Bank holiday hello...

Good afternoon all , and thanks for popping in this Bank Holiday Monday...I do hope that you are having a lovely day.

I have been working all day on DT and magazine work, but I did manage to get a long walk with the dogs first thing.

The weather has been glorious, I do hope that you have managed to enjoy it....I wonder how long it will last....???

On Saturday it was our Clarity Glasgow class , I had tried to keep my Birthday a secret but the lovely ladies surprised me with a bouquet of flowers, a cake and so many cards and gifts, I was overwhelmed...

It really was a great way to spend the day, especially as we had some messy , mixed media play .

We decorated a canvas , using grunge paste, a clarity stencil ( workshop only at the moment...but mmmmm watch this space ) some Gesso and some Inka Gold...

Look how differently it looks when white gesso is used instead of black.

The ladies work was amazing , here is a closer look at one canvas, look at the shine on it.

I used a peg to attach the sentiment , so that , the sentiment can easily be changed,,,or it can be used to attach a note or a smaller piece of art work....

Whilst the GP was drying we decorated a tag....

And after lunch we also had time ( I was cracking the whip!!!) to make a card.

Look at all the fabulous colours....I love them all.

And here is a photo of our little group..... Such a great bunch of friends...

It was another great day , but I must admit that by 9pm when we got home , I was a little tired, but I did have enough energy to open my cards and presents....thank you all so much, I am so lucky to know such lovely and generous people...my house is full to the brim....I am so thankful...

Yesterday had a bit of a sad note to it, my lovely Mum fell whilst walking her dog and managed to dislocate her ankle plus break her Tibia and Fibula bones....she was taken to hospital by ambulance and although they managed to realign the bones she needs an operation tomorrow to have the area plated.

She sounded in good spirits last night and this morning when I spoke to her...( this is when I find it hard not living down the road...)

Thanks for joining me...have a lovely evening, take care ..

Pop back soon

Jo. xxx

 

 

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For the love of a box of tissues.

Good afternoon all and thanks for popping in on this wet and miserable day..so different from the sunny Monday that we had.

Today I have been putting the finishing touches to our projects for Saturday and packing the car ready to set off in the morning.

We are going to have some mixed media play in Glasgow , we will be using a very Finnabair based technique but with my own twist on it. In fact I have been using this method on lots of wooden objects, box's , hearts etc for the past couple of years and they are selling really well. It is such an addictive process though.

I still find it hard to believe that this lovely box started as this

Regular readers will remember a few weeks ago when we had our Manchester class and the ladies decorated handbag box's

If you haven't seen the amazing work of Finnabair do look her up....she is so inspiring...

We will actually be making a canvas , a card and a tag...( I may have to crack the whip...but I am sure we will get it all done )

Here is a little sneak peek...

I am so looking forward to catching up with the lovely crafters north of the border.

Today I had a wonderful surprise when this gorgeous floral display was handed to me at the door.....thanks ladies...you really do spoil me..

And tonight I am going for a meal with my best girl friends...

So I had better leave you and go and get ready...

Have a wonderful weekend...hope you get to spend time with people that are important to you...

Enjoy

Much love

Jo. xxx

 

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Oriental Vine

Good afternoon from a lovely sunny Cheshire...I do love days like today.

Thanks for popping in , I really appreciate you sharing some time wirh me.

Today I thought I would talk you through a canvas that I made for one of the recent Clarity shows on Hochanda TV.

I do love this new Oriental vine stencil, and you may notice that it keeps making an appearance on my blog.

I started by simply pulling some Grunge Paste through it, and leaving it to dry.

Next I added some shades of blue ink using a combination of stencil brush and blending tool

Then I placed the stencil back in place and added some pink ink.

And this is what I had, it just needed framing so out with the gold gilding wax.

Then finally some scratching back...as always this was my favourite bit

See the difference that those white highlights make..

Some matting and layering and there we have it

A really quick but lovely canvas...

I have been inking, painting and generally getting messy hands today,,,all in readiness for our Clarity Glasgow workshop on Saturday......so looking forward to it...

Must go...as I still have jobs to tick off today's list..

Have a lovely evening..

Much love and hugs

Jo. Xxx

 

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Saturday at C. J's....

Good evening all, and thanks for popping in today. Hope your Sunday has gone well, I must welcome our new follower....as always I do get excited when I see another new face in our gang...

I do hope that you will be very happy here.

I am just sitting down after crafting nearly all day...I have another magazine deadline tomorrow...phew...just finished the samples, now got the write ups to do, but I feel some food is needed first.

Yesterday it was workshops at C.J. Cardcrafts in Edgeley...and wow how busy they were...

We had some inky play and created our very own designs on some shoulder bags...I do love looking for different and unusual projects to create..

Look at all these wonderful ladies with their makes

 

This was my example...using some of my favourite Clarity stamps.

Some Distress inks and some masking,,

Tracie made this one,

And this one is Mary's...how cool are they?

I just love it when everyone is so happy with their makes

In contrast we also had Groovi time...and learnt all about incorporating Stamps and Groovi

The feather was stamped using black Archival ink on the front of the parchment, and left to dry , before the Groovi part was added

I do love how the white work looks on the feather.

Love this Ornate Panel boxes plate too...

And I have been playing with my new light panel and my pricking tool...hope you approve...I am still playing catch up Emma....but enjoying every minute of it.

I have another very busy week ahead...but really looking forward to Glasgow on Saturday...lots of Crafty friends to catch up with. Hope you have a lovely Sunday evening...

We have blue sky and sun at the moment...

Much love and hugs

Jo. xxx

 

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Another day...

Good afternoon all and thanks for popping in today...

Can't believe it is Thursday already , this week is going so quickly...yesterday it was our Wednesday classes in Hazel Grove and they were as good as ever...so much laughter....( even if we did miss the camel lady!!!)

Today I have been getting more craft classes sorted , including putting finishing touches to our samples for Saturday mornings Groovi class at C.J.CardCrafts, Stockport

 

So with that in mind I thought I would share some Groovi samples with you...have you tried the coloured parchment ? It is fab...and the light panel works brilliantly with it too...

I started by using the fab poppy plates, this is the back....

I do love the border too, look how white the work looks on the front of the parchment.

Then I simply added some colour using my Spectrum Noir pencils

I do love to combine plates...here we have the nested circles and the Meadow grass...with the blue parchment

And a simple Birthday card...well it had to be red...

And to finish ....a sneak peek for Saturday's ladies.....

Thanks for joining me...

Take care and pop back soon...

Jo. xxx

 

 

 

 

 

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Down on the farm.

Good afternoon all and thanks for popping in on this Monday afternoon. Oh my, it is so much colder in Cheshire today...I even had to put my coat on to walk the dogs.

I hope you had a lovely weekend, Saturday was our monthly crafty session in Cumbria...

The roads were kind to me and all was going well until I called for Sheila, only to find Police and Recovery trucks outside her cottage. Poor Sheila and Graham had been woken up at 7am with a very loud bang...they ran outside to see what was going on and a van had smashed into a car right outside their house...The van had been stolen and the driver had then run off...luckily the gentleman in the other car wasn't badly injured but bless Sheila and Graham who straight away started traffic control.........etc...

So she certainly needed a nice cuppa by the time I collected her.

For our first class card we did some work with the Spectrum Aqua Markers, watercolour card and the brilliant Wee Farm and animal stamps.

Look at these masterpieces

 

Then after coffee we used some Stampbord....this time with shaving foam and distress reinkers.(bottled inks)

Oh we had such fun.....

And look at these brilliant designs...

I still love the 'scratching back ' bit.....so relaxing....

After lunch....it was time to count sheep.....

And have a play with the fab alphabet stamps

Then it was time for tea and cake....( my favourite part....)

And we used Distress inks on a tag....one of the new Oriental pattern stencils some water and played with the ghosting technique.

This is still one of my favourite types of background, and it works so well with this Stencil.

And wow, look at those colours....

As always you crafty ladies and gentleman just impress me so much...I am so proud to be your friend...( and teacher...but I do use that term loosely !!!! lol )

Another fab class thanks all....

And then yesterday Karl set off for his fix of football at Old Trafford...and yes...he came home early when the game was called off.

I was crafting when Adam came in to tell me that the stadium had been evacuated because of a bomb scare....I have to say I instantly felt sick.... Thank goodness everyone was ok but I can tell you I was very happy to see him ....it really does make you think....

So today I have been getting into the zone and making samples using the Groovi ready for our class this Saturday at CJ CardCrafts in Stockport ....

I also went to visit Mikey...time for a Mummy, son, catch up and hug...( and collecting his next bag of washing!!!!)

Just time to cook our meal now....oh and put some of that washing in the machine....

Enjoy your evening....

Much love and hugs

Jo. xxx

 

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Hummingbirds

Good evening all , hope your week has gone well. We have another new follower who has joined our little gang...it is always great to see our group growing.....it really does make my day...

Today has been all about ticking jobs off the list, magazine cards, done, write ups done, dog walks done, ironing done, watering the plant pots done, packing the car ready for Clarity Cumbria tomorrow ...just done...

And now whilst our meal is cooking , I thought we could have a chat.

It has been another lovely sunny day here and Eric has just loved sitting on the lawn in the sun...it really does feel like summer....not sure how long it is going to last.

I thought we could look at another sample from Barbara's recent show...

It uses the rather magnificent hummingbirds Entwined stamp set.

I started by taping my stampbord together on the reverse side , this just makes it easier to work with .

Next , one of the lovely new Oriental pattern Stencils and some distress ink.

Oh yes...lovely....but a bit to clean and crisp...

So some water spritzing is needed, followed with some brown DI...

There...that's better...

Next some stamping using Black Archival ink.

And my favourite bit....scratching the design back to reveal some white areas...

So relaxing....and effective....and dare I say addictive....

If you haven't tried stampboard, I do urge you to try it....there are so many things that you can do with it...and so many wonderful Clarity Stamps and Stencils that are waiting to be used...

We are going to play some more tomorrow in Cumbria...

Right, food ready....better go and dish it up,

Enjoy your evening...and have a lovely weekend...

Pop back soon

Much love and hugs

Jo. xxx

 

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