On the Beach

On the Beach

Hi There!

Hope you like our new topic

expect many of you are beached!

If you are on holiday - have a

great time, don't get sunburn

and come home safe

We have Louise Thomson here

today to start us off with a

delightful greeting card:

"You'll have to forgive me as I got all the

 shiny things out for this card and totally 

forgot to keep taking photos as I went 

along (oops!)

 Always have been easily distracted!

I started with a few distress oxides in 

shades of blue and green, smooshed onto 

my craft mat and spritzed with water.

 I repeated a few times to get the desired effect

 and made a tag while I was at it too... 

(waste not want not and all that!)

I placed the kaisercraft stencil over the

 blue and used a damp cloth through the stencil 

to remove some of the ink. 

Then I replaced the stencil and added grunge 

paste through it to create streams of bubbles.

 I also stamped some 'seaweed' in peeled 

paint distress oxide. (Technically the stamp is from

 Card-io's backyard blooms set, but I was using

 creative license) 

At the bottom of the card I added texture 

sand paste in quite a rough formation, 

then coated it in some yummy glitter and beads.

From this point onwards I basically went nuts 

adding every shiny thing I could find

 (which was quite a lot!)

Included here are metallic gel pens, 

stickles glitter, liquid pearls, wink of stella,

 glossy accents, and alchemy wax.

I also stamped parts of blue ferns' seaside 

stamp around the edges to add a border.

Next I cut some sea themed shapes using

 an impression obsession die set. 

Ever since I saw Helen Chilton use enamel 

accents on die cuts I've been wanting to try it

 - now seemed like the perfect opportunity. 

I used the enamel accents on some, 

and liquid pearls on others.

Time to add some text using some

 'ink-smooshed' card strips and a fine liner 

before mounting inside a card base. 

(I used a square die to cut the aperture 

from an ordinary blank card)

And that was it! 

Such a lot of fun to make, I hope it inspires

 you to get messy in the craft room 😃"

Materials;

Distress oxides

Card-io Backyard blooms

Blue fern studios stamp – seaside memories

Kaisercraft 12x12 mini mix stencil 

Grunge paste

Impression Obsession mini nautical dies

Stix 2 Seed bead mix

Stickles – diamond

Alchemy wax - Silver

Mister spray

Wink of Stella

Liquid pearls

Enamel accents

Sakura gelly roll pen – metallic emerald

Micron fineliner

A lovely card Louise - thank you
You did seem to be having a
lot of fun making this - I love
your embellishments


Amazing what you can do with
a die cut and some Enamel Accents
Nothing like making your own
embellishments!

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Van Gogh

Van Gogh

Hi There!

We continue our celebration

of Van Gogh today with

Louise Thomson, who has

been inspired by the Sunflowers

.........indeed, thanks to the

art posters in our classrooms

we were all probably 

influenced by them.....

"It's quite a tall order to try

 and replicate the style of one of 

the world's most recognised artists, 

but when I think van Gogh, 

I think sunflowers, 

which just so happen to be 

one of my favourite flowers. So...

I made a background using distress oxides

Added some stencilling

And stamped my own version of sunflowers, 

which I think are actually daisies from

 a PaperArtsy set.

Some fresco paint helped bring out the 

sunflower look a little more. 

I also added some gold alchemy wax 

around the edge as though to frame it.

I stamped parts of a honeydoo stamp 

to give it a bit of greenery.

 Then to help the flowers stand out, 

I blended green distress ink

 around them.

Using the stencil again I added texture 

paste and once dry I guilded it using 

alchemy wax.

I have been tempted many times to 

start an art journal and so decided to 

make this the front cover of one. 

I just stitched together a wadge of 

 thick white paper and mounted my own

 'Van Gogh' to the front.

Who knows, maybe you'll be seeing some 

art journal pages from me shortly?!"

Materials:

Honeydoo floral corner flourish stamp

Paperartsy E3 Tracey Scottstamps 06 

Non-stick craft mat

Acrylic block

Blending tool

Mister spray

Distress inks

Distress oxides

Kaisercraft 12x12 mini mix stencil

Fresco paints

Alchemy wax – Inca gold

Grunge paste

Thank you Louise, super project

and what a good idea to make

your own art journal........

Think we would all be

interested to see some 

art journal pages.....

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Up The Wall

Up The Wall

Hallo everyone!

Hope your week continues well

Expect you're looking forward 

to the weekend - well, here's a

fun project for you from

Louise Thomson

"I started with a watercolour card tag and 

blended distress inks over it in scattered straw 

and fossilized amber.

Next I taped down my brick stencil and 

blended over fired brick and pumice stone inks.

With the stencil removed I added in a selection 

of plants from Card-io’s backyard blooms stamp set, 

all stamped in mowed lawn distress ink.

I added the spiders web in amongst the plants 

using black versa colour ink, 

then used a black fineliner to join up the

 loose ends of the web.

I die cut a strip of grass and then trimmed 

the off cut so I could use that too, 

to make two different grassy outlines. 

One piece I coated in mowed lawn ink, 

the other I left the original green. 

These were then added to the bottom of the tag. 

I also added in a few creepy crawlies… 

(see how many you can spot…!)

Finally I edged the tag by running the f

ired brick ink pad directly around the edge 

of it and finished off with a few 

coordinating ribbons from my stash."

Materials used;

Watercolour tag

Distress inks  (scattered straw, fossilized amber, fired brick, pumice stone, mowed lawn)

Low tack adhesive

Kaisercraft 12x12 mini mix stencil

Card-io Backyard blooms

Grass border die

Black fine-liner

Green paper and ribbons (from stash)

Great tag Louise, thank you

Such fun with all the little critters


'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx

Bag It

Bag It

Hallo everyone!

Today's project would make

a really special gift bag and

here is Louise Thomson to

tell you how she made it

"Start by applying a couple of coats of the 

base colour – Green Apple So Soft fabric paint, 

to a canvas wine bottle bag. 

I wanted a fairly natural look with rough edges 

and plenty of the canvas still showing

Mix the green apple paint with a tiny bit of 

‘So Soft’ tangerine to get a terracotta colour 

and apply through a stencil. 

I used two different designs of the same 

Kaisercraft mini mix stencil

Once completely dry, stamp the Honey Doo 

Floral Chaos design repeatedly on to the canvas. 

My ink pad was running low and I ended up 

re – stamping the image several times.

 I thought it was going to be a disaster and 

need ditching but I should have had faith – 

there is no project that can’t be rescued!

Using tangerine and dark burgundy So Soft paints, 

paint in the flower heads, mixing them to create a variety of tones

Once you are happy with the paint and 

have allowed it to dry, go over the stems in a 

sakura gelly roll pen. 

Add in dots of bisque liquid pearls around the 

stems and also to add centres to the flowers

Finally, bag a bottle!

 I tied the bag with the hessian style chord provided

 and added three coordinating paper flowers 

which rather handily were in a Craft Barn 

goody box I purchased recently!"

Materials used-

Canvas bottle bag

So soft paints in green apple, tangerine and dark burgundy

Kaisercraft 12x12 mini mix stencil

Paint brush

Honey doo floral chaos stamp

Staz on ink – Jet Black

Sakura gelly roll pen – metallic emerald

Liquid pearl - Bisque

Paper flowers (from stash)

Thank you Louise - a super project.

Didn't I tell you it would be special?

I'm sure you agree this is a beautiful

way of presenting a bottle be it a

full bodied red or a bottle of blackcurrant juice!

The So Soft paints, by DecoArt, are really nice to 

use too and come in a good range of colours

'Till tomorrow

Mickie xx