Multi-use

I have had this stamp from Paper Artsy for simply ages because I thought it would be good for inchies. Needless to say I have never joined an inchie swap since getting it. Decided to get it out and use it today so I stamped it in black and put clear ep over it. Then I began turning the image into cards. I needed some birthday cards pretty quick!

This one uses just four of the faces which I mounted on black and white first going over the images with my Brilliance Aurora inkpad.
Another four of the faces were just used in this pattern and I stamped a tiny birthday greeting in the squares left over.
The final one was using the other four faces and again and a couple of word stamps. The one at the bottom has more words on but they were not suitable for this card as they were talking about elves.
Remember the other day when I cut the centre from a Paper Artsy stamp and replaced the image with a Dragonfly Lady? Well, this is the bit I cut out so I mounted it up and voila - another card.
Hopefully I will get some more cards made tomorrow as I have so many birthdays coming up I need them!

The rest of today and yesterday has been spent doing my stint on one of the altered corsets. Sorry I do not post pictures but I don't think it fair to post them until the actual unveiling in Dorset in September. Hopefully then I can show you all the work that has been done by the eleven participants.

I was totally blown away by the stitching that has gone into the corset I have just been working on, it is absolutely fantastically, gorgeously, blooming lovely!

More of the Same

Today saw a repeat of Thursday's workshop at Paddy's Stamping Place in Prestwich. Unfortunately I had forgotten to take my camera with me but got Chas to bring it over at the end of the workshop so I could upload a picture of one or two of the finished pieces.

Above is Lynnette with her completed piece which I think she is going to use as a mirror. Lynnette amazed us all by finishing quite early so she made a pair of ear-rings and some beads using one of the bead rollers that Paddy sells. I now wish I had taken a close-up of her work because it was beautiful and you don't really see it that closely on this photograph.
Here is Sid with his work of art. Sid decided to use mainly blues in his mirror so he used the blue clay to be the base of his work. The Mica shows up ever so bright on the tiles and it was a lovely piece - again a shame I did not take a close-up of his work either.

Everyone said they had enjoyed the workshop and Lynnette has got her thoughts on making several more for Christmas gifts - I hope she does and the recipients enjoy them when they receive them.

They are definitely quite attractive and every time you look at them you see something else which takes your eye so they could be quite a talking piece.

Now I have got those two workshops behind me perhaps tomorrow I can do some more card making although I would like to get on with another clay mirror - but this time totally different - then there is the picture I want to do using clay .... ah well, we'll have to see what tomorrow will bring. One thing I do know is that if it turns into a clay day it will not be completed in one or two days; but oh what enjoyment I will get from creating.

Two Posts in One Day

The first class making the picture frame/mirror is over. I like to show people on my blog so here are some pictures, uploaded quickly tonight after resting my ankle, which is suffering because I did go up the stairs a couple of times, and I now realise I shouldn't have.

This one shows the girls busy at work.

Carol worked methodically and decided to make her pieces and then decide where to place them at a later date. Here is her work in progress with some of her pieces placed on the mirror and some left on the workstation ready to go on at a later date.

Carol and Chris busy at work.

Chris put her pieces on as she worked and decided to try a piece of blue clay which she used Blue Duo on - it shows up really bright in the bottom left corner of this photograph.

Rita and Linda playing (sorry - working)!

Rita worked as she went along and decided to do some long pieces for variation. What I like about my workshops is that the girls all end up with totally different pieces and use their own artistic ability to produce something individual.

As Linda was the first to finish hers Paddy thought it would be a good idea to have her face in the aperture where the mirror will eventually go. She made a really good job of her piece and I hope her family enjoy it. As a finished product these are certainly something which you can look at and find something different each time you look to catch your eye.

We didn't have time to make any beads but here is a necklace I made for Paddy. It shows two types of handmade beads using air dry clay and some using the bead rollers. In P's favourite colours too. Well, I had too didn't I?

I did show the girls how to make a pair of ear-rings very quickly (good for quick gifts) but I gave them to Jackie who called in but was unable to attend the class as her father died earlier in the week and it is the funeral tomorrow. Hope they helped her cheer up a little and know we will all be thinking of her tomorrow.

Beads

Yesterday I spent most of the day stringing beads and getting ready for my workshop today. No, we are not doing beads, and certainly not these as they are made with Kato Clay and at the moment we only use air dry clay at Paddy's. We are making the picture frame/mirror that I showed in my blog on the 19th May.

These are the organic beads that I began way back at my workshop in Nottingham. To be truthful only five of them are - the larger ones represent seed pods and took me quite a while to make as you first make the base, bake it and then put a very thin layer over and have to work it in to the bead. I have been busy making the other beads using my bead rollers in order to complete the necklace.

I needed some spacer beads and looked through my stash but could not find any/enough to complete the necklace so, on Tuesday, off I went to Afflecks Palace in Manchester to get some more. In the end, after walking past the place (even standing outside it and still walking past) I managed to get some spacer beads.

Now I know why they charge so much for necklaces that are hand made. With very little in my packet I had spent £22! This necklace uses some of the beads I bought (the kind of gold ones) but as the beads graduated smaller I used crimps to give the appearance of spacers.

Now I am off to my workshop, complete with my new necklace, in the hopes that Paddy will start stocking Fimo Clay so that we can begin to do some of the beads I have learned to do. Maybe I will take some photographs of the workshop in progress and upload them later.

A couple of birthday cards

Yesterday I decided it was about time my mojo got working (it's back a little) and I did some stamping. I do think the Stamp Club on Saturday helped as I so liked the things we did. I have a couple of friends with birthdays coming up so I set to making some cards.

The first one uses a Paper Artsy stamp as the background - this stamp has the face of a young girl in it so I cut it out with my scalpel and then used another stamp (not sure who's) to replace the young girl. Both images were done with Archival Black ink and then clear embossing powder over the top so they are nice and glossy. Then I rubbed some Brilliance Peacock (tri-pad) over the top of the dragonfly lady.

I am pleased with the result and hope the recipient likes it. The young girl cut out from the background image is set aside as she will be used on another card - watch this space!

The next card is done with the dragonfly lady in much the same way but with Brilliance Aurora rubbed in and then it is mounted on white. I love this corner punch and I thought with the image being so busy just one corner was sufficient.

It may not seem as if I did much in the way of stamping but we were also planning a holiday and that took up so much of our time - most of the day in fact. Still, two cards are better than none.

Today I am setting aside to do some Polymer Clay beads - well sort of finish some of them off and then hopefully get something strung together. Thank goodness the sun is not shining as it calls me to sit outside and read rather than craft. LOL

I so want to complete my necklace using the beads I did with Alison Gallant but I need to go shopping for some metal connector beads and there is nowhere local. Drat! Plus I must get ready for my workshop on Thursday (repeated on Saturday as well). Maybe next week I can have a trip out somewhere and get the necklace completed.

Happy 4th July

Today, at Victoria Stampers we made this card. Well, not actually this one, as the one I did was exactly like one of Cath's (katykrunch.blogspot.com) so, as it is on her blog, I haven't used it. It was the bird one that I liked so much and as my stamps were too large she let me use hers. Thanks Cath.

But then ... I remembered when I came home that I fully intended doing something in red, white and blue in honour of my American friends so I set to and made the one above. This is the cover.

Then I did the inside with "shoppy" words on. The first one, on the inside cover, says "When the going gets tough; The tough go shopping" - the other small ones say "Shoe Queen", "Born to Shop", "Purse-onality" and "Shopaholic". The one on the back inside cover says "Men are from Mars; Women are from Visa!" This is partly for me because I love to go shopping when I am in America - stampy things of course.

It has taken me ages to get it photographed ready for this blog (I am hopeless with the camera) but as my American friends are behind timewise it is still only mid-afternoon over there. Happy 4th July girl-friends!

This is what we did with Lynne. It is a matchbox which contains five little tags. The outside of the matchbox has a cover which when open has one of Lynne's verses in "It is better to have one true friend than all the acquaintances in the world". Isn't that a lovely little saying?

Think that will be on my next shopping list. Oh, and some matchboxes as they are quite addictive.

Birds

Tomorrow is [Vicky] Stamp Club and Cath and Lynne are doing the workshop between them. Cath loaded a gorgeous card up which we are going to make using her bird stamps. Mine are not the same, but I do have a sheet of Glenda's bird stamps, so I finally got around to mounting them on EZ Mount ready to use. Couldn't resist making a couple of cards and as the sun was not shining today I had the time to make them without wilting in my craft room.
I used my favourite Archival Black Ink and decided to emboss them with clear powder. As I had used a kind of semi-gloss card it was quite a high gloss finish that was achieved. I then decided to use my Aurora Brilliance Ink Pad to provide some colour so with both of the above cards that is what provided the colour.

Maybe tomorrow (or more likely the day following) I will upload what I made at VSC.