Wednesday 25 January 2017

Valentine's Day

 It only seems like last week we were having Christmas & now it's almost time for Valentine's Day, the next big one on the crafty calendar! I just indulged myself with this new Tim Holtz die set from Sizzix so perfect for Valentines day. I've used one of Stix2 great quality card blanks (white  6 x 6) & red, black & Kraft from their tinted card range. The new 2in1 glue pen was so useful with it's fine nib for applying glue to the intricate die cuts. If you look closely you can see that I've foiled parts of the design & sentiment using Stix2 transfer foils & the glue pen is  handy for this too. Just apply to the parts you want to foil, leave to to go tacky & then apply the transfer foils. I've used Stix2 clear foam pads with black transfer foil at the corners of the design & they make a great embellishment.  





Friday 20 January 2017

Faux Leather

 Now I know I'm about a million years behind everyone else in the craft world in trying this but I've had everything ready to do it for ages.... just time which has been lacking! I'm talking about the gorgeous faux leather technique which has been around for a while I know but I stumbled across a tutorial by Sheena Douglas a while back & was all fired up to have a go. Here's the link if you want to have a go. 
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sheena+douglass+faux+leather


I made 2 pieces to start off with, a brown piece ( Tea Dye, Vintage Photo & Walnut Stain Distress Inks) & a red piece ( Barn Door, Fired Brick & Walnut Stain). They have both been embossed with folders & sprayed at the end with Crafters Companion spray shine. I've made a holder for my masks with the brown piece but haven't done anything with the red yet- I expect I shall take it out of the drawer from time to time & stroke it for now anyway ! Don't tell me you don't do that too!! Bye for now!  






Tuesday 10 January 2017

Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright...


 I been meaning to "do" this frame for ages & as I've been on a upcycling roll lately I finally got to it. Now the frame itself, a plain brown card one, has been languishing in a drawer for a while.The beautiful 3D tiger picture was given to me by Mr Frosty for my birthday last year, (he knows how I love tigers!). It's the front of a notebook but it seemed such a shame not to do something more with it hence the frame.

I used a selection of Stix2 products in the transformation of the frame so here's what I did.


Here are the Stix2 products I used.


Firstly I scrunched up some Stix2 tissue paper & stuck it to the frame using Stix2 PVA glue to give texture. I then left this over night to dry.

 Next I gave it a coat of black gesso & left this to dry.


I used the new Stix2 2in1 Glue pen on the texture created by the tissue paper. I applied the glue & then left it to go really tacky (about 1/2 hour) . At this stage it's great to use with Stix2  Transfer Foils in gold, copper & green.


The foliage for the jungle look came from  Sizzix Tim Holtz "Wildflowers" Thinlets die set. I took a piece of plain black card & randomly applied Creative Expressions Metallic Gilding Polish in Citrus Green & Mediterranean Blue & then cut with the dies. The Stix2 glue pen was really great for sticking the flowers in place as it has such a lovely fine nib. 
I mounted the tiger onto Stix2 tinted card in black  & the whole thing was assembled using Stix2 polyester ultra sticky tape.

Saturday 7 January 2017

And here's what I should have done......!

Hi again everyone.Firstly may I apologise to everyone who came to Liberty Craft Exmouth on Thursday (5th) to see my first demo of the year & found me conspicuous by my absence! I had a situation with my mother which culminated in her being whisked off to hospital unfortunately. She's OK & will probably be home again in a few days. So sorry there wasn't time to put an email out but here are the designs which I had in store for you using the very versatile stamp set from Creative Stamping 37.



I masked the bird  & then built up the scene around it. Stamped on water colour card & coloured with pencils. All the sentiments come from the set too. 

Embossed with white powder onto cream vellum & then coloured on the back with markers. 


Here I've stamped with the solid flower & leaf stamp using Versamagic & then stamped the detail with the outline stamp in black Versafine.

Here's the issue which includes this great stamp set free so get along to Liberty Craft to snap up your copy. Hope to see you next week at Liberty Craft, normal service should be restored. I'll be using some of the new Hobby Art designs which Sarah has in stock. 
Bye for now!

Wednesday 4 January 2017

JANUARY WORKSHOP NEWS

Stencil Techniques for Everyone
January’sWorkshop with Jan & Debs
Saturday 21st January 9.30- 4.30 at
Liberty Craft Exmouth £35
(To include a crafty bundle to the value of £12 including
Dreamweaver stencil LL3020 Sitting Cat)
Please note that the contents of the bundle is
 subject to change owing to the closure of Woodware 
& uncertainty of stock availability.   
DEB’S WORKSHOP- 9.30- 12.30 Sunny Cat
HEAT EMBOSSING ON GLASS We shall create a stylish, fun sun catcher using alcohol inks & heat embossing in conjunction with your stencil onto glass!!
DRY EMBOSSING WITH VELLUM We shall also use the included stencil in conjunction with vellum & dry embossing techniques to create a cute card with a very different look.
Please bring small ball tools for this workshop.
JAN’S WORKSHOP- 1.30 – 4.30Stenciling techniques…with cats
Jan will be using our very stylish cat stencil to create projects using varied stencilling techniques. 
DOUBLE GLITTER TECHNIQUE - Jan will mainly be using glitter and DSA sheet a great technique to achieve a neat, bright, glitzy finish, yet very easy to do.
TEMPLATE TECHNIQUE with papers and pens! bring a fine Pigma pen if you have one (I have a few to loan) and this with inspire you once again to use your stencils in a different way…we can personalise these too.
BOOKING
 Please book with Sarah at Liberty Craft and pay a deposit as the class may be cancelled if we do not have 6 people booked and paid for by Jan 16th.
Tel:- 01395 273238


Monday 2 January 2017

The Mirror Revamped

Hi everyone & Happy New Year! Hope you all had a good festive season & that one of the many lurgies going around didn't get you. Thought it time to get a blog post out there & I've been having fun with a bit of upcycling, ideas for which I've had buzzing around my mind for a while now. The original project was a Woodware blog theme in 2012 (can't believe that!) & was a post when the Frantage range from Stampendous was first becoming popular in this country. I remember I was very proud to be asked to take the mirror to the forth coming "Stitches" trade show at the NEC Birmingham in February to go on display on the Woodware stand  where Fran Seiford herself would be demoing & holding Make & Takes. Happy days! The one which has been recycled after spending many a year on my lounge wall was in fact mark 2 as I had to make another to go on display in Japonica as the original never did return to me which was fine! 

I decided that it was beginning to look it's age & a bit tired so I ruthlessly stripped all the original features from it & gave it a coat of white gesso.


Now sorry about the weird camera angle but it's very difficult to photo a mirror with out getting all kinds of things which you don't want into shot i.e me!! 
So, after the gesso was dry, (by the way I had to do 2 coats & I kept the original "Frantage" to give some texture) I gave the whole thing a coat of Creative Expressions Metallic Gilding polish in Powder Blue. I wasn't too fussy how i applied it as i was going for the "shabby chic" look for this. Next I added the strip of hessian ribbon with lace on the top & then some burlap flowers. The bling you see in the  right had corners are from Frantage  "Champagne" crushed glass glitter. The other bits are from a Tim Holtz mixed media die (the honeycomb), some tiny shells bought for a workshop on my hols to Mallorca last year, the starfish is from an old necklace teamed with some skeleton leaves & the bees & ants come from a Leonie Em punch from Woodware. To finish off I just added some silver gilding wax in places with my finger to give it a bit more of a grungy aged look. 

With the closure of Woodware & having been a DT member right from the get go I hope to carry on giving you my weekly offerings however random they may be so I hope that you will still visit my blog & a comment or two would be great then I 'll know i'm not talking to myself! It happens quite a lot these days! 

I'll be back at my regular Thursday morning demo slot at Liberty Craft Exmouth  from this week (5th) & there will be news of our first workshop day on Saturday  21st January  available soon. The theme for this month will be "Stencilling for Everyone" so watch this space!

Here's how the mirror looked originally & my post which went with it. Bye for now! 


Shabby White embossing powder
FRG10C Shaved Ice
FRM05 Bronzed Mica flakes
FRM04 Tea Stained Mica flakes
FRG01C Silver Glass glitter
FRG02C Champagne Glass glitter
Artquest Mica colour palettes Stargazer & Interference
Stampendous clear stamps SSC196 Silhouette Songbirds
2" Woodware Maple punch
1" Woodware Oak Leaf punch
Versafine Onyx Black
Metal Quilting sheet in gold & copper
Craft wire
Craft glue

I've had such a good time creating my project this week & using some of the great products from the Stampendous "Frantage" range. This includes gorgeous embossing powders, Mica flakes & chunky glitters & as you can see I've really gone to town with them. I wanted to do something different this week so I've chosen to use a MDF mirror to decorate. I started by removing the mirror itself & giving the frame a thin coating of gold & bronze from the Artquest palettes. I then took some pieces of rust & brown card & randomly sploged them (that's a technical term!!) with golds, bronze & black also from the palettes. When the frame was thoroughly dry (I left it over night) I randomly stamped the songbirds & florishes using the Stampendous set. Next I punched some maple leaves from the brown & rust pieces & scored veins in them using a DEET (double ended etching tool). Then came the fun part! I applied craft glue to various parts of each leaf & added Mica flakes & glitter. I then created the swathe of texture, glitter & mica flakes in the bottom right hand corner of the mirror by simply applying a layer of Shabby White embossing powder & adding all the other textures randomly to it. I then heated the whole area from underneath until the embossing powder melted to hold the other elements in place. Finally the leaves were arranged down the left hand side of the mirror & you will notice that I have added some coiled craft wire which I have dipped in craft glue & frosted with glitter. The only thing left to do then was to re-asemble the mirror & I'm pretty pleased with the effect!!