Back to the grindstone...

I make it sound like hard work don’t I, going back to work. It isn’t. It’s good. Good people and lovely stuff to craft with. Sure, I’ve done a lot of crying into my paint pot, but we’ve also had a laugh as well - which sometimes feels like an emotion you will never be able to retrieve doesn’t it - happiness. 

So, my grindstone has ground away a little sadness. And brought in some light. And I managed to create things I was happy with - AALL and Create though. Easily done.

I’ll share a few of my makes for you.

This weekend I’m back in Brighton, doing workshops all weekend. I was supposed to be with the fantastic Clarity team today, but knew that may be a little to much for me. Sadly. I was really looking forward to seeing everyone.

Tomorrow we are trotting off to Portsmouth. We have a joint workshop, which I’m really looking forward to. I know there’s places left if anyone wants to join us...but you’d have to book ASAP otherwise we won’t be able to pack your goody bag in time.

On Sunday we visit tonbridge wells. First time we’ve done this venue as well, so looking forward to it. I do like going to new venues, it’s a little adventure.

I hope you can join us, but if not, I’ll be back on the box next Tuesday, so will give you a wave.

Let leonie loose...Carabelle and the wonderful Gelpress

Carabelle....how much do I love these stamps.  The designs, the quality.  The variety.  They're ace.  This weeks LLL show was made up of good worker stamps, you know, the sort that will be a good background for all your other stamps, dies, stencils...all your stash.  Use them with clay, angelina fibres, texture paste or lashings of paint.  Whatever...they will work.

I had my first proper play with the Gelpress.

Addicted.

Honestly, I'm having withdrawal symptoms...I had to do "other stuff" today, and quite frankly didn't want to.  Well, I say this, I wanted to combine it with the other stuff to be honest! Block printing on top of these backgrounds....that is definitely going to happen!






The joy of all the pieces is how easy they are.  I had to have a play to find my feet first of all, but when I got the hang of it, there was no stopping me.  The stamps are amazing, as you lift the paint off the Gelpress, and then take a print.  Layering, and adding more detail, colour and texture adds such depth to each piece.



It did help having a block of card stock at hand.  The Clarity card is perfect, it prints beautifully, and has been cut to the perfect size, so you can easily print in precisely the same place - making the ability to layer your images really simple.  I also used the paints from Barbara, these were the Viva Decor acrylic, and of course the Gel Press.













I used the stencil below, from Indigo Blu, quite a lot, as it's perfect for pulling out specific words, or using it for the full verse. 











Many of the layers were also using the bird stencil from Carabelle, which again is such a handy tool.  I also reached for my Mamma Makes stamps - always handy for journaling and art pieces.



Homework for myself.....who fancies a GelPress workshop next year?  :)

Carabelle Studio's Let Leonie Loose Show

I think I'm definitely addicted to these stamps!  The designs are so cool, and different.  I really like working with them.  I thought I would share a few samples from last weeks show.  Check the web site, I'm sure we still have the stamps in stock if you did miss out on them. I was also able to play with some cool paints from Deco Art.  The first sample you can see the stunning iridescent paints.  I used masking tape to create my frame, painted black gesso, and then stamped and embossed my images.  I then painted over the gesso with the iridescent paint.

DecoArt have also brought out spritzers, which are permanent and fantastic for layering, making them perfect for mixed media.  For this card I simply used them for a blast of colour, and then used my little character stamp clutching his star balloon.

The floral stamps are fantastic for layering, and the DecoArt Tinting medium is nice to drag the distress ink to colour the flowers.  This gives a more opaque finish than when the colour is dragged out with water.

For this one I used the DecoArt crackle paint through a Andy Skinner mask.  When the paint was dry, I worked over the background with the paints.  The background stamp is fantastic, and for this image I just used one of the flowers and a few of the little circles.

This is the full background stamp.  It's so cool.  There's so much detail.  With this one I used the sentiment which I threaded under the largest flower, and then stamped onto the smaller flower, so it appears that the sentiment is flowing onto the flower

Finally - this guy!  Cool isn't he.  I used the DecoArt paints to create my background, along with the stamps, and the mask.  I used the same paints to colour my little chap in.

I've got the catalogue to plan some more Carabelle shows......this makes me very happy :) xx

The Crafty Countdown - 68 days to go. Time to get inky

This evening I was inspired to do something because of a scrap of card sitting on my desk...this scrap in fact:

It might not seem particularly inspiring, this piece of white card with glittery dots, however I thought "will those glittery dots resist ink"

With that, I picked up my Cosmic Shimmer Colour Cloud Blending Ink, and my new favourite, my ink smoothie.  Love these little ink sponges, very cool!  I blended 4 different colours over the card, and look how those glittery dots pop:

I the took an old, but favourite, stamp.  It's a Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz design, and very beautiful, for an ATC it's a big stamp, however, so I needed to cut it down and use it in a different way to make it work:

I decided to do two cards, slightly different.  You can see the stamp, above, and the way I've used it to get a different effect.  

On one card I've over stamped the image using the blue Colour Blend Ink, on the second card I've used the lovely glittery pens from Spectrum Noir, and blended some rich sparkle into my stamped image:

I then stamped my sentiment stamp, one onto white, and then one onto a scrap of my inked card.  I mat and layered the sentiments, and then added them to my card:

68 days to go.  Do you know, doing this really does bring it home just how fast time flies!!  Gulp :)