A Tag .............. made for fun and a friend..........plus something a bit special!

Last week I had to post something to my friend Elaine so I made a tag to put in the envelope.

I didn't start out to use Autumn colours again but somehow ended up there.  Never mind, I love them and I know Elaine does too.  The stamps I used were PaperArtsy Hot Picks that I bought at the Artisan Show (fab show) at the beginning of the month.  I really enjoyed making this tag just for the fun of it and especially as it was for a lovely friend who I sadly don't get to see very often.

I used mainly Distress Inks for both the blending and  stamping and was amazed at how long they took to dry.  As I wanted to use Versamark and Gold EP for my final stamped images I took the precaution of spending quite a while drying the tag with my heat gun and then left it for at least another 30 minutes before applying the EP but ............................ it still stuck to the DI's!  I brushed as much off as possible with a fine paintbrush but I think next time I'll leave it overnight, Lol!

And now ............................ I have something to share which I think is quite special., proud Mum or what, Lol!  My Son, Jamie hasn't had time to post anything on his own blog for quite a while (new job taken over) and last week he 'invaded' my craft room to make a card for his wife's birthday.  The card itself is really simple using a lovely Hampton Arts rose image (which has special meaning as I used it on their wedding stationery) and a Ranger Coffee Archival inkpad.  The sentiment is from the Elusive Images Birthday Words plate but what I think is so special is the rose cut out that Jamie drew himself and cut out by hand from some pearlescent paper I gave him.  There is one overlaid on the front and another on the inside of the card and I am still in awe everytime I look at them.  They are so beautifully cut out and so intricate they look laser cut.  See what you think...............

and the inside ................

and that's not all .....................

This is a photo of an ordinary office sticky label which in turn is a printout of a photo of a quite large canvas.  Does any of that make sense?!?  But the amazing thing to me is that Jamie drew the image, cut out the stencil with a scalpel, placed it over the canvas (which I haven't seen yet) and then I think he used spray paints through the stencil to achieve the finished image.  It's mostly black with just touches of blue and yellow along the bottom and you can just see a hint of blue for his eyes.  I still can't get over how perfect the cutting out is!
Am I proud or what!

Have a lovely day all!

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Wheeee! Did I Have a Good Time Last Week

I had an absolutely wonderful two days attending a couple of workshops with the very talented Lynn Robinson-Hunter at Graphicus in Barnard Castle, Teesdale.

On Wednesday it was a Tag Book workshop and we used lots of the Distress Inks with a few other things thrown in. I've also done some more stamping to mine since I got home because, as usual, I was too slow to finish mine at the workshop (I spent too much time between tags tidying my workspace!) so I've used a few of my own items too. The idea was to build up a selection of tags showing different techniques ('how to' notes written on the back of each tag) so we had a great time blending, stamping, spritzing, spraying, emboss resisting, masking, using napkins for pretty images and image transfers using acrylic paint dabbers. I've also done a bit of masking on one of my tags here at home.

I shared the workshop with four other lovely ladies and we had a great time with quite a few laughs and giggles throughout the day. These are my favourite tags so far, but I intend to do some more on my own when I have the time (famous last words, Lol)

The second workshop on Thursday was Stampbord Creations. I can honestly say I have thoroughly enjoyed every workshop I've been to at Graphicus but this one blew me away. I have never been more pleased with anything I've made than my lovely Stampbord Mirror. I am totally thrilled with it (can you tell?). I have played with Stampbord before but Lynn certainly has a way of bringing out the best of my abilities and she showed us some beautiful pieces of Stampbord that use techniques that are taught in the other Stampbord workshop they do at Graphicus. We really should have done that first but never mind, I am still totally happy with my finished piece of artwork and I would still love to do the other workshop next time they run it.

I used Distress Inks exclusively for colouring my backgrounds and for the background stamping. I just used Stazon for the main top images. As the other ladies on the workshop asked what colours I had used I will explain here that I covered the whole of each piece of Stampbord with Tea Dye DI and then used 2 other colours blended carefully on top of that in combinations of Fired Brick, Shabby Shutters, and Spiced Marmalade. I built up the colours very slowly and carefully so that the blends were quite subtle and had different depths to them. On a few of the pieces I used a piece of mesh and others a piece of sequin waste and dabbed Pine Needles DI very gently to create a bit more depth. I then began layering my stamped images and for the background stamps I used Vintage Photo DI, stamped off once onto scrap paper, and finally a dark brown (can't remember proper colour name) Stazon for the main images.

I'm now going to go to town with my photos, even at the risk of boring you.

And here's the full piece in all it's glory!

I'm sorry if I sound a bit OTT about my mirror but I really didn't expect to come home with a piece I'm so proud of and it's all down to Lynn. She is an exceptional tutor and gets my head in just the right place to pull all this together. Had I tried to do it at home I would have ended up with a hodge podge of bits and no idea at all what to do with them so thank you very much Lynn. I can't wait for another workshop now! Thankyou also to my fellow crafters for your company, especially my internet friend Phree. We all had some really good fun and a great day altogether.

Everything I used can obviously be bought from Graphicus, except for the corner embellishments (from my own stash) and the dangly bit over the mirror which is made up of an old pair of cheap earings and a bit off an old necklace.