Classes!

I'm teaching a class at the local college - 10 weeks of beginners Card Making- which I'm enjoying a lot.

That runs in the evening and during the day you can find me at several shops in the South East running a class or two - I hope you can come and join me for some inky/ painty fun - call the shops for details & bookings  :o)

(I'm going to be uploading photos of classes in stages because Blogger is being a bit tetchy today! lol)

Classes at ImagineThat, Upminster:

25 April 2012 (wednesday)

10:30-13:00  Hats Off

14:00-16:30  Path of Least Resistance

24 May 2012 (thursday)

10:30-13:00  Path of Least Resistance 

14:00-16:30  Hats Off
09 June 2012 (saturday)

10:30-13:00 Hats Off

14:00-16:30 Path of Least Resistance

Tags... Part 1....

... well not technically Part 1 as I've put up a lot of tags during my time on this blog but its part 1 for this week - there are going to be 4 tags going up this week!!

This is one of the tags I made for demo'ing at the ArtsyCrafts/Tim Holtz event (& how freakin' good was that!!!)(the event not my tag & demo'ing lol)

The bird is the small bird die and co-ordinating stamp - one of the new PaperArtsy dies. I trimmed off its legs so it can sit on the branch*, which is actually the Tim Holtz tree die turned on its side (tilt your head to the left.. there you go.. now you can see it! lol)** and trimmed! (the other off-cuts made it on to a smaller tag that was a page in a mini book I created - more on that later in the week).  Background is painted in Distress Stains & inks. The bird is 3d mounted to give a bit of depth, branch is cut from Thorndon Hall with a bit of Distress Stickles added for texture...
All stamps are PaperArtsy.

The weather here in Essex today is glorious sunshine (but frosty! who'd've thought!) but not a cloud in the sky! Love that! Gives me such a positive feeling.... And its perfect for taking photos so thats what I'm going to do before I have to start working through my 'to do' list!
I hope its nice where you are!


* Don't worry no birds were harmed in the creation of this tag!
** It makes me chuckle to think that everyone reading this blog post will be tilting their heads to the left... thinking 'oh yes' and straightening up again..lol  ... its the little things that make me smile...

Things that make you go 'hhmmmm'

Another 'something' where I was just playing with 'stuff'.... acrylic paint resist, stamping & resist, cuttlebug embossing, die cuts, shimmer sprays, perfect pearls sprays - you name it I used it - layer on layer, on layer, on layer...
Sometimes you have to get inky, and random, and Embrace the Inks!

Twinkie goes to School!

I've been toying with the idea of Stampotique images for a while and bought Twinkie to get me started. I like their battered look and that they're just a little bit 'wrong' .. like they have attitude and shouldn't really be messed with.. but at the same time seem slightly vulnerable...
I might be overthinking this obviously..

So here's Twinkie, on a school themed tag...

the tag's actually purple & dark in reality (dusty concord) - I might be embracing my inner Goth!

Taking the 'stress' out of 'distress'....

...with the help of a few Tim Holtz stamps...

I made these for a classI taught  at Card Inspirations last week - Mixed Media...  The stamps came in at the very last minute - well, technically half way through the class (luckily I had a back up plan!)  I don't think I've ever been so pleased to see a set of stamps! lol  and they are very nice stamps lol

The cards were created using distress inks, acrylic paint, perfect pearls, archival inks (the oriental text on the bottom left card is a different stamp make - sorry, don't know which...)

card for someone special...

here's a detail shot of a card I made recently - I loved how this card turned out especially as it's for someone special. 
Resist technique - really like this technique too - never quite know how its going turn out - the level of colour etc.
The images are by Lavinia Stamps

more cards...

I decided that the last card, nice as it is, wasn't interesting enough! So here are 3 more - same image 3 different effects. These are still quite simple cards - but somehow are more interesting - I think its the layers, the decorative papers, the sewing (love using the sewing machine to stitch onto cards...)

The image has been stamped in gold - which was great - but then when gold Perfect Pearls are brushed onto the wet ink it is fab! - (photo on right has been tilted to catch the light) it looks as though its been gilded. Lush!


Background papers are the great new PaperArtsy christmas papers - lovely, double-sided, and really versatile. Stamping in black archival.

This hasn't really photographed well (looks lovely in real-life)- its a resisted image (dye based ink brayed over the image that has been stamped with) versamark ink. The front page of the card has been trimmed short to add a gold edge and reveal gold stamping down inside edge.