Violets are blue....well, a bit purple actually!

Good afternoon, peeps!

Well, the sun is shining and the flowers are blooming on my blog as well as in the garden.

Wor Sheena has been busily drawing away again to bring you some new stamps that are all glorious florals with Spring in mind and a touch of the Art Nouveau thrown in.  They are on big A5 plates and can be seen in the flesh on Create and Craft TV on Saturday at 10.00 a.m. and 3.00 p.m. so don't forget to tune in.

Another big surprise for us all are clear, yes, crystal clear Rock-a-Blocks, YAY!!  This means that, if you cut your rubbah close to the design, you can overstamp painted designs and build pattern, such as on this card:

Ordinarily, I'd only be building patterns with Clarity stamps because I can see right through them but now, with the clear Rockers, I can build patterns with me rubbah, woo hoo!!  I'm sure you'll see them in action with wor Sheena on Saturday.

She'll also be featuring the lovely Luminarte products.  I was pleased to see that, despite my lousy photography, I did at least manage to capture a little of the mica sheen on the background, which was produced with my treasured H20s - the posy was painted with them too.

Thanks for looking and I'll see you tomorrow with some more.

Hugs

My favourite flowers

Good morning, peeps!  Oh where did the sun go?  I don't think he'll be putting his hat on and coming out to play today! :-(

Anyhoo, I thought I'd show you some flowers I painted (with the help of Sheena's Paint Fusion stamps but, like yesterday's samples, not using PF techniques) that always make me think of Summer sunshine and they are my very favourite flowers.  First on the list are poppies:

They are, of course, painted on to a Pebeo canvas board (this one is 18 x 24 cm) with the wonderful Pebeo Acrylic Paints.  It was so easy to make the clouds in the sky with a stencil brush and the High Viscosity Acrylic (the stuff in the tubes).  The flowers themselves were painted with the Deco Matt Paint.

Number 2 favourite flower is the daisy:

This one is on a 20 cm square canvas and using the Deco Matt Paint for the background and leaves but using the Studio Acrylic Titanium White.for the daisy flowers themselves to give greater opacity.  I always think that daisies look such cheerful flowers but then you probably always knew I was strange!

Sheena will be showing us what she's doing with these stamp designs on Create and Craft TV tomorrow at 8.00 a.m. and 2.00 p.m. so please don't forget to tune in.

In the meantime, you can check out what my Teamies Lisa, Tracy, Fiona and Caroline are doing.

Thank you for looking today.

Hugs

Paint Fusion-esque

' Evenin' All!  I think someone else may have said that?

Just thought I'd pop in with a quick post about Sheena's shows on Thursday at 8.00 a.m. and 2.00 p.m. (it also looks as though one of the shows is being repeated at 10.00 p.m.).

Here are a couple of the projects I've produced for this one:

This is a 20 cm square canvas on which I've used the Pebeo Acrylic paints and the Paint Fusion Sunflowers image but not the Paint Fusion technique - believe it or not I have never actually practised that technique (hangs head in shame!) but the point is that you don't have to use that technique for these stamps, they are very versatile.

.... and this is the top of the box....

This was a big project but worth it!  I really fancied painting a box all over with lilacs!  Again, this is a Paint Fusion stamp but not the Paint Fusion technique although, with this one, it was very similar but I just couldn't think of another way to successfully paint all those tiny lilac flowers.

I'll be back tomorrow because I have some more to show you but thanks for looking today and don't forget to watch wor Sheena on Thursday!

Hugs

Simples .....

Good morning, peeps!  I hope you're all having a great start to the day!

Today I thought I'd show you a couple of cards that I'm currently teaching at workshops for Samuel Taylor. In fact, there's only one workshop left now at the Brighouse store on Saturday 27 April.  It's always hard to come up with something new that will interest people sufficiently to attend a workshop.  These two cards focus on techniques so the design of the cards themselves is kept fairly simple.  Also, I do like stamps with a floral design (as regular visitors may have noticed!!) and I thought it might be nice to celebrate Spring with some seasonal flowers.

Here's the first one:

These tulips are paper pieced then shaded with coloured pencils to give the image some depth and dimension.  I also like making shaped easel cards, which are not as mysterious as some people might think.  The stamps come from a set by Woodware, available here.  The pink 'frame' to the picture is created with one of the wonderful newer Spellbinder dies called Floral Ovals.

and this is the second card:

The basic card for this one is even simpler, just a basic A5, but I always think that matting and layering brings an elegant shift to any card and the technique this time is watercolour using Ranger Distress Inks - specifically Dusty Concorde and Forest Moss.  You could also use watercolour pens for this technique but, for me, nothing reacts with water better than Sir Tim's Distress Inks!  This is another Woodware stamp called 'Grape Hyacinth' (never refrain from stating the obvious, Diane!!)  It's another design from the talented Jane Gill and being in the style of botanical illustration, I thought that this one was perfect for the watercolour technique.  The plant label at the bottom is cut from another of the newer Spellbinders, this time it's Enchanted Labels 28.  This is just the smallest die in the set and is fairly plain but the larger ones are just wonderful.

Thanks for looking today and I'll hopefully see you all again soon.  Some more goodies from Sheena should be arriving today, so watch this space!

Hugs

Last sneaky peek

Good morning, peeps!

I thought I'd just pop in and show you a final sneaky peek before Sheena's shows tomorrow.  There is a correction to the timings from my previous posts, the shows are at 11.00 a.m. and 3.00 p.m. and, as well as the lovely canvasses from my fellow teamies and the lovely lady herself, you might just catch a glimpse of this:

These iris are so easy to paint with the help of the stamp images.  The scrolls at the top right were produced by layering the Pebeo Acrylic Gel medium on to one of the stamps from the Flying Colours Stamp Set.  When it's dry, you can simply peel it away from the stamp and layer it on  to your canvas.  I just rubbed some of the lovely Gilding Wax over the result to show the relief.

The frame is from the usual place but unfortunately the glass didn't make it intact on the journey to wor Sheena so I hope that the canvas itself wasn't damaged in the fray!

I hope you enjoy the shows tomorrow, you can be certain that I'll be watching along to keep you company!

Hugs

A little bit Oriental

Good afternoon, peeps!  I hope you're all having a good day - things are getting better here and the snow is going away slowly so maybe Spring will come soon!

I have some more samples to show you that I've made for Sheena's shows on Saturday at 11.00 a.m. and 3.00 and 7.00p.m. (unless Create and Craft TV change their minds that is!!).  These three pictures are intended to be hung together:

As you can see, they were all produced with Sheena's fabulous Magnolia Blossom Stamp Set, which also has a wonderful corner design as a part of the set as well as smaller flowers and I really find it a very versatile set.  All the canvasses were painted with the wonderful Pebeo Acrylics that Sheena will be introducing to you on the shows.  They are 10 cms square and are mounted on those lovely £1.50 mirrors from that well known Swedish department store - such a brilliant bargain!  The charms are from my stash.

Whilst I'm showing you canvasses that are meant to be hung together, here is another project I created for the same shows where you don't have any choice but to hang them together because I firmly glued them that way!!

These are painted using four of the other stamps from the A little bit Floral series - all equally wonderful and large enough to use in wall art.

Thank you for looking today and I do hope you'll tune in to Sheena's shows or record them if you're going out - there are sure to be many useful tips from wor Sheena to help you!

Hugs

On the canvas

Good morning, peeps!  Have you got snow today?  It's been snowing quite hard here in Yorkshire but at least it hasn't settled on the areas of ground that have already been cleared after the last lot - it's just sitting on top of the snow that's still lying around!

Anyhoo, let's move on to what's been going on inside Whitehouse Towers lately and I've been busy with me brush adding images to canvas to create wall art!  That's going to be the subject that wor Sheena will be covering in her shows this coming Saturday 30 March at 11.00 a.m., 3.00 and 7.00 p.m. - quite a marathon for the lovely lady!

Now, many of you might be saying to yourselves, 'Oooo, I couldn't paint pictures to hang on the wall' but let me tell you, peeps that with the lovely Sheena's help, her stamps and the new acrylics from Pebeo - you definitely can!

Here's one of my attempts:

This one uses the 'Floral Corners' stamp set, with a little help from 'Flying Colours' and 'Silhouette Grasses'.  The butterflies were stamped on to acetate with black Stazon and then painted from the back and the swirl from the Silhouette Grasses set was stamped straight over the blue acrylic paint with Olive Archival Ink.  Add a trellis cut from a Spellbinders die and finish it with the lovely gold wax that you'll see on the programme and you're done - all that remains is to mount it over one of those £1.50 mirrors from that well-known Swedish department store and it's ready to hang on the wall!.....simples!!

My lovely teamies Tracy and Fiona have been much more adventurous than I have with this mixed media game, to say nothing of the Lovely Lady herself so why not go and pay them a visit to see what they've been up to?

I'll see you again tomorrow with another sneaky peek but thanks for looking at this one.

Hugs