I won! I won!

Woohoo! I won the retailer blog hop over on Tando Creative! Earlier this week I received a box crammed full of all these fabulous goodies: (for some reason Mr Blogger wants to display the pic sideways)

Among all thee fabulous goodies was a 4 horse carousel.  I love carousels so that was the first thing I played with:

Loads of Fresco Finish paints, gold paint dabber, die cut flourishes and gems later, I used edge punches to make a card trim for the top and bottom and used mica flakes all over the roof.  Here's a look at the opposite side:

This was so much fun to do and went together so easily, I can't wait to play with some more of my prize, and with the Pebeo Fantasy Moon paints.

Thanks for looking.

International Card Making Day...

...is today. Over on the Paperartsy blog Leandra has a competition to celebrate. I don't really do cards, but I thought I would have a go, especially with the chance to win Paperartsy stamps up for grabs!



I painted the front of a card blank with my favourite combo (claret fresco finish, crackle medium then nougat fresco finish) then embossed a music script stamp with gold. I went round the edge with my new love, frantage aged teal embossing powder. The Paperartsy bauble and word were stamped onto grunge paper that had been painted with pea coat and Hyde park fresco finish mixed to match the teal in the frantage. I embossed those with white detail powder, cut them out and edged them all with a gold paint dabber. A bit of gold ribbon tied around the top of the baubles and I was done.

Thanks for looking.

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More Mixed Media

So while waiting for the texture paste to dry on the gift box I started fiddling around with a canvas board I found ( yes, I literally found it in a carrier bag of stash I forgot I had!). I had an idea for something in shades of brown and cream with lots of layers but then it sort of went in a totally different direction (except for the layers, I did end up with those)





Well, there is some brown in there, but I spied the jar of Aged Teal frantage embossing powder I picked up at Ally Pally and decided I had to use that somehow so I veered off into green and blue territory. I discovered to my horror that I do not possess any Toad Hall fresco finish! How did that happen?! So I mixed French Roast into Hey Pesto and got something close.

I love how the Frantage looks around the edge. Must get more of that!

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Mixed Media Madness

I had a very boring plain brown box I intended to use as a gift box but first I needed to pretty it up a bit



I gave it a couple of coats of claret fresco finish then applied crackle glaze followed by vintage lace fresco finish. The box itself had slight ridges, almost like corrugated cardboard, so that added some interesting texture as well.



I stamped the Paperartsy birds in the grass stamp around the sides, then mixed some texture paste with some of the claret paint and pushed that through a crafters workshop template on the lid and around the sides. When that was dry I mixed some hey pesto fresco finish into some more texture paste and pushed that through the grass part of the template on the lid. A bit of washi tape around the lid and I was done.

Thanks for looking.

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Ally Pally Stash Fun

Had a great time yesterday at Ally Pally watching Leandra and Lin demoing on the Paperartsy stand, bumping in to old friends (mainly on the Paperartsy stand) and buying loads of stash - also mainly on the Paperartsy stand. Can you see a theme here? lol.

I did hear a couple of ladies outside saying it wasn't as good as previous years, "there weren't many peel offs" (this is a bad thing?!) How many peel offs can you need? Besides, Topaz Crafts were there. I avoided that stand like the plague, but if you are in to peel offs I would imagine Ms Bibby (who was there in person) would stock more than enough!

Anywho, I have been busy with one thing after another today and haven't had much time to play, but I was determined to make something with my new stash so did a quickish tag with one of my new Lynne Perella stamps from Paperartsy, some crunchy waxed paper from Paperartsy, and some keys from..... Ali-Crafts (yes, I did buy from a couple of other stands!)




The paints are a variety of Fresco Finish colours blended and layered and the techniques are all ones demoed by the dynamic duo yesterday, including the simple but genius idea of Leandra's to clear emboss the Lynne Perella stamps.

Thanks for looking.

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Where does the time go?!

I can't believe it is mid-September already! Where has this year gone?
I've had a bit of  a play with a configurations box

I'm not really sure it's finished, but I've been looking at it for a week now and I can't think of what else to do with it so it's done for now!

I used some music manuscript tissues I found on a shopping trip to cover the outside of the box and painted the whole thing with Hey Pesto fresco finish with some French Roast dry brushed on top, then started adding various bits and pieces.  The flowers are made with t!m's tattered pinecone die and the music notes are from a Maya Road key ring painted with Pumpkin Soup fresco finish and stamped with a music stamp.  The ballerina is from the Artistic Stamper plate by Sioux Jenny's and the jazz band is a Graphic 45 stamp.

So, being stumped with what else to do with the box I decided to play with a tag instead

I painted the tag with Vintage Lace fresco finish then a thin coat of London night and some Pansy dry brushed over the top, then I stamped a Paperartsy text stamp with Dusty Concord DI then made a mistake so I mixed some Vintage Lace and London Night with lots of glazing medium and painted that all over the stamped again with Jet Black archival but that was too much so I faded that out with some more of the glaze.  The bird and grass are Paperartsy again, and then I pushed some Viva Ferro through some crafters workshop templates - blackberry for the birdcage and branch and iron for the butterflies.

What the heck is wrong with Blogger today? It keeps turning my pics sideways when uploading so I am having to rotate them myself before uploading so they come out up the right way!!

Hope you are all making the most of the gorgeous weekend before summer goes away.

Holiday fun

I've just got back from a short holiday to Barcelona with my two daughters. We had a great time wandering around, munching tapas and sipping sangria - perfect.

Got back on Friday and started playing with a back to front canvas (working on the back to make a sort of shadow frame).





While wandering around I stumbled across a collectors market and picked up some old postcards and ephemera so used some of those on this.

For the frame I stuck tissue paper and then spread on some texture paste which I stamped then heat dried to bubble it and add more texture. That covered the staples and canvas edge and then I painted on several layers of Fresco Finish paints. I might give it a touch of rub n buff later.

I used the same paints on the main canvas through stencils and some random stamping then started layering up ephemera and pictures.

Alas, my trusty old printer decided to give up on me so this isn't finished yet. I have more pics to print (have ordered from an online photo printing service) and once those are on I have some charms and other stuff to add, but I am quite pleased with how it is turning out.

Ah well, back to work tomorrow :(

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