Today's workshop photos

I'm back with the photo's from today's workshop, embossed frames.  As I didn't think about taking photos earlier, these show the almost finished frames.  I'll post them in the order I took them...

Stef at work, precision!  Even the cool toolz matched her frame:)  Stef's just fixing one of the first UTEE trickles that pulled her frame together.

Jill Boulton at work, a thoughtful work of art coming along here, with lovely colours, detail and texture!

Janet at work, quietly creating before her looming night shift, starting from 3pm (yes Janet had to leave us early), I don't know how she did all this in a day and also managed to go on to work that shift.    A true crafter!!!

Michelle at work, happy in a VERY creative mind of her own!

Michelle and Janet (look at the concentration!)

Stef and Jill Boulton (deep in creative thought!)

Jill (above) holds workshops with us but today she had a chance to play herself!

Now the finished creations.  Janet followed the time theme making shrink plastic clocks, they all had a go at making those.  Apart from time/clock images, Janet's also included a textural design, it is the mesh from the AOD Floral 1 stamp sheet it worked so well with the mica/PPA mix, the blue/green really stands out.  The other stamp is from Hero Arts, Time to stamp.

Stef's pink, purple and bronze frame.  Stef used the Hero Arts big flower stamp, it is brilliant with UTEE!  Stef also used trickled UTEE which created a lovely finish.  I expect this frame will adorn a wall in Stef's new home, I also expect it will have lots of feathers added beforehand:)  I know her so well!!

Michelle's time themed frame is still a work in progress as she will be adding the hands to the large clock and finishing off the inside, who knows, Michelle may even decide to put the original mirror back, but with a twist I bet, I also bet she is working on it at home as I type, there is a reason why she is named the Midnight Crafter!! The stamps are Hero Arts big clock, the time to stamp background and the big flower (top RHS), doesn't that flower stamp look great in different colours of UTEE!

And last, but certainly not least, Jill's frame, again a work in progress as Jill has a particular coloured paint at home that she wants to add to it.  Jill followed the time theme as well which was loosely based around using the elements I used in the card I made last week.

They are all different but with mainly the same products used. 

Other items used were Moonglow and Pearlex mica powders mixed with PPA (perfect paper adhesive) which makes a shimmery, archival glue/paint, which will make them long lasting. Ranger acrylic dabbers, Distress inks, Moonglow two-tone embossing powders, Cuttlebug embossed metal and card cogs, Tim's cogs and game spinners, shrink plastic cogs, beadazzles, seed beads, various sprinkly embellishments, glitter glues, and UTEE cog embellishments.  I think that is about it.

Thanks again ladies for a lovely day!

Jill

A brilliant day!

Just a shortish post for now to say what a brilliant day it's been today.  Woke up to sunshine and it just got better...

We held a workshop today, Embossed Frames, I'll be back another time with some photos to show the frames the ladies made, they were all very different and all wonderful.  I really enjoyed your company ladies, thanks for getting stuck in and giving it all a go! 

When I got home I was thrilled to find out that I have been picked in the top 5 of last week's Allsorts Challenge.  Thank you!

Another fantastic piece of news to tell is that we have a new Design Team member Michelle (Midnight Crafter), welcome to the mad house Michelle!! 

Plus, I now have 401 followers!  Wowser!!  Thank you so much to you all for following my endless waffle, for joining in with the blog candy giveaways etc, and especially for leaving your lovely comments, which I truly appreciate.

So all in all a fab, brilliant, wonderfully lovely day, and I didn't even win the National:)

I'll be back with photos later!

Jill

Something different - a crafty newspaper! Vol. 1 Iss. 1

I couldn't resist ordering this, just plain old curiosity got me, and what a fun new concept this is!  Here's the blurb...

Donna Salazar - Crafty Chronicle Newspaper


• 8 colour pages
• spread size - 24” x 18.5”

One of Donna’s favorite techniques is making paper flowers from vintage books. But finding
vintage books that are acid free (not yellowed), the right paper thickness and with fun content
can be a problem. The “Crafty Chronicle” is the solution. This periodical was designed to be die cut into scallop and flower shapes so that you can make your own paper flowers and it is also ideal for altered art projects. The paper it is printed on was chosen for the way that it reacts with paint and can be formed into flowers. You can create your own unique embellishments with dictionary definitions, classified ads, horoscopes and even the articles on the front page.

Before you start cutting up the paper browse through it...there are tips, techniques and loads of fun content!

What a brilliant idea!!
 
Still reading issue 1, but roll on issue 2!!!
 
It's HERE if you want to give it a try:)
 
Jill

MORE NEW TIM STUFF is here!

Sorry for shouting!  Just excited to have a few more of Tim's new goodies trickling through.

Patience is a virtue, isn't it?  Says who, not me, no longer...

What's the hold up all about, they know if we hear about nice new stuff that we will want it NOW!  Ahhh, the re-inkers, the accoutrements, trinkets, lockets and keys, the knobs, the box feet, the word keys, the Alteration dies, the embossing folders, the papers and the WHOLE Tim shebang!

The new Distress Ink Pads were worth the wait, how wonderful are the colours?  Happily, we now have even more in stock and can relax on that one!   Our full set offer still stands, £50 for the set of 12 (it's a huge saving) and you know you will want them all eventually anyway...and...now we have the re-inkers too, phew.. at last!

We managed to fulfill a number of the early bird orders of the sets of new distress re-inkers over the last couple of weeks.  I wouldn't even dare to grab a set for myself of those with the orders we had lined up for them, we've sent them out on a strictly first come first served basis.   I think the ladies who ordered early are so lucky, I'm not envious at all.... Honestly!  (I lie!!!!!)  But now I can have them too:))

I was tempted to offer a set for a new blog candy but I think Debbie would have linched me!!!!!  She's very protective with our mail order file, and apparently I was last in the line for a set:(

Anyhow, April was the promised month for lots of things new from Tim, and it's here, some are promised for late April and even May.  

Well, we had a delivery on Wednesday, it was just TOO exciting opening the boxes!! 
Debbie, who is off for 2 weeks for the school hols has had her eye on Tim's new paper stacks.  Having got control of the stock back, I could be a cruel evil boss and get my own back for the re-inker episode by saying she can't have that paper pad she's got a HUGE yearning for, customers come first, but no, Debbie, all is OK, I've hidden one away for you, lol:)  You deserve a treat:)

I can't wait much longer for the rest of the new stuff... can you?  Which products are you most looking forward to getting?

OK, I've teased a bit about what was in those boxes, so here's a bit of a peek.

Now, couldn't I have done with these Timepieces/Watch Faces for Ian's Time Flies card at the weekend!!

The Box Feet...Now there's something to think about using!

The Lockets and Keys...  Oh, totally FAB, they so go with the theme of Tracey's new stamp sheet!

Woo hoo.. Tim's new book, A Compendium of Curiosities offered for £19.99!!!  (Save £5)

Oh, I've added a couple more of the Alteration Sizzix dies to the website that are back in stock.

More new stuff has arrived that I'll tell you about another time, just TOO much excitement for words...

We've an embossed frame workshop tomorrow which I am really looking forward to, lots of UTEE, Distress Inks, Shrink Plastic etc.  

I hope you all have a great weekend too.

Jill

Time Flies! The finished card

Here is the completed easel card for the workshop/tutorial that I have been waffling on about for the last few days.  I made this card for Ian, The Stamp Man, for his birthday.

I've used the new Distress Inks Stormy Sky and Pumice Stone

Hero Arts cling stamps Time to Stamp and Big Clock

Heart Wings Stamp from Tracey's AOD62 Artistic Elements stamp sheet

the rabbit image came from a collage sheet from Elizabeth Golden.

I've also used Tim's new Alteration Gadget Gears Sizzix die, the cogs/gears from Tim's Ideology, and my Cuttlebug amongst other things.

If you are interested in the workshop/tutorial you'll find it all listed in the labels section on my sidebar, it has lots of waffle and plenty of photos, so you can view all the flaws in close up, lol!!

I've decided to enter this into a couple of challenges, my first time of entering challenges.  They are the Allsorts Challenge Blog, the theme being no ready made design papers and also the Simon Says Challenge which is distressed.

Happy Easter!

Jill

Time Workshop/Tutorial Part 6 - More cogs/gears, metal embossing, the final part

The Final Part

I wanted to put some metal through my Cuttlebug but of course I didn't have any handy!  I had some pieces I'd made for Christmas cards that I hadn't used but they were coloured green with alcohol inks.  I'd already embossed them so the reverse although silver was debossed with the patterns.  I thought that as they are gears it wouldn't matter much that they were a bit battered looking.

I left some of them silver and applied latte alcohol ink to parts of others, but this is optional.

While I'm talking about Latte alcohol ink, I found it a great colour match with the Pumice Stone Distress Ink pad, and that the Pumice Stone is about the same shade as Tim's Adage Tickets, just some info I thought I'd share with you!

You can also emboss the metal with Walnut Hollow or Ten Second Studio tools to create the patterns yourself.  These have all been through my Cuttlebug mainly with the Dots and Spots folder.

This photo shows all the other cogs/gears.  I also cut some from silver mirror card, they look black in the photo though!  I Cuttlebugged some of them with the Swiss Dots folder.  The smaller ones are the Shrink Plastic cogs and the coloured card with the Pumice Stone and Stormy Sky are also shown.

MAKING UP THE CARD

The base card is slightly under 8" x 8" (19cms x 19cms).  I didn't have a prepacked large square card so made my own.  I also didn't have any A3 card. So I cut pieces from A4 card, one 1" longer than the size I wanted which I scored at 1" and fixed to the back of the square piece as below.  The longer border that is stamped with the clock background hides the join.

To make the easel fold, score half way across the front of the card

I think you will be able to follow where the pieces of card are fixed so rather than waffle on about that, here are a few tips.

I wanted thin silver edging half way down on the fold on the front of the card to hide the join as I have used distress inks on the bottom panel, it separates the white and the blue.  I wanted another at the back of the panel of base card (where all the cogs are).  Rather than struggle putting glue onto a thin slice of card, I put double sided tape on the back of the silver mirri card then trimmed it down. 

You can get it as fine as you want it this way.

 

 

 

This shows the base panel added  and where I have started with a layers of cogs.  I used silicone glue between the layers to build them up.

If you look at the picture above you will see I've added silver and black nailheads, these are domed glossy self-adhesive dots that look like brads but are less bulky.  They just add a bit more detail.

 

I shaped the rabbit and fixed him in place with silicone glue.

When adding silcone glue to the clocks, avoid the centre area where the brads are so that the hands will still move round.

I have also added a couple of Tim Holtz Ideology Cogs under the rabbits feet so it appears that he is running across them.   They are not shown in the picture above, I will post the completely finished card in another post that shows all the extra detail.

Well, I think that's all I can say about the card.  If there is anything I've missed out you'd better email me!

Many thanks for taking the time to look.

I hope you are having a great Easter weekend.

Jill