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.

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

CraftyGranny

Thursday 5 April 9.35am GMT+1 now imprinted on my memory as our first Grandchild Evan Andrew Bailey Morland entered the world at 7 lb 14 and a half ounces.  Mother and baby both well and one excited son of mine!

As a good crafter should, I was in the process of preparing a card, boy or girl I didn't know, when he appeared a week early! Then the name was not yet decided upon, so I finally finished yesterday when all the details were available.  Of course, since Ruth and I had been practising ink brushing only the day before, I used the technique for the edges of the 8"x8" scallop card and the cut-out shape.  My Copic pens and twinkling H2Os to fill in the Lily of the Valley rubber stamp Baby Bunting.

To think I had been nearly calm, well not quite, as we were trying out more inky pictures.  Rita, we do hope to do an introductory type video to ink brushing, that's why we're practising LOL! These are our second attempts.

Ruth used the brayer for this sky (Adirondack ink) and gives quite a bit more intense colour, so it's a choice of technique.

Tatty Teddy

The latest enthusiasm – From Me to You: Tatty Teddy.
There was a free rubber stamp and dots embossing folder with the doCrafts magazine (unfortunately I forgot to photograph the first cards we made with it at the Hospice) and I’ve just bought a wooden rubber stamp of TT with Flower Pots:

Both Ruth and I bought the Copic pen B12 Ice Blue, which gives the correct blue for his nose, and the Tim Holtz Distress Ink Weathered Wood, which should give a nice grey to edge the background, plus pen R20 Blush if we fancy a pink nose! Versafine Grey, Memento Sepia and suitable pink and blue ink pads will give variety to his body to suit different cards.
craftyalice

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

www.geniushands.co.uk

The Blog has been overdue for a redesign and I've finally got around to it with, hopefully, more to come.  The original name Get Creative belongs to Ann, who started the group.  (Ruth uses Just the Card ©.)  So I've renamed it to my own name Genius Hands ©, which was the name, given by my son, of the website I owned when we first started up in 2005. Unfortunately I let geniushands.com slip out of ownership but, since I live in UK, www.geniushands.co.uk  is fine. This is the blog's new address, but the old url still reaches here, thanks to the wonders of Blogger. However, dropping the www is not working so far!


Ruth and I have always described ourselves as Craft & Chat - so that is our new name!

Comment on what you think and what you'd like to see on the Blog.  Subscribe to CraftyAlice videos on YouTube.  Keep crafting and keep in touch!

my Ruby 40th Card for Ruth and husband:
embossed layers on scallop board; watercoloured rubber-stamped image;
scanned, washed-out and faded image and greeting on computer,
printed on pearlised card; added embellishments

craftyalice

What have we been doing?

Craft has had to take a back seat for a while, as we’ve been rehearsing over the last ten weeks, singing with the Praise Gathering choir.  We’ve just finished three wonderful evenings of concerts at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.  The choir goes on to the Usher Hall for one evening in Edinburgh on 18 June, which we cannot do as we will be helping at the Haven Open Day, selling the craft cards that the guys have made.  However, excitingly, we are flying off to Belfast to sing in the Waterfront on 8 October.  If you live in or near Belfast you can join the choir to sing! If you Like the choir, pop over to Facebook and join the chat.
The craft group has still been meeting reasonably regularly and have been making assorted styles of cards.  While we were dress-rehearsing they were supposed to be trying out Sheena Douglass’ Paint Fusion – I have still to find out how they got on!! Let’s just say we’re all going to need a lot of practice…
Here’s two of my latest cards:

craftyalice

Using my Imagination

Recently Craftywhippet was busy praising many craft companies, so I thought I’d add my recent shopping experience with Imagination Crafts. I needed a Dove Grey StazOn pad for my Paint Fusion and decided to make up to the £10 to get free postage by ordering a nice pansy stamp to colour in with twinkling H2O watercolours.  After placing the order, I realised that none of my acrylic blocks were long enough!  I emailed Imagination and asked if the Very Long 7” block could be added to the order and they said no problem.  However, as I’d paid by PayPal they then asked me to do a separate order for the block and they would refund the postage, which I did.  The order was hardly placed when the refund was recorded! How about that for service? Plus prompt delivery...So, a pat on the back for Imagination too.
My little bits of stamping and water colouring have been made into cards now:
 
craftyalice