SECC Show - Glasgow

After my epic 8.5 hr and 4 changes train journey, I finally made it to Glasgow to meet up with the girls. Here we are in Wetherspoons having a crafty cocktail pitcher before our meal arrived.

After a quick trip to Cass Art and the Art Shop, as I missed out last night, we arrived at the SECC for the show.

And just to prove we were all there.

And Lin grabbed the camera and took one of me, so you know I was there too!

The sign where you get your hand stamped to get out.

One of the isles.

Lin and Helen at one of the stands.

Another view of the isles.

Lin with her huge pair of knitting needles.

Lin and Em shopping.

Then we had a bit of a break to watch a guy doing a mixed  media demo with the Pebeo range of products.

Then we bumped into Rob from the MDF man.

Then we went to the cafe area where there was a huge tree made from knitted socks with an angel on top.

Then look, any opportunity for a twitter moment, they were all trying to get on line but the wifi was a bit rubbish.

Then after a cuppa, biscuit and sit down, we left and this was the view from the outside.

Lin, Emma and Helen with their purchases. Then we got the train back to the hotel.

This is what Lin got for me for my birthday, she brought the book and I picked up the graphite pencil and the pens today fro the Art shop.

And we were all fascinated by the PowerTex demo, but we weren't allowed to take any photos, so Helen kindly bought me the bronze version, a molded clay type face and she brought the chipboard pieces with her - thank you. 

Then these are my purchases of the day

These are Emma's purchases of the day, she also has a bottle of ivory Powertex but it's just out of view on the right.

  

Emma was unraveling her ribbons to share out whilst all this was going on.

And these are Helen's purchases, YES Helen's, she was very reserved today!!!

And these are Lin's purchases, who by they way, wasn't getting anything!! But she did get the bargain of the day, a PA stamp for 50p.

Right, that's it for now, we are off out for something to eat - have a nice evening xxx

The alcoholics - je suis drunk springs to mind!

Then as we'd decided on an American Diner for food it'd be rude not to have a burger, which incidently were totally scrummy.

The guy on the next table kindly asked if he could take a photo of all 4 of us, so we obliged whilst we were deciding on pudding.

And then we walked back to the hotel.

Mini Chest

Today I've been playing with pieces of chipboard and coffee stirrers which I picked up at Donny Dome on Sunday!!

Firstly I painted everything in carbon DA chalky paint, then a dry brushing of dolphin DA multi surface satin to give some definition and finally a dry brushing of DA dazzling metallics black pearl to give some shimmer. I painted the gold plastic studs black and then silver from the DA media range.

Then I built up my pieces to make this chest. It measures approx 11cm x 6cm x 9cm. I added a couple of straps and the studs.

And this is it open. The white specs inside are where the glue is still wet, but it will be clear when completely dry.

I wanted it to be on a Halloween theme, so I've started adding skulls, skeletons and potion bottles, but none of it is stuck down as I am hoping to pick up some other stuff at the Glasgow craft show at the weekend.

All products are from the DecoArt range and I'm also entering into their Halloween competition.

Thank You

Just in case you didn't know, today is my birthday. Here are all the lovely gifts and cards I have to open.

Fraz was obviously going to help me out with this.

And then the next one.

And he's still going for it.

This is the mess he made!!

And these are all the lovely gifts I received from Lin R, Chris and Emma - thanks guys, they are fabulous.

And this is the bag all my goodies from Lin and Chris came in on Sunday when I met them at Donny Dome. It's going to Glasgow with me at the weekend as I'm hoping to fill it.

These are the handmade gifts I received from Emma and Chris.

This book from Chris is just stunning, there is so much texture on it and this photo just doesn't do it justice and of course the weather isn't helping, it's dark and peeing it down. Thanks Chris, I love it.

And my cards are from Lesley, Kirsten, Alison, Chris S and Hazel.

And Emma, Neet, Helen and Lin R.

And it all got too exciting for Fraz so he's retreated to the settee for a kip.

A huge thank you to everyone who has sent birthday wishes via twitter, FB, sent cards and pressies - thank you xxxx

I also received money from my family so I am looking forward to spending it at the craft show in Glasgow at the weekend where I am meeting up with Emma, Lin S and Helen.

Donny Dome Show

Look who I caught up with today after a do or die situation to get there!! It's a long story but I went by train which was actually a bus, Linda & Chris very kindly called in at the train station to pick me up and Lesley very kindly brought me home again. So from L-R we have Jo, Hazel, Lesley, Linda, Chris and Jules.

And Leandra demo-ing on the PA stand and Hugo getting some tips.

Had a lovely day guys and was great to catch up. Thanks to Hazel and Lesley for my cards and to Lin and Chris for the lovely goodie bag. 

Oh and just in case you were wondering, I didn't buy anything as I am going up to Glasgow at the weekend for the SECC show.

Mini Wooden Makes

So following on from yesterday's post on how I textured the backgrounds, here's what I did with the wooden pieces.

Added two sets of wings, a crackled heart, a rustic skull and rusty nails and a couple of metal embellishments.

Close up of the heart, skull and rusty nails.

Mini tag with another crackled heart and antiquing cream. Skull and spider and then a rustic handle holding the clock hands.

Close up of the spider and handle.

And finally the heart which I mounted onto a piece of card along with cogs, skulls and washers.

And again another close up of various pieces.

All products used are from the decoart range which you can find here.

I'm also entering into this months challenge over at Country View Crafts as they have a theme of texture.

Mini Wooden Background Textures

I put a bit of each of the above in a mixing pot and spread it on some wooden mdf shapes.

I put a thin layer on the tag, two layers on the atc and a thick layer on the heart. Dried them with a heat gun and they bubbled, hissed and went sticky. I left them to dry off and then painted them in DA carbon black acrylic from the media range. I'd forgotten how good this stuff is. Great coverage, only one coat needed.

Next I added some of the DA metallic lustres and as you can see the texture has really popped.

I used champagne ice and emerald on the atc, turquoise, black shimmer and silver on the tag and copper kettle, orange flicker and iced espresso on the heart. I buffed them up with a dry cloth.

I'll be back again when I make them into something x.

Halloween ATB

I was recently invited to join a FB group called mini marvels and there is a halloween challenge going on at present, so I decided to join in with my little 2.75" ATB.

The box is coloured with black pearl DA dazzling metallics and the panels with eggplant and pumpkin patch DA multi surface paints. The images are heat embossed with black embossing powder.

And the top I just coloured in pumpkin patch and edged with eggplant.

All paint mediums are from the DecoArt Range.

Let's Dance

I wanted to experiment with my set of Lindy's today as I wanted to try them direct onto the page, ie without gesso, and was quite pleased with how they turned out. I added a bit of background stamping in purple and olive green stazon and the main Dina images are stamped in black stazon and masked off to create the line.

Tag & Atc Swap - Pink

I made a masterboard using DecoArt Multi Surface satin paints in flamingo and pink tropics and innocence chalky finish paints. Added issue tape, stamping with bubble wrap  and bottle tops in carbon and everlasting chalky paint.

I stamped random butterfly images from a Finn set using black stazon. I randomly drizzled black and white 3d paint by Tulip across the whole page. Once dry I gave the whole page a coat of media satin varnish and then cut it up into atc and tag sizes.

All products apart from the Tulip 3d paint are from DecoArts.

These are based on a technique used by Patti Tolley Parrish.

Journal Page Play

Been playing again with magazine and collage pages making up images, but wanted to do something different this time and do the writing in a colour. I still ended up adding a black and white just to help define it more.

And using my new Zig pens I did a lot more doodling on these pages with them. There is only one problem with them so far, when using a white sharpie over the top of them, the white turns a paler shade of the colour you are writing over. So I used silver on the left hand side page.

Bistres

Had a little play with Bistres today, used yellow, blue, red and natural which is a brown. They appear to work exactly the same as Brushos. To be honest, in my opinion, there's no difference in them, they just come in different packaging and the Bistres are in much larger pots than the Brushos, but for me that's not a problem as I'm probably never going to get through all my Brushos anyway.

Playing with new stuff

I've been so engrossed with cutting up images and making new ones that I've neglected some new things I recently purchased, so today I decided to play with them all!!  I scraped fibre paste through an Andy Skinner stencil, once dry added some Lindy's sprays, I recently got the French heritage set. I added some gold DA media fluid acrylic to some golden tar gel. This wasn't actually as drippy as I thought it was going to be, so unfortunately I ended up with bigger blobs than I really wanted, but hey ho.

I added some stamping to the background in iced spruce distress ink. Stamped in timber brown stazon the Dina image and Clarity word on separate card, cut it out, glued it on and outlined it with dark brown pencil along with some of the stencilled area. Used bronze pan pastel over the textured fibre paste. This photo was taken outside in the garden.