A bit of Gelli Plate & Gelato Mail Art

Well, one Sunday I decided to get my Gelli Plate out and just make lots of lovely Gelli Prints.

I love having afternoons like that where you don't think too much about anything and just make lots of backgrounds in your journal or Gelli Plate prints.

So what to do with all those prints.

                                                                       MAIL ART!

Yes I love a bit of Mail Art. 

It's always a nice surprise too when you get some lovely art through the post.

And this mail art is bright, its going to get noticed in the sorting office that's for sure!
They are nearly A4 size, so not too small!

So what did I use?

Mostly DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics for the backgrounds of the envelopes.

But for the Day of the Dead panels I used Faber Castell Gelatos. I love these, they get better each time I use them :) 

I used Kate Crane's Stampotique stamps for the characters.

Love these little cuties :)

Some of my old favourites, like the Crafty Notions heart stamp that was free with Craft Stamper about 2 years ago. Wish I could get another one from somewhere, mine is falling to bits!

The DREAM stencil is an Andy Skinner DecoArt stencil called Serendipity, its got lots of great words on it. Go check it out. :)

This AWESOME! Day of the Dead stencil is also a Andy Skinner design.

This is going to get used like mad, I just know it! 

I'm hankering for a T-shirt  with this design on it.

So I'll be trying out some fabric paints soon :)

It does have the quote "Day of the Dead" on the stencil, but I went all Spanish and used the PaperArtsy alphabet stamps instead.

I covered some card in book pages and made this bright background from rubbing Faber Castell Gelatos onto the board. I brushed over a coat of Matt gel medium to seal it, and then used some bright acrylic paint through a stencil to add more layers. 

I hope my Mail recipients will like them.

Hope you feel inspired to send your friends some mail art to brighten up their day :)

See you soon

Michelle xxxxxxx

I'm back!

I know I've been a very bad blogger :(
I'm very sorry about that.
I've just been under the proverbial crafty thumb over the last 4 weeks.

But I'M BACK

I have a backlog of projects to share with you and I can't wait to get them on the blog.

First up is a tag we made at my taster session at Art from the Heart on Saturday.
It was a full class, of lovely people, (the naughty end was very funny :) even Steven from Paris was over and he popped down too.

I've used Dylusions ink After Midnight, Crushed Grape, Squeezed Orange, Lemon Zest and Post Box Red for the background.

The owl stamp is Stampotique and I've used a glaze pen to make the black branches and owls standout.
I've used a blue Signo pen to highlight the branches and a yellow Posca pen to highlight the owl's eyes.

I've also used the yellow Posca pen on the skeleton too.

I used Tim Holtz's graveyard die on the bottom and coloured them with water pens filled with the same Dylusion ink colours I've used on the tag.

You're Unique Like Everyone Else!

Everything is slow in the craft room lately as I'm drugged up to the eyeballs on pain killers and Diazepam, all to relax a spasm in my shoulder. I'm sleeping well though, so that's a bonus :)

I've got the PaperArtsy bug at the minute and I thought I'd make a tag background using their fab Fresco paints. Here I've used Beach Hut, Inky Pool and Smoked Paprika. I did some stamping on the background too, using a TH text stamp with gold Distress Stain, the Stamp Man's frayed fabric stamp, and my unknown circle stamp. 

My main stamp is a Stampotique stamp called Angel Boy, isn't he gorgeous?  I've also used the Stampotique Hanging Heart stamp too across the top of the tag. 

I made up the sentiment and stamped it with my trusty Hampton Art alphabet stamps.

Can you guess what I might be doing with all these Terry Clips?

Well I glued them on the edge of my shelf

And put all my applicator tools on them! Now they are right above my head and VERY easy to use and put back. I need all the time saving I can get!

It's nearly the weekend, hope you've got exciting plans on the go.

Michelle xx

Inky Stampotique Christmas cards

I've been looking like a Blue Meanie all week at work with very blue inky fingers, I just couldn't get it off. (anyone got any tips on how to get it off, I'd love to know? Water takes some away, but not all)

But look what came out of that blue inkyness!

Some wonderful Stampotique and Dylusions Christmas cards.  These are for my Brother and my Son, both captions apply to both, mmmm now I've got to choose who gets what.

I love the liquid pearls on the fairy lights, they look so bright.

 This was Kate Crane's idea from one of the preview day workshops. 

And doesn't he look cute? I think he does.

I've used London Blue, Vibrant Turquoise & Crushed Grape Dylusions inks, and Dylusions Christmas sentiments. The Stampotique stamp is Tangled enthusiasm.

Only 2 more days left at work for me, I can almost taste the Christmas Dinner.

Hiding Pumpkin Cats Stampotique card

Well the weather has turned decidedly colder this week and I feel the winter chill fast approaching. It was time to buy the de-icer for the car and fish out my hat and scarf for the cold dark drive to work every morning. The clocks went back last night so the mornings will be lighter, but not for long. I'll be going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark soon, so I'm pleased I have daylight bulbs in the craft room to keep me chirpy through the winter months until Spring arrives.

If I keep making cheeky little cards like this though I'll be a happy bunny until the sunshine is back.

I'm entering this card into the Stampotique challenge this week where you take inspiration from one of their design team members and my inspiration for this card, you guessed it, would be very reminiscent of Kate Crane's style.

I love these Stampotique stamps, the pumpkins just make me smile lots and the cats just look so cheeky.

I love seeing them hiding behind the pumpkins

 I've used Dylusions inks, Stampotique's (pumpkins and cats), TH spider-web, The Stamp Man's spiders and Artistic Outpost's hanging bat stamps. I used Gold Ice Stickles on the spider-web to make it glisten with dew.

This card just makes me feel happy.

Have a great relaxing Sunday.

Michelle x

Stampotique Designers Challenge Out of the box SDC57

For the Stampotique designer's challenge 'Outside of the box' I thought about using a product I had in my stash I hadn't used before, the Memory Glass came to mind, and I thought 'what could I make that was outside the box for me?'. Well making anything with the memory glass would be thinking outside the box for me. Then I thought 'what about inside the box', put Stampotique  stamps inside my 'outside the box' box! ... Are you still with me?.......Well here is a box I have never made before, using a product I've never used before and with new stamps too. I think that might constitute an outside the box project, well at least I hope so.

I started off with my Ranger Memory glass 2"x2".

Edged 6 little panes with Ranger copper memory foil.

Held the sides together with Blue tack while I taped over them with more Memory Foil.

I stamped on the outside of the box with a texture stamp.

I stuck a jump ring to the lid of the box and attached it to my two Stampotique stamped images, Devil-ish and Framed, which I had coloured with TH distress inks and Promarkers.

I fixed the lid onto the box with more Memory Foil and now I had my double sided Stampotique dangly hanging in my little glass box. I found an old purple perfume bottle lid, drilled a hole in it, put a head pin though to make a loop in the top and attached a long chain. I stuck the lid onto the top of the box and now I had my very own swinging Stampotique dangly in my gorgeous glass box. It looks awesome up at my craft room window. 

 Here it is hanging in my cherry tree. 

I love it!

I must not swear

Just a quickie Stampotique card which was started in the mini 1 hour class with Kate Crane at Art from the Heart yesterday. I finished it off this afternoon. It's a bit cheeky, but we gotta be a little bit cheeky sometimes.
I am going to add another post tonight for the Stampotique Challenge - 'Out of the box'. I better get a shifty on then.

Made with Dylusions Inks and hanging plant stamp.

I used the bleaching technique that Dyan showed us yesterday on the plant leaves. brush water on the leaves and blot out the blue ink, then use a paint brush and paint another colour of ink inside the leaves. Love this little tip, it looks fab too.

Stampotique Whisker Monster with sign

Some metallic blue acrylic paint, and some black gesso.

An old Dimention Fourth swirl stamp

Preview day at Art from the Heart

Art from the heart
An epic inky, painty shopping session and I loved every minute of it. Got there at 9am, and left at 3.30pm! Everyone was so nice, lots of people and there was no argy bargy-ness. Perfect. The table was set out in the shop with the journals open again...I love it when they do that....it just makes you want to whip your journal open and start inking up a new page straight away. Art journaling is going a bit mental at the minute, everyone's talking about it and wanting to have a go. I'm enjoying the ride, just like everyone else.

Once again I took my camera and took only 3 pictures...what a fool I am!...... I really wish I had taken more, one pic was of me and Dyan and the other 2 were of me and Kaz...the pics of me and Kaz we weren't happy with because we didn't have flattering angles!....how vain are we? But if we don't look fab, they're no good, simple as that.  Here is the pic of me and Dyan. I'm a short arse so Dyan came down to my level...however I look a lot shorter than 5'4" on here! Dyan looks like she's practically on her knees. Fab and groovy red hair too, looks brilliant.  I'm on a diet so when I'm thinner I won't look as short...well that's my theory anyway...I'm currently being beasted into shape by my Jillian Michaels dvd too....she kills me on a daily basis.

I was lucky that someone dropped out of Kate's class at 10am, and I stepped in to fill their place.

We made a Stampotique card, which when I finish it off I will put it on here, tomorrow maybe. You can see a little bit of it on the bottom of the haul pictures below.

We all made a concertina card in Sandra Hall's class. Which you can also see at the bottom of my haul picture too

In Dyan's class we did a bleaching and layering stamps technique, very..VERY...funny class.....mental note.. ...must take hard hat next time as Dyan likes to take the shortest route possible when passing you items. She couldn't very well get up and pass anything anyway today because she was sat with her foot up on two boxes, she had broken 2 toes ....ouch!... The funniest story was how she did it. Apparently Dyan thinks its quite natural to walk down the stairs in a ministry of silly walks stylee and manged to smack her toes off the bannister! 

I came home with dirty hands again.

Here is the haul, vetted by the cat of course first.  Every time I whip the camera out she's like 'get me, get me'. 

The little square boxes are pill boxes filled with Perfect Pearls, many different colours. The bag of swirly brass things are swirly brass things!...erm paper clip type things. 

I managed to pick up a Halloween in Wonderland 8x8 paper pad for Red Kitty B aka Sandra (or the other way round..who knows), I think maybe the last in the country. I was really lucky it was there. Apparently Ben found it in the studio. I got some great thick ATC's, really excited about those.

I spy an old Tim Holtz stamp in the middle there. 

This is a mucky mixture bag of stamps, I love every stamp in it! You can see my new 2 Stampotique stamps in the corner, I have a plan to hatch with those tomorrow. It will be on the blog very soon.

And finally 3 racks for my dabbers, distress stains, Golden paints and Adirondack alcohol inks, I have no excuses now for being untidy.

I think you could safely say that I broke the bank!

Until next time.

Bye xxxxx

Morning world

A new day and a new computer! I went out and bought a shiny new laptop thinking my old one was running slow and I'd had it a while. Oh no it was my internet provider's network dying, and then going off for the last 24 hours. A blogger simply can't live without an internet connection for 24 hours! So I've been busy installing programmes on the new puter, and then did a sneaky ATC with my new Ranger canvas ATC's.

So this is what I thought this morning, "Morning World" hopefully we can get the internet back on, and sure enough it did. Phew no more internet dt's. 

I used Stampotique Stamp "In Prison"

Background is stamped with an Inkylicious 'Brick wall Stamp', dabbed with Aqua Adirondack dabber and a Dimension Stamp small 'Honeycomb stamp' with some gold acrylic paint.

I used a close squirt of Dylusions inks for the 3 circle sprays.

Beauty is everywhere

Another little quickie. I started this watercolour card at Art from the Heart on Saturday. I finished it off with the brilliant 'Heart Throb' Stampotique stamp and a Indigo Blu Nature 1 (love this set) caption. Background was made using Golden acrylic paints. I drew the stitching around the edge too.  I nearly forgot but the clouds are from the Indigo Blue Nature stamp set too. Michelle x

Entered into Try it on a Tuesday

He looks a bit creepy!

Just a quick post. I finished off a little canvas I started at Art from the Heart on Saturday. Which one's are the creepy ones?  The '3 in a round' stamp is from Stampotique and the tree, leaves, and spider-web are from Lavinia Stamps. I used Golden & Artiste acrylic paints.  I stuck a bit of modelling paste through a Balzer Designs stencil (mini burst) for the texture around the edge.

I like the creepy stamps, I need more. Michelle x

Please check out other artists at Artists in Blogland, there is loads to inspire you here.