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

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I'm back!

I know I've been a very bad blogger :(
I'm very sorry about that.
I've just been under the proverbial crafty thumb over the last 4 weeks.

But I'M BACK

I have a backlog of projects to share with you and I can't wait to get them on the blog.

First up is a tag we made at my taster session at Art from the Heart on Saturday.
It was a full class, of lovely people, (the naughty end was very funny :) even Steven from Paris was over and he popped down too.

I've used Dylusions ink After Midnight, Crushed Grape, Squeezed Orange, Lemon Zest and Post Box Red for the background.

The owl stamp is Stampotique and I've used a glaze pen to make the black branches and owls standout.
I've used a blue Signo pen to highlight the branches and a yellow Posca pen to highlight the owl's eyes.

I've also used the yellow Posca pen on the skeleton too.

I used Tim Holtz's graveyard die on the bottom and coloured them with water pens filled with the same Dylusion ink colours I've used on the tag.

Demo day at Stamp Magic for PaperArtsy

Its been all go this week at The Hobby Room, I was locked away in there making tags with PaperArtsy's Grunge Paste, and I got my hands all filthy I can tell you. There was paint, ink and Grunge Paste stuck to my fingers and it just kept building up and up. I realised it was so bad when there was a knock at the door and I had to sign for a parcel! I was a tad embarrassed about my inability to even hold the stylus to sign!

Below are the 5 tags I made for the Stamp Magic Craft Show at the Dome in Doncaster

Here I am below with Leandra demoing.

The Crackle Glaze technique was definitely the most popular that people wanted to see.

We sold out.

Don't get excited #PATWITS I had to hand back the apron after the show :(

Below are the tags with a little description.

This tag was covered in a thin layer of Grunge Paste using an old store card, then I put a piece of lace/net curtain over the top and put a heavy book on top. Dried it with a heat gun, which only takes a couple of minutes and rubbed over some Peacock Feathers and Vintage Photo Distress ink with an applicator tool.

This brings out the detail so well, and gives it a lovely texture.

This tag was painted with Chocolate Pudding Fresco Finish acrylic paint in a vertical direction only then dried. Then using an artist spatula apply a coat of Crackle Glaze (not to thin and not too thick either) also in a vertical direction, then dry it with a heat gun, Then I mixed Nougat with Haystack FF paint and painted a generous coat over the top, also in a vertical direction. By painting all coats in a vertical direction you get the vertical crackle. I used JOFY's stamps and Promarkers for the flowers and the words.

For the tag below I used an old store card to apply a flat coat of Grunge paste, then I stamped into the paste. I dried it with a heat gun then used my finger to rub Beach Hut and Butternut FF paint into the stamped areas. I used a kitchen towel to rub off the excess.

I also did the same to some Grunge Letters and put them on the tag too.

In the tag below I painted a background, then stamped it up randomly with PaperArtsy stamps. Then I used some Grunge Paste on the top left and bottom right corners. I stamped the Oriental writing stamp into the Grunge Paste then dried it. Once dry I used a short bristle brush to rub in a dark coloured Treasure gold. I used Sapphire here. Then used White Fire TG on my finger to rub over the top. This made the writing jump out. I stamped the Lynne Perrella LP022 oriental head and coloured it with Promarkers.

On the tag below, I made a background using Distress inks and stencils, then used some Grunge Paste through a stencil for the flowers. I edged the flowers with some White Fire Treasure Gold. I also used my black Aquarellable pencil in the centre of the flowers, then used a water brush to blend the black pencil, to give some shading.

I had so much fun demoing, thank you Leandra, I can't wait to do it again soon :)

When we were there (Doncaster Dome) we saw these beautiful little baby birds at the edge of the pond.

They're Coots, they're cute Coots!

Hope you have a fab weekend, I'm off visiting family in Burnley. 

Take care

Michelle xx

PaperArtsy April #1 Colour rich tag

I had no idea when I stared to paint up this tag what colour combination I was going to do, but don'tcha just love it when painty colour alchemy works out so beautifully. I adore the colours on this tag so much, I just wanna stroke it!

Its those PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints, they just work in harmony with each other. I've nearly used them all up!

To see the walkthrough of this tag with lots more pictures please go check out the PaperArtsy blog.

This is my last month as a PaperArtsy guest designer and I've had the best time playing with their products they are amazing.

I'm really excited to see what the new designers are going to make too, I know they're going to blow you all away.

Have a fab evening and I hope you get all painty. 

Hope to see you back here tomorrow for my 2nd PA make this week.

Goodnight Michelle xxx

Pan Pastels tag book with Kate Crane

A while back I went on a Pan Pastels class at Art from the Heart taught by Kate Crane. I've had my eye on Pan Pastels for ages and wondered what they were like to use.  I've used chalk and oil pastels for many years and wondered if Pan Pastels were really all that different.

They are different, their pigment is so rich and vibrant. My chalky pastels never gave me this depth of colour ever. My oil pastels did, but I like the dry feel of the Pan Pastels, and they are great to stamp onto as well. Yes I had fallen in love with the Pan Pastels.

This is what we made, a gorgeous tag book. I meant to blog this as soon as I came back, but something always crops up.

We used Tim Holtz Classic Favourites & Blueprint stamps on the front of the tags. Stuck them to mount board then cut around them and stuck the book print to the back. I used a little bit of orange and dark green distress ink around the tags and edged them with a black Adirondack Dabber.

We also used a bit of moulding paste here and there for some texture. Kate suggested putting some rivets in here and there too, but I ran out of time and didn't use any, but they would have looked amazing.

I did use the blue Pan Pastel to colour in my world, but I didn't fix it (I could've just used hair spray but I forgot) and some came off, so I recoloured it with my chalk pastels which seem to work well.

They are really yummy to use. I need to play with them again. 

Have a good week.

Michelle x

Steampunk Embossed Tag

Not only was I excited by the fab Art Houses stamp set that Creative Expressions sent us this month for the design team, but they also sent us this 'Uber' embossing folder by Couture Creations. I love it because it not only has a steampunk feel to it, but it also has a science geometry mapping look to it too, so it has lots of uses and is brilliant for any male themed cards or makes.

I've made a tag with my embossing folder, I wanted that mapping kind of look to it, so I used Tim Holtz's new Travel blueprint stamp set, coming soon to Creative Expressions. I really love the compass and the world stamp in this set. The sentiment is also Tim Holtz stamp from a Visual Artistry stamp set called City Central.

I've distressed the tag with Gathered Twigs, Wild Honey and Mustard Seed distress inks, and it really made the cogs and circles pop. It love this embossing folder, it's very cool.  I've rubbed some Cosmic Shimmers Iridescent Mica Pigments over the top, to highlight the raised areas and some of the stamp.

I made the hanger out of some black florist wire. 

I stamped the compass onto Tim Holtz Kraft Resist paper, and coloured it in with some Distress Markers. I wanted a burnt pirate map type finish on the stamp so I tore holes into the paper and rubbed more Gathered Twigs DI around the edges. I really like the holes, especially where I can see more of the yellow underneath!

I finished off the tag using some of Tim Holtz idea-ology, sprockets, cogs and clock hands.

I've had lots of fun making this tag, really enjoyed making it. There is just something very satisfying about embossing folders, it's just instant art I love it!

I see the snow is back in the North East, and all of my 3 cats are snuggled up to each other on my bed! 

Lazy things, one bit of snow and that's it, sleep time!  

Have a great weekend, thank you to all my new followers, and also to the lovely peeps who pop by regularly. I love reading your comments, I always try to reply, and if I haven't, I'll be round shortly.
Michelle  xxxxx

New Awesome Stamps from PaperArtsy

This is a bit of an epic blog post, so if you have time, have a cuppa and a sandwich to hand!

PaperArtsy have been very busy lately making new stamps for their launch at Birmingham's Hobby + Stitch show this weekend.

I'm super excited to show you a sneaky peek of their awesome new stamps which are so versatile and perfect for art journaling as well as lots of other crafty projects.

This stamp set comes under the new EclecTica³ line. This line of stamps has different stamp sets done by different guest designers. The guest designer's stamps I've used here is the hugely talented Sara Naumann and boy are they great! Right up my street for sure.

I couldn't believe my luck when Leandra sent me the whole set, I did a little dance (lying, huge dance!), and got to work straight away!  However I only had a few hours to make as many projects as I could and send them back to PaperArtsy HQ to be taken to Birmingham this weekend.

So here are my 4 projects I made below. The first is a painty journal page.

Project No. 1 A Painty Journal page, "Art Journal = Journey"

The background is all PaperArtsy Fresco Finish chalky acrylic paints (perfect for stamping on.). They are: Honey Dew, Beach Hut, South Pacific, Inky Pool, Snowflake & Little Black Dress.

The stamp sets I have used on this project are ESN01, ESN02, ESN03, ESN04, ESN06, ESN08 (sorry no links yet, but they will be available soon on the PaperArtsy website) and Ink and the Dog, Man of Numbers Plate 1.

I used Ranger's Big n Juicy Happy Birthday ink pad on the "art journal = journey" words and Archival black ink on the "anything is possible" stamp. I used Broken China Distress Ink for the numbers from the Ink and the dog stamp set, and I used gold distress stain on the graph lines.

 

I edged the whole page with Black Soot DI and finished it off with black paint on the very edge. 

The dark black lines around the words are achieved by using a water soluble black pencil and a water pen. I love the way the lines cross over each other at the end of the words.

Project No. 2 A Painty Tag, "Play + Experiment"

Again the background is all Fresco Finish acrylic paints, Beach Hut, Inky Pool, South Pacific, Smoked Paprika, Snowflake & Little Black Dress.

The stamp sets I have used on this project are ESN02, ESN04, ESN05, ESN07, ESN08. Also used the paint splat stamp MIN 57 and the crowded circles stamp MIN 41. Love all those MINI stamp sets, cheap as chips and great designs.

I've used black Archival Ink (words & paint splats), gold Distress Stain (text stamp) and Big n Juicy, Happy Birthday ink pad (crowded circles and the film strip stamp). I think I'm addicted to the Big n Juicy ink pads, but they've gone and discontinued them! Typical. I only have the two ink pads too, but I'd love to find the other ones!

Project No. 3 Inky Journal Page, "story time = adventure"

For the background of this journal page I used Dylusions inks, London Blue and Vibrant Turquoise. I just love those bright colours! As you know I'm all about the layers, I love that feeling that the depth of layers always gives you, it's that sense of what's on top of what and what came first. It makes it much more interesting to look at. 

The stamps I used for this project are ESN02, ESN03, ESN05, ESN08 and Hot Picks HPXT01EZ (lines stamp), Hot Picks HP1004EZ (birdcage stamp). 

I've used 2 Crafter's Workshop stencils here, they are: Pointed Circles & Circle Grid. I used the Fresco Finish paints through the stencils.  I used Pea Coat (opaque) and Inky Pool (translucent), love the translucent pointy circles!
I used Mustard Seed DI for the text stamp. and brushed over Very Berry Fresco Finish paint, here and there, over the top of the page when I was finished.

The words are coloured with Dylusions inks in water pens, I used Bubblegum Pink, Sunset Orange, and Pure Sunshine and blended them into each other. They look so vibrant, I love the contrast between the the cool blue's and the hot pink & yellow colours! I edged the journal page with black ink and paint again.

Project No. 4 An inky Tag, "The reason is simple, the reason is Art"

The background is Bubblegum Pink and Sunset Orange Dylusions ink. I love that hit of colour, it's so much more vibrant with the naked eye, the photo's never really give you that sense of the rich colour on here.

The stamps I used for this tag are all the new ones ESN01, ESN04, ESN07, and I whipped out the sewing machine for this one. I love leaving the straggly ends of the threads! (Kate Crane started me off appreciating this little messy tip!)

Wow, well that concludes the epicness of this humongous blog post today, I hope you have survived without  having to read stamp catalogue numbers overload!??

I've been so lucky to have a play with these stamps before they have gone on sale and I can safely say I'll be using these stamps forever because I love them so much! Thank you Leandra and Sara Naumann for making these brilliant stamps. I'm positive you're going to see many more of these stamps appearing in my projects in the future.

It's a fantastically sunny Saturday and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Michelle x

Small Act of Kindness arty tag

I've been out for a long walk in the snow today, it's so nice to climb up high and see all the snow covered fields and hills. It's also good to get the heart pumping and get some fresh air. I took some pics maybe I'll add one at the end of this post.

We've been sent our new stamps for January from Creative Expressions and they're brilliant! We have the Special Sentiments and the Hearts Entwined stamp sets. There's so many things I can think of to make with these stamps, I can't wait to get started on them. Here's my first crafty piece. A painty arty tag.

I bought a book ages ago called Surface Treatment Workshop, it has 45 different mixed media techniques in it, and one of those techniques is using Vaseline. 

I painted the tag first in dark pink, then ran streaks of Vaseline down the tag. not in too many places.

then painted over the top. Wait for the paint to dry normally, don't use a heat gun, it'll only melt the Vaseline. 

When the paint is dry wipe off the Vaseline, don't rub it, as you want that distressed peeled paint look.

Then I stamped it with the ornate edges of a frame stamp on the Hearts Entwined stamp set, and some other texture stamps I have from my stash.

I painted some white acrylic paint with a dry brush down the tag to distress it even more.

I used some Aged Mahogany Distress ink through some sequin waste to stencil some little circles in the white areas of the tag.

I used a Wendy Vecchi flower stencil to push some moulding paste through the flower. I love using moulding paste, I like the texture it leaves on the surface. When it's dry it dries white so you can colour it with Distress Markers  they're are so vivid on the moulding paste, I love that! What a contrast.

I finished off my tag using the sentiment from the "Special Sentiments" stamp set and inked up the edges with more Aged Mahogany, I've also added some vintage ribbon inked up with the same distress inks. Oh and a Tim Holtz Listen token, with white paint rubbed into the word. 

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Here is one of the pics I took this morning in the snow.

I wonder if there'd been a bird disco here the night before!

Have a great weekend, I'm going to catch up on visiting everyone's blog, I've been locked away making millions of Wedding Invitation so I'm sorry I've been out of the loop for a couple of weeks, but I'm off to come and see what you've been up to. 

Michelle xxx

Keep Calm and Sparkle On Tag

Michelle is officially on holiday from work! I just love putting my "out of office" on! Let the frivolities begin, but before that though is the small matter of 70 odd wedding invitations to make for a friend. Then I can relax for Christmas.

I've been a good girl all year, I think there might be lots of crafty goodies under the tree for me........eeeeeeeeee.

Anyhooo enough about that, lets get back to the "work" I would rather be doing 24/7.

Here is my next Creative Expressions DT piece.

My inky embossed tag.

I've used the "If the Crown Fits" stamp set.

I've also used: -

London Blue Dylusions Inks

Flourish embossing folder

Cosmic Shimmer spray - blue

Vintage ribbon

Adirondack Dabber - Pitch Black

Tim Holtz Distress ink - Chipped Sapphire 

Tim Holtz distress markers - Fired Brick

Cosmic Shimmers - mica powder (on the flourish)

Stickles glitter glue

A text stamp

Wiry 3D Christmas Tree Tag

I've been away from my crafty desk this week, with everyday life getting in the way of my crafty mojo-ness!

I'm practically rocking back and forth, going crazy not being able to use my distress inks and stamping.

Well I'm back I tell you, back where I want to be, with dirty inky hands, long may it last!

I've got a new camera too, so I'm just feeling my way around that. I could do with a lesson in using my digital SLR, I've forgotten everything I learned at college about photography. 

I'm really enjoying using these new stamps for the Creative Expressions design team. The ones below are the Let It Snow stamp set. I just love that Christmas tree and the reindeer. 

I started off with a tag I had inked up with blue distress stains and Cosmic Shimmer mists, hence the lovely blue drippage, then I splatted it all with white gesso. It really looked Christmassy at this point. But I wanted more colour!

Then I stamped it with TH crackle stamp using a green metallic acrylic paint, distressed the edges with Rusty Hinge DI,  and darkened the edges more with Black Soot DI. I used a stiff dry paint brush with a bit of white gesso on it to run streaks up and down the tag, which gave it a weathered beach kind of effect. 

Loved this with the blue and the rusty hinge colours.

I used the Let it Snow stamp with Picket Fence Distress Stain and stamped that around the tag, then stamped some flourishes here and there too. I pleated some music Tissue Tape along the bottom of the tag, for a nice little frill not thrill!. 

I've added some sparkly gold texture from the Cosmic Shimmer mica flakes too, they are gorgeous, love them!

I used blue and green alcohol ink on the numbers, the pin and the Christmas token to match the green wire on the tree and the baubles.

I made the tree using Cosmic Shimmer Bronze lustre embossing powder. Stamp both sides of a tree shape 3 times then cut it out. Then do another one without one on the other side (this is your base). Fold the other 3 in half. Cut one  in half, this is your centre one. Use the other 2 folded trees to glue (down the centre only!) to your base and glue the centre one in and leave to dry. Once dry you can bend all the layers into the right position. I used a poky tool to make holes to thread the wire through the layers of the tree. Don't forget to add some beads while your threading to make little baubles.

I am well and truly into the Christmas spirit now, especially as the Coke Cola Christmas truck advert was on the TV on Saturday, now I know Holidays are coming!.

Michelle x

Tim Holtz Giant Christmas Tag & Creative Expressions Design Team

I'm so excited and delighted to have made it onto the Creative Expressions design team for 2012/2013. Along with 7 other very talented inspiring ladies, which includes my crafty buddy Trace Metcalf.

I'm on the team with:

Trace Metcalf

Trish Latimer

Kim Dellow

Tracy Evans

Gillian Simson

Jean Gursoy

Shary Nettleship

So I'd like to say a big Hi to you all, and I'm excited to see what we all come up with.

 I will be making creations for October using the gorgeous Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Christmas Time stamp set. 

Here is my first design team piece using this stamp set. It's a giant Christmas tag. I love these giant manilla tags by Ranger (I have to give credit where credit is due, they were Dyan's idea though!).

I've stamped the holly around the edge of the tag in different shades of green Distress inks and stamped the poinsettia's with red Archival Ink. I cut them out to embellish the tag later.

I used the TH crackle stamp with gold paint over the entire tag and coloured in the berries with the Aged Mahogany Distress marker. Then I put Glossy Accents on the berries and the poinsettia's. The edges are distressed using Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

I love those bright red berries.

I stamped the sentiment and the Santa and tore around the edges, then distressed with more Vintage Photo. I curled the edges of the sentiment, to make it look like a scroll and coloured the Santa using TH Distress Ink pens, I love how Santa's coat looks like velvet.

I curled the edges of the holly and the poinsettia's to give them a 3D effect.

So the Christmas crafting begins. I love it.

I'm looking forward to my new adventure with Creative Expressions.

xxx

Welcome to all my new followers, you're all such an inspiration for me x