Wednesday 27 November 2013

News....

Good morning, I told you I'd be back with news.......

I am pleased to announce that I'm now part of the Design Team for That Craft Place. For those who don't know; That Craft Place is a delightful shop in Eastbourne owned and run by the lovely Danny and Lisa. Stocking lots of well known brands as well as lovely quirky craft products too it is browsers paradise.
There is a Facebook group and shop as well as a natter and chatter page too.



I look forward to sharing my projects with you over the coming months. And, if you are in the Eastbourne area on Sunday December 1st do pop in and say hi as I will be demoing there all day!

You can find the shop here : 32 Pevensey Road, Eastbourne, BN21 3HP

Link to Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/pages/That-Craft-Place/149078121830746

Hope you all have a great day.

WOYWW 234

Good morning folks
Yes, it's time for our weekly get together..........Whats on your Workdesk Wednesday........
 Full blown chaos here as per usual! But there is an element of control here, honest. I am just working in layers.......
 I couldn't resist this die last time I was at The Craft Barn, just need to find time to open it. The tin holds some of my Distress Paints.
The main thing on my desk this week is this. It's the box I keep my art journal supplies in so I thought it was high time it got a bit of titivating! Lots of DecoArt paints and pastes. Still quite a way to go but it is taking shape.
These cogs and Kiki are also going on to the box. I'll share it all when it is finished don't worry.
Propped up at the back is the journal page background created with the mask used on the box. It made more sense to me to clean it in the journal. It makes a pretty cool beginning for a page...
Lastly, I may have got a tad carried away; I now need to find place for all this yummy lace! Isn't it great? I have plans for it but I'll be honest and say I am not sure where I am going to hide it in my studio in the meantime!
Anyway. There you have my place this morning and I hope you have enjoyed the visit. For more, do pop on over to Julia HERE for all the details.
I'll be back later today with an announcement too so watch this space........

Saturday 23 November 2013

Going Crackers.

Good morning peeps
It's a glorious crisp morning here in my neck of the woods; I'd still rather enjoy it from inside though where it is nice and toasty.
The more astute of you may have guessed from the title what this post is all about. If not, here's another clue...
 Have you guessed yet?
 I commandeered the dining room table so I could spread out a bit (OK, a lot!) and got myself a little production line operating to make these  little beauties......
 I'm sure you will have guessed by now what I was doing; that's right, Christmas Crackers! Here are the first six.
 It all started a few weeks ago when my wife picked up a box of crackers in the shop. I looked at them, yes, very pretty, looked at the price and said no way, I could make them for less than that! When o when will I learn when to keep my mouth closed.......
 Though I must be honest and say that I enjoyed making them and filling them too. I used a template but had to adjust it as these are more like economy size crackers (standard size was not big enough to fit what I wanted to put inside)
 I layered up the rosettes in different combinations and finished off with a pale green button.
So there you have it. My start of Christmas 2013. This year our table will be having a more rustic country feel, better dig out the hessian............should be fun.

Yesterday I was at The Craft Barn for my funky bag class. A smaller class than last week we nevertheless had a great time "funking up" their bags and exploring the different fabric paints (and our transfers came out not half bad!)





Hope you all have a good weekend. Off to work later for me, Sunday sees the Tonbridge festival, Christmas light switch on and fireworks by the castle. Think I'll be packing a flask and parking off by the bridge for that as it is always a great firework display.

Thursday 21 November 2013

Tid bits...

Good morning friends
No major thing to share today, just a few little things. Like this art journal page.....

 Only things used are pen and ink and Dylusions inks. Everything drawn, no stamping. The colouring done with brushes filled with Dylusions inks.
 Bright enough to cheer up the dullest of day!
 Splashes of water to break up the colour slightly....

Then, yesterday, I dusted off my Copic Markers and coloured a few images. Now I'm no expert with these and haven't done any classes on them so they are by no means brilliant; however I tried!

This was my first attempt.
This was my second. The hair is rubbish, kind of like the skin tones though I'm still in two minds about the darker shadowing which I added later. Still, just practicing so "mistakes" are how we learn what works or not.
This was the last one I did and the one I am most pleased with, though there are areas of shadowing that I think still need work.

One last thing. The Craft Barn now has a new website and blog. If you haven't been over yet you should as it is lovely and easy to navigate and see.
Click HERE for the website (and be sure to bookmark the page)
Click HERE for the blog (You can easily access the blog from the shop page too as it's all beautifully integrated now.)

Righteo, better get cracking again. Hope you all have a brilliant day.

Wednesday 20 November 2013

WOYWW 233 -

Goodly morning peeps; I'll be honest; you may be better looking at my workplace this week with eyes tightly closed.....Yep, the Crafty Man Cave is rather a mess.
You know what the worst thing  is though? I can't actually show you what made the mess in the first place as it is part of one of my DT projects......
Still, here we go then, remember, eyes shut, this is my desk.....

 I TOLD you to keep your eyes closed......too late now though, scarred for life LOL. So plenty of mess, stuff I need to find homes for too, like the box underneath the canvas, the wooden book box to the top and the new tags to the right of it. Man I need a bigger shed!
 Well, at least there's this canvas which is pretty cool; I'll be teaching this at The Craft Barn Sunday 26th January if you are interested in joining me. Lots of lovely ink and paint effects, textures and more.
 Metal buttons, some gorgeous ones; and Weathered Wood Distress Paint. Clues to what I've been up to perhaps.....
 So much going on I've even lost my seat to stash. It's not fair really. It's enough to drive a man to drink; which of course leads me to my cork drawer.
Yes, I was given all these corks; and no, they were not still encased in liquid filled glass at the time. Though I did have a flashback when I saw the KWV cork. One of the premier vineyards in SA. They do Brandy too and one year my father was given a couple of cases of the stuff......very very nice.
So, there's my little world. For more workplaces of the world and to share yours, pop on over to Julia for the details HERE.
I managed to get around to about 70 of you last week. Can't promise to do as many this week but I'll try my best.
Hope you all have a blessed and creative fun-filled fantabulastic week..........

Sunday 17 November 2013

Today was a good day.

Good evening folks.
Today was a good day! A room full of happy enthusiastic ladies.....who could ask for more? Yep; today was class day; Pandora's Box over at The Craft Barn.
 Hard at work in the morning building up the textural elements onto the box, fabric, metals, ultra light clay, flowers, grunge paste and beads.....
 Looking a bit gaudy with all the different colours but after lunch the paint magic began.
 Some amazing and gorgeous colour combinations  happening here, brilliant subtle colour blending for some and more vibrant for others but all finished off with a bit of metallic shimmers in the form of gilding waxes. One of the exciting things for me is seeing how the diversity of colours really changes the look. Reds, blues, greens, greys and violets.
Here they are, all done for the day! Thanks ladies, must do it again soon!

While I'm on, just a reminder; I'll be back on Friday 22nd November for my Funky Journal bag also at The Craft Barn. Still some places available. Details can be found HERE. This is what we'll be making, using Ink Effects and So Soft Fabric Paints.

Getting close to bedtime for me, so take care and I'll catch up later!

Friday 15 November 2013

Journaling again!

Hi there guys;
I've been on a bit of a roll with my journal this last week. I don't know about you but I sometimes think my creative life is a roller coaster ride. For a lot of the time nothing seems to be going on on the surface (I'm working through things in my mind, that's my excuse!) Then I have a period where it all spills out and it all flows. So this week saw my journal getting the brunt of it all with another few pages in my Dylusions Journal..
Firstly, Kiki and Matylda,I'll let you decide who's talking to who.....

 I stamped Kiki onto card and gave her a dress before cutting out. The border on the sides and top was stamped and the base section was printed out from a drawing to create the "ground"
 Matylda is from my sketchbook; again I gave her a dress. All colouring is done with Dylusions inks.
This next one is just a bit of a fun chaotic page. The image on the left is from my sketchbook. The background is masked and inked with Dylusions and then I added strips of different tapes and coloured the edge with Dylusions to create a border.
 I've added a "list" of 10 ways to add creativity to life. I don't do list pages very often but I enjoyed doing this one.


Last one today; a reworking of a page that originally I "messed up" the middle. I persevered however and painted the middle section with a crackle paint. I used my Geometric mask around the edges using Distress ink.
 I added the sentiment and coloured with Dylusions. There's some doodling too.
 The character is from The Prince of Persia. (A book picked up at the 99p store) I love the sense of movement in it.
Hope you like them and hope too that you have a creative weekend ahead. I'm teaching at The Craft Barn on Sunday and am all prepped and packed ready to have fun.
Take care.

Thursday 14 November 2013

Phaffing about in my journal

Good morning friends
I've been taking little breaks from all the other bits I'm working on to work on a couple of pages in my Dylusions journal and got a couple of pages finished so thought you may like to see?

First up is this page which some of you may have seen a blurry pic of yesterday.
 I was sorting through some bits in the Crafty Man Cave the other day and found a pile of bits, left overs from other projects or demos and I was going to toss them but thought that actually I like them so they ended up in this page. My "Scraps of Beauty"
 The background is Dylusions inks, some pearl paste through a mask. I bordered the page with my Fantasy Border Stamp. Kiki was stamped onto card and cut out and stuck to the page.
 I made her a dress out of Guinea Fowl feathers. The cogs was also a scrap and the sentiment reads "Do what you can with what you have where you are" which seemed appropriate.

 The next one was done using a random selection of my masks with Dylusions to make a nice busy background. I wiped over the page with a moist wipe to blend all the white areas in. The images are taken from my sketchbook, copied on the printer, cut out and coloured with Dylusions inks in fillable brushes
 I used the brushes to create the dotty border around the page in 3 different colours. Detail was added with a black fineliner and a white pen.
 To finish the page I added the journaling
I must say that I enjoyed doing this, I printed my butterflies out in a couple of different sizes, though they are lob sided and quirky with a lot of dark details I was pleased that they seem to show plenty of colour too.

I guess I'd better finish packing for Sunday's class soon, if I don't give myself plenty of time I know I'll forget something important (I always do!)
Hope you all have a great afternoon.