2015 A year to remember and a year to forget

Hello my crafty friends, you've not heard much from me in 2015, I'm very sorry about that.

I didn't lose my mojo or anything, I lost my Mum and it threw me for six. :(

But when one door closes another door opens and I was blessed with a beautiful granddaughter in June, called Autumn Rose. She's wonderful and she makes me smile lots. :)

So here's a round up of my crafty year, with many things that didn't make it on the blog.

Lots of painted driftwood

 

Painted wooden plaques

Driftwood Seahorses

I belong to the sea Canvas Class at Art from the Heart

Crackle ATC's playing with DecoArt Crackle Glaze

July Tag class at Poppy Rose in Stockton-on-Tees

25th July Seahorse Canvas at Art from the Heart

23rd July day out to York with Crafty friends :)
Mell, Kate and Gemma x

Gelli Plate beach huts, just playing in my craft room :)

19th September Cherry Blossom Canvas at Art from the Heart

4th October Cambridge, Mixed Media Fest, at It's Crafting Time

7th & 8th November Coventry.
DecoArt & Tando Creative classes The Beach Hut box
I'll do a separate blog post about this class :)

15th November Seth Apter class
I will do an update on this project when I finish it :) x

There are other things which I'd like to write a blog post for, but I'll put them on soon. xx

I hope you all have a fantastic 2016!

I'm starting the New Year as I mean to go on....with painty fingers!

Michelle xxxxx

A bit of Gelli Plate & Gelato Mail Art

Well, one Sunday I decided to get my Gelli Plate out and just make lots of lovely Gelli Prints.

I love having afternoons like that where you don't think too much about anything and just make lots of backgrounds in your journal or Gelli Plate prints.

So what to do with all those prints.

                                                                       MAIL ART!

Yes I love a bit of Mail Art. 

It's always a nice surprise too when you get some lovely art through the post.

And this mail art is bright, its going to get noticed in the sorting office that's for sure!
They are nearly A4 size, so not too small!

So what did I use?

Mostly DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics for the backgrounds of the envelopes.

But for the Day of the Dead panels I used Faber Castell Gelatos. I love these, they get better each time I use them :) 

I used Kate Crane's Stampotique stamps for the characters.

Love these little cuties :)

Some of my old favourites, like the Crafty Notions heart stamp that was free with Craft Stamper about 2 years ago. Wish I could get another one from somewhere, mine is falling to bits!

The DREAM stencil is an Andy Skinner DecoArt stencil called Serendipity, its got lots of great words on it. Go check it out. :)

This AWESOME! Day of the Dead stencil is also a Andy Skinner design.

This is going to get used like mad, I just know it! 

I'm hankering for a T-shirt  with this design on it.

So I'll be trying out some fabric paints soon :)

It does have the quote "Day of the Dead" on the stencil, but I went all Spanish and used the PaperArtsy alphabet stamps instead.

I covered some card in book pages and made this bright background from rubbing Faber Castell Gelatos onto the board. I brushed over a coat of Matt gel medium to seal it, and then used some bright acrylic paint through a stencil to add more layers. 

I hope my Mail recipients will like them.

Hope you feel inspired to send your friends some mail art to brighten up their day :)

See you soon

Michelle xxxxxxx

Blooming Marvellous! Dylusions Flower

I love the summer, its so rich with colour and the heady scent of flowers everywhere.

Well especially in my back garden anyway!

It's inspired me to make this little canvas of a flower from my garden.

I've used Dylusions paints, mediums and Pitt Pens. 

There's a walkthrough on Dyan's blog if you'd like to see how I made it.

See you there :) xxx

Mixed Media Fest at It's Crafting Time Oct 2015

I'll be teaching at Nina's

Mixed-Media Fest in Cambridge on Sunday the 4th of October 2015

 along with Andy Skinner and Kate Crane.

(PS if you are having any difficulty in booking online, then please let me know in a comment, and I'll make sure your place is reserved and contact Nina when she gets back from Australia).

This is the canvas I'll be teaching.

But you can also make it as a journal page too if you'd like.

We'll be learning all about the techniques in adding mixed-media, layers and texture, as well as using paints, mediums and inks to make interesting, dynamic backgrounds. Techniques that you'll be able to use again and again in the future for making your own mixed-media projects.

A LITTLE EXTRA
Plus we'll be making something extra as well to put your new found mixed-media knowledge into practice. :)

The little EXTRA will be something like this little mixed-media canvas board.

Love using canvas boards because they give you quick awesome results, plus they make me so happy when I see them hanging in a little bare patch of wall. :)

Hope to see you there :)
Michelle xx

Mixed-media Lighthouse, Seahorse and Cherry Blossom Canvases

Where has the sun gone in the UK? :(

The clouds are in my garden what's that all about!
And there's drizzle everywhere.

Last week we had a heat wave. 

Fingers crossed the heat comes back next week.

Just thought I would share with you a canvas I made for a class at Art from the Heart in April this year.

I love everything about the sea, and I'm doing more and more arty projects with a sea or beach theme. I'm doing a Beach Craft Fair at Seaham on the 1st of August, at the Masonic Hall, so if you're in the area I'd love to see you. xx

I've used acrylic paint, paper, inks, stencils and stamps on this project.

All the ladies had so much fun making it, and they all put their own take on the project too, love that. 

Thanks for coming girls xx

*********************

I have another two canvas classes on at Art from the Heart in July and September.

Saturday 25th July 2015 in Harrogate

Seahorse Mixed-media canvas

At Art from the Heart, from 10am - 3pm

This seahorse has lots of special interference paint on it, so it shimmers in the light.

And Saturday 19th September 2015

Cherry Blossom Mixed-media canvas

At Art from the Heart, from 10am - 3pm

Have a good week peeps

Michelle xxx

Aged Decoart Crackle on ATC's I've missed making ATC's

I forgot just how fun and quick making ATC's were.

So had a little play yesterday with my Decoart Crackle Glaze and Antiquing Cream.

I just love all those aged crackles :)

Here's how its done :)

I bet you've seen these before?

I've got lots of them, just waiting to be used on something like this.

I stuck down a few papers and an image with some gel medium on a ATC. Be sure to cover the top with a layer of gel medium too, this gives a good surface for the crackle glaze to adhere to. Dry with a heat gun.

I like to use strong not bendy ATC's. Stick some mount board on the back or buy the thick ATC's, they don't buckle or bend when you use the heat gun on them and the crackle glaze works better on the firm card. 

Then I used Faber-Castell big brush Pitt pens to create the shading.

I have used distress inks in the past around the edge, but they don't work well because they are water based, and the crackle glaze is water based too and so the ink runs into the crackle. This is not good, and you don't get a good crackle either. 

The Pitt pens are indian ink and won't run into your crackle glaze. 

You can rub your finger on the ink too and it moves it around to blend the shading. 

I used the black Archival ink around the edge of the ATC.

I used a wide flat brush to brush on the crackle glaze. Take care not to over brush it. Load up the brush and brush one or two strokes over the same area and move along. You get a better crackle the less you work it. The glaze is self leveling so it will even out when you leave it. 

Leave it for about 4 hours and you get this gorgeous effect!

and no leaching of the ink.

Then rub in Antiquing Cream with your finger or a brush.

The antiquing Cream will fill in the cracks and is non permanent, so you can wipe off the excess when you're finished working it into the cracks.

And Voila!

Two fab aged crackle effect ATC's :)

Now what else can I crackle?

Have a good weekend peeps, the sun is out and I'm going to the beach :)

Michelle xx

Introduction to mixed media - Arty tags class

I'm doing an Arty Tags class at a lovely shop called Poppy Rose on Stockton High Street on the 18th of July 2015. They sell beautiful vintage and handmade crafts and have a little workshop in the back.

They welcome any crafter with open arms, even if you just want to chat and have a cuppa. They have lots of workshops on including ceramics, rag rug making, knitting and sewing. If you're on the high street have a pop in  :)

Michelle xxx

mile emoticon

Gentleman Jim Archivist Journal

I went to a fabulous class at Art from the Heart in Harrogate last Saturday.

We made this awesome Archivist Journal from scratch, taught by the amazing Gentleman Crafter Jim Hankins. He's a complete sweetie too, really lovely funny guy and so is Cesar. 

If you're thinking of doing one of Jim's classes, DO IT! You'll be as happy as a little lamb in Spring :)

We got a huge class pack, some mints from Texas, and a perspex spacer bar that Jim had got made for us :) Thank you x

It was only fitting that I used a top hat on the front of the journal :)

Lots of lovely pages too :)

Love this tiny little compass I've been waiting for the right project to use it on.

We made the whole thing including the binding and all the pages.

Genius way of using the garment pins, like that. xx

I used some rub-ons on the page below.

Love that big butterfly from Tim's stickers. 

I filled my little boxes with lots of goodies.

Love the "Fabulous" button :)

Thank you Jim, I enjoyed myself immensely xxx

Jim really wanted the opportunity to drive on the left side of the road, so I let him drive my car around the industrial estate. He did good!

It was such a great class and a lovely group of ladies too. My table were especially awesome, Carol, Gill and Debs xx

I'm hoping that Jim comes back very soon,so I can do another one :)

Get your'e craft on this weekend, it's supposed to be raining! lol

Michelle xxxx