On Safari!!!!!!!

Well, as usual it has been a manic few weeks since my last blog post, although I did have a weekend off! When I say I had a weekend off, I mean that I was not doing any demo's or workshops!

The weekend after my workshop at Coleman's Craft Warehouse was free, so I decided to take my good friend Martine (from Oyster Stamps) to the Big Demo Day at Coleman's Craft Warehouse - I just love this place, the staff are so friendly and the customers are great and as for craft goodies, it is like going to a mini NEC they have such a selection. So I popped over to Rochester to collect Martine, then we headed up to Northampton - I wish I had taken a picture of Martine when we entered Coleman's - her jaw almost hit the floor and her eyes blinged up!!! It was very strange walking around whilst there were demo's going and some of the customers asked when was I going to start demoing!!!! So after a few hours walking the aisles, watching the demo's and emptying the credit cards we headed home. On the way back we decided to stop off at Ikea - I love this shop, but it has been a good few years since I visited. A big thanks to the lovely Martine for her company - it was a fab day out x

On Saturday 14th June saw another return to Daisy's Jewel Crafts in Coventry run by the lovely Wendy & Geoff - another amazing shop, with so much crafty goodness! This visit saw me playing with my new favourite toy, the Gelli Plate together with some Clarity Stamps & Stencils

Then it was time to head off to Peterborough for to get ready for my "Safari Trip" on Create & Craft on Sunday. Normally I make samples for Katy Sue Designs, but this time I wanted to concentrate on the demo's for the TV. The samples were sent to Daisy's Jewels for me to collect and I couldn't resist having a sneaky peak - WOW! WOW! WOW! I was totally blown away with what the design team had come up with.

So after a restful night in the hotel, Sunday morning arrived and it was time to head over to the studio and set up - the team that work in the background are amazing - they are friendly, helpful and a great laugh. 

I really wish that you could see the samples in real life, they are amazing!

Then it was time to go live! Dean is great to work with and is just as funny off screen as he is on screen

I have no idea where the time went and as for the stock, it flew out the door - so thank you to everyone that tuned in, sent emails and bought the CD & Stamps as well as the team at Katy Sue Designs for allowing me to showcase this fabulous CD & Stamp set.

I just wanted to add some pictures of 2 of my favourite samples from Margaret Waters

If you missed out on the TV show the products used were the new Double CD

and 2 different sets of stamps

The Double CD is jam packed - Theatre Cards, Decoupage (in 3 sizes), Tags, Backing Papers, PNG files, Card Toppers, Sentiments - you can see from this picture how much is on the CD's as it took me ages to print it all off, but was a good place for Dean to lean on!

They are available now from Katy Sue Designs HERE where you can also find some more finished samples

Happy Crafting!

Paul x

Horsing Around!

Well following on from yesterdays post and my pattern building, here are my samples from the latest Clarity TV Show which aired on Create & Craft. As you will see from my samples, can you tell that I loved the horses?

Card 1 

Okay, so this one was clean and simple and uses the Wooden Horse Head Stamp and Abstract Square 2 Stencil. I placed the stencil onto a piece of 7x7 Gelli Card and using a black micron pen, drew through all of the squares. Then I cut some of them out using a craft knife and ruler to create an aperture. I then drew the design onto some black card, cut some of them out and then stuck some on flat and some raised on foam pads

Card 2

So this one is stamped on a background from my Gelli stash! It was a second generation print using Adirondack ink pads and the Tangled Stencil. I then used my new Spectrum Noir pencils, which when you colour in with them, it gives a nice sheen on the finished piece. I also used the 2nd set of Line Art Writing to frame it

Card 3

So this one took a bit of planning to get it right. Again this was coloured in with the SPectrum Noir Pencils and I used the Letterbox Stamps.

Card 4

Now this one, I love! The background is just cheap copy paper and is scrap - basically, I was using the Wall Stencil to create some workshop cards for Oyster Stamps and when I went to tidy up and throw stuff away, this piece of paper jumped out at me, so I added it to my stash to use at a later date. This was a perfect background for the Wooden Horse, which again was coloured using Spectrum Noir Pencils and finished off with the 2nd set of Line Art Words

Card 5

This is using another piece from my Gelli Stash and was made using Acrylic Paint. I used the Remountable Filigraphy Foilage Stamps to create the big flower in the middle and then framed with the 2nd set of Line Art Words

Card 6

Yep, you guessed it, another background from my Gelli Stash using Adirondack ink pads and then feintly stamped using the Tree Branch Stamp (which can be bought with the Boy & Birds) I then used the Morning Has Broken Verse

Card 7

My final piece is a picture created on Canvas Board which I learnt whilst in France and watched several ladies create some wonderful pieces of art. It is using the A5 Ploughed Field Stencil, masked off the rest of the stencil and then, for the very first time I used Grunge Paste, lets just say that I need to practice a bit more!!!! Then finished it off with the Morning Has Broken Verse Stamp.

All products from todays TV show can be found HERE

Well I hope you have enjoyed todays rumblings!

Happy Crafting

Paul x

When is a bow a flower?

As  some of you will know, I love to pattern build when crafting, especially when using my Clarity Stamps

These 2 samples use the Claritystamp Filigraphy Dolphins:

And this one uses the Filigraphy Hot Air Balloon

However, I have also found that you can do it with certain dies - Tattered Lace Peacock Die

At the beginning of May, at the Big Demo Day at Coleman's Craft Warehouse in Rushden, I got the chance to play with some of the new dies and stamps from Sue Wilson. However, some of you may have read on my Facebook page that on the morning of the demo, I just happened to knock a whole mug off coffee over all of them which resulted in them been thrown in the bin!!!!!

Anyway, every few months I get invited to the Big Demo Days at Coleman's Craft Warehouse and then a week or a few weeks after, I go back and do a workshop using the same products that I have demo'd. 

Here are the cards I made for the workshop today:

The flowers in the centre of the cards were made using the Sue Wilson Bow Stamps:

 You can also use the dies as well and here are 2 little display boards I made up to show the difference

Now I am not sure if Sue Wilson has already done this with the ribbon dies/stamps as I don't get the time to follow her blog or to watch all the TV shows - all of the above was created with me just "playing"

Here is a pic of the ladies from todays workshop (I remembered to take pics this time!)

Happy Crafting

Paul x

Non stop craftyness!

Well it seems like it has been ages since my last blog - I have no idea where the time has gone and my fun crafty time in France is fading into the distance...........................

So, what has been keeping me occupied the past few weeks? Well apart from the "day job" I have been having fun passing on what I learnt in France with the Gelli Plate & Clarity Stencils to lots of other crafters.

I was lucky enough to be one of the very first people to get a Gelli Plate when Clarity started stocking them and spent an evening at Barbara's watching her play and experiment with lots of different colours, tools, bubble wrap and lots and lots and lots of huffing and puffing. I remember at the end of the evening, the kitchen looked as if a crafty bomb had gone off!!!!

After a few months I remember Barbara telling me why there was always "huffing & puffing". As stampers, when we ink up a stamp and stamp it out, we know exactly what we are going to get - we know what the end result is going to be. With a Gelli Plate, we don't, well not to start with anyway!!!!!  So therefore she said that we need to re-train the brain (scary I know!) to accept what we end up with and go with it! Sometimes, if you really, really don't like what you end up with, depending on what the result is, you can print over it with another design.

When I first tried, my results went straight in the bin as they looked like pieces of card that had been dragged through a muddy puddle - so like most crafters, if it doesn't work straight away, give up!!!

So whilst in France, I watched some of the Gelli Experts work there magic - I spent an after watching them play with Acrylic paints - they made it look so easy - but then again, if you keep at something, it is bound to get easy - life would be dull if everything always worked the first time! So after watching, I delved in. The first few results were less like a muddy puddle and more like dirty dishwater! But with some great encouragement and help and guidance, I soon got into the flow of things.

Here are some of the the better results:

The second afternoon I watched them play with Adirondack ink pads on the Gelli and again was amazed at the results.

Here are some of the results using Adirondack ink pads:

Gelli Plates, Stamps and Stencils are available from Claritystamp or the retailers detailed below

So, with my new love of the Gelli Plate, my first stop was my local crafty store, The Pantiles Crafts, Games, Books & Coffee Shop in Tunbridge Wells. Now this was the first time I would be demoing the Gelli Plate and also doing it in a workshop and knew this would be the best place to test the waters and build my confidence. I had decided that I would show what I had created in France and then explain some of them. Then for the workshop, I thought that rather than add to the pressure of doing a step-by-step to make a finished card, I would let them play and see what they came up with and then give them a load of Clarity Stamps and let them turn there creations into a piece of art - I am pleased to say that it worked well - sadly I didn't take any pictures, despite having a camera on my phone!!!

Here are some of the cards made during the demo:

I just need to add that the first 2 cards were made from my scrap paper ie it was paper that I used to clean off the brayer and where I tested the stamps before stamping onto my finished cards - I was about to throw the pieces of paper away when I thought I could do something with them 

Next stop was Oyster Paper Crafts in Rochester - now the plan was to play with Clarity Stencils and inks and stuff, but I wanted to share the Gelli Plate with everyone. So out came the Gelli's and a quick demo and then I let them have a play for about half an hour with just ink pads and I was surprised at how easy they all picked it up. 

So then it was time to get on with making a few cards with the stencils and some Heartfelt Creations stamps - the idea of the workshop was to show a few simple, but effective techniques which would hopefully encourage people to revisit there stash of stencils and do something with them. The plan was to make these cards:

 

We only managed one of them, but what I got them to do was to take one of the pieces they created using the Gelli and then incorporate it into something. Again, I forgot to take pictures!
Next stop was Poppy Crafts in Sheerness - another of my favourite independent craft shops. So it started with a quick demo using both acrylic paints and Adirondack ink pads and then I let the ladies loose!!!!!

Here are some pics from the day:

and here are some more bits that I made to add to my stash for later use:

So next stop is Coleman's Craft Warehouse in Rushden this Saturday (31st May) where I am doing 2 workshops using Sue Wilson dies - I will try and blog on Saturday evening as I don't want to ruin the surprise for the ladies that are coming!

Happy Crafting!

Paul x