Workshop project! (unfinished)

Well what can I say!! I had a fantastic weekend! Thoroughly enjoyed the workshop yesterday! Learned sooooo many new things, techniques met some wonderful people and just generally had an absolute hoot!

Sadly I didn't get my project finished but I didn't expect to really, because there were a lot of techniques that were very 'involved' which I hadn't done before, but I DID have so much fun learning how to do them PROPERLY! lol

Jenny was absolutely wonderful, put me right as ease and told me to stop panicking! lol....I did struggle with the UTEE porcelain flowers but as I have a metlpot anyway I'm sure I can try again and get them right this time! I must admit though, I just LOVED the gold leafing!! That little lizzard is so adorable! I would never have thought that a little toy rubber lizzard would look so cool! :D Isn't he just sweet! Think I'll call him " Lemmy " !!

I am glad I did this workshop because I was really swithering as whether I should or not because of finances, but I'm glad I finally made up my mind to be 'selfish' for once because it has helped me make up my mind in which direction I want my crafting to go! It was also a bit of a confidence booster as well, because the lovely ladies ALL helped and made me realise that I'm not quite as bad as I thought I was at this crafting malarkey after all!

Here is a photo of what I managed to get done on Saturday, now bear in mind it's NOT finished and no doubt I will probably play around a bit with the layout and add in some extra bits and pieces using the techniques I've learned over the weekend lol....I also want to add some wording to that big empty space........lol....

A MASSIVE big THANK YOU to Jenny and the ladies ( my brain has gone AWOL and I can't think of their names at the moment :o) and everyone at Pickleberry Papercrafts for being such lovely people and making my day very special indeed! :D

So I am now going to have a loooooong hooooooot soak in the bath and rest up! I'm aching lots after a long bus journey from London to Glasgow :(


Thank you for looking in,


Take care

Jackie x

Strange doodles!?

I'll say! Think my pen was possessed!

I was just mucking about with a Biro and a note pad! I have NO IDEA where it came from and what it's all about but I think it's a bit different!

I may just try and do some more of these things but on 'coloured' backgrounds....hmmmm...as long as it doesn't involve drawing anything 'lifey'!! lol

I'm nearly all packed and ready for my weekend, just got a couple of bits and pieces to do then an early night for me I think. Got a reeeally long day....I can think of better ways to spend a Friday rather than eight or so hours on a bus! *sighs*  Not to worry because it WILL be worth it! :D

Take care and have a great weekend whatever your plans,

Jackie x

WOYWW 124

Yep! It's THAT time again!! Time for a nosey round other work desks in the land of craft thanks to Julia !

Here's mine this week.... a wee bit tidier than it should be but that was after having a tidy up after finishing off a couple of projects earlier in the week.

Got lots of 'bits' hanging from the handles of the wall units to keep them out of the way lol. My 'Inspirational' book is lying ready for some inspiration! That odd looking bag is holding my 'to do' projects and I made it for a college project I had in graphics earlier on this year(project being to design a logo) . I'm not sure if I'll get anything done today though, I have to dye my hair a lovely shade of purple! (my usual colour! It sure beats white!) lol...because....I'm off on a craft workshop this weekend! :D So need to get some 'stuff' together for that.!

Anyway, Take care have fun and happy crafting,

Jackie

" C " is for........

Cheeky Teenager!! lol...

I bought this giant papier mache letter C aaages ago! It's my son's first name initial!

I have been planning on doing sopmething with it for a long time but only got as far as painting it!

Anyway! I used Blonde Moment Suet Black Acrylic paint to paint the whole letter. Set it aside to dry while I printed off some images!
I printed off some logos of his favourite band as well as some photos he had taken during a "meet and greet" with them!

I used the logos as a backing paper and stuck them down using pva glue. I then cut out the 'bodies' in the photos and stuck them down on top of the backing papers. Left it all to dry them 'varnished' it with pva glue!

Not my most favourite of craft pieces but needless to say my "cheeky Teenager" loves it!!

Thanks for looking in,

Take care

Jackie x

Sunday Stampers Challenge Week 176 !

This weeks theme over on Hel's Blog is "Leaves"!

For this I have done another tag, now please forgive me but I would like to put together a little 'Tag Book' for my Art Portfolio for college! I applied for a place on an NC Art and Design full time course at the local college, not really sure if I'll get a place though because I don't really "do" drawing! So want to show off what I DO do to it's very best, if you get my meaning.......anyway....I digress.

Started with a plain white tag, stamped the leaves from Tick Tock flowers from the Artistic Stamper in clear versamark and then heat embossed them in white. I then distressed over them using, Dried Marigold , Wild Honey, Fired Brick and Forest Moss Distress inks. Gave the whole thing a wipe down with a tissue and it gave me a 'faux resisit' look. I stamped out two leaves using Archival black then just Distressed them in the above colours. The THIRD leaf is stamped using clear versamark and Copper coloured Embossing powder. I Distressed this one using Fired Brick, Dried Marigold and Wild Honey because I wanted more of a 'red' colour on this!

Just finished it off with a piece of brown ribbon. Sadly the photo of this tag does not do the colours justice at all! It's is a lovely fiery red and orange colour! Very Autumnal indeed!

Thanks for looking in,

Jackie x

Recycled Picture frame

I found this horrible nasty MDF picture frame in a skip/dumpster!! It has a perspex/plexiglass panel studded to the front and it was very badly marked! (probably why it was getting thrown out) lol

Soooo...... after getting permission to take it, I brought it home and had a wee think! I KNEW I could SOMETHING with it!

I managed to prize the studs off the 'glass' panel and remove it. I then sanded down the whole frame and gave it a couple of coats of cheap white 'mixing' white acrylic paint ( I don't have any gesso) :( I put it aside to dry and then stamped out those gorgeous butterflies from The Patchwork Butterfly themeplate from Chocolate Baroque ! I coloured the images using Inktense Watercolour Pencils!! LOVE these pencils! Such lovely rich colours when they are 'activated'!


Onto the Background!....When the paint was dry I randomly dabbed on some Adirondack Eggplant paint then gave the whole thing another coat of white acrylic, this time it was quite runny so that the colours would blend a bit better. When THAT was dry I randomly scribbled with the Inktense Pencils (Teal Green, Fuchsia and Sea Blue) then gave it another coat or runny white acrylic to blend those in!

When that was dry I sprayed over some Glimmer Mists ( Periwinkle, Spring Mint, Robin's Egg Blue and Wheat Fields)  Then set the whole thing aside to dry and nipped downstairs for a coffee!! lol


I Stamped the Butterfly images,  The scrolls and the verse is done in Archival Black, onto the background using the Archival Whispers Inks in Rio Purple, I then over stamped them in Clear Versamark and used some Sparkle and Shine Gilded Ivory Embossing powder, slightly offsetting the images. I then cut out and stuck down the Butterflies again offsetting them against the background images.

Now onto that horribly marked 'glass' panel. It didn't seem to matter what I did to 'clean' it you could STILL see the horrible nasty marks....sooooo.... I decided to do an acetate overlay! I printed off the phrase from the Butterfly Whimsy again from Chocolate Baroque . Now as the sheet is slightly smaller than the actual 'glass' I had to find a way to stick it down without ruining the whole thing with glue showing! So I dug out an original Sizzix die (Hinges, mounts, handle and photo turns) I just glued these to the acetate sheet, so that they would reach the holes for the studs when I put the 'glass' back on! A wee bit of a 'cheat' but it worked out well and hid the glue! The Acetate overlay doesn't totally hide the marks on the panel but it does not too bad a job! :)

After the 'glass' was re-attached I 'distressed' the edges using the Archival Whispers inks in Azure Seas and Rio Purple. I thought it was a nice way to finish things off.

It wasn't really a massive project but DID involve a lot of prep work which took a bit of time! Just as well I have a fair bit of patience then isn't it! lol

Anyway, thought you'd like to see a little close up of what the frame looked like BEFORE I got my hands on it.....lol...

Horrible innit!? lol

The photos are clickable if you want a better look.

Thanks for dropping by, take care and Happy Friday! :D

Jackie x

What's on your workdesk?......

THIS lot !!  It's time for WOYWW challenge!! 'Tis a wee bit messy this week, lots of stuff getting prepared for sale (I hope), I'm fed up having no job and no money! Aaaarrggh!! So NEED to try and get some cash flow coming in other than Jobseekers allowance! :( Anyway I digress, there is a project that I 'prepped up yesterday sitting underneath my errmm...'Art Journal'! Yeah that's the words.....Art Journal...lol...but shhh...it's not really, just a place where I try out some ideas, take notes and generally just a 'mish mash' of 'stuff' that's in my head!! lol...

I've got a fair bit going on personally at the moment and just can't quite get into a 'routine'... * sighs*.... but I'll manage!

I have just received my first proper commission and it's an absolute corker! Talk about a baptism of fire!! I have to make three boxes! One has an Iron Maiden Theme, the other is to look like a 'wooden box' AND.....the other has to look like the TARDIS!! They are for my big mate who is an 'analyst' and he knows everything there is to know about Iron Maiden and Dr Who so they had BETTER be as accurate as possible or else I won't get paid! lol....So all projects aside and out with the 'Art Journal' to start playing around with ideas!

Thanks for dropping by and reading my inane rambles lol

Take care and Happy Crafting everyone!

Jackie x