Workshop and sheer exhaustion!!

Jo Na I attended a brilliant workshop at Graphicus in Barnard Castle, run by the wonderful Lesley Wharton and was called 'Fabulous Finds and Curios'.  It was all about using items you have in your home or office to make fabulous crafty things out of.

First of all we started to make flowers out of tissue drinks coasters.  We crumpled them up to release each individual layer and spritzed them with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist.  I think I used some sort of lime and a yellow.  We also had to cut around the inner circle of the coaster and do exactly the same thing with scrunching and spritzing to make the smaller flower.  We then punched out 2 scalloped circles and 2 smaller plain circles from dictionary pages.  These were also spritzed in the same colours.  We dried all of the pieces with a heat tool before scrunching the dictionary pages to match the coasters.

Once put together with the help of a small circle of cardboard behind the flower, we added buttons for centres (or a scrabble piece, an idea I unashamedly nicked from Jo!)  and 'floofed' them to make them stand up.  Once we'd done this we made a gift bag from a plain white A4 envelope and attached the flowers to it, adding stems from paper printed onto self adhesive labels.  Any decoration can be added when the bag is flat.  As with all crafting, you're only limited by your imagination!!

Then we each picked 3 (empty) loo roll holders out of a bag which Lesley had the staff at Graphicus collecting for weeks.  We flattened them and Lesley put them under house bricks to make sure they were completely flat.  Once they were, we covered them with paper, put holes in them for book rings to hold them together and voila a mini tag book!  We used a cheap elastic hair band to hold the book closed and it looks FAB!!!

Our final task for the day was after lunch and was an absolute killer for me.  Lesley had to help me as I was s-o-o-o e-x-h-a-u-s-t-e-d.  It was all about making another mini tag book from a DL envelope.  Luckily Lesley gave us full instructions and did all of the folding and cutting for me.  I just had the job of gluing down which I had to get Jo to help me with, but the result is stunning!!

Luckily Carrie had very kindly given us a lift through to the workshop, so I didn't have to drive.  I was so exhausted when I got in I had something to eat then went to bed and slept from about 8pm.  I had treatment the next day at the hospital and I came home straight afterwards rather than shop in Newcastle.

Although the workshops kill me, fatigue-wise, I won't stop going to them.  At least when I feel dreadful for a few days afterwards I know that I've achieved something that I am proud of.

A big thanks to Lesley for a FAB workshop as well as to all the girls who attended.  I think its safe to say we all had a great time!!!

We'll always have Paris

Not too long ago I passed the YMCA charity shop in my local town and they had a frame in the window for £2.  It was one of those awful ones (apologies to anyone who has one and loves it) that people used to have in their bathrooms.  It had a wooden frame behind the glass that was used as shelves to have tiny bales of towels and toilet rolls on.  It was a bit like a miniature version of a bathroom.

When I asked to see it, the guy in the shop showed it to me like a fine bottle of wine.  You shoulda seen his face when I told him I wasn't bothered about the front, but turned it over to look at the back to see if I could take it to bits.  Once we got home, my Mam and I wasted no time in ripping into it.  My Mam had to get a screwdriver to the glue under the little ornaments to prise them loose.  Far to dangerous in my hands!!

I'm gutted I didn't take a photo of it in its pre-enhanced state!

I didn't bother sanding the frame or gessoing it as it had been painted with a matte paint.  I used a Stewart Gill Byzantia paint in a blue (the name has come off the lid so no help with the name) and painted 2 coats.  I then used a Stewart Gill Alchemy (same thing with the lid) over the top and accidentally rubbed a little of the paint off while trying the move the frame.  It must've been serendipity as the result was a little of the pinky-peach colour that the frame was originally showed through.  I quickly rubbed some more off before the paint dried!

I painted the wooden frame insert with silver Stewart Gill paint as I wanted it to show off what was in the compartments not fight against them.

I had a bought a miniature Eiffel Tower for 50p in the infamous ex-catalogue shop where I got the mannequins.  I decided the turn the wooden frame so the 'shelves' were vertical and placed the little tower in one of the compartments.  I then borrowed Jo's Paris Postcard stamp plate by Elusive Images part of Graphicus and stamped the cathedral onto acetate before putting variegated metal leaf behind it.  I bent it to fit into the other compartment.

For the background which is attached to the board at the back of the wooden insert frame, I used a piece of paper that came in a Graphicus Guild paper pack.  I creased the paper slightly before sanding it and using a Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.  I spritzed some water onto it too before attaching it to the board.

The glass at the front of the overall frame had to be thoroughly cleaned before I stamped a couple of swirls by Creative Expressions on in Timber Brown Stazon just to take the 'starkness' of the glass away.

Once I had assembled the frame I had to tape the back board to the wooden frame insert and use silicone glue to glue the insert to the larger frame.  It took an awful lot doing, strength not being my 'strong' point (LOL!!!) and then I had to leave this overnight to dry. 

I wanted something on the front of the frame, but not words, so I used a technique I learned from Lynn at Graphicus.  I took 3 Prima white flowers in complimentary sizes and sprayed them Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Tattered Leather.  I dried each of them thoroughly with a heat tool before patting them with a Versamark ink pad.  I sprinkled platinum UTEE over the flowers and used a heat tool to set the UTEE.  The result is a flower that looks like metal.

And this is the completed frame.  Sorry the photo's not great but glass tends to reflect!!

It looks really gorgeous with light shining on it (even if I do say so myself LOL!!!)

Klimt inspired necklace

A couple of years ago Graphicus released 4 DL plates of baubles for Christmas.  I loved them all, but was really torn by the Rennie Mackintosh inspired one and the Klimt inspired ones.  Jo bought them all so I just used hers.  As soon as I saw the Klimt ones I knew I wanted to make a necklace with them.

I first stamped each bauble onto sanded clear shrink plastic using black Stazon, then punched a hole in the top of each one using a Crop-a-dile before shrinking them with a heat tool.Once they were shrunk I stuck them to a sheet of double sided adhesive and cut them out.  I re-opened the hole by putting the tip of a pokey tool through it (be very careful here as I managed to poke myself in the finger LOL!!!). 

 Once that was done I took the backing off and put variegate metal leaf (don't know what colourway it was) on the back and sealed it with a varnish before putting jump rings through each hole and putting it onto a cord.

Sorry the photo's not too good.  The flash bounced off the metal leaf (note to self - take photos of objects with metal leaf in daylight!!)

Graphicus Open Days

I had a VERY tiring but VERY inspiring day yesterday at Graphicus in Barnard Castle.  Graphicus is a wonderful craft shop which is very simply Crafting Heaven.  As it was an Open Day there were lots of demonstrations going on and I sort hopped between them all. 

Firstly there was Glenda Waterworth who owns Graphicus showing off their new Mermaid stamp plates and she was doing some absolutely AMAZING colouring with the Copic Ciao markers. 

Here are some of the wonderful samples Glenda made yesterday.

This is Lynn Robinson-Hunter.  She usually does loads of Ranger techniques on tags using distress inks.  However yesterday she was amazing people with an image transfer technique using Claudine Hellmuth Sticky Back canvas.

Lynn places the sticky back canvas on to the front of the image.  Yes you read right.  It covers the image completely.  Then you burnish it and spritz the paper and rub it off the back of the canvas.  It is quite relaxing doing this or watching someone else doing it!

She was also doing a lot with beeswax.  This technique is wonderful!!!  If you'd like to know more about this technique there is a workshop running at Graphicus on Thursday 22nd July.  Details are available on the Graphicus website.  Just go to the tab on the left marked 'Book a workshop'.  These are pictures of the book boards that she made yesterday and Friday. Something along these lines will be made at the workshop. Please come along!

Lesley Wharton was also there doing demonstrations using Clarity Stamps and techniques as well as the new CD (which is gorgeous!!).  She was also using the new Mermaid stamps.

Judith Walton was demonstrating the Ranger Melt Pot using Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) to make jewellery.  She was using molds made with Mold 'n' Pour and filling them with UTEE and that is how the key was made in the picture.

It was a brilliant day, but I am paying for it now as I am exhausted.  I've been in bed all day and my legs are really hurting even though Graphicus kindly gave me a chair at each demo.  A big thanks to David for providing the food (and my extras for my tea!) and Carrie for giving me a lift there and back!

The big 'D'

As many of you know I have MS and with that can come depression (the big D).  I have been suffering from depression for a few years but it came back with a vengence last year.  Its been under control, but at the moment it seems to have reared its ugly head again.  I am seeing a wonderful counsellor who has really helped me put things into perspective.

One thing that has really helped is art journaling.  Lynn (from Graphicus in Barnard Castle) showed me all about it last year and told me how much it has helped other people with depression.  So I set about giving it a try.

This is one of the first pages I did.  I started off writing everything down about how I was feeling.  I then gessoed over that.  It took a few coats of gesso to obliterate the words.  I didn't want them to be completely obliterated as I still wanted to see some peeking through.  I then used black chalk to scribble over the top randomly and used a tissue to rub it in a little.  The 'what lies beneath' wording and maze were both from magazines.  Most of the stamps are Tim Holtz, stamped in versamark then embossed in black.  I wrote words over the top to express how I was feeling.

I found doing this page VERY cathartic and although the big D is back, its nowhere near as bad and this page shows me how far I've come.  I feel that because I wrote out my feelings and covered all the bad stuff up, I can move on without that weighing me down.

Art journaling can be done in any kind of book or just on paper.  Its only for you to see so it doesn't matter what it looks like.  I've only posted this on here in case someone who may need a little help uses the idea.