Hello everyone, I'm here at last with plenty of pics for you to see.  I really don't know what happened to March, so much work and it flashed past before I knew it.  April has been a little bit calmer, but only a bit. 

This last week I've been doing some artwork with paints and inks and having a whale of a time with it.  I do love paints and inks, maybe that's why I took to Faux painting/effects.  It's a real shame I don't have more time to do it more often, I do miss it.  I would have loved to work for National Heritage/Trust restoring the old big houses, but alas I needed a degree which entailed being at Uni 5 days a week and with a morgage to pay I just couldn't do it.  If only I'd found it when I was younger.  Our careers advisers at school never gave us any information on jobs like that, all they ever banged on about was shop, office and bank work, none of which was I the slightest bit interested in.  Had I known about restoration of faux painting it may have been a different story.

I had a 50th birthday pressie to make for our friend Jez, it took me a while to decide what to do for him as it had to be something special that he could keep.  Inspiration hit when I was sat in the Dr's surgery, not quite as strange as it seems.  They have a few shelves of second hand books that they sell for charity, so that was what got me thinking.  Below is what I made, I was quite pleased with it, but flip me did it take a long time to do, even after ripping out about a quarter of the pages.  I don't think I'll be doing another one anytime soon.

 

 

 

 

I've also done a couple of projects for the Polka Doodles Studio 12 blog since my last post, both use Studio 12 stamps.  Nikky has loads of new goodies added to the shop website, it's well worth having a gander.  The first project is a wooden sign I picked up in Wilkinson's for £3, it's about 14" long so it was a real bargain.

 

A bit late now, but here are the Clarity samples from the April shows.

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for now. Have fun creating till I'm back again.

Hello everyone, a quick warning this could be a long post with lots of pics.

I'm sat here watching Hels wishing I had the time to get my melt pot out.  Its a fantastic tool that you can do so much with and it's well worth investing in one.

Nikky Over at Polkadoodles has been working her fingers to the bone producing even more lovely stuff for you.  She certainly is on fire at the moment with so many new products I would be here all night just listing them all. Hot off the press is the new Fredericka range and you can get them all on a CD, as digi downloads, an A6 printed pack of digis and an A6 coloured printed pack that you can use your dies on for some quick and easy toppers, also there is a gorgeous 8x8 paper pack to go with them all.  There really is something for everyone there whatever you crafting preferences are.  Its really worth keeping an eye on the new products section.  If you're popping over there for a little snoop, check out all the new clear stamps too, the Studio 12 and Susan Wackesser ranges are fabby and work really well together.  If you like Art Journaling, Mixed Media or Altered Art then these will be right up your street.

Keep checking the Polkadoodles and Studio 12 Blog for the weekly challenge (every Fri with fab prizes up for offer) and the studio 12 postings 3 times a week (Sun, Tues and Thurs).

Now for the Creative Expressions samples for the C&C show last week.  There are some tags missing because I only made them in the hotel the night before the show, so as yet they haven't been photographed.  Creative Expressions have brought out a little magic pot, pure genius in my humble opinion, its the Flake and Glitter Highlighting glue.  It's great for touching up designs, or using on embellishments as you can get into all the nooks and crannies with the little brush.  I wont tell you how long I have waited for something like this.  I have been gilding for quite some years now and this has to be one of the most useful things going.  The pots of gilding flakes are really big too, masses of flakes that will keep you going for ages.

 This if one of the Gilding Flakes pots that I've decorated.

 

 I love these Heartfelt Creations Stamps, really lovely big bold designs.

 

I love the Butterfly dies they are so versatile with the two layers, only one used here though.  The inked areas were dusted with the Cosmic Shimmer Mica Powders for this card, it gives it such a lovely shimmer.

 

 

 Heartfelt creations and Justright stamps here

 Painting with Mica Powders and spritzing with them above.

 

 This is one of the cameos that I gilded.  its hard to see the detail really but it does look good in the flesh.

 

I was going to add the Monkton Elm Demo samples but I really think this is enough for now, so I'll show them in the next post.