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.

Good morning everyone.  This is a quick post with a card I made for the Polka Doodles Studio 12 blog.  I've been naughty and sneaked in a sample made with the new Studio 12 stamps. I'm hoping she doesn't notice, but I really could not resist showing you all something made with just a few stamps from the fantastic new range Studio 12 stamps range and also the Stamp Slab.  Nikky has some lush goodies in at the moment, just one is the new CD of Emma Cannings digi stamps 'Digistamp Heaven', fabulous value for money.  Think I'd better stop before I get carried away, if you want to see all the new items just click here.

A reminder that I'll be at Monkton Elm Garden Centre Taunton this Saturday 10 till 4, and I'll be on Create and Craft TV on Monday (25th) 9am and 4pm for creative Expressions.

Oh dear has it really been a month. Where does the time go? I cant even remember everything that has happened its turned into a blur. Hmm what has happened? Stitches, yes that was one thing. I went on the Sunday and had a good look round and saw some lovely new stuff which is already filtering its way into the shops. Prima has some gorgeous new goodies, Sunrise Sunset by Finnibair really took my eye, it looks so textural and its perfect for so many projects.  The Junkyard findings and Shabby Chic treasures by Ingvild Bolme are to die for.

The lovely Nikky Hall was there with all the Polka Doodles and Studio 12 ranges, and she had oodles of new stamps. The new Studio 12 ones are so scrummy, for altered Art and art journaling they are perfect.  Nikky collaborated with the uber talented Susan Pyrcz Weckesser from Canada for these and boy they don't disappoint.  I really loved using them on the samples which I will show you in the coming weeks (who am I kidding the rate I'm going it will be months!!!).  There are lots of new digi stamps and digi kits on the website so go check it out .  Nikky has some great things planned for this year so keep an eye out on her websites for news.

I had a wonderful time and caught up with lots of crafty friends that I haven't seen for a while. Its very frustrating though to see so much crafty stash and not be able to buy it and bring it home to play with.

I will be at Monkton Elm Garden Centre, Taunton on Sat 23rd of March so if you live in the area why not pop along and say hi. Then 2 days later on the 25th I'll be on Create and Craft for Creative Expressions, I'm not sure of the times yet but I will add them to the side bar as soon as I know.

Below are the Clarity Stamp C&C show samples.  Barbara has secured the UK distribution of the Gelli plate which are due in the country any day now.  I've had one for a little while and I love it, hours of fun to be had.

I coloured this one in with Cosmic Shimmer drawing inks.  They are so easy to use and have a really fine brush so you can get right into those detailed designs

 I stamped onto coloured metal here then used tools to form the metal then sanded the top.

I used some Spellbinder and Tim Holtz dies here and I coloured in with Copics. I covered the figure with clear embossing powder and heat set.

I used pretty much all the stamps on the tiles. You can get some interesting designs when you do this. I like the zigzag tile which is just the top of one of the broken eggs repeated in line. I used Kuretake Zig Art and Graphic pens to colour it in.

 Paper piecing here with a little bit of water colouring on the border

 A Gelli Plate background here and I shaped and decoupaged the leaves on the egg.

Stamping into Cosmic Shimmer UTEE

Stamping onto patterned paper and the decoupaged

 Gelli Plate backgrounds again, Copics for the images.

 Gelli Plate for the background.

 Simple stamping and masking with dye based inks

Painting with Glitters.

Well that's it, I'm off for a lie down now

Here we are again, and not too long after my last post considering. I'm jumping up and down shouting 'its a miracle' lol.  Actually it is, cos I'd rather be curled up with the dog in front of the telly with a nose bag to catch the drips.  I don't think its a cold (I hope not anyway), just infection spread from my abscess into my sinuses, but I'm on good old penicillin so I'm not fretting about it.

Did you see the Polkadoodles shows on Saturday? Yay some stamps at last, it's been a while since we had some new ones, and these are real cuties.  It's just occurred to me that these were rabbits too, do we have a theme running here?  You can order them from Polkadoodles or Create and Craft.

I'd just like to make a little point that has reared it's ugly head again. Copied crafting CD Roms.  If you get offered them please don't buy them, even if you really want it and can't afford the real thing.  This is theft pure and simple and its taking away valuable income from all the smaller designers such as Cupcake Crafting, Polkadoodles, Robert Adams, Sharon Duncan etc.  These smaller companies cannot afford to lose this income.  Things are tough enough at the moment without making them worse for people who spend hours of blood, sweat and tears designing them.  It really can make the difference of them staying in business or going under.  So please please don't buy them.  The sorry excuses for human beings that sell these copies deserve to be shopped.  Theft is theft and there is no excuse for it, we are all hard up but we don't all go round breaking the law just because it's easy.

This week I had a play with a crafty prototype. It was supposed to be a quick play, but it lasted all day nearly. I had a blast, unfortunately I cant tell you what it is cos I'm quite fond of living, but if you like messy crafting you'll love it.

Anyway, onto the Clarity Samples from today's show. Its always such a shame from our point of views that all the samples don't get shown when they sell out quickly, however it is very good for Barbara which is the main point of doing them.  The bunny rabbits didn't hang about long did they, they hopped right off rather quickly, but then they were rather sweet and my fave sample this time was made with them.

I stamped on fabric with deColourant for this one, then used it to cover a notebook.  Bookbinding glue is essential for this

 

Aww, the wee bunnies, the one above is so simple but so effective. Mind you I nearly lost the top of a finger cutting out the whiskers, a very near miss indeedy.  The one below is a Joanna Sheen backing paper, it seemed the perfect thing to put the bunnies on

A couple of ATC's.  I don't make them very often, maybe I should make more of them, they are so much quicker than the other samples.