Altered Wooden House Part 2 for PaperArtsy

I hope you liked seeing Part 1 of the altered wooden house yesterday and you've come back to see what happened next?

Well I'm only teasing you here, with some sneaky peaks, you'll have to nip over to the PaperArtsy blog to see it in all it's glory.

Love these rusty wings

I love journaling, and this is my tribute to that.

Some altered Tando Creative butterflies, with Tim Holtz Chit Chat words

I wanted lots of arty elements, but I had to make them from scratch. I made this easel and the painting.

I also made some other arty elements too.

Tim Holtz Grunge Board letters are so awesome painted up, I love them.

Hope you all had a trip over to PaperAtsy to see the whole finished house?

It's one of my all time favourite projects.

Have a great week, I'd love to hear if you make something similar too.

Michelle xxx

Altered Wooden House Part 1 for PaperArtsy

This has been a very exciting project for me, I've thought long and hard about the finished result, which will be revealed tomorrow.  As there are so many steps it was better to blog it in two parts rather than having a VERY  long blog post. I'm really looking forward to showing you the finished house though.

Here are just a few pictures of the start of the process, there are many more photo's and step by steps on the PaperArtsy blog. Have a pop over to see all the layers of paint I used and the stamps for the inside.

Tomorrow will be the finished product complete with handmade arty elements to go inside the boxes, and some big rusty wings! I love it!

Hope you're as excited as I am!

Michelle x

Huge Leather Journal Book to fill up

I first noticed this book about a year ago in the furniture shop Michael O'Connor. I thought they were only fake display books not for sale. But they aren't! I noticed that it was full of blank pages and wondered how much they were selling them for.

They're £99!  I had to think about this, I didn't know the integrity of the paper...it felt ok, probably 150-200 gsm, like card. But I didn't know if it would hold up to spray inks, I didn't want the ink to seep through and I didn't want to take the chance and buy an expensive book that may turn out to be useless. So I left dreaming of it being reduced in some amazing sale.


12 months later we went out and I wandered into Michael O'Conner's just to see if they were still there so I could stroke it..... No sale  :(   it was still £99!...... Again I pondered the thought of buying one, and then it occurred to me, well if it's rubbish with inks I can double up the pages and I can paint backgrounds if inks are a problem.

I had talked myself into it. The idea that they might be next in line to disappear off the high street and I might never have this opportunity again to buy this book, swung it for me, before I had time to get my purse out, I was already at the counter with a big smile on my face.

So I had to test it out!



Well how big is it, it's huge! 42 x 29 cm (16" x 11 " inches). It's 7.5 cm (3") thick. Here it is next to Dyan's journal. The cover is all 100% leather, the quality is amazing.

But all that means nothing if the paper is no good for what we need it for.

Well it didn't disappoint!  Yeee ha!

And here is the other side of the page.

There is a little bit of mottling, but I can cope with that.

I think it's a success! I'm going to have a lot of fun filling this up, that's if I ever fill it!

I'm not sure if all Michael O'Connor stores have got this in, but I do know that my local shop has only 5 left. They weigh a ton, and would probably cost a fortune to post, but if anyone wants me to get one for them, then I'm happy to go and get one for you.

It looks like the Never Ending Story book, it's amazing, and the quality is awesome!

Hope you're having a great weekend?

See you later

Michelle xx

Love is in the air with Creative Expressions

Love is definitely in the air as Valentines Day approaches, and in keeping with the romantic season I've made this love ATC which could also be used as a tag on a present, or just a little love note with a poem on the back.

The gorgeous heart stamp and the sentiment is from the wonderful Hearts Entwined stamp set from Creative Expressions 

 For the heart I stamped it on chipboard then cut it out. Then I pressed the heart shape into a Ranger's Perfect Medium pad and shook some Blue Raspberry Aurora Cosmic Shimmer Embossing powder over the top and melted it with a heat gun. I repeated the process again with another layer of the Blue Raspberry Aurora embossing powder. 

Then I repeated again using an ultra thick clear embossing powder this time. While the clear embossing powder is still warm ink up the heart with black Archival Ink and press it into the melted embossing powder.

Then you get this lovely 3D effect of the heart shapes within the heart.

Do you know any love poems that can go on the back of an ATC?

Naughty one's are very welcome too :)

Have a great weekend

Michelle xxxxx

You're Unique Like Everyone Else!

Everything is slow in the craft room lately as I'm drugged up to the eyeballs on pain killers and Diazepam, all to relax a spasm in my shoulder. I'm sleeping well though, so that's a bonus :)

I've got the PaperArtsy bug at the minute and I thought I'd make a tag background using their fab Fresco paints. Here I've used Beach Hut, Inky Pool and Smoked Paprika. I did some stamping on the background too, using a TH text stamp with gold Distress Stain, the Stamp Man's frayed fabric stamp, and my unknown circle stamp. 

My main stamp is a Stampotique stamp called Angel Boy, isn't he gorgeous?  I've also used the Stampotique Hanging Heart stamp too across the top of the tag. 

I made up the sentiment and stamped it with my trusty Hampton Art alphabet stamps.

Can you guess what I might be doing with all these Terry Clips?

Well I glued them on the edge of my shelf

And put all my applicator tools on them! Now they are right above my head and VERY easy to use and put back. I need all the time saving I can get!

It's nearly the weekend, hope you've got exciting plans on the go.

Michelle xx

Timeless Inspiration Love Matchbook

Thank you for all my Happy Birthday comments, I had a wonderful day. xx

Love is the theme with Creative Expressions this month, there are hearts everywhere with their new stamp set Hearts Entwined. Here I'm using Tim Holtz Matchbook die to make a Love book.

This is the die cut card before I inked it up.

I inked up the card with Barn Door, Shabby Shutters, Dusty Concord, Mustard Seed, and Broken China Distress Inks. I did a few bits of spritz and flick, and went over again with the same colour inks. 

I distressed the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. 

I used the small heart from the Hearts Entwined stamp set to stamp randomly all over the cover.

Now to make an insert. I had just received a parcel and this was the filling inside. So I decided why chuck it away when I could cut it up and make pages from it! It worked a treat. The more creases the better because as I was distressing the pages the creases picked up the Vintage Photo more and looked even better.

I tore up some pages from an old love poetry book and distressed the edges and stuck them onto my pages.

On a couple of pages I sprayed some Cosmic Shimmer's and did some drippage.

To finish off the pages I added some streaks of white paint to give it that weathered look.

On the front cover I stamped the heart onto Mulberry paper and tore around the edges. I then distressed the edges of a Wendy Vecchi spotty heart and stuck it onto the front. 

I finished off the Matchbook with some Chit Chat words.

I LOVE the colours so much.

Hope you all have a very inky messy weekend.

Michelle x

WOYWW 190 I need a tidy up.

I haven't done a "What's on your Workdesk Wednesday" for a while, but seeing as I remembered to take a picture of my messy desk today I thought I'd join in.

If you don't know what  "What's on your Workdesk Wednesday" is, then please pop over to Julia's blog to find out more, especially if you like nosing at other people's crafty work desks.

You can see all my wonderful PaperArtsy stamps all lined up on my wall, this is where I hang the stamps up that I'm currently using, so I can see what I want to use.

You can see I'm working on my next Creative Expressions design team piece too. It'll be on the blog later this week.

It's my birthday today and I'm off to Art from the Heart for a Gelli Plate class with Kate Crane, what a great way to spend a birthday!

Have a great crafty day 

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

Black and white journal page for It's Crafting time.

It's been a while since I did a project for It's Crafting time, because Helen gave us a fantastic break over Christmas. I really needed it too, but I was itching to get my next project done for them, and my theme for this one was Black and White.

I chose to do a fab journal page, but I couldn't resist just a little smidge of colour, after all I adore colour.

I've gone all stamp and stencil tastic for this one. I'm loving the grungy look from the black and white theme.
I've used Tim Holtz background & butterfly stamps and 7 Gypsies Family and Venice clear stamps, on both pages.

The black, teal and orange paints are Adirondack dabbers, some I've used to stamp with and some I've splatted the paint across the page. There is something really satisfying about flicking paint, it feels naughty but it's allowed, and you have no idea where its going to go! The teal outline is from a my Prismacolour pencils that I got for Christmas, I love these, the colours are really rich,

I finished off the page by sticking down a photo of me and my son with washi tape. This pic was taken in 2006, my son was only 15 at the time, now he's 22! How time flies.

Have painty inky fun everyone

Michelle x

PaperArtsy Project No.4 - Calendar Journal

Now anyone who knows me knows that my two favourite muse's since I started this arty adventure are Dina Wakely and Kate Crane. 

Dina uses colours that I swoon over every time, I just love the way she combines colours, and her canvas's, & journal/scrapbook pages have me thinking..."Oooo I wanna do that colour combo" and Kate has this wonderful knack for spotting great new ideas and techniques, as well as making the most exquisite projects always guaranteed to inspire me.  

I spotted the Gelli Arts Plate ages ago, but was unsure about the results until I saw (and touched) some of Kate Crane's wonderful journal pages where she used one.
That was it, it was confirmed, I wanted to have a go.
The results are much more amazing with the naked eye.

Kate also got some carving rubber and made her own stamps too.
Something else I'm definitely going to have a go with.

One of my favourite trends at the moment is Calendar Art Journaling (Kate's 2012 pages).
Here's Kate's first blog post about Calendar Art Journaling, from December 2009.
The trend has been going for years but Kate's been involved in a bit of a revival right now.

It's such a great way of filling your art journal with gorgeous arty pages and recording what you were doing over the year. I can't tell you how brilliant it is reading it back, it makes me giggle every time.

Kate has introduced a great new Facebook group just for Calendar Art Journaling too, so please come along and join in the fun. 

I'm having an incredible start to the year being one of Leandra's guest designers for PaperArtsy. So this was inevitably going to feature heavily in my Calendar Art Journal.

Here are my pages for January 2013 below.

You can see the full pages on the PaperArtsy blog.

This is my last post for PaperArtsy for January, but wait!.... it doesn't stop there, there are more amazing designers being introduced every week. So check out the PaperArtsy blog tomorrow to see who the next designer will be. I'll be back for PaperArtsy in the second week in February, March and April too, so please come back and see what new projects I've made with their wonderful Fresco Finish paints and stamps.

Thank you for popping by and leaving me your wonderful comments

Michelle xx

PaperArtsy Project No.3! Have some me time? Yes please!

What a mad week I'm having......I'm really astounded by all the support 

from you lovely crafty people.

Thank you so much for all the amazing comments and showing me your inspired projects too.

I'm really touched, truly!

xx

If there’s one thing that makes me happy it’s seeing lots of lovely bright colour in a journal page and the Fresco paints are perfect for that. I love the striking colour contrast between Orange and turquoise, I'm sure this won't be the first time you're going to see this combination either.

Please pop over to the PaperArtsy blog for a full run down of the products and stamps I've used and more pictures of the whole page.

It's the weekend and I'm going to get very messy!

Hope you do too.

Michelle xx

PaperArtsy Project No.2 Some Gelli Plate action

Thank you all for the wonderful comments you left me on Monday on here and on the PaperArtsy blog.
It was all very exciting waiting for the post to go live, there was a lot of build up on Twitter.
I'm already quite an excitable person, but that just sent me over the edge!
Thanks though it was really funny guys xx

I've been after a Gelli Plate for ages, and well I must have been a good girl, because Santa left me one under the Christmas Tree!

I couldn't wait to whip out my Fresco's. 

(PaperArtsy's Fab acrylic paints)

There was paint everywhere in no time at all.

It was all experimental, doing everything for the first time. I'm glad I took photo's because those little happy experiments sometimes turn out to be little gems.

And this is one of those!

Please check out what I made on the PaperArtsy blog

There's lots of step by step photo's of the process too.

Project No.3 is up on Friday at 7pm UK time.

This time its an art journal page.

I'm having an incredible week so far :)
Shucks I love our crafty community
Michelle xx

PaperArsty here I come! Project No.1 and we're off!

The day is finally here.
I'm so proud to be able to announce my very first project as a PaperArtsy guest designer. 

I have had the best fun over Christmas, playing with all my new stash from Leandra.
It's so easy to be creative when your using good quality products too, those Fresco paints just have the best colours.

Here's a sneaky peak at my first project, it really is just a sneak.
To see more please click to see the PaperArtsy blog

It's something to keep your craft room that little bit tidier

Look out for project number 2 on Wednesday (7pm UK time).

I get down and dirty with the Gelli Plate, its my new arty obsession and a present I got for Christmas.

If you want to leave me a comment, that'd be nice, I love reading your comments.

Michelle xx

Exciting news!

I've been keeping this under raps since December and I've been bursting to tell someone!

But I can now reveal that I was asked to be one of the new guest designers for the PaperArtsy team, for January to April! I can't tell you how excited I am. I love their stamps and paints. Of course without any hesitation I said yes!

I found out just as I was going to bed too, so I was laid in bed with wide eyed excitement. It took me hours to get to sleep! I'm not complaining though. I dreamt of inky painty shinannigans.

So a few days later the postie knocked on my door and handed me a huge box filled with goodies. Leandra had sent me lots of stamps, paints, papers, wooden items to decorate and embellishments. I nearly keeled over from her generosity, I couldn't wait to get started on creating.

I only had the small matter of 70 wedding invites to make first, oh and I needed to get my first 3 projects to Paper Artsy in 2 weeks! It was all action stations over Christmas I can tell you. 

I've managed to finish 4 projects not 3 and they're going up on the PaperArtsy blog all next week, with a little sneak peak on my blog too at the same time. So keep your eye's peeled for lots of blog posts next week.

Leandra at PaperArtsy has come up with a great concept, instead of having a "design team" for the whole year, she's having 4 guest designers do a semester of 4 months. Each designer is doing 1 week out of every month to show their crafty projects. Mine starts on the 7th of January, that's this Monday. I'm on the team with some amazing people who will be revealed throughout the year, but along with me in the first semester is Linda Cain! I've been a mahoosive fan of Linda Cain for ages, she has the best imagination for altering things. There are two more designers for January but they've not spilled the beans yet, so I'll keep it under my hat for now.

So we have a nice new shiny blog button too for the 1st semester design team, I've put it on my side bar, so keep your eye out to see if you can find out who the other designers are.

Happy New Year everyone xx
Can't wait for next week
Michelle x