Gelli Plate play

Ooo I've finally got to play with my Gelli Plate and I'm totally in love with it. 

Within a few minutes I'd acquired a little stack of backgrounds. 

How exquisite is this?  It's made using a doily. 

I did, however, make one or two projects with it and this is a sneaky peek at something coming up soon. 

and this journal page background has been made using a stencil by Sarah Hurley.

Stand by for more Gelli Plate projects ;)

Jaine 

The ups and downs of life

Life is all ups and downs and just when you're on an up something comes along to knock you back again.  It's learning to adjust and accept and focus on the positives that's the challenge.

This past few days I've seen a few ups and downs myself  but I'm just having a moan because I have a brand new gelli plate sitting un-opened on my worktable with no time to play - bah!

Anyway, enough of that talk. In a week of frantic work, which I'll be able to share with you soon, I put together a journal page for A Sprinkle Of Imagination, taking inspiration from the old dress up dolly's from my youth (showing my age a bit there).

My starting point was the dress which I found in a fashion magazine and used as a template to cut one from patterned paper, then drawing a head and body from watercolour paper and cutting that out too. Quite a simple process but so effective.

I cut my title using the Sizzix Alterations Chip Block alphabet. 

You can see the full blog post here.

Have a good day

Jaine x

Happy Birthday Mum

It's my Mum's birthday coming up and I wanted to make her something a bit special and not just a card so I came up with this mini wall hanging ornament made from a Tando Chipboard base. 

Cheekily it's also my piece on the DT blog of A Sprinkle of Imagination today too. 

As well as the chipboard base I also used two of my Sizzix dies, this gorgeous gorgeous butterfly #658062 and the ornamental frame #657756. I love the cut outs on the butterfly, it looks so delicate and lacey. 

For lots more Sizzix inspiration visit their blog here.

Jaine x

Starry starry night.

 

Today I'm bringing you something totally different with this journal page made using my Kuretake pens, in particular the Woodcraft Markers.  Amazingly enough I just thought I'd see how they 'performed' on my journal page as I've only ever used them on wood before and this is the result. The black is fabulously opaque and has a matt finish so acted rather like a black gesso would.  The wide nib on the big paint marker made light work of my background page with far less mess too. 

 

I painted on my planets with another Woodcraft marker and added the details with painty pens and my sketching pen.

 

You can see my how-to and a few more photo's on the Kuretake blog.

 

Jaine x

Love the little birdies.

Sadly we're back to cold, rain and misery at the moment but the short episode of sunshine we experienced (please don't tell me that was it) gave me tonnes of inspiration to get me all fired up for new projects especially bird related things which is always a winning topic in the spring.

 

It's my thursday blog post for A Sprinkle of Imagination and I've taken the bird theme and made this cute brooch.

 

I just love the combination of fabric, paper and sewing together and to see how I put it together and to find out which products I used from the shop you can check out my blog post here.

 

Happy thursday everyone

 

Jaine x

Getting back to basics in the sunshine.

Two days of sunshine gave me the urge to just sit outside and paint.  Going back to basics I stripped everything back to just watercolour paints and a drawing pen.

Ok so I did have to stick something down (does a couple of pieces of book paper count?)  I also used my girlie stamp and speech bubble by Sarah Hurley so technically I used stamp and ink too but on the whole it was just me, my pen and some watercolour.

I do like the simple background and I had great fun drawing again. Today however it's raining and I'm back indoors but it was fun while it lasted.

Jaine x

Lookbook 3 and shades of blue.

It's out, The Sarah Hurley Lookbook number 3 is out and it's better than before, if that is at all possible.  We've been busy cutting and sticking for weeks now to bring you the latest show and tell from the Sarah Hurley team and its packed with inspiration and lots and lots of eye candy.



This is one of my favourite projects from the mag, a layout using A Few Of My Favourite Things kit.

There's also a new challenge up on the challenge blog and the theme is Shades of Blue.  Here's my offering for it using the All Sewn Up kit along with a pompom from A Few of My Favourite things kit.

The mag also features work from the newest members of the team too so hats off to them for working so fast.

Enjoy the sunshine

Jaine x

Black gesso - don't be afraid!

Why would I do this....

to this....?

To get to this of course...

I did hover over the page a bit before painting on the gesso but hey you only live once and I could always completely re-do the page, right?

I'm loving the texture but most of all the colour shines through in places so all is not lost. You can see the full blog post today on the ASOI blog where I share a few other photo's and an explaination.

The new LookBook by Sarah Hurley is out and later I'll be sharing one or two of my projects which are featured in it this time. It's a goody.

Jaine x

Sizzix download

I thought I'd pass on some info today that Sizzix are offering a free download of an embellishment and phrases sheet which is a great idea if you're stuck for inspiration on a card.

 

 Just click on the link here.

Jaine x

Some spring inspiration

 

During a sunny and warm afternoon this past week, I sat outside with my watercolour pad and some Kuretake supplies and tried to capture spring. I took inspiration from the cherry blossom just coming out (even though mine was white and I used a pink pen on the page).  I used it as a Spring inspiration piece on the Kuretake blog this month which you can see today.  I even managed to write the word spring using a calligraphy pen which makes it so much easier and believe me I'm not a calligrapher at all. Once you know the basic principals the pen does it all for you.

 

Sadly the weather has changed for the weekend unfortunate seeing as I have house guests for a few days.

 

Have a good weekend

 

Jaine x

Playing with layers

 

Oh my goodness I'm really taken with the work of Michelle Caplan who creates fabulous works of art using photo's and ephemera.  I thought I'd have a go for myself and created this one in my art journal.

 

You can see how I made it on the blog of A Sprinkle of Imagination today so do go over and have a look. I'll give you my secret to creating the layers.

 

 

Loving the sunshine

 

Jaine x

Happy Birthday Elaine

 

I'm posting this here to say Happy Birthday to my Sarah Hurley teamy Elaine who wanted to celebrate her birthday with butterflies. She's a bit butterfly mad and sent all her friends a butterfly cut from a Sarah Hurley cut file to decorate.

 

This is what I did with mine. Some ink, some stamping and some layering with a Sizzix Tattered Florals die and a Sizzix Damask framelits frame to sit it on. You can find that and lots more inspiration here on the Sizzix blog.

 

Happy Birthday.

 

Jaine x

 

Spring colours

 

This colour scheme is so spring-like I think. Most of my spring flowers, when they eventually push through and open up, are this combination of green, blue and purple. It wasn't designed that way it just happened.

 

 I've spent most of this week digging and tidying the garden and I think most of it is looking pretty good, I've even moved a couple of plants which were bugging me.

 

My Stamp Box is using this colour combination as an all play this week and the rest of the DT have been playing along.

 

I used distress inks in Peacock feathers and Mowed lawn to colour my background then stamped the Background stamp in black and added another layer of stamping using white acrylic paint and the Funky Circles stamp.The flowers from the Abundant blossoms set were stamped and cut out and layered onto the background with foam pads.

 

Do pay MSB a visit on the blog as there's alot of wonderful inspiration to be seen from the rest of the DT.

 

Jaine x



Mixed media mini marathon

Last weekend was an absolute blast as I gave a class to a group of women and one young lady on making a mixed media mini album.

I think you know by now this is my passion and this mini book was just so me.

I put together kits using cardboard, fabrics, paper bag, tags and a few embellishments and a selection of Glitz papers which I'm totally in love with from ASprinkle Of Imagination.

Here's the book:

Page made with Tulle and stamped calico. Sequins trapped inside.

This is one of the fabric pages made stiffer with layers and layers of acrylic paint,

...and the paper bag, painted white with the edge tidied up with and edge die.

After I'd painted the tag I didnt want to add anything else to it, I just wanted to leave it as it was.

The last page features a tag, collaged with left over bits of paper, painted over with white and some fabric and paper scraps sewn on.

Thank ladies. Laurence is missing from this photo.

I featured it as a blog post today on the blog of A Sprinkle of Imagination.

Jaine x

Ripping it up.

There's nothing like a bit of ripping and tearing to make you feel good, all in a controlled environment of course - ha ha!

It's challenge number 2 on the blog of Craft Stamper and the challenge is to follow the directions laid down in this months Craft Stamper magazine on pages 78-81 by Helen Chilton. One of the prizes is a fantastic stamp by Indigo Blu plus the winner will get their card featured in Craft Stamper Magazine - cool hey?

I've used an Indigo Blu stamp myself here and I think I've fallen a little bit in love with their stamps, they're so gorgeous. 

I chose to tear downwards to reveal the stamped image and curled the strips and used a touch of glue just to keep them down.

I also tore some strips to make paper roses and couldn't resist adding a bit of sparkle on top.

Why not have a go for yourself , it's a simple enough technique and has great impact. Check out some more inspiration from the other DT members on the blog.

Jaine x