Twelve Tags of 2016 ~ Technique Re-Mix~ Final Tag !

Hip, hip, hooray! I've made it to the end of Tim's Twelve Tags Re-Mix Challenge. Once again, it's been a fabulous, fun year of creative challenges, set by Tim Holtz. You can see his lovely tag with this link. The Technique Re-Mix challenge, has provided a great opportunity to re-visit some of Tim's superb techniques, from times gone by. For the final tag of 2016, Tim has mixed it up with Shadow Press from May 2014 and Burlap and Punches, from 2015. I haven't acquired any of the leaf punches (yet!) so I have used a die cut instead, That's the great thing about Tim's challenges, you don't have to have everything, you just get down and use what you've got. So thank you Tim for another great year of tag making, as well as the opportunity to read your blog and follow your creative adventures, with Mario, Paula, Chelle and the rest of your talented friends. Hope to share more of your adventures in 2017. Happy New Year everybody ! x

Winter Magic ~ Guest Design Post for A Vintage Journey

I am absolutely delighted to have been asked to be a guest, over on the blog,'A Vintage Journey'. It's truly an honour to be featuring alongside such a talented team. This year, I have had the great fortune to have attended workshops by Kate Crane, Andy Skinner, Mark Gould, Finnabair, and AVJ's very own, and wonderfully talented, Brenda Brown. I've tried to bring a little of what I have learnt, from each of these artist's, into my work for this guest designer spot.The host for this challenge is the lovely Deb, and she has chosen  'Winter Magic'. I love the theme and was inspired to create a project featuring lots of frosty colours, textures and of course a touch of sparkle. This is how I got started.....

I started off by adhering strips of torn fabric and pieces of lace, to the frame of a reversed canvas. I then put this to one side, and worked on a separate piece of board, as it is much easier to use stencils I on a flat surface, rather than to try and manipulate them inside a frame.

I used Andy Skinner's 'mega crackle' technique, to create the background, and stenciled the tree branches over the top using Crackle Paste. Once the stenciling was complete, I was able to place the board inside the frame, before continuing.

I then gave all my embellishments a coat of white gesso, before arranging them inside the frame. Coating them with gesso gives uniformity and for me, this made it easier to get a sense of whether the arrangement worked before attaching them permanently. 

I used a hot glue gun to adhere the embellishments and sprayed it in patches, with diluted cosmic shimmer. I then proceeded to dry brush everything with white gesso. It took several layers to lighten the surface, drying each one before adding the next.

To finish off my frosty canvas, I added a trail of holographic glitter, a few gems and a crown for my wintery angel.....

It's been an absolute pleasure to make this project for A Vintage Journey. I must say it rounds off what has been a lovely year of crafting. Many thanks to all of the team over at 'A Vintage Journey' and a big  thank you to all of my lovely followers and all of the people who have taken time to leave me such uplifting comments. May I wish you all, a very merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year !x

Christmas Wishes ~ Stamps and Stencils ~ New Challenge.

Hi everybody, It's my turn to host our new challenge over on the Stamps and Stencils blog. I've called it 'Christmas Wishes'. Whether it's cards, decorations, giftwrap or gifts, I'd like to see what you've been making, that is as long as it includes some stamping, stenciling or both. I've put into practice a few things I've learned over the last couple of weeks at workshops with The Ministry of Mixology team, and Finnabair, and created this Christmas wreath. I started off with a greyboard circle and covered it with crumpled tissue paper, as taught by Mark Gould.....

I then painted it with  Decoart Pthalo Blue Media Paint and dry brushed the surface with white gesso....

I then attached a selection of embellishments, including one of Tim Holtz's cute little reindeer heads, using extra heavy body gel. I then sprayed the surface with Cosmic Shimmer mists......

This is a technique we used on Finn's workshop. Once the cosmic shimmer was dry, I dry brushed the surface with gesso.....

This is how it looked after the first coat. I continued to build up layers of gesso, dry brushing and drying between each coat.

I found that the Cosmic Shimmer was very strong and kept coming through the gesso. After several coats, I decided to put on a coat of matte varnish in order to seal the surface. This worked well and I was then able to achieve the effect I'd envisaged. Once this was dry, I added some additional pearls and gems and finished with a dusting of glitter. Here are some close up shots.......

and.....

and finally that cute little deer......

I hope you can find a few spare moments to join in with our challenge. You can hop over to the Stamps and Stencils blog with this link, where you'll find the challenge details and see some fabulous projects from the rest of  our very talented team. x