I'll take cake with that - oh and some clotted cream!

Recently had a really enjoyable all day workshop with HobbyArt, which involved making a few cards using their stamps.

Ir was good not to have any real challenges but just create some nice cards. I think there were about 24 of us, and so much food was provided throughout the day I think it should be called a "food fest and by they way, make some cards too"!

I'll be providing a menu guide for the day!

We used Kuretake Clean Color brush pens (water based) to colour the images. I've never used these pens before, but I was really impressed how easy they were to blend. Though I don't think I'll be buying any, as I've go sooooo many different types of pens and pencils already ...

On arrival, coffee and biscuits.

For the first card we used a magnificent "monarch of the glen" stamp. Isn't he beautiful? This was my first go with the pens - not bad! Also used a fern stamp for a border.

I know exactly who I'm going to send this to as a birthday card!

Tea break, with more biscuits!

The second card was was a little more adventurous.

Stunning bird stamp - with my fantasy colouring! Think I'll call him a pink chaffinch!

A few cone flowers (decoupaged).












Lunchtime! so I opted for an egg and cress sandwich, but it came with a lovely salad and crisps. Then the hot stuff came out (sausage rolls, spring rolls, quiche and more).

Followed by pudding - either apple crumble or fruit salad. I went for the fruit ... but had to include a dollop of clotted cream.

Back to work (!?!).

The next card had a Brusho background, and a couple of lovely peacock stamps. Now I'm not one for fussy cutting, so I think I did quite well!

The card opened out like this.

Tea break - with cake!















Our final card was reasonably simple - which was a good thing, as after all that food my body wanted an afternoon siesta!

Distress Inks for the background, a little embossing too.

The dandelion clock is stamped and embossed onto parchment, and cut out.

Very pretty.














Fabulous day, and I have some lovely cards for the next few birthdays.

I wobbled home very content!

Sublime blue ...

The other fortnightly Craft Barn challenge this time is using blue. Well, as that is my most favourite colour, I had to join in on this one!

I used an embossing folder on a piece of white card (I've got a very old Cuttlebug which has seen a lot of use over many years and is still going strong!). Then I lightly hit the high points with a Versamark pad, followed by gold embossing powder. It doesn't matter if there are some stray areas of embossing powder, that just adds to the random-ness!

Sprinkle some Brushos (blues of course) and spritz with water. Use a small paint brush to push the paint into the embossed image.

A pretty die-cut butterfly finishes it off.

I went to Tate Britain yesterday to see the Painting with Light exhibition, which explores art and photography from the Pre-Raphaelites to the modern age.

Fascinating exhibition; I hadn't really thought about what effect the invention of photography had on art.

I've always loved the Pre-Raphaelites, particularly Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and there were quite a few of his paintings included.

So, continuing with the blue theme, this painting was in the exhibition - Mariana (1870).

The digital reproduction doesn't show the vibrancy of that dress!

Also at Tate Britain at the moment there is a free Turner exhibition, also very enjoyable.

The Painting with Light exhibition is on until the 25 September.

That's my culture fix for this month!

Daisy, daisy ...

I'm currently experiencing internet problems, so this will be a short  post (don't you just love technology!).

Here is a small watercolour, done with Brushos, that I've turned into a card. I've used a mount so that it can be framed too.

Daisies always remind me of hot summer days - making daisy chains!

This week I went to the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition. Fabulous - really enjoyed it. A very eclectic mix of work, some weird and wacky, some very traditional - and everything in-between.

There were so many pieces I loved, that I have put them all onto one of my Pinterest boards. See what I pinned here.

The sunflower is mine, in a way ...

... that's a quote from Vincent van Gogh - so this is a sunny daisy!

I'm struggling with my painting at the moment, so nothing to show you, as one has already gone in the bin ...though I must admit I have been experimenting, so some disasters are probably inevitable!

The Craft Barn's other two-weekly challenge is about using different papers, so I thought I would feature a collage card I made, where I've cut flower petals from various papers, including book pages and magazine pages. Some of the book pages have been coloured with Distress Ink, as has the pale background.

Here is an appropriate poem from one of my favourite poets - Emily Dickinson.

The Daisy follows soft the Sun -
And when his golden walk is done -
Sits shyly at his feet -
He - waking - finds the flower there -
Wherefore - Marauder - art though here?
Because, Sir, love is sweet!

We are the Flower - Thou the Sun!
Forgive us, if as days decline -
We nearer steal to Thee!
Enamored of the parting West -
The peace - the flight - the Amethyst -
Night's possibility!

Happy Bank Holiday weekend - some of us may see a bit of sunshine!

When the flower blooms ...

... the bees come uninvited.
Ramakrishna

The current other fortnightly challenge from the Craft Barn is red, white and a bit of black. I don't always have time to do this other challenge, but wanted to take a rest from my watercolour efforts!

The background is done with Brushos. Sprinkle first onto dry card, then take a flat brush and drag in one direction only. I used some diluted matt medium to do this. This seals the Brushos if you wish to overpaint.

When dry, I took my new Paper Artsy stamp set and stamped and heat embossed a flower three times.

Then I used white acrylic paint to paint the flowers, added a couple of butterflies, and a little bit of sparkle.

When I haven't any blue - I use red.
Picasso

Happy May time!

Don't forget to play!

My Pebeo paints haven't had an outing for a little while, so, with a friend, we recently had a play.  We tried it on some Stampboard with a view to stamping on top.

Used mainly Moon with a touch of Prisme on these pieces of Stampboard.

Several attempts made to stamp onto it, as it is very slippery, but at least all the fuzzy attempts could be wiped off immediately!

Used Archival ink and heat set it.

I decided to make a card for an upcoming birthday. I used a background piece from the masterboards created earlier this year (see here), and die-cut some leaves similar the the stamped ones.

During our Pebeo session we made a lot more pieces, so I'll show those another time.

This card is appropriate for the current Craft Barn fortnightly random challenge, which is about background circles, and this month's Craft Stamper Magazine challenge which is Anything Goes (as long as it features some stamping).

If you never did, you should.
These things are fun, and fun is good!
Dr Seuss

Hearts and flowers

Alongside the Craft Barn's Alpha Dictionary Challenge is a random challenge, and the current one is hearts (but not red ones).

This is a card I came up with for a session with the craft group I run - a collaged heart.

I drew a heart on a double-sided sticky sheet. Cut that out, then peeled one covering off and started to stick paper shapes onto it - not worrying about any overhangs at this point - leaving gaps between all the pieces. Once the heart shape is covered I sprinkled some gold embossing on the still sticky gaps and heated it. I then trimmed all the overhangs, peeled off the back covering, and stuck it onto the card. I outlined the edge with a black pen.

Another version is to use micro beads in the gaps.

Had a fab day out yeterday at Kew Gardens, specifically to see the Orchids Festival, which this year celebrates Brazil. Perfect day, brilliant blue sky and sunshine - very cold, but I had my thermal socks and furry boots on!

Got some great photos to use as references for my watercolour practice.

Here are a few -

The orchids were spectacular ...

And the colours ,,,

The columns of orchids were stunning ...

Carnival ...

These were my favourites ...

Then we spent another couple of hours walking round the rest of Kew, and I got some more potential painting subjects. Including the Japanese garden.

And finally - seagulls sunbathing on the ice!

Retrospective ...

... posh word for what have I been up to this year?

I've been looking through my past posts, and thought I would do a review of 2015 of my favourite creations and other things! There are links to each original post if you want to know more.

Brushos have featured quite a lot this year, and I still love them, I like the random-ness of sprinkling and spritzing (or vice versa), but they are also very useful as straightforward watercolour paints.

This card featured in January, here.

I posted quite a bit in February, and it is difficult to chose just one, but I've gone with this little canvas (see here), as I really enjoyed combining different materials and paints ...

and I've still got a load of metal off-cuts to use up!

In March I got the Crazy Birds stamps; I don't think I've used a stamp set as much this one.

They appeared for the first time on this card ... (see the original post here).

During the year I've participated in a few online blog challenges, one being the Craft Barn Calendar Challenge, which was really fun, and I did managed to stay the course and complete the 12 months.

To see all the calendar pages go to the final post here.

This is the page for April.

May saw a complete revamp of my craft room (a long time coming!), and I am still completely in love with it; I feel happy just being there - though it is not quite so tidy as when first shown here.

I've tried my hand at a few things over the years, and June saw me don a visor and get up close and personal with some welding equipment!

I love going to art exhibitions, and try to get to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition each year.

I did a post in July which included details of this year's visit, but also this canvas, which is still a favourite!

August saw the start of a series of art courses, and the first one was all about drawing - great fun, but very intense!

I'm now using what I learnt in my current watercolour course.

This was the final drawing.

September brought the super moon total lunar eclipse, which I thought was awe-inspiring - so I had to include one of my photos in this review!

It's October now, and I had started my second art course all about collage. This was the second exercise - to create an abstract collage. I loved using all the different textures. The full post can be found here.

There is something very pleasing about creating simple, easy Christmas cards (and useful too if you have a load to make!), and this one is from a November session I devised with the craft group I run. He is such a happy chap!

Now we are in December and I had to revisit my favourite collage, which was the final freestyle one I created on the collage course, using only magazine images.



















I discovered Haiku at the end of last year (the Japanese poetry form), and continued to write a few throughout this year. To find them just choose Haiku from the categories list. I've written another one -

Earth's midnight slumbers

Birdsong echoes of sweet hope

Trees whisper - new year

I'm going to finish by thanking all my friends, both on and off line, for making 2015 a good one, and I'll leave you with one of my crazy bird cards - nuff said!

Happy New Year - I hope 2016 brings all you may wish for.

Happy Christmas!

My Christmas cards this year featured crazy birds, which I stamped and and embossed onto patterned Christmas paper - still trying to use it up! They were all given festive glitter hats too!

Happy Christmas to all my followers and everyone who reads my blog ramblings! Thank you for all your comments throughout the year, they mean a lot to me.

"Christmas is a togethery sort of holiday" said Pooh,
"That's my favourite kind" said Piglet, "Togethery and Remembery"
A A Milne

A present for me!

How fab that I won the random number draw for last week's Craft Barn challenge - the origami card. Great to have an early Christmas present!

This week's Craft Barn challenge words are present and red. Having recently made some quick Christmas cards at the craft group I run (I've already written a post about the smiley snowman - see here), this is another one.

Using some some small red and green beads (and a pair of tweezers), create a festive present with ribbons and a bow - job done!

I've finally finished my Christmas cards, and they are now waiting to be posted. I've also nearly completed present shopping!

Time for a dance of joy!

Bend me, shape me ...

This week's Craft Barn challenge is about paper folding. Being a fan of origami, I've made a Christmas card using the dahlia flower, which is very effective when using plain/patterned double sided paper. See here for instructions.

I've made a small flower using one inch paper circles, added some gold beads for the centre, and a die-cut holly flourish.

Now I must get down to making some more Christmas cards - oh - and do some Christmas shopping!

Happy December!

Winter butterflies ...

This week's Craft Barn challenge is about snowflakes - even the word makes me shiver, though they are beautiful up close!

At the craft group I run we recently made some quick Christmas cards, including this one.

Construction process - emboss a piece of vellum with a snowflake pattern; I've had this folder for many years, and it usually makes an appearance on something each Christmas!

Then, take 2 white circles of card, some ribbon, an elongated triangle of orange card and some card candy.

The smile is drawn using the edge of a metal washer, which was the perfect size! Make sure the mouth is placed in the top half of the circle as he is looking up.

I really must get down to concentrating on my own Christmas cards, but at the moment I'm preparing for my next set of art classes (on watercolour), which start on Monday - arrgghh - I need more time .... and I haven't even thought about pressie shopping!

The owl and the ... bee?

The Ashtead Craft Club runs an annual challenge, and this year's is to create a collection of at least 10 cards, for different occasions, incorporating a common theme - and I decided to include a bee into every card. Initially I thought that would be quite easy to do ...

Additionally, as part of the annual challenge there are bi-monthly ones too, creating cards that can be included in the overall challenge - makes sense? Anyway, this card was part of the bi-monthly challenge - to create a male birthday card using collage.

All the pieces are cut from magazines, and I tried to give it a male feel - even with a bee! The bee stamp is by Stampotique and I love it - it comes on a square wood block and there are 2 different sized bees.

This week's Craft Barn challenge word is people, I think my two boxers qualify for that!

Also, this month's Craft Stamper Magazine challenge is to use one or more processes - ink, stitch, paint, collage, print, paper, and include some stamping somewhere.

It is National Poetry Day today, so here is one of my favourite poems -

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat

BY EDWARD LEAR

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea

   In a beautiful pea-green boat,

They took some honey, and plenty of money,

   Wrapped up in a five-pound note.

The Owl looked up to the stars above,

   And sang to a small guitar,

"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,

    What a beautiful Pussy you are,

         You are,

         You are!

What a beautiful Pussy you are!"

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl!

   How charmingly sweet you sing!

O let us be married! too long we have tarried:

   But what shall we do for a ring?"

They sailed away, for a year and a day,

   To the land where the Bong-Tree grows

And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood

   With a ring at the end of his nose,

             His nose,

             His nose,

   With a ring at the end of his nose.

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling

   Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."

So they took it away, and were married next day

   By the Turkey who lives on the hill.

They dined on mince, and slices of quince,

   Which they ate with a runcible spoon;   

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,

   They danced by the light of the moon,

             The moon,

             The moon,

They danced by the light of the moon.

She stood in the storm ...

... and when the wind did not blow her away, she adjusted her sails.
Elizabeth Edwards

This week's Craft Barn challenge is "stamping", the same as this month's Craft Stamper Take It Make It challenge.

I've recently discovered some delightful stamps from the Unity Stamp Company, which don't seem to be available here in the UK, but I found some in the US.

I'm using paper made for acrylic paint as the base, as I like the texture. I started with blown Brushos, and coloured with Distress Pens.

Started my new art course this week, so I'll be blogging about that soon.

In the meantime - happiness is discovering the new!

Going round in crazy circles!

Firstly can I welcome new followers, and also say thank you for all the comments I receive - I love reading them and they are truly appreciated.

This week's Craft Barn challenge is about sprays, and the current Paper Artsy challenge is all about circles ...

I'm still into my Crazy bird stamps, so I sprayed a piece of card with some Dylusions sprays, stamped a load of  the birds, cut them out, and added another layer of eyes and beaks - some of those dies are soooo tiny, I keep dropping them in the waste bin and then spend ages fishing them out!

The background is Brushos blown around with my Color Spritzer, the tool that you can attach pens to, to get an airbrushed effect.  Mine is made by RenArt and I've had it for years, but I think Tim Holtz does one too. Anyway, I don't use it with pens, but it is great for blowing paint around!

I then cut a circle from a piece of sheet music to create a circular swing, and added some words from a Paper Artsy stamp set.

Maybe it is time to say happiness is singing in the rain - as we are getting rather a lot of the wet stuff!

Colour me happy!

The Craft Barn weekly challenge is to use pens and pencils, which also happens to be this month's Craft Stamper challenge too.

I used a Gelli print for the background, and got the Crazy Birds stamp set out, together with the recently acquired matching die set; yet to be used!

I stamped and heat embossed a couple of the birds, then used my favourite colouring pencils - Coloursoft Pencils from Derwent.

It took me an age to sort the 18 dies out, as there are 3 for each bird - bit like a jigsaw! Anyway, I've numbered all the pieces as I don't want to go through that process again!  Quite tricky lining the dies up, and I've only used the main dies, but much much easier than a pair of scissors - especially those quiffs!

Found some words which are stamped onto a piece of sheet music that has been lightly gesso-ed to knock it back.

Finally, took a fine liner pen to frame everything.

Oh to fly away from this miserable weather!

Keep it simple ...

The latest Paper Artsy challenge is all about flowers, and this week's Craft Barn challenge is "clean and simple".

I love flowers, but I am not naturally clean and simple.

I had already stamped and white embossed some Paper Artsy flowers onto Brusho'd watercolour paper, so I tried to be a bit minimalist!  I added some dots of glitter glue into the flower centres, but they don't really show in the photo.

Here is the result.

Happy August!

Blooming circles!

I'm just in time for this week's Craft Barn challenge, which is circle and flowers.

Had a lovely day on Friday, crafting with friends.  I finished this card at home, which consists of a Brusho background on watercolour card.  The Brushos were already diluted.  Then created the bokeh effect with a white Brilliance ink pad, and added some silhouette poppies - one of my favourite Memory Box dies.

Such a miserable cold and wet day, think I'm going to do my drawing homework now!

Bring back Summer ...

Winged beauty

I have recently been inspired by the Sunset Moth, which Ryn (of Designs by Ryn) told me about in a recent comment on a previous post.

The sunset moths (Chrysiridia rhipheus) are native only to the island of Madagascar. It is the most stunning moth, and deserves as much fame as the most beautiful of butterflies.

Anyway, I've got Ryn's Moon Wings moth set, and I wanted to use a couple of those on this card, using Brushos.

On a piece of watercolour paper I did a simple wash background, and stamped and embossed two moths in white.

I then flooded the area within the stamped images with water - the wing areas - creating small pools, into which I sprinkled some Brushos - turquoise, purple and sea green.

I then did not touch it - but walked away. I was itching to push it around a bit with a brush, but didn't want to diminish the strength of colour, so I left it to dry.  Next, I used a little of the grey Brusho mixed with water to fill in the moth bodies and also used a little round the outside edges.

Finally, I added a little random embossing powder.

My tribute to the fabulous sunset moth.

Also entering this month's Craft Stamper Magazine Take A Stamp challenge.

There is a quote by Aristotle which I use a lot, but it says it all -

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.

Buzzy as a bee!

I'm a couple of weeks into my drawing course, so have less time for other stuff at the moment, though I have several projects on the go, nothing is getting finished!  I'll be writing about my drawing course once it is over, but I'm finding it exhilarating - and mentally exhausting!

So I'm sticking to making cards - useful mini canvases that don't take a lot of time.

This week's Craft Barn challenge is to use background words.

Some of my favourite things are poetry - particularly Emily Dickinson, and bees.  I've had this stamp for some time -

The pedigree of honey
does not concern the bee
A clover, any time, to him,
is aristocracy.
Emily Dickinson

So I've used it for the background, created with Distress Inks.  I then stamped the clover onto a separate piece of card, again using Distress Inks, and heat embossed it.  Finally, my favourite bee stamp (by Stampotique).

Bee happy!