About Me

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I'm a retired primary school teacher, who started paper crafting in 2008, when I had a fancy to make my own Christmas cards. Since then, I have tried all sorts of techniques and styles - and I kind of like them all. I have been lucky enough to be on blog teams and large design teams and to do a bit of freelance demonstrating - and I love the challenge of working with different products. My crafting style is very varied - from junk journaling and art journaling, bookbinding and journal making, to quilting and patchwork - and of course I still make cards. This variety keeps me interested - and my crafty stash growing!! I'm always seeking inspiration for new projects.

Friday 8 June 2018

Just Playing!

You may have noticed that the fabulous Imagination Crafts has joined Crafter's Companion with their amazing range of mixed media products. I've been a bit lacking in motivation recently, so it's taken me a while to have a play. 

I treated myself to a selection of goodies and for this project I used
Rice papers - 399 and 403
Magi-Bond Decoupage glue
Fabric decoupage glue
Starlight Paints - Heather, Clotted Cream,Topaz
Starlight Wax - Dark Orchid
Stencil - A4 - Crosshatch Elements
Magi-Cutz - Moroccan Trellis

I also used:
Crafter's Companion Watercolour card
Crafter's Companion Essentials Flowers for All Occasions 3 & 4
A mirror frame (bought loads of these years ago from Ikea)
Pebeo White Gesso
Wooden Butterflies, old buttons, ribbon, lace and pearls from my stash
Art Basics Heavy Body gel
I started by mixing Heather with white gesso and covering the complete frame. I then layed out the the rice papers to decide where they would go, and used water to help me tear them. 
 The rice paper was stuck down with Magi Bond decoupage glue.
Next, I stuck down a load of old buttons - the sort you wouldn't really want to use on anything special. Because I wanted them to stick really well, I used Heavy Body Gel - this stuff is amazing at sticking - but don't expect to ever remove it afterwards!!  
Dark Orchid Starlight wax mixed with a bit of water was sponged through the Crosshatch Elements stencil on the bottom left corner, and also over the buttons.
As I wanted quite pastel colours in the background, I mixed all three Starlight paints with with gesso.
The Clotted Cream mix was painted over the buttons. 
This was also dabbed over the other parts of the frame. The brush I was using is very old and clumpy and formed just the right kind of texture to dab on. I repeated this with some of the two colours. 
It was also used to base coat the two wooden butterflies. 
And to paint onto watercolour card to cut the flowers.  I also used Clotted Cream directly over the Topaz/gesso mix.
As ever, I managed to forget to photograph a lot of stages towards the end. So, I adhered a piece of white lace down the right hand side, and a piece of white organza ribbon across the bottom - both with the fabric decoupage glue. The gesso mix of paints was dabbed over them.
Next, pieces of the magi cut were covered with Dark Orchid Starlight Wax, and the butterflies were painted directly with the Starlights. I also dabbed the Starlights over the buttons. Dark Orchid was also used to edge the mirror. Finally the flowers were cut out, arranged and a small pearl placed in the centre.

There are a few things I would change - but overall I'm pretty happy for a first play with a big range of products.

Off to think about what to do next with all these goodies!! 
Cxxx