Merry Christmas Everybody!

My last post for 2013, time to take a couple of weeks off and enjoy the festive season!

I'll leave you with my last 2013 DT post for Calico Crafts...

Have a fabulous Christmas, and I'll see you all in 2014!

Lots of love, Trish xxxx

Bright Bright Greetings!

Hello!
I have totally gone against any kind of typical seasonal colour scheme for my  A Sprinkle Of Imagination DT creation today! Painty though, of course!
A little peek...

Just a tiny bit of the edge of some Christmas trees there.... so it is a timely make after all!
please pop on over to the blog HERE and see the whole thing!
love Trish xxx

New Colour Challenge...

Over at A Sprinkle Of Imagination!
It's a great palette this time....nothing too wintery or Christmassy for those of us with seasonal overload!

I made this....

I covered my chipboard sheet with a thick layer of gesso, then doodled in the wet gesso with the end of a paintbrush. Once its dry, and you add colour over the top, you can see the designs you made underneath. Great texture! You can see the circles here....

The colours were painted on with a brush for once (I've discovered cheap blusher brushes from the pound shop are FABULOUS as paint brushes! Nice and fat!) As I painted them all on one after the other, a little blending occurred here and there....

Before drying off the paint, I spritzed it with water, then blotted with paper towel. That dotty effect? Thats the water droplets removing a little paint!
As you can see, I stamped using black Archival ink...

Prima Dots, Jennie Bowlin Text and a Prima Stitched circle.
A black and white Stampotique figure to offset all the colour...

She is standing on a bit of faux washi tape.... It's actually a washi tape stamp from Prima, stamped onto yellow painted card! I chopped the ends of to square it up slightly...
I hope you have a play with these colours, they are a really good combo to work with! All the details of how to enter the challenge can be found on the ASOI blog HERE...
Have a great week!
Trish xxxxx

Ombré!!!

Hello!
Today marks the start of another Craft Stamper Blog Challenge!
And what is the challenge this time? Ombré.....
What? well yes, that's what I thought as well, but actually it's a term for something we've all been doing for ages!
Simply, creating colour gradients, going from light to dark (or the other way around!) So, you start at the top of the paper with a dark colour, and gradually lighten it as you go towards the bottom. See? Easy peasy....
I made this...

As you can see, I used the ombré effect as my background green colour. It starts dark at the top, and fades to a paler shade at the bottom!
I added areas of interest with stamping and printing...

And also added some washi tape and a phrase from an old book..

My image is an Octopode Factory lady, coloured using paints (with a waterbrush) and some Promarkers for the skin colour....

There were a fabulous number of entries for the challenge last time, and with such a great prize on offer, why not have a go? All the details are HERE...
Love Trish xx

Festive Merriment!

Hello!
Painty, messy, Christmassy.... with a text tree and some doodling thrown in too!
That just about sums up my project for A Sprinkle Of Imagination today!
Here is a little look....

The whole thing is now live over on the Creative Team blog HERE.....
Have a great week weveryone!
Trish xx

Follow The Star..

Hello!
I've made an Art Doll Christmas Fairy as my project today over at A Sprinkle Of Imagination....

For this project, I've gone over how she was created in a long series of step by step pictures....it's not as difficult as it may appear!
I would love it if you would take a peek and let me know what you think! The ASOI creative team blog is HERE....
Have a great week..
Trish xxxxx

Christmas Wreath

Hello!
I'm still making decorations........today I want to share a wreath I've created using rolled roses!
All the details, and a step by step picture guide to making the roses themselves are now live over at the Calico Crafts creative team blog! Here is a little taster...

You can find the complete project HERE...
See you tomorrow!
Love Trish xx

A Little Bit Christmas!

Hello!
It's the first of the month, so that means a new challenge over at A Little Bit Crafty!
As you might imagine, the theme this month is Christmas related : "Christmas Cheer"
As Paula is always very keen to see all kinds of crafts in the challenge, I decided to go a little '3D assemblage' for this one! I made a tree......

I love the whole 'kraft/text/white' kind of colour scheme for Christmas, as well as my more usual bright and vibrant colours!
This is an easy make, the trickiest thing to create is the stand. Having said that, these kinds of stands are very useful for other kinds of assemblage, so it's a useful technique to have. Here's how....
Cut two circles from thick card. I've used greyboard, chipboard would be good too! Take a long length of wire and create a spiral in one end. Make sure the spiral is a little smaller than the circles....

Bend the wire so it lies flat across the very centre of the spiral...

Bend the wire again so it is at right angles to the centre of the spiral, standing straight up...

Glue one circle to the spiral...

Poke a hole in the centre of the other circle, then slide over the wire. Glue in place...

The structure is there now, but it looks a bit messy! I have covered the greyboard with text paper...

Now can get on with creating the rest of the tree. Cut circles of varying sizes from Glassine paper (other types of paper/card will work too!)

I cut lots, but only ended up using three of each size! Place them neatly in a pile, then piece a hole through them all with a needle tool!

(I added in some tiny circles I had punched out, so there are five sizes in total)
Take each circle, and stamp using white paint. I used a text stamp..

Crumple up the circles, then smooth out until almost flat. Gently swipe white paint over the creases, and edge the circles with the paint as well...

Now we can start to add the circles to the wire. Start with he largest circles...

 and work through all the sizes, ending with the smallest...

You can fiddle about to your hearts content, positioning the circles into place!
To create the star, simple cut two text covered shapes from card. At this point, you can now trim the wire at the top of the tree to size, based upon how big your stars are!...

Simply glue the two stars back to back, sandwiching the wire in between the two....

All done! I have placed my tree on a white glitter snow fall...

Nice and simple, but very rustic and tactile too!
Hope you like it...and don't forget to join in with the ALBC challenge! It would be great to see some altered artists join in too!
Trish xxxx

A Time Of Wonder...

Hello!
I've gone a bit bonkers with the colour today for my DT post over at A Sprinkle Of Imagination!

To see the whole project, please pop on over to the creative team blog!

Christmas Ornament swap!

Hello!
I recently took part on a Christmas ornament swap, hosted by the fabulous Zuzu! Now my swap partner has received her ornament, I can share it with you....

I made by bauble base from clay. Paper clay as it is much lighter then polymer clay!

You will need something to hang the bauble up, so twist a loop in some wire:

Then push the long tails right the way into the soft clay, taking care not to pierce the surface!

As it is a nice chunky size, it takes a while to fully dry out. This was left on a radiator for three days!
Once it's fully dry, I sealed the whole thing with some glue n seal, then covered it with old book paper...

 French language paper for a change! I then gave it a wash of white paint, and drew on a star shape. This was painted turquoise...

I then did a little stamping to carry on with the turquoise colour scheme...

This is a 3D ornament...Don't forget the back!

I think outlined the star with a fine liner pen, and did a little doodling...

A Rub On word, and lots of clear gloss varnish later, it was finished!

I added a touch of silver tinsel to the loop, just to bling it up a bit!
I had a lot of fun creating this, I think I'll be doing some more!
Trish xxx

Sparkle And Shine!

Hello!
We're a little over halfway in the Sparkle And Shine challenge over at A Little Bit Crafty this month! I decided to try out a quick and easy Christmas card idea for my contribution......

It's really difficult to capture the shine of the snowflake.... I used silver foil over sticky embossing powder to create the mirrored effect...

The snowflake was foiled over a really simple paint background, swipes of turquoise and little flicks of white to give the splatter effect. The turquoise gives a nice base for a white rub on....

Nice textural eyelash yarn to finish, wrapped around the card blank.
Hope you like it!
Trish xxx

Hessian: quick and easy ornaments!

Hello!
Told you I was on a roll with the Christmas projects...!
I've made a couple of quick and easy to create hessian pieces today, a robin and this star...

I have explained how to create both my ornaments over on the Calico Crafts blog today!
Love Trish xx

Deck The Halls!

Hello!
A little festive painty panel from me today as my DT piece this week for A Sprinkle Of Imagination! Traditional colours, but with a modern messy twist! Here is a peek...

Please hop on over to the creative team blog to see the whole thing!
Trish xx

It's Chriiiiiiiistmas!!

Hello!
Today marks the start of quite a few Christmas ornament projects from me....I seem to have gone a little bonkers in that department for some reason this year! Christmas present shopping? nope, not even started...... but I clearly have enough handmade decorations to fill a few trees!
Today I'm sharing a tree made from driftwood discs, as my DT project for Calico Crafts. Here is a sneaky look.....

Please hop on over to the creative team blog for more pictures!
See you soon,
Love Trish xx

Ready for some colour?

Are you ready for another colour challenge?
It's time to announce the second colour challenge today over at A Sprinkle Of Imagination!
This month, we're playing with this colour palette....

For the challenge, you have to use at least three of the colours, but I've gone mad and used them all....

I have used deli paper as my base for this (thin waxed paper used for wrapping food!). Have to say, the jury is still out as far as I'm concerned! It went a bit wrinkly and bumpy once the paint was on..... will have to play around lots more to get the hang of it better I think! The best part is that it's transluscent. The text you can see all over the background? That's a layer of text tissue stuck to the deli paper!

The colour was applied very simply, just paint smeared on in layers! Takes you right back to school days and finger painting, very relaxing!

A bit of stamping, a bit of washi tape and a lot of flicked black paint splats...

I stitched the deli paper/tissue to a black panel, then added my Stampotique figure.....

If you hop on over to the ASOI blog, you'll see all the details on how to join in with this fab challenge....go on, take a break from all the Christmas creating and have a play with this great colour combo!
 love Trish xx