Stencil it!

I am so excited! I am embarking on a new venture! Designing stencils! or masks or templates... call them what you will....The Artistic Stamper now has the beginnings of a new range of masks. Available now! They complement our stamps, and some have "bits" with them, and like the Splats and swirls one, match the actual stamps! They arrived yesterday, and I haven't had a lot of time to play, but whipped up this tag using the chevron mask, the chevron elements stamp and some remnant rubs from Tim, and  lots of distress ink.

I will be at Port Sunlight HSNW show ( a tickets only event) demonstrating for the show, and if you are coming along, stop by for a chat! CaroLines will have the stencils plus some of my stamps too. Looking forward to visiting and seeing friends :)
Have a very creative weekend
{hugs}
 

Reflections of the day

Yesterday I taught a great workshop, which stretched the minds of my lovely workshopees! ( quite like that word.. did I just invent it? LOL) Five gorgeous girls (and I even remembered their names too!!) spent the day with me learning about the meltpot, and creating a mirror with UTEE and bits and bobs. I actually borrowed the idea from Astrid from this post on The Creative Team blog, and tweaked it more than a bit for the melt pot mirror. Suffice it to say there was lots of gluing , and moulding and tweaking and everyone created a gorgeous piece of art. Thank you Rosemary, Lesley, Jean, Anne and Laura for coming along and playing! It was my pleasure to have you at the shop :) Here is my piece with close ups ( this was the piece I made for the class, and I did another piece too in class which I will show at a later date )

  and here are the Girls gorgeous pieces of Art too!

Have a creative Sunday
{hugs}

Sneaky Peeking...

I have been quite busy over the past few days ( well make that weeks! ) and creating anything new doesn't come so easy anymore.. the mind must be working overtime, or my mojo has taken a hike!
I am teaching a melt pot class tomorrow, and I thought I would show you a sneak peek of it... suffice it to say there really isn't a lot in this picture, but I promise faithfully to show you the whole picture in another post!  We have lots of fabulous workshops at The Shop, and if you love altered art, making cards, and learning new skills ; we have feltmaking too! Check them out here.
leaving you with my sneaky peek....

Have a creative day
{hugs}
 

Winner of my Blogaversary Candy!

A HUGE thank you to everyone who joined in my blogaversary candy post last week! I loved all of your comments :)
I have chosen a winner via Mr Random.org and he chose

 Crafting Newbie!!

Congratulations and please email me so I can send you your candy :)

Have a very creative day
Hugs

Some of my Favourite things.. and a blogaversary giveaway!

Hi, and welcome to the beginning of my 7th year of blogging! Today 6 years ago I took a gigantic leap into the unknown, and started blogging.. bringing you my life in words and pictures! Never mind that I only did 6 posts that year, ( it hasn't changed much!! LOL) but it never occurred to me, that years later, I would still be blogging
and sharing some of my adventures in this crafting world of mine!!
I love bringing you new products and new ideas, and love that you comment and read the waffle that I write from time to time! So in honour of my blogging friends and followers here are a few of my current favourite things.. all for you!!

 

To win them all you have to do is comment and if you feel the need to share that is fabulous too! The more the merrier....

I promise faithfully to pick a winner this time next week!! note to self... no forgetting! lol

Have a very creative day
Hugs

 

UKS Blog Hop- Marvellous Marbling with Dylusions

 

Welcome to the UK Scrappers blog hop, and if you have started at the beginning, then you will have come to me via Angelfish
I wanted to show you a great technique that I have developed using Dylusions Ink Sprays. I was looking for a way to make end papers for an altered book class some time ago, and stumbled upon the technique of marbling using paints and water. I wondered if you could use it with Dylusions Sprays, and discovered that you could!
I used the darkest of the colours as the sprays are formulated to react with water, so they do fade, and the darker the colour the better the marbling. Take 2 or 3 colours and use a plastic or metal tray ( I ended up using one of those Ikea plastic drawers that fit in their wooden units- perfect size!)

Sprays, water and tray

 I filled the tray up with enough water to cover the bottom, and literally sprayed the colours into the water in patches. The action makes them swirl about, but you can stir them with a stick if you like.

Spray into the water

 

You need to use an absorbent paper. I would test it first. I actually used some Scrapbook Sally Paper that I had rather a lot of, but did also use Bazill Basics and that worked fine. Put the piece of paper on top of the colours in the water and allow it to soak in.. don't drown it, and don't move it either!

the colours will move about on their own but use a stick if you need to.

Lay paper gently into the water. allow time to soak up colour

Once you can see the water coming up around the edges of the paper, lift gently out and lay on some kitchen towel to dry. Depending on your paper the drying can vary from an hour to much longer. You can add more sprays as you go along, but you will  only get about 3 or 4 papers out of the water before it goes muddy and will need changing.

 

Lift out paper and lay on kitchen towel to dry

 

 

A selection of marvellous marbling!

Be warned as the sprays are water soluble, the colour fades as it dries on the paper, but you get some great marbling effects.

brighter colours!

Finished brighter colours.

I do hope you try this very simple but effective technique.
To continue on your UKS hop you need to go to Beanpole. if you get lost then just check into UKS here.
Don't forget to comment and leave your UKS name too :)

Happy Blog Hopping

Crafting in the Dark!

The title tells it all! Well not really, but it might give you an insight into my life...lol Last week while having one of the best evenings with a wonderful group of girls, we got onto crafting and when we do it! For me, I cannot craft at night when it is dark, and there is no natural light. However I came out with the classic one liner.. and said "I cannot craft in the dark!" Brenda suggested that I put the light on!!!!  Hoots of laughter, and tears came to us all... It was the bestest evening! LOL
 I thought how it would be fun to do a night time crafting session... so girls, I will be choosing a night very soon, and if you would like to join us for an all nighter... email me :)
I have told you I don't craft at night with no natural light, but you will know now why I love the summers... natural light from 5am ish to 9am ish! and this is some of what I have been doing while sitting in front of the news very early in the morning! new Crafters Workshop stencils, a book from a dvd I was given.. guess the title?!!! and Dylusions sprays decanted into a water brush ( fabulous idea, Dyan, thank you!) These are my pieces of cathartic art... making me want to do more.. shame work gets in the way... These are by no means finished pieces of art, just my personal pages.. giving me a way forward.
I hope you like them...

 

 

 

 

Have a creative day and a little night time crafting!
Hugs

oops! I forgot !

I was very suitably reminded by one of my blog readers that I hadn't chosen a winner from this post on my blog at the beginning of August!! So sorry, think the sun this month has got to my brain! Anyway I used Mr Random.org to pick a winner from the comments and he picked no 15 ,

 so congratulations to

Annie

please contact me so I can send you your stamps :)
Thank you to everyone who joined in the giveaway and to make up I will be back with another one very soon.
Have a creative day
Hugs