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.

Art lesson, part 2

If you remember back to the previous art lesson, we had done some cute stuff with stamping, including overstamping an image with a pattern.

Let's see what we can do with the image now

So, we've now cut out the face with overstamped text, and added an interesting background. This is looking rather nice.

What about the other face? The one with the ornate image stamped over it, that was so differently interesting? We've used a Gelli Plate to add a mono print right over the image! The pale patch near her eyebrow was where a scrap of paper got stuck in the paint. Totally by design. This project just gets better and better. I think I'll call her "evil twin".

Today's art lesson

Hello. Welcome to today's art lesson. I've been playing with my stamps and markers, and I don't see why you should get away without being subjected to it.

First, we stamp and colour a pretty stamp. Here I have stamped with light grey, then coloured, then overstamped with black. See how I've got the black to not quite cover the grey? That is totally what I meant to do.



Next, let's dress it up, by over-stamping the whole thing with a faint impression of an interesting, big stamp.



Yes, this newsprint stamp is quite nice, but maybe a prettier stamp will be even better!

Aaaargh!

I mean, hmm, this look is so interestingly different. I like how she has a moustache now. 

I think that's enough art lesson for one day.

Bunky's to do list

Oops, this 'to do' list get in the way of my stamping stuff.

Actually it's a piece of 'ephemera' from a Heidi Swapp kit, and I guess you are meant to do this stuff. I used the ideas for a page I my triangular journal.

Birds, birds, birds... My triangular art journal

Here's a page from my triangle journal. As you can see, I like my pages neat, tidy, and ordered.

And I also like my pages messy and painty...

Bunky does it again

My triangular art journal is still going. Have I shown it off before? Not sure. I'll make a tag and add it if I have. This is a two year projeject so far. I bought a gorgeous blank triangular journal. As I went to sleep one night, I wondered what I would put into it. On waking, I heard myself thinking "birds, birds, birds". Not a very poetic thought, but, I do like birds.

The book is about half full, and every page has a bird. This one is, of course, Bunky the Art Sparrow.

You only Bunky once! Do you get it? Because, umm, he's Bunky... Oh, never mind.

It's super difficult to photograph a page from a triangular journal (when you are just using available light, as I am). Pro tip - take the photo upside down and rotate.

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!

The bounty of the plum tree

We've scored a whole lot of plums lately, and here's what I've made so far. Barbeque Sauce (from a Quirky Jo's recipe, full of wholesome ingredients), and Plum Chutney, from a traditional recipe, full of plums! I had fun prettying the labels too. So, I'm not sure if I should be sharing this with my cooking friends, my crafty friends, or my people who might come over to eat!

Craft room all set up now!

Here's my pretty craft room. It has soft comfy carpet, bright lighting, a door you can shut (but still hear if something interesting happens outside), and lots of drawers and shelves. And a big, big desk. It's also a better than average place to lurk.

Father's Day card 2014 - now with dinosaurs!

I made Jeff a Father's Day card... I picked out a beautiful landscape stamp to use, and as an afterthought, added dinosaurs. Should really have done something about creating a reflection for the big guy. It looks a tiny bit photoshopped.

And I forgot to write anything inside, but that's becoming a tradition locally!

And the rules are...

... see a place Jeff wants to see, then see one Pauline wants to see. Except we don't alternate, that would be too hard. Here we are at Rougier et Ple, an art supply shop. The ground floor is scrapbook type stuff, including these HUGE foam backed stamps. I rather like the long ones, but let's be realistic, the reason we use wood as the mount is so it doesn't bend!

Rather a lot of PSX Rubber Stamps for sale

So, what is your latest project, Mrs Laing?

I'm glad you asked.

I recently agreed to help a friend move on the last of her HUGE stamp collection. I decided that on line selling would work best for me, so that's where you will find the sale. Here is the link to my actual items. If you don't see any items when you click, that probably just means I'm preparing more.

So, how huge is HUGE? Well, here's a photo of the boxes in my garage. As you can see, there's a bunch of boxes, and each box contains, let's say, quite a few stamps. So a bunch times quite a few is ... umm... lots.

The boxes are roughly themed. The boxes I have already listed are :
- Botanical
- Garden
- Halloween

and boxes still to come include Floral, Fruit and Vegies, Trees, Roses, Frames, Bears (oh my goodness, then there's still more).

And here's one example to whet your appetite. It's a gorgeous PSX rose garden scene, code number K2521. It's a rare and beautiful stamp (I have had my own copy of this one for some years, and it's one of my treasures).
















And I went looking to see if I had a photo of a card I'd made with it. Couldn't find one, but here's a similar one! How nice.

Here's the link to the blog about the sale...

And here's the link to the sale itself ...

Happy Father's Day Jeff!

Happy Father's day Jeff! I made a cute little card ... it features BUNKY THE ART SPARROW, now in small form and with a die to cut him out! It also features a stamp that looks like washi tape. I have plenty of washi tape, but I'm really drawn to the fake stamp that looks like it.

My day out at Paperific (May 2013)

Paperific started today - I've supported Paperific since before it was called Paperific, so I had to go!

Here's some of my fun news of the day:

Here's a little skeleton in a closet. The samples at Twiddleybitz are completely awesome. I asked permission to take photos here, by the way. You must.

This is a lovely little chipboard kit, all those intricate pieces all cut out for you, and priced at just $8. Now that will be a fun afternoon at stamp club!

More Twiddleybitz samples - this little house/money box was decorated by a guy! So cool. Bought this kit too. Just $5. It's practically free fun!

"Please try our pens" - thank you, I did. Rossdale are wholesalers of some cool gear, and it was all nicely displayed. They were doing make and takes too.

I wrote the "Art", and the "Smart" and the "Big". There's a purple pig there too, but I definitely didn't draw that.

Joan keeps an eye on me, as I keep an eye on her Distress markers. That was my only make and take today (I'm a busy woman you know).

Rossdale also had : TRIANGULAR BLANK JOURNALS! Proper hardbound, triangular books!

The young people have an expression these days:

"Just shut up and take my money!"

Trickier than it sounds to actually buy them - as I mentioned, Rossdale were there as wholesalers, giving people a lookie at their stuff, not actually selling. But they were hooked up with both Bellbird Place and Little Bits. If you desperately wanted to buy something on the display, one of their lovely staff would walk you around to a retailer.

I dragged another buyer in my wake. I do that, I think I am good for business. We both bought the small and the large book (yes, there are two sizes), for around $10 and $15, which was very reasonable.

If you want one too, be quick at Paperific, or get in touch with your Little Bits, or Bellbird Place, or your local crafty or arty supply shop. Then we can all do triangular books together!

Happy Birthday Gail!

A little belated (it was last month) but I was just tidying photos, and I need to share this. Gail had a birthday, and I made a card, and I thought it was pretty cool. Gail is a new owner of a Thermomix, a kitchen machine that, among other things, is a very efficient blender. She tries to get her "Thermy" into the background of all her photos these days - that's how keen she is. So I thought I'd try to make a card on a Thermomix theme.

This is what I came up with!

I used stamps from my excellent collection of PSX vegetable stamps. So there's a carrot, some corn, peas, onion and radish. I stamped and coloured them ever so carefully. They looked really elegant.

Then I mashed them all to bits with a square punch, and stuck the pieces down randomly.














I explained on the inside of the card, that "I put your card into a Thermomix, 'cos you love that!".

I thoughtfully included an illustration of what the card may have looked like if I hadn't mashed it. Just to show that an elegantly coloured carrot is pretty nice to look at, but lacking that certain something.

Also, there was cake.

Happy Birthday Gail!