PaperArtsy Fresco Finish....

... so just in case you haven't seen all the lush Fresco Finish paints in all their rainbow glory here's a colour wheel I made for the demo weekend at the Craft Barn. 
I made it by using the PaperArtsy Large Oak Leaf die to cut lots of leaves from white card and then painting them with each of the colours (its better to do it that way than to paint and then die cut the shape - avoids white cut edges).

Apologies for the slightly grainy image - hopefully it doesn't distract from the loveliness of the all those colours!

I found these...

... when I was looking for something else.. and this happens to me a lot! I lose ItemA, can't find it, I lose ItemB and while looking for ItemB I find previously 'lost' ItemA - I lose and find items in rotation!  Like yesterday when I was looking for a moneybox I found a pair of trousers I thought had been taken to the charity shop! yay! - OK so they didn't fit and I still haven't located the moneybox but I still found something that I thought I'd lost so Yay!! (in JoLand this is a good thing! lol) (and bearing in mind we are still living out of 1/2 unpacked boxes this is good!)

aaaaanyhoo that isn't the 'found' that I wanted to show you - I was looking for a photograph (which I'm still looking for) and I found these which I should've shown you much sooner:

These are samples I made for PaperArtsy earlier in the year using the PA Metal Card & Fresco Finish Paints - love the flowers with their 5 layers of metal - an idea that Leandra had for flowers made up of stamped, embossed and painted (with Fresco Finish) layers. Lush! (made into brooches)
The birds on hearts are based on my brooch (seen here) - where I've die cut a heart (PaperArtsy die - obviously - lol) and added stamping and embellishments.  The birds are cut using the new(ish) small bird die. The birds: L to R: Stamped, details embossed onto metal, wiped with Fresco Finish; stamped onto black card & brushed with Perfect Pearls; stamped onto metal, outline embossed - again made into brooches.

Hope your day has been sunny not rainy - mine has seen a bit of both!

x

Plants & Postcards

Art Trail in Leigh last week - the Studio gets cleared, prettied up and ready for the public to come and look at the work that's been produced over the last year... Tricia, Tessa & Bronwyn had some really lovely work on show.

Bronwyn, as well as her gorgeous photographs & prints (go here to see more), has these adorable little plants planted in vintage china (tea cups & saucers)... I really like the colours and the layers of the 'leaves':

I think the bottom right is my favourite - the way the colours fade from green to that aubergine/lilac colour.....

(and the way the leaves are just the right size on each layer- the repeats are almost perfect... aaaagh my neat and tidy side rears its head again!)

We take it in turns to sit in the Studio while the public visit.. and during my time there I sat and coloured, wrote and doodled these - they're just little experiments - postcards measuring 4x6in - and I just tore things and stuck them down, coloured on top - it was just about freeing up how I do things - not being concerned about whether its right, wrong, straight, smudged - just seeing how it goes....

Each one led to another - kept me quiet for a few hours! lol

I'm off to Chelmsford today to teach, shop, and then back home for a Hen Party - all of which are going to be fun in different ways! lol

Whatever you're up to - have a good day!

A little bit of sewing does you good...

... don't you think? I find it really calming: sitting and sewing - whether its mending or something creative...
I'm teaching a 4 week class sewing class at the moment with a 'reduce, reuse, recycle' theme - and so have been playing around with this and that ....

This isn't something we'll be doing in class (all though if they want to we can), it was just something that I'd been wanting to try for a while - a simple twisted rag flower.. cute.. and following the theme of upcycling things this one has been made from an old skirt of mine - one I wore on my honeymoon - and its nice because everytime I look at it I think of our honeymoon, and in my head I can see the picture of M&I where I'm wearing the skirt.  Its important to keep memories like that and why its nice to create something that prompts (and preserves) the memory - whatever the 'something' is - a scrapbook page, minibook, patchwork.....

I'm off to play with fabric, interfacing, bondaweb and buttons - not necessarily in that order! (because I have to find at least 2 of those items before I can use them!  They're in a box somewhere......)

Whatever you're up to today have a good one!

Say it with Flowers....

Flowers, flowers, and more flowers.... seems to be the theme of my projects at the moment!  and over at Banana Frog my Project of the Day is no exception.. head on over HERE to see more..

Thanks for stopping by... or hopping by.. get it?..  frog .. hopping?!   oh nevermind...

Sweet Pea Project...

The flowers from my last post proved to be quite inspiring - I made the above tag (& another project but unfortunately I can't show you that... sorry!).. you must think I spend all my time making tags - I don't - honest guv!
This tag features Claudine Hellmuth's Blooms stamps and PaperArtsy Thorndon Hall papers and Fresco Finish paints (& I've told you how much I luuurve those haven't I?!!)  Its sooo pretty!! V girly lol
I thought the tag and flowers were nice and summery - & its JUNE for goodness sake & I'm still putting my heating on!! on Sunday I had on trousers, socks, tshirt, long cardigan and a scarf because I was so cold! its JUNE!!! somebody tell the weather please...
Especially as I'm going to a garden party family celebration on Sunday!! lol  maybe I should pack wellies and a mac just in case.....
Hope its summery where you are...

Just a pretty picture....

I'm working on some bits and pieces that I can't show you at the moment so I thought I'd show you this photo - Sweet Peas (?) from the garden.. the colours are lovely when they've just come out but the colours that the petals fade through when finishing are just as lovely...
Loving the flowers in the garden - its not our garden and so we didn't plant anything and have no idea what's going to come up next - part of the fun of gardening?

'Bloom'in Marvelous

.. is the way I'd describe the Craft Barn weekend!
For those of you that stopped by after I had managed to get paint on myself (& I was trying to be so clean!)(note to self - make/buy/find an apron!!!)  I can report that Fresco Finish (Sky Blue) has come out of my tshirt (dark grey so any residual staining is probably masked by the fabric) and my black linen trousers (tho still a little worked in - but thats 'cos I rubbed at it!)...  but lets get this straight - ahem, I intentionally got paint on my self to illustrate that Fresco Finish paints will work on any surface! obviously.... I like to provide a full service demonstration... lol  The lengths I will go to for my craft! lol

Four of the tags I made on day 2 when I had to switch to Claudine Hellmuth's 'Blooms' set of stamps because the 'Domestic' sets had sold out.  Love these stamps!! Quick & easy samples...   Houses tomorrow....

I'm off to Imagine That today to get all inky & painty with 10 lovely ladies - cracking open the Distress Stains, Fresco Finish paints, and Claudine H's stamps again....  the fun in my days never stops....

Have a good day!

WOYWW

Hello all you lovely desk snoopers! lol  Here's what my desk looked like yesterday - yep thats a cat - not much work getting done on that desk (she grumbles if you should be so rude as to try and move her! lol).

but, look - if you look around the lovely chubbiness that is Lola there's all that lovely clear work top!! Shock horror!  But don't worry once Lola had wandered off and found herself somewhere else to sleep I quickly covered it in the normal creative mess equipment.

And this might be the first picture of my new workroom (sorry, I've been a bad WOYWWer) - so take a good look because soon we're moving again!  Same desk different location!

I'll be around to snoop at you later - put the kettle on - coffee, white, 2 sugars.  I'll put the kettle on too so I''ll be ready for when you arrive - how do you take your coffee/tea?

xx

PS - if you've popped by for some other reason than to snoop and have no idea what I'm talking about or why I would want to show pics of my desk go here and all will be explained!

'Working' at The Craft Barn

... I've put the 'working' in inverted commas because it can't really be classed as working when its so enjoyable.. surely!
Here are some of my table samples - I demo'd PaperArtsy's Fresco Finish paints and Claudine Hellmuth Creative Layers stamps - LOVE both of these products. 

You'll have to excuse the lack of quality of the photos - my camera broke earlier in the week (cr#p timing!) so these are photos off the phone.  And the hearts are to mask some of the projects - because while I'm quite happy for most of my work to be used as inspiration I wanted to protect these particular projects.  Most crafters are lovely peeps but not everyone respects a designer's copyright on the projects that are produced (though luckily those people are few and far between... hopefully... I'd like to think! lol).  I love working at these events and showing people what can be done with the products but it saddens me to think that someone may take photos of Demonstrators' work, reproduce it and pass it off as their own.... I think 'do unto others....' comes into play here. lol
Oooh sorry, ahem, I'll, erm, climb down off my little soap box now I've got that off my chest! lol
Where was I? oh yes telling you how The Craft Barn Extravaganza events are sooooo good - people come to them from all over the country, Europe and one lady popped in on her way to Canada from New Zealand/Australia!!!! Now if that doesn't tell you that these weekends are worth a trip I don't know what would! lol
Sandy and everyone at The Craft Barn works really hard to make these weekends a great experience for the customers, & the demonstrators, and it shows.  I certainly had a blast!  So thank you if you came and sat at my table and watched me play with paint and stamps, I hope you were inspired. It wouldn't be the same without you!!
I'll have some more samples to show you very soon (when the new camera gets delivered and I've had a chance to photograph them - which hopefully will be before the end of the day) (drive faster Mr Delivery man, faster!don't spare the horses! lol) - ones that are there for inspiration and will be up in The Craft Barn in the not too distant future.

Trial & error....

yay - all seems to be sorted on the ipad v pc posting date confliction!! ....oh thats going to have jinxed it!

Fingers crossed....

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Keeping it simple....

... was my approach (& as requested) to demo'ing at Hobbycraft last sunday... It was nice afternoon.

...and while demo'ing I was listening to two kiddies waiting for face painting  it was like an episode of Charlie&Lola - very cute. 
Listening to kiddies asking for what they'd like is very funny - girls want hearts & flowers and the boys want bloody, gruesome scars!  Apart from one little chap who wanted to be Spiderman.. he was very sure about that: whatever else he was offered, No, he wanted to be Spiderman and so by the time he left he was a scarlet faced happy little chap!
Oh & I made a card for an Angel - oh yes an Angel - complete with sparkly halo (face painting's a wonderful thing!)..

And it's nice when people who read this blog pop by and say hello (waving at you Liz!! :o) )

Its a lovely sunny day here in Essex, and so when I've finished typing this I'm off into the garden to see what damage our night-time visitor has done - lots of fence crashing last night which was a bit scary (we're in a bungalow) but when we looked out we saw a very determined badger!! Crashed its way through the fence! ..better go and check what its got up to.... Our landlord might not believe that the damaged fence was caused by a badger - sounds a bit too much like 'the dog ate my homework!' lol

have a good day!

xx

Testing again...

Playing with Claudine Hellmuth 'domestic' stamps


This blogging from the iPad could take some getting used to!! Gggrrrr

Tag number ...??

.. I have no idea!  I must have made lots and lots in my crafting lifetime - never get bored of them!  but this one isn't so much about the whole tag more about the detail on it and so that's all I'm going to show you.

I made it as a sample for the Craft Barn Extravaganza weekend which is this coming weekend - really looking forward to it... I'm going to be demo'ing PaperArtsy's Fresco Finish paints (fantastic paints - really good!!) and Claudine Hellmuth's Creative Layers stamps... Its going to be so much fun.  It'll be much more fun if you come along and see what everyone is doing - there are going to be some great demo's going on - LOADS!!
For more information go here