Here are a couple more examples using the pink painted masterboard as a background - on the left is an engagement card and on the right is a note book that was free with a magazine (it was plain blue to begin with but has been altered with acrylic paint and stamping). I haven’t quite mastered the process of adding photos yet, I’m finding that the quality and angle of the pictures isn’t great but I’m quite proud that I’ve managed to upload them in the first place and I’m sure practice will make perfect.

In April I went to a Ranger workshop at Art From the Heart in Harrogate which was taught by Dyan Reaveley and I absolutely loved it. The techniques I learnt were so different to what I had been doing previously that I felt like it gave a whole new direction to my cards and altered art projects. I love gorgeous papers but it was hard to put together a card with just nice paper and it used to take me ages just to make one card - and by ages I mean like a week!! But Dyan showed us how to use acrylic paint building up layers with different shades and not focussing on it being perfect – it can always be painted over or stamped over or rescued in some way or another if it goes wrong. So now I make a masterboard and have fun painting and getting messy and not worrying what it looks like, this can then be cut up for different projects like the one above. I was so pleased with the class I’ve booked for another one in October and I’m counting down the days, I can’t wait, I would definitely recommend it!!

I know it’s been a long time since I have added anything to this blog – I set it up in January and haven’t posted anything since! I spend 12 hour shifts on the computer at work so the last thing I feel like doing when I get in is sitting in front of the computer again. I don’t have a laptop, I’m not on facebook and for a 29 year old I’m not very technology friendly. And, although I started the blog I wasn’t very confident with uploading photos and changing the layout and I wanted it to be perfect straight away, which of course it was never going to be. I’ve realised that I need to relax a bit, enjoy it and just let it develop over time. So I’m getting on with it, I was scared that I might sound like an idiot (the word idiot is a polite version of what I really thought) and the question ‘who would take any notice of my blog?’ did cross my mind but I decided to treat this as a sort of record of the things I make as I usually end up giving them away and although I might not add a new posting every day I will try to do it a little more often than every 6 months!!!

Ruler Book

I started by tinting a sheet of Tim Holtz paper with Distress Inks – press the ink pads onto a craft mat, spray with water then lay the paper on top (patterned side down) and slightly turn/slide it to pick up the colours, allow to dry or use a heat gun or craft iron to speed up the drying time. A piece was cut to fit the front of the book, this was glued in place and the edges were tinted with Vintage Photo Distress Ink using ‘cut n dry’ foam.

I used a text stamp from Crafty Individuals and black StazOn to stamp onto mica, which I adhered using a glue stick in areas that are covered by embellishments. The same stamp was used to stamp onto Fimo which was baked and cropped to size then secured using strong glue. I covered a photo slide with Tim Holtz paper and again tinted the edges. The word ‘Journey’ was added with alphabet tiles which were mounted on small pieces of cardboard to give them some dimension and the edges were tinted. A wooden letter ‘E’ was coloured with Distress inks and stamped on with a text stamp. Small embellishments were added including a bottle cap which was made up from small collaged bits of paper and filled with glossy accents – just remember to use a permanent ink like StazOn on any bits of paper in the bottle cap as the glossy accents can make other inks run and instead of a clear finish it will be muddy.

Hello and welcome to my blog!

I’m venturing into the world of blogging as I recently won ‘Best Non-Card Item’ in the Stamper of the Year 2009 competition run by Craft Stamper magazine and when I was asked if I had a blog I panicked slightly as I had no idea how to start one but after a bit of research and a lot of help from my brother I have managed to do it and I hope you enjoy my crafty creations!