Wowee! Do I love Powertex!

Hello again,

Yesterday I went to a wonderful Powertex workshop with Alison Turner......what a lovely, informative and oh so patient lady!  It's the second workshop I and several friends have done with Alison.  Last time we explored Powertex Stone Art and I made this ........

I actually prefer this as a piece of wall art rather than on the stand but it still hasn't found a home on a wall yet, lol!

This time we made some fabulous angels.  They vary slightly but are approximately 20" tall and when fully cured in three weeks time they can be put outside as garden ornaments if we want.  I haven't made my mind up yet as she's currently in residence in my hall and I rather like looking at her everytime I walk past.

Anyway, this is going to be a very photo heavy post more as a record for me really so feel free to skip through if you would rather.

Attaching the head/bust to the base using a toilet roll inner stuffed with foil and masking tape.

Creating wings and again attaching with masking tape.  I also gave her a more realistic figure with boobs and waistline ;-).....well, shall we say the boobs and waistline I wish I still had, lol!

Strip of Powertex soaked fabric to create undergarment.

Wings adorned and whole figure covered in bronze Powertex.

Back view....obviously!

Overgarment created.

And here she is fully complete with colour added.  I only added a little at the workshop but decided to add more at home this morning.  I dry brushed PaperArtsy Fresco Jade with a touch of Snowflake mixed with their Metallic Glaze and then added highlights of Copper and Gold Treasure Gold.

Her beautiful face!

The ruffled bottom of the overgarment.

Back detail......love the draping!

Doesn't she look regal!

If anyone wants to learn how to use this product I would not hesitate to recommend Alison whose studio is in Stapleford, Notts.  

Many thanks to our buddy Sam for organising our workshop.  It sure was another fabulous day and I hope to goodness I haven't passed on my awful cough to anyone there.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

EDIT  You can see Sam's angel HERE and Helen's angel HERE.
            

More Lovely Infusions....This time a much needed card!

Morning everyone,

A quickish post from me this morning before I get ready to trot up the A1 for another overnighter in Harrogate ;-).  I am so hoping I find a big improvement in my Son in Law from last week although he is still in hospital.  To cap it all my poor Daughter has been coping with a nasty bout of sinusitis (following on from tonsilitis) and has had to have antibiotics.....this last two months has had a more miserable storyline than Eastenders, lol! 

Anyway, this time I have been playing with my little bottles of Infusions (available from PaperArtsy stockists) again but this time I sprinkled them onto my craft mat and spritzed with Pearl Glimmer Mists.  The mist wasn't quite enough to activate the powders so I also spritzed with water and then played around dipping and dragging watercolour paper and mixed media paper through the liquid.  I think the colours I used were Lemoncello and Royal Blood but I forgot to take pics of the pieces before I started stamping on them.

The background is on watercolour paper and the flowers were stamped onto the mixed media paper and cut out to layer up.  All the other stamping except for the sentiment was done directly onto the background.

 

The stamps are from one of Darcy's latest releases for PaperArtsy except for the feathery stem which is from a Lin Brown set and the sentiment which is made up of separate words from a JOFY set (stamped onto a scrap and cut out) my 'go to' set when I want a simple greeting.

 

I edged the background piece with a little Treasure Gold  before mounting onto a co-ordinating card and then onto a base card.

Unfortunately, I don't think you can see the subtle shimmer from the Glimmer Mist in the pics very well but it is there and I was really pleased with the effect.

Okay, off to get ready for my little trip.  I hope the weather stays nice for my drive as the weatherman has promised ;-).  Have a good day and thanks for dropping by.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

Another play with PaperArtsy Infusions.

Hi Everyone,

Hope you're all having a pleasant Sunday with lots of sunshine.  It's been very nice here so far but getting cloudier so I think we are in for the forecast rain shortly. 

I've made my second tag after my play with the PaperArtsy Infusions the other day.  This time I tried sprinkling Violet Storm and Blackcurrant onto the tag and activating them with Fresco Frosting Glaze.  This worked in a very similar way to the Satin Glaze on the last tag but left a dull finish this time with a lovely velvety feel to it instead of a slight sheen.

The Frosting Glaze dried very quickly and I then stencilled a mix of three colours of Fresco Finish paints randomly over the tag using a very useful new stencil I bought at Happy Stampers.  The stencil has random sections of punchinella style holes and a grid style as you can see in the pic below.  I followed this with some background stamping using a couple of Hot Picks stamps. (this pic was taken at night so the colours look different)

I stamped the camera image from PA Hot Picks 1503 using Black Archival Ink and dried it with my heat tool because the Frosting Glaze meant it was taking a long time to dry.

 I stamped the butterfly image from PA Hot Picks 1506 using Cobalt Archival Ink, dried it with my heat tool then coloured the butterflies with markers.  Because of the Frosting Glaze the water based markers obviously wouldn't dry so I heat embossed them with clear embossing powder which also enhanced the colours nicely.

Finally I stamped the 'images' from Sara Naumann's stamp set ESN08 for PaperArtsy using Black Archival and the word 'ILLUSTRATIONS' from the same set using Cobalt.

Okay, that's my second fun playtime this week.  Now I need to get on with making some cards (still fun ;D) as I've lost all track of where we are and I have realised with a sinking feeling this morning that I've missed a couple and have more on the horizon, eeek!

I'm entering this tag into Country View Crafts Challenge which is currently 'use a stencil' and making a second entry to Stamping Sensations which is 'anything goes'.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

First playtime with new PaperArtsy Infusions!

Hello everyone and thanks for stopping by.

Well life sure has been throwing a few curve balls around here just lately and probably for a few weeks to come but hopefully all will settle down once our new grandbaby is born at the end of June and Son in Law is back on his feet ;-).  In between stopovers in Harrogate I have managed a nice playtime this week with the new PaperArtsy Infusions I bought at Port Sunlight a few weeks ago and my first make is a tag .......just for fun....always the best kind don't you think, lol!

I started with a large tag and sprinkled Infusions in Sandy Beach and The Sage very sparingly then used Fresco Satin Glaze to blend the crystals over the tag.

I then mixed a bit of the Orange County Infusions with some Grunge Paste and a spritz of water.  I'm still using the old pot I found at the back of a cupboard which was beginning to dry out and it's now very stiff but as long as I don't want a smooth pristine finish it still works, lol!  It didn't have enough colour in for what I wanted so when it was dry I sanded it a little, replaced the stencil, sprinkled a few more granules of Infusions and spritzed with water and let the Infusions do their stuff.......love the walnut stain bits in these little powders!

 I did some background stamping using Archival inks and various PaperArtsy stamps except the for letters one which is my new stamp by Seth Apter :D.

 

I used a die from Seth Apter, and a fab little numbers stamp on PaperArtsy's Hot Picks set HP1604 to stamp all over the pieces then covered them very roughly with clear crackle paste (Finnabair).  When dry I rubbed in some bright green dye ink (which you can hardly see) & then lightly touched with Treasure Gold.  I stamped the figure from the same Hot Picks set, affectionately known as Shrek Girl, onto tissue and painted her with translucent & watered down Frescos.   I cut her out and severed her head so I could tilt it inside the circle and then stuck these bits on with matte gel medium.

 

 I dug out some other embellies both wood and metal (I am determined to start using my stash) and they all got the Treasure Gold treatment before being attached to the tag.  The hardest bit was getting that blooming rusty wire to do what I wanted, lol, and boy did it make a mess!

Really enjoyed my de-stress time playing with new goodies and I have another Infusions tag with different colours waiting to be worked on ;-).

See you again soon hopefully.  

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

Playing hookey in my little journal!

Hi Everyone,

One of my purchases from the PaperArtsy stand at the Happy Stampers show (Port Sunny) last Saturday was a set of Crayola Slick Stix crayons and today after seeing some lovely inspiration from my friend Hazel (do pop over to her blog) in a FB group we're in I dropped the idea of chores in favour of a playtime, lol!

I decided it was time my lovely little journal, a gift from another fab friend Sam (another blog well worth a visit), was long overdue some tlc.....I still can't get into this journaling lark, lol!  Anyway, here is the result and I'm very pleased with it for a first time tryout.

I had already spritzed some left over Fresco Finish sprays I made for another project ages ago and also some stencilled Grunge Paste so I started adding scribbles of the crayons (brown, orange, turquoise/blue and purple with touches of green) and blending them with my finger.  I found if I lightly damped my finger on a babywipe I could blend them a little easier.  They are water soluble but I didn't want to make them wet in this instance. 

When I was happy with the colours ....and I was very happy because I thought it looked very rusty ;-).....I did a little stamping with Archival Inks and 3 PaperArtsy mini stamps I also bought on Saturday.

I stamped the quote from a PA Urban Snapshots set and the final touch was to use some Christine Adolph (for Prima) adhesive rub ons also bought from PaperArtsy on Saturday with some gilding.  

  

I love this little flower mini!

What a lovely playtime that was....much better when you know you're playing hookey ;-)!

See you again soon.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge #22 Entry

Hello All,

Well, what a change in the weather from yesterday which was a fabulous sunny day with a lovely breeze to keep it comfortable and I got to give the garden some much needed tending.  Not so today.......it's absolutely chucking it down with rain which I might add wasn't supposed to get here till later today but it's been here since this morning :-(.  Ah well, silver linings and all that .......I've given myself the afternoon off to play, lol, and so far I've made an entry to the lovely Chocolate Baroque Challenge.

I created a card using Brushos, bleach and an image from the Pretty Birdcage set of stamps.

I sprinkled tiny amounts of Brushos onto a sheet of smooth water colour paper and spritzed gently with water.  When they had reacted to my liking I dried it off with the heat tool and set it to one side.  I then took another piece of water colour card with more texture, sprinkled small amounts of Brushos onto my craft mat and liberally spritzed with water.  I then placed my card face down onto the mat and allowed the paint to soak into it.  I tried not to move it around too much as I didn't want the colours to blend completely.

 

When it was dry I stamped the image onto this textured card using black Archival ink and heat set it.  I then used bleach to paint out the colour on my chosen areas.  As with inks I found there are some colours that don't quite bleach out completely but that's ok, it adds to the interest I think. I cut the image out and mounted it onto a coordinating coloured card and cut round it leaving a thin border.  I cut a 14.5 cm square from the first Brusho piece, edged it with a marker and stuck it to a 15 cm square card base, then adhered the image, stamped the sentiment and finally, gave a little resin bird the Treasure Gold treatment and stuck that on too.

There's still a week to go on the challenge if you fancy having a go and the winner (chosen by Mr Random. org) gets a lovely £15 voucher to spend on some beautiful Chocolate Baroque stamps!

Off to do the link up.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx

PaperArtsy Blog Challenge #9 - Mono Printing....My very first Gelli print attempt!

Morning All.....

....and what a glorious morning it is here!  It's gorgeous sunshine (which we've had for several mornings) AND the awful cold wind has dropped to a gentle breeze.....PERFICK!!! 

Well, the new challenge over on the PaperArtsy Blog is for mono printing and it's finally spurred me on to get my hitherto pristine Gelli Plate(s) out and have a go.  I bought the 8" x 10" one a couple of years ago and have never done more than get it out of the packaging to see what it felt like and put it back again, lol!  I then bought a round one a year ago and hadn't used that either!!!  Darcy's introductory post on Sunday was so interesting with lots of fabulous inspiration from various artists so yesterday I gave myself a playday and after watching a few videos (love watching Barbara Gray's from Clarity Stamps) I got out a selection of stencils and very old acrylic paints and tried them out on cheap copy paper.  I didn't want to risk wasting my Fresco Finish paints on my first attempts and I knew I would have to try mixing with their retarder because they dry so fast (and it was very hot in my craftroom) so I gave the lumpy paints a lot of shaking a set to. 

This is what I came up with.....

probably because of the age of the paints as much as my inexperience the top layer did not reactivate the lower layers and dried very quickly so failed to lift as it was supposed to but.......I actually loved it!  Here's a little close up....

I ended up with lots of lovely unexpected texture and even a bit of spontaneous crackling ;-)!

I decided to turn the sheet into ATCs for a swap with some friends so glued it to some Prima packaging card and used PaperArtsy Lynne Perrella stamps over the top with Archival Ink.  It was actually a shame to cover the printing up, lol, but here are the photos.   (I have just noticed how the colours have changed with devices, the top pics were taken on my phone and are closer to true colours whilst the bottom were taken on camera, hmmm?)

Here's a couple of close ups of bits of printing detail that still show.

 

Ok, I'm off to link up to the PaperArtsy Challenge and it also fits a couple of other challenges I like (but never get time to enter) that have appropriate topics.  Country View Crafts challenge (and they have a blog hop running this month too) is 'use a stencil'.  Stamping Sensations topic is 'anything goes'.

Have a lovely day everyone.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

PaperArtsy Challenge #8 - White Space

Hi Everyone,

I know posts/makes here have been very thin on the ground in recent weeks but I'm afraid a potentially serious family emergency took priority for a couple of weeks.  I can't quite relax yet but hopefully things are back on track until our new grandchild arrives in a couple of months.

So, quite literally by the skin of my teeth, I have made a quick entry for the current PaperArtsy Blog Challenge of White Space which closes in just over half an hour.  I am sorry not to have had time to play with this topic because it's one I love but failing that I decided to play along with Wanda's inspiration from last night's post HERE!  I loved the cards she designed and this is what I came up with.

Wanda used Fresco Finish paints for her splash of colour in the corner but I decided to dig out my alcohol inks instead (not used these in eons) and applied the same technique but adding blending solution instead of water.  I came up with a few quick backgrounds on different coated card but this was my favourite colour mix.  I then looked for a stamp I could turn into a silhouette as I don't have the Ellen Vargo ones Wanda used.  I decided to use Lin Brown's tulip (ELB23) which I love, stamped and embossed ala Wanda and coloured them in with a black Sharpie.  The quote is from a Sara Naumann set (ESN11) and I chose is because there are lots of imperfections on this hastily made card.  I popped it up a bit with 3D foam, edged the whole piece with black Sharpie and stuck it to a white base card.

Righty Ho!  Off to link up and then get dinner ready.  See you sooner rather than later I hope.  Have a good bank holiday Monday everyone in the UK.

Hugs

Lesley  Xx