Inspired by...

Kelly Rae Roberts!

I had a play date on Monday with Sue, the Jabberwocky of blogland, and our friend Helen.  Last week we worked on our 365 calendar pages but decided to try something different this week.  Kelly Rae's book 'Taking Flight' has some great step by step photographs and included some techniques we'd not tried before so we decided to use this as inspiration.

We all used the same background technique on our pieces - layering pieces of scrapbook papers down then brayering over them with acrylic paints.  Helen [above] worked on an angel image to go over her background, whilst Sue added Alice:

I used a circular canvas and drew some flowers, before adding a butterfly made with polymer clay.

[please note that this photo is only here as I know Julie will complain if it isn't!  plus I'm trying to face the reality of the weight I put on last year due to medication!! lol]

Sue's a fast worker so had pretty much finished by the end of the afternoon!  I just had to coat my canvas with gel medium, and add wire antennae to the butterfly.  Helen's angel needed painting still.

Sue stamped into texture paste to give that great effect on Alice's body.  I used the large butterfly from Elusive Images' Patchwork Butterfly plate [also available now at Paddy's Stamping Place]  and stamped it into polymer clay, a technique Kelly Rae shares in her book.

We had a fantastic play date.  Thankyou Kelly Rae for some true inspiration :)

DESIGN TEAM CALL - the play date cafe

The Play Date Cafe Challenge is 3 months old, and out of interest I looked up my first DT contribution.  I LOVE doing this weekly challenge, as do many of my fellow UKers!  You can make anything you like - cards, layouts, 3d, home decor... - as long as the Play Date Cafe colours of the week are the focus.  So although the first week I made a card:

I've also crocheted:

and journalled:

And now we're looking to add new talent to our design team.  Take a look here at my fellow design team member's contributions, and those of our winning guest designers.

Do you enjoy playing with colour?

Do you enjoy a challenge?

Do you enjoy being an inspiration to others?

We are looking for a variety of styles

[Don't worry, you don't need to be able to crochet!!  Just enjoy making things :)]

Cards, layouts, altered art, shabby chic or vintage

retro, grunge, clean and simple...you name it!

The term would be for 6 months

Along with creating a weekly project inspired by colours from your fellow design team,

 you would also be responsible for

choosing colour inspiration once a month or so

We are looking for fun, creative people with a blog

and the capability of taking crisp, clear photos

If you would like to apply, please provide the following:

3 creations that show 'who' you are as a designer

A list of your current/past design team experience (No DT experience necessary)

Your name, address, phone #, email & blog address

Send the photo files and above information to
julieranae@hotmail.com
placing DT submission on the subject line

This is a

WORLD WIDE OPEN CALL

DEADLINE FOR DT SUBMISSIONS

February 28th, 2010

The Play Date Cafe is headed in a very, exciting direction!  We have had a number of potential sponsors contact us, along with some other surprises.

We hope you will consider joining our Senior Designers

Julie Campbell, Julie Murray and me

as we head into the Spring and Summer.

Looking forward to hearing from YOU!

workshop sneak peek

I'm teaching a workshop at Paddy's Stamping Place on Saturday 13th February '10, and Thursday 18th February '10.  We'll be covering a book with embossed copper sheet, using rubber stamps and the walnut hollow metal tools  to create texture.

The Saturday workshop is booked up [although I reckon we could sneak one or two more in there if needs be!] but there are still places on the Thursday workshop.  Give Paddy a ring on 0161 798 5115 if you'd like to book a place.

Please forgive any wobbles, this is my design piece :)

We're also running a repeat of my Introduction to Art Journalling class on Thursday 11th February '10.  And for those itching to get to part 2, those dates are 6th and 11th March '10, and booking up fast!

play date cafe challenge time again!

And this week's colours, chosen by Sandi, are much easier, I promise!  There are only four (well three really, as there are two shades of brown) and they include that lovely combo of blue and brown :)

I used some fabric I found from another project and decided to incorporate it into a tag.  It's always good to have a desk/work area that's not too tidy, it means such serendipity has a chance!

I layered the fabric wth some papers, adding blue and green flowers from my Prima collection, sparkles and stitching.

[sorry that pic isn't the greatest]

I used peeled paint and walnut stain distress inks, and distressed the edge of my tag with scissors.  For the background I used Tim's School Desk set.

And I just LOVE the Wendy Vecchi butterfly :)

art calendar 2010 365 challenge - new pages

January's complete:

and although they're a little late, I got February's pages prepped today.  Sue came over and we prepped our pages together.

We had a very relaxing day stamping, cutting and sticking, spraying and shading.  One of the great things about getting together with a friend is you can share stamps and inks :)  I used Sue's Invoke Arts hearts in the background alongside some of my own heart rubberstamps.

I'm not sure I want to write on these pages to be honest!!

I carried on journalling after Sue left, writing out a phrase I've been passionate about recently ...

...and venturing out of my comfort zone by starting out with a black page...

I used my pan pastels for the first time and LOVED them.  I've used pastels before but these are ultra fine, and sooooo soft.  No chalky bits with these.  The journal page actually says 'Face your fears' but the Old English font I chose does make it appear to say 'pour' instead!

And finally, Helen, from Stamping by H, left me a comment the other day regarding my talented family, and I wanted to take the opportunity to show what my very, very talented Mum made the other day.

How cute is he?!!  Mum makes bears from chenille pipecleaners and this is one of her latest designs.  I am always in awe at how she can come up with all these different designs and outfits. 

another fairy for The Stamp Attic

This one's a sleepy one, welcoming you to dreamland!  The lovely thing about this set of stamps is it has a number of different words to use with the images:  Birthday, Best Wishes, Dream, Imagine, Fairy, Enchanting, To Fairyland.  I love adding snippets to my cards and these little words are ideal!

I stamped the fairy image with a black inkpad then coloured the image with my Inktense pencils.  I layered the main image with a variety of papers and used glitter paper and Stickles to add sparkle.

This beautiful stamp set is available from Wendy at The Stamp Attic.

can you hear Spring awakening?

...it means there'll soon be fairies in your garden, ready to play.

I'm sure they've been tucked up warm in their fairy houses over the cold winter months.

This card is a shop sample for Wendy at The Stamp Attic.  It has a simple black and white theme on the front using The Black Market Paper Society Ebony and Alabaster papers. 

I used the Fairyland collection of Clear Art Stamps to create this image on the front of the card, stamping the lily of the valley flowers close together.  I wanted a simple, yet elegant card that opened up to reveal a hint of fairyland...

[sorry about the shadow, the sun was shining - yes, the sun :) ]

I inked up sections of the toadstool stamp to create the idea of a beautiful garden, and stamped extra flowers, small toadstools and the happy fairy separately, adding them afterwards with silicone glue.

I left space at the bottom of the card to write a birthday message!

Another fairy card tomorrow for you fairy lovers out there!!

Edit:  hmmm, maybe I spoke too soon, it's now snowing!!