Let Leonie Loose

I’ve taken so many photos from previous shows and been really bad when it’s come to sharing! I always set off with such good intentions, but then something will happen and send me wandering off in a different direction!


I thought I’d share some of these with you, and attempt to remember what I used! This could be a challenge..but hey, it’s a trip down my creative memory lane, so it’ll be lovely whether I remember correctly - or have to make it up.
Okay, the first photos I’ve found in my phone are easy. One of my favourite (favourite) companies, Stamperia. In fact, I’ve got some lovely papers etc for sale, which I will share with you on here, whilst we are setting up our web site. I decided to use my papers, stamps and stencils in my art journals.
For this page I used metallic paint, then stencilled over the top with acrylic paint, which really stands out on top of the sheen created by the shiny paint.

This is such an easy page. It’s literally one of the pages from the pad. The owl is a stamp which I’ve stamped onto acetate and painted with acrylics



I love this page. I’ve trickled paint down the page, and then used stencils and stamps to fill the background, and then distress inks. The elements are from the paper pad. This one is featured in the Cardmaking and Papercrafts magazine

This was a combo of stencil paste, and then the lovely metallic paint over the top. The little owls are from the paper pad


Another one using those stencils and stamps.



Same technique but a different colour palette really makes a difference to the final result



I adore this stamp. Stamped on acetate and then the wonderful rice paper is behind, along with acrylic paint.

India....9 months and counting!

eeeeeekkkkkk.....India is fast approaching. So excited. And even more so as it’s getting full up. I’m so thrilled people are coming to join me on the fantastic experience.
For those of you who are just hearing about this, well.......the wonderful Jamie from Colouricious organises holidays to Jaipur, and in October I will be hosting one of these holidays.  Essentially I’ll be coming with you on your holiday - attending the block printing workshops, coming along on the excursions, and spending some time exploring this incredible country. Jamie has run these holidays for some time now, and has selected a lovely hotel for us, and filled our day with activities which will fill our senses with colour, sights, sounds and creativity. We get to see the blocks being made, and how they are used traditionally.
The beauty of the holiday is we will be in a group of like minded people, so if you have always wanted to see India, but may have been a little nervous about doing so, then this could be a fantastic opportunity.
For the full itinerary, costs and all the details you may need, please follow this link:

https://colouriciousholidays.com/product/leonie-pujol-hochanda-block-printing-holiday-october-2018/
Here are a few photos Jamie has sent me from one of the previous holidays. If you have any questions please let me know. If I can help I will, if not I will get in contact with Jamie and get back to you ASAP.

Plan of action! WORKSHOPS

I’ve been very remiss at not wishing everyone a happy new year! How rude. I hope everyone had a wonderful time, and 2018 has started well for you.

It’s new year, so a good time to make plans for the year ahead, and we have indeed been planning. Here’s a list of workshops that we have scheduled so far. There will be more, as I am doing some joint workshops as well, but we wanted to get these dates out there so people could start booking early.

There is also the incredible opportunity to join me in the trip to India, I will share that again in a later post. For now, here’s the plan so far:

The workshops will generally run 10-4, but there may be a few where the times have changed, but we will keep you posted. We have decided to reduce the cost of the workshop and ask people to bring their own lunch - this will just be more practical for us, especially when trying to find venues.   

All venues will have disability access.

The workshops will be £55 for the day, and this will include refreshments throughout the day, and your exciting crafty kit. We will require a deposit of £10, which will be fully refunded if you need to cancel your place, as long as that is within 2 weeks of the workshop, after that if we can not fill your place, I’m afraid you will loose your deposit.

To book your place, or for more details, please either email us leoniepujol@hotmail.co.uk, or give Mandy a call on 07517047611. We can take credit, debit cards, or Paypal.

18th February - Rottingdean - the Whiteway Centre

4th March - Chichester - the Lodge

22nd April - Hastings- Ore Centre

6th May - Guildford- the Spike (this workshop will be 11 - 6)

17th June - Tunbridge Wells 

8th July - Rottingdean The Whiteway Centre

5th August Portsmouth fratton

7th October Chichester the lodge

18th November Guildford the spike (11-6)

We are really looking forward to meeting loads of you, and sharing some techniques and giggles.

Workshop weekend

Busy little weekend down in Polegate with Mandy and myself and a lovely bunch of crafty ladies.  Can I say a massive thank you to everyone who traveled to share the weekend with us.  We got ourselves in a painty mess, which is always a pretty good way to spend a day.

I wanted to share loads of pics, but as usual forgot to get my camera out for most of the day!  I did remember to take snaps of the finished art pieces though - which I'm so pleased about.  I loved how different they all look, but also how professional. 

I've another workshop this coming weekend, so I've had a day off today, but it's back to the crafty grind stone tomorrow....





























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Block printing....finished samples and HOLIDAY!!

Good evening readers....I'm sat eating soup and making rice pudding.  Home made rice pub...happy days.  It reminds me on my great Auntie, who always made it really sweet and kept the skin on.  Wonder what she would have thought of me and my almond milk and agave syrup!  No idea how it will taste....if I'm not in work tomorrow you know it ended badly.

So, who saw my LLL show on Wednesday.  Block printing.  Seriously, this is cool. I met Jamie, the owner of Colouricious, when she came in to do a show on Hochanda.  I loved Jamie's work, and also her incredible story in relation to block printing and the village these works of art originate from.  The blocks are just beautiful.  They are a work of art in their own right.  All hand carved in India.  Each one is seeped in oil to help with easy cleaning, and also to prevent the wood from loosing the incredible detail.  These are a life time purchase, and obviously there's tons of things you can do with them.  I only had a little dabble - but I will definitely be doing more.  In fact, I'll be learning the skill of block printing, seeing the blocks being made, and much more, when I trot of to India, to the actual village the blocks are produced, next October.  And you can join me!!  It is a fantastic opportunity.  A real experience, both artistically and culturally.  We will be looked after, the hotel looks lovely, we have two meals a day provided.  We are taken on excursions, and we will also have some fantastic workshops.  If you would like to come along with me, then please follow this link:

https://colouriciousholidays.com/product/leonie-pujol-hochanda-block-printing-holiday/?wpam_id=6

As you can imagine I am ridiculously excited.  And don't panic, I'm not organising the actual holiday.  The lovely Jamie has done that - so we won't end up in Ramsbottom playing with lego blocks!

Okay, what did I do this week...this lot....


The blocks work on your gel press.  They give a nice sharp print, and you can also easily over print as well.  All of these were done only with the block printing













Cleaning your blocks is easy.  Just a bit of hot soapy water and a scrub, and your done. HOwever, before you do that, spritz them with water and just wipe off the excess paint, this way it doesn't dry on the block and ruin the detailed design before you have chance to scrub them.  I'm not a fan of the hundreds of baby wipes we use that end up in landfill, so how chuft was I when I realised if you clean your blocks with rice paper, you then have a fab background that you can stamp on, etc!  Suddenly cleaning became fun.



Rice paper is brilliant for using on awkward shaped objects, like this round box, as it goes round corners with ease.  I love this.  The various colors, and depth.  And thats just from cleaning ink off my board, and paint from my blocks, and then a little black block printing on the top. 







Of course block printing is known for it's use to create the most incredible fabric prints.  And it's easy.  I tried simple patterns on linen, organza and satin.  The paint Jamie uses is great quality.  It dries soft, so the fabric doesn't feel like it's actually been painted. 





This is another rice paper covered box.  Easy, but cool.  This time I added my paint to a water spritzer with water, and spritzed the rice paper.  It gives it a cool background.





On air, we had to pretend this was a cat, as we didn't have the cat stencils to work with, but how cool does it look using your blocks to stencil through the stencil.  I love the quality of the print as well, it's so crisp




Finally, using my Gelpress to create a cool background with the blocks, I then put my MDF shapes onto the Gelpress.  The print is lovely.  I then used my regular stamps to stamp over the top, which looks rather cool.






This is where the adventure begins, I am thrilled to have the chance to go to India, it's been something I have always wanted to do - but this is beyond what I thought possible.  And how fast does a year go by!  It'll fly by.......