Butterfly Dancer samples for Artisan Design Group UK

On Tuesday 21st January on Hochanda (Home of Crafts, Hobbies and Art), Pete Simpson of Artisan Design will be launching his created licensed designed stamps: The Butterfly Dancers: Now available for pre-order in either mounted and unmounted formats at https://www.artisandesigngroupuk.com

Here's what I've created for the design team using "Mason" and "Jorjie" - watch the shows tomorrow and see if you can spot any of my makes!

Card with Mason and Spotted background

Jorjie on a smooshed Distress Oxide background

A little notebook with Brusho background and Mulberry paper 

Inside the notebook with some of  the "worker" stamps in Mason's set

I liked the worker stamps so much I used them to make a
card with Distress Oxide on photo paper background

A mixed media tag using Jorjie on a collaged bookpaper
background and added texture using the Laurel Burst
 stencil and texture paste.

A canvas with Starlight metallic paints and Daisy Burst stencil, with
 Fern stamped onto vellum.

Easel card using Artisan Design Veiny texture stamp and Mason

Sparkly embossed Jorjie on Daisy Burst stencilled background and resin flowers

Jorjie again, this time on a shaker card.

Christmas Carol Challenge and Swap

It's definitely a Christmas Carol theme this Christmas - firstly the Dickens novel was our book club read for December, then I took part in a challenge which involved making a card and a mixed media piece, one to be based on the Dickens and the other to be any Christmas carol, using Artisan Design products.  Then the carol theme was chosen for a 6x6 scrapbook page swap on the My Makes forum.

These are my makes for the challenge.  My card is "In the Bleak Midwinter" with some suitably wintry looking deer and a village scene, and for my mixed media piece I took a canvas board and used Distress Oxides on photo paper to give a stone effect for Scrooge's headstone.  The lettering was done by hand. In both I have used the Artisan Design Snowflake mask and Distress Oxides as a background, and in the Scrooge one I've used the AD Fern stamp to add some foliage round the stone.  Flock made a nice snowy effect on both.

I made a similar style Bleak Midwinter scrapbook page for one of the swaps, and the other was inspired by The Holly and The Ivy.

I was lucky enough to be a winner in the challenge and received this wonderful prize of a set of Faber Castell watercolour pencils.

Upcycled canvas memo board

Memo board made from charity shop canvas

I decided my craft room needed an "inspiration board" and when I saw a large square canvas picture in a charity shop I knew exactly what I was going to do with it!

The canvas is 16" square so a Fat Quarter was just the right size for this project. I couldn't resist this adorable kitten fabric, and paired it with some pink satin ribbon for a pop of colour.

I gave the canvas a coat of gesso to make sure the rather bright picture wouldn't show through the fabric, then cut wadding to the size of the canvas and temporarily tacked it in place with a bit of double sided tape so it wouldn't slip out of position.  I cut the fabric with enough overlap to wrap round to the back of the canvas with a bit to spare, then attached it with a staple gun to the wooden frame of the canvas.  The easiest way is to staple the top centre and bottom centre to fix it in place, work along the rest of the top and bottom, then turn it 90 degrees and repeat, checking to make sure the fabric stays smooth and stretching out any wrinkles as you go.

I then pinned ribbon diagonally from corner to corner and stapled to the reverse of the frame, and then from the midpoint of each side to form a grid.  I sewed mother of pearl buttons to each pont where the ribbons crossed, which makes nice "dimples" in the wadding.  I then attached a couple of eyes to the frame at the back and stretched some cord across for hanging.