New Challenge Blog "Stamps & Stencils"

Hello and Welcome back to my poor neglected blog...

I have some exciting news about a New Monthly Challenge Blog "Stamps and Stencils" which is being launched today 2nd of April but more exciting for me I am going to be a member of the design team.

It will continue on the 1st Thursday of each month.

So if you would like to join us you need to follow a Mixed Media style and include Stamping or Stencilling or even both. Entries can be anything from cards, to altered items, but they must have mixed media roots.
No digital images allowed, but vintage photo's will be accepted.

Sue is the host for the 1st challenge and the theme she has chosen is - Anything Goes, so please hop over to the blog and meet the other lovely ladies in the Design Team.

Here is my 1st entry, it has not been easy as I have just moved house, no excuses but my crafting

table is currently a cardboard box with a tray on it!!!!!

Her fine tail feathers are the flowers off Lin Brown new stamp by Paper Artsy.

Grunge paste through a stencil then stamped.

Leaves cut out to to give some dimension.

Flowers tinted with paint, another use for a copper plant label.

Again flowers used for sunshine, the copper has been puffed out.

The canvas is called New Beginnings for several reasons, or it could be called Freedom (note that the bird is not caged) 

Thank you Sue for all the hard work you have put into this new challenge, it is going to be such a joy to be part of the team xx

Sharon

Quick Post Before the Big Day

Hi everyone and welcome, I have some very exciting news about a new challenge blog called

Stamps and Stencils  and I am very proud to be a member of the design team, I'm sure you will recognise the other very talented ladies.

 We will be mixed media style blog, so you can use anything so long as it includes Stamp or Stencils or better still both...

Sorry no digi images but vintage photo's are ok.

So please hop over and join in the fun. We go live 2nd April, looking forward to seeing you there xxx

Anything Mixed Media Goes

Hello and welcome to my Design Team piece for the first challenge at Artist Trading Post Exchange . The theme for this challenge is "Anything Mixed Media Goes"

We are a fortnightly, mixed media challenge, which can include any kind of project as long as it follows a mixed media style. Sorry no digi images allowed....

I have always admired The Gentleman Crafter and when I saw that you could download the instructions (at a very small Cost) for his Pyramid Gifted Mini, that gave me the idea to make a little travel journal book in a box.

Embellished with Route 52 Heart and Wings then painted with Silks Acrylic Glaze, the ribbon has been coloured with Distress Inks.

Some of the pages of the accordian book have been left blank so I can add photo's or memorabilia when I got back from my travels.
The Cherish Stamp is from Darkroom Door, Art De Fleur. The compass is Tim Holtz Classic no1.

I have used Paper Artsy "Chatsworth" paper and Tim Holtz idea-ology, both papers are a excellent weight and stand up to stamping and glueing.

Paper Artsy Mini Script Stamp MN61 on the cream arch which is the same as what is printed on the Paper Artsy Paper, and the leaf is cut from the same paper.

The Birds on the wire are a Crafty Individual stamp CI287

Just to show how the accordion book pulls out. 

And to prove  that the book does fit into the box, inside the box has been painted with Paper Artsy Paints and stencils then stamped using Eclectica EDY07

I have used the new Finnabair Art Basics 3d Matte Gel to paste everything together and fix the metal embellishment on and I'm very impressed with it.

Well I hope you enjoy my first post and I haven't gone on too much, and I am really looking forward to seeing what the rest of the team and you will create.

Thanks for stopping by

Sharon

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New Artist Trading Post Design Team

Hello everyone, and welcome.

I have some exciting news to share with you all this morning. There is a new Mixed Media challenge blog starting  at http://artisttradingpost.blogspot.co.uk on thursday October 2nd, and I have been invited to join along with some very talented ladies.

The other members are being introduced this week so please keep popping over there. On thursday I and the other DT ladies will be sharing our first Design Team project's so it would be great if you could pop back and have a look at what has been created.

A special thanks goes to Sue for all the hard work she has put into getting the team up and running.
Thank You.

Sharon x

Pounding the Petals

Just a quick post to show you a fab workshop I went to at Betty's Sewing Box in Ashbourne.

It was called Pounding the Petals, I'll not go into too much details but it was the noisiest
 lesson I have attended.

 This is the sort of item you can make with the material when it has had it's Floral Transfer technique applied, but after a lot of practice I would think.

This was a beautiful little dress.

A small selection of the flowers before they were pounded?

The lovely June enjoying stitching around the flowers.

These are the flowers I transferred onto various different material, and then stitched around them, using a free flow technique, not sure if that's the right term for it, but it was great fun and I did go a bit mad with it :)

Here's a Lampshade made using this method.

This is Jackie who runs Betty's Sewing Rooms, she is always interested in selling hand made items, of good quality.

Pop in to see her and the shop next time your in Ashbourne or check out their website, did I mention the home made cake, well I don't want everybody to know or there will be none left for me.

Here's a small sample of some of the hand made items you can buy.

These are so cute.

That's all for today, hope it gives you some ideas of what goes on in Ashbourne, the next workshop I have booked in for is called Cow Parsley. I will keep you informed. Hope you have a great weekend and manage to do something that you enjoy.

Sharon x 

Hello,

You may think I am a bad blogger, the truth is I'm not very technically minded so more often than not things go wrong..... So this will be the second time I have written this blog. If anybody finds my original one please let me know.

I have been painting terracotta plant pots, as I work in a garden centre it is very easy for me to get hold of them and there are a very reasonable price.

Here is the first pot I painted, I stamped onto tissue and painted on the back of it, I also used Grunge Paste and Crackle Glaze on the top. 

That was a longer process than the next pot, where I just painted straight onto the pot with Paper Artsy paints.

When I had the base coat applied I started to build up the layers by applying paint through stencils, these are designed by Lin Brown for Paper Artsy and available from Artist Trading Post.

A little masking tape helped to keep the stencil in place.

After painting I repositioned the stencil over the flowers and stamped over the stencil with Archival Ink

Here's Bru again wondering is it time for walkies and football yet  !!!!!!

Well I hope you managed to see this post, I would love you to leave a comment so I know that somebody is looking. 

Happy Crafting

Sharon xxx

Hello and welcome to my New Blog.

Have you ever tried to decide on a name for a blog, whatever I thought of, it seemed it was already out there.
I remembered a friend saying 7-9 was her crafting time, great a name I could use.

It's only a name not a rule, I craft whenever I feel like it, once work is over with and my best buddy Bru has had his walk.

This is Bru cannot wait to get his new football, I must add that he is football mad.

I wanted to create a picture or book cover with my blog name on it, and I have a book which did have just a plain blue cover. The book is were I right down my ideas for projects or blogs that I want to have a look. It's not a journal or a diary, it's just handy to have and saves lots of scraps of paper on my desk.

I used gesso as the base layer, then Paper Artsy's Grunge Paste through stencils. The Letters are Grunge board ( these are years old that I found in my stash). 

I painted the cover before adding the letters with Silks Acrylic Glaze. Starting with the lightest colour in the middle and gradually working out to the darker colours. 

There's also a bit of stamping to help add some layers of interest. A few embellishment and thats all there is to it.......

The pictures are not very good, I have better pictures but they just keep loading upside down.

Something I will just have to keep practising with!!!!

That's my 1st blog, hope you enjoy a little insight to my crafting world, and I will be back soon.