MATCHBOXES AND MAGAZINE COVERS

The whole thing.


Side panel...........bird is Stampington.



Poor old blog has been a bit neglected the last couple of weeks, I have been so busy that I haven't had time to post as often as I like to! I'm not complaining, busy is good especially as I have been travelling around signing books, demoing, teaching workshops, chatting, meeting new people.........all great fun.
The matchbox chest above is a recent workshop sample that I was so pleased with I thought I'd share it here!

The fab bird on the top of the chest in one of Tims newest stamps and it is stampd over one of his masks that was sprayed over with Sticky Fingers spray inks.


Finally...............

You might have noticed this mag is added to my published in list on the side panel, just wanted to say that the stuff on the cover is MINE!! I was chuffed to see it there as it was the first time I had sent anything to that mag to be considered for publication!

I am heading off on my travels again this afternoon, heading down the motorway to Wendys ......THE STAMP ATTIC.......ready to be in the shop tomorrow for book signing and stamp club tomorrow night for demo and more book signing.....hopefully!!

FABULOUS STAMPS!

I had a lovely time at THE CRAFT BARN EXTRAVAGANZA WEEKEND signing copies of my book and demoing, thanks to everyone who bought a book, watched me demo and said such lovely things about it, it made me very chuffed!!

My feet have not touched the ground since I got home on Monday (have been signing more books over at PADDYS STAMPING PLACE today)and so while I don't have new art work to share I thought I would share what I acquired, this set of yummy stamps, thanks Beatrice!! These are some of the newest stamps from Katzelkraft and are available in the UK exclusively through THE CRAFT BARN. Although they have a slightly spooky air about them I think they are fab! Go over to Beatrices blog for some samples of what to do with them, I have to say the pics don't do the samples justice, they were beautiful in person!

I am heading down to THE STAMP ATTIC on Sunday ready to sign yet more books in the shop on Monday and at the stamp club meeting on Monday night so if you in the area please call in and say Hi!!

ADDRESS EMBOSSERS

I was just working on a journal page and had cause to use one of these things, as I was using it it occured to me that it would a fun thing to share with you on here!!
These things are address embossers and great for altered/collage style stuff...........my Mum who used to work in a solicitors office way back when says that every office used to have one and the address of the business was embossed on out going mail.
Old style MOT certificates also had the address embossed in the bottom corner...........that's why I had cause to use one of these, I was using an old MOT certificate for my page...........all will be revealed next week!

Anyway, back to these............I bought these a few years ago at my local craft/collectables/antique/junk place (Dagfields Craft Centre) for just a few pounds each. If you go looking for these just be warned that some of them are missing the embossing plates which makes them useless!! Stick a scrap of paper inside and press the handle to check!



This is what the addresses in my embossers look like...........I like the fact they are different fonts and the machines themselves look pretty funky sat on the shelf in my work room!!
I have rubbed over with little brown ink so they show up more.

MEET BINGO WINGS!

Ok, so believe me or not this did not start out going to be called BINGO WINGS!! I sat in front of the TV rummaging through a bag of scrap card looking for interesting bits to cut up and use on this page, came across the bingo paper and thought "ah that will do" and set about cutting, sticking, painting etc etc.
Only after it was finished and I looked at it the next day did BINGO WINGS occur to me!!

TWIT TWOO

This piece was made as part of my design team commitment to THE CRAFT BARN. It is somewhat cuter than muy usual stuff but I still liked the way it turned out!!

It is a small wooden frame with a round hole in the centre and I added a large matchbox behind the hole to give some depth. The owls are pre-printed on paper, the eyes are metal tacks from K&Co and the leaves are wooden Embelliscrap pieces. For full details of products look out for this project appearing soon on THE CRAFT BARN BLOG.

MY BOOK.......HANDMADE DECORATIVE BOOKS

I am very excited that the book I have been working on with SEARCH PRESS is now published!! I can now tell you that it will be available from September 11th.

I am going to be doing book signings! It feels very strange to be saying that, I had wanted to write a book for so long and now it is here it does not seem real!!

The first hopefully being at The CRAFT BARN Weekend Extravaganza on 12th/13th September; I say hopefully because it is only available the day before and so it will be cutting it fine getting copies in time.

I will also be signing copies at
PADDYS STAMPING PLACE on 16th September,
THE STAMP ATTIC on 21st September (in the shop during the day and at their monthly stamp club meeting in the evening)
and at THE CUBBY HOLE on 25th/26th of September in conjunction with their MacMillan charity weekend (I will also be demoing those 2 days)

OWLS

Got back from the Craft Barn yesterday to discover that my copy of the latest Somerset Studio had arrived.These owl bookends are what I have in there!
To buy a copy of the mag visit THE STAMP ATTIC.

Talking of the Craft Barn I had a fab weekend and met a whole bunch of new and lovely people........Hi! to any of you reading this! In fact it went so well the next workshop weekend is already being planned, hopefully for November.
I will also be back down for the Extravaganza Weekend on 12/13th September.

A couple of people commented on the last post that the Craft Barn is too far for them to travel from up here in the north.........I agree it is a looooong way, in fact over 200 miles for me so I thought I would tell you of an event going on up here in the north which will hopefully be more accessible!
Samuel Taylors are celebrating 60 years in business with a 60th anniversary Papercraft Extravaganza Weekend, 17/18th October at their shop in Embsay near Skipton, I am going be there demoing along with lots of other people, it promises to be a good weekend.

More news tomorrow!!

BRAMBLE HEDGE

I am leaving you with this journal page over the weekend while I am gone; I am off to THE CRAFT BARN to teach two workshops over this weekend. I am really looking forward to it, it should be great fun, will report back next week.

And don't forget the Craft Barns WEEKEND EXTRAVAGANZA is coming up in only two weeks........12/13th September..........I will be there demoing along with 16 others!! Promises to be a fab weekend, come along if you can!

So next week I will be back.......... with exciting news.........well, I think it's exciting, I hope you will too!!

LETTER A

Today is the day for the fourth READY STEADY STAMP challenge and I was really pleased to be asked to be guest designer for this one.

Here is my piece of inspiration!

The five ingredients that had to be included this time were the letter A, canvas, brown/cream/white, a scalloped circle and clear drops (raindrops).
You also have to include some stamping, mine was minimal this time with only the leaf being stamped.


A close up of my canvas flower with the scalloped circle button in the centre.

PUMPKINS GALORE

This card is made with another new stamp from INKADINKADO, this time from the PUMPKINS GALORE set. Inspire word is INVOKE ARTS, both stamp companies available from THE STAMP ATTIC

NEW STAMPS.....NEW JOURNAL

Late last week I got some new stamps, I went a bit mad and bought four sets of Halloween/Autumn stamps; because I couldn't decide which ones to get I got them all! They are all by Inkadinkado and are available from THE STAMP ATTIC.
I also got a new journal which I am going to keep to the Halloween/Autumn theme that I love so much.

So, I have been waiting for a bit of time to play with them, I finished off my latest Craft Stamper project today and off it went in the post so I settled in for some play time!

I LOVE this skull stamp, I think it is so clever with the words set into one side of it. It is combined here with some rub-ons I found in the drawer the other day.




This page came about from the scrap pad I work on. The cherish words were already on there from something else and I stamped the stars and 2 different skulls next to the words just to try them out really but then I liked the way it looked so tore it out and stuck it into the journal. The extra colour around the torn piece is oil pastels.......another new toy!

This page started in a similar way to the previous one........the paint circles were already on the pad so I stamped the Ravens Gate image over them and then coloured in the background. Torn out and then stuck in the journal.
Letters are drawn through a stencil and again the colour is oil pastels.

GARDEN OF DEATH!!

Ok, you might have noticed that I changed the header and background to my blog!!
I ABSOLUTELY love it!! If you don't that's Ok but don't be scared it's only a picture!

Just in case you were wondering it is called "Garden of Death", a painting from Finnish symbolist painter and graphic artist Hugo Simberg.

MAKE YOUR OWN JOURNALS

The jounal I started on the jounalling workshop I went to is almost full!
So, today I took myself off to Hobbycraft and bought an A4 pad of 25 sheets 100lbs/220gsm medium surface cartridge paper for £5.85. With that pad, the back off it and some extra card saved from the backs of other paper pads and my trusty Bind-it-All I now have the 5 journals you see here! Not bad for under £6.

The biggest is about 20cm square, next is about 16x20cm, then about 10x15cm and then 2 small ones at about 10.5x15cm, they each have either 12 or 13 pages.

I started out covering the covers with scrap book paper (the red one with diamonds) but then decided it would be better to cover them with my own stuff! So, that is what I used for the rest.


THIS IS MY FAVOURITE!!
It is covered with a piece of paper from the pad I use to work on. Yesterday I was spraying a page in my other journal with a stencil and Adirondack spray inks, I dumped the wet stencil onto the pad, wiped the excess ink off with a baby wipe and then picked it up to reveal the pattern underneath!! It was almost nicer than the jounal page!

NOT ANOTHER JOURNAL PAGE?

I know, I know it looks like this is turning into a journalling blog!!
I can't tell you how much I am loving messing in my journal, it is SOOO relaxing! I am doing other stuff, just not stuff I can show here yet, it's either for publication or for workshops/demos and so I am left with journal pages!

This one came about from looking at a sketch on RACHEL JACKSONS blog, thanks for the inspiration Rachel!



And so to finish here is the page I started last night in front of the TV. It is sketched with a charcoal pencil, I love those things! I have no idea how this will end up, need to think about it and play some more, will show the results later!

LIZARD

THINK MONDAY THINK ATC theme today is LIZARDS. Here is my entry, a bit more funky than my usual style but I liked the way it turned out!!

NOT THE DESTINATION

One advantage to staying with my Mum was that I had some time to work on my journal.
I finished this page tonight, the picture of the bird heading down hill with such determination came from an RSPB mag that Mum was throwing out, the picture just made me smile!

I noticed earlier that SATURDAY WORKOUT theme this week was "to make a journal page"..........so, here you are!

BLUE RUSSIAN

It has been over two weeks since I last posted on my blog and I have really missed it, hope you have missed me too! Unfortunately my Dad has been seriously ill in hospital with pneumonia and I have been staying with my Mum..........real life comes before fun.........he is on the road to recovery now so I can find the fun again! My last post was my entry for READY STEADY STAMP second challenge and purely by chance this entry is my piece for their third challenge.

The piece is worked on an old book cover, for the photo it is stood against the book I took the cover off.


This time we had to use cuttlewax technique......see RSS blog for details and a tutorial............I did not have any wax paper so I made my own! Take a piece of greaseproof paper and rub a candle all over one side, et voila wax paper! Proceed with technique as described.
We also had to use the colour blue, the theme monument (mine is a Russian church......stamp by Stampington), a piece of cork (this was the hardest bit trying to make it fit in.......my church image is mounted on it) and a metal embellishment............I think mine is obvious!!


I bought five of these cast iron handles only very recently so I was pleased to be able to use one of them. I added some white pigment ink over the raised areas followed by a touch of blue to tie in the colour theme.

RED FRONT DOOR

This is my entry for the second challenge on READY STEADY STAMP.
As I am currently obsessed with journalling I decided to make a journal page for the challenge.

This time round we have to include the sun, the colour yellow, a triangle, acetate and ribbon.

The acetate is hard to see on a scan, the words are stamped on it and it is held in place with staples. My ribbon has been coloured and stamped and then also stapled in place. The rest is hopefully self explanatory!

TIM BURTONS ALICE IN WONDERLAND

I cannot wait for this to come out! Oh well, will have to be patient till next March!

KINGS AND QUEEENS

The theme on TMTA is KINGS AND QUEENS.
I'm afraid the recent trend for Marie Antoinette themed stuff doesn't do a lot for me and I am sure that is the direction we are intended to go, but here is my take on that theme!

WORKING TO A SKETCH

Working to a sketch is a new idea to me and I find it quite interesting! I have been aware of sketches being around for some time, hard not to be really but I've never taken a lot of interest. But then I noticed that Rachel Jackson has been publishing a monthly sketch on her blog and challenging people to have a go and so I decided I would!

If it's good enough for Rachel it's good enough for me! If you don't know Rachels work be sure to pop over to her blog and have a look.

Here are the results..............above is a card where I stuck to the sketch quite firmly and below is an ATC where I played around with it just a little, replacing the small circle at the bottom with a heart and putting the image into a circle as well.

I seem to be stuck in a Halloween phase at the moment, I think this awful weather is making me feel Autumnal, well that's my excuse!!

In case you need to know........the paper I used is Night Light Cauldron Swirls from My Minds Eye, available from THE STAMP ATTIC

THOSE STICKERS

The challenge theme on BIG ART ADVENTURE is "A BIRD IN THE HAND" and this is my entry. I have had such fun working on this but also such a fight with myself! This is the piece that prompted the question I asked a few days ago about using stickers!

As you can see from the pic below I went ahead and used them and I hope you will agree that they do fit into the piece quite nicely after I sanded them and added dots!



Every chicken needs a face!!



This is a small canvas that I worked on seperately and then glued in place.

MAKE AN ATC

THEME THURSDAY challenge is "MAKE AN ATC"........so here is mine!

ART JOURNAL?

Today I went to an art journalling class at Paddys Stamping Place in Prestwich taught by SARAH ANDERSON I had a lovely time messing with paints, inks, stencils, stamps, papers etc etc, it will be days before my hands are clean again!!

Art journalling is something I have mixed thoughts on...........I like the idea of just working for myself, doing what I like and not worrying about what anyone else thinks but on the other hand I'm not about to share my deepest darkest thoughts in a book that someone might pick up and read..........noooooooo, those thoughts are mine and are staying that way!!

However I have no problem working on a page about why I HATE MOTHS!! Or why I LOVE HALLOWEEN (not that I really know why) or why I like AUTUMNAL COLOURS and so that is what MY art journal will be about............the things I love or hate or fascinate me or intrigue me


This is the only page I finished! I was working with some die cut trees that Sarah had brought along and the phrase "deep dark woods" came into my head and wouldn't go away so it ended up on the page.
Now, the actual writing bit made me nervous..............what if I did it wrong, what if I hated it after I had done it, what if, what if...........till in the end I was driving myself nuts and decided, with encouragement from Sarah, to just go for it and in the end I loved the way it came out!
The shadows are provided by charcoal pencils..........I NEED me some of those! Off shopping tomorrow!

After I did the writing bit on the first page I decided to go for it and started this page! NO WHERE near finished yet but I like it so far!!


The following pages are all only part done and are in reserve for when inspiration strikes, though I bet you can't guess what might end up on the striped one??!!

THE MAN IN THE MOON

TMTA theme today is the "MOON". I couldn't decide which of the ideas I had I liked best so I made them both!!
The moon on the top one is made with air dry clay and coloured with alcohol inks and Memories black re-inker.
Backgrounds on both ATCs are alcohol inks.
Both stamps are Stampers Anonymous (available in the UK from The Stamp Attic)

BLACK CATS AND GREEN MOONS

I had so much fun with the READY STEADY STAMP challenge that I decided to have another go!
This piece also fits into my occasional pre- HALLOWEEN posting!

The quote on the vintage postcard image reads:

Avoid grinning black cats on full green moon,
If your lover is true he'll come back soon
It breaks the charm the witches scream
And never return till next Halloween

A Question.......

"EDIT" Thanks to all of you who took the time to answer my question, I read each one with interest. I think the general opinion seems to be that it is fine to use stickers as part of a piece as long as they fit in with it...........so, I have gone ahead and used them!! I will be posting the piece later this week so you will be able to judge whether you think I was right or not!!


Ok, this is something I have been pondering over all weekend and decided I would ask other peoples opinions on it! It's pretty silly really but here goes.

I have been working on a mixed media piece over the last few days and am very pleased with the way it is coming along. Yesterday I got to a point where I wanted to add some words to it and was thinking about how to do that.
I have a box of alphabet sticker sheets from years ago and decided to have a look through them, found some that fit the style of the piece but I can't bring myself to use them as I feel that stickers are cheating!!! Having spent so much time working on the rest of the piece to then use stickers seems wrong!
So, next thought was to use words cut from an old book, that idea sits quite happily with me but what is the real difference between that and the stickers??

See, told you it was silly but I just can't get the thought that stickers are cheating out of my head!


So, the question is:

DO YOU THINK THAT USING ALPHABET STICKERS ON A MIXED MEDIA PROJECT IS CHEATING??

I'd be grateful if any of you have the time and/or the inclination to give me your opinions on this!

HOME

NO PLACE LIKE HOME

PAPERBAG STUDIOS has the theme of HOME for the July stamp challenge.

I have been working on these pieces for the challenge over the last couple of days and finally got them finished yesterday. They are photographed in my garden hanging from the barbed wire wreath that hangs on the back of my shed door. It is looking a little more friendly at the moment as it has a tendril of honeysuckle growing around it!




GATE TO THE SECRET GARDEN





HEART AND HOME

BONSOIR!

While I was making the Ready Steady Stamp piece yesterday I decided to continue the play session and make another piece using the same techniques. The tree stamp I used is from one of the CHARACTER CONSTRUCTIONS sets I got recently from THE STAMP ATTIC, as is the owl in a pinny (how sweet is that image!??) and the bee, and I was dying to play with them so this gave me an excuse!

So, here is the result............BONSOIR!