Creative Artiste #99 November 2023)

  ....Welcome to a new challenge at

Creative Artiste

Creative Artiste is a monthly 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.

A big Thank You to everyone who entered the challenge last month. Your projects were all wonderful and our winners have been announced on the blog.

Our theme is always
"Anything Mixed Media Goes"
We have opportunities to be a Guest Designer for all our winners.

I have made a small ombre canvas using a fun technique I haven't done in a while.

I used my Crayola wax crayons for the background. I scribbled the colours onto the canvas and heated them up with my heat gun. I added more crayon as I went along and blended the colours with a dry cloth.

I added the stars using home made texture paste through a Dinky Stencil from That's Crafty. Before the texture paste had dried I painted the stars with DecoArt Glamour Dust to give them a subtle sheen.

I then added the birds using a Bee Crafty stamp called Winged Things with black Versafine ink. There is also a single bird stamp from an old Docrafts set that I used randomly too.

The birds are on one stamp and I cut a few of them free to use individually. I stamped those in between the stars. To be honest I'm not sure all of the birds are flying upright. Oops! But I like the overall effect.

I hand drew the banner, cut it out and coloured it with Copics to match the canvas colours. I wrote the sentiment with a black Posca pen and added it to the canvas with foam pads.

Now it's your turn to have fun and create your mixed media projects. You can enter our challenge as many times as you like. A full list of the rules is on the challenge blog. For more inspiration please visit the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog to see the fabulous mixed media projects created by our multi talented team.
Remember to have fun crafting and enter your "Anything Mixed Media Goes" creations in our 

November challenge. 

I have entered this project in the following challenges:

https://lovetocraftchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2023/11/ltccb-77-anything-goes-ltccb-76-winner.html

https://mixitupchallenge.blogspot.com/2023/11/miucb-68-anything-goes-optional.html

https://theoutlawzchallenges-saturday.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-outlawz-anything-goes-in-card-free.html

Creative Artiste #95 July 2023

 What a change in the weather this week! Not exactly a warm sunny greeting for July. I do hope it improves as we have some nice plans for this month and none of them feature umbrellas and wellies! 

 ....Welcome to a new challenge at

Creative Artiste

Creative Artiste is a monthly 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.

A big Thank You to everyone who entered the challenge last month. Your projects were all fabulous and our winners have been announced on the blog.

Our theme is always
"Anything Mixed Media Goes"
We have opportunities to be a Guest Designer for all our winners.

I am back with my favourite blues. And, again, on a hexagonal canvas. The canvas measures 10" (26.5cm) across.

I started by giving the canvas a coat of white gesso. I then used watered DecoArt Fluid Acrylics in Cobalt Teal Hue and Cobalt Turquoise Hue. I let the paint run down the sides of the canvas too.

Once dry, I added some random stamping with some old Docrafts hexagonal stamps in Memento Paris Dusk and then some texture paste through a Dutch Doobadoo hexagonal stencil.

I cut six hexagons from greyboard and gave them a coat of white gesso. I coloured them in graduated shades of blue using DecoArt Fluid Acrylic Prussian Blue, Decoart Acrylic Baby Blue and white acrylic paint. 

I used Distress Oxide Salvaged Patina to stamp each hexagon with part of Aall & Create stamp #206 and heat embossed with clear WOW! powder to set. I mounted the hexagons on the canvas using platforms of greyboard underneath them with Heavy Body Gel so they are raised up and level.

I finished the canvas with a Bee Crafty word stamp in Memento Paris Dusk on turquoise card and heat embossed it with several layers of clear WOW! powder for a glossy look.

Now it's your turn to have fun and create your mixed media projects. You can enter our challenge as many times as you like. A full list of the rules is on the challenge blog. For more inspiration please visit the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog to see the fabulous mixed media projects created by our multi talented team.

Remember to have fun crafting and enter your "Anything Mixed Media Goes" creations in our 

July challenge. 

I have entered this project in the following challenges:

Crafts Galore Encore December 2018

Well, Christmas is rushing to greet us so I'd better start getting prepared to create a magical time for a very excited little girl. But, before I do ....

.... Welcome to my December post for

Crafts Galore Encore Challenge Blog. 

Thank you to everyone who joined in with November's challenge. The winners have been announced on the challenge blog. This is a month long challenge and you can enter up to three times. There is a full list of rules on the challenge blog.

Our theme every month is the popular

"Anything Goes"

and our sponsor this month is:

Oddball Art
who are offering a $10 coupon code to spend in store.

I have made a fun 6"x 6" (15cm x 15cm) tent fold Christmas card.

The background is made with two papers from the First Edition Jolly Holidays paper pad. I cut them to create a starburst pattern.

The team were allowed to choose from three of Lizzy's digis and I chose this cute Santa Baby Christmas Unicorn. (Unicorns are very popular in our house right now due to a certain little lady). I coloured the adorable image with Copics and die-cut it into a circle.

The fun sentiment also comes with the image. I printed it out and coloured the background with inks to tie in with the papers. It's mounted on foam pads for dimension.

The sweet little string of fairy lights are from Docrafts Love Santa range.

Now please visit the  Crafts Galore Encore challenge blog where you can see the wonderful projects and cards created by our talented team. Grab some inspiration while you're there and enter your "Anything Goes" creations in the December challenge.

The Christmas tree is going up today and once it's beautifully decorated the fairies will come and hang chocolates on it. What family traditions do you have?

If I don't see you before,
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE,
however you celebrate.

Docrafts Demos Autumn 2017

With Summer officially over and the rain settled in for the foreseeable future it's the perfect opportunity to keep busy with preparing for my Docrafts Autumn demos. I hope you are all well and busy crafting too.

Docrafts gets nostalgic for Christmas this year with a kitsch collection called Love Santa. It's fun and lively with a bright colour palette that will appeal to all ages. The range features charming Babysham-style reindeer and other iconic images.

With 12 x 12" and 6 x 6" paper packs, gift tags, toppers, decoupage and 3D stickers, there’s everything you need to get started with your Christmas crafting. 

The collection also includes an A4 Ultimate pack, A5 die-cut postage stamps, colourful festive sticker sheets and 4 x 4" clear stamps featuring Christmas sentiments and images. 

Embellishments include mini tinsel and strings of mini lights, plus pom-poms and glitter pots.

There are also lots of fabulous new X-cut dies. Dies are always very popular for Christmas projects and quick cards. There is a design for every style.

Besides the beautiful new winter scene dies there are some wonderful and fun seasonal and festive mini dies.

It's not all about Christmas though. Docrafts have also brought out the wonderful Modern Lustre collection. It's an opulent looking range that is perfect for celebrations of all occasions. The foiled designs come on a white background, with a selection of geometric lines, spots, stars and stripes for a fresh, contemporary feel.  The range includes paper packs, a decoupage pack and clear stamps, with sentiments for every occasion.

I do hope you will visit your local Docrafts stockists to check out these fabulous new collections.

I shall be at The Range in Carmarthen this weekend and in the Swansea and Llanelli Range stores later this month and in October. I hope you will be able to stop by if you are in the area.

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Docrafts Demos May to June 2017

Good morning everyone. Happy Saturday. 

I have more Docrafts demonstrations coming up starting with today in Carmarthen. I shall be at The Range from 10 am until 4 pm. If you're in the area please stop by.

The new Capsule Elements collection is Metallics. It has gorgeous super shiny papers, tags, embellishments and alphabets. Perfect for adding a touch of elegance.

There are some fabulous new Santoro products including Gorjuss stamps, papers, decoupage and dies. Also colouring books, stickers, washi tape and wooden elements.

Perfect for the summer are some lovely romantic dies and pretty Anita's decoupage. All wonderful for wedding, anniversary and birthday cards.

There are lots more new fabulous Docrafts goodies starting to arrive in the stores. Don't forget to check out your local stockist and stock up.

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.  My next demo for Docrafts is on June 10th in Cwmdu.

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Docrafts Demos January to March 2017

Hello fellow bloggers. I apologise for my absence. It has been caused largely by a nasty bout of bronchitis and a broken laptop. In between antibiotics and computer shopping I have been managing to keep up with my Docrafts demonstrations. I have some samples from the past few months to show you.

There were lots of fabulous new dies released in time for January's demos including dies to cut houses and new Cut and Emboss folders.

Personalising projects is so easy with the new mini alphabet dies and two sizes of wooden letters. The new family tree die has proved popular too.

March's new products include adorable animal images and brilliant papers in the Paws for Thought range.

There are some gorgeous new dies to make card designs easy. 

The wonderful new Capsule Elements collection features wood designed papers which are suitable for male and female cards.

My demonstrations all went well and the new collections proved very popular.

I'm pleased to report that the bronchitis, which was the culmination of  poor health since mid-December is now under control. The laptop, however remains another issue. I am now the owner of a new laptop that's full of sharp edges and lots of useless software. I'm ignoring the awful Windows 10 and only using the laptop when necessary. It's only redeeming feature so far is the touchscreen feature that I insisted on.

I shall persevere however and hope to be back to normal soon.

Docrafts Demos September 2016

Happy weekend everyone. 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.

This time round I'll be demonstrating with the Create Christmas range, the X-cut Christmas dies and some of the new X-cut mini dies. It seems a bit early for Christmas cards to me but I know many crafters like to craft all year for the biggest event of the year.

The X-cut Christmas dies combine well with glitter card for quick makes. These dies are versatile enough to make Christmas decorations too.

These new mini X-cut dies are fabulous and perfect for Christmas cards. They are so inexpensive to buy and many of them come with little extras like snowflakes and stars.

The Create Christmas range has everything from chipboard words and shapes, peel-offs, stamps, stickers and 'chenille stems' (pipe cleaners). All fabulous for making any style of Christmas cards.

I have uploaded more of my samples to my Docrafts Gallery, just click on the link in the sidebar to be taken there.

These new products and more should be arriving in stores now and there are some gorgeous new Christmas 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.  

Enjoy your weekend.

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.  

Mr Smith's Workshop May 2016

Yay! It's Friday. I've had another very busy week and it's going to be a busy day tomorrow too. But at least I shall be crafting. I hope you have a nice weekend planned and get some time to craft too.

I have some more samples to show you that I have made for my Docrafts demo tomorrow. 

There are so many fabulous new products from Docrafts this month. I showed some samples from the gorgeous Gorjuss Vintage Rose collection on Wednesday along with some of the new dies and embellishments. Today I have some of my samples from the brilliant Mr. Smith's Workshop.

This collection is perfect for those difficult men's cards. And for Father's Day. The A4 Ultimate Die-cut and Paper Pack has plenty of toppers, decoupage and papers. There are also two sizes of Paper Packs which have some wonderful papers that look like textured wood, bricks and metal.

There are metal embellishments, wooden letters, 3D stickers and stamps to go with the range.

In both May's Creativity magazine and the product supplement there are some fabulous tutorials. You can make the record card (second photo), and wallet, (photo above). Both make brilliant gift cards.

Learn how to construct the metal look tool box from the Creativity magazine. It works so well as a gift box.

And if you grab a Goody Bag and the product supplement you can create a shed card like mine thanks to a tutorial by Mags Woodcock.

Don't forget to check out your local Docrafts stockist for these and more of the new collections. You can see more of my samples in my Docrafts Gallery. Simply click on the link in the sidebar.

If you are around Carmarthen then please pop into The Range where I will be from 10 am till 4 pm. I'd love to see you. If not, then have a wonderful weekend.

Gorjuss Docrafts May 2016

Sorry I've been MIA lately. It's been a busy time for me and the family. I hope you've all been keeping well and enjoying your crafting.

Today I want to show you some of what I've been busy doing these past weeks. I've been preparing for a Docrafts demo at The Range in Carmarthen on Saturday. I shall be in store from 10 am - 4 pm and if you're in the area I'd love to see you.

There are lots of exciting new Docrafts, Papermania, X-cut, Papier Patch and Anita's products released this month and three fabulous new collections. One of them features the popular Santoro Gorjuss. This new range is called The Vintage Rose Collection.

These samples were made using the Vintage Rose A4 Ultimate Die-cut & Paper Pack which comes in a fabulous triple folder. I added some of the pretty coordinating Gorjuss ribbons and some of the Gorjuss Rose Charms which are wonderful moulded roses in four different colours and sizes.

The Gorjuss Vintage Rose collection also includes four new rubber stamps. The one I've used is called Heartfelt. Each character comes with a coordinating frame and extra embellishments. There are also two new sets of Watercolour Dual-tip Pens to colour these pretty stamps with. Or you could paper piece the stamps to fully coordinate with the pretty papers and vellums.

There are also lots of new X-cut dies like the fabulous Filigree Tea Time set and the Woodland Flourishes I used on some of the Gorjuss cards.

Look out for the new Papier Patch papers, Papermania Colour In Glitter Stickers and Glitter Dot Stickers. They work fabulously with Anita's Foiled Decoupage.

Also, the new Cut and Emboss Folders will let you quickly and easily create fabulous, elegant cards. 

All these new products means lots of samples which, hopefully, means lots of inspiration for you. I hope you now go and check out your local Docrafts stockist so you can grab some of these fabulous new goodies for yourself. You can also see more of my samples by viewing my Docrafts Gallery. Simply click on the link in the sidebar.

Remember to pop into The Range in Carmarthen on Saturday if you are nearby. I'll be back in a couple of days to show you two more of the new Docrafts collections.

Docrafts Butterfly Card

I hope you've all had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend. I shall be doing a demonstration for Docrafts again this weekend, This time I shall be at The Range in Bracknell so if any of you are nearby, please pop in.

The most popular demo last weekend was the butterfly card. There is a version of it in this month's Creativity magazine with a full set of instructions.

The card base is A5 landscape to which I've added silver mirri card. The centre layer has been sprayed with Artiste Spritzing inks in blue and green and then lightly splattered with silver Artiste acrylic paint. 

I cut a strip of paper from the new Capsule Geometric Mocha collection and added lace and ribbon. 

The stamped sentiment was heat embossed in silver.

The butterflies were die-cut with X-cut dies from plain white card. I then inked them with Artiste Pigment ink in blue and heat embossed with silver powder. I repeated this a few times to build up a thick, smooth surface. I then inked around the edges with yellow Artiste Dye ink and heated again. 

Next I alternately added blue and gold embossing powders, heating in between each layer. 

The butterflies were fixed to the card with foam pads.

The fun thing about this technique is that you can vary which colours you use to get different effects. These butterflies were created with silver, gold and green inks and powders.

Don't forget to visit your local Docrafts stockist to pick up the latest fabulous collections.

Have a great weekend everyone and if you are near Bracknell on Saturday, please pop in to The Range and say hello. I shall be there from 10 am till 4 pm.

Docrafts Demos March 2016

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. If, by chance, you are anywhere near South West Wales this weekend you might like to pop into The Range in Carmarthen today (Saturday) or the brand new Range store in Swansea tomorrow (Sunday) where I will be demonstrating with the new collections from Docrafts.

There are some fabulous new ranges just released this week. The first is the charmingly rustic Country Life collection. It's full of gorgeous watercolour artwork and linen textured papers.

There are mosaic tiles, charms, die-cut sentiments, ribbons and wooden signs to compliment the designs.

A new colourway has been added to the Capsule Geometric family with the Capsule Geometric Mocha collection. The rich earth tones and gold foiled touches work wonderfully with the geometric patterned papers, ribbons, washi tape and embellishments. 

There are 12 more mini dies this month too. These little die sets are so affordable and fun. The nesting hexagons work perfectly with the Country Life and Capsule Geometric collections and the bunting, pinwheel and doily are fabulous for those homemade touches to your cards and projects.

Make sure you grab the Mini Stars and alphabets too.

All these new products means lots of samples which, hopefully, means lots of inspiration for you. I hope you now go and check out your local Docrafts stockist so you can grab some of these fabulous new goodies for yourself.

You can check on the Docrafts website to see where your nearest The Range store is and if there is a demonstration local to you. I will be at Carmarthen today and Swansea tomorrow from 10am until 4pm if you get the chance to pop in. I will also be at the Bracknell store next Saturday - 12th March.

Have an enjoyable and crafty weekend.