My Friend has been a busy bee........

Hi Everyone,

Just to let you know my lovely friend Elaine, has been busy and finished her mini book for our shared blog project over at Craft Stamping Quartet.  We'd love it if you could pop over to see what she's done ...... it's lovely ...... and leave a little comment if you have time.

Thanks everyone.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Something for the smallest room in the house ...... or on the boat!

Hi Everyone

Are you all starting your long weekend?  For those with young families hoping to get out and about I do hope the weather is better than forecast.  For myself I prefer to stay home at Bank Holidays and avoid the crowded roads but I am looking forward to a little trip to Harrogate on Tuesday to spend time with Jenna and our grandchildren (unfortunately, her OH will be at work).

A few weeks ago I shared an altered mirror HERE that I'd had great fun doing for the PaperArtsy #3UP challenge and in my post I mentioned that the chap who came to install a new radiator commissioned me to make a plaque for his canal long boat along the same lines.  I was quite amused because he wanted it for the outside of the WC door!  It's a good job he's still in the thick of renovating the boat and was in no hurry for the plaque as with my OH ending up with two spells in hospital crafting time was cut even more than usual but I finally finished the piece this morning.

I started with an MDF rectangle plaque (apparently the door is folding so it needs to be this orientation to fit on one of the panels) which I painted with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish chalk paints in Limelight, Guacamole and Eggplant.  I finished the background with a wet wipe to get a streaky effect and did the solid edging with Eggplant topped off with a bit of Treasure Gold in Royal Amethyst & Lilac.  I then stamped the JoFY images with black Archival ink before colouring them with watered down FF paints, adding a few Posca pen white highlights and stencilling the bullrushes/seed pods.

I then painted a sheet of Clearly for Art Whiteout (Wendy Vecchi) with Lilac/Snowflake FF paints and when completely dry stamped a whole load of JoFY flowers, cut them all out and painted each one with Lilac and Eggplant FF and a final coat of PaperArtsy Pearl Glaze.  Once they were all shaped and layered I did my bit of flower arranging and stuck them all down.  The letters WC are also stamped onto CfA Whiteout but this time painted with a mix of Limelight and Guacamole and I finished them off with several coats of PaperArtsy Gloss Glaze.  At this point the letters are not actually stuck down just in case the chap & his wife don't like it ;D!

Well, that's it from me for today.  Thanks for visiting and leaving a much appreciate comment if you have time. 

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

Blast from the past?

Morning All,

Thanks for dropping by today but I'm afraid I'm going to send you on your way again, lol!  Some of you may remember that I and 3 very good friends of mine used to blog regularly together over on our Craft Stamping Quartet blog.  Unfortunately, life has taken a few twists for us all in one way or another and our poor little blog got sadly neglected as a result.  Since Christmas however, Judith, Jo, Elaine and I have been wanting to restart our virtual crafting 'together' and Elaine found a little project she liked for us to use as our inspiration.

Here's a little peek at my project which amazingly, is the first of the four to be finished, and if you would like to see more click HERE to see the whole piece.

See you again soon.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Wonderful Handmade Birthday Cards from my Friends.

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for dropping by.  Today I have some beautiful works of art to share with you, none of which are made by me but which I was lucky enough to receive for my birthday last week from my lovely crafting friends.  I have got to know all of them either through Blogland or Twitter and I consider myself privileged to have met them all in real life too.  They are all very talented and if you click on each name you will be taken to their blogs which are all a pleasure to visit.  Between them they have covered a myriad of techniques and styles which I know are going to give me endless inspiration as well as the sheer pleasure of having them in my box of artwork treasures to revisit often.

Chocolate Baroque Birthday Group (card made by Gina)

Emma 

 

Hazel

(such a shame Royal Mail were a bit rough with Hazel's gorgeous card because the beautiful UTEE embellishment on the front had obviously been crushed.  The card is still a stunner though)

  

and Hazel's card came through the post in this fabulous Mail Art envelope.  This is the front

 and this is the back.

Helen 

 

Jax

Jo

 

Judith 

 

Julie Ann

and this gorgeous ATC & Moo were included with Julie Ann's beautiful card. 

 

Kirsten

 

Lin

Linda

Lynne

Sam

So there you have them, my beautiful and very much appreciated cards.  I don't go in for a big fuss on my birthdays these days but do love to receive cards so this year I count myself very spoiled, lol!

I'll be back with another post of a project of my own before the weekend,  I hope you can drop by again then.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

PaperArtsy #3UP week challenge.

Goodmorning All,

This week over on the PaperArtsy Blog as you will know from my previous post, it has been the end of semester #3UP week when Leandra devises a special challenge for lucky random applicants.  I was one of those lucky enough to be drawn from the hat which resulted in my JoFY mirror but today I have a little altered bottle for which I took inspiration from Cazz's altered box and my friend Helen's hanging piece on the very first night of the week which was using mainly products designed by the lovely Lin Brown..  If you haven't already been keeping an eye on the PaperArtsy Blog all week I would recommend a visit as the inspiration from PaperArtsy fans throughout the week has been phenomenal.

As I am very short of time today I won't give a blow by blow account of what I did but will just show a series of pics from the original 'bare' bottle as I found it in the charity shop through to the finished jobbie! Originally I started this bottle to enter another challenge which I ran out of time for so I decided to change my idea completely to play with the #3UPpers.

When I found the bottle it had some awful gold embossing all over it and it took me ages to melt it & get it off, lol!

 

It was worth it to get this awesome crackle from PaperArtsy Fresco paints and their crackle glaze.

 

Close up of the crackle, stencilling and painted Grunge Paste.

If I'd had more time I would have done some shrink leaves and probably shrunk the butterfly too as the original images onto card are a tad too big for the bottle but never mind, it was still fun to do.

Right, I must dash to do my link up. Till next time.......

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

My JoFY mirror for the first 2014 end of semester PaperArtsy #3UP challenge!

Good Morning lovely visitors ,

........... and thank you for coming back to see details of my project for PaperArtsy's latest #3UP challenge.

I have used PaperArtsy products throughout, JoFY 22 being the set of stamps I requested to work with and supplementing with stamps from JoFY 24, another of the new releases which I already had and one of Jo's stencils.  I used JoFY Limited Edition Fresco Finish paints supplemented with Snowflake and Eggplant. I also used Satin & Metallic Glazes mixed together, Gloss Glaze, Grunge Paste and Treasure Gold.

I started off with one of my favourite substrates, a wide framed Ikea mirror, first covering it with Snowflake FF and then adding the JoFY Limited Edition colours first with a brush and then using a sponge for the darker layers blending out from the bottom left. Halfway through I thought it looked a blooming mess, lol!

I then used stencil 007, sponging FF to create the bullrushes (?) and then flipping it upside down and using Grunge Paste in the top left corner.  While that was drying I stamped the toadstool border from JoFY 24 along the bottom with black Archival ink and painted them with the FF paints, mixing them to get the shades I wanted.  I also added white highlights with a Posca Pen.

I then replaced the stencil over the dried Grunge Paste & added Royal Amethyst & Pewter TG and when this was dry & buffed, I sponged Dusty Teal FF again through the stencil.  When that was dry I buffed again and got lovely soft gleams of TG through the paint on the high spots. 

Next, I stamped loads of flowers, leaves, the tag, number 1 and heart from JoFY 22 onto card (it would have been PaperArtsy Smoothy card but I hadn't been to Ally Pally at this point to buy any, lol) with Stazon Royal Purple and cut them all out.  I cut them out before painting so that the white raw edges got coloured too and then I mixed up the paints again to get my chosen shades.  When they were dry I gave all the flowers and leaves a coat of mixed Pearl & Metallic Glazes which has given them all a lovely shimmer.  The tag I left matt and the 1 & heart got coated in Gloss Glaze. I then set about layering and arranging all the elements around the mirror using heavy gel to adhere.  The addition of some buttons tied with thick cotton thread and a snippet of co-ordinating ribbon for the tag finished it all off.

A rather nice thing happened as a result of this being out on my workdesk.  We unfortunately had a bad leak on the dining room radiator and the chap who came to replace it saw the mirror and asked if I took commissions. I said  it depended what he wanted and I had to laugh when he said he wanted a plaque for the door to a WC, lol!  Apparently he and his wife bought a canal long boat to renovate together and the bathroom and toilet have just been replaced (kitchen is next) and he wants something a bit different to put on the WC door.  I thought he might want traditional barge style decorations but apparently he doesn't like them and much preferred my JoFY mirror style.  He made me laugh when he said he's a bit of a wuss and loves flowers! So I have one on the go and watch this space in the next week or two for pics.  It's a good job he said there was no rush, lol!

Well, I hope you liked my #3UP mirror and thanks for visiting today.  See you again soon ....

Hugs

Lesley  Xx