Yes, I am Still Alive

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Greetings, it’s 4.17am & I’ve been up since 2am. It’s so warm that I’m finding it impossible to sleep at the moment. I’ve been sorting through emails & visiting some blogs & now I thought I’d do a quick post to fill you I on what I’ve been doing for the past ten days or so.

Every spare minute has been spent helping my friend Lisa organise her crafting event day, which happens on Saturday, the 19th – approximately 54 hours away now. The amount of work involved is enormous & I’m just glad I’ve been able to help her with some of it. When I’m not helping I’m home making samples for her, trying to have as many as I can that will showcase all the new stamps, stencils, wood, etc., that she will have on sale. Later on today, we go to Costco to buy supplies, Friday evening we will get the hall set up & we’ll be there by 7 on Saturday morning, to make sure everything is ready before the doors open at 1Oam. I think I can safely say that we will spend Sunday collapsed in a heap somewhere……..

Because of all of that, plus everything else, I have deliberately stayed away from Twitter, Facebook, ignored emails & all the other distractions – apart from not having the time, I’m too tired. I do miss the Twitter chat especially, but I will get back to it next week. And of course, I’ve not made a single thing for myself for the last three – four? – weeks, so I thought I’d include two cards I made a while ago………..

My friend Georgina went on holiday & very kindly gave me her JoFY stamp sets to, ahem, look after for her & my first two projects were these birthday cards.

I kept this one very simple, just coloured with watercolour pencils.

 

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I used PaperArtsy Fresco paints on this card; Zesty Zing, Pumpkin Soup, Tikka, Pansy, Sherbet, Snowflake, Hey Pesto, Tinned Peas.

 

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 Behind the doors, a little pot of flowers…

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Before I go, I must tell you that, thanks to the vagaries of Blogger, there are some blogs I can’t leave comments on at the moment. I don’t know why this is, it seems to change from week to week & I can’t work out why, or fix it. So apologies to those whose posts I usually comment on & am not doing so at present, it’s not for the want of trying..

Thanks for looking, I’ll be back soon I hope.

Craft Extravaganza Day in Maidstone

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Morning all, happy Sunday. This is just a quick post to let you know about this………………..

 

Event Flyer

 

Lisa will be demoing Sparkle Medium & Silkies from Imagination Crafts & Georgina Ford will be using Artistic Stamper stamps, among others, in her demoes. As well as lots of new crafting goodies available to purchase, there will be a huge sale, with many items at knockdown prices – and when you’re all shopped out, you can relax with a cuppa & chat with other crafting peeps.

Every year, Lisa has an event day raffle with all proceeds going to a local charity. This year the recipient will be the Heart of Kent Hospice, who are utterly deserving of it, they do such amazing work.

It promises to be a fun day, so if you’re in the area please drop in. If you know any crafters in Kent, we’d really appreciate it if you would spread the word.

Earlier this week, I finished making my samples for Lisa’s July class, which took place on Friday & I’m now making samples for the event day, as well as helping Lisa with the organisation of the day. I also run the Lisa B Designs blog & Facebook page. All of which means I have even less time for my own projects & blog at the moment, but it will all be worth if everyone enjoys themselves on the 19th.

Until next time, thanks for looking & please spread the word!

12 Tags of 2014 June

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Good morning, happy Sunday. Yet again, I’m almost too late with my canvas board version of Tim’s tag. I actually made it a few weeks ago & hoped I’d have time to make another, better version, but I don’t think I will now.  You can see Tim’s gorgeous tag & all the details on how he created it HERE.

I decided to use the TCW Cell Theory stencil for my background, which in retrospect was a mistake. There’s very little definition & what there was I ended up covering.  But I quite liked the result so I carried on………….

 

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I tried various images but went ahead with the mini versions of Tim’s butterflies & I also used his Torn Notebook die & Remnant Rubs. I seem to have run out of seam binding, so I coloured some organza ribbon with distress inks instead…………..

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Thanks goes once again to Tim for the inspiration & to you for looking.

See you next time.

PaperArtsy Challenge–Inspired by Linda Cain

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Evening, hope everyone’s had a great Saturday. It’s been yet another week of amazing inspiration over on the PaperArtsy blog & it took me an age to decide what to do. In the end I went with Linda Cain’s gorgeous shadow box tray from Wednesday night.

I didn’t have a shadow box, so I used this photo frame instead………….

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I sanded it a little, gave it a coat of gesso, then painted it with Little Black Dress Fresco paint.

I decided on a blue colour palette & used silver acrylic paint a well…………….

 

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I used Ellen Vargo, Lin Brown & Lynne Perella stamps on the background, stamped with Cornflower Blue Archival ink

I had a bit of a disaster the first time around when I came to stamp the focal image. Stamped with black Archival & this was the result…………….

 

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Not good.

So I started all over again & stamped with Onyx Black Versafine. Much better…………

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Thanks for looking & thank you Linda for the inspiration. I’m entering this in the PaperArtsy challenge HERE.

See you next time.

Lisa B Designs June Class Cards

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Evening. Way back in the dim & distant past, (almost three weeks ago), I promised I would post my cards from the class I did in Maidstone,  when I had finished them & then I forgot about them until now. So here they are, better late than never.

My friend Lisa holds two classes on the first Friday of each month & this month we focused on Lavinia Stamps’ Zen stamps,  using distress inks & Sparkle Medium & Silkies acrylic paints from Imagination Crafts.

The background on this card is a Lavinia Stamps scenescape – very handy when you want to save a bit of time.

 

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We used distress inks & masks to make the background on the second card. I used Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean & Chipped Sapphire.

 

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A lot of the time I assist Lisa at the classes & I don’t always get to finish my projects, so it was nice to complete these. I’ve never use Lavinia Stamps all that much before, but I enjoyed making the class samples. Lisa’s class samples are in this post.  My projects are posted on the Lisa B Designs Inspiration blog on Monday & Tuesdays, while Lisa, Suzanne & Georgina post on the other days.

Thanks for looking.

Blood, Sweat & Tears

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Happy Sunday! Yes, ‘tis me, with a new blog post & even more surprisingly, it’s an entry for the current PaperArtsy challenge. I have missed weeks of this challenge & really didn’t want to miss another one. I’ve been working on lots of commissions & DT projects recently & it seems to have me left in a major slump as regards my own projects. I’ve had absolutely no ideas & anything I’ve tried has ended up in the bin.

This morning on Twitter, my friend Helen gave me challenge; a tag, the first two PA Fresco paints I picked up, PA Hot Picks stamp set HP1204 & 30 minutes.  This is the tag I came up with after 45 minutes & it too went in the bin. The background is Honeydew & Sky Frescos, which I liked, but the rest is rubbish.

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Anyway, I got started on my piece for Seth Apter’s PA blog post on Wednesday. I was delighted to see Seth on the PA blog. He is an incredible artist & his mixed media pieces are stunning.  In order to take the – self-imposed – pressure off myself a little, I basically copied his project, using slightly different colours, stencils & stamps.

 

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The base is an A4 sheet of linen textured card. I applied the gesso layer with a palette knife, scraping & wiping it across the sheet.

 

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Assorted stencils – TCW, The Artistic Stamper, Imagination Crafts, Tim Holtz.

 

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Various PaperArtsy stamps; Sara Naumann, Ellen Vargo, Hot Picks, Ink & The Dog, Minis.

The finished piece. ……………….

 

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It’s ok. I like that I can still see patches of white underneath all the paint etc. And at least I finished it. Thank you to Seth for providing the inspiration & impetus I needed & to Helen, Sam & Jo on Twitter for the virtual slap around the head this morning.

Entering this in the PaperArtsy challenge HERE.

Thanks for looking.

I Am A Guest Designer

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On the PaperArtsy blog this evening.  It was such an honour to be asked & I was very excited, but now I’m more than a little terrified. I have everything crossed that people will like what I’ve done…….

Here is the direct link to my project: http://t.co/ShWceMSiEL

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I send much love & enormous gratitude to Leandra, Darcy & the entire PaperArtsy team for this honour, I hope I haven’t let you down.

12 Tags of 2014 – May

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Morning all, nothing like leaving it to – almost – the very last minute. Here’s my take on Tim’s May tag, which you can see here. Tim challenged us to use those metal embellishments that we’ve been saving for that ‘special occasion’. I love the simplicity of his tag, with every element perfectly balanced. Not sure I’ve achieved that balance, but I like what I’ve done.

 

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I used a canvas board & kept the background simple, using Fresco paints – Vintage Lace, Mocha Mousse, Chocolate Pudding, French Roast, Little Black Dress. I finished the background with splatters of Tarnished Brass distress stain mixed with water.

 

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The embellishments are on pieces of Thorndon Hall paper from PaperArtsy, with a TH key, frame, vial label & rub on.  Each piece has  significance for me & the  word ‘create’ is a Chocolate Baroque stamp.

 

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Thanks once again to Tim for the inspiration. Nice to know that we’ve only got to wait ‘til tomorrow now for your June tag. Smile

Thanks for looking, I’m hoping I’ll get time to make something either today or tomorrow for this week’s PaperArtsy challenge………….

Masterboard Emma Godfrey Style

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Evening friends, hope you’re all well. It seem to be an age & a half since I did a blog post. You wouldn’t believe the amount of draft posts I have, just haven’t got round to finishing any of them. I am not going to bed tonight until I’ve published this one.

When I was at at Ally Pally in April I had the pleasure of meeting Emma Godfrey, who was demoing on the PaperArtsy stand, alongside Leandra. Emma showed us how to create fantastic masterboards, full of layers & texture & I had a go when I got home, but it wasn’t quite right, to me anyway. Thankfully, Emma has now made a video with Leandra, where she shows you the entire process & this is my first proper attempt.

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It started out with scraps of PaperArtsy’s now discontinued Thorndon Hall patterned papers, with Grunge Paste through a stencil on top.

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Then I started adding Fresco paints & stamping with Ellen Vargo stamps & PA mini script stamps.

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When I was finished I cut down the A4 sheet & made four cards. I used Tim Holtz chit chat stickers & a stamp set from Hobby Art called Alphabet Typed for the quotes.

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It’s a pity the photo doesn’t show it, but the Florentine Treasure Gold on the GP areas looks SO good.

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Looking at the finished cards I had a bit of an “a-ha” moment. While making the masterboard, I kept wanting to add more stamping, more paint, more accents & I had to really force myself not to. I remember talking to myself, saying “stop. Stop there. See what it looks like if you DON’T fill every bit of space.…” And I think I was right to stop. Yes, there are errors. The placement of the hearts is probably the biggest one, but on the whole, I quite like my effort. And I will definitely be making more masterboards.

Massive thanks to Emma & Leandra for taking the time to make the excellent video.

See you next time.

One More for PaperArtsy

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Afternoon, I hope everyone’s having a pleasant Sunday. Thank you for all the kind comments & sympathy last night. I’m pleased to say that today the entire street seems to have gone out & I’m enjoying the peace & quiet.

I didn’t intend making a third project for the current PaperArtsy challenge, but this one sort of evolved yesterday & this morning.  It’s based on Sue Carrington’s project from Wednesday  & Helen Chilton’s canvas from Friday.

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I used a canvas board & started the background with Lilac & Chartreuse Frescos, added stencilling (Lin Brown’s) with a mix of Limelight & Snowflake, then stamping with Watering Can Archival, more stencilling with Concrete Fresco & Lilac & more stamping (EEV05) with Snowflake.

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I mixed Lilac Fresco & Grunge Paste for the poppies, then painted over them with Lilac, Pansy, Tinned Peas & Hyde Park & finished with Silver Treasure Gold. The quote is from Hot Pick 1204, stamped with black Archival.

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Thanks to Helen & Sue for the inspiration. I’m now off to do some housework, see you next time.