Hels does it again!

I have just spent the day at Dawn Bibby's Studio in Accrington where the wonderful Hels Sheridan was taking a workshop. The theme was 'Reflections of Art' - (Hels tongue-in-cheek title) and we spent an enjoyable day painting, sanding and staining a wood framed mirror with all things Ranger and Tim Holtzy. We made beautiful grungy flowers and they turned out fantastically well, coloured clouds of butterflies and attached them by various methods onto the wood surround. Chocolate and sweeties were passed around in abundance and a great time was had by all - I met some lovely ladies. If you get the chance to do a Hels Sheridan class and have a fun filled day I can thoroughly recommend it. Here is a picture of the mirror that Hels made - due to lack of time I will post mine when I get back from my hols. I'm off to the USA in the morning and will be joining an Alaskan Cruise next week - my dream holiday - I can't wait and to say I'm a bit excited is putting it mildy.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the Diamond Jubilee Bank Holiday when it gets here - I will flying the flag on the high seas and will be sporting a very fetching teeshirt with the union jack emblazend in glitter on the front. Even Bazzer has got a Union Jack shirt which he tells me he will be wearing on the day. Be back in a couple of weeks

Blending Tools - Make you own!

I hope you had a great Bank Holiday - although the weather in the North West started off beautiful with blue skies and sunshine by lunchtime had started to change and it was overcast and really cold. By teatime it was pouring down and so cold the central heating had to be switched back on! Why are crafting tools so expensive - I wanted some new blending tools but I found the price of £4.50ish for each one just too much so I decided to try and make my own - with a bit of help from him indoors. I have put all the instructions at the beginning because Blogger won't let me type between the pictures! I sent Bazzerto ratch around in his shed of wonders to find some suitable wood and he really came up trumps with a lovely piece of Mahogany which he cut up into small blocks (I used the blending tool I had as a template for the sizing). He even sanded them down so they were lovely and smooth. I bought some foam Mounting tape from our local £1 shop and some self adhesive velcro from the market. So with my trusty hot glue gun in hand we were all ready to start. The first job was to seal the blocks and I used Mod Podge gloss finish - I left one flat side unpainted as this was the where the foam pads would be attached. When they had dried I hot glued the foam tape onto the flat unsealed surface - when it cooled I attached a piece of self adhesive velcro (the hook side) down the middle of the foam. Finally I attached Ranger Blending Foam pads to the velcro and you are finished. I printed out some labels on the computer and attached them with the Mod Podge and eventually I will have one for each of the Distress Inks at a fraction of the cost. Not quite as pretty as the originals but they work just as well and will save me all the swapping the foam pads about. I hope this makes sense but if you have any questions just email me at stampersue53@gmail.com and I will try to answer any queries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New ATCs

I can't believe it's over two weeks since I posted - where does the time go to. It's only 4 weeks until we are off on our holidays and I'm getting so excited - we are heading over 'the pond' to the USA. We are flying to Seattle where we spend a couple of days then we pick up an Alaskan cruise - My Dream Vacation - I have waited years for this and just hope it lives up to everything I think it will be. We are onboard for 7 days and when we disembark we catch a sleeper train and travel across the US before we finally get the plane home. I'm hoping to get to a couple of craft shops during the holiday - I have already sussed out where the Michael's Stores on our route. I have been making a few atcs recently as the swap I belong to has gone into hyperdrive over the last couple of weeks I have received quite a few books that I needed to add to. I have managed to take photos of most of them but won't post them all at once I will spread them out over the next few days. The dragonfly atc I miscalculated how many letters were in the word dragonfly - talk about head in a shed syndrome doh!!!!

 

 

Hope you like them Sue X