PaperArtsy

ArtsyCrafts {June 2012}

2012-05-23T13:16:00.000+01:00

Lin and I had a fabulous time recently getting the last of the ArtsyCrafts details all sorted out. Now the orders are streaming in, and we are finishing up kits and all the other odds and ends that go into running a smooth event.

The classes are once again, a different assortment of options. I think its pretty hard to pigeonhole an ArtsyCrafts class, they have been so varied over the 5 years that we have been doing this. We do try to mix it up.

Lin and I have been on a real fabric kick this year, and ironically, it does seem that many of the large crafting manufacturers are on the same wave length, I have noticed a lot of soft embellishments products coming on the scene, and some are even printing their own fabric this season! So it was pretty inevitable that this whole fabric malarkey is being reflected in a couple of our classes on offer this time.

The Fabric Book (Fri June 8th, 9am-9.30pm)

sold out

This book opens up in an unexpected way, with each page decorated with layers and layers of fabric, paper, crunchy, crackly, ribbons, flowers, washi tape, beads, buttons, charms and more.

Taught over 5 teaching sessions in the day/ evening, we kick off each section with a technique, and then are on hand to help you attach and arrange the layers to the suggested template, or tweaked in a different direction depending on your level of confidence.

You will have some lovely stash in your kits, to inspire your muse. You might start off a little unsure, but by the end of the day I think you'll be utterly hooked into this way of crafting, and it's so enjoyable to add carefully selected embellishments to each page.

The Sewing Room (Saturday June 9th, 9am-9.30pm)

sold out

It might sound like a fabric project, but actually this is very much a mixed media affair. A double niche vintage-hinged wooden frames will end up looking like an old-fashioned book, with metal decorated cover and a clay name plate.

The 2 facing niches will include many sewing-related trinkets to decorate the interior. Clay and paint is just the beginning, we also have some plaster-casting, some soft furnishings, jewellery-making skills and tissue-stamping to master, oh and a touch of UTEE.

This is going to be a lovely day with plenty of fun ideas to enjoy along the way.

Rusty Relic (Sunday June 10th, 9am- 6pm)

Sold Out

A fascinating project, shown here in a truly masculine distressed black/ rust tones, but would also look amazing in creams and rusty brown, or even patina blues/green...the choice of course is yours. Will will accommodate your personal preference.

Worked on 2 levels, inside the niche, and on top of the mesh, there a sneaky peeks through the mesh to reveal some interesting features.

Paint, bespoke mica paste (yes we have developed a new technique), mica sheets, image transfers, puff paint, wire and of course rusting powder are all incorporated to get your brain whirring with the possibilities of where you could take this concept.

And it doesn't stop there; clay, sheets of gold leaf, our newest product Crackly (soon to be released), and plenty of charm-ing embellishments are baked into the mix! So melt pots will be on hand too.

This event is not many sleeps away, and I think we are feeling pretty organised and ready to enjoy 3 days of creativity with those of you who have booked to come along.

Not only will we have the mysterious 'Crackly' product to release any day....

We also have 4 new sets of fabulous brand new stamps designed by the inimitable Lynne Perrella, in her iconic style that is proving so popular with stampers.

And Mark has been working on a stunning collection of haberdashery Hot Picks that we have been planning for about 18 months to fit in with this event.

Lin and I have made the decision this is going to be our last ArtsyCrafts. It's been a big commitment for us putting on at least 2 events every year for the last 5 years, as well as enjoying the opportunity to host some fabulous international tutors. The whole experience has been an absolute pleasure for Lin and I.

We have had so many light-bulb moments in the process while developing classes and techniques! And of course, not only have you made new friends, but you also know Lin and I (and the wider team behind the scenes) have all become firm friends in the process.

I guess many of you will be disappointed we will not continue with ArtsyCrafts, but of course you will continue to see us demoing together at crafting events in the UK. Lin will launch her own new classes in the Midlands this summer, and Mark and I really need to get a lot more stuff uploaded to the too often neglected PaperArtsy you-tube channel and Blog. So we will all still be around, but more online than in-person.

So a big thank-you to everyone who has ever come along to an ArtsyCrafts event.

Take care

Leandra

Ally Pally spring 2012 here we come!!

2012-04-14T07:01:00.001+01:00

No more sleeps!

Today we head up to Alexandra Palace for the great Big Stamping and Scrapbooking show. This year, as Lin from LB Crafts has retired we have her spot at the show, and she will be there with us as our chief demonstrator...so it will be just like old times for both of us.

It's been many years since we exhibiting at Ally Pally, so we are really looking forward to it!

Hope to see you there either today or tomorrow!

Leandra

Version Scrap {2012} -EPIC

2012-04-10T17:54:00.000+01:00

So much activity here the 2 weeks before the Version Scrap show in Paris which was the weekend before Easter. This is our 6th year attending this show - initially to teach, and for the last 3 years as exhibitors. We love a long weekend in Paris, and we had 8 staff working the stand with us this year to ensure the whole event ran smoothly. This year we stayed at a funky hotel near the Bastille, and the pics above show (kind of) are the dimensional tiles decorating the walls of the Bastille Metro station.

Couldn't get enough of these flowers at the show - I bought a whole bag full, and a great prices too! Version Scrap has very long show hours (9am-7pm) for 3 days, and the day before the show opens (build up day) in the evening the stands have to be ready to open for a VIP-entry session from 6.30-9.30pm. I have yet to figure out how to get VIP tickets to give away - every year we ask, and every year we get nada, but we still sell loads of stock on the night! So someone must be giving them away! We had the lovely Donna Downey demo on our stand - a real crowd pleaser!

From L-R: Donna Downey (talented designer and hilarious demonstrator, and very good at sharing her teaching space - another story!), Dounia (translator, and PHD student in Archaelogical Chemistry - brainiest on the stand!), Sally (aka StampSally - translator and long-time customer and all round crazy Brit living in France), Leandra & Lin.

Crowds gathering as word spread Donna is getting out her Pan Pastels on the PaperArtsy Stand.

And before you know it we are mobbed - lady in the pink top is Madeleine, our make and take co-ordinator who does a mighty fine job of teaching the ladies with our newest products and ideas.

So here is the stand almost ready at the end of an 11 hour build up from 7am on only 3 hrs sleep the night before. Behind Paul is the demo desk area, and that is the half-way point of the stand, the orange carpet is all our space. And below, an already tired Lin waiting for the VIP onslaught to commence for 3 hrs of demoing - this is an EPIC way to start a show!!

As well as exhibiting, Leandra taught 2 different three hour classes (a students' projects below left, and the other picture to the right is ready for the layout items to be dropped on top of the background). We offer a constantly changing Make and Takes programme on the stand with a different project every 2 hours...here is Paul (from Go Create) above right with queues of ladies waiting to do his session, and sporting a t-shirt that is somewhat borderline attire for a French show! Cheeky chappie.

Madeleine runs the make and take for the whole show with help from Paul and Dounia. Audrey, as well as helping Mark on the till, took sign ups for Make and Take, and was our chief shop-lifter spotter - she accosted and then made them pay, and then handed them over to security. We were all impressed, as she was physically the smallest on the stand!

This lovely lady came all the way from Italy to the show, and is a big PaperArtsy fan. Look closely at her arms!! She went to a crop, and the mother of the lady running the crop made removable 'sleeves' for all the participants to wear. They are so comfortable, and a brilliant way to not get paint all over yourself when creating!! I *need* a pair!

Mark always manages to sneak off next door to the farmers' market to partake in a typical French lunch. In this case, roti chicken stuffed with seasonal stuffing, fresh salad, and amazing gratin potatoes. Plus the obligatory vino. He was most amused by the rabbit dissection. With eyes intact. Quite unnerving. And he always buys loads of jams to last us the year ahead.

And a trip to France isn't complete without a spot of flambe! Lin and I both scoffed this dessert on Sunday night. Kirsch-tastic.

One can only say the NEC and other exhibition venues in the UK have a LOT to learn regarding food options for lunch. Who could say no to a sit down plate of stunning food with beer or wine! How civilised! And right up my alley!

So the fave booth of the show for Lin and I went to 'Scrapbuttons' Funny thing was, as we were oohing and ahhing over their booth, they arrived back with a PaperArtsy shopping bag having just reciprocated on our stand ... I know @ladybugNina will love the mustache - that picie is just for her! and we are loving the multi-layer badge idea!! @Mr_PaperArtsy is already testing that idea out on his badges! Baskets of badges in Fabric, paper, and so much more. Awesome!

And the next favourite had all these findings - a lot of the same stuff as beadtime, but more filigree and cabochon stuff, clock faces, cameos .... and some wicked printed fau leather ephemera items....and the dolls....i don't get the dolls...but they were on this stand too....what do you do with them????

Because I worked out a schedule to ensure we all got lunch this year, Lin and I were much more focused on shopping in Paris this year! Craft shopping. Usually when we go to shows we are not that bothered about buying loads of stuff, but this year, there seemed to be lots of new products that we just had to have...like fabric, flowers, wood buttons, vintage printed felt, printed tiles.... and the most amazing artwork on the stands too.

We both forgot to get back to the lady who does plaster castings of really cool vintage stuff. *Slaps forehead* (pics above and below) she was our favorite stand last year....

They certainly have a knack of displaying stuff beautifully on their stands. Above right is a washi tape piece of art, and above left could be right out of a Cath Kidston shop! We both hammered the washi tape stand.....OMG you should have seen the designs...even a London Underground map roll of washi tape.... no I didn't buy that as it was uber expensive, and i had no idea how i would use it - well i had no time to THINK about how i MIGHT use it.....

This year they had a massive exhibition of 1metre x 1 metre scrap pages! Here is Lin next to one just to prove they really are that big!

Back to shopping....this display is from a hardware store hidden in Paris that Sally showed us on Monday, and to the right is a display of gift bags/boxes in a store that is a bit like HobbyCrafts only nicer. Why can't they do that here?

Eggs. chocolate. errr YES!!

...amazing chocolate displays.....

...love these eggs...you should have seen the look on the kids faces...thought i was giving them hard boiled eggs this weekend....but of course inside is amazing layers of chocolate, ganache and mmmmmmm delish......

Oh, and despite having a very tiring, but fantastic time in Paris, we did have our little drama 2 hrs before leaving the UK! In true Franich style Hugo broke his arm at school (well another child broke Hugo's arm - not intentionally of course) requiring Mr PA to take him to A&E for X-ray etc just as we were about to leave....well as we were running a bit behind it did give me a couple of hours extra to pack more last minute things....but we did forget the make and take desk...we managed to improvise at the show....He' still hurting quite a lot, but the chocolate eggs provided a good distraction....

Well as it is only 3 sleeps till Ally Pally build up I need to shake a leg and get ready. A big delivery just arrived with more new goodies just released from CHA, so do drop by to see us at The big Stamping and Scrapbooking Show, Alexandra palace, London, Sat/ Sunday this coming weekend. We are stand 46 - the spot that LB Crafts used to have is now the PaperArtsy spot!!

See you there!

Leandra

ArtsyCrafts {June 2012}

2012-03-10T18:30:00.011Z

So much has happened already here this year with shows, trade shows, and now it's time to look forward to ArtsyCrafts already! Ohhh how exciting

We have got 2 classes done and dusted, the 3rd is still a work in progress...but the description gives you a pretty clear idea about where it is heading. Lin and I are both so excited about all of these classes.

They are 3 entirely different projects, and to suit all budgets and interests, you can book, 1, 2 or all 3 days. If it were me I would want to do them all, but then i always say that! That's not very helpful is it!

So before you book anything make sure you read all the info here about cancellation policies, accommodation, facilities, what to bring, class times, venue etc etc

Then if you click here, you can see each of the 3 classes and you can add them to your 'shopping basket' to book for them. If you click on the picture then you will see the class description. Here is a summary of each class:

FRIDAY: A fabric meandering book, although you could easily do this as a wall hanging if you prefer. Layers of fabric, lace, ribbon, and some wicked image transfer ideas, how about some soldered holes into gauze, and we have found all sorts of cool stuff to work with. We adored creating this class, quite a new medium for us but so easy to adapt to, and a clean tidy class! You don't need to be a machine sewer by the way!!! In fact it's an advantage NOT to be good on the machine!

SATURDAY: A double hinged niche for the altered, painty people who like to fiddle and faff and arrange - this class has a sewing theme with lots of fun elements that will surprise you along the way. We have some gorgeous fun elements to put into these niches, new PaperArtsy products, and its very painty, but there will be the opportunity to work with fabric and metal - don't panic... nothing too difficult! We also have metal, clay, threads, mica sheets, metal charms and more in this class!!!

SUNDAY: The rusty relic. You will have to book this class based on the description for now, but pictures will be available at the start of April. Think stamps and images transferred onto clay, gilding flakes, rust, distressed metal, mica sheets, wire, mesh and much much more! I am really looking forward to this. We have so many great ideas for this class, and I think its going to emerge into a little beauty of a relic!

I know people are always amazed at how we provide everything for you to use, and healthy quantities of everything too! We do it this way so you don't have to wait to use supplies, you can just get on with it. It also means for those flying in from overseas that they don't have to bring a load of stuff with them. When I teach elsewhere, people are often given a massive supply list of things to bring to class, and the teachers generally provide the bare minimum. We generally want you to bring as little as possible so you can kick back and enjoy.

As we have not got the massive expense of international guest teachers this time round, we have been able to drop the class fee considerably. We try to organise the event so that the fee covers room hire, your meals, tea break and snacks, class kits/supplies, and that is about it. In other words, what you pay to us is what we pay out in expenses to run the event. So I think you will be happy to know the classes are £100 ea (incl VAT) for Friday and Saturday. Sunday, which finishes at 6pm instead of 9.00pm is £75 (incl VAT)

Booking opens Monday evening, March 12th. Just go here, and add the class(es) you wish to book for to your shopping basket. You will get paperwork confirmation sent out by return.

But before you pay, just one small request....

Because we have a tight operational budget, please can we ask when you pay, don't use paypal. The fees are so high compared to worldpay or secureform, which are both alternative and equally safe ways to communicate your credit card details to us. For example, we can pay up to 8% of the transaction value or more to paypal (£22 per person if they book all 3 classes), and only 1.7% (£4.67) with worldpay, or even better, if you use a debit card, it might be as little as 30 pence fee per transaction. With paypal it's frustrating for us to pay £20 or more in fees per person, plus don't forget another 20% goes to the government for vat (£75 if you booked all 3 classes). So if we can remove paypal out of the equation, it means we don't have to find that 'lost' money from other aspects of the budget (class supplies!) I normally don't explain this to you guys, but if you understand why we ask you not to use paypal, we hope you will be more than happy to use worldpay or secureform instead. Ultimately it means we have more funds to spend on YOU for use in class kits or class supplies.

As a long time merchant with paypal we do have some of the better rates with them, but this can change from month to month depending on the volume of funds going through our paypal account. If you are not a merchant with paypal yourself, you are probably blissfully unaware of the cost of receiving funds. We only offer it because it is an easy way for international customers to pay for their orders. But obviously we would rather all our regular customers used one of the other methods we offer instead.

Thanks we do appreciate your understanding with this.

So roll on June, and we hope to see you all there with buttons, lace and all your rusty bits!

If you can't make it to Warrington, then you are going to have to wait a whole year for ArtsyCrafts 2013, which will probably be in Newport Pagnell, unless general feedback demands it stays at Warrington.

Have a great week

Leandra

stitches {2012}

2012-02-24T08:58:00.001Z

It only seems like a blink since the trade show last year, and here we are again, starting over with another round of vibrant, brand-new products to kick off 2012.

Trade shows are awesome, you get to see all the craft suppliers in one place releasing all their newest goodies. It's a good way of judging what is going to be big this year, and my money is on fabric! Lots of our suppliers have added fabric to match their paper, brads, buttons and more. We adore! No consistency of design style could be seen, it was a variety of bright-funky-crisp, some muted-dusky-vintage, but I love fabric however it comes! Quilting is where I started way back pre-kids - I always used to sew my own clothes thru high school and uni.... so mixing fabric with paper-crafting is right up my street! Go grab yourself a cheap sewing machine and let's do this! It's much easier than you might expect. And straight lines are a big no, no. So no expectations for competency at all in this lark! Ironic that Lin and I are coincidentally on a fabric kick for this June's ArtsyCrafts, but what brilliant timing as there are so many cool things we can incorporate into our June classes. Lucky for us and you!

This is our huge acrylic topped cardboard desk, with recent art samples loitering underneath. Love this desk!

Here is how our booth/stand looked the last few days. We generally cause a bit of a stir with our red cardboard creation. Its a product specifically designed for trade shows, we have been using it for several years now, you cna paint it paper it...whatever you wish. Its cheap, portable and looks so much better than racks! As it was raining heavily when we arrived, we kind of thought it might turn to mush - but I found some muslin and thin plastic on the floor, and we made it inside with no dramas!

New of course are the additional 24 paints which now have a fancy schmancy double height acrylic display rack - very POSH, and shows off all the colours perfectly! Light, medium, dark and super-dark shades in 10 paint families. Plus 4 glazes, black, white, gold, silver.

We also have another 4 stamps coming from Lynne Perrella, they won't be shipping for at least a month, but they will be closely followed by another 4!!! Even though we go to a trade show, we continue to add new things to our lines throughout the year, and we still have more new spring releases to come!! Schtumm for now though.

We have 9 new Hot Picks. Can you believe it was April 2010 that we launched these designs. 2 years on and we still release a design a month, although at times like this when we release a batch in advance we get ahead of ourselves. They are so popular - Mr PA does a grand job. I adore the new fishy themed ones. And the flowers are always useful for so many situations. The large bottles will be a fabulous element to add to any project. And with the London Olympics site only being a 12 minute train ride from PA HQ, we have added some plates with London elements to the collection too.

We also have 10 Vintage (Ink and the Dog) collection stamps available. If you haven't caught up with the update, we launched PaperArtsy with Ink and the Dog in 2003. This was pre-distress ink days! Can you imagine!! We are now cherry picking our favourite images from this collection, making them larger, as they were originally designed for ATC art, and re-formatting them onto A5 sheets. Once this process is complete, the small A6 plates will be discontinued. Our iconic Ink and the Dog line still has huge part to play in the enduring vintage trend, and with over 130 plates in the collection, it really is time to prune it back to a more manageable size for retailers with the most desirable images on one plate.

Each day of the show I taught to sold out classes of retailers. They made a fresco paint technique sampler to put on the wall in their shop next to their paint rack- they seemed thrilled with that idea and 6 painty tags in 45 mins was kicking some serious paint butt along the way!! We got finished 2 of the 3 days, so the girls (and boys) did good!! They did squirm when I said "no cleaning allowed" for 45 mins tho!! Mwahahaha ha ha.

So there you have it, the trade show is over, and we are shipping out orders from today!! Speedy huh! If you are a retailer and didn't make it to the show, all our show offers are online now in the wholesale website and available until March 11th. Contact me for details if you need more info. Sales@paperartsy.co.uk or phone 01277 212911

Lastly a big thanks to Lin who came and helped us write orders for the 3 days of the show. Her retail advise to other shops on our stand was invaluable for them and us, and she was a whizz with Mark's amazing iPad ordering app that impressed many. We so totes tek-o-noj-i-cal us Essex folk!! Lots of well jell exhibitors! LOL

For those of you wondering when all the new stuff will be on our retail site-I'm guessing 3 weeks. In the meantime, go to your local stamp store - we start shipping today!

WOYWW 141

2012-02-15T07:11:00.001Z

Someone's been using my desk to paint! And its not the usual kind of painting that's get done on my desk either!! We've been getting ready for another show. That will be 3 weekends in a row of events. Don't panic don't panic.....this is my mantra!! Lol. It'll all be fine on the day but we always seem to be doing things right till the last possible second to get ready. It's how we roll I guess.

I know the colour looks kind of pink in the tray, but it dries a lovely red. So we're are using it to touch up a few of the panels for the walls of the stand before the show.

I'm off to clear it up so I can finish off some other bits and bobs before the weekend is upon me!!

Don't panic don't panic.....

Don't forget to pop on over to Julia's to check out other peoples desks and to join in the fun !

Look forward to seeing you next week when I'll be mega relaxed!!

Amazing Stamperama Stampers

2012-02-13T22:04:00.000Z

Where to start! Exciting. That's what the stamperama show was. Exciting for me to be there exhibiting for the first time since 2005, exciting to have Lin demoing on the booth, exciting for Mr PaperArtsy who got his last minute lights to work, exciting for all the customers who turned up not expecting to see Lin at all and who were thrilled to see us both, and exciting for those who knew we would be there and dropped by to say hi, and of course so exciting for you all to catch up with each other, shop chat, conceive new ideas, and have a great day out.

Yes it was a lovely show, with a really fantastic vibe, and a real pleasure to be there. My favourite type of show are those with a specific stamping focus because all the customers and exhibitors have the same specific interest in common. When you get a bunch of people all on the same page it works!

So I'd just like to say a big thank you to those of you who came, it was fabulous to see you all, and if you couldn't make it, put Sunday August 12th in your diary for the summer Stamperama. It will be the day after the London olympic opening ceremony, but I hope that won't stop you from coming along!

Have a wonderful week! Stamp your socks off!

Leandra

Stamperama here we come...

2012-02-10T11:54:00.000Z

Today we are packing up the van ready for the Saturday build up at Stevenage for Stamperama.

The show opens on Sunday, Feb 12th 10am-4pm (9.30am for advanced ticket holders & wheelchair users). You will find the hall just in front of the large Tesco's on Lytton Way. The Stevenage Arts and Leisure Centre.

We have lots of new items on the stand for the show, plenty of wooden bits and bobs (and the bugs - called willeez) to decorate, or use as embellishments

We have the full range of Fresco Finish chalk acrylic paint with loads of amazing stencils,including those just released at CHA in January.

We have the 6 brand new Ink and the Dog re-formatted plates, they are A5 size, and all the images are much larger than the originals - we are working through cherry picking our favourite designs.

And today we are expecting a delivery of Portfolio Pastels, and some new tags (the type Timmy likes to use).

As if that wasn't enough we also have Wendy Vecchi art parts, clearly for art, Tim's ideaology line, Ranger consumables like cut and dry, glossy accents etc. Plus Ten Seconds Studio tools, moulds, mixed metal packs, humungo adhesive.

All PaperArtsy A5 size stamps (Hot Picks, Lynne Perella, and Vintage) will be available EZ mounted, and we will have an unmounted selection from Squiggly Ink, Ink and the Dog and Urban Snapshots collections.

And of course, we will have a wonderful, very talented guest demonstrator at the show, the lovely Lin Brown who will be on the stand from 10am-2pm demoing with Leandra and lots of these lovely goodies. And Mr PaperArtsy will have a nice show special organised for you too!

So the snow has all gone, its cold, but it's all good, we'll see you on Sunday at Stevenage!

If you can't make it to the show, a lot of the new goodies have been put online in the PaperArtsy shop this week.

Take care

Leandra

WOYWW 140 - It was there last week...

2012-02-08T10:57:00.001Z

My desk was here last week...I promise...but for now, all the demo boxes from being away at Bluewater are sitting on top of it waiting to be tidied up again ready for Sunday. Yes we have had the best part of the last 6 days away. But look....a whole heap of stuff dumped on my desk! Oh dear.

In 2 sleeps we are off again to set up for another event at Stevenage, so....my 'studio' has become the drop off point while racks are re-organised, re-stocked etc.

I'm hoping I can get the elves to return it to normality by this time next week! We shall see!! But if you take a look at my last post you will see that my work desk while at the show (and Lin's) was extremely productive, so I'm hoping that makes up for this little hiccough.!

Have a great week, and maybe we'll see some of you at Stevenage on Sunday. I do like a good crafting get together! In the meantime, pop on over to julias to check out woyww malarkey.

Hobbycrafts at Bluewater

2012-02-04T23:07:00.002Z

3 days of the show over all too fast, just tomorrow to go. The new venue for the Hobbycrafts show at the Bluewater mall, which is only 5 mins from the M25 at the Dartford Crossing seems to be a big hit with the customers coming to the show. At the entrance to the brand new glow events venue you will find several restaurants, and of course all the shops at one of England's largest malls.

In the show upstairs is the stitches section with lots of fabric ideas, findings etc, and downstairs is the Hobbycrafts section where we are (stand BB42)

Lin and I have been doing lots of demoing with freso acrylic paint, new stamps, lots of lovely new wooden items and of course all the lovely embellishments that we like to use in the process.

Now I know that what we make might look complication, but it really isn't. For many years, I have always followed a simple procedure to create an item.

Make a background. In this case it was often paint, with more paint stencilled on top.

Stamp in archival. Either on top of the background, or on another piece of card painted in the same colour combination.

Embellish. Wood items, tags, ideology, ribbons...you know how to do it.

So now you know the inside low down, here are some of the items we have made over the last 3 days.

A bit over embellished perhaps! Lol

Everybody loves this owl

Lin got busy stamping images onto fabric , heat set, then colouring them with layers of frescos.

This one is a bit of a book cover styled piece, also by Lin.

This one actually looks quite Christmassy.

This one uses a Lynne Perella stamp. All coloured with more frescos.

As was this house from the Hot Pick collection which really comes to life.

This sample from Lin is gorgeously and unusually pink.. I think claret has become on of our most used colours this weekend.

And of course, everyone loves a bit of crackle! Another Lin sample on a new block of wood that costs next to nothing. She stamped the image onto tissue and attached with glaze making the tissue transparent.

Right I need to go to bed, fingers crossed people brave the weather to come out and see us tomorrow, a little bit of snow down here so far all the roads are well gritted down this way. But follow me on twitter, we'll be driving to the venue around 8am, and can give you updates on the conditions then.
Have a great Sunday !
Leandra

WOYWW 139 - nada, rien, diddly squat

2012-02-01T07:23:00.005Z

Pinch and a punch and all that......ha got ya!! Coffee is kicking in!

It has been another week of late nights and early starts. My eyes feel dry, gritty, and probably require a good concealer to hide the bags underneath! However I did find time to squeeze in a bit of rusty play, and we had a good old matter on twitter this weekend with Kim Dellow about the Rusting Powder she has been playing with. See her post on last weeks WOYWW here. So a bunch of us is now know as the 'rustyartytarts' - there's a name to live up to!

So quicksmart I ordered the rusting powder, and I had a bit of a play on wood, paper, painted surfaces as you do. These have been waiting for me to turn into samples to have with me on our stand at the Craft show this weekend - but despite my best intentions, this is still how they look!

Have pretty much only had 1 day at work this week cos yesterday was spent loading up for the Hobbycrafts show this weekend at Bluewater in Kent. So I was thrilled on Sunday, when after a day of hard yakka with the PA elves and munchkins here at our world of rubberville, my work desk looked like this. Tadaaaaaaaaaa. Impressed!! You should be! It's HUGE!

That is a miracle. Fact. As you well know, my piles of rubber for trimming have been bottomless for many, many weeks! The feeling is bliss. And look at the purdy spanking new demo desk we have for the show! Well acsh this is Lin's, mine is red inside, hers is blue....apparently it's so MrPA knows which desk bit goes where...anyway....we have these cool sliding drawer things and everything! Very posh, and it will be splattered with paint in about 5 mins flat. hey ho...its a WORKdesk afterall! At least you've seen the before pic, I should show an after next week!!

Shortly we are off to set up the stand at Bluewater, its not far, only 40 minutes,however, that 40 minutes can be 3 hours if the M25 Dartford Crossing is in a dysfunctional mood . explanation:(M25 is the London ring road . the Dartford crossing is a poxy, traffic-congested toll-controlled bridge over the Thames - well bridge-over in one direction, tunnel-under in the other) . Once you get past that bit, if you make it to Bluewater Mall, we will be there for the next 4 days, and you can see whats on my work desk Thurs, Fri, sat and Sun in real life if you wish. Do say Hi! It's so awesome to meet online peeps in real life,so make sure you tell me your a WOYWWer too!!! I am so looking forward to doing a show close to home for once! My own bed at night!!! Bliss

Thanks for all your lovely comments last week, I got around quite a lot of people. I try to do a few at breakfast, lunch and then late evening, so by the end of the week I reckon I've got around 30% of the desks of other people who participate in this challenge. I try to pick randomly - no logic to my visits what so ever! If you don't know what i am talking about where have you been?? WOYWW stands for 'What's on your Workdesk Wednesday', the brainchild of the very witty, blogger extraordinaire, Julia D. Do go check her out...as she is officially 'proper' famous cos she's featured in this month's Craft Stamper Magazine! We all bow before her in awe and we adore her as our great leader on high. I am sure she has a throne in her craft room, and a sceptre and crown....and ermine mink collared velvet cape thingy.....well she does in my head anyway!

Come and play with us, its so much fun!

Leandra

Any Excuse to hit {Bluewater} but this is the best one yet|!

2012-01-30T21:25:00.000Z

Many of you already know about the HobbyCrafts shows around the UK, the biggie is the NEC in Spring and Autumn. Well we won't be exhibiting at Birmingham this Spring due to other commitments in Paris (not hard to pick Paris any day of the year is it!) but the crowd at ICHF who organise the HobbyCrafts shows have added 2 new shows to their schedule, and its just 40mins from PA HQ, so of course we are going to....BLUEWATER MALL to do a show. Woooohooooo! Excited Much! And all the Downton Abbey costumes are on show!! So excited to see that too!!

So what's not to like about a craft show at my favourite mall. A zillion shops AND a HobbyCrafts and Creative Stitches show all in one - my 2 most favourite things to do ever! Shop and craft....and.... (shhh) eat, and there are loads of yummo places to eat! I can't wait!!

And my partner in ArtsyCrafts events, the one and only Mrs Linda Brown will be making an appearance demoing on our stand for all 4 days of the show! How lucky are you to see her back in action??? So.... if you are having LB withdrawal symptoms, then get your tush down to Kent, and you can catch up with all her goss and of course coolio techniques with all things PaperArtsy. Look at the flash brand new demo desk Mr PA has made just for her!

A word of advice re driving, if you are coming from the Essex side on the M25, come off the bridge in the left hand lane, and take the very left hand toll gate, because the slip road to Bluewater is straight ahead of you and its easy to sneak onto it from the left hand toll booth! Don't say i didn't tell you!!! You do not want to be 12 toll booths over on the right hand side and trying to cut across all those lanes of traffic!!

So we have porta-loos for sale at the show! I know, this is no ordinary PaperArtsy stand I tell you, and you can rely on us to bring you the newest must have crafting items!! If you were following me on twitter over the last 5 days, you will have seen sneaky peeks of us trimming our piles (not THAT kind of piles!! We are talking rubber of course!) And of course we are taking lots of the new products we have just received for the show. Including the portaloos. (technically they are beach huts, but they really do look like the cutest little outhouse don't you think??)

We also have 12 brand new stencils from Crafters Workshop, these are on offer at the show, almost £1 off at £3.95, here is just 2 of the newest designs. Plus rusting powder - you need to see this stuff..take a look at Kim Dellow's blog, scroll down to WOYWW on January 25, 2012, she's mega-rusting!

And today Lynne H (aka @bodgerbird on twitter, aka Cheryl, Tim's class assistant...you know.... Blingy Lynne) got busy on packing up several walls of grid wall with numerous PaperArtsy stamps, here they are ready to load into the van tomorrow.

So I guess you want to know the show details right???

Where: Glow event Centre, Bluewater Mall, Kent, DA9 9SG
When: Thurs - Sun (this weekend) Feb 2-5, 9.30am - 5.30pm
PaperArtsy Stand: BB42, Lower Level
(HobbyCrafts on the lower level, Creative Stitches on the Upper Level)
Nearest Car Park: Thames Walk Car Park (near Marks and Spencers)

And if you follow our blog, or tweet me please tell me, i often know people look familiar, but can't place if they are an ArtsyCrafter, a Tweepster, or a long time show-groupie. just remind me where I know you from so I remember! Don't be shy!

See you later this week

Leandra

WOYWW 138 - {neon} UTEE, hair and tan???

2012-01-25T09:25:00.001Z

Do you want to play along with other desk divas? They don't muck about! Pop on over to the Queen of desks, Julia's blog to see the rules. Share a few pics and visit the others playing this week, you're sure to be inspired, amazed and probably horrified at the desks on display. It's fun being proper nosey mid week!
This weekend, as you can see from my last post, it was brainstorming for 3 days with Lin to get the ArtsyCrafts ideas flowing.....but late Sunday evening Miss 17 arrived to create with her arty friend Lilly, and they were on a mega UTEE mission. Bissfully unaware that Lin and I had moved about 36 boxes to get to the meltpot box in the back bottom corner of the shed! Teeneagers huh. Raving about all things Suze, Courtney duly gave Lilly a crash course in UTEE fondue options.

So when I went out to the desk this morning...yes MY desk had been invaded by the overflow from her experimentation from her desk....
I think they have dipped fresh flowers, and wire wrapped them....but I can't be sure.....

For me it's more mega rubber trimming this week, but I am really looking forward to deliveries arriving later this week with new goodies ready for the new show at Bluewater 'glow' exhibition arena....cracks me up that name.....I imagine I shall be demoing looking like a luminous beacon..... I live in towieville's own Brentwood, perhaps if I pop into Amy Childs salon I can get a neon styley fake tan that glows in the dark or something.....

Thump back to reality....we have paint bottling ahead of us too....that should keep me, the elves and Lynne (aka Cheryl/@bodgerbird) busy. I wonder what colour Cheryl's hair is now...we bunked work on Monday to go to the trade hair/nail supply warehouse.....she 'advised' me on professional colour options....is this wise to attempt pre-Bluewater .....maybe I will end up neon after all!!!

Watch this space!
Leandra

Fabric Fascination

2012-01-23T23:22:00.000Z

What fun we have had this weekend. Lin arrived Friday morning for our first proper ArtsyCrafts exploration session. We had a few ideas floating that we have been discussing for a few weeks, so after refining them somewhat, we decided to embark on a fabric kick. This entailed spending most of the day shopping....one of our most favourite things to do!

We arrived back at PaperArtsy HQ, armed with a whole lot of stuff that sounded really alien and started to play. Lin needed a quick lesson on my sewing machine, and we were off, cutting, embellishing, trimming, transferring, burning, melting...you name it, we tried it.

The first craft I mastered as a young child was sewing. I learned how to smock and embroider by 11 years old at school- I was always finished first, and mine was always the neatest in class, it just seemed to be really easy for me.....but I had spent hours at home mucking about on Mum's sewing machine just for fun, so maybe I had a head start without realising it at the time.

Through high school and University I more often than not sewed my own clothes. When the kids came along I went to quilting classes, and enjoyed hand-sewing teddy bears (which I taught Mark's Mum to do), and I usually had a cross-stitch or 3 on the go as well as a quilt, beach bag or Christmas stocking... Now, after 10 years of paper-crafting I'm trying to deliberately sew as wonky as possible.

How times change. Loose threads, ragged edges, crooked seams...I am unlearning all the things that mattered - which makes me think that anyone can do it. If you were a train crash sewer at school then this is perfect for you! There is no skill involved in this kind of crafty fabric construction.

Have you tried it? machine sewing? With paper or fabric? A line of machine stitching is the fastest, cleanest and easiest 'gluing' method.

Layering fabric is pretty much the same as layering paper, except you get to fiddle with transparent, chunky and lace layers, then one row of stitching combines the lot in a blink. I'm in love with fabric all over again, but attempting a whole style that is completely new to me. But I'm thrilled how my paper experiences give me ideas for good composition with fabric. Stamping is easily incorporated, so it's a familiar process, but softer and very exciting to explore.

And (uh-oh)... Lin now wants (*needs*) a new sewing machine. She must have said it about 50 times. "I'm loving this. I need one like this. I've got to get one soon." over and over and over.

After 3 days of fabric play (1.5 more than we budgeted...) we have dreamed up a really cool fabric project for one of the ArtsyCrafts days. The pics here are a few early sneaky peeks. I think class is going to have to be BYO machine...but you will probably need 1 machine between 2 or perhaps 3 people, but that's do-able, isn't it?

Do you guys have machines or access to one from a friend, Auntie, Mum or Gran that is stashed in the back of a cupboard somewhere!? We have a handful of people who travel by air, and I know those people would be able to share with those UK based lovelies who come by car. You only need straight and zig zag stitch, so a basic model is ideal....it doesn't need to be an all beeping, computerised gizmo ....but that could be interesting to watch in action!! This event will be at the Warrington venue which has a HUUUUGGGGEEEEE room, with loads of sockets for electricity and lots of tables and plenty of space.

So we know 1 of the 3 classes will need a machine, but the other 2 days won't, so if you really don't want to tackle a fabric item, then there will still be 2 other days of painty, metallic and other crafty tasks to get stuck into! And we have a couple of great ideas for those too, but they need refining further before we can spill the beans!!

The purpose of this blog post is to get some feedback on your thought about working with fabric. The piccies give you a taste of where we are heading with this idea. Do you likey? Are you happy to bring a sewing machine with you? I promise the sewing is all flat layers, there are no seams, inside outie complicated stuff. Simple simple simple.....

Please, take a moment to give us your honest thoughts, ArtsyCrafts isn't until June 8,9,10 so we have lots of time to make changes, but you are the ones who come to these events, so tell uswhat you think. Thanks for your time.
Leandra

WOYWW 137

2012-01-18T08:53:00.001Z

I wish it was a play day today because I have lots of ideas whizzing about for ArtsyCrafts that I want to explore, but that might be happening later in the week if everything goes according to plan.....for now this is a small bit of the lot that is on my production table to tackle today. Is it OK to show my work desk rather than my play desk???...., it is craft related...think of it as a top secret BTS (behind the scenes) sneaky peeky of my day job.... You can share your desk with other like minded, craftty, nosey people too if you want. Go to Julia's blog and follow the destructions. Its easy -spesh if you are nosey like me!! I love seeing how people organise their spaces...or not....so in these baskets...minis waiting to be packaged up to go in stock.
I have about 400 minis to do today, this is just the tip of the mini iceberg....

Ohhh heres the best bit....this week we have had a regular supply of baking from Miss Millie (age 13) who cooked up a storm over the weekend. Mary Berry's banana bread recipe (no failures here, unlike those slebs who don't know the diff between a t and T of baking powder!), and Gran's caramel slice...aka Millionaire's shortbread or its called 'sticky wicket' if you ar a northerner I hear. Whatevs, it's yum and calorifically off the scale!!! But we don't have it very often, so it's allowed!

This morning I'm working on orders to go out later today to craft shops in Belgium, Canada, France and the Netherlands. It's a never ending battle here to keep the hundreds of hooks as full as possible. I prefer it when we can pick, pack and ship in minutes. So we usually press and trim rubber nearly every day to keep hooks as full as possible....we do have elves to keep productive.....maybe I should try to get a pic of an elf one day for you to see!!

Piles of sheets of minis and stamps waiting to be trimmed peeled and stuck to their index sheets. I quite like these jobs. I find myself dreaming about all the things you could do with them....probably spend much of my day dreaming come to think of it! And in the distance, Hot Picks etc. I need to get cracking I think!
Keeping our PaperArtsy world fully stocked is the same challenge as having your house looking show-home perfect, your clothes washed and ironed and your fridge chokkka full on a daily basis. It's probably not achievable all the time is it!!! Oh well...back to the dreaming then!

Still, it's all worth it when I get to wake up to this view every day...well on frosty winter days anyway!! Just snapped as the sun was coming up across Creaseys Farm yesterday morning. Always amazes me the number of trails in the sky from airplanes. We are pretty much under flight paths of Heathrow, Stanstead and London City airports. We don't really hear the planes as they are pretty high, but I always feel a niggling concern about those trails and the effect they have on the environment.
Have a great week!
Leandra

Portfolio Pastel Idea for Newbies

2012-01-16T21:53:00.001Z

I can tell from the orders coming through over the last few days, that plenty of you are really keen to get started with these Portfolio Oil Pastels. So a whole bunch of you have had nice mail days lately, so let's use the new stash!!!

Today I was showing them to the PaperArtsy part time PA (or shall we say very occasional PA because she is always on holiday...) she whom I speak of is Lynne (not to be confused with LB Lin)...our Lynne is also known as Cheryl to those of you ArtsyCrafters who have met her at our events...she was the one helping in Tim's class when he came over...she's also called Essex Lynne, Blingy Lynne on twitter she is @bodgerbird .... well she answers to anything really...., but Mark and I have started calling her Chezza....just because .....well the gold ipad case has a bit to do with it ......I'll stop....she is so going to kill me.......

So, she read the last blog post over the weekend, but I prattled on too long and she lost the plot ...so she wanted the lunchtime demo instead ...demanding PA PA that she is....so a couple of minutes later this tag was made. And that's what I'm going to share in a second with you.
Now you know how I told you these things are soft,...and well kind of pliable...well I really can't tell you enough how amazing it is each time you use them, they literally melt and blend under your finger tip..it's almost like face paint....a bit like that, soft blendy, mix-y....and when Lynne saw them, she said "I know you said they are soft, but I never thought they'd be that soft" .... So I did tell you, but you will still be very surprised....

It occurred to me that when you get your new box of pastels in the post, this tag is a nice starter idea. You will blend, colour, stencil, melt and layer. All the techniques I mentioned in the last post and all on the same tag! Are you up for it? Let's get started!

Go and grab the following:

Manila tag, or smooooooth white card
An image for the centre of the tag that you can colour in in a black frame, I used the tall heart stamp from HP1105 small script, mine is MN61
Archival jet black ink
Heat tool
Paper towel
Portfolio oil pastels
Stencil
Small paper stump

Stamp the central image in jet black archival ink, heat set thoroughly.
Apply white pastel around the edge of the heart up to 1cm surrounding it, now skin tone. Blend with your finger.
Working further out, keep applying spots of colours, small patches, then start blending with your finger, yellows, oranges, pinks, a touch of red. Yu should almost be at the edges.
At the edges light blue, teal, dark and sage green. Blend again.
So you can feel the waxy finish. ZAP IT (that means heat tool!)
Now it should feel more like card stock again. If you want more colour, you can add more, and zap again...otherwise let's colour.
I used a small paper stump from this set and tried to use blues and brown pastels....or ideally not too much yellow/pink/orange apply colour, and blend out with the stump, now apply a slightly darker shade, and blend to get a soft shadow.
Stamp your script randomly around the tag leaving some black zones for the stencilling. Heat set to dry.
Next up stencil. I need to put a touch more stencilling on this tag, but you can see the concept. Lay down the stencil, grab the black pastel, you only need a little, apply into stencil, and use you finger to spread it out within the stencil, lift off and zap the lumpy bits that caught on the stencil edge. Let those cool before you re-position the stencil.
Last thing, the lines....use the straight edge of the stencil to draw a line with the brick coloured pastel. Leave the stencil in place, grab a paper towel, and really lightly use the paper towel to drag the colour across away from the stencil.

Well let me know how you get on, and don't forget to tweet me your pics, or you can leave a link to your own blog post from the comments on here too... And don't forget to tweet @bodgerbird and ask her how she's getting on!!! Have fun!

Leandra

Doing the {melty} thing with oil pastels

2012-01-13T08:41:00.001Z

I am keeping my promise to show you some more Portfolio Oil Pastel fun you can have. So what are these pastels? They make no sense to me. How a product can be so waxy-soft-oily and water soluble at the same time defies logic, but these pastels are all those things.

When I first heard about them from Lynne Perella, I thought, why would I need those, I have my aquarelles? And in blog comments i've seen, I can see some of you think that too. There are quite a few brands of water soluble crayons out there. When you touch the feel of the Portfolios on paper you instantly know these are different! We don't have touchy-blog capability yet......So how do the portfolios differ? Well for starters here are a few reasons.

Price: They are cheaper. In the UK £15 ish for a set of 24 crayons has pitched this product at school/college students...ie not the high end art shops, and thus maden affordable product.

Feel: They are soft. Other crayons I have used are just that, typical hard crayons. These are soft, almost pliable, and blendable with your finger; put one line on your paper, and rub it and it softens out instantly, the warmth of your hands assist with this.

Vibrant: With 24 colours, you do have a lot of choice for the money, the brights are really bright and there is a large range. There are several shades of each colour, blues, greens, oranges, pink-reds etc so you can build depth add shading, and blend to create new shades. I think these must be loaded with pigment to get such great colour from such a small amount of crayon. (stamps from Lynne Perella collection)

Dissolvability: They are easily dissolved with water. You can take a damp fine brush, swipe it lightly over the pastel, and apply to your image. This is great for fine detail work and layering colours for depth. Of course you can scrape a shaving onto, or write directly onto your craft sheet, mix with water to get stronger colour or mix bespoke colours. Or you can apply the pastel direct to your surface, then apply water on top of that. To soften blend, and dab off excess.

Melty: To melt most crayon-style products it's easy to do with the help of a melt pot. But cool things happen when you introduce a heat tool...in just one quick zap you can make awesome backgrounds. Like I'm talking a 2 second zap. Wicked!

Notes on supplies:

I am working on Manila tags. These do suck the true colour of the crayons a little, so for a more vibrant, true colour use white card. Whatever product you use for today's techniques, it needs to be smooth and matte (ie uncoated). In my language: sucky..... But smooth and sucky OK! If its not smooth, you don't get properly stamped images, and if it's not sucky, the wax can't sink in when heated....makes sense.
I am using a permanent ink. I prefer ranger archival because it is a proper black, it is permanent once heat set, the oil in this ink coats our detailed rubber stamps nicely and stays wet long enough to stamp it out well, it gives sharp defined image. Memories is similar, but it is not as black as archival, so I don't use it anymore, and not many people sell it, so re-inkers are hard to come by. Ancient Page is also a permanent dye ink, and their black is also good.

Technique 1: Zappy Backgrounds

When working with portfolios you will begin to notice that the colour you put down first onto the sucky card will stay put in that spot. For example, if you want a darker edge to the tag, then apply blue or teal to the edge, and as that is the colour that sinks into the virgin, sucky surface those colours will 'own' that spot. So if you want some lighter areas in the centre of the tag, then you need to make sure the light shades 'own' their space too.
I start by scribbling white, yellow, skin tone up and down the tag and blend them with my fingers. Next move the mid tones towards the edges, blend again, and last darker shades at the very edge. If i want to add some bright orange, or red for a bit of zing and contrast, then come back over what you have done, and add more pastel on top, then blend. Too much, or no likey! Take a paper towel and rub to knock back. So once you have created a light, waxy base, it's much easier to blend darker shades into that, and if you don't like them so much, take a paper towel and wipe back to remove, cool huh! This gives you control.
So do you like what you have done? Great! Maybe it looks similar to the picture above (without the blue diamonds)....So how are you going to stamp ON TOP of that...???? Its all waxy, no ink in the world can stamp over that surely!!! Feel it. It feels sort of sticky-waxy yet smooth...right?? Kind of greasy.....well we can 'fix' it...
Go grab your heat gun. And zap it! It only take a few seconds. Now feel it, totally different right? It feels kind of like a manilla tag again, yet none of the colour has changed. So the heat has melted the oils into the tag....now you know why we needed a sucky tag!!! If you don't have a heat tool, just turn on your toaster, and hold the tag (pastel side up!) over your toaster, the same thing will happen. *lightbulb moment*

Technique 2: Stencil detail

Right i'm so excited about this idea, I figured it out when demoing at the NEC...one of those happy accidents again....if you don't try you'll never find out right?? When we go to shows we take loads of these...stencils...I'm sure you all have some in your stash.

Ohhh the pretty sample hanging there on the bottom right is done with paint....aaaaannnnddd...quite a few stencils....a girl can't have too many.......just so you know.....

The thinner they are the better for this, so I'm sure masks will be fine too...hang on a minute.....there's a point..... when is a mask a stencil, or when is a stencil a mask??? If you know, then spill...cos they are all the same thing to me.....

So the next thing is put your stencil over your BG, and lightly scribble a LITTLE bit of a contrasting darker colour over the light parts of your BG.....or if you have done an all over dark BG, then use a very light...like white perhaps...over your BG...for that matter white could look good over light backgrounds too.....oh for goodness sake, don't listen to me...just put any colour over the top of any other colour OK. Got it . Good.....
NB call 01277 212911 for specific stencils, they are £3.95 each

...where were we....OK pastel colour in the stencil.....

Just a little is all you need, now take your finger tool and smooch it around.
Keep the stencil/mask still, and rub, see how easy it is to blend it and make sure you go right up to the edges of the pattern

.....right...you can stop now...no need to stencil the whole thing.....

.....Oh .....OK a bit more than the sample right would be good...what was I thinking??
There's hardly any on that one....but it does show you how cool the white portfolio pastel through a small round dot stencil can look on top of other shades.....I'm itching to add more red to the edges in just a few places.....

Once you have finished applying colour through the stencil, I sometimes give a light rub with a paper towel, and then lift off the stencil, and voila, check out the texture. Right touch it. Oops, you just smudged it all over didn't you? Take a paper towel and wipe of the smudgey bit...see you can edit this way...happy now good.

Zap it! Yes I said ZAP IT. Only until it rises up a bit like EP, once the sharp edges look raised and rounded like the picture above...then stop. Now keep your fingers off for a minute or two. It needs to set up. Once it has cooled, you won't be able to smudge it off as easily as before. *lightbulb moment* I sooo love that texture..wicked.

Technique 3: Stamping (3 methods)

OK are you still with me? There's a miracle.....bless you for sticking with me!

METHOD ONE-After the Zappy thing

If you prepare a BG that got zapped and therefore sunk the oil into the sucky paper.....(I hope no one is reading over your shoulder by the way....people just don't get craft-speak these days)....then you can now stamp an image directly onto it with ranger's archival ink.

You will need to heat set the image, and because the sucky surface is already 'oiled', it will take longer than usual for it to dry off. When the ink is dull instead of shiny looking your are done.

Now you can go ahead and add more pastel colour to the images (bottles HP1109, Lynne Perella images at the top) to boost or highlight the stamped designs where appropriate. {isn't this fun....i just soooo love this.... I have no idea why I'm loving it this much.....feeling a tad more excited than is acceptable...but i'm just trying to share the vibe...new products always do that to me} So you can see I have done the extra colour thing in the sample above.

TIP: If your black ink starts to travel then your pastels haven' sunk enough or your archival wasn't dried enough. More zapping should solve both.

METHOD TWO: Glaze then stamp

OK more excitement (is that even possible....), because this uses the new PaperArtsy Fresco acrylic glaze.....you already know how easy it is to stamp on top of our fresco paint collection because of their matte chalk finish right- I mean you've been using our paint for a whole year already right?? Haven't you??

So what if you glaze the waxy surface and then stamp on top of the dried glaze, you will naturally get a sharper image because your archival ink will not bleed into the oil pastel....

To be fair the archival doesn't bleed much... see pic below, but the glaze will provide a barrier between the pastel and the ink, but you can't see it because 1 coat of satin looks exactly the same shiny-ness as waxy tag BG !!! *lightbulb moment*

Well what are glazes? We have a satin and a gloss glaze. These are mediums that can be added to paint to change how glossy the paint is. So it's kind of like paint with no colour, just different degrees of shine. I also use it to make an opaque, chalk paint more translucent. So now look at this close up of this extremely fine detail flower stamped (HP1109) on top of the satin glaze. And here's the really cool thing.....you can put more portfolio pastel on top of the glaze too, because our glazes have tooth! *that is another lightbulb right there*

Whew. This simple post is heading into the typical Leandra information overload, so I have one more thing regarding stamping

METHOD THREE: Stamp First

I figured you knew this already...but of course, your ink is even less likely to have any bleeding issues if you stamp a blank tag first with a bunch of Hot Pick images in archival jet black. Heat set thoroughly, like really, really well. And now you add colour to the stamped designs.

This way the colour matches the design, each colour 'owns' its appropriate spot, you can still zap, blend, zap, blend with heat, add shadows, blend colours .....
...... or you can use the pastels water-colour styley for a more delicate/subdued effect.....
(errrr I must confess I don't have a sample of that....I'm more bull in the china shop than delicate and understated).....but you go ahead...you do it!!

Right for my last trick I just wanted to show you how the fresco paints and the portfolios oil pastel also can work together. Happy families.

Remember the tag hanging up with the stencils?
A Lynne Perella Image was stamped on top, and parts of the image were coloured with the pastels.

Now I will admit that it's possible here I did water down some of the pastels either before of after applying the colour, but I also glazed over the top with about 3 coats of gloss to seal.

Layers of gloss glaze does make the very matte chalk fresco paint layers below 'pop' and look less chalky and more zingy.

This is good to know...if you want to give your paint a completely different look use gloss glaze! They will look far more vibrant than they do as a matte.....my paint chemist tells me this is because your eye picks up more colour when it's glossy than when it's matte because more zing is reflected back at the eye....well something like that..... Probs not quite the words he used....

I must have given this one away because I don't have it here to scrutinise further.

Right, that's your lot for today...plenty of things for you to try this weekend!

Remember the PaperArtsy sale finishes soon, only 1 week left. We haven't had a proper sale for 2-3 years, they don't come around very often..... In other words don't miss out. The more you spend the bigger the discount, all is explained here on out shop home page.

Do check out Lin Brown and Jo Firth-Young...they have both been using Portfolios and Frescos recently on their blogs. love what they both do!

If you liked the techniques in this post, please leave a comment. it's lovely to hear from you! have a fab weekend and I'm going to try to do some painty posting next week.

WOYWW 136 - waxing...but not what u think!

2012-01-11T08:02:00.000Z

Full of good intentions to be more regular on here than last year! I actually have a desk, 2 even, this year (so no excuses now), and it's generally clear, ready and waiting.

Except today its covered with the remnants of the tag I made yesterday. I've been playing around with a new product that Lynne Perrella brought to our attention last year at ArtsyCrafts: Portfolio Oil Pastels.

She has her own take on them - an amazing and very unusual technique using them as a printer might with lots of layers of colour swiped through hand made stencils of a photocopied image. And so I've been playing about with stamped images, different ways of colouring, melting and more. The first example I blogged yesterday, but will add more in the coming weeks.

It's nice to go and make something just because. I enjoy that when my day job seems to have an endless list of far more pretty boring admin-related crafting tasks to be done. I must make sure I go back and tidy up that desk though. Just in case someone drops by!

So if your want to share your desk, pop on over to Julia's and add you name to the list, and check out lots of the other desks out there in the crafty world of blogging!
Have a great week
Leandra

Slidemounted Metal

2012-01-10T17:29:00.001Z

Today was time to head into the shed for a bit of Arty play.

Fresco chalk acrylic paints with stencils, Portfolio Oil Pastels, and Lynne Perrella stamps were on my hit list along with our new slide-mount stamp and die set, and PaperArtsy Metal Card and a tag. It seemed to take ages, but that's how it is with me, as I work through the options, I faff about a lot....that's the enjoyable aspect of the process for me. I'm hope there's an idea here for you to try when you get a chance. First a little about the products used in this tag. Some FAQ may be answered for you.

PaperArtsy Dies

All our PaperArtsy dies are compatible with all die cutting systems out there, it's just a matter of getting the right 'sandwich'. If you have any spellbinder dies, then ours are similar in thickness to those, so it should be the same 'platform' recipe.

Metal Card

This is a product we released January 2011 after a long period of development. It's is a specially coated aluminium metal (shim) that has been adhered to black card. It was a very difficult thing to manufacture - the concept is that it takes all the effort out of the metal-tape-sandwich drama (metal sheet-humungo-ultra sticky tape-black card) ...and of course it's much cheaper. It's available in our shop, no one else in the world manufactures a product like this and we do it in 2 sizes: 12x12" packs for £6.63+VAT or 5x7" packs for £3.75+VAT -perfect to die cut.

As I mentioned, the surface has a coating, which is a very fine tooth that stops ink and paint from reticulating (pooling), so you will find it so easy to stamp onto this with staz-On, or paint with our Fresco Paints. And of course you can use metal tools with it to for creating indentations of the artsy variety.

TIP: when you die cut metal card, it's ideal to have a clean acrylic cutting platform ie no dents or blade marks, because these will transfer onto your soft metal. If yours is a well worn platform, then insert a sheet of smooth card against the metal when you cut to prevent marks transferring onto the metal. Also we generally suggest you die cut first, and then stamp the corresponding image because if you have bought your stamps pre-trimmed from us on EZ mount cling foam, then you will be able to line up your stamp and die cut shape really easily.

The Tag

Die cut from metal card a slide-mount and small bird
Use the brass brush from the TSS basic tool set to rough up the surface and edge with a texture wheel
Paint both with Beach Hut Fresco Paint. I used 2 thin coats

Stamp with archival jet black ink (not stazOn because you are stamping onto paint, not metal) a slide-mount image (I used script) and the small bird
Mix on your palette equal quantities of limelight and snowflake fresco acrylic paint and paint the tag all over. Dry and add to some areas 100% white and to others 100% limelight so that you get a contrasting background

Choose a scroll stencil and over a white area sponge limelight fresco acrylic through a small part of the pattern with cut and dry foam. TIP: don't use lots of paint, do a thin coat, then pattern-match and repeat for deeper green repeat for the lower part of the tag

- Now position the stencil again over the same pattern and nudge it a small amount. Apply snowflake with a dash of Limelight mixed in and apply through the stencil. Don't be too perfect. When you lift off the stencil you should see a shadow of the darker peeping out from the lighter shade.
- Roughen the edges with a paper distresser, and apply a teal portfolio oil pastel to the edge of the tag and a little onto the front of the tag. Rub with your finger to blend. Take a fat wet paintbrush and dab all over the tag edges, then blot with a paper towel to soften back the teal colour to your preference.
- Stamp a selection of Lynne Perrella images on white smooth card stock with archival jet black ink. Heat set. Colour with oil pastels and blend with a small paper stump as you work.

Mount the slide-mount over the face with sticky foam pads, position the hat and neck-tie over the top of the slide-mount. Place the small bird as shown
Finish with stamping some small splatters from HPXT01 in black, and the words from HP1105 onto the tag, and mount to black card.

I really enjoyed my afternoon playing with these things. I have a few more techniques with the portfolios oil pastels to show you. They are a crazy animal - cos even though they feel like a really soft waxy crayon , and blend oh so easily, they are also like watercolours when you apply water to them. It's really weird. And because they are waxy, you can melt them with a heat tool, which opens up interesting options!

Have a great day, and don't forget the sale is on until January 22nd, up to 30% off your order depending on how much you spend.

Busy little {DT} bee

2012-01-06T16:30:00.000Z

The very clever and crafty Joanne Wardle regularly lets me know of projects she has made with PaperArtsy stamps and blogged on her blog. I on the other hand, am not so consistently good at letting YOU know what she has told me!

So now I'm telling you about not 1, but 3 things she has done recently!

This z-fold cover-card is a fantastic way to present a voucher to someone to make it special. Perfect for those teen birthdays!

Stamps are from the Ink and the Dog Collection: Backgrounds Plate 5 & Ephemera Plate 2

Next up is a card that looks quite simple, but she has masked, distress inked, stamped and overstamped...she is so good at this kind of thing. Very simple, one layer, and so versatile when you need a generic card.

Again she used Backgrounds plate 5, there is a smaller version of this available as a credit card sized 'mini' too, MN28. From the Hot Pick Collection 1106 is the flower spray that was stamped to the left side.

And finally, a lovely card with one of my favourite stamps from the Squiggly Ink Collection. This is Flora and Fauna Plate 1, perfect to express some lurve to someones spesh! Joanne used it for an engagement card. Valentine's isn;t far away though....go an check out the instructions on Joanne's blog here.

Thanks for sharing Joanne!

The sale is half way through at PaperArtsy, so if you haven't had a chance to check it out make sure you do. The more you spend the more you save 10, 20 or 30% off...it's all up to you! Even if you just click on the link and go and look at the rolling 'bill boards' that Mr PaperArtsy created for the sale banner - hilarious! I have no idea how he does it! But they are brilliant.

Have a great weekend

Leandra

A fabulous {SALE} .......

2011-12-31T23:59:00.003Z

We don't really often do sales here at PaperArtsy. Usually we can't fit them into our busy schedule. I think it's been at least 2 years since we had a sale. So with a couple of weeks up our sleeve this January, this is a blue moon opportunity for you!

The sale is only for 3 weeks, Jan 1st - 22nd, and everything on our website is in the sale: stamps, dies, paints, papers, metal card, metal tools, ranger, ideology etc, so have a good mooch around.

Here's how it works:

If your shopping cart subtotal (that's the total before freight & tax) exceeds £50 you will get 10% off your entire order
If your subtotal exceeds £100 you will get 20% off your entire order
If your subtotal exceeds £150, you will get 30% off your entire order

In other words, spend £150, and only pay £100 (plus tax/ shipping if applicable)

There are no codes. Just add items into your basket, and the cart will activate the discount automatically as your subtotal exceed the thresholds.

Have a fabulous New Year!

Mark and Leandra

Hip Hip {Ho Ho}

2011-12-30T18:31:00.002Z

Festive Greetings to one and all!

We haven't seen any of this white stuff this year down here (yet).

Despite no snow- it's been a fab Xmas season here.

All children present and accounted for. Millie and Ella were hoping to go to NZ this year, but due to GCSE exam commitments that was a no go, I think they have enjoyed snuggling up with Ma and Pa bear and siblings this year.

This is our new gingerbread PaperArtsy HQ for the festive season!

The house is full of Christmas baking aromas. It all started pre-Xmas with the gingerbread house. Miss Millie designed the plan, we found a recipe, and the rest was just a matter of gluing together and decorating with royal icing. Our piping skills are not so great, but we had a lot of fun doing it. We have decided that dismantling will commence on New Year's Eve. Might need a hammer -that icing has dried rock hard!

In mid November I had kids home unwell, so I distracted them from headaches and runny noses by getting them a busy making tags to go on a few presents to match the gold wrapping papers under the tree. Manila tags, fresco paints and archival black ink was all it took. The stamps were all from Ink & the Dog Noel Plate 4

We all headed up to the stunning Cambridge just before Xmas. Mark recently found this snapseed app that does a wicked blurry effect, so now we have a bunch of blurry pics.

My sister Emma, has recently moved from NZ with her boyfriend Nic to Cambridge to do some post grad study. I booked an apartment at the end of their street for us to stay in.

Kids were a bit gob smacked with the decor- as were we!

Very rich colours. We loved it, seemed very opulent.

Check out the red and gold lounge - Hugo didn't take long to settle in, chuck his coat about and find a remote or some other device.

This was the other bedroom in rich blues.

Courtney choreographed this picture of the munchkins in the phone boxes just off the central town square L-R:Hugo (11), Millie (13), Ella (15), Courtney (17)

Emma organised for us all to go to see the local panto. With the flat in such a central location within 5 min walk of everything it was fantastic to be able to access everything so easily. Cambridge really is a beautiful place to be and there are lots of interesting quirky independent retailers.

And while we're doing family pics,who can forget the day the awesome All Blacks won the rugby world cup! Just thought I'd drop that in there - lest we forget... This was Mr PaperArtsy and moi on the morning of the big final. Nervously trying to eat breakfast at the autumn ArtsyCrafts event in our AB supporter strips. Course we are thrilled to finally be world rugby champs!!

Millie and I (on our baking mission) tackled macaroons yesterday. Pistachio green and flavoured. Something she has been wanting to do since Ed Kimber won the first Great British Bake Off. They taste great. I think she would have entered the GB junior bake off, but just as the auditions was announced she turned 13 and the max age is 12. Never mind, we are constantly on the receiving end of her experiments...usually all good.

Here's a sight you don't expect to see in London in December

On the first 3 days of Christmas week, Ella and I went up to London to a method acting drama course she had booked for. This meant I took a different buddie with me days 1 and 2 (Millie and Mark), and boy did we walk all over London.

We walked miles and miles and miles and miles....But it was so lovely to have a good look around with no fixed agenda. Loved borough market, in fact got our Xmas dinner there - a chicken stuffed with a pheasant with almond/apricot stuffing ... It was perfect on the day too.Enjoyed a glass of mulled wine from the south bank Xmas market, and the antiques at Coventry garden, and Camden Passage were interesting as ever.

I've also had a few days over the last few weeks to plan some classes that I'll be teaching at Version Scrap. It is a wonderful show in Paris in Spring. Lots of classes and scrummy exhibitors that are so different to anything you see in England. Last year the attendees were keen to see more about using metal, and as it's a scrapbooking show, I have reflected that in this particular project. I'll be teaching 2 classes, this is one of them, a layout framed by a metal niche. Papers, paints, embellishments new, made and found. Lots to learn in this 3 hour class.

The other is a re-vamped ArtsyCrafts class with layered grungeboard letters and die cut shapes, over-painted and wiped back with our gorgeous Fresco Chalk finish paints - and I mean lots of layers and layers of acrylic paints I loved that class this year, one of my faves. We embellish with ideology and found objects. This looks wonderful on the wall in my lounge - it gets loads of comments.

I think booking goes live in the New Year. The show is the first weekend in April (March 30th - April 1st , 2012)

The PaperArtsy stand got pretty busy last year! Here you can see Mark and (stamp) Sally almost finished the set up

And this was how it looked later in the show.

And I managed to get a pic of Lin chatting and demoing too. The ladies were fascinated with what we demo.

So that's my news update. Always guaranteed to be an epic tale. And so much I left out!

Wishing you all a safe and celebratory end to 2011. Thank you so much for your friendship, custom, shared laughs and your presence at shows and ArtsyCrafts events this year. We love to get out and about to see you in person, online or passing through the online shop. I'll be back in the New Year to keep you in the loop. If you fancy a chat, then see you on twitter, I usually check in late in the evenings.

Leandra & Mark

Coming to the NEC soon....

2011-10-30T11:43:00.000Z

How is your weekend going??

Well we are busy little bees getting ready to bring you lots of gorgeous goodies and demos to the NEC HobbyCrafts Show next weekend...a nice long weekend, because it's a Thursday to Sunday show..... so do you wanna see what we are bringing????

I thought you might....

As you know, we recently released HP1106, HP1107, HP1108, HP1109, HP1110, and HP1111.

These stamps have a lovely classic, quirky PaperArtsy feel to them. Lots of unique elements, and fun ideas. A real steampunk vibe, which I adore, and is so useful for those more masculine things you need to make for the blokes in your lives. We will have a nice sample with us at the show of how we used these at the recent ArtsyCrafts event. Plus of course I will be demoing with them throughout the weekend.

And we also very recently released a collection of stamps with Lynne Perrella. Lynne is an iconic, hilarious, amazing and creativity-enabling art goddess who has so much experience in the world of mixed-media creativity. Of course we are totally thrilled and honoured to bring to market her first new stamp release in many years since she owned and operated her inimitable stamp company Acey Deucy. The outing at the NEC will be their first proper public airing by us and I will be demoing them all weekend I am sure! Many of you will remember her Acey Deucy line, well these are very much reminiscent of that genre, and of course look fabulous stamped over stunning backgrounds that we all love to create with ink paint and more....Please note, all of Lynne's stamp sets are only available on EZ-mount foam, not unmounted.

But before I move away from new stamps, we have snuck in a couple of brand new additions to the PaperArtsy Hot Pick family....

First up is our second 'stamp and die' set. Featuring a series of very useful slide mounts. I remember back in the day sourcing original Kodachrome slides to re-cycle to make cool frames for altered art purposes. So with this set, you get your own die to cut a slide-mount from card, metal card, paper or whatever you wish to die cut... and 6 PaperArtsy stamps to stamp over the die cut shape. Loving that idea! It's a great way to embellish a card, layout, or mixed media creation, and fun to make each slide-mount a little different with stamping images on top.

As with all our 'Stamp and Die' sets, the stamps come on EZ mount foam ready to cling to acrylic blocks, and re-store back on the laminated index sheet provided.

We also have a cool halloween plate....I know Halloween is literally right upon us already, but if you like this kind of style, the elements may have some year round potential...or you can always get mega organised for next halloween!

Next up in the new products department...paint.... Fresco Chalk-finish acrylic paints to be exact. As you are aware...development of these has gone thru more than a few hiccups along the way, but they are so worth the wait....as I speak we are furiously bottling, painting labels and getting as many colours ready as is physically possible. We expect to have 10-12 of the new 27 colours... they will all be online over the next 2-3 weeks as they arrive here and get bottled.

Here is an idea of what is to come, although the colours on screen are not exactly how they look in real life, but it gives you an idea. We have turquoise blues, zesty citrus, and olive greens, plus eggplant.

On twitter the other night, we had a bit of a giggle playing a bit of a game. I named the paint colour, and followers tried to describe it to me....they got hang of describing the paint quite cheekily, and a few descriptions of the evening are quoted below...it was entertaining...until Nikki and Mark lowered the tone!

London Bus - @netrix "red like a bliddy London Bus wots got the number 38 on it...not sure bout the reg tho" and @gillianSimson stated the obvious "London Bus Red". @DeeParamour flashed some creative writing brilliance with "little girls lips on a frosty morning" we almost called it post box red, but IRL it has a nice orange warmth to the red, this is going to be perfect for mixing other colours from...

InkyPool - @pinkhairedelf got in quickly again with "creative literary pool of blues swirled with blacks and shadows" which shut up a few players....and @gilliansimson again got closer with "turquoise/blue with deeper tones" , and @isisArts "bruise blue" was getting close too but @toonkat63 was the closest with "a warm bluey turquoisey shade"

Mermaid - after agreeing this is a fab paint name, figuring if the colour was green based or blue based was the initial hurdle...eg @miriamgrazier suggested silvery greeny blue , @jeangenie1 "aquatic", @nikkyhall1 gave a load of suggestions, many raised eyebrows "white bread mould" but "aqua/iceburg blue/teal" was pretty close, and again the @pinkhairedelf blew the rest out of the water with"a shimmery illusion of turquoise blues and sea magic greens"

After a Thames Mud diversion we didn't need ...we went onto

Limelight - which was a hole in one to @netrix "so limelight- is that a vivid fresh limegreen with lemon sherbet mixed in all zingy like?" Yes it is Jill, you nailed it! (not pictured above though)

Well that little game took us about an hour to recover from, but it was a lot of fun. Yhanks to all for playing along. Some of the colours shown above are: London Bus, Smoked Paprika, Zesty Zing, Muddy Wellies, Hyde Park, Hey Pesto, Inky Pool, Beach Hut, Mermaid, Eggplant.

Lastly, fingers crossed, if the UPS man makes it to us in time, we will have a new colouring product that has not been sold here before. Great for making fast backgrounds, great through stencils, and really easy to master...here are a few samples I knocked up in an hour or so yesterday. At the moment it looks like these babies might not be with us till Friday at the show, but you never know! Beautiful bright shades...affordable price...more will be revealed when it gets here!

Of course on top of this, we will have all the usual bits and bobs, loads of PaperArtsy Stamps plus an awesome show offer on all Tim Holtz Ideology products and Stamps.

And where are we? Stand C05 Walk in the main doors of the show, turn left, and aisle C is the first on your right hand stand.

Hope to see you there!
Leandra

ArtsyCrafts Oct 2011 {Weekend 2}

2011-10-26T09:49:00.000+01:00

Hello bloggers

As ever, another weekend hanging out with wonderfully talented ladies was huge fun for Lin and I last weekend. Teaching classes really is the most enjoyable part of our work, and when I get to do a whole weekend of it with Lin, after months and months of preparation, it's the rewarding culmination of a meticulously planned event.

Kudos to DeVere Harben House at Newport Pagnell. Both the accomodation and conference suites have all been thoroughly redecorated, and the restaurant and bar food (now the same menu for the same price) was far superior to anything we have experienced in the past. The staff who work there know us well now, and are very willing to help however they can. A big thankyou and well done to them!

For all ArtsyCrafts events, the biggest challenge for Lin and I is to create projects for each event that are quite different from previous ones, and incorporate new techniques and idea with existing and new to market products. Our techniques tend to have a metal and stamping focus, but we always try to create an item that is completely different to what has gone before.

On this occasion, we designed from scratch a wooden bird house with a cool new tin foil technique, as well as other more traditional metal ideas with Ten Seconds Studio adhesive metal, and Ten Seconds Studio Metal rolls, PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylic Paints and new Hot Pick Stamps. Lin's husband Mark is fairly handy with design programmes and routers, so he made the plans for our birdhouse with its interlocking segments, told the computer to cut one out of mdf and voila. Perfect birdhouse glued together easily and instantly.

If only life were that simple! When the 50 ordered from a man who cuts birdhouses (and other wooden objects) for a living from wood by computer was sent the plans, his computer somehow cut all the plans slightly to one side of the 'line' and nothing fitted together. This was 3 days before the Warrington event. Lucky for us we knew it could be done as Mark had done it already, and realising their error they told the computer to sort itself out, and eventually we got the items in the nick of time. Yay to the birdhouse man for resolving this for us so promptly!

Anyhow, even though we put many more hours preparation into this event than we ever have previously, we were still kitting up last minute due to these unpredictable hold ups. Thanks Karen, You are an ArtsyCrafts kitting wonder-woman star supremo!!!

But despite a behind the scenes panic, every one enjoyed crackling with the crackle glaze, painting with Fresco finish paints, and embossing and then distressing metal to decorate the main body of this rather large finished item. {Sorry international ladies for making your trips home a challenge - but you didn't look too silly wearing 8 layers of clothing on the way home....honest} ....

(PaperArtsy) Mark put together a video of how the birdhouse was constructed and the different colour combos people came up with when custom mixing the Fresco paints. This is now one of my favourite AC projects {i can hear you saying she always say that....soz, but tis true} And I am extremely keen to make another with Essex Lynne and Jo Firth-Young and decorate it beyond what we had time to do in class. That will be a great day! And yes it will be a shade of London Night I think...or maybe one of the new 27 colours of Fresco's due to arrive here in the next 2 weeks.......that decision won't be easy will it!!

On Day 2 we made a great industrial styled item based on arranging left over configuration boxes randomly into a new assortment. We then bespoke mixed PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Finish Acrylic Paints into a watery spray (50:50 consistency) in mini misters, and sprayed the nooks and crannies with lots of drippy bits. This is a great way to paint unusual textures of shapes, and of course our opaque paint gives great instant coverage even when watered down.

We started with a cream colour to hide the weird colour of the config boxes, and then came over the top with a contrasting colour of choice, and hen more cream splats on top. Very fast, and quite entertaining when you got one of those hose-pipe mini misters that can shoot paint 1 metre towards your neighbour! {yes we saw that a few times didn't we!!}

The afternoon was spent making metal floors and roofs (rooves?) for each section, and decorating with many great ideas along the way. We sourced cool original vintage tape measures (metal, wood and cloth), old fob watches and watch faces, and the most teeny tiny gorgeous glass bottles too, as well as incorporating many of Tim Holtz' ideology goodies along the way.....any spaces were filled with images stamped onto PaperArtsy metal card, which has a special coating to accept stazOn ink beautifully, so stamping images onto this metal is easy peasey.

Here are a few close ups

And even though the World Cup Rugby Final was screening Sunday morning (with the New Zealand All Blacks playing a very close game against France - and JUST winning by the narrowest of margins....) Mark still managed to pull together another video of our Day 2 class from Newport Pagnell to give you a far better taste of the project than pictures ever could.

If you came to any of our ArtsyCrafts days in the last 2 weekends, please leave a comment here on the blog with a link to your blog post or you could leave a comment of how your day went on the paperArtsy YouTube page.

So what plans have we for 2012 ?

Well if you read Lin's blog post this week you will be aware she is retiring at Christmas. She has been at the helm of LB Crafts for 18 years, and is probably the longest established stamp-specific craft shop in the UK. Having done a way-more-than-fantastic job of this over the years, I have seen first hand how dedicated she is to her lovely staff, enthusiastic customers and regular suppliers, but of course, behind the scenes she also has a fabulous family with quite a number of gorgeous grandchildren, and naturally she would like to be available to do the things that normal nanas and grans do. Good for her! That's the right decision! She will still be as creative as ever, and she will still blog and tweet, and of course, she will still teach ArtsyCrafts with me for you (YAY!)

Here at PaperArtsy World HQ {imagine the HQ glass towers...LOL}, we also have been trying to juggle huge growth in our business over the last 2 years, so I am rather relieved that Lin's retirement gives us the opportunity to cut back ArtsyCrafts to just 1 event per year. We liked the way the Warrington 3 day event worked this year, so we will again repeat the booking system of allowing you to book 1,2, or 3 days as per your preference. The dates for 2012 will been June 8,9,10 at the DeVere Daresbury Park. Booking will open in the first quarter of 2012. But for now, you can put those dates in your diary! And book cheap your train or airfares well in advance!

So that's the latest Update from us. Have a great week, and talk again soon. I need to go clean up the shed before Jo turns up this arvo and sees all those boxes lying about!!!

Leandra

ArtsyCrafts {October 2011}

2011-10-20T14:32:00.000+01:00

We are in-between 2 fun-filled ArtsyCrafts events, and I just wanted to give you a quicksie heads up on how things have gone so far. Last weekend was a pretty special one I have to say, because we were very fortunate to have the amazing Lynne Perrella here with us for 3 days of superb classes.

Lynne is right up there as one of my most favourite artists ever, and she was funny, endearing, honest, encouraging and of course uber-talented. Lin and I took her Friday class, and we totally loved every minute of learning directly from her. As did the 3 classes of people who also came by for 1 to 3 of her classes.

Her manner of teaching is to deliciously ooze through class. She makes loads of suggestions to really stretch you to think beyond your comfort zone. She is so encouraging of everyone, and her demonstrations are hilarious. Such a wonderful artist who shared so willingly with us all, no matter what your previous experience was, she spent time with every person to bring out the very best in us all. We all loved what we made.

The icing on the cake was she used our fabulous PaperArtsy Fresco acrylics. Their gorgeous chalk finish was totally perfect with her stencilling and layering ideas and wonderful methods of building backgrounds.

I can't thank her enough for coming over, so please, do take a few minutes to enjoy this video Mark shot of her final day of teaching with us on Sunday. It gives you an idea of how each student created their own unique piece in class. Remember, this is just one of her 3 classes. If you were there, please could you leave a comment on the youtube page to express how you felt about the classes you took.

I will demo some of Lynne's background techniques at the NEC November 3-6 In Birmingham, UK, so do drop by if you are heading to Birmingham that weekend.

And next week, no doubt we will have another video of Lin and my classes which are repeated to a new bunch of lovely ladies this weekend at Newport Pagnell near Milton Keynes, UK.

Hope to see you this weekend, or at the NEC

Leandra