Skeletons in the closet?

I've used my huge leather journal for this page. 

I've used Dylusions inks and the new Dylusions stamps 'Pin up Queen', 'Boney Maloney', 'Day of the Heads' and 'This old House'.

I wanted her to look like a carnival girl so I gave her a bit of bling with stickles.

I had to get my thinking cap on and draw the wardrobe and the effect on the stockings is from using Distress Ink through some lace.

I love the way Dyan's perfect skeleton's hand curls around the door.

I've been trying to plough through my huge glut of courgettes from the garden.

I've been making flans, bakes, cakes you name it. I think I'm going to look like one soon!

Any ideas are very welcome. :)

Hope you have a fabulous week?

Michelle xxx

Accordion card and Derwent XL blocks

I've been playing with a new product the Derwent XL Graphite and Charcoal blocks. 

The Graphite and charcoal is water soluble so with a waterbrush you can get really great watercolour effects.
They will last forever too, the blocks are really thick and easy to handle.

Below I've used the blocks on this Accordion card (die by Sizzix).
I've used Dylusions stamps for the vines, flowers and birds, and used 2 of Tim's mini blue print stamps.
Everything has been coloured using the graphite and charcoal blocks.

Another great thing about these blocks is that there are 6 in each box, you might think this is not a lot but it gives you the most perfect limited palette of colours which look great together. I like that. Sometimes I umm and aa over what colours to chose, this way I can pick any colour and the will go together.

I'm teaching a class using these blocks on the 24th of September at Art from the Heart. 

There are places left if you'd like to book HERE

Here are some close up shots of the panels on the card.

 Here is a pic of the blocks below

 

 Have a great creative week 

Michelle xxx

Great discoveries can happen for PaperArtsy

Over at PaperArtsy they're celebrating their 10 years Anniversary since they started the company.

There are lots of things happening over there at Creasey Farm.

Every Monday in August is Monster Monday where you can grab massive bargains. There are new stamps released every week in the shop and projects made from them will be on the blog the same night.

PaperArtsy has a huge presence on Twitter, where many a new idea is hatched. Leandra is getting her Twitter followers (PATWITs) in on the act too, by sending them surprise stash and asking them to make something for the blog. There is a definite buzz in the air around 7pm on Twitter when the blog posts are about to go live too, so if you want to be a fly on the wall and watch what we're all chatting about then come and see what we're up to, and you might even get in on some more PATWIT events in the future.

I was delighted to be asked to come back to make something for their 10 year celebrations.

I've made this hanging canvas board with the fab Jo Firth-Young stamps. 

I love these stamps sooo much.

To see how I made this pop over to the PaperArtsy blog.

Have a great week, and hope you can join in on the fun on Twitter.

Michelle xx

New Dylusions Goodies

This morning I could have shouted at someone. For the second time this month my Internet has gone off and had been off since yesterday morning, I had no means of nosing at the outside world.  I'm also trying to shake off a cold and I've got a mozzie bite that's ballooned on my ankle! It was safe to say I was in a very grumpy mood.....but..

Then there was a knock at the door and it was a parcel for me...but I wasn't expecting anything...it was from Art from the Heart.....what could it be?

IT WAS THIS!

One happy Shelley coming right up!

I had a big smile on my face and this lovely parcel instantly lifted my spirits and I was no longer in a cloud of doom. 

Shortly after this the Internet miraculously came back on! Happy days!

So I got to work on inking up my Spray Ink Pad.

These are my most favourite colours, London Blue, Vibrant Turquoise, and Crushed Grape.

As you can see on the pad I have already used the Dylusions Flower stamp to make some fab flowers on a journal page. It's like making your own Big n Juicy pad. I love it!

So I set to work making a journal page using the NEW!  Small Dylusions Journal, This Old House, Day of the Heads and Boney Maloney stamp sets.

I did the background by lying my journal page on the ink pad. Then drying it, then doing it again and drying it. Then I stamped the skulls using the ink pad. You can see the skulls in the background below. I really LOVE this stamp pad!

I cut out the glass of the windows and put one of the skulls behind the window so you could just see his eyes.

I coloured in the grass using Prisma Colour pencils and I coloured the house, hat and eyes with Promarkers.

The pages in the new smaller Dylusions Journal are great. Nice sturdy pages all the same this time and they hold the colour beautifully. Well worth getting the lot really!

Thank you Art from the Heart (Ben, Dyan & Ali xx)

You made my day!

Have a great week.

Michelle xxx

Hels comes up north weekend!

What a terrific weekend we've just had with Hels Sheridan. We made two outstanding projects, I love them both. There was 17 of us and we all did our own individual take on Hels instructions. The results were amazing, so many wonderful FINISHED projects. Yes we all finished our projects, which is very satisfying when you arrive home with something finished to look at. 

We really were very productive considering all the belly laughs and the off-crafty-topic conversations we had! A huge thank you to Sue Tucker who organised the whole thing like clockwork. :)

Here we're all are engrossed in painting our canvases.

Here's Gemma, Tracy (me), and Helen.

There's Lou in the middle, probably looking for the Bora Bora PaperArtsy Fresco Paint! We kept stealing it sharing it with each other all day.

 Naughty Sam holding up her probably someone elses canvas background! You gotta keep your eye on this one or she'll be licking, sniffing and stroking your make if she likes it better than hers!  

Tracy working on her gorgeous canvas.

Helen rubbing treasure gold on the edges of her lovely bright canvas.

From front to back: Sue, Jane and Joan all with goldfinger's!

From front to back: Debbie, Jane, Gemma, Helen and Lou (still on the cadge!).

From front to back: Donna, Susie, Janet, Sam, Joan and Jane. They were a noisy lot on that side, sheesh!

Can't take em anywhere! Joanne was on the end, but she's not in the shot. 

Sue Tucker got all adventurous with my camera and did lots of tilted pics. This is one of them, but I straightened it in Photoshop. Love the way some people are leaning over to the right, as if that would make a difference! I just love everyone's expression on this pic, it summed the weekend up really.

Full of fun.

Hels looks ashamed though :), we were all like naughty kids!

Hels made each of us a little bag with a name badge in and some die cuts. It was such a nice touch, I loved it.

I'll use the name badge forever now, Thank you x

Here are the two projects I made :)

I've used PaperArtsy Grunge Paste, paints and JOFY stamps. 

The edge got in on the action too!

This project uses TH burlap panels. Love these panels.

It's very Tim tastic with lots of die cut elements, Distress paints and Idea-ology.

Well if you've got this far then you deserve a well earned cup of tea and a biscuit to keep your sugar levels up! Thank you for popping along and reading my blog post.We had such a great time on the workshop, and I think we're all pushing for a repeat performance very soon.

Poor Hels!

Have fun in your crafty space, Michelle  xxx

Dylusional Doilies for Creative Expressions

For Creative Expressions this week I've used the fab Doily die from Couture Creations. I cut 3 doily's and inked them up with Dylusions inks, Vibrant Turquiose, London Blue and Crushed Grape. I added a few ghosting layers of dots on the doily's too. Then I stamped the flourish stamp from the Floral Silhouette stamp set on the background of the card using Shaded Lilac, Squeezed Lemon and Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. I've stamped the Delicate Asters stamp for the bright yellow flowers in the middle of the doily's.

I'm loving the lovely bright colours, in keeping with our bright hot sunny days. 

It's short and brief this week, as the crafty room is too hot to be in during this weather.

I think I'll be moving some of my crafty stash outside next week, lets hope we get a nice cool breeze soon.

Is this technically a heat wave we're experiencing at the moment, I think so?

Michelle xx

A fun and arty packed weekend!

On Saturday I was teaching at Art from the Heart's preview day, what a lovely bunch of ladies too, we had lots of inky fun making this lovely Match Book below. I love preview day, the shop and studio is buzzing with excited crafter's. It's always a great atmosphere.

Managed to get a quick piccy in of these lovely ladies.

Kate Crane, me, Gillian Simson, Dyan Reavely & Darcy Wilkinson

Then it was off on a road trip to PaperArtsy headquarters with Darcy and Gillian.

It was so hot driving down to Essex, we were nearly boiled alive in the car. 

We had such a giggle though.

We arrived at Creasey Farm, home of PaperArtsy and the lovely Franich Family who run it.

Here's Mr PaperArtsy, being cool as cucumber in their amazing workshop.

They were so generous to put us up for two nights.

Here's the view I woke up to in the morning, gorgeous or what!

No time to take in the views we had work to do. 

We were there in a training/work capacity and we had lots to do.

As soon as we landed we helped set up the venue for the trade event which was going to happen all day Sunday.

We were so hot and tired after setting up that me and Gillian couldn't resist a dip in the swimming pool at the venue.

We got back after setting up and Mr PaperArtsy put some great sausages on the BBQ from a local farm. 

Oh they were tasty washed down with some well earned G&T.

Those kiwi's know how to do a BBQ.

Sunday was brilliant, lots of familiar faces.

Karen Daniell, Gabrielle Price and Suzie Candlin.

I spotted Helen Chilton, Helen Pigott, Nina and Neil Walker. There were loads more peeps I couldn't put faces to names.

Darcy and Anita 

Mrs PaperArtsy, Leandra doing her thang, showing us all the great techniques she knows.

Gillian with Bora Bora Fresco Finish paint all over her lip! I know you were hungry Gillian, but's that's just crazy.

The food was amazing at the venue, really tasty, but I had to take a pic of the cakes, they looked yummy.

Love my camera sometimes!

By the afternoon the table had lots of great tags with tons of texture and techniques all over them.

Then we had another great evening of more sausages, Prosecco and G&T.

Leandra Tweeting our dry ships!

Then everyone Tweeting! 

Not a great action shot granted but we were being particularly rowdy between tweets!

Then there was the drive home, we were surprisingly chipper seeing as we were functioning on only a few hours sleep. This moment was helped by Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody coming on the radio! Love Darcy's face!

A whirlwind of a weekend, nearly 560 miles driving but every second worth it!

Can't wait till we can do it all again!

Phew you made it to the end.

You deserve a cuppa and a slice of cake.

Michelle xx