6 chipboard 

WOYWW 206

Good morning folks
My name is Neil and i'm a What's on your Workdesk addict...... Hi Neil, we are too so welcome, You are among friends here. (Click Here to get the full picture, if you still haven't a clue what I'm talking about!)

The wind is howling around the shed, it's been raining and I'm cold; yet here I am at 4:30am. Awake and thinking I need to go and take photos of my desk; I forgot to last night!
So here we are. First the big picture....

 There's a theme there folks if you look closely enough...... Journals!

 These ones are for classes, the first of which is at The Craft Barn this Friday.

 I just love this page, that's why it is open, so I can stare at it lovingly. Of course those stamps are awesome and I know that they will be used often and loved well. Underneath is another couple of journals too. Peeking out bottom left of the picture is another bird design I'm working on too (that is a sneaky peek, didn't think it was there!)

The germination of an idea means Mr skull has undergone a bit of surgery and the image is just waiting for  dash of colour before going into one of the books. So there you have it, my little creative haven in the storm! Hope you have a great day too.

More Journaling

Morning friends,
Back again with some more journal pages. These are in my large Dylusions journal. This first page is "hijacked" from a page I saw in my daughter's journal when she was visiting, so thanks Alyssa!

 The page has been covered with maps and roughly aged with Walnut Stain distress ink. I stamped my fantasy border around the edge in blue archival ink and the sentiment was just written in black marker.

 I stamped my Travel Mouse onto card and cut out. Colouring is with Distress Markers (very roughly, I must add!)

 This next page is the page I made a spelling mistake on and only realised when I had finished it! Not impressed with myself. Still; I was not going to despair and managed to patch it up. I'm sure that you can see what I've done but hey, there are no mistakes in art, only layers.......

 I began with a background that had been made with mop up inks a while ago.  I stamped the birds onto card, coloured them with Distress Markers, cut them out and glued them onto the page. Once stuck I cut away the page to the left of them (after first checking that I would not ruin the page on the reverse!)

 I like the way the cut away adds interest to the page.I stamped a geometric border around the other edges; added my journaling lines and wrote out the words and coloured them in so they stood out.

I finished off with some doodled detail in white pen onto the darker purple areas to break it up a bit.
So, I'm sure that you've discovered my patch up job. If you tell me in the comment what where I've patched it I'll put all the correct ones into a hat and choose one random entry to received a little crafty treat from me......
Hope you have a fun and creative day.

My stamps are available HERE at The Artistic Stamper if you want to get your hands on some!

Journaling round up.

Hi there folks
I've been trying to catch up some pages in my journals again. I tend to to get carried away on backgrounds sometimes so periodically I have to slow down and finish some. I know that doesn't suit some people's way of working but it suits me sometimes, and especially in a class there is not time to finish everything off.
So here is the latest round of pages (Lots of photos warning)
First page to share. Background is Dylusions inks, masks and ghosting.

 The sun stamp is from De Stempelwinkel.  I cut the letters out of card that I had stamped my backgrounds onto.  Coloured with Distress Markers and Dylusions ink. I've used my hatched border stamp too around the edges of the pages.

 Then next we have this page. I left the image un coloured as I thought it went rather well with the psychedelic colours and the mushrooms!!!!!!!

 Again I've used my stamps to create a different border and there's a bit of faux stitching which you can't really see too well in the picture.

 This next page is definitely number 1 for me today; I'm really pleased with it! It's fun and quirky. and I just think the quote is brilliant!

 I can't help wondering, is Mr bowler hat the artist and Mr top hat hiding from him; or is Mr Top hat  the artist waiting to pounce onto the unsuspecting Mr Bowler...... What do you think?

 I love the combination of bright and muted colours and the tuckaways and pockets

 See, a place to hide your "dangerous" thoughts LOL!
Right, I can see your eyes beginning to glaze over so I'll stop there for now. Enjoy the evening and I'll catch up later!

New letter for The Craft Barn challenge

Hi folks.
Just a quick post today , feeling a bit under the weather and having completed a journal page that I really liked I discovered a spelling error so not a happy chappy today! Will fix it later and share it. In the meantime
today though is the new letter in The Craft Barn's Alpha challenge - The letter K
All the details are HERE and here is a  look at my page

I chose Knock as my word and the scripture is Revelation 3 : 20

I've used JOFY 12, my tangled yarn mask and Distress pant, inks and Dylusions inks in brushes to do the page. The door is drawn in a black marker.

I do enjoy these JOFY stamps, they are fun to use and perfect for Art journals too. Hope you all are having a good Sunday. I'm off to plant some bearded Irises that we picked up at this morning's book fair.......

Journal pages

Good morning friends
After struggling to work out something for a book I'm working on (and didn't think through properly before I began!) I walked away and decided to cheer myself up by working in my journal.

 The background is made from pieces of magazine layered and gessoed up. I doodled the border with a black marker and some Dylusions ink.

 I drew the characters last week and scanned them in so I could use them more than once. Printed them onto card and cut them out. (I guess you could say that I've made my own digi stamps) I worked out my placement and glued down. Then I just had fun by adding some words; some fun details like the lightbulb and a few general sprays of Dylusions.

 I drew some marker lines across the page to create some grounding lines and used this gorgeous mustache tape to add some fun accents and one of my masks with Distress paint to add extra detail too

It's just a fun page and I felt so much better when I'd finished it.

I also finished the first page I'd been doing with the chaps too

 The background is Dylusions inks and masks. There's a bit of stamping and some paint details too.

 I used Distress Markers to colour the guys more realistically and gave the front guy a beard and glasses too.

I love the effect of the mask and water "bleaching" in the middle section.

So there you have it, a couple of "cool dudes". Hope you all have a good and creative day too. Now I'd better try to get my book sorted......

JOFY at The Craft Barn

Good morning friends.
Over at The Craft Barn Blog this week we have ll been playing/working with the lovely JOFY stamps and today is my turn. I've used Distress Paints and the JOFY #12 plate to have fun with a tag. All the details are HERE but this is what I made.

Hope you will pop on over and take a closer look!
Have a fun and creative day.

Tags - #10 and #8

JOFY 12

Distress Paints - Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint, Broken China, Seedless Preserves

Distress Inks - Black Soot, Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers, Wild Honey

Distress Markers - Various

3D foam tape and pads

White card

Tattered Flower Garland die

Ribbon