Housey, Housey

Last weekend....hold your breath... I made a CARD!! My DD has just moved into a new flat, and besides the ubiquitous moving in present, I thought I would make her a card. Now I never make cards, but you know moving house is always a special occasion....so what better than to use Kat's gorgeous House stamps to make a card.. I used Dylusions sprays to give it some background, and the sun was inked with Distress paints. I stamped all the houses and coloured them in with the new colours of Distress markers...love the brightness of them! I cut out the houses and layered them on, cutting out the doors to open. Very simple to do, and the words were like clouds floating in the sky!

I hope you like, and have a creative day
Hugs

Catching up with myself!

Oh my! It is almost a whole month since I last blogged, and so much has happened that perhaps the best way to describe it would be to say that I had been buried by an avalanche, and am just climbing my way out of right now!! It has been a manic month, and time as always has slipped away!
I will try to show what has happened this last month in pictures, without lots of waffle!!... Firstly we had the absolutely gorgeous and delectable Dyan Reaveley come to teach at The Artistic Stamper. Fun, mayhem, lots and lots of colour, and most of all SILENCE ensued while she was here teaching. I have never heard it so quiet in the classroom... everyone was just concentrating. The gorgeous Marie came with her to supervise (no pics of her :(

Artwork by Dyan

Decorating the classroom wall



Concentration!

Absolute silence!

Now you do it like this...

 

Cheese!

and we opened the new kitchen in the shop the same weekend..... thank goodness we did, as we drank gallons of tea and coffee!!

Built by Mal

Almost immediately after, Mal and I went to Ireland for some family business and to have a small break... it rained! well what a surprise, and guess what? We left the umbrella behind!! LOL The view from our hotel room was stunning, and I just had to show you this picture of a hill we came across... no gradient, and not an experience that either of us want to repeat again.. scary!!

Kinsale



Hold on to your seatbelts!

This is what we found when we got back.. a gorgeous new piece of art on the classroom wall! Created by Lesley, who gallantly looked after the shop while we were gone.



Imagine this on your wall?!

All in all, it has been an eventful month, and now the sun has come to give us summer! Yea!!
I faithfully promise to get some art on this blog, if I am not meeting myself coming backwards!! If you would like to catch up with me, I often post on Facebook, Twitter and on The Artistic Stamper Facebook page, both of which links are on the sidebars of the blog. Come and join me :)
Have a creative day

Jo Firth-Young is coming to teach!

Just a quickie post to say that we have Jo Firth-Young coming to teach Saturday 22nd June at The Artistic Stamper. A perfect opportunity to use her stamps and all things PaperArtsy. We have a few spaces left on the workshop, and you can book it here

Have a very creative day
Hugs
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Makes for Men - new Challenge at The Artistic Stamper Creative Team

Hi! I cannot believe that it is June already... what happened to Spring.. we are almost in the summer, and what better way to start the season off than with a great new challenge over at The Artistic Stamper Creative team blog!
This month it is Makes for men, and I made a little papier Mache hanging, using one of the Nudes stamps, and what man wouldn't like it!! I also used Tim's Remnant rubs to fill the spaces.

 

You can check out all of the girls' gorgeous ideas over on the blog, and we would love you join in too.
Have a very creative weekend
Hugs

A new career?

The weekend was long and full of fun as Mal and I created for the shop! I learnt new skills, while I held the wood, and the hammer and the screws! It was case of "where is the hammer Jen?", as I looked everywhere for it, searching high and low saying " I put it down there, Mal", only to find it in my hand!  I am not sure that shop fitting will be my new career, but boy, oh boy, they do look fab, even though I say it myself :) My husband is just the best!!

Before...

During...

After...

 

If you are passing by or have a need for some stash, please do drop in and say hello to our new displays... we would love to see you.

Have a creative day
Hugs
 

Graphic 45ing it!

I hope you have enjoyed your holiday weekend. I have spent all of it working, and learning new skills, but more of that tomorrow... In the meantime I taught a workshop on Saturday using the delicious papers, Secret Garden and French Country from Graphic 45. This class is always gentle and quiet.. as everyone spends time concentrating, and did I finish mine... no , of course not! I thought you might like to see some pictures from the girls' books, such gorgeousness!

 

Thank you to everyone who came along, it was pleasure as always.
Have a creative day
Hugs
 

Mixing it up!

Dear Blog, I am back again... wow! what is happening? I must be on a roll... lol Yesterday I taught a mixed media class, and the lovely ladies got a mixture of techniques to play with and learn, including UTEE ( my favourite!), alcohol inks (my favourite!), using sprays with stencils, ( my favourite!)... I see some kind of pattern here...lol actually all of the techniques were my favourite!! We had a great deal of fun as always, and although it isn't pictured here ( will try to get a decent photo of it later), My first mirror was only using one stamp.. and I tried to do that with my second mirror... it is  great learning curve when you can only use one stamp! Here are the girls gorgeous creations

Liz's mirror- note the inky fingers!

Rosemary's "with one stamp"

Sandra's green perfection!

and here are details from mine ....

My Mirror with one stamp

Alcohol inks, UTEE, Masks

Alcohol inks, Distress paint, wax

UTEE

Paint Dabbers

I also had a visit from a fellow Ranger U Educator yesterday who travelled all the way from Belgium to see me... ( OK she didn't really .... but was here on a flying visit) and dropped in on her way to London...Tanya it was a pleasure to see you... hope to meet up again soon xxx

On another note, I also had a request to do kits for my classes, and instructions... putting this out to you my dear blog readers...would you like kits, or videos or on line classes? I love teaching, so please fill in the poll up on the top right hand corner and let me know :)
Have a very creative day
lots of hugs

Dance like no-one is watching....

"You've gotta' dance like there's nobody watching, Love like you'll never be hurt, Sing like there's nobody listening, And live like it's heaven on earth. (And speak from the heart to be heard.)” -William W. Purkey
Great words, and perfect for this set of stamps designed by Sioux Jenneys, one of our Creative Design Team.
These are The Stamp of The Week this week, and you can get them half price until next Wednesday night. I made this tag with some of them. The background is a plastic doily used as a stencil which found at my mother in laws ( never throw anything away!!) and the spray kind of ran away underneath it all, so I hadn't used it, so I just have used it as the background for the tag.  I stamped lots of the dancer images on top  and even cut one out to layer on top ( I hate cutting out!) and added a piece of ribbon through the hole. Didn't take me very long, and I got to play too.. which is a rare thing for me at the moment ;(

Hope you like and have a creative day
Hugs

Winners!

Hello! A big Thank you to everyone who joined in my giveaway blog posts. I just wish everyone could win. I used Mr Random.org to pick the winners, and from the first post,  step up to the podium....

Kimbo

from the second post , Congratulations to ....

Christine D

 



and from my post here... congratulations to.....

Valerie

 

Please email me your addresses, so I can put your stamps into the post for you. Thank you to everyone who joined in, watch this space for more giveaways, and if you are lucky some art!!
Have a creative day
Hugs

Heart, Heart {♥}

Hello Blog {♥}! and hello to you too! WOW! another post! Don't get too excited , it may be my last for a while...lol I taught a class yesterday using the meltpot, and we did loads of techniques which the girls made into a canvas. Normally I would use stretched canvases, but this time we used a hardboard canvas which is much better for stamping onto, so the possibilities are endless....must get some more of them {♥}

I didn't take any photos of the girl's creations (no idea why) , but I did photograph mine, and here are some of the elements. I used Dina Wakley's Spilled Hearts template {♥} with UTEE to make the corner part of the canvas, and the top right hand corner is a piece of dipped UTEE music paper... definitely think I have to do some more of this!
All the textures in the UTEE were made using the new stamps which you can find here.

 

The class was great deal of fun, and I get to do it again next weekend too!
Have a very creative day {♥}
Hugs