After a wonderful Saturday's crafting...

...I haven't done much this week.

The reason being...

 

...a rather painful touch of the old 'arfa-ritis'. This damp weather really isn't helping.

 

I so enjoyed Andy's class making the box and I had lots of ideas that I wanted to try this week but I haven't done anything.

 

Now I'm right-handed and as you can see from the photo - that is my left hand...but it is a bit difficult to concentrate when all you want to do is wrap the painful joint up warmly. So no crafting from me this week.

 

This Saturday was bright and sunny but a rather chilly start to the day - to the point that I couldn't even grip my earrings to put them in. After warming up the joints a bit I was able to get over to Barleylands to see the free demo session that Andy was holding at Pinnacle Crafts.

 

The aim of the demo was to show folk that you can do so much more with your metal dies than just cut. Using some 'funky foam' and one of the Tonic Verso dies...

 ...Andy showed how you could make your very own stamp of the same design...

 ...some EzMount and a pair of scissors...

 ...and he had a very large sized stamp to play with...

...you can just see a sample on the right-hand side of the photo where he used this stamp with gold embossing powder on a dark blue background.

 

He also showed how to make an embossing plate from the same die.

 

Here are just a few of the samples that Andy had made to show how versatile your dies can be...

 ...the sentiment on the Pink card below is from the Tonic "Everyday sentiments 1"...

...Andy also showed how easy it was to turn the sentiment into a very useful stamp.
This blue card was made using the embossing plate that was created from the Tonic Verso die...

...it certainly looks very effective. The anchor below was cut in miri card for the centre of the design but by making a stamp in funky foam...

 ...and teaming it with Inkadinkadoo's "Stamping Gear" system a larger design was created.
Here's that stamp made by the Verso die again...

...just using Flitter Glue to stamp the design and covering it with Glamour Dust...

 ...a beautiful White-on-white card with just a touch of silver.
This card showed what a lovely effect could be achieved by combining several different brands...

...again white-on-white with just a touch of silver - very classy.

 

I came away from Andy's demo day with lots of ideas for making more use of my dies - I just need my joints to start behaving so that I can actually have a play.....................................................

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Boxing clever...

...with some grey board, patterned paper and acetate.

You might want to grab a cuppa (or something stronger) as this is quite a photo heavy post.

Suzie, Hilary and I attended one of Andy's classes at Pinnacle crafts today. We got to play with PP from the DoCrafts Madame Payraud range and lots of mica powder. A messy time was had by all.

I picked quite a subtle shaded PP (Suzie and Hilary went for something a little bolder). The complete creation was completed from one 12x12 sheet (although Andy did give us a second sheet - just in case LOL).

It was important to keep the PP in the right order once cut out...

 ...as this provided some continuity of the pattern...

 ...both for the sides of the box and the sides of the lid.
For each panel of the box we had a sheet of acetate that we sprayed with spray adhesive...

...and a selection of mica powders was applied. Then the acetate was attached to the PP pieces...

 ...sealing the mica between the acetate and the PP.
Each patterned piece was then attached to grey board...

 ...and the panels used to construct a box...

 ...and a lid...

 ...as you can see here...

 ...and at this point the joins looked a little rough because the glue hadn't dried when I took the photo.
The lid was decorated with a die-cut flourish and some butterflies...

 ...in a toning shade of pearly CS...

...a further flourish was added to the front of the box. You can also see in this photo how the PP on the body of the box match up with the lid.
When I got home, I added some flat-back gems to the ends of the flourishes...

 ...and to create the bodies of the butterflies...

 ...and as you can see...

 ...the embellishments were not attached flat to the box because I wanted to give some dimension to the finished effect.
This is a slightly closer photo...

...showing how the PP design was cut to match up across the box & its lid.

It was a lovely messy class - sticky fingers from the glue - shiny hands from the mica powders - and everyone's finished box looked very different because everyone had used different PP and mica colours.

I used Jade teal, Golden mint and Tropical pearl mica powders. The die-cuts flourishes and punched butterflies were cut from a mint pearl CS and the gems were iridescent ones from a current Papermania range.

Despite the weather, we had a wonderful day. We met for breakfast before class. We had a lot of fun being creative with a group of like-minded folk (thank you Andy for coming up with such a fabulous class) and then we shopped. Then to round it all off, we went and had some lunch.

I love days like this when you can spend time with friends doing things that you enjoy. Hope you are all having a great weekend................................................................................

There are angels amongst us...

...honestly there are.

Monday morning I was at my local station before my alarm clock would normally be going off - why? - because I had to get to Cambridge for a meeting at 10am.

Not the most enjoyable way to start the week but hey, ho.

Now I've done this journey several times before so I know what time trains I need to get for the best connections. However, with it being a Monday I didn't want to run into possible "over running engineering works" so I aimed for an earlier train to give myself some breathing space.

Lot of good that did me...

I walked into the station to be faced by an indicator board showing - cancelled; cancelled; cancelled!!!

Signalling problems - and station staff were waiting for confirmation of when replacement buses would turn up - not a promising start to the day.

As I made my way out of the station to await the arrival of the buses (???) a lady came up to me and said she had overheard my enquiry about services and could give me a lift to West Ham station if it would help - see, there are angels around.

I've driven this route before and the traffic is not great during the rush-hour build up but Stephanie does this journey on a regular basis and was able to avoid most of the hold-ups. As we chatted, it turned out she works at the court just across the road from my office - so instead of taking me to West Ham she dropped me off by the court house so that I could cut through to Stratford station.

We had made fabulous time and I got my connection to Liverpool Street earlier than if I had done the whole journey by train...

...no running through Liverpool Street station to find which platform they had put the Cambridge train on this time. I met one of my colleagues on the platform and a text confirmed the other one was on the other end of the train.

We all arrived at Cambridge...

...on time and by sharing a taxi we all arrived for the meeting earlier than anticipated.

The journey home was pretty un-eventful...apart from the fact we got on a 'slow' train that stopped at every lamppost along the way LOL

I hope my angel Stephanie had a good day - she wouldn't allow me to compensate her for any fuel costs as she said she was doing the journey anyway. I really hope that if she should need assistance at any time that there will be an angel for her...............................................................................

Footnote: I arrived at the Cambridge office before my text to my boss did...ain't technology great!

February already...

...just where is the time going?

I can't believe it is over a week since my last post - what happened to those days - do you lose track of time too or is it just me?

Anyhoo...

We are a week into February and however we got here there is still time for a bit of Valentine crafting. Dipping into the "Romantic Valentine Collection 1" from Nicecrane Designs...

...which you can find here. I made another Valentine card.

This card was created using a fancy 8x8 die-cut card blank and one of Ignacio's sweet images...

 ...the image nestles amongst some pretty blooms...

 ...and is matted upon a panel of lace paper from the Papermania 'Parisienne Blue' range...

 ...the large paper blooms are also from this range and I have used red brads for the centres to pick out the reds in the image - a sprinkling of tiny red paper roses have also been added...

...flowers and lace are always felt to be romantic symbols so I hope that has been achieved here.

The DT over at the Nicecrane Design blog have been creating with more of Ignacio's wonderful image sheets - why not hop over there and take a look.......................................................

It's Saturday...

...and how did you spend yours?

I spent my morning in one of Andy's classes (Pinnacle Crafts) playing with Pan Pastels.

This was what I made...

...using a mix of basic Pan Pastels and the newer metallic ones.

Starting with three colours - Orange Shade, Turquoise and Phthalo Green Shade...



 ...a piece of white smooth card was covered in blended stripes.
To create the background card a square of white smooth card was covered...

...with a blend of Diarylide Yellow Tint, Phthalo Green Tint, Turquoise and Phthalo Green.
Using a black Archival ink pad the angel fish image was stamped onto the striped card...

 ...and to create a reverse image, the fish was stamped onto acetate and then pressed onto the striped card. I used a bone folder to help transfer the image.
Once dry, a parchment eraser pencil was used to create some highlighted areas...

 ...this is one of the benefits of the basic Pan Pastels - until they have been sealed they are erasable.
Both images were then carefully cut out...

...taking care not to smudge the colours.
The fish were then sealed using Crafters Companion...

 ...Spray & Shine. Three coats were used to help enhance the colours...

 ...and small googly-eyes were added to give a bit of fun. The fish image was from a stamp set by Sheena Douglass.
From the same stamp set I used two of the seaweed stamps...

...they were stamped randomly using Versamark and then coloured by gently dragging a sponge loaded with the Copper metallic Pan Pastel. This was then sealed using the spray & shine.
Once dry, the fish were mounted onto the background using 3D foam...

 ...a bit of matt & layering and I had a completed tent-fold card.
We were able to play with some other techniques...

 ...some black CS was covered in Versamark and then covered with Pewter, Light Gold, Rich Gold and Copper before using Versamark on some stamps to "stamp off" some of the Pan Pastel...

 ...gradually building up a scene...

...the clouds and covered bridge stamps...

 ...are from Stampscapes...

...the sheen of the metallic pastels made this quite difficult to photograph well but I think you can get the idea - this is a really great technique.

Once finished this was also sealed with spray & shine.

Thank you Andy for a wonderful class - it was great fun playing with the pastels and trying out new things.............................................................