Sunday Stamper - Week 314 - Knock On Wood

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy Sunday to you all!  Thank you for all your fabby entries for last weeks challenge and it is lovely to see some new peeps joining in too.  This week sees a nice different challenge - and that is to USE WOOD.  To join in with the challenge is simples: make a little something, it can be anything you fancy.  Add in the theme AND some stamping and then pop back here, leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can come see you.   If you haven't got a blog, you can join in via Facebook (just tag me name) or by emailing a small res.pic to me.  The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 5th July 2014.

My entry this week is actually a show sample from my last tellybox show that I haven't got around to blogging... better late than never.  I had lots of painty fun making this wall hanging.  The paints are Cosmic Shimmer Chalk Paints, I used Spiced Raspberry mixed with Vanilla and brayered the paints onto an MDF board.  Once I was happy with the background painting, I added some Spiced Raspberry to Clear Texture Paste and popped this through Dina's Plastic Canvas Stencil.  Once dried, I set about adding some light stamping using Dina's Textures stamp set.  I used Vanilla to stamp with so the background is nice and splotchy.

I make no secret of my lurve of butterflies and I went a little... erm... bonkers (!) with the butterflies on this piece... all stamped onto patterned papers and coloured with Aged Mahogany Distress Ink (you can see I missed colouring the underside of a wing... oops!)  The woodie branch is from the garden, I was cutting back a camellia and the twigs are really sturdy, ideal for adding to something crafty.  I tied string through the holes in the MDF and wrapped it around the twig to fasten it in place.  A wee sentiment to finish and voila, one painty project.

That's all from me for now... I am taking a couple of weeks off to recharge the old batteries so if I am a little quiet, it is probs because I am curled up with a good book :O)   *either that or up to mischief!*  Thanks for looking, have a goodly week! TTFN

Hels x

Anyone Who Had A Heart...

...dum,duuum... tralalalaaaa... yep, am a-singing again!  Sorry I have been AWOL the past few days... I have not been feeling too well so I have hunkered down, took a few days timeout and enjoyed the nice warm weather and read a couple of books!  Now I am feeling a smidge better I thought I would show you what I got up to at Inspirations last week when I was there for a demo day.  As ever, I had a lovely visit there and it was fab to see so many lovely peeps who came to see me.  A special mention to Trish:  Trish came along to watch me demo and during the break for lunch she had a nasty fall and sadly couldn't come back and watch me finish this sample...  hoping that Trish is feeling much better now and is over her bump.

This is a lovely MDF heart shape which I covered with scraps of paper using the paper blocking technique (a fab way to use up scraps and HERE is the linky to the wonder that is Paula Cheney's website where I first saw this idea)   Once the heart was covered I cut away the excess bits of paper using a craft knife (and managed to keep all 10 digits!) and sanded the edges to neaten them up.   Next up came some texturing... using Dina Wakley's Birds stencil, I used Gold Pearl Texture Paste with a dab of Midnight paint in it to darken it slightly, applied the paste through the stencil and set it aside to dry.

The flower is a Die D-Lites Spellbinders Daisy... how cute is that flower!!! And how fiddly to make!!!  Thanks to the ladies who "beared with me" for this assemblage, it seems to take an age but we got there in the end!  Kind worth it I reckon as it is a super pretty flower.

Every bit of paper blocking needs some shading so out came my beloved Stabilo ALL pencil... it was actually Dina Wakley who introduced me to these little magic pencils and I wouldn't be without mine now... and I have scoured yonder t'internet and found the cheapest are HERE  :O)  I wanted to add a bit more dimension to the heart so I stamped two hearts and then stuck them to some cardboard packaging to give them a bit of "body" and cut them out, coloured them with Aged Mahogany DI and then popped them onto the heart, along with the sentiment, which is also a Dina Wakley stamp. 

Today I am in a state of much excitement and merriment... why???  Well, that would be because tomorrow is Friday the 13th!!!!   Oh yesh, I do loves the number 13, tis my lucky number in fact... and I loves this Friday the 13th especially as it is my birthday!  I shall be celebrating by dragging poor old Grim around several garden centres and nurseries, well, he did ask what I wanted to do... and of course, as it is my birthday I will be scoffing copious amounts of cake because, as we all know, cake on birthdays is calorie free... right?    I shall bid you a goodly day now and away to the Room of Stash for a little light inky and papery play... thanks for looking, have a grand day!  TTFN

Hels x

Baroque Love...

...cor blimey!  This is making my brain ache... I am actually typing this post just a few seconds after publishing yesterdays post... I am a-scheduling this one to appear at midnight today, so if you can't see it, the publishing went wrong.. .mind you, if you can't see it, that means you won't even know I am waffling again!  *I need help.... *

Todays offering is another sample from the shows on Tuesday.  This one is a Baroque frame, painted with the Cosmic Shimmer Chalk Paints using a brayer to apply the paints... and I also added in some stamping using  Distress and Archival Inks, Dina's stamps and stencils and the Gold Pearl Texture paste that I loves so muchly.  I used the mask from the Basic Shapes stencil/mask set, once the paste was dry, over the mask went and I got stamping with the Textures stamps... I love that the mask is also more or less the same as the medium sized heart stamp... this was stamped and coloured in and then 3D'd over the paste heart....

Today I am in Preston at Inspirations - I will be demoing all things painty, mixed media-ery and inky... if you are in the area it would be great to see you!   My friend Pauline Wheeler is also demoing today... and that means that last night we will have been sitting yakking our heads off so we might be a little hoarse lol    Thanks for looking... have a great day! TTFN

Hels x

..Sample Time!!!

Uh-oh!  Tis me and my earworm again... I have even done a bit of the "Hammer dance" too, put me old back out but it was fun whilst it lasted lol    Anyways... today be the day that I will be on yonder tellybox at 10am and 3pm.  I had a few comments from peeps saying they're not in the UK so can't view the programmes... oh yesh, indeedily, you can!  The wonders of modern t'internet mean that you can go to the WEBSITE and click on the "watch us live" button and voila, there is the show that is on air at that time!  Clever huh?  All the other deets for the channel are over in the left hand sidey bar.

Here's another sample I put together for the shows - this one is using some lush new Couture Creations papers (love the lime green and black and white, one of my fave combo's) and I did a wee smidge of paper blocking on this MDF frame... and then did a bit of stamping using Dina's fabby stamps.  I *love* that sentiment... tis so true!

Just a flying visit from me today as I am scheduling this to post... and I am  just on my way to the nail salon... actually, it isn't really a salon, it is our front room, a bottle of clear nail varnish and a craft scrubbie to try and get all the ink and paint off them... wish me luck!   Thanks for looking... have a great day!  TTFN

Hels x

...Sample Time!!!

*...der.der.der.der...deh.deh Sample Time!*  Oh dearily me!  Yes, it is that time again... you know, when I spend alllll day humming the same old bit from the same old song... MC Hammer's Hammer Time... feel free to join in with my ear worm :O)   Anyways, enough of MC Hammer and his baggy pants, let's move onto the purpose of todays post.  And that purpose be showing you one of the samples I have done for the telly box shows tomorrow (show times are 10am and 3pm and deets on how to view are over in the sideybar *points left*)

New stamps!  New stencils & masks!  Oooh, be still my heart!  In this world of craftiness and artiness there are a fair few designers whom I think are absolutely marvellous and Dina Wakley is one of those artists.  I was so lucky a few years ago, my friend Minxy paid for me to take a class with Dina -and poor old Minx missed it because she was in hospital :O(! - it was a great class and I learnt soooo much from Dina, she is a veritable mine of information and so sharing with it too. 

I was delighted when I saw that Dina has joined Ranger as a Signature Designer... and of course, that means new products.  And that also means that lucky me gets to use them for tellybox shows and have a good old play with her new stamps and stencils & masks.  I won't go into too great-a-detail in how I made this creation as I am planning this one to be my first demo, getting all down and painty and inky :O)

Speaking of demo's, I really should get myself a-moving as I need to get everything sorted, prepped and ready to be packed up.  I hope you will be able to join me tomorrow... thanks for looking, have a grand day!  TTFN

Hels x

I Can Barely Contain...

...myself... well, my excitement... because.. it is THIS WEEK that I get to go and see Ellen, take classes with THE Wonderful Wendy Vecchi AND... I get my chops around several hundredweight of Cheesy Chester Cheeto's again! Mwhahaha.... I shall be positively glowing orange by the time I get back. Anyways... tis 3 days til I go... I think I had better start thinking about packing. Don't worry, I have been writing lists for the last three weeks... I have to have lists you see, otherwise I will forget something and be halfway over the Atlantic by the time I remember... somehow I don't think that the Pilot would be happy if I asked him to turn around and go back for me lol





Anyways... back to my adventures last week. First of all... I want to say that I was truly gutted that my mate Minxy got sick and ended up in hospital and couldn't make it to Dina Wakley's class at LB Crafts. Gillian and I both really missed her - I had been so excited to see her because we only see each other a couple of times a year... and I so wanted to be able to have a playdate with her... speedy recovery wishes are heading her way. So... I haven't done a class for a yonk and a half and being as my Mojo had been AWOL for a week and was only just home, it was perfectly timed... Dina oozes creativity, inspiration and talent... she is a marvellous teacher, so if you get chance to take a class with her, do it! Really... everyone needs to do a Dina class!




Yesterday I showed the blue and orange pages of a cool little fabric covered book that we made... so here's the rest of it... oh and to say I had a ball would be an understatement. I was totally out of my comfort zone... you know how I like to overembellish everything I make? Well, this kind of crafting sort of sated my need for this because of the amount of layers in each page... like seven or eight on each one... and it is still flat but looks dimensional... am I making sense? Probably not but I am sure that you will catch the gist of what I am trying to say lol



Dina had pre-sewed the covers (phew, my sewing talents are non-existant) so all we had to do was decorate them... we covered them with torn pages and hand cut circles... am loving all the little pops of colour... which carries on through the book.



Right... tis time for me to get a wiggle on... I have lists to write and projects to finish before I head off... did I mention I am going away? Oh I did? LOL Thanks for looking... TTFN

Hels x

Sunday Stamper - Week 175 - This Wheel's On Fire

Goodly Morning Stampers and a happy Sunday to you all. First of all, many many thanks for the wonderful Mojo-themed entries last week... I certainly appreciated all those hints and tips too :O)) The theme this week has been chosen by Gillian... who, along with me, was totally inspired after attending a fab class with Dina Wakley on Friday. Dina taught us about the principals of the Colour Wheel, primary, secondary and tertiary colours and how they work together. So... to narrow the challenge theme down, Gillian has chosen for the theme to be using the colours BLUE & ORANGE together. The challenge is open to all, tis easy to join in - simply make a little something, add in the theme and some stamping, leave a comment for me here with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can hop on over to see you. The theme will remain open until 23:00 Saturday October 15th 2011.



So... my entry is actually some of the pages of the mini book I made in class. I am not going into detail about how I achieved the looks on the pages because they aren't my design to waffle on about and it wouldn't be fair to Dina... however, I will say... I LOVE HER STAMPS! And now I need them all lol




If you ever get the chance to take a class with Dina... go for it... she is an amazing teacher, really chilled out and hilarious... and she had a way of getting me to learn this stuff... believe me when I say I am thick when it comes to anything to do with art and colour and now I know about the colour wheel and how it works!




That there is a Colour Wheel... and you will see that the primary colour is blue... and the secondary or complimentary colour is orange... which is why the work together so well. I can't wait to see the things that you make... I am going to go off and have a play and make something else using these principals. Right, enough of the old waffle from me... time to get painty and inky again... thanks for looking... TTFN

Hels x