Let me colour something for you

One of my favourite things... Demonstrating at craft shows! It's tiring, but the buzz of people getting inspired is hard to beat.

I worked for Michelle at Mixed Media Art at a Picture to Page in Cranbourne, and a lovely time was had by all. While Greta showed off the GelLi printing, I was demonstrating Art Foamies, together with Gelatoes, and stamps from Dina Wakely, and from Carabelle. Splendid fun, I made tags, and used some to fill our board with one for each colour scheme - then gave the rest away! I hope that means our happy customers have a starting place for using their new goodies.

Here's our sample board, with a tag for each colour set of Gelatoes.

And this ended up being my favourite tag of the day. This  Carabelle stamp set is just simple, abstract shapes, but we use every trick in the book to make them look awesome!

Behind the Yart, 2016 edition

I've just had some artwork publishing in "Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft" - it's been a while since I've done that, so I'm pretty pleased.

The project features Dina Walkely's gorgeous bird stamps, the ones I insisted Michelle (of Mixed Media Art) get lots of for selling at Picture to Page, the fantastic papercraft show she was exhibiting at. And she runs the whole show too, so, you know, she doesn't have to do what I say. But she stocked upon bird stamps, and wow, were they popular!

So I decided to do a project with them.

The ideas for what project started when I made this birthday card:

The background of that main picture is printed with a Gelli Plate and a stencil from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. The awesome honeycomb background is a die from Sizzix, and I've picked out some of the hexagons to have decorative paper, and text, showing through. Yes, all of that was an awful faff.

So, I decided to make a project featuring the birds. I decided to leave out the gelli plate idea, because that's good enough for another whole project.

Here's on of my play sheets. I cut birds out of this, using the Stampin' Up Project Life dies (nice even rounded rectangles every time). Later switched to adding those background stamps AFTER colouring - the lovely Jane from the magazine warned me that colouring with alcohol-based markers over dye-based ink can be bad news for your markers, so I'm not going to recommend bad methods!

When I'd made my "bits", I spent ages shuffling them around, and had fun taking photos of the arrangements. That turned out to be super practical - I could walk away and review my work on the phone or tablet. It gets you thinking about composition.

Here's one of my compsition tests. There were lots.

And if you want to see you it turned out, maybe you need to grab volume 22, issue 6 of Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft! Here's a sneak preview:

Pakenham Picture to Page - why you should spend Sunday here

I just helped at Picture to Page yesterday, and we're on again today.

Here's why you should be popping down to the Cardinia Cultural Centre today:

There's make and takes - with a view! Our gorgeous room overlooks the lake.

There's fancy papercraft stuff you might not have seen before...

There's elephants (this was the Kasazz make and take from yesterday)...

There's paint and Gelli Plates (I'll be likely to be demonstrating these today)...

There's more pretty stuff you might need...

Mixed Media Art have those stamps you need (even the bird ones)...

Kids area (hey, how did they get the cool view!)...

And whenever the boss is looking the other way, I get to use the goodies on our stand, and make another tag. When asked nicely, I DO give them away.

All the news about Picture to Page at Bendigo

Last weekend, Michelle ran her first craft show. She bought the business a while back, and has been gradually taking over. The big event was Picture to Page, out in Bendigo, and I was lucky enough to be on the team.

Here's Michelle (kneeling) doing a little last minute preparation the night before. Her sister Tanya (on the couch) is also a show helper. That folder contains floor plans, power plans, evacuation plans, incident handling plans... You can tell the show is in good hands.

Here's our venue - a beautiful hall at Kangaroo Flat Primary School. Those coloured panels are acoustic linings, approved by the music teacher. The show started on Saturday morning, but setup happens as soon as school finishes on Friday.

Tiny concern as one trader starts walking in wooden pallets! Turns out though, Mr Close to My Heart is a builder, and takes no more than one hour to turn their square of floor space into a gorgeous shop with shelves and everything! Michelle inspects the structure and approves of his sturdy techniques.

Well before bed time, here's the hall looking gorgeous. Traders arrive at different times (almost everyone comes from Melbourne, so that's understandable). We have pizza from a local place, Sally's. It was yummy. I discover Greta doesn't like olives. I get Greta's olives.

Greta and Tanya made sure the banner was hanging just so.

It's Saturday morning! At the hall at 7am, ready to help with last minute setup.

Show's started! Tanya runs the Mixed Media Art stall, and demonstrates those pretty Gelatos.

Greta demonstrates Gelli Plates with paint and stencils. I have a go on demonstrating this too at various times.

Cathy from Bellbird Papercrafts keeps the crowd entertained. Hot news - she is in a new shop in Melbourne, see her web site for the details. It's pretty, and it's right next door to an exceptional baker, The Honey Thief, too. So there's a day out for you right there. This is my blog, I can plug whatever I want!

Now why was I surprised by this? The Society of Folk and Decorative Arts people were exhibiting, and despite being steeped in traditional folk painting techniques, they were dazzling the crowd with an exciting Journal making class. They told me they love mixed media, but also, whenever they run an old-fashioned painting class, they get plenty of interest. Their mission is to get everyone painting. Yay!

Lesley from Little Bits - I have learned, if I didn't know it already, that Lesley is a MACHINE! Powered only by Minties and coffee, she had smiles, glitter and patience for everyone both days.

Pretty stencil we were selling - yep, these sold out.

Pretty bird stamps we were selling - I got one of these!

And what was the secret to our success? Cake, of course. Shirley took control of catering and kept stall holders and attendees happy with good coffee and great cake both days.

Fun show, folks. Next one is Pakenham 23 and 24 May. See you there!

Me, demonstrating at Picture to Page!

I had a lovely day at Picture to Page, the arty-crafty scrapbook show at Sandown this weekend. I was demonstrating for Michelle of Mixed Media Art. Here I am getting inky - this was nothing, compared to how painty we both got later in the day!