You can never have too many hearts....

When I get a product I like to try it out on & with anything I can get my hands on... The above are what I made before (and after) I went to ArtsyCrafts with one of the new PaperArtsy Heart dies - like this one a lot...
So these dies cut through:

Claudine Hellmuth sticky back canvas

Brooch I made with the stickyback canvas mounted onto Grungepaper for stability (might even've been grunge board?!?)

Grunge Paper

PaperArtsy's Metal Card

Metal Card embossed with a Tim Holtz embossing folder (its also been painted with acrylic paint, sprayed with Perfect pearls in several colours and sanded back)

Card stock (stamped with PaperArtsy images and coloured with distress inks)

Card stock (stamped with Fresco Finish paint & coloured with distress stains (Fresco Finish paints resist the stains! lush)

Shrink plastic x 2

Just wanted to show you how versatile these dies were (and no prizes for guessing which of the hearts were cut from shrink plastic! lol)

ooh - corrugate cardboard  - cuts through that too... how could I have forgotten to show that - I do love a bit of corrugated cardboard! lol

Tags... Part 3

Today's tag is decorated with the lovely new PaperArtsy OakLeaf dies - love how they've made them in 3 sizes!

Went a bit old school with this tag - scrunched up and distressed the tag - haven't done that for ages - I liked it! - Looks the tags been under a leaf pile for ages.. lol
The word 'nature' is printed with the PaperArtsy Words plate 2.
I've always wanted to use the plate to create words, and toyed with the idea of cutting the plate up to use as an alphabet, but I really like to use it as a background and so didn't want to cut it up. But, after seeing Joanne Wardle use it to create words it made up my mind - I bought another one and cut it up - really glad I did!! ("its only rubber - cut it up!" said the little voice in my head!!)
So now I have 2 - one for building words and 1 for creating backgrounds! Ta Daaa. Simples! lol
The leaves are sticky back canvas stamped with the co-ordinating images for the dies, and coloured with distress inks - very autumnal. Little leaf is attached with a Tim Holtz teeny tiny safety pin, the big leaf with a clip.  The tag is also stamped with a Tim Holtz image - from the new Papillon plate.

WOYWW...

.... hello! its been a while since I WOYWW'd - my desk isn't any tidier - at the moment it seems covered in ink & paint bottles - and there's nothing wrong with that is there! lol

To understand what WOYWW is all about go to http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com/  where all will be explained,

and if you like my blog/ramblings please click the follow button down on the left hand side, thanks!  :o)

Have a great day!

Tags.. Part 2

This tag, created again for demo'ing at the AC/TH event, is a bit of a sampler:
the tag has been partially embossed accented with Distress Inks & Lava Gold 'Goop' (love that stuff - so shiny!!) (& versatile) (and now comes in smaller pots - yay!)
painted & water splashed Distress Stains (top blue half)
Die cutting (the flourishes)
Tim Holtz tissue tape & Adage Ticket
and a distressed flower created with the spiral technique - I flatten/ distress these by hitting them with a small hammer... which is quite satisfying! lol

2 tags down, 2 tags to go... see you tomorrow.. same place same time.....

Getting all the ducks in a row...

... not literally, its just about getting everything ready - each day I do a bit of sorting out in preparation for the looming (in a good way!) house move... today amoung other things (and because I was in the work room and needed space) I went through the small 1'' square ink pads...
I don't use these much anymore and so there was a bit of a cull, but being ever organised and 'thorough' I had to test them all first (duh! really! did I have to test them??! no, not really but it was fun & I rediscovered some great colours!)

so here they are in the sketchbook looking really quite lovely!! - I almost wish I'd put them on a seperate piece of paper now so I could stick it on the wall!

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...

Beautifully Distressed & Bleached!!

oooh be still my paint lovin' heart!! or actually my Distress Stains lovin' heart!
I was lucky (and very grateful) to be given a set of Tim Holtz/Ranger Distress Stains (thank you very much - you know who you are!!) but was still unsure how the stains would be better/ more versatile than distress ink in pads  - O.M.G!!
They are sooooooooooo fab - seriously.. really versatile - colour goes on really generously (not too generously - nothing being wasted) and smoothly - I worked with them on tags (its how I 'test' out everything - 'put it on a tag' lol) and the ink looks sort of satin-like... love it!
I tried all the usual things - water splashing, salt etc .. and then I thought lets try bleach!!..  just household bleach.. nothing fancy... and look at the stunning effect the bleach has!!  Because the Distress Inks/Stains are dyes the bleach takes out the lightest colour in the mix and then goes to white depending on how much bleach is applied to the stamp!!
(to stamp with bleach I fold up a piece of kitchen towel (into quarters and then again) so thats its quite thick and then pour bleach on - creating a sort of inkpad but with bleach in place of ink... then use exactly as you would normally when inking up a stamp)
How fab is that - I have to tell you that happy clapping ensued and I had to reign myself in not to try this on all 12 colours! lol  (.. that may still happen! but other things had to be done so I'm saving it for another time...)
I really like how it removes colour rather than adding colour as we would normally do when stamping.
The Stain colours I used were Walnut Stain (such a good brown), Peeled Paint & Fired Brick.
I used a red rubber stamp (PaperArtsy Mini22) - its best to use red rubber when using bleach - & make sure you wash it off when you're finished.  I don't know how bleach would affect clear stamps so I avoid using it on those (better safe than sorry!!)
NB: I still need to test out what happens when I stamp another colour over the top of the bleached image - I think if its a pigment ink the colour will be OK but possibly not dye... I'll let you know...

Monday Moggies...

can't resist posting these photos I took of our cats..
Bertie (the black one) wants to be friends with Lola (the tabby) but she's not overly keen & so spends a lot of time avoiding him... and so to see them like this together is lovely - and requires photographic evidence that they don't dislike each other all the time...

and what makes me really smile about this photo is that they're both squeezed onto the box...
but the box is on a chest.. where there's loads of room.. but oh no!.. got to sit on the little box..

Pop back later when there'll be an actual craft/stamping/creative post.. yep seriously - actual creative samples... not pictures of cats... actual painted samples... featuring distress stains, Fresco Finish paints & tags!!   lol

Craft Stamper April Issue

I have an article in this month's issue - chipboard book using PaperArtsy stamps, Tim Holtz dies and my favourite colour scheme - Pink & Green. Here's a sneek peek but to see the whole thing you'll have to buy the magazine - and why would you not want to do that?! - its another great issue with lots of lovely projects and a cute cover stamp!!

Yes I was indeed at the computer at 06:20 in the morning!
Lots of stuff wizzing around in my head - so I thought I might as well get up.
I'm teaching at Imagine That today - distress/ butterfly themed cards using a new 'favourite' colour scheme of Dusty Concord & Peeled Paint (or shabby shutters if preferred) - purple & green - v calming......

Going back to bed now to catch those zzzz..zzz..zzzzzz ...zzzz..zzz..zzzzzz...

Stop the world......

.... I want to get off - well I don't want to actually get off I just want everything to slow down a teeny bit so I can get a grip and make a plan! lol

The last 8 days have been a bit fabulously surreal:
*  Had a great few days at the ArtsyCrafts / Tim Holtz event - bloomin marvelous!! met the man himself and saw LOVELY peeps that I've met at previous events, and chatted with on Twitter (great to put faces to names) ... waving at all of you!!
*  Started demo'ing at AC at 7:30am!! Loved it! Used PaperArtsy's new dies - v nice - more about those later..
*  Went to the Ballet - Matthew Bourne's Cinderella - it was beautiful - & brilliant - like watching a black & white war movie.. fabulous
*  I'm consumer testing this:

.. its a great machine (not very fast but maybe thats a health & safety thing) ... it definitely takes the effort out of die-cutting... now I've just got to play around with layering of shims etc so thin dies can be used through it (and thanks to David at Craft Obsessions for some pointers) (apparently they'll (sizzix) be bringing out an extra plate - if it isn't out already).  (The Engineer in the house (ie M) gave it a good look and thought it had been well thought through, and then I moved it away from him before he could think about taking bits apart to see how it went together! lol)
*  but what put the surreal label on this week was this:

both flats sold on the same day!!!!!!!  We are really pleased but didn't expect the top flat (one we live in) to sell quite so fast! lol ... 8 days on the market!! wth!  *insert slightly hysterical laughter here!*   lol
I cannot get my head around the fact that soon I won't live here anymore - its been my home for nearly 16 years and so much has happened.. and.. and.. erm .. sniff... sniff.. someone pass me a tissue please! (I'll stop now or I'll start to sound like Gwyneth Paltrow accepting an Oscar! lol)

I've also decided that 28th February is an EXCELLENT day:
*my grandad's birthday (well actually he was born on a Leap day but 3 years out of 4 he celebrated on the 28th)
*date of my first date with M
*the day we sold the flats
!! 3 reasons to make this officially 'an excellent day' - I might start a campaign to make it a public holiday! lol

So thats it - my wierd & wonderful week - fingers crossed please everyone that everything goes smoothly with the sales!

Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of arty things.....

Splash!

SPLASH!

That is the noise of me falling into the water of the lilypond as I sink in shock & shame:  I missed the blog hop!! (why is February so short!!! The end of Feb rushes up doesn't it!)

So I'm really very sorry I don't have anything pretty, inspiring and Banana Froggy for you like the other members of the DT team - nothing interesting to see here I'm afraid   :o(  but if you hop on over to the talented Katy's blog you'll find a very lovely project.

Next month I will have dragged myself out of the pond & I'll be sat on a lilypad proudly waving a superduper project at you!!

Quite a lot going on...

...so apologies for being a slightly bad blogger - must do better!

Here's a list of random stuff:

Counting down - oh yes - to the ArtsyCrafts & Tim Holtz weekend!!! - 2 more days peeps - count them - 2 more days!! (and if you can't wait for your Tim Fix switch on QVC today and he'll be popping up and showing all manner of lovely things!)(but don't get them from QVC - they'll be in your sticky little mitts quicker when you buy at ArtsyCrafts & we've got all the good stuff - trust me - I've seen it!)

We've put our flat (the one we live in) on the market...very exciting (and slightly scary) - hit the market on Friday and had a viewer on Saturday! eeek.  We are now living in a permanent state of tidyness - and thats hard for me! (I have to keep trying to remember where i've stashed things! lol)..
So just in case you're in the market for a 2 bed flat (ahem, apartment! lol ...its what the estate agents are calling flats these days!) here's a picture of our lounge:

lots of natural light floods through (oops this pic taken at night, use your imagination) the west facing 4m wide fully double glazed bay window.. please note the high ceiling of this Edwardian Terrace property.. blah blah blah
aw come on - don't laugh - I've got to take all opportunities to advertise it! lol  its not going to sell itself is it! lol

I stopped at a zebra crossing earlier in the week and the elderly gentleman I stopped for raised his hat to me in thanks!  Made my day - it was so 'old school' and gentlemanly!  more men should do that.  The two women who crossed after him didn't even acknowldge that the traffic had stopped for them to cross safely - though in their defense they were talking on their mobile phones and pushing buggies so..... lol

Started teaching a new course at the college - lovely group of students - real beginners which is great!

I've been fighting a cold that never seems to go away - the coughing was the worst bit! I'm over the worst of it but my poor nose! Thanks goodness for Kleenex Balm tissues! Sniff... cough... Hubby says its like living with Steptoe Snr!  Charming!
I've been on two GNOs which were very different - on one I laughed so much I could quite easily have fallen off my chair but I held it together long enough to realise that one of the people sat opposite me was someone i went to college with and haven't seen for (ahem) 20 years.. very strange to be reminded of my 18 year old self - apparently she remembers that I had 'folders, dividers and nice pens'. !!  Which just backed up T's theory that I'm v organised (?!)(or just a little bit ocd.. which isn't a bad thing is it?)

I think thats enough of my random waffling - things to do, people to see, flat to make 'viewer ready'

OMG - 2 DAYS TO ARTSYCRAFTS - BRING ON THE GOOD TIMES!!!!!

All dressed up for Banana Frog day!

For me this year is about trying to 'reduce, reuse & recycle', destashing (ok thats not going quite so well 'cos there are some reeeeaally nice (and frankly irresistable) paper & stamp collections coming out, but I'm doing my best!) and generally working with a less is more approach...
My project over on the Banana Frog blog this month is along those lines, and you can take a look HERE!