It's Crafting Time

I just wanted to give you all a bit of a heads up about a couple of classes that I'm teaching at "It's Crafting Time" in Shepreth, Cambridgeshire in August and September. We will of course be using my Eclectica stamps and dies by PaperArtsy, Fresco Finish paint, Grunge Paste and a whole host of other things.

 The first class is on Saturday 17th August and we will be making a series of six tags, five designed by me and one designed by you with some help from me if need be!!! If you would like to book a place, simply click here for all the details.

The second class is on Sunday 1st September and we will be using Fresco Finish Crackle Glaze to decorate a wooden substrate then building a little pretty little garden using my stamps and dies. Details for booking can be found here.

There are only twelve places on each class so if you would like to join me for some painty fun, don't hesitate, pop on over to the It's Crafting Time website or give Nina a call on 01763 262417 to book your space. Hope to see you there.

Lin

What a week that was!

This last week has to be one of the most jam packed weeks ever. Some of it work and some of it play but I loved all of it. Well, actually that's not entirely true, I didn't love the fact that it was wet and freezing cold when we were at Center Parcs. It was so cold, I had to buy a coat! I did take a coat with me and I did take a waterproof thingy with me too but I couldn't wear both of them together hence the purchase of a waterproof coat!! Never mind, I now have a great dog walking coat.

 Apart from the weather, we had a lovely time just doing ordinary things....lots of bike riding, I took a yoga class, a lavender relaxation class, I played table tennis with Mark (yay, I have finally found something that I can do better at Mark.....table tennis....who knew!!!) We played crazy golf, Mark went orienteering with Ronnie and had a ride on a Segway with our son in laws Chris and Jim. We played late night scrabble and ate way too much but I loved all of it.

The day after we got home from Centre Parcs, I was heading down the motorway to The Craft Barn to do a spot of demoing at their fabulous Extravaganza weekend. The weather for the weekend was wonderful as were all the lovely people who came along to join in the fun. The staff at The Craft Barn had worked tirelessly for many weeks in order to make the event as fantastic as can be. Those guys deserve medals because I know how hard they have all worked and they certainly look after all their demonstrators very well with a constant supply of refreshments which was just wonderful.

I thought I would share some pictures of a few of the samples that I made over the weekend using all things PaperArtsy...Grunge Paste, Fresco Finish paint, My stamps and dies, a few Lynne Perrella stamps and some of the new chipboard shapes that fit my stamps.

I'm sorry that I didn't have time to take any photographs of the event itself but I stayed an extra day at The Craft Barn to teach a class and I took a few pictures then until the battery on my phone died so sadly,  I didn't get a picture of everyone's work.

Gabby and Nicola thinking about colours.

Chris and Sharon busily creating flowers and foliage.

Alison and Susan 

Work in progress.

Beautiful flowers.

Everyone worked sooooo hard!

Here is a sample of a finished project......I think this one was Kay's.....my apologies if I have that wrong!!

I got home last night and have to admit to feeling a tad weary today so I think I'm going to treat myself to an early night!.

Phew, time to relax

Me thinks it's time for a little relaxation. I am really pleased to say that all college work is done and dusted. All project samples are finished, labelled and assessed to within an inch of each of their lives. All the paperwork is finished and it's ready to hand in. It's been quite a busy month with one thing and another with not much time for artsy stuff for me but I am pleased to say that Mark and I are off tomorrow for a few days holiday with two of my children and the four grand children which will be really nice. We are only going to Centre Parcs and the young ones are very excited. Amillie who's just five said we'll meet you at the airport Nanna. Bless her, it's only a 90 minute drive to Centre Parcs!!!

Anyways, as I am not going to be around next week, I just wanted to remind you that I will be demonstrating at The Craft Barn's fabulous Extravaganza next weekend. If you have not been to one of The Craft Barn's events before, I can honestly say that it is worth the trip even if you do not live close by. There are some ladies who even fly in from other countries every year because it is so good. The event is both Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd June, all the details can be found here but I can tell you that there are some of the best demonstrators in the UK all gathering together to show you all their latest tricks and techniques and the best part about it is that it's all for free!!!!

I will be working with my PaperArtsy hand-carved flower stamps, dies, Fresco Finish paint (there will of course be other PaperArtsy stamps that I'll be using too) along with some of these little beauties shown below. They are chipboard shapes which match some of my stamps but Leandra and I thought it would be great fun to use them in conjunction with other PaperArtsy stamps too. As you can see from the index sheets, the possibilities are endless. I will be mixing these little treasures with my flowers to create some really interesting and fun projects, so why not pop along to the event to see all the lovely new goodies that The Craft Barn have in stock for you. I personally am very excited to see Jo Firth-Young's new stamps, she has added three new A5 plates of stamps to the JOFY range along with six new minis and she has hand drawn some of the cutest birds and birdhouses I ever seen.....you'll just love them.





After the two day event, I am staying on an extra day to teach a class, this is the first class that I've ever taught at the Craft Barn so I'm very excited about that too. I know that the class spaces sold out very quickly but here's a little peek of the class project.

Looking forward to seeing many of you next weekend.......have a fun and creative week.

Lin

Time flies

Well, I was shocked to see that it has been two weeks since I lasted posted here on my blog...time sure does fly by. I've been really busy trying to finish all my City & Guilds projects and at last, I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

It's been a stressful and emotional few weeks too. My of my childre, the girls, are very close in age and they share a circle of friends who are all of the age of starting their own families. It's been a very sad time as one of the couples from their very close knit group sadly lost their baby son, a victim of cot death. Such a beautiful little boy and his funeral was the day after another friend gave birth to a gorgeous baby girl, so I'm sure you can imagine what my girls have been feeling.

We also had a bit of a scare with our little doggie Meg. We took her for what should have been a routine operation but as you all well know, things don't always go according to plan. It turns out that our little furry friend probably has a problem with her blood not clotting properly and after a second emergency op, blood transfusions and all sorts of other stuff, I am happy to say that she is now doing really well but that was not a happy few days I can tell you.

On the creative front, this is what has been taking up most of my time recently. This is the final project for my C&G course. It's a project that is a bit of a collage of many of the techniques that we experimented with over that last 16 weeks.

The leaves on the tree are all paisley shapes so it is in-keeping with my Indian theme,

 

Each of the leaves is cut from a sample of fabric that was a test piece for many of the techniques we covered in the course.

 

 

I carved a few new stamps specially for this project which worked really well. Can't wait to find the time to carve a few more, it's really very relaxing and a lot of fun.

 

 

 

I really like this part. There are layers of organza over the top of some hand dyed fabric. The fabric was dyed in a jam jar with layers of different colour dyes. It's called parfait dying and I still can't get my head around how it works but the results are amazing....all marbled and blended....right up my street!

 

 

 

And last but by no means least, my Taj Mahal. It has actually got Grunge Paste on it!! 

 

 

 

I did a bit of an experiment a few weeks ago with Grunge Paste on some calico that I had coloured with Walnut Ink and I liked it so much, I was determined to use it in this project somehow! The original sample below is a lot darker than my final piece but I love it, very grungy, very me.

 

 

Having spent the morning tidying up my studio and getting all my class kits and equipment ready for my Secret Garden classes this weekend, I decided that I had a couple of hours that I could actually use to make something for me. I don't do as much blog hopping as I used to and it's not often that I see something on a blog that makes me think " I have to make one of those" but when I watched this video by France Papillon over on the PaperArtsy blog, I thought just that! It's a simple but genius idea and I love it. If you haven't seen this yet click here to go and take a little look, I'm sure you will want to make one too.

 

 

 

France used quite neutral colours in the videa nad they looked stunning but I decided to use Vintage Lace, Chocolate Pudding and Blood Orange Frescos on my cotton reel with stamps from ID10

In the video, France said it took about 45 minutes to make, that was a really good estimate so you don't need much time, why don't you make one too and enter the challenge on the PaperArtsy blog, you never know, you could be the winner of some PaperArtsy goodies.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

It gives me great pleasure to share this little project with you today as I was honoured to be invited by the lovely people over at Country View Crafts to be their Guest Designer this month on their challenge blog. I put it together a little project using all things PaperArtsy including my own stamp designs (ELB01), one of my dies, Grunge Paste and my all time favourite paints, Fresco Finish.

Start with one of PaperArtsy's 6x4 box canvas frames and using a palette knife or old credit card, scrape a layer of Grunge Paste through your chosen stencil. When dry, I painted the canvas with Mermaid Fresco Finish, blending in a little bit of Bora Bora, Sage and Guacamole.

 

Grab a small piece of sequin waste and use this as a stencil and sponge a small amount of Inky Pool through the sequin waste using a piece of Cut'n'Dry foam. I also used this colour to highlight the Grunge Paste which I did with a dry brushing technique.

 

 

I like to blend the paints on the rubber of the stamps so that I can print a variegated look to the image so starting with Sage, sponge a layer over the the trio of leaves stamp, followed by a small amount of Tinned Peas then a little bit of Green Olives around the edges of the leaves. If you feel that the paint doesn't look blended, go back to the first colour and gently soften and merge the colours with a tapping motion.When you print this, you will be amazed at the effect.

 

Printing these on the canvas can be a little tricky as the middle of the canvas is not supported but as long as you are prepared for this and have one of your hands inside the back of the canvas, it is not a problem.

 

Use a small script stamp and black Archival ink to print little sections of text randomly over the canvas. Use the stamp without an acrylic block, this way, you can bend the stamp and print tiny little bits. At this point I decided that the brickwork needed to be brown instead of blue so I brushed on a bit of Mud Splat to tone it down.......much better!

 

 

Now for the leaves and flowers which are the focal point of this project. I used the same layering technique on my stamps to print the leaves and stem of the flower. I have found that printing on black cardstock gives an amazing effect. Trim them out leaving a narrow border of black card and they will pop out from the background really well.

 

Instructions for die cutting and stamping the bloom. You will notice that there is a tiny notch in the die. Once you have die cut the shape, use a pencil to mark the back of the die with an arrow before removing the card from the die. This shape is not symmetrical so it is important to know how to line up the image with the die.

 

 

The petal that I am pointing to is the petal that lines up with the notch.

 

 

I have marked the back of my stamp with an arrow which indicated the direction that the stamp appears on the index sheet and an "X" indicates the petal that lines up with the notch.

 

 

Die cut three blooms and then print using the layering of paint technique, stamp the blossom image on all three die cut shapes. The colours I used were Haystack, Pumpkin Soup, Smoked Paprika and Blood Orange. Two of these will be used for the main flower and one for a smaller, cropped flower as shown in the photograph below. I simply cut the middle out of the bloom with scissors to create a smaller flower or you could use a circle die or punch if you don't trust your scissor skills!!!!

 

 

The spiky flower has been cut from the round flower located at the bottom of the plate of stamps.

 

 

Now to get everything ready to assemble. I like to stamp a little bit of script on some of the leaves and flowers for a bit of added interest. I also like to snip between the petals of the bloom so that they can be curled which will give the flower more movement. A few stick on pearls in the centre of some of the flowers is also a nice touch. Then it is a case if sticking it all together. My advice would be to use foam 3D pads wherever possible, this adds more dimension to the project.

 

 

I hope you have all enjoyed this little tutorial and that it has inspired you to have a go yourself. All products can be found here on the Country View Crafts website.

The Beauty of a Garden

I am delighted to announce that I have been invited by the lovely blogger team at PaperArtsy to be a guest designer for a day. Hop on over to the PaperArtsy blog for all the details. In the meantime, here's a sneaky peek for you.

Fabulous Weekend

This weekend has been pencilled in the diaries of many a crafting addict as it was the weekend of The Big Stamping and Scrapbooking show. Ally Pally was awash with hundreds of lovely, lovely people all looking for those must have products that you simply can't live without....you all know exactly what I mean, don't you?

I have been demonstrating at this show for many, many years, most of those on my own L.B.Crafts stand but since my .....ahem.....retirement, I have helped Mark and Leandra on the PaperArtsy stand. The show in recent years seemed different and less busy, the excitement, the buzz, the atmosphere had dwindled and after all the excitement building up to the show, I had felt a little deflated and disappointed afterwards and this was such a shame as it's the biggest show of the year. Well, let me tell you......it's back!!! Oh my giddy aunts!!! The place was packed.......excited people by the bus load.........the placing was buzzing and Leandra (who had no voice , bless her) and I demoed our backsides off all day, right up until the show closed. Well, actually that's not entirely true as we managed to get a break for half an hour as the lovely Darcy and Michelle took over for a spot of guest demoing and what a sterling job they did too.

It was sooooo busy, Fresco Paint, Grunge Paste, stamps, stencils, Treasure Gold, all flew off the stand at the speed of light and people were four deep around our demo desks at some points during the show as well as people behind us.......just like it used to be!!!!! Anyways, I didn't take any photos of things I made but I did promise to post a step by step thingy here of my latest way of creating a background, so here goes........

Working on a piece of PaperArtsy greyboard, I have applied some Grunge Paste with a palette knife through two new stencils, Mini Cornflower and Mini Vine. Notice the colours of paint that I have selected, I have Squid Ink and Stone, two of the new colours which are both opaque. These will be my first layer of paint as I want really good coverage so that the Grunge Paste actually looks part of the board.

The other paints are Hey Pesto (my all time favourite colour) and Blood Orange. These are both translucent paints as I want to be able to see through these later layers of paint to all the layers underneath them.

This is a little idea I cooked up to make it easy for you to create a nice, balanced background. Many people struggle with this and end up with a muddy mess so if you follow a few simple rules, there will be no more mud for you!!!

Start with the Squid ink and Stone, painting a square of each colour in opposite corners.

Using a nice wide brush,  drag some of the Squid Ink over the Stone and some of the Stone paint over the Squid Ink. If your paint has already dried, use a little more paint.This softens the blocks of colour.

Now this is very important!!!! You have to get into the habit of drying everything between the layers of paint, if you don't do this you will get mud. Once you are happy that everything is dry, you can move on to the next step which is creating a resist layer. Any of the pale color opaque paints will work but I really like using white so I always reach for Snow Flake. Using a small piece of Cut'n'Dry foam, sponge some paint through your chosen stencils on to the darker areas of your background. It is important to have a small amount of paint on your sponge so take out the excess on your craft sheet before applying to your work.

Don't forget to dry it all!!!

At this point, you need to grab yourself a clean baby wipe, this is quite a crucial piece of equipment!!!

I started my next layer with Blood Orange and painted it over the Squid Ink areas, then using my baby wipe, I dragged the colour down over the board, fading the colour away. You will notice how amazing it is to see the Snow Flake paint showing through. It does take on a hint of the colour that you have painted over it but you can still see it.

Now dry this layer!!! One of the things I love about paint is that if you have remembered to dry the layer of paint below and you are not happy with the colour of the next layer, you can generally wipe it away if it has not already started to dry.

Next up, Hey Pesto. Repeat the painting and baby wipe technique with this second translucent colour.

Then give it a good dry with your heat gun.

I think you'll agree that this is all pretty simple and achievable but it just needs a bit of stamping

 and a bit of pizazz.

When I was at Ally Pally, I was showing everyone how to add a bit of bling with a few foil accents. Sadly I couldn't add this stage to this piece for you as I left my WOW Bonding Powder and foil in the demo desk at Ally Pally but basically you use the Bonding Powder in the same way as regular embossing powder and when you heat it, it becomes sticky and you can simply press the foil on the sticky areas. I'll show you properly when I get my kit back! In the meantime, we will move on to the magic powers of Treasure Gold.

Oh my, how I love this stuff, it really is magic in a jar. It can liven up the dullest of dull projects in an instant!

Here I have, Aquamarine, Spanish Topaz, Onyxite, Green Amber and Rennaisance.

It's not that easy to do justice to this product in a photograph but I do hope you can see just how amazing it looks when just a small amount is brushed over the raised up areas on the Grunge Paste. I usually start with the darker colours and layer them up towards the lighter colours. When you are happy with the effect, just give it a little polish with a soft cloth and it really brings up the shine......simply beautiful!

I do also like to dry brush a smidge of it around the edges of my work too.

This is something that you can all achieve, just remeber a few simple things:

Start with opaque colours.

Use an opaque colour as a reist.

Use translucent colours for the upper layers and blend with a baby wipe.

Dry between layers.

OK, that's me for tonight, I'm off in search of some chocolate.

EDIT

Just a quick note from me to answer a couple of questions.

1. I used the Blood Orange straight from the bottle, it doesn't need watering down as it is already translucent. The wet baby wipe does the work for you but it does need to be a wet baby wipe.

2. The stamps I used are indeed PaperArtsy, the splatter is Mini 72 and the script is from ID09.

Lin