lasts longer than flowers...maybe...

Hi everyone, 

Mothers Day. 

Wine, chocolates, flowers. Never last long do they. Well, they don't in our house anyway. 

So, to celebrate Mothers Day this year we would like to give you a present too!

Now you can settle down with your wine and chocolates, and indulge in a little retail therapy.

Wishing you a fabulous weekend! 

Vicki 

Project Life week 10

I'm sharing my week 10 page with you today because I've used Simple Stories Daily Grind to make it. As soon as I saw this collection pack I knew I'd love it and I wasn't disappointed. It's jam packed full of colourful 12 x 12 papers, two sheets of journaling cards, a sticker sheet and just about everything you'll need for your project life.

The pack has a bonus pack of 6 transparency sheets of 4 x 6 which are so cute. I couldn't believe my luck when this one went perfectly over a postcard I was keeping to slip into my pocket.

Hope I've inspired you.

Jaine x

Moleskine pages

Hello!
Today I have for you art journal pages in my Moleskine!
Still experimenting...

I used:
- Moleskine 
-  Dylusions Ink Spray Fresh Lime
- Tim Holtz Distress Paint Picked Raspberry
- Claudine Hellmuth Studio Black Gesso
- Glitz Design Raven

- Stampotique Originals stamps

Magda x

Inky Acetate!

Hello!
A lot less messy from me today.... (that doesn't include my hands though, alcohol ink gets EVERYWHERE!)

The bright and colourful strip across my panel is acetate.... put through an embossing folder to get the dots, then coloured with alcohol inks..

Nice technique, and messy enough that those messy crafters amongst us don't get withdrawal symptoms, despite the white space on the project!
The heart (Stampotique) was stamped onto card that I had previously stamped with a very old text stamp from my stash. This was done twice, then I could layer them up to give a little more depth to the piece.
Checkerboard and chevron stamps from my new favourite 7 Dots set, and a rub on from Tim...

*I am deliberately not mentioning the little gluey smudges here and there, have you noticed?!!*
I just CANNOT do clean and simple. At All........ Designing things, yep, keeping things 'clean'? not a chance!!!!
See you soon,
Trish xxx

Texture crackle

For ages now I've been bugging Vicki to get in some crackle paste and I was overjoyed when she sent me a tub of Golden Crackle Paste. I could not wait to try it out and here is my first project using it. As a lover of texture paste, this didn't let me down at all.

It was surprisingly light and this piece of card I think is only about 200gsm so not heavy mixed media grade at all. I slapped it on and for my first background I wasn't sure how thick I should go with it before it cracked. 

As you can see I was a bit mean in places and didn't spread it thick enough to get even cracking but in the places where I did spread it thicker it worked like a dream.

I left it to dry over night to be sure it would dry thoroughly before I went on to the next stage and when I came back to it the next day I was very surprised to find that even though it felt hard and brittle, it didn't flake off my card even when I bent and flexed it.

I coloured it with Ranger Distress Stain in Picked Raspberry and it wasn't until this point that the cracks really stood out.

I wanted to add an image so I stamped this Prima Bloom Girl stamp onto some tissue and glued it on. In order to add some colour I painted in some of the image with some watered down gesso.

I coloured her in with some Faber Castell Brush Pens and added a script stamp and a few Prima Pebbles to finish off.

Next time I'll layer it a bit thicker to get a better effect and I'll show you here what it looks like.

Have fun

Jaine x

Magic box

Hello!

Today I have for you a very easy and quick box in 5steps.

1st layer - Tim Holtz Distress Paint Picked Raspberry

2nd layer - tissue paper

3rd layer - Dylusions Ink Spray Fresh Lime

4th layer - Claudine Hellmuth Studio Black Gesso

5th layer - Liquitex Glazing Medium ( only on a lid - you can see the difference )

I also add Stampotique Originals stamps and printed quote.

Magda x

guess, like and you could win..

hello everyone!

We have yet more new products due in in April, but if you pop to our facebook page you could win a set of papers from one of those new collections. 

All you need to do is like it, leave a comment with your guess as to which collection it is and share.  

Remember this is a Facebook Giveaway. Comment here if you want to but

the important place to comment is on our Facebook page.

One winner will be selected on 31 March and the papers will be shipped as soon as they arrive with us. 

UK only for this one. 

A Sprinkle Of Colour...

Hello everyone! 

Another month gone already. 

I can't believe it's time to announce the February challenge winner and launch March's challenge.  

So, here we go. February's winner is .... 

Lisa Mason

Congratulations Lisa. 

Hopefully spring has started to raise it's head where ever you are in the world, and with that we have a lovely springtime palette for the March challenge.  

Here's a peek at the image... 

Pop across to the challenge page to get all the details. 

Colouring practice!!

Hello!
I've been playing with other colouring mediums apart from paint.... bit out of my comfort zone, but experimenting is good, right? (actually not sure on this occasion, but don't tell anyone!)

I painted the background with purple, blue and turquoise paint, then added some large stencilled circles using white paint. Once the white as totally dry, I went in with the Inktense pencils. I used poppy red, and then black to outline..

I *think* I like it......
I liked it better once I'd added some stamping and some melted UTEE!!!

The stamps all came from one set, love it!!! It's the 7 Dots Illumination set, lots of fab texture on there.
The text is a 7 Dots sticker....

Stampotique image as usual...

She is standing on Glitz washi tape, I'm a sucker for white spots on red!!!
Results of my experiment? Play more with pencils....
Trish xxx

It's the simple things.

I'll admit to being a pretty simple gal on the whole and it's the little things in life which give me the most pleasure. When I first saw Dyan Reaveley using this ink spray pad at winter CHA I thought it such a cool idea and couldn't wait to get my hands on one.  If you haven't seen it before it's basically an ink pad without ink! The idea is you use it to spray your inks directly onto the pad thus creating an ink pad with your own custom colours. It's washable too so you don't need to buy one for every spray colour you own.  It's not a small thing either and at a whopping 15.5 x 10.5 for the pad it'll ink up those massive background stamps easily.

 I thought I'd keep my project simple too just to show you the effect. Here I've used a black tag rather like the Ranger ones in the shop and simply stamped this Darkroom Door Birds 1 stamp using my pad and Dylusions White Linen ink directly onto the tag. The image isn't perfect but I wasn't looking for perfection. I also used the pad to create simple marks with a credit card and bottle caps and used the ink directly from the bottle to add some ink spots.

If you love your ink sprays and long to use them to stamp with, I highly recommend you get yourself this stamp pad. You'll love it.

Jaine x

There is still time!

Just a quick reminder that you still have time to join in with February's colour challenge. 

Here's this months palette. 

Remember to qualify for the challenge....  

• ONLY COLOURS in the palette should be used in your piece. 
• A MINIMUM of three colours from the palette should be used
• You may also use white (as black is in this month's palette)
• You may use metallic accents. 

Full details can be found here

Challenge closes on the 12th February!

Happy creating & Good Luck! 

Vicki

You looking at me?

Hello!
A little bit of 3D assemblage from me today.... made from the packaging from some wood shapes!

(I think I must have been listing slightly when I took that pic....put your head on one side and it'll look better!)
I painted the box (it is a Prima Icons box) with a wash of white paint, then edged it slightly with black ink.
I stamped some text onto card, then cut it into squares to fit the back of the squares in the box. Lots of trimming needed as the squares aren't actually square!!! I stamped some Stampotique ladies and coloured them with markers, keeping to a red theme!

The heart is also Stampotique, I stamped it onto red painted card, then added the text (Stampotique again) before cutting out. A good coat of Glossy Accents gives the shiny look...

The box is standing on button stacks..

(bit of a blurry pic there, I'm beginning to think I was a little tipsy during this photo session!)
I added another stack to the top..

A nice way of using packaging to create more art!
See you soon,
Trish xxx

lino cutting anyone?

Hello there! 

Did you see Magda's recent blog post with her gorgeous lino cut print of her Vizsla? 

My excitement is, well, hyper I guess, as I am so so pleased to announce that you can now find Lino Cutting Tools, Traditional Lino and Softcut sheets and Caligo Safe Wash Relief Inks in the store!! 

Softcut sheets are perfect if you have never tried lino cutting before.  They are softer than the traditional lino and easier to cut. It's a high quality material that is 3mm thick and it's white, making it easy to see your drawings.  

Caligo Safe Wash Relief Inks

These artist quality printing inks are made using vegetable oils so you can wash them away with soap and water rather than having to use solvents,  These inks are made using high quality pigments rather than dyes so they offer excellent lightfastness and permanance. 

Ideal for lino, block printing, etching etc. Caligo inks have all the characteristics of oil base printing inks, but with the added benefit of simple soap and water clean up.  These inks carry the AP approved mark so they are non toxic and suitable for use by children. 

Please do go take a look, spread the word and have a play with these fabulous new products! 

new idea

 Hello
Today I have something different for you. I couldn't find an inspiration and I simply just sat and draw with glue some simple shapes. I like circles in my projects and now I need to try different shapes!

I used:
- Claudine Hellmuth Black Gesso
- Glitz Design Raven
- Posca Paint Pen White
- Distress Glitter
- Distress Paint - Picked Raspberry

Magda x