First workshop of the year with Brenda with photos and video

My first workshop at Country View Crafts headquarters was a couple of Saturdays ago and it sold out with maximum numbers within days of going live. I feel so honoured that so many people wanted to come and make my project without actually seeing a photo of it in advance. I called it simply a Springtime Shadowbox.

The Tim Holtz Cottontails take centre stage on a rusted frame with a collage backdrop of ephemera and papers.

I demonstrated a quick watercolour technique using the DecoArt media fluid acrylics.

And we added several of the Entomology bugs to ad to that Springtime feel ......

.... including one hidden in the foliage.

 In the background you can see the fabulous crackled design with washes of more of the media fluid acrylics.

I so enjoyed my day and I think the participants did too.

My thanks to -

Helen Pigott

Helena Jeffries

Cheryl Reynolds

Helen Hinkins

Karen Conningsby

Fred Smith (aka Nikki Acton)

Margaret Green

Robyn McClay

Karen Bradbury

Nahid Khan

Lynda Sutherland

Hazel Corrigan

Claire Martin

and of course the lovely Susan Seabert

I have put together a video of the workshop and most of the projects made on the day. Some may be missing because I either missed them - this is my first time for creating a video like this or they just wouldn't load.

Fingers crossed this works.

Here are a couple more photos of the day.

Yours truly at the front of the class,

A small sample of the goodies that can be bought  and if you are attending the workshop you get a 10% discount on the day.

A new drying rack with all the backgrounds and cottontails drying before they can be used for their next steps.

All workshops at Country View Crafts can be found on the shop website here.

hugs Brenda xxx

www.bumblebeesandbutterflies.com

A Seth Apter style tag

Hi, it's Celia here.

I've been playing with the gorgeous Seth Apter Vintage Beeswax embossing powder, trying to emulate a tag he made at Creativation. You can see how he did his here .

 I started off by cutting a tag from mountboard with a Sizzix Bigz Tags die. Then I stuck on some torn pieces of Tim Holtz papers.

I edged and splotched some distress inks around the tag and went around the edges of the papers with a watercolour pencil.

Then I randomly stamped some text (from Andy Skinner's Tech Trauma set) and my favourite Seth Apter stamp, Paperartsy mini EM40. 

This makes a quick grungy background for the main event - the Vintage Beeswax! 

I coated the tag all over with VersaMark then covered it in the Vintage Beeswax. As Seth likes to say, if somethings worth doing it's worth doing twice, so I did two layers.

Then I did a bit of random sprinkling. At the moment I only have two of Seth's powders, so I used some Ranger Mixed Media powders for the next part.

I re-heated the tag then sprinkled some Copper Tinsel, Sea and Bone randomly in a few places to give some gorgeous explosions of contrasting colour. 

I then edged the tag with Rocky Road, which is amazing! It has loads of crunchy texture. Then I finally re-heated and pressed the inked stamp into the hot Vintage Beeswax to give the impressions of a wax seal. 

I hope you like my Seth-style tag! If you become seriously addicted to Vintage Beeswax, it's available in mahoosive size, here

Celia  x

Vintage journal pages and new Alison Bomber stamps

Hi it's Brenda here today and I'm sharing some vintage journal pages created so that I could specifically use the fabulous new stamps from Alison Bomber. I love using quotes on journal pages and Alison has quite a few sets of different themes - the ones I chose are the new 'Friendship' set - EAB10 from PaperArtsy.



The quotes are varied and beautiful. These were stamped onto media paper and chopped up; I inked the edges with ground espresso distress ink before adhering them to the page.



I started with a layer of white gesso covering the page before adding some collage papers. I then added scrapes of black gesso and more white gesso.

Some subtle stamping creates a little more interest as does some small die-cuts and a couple of tickets.

I finished off with the paper dolls with some cheesecloth and of course the important words that give the pages meaning and a story.

There are some more photos of the process steps over at Bumblebees and Butterflies if you'd like to have a go at something similar.

I'll be back next week to show you photos and the project from my workshop last Saturday held at the Country View headquarters.

Happy crafting.

hugs Brenda xxx

Guest Project by Fabrizio Martellucci

Hi Everyone 

Just wanted to share this really quick project by Fab who has used the Stamperia Alice Paper Pad.

 He framed one of the sheets as the hue on it matched the turquoise in his hallway - perfect match & gorgeous too!!! - hope you like it as much as we do

We always love to see what you create with our products so don't forget to keep sending us your pics with a short email of the products used & your name. If you have a blog and want us to link to this, then include a link to this as well :0)

Happy Crafting

Susan x

Back to Oz

Good morning it's Jane here with the first of two posts to share the newest releases from Visible Image. Susan has them all in stock now and remember that she offers FREE POSTAGE in the UK
All the links to the website are within this post, just click on the names of the stamp set or co coordinating die.

There are 2 collections in this release and 3 brand new lovely stencils.

Today I will share the Wizard of Oz collection. These stamps are beautiful and lovers of this timeless story, as I am, will be delighted not just by the characters but also the extra stamps in each set.

I am on the Visible Image DT so I am able to share some of my samples I have made. What is also very exciting is that each of these sets has matching cutting dies too!! This is a Visible Image first. I used my Big shot and 300gsm water colour card stock and they cut like butter on a first pass.They are really awesome.

Some of my projects I am sharing today were made before the dies arrived, so I fussy cut them out, but boy do the dies make short work of this now for me.

First up is the sweet Dorothy and Toto

with her die

I made a "home sweet home" sampler with hand cross stitching around the edge.

I added Glossy accents to her eyes

Next is Oz cowardly lion

 with his coordinating die.

For this background I used yupo and alcohol inks.

The scatty Oz scarecrow

with his die set

I used the dies for all the cutting on this card, it is so easy to make a flock of birds!

I used a mixed media inks background together with some crackle paste.
Next up is
the awesome Oz wicked witch

with her die set

and the terrifying Oz flying monkey ( I can also see this set working brilliantly for Halloween).

with his dies

I made an A4 wall hanging using both these sets; spray inks made a very fiery background for them. The witch had better hang on to that string!

and last but not least (and I will secretly admit he is my favourite) the loving Oz Tin Man.

and his co coordinating dies

This was a Valentine card I made and I decoupaged him and some of the steam punk hearts using different silver card stock.

I also wanted to show how well these sets with small projects too and made these 3 ATCs for a Facebook swap. Using the coordinating dies really speeds up the process. I stamped onto foiled card and used the dies to cut out all the pieces, the backgrounds are distress inks. I stamped the hearts using archival ink.

 They are so shiny to photograph, please excuse the glare!

I also made these 3 Artist trading coins just using the background stamps in this set, which I have also die cut with the matching dies

Thanks so much for stopping by and I will be back to share some samples made with the new mixed media sets very soon. The Wizard of Oz is such a brilliant new collection to own and can be used in so many different creative ways. They appeal to all ages and suit all genres of crafting...the only limit is your imagination! Have fun.

Bye for now,

 Jane x