Monday, July 30, 2012

Gessoing AND Alcohol Inks!

Today, over on The Artistic Stamper Creative Team blog, I am showing a technique that involves two of my favourite products!! Alcohol Inks and Gesso! Bliss! For a look at what I have done.. check out the blog.


Look forward to seeing what you think :))
Have a creative day
Hugs

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

WOYWW 164...#savethesurprise

Wednesdays always brings a sort of surprise to me, that (a) they turn up so quick, and (b) that I get to see lots of crafty places in the world, courtesy of Mrs Dunnit's What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday blog hop. Now my desk is empty, and void of any new works. I admit I am not a sporty type of person... the most I do is raise a bottle of paint and spray it, but I do love the Olympics, and the last time I was forced to watch it all, as I had a broken arm!! Remember that? LOL but on Monday I was honoured to be invited to  watch the technical rehearsal of the Opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics! It was fabulous, and will be so worth seeing on Friday. The excitement was immense in the stadium, and I did take lots of pictures, but we were asked, and rightly so to not post any pictures on the net..#savethesurprise so watch this space ( and my facebook) for them after Friday! So, for the meantime here is my picture of the Olympic Stadium,


 and for a bit of art here is Anish Kapoor's sculpture....which is actually quite, quite amazing..loved it!

Have a very Happy WOYWW day
Hugs

Friday, July 20, 2012

Multi media box workshop

Last Saturday I had the pleasure, and pain ( LOL) of teaching my last workshop at Pickleberry Papercrafts. Kate has closed the shop, and is heading back up to the Midlands. As the girls who come to my workshop like it to be messy and with lots of techniques, I designed a box with 7 different techniques on it. We had lots of fun with alcohol inks, colour sprays, UTEE, Gesso, Paint dabbers, Terra and of course, Distress.





Thank you to everyone who came, and played. It was a pleasure as always teaching you :)

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

WOYWW 163 ..friendships are made of this ....

When I first started doing What's On your workshop? Wednesday , never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would make friends, and not only that but even make stamps designed by those friends :)) Donna (known as Doone) has designed my newest set of stamps, and they may be totally different to anything you have seen before....but I am loving them :))) This is my desk yesterday during the morning, while I attempt to tidy up and get the old mojo back in gear. Lots of Donna's new stamps piled up ready to be put on foam ( I gave my set away at the weekend!) and then to be inked in my journal... will I do it? Yep! Notice the push it back , pile it up scenario? You do not want to look at the floor! that is a pile it up high scenario!!


Thank you to Julia who has made WOYWW into a friend making "thingy" and my Wednesdays a happy day!
Hope to get round to your desk today...
Hugs

Monday, July 16, 2012

New Stamps revealed!

I know that sometimes I will buck the trend and produce stamps that are far from the norm, and these Brand NEW stamps by Donna, and not your normal run of the mill face stamps! Transferred and altered from Donna's drawings, they will add a different perspective to your artwork, and journaling. You can see them all here, and they are all available now except one, which will be ready at the end of next week :))
here is a little piece by Donna that she made using the Happy Girl


Now, of course on to the winners of my blog candy from the past three days!
Congratulations to
who won this stamp from Day 1

 Tigs
won this stamp from the sneaky peek on Day 2 .



Congratulations!
And finally this is my favourite stamp from the collection, and

has won it! Congratulations!
Please can you all email me with your snail mail addresses, so I can get the stamps off to you this week:) Thank you to everyone who commented, and I am just sorry not everyone could win.
I am off to have play with my journal...
Have a creative day

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Sneaky peek Day 3

I have enjoyed showing you sneaky peeks of Donna's new stamps , and yesterday I let the girls at my workshop have a little play with them. Both Sandra and Lesley used my next sneaky peek (albeit unintentionally) them on one of their altered tiles for the top of their boxes.... loved their take on this new stamp. And they both used the same bit of the stamp!! Thank you girls for letting me show them...




Don't forget to win this stamp, all you have to do is comment :)
I will be back tomorrow with the full reveal...
Have a creative day
Hugs

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Sneaky Peek Day 2

I am loving the reaction, and you haven't even seen the full stamp! LOL Donna and I hope you will love these just completely different stamps that will be absolutely perfect for your journaling and altered art projects.... this is sneak peek no. 2 described by my husband as early Warholesque!? Not being an Andy Warhol expert, I just couldn't say, but it is definitely adonnathing!!

I used the new Summer Distress inks to colour this one....very pink!
To win this stamp, just leave me a comment..
I am almost ready for my very last workshop up at Pickleberry, and looking forward to seeing all my gorgeous girls, and making a HUGE mess with paints and inks, and UTEE!!
Have a fun and hopefully dry day!
Hugs

Friday, July 13, 2012

New stamps! - a sneaky peek Day 1

I have been a very bad blogger, with hardly any new posts for a while. Excuses? Absolutely! I have been collaborating with Donna Rodgers to bring you some new and innovative stamps, that are certainly not your normal Artistic Stamper stamps!!  Mind you , you might think differently :)
I am absolutely loving these new stamps, and of course in time honoured fashion, I will have a couple of days or perhaps more... who knows? of sneaky peeks for you to comment and win one of the new stamps! Here is sneak peek number 1....
All will be revealed in a couple of days....

To win this stamp, just comment ...lol
Off now to finish packing up my last workshop at Pickleberry Papercrafts , which is sadly closing down, as Kate is moving back up to the Midlands... sad face here:(
I will be back tomorrow
Have a creative day

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

UK Scrappers Blog Hop

Hi, and welcome to the UKS blog hop! If you are visiting from the UKScrappers Sponsor Blog Hop you may have come from  Art from The Heart, and landed here on my desk!.
I thought I would show you how one of my current loves of the moment using Gesso as a background medium in one of my journals.
I use Studio Gesso as it is just the right consistency for layering through stencils, and to stamp. I used a large 12 x12 Crafter's Workshop stencil and placed it onto the page,  putting a small amount of Gesso on top of it, and using an old credit card, swiped it gently across the top of the stencil smoothing it down till I was happy with the result. Make sure you wash the stencil or mask immediately as it dries hard and will ruin the stencil!

 I did let it dry overnight, but if you are impatient, then just use a heat tool to dry it.
I then sprayed graduating colours of Dylusions sprays..loving the brightness of these sprays, and again allowed it to dry naturally. You get much more intensity of colour than if you dried it with paper towel or a heat gun .


Taking a few word stamps from The Artistic Stamper, I sponged a layer of Gesso onto them and stamped randomly in the corner. I let this dry, and stamped again on top with on top with Archival inks.



I also randomly stamped the sequin waste stamp with Vermillion and Monarch Orange Archival to add more texture to the page.


I do hope you will try stamping and creating with gesso, it is a very satisfying technique :))

Please do comment and don't forget to leave your UKS name too, so that we can see that you have been...there are lots of prizes to be had, including £15.00 worth of stamps from The Artistic Stamper :))
I have also generated a 10% off voucher as a gift for you at The Artistic Stamper which will be valid for a week... just use the code UKS in the discount voucher box when you check out :))

Your next stop after commenting (and BE SURE TO MENTION YOUR UKS USER NAME in your comment) is Beautiful Impressions .  
If you lose your way, hop to the UKS post  to see the whole linked list. Be sure to reply in that thread when you complete the hop!
Happy Blog hopping!
Hugs