I'll never say 'What if'

Time, time, time, who the heck twiddled the big knob to speed it up?  I feel like I only have to blink and a weeks gone by, I have so much to do and so much I want to do, but can I do it? can I flip.  And just to add insult to injury, I'm having all sorts of technology problems at the moment which is getting me rather frustrated.  Some poor cold caller got it both barrels the other day, wrong person and wrong time but I did feel a little guilty after lol.  Mind you some of them do deserve it persistent little .........................

I have some news for you all. On the 31st March I will be on Create and Craft a 2pm with deColourant.  The first (and maybe my last, but not the products) show is going to be demonstrations on fabric.  You know that mad feeling when you're looking forward to something, but at the same time you are scared witless, well that's me now.  However, I believe in trying things when given the opportunity, I may or may not work on screen, who knows, but at least I won't get old wondering 'what if'.

Now, those that know me well know I don't even like having my photo taken, and I certainly don't crave the limelight, but when doors open you have to go through and take a chance, not scurry past like a frightened rabbit.  So deep breath and take that leap of faith!

It's Friday so it's the new challenge over at Polka Doodles.  This week the challenge is make a project with Mum in mind.  The design team have made some gorgeous creations for you all so why not take a look and get some inspiration.  Almost forgot, Nikky also Launched the new Polka Doodles CD Sugarplum Daisy, as always it's brilliant.

Did you see the Kuretake show with Nikky Hall this morning?  Fantabulous products, stunning samples made by the design team and Nikky did some fab demos.

As promised last time here are the Clarity Stamp samples.

I have some Creative Expressions samples, but I'm falling asleep so they will have to wait I'm afraid

A bit of info

Hi all, just to let you all know that I will be demonstrating for Creative Expressions at Squires Garden Centre, Badshot Lea, Farnham this Saturday.

The lovely Enfys one of my DT buddies from Polka Doodles is having a giveaway this week, so why not pop by her blog and have a go.

Did you know that Kuretake are doing monthly challenges on their blog now?   This month it's Doodle Mania and there's some fabby stash to be won so check it out here.

The magic of deColourant

Warning, long post and picture heavy.

I have something quite exciting to show you today, well I think it's exciting anyway.  More of that in a moment, first my Polka Doodles challenge card, the challenge this week was to create a male themed card.   I used the the Pretty Tough CD which allowed me to use my favourite harlequin paper.  All the images and papers are from the CD apart from the bottoms which came from The new Candy Doodles CD, which is jam packed with gorgeous images, backing papers, greetings and so much more.

 

Now onto the new product I have been playing I mean working with, deColourant sold by Mulberry Silks. It's due to be aired on Create and Craft Saturday 31st March at 2pm.  DeColourant is a discharge medium, but not just any discharge medium, oh no indeedy.  This medium can be used on both natural fabrics as well as paper/card.  It's a perfect product for quilters, mixed media artists, fabric artists, altered artists, silk painting artists, stampers, stencillers and journal artists.  

Traditionally discharge mediums have used bleach or other nasties, deColourant is non-toxic with not a whiff of bleach anywhere, in fact it has a rather pleasant citrus smell to it.  If you get some on your clothes, or you don't like what you have done then you can wash it off, as long as you haven't heated it it will wash out of fabric.  It washes off your hands with no problem what so ever and because it's not bleach it doesn't rot the material.

There is also deCourant Plus.  This is the discharge medium with pigment in, so it works the same way taking the colour out but leaves the coloured pigment visible so you get a truer more vibrant colour.  If you were to use a light coloured fabric paint onto a dark fabric you would normally have to apply a thick coat, which can then feel leathery or crack.  Sometimes you may want that texture and that's fine,  but when you use deCourant it does not sit on top of the material like most fabric paints, it penetrates into the fibres so when you wash the piece after activating with an iron ( yes iron you read that correctly, Colin got quite excited when he saw me getting the iron out until he realised it wasn't going to be used on clothes lol) all the residue comes off and you are left with the material feeling like is was produced that way, you can't feel any difference to the original hand of that material.  It comes in over 60 colours including matallics and a gorgeous pearl.  There are also sprays in some of the colours.

As an avid papercrafter I love the way it works on paper and card.  It works particularly well on inked card/paper.  I don't know about you but I have been disappointed by bleach inkpads in the past, I have found this to be much more reliable.  There are still some stubborn cards that don't want to change, but these probably wouldn't change is a nuclear bomb went off.  It works on uncoated cardstock and depending on the underlying colour of the paperpulp and the dyes used you can get some really lovely effects.  Having said that if you ink clarity card or glossy card with your dye based inks or inkpads it does work very well indeed.  It also works with card that has been sprayed with mica spritzers.  You can overstamp with your normal inks so if you like collage work it's perfect.  Enough waffle, below are pics of deColourant and deColourant plus used of paper, card, handmade paper and cotton, poly cotton, silk and denim.

 A card sprayed with Cosmic Shimmer mists, Elusive Images stamps

 Clarity cardstock brayered with big'n'juicy inkpad, Stampendous stamps.

 Card inked with distress inks and inkpads, Creative Expressions stamps.

 More distress inks, deColourant and deColourant plus with Creative Expressions stamps

 Tattered Angel misters with Stampendous stamps

 Distress inks, Stampendous stamps and stickles on the rose

 Clarity cardstock brayered. Clarity Stamps used

 Distress inks and my favourite two cat stamps ever.

 

A silk hanky. I used a stencil for the butterflies and used one of the alium clarity stamps with magenta deColourant plus

 Silk Hankie and red DC plus

 Silk Hankie. There is a very subtle stamped swirl pattern in the background using the DC. Clarity stamps and DC plus

One of Alli's masks and Stampendous stamps with DC plus

 Stencils and stamps with DC plus

 A cushion with stencils and Dc plus

 Another cushion with stencils and stamps with DC and DCplus. A big thanks to Marilyn for sewing these up for me as I was really pushed for time.

 A table runner, stamped with DC and DC plus

 Handmade paper stamped with DC and DC plus

 Distress stains stamped with DC and DC plus

 Carved wood block

 The bottom right has only been half ironed after stamping

Boing, boing, boing time for bed now. Clarity samples next time.

Just a Quickie

Hi everyone, this is a super quick post, as usual I'm playing catch up and chasing my tail round in circles lol.

Don't forget to check out the Polka Doodles Challenge blog for some fabby inspiration and a free digi.

I'm going to be demonstrating at Squires Garden Centre at Badshot Lea, Farnham this Sunday, so if you live nearby come and say hi.  Below is just one of my samples for the demo.

I used Studio 490 art parts and rubber stamps, acrylic pains, grunge paper, spellbinders, metal, cosmic shimmer pearl glue, distress inkpads and permanent inkpads.

These were my hands earlier in the week. Thank heavens for the Ranger Scrubbie!

Here is a last minute make Valentines card made for Kuretake.  You can buy their products from here, and they have a very informative blog full of inspirational creations by fabulous designers from all over the world.

Kuretake Materials

Art and Graphic Twin Tip Pens 260 and 29

Basically Bare Hearts Pack

Scroll and Brush Embossing Pen

Other Materials

A5 White Cardstock

Clear Embossing Powder

Lightweight White Cardstock

Red Crochet Thread and Needle

How to Make

1.    Fold the A5 piece of card in half lengthwise.

2.    Use the brush end of the embossing pen to make small hearts in a wavy line up the card.  Simply press the brush tip down to make an upside down teardrop shape then repeat next to the first one making sure the tips meets at the bottom, apply the embossing powder and heat set.

3.    Take the two red pens and scribble on a craft sheet, plate, or acrylic block. Add a few drops of water then place one of the calico hearts on to colour the heart. Allow to dry then lightly fray the edges a bit.

4.    Add more ink from the pens to the above mixture, add some water and roughly paint a messy line down the card following the embossed hearts.

5.    Sew the heart in place with the red crochet thread then sew three crosses in the bottom right corner.

6.    Write your message onto white card, cut the words out and fix to the heart with foam pads.

7.    Cut a piece of light weight card and fix to the inside on the card to hide the stitching.

Right I'm off to do some badly needed housework. Groan

Well here we are, yes don't faint I've managed to make some time to blog, not that I have too much to say really.  Unless you want to hear about the two nails I ripped off, big ouch.  No? OK I won't go into details.

With the condition of Lupus comes extreme fatigue.  You learn to live with it when it's at a certain point and it becomes the norm, but every so often it hits you hard and fast out of the blue.  Sometimes it's because you've caught a bug or a cold or because you are having a flare up.  It hit me a week and a half ago and I have no idea why, maybe I'm having a mild flare up but just didn't realise, who knows, it's so unpredictable it really could be anything.  It has left me very frustrated though, I really don't have to do much and I'm virtually falling asleep while trying to make a card or while I'm on the computer, so if you're a tweeter and I've suddenly just disappeared you know why. It's not me being rude, I've simply dozed off.

Original paragraph deleted for personal reasons

What ever you think of Twitter it does have a lot of good points and is different for different people.  I hear people say 'why do I want to know what someone is having for tea, or that they are walking the dog etc', well it's so much more than that.  For some it's a way of finding friends with the same interests, for others it's a useful tool for business.  I have found some very good friends, ones I will keep in touch with regardless of twitter, also I have made many work contacts and got a lot of work through twitter.  I enjoy the interaction with people, we laugh, we cry and we help each other out.  It's not for everyone, but it can be a lifeline to some that are shy or lonely.

The challenge over at Polka Doodles this week was set me and I wanted to see projects made with templates.  I used the Christmas Paper Boutique CD for my project. All the templates on the Paper Boutique CD's are really easy to cut out and make  fabulous cards with hardly any effort.  But, add a little creativity to the mix and you can use them for all sorts and get some spectacular results.

Here are a few cards from the January Clarity Stamp show on Create and Craft.  I really enjoyed using the mask stamps, you can make a really striking projects with them, and the harlequin stamp is so useful.

And here are a few Magazine project cards they are in the February edition of Making Cards, so if you want to know how to make them get down to a craft shop or WH Smith and get your self a copy.  I used cupcake holders for one set, I think they're very effective.

 

I used another of Polka Doodles Paper Boutique CDs for the one below.