The 12 Designers Of Christmas - Designer #12 Katy Leitch

Here we are at the end of our 12 Designers event on Christmas Eve and what a fantastic feast of inspiration it's been too. Each Designer post has brought something different and I really hope you've enjoyed looking at it all.

To round things off our final Designer is the super talented Katy Leitch. 

Katy is on several Design Teams and was previously the Editor of Craft Stamper Magazine. She creates gorgeous altered art pieces and can take a simple thing like a tin and turn it into something extra special like a wonderful shrine.

Katy has made this beautiful wintry canvas for us which is absolutely perfect for Christmas Eve. 

 The items Katy used are :

Jo Capper Sandon for Stampotique - Great Moon 

Crafty Individuals Crowned Bunnies

 Modelling paste

Fine glitter 

You can see more of Katy's work at Postcards From The Attic.  
 

A massive thank you to all the Designers for their contributions and inspiration. I hope you enjoyed it. If you want to win the big Mixed Media Kit prize then just leave a comment here and on the other 11 Designer posts. You can go back to comment on any you've missed until December 31st and the winner will be picked out soon after that. 

Happy Christmas

x

The 12 Designers Of Christmas - Designer #11 Elizabeth Robinson

Well here we are at Designer Eleven already and in a few days it'll be Christmas Day. We're really getting warmed up to the big day now.

I'm very happy to present Designer number Eleven, Elizabeth Robinson. 

Elizabeth has been a supporter of the Sprinkle challenges for a long time with her beautiful, shabby chic, vintage style.  She can turn her hand to anything and creates stunning pieces of 3d work which just explode texture and interest. For us she's created this gorgeous piece of artwork in some beautiful wintry colours. I keep looking at it and seeing little areas of texture which I didn't notice before.

I love that winged heart it's gorgeous. look at the details.

Thank you so much Elizabeth for being part of the 12 Designers of 2015. If you want to see more of Elizabeth's work then her blog is well worth a visit at the Crafty Robin.

Don't forget to leave a comment at the bottom and on the other Designers posts to be in with a chance to win a prize.  Only one more to go xxxx

The 12 Brands Of Christmas - Brand #11 We Are Memory Keepers

Every Christmas I keep a daily diary or journal but last year I did something a bit different and used a gorgeous 4 x 4 album from We Are Memory Keepers.   

I chose the mint colour but it was a tough choice.

I have a Canon Selphy printer so I can easily print mini 2 x 2 inch photo's from my phone but if you prefer bigger photo's there are big 4 x 4 inserts which fit inside too. 

I'm a huge Instagram fan so I imagine I'll be buying another of these cute albums.

Come back tomorrow for another amazing Designer presentation.

xx

 

The 12 Designers Of Christmas - Designer #9 Tracy Easson

Today it gives me great pleasure to welcome our Designer number 9 who is Tracy Easson. 

When ever I look at Tracy's work I have a huge smile on my face. She has a gorgeous unique style and what ever she's working on I always come away thinking, "I wish I could do that". She makes everything look effortless and her water colours are stunning.

Here she's created a set of water colour cards for us using a Prima water colour pad as the base.

I adore this sketchy, fun look she's created with the white Sakura Gelly Roll pen. She kept the lines loose and scribble like for extra fun.

Tracy added colour using Distress ink pads which are great for water colour painting, simply press onto an acrylic block or craft mat and add water.

Thank you so much Tracy for joining us here. To see more of Tracy's work you can visit her blog at queeniesscrapmad.blogspot.co.uk  

Please leave Tracy a comment and don't forget if you leave a comment on all 12 Designer posts then you'll be in with a chance of winning a Mixed Media kit. 

xx

The 12 Brands Of Christmas - Brand #9 Uni Posca

Posca pens are my absolute favourite painty pens for art journaling. They write over almost any surface which means for art journalers they're ideal. Writing and drawing over some backgrounds is almost impossible with most other mediums. They come in various nib sizes and lots of colours so the temptation to collect them is strong. I started out using only the white as I found it really difficult to find something which would write over acrylic paint and other mediums in my journals but once I'd investigated the colours that was it. I was hooked!

In the picture below Trish used a white Posca pen to create her snow flakes.

The other colours are absolutely gorgeous. Here I (Jaine) used pink black and blue to doodle on this altered art piece.

 

Tomorrow we'll have the pleasure of introducing another fabulous designer so come back for that. 

xxxx

The 12 Designers Of Christmas - Designer #8 Karen Hayselden

Please welcome our 8th Designer, Karen Hayselden.

 Karen has such talent when it comes to putting colour and design together and always manages to pull off something extra special. She made this gorgeous cute snowman for us which is absolutely loaded with texture.

I love the random dotting of soft colour on the surface. The colours she's chosen are beautiful.

Here's a closer look at that yummy texture; 

In making this piece Karen has used,Tim Holtz Distress Inks, re-inkers, distress sprays and distress paints - with a bit of Christmas Ideaology thrown in too - Distress glitter and Dylusions white linen spray.

To see more of Karens fabulous work you can visit her web site here at Kassa.

Thank you so much Karen for showing us your artwork. 

Don't forget to leave a comment here and on the other 12 Designers blog posts to be in with a chance of winning a Mixed Media package prize. 

xxxx 

The 12 Brands Of Christmas - Brand #8 Stampotique

Today I'm bringing you the 8th Brand and they are Stampotique.

STAMPOTIQUE Fine Art Stamps began June 1, 1996, in Phoenix, Arizona, out of the love for rubber stamping and papercrafting. They began as a fine art rubber stamp store and in January 2000, began manufacturing their own rubber stamps.To date they have 21 

designers, each one with their own quirky style. Among them is our very own Magda Polakow who's distinctive style is instantly recognizable. 

I love the Stampotique range of stamps, they're fun they're unique and guaranteed to put a smile on anyone's face.

Here's Nina,

 Romek,

and my favourite Agatha.

You can find the Stampotique stamps in the shop here.

Come back tomorrow for another amazing Designer, you won't want to miss it.

xx

The 12 Designers Of Christmas - Designer # 6 Magda Polakow

It gives me great pleasure to welcome back Magda to the Sprinkle 12 Designers event. Magda was a much loved member of the team until she moved on to follow her own design dreams.

Of course Magda is an established designer with Stampotique and has brought us a reverse canvas featuring her own cute and quirky designs. Agatha is one of my personal favourites and in typical Magda style she's pictured here with a few quirky friends and loads of doodling.

Magda shows us here that a typical Christmas scene doesn't have to be all green, red and gold but instead the black and white border and simple black and white images stand out beautifully on the brightly coloured background.

To see more work by Magda Polakow you can find her here, http://littleeverland.blogspot.lu/

and in her Studio.

Thank you so much Magda for sharing your  gorgeous work with us. 

Don't forget to leave a comment here and on the other Designers posts to be given the chance to win a fabulous mixed media package prize. 

More tomorrow.

xx

The 12 Brands of Christmas - Brand #6 - Gelli Plate

If you're wondering what Christmas gift you can give to yourself this year, how about treating yourself to a Gelli Plate?  Not sure if it's for you?  There's a great video here at A Sprinkle of Imagination which shows you the basics, and you can find many more videos on YouTube.

The plates come in a variety of sizes, but if you just want to dip your toe into the water of Gelli printing, you could go for one of the smaller plates.  I like the 6x6" plate, which I find useful for creating card-sized backgrounds, and the baby-sized 3x5" plate.

With most of the plates, you take your paper or card to the plate, but the advantage of the 3x5" plate is that you can take the plate to your paper or card, just like you would with a stamp.  Simply attach your Gelli plate to an acrylic block, brayer paints onto the plate, remove some of the paint in a pattern, then stamp it onto your card.  Add a second layer of colour/s to the plate and repeat.  Keep going for as long as you're happy.

You can create a masterboard by covering an A4 sheet then cutting it to size, or you can trim your blank card first and work on the smaller pieces.  Here, I cut some A4 sheets into four and worked on each piece separately using the 3x5" plate.  (The piece, top right, is where I brayered off all the excess ink.  That will get used as a background in a future project too.)

I took the piece in the centre then added some stamping and stencilling, and it's ready to be trimmed and go onto a card.

You can make marks using stencils, brushes, or any soft blunt object that won't damage the surface of the Gelli plate.  Fabric, textured ribbon, punchinella and lace also give fantastic results.

Here's a card with a background made with the 6x6" Gelli plate, lace and textured ribbon.

You can find Gelli plates here, and brayers here.  You can use any acrylic paints, from expensive down to children's craft paints from the supermarket.  All behave slightly differently and give different results, but that's the fun of it!  Go on, release your inner child!

Happy Christmas Crafting!
Shirley x

The 12 Designers Of Christmas - Designer #5 Trish Latimer

Hello!

So.. where were we? oh yes, Inktense pencils!

Yesterday I went on a bit about these, letting you all know just how much I like them!

I thought I would give you a little 'how to' on the shades of Inktense I used to colour the face on the whimsy girl in today's project.... but first, here she is in her finished state!

 My usual skin tones are a bit paler and more 'burn the second you see the sun' , but I really like changing things up sometimes! So.... lets begin!

Obviously we need to sketch out our girl first! As we're using watersoluble pencils, we will be using water.... :) So, you will need to work on watercolour paper or card.  As there are so many brands out there, I would recommend trying a few to see which you like best? My 'big' tip is to work on HOT press paper, as it's smoother than cold press. Unless you want a more textured look, of course!

The first colour used is baked earth...

As you can see, I coloured a line all around the edge of the face, adding a little extra around the cheekbones and above the eye sockets. Next, take a waterbrush or wet paintbrush, and go over the whole face, moving the colour released once the pencil is wet into the centre...

The idea is that the most intense colour is around the edges, getting paler towards the middle around the nose and between the eyes. I dry this off with a heat gun before going in with the next colour.

Which is...... Willow.

A darker shade, do the same as you did with the baked earth, but less of it! Again, use the waterbrush to dissolve the pigment and blend it..

This looks quite dark, once the hair in in place the dark shadow around the hairline will make more sense!

The third colour is Fuschia. It looks a bit dark when you draw it on...

But it will be very pink once the water is added! Use a little under the eyes/on the top of the cheekbones, and a little more over the outside edge of the eyes. Blend using your waterbrush, make sure there are no harsh pink lines anywhere!

The next addition seems to bring the whole thing together...

A touch of white in a rough triangular shape works wonders! Start at the tip of the nose, and work upwards and outwards to a wider area on the forehead...

Eyes next... I chose blue. Draw a thick line around the pupil...

The water will spread the colour throughout the iris, giving a shaded effect...

You may notice I've also added a dot of pink in the corners of the eyes too! The lips were coloured with red pencil, then I used a couple of 'non Inktense' products! Black fineliner pen for the pupils, and to outline the top of each eye, and a white paint pen to add in the tiny highlight dots...

 She still looks a bit odd with no hair as the shading doesn't really work.... it looks better when hair is coloured in!

The background was kept very simple, just a wash of blue and some music paper stars..

Her dress was red pencil, with white dots...

Fingers crossed that was a little bit helpful?! 

Don't forget, to be in with a chance at winning the mixed media bundle up for grabs, you need to leave a comment on the posts of all 12 designers during this whole extravaganza! I'm designer number 5... so go back and add any you may have missed!

We will be back tomorrow with another spotlight on an exciting brand!

Have a great day,

Trish xxxxx

The 12 Brands Of Christmas - Brand #5 Derwent Inktense Pencils

 Derwent Inktense Pencils

Derwent Inktense Pencils are as versatile as watercolour pencils, but with a firmer texture that allows them to perform with the brilliant intensity of traditional pen-and-ink. These pencils are available in strong, vibrant colours which work beautifully on their own or can be mixed together to create rich, subtle tones. The pure, clean colours are perfect for bold expressive drawings, but can be used with plenty of water for a much more subtle look!

Inktense pencils can be used dry for rich, intense colour or washed out with a little water to create a vivid translucent effect. Once dry, the colour is permanent and can be worked over with other media.

Personally, I love Inktense! The colours are just so vibrant, it's hard to believe the intense (yup, see what they did there with the name!) colour has come from a pencil. It could just as easily be an ink wash!

Here is a little video...

There are 72 gorgeous colours in the range...

Derwent Inktense Pencils can be found in the ASOI shop HERE!

Now.... you may notice that there are no flesh tones in the range..... So, how can you create faces? (OK, that was my first question, it might not have been yours!)
The simple answer is to experiment.... and tomorrow I'll show you a brand new whimsy girl created entirely with Inktense colouring! Here is a little peek...

Don't forget... you need to leave a comment on all 12 designers posts to be in with a chance to win the mixed media bundle! We've had Jaine, Vicki, Clare and Georgie so far.... did you leave them some love? You can always go back if you've missed one lol!

See you all tomorrow!

Trish xx

The 12 Brands Of Christmas - Brand #4 Prima

O.M.Goodness!! Where do I start? Well most of you that follow me know that I just adore Prima and all their goodies, but earlier this year Finnabair brought out a line of mediums as well as other brilliant extras, and boy, as a fan of mixed media I was just in heaven!! So, for this review I will focus mainly on those products. I have gone for a bulleted list as I figure that is easier to digest as otherwise there would be a lot to take in, so without further ado, here we go:

• Art Basics Gesso

A staple for anyone getting into mixed media. Both the black and the white are just perfect, they provide excellent tooth for the paint to grab. They are heavier so can be used to help add texture too, but can be watered down for thinner coverage or 'knocking back'. Both are great for splatters too :)

• Art Extravagance Crackle

I have the White and Copper ones and it does exactly what it says on the tin! It provides some of the best crackle out there and I have a few other brands of crackle!! I would never trade this for another! I have found that allowing crackles to dry naturally produces the best bigger crackle effect, whilst heat tooling creates ‘fine china’ style crackle.

• Art Extravagance Sand

What is more perfect for adding texture?!! The sand is great, and little tip, the black is the thickest, chunkiest of all the sands (perfect for us texture lovers) and is held in a gloss like gel. So, handy to get a cover of gesso over if you want to add colour after. I have found this kind of texture allows some of the most spell binding flow of colour movement in amongst the particles, especially if using powders and sprays to push it around.

• Art Basics Gel

My goodness, this stuff has so many wonderful properties... I love both the versions, 3D and Soft Matte. The 3D, is great for running through a stencil and creating that bumpy resist. You can also add powders to these and the colours just GLOW, mix with some glitter too and you have some truly spectacular effects! The gels also act as a perfect adhesive, the Soft Matte for thinner papers, cardstock and the 3D for chunky heavy embellishments.

• Art Basics Pastes

Out of the two pastes I have, modelling and light, I can’t say I have noticed a huge difference, but what I have found is they are perfect for stencils or creating that rough background look. Unlike other pastes, they are very unlucky to bleed through under a stencil, only time I have known this is if you add more liquid but you would need to add a lot. Colours mix beautifully in them as well as the other fantabulous extras in the Finnabar line, like Glass Beads, Micro Beads and Glass Glitter. The other thing about the pastes is that once dried they with take colour well that is applied to them.

• Art Ingredients Glitter Glass

Now, where do I start with these… I own most of them (yeah I have glitter addiction issues). I use them in my projects but probably most of the time I am just staring at them, stroking the pots and afraid to use up their sparkly goodness -anyone else as crazy??? :) I do honestly love these, the chunky glitter is just magical and can be put into any media with great effect. The colour range is amazing, but what I would say is, and not necessarily a negative point, but some of the colours will bleed into the medium. I noticed this with the Violet, but the awesome looking pinky coloured gel looked super cool!

• Art Ingredients Glitter

These awesome boxes filled with a sparkling promise of hope just call to you... or they do to me. Like the Glass Glitters, I just stare at them and hesitate to open the box for spoiling the mesmerising trance they put me into lol. Again they they can be put into the pastes and gels, but my favourite method is to apply the 3D gel through a stencil and then sprinkle on top. This creates the most sparkle in a very organised pattern :) Just tap off the excess after the gel is dry, but with this method allow yourself some time, as air drying is best.

• Art Ingredients Sugar Glitter

Prefer the delicate touch of sparkle? This works in the same way as the other two glitters but is far more subtle but just as magical. 

• Art Ingredients Glass Beads/Flakes/Micro Beads

When a project is close to being finished these little touches can just help take your work that step further! Again, a great choice of colours with recent new releases. For me, I love adding to the centre of flowers, mixed media clusters or for helping to add a little extra texture on the top of piece. Works like the others with the pastes and gels

• Art Ingredients Mica Powder

Now, this is something very special! The shimmer is just jaw-dropping, out of this world, crazy good! The colours are awesome and appear to only be growing in the range and they are designed to be used in amongst the above mentioned gels and pastes. The pastes will knock them back a little in the sense on making them paler and the gels really make them pop! I love how versatile they are and how you can create some lovely random effects (sprinkle powder on a project and just mist) to detailed colouring (water brush has worked best for me here). The shimmer these have really do not detract from the intensity of the colour and once dry on your project create that sense of magic, which obviously, Finnabar is famous for in her work!

And I have a confession... I never used to be one who was into glitters and shimmers or anything that was remotely sparkly - I bet that sounds surprising after reading the above huh?!! But I have done a complete 180 over the last year and seeing the gorgeous work of those I follow really inspired me to try. Now I’m totally converted, and using glitter with mediums is what really changed my view, as it enabled almost total control and to be able to use it in many different ways.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s product review, do let me know if you have any questions on the above and I will be happy to answer them.

Hugs

Georgie