'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

Tidy it. Finish it

Today I decided to blitz my workroom... mainly because I couldn't see the wood for the proverbial trees or to be more specific the desk top for the inkpads, stamps, paper, bottles of inks & sprays etc etc etc - if you've ever seen my desk on WOYWW you'll know exactly the sort of things that are on my desk (&sometimes there's even a cat!)
While I was tidying up I kept seeing a project that is 90% finished - just tweaking needed..... in my head I could hear my little inner critic shouting "just finish it, for the love of all thinks inky FINISH IT!! Move on - its not permanent if you don't like it 6 months take it apart, change it - JUST FINISH IT"
so here it is:

(nb - I don't like the butterfly - wrong paper its days are numbered .... & I didn't need my inner critic to tell me that! lol)

and the workroom is still needs tidying! lol

Ribbit...

Happy birthday to you

Hoppy birthday to you

Ribbit birthday dear Banana Frog

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to youuuuuuu

May is Banana Frog's birthday, so get your party clothes on and hop around the lilypad for our birthday themed blog hop - next stop Audrey - no need for pressies at each lilypad but leave a comment and maybe we'll give you a pressie!!  :o)

Enjoy the rest of the lilypads!  Thanks for hopping by!!

Ready for Father's Day?....

Are you?  if not you could come by Hobbycraft's Chelmsford store on Sunday, I'll be there demo'ing card making with a 'dad' theme... I haven't demo'd at these shops before so am looking forward to it....
So if you fancy coming along to heckle (no fruit/vegetable throwing allowed!) or get some ideas I'll be there between 11:00 -15:00.  Directions/location can be found HERE

(this wasn't the post I had planned for today - that one will have to wait until tomorrow - its about a trip & plans for courses in Spain!! check back tomorrow.  Adious!)

"I'm going to throw some paint at it & see what happens"...

...was my not very scientific answer when asked what I was doing...  Sometimes its the approach you have to take - and its all part of my free-er, less planned, mistakes-are-good-for-learning curve at the moment.

So I created the above, after this photo was taken I added black drawn line around the hearts and circles, added some phrases.. but it wasn't working for me and so I cut it up - nothing wrong with that - making something better (hopefully) - I tell myself 'its mine, I can do what I want with it!' 
It might not have ended up as planned but thats not always a bad thing is it.....  (yep, it ended up as tags - & you must know by now that I do love a tag or two.. lol) (they're quick and good for reference)

At the same time I was "throwing some paint" at these I was doing the same with different types of paper I'd just bought - pads of watercolour & acrylic painting papers - good to try/play with different media & papers to get the most interesting results.. pushing your own boundaries and knowledge.

So that's my experiments of the other day - Now its your turn - Go on - go and 'throw some paint at it and see what happens!'  Its just paper and paint - not rocket science - and its FUN!!

What I did on holiday.... Part 2

So here's what else I did on holiday.. (as well as laying in the sun, reading books (4), feeding iguanas (who are fond of bananas - who knew!) and drinking cocktails)(responsibly, obviously)....  I created these with my holiday art kit (see previous post)... Tags: decorated, simply- with just sketches & colour.

Each one has a memory attached  - its part of my holday scrapbook  - I think my favourite is the skull wearing a hat - makes me smile - a nod to the Mexican 'day of the dead' and its to remind me of the day I felt like death after getting heat stroke after 3 hours looking at Mayan pyramids! 

No worries- these episodes all add to the holiday experience don't they (not that I'm recommending getting heat stroke - oh no no no.... what I would recommend when sightseeing is an umbrella to shade from the sun, lots of water, loose clothes (fully covered) and not walking around in the bloomin' mid day sun for 3 hours!! lol) It was worth it though - the Mayan pyramids at Chichen Itza - amazing structures, I wouldn't have missed visiting those - how did they build them!!! Amazing.

... and to give you an idea of their size look to the right of the pyramid - the small white rectangle with red circle at the top - thats a person with a brolly.

What I did on holiday.... Part 1

.... normally when we go on holiday I take some art 'stuff' with me (because I start to get twitchy in a 'I-can't-lay-on-this-sunlounger-for-much-longer,-I-need-to-be-doing-something' type way) and sometimes the kit doesn't get used, so this holiday I pared down what I took: 1 ink pad, set of alphabet stamps, some blank tags, neocolor watersoluble pastels, black pen, white pen, waterbrush, scissors, rubber, & a pencil.  ooh and a small light sketchbook... now that might sound like a lot but it isn't really - quite a basic kit... and more importantly - NO RULER.. nope, nothing to draw a straightline with - and I like a straight line - I like neat... but I have been embracing my messy, just-go-with-the-flow side recently- and its been very liberating.

It took 'til about day 10 of this holiday before said twitch started (thats good for me) and so I created this, inspired by Kate Crane's grid calendars. 

She uses a block of colour for each day but I wanted the grid to be coloured and the boxes to be white/pale....  for me the most important piece of this was to create a freehand grid - no ruler and not being too concerned if the boxes weren't square, level or central.... focussing on the grid rather than the blocks.

Love NeoColor water soluble pastels - vibrant colours and really easy to work with...  and oh, not only was I drawing grids without a ruler but I was sketching too!  actual sketching! 

and all this with a pencil in one hand and a cocktail* in the other! .. multi-tasking!!

* speaking of cocktails I can't recommend a 'godmother' cocktail enough - vodka & amaretto!!!!!!!!!!! How have I got to the age of 40 without having tried one of those!  A very tasty tipple.. possible too tasty.. lol

xx

Fun, Fabulous, Fabric & Whoosh!

The holiday is over, the moving boxes are unpacked (well, the ones we need), and so its back to work - which is no real hardship because I love what I do!
I have a few new things planned (more about those later in the week) - the first of which is a four week course I have planned at the Whoosh! Centre in Chelmsford called 'Fun & Fabulous Creations in Fabric'.
To give you an idea what its all about:

'Do you have a tin of buttons, a fabric collection or a box of bits 'n' bobs? Then this course is perfect for you! Get ready to design your very own handmade creation as a gift, something for your home, or a garment to be worn.

We will 'reduce, reuse and recycle' by altering existing pieces and up-cycle fabrics by using your saved bits 'n' bobs to create new items decorative and practical items. Don't worry if you don't have anything already to recycle, we'll have some exciting pieces for you to work with! Expect sewing, gluing and even some painting to inspire your creative streak! Suitable for men and women of all abilities!'

The course is about taking what you have and making something new out of it- upcycling, revamping it. 
Sounds like fun to me - I'm really looking forward to it.

First set of classes starts on Wednesday, 1 June 2011, 14:00-16:00, 4 weeks.
Second set of classes starts on Saturday, 11 June 2011, 13:30-15:30, 4 weeks.

There may still be some places left so if you're interested in coming along give them a call on 01245 256079, or go to the website: http://www.whooshcentre.com/.

Banana Frog!!

Hello!!

Yep its me! and this is a blog post - oh yes- an actual blog post with a picture and everything!! and just when you'd probably given up on me and gone to find something else on the web to look at...
Thank you for sticking with me and popping by if you've been doing that - I appreciate it - where would I be without you! (technically I'd be sitting here chatting to myself which lets face it is not really healthy, & there's only so long I can entertain myself.. &/or the cats, and they're quite easily pleased to be honest: food, tummy rub and a bit of ball throwing and they are pretty much happy!

Aaaaanyhoo enough waffling - its my day over on the pond that is Banana Frog HQ, so if you would be so kind as to form an orderly queue and hop on over to the blog to see what I made this month.

Thanks again for stopping by