Monday 30 April 2012

Shrink plastic at The Craft Barn

Good morning everyone.
This week we are exploring the many possibilities of Shrink Plastic over at The Craft Barn blog. There are some fabulous ideas coming up so do be sure to check their blog everyday this week! I'm starting this week with a nice and easy project to get you going! All the details are HERE but this is what I made.


All this week you can get 10% discount on shrink plastic so if you've never used it before now is a good time to give it a try!  Here's the link.
Just type SHRINK in the offer code box as you go through checkout to get your discount.
Other products used
Black stazon
Jump rings
Paperartsy stamps LPC002
Flat back gems

Catch you all later! Hope you all have a lovely day. I'll be back on Thursday with another shrink plastic project too.


Sunday 29 April 2012

Look at what I found today!

Hi folks
Well; it's been a whirlwind of packing sorting, working and other stuff so though I've done some crafting I actually have nothing that I can share yet; sorry. However; today my wife and I decided that as I was trotting off to America and won't be around the long weekend we need to go out so we braved the rain and drove down to Hastings. I love the sea most on a windy and grey day; weird huh?! It stopped raining so we were really blessed; Just had to get and ice cream; proper Italian gelato
 Found this beautiful sculpture!

 Had an AMAZING cream tea!
 But the best thing was browsing through all the old antique shops; scratching through bits and pieces looking for things that "spoke" to me; like these........
 I just love this old blowtorch and can't wait to alter it! The other bits are fab too but the torch is number one and at less than a fiver I thought it was a bargain!
Let the play time begin!
Have fun everyone and I'll catch up with you all later; I'm going back to counting the hours till I leave for Ranger uni!


Thursday 26 April 2012

Timeworn Techniques project

Good morning peeps.
I've been participating in Andy Skinner's online workshop "Timeworn Techniques" which has just finished. It's a great workshop and an optional part of it was to create a final piece of art using techniques. Here is mine.
Please say hello to The Keeper of The Keys...... She guards the repository for my dreams and hopes and holds the books that keep safe the keys to who I am; what makes me me and what makes me tick!
 Meet the Muse
 This started out as a plain wood key unit from a charity shop.
Inside; vintage tape measures the passing of time and old keys lock my thoughts, dreams and hopes, behind copper and leather covers.
Detail of the books
My Muse holds on tight to the book of my world; hiding behind is the rusty covers of my book of negative thoughts; the one book I try not to use too much!
 Peeled and blistered wood cover this journal and just peeking out is the splash of red and silver from the pitted and chipped metal cover of this journal.
 Embossed detail using crackle paste.

Some amazing techniques there and I had great fun.
Lots of pictures again today, sorry if you got bored but trying to get everything in one picture doesn't work very well!
I hope you all have a fabulous and creative day, just because the weather is miserable outside (well; it is here) doesn't mean we cannot create our own sunshine with ART!
Also, over at The Craft Barn I'm sharing a little project today of you'd like to pop on by and take a look the details are HERE
Be blessed in your creative journey today.

Wednesday 25 April 2012

WOYWW#151

Morning peeps,
Been a couple of weeks so thought I'd better carve out a moment to share my desk! Welcome to the world of What's on your Workdesk Wednesday courtesy of Julia at Stamping ground. Here is my corner of the world this morning. I took the photo yesterday afternoon all that's changed  are the tags I was working on  are now complete!
Some background finished tags. Done with cosmic shimmer inks
 Some more in progress. (Yes, I mopped up the rest of the ink onto a journal page!)
 The tags are for this tiny journal which is going to be my daily Ranger Uni diary for me to write in on the plane and while I'm there etc. I've been inking the pages and making pockets etc so I can write and doodle away to my heart's content. (only 8 more days till I fly!)
 I've made place for my new storage unit which I shared about yesterday HERE if you want a closer look) I love it, and think I'll be doing more in a similar style to co-ordinate my storage..........
 Lastly; hanging around the back you can see my blending foam storage, a piece for every colour. Now I just need to make covers! In front is a little album I'm thinking of working on, not sure yet.
So, there's my world this week, perhaps I'll see you over at stamping ground where there are plenty more desks to see.

Tuesday 24 April 2012

April tag and storage unit

Good morning peeps.
I finally got my April tag completed for Tim's 12 tags of 2012! Where has this month gone?
This time I had most of the product and did a very similar tag just because I really like it all. I used a map stamp to do the background, don't have green distress powder so the leaves are just inked up but the branch is distress powder. I used Spiced Marmalade and Pine Needles for the tag with vintage photo around the distressed edges. I left the crown off the bird because I don't have it and the other things I tried looked a bit naff.
I used ranger's enamel accents for the eye of the bird, blob of black then a tiny blob of white.
All the details of Tim's tag are HERE.

Then I finished my storage unit that I started yesterday (For the before photo's if you haven't seen them, the post is HERE) There are a load of photos but it was difficult to get decent pictures of it as a whole!
 I have to say, I am really really pleased with it! Yesterday I just had to do something just for me; do you have day's like that where you have a thousand things to do but just have the need to do something that is not for someone else?
 The top has a copper patina tag at the back. The fob watch had had the clock remove and I stamped a gentleman inside, added some cogs and watch parts and coloured it with alcohol inks to get rid of the shiny silver. I added a pen nib to the base of it too. The bottle is a water spray bottle that I metalised with gold mixative and alcohol inks. the lid is covered with tissue tape with a layer of multi medium to seal. It is still functional though it looks much better!
 I aged the pressure gauge with paints and inks. Stamped a crackle stamp onto it in archival and removed to get that lovely aged and unusual effect.
 All the "metal" is various mirricards in different shades of silver and gold embossed with Tim's new metal effect embossing folders and aged with paint. Here's another detail pic.
 Side view of the unit
 I used the new drawer pull tabs on the drawers; aren't they fab. Each drawer pull has a word in sealed with crackle glaze to spell out the sentence "Capture and treasure your creative soul"



Hope you're still awake at the back there! I really really enjoyed doing this and for those of you who read yesterday's post. Yes, words have been eaten by a certain someone!
Now over at Try it on Tuesday this week it's an anything goes theme using products from The Craft Barn. A lot of these products come from there ( like the embossing folders HERE and the label pulls HERE so why don't you pop on over to the blog and join in the fun, you could win the prize from our sponsor.......

Right, duty calls so I hope you all have a great and creative day.

Monday 23 April 2012

The beginning of a project

Hi there
Thought you may like to join me on the journey to transform this
 little drawer unit that I picked up at a car boot sale a little while ago. It's about 50cm high and I think it will be a great place to store my idea-ology bits and pieces in - well some of them anyway.... Included in the transformation process is this from the same boot fair
My wife thought I was mad  to buy these but time will tell if she needs to eat her words or not..........
Have fun everyone and I'll catch up with you later with a progress report.

Sunday 22 April 2012

Busy end to the week.....

Hi folks.
Hope you all have had a great weekend. I've had a lovely busy weekend . Friday saw me teaching my introduction to art journalling class at The Craft Barn which was as always, great fun and lovely to see how everyone dived right in! Thanks ladies.
Today saw me back at The Craft Barn to do my Apothecary Shop class. Another great bunch of ladies  who worked to create their old fashioned shop window scenes.....
This is what we did.
 Using the Tando triple arch as a starting point we created this, layers of gesso, paints, alcohol inks, stamping acetate and tissue ; the list goes on......
 Aren't these bottles great? There's a little note pad in the front.....
Just peeking out from the back you can see the box that has place to pop a pen or two  making this a great project to keep near the phone for those important messages!

Speaking of important things; tallying up my email subscribers with my Google followers I saw today that I've just passed the 400 followers mark! I'm humbled and thrilled at the same time to reach that milestone (before I go to Ranger Uni in about 10 days! Well; you did not really expect me NOT to mention it did you?!) so do keep an eye out for a follower candy giveaway post to celebrate coming soon.

Right, my bed is calling my name so I'll say cheerio.
Bless you all

Friday 20 April 2012

Distressed at The Stamp Man

Hi there folks.
It's a new challenge over at The Stamp Man and this week it's a shabby vintage distressed theme which I'm sure will be popular with everyone. There are as ever, some amazing samples to inspire you on the blog HERE 
This is the card I made using Stamp Man products
 Lots of distress inks and distress techniques to create a vintage aged feel.
Do pop on over to the blog and join in the fun. There's a £10.00 Stamp Man voucher for the winner of the challenge.

Crafty Individuals at The Craft Barn

Morning folks
Just a quick pop in to tell you that I've a scrapbook layout over on The Craft Barn blog today, lovely vintage feel. All the how I made and the surprise elements can be seen on their blog HERE
Hope you all have a fabulous day, I'll be back later with the new Stamp Man challenge but now I must dash as I'm in full panic mode; less than 2 weeks till I leave for America and Ranger and 3 weeks of work still to do!

Tuesday 17 April 2012

Gauge keys and more

Hi folks.
Yay, the sun has decided to make a brief appearance here which cheers me up no end! I'm sure many of you knew about the Where is your Vagabond promotion that Sizzix had a while ago; and I'm sure many of you entered as I did. Well my keys and stickers arrived a couple of days ago.... what I didn't tell you, however, was that shortly after the promotion started I got an email from the lovely Tammy Tuttrow telling me that she'd randomly chosen me among others to receive a prize! (Blow me down with a feather; thought that only happened to other people!)
Well my prize duly arrived the other day too and I had a chance yesterday to try them out.
 So, what did Tammy send me? Only the new washer and inside out dies; whoohoo; both of these were high on my want list so I feel very blessed. I have not had time to do more that cut the washer die out; isn't it cool?
 The inside out die is fab; fiddly but fab! I've worked out though that for me one of the best ways of gluing it down was to paint the card with some matt multi-medium and lay the letters down into it as it sticks well and when dry you don't really see the exposed bits.
It was the perfect way to finish off this tag that I'd done ages ago but not finished off. And as a bonus you get a spare sentiment for another project too.
Right, I'd better get back into the studio as I've a thousand things to do and it's almost time for work.
Catch you later.

Monday 16 April 2012

Journal page

Good morning everyone
I hope you all had a great weekend. I thought I'd share this journal page with you. I started it quite a while ago but never quite got it finished; until I got my email from Tim that is! Then I just knew that that was what I was going to be "clutching" tightly in my hands!
 I started out just playing with acrylic paints, masks and layering to create the backgrounds.
 I used a white pen to outline and highlight some of the flowers and do some doodling, black to frame the pages before adding some stamping.
I cut the hands by tracing my hands onto the page; covering with paper, gesso and distress stains. Freehand writing in various styles and colours.
 The hands open and I attached the nice bits of the email to them!
 This is the other side of the hand! I guess you may get a hint of my excitement ?!
 The other side of the page is the same process as the first
 With the addition of some extra journalling around the owl.
I'm pleased with the end result of this. I like the way the hands can hold onto things but also they can be used to "capture" more private thoughts too as they are held closed with some velcro dots so they can be kept private.
Now I can't promise but I will try not to mention Ranger uni  in every post but it will be hard!
Have a great day everyone and I'll catch up with you all later.