Lamali Journals and life!

 Hi there folks. I generally do my weekly catch up at the weekend, but I thought I’d pop a little note on here, as I missed last week.

First, I’m going to start with my pooches. The weather has been lovely. Chilly and full of autumn colours. And the girls are most definitely loving the fact I’ve been at home more. As I type they’re bookending me - it’s cuddles galore. So at least they’re happy.

The change of events has also made me use my planner more than ever. I didn’t think that was possible. I didn’t want to sit around and do nothing. After all, I’m self employed and a freelancer. As such I know being out of the office means no wage - so I can’t take the risk of seeing what happens. I need to make things happen. And they are. Which is actually really exciting. Life is about change, growth, new challenges. And I quite like that. Granted, there are better ways to kickstart a major life shake up - but there’s no way I’m sitting around feeling like this is a holiday. So, the planners looking just peachy.

And then of course, the journals! Oww, these are a thing of beauty. Most definitely one of the most popular things we bring you here at Art Inspirations - they fly off the shelves. Which makes me think of Harry Potter. They look like they belong in a wizarding classroom. Anyway, we launched them this week on what would normally be a Let Leonie Loose show. I say normally. Currently create and craft isn’t broadcasting live. We’re stood down just waiting to see what happens. Apparently there are investors interested - so we’re all standing by to see the next chapter of this story. In the meantime I wanted to just touch base with my lovely customers and do some crafting. Which was great actually. For my pages I used loads of goodies. Ink from Hero Arts, the stunning Art Inspirations Nikolas Tower stamps, sticker from The Happy Planner, one of our Art Inspiration stencils from the new Rodrigo Assi collection, lovely waxes from Pink Ink, and cool rub one from Funky Fossil. I’m so pleased with the results. If you do want to see the demo, you can find it here

As I said, I’ve not sat around just eating and drinking…..granted I’ve done some of that. But I’ve also been chatting to folk, making plans. Lovely Paula did some new photos for me as well, which i just might need for a cheeky announcement at the weekend…….😃🤗😚

46 days still to go...back in the game

Happy New Year everyone, and lets hope 2016 is good to us all, and exciting!

I'm so sorry I didn't do my blog post yesterday.  I would like to say it was because of a horrid hangover...however it was literally down to feeling horrible still.  We did have a good party, and a few glasses of fizz, and I managed to get up for a walk with my friends and the dogs to the beach - but by the time I got home I was fit for nothing.  I gave up, had Night Nurse, and, thankfully, a good nights sleep.  I'm now on day 4 of not having a voice.  Can you imagine, me without working vocal cords.  It's driving me mad.  There are loads of people with the usual winter lurgy, so I know I'm definitely not on my own.  Anyhow, at least today I felt like crafting - and blogging.

I was chatting about the stamps I decided to use, just the other day.  I'm not sure who I was chatting too, unfortunately.  These are lovely stamps from Hero Arts, and were so popular when I worked at Dawn's shop.  Honestly, we couldn't keep them on the shelves.  They are classy, and beautiful.  And the reason I love stamps, they are such a good investment.  They last such a long time, and still look fabulous.

I wanted to do something different for the background again, so picked one of my masks:

And stippled through it using Tim Holtz distress paints.  This will give a lovely stippled effect:

When you remove the mask, it does look really effective

However, look at all the lovely paint left on the mask

As a crafter, there's no way we can leave this paint.  So, I spritzed it with water

I then placed a piece of card over the top and pressed it down to soak up the paint

and then, there's the paint left on the mat!!  

I had a stamped image that was just sitting there, so I dumped it onto my mat

Love this!  I blasted it dry with my heat gun

And then matted it onto the background I created, as the colours will match perfectly.  I then stamped a sentiment. 

I then got my lovely Hero Art stamps ready

And stamped one onto plain white card

I also stamped the image onto some of the scrap which has part of the paint on.  I much preferred this to be honest, as it had more interest.  I coloured the hat in with a glitter pen.  I then decided to stamp the Style is Eternal stamp along the bottom of the card, and added paint and glitter

Which I completely fell out with, and decided to chop it off.  I mat and layered my image using craft metal, which can easily be textured with embossing folders, or just scissors

Now, I layered the sentiment, and the image, and added a ribbon knot to the left, and little gems at the bottom of the card

See, it looks much better at the bottom of the card now doesn't it.