My February Tag

Hello everybody, not sure where the time has gone, guess that is what happens when your are really busy. Not complaining though, we have had a lot of fun creating projects for our new upcoming workshops. 

We have so many super ideas, if you are interested pop and have a look at ATP. But of course the most exciting news that Finnabair is coming to Derbyshire to do a workshop for us, the details have yet to be finalised but we know that there will be 4 separate classes and there has been a lot of interest already.

I received a new stamp from the lovely people at Craft Individuals and because he is such a cutie I thought he could feature in my february tag..... So here's Party Puffin.

  

I painted the background with Paper Artsy's Baltic blue, then added snowflake to Indigo Blu's Bubbles (BB1) Background stamp. When completely dry I applied a coat of Satin Glaze all over to give it a sheen.

I then stamped Party Puffin (CI-376) onto white card and cut it out, I also stamped it onto a scrap piece of black cardboard to give it some depth. He was coloured in using distress markers and his crown painted with Old gold paint.

"Love" is from Tim Holtz stamp Stuff to Say (CMS110) and coloured again with distress markers. The I and U are grungeboard letters that I have had for ages.

The tag has been matted on black card and a heart ribbon added, very easy to do and I think it would make a super Valentine's card.

Here is a quick peek at a background I did in my journal. I really love doing backgrounds, but my problem is I don't like covering them up.

It is Paper Artsy Acrylic paints and Crafters workshop stencils. Thanks again to Leandra from Paper Artsy for the super Video on You Tube of how to do the Bump Stencil Technique.

Don't forget go over to the shop to have a look at the workshops, there will be new one's arriving, and there's new stock coming all the time, soo.. exciting.

Well i'm off Pondering Petunia is waiting to be sprayed and painted, if only it was that easy to look gorgeous, I think I will have to settle for a pair of striped socks.

Bye for now, thank you for popping by and leaving lovely comments.

Sharon xxx

Here's to the new year ahead

Happy New Year to you all and I hope you had a most enjoyable Christmas. Jamie and I spent Christmas at home with the boys (Jack and Bru) they enjoyed opening their pressy's, chew sticks and footballs for both.

So after one day of watching too much television the boredom set in, the best cure for that is crafting,  especially when I had some new stash to play with. Oh the luxury of new paint brushes, but the next projects I'm going to share with you I didn't use a brush.
I decided to have a go with cut and dry foam after watching Leandra's Video's on you tube, if you need some inspiration pop over and have a look they certainly got me tapping.

I have used a combination of Paper Artsy, Indigo Blu and Stampers Anonymous stamps.

The flowers and leaves are from Indigo Blu's stamp Bloomin Great using Archival Ink Colbolt.

I have also stamped with Paper Artsy's Acrylic paint onto a Paper Artsy mini no 71.
I also tried with a different acrylic paint that wasn't chalk based but I was unable to blend them as well.

The watch face in the background is a Ink and the dog stamp Clocks Plate 1 and the car is from Tim Holtz Mini Muse CMS063.

This really is a fun technique Leandra calls it Corner Corner Side. The next thing on the agenda is to work on building up my layers, I don't like covering up a nice background but I always admire other peoples work.

I have also signed up for the Lifebook 2013 online course by the beautiful and very talented Tam of Willowing Arts, so far I have done the warmup page and stage 1 of the course and I am loving it. I have been using paints and pens that I had forgot I even had and never used because I didn't know how to. So here's to a new year of learning and exploring.

I would like to say a special thank you to all our customers and friends of the blog and Facebook for all the orders you make and the kind comments you give.

See you soon Sharon xx

Bloomin Great.......

Hello everybody,

how are you doing with the preparations for christmas, getting there I hope. This next week will just fly by quicker than normal.

We have had some super new stamps from Indigo Blu and replacement stocks of some of the popular one's. I have manage to get my mitts on two of them.

Enjoy Life which I have had my beady's on for a while, and Blooming Great a new one.

My first instinct was to make a card but I thought I had better try something different.

So I was faced with a new Journaling book. Isn't the white page frightening, I don't know why, it's a bit like a new exercise book at school and you don't want to spoil the 1st page. But when all said and done it only cost £1.50.

Paint's at the ready lets play, the only idea I had was to use the statement from Enjoy Life and possibly use it again to make like bullet points or sign post's.

I found two pictures I had saved from a photography magazine that I thought expressed the meaning of the page.

The leaves that are around the pages are from the Indigo Blu stamp "Blooming Great" the veins of the leaves are really fine but because I stamped using distress ink it has soaked into the Paper Artsy Acrylic paints which I like but if I wanted to keep them clearer I would have gone for Archival or Stazon.

The sunrays dots and circles are from my much used Tim Holtz stamp Psychedelic Grunge, the stars at the top of the page are off Rockstar.

I have painted through the Tree of Life template and doodled using Black and white Gelly Roll Pens.

There's also a bit of Ranger Gold and Pearl dabber in there applied from the lids.

This could be my New Years resolution page, but I would like to think this was how it was in 2012.

Just one more little thing I would like to share with you, I have found that I love making mini books.

It's a bit like when you first discover ATC's wonderful little mini arts.

 Made using slide mounts which have been coloured and stamped.
The embellishments are from the Creative Expression's range of Victorian corners.

The pictures are from Crafty Individuals Christmas Miniatures book.

The scallop at the top is made from Sizzix Vintage Lace strip die and distressed using Vintage photo

Just to show you the scale of the book

The back, If you cannot get hold of any slide mounts, there is a die cut and stamp on the Paper Artsy collection Hot Pick Die Stamp set 2.

Well I am going to have another play with my new stamps, I have got so many ideas but I must focus otherwise I just end up with lots of bits of paper stamped and not amounting to anything.

Hope Christmas doesn't get in your way and stop you from crafting and enjoying your selves.

Bye for now

Sharon

5 minute tag

We have just taken delivery of some fantastic new stamps from Crafty Individuals Designed by Alice Palace. I managed to get my grubby (inky) hands on just one, for now.

So I did a 5 Minute tag, Distress stains and Dylusions stencils, embossing powder and Idea-ology tinsel.

We have four of the new stamps and I think they can be used for Christmas, Birthdays, any occasion really also they will fit into journalling nicely.

We have also had some new Indigo Blu stamps go and have a look at the shop.

I forgot to mention it was a quick tag because it's freezing in the barn, so I'm going to move some of my craft stash inside 

Spring or Summer

I absolutely love the new Spring & Summer Distress Inks the colours are so vibrant.

When I saw the colours I thought I had enough greens but they are so different, it made me so glad that I took the plunge and bought them.

To colour the tags, firstly I applied distress inks to the craft mat and spritzed with water, then swiped the tag through the inks, then dried it with the heat tool.
If you need anymore colour go back into your inks or add more colour with a blending tool. I did this with the Squeezed Lemon as it needed more on the manilla tag.

Then it's stencil time... just blend the distress inks over the stencil keeping a firm hold onto it.
I used Dylusions Luscious Leaves 5 x 8 on the Discover your passion Tag.

The large butterfly, dandelion fairies and the meadow are from Indigo Blu's Wild meadow stamp.
The small butterfly and the wording are from Indigo Blu's 'Discover your Passion' stamp.

They have all been stamped with black archival, I also waited to make sure the stamp was dry before stamping as I found you get a clearer image.

Next Dylusion's Ruby Rainbow stamp and Dotted flowers stencil.
I thought Ruby would approve of the colour's.

I also wanted to try Sewing room from Paper Artsy's HP1215 Stamp, I have been using the stamps with Paper Artsy paints so there is a great difference ( I will show you next time I post).
The scissors have been stamped onto metal foil and cut out and applied with collage glue. If you have never tried a Collage Glue stick I can recommend them, they dry completely not like some other glue sticks which remain sticky if you get it onto the front of something.

Finally Juliette from Indigo Blu.
I decided to emboss this in white rather than black as I usually do.  I like the contrast.

That's it for now, must go and get inky. I must say the new pads are really juicy or maybe I need to reink some of my old ones.

Thanks for looking in and I do appreciate your comments.

Sharon x