Easter Bliss

Saturday 9 July 2016

Docrafts Demos July 2016

Firstly, Thank You for all the lovely messages and comments on the sad loss of my beloved Father in Law - previous post. It really is a comfort to know that others are thinking of us.

Now, I hope you have something nice planned for the weekend. I will be demonstrating at The Range in Carmarthen today for Docrafts. I shall be in store from 10 am until 4 pm. If you are in the area please pop in, I'd love to see you.
As there were delivery delays with the new product ranges for Docrafts this month we have been asked to demonstrate techniques using different Docrafts mediums. I have had great fun getting messy and creative. Here are some of the samples I have prepared.

I used PVA and acrylic paint to create the 'faux wood' effect on this topper. The flowers are die-cut from hessian and have been coated in PVA to hold their shape.

Here I stamped butterflies onto vellum and heat embossed in white. The straight lines are double sided tape that has been heat embossed in white and gold.

This technique demonstrates resist stamping. I first stamped and heat embossed the 'Hellos' in gold then coloured the card with brown and red inks, blending until I was happy with the faux suede look.
The pennants are a paper from the Mr. Smith range and the gold dots on them were stamped using small double sided foam pads.

This rather 'arty' card was created by applying small blobs of red, pink and white acrylic paint onto a piece of acetate. I then stirred them to mix and pressed a piece of white card on top. This is what the card picked up. I stamped the sentiment after the paint had dried. The results can be very random but it's a fun technique to play with.

One of the techniques we were asked to show is 'painted marble'. I think I need more practice. The base is black card which I painted with white acrylic. I then painted the cracks in black acrylic and used a baby wipe to soften the lines in the still wet paint. I kept repeating these steps until the result resembled marble - sort of. 

This is another 'arty' card and was created with embossing powders. First I tore a piece of  paper to create the borders, then inked in between. Next I quickly applied three different colours of embossing powders, gold, red and black and heated them. I repeated the steps until I was happy with the result. The black dots were stamped with small double sided foam pads and embossed in black. I let the powder fall onto the card to give a splatter effect.
I have uploaded more technique samples to my Docrafts Gallery, just click on the link in the sidebar to be taken there.
The new products should be arriving in stores now and there are some gorgeous new collections that you really should check out.
I will be demonstrating in Carmarthen today but you can check on the Docrafts website to see if there is a demonstration local to you.  

Friday 1 July 2016

Creative Artiste #16 July 2016

The first Friday of the month means it's the start of the new challenge at Creative Artiste We are a challenge blog for everyone who likes to mix their media. So, as long as you like to use various mediums on your creations we'd love to see you enter the challenge. This is a month long challenge so you have time to create projects and enter up to three times. A full list of the rules is on the challenge blog.
A big Thank You to everyone who entered Challenge #15 in June. Your projects were fabulous and the winner has been announced  on the blog.
We are sponsored this month by
Scrapmatts and Papertole Australia
The prize is $30-35 (Aus) worth of the latest designs from the store.
Our theme this month is everyone's favourite
"Anything Goes"

The DT were generously sent some products from the store to play with. I have made a tribute to my wonderful Father in Law who very sadly passed away last month with his family around his bedside. He was my only father for the past 30 odd years and his passing has been very difficult to cope with for the whole family. This personal tribute to him helped me deal with my grief.

The base is an 8"x 8" (20cm x 20cm) canvas that I covered in crumpled tissue paper and painted with copper coloured acrylic. I cut six narrow panels from card. I painted them in shades of brown and used a Tim Holtz stencil and Black Soot DI to make them resemble a fence. I fashioned a wall using a Tim Holtz die. The green panel was created with a Scrapmatt's stencil.

I split up the Retro Squares laser cut chipboard piece and covered the pieces in Shabby Gold Frantage.

The chipboard words are from the Scrap Words set.

I used a Docraft's stamp and edged the letters in gold embossing powder.

This is the last photograph I took of one of the most wonderful and influential men in my life.
Paul Crowe  09/06/1929 - 05/06/2016

Now please visit the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog to see the wonderful projects created by my talented team mates. Remember to have fun and enter your "Anything Goes" mixed media creations in the challenge.

I've entered this project into the following challenges:
http://alteredeclectics.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/july-challenge.html
http://thatscraftychallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/masuline-challenge.html x
http://rheddscreativespirit.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/july-challenge-2016.html x
http://cceestampers.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/ccee1626-mixed-media.html
http://artisticinspirationschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/challenge-159.html x
http://ainkymess.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/challenge-1.html x

Crafts Galore Encore July 2016

Today is the 1st of July which signifies the end of a very sad month for me and my family. There will be more about that in my next post later this morning. I took a month's sabbatical from Blogland and social media but now I'm back to tell you about the new challenge on the Crafts Galore Encore Challenge Blog
Thank you to everyone who joined in with the June challenge. The winners are on the challenge blog 'winner's page'. This is a month long challenge and you can enter up to three times. A full list of rules are on the challenge blog.
Our theme this month is everyone's favourite:
"Anything Goes"
and we are sponsored this month by the wonderful
Art By Miran.


The DT were given a choice of three images to work with and this is the card I made with my choice.

I created an 8"x 8" (20cm x 20cm) card. The papers are from First Edition Mulberry Kisses and are matted onto cream cardstock. The butterflies were all fussy cut from one of the papers. The doily was cut with a Sizzix Thinlet's die and sprinkled with Shabby White Frantage.

This delightful image is called 'A Closer Look'. I coloured her with Copics and then cut her out. She is mounted on foam pads.

The ruffled trim is from Docrafts and I added the pearl string down the centre. The sentiment is a magazine freebie.

Now please visit the  Crafts Galore Encore challenge blog to see the fabulous Anything Goes projects my talented team mates have created for your inspiration.
We are also holding a DT Call this month.
 You need to have an established and active blog, be happy to be in a Facebook Group (secret!) willing to produce one piece of work a month (usually with digi images provided by our sponsors)  blog it and leave comments on entries throughout the month (not just at the end). You also get to choose a winner every other month and write a sentence or two about your choice.
If you are interested please send an email to cardsgaloreencore@yahoo.co.uk including a link to your blog and a little bit about yourself ... we are a no drama group lol!!!

I've entered this card in the following challenges:
http://classicdesignteamchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/1st-july-2016-classic-design-team-open.html x
http://artbymiranchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/challenge-61-anything-goes.html x
http://chocolatecoffeecards.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/challenge-112-girls-of-summer.html x
http://crafting-with-friends.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/challenge-24.html x
http://morgansartworld.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/challenge-13-use-patterned-paper.html x