day one of artsycrafts

so, now that the artsycrafts warrington peeps have had day one, i'm free to post my projects now. i hope they are having as much fun as we did, i definitely learnt some new techniques and have a great christmas idea for the book album already!

here is project number one, this is the front cover of the shadow book. we used paperartsy's new line of papers, which are lovely to work with. i especially liked how alterable they are, we used gesso, inks and paints to make them our own. we also used ten second studio molds to make the frame and stamped images and backgrounds to decorate.

this is the inside of the box

in the afternoon, we created this shadow box

i loved using the inks and sprays in this project, i'm not totally happy with the way this came out, i think it's too wishy washy, but i was happy to learn the techniques. this project was layered in about 5 sections which gives it some real depth. i was actually very surprised how easy it was to work with the metal, once you learn the sandwich of metal, humungo tape and cardstock, anything is possible!!

i'll be back tomorrow with my sunday project...

back from artsycrafts

i'm back from a fabulous weekend at artsycrafts. new techniques, new projects, new friends and lots of laughs along the way.

unfortunately i can't show you any of the projects at the moment in case anyone attending next weekend at warrington sees them, so it will be next sunday before i can post these, but here is a peek of leandra directing everyone mid project!!

artsycrafts

this is where i'm off to this weekend and i am really looking forward to learning new techniques and what they have in store for us. the sneak peeks are up on the blog - yours artfully - and i am looking forward to catching up with jen after a pretty stressful week at work.

the exam didn't go so well, but i won't know definitely until i get the results on 17 december, it's a long time to wait, i just have to put it to the back of my mind, hard when i'm sure i've done badly.

i am off now to get my head into my copy of somerset holidays and celebrations which arrived in the post today. more when i get back from the weekend.

rose heart art

this project is a mix of ten second studio metalwork, tim holtz products and wendy vecchi studio 490 stamps. the background was made by cutting the top off a 7gypsies chipboard piece. i started off by using some green ten second studio metal and a kabuka mold. i randomly traced over some of the squares and then applied some alcohol inks over the top. the colours i used were lettuce, pesto and meadow. 

once they were applied i them wiped over some black acrylic paint from a dabber and wiped off the excess with a piece of kitchen towel

i them applied the background to the chipboard using double sided sticky sheet. i used an edging tool to give this some definition and then applied black paint dabber around the outside.

to make the rose, i made a sticky tape sandwich!! i used the method for grungepaper roses, only i substituted the grungepaper for cardstock, sticky sheet and some more ten second studio metal, this time in red. i randomly traced a pattern of swirls on the rose and again used the dabber technique to give this some definition and then mounted this on 2 slightly larger grungepaper flowers, which i just simply cut out, inked with fired brick and barn door distress ink and stamped with a background stamp on top.

the leaves were stamped with olive stazon and then inked with forest moss and bundled sage. i find using 2 similar colours of distress inks really give you the two tone effect and some body to the project.

the heart was another wendy vecchi studio 490 stamp, again, i made a sticky tape sandwich, but this time, i embossed the heart myself with a couple of the ten second studio tools.

for the silver strip in the project, i just used a couple of different tools across a piece of silver metal and then a paint dabber to grunge it up and for the joy, i hand wrote this into metal and alcohol inked it. i wasn't happy with the way this looked originally, so i applied some alcohol ink blending solution over the top of the ink, which allowed the silver metal to show through, much better.

i glued this in behind the nameplate and attached this with 2 brads.

lastly, i filled a tiny 7gyspies bottle with some beads and added this to the project.

i am pleased with the overall effect.

rudolph's spares

all ready for the craft fair. this is just one of the lines i will be selling. I hand cut the tags and used coredinations cardstock, and bazzill bling for the reindeer. the reindeer shape is a quickutz die. the oval tag and scallop oval shapes are stampin' up punches. i have to confess to loving stampin' up products, as well as my 'distress everything' nature, i also have the opposite tendency to go 'clean and simple' sometimes, and they always fit the bill nicely. i also love the way all their products coordinate together, very easy when you need to put a card together in a hurry!

as it gets nearer, i am realising just how unprepared i am!! still, i always say i work better under pressure, so this will be my test. i know i'll also focus more when my exam is over on wednesday.

i am currently yearning after these:-

so many possibilities, i can't wait to get my grubby little hands on them!!

nothing crafty today :-(

i have an exam next week and today is a study day. 

i am not very focussed at self study.

i am not good at exams.

my phones keep ringing.

but.

i do want to pass.

so, despite this little break to blog, back to it, head in the books.

getting in the christmas spirit

i guess i have been preparing for the craft fair so much, i am really in the christmas spirit at the moment and reading ali's blog is really getting me excited!!

although i didn't actually finish a december daily last year, i plan to give it another go in 2010, i think in 2009 i was just too focussed on it, i wanted it to be perfect and the cost of that perfection was a few photo's, about 2 completed pages and not much else. this year, i plan to go with the moment. i love how ali abandons perfection (although her stuff always looks pretty perfect to me!), but she works with what she has. i focus so much on getting the perfect photo, the perfect element, the perfect paper and the end result is that i'm too scared to actually follow this through.

not this year.

this year, i am going to create my foundation.

this year, i am going to go with the flow and abandon perfection.

this year, i am going to blog my page every day.

this year, i am going to finish the entire album.

i am still working on the craft fair. this is my workdesk in the living room at the moment:-

there is a small amount of organised chaos to it, i promise, i did actually clear the mat area for the photo too, I didn't realise that it was so warped and discoloured - yuk!! 13 tags made, another 12 to go! tomorrow i will be working on 'santa stop here' door hangers for the fair and die cutting some snowmen for my 'snowman soup'.

my other obsession and more craft fair goodies

apart from anything crafty, i have to confess to another obsession, pandora beads. i've always had a bit of a bracelet fetish, and so when i discovered these, i was hooked! i love the fact that you can mix and match according to your mood, your outfit and just be a little different every day.

anyway, here are my new beads. i know, i know, it's not christmas yet and i'm not sure i can wait that long before i wear them, well the shops have got their christmas goodies in already, why should i be any different?!!

i thought the little red glass bead went perfectly, what do you think?

i have also been continuing working on items for the craft fair, this time on gift tags, these will be sold in packs of 5.

for the tag, i used plain kraft cardstock, the patterned paper is basic grey wassail collection "winterberry" and i embossed white cardstock with my trust qk snowflake embossing folder. the border punch is martha stewart and the stamp from stampin up.