do you clean your stencils?

Don't you just love to get parcels?  This stunning stamp, Butterfly Pattern by Stampendous, was amongst many goodies in my parcel this morning.

As soon as I saw it on The Stampman's website I knew it was one of those 'must have' stamps!!  It looks like it would sit well in the corner of a journal page or card, and it's full of tiny patterns that can be used in numerous ways.

The background is a mop up page from some more 'creative palette' play this morning.  I find I often like these papers more than my intended piece!  Amongst the stamps (yes, there were more!!) Jill had included some stencils for me to borrow.  She was a little concerned that she hadn't had time to clean them ..

... but I have to say, they look right at home!! (Mine are the ones on the left, Jill's the three on the right).

The colour in the photo above really isn't true but hopefully you get the idea.  It's one of the tags that I mentioned was waiting to be finished in my last but one post and has a 'creative palette' monoprinted background.  It uses two more of my very favourite new stamps, a gorgeous, gorgeous text stamp from the Stampendous stack art set 'Royal Heart Stack' and the beautiful 'cow parsley' by Jane Gill for Woodware.  And don't you just love 'found poetry'?

There are a couple more sneak peeks of my preparations for this weekend's Great British Craft Festival over on The StampMan blog if you'd like to look.  Please come and say hi if you are visiting the show.  It's at Bolton Arena, Horwich, BL6 6LB and starts both days at 10am.  You'll find us on stand 34A, opposite the seating area which I understand has a handy cafe pod!! 

the results of art journaling in clay

School has finally finished for the year and I have a bit more time to spend on my poor neglected blog!  I had a lovely surprise the other week when my eldest son finally remembered to go back into his school and pick up my ceramic tiles.  They do a short art course for interested parties every year and this year I decided to try my art journaling techniques in clay (original post is here).

It was a bit of a lottery really how they were going to turn out once I'd put glaze on them.  I left one not shiny but I can't decided which one I prefer!

Not that I need a preference!  I'm going to try and frame the three shiny ones together and the matt one separately.

I actually really like them as slabs of grey clay!

Just like in my journal I drew some flowers to use as masks, but this time rolled them into the clay to create an impression.

Once they were dry I added the glazes, painting, stamping and splattering them onto the tiles.

It was great fun, and I look forward to next year when I can do some more!

Craft and Hobby International Show, Birmingham

What a treat I had on Sunday - Carol (of Cubby Hole fame) and I spent the day at the trade show in Birmingham.  I've been to a variety of shows in my time - bears, crafts, miniatures... but this was my first trade show.  It was weird seeing stuff and not being able to buy it!  

I mean, how GoRGeouS is this enormous hydrangea stamp from Stampendous!  Fran had a fabulous array of embossing powders to 'colour' the outline of the image with...

before using chalks to 'colour in'

I also fell in love with a paper pieced poppy, which I think is also by Stampendous but would need to check that...it was on the Woodware stand.  

I love, love, love buttons

so the button company stand was a great one


Whilst browsing some yummy, yummy beads

I spotted a sign ...

Oh,,,,,,,,,,my,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,goodness!  It was Steampunk heaven!  So many beautiful elements, which will definitely be finding a home in my stash, via The Cubby Hole!

It was also great to see some familiar faces at the show, of which I will share more tomorrow :)

another colour splash at the play date cafe

I think Colour Splash weeks are my very favourite challenge weeks at The Play Date Cafe.  I find them very enjoyable and undemanding.  I particularly love this week as Julie chose a splash of blue (one of my favourite colours)...

... which gave me the perfect excuse to give in and buy Stampendous' Agapanthus Cluster from The Cubby Hole. I aDoRe this image and have wanted it for aaaaaaaaaaaaaages!

 I coloured the blue flowers with my paintbrush and a watercolour pencil, an Inktense sea blue one by Derwent to be precise!  I've been loving the big bows I've seen on some cards lately and would have loved to have added one to this card but was on the last minute and didn't have any black ribbon.

But I did have plenty of gems to add to the card :)

We're really grateful to our generous sponsors over at The Play Date Cafe, and want to say a big thankyou to Limelight who are sponsoring this week's challenge.  They've giving away two yummy misting sprays, one a luscious pink, the other a chocolately fudge - such a gorgeous colour combo!  Check out their blog here

And don't forget to check out all the other pdcc designers' blogs for more inspirationgwith these colours - just use the links on my sidebar :) or head over to the play date cafe :)