All Dried Out

First attempts

Jane brought along to the craft group all her moulds and we tried air-dried clay for the first time. The trick is not to handle the clay too much - some of us cottoned-on to the technique faster than others! The frames and large flowers are Martha Stewart moulds, the rose and sunflower are WOW moulds.

Martha Stewart Frame Mould

WOW Rose Mould

There are qualities in the clay, some more pliable than others. They were partly set by the time we finished and craftywhippet loaned me a box to carry them home. Unfortunately, putting the box on its side was not a great idea and a few got broken or bashed. They will gradually harden further over the next few days and then they should be decorated with the likes of Twinkling H2Os, Copic pens or Spray & Sparkle. We will see how they turn out! I've never been handy with clay so if they are usable it will be amazing.

Parliament of the Masked Owls

Well, here they are, the rest of the owls, it's taken time to gather them from where they flew off...

Russian Doll Owls

Baboushka Owls

Matrushka Owls

Slider Tree Trunk

Peek-a-boo

It was a good kit and fun to make them up.

At the last Craft group we did something away from cards and tried to decorate Venetian Masks.

Plain Masks

Professionally Decorated Masks

They are white polypropylene and the idea is to paint and stick till they are all glitzy. This first attempt was a laugh. Three of us tried decorative silver spray paint into a carrier bag to contain the mess. We were gasping for breath and had to open the door to let air in or we would have been high on fumes! One was sprayed with gold Spray & Sparkle. Trouble was that they ran into rivulets. By far the most successful was Decopatch, so we are ALL going to do it that way the next time the Project is Masks. Sticking gems or flowers on improved matters, but mine is still to be finished to hide faulty parts.

Plain and partially-finished Masks

The only problem is how we are going to stick them on cards - LOL. Bye for now.

Paint Fusion

Previous to our special craft afternoon, the group met for Jane's Project using Sheena Douglass' Ancient Arches rubber stamp set. Pulling out all the stops, Jane led us through the steps:

• rubber stamp the edges of an 8" square card with crackle pattern
• gold heat emboss the feather on a smaller square piece of brown pearlised card
• using three toning distress inks, sponge blobs over an A6 piece of the same brown card
• rubber stamp the arches on top of the rainbow mix
• using a wet paintbrush, streak-lift-off paint in lines where the rays of light would come through the window and land on the pillars (remembering that light travels in a straight line!), and from the little arched window
• paint twinkling Luminarte over the lines to sparkle
• matt the picture onto gold and place onto the brown
• add a banner when ready to personalise
• use Copic pens or similar to colour pearl stones and decorate corners

Ancient Arches

Photographs of your craft room

Blog Prompt #11

Write about and show off photographs of your craft room! How do you store everything? Any nifty and thrifty ideas to share? I also want you to name your favourite episode of Creativity TV to date...

Today's post is to show off photos of my craft room AKA The Crafty Study. Now do I tidy it first? No, show it as is. 

First up the Ikea wooden self-assemble storage drawers for A4 card, similar wooden storage rack for magazines which I've used for the embossing boards.  Jewellery bead stacks, Cuttlebug, Kindle, acoustic guitar (teacher Mark Cameron of Awaken/ Glasgow Guitar School). 

I use a large Really Useful Box to store my rubber stamps (Christmas ones in another box) after I had a really good clear out of them! Tuff clip boxes and folders store decoupage and various bits. More drawers for assorted card, labels etc - plastic this time, wish I'd bought the metal mesh ones.

This is the workspace looking out on my view. 

Crafty computer with new storage shelves bought at the Craft Fair. 

Have Ink Dusting equipment-->will travel.

I also have to name your favourite episode of Creativity TV to date...

Creativity TV Episode 117: Watercolouring Techniques with Michael Powell

I like this one because I love using Twinkling H2Os/ Cosmic Shimmer watercolours or Copic alcohol pens to colour in digistamps/ rubber stamped images.  I also like the look of the new docrafts Michael Powell rubber stamps - I particularly like beach huts and plan on buying these two. 

Coastal Getaway

Shore Thing

My Favourite Quote

Blog prompt #9

Who was the quote by? Does the quote make you smile? reflect on life? Get you crafting mojo going?

My favourite quote is from Thomas Kinkade - the Painter of Light - 


It really is possible to colour a dark canvas golden, even with the tiniest of brushes. You just keep on dabbing the paint, and sooner or later you transform the surface with brightness. In the same way, if you keep on making joy choices, small and large, your heart will eventually display a joyful tint that is more durable than you ever imagined. 


I use the Joanna Sheen Thomas Kinkade CDs which are full of his wonderful paintings.  Three Christmas cards I made with them are these. 

I was saddened to hear of his death on 6 April 2012.

Feeling Nostalgic

The Great Normano and I took a day out to Prestwick to have a celebratory anniversary meal, so naturally I visited the CreativeArtShop. Sadly, the actual shop is closing down on 15 August, (might be some bargains!), so that John Byars can concentrate on his art.  As you know, he designs rubber stamps for doCrafts, and I weakened enough to buy another two for my collection:
   
The umbrella is most suitable for our Scottish weather! I just love the Nostalgia range and used the footballer for a boy birthday, ‘the gift’ card for Jane’s birthday.  The observant among you will notice I changed the 3 to a 5 to fit the birthday age.  Watercolours such as Twinkling H2Os are ideal for adding some extra colour:
  
Tim Holtz Distress Inks are great for the edges around the shape, using Cut ‘n’ Dry Foam to dab on the ink:

He has two other sets of acrylic clear stamps in a range by Papermania:

As always, the detail is beautiful. I hope you manage to get hold of some of these stamps and have fun with them.
PS -- OK I weakened and bought four more to complete my set:

craftyalice

We DID Craft after all

Yes, we did craft - eventually, after all the other things that had to be done first.

Anyway, we tried out a kit of a simple pyramage in a pyramaged aperture, which was fun.We also did some rubber-stamping with Versafine ink pads and then practised watercolouring-in with Twinkling H2Os and Cosmic Shimmers.