Dylusions Dyary

Have you seen the new Dylusions Creative Dyary?

It's such a great idea, I love it!

And you can get tons of accessories for it too.

I've decorated the outside of mine with Dylusions Daisies coloured with my favourite product at the moment, the Ecoline Watercolour Brush Pens. I added some Stickles for a bit of bling too.

I've added some Little B's washi tape down the spine and some Liquid Pearls around the "year" box. 

The numbers I've stamped are from the New Tim Holtz Cling Foam Alphabet/numbers stamps (they work really great, and fit perfectly).

Look at these yummy accessories, there's lots of stickers, colouring sheets, die cuts to colour in, stamps and the large heart paperclips :)

This is the inside of the front cover. 

I stuck book pages down on the right. Then gessoed both sides, painted, stencilled and stamped the pages.  

I carried on with the bling theme by adding some gilding flakes to the circle stamping.

More accessories here too with the Stick Its slotted into the front wallet.

Shiny loveliness

The quote is a Project Life card.

This is from my first week, more colouring from the Ecoline Watercolour brush pens.

My second week

Love the fact that one side is for decorating :)

Such a great idea Dyan xx

Go get one they're great xx

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

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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

Driftwood Art Class with Kate Crane

Went to a class at Art from the Heart yesterday taught by the brilliant Kate Crane.

It was all about painting on driftwood.

I adore being at the beach, seeing as I only live about 10 minutes away from one. 

I managed to add to Kate's driftwood supplies with a couple of beach combing trips before the class :)

It was nice to catch up with Kate and my crafty friends too, I hadn't seen them for a while :)
Sam you naughty girl, always trying to half inch my makes ;)

This is what I made, I love it, I might have to make more and sell at a craft fair in my local town. 

I found lots of good samples to paint on at the beach to take to the class.

I really liked the big block, so I could paint on all 4 sides!

 

The nails were perfect for hanging little flags off. :)

I still need to put a hanger on this one.

I think I have the painty bug back again. Thank you Kate for finding my mojo xx

See ya

Michelle xxx

Decoart Helping Artist & New Blog Heading

I'm really excited to share with you that I have become part of the DecoArt Helping Artist Program.

DecoArt work with artists and tutors, providing them with products and materials that they hope they'd use in their art work and classes.

They sent me this amazing selection of their new Media range paints, mediums and misters!

And some stencils too!

Well I just couldn't wait to get started on something, so I wanted to give the blog a bit of a revamp so went for making a new header. I used these paints to start off with.

I got some plain natural calico cotton to draw some houses on.

 

I mixed some Media paint with DecoArt's Fabric Medium, and painted my houses on the calico.

I left it to dry overnight, but you can dry it with a heat gun in minutes too. 

When it was dry I washed the cloth to make sure the paint was fixed. It sure was.

I dried my cloth and cut out my houses.

I then painted a background on some more calico.

 Wrote out "The Hobby Room" on a piece of paper and pinned it to the calico background.

I used the sewing machine with a free motion foot on and sewed along the letters

This is what it looked like when I had finished.

Pull off all the paper and you have your sewn name. 

I appliqued the houses to the Hobby Room cloth.

And added a cheeky washing line and some birds too with the sewing machine.

Well I have to say I love these paints, and the fabric medium is brilliant too.

It's given me an idea for more fabric painting and sewing!

So watch this space. 

Hope you like the revamp.

Michelle xx

A year went past in a blur! Where did 2014 go?

Last year was a bit of a blur, everything went so fast. I'd gone back to working in geology, working very long hours, so I didn't get much time in the craft room. :( But I did get very muddy though!

My Mum started 2014 off in January in hospital in critical care for 3 weeks followed by a whole year of endless hospital stays and appointments, which is still ongoing.  I still had lots of classes to prep for in 2014 though, so when I wasn't working, sleeping or at the hospital, I was frantically beavering away in the craft room.

Well it all got too much by September as I was working away in Cambridge too and I had to stop teaching for a while. I miss it very much.

Here's some pictures that never made it on the blog from last years classes I taught. 

 February 2014 Mixed-media canvas AFTH -  Believe in your dreams, follow your heart and create.

  

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March 2014 Preview class AFTH - I'd rather be crafting desk sign.

I love neon paint on Kraft card.

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March 2014 Wynyard Canvas Class - Birdhouse and Bunting

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April 2014 AFTH - Give your heart the wings to fly

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July 2014 Wynyard Canvas Class - The Beach Huts Day 1

Hinged Canvases Day 2 at Wynyard

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August 2014 AFTH - Altered Book Class

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August 2014 AFTH - Colour Theory Class.  

This was my last class at AFTH. :(   But not forever though!

 This is Karen, she's super talented and she's now teaching at Art from the Heart too. Go on girl!

                    Steven Macari was over from Paris to see family and managed to fit a class in too. :)

Those colour charts will come in handy. 

These were the amazing flowers that Ben gave me for my last class. They were absolutely stunning and they lasted for weeks! :) Thank you x

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This was my last class of 2014 in Cambridge at It's Crafting Time shop in Shepreth.

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I did a large acrylic painting in September for a local Mexican restaurant called Mahujo's.

It's a Mexican tree of life. I'd like to do a Los Muertos skull for the next one.

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Mum went to the Butterwick Hospice in the summer and I went with her a few times. They had a watercolour painting class on so I had a bit of a dabble too. 

This was my first one, I liked it, but didn't like the clouds. :)

Then I tried this one from a watercolour book. 

I like this too, but I wrinkled the paper a bit.

So then I had a go at painting a photo I had taken of some bales of hay at the foot of Roseberry Topping. I enjoyed my little flurry with watercolours. I could easily retire with all my hobbies, but it won't pay the mortgage, so I had to put my paint brush down for a while.

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Me and Helen went for a couple of days to Llandudno in July, a well earned break and a walk up the Orme. Worthy of a quick scrapbook page I thought!

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Well that's kind of it for 2014. Sorry the blog posts were a bit thin on the ground.

I've dragged my sewing machine out of the cupboard lately, so I'll do another update this week. 

I think its high time the blog got a revamp anyway, don'tcha think? :)

Have fun in your crafty room, whatever you're doing

Michelle xxx