Topiary Trees with Candi

I’m a bit behind on my posts this week… This is a pair of topiary trees that I made especially for the Craftwork Cards Candi Week, and they’re a giveaway prize over at their blog (still chance to enter if you’re really quick!). To see more on how I made them, go to this post. The planters are made from sheet greyboard, covered with titan buff acrylic and weathered with dry brushed Vintage Photo Distress Paint and Distress Ink. The balls are 8mm beads skewered onto cocktail sticks. The trunks of the trees are wound paper, and I rumpled tissue paper round it to add a bark effect.

 

Botanica goes three dimensional

I’ve created these two pieces for Craftwork Cards using their fabulous Botanica kit which includes papers, die cut toppers and bows as well as the Candi – read more over at their blog!

Family Circle 1901

This is my final project as a member of the WOW! Embossing Powder Design Team. This family project published today, here, features my great great grandfather and his eight children. I’m in a black and white phase at the minute, and wondered if the whole frame looked a little funereal, but then others have said it’s quite gothic and in keeping with the end of the Victorian era. I’ll go with that 😉

Lamp shade with embossing powder…

 

It’s a 3D theme over at WOW! Embossing Powders’ Challenge Blog this month, so since I’m still in the middle of preparing my final projects for college, this seems a natural progression for my design team blog post! Read more here.

College – Term 5 – Final Major Project – another paper craft light shade

Well after a flurry of activity over the last two weeks watching my new studio get installed, and then decorating it, constructing furniture and moving in – as well as emptying out and putting back to right the dining room, conservatory and some of the craft room – I have my first ‘working’ day in the studio.

Of the various things I have to catch up with, college work is one priority as I have a mid-way assessment tomorrow. Consequently, I have taken pics of my latest light shade in my series. This one features one of the patterns I gleaned from a visit to the Islamic artefacts at the British Museum, drawn into Illustrator, adapted for the round and then screenprinted in opaque white ink onto thick tracing paper, and then constructed onto a card frame. As with the previous post, here are photos of the shade in daylight, and internally lit at night.

Tattered Flowers in a Paper Vase

 

I’ve taken a bit of time out from designing for my college course to make this canvas featuring a paper craft vase and paper craft, die cut, hand coloured and constructed flowers. I’ll be entering it into Tim Holtz’s Tattered Floral Challenge as it is his Tattered Floral die that I used to cut the flowers from 160gsm thin card. The vase is made from the same card to my own design – SVG file available if anyone would like it…

Each flower layer was wrinkle free distressed in first a layer of Fired Brick and Festive Berries both sides, dried and then wrinkle free distressed in a layer of Fired Brick with Ripe Persimmon. They were then dried before being spritzed and flicked with water and left to dry naturally. The centres were punched and then sprayed with Dylusions Granite spray. The flowers were assembled onto florists wire and stuck together with matt multi medium and left to dry over night before being glued into the vase and onto the canvas background.

Here’s the inspiration pic, a vase of flowers in our lounge:

They’re not tangle patterns… but they’re close!

Me again – I’ve survived a three day stint demonstrating and teaching at the NEC Hobbycraft exhibition, and it’s back to college and catch up time! Last week we were set loose to develop our own style in our drawing lessons, and I’ve returned to making repeating patterns from elements of my bead collection. Each of these patterns are A4 in size, in my sketchbook, and have been painted with black acrylic ink. They are all based on the same shapes which I have cut out from a preceding pattern, rearranged and then traced onto the page before block colouring. They’re not tangle patterns… but you could still use them in your zentangles…

Christmas Stained Glass

I’ve just posted my latest WOW! Embossing Powder project over at the design team blog. I learnt quite a lot about embossing powder onto glass! Follow the link to also learn how I managed to take a photo of a mirror without being in it…

When you can’t get leather… try grungepaper!

Hi – this morning has been spent on a commission. I have been asked to wear something I have made using WOW! Embossing Powder when I’m demonstrating at the NEC next week [Hobbycrafts Exhibition, stand M12-15]. Though I didn’t immediately dismiss necklace or earrings, I didn’t think I’d enjoy the ear lobe crushing of a clip on, and necklaces just dangle in the melt pot… So I came up with two ‘man bracelets’:

Both bracelets are made from grungepaper coloured with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain distress inks, embossed using Tim Holtz texture fades embossing folders, stuck down with Studio matte multi medium. Sewing reinforces the whole thing and the fastening is a Tim Holtz copper hitch. Bracelet 1 features the new WOW! Special Edition Embossing Glitters (Caribbean Jewels) due to be launched at the NEC. Bracelet 2 (The Other Wrist) features the WOW! metallic embossing powders. Grungeboard would work as well, but I didn’t have a size that wrapped round my wrist!

[Not quite] Exclusive Stamp News!

I’m finally allowed to reveal one of the brand new line up of WOW! Embossing Powder stamps making their debut at the Hobbycrafts Exhibition at the NEC, Birmingham from 8th November 2012.

It’s called ‘NB Canvas’ – and it’s my design 🙂

This versatile frayed fabric stamp will be great for inked backgrounds, but obviously works far far better with a layer of embossing powder to give really tactile texture and a fabric feel to your projects. It’s roughly A6 size, so will work well on cards and scrapbooking as well as altered art projects and why not – even fabrics!

It’s not available in stores yet – as I said, it will debut at the NEC show – but snap one up as soon as you see it!

I’ve created a project with it over at the WOW! Embossing Powder Design Team blog, so please pop over and have a look!