Come & Craft/Stashbuster Clinic – extra daytime session added

Posted on 31st December 2013 by perfectly4med

For a trial period, I’m going to open up the studio for a daytime Come & Craft/Stashbuster Clinic session on Wednesday mornings between 10am and 12:30pm (£5 per session). The Tuesday evening sessions have proved popular, but some don’t like coming out during the dark hours or when buses are less frequent. If the morning session proves as popular, I’ll continue them 🙂

For the uninitiated, the sessions are informal, with refreshments and some materials included. You can either bring along your unfinished projects and complete them in the creative environment of the studio, or you might choose to bring along stash and kit that you don’t know what to do with to get ideas and inspiration. If there are techniques or materials that you’d like to learn more about, it’s also a time for experimentation and play.

Booking is essential to reserve a place, and can be done online via my Workshops tab above.

Time Flies – thirty cards and a gift box

Posted on 30th December 2013 by perfectly4med

I fell in love with the ‘Time Flies Collection’ from Craftwork Cards at a recent Woodware Retailers’ Day. I got hold of the 8×8″ paper pack and the elements pack and set to work to create as many individual cards as I could using the elements and as little additional kit as I could. Using mainly Pumice Stone Distress Ink and double sided tape or glue, I made 30 cards and decorated a left-over chocolate box to make a gift box. Additional materials include foam pads; Onyx, Majestic Purple and Pewter Liquid Pearls and a bit of ribbon. A really fun project for the bits in between all the Christmas festivities, and a super collection of papers and die cuts. Several of the cog background cards are suitable for the ever elusive ‘man card’ as well. Clickable gallery follows…

UPDATE 02-JAN-14: Anyone attending CHA 2014 may just see some of these 🙂

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I’m a published artist in a proper book!

Posted on 28th December 2013 by perfectly4med

I’ve just found this book on Amazon – and my tangle features on the front cover!
My ‘Arabian-Style Tangle’ is in the middle on the bottom row. It features on page 2 as well, and step-by-step instructions are on page 60. Best of all, I’m a contributing artist in the list on page 122. I’ve yet to get hold of a copy – I’m wondering if it’s the parcel that went missing back in October. I’m also hoping to be able to get hold of discounted copies, but in the meantime, follow the link through to Amazon and get it there… I’d be happy to sign any copies, should you desire me to deface the book 😉

UPDATE:
P&P means getting a stock from the US is unfeasible. For UK purchasers, please use the links above. For US purchasers, please use the publisher’s website: www.northlightshop.com. This will make signing for those that want it a lot more difficult 🙁

Painting with Glitter (for Creative Expressions)

Posted on 25th December 2013 by perfectly4med

Happy Christmas! Hope you’re having a great day 🙂

For my final Creative Expressions DT post this month, I’ve used the fabulous ‘Rangoli’ singles stamp from their Henna range of mounted rubber stamps. The image is printed onto acetate using the Cosmic Shimmer Flake & Glitter glue before being ‘painted’ with the Cosmic Shimmer Polished Silk Glitters. Each image is mounted either side of a cardboard circle so that you can change your colour scheme each year to match that of the rest of your decorations. A quick make while everyone else is having a post-turkey snooze 😉

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More from my archive…

Posted on 22nd December 2013 by perfectly4med

My Mum turned up yesterday bearing gifts, and a lot of stuff she’s clearing out from the loft. One box contained collected items that are somewhat mice-nibbled, but are an archive of my childhood craft activities and school books. The above painting of ‘a train’ is perhaps one of my first forays into painting, aged 3½.

This is a Mother’s Day card – complete with insert reading ‘to mummy with love from Neil’. Not a bad first collage at the age of 5, March 1976.

Perfectly apt for this time of year, this snowman was a wax on sugar paper masterpiece when I was living near Dubai in 1978, aged 7. About as far from snow as I could get at that point!

We’ve no idea whose guinea pigs these were as I think we were still living in Dubai at the time – I was 8. Notice the rosettes in the hair – I last had guinea pigs five years ago, and think I’d probably draw them similarly now 😉

This treasure island is undated, but probably from around the same time. It’s that time in drawing development when ‘sky’ meets ‘ground’ – although I wonder if it’s sea at the top with the sails of the ship appearing above the hill. May be a first foray into distance and perspective?

Stuffing Balls for Christmas

Posted on 21st December 2013 by perfectly4med

Ok, so the title of the post might be a bit misleading – I hate stuffing balls – unless they happen to be apple and sausage meat. But this post is about cramming polystyrene balls into 12cm high papier mache hanging decorations rather than anything edible. The inspiration for these came from Creativ Company, as did the shapes and balls.
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Indian-style Home Decor (for Creative Expressions)

Posted on 18th December 2013 by perfectly4med

This home decor piece uses the Mosaic and Floral Corner Singles stamps from Creative Expressions ‘Henna’ stamp range. By using watercolour paper I hope to have given the impression of the texture of rich Indian fabric, and using offset printing as well as careful cutting given dimension and interest to the piece. A frame from Ikea sets off the project a treat and allows it to stand freely or be wall mounted.

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Cake Decorating – an edible donation cheque!

Posted on 12th December 2013 by perfectly4med

This is what I spent four and a half hours on Sunday afternoon doing – and it was handed over to Rainbows Hospice this morning, so I can now share it! The spectacular sum was raised by the staff of MGC Hayles and Woods Coaches over the year, with the Rainbows Walk in Leicester, a choir concert, the national Three Peaks Challenge and (in a after-pic addition to the icing) a business challenge task. I was commissioned to take an iced cake (twin square sponges) and turn it into the donation cheque. I mocked it all up on the computer before printing it out and transferring the design on to the fondant icing by pressing through. Then it was just the small (and patient) matter of piping and cutting. The process wasn’t helped by the icing mixes looking a muddy brown colour when mixed, but when dried, the colour theory did end up working. The finished cake is 9″x18″.

Filigree Lantern (for Creative Expressions)

Posted on 11th December 2013 by perfectly4med

More inspiration using the new Henna Singles stamps from Creative Expressions. This time, I’ve used the ‘Mandala’ stamp on card and heat-proof acetate with embossing powder to create this brass-filigree-effect hanging lantern. The middle set of panels are acetate allowing the light from a battery powered tea light to shine through. Three of the joining segments are attached with mini-brad so that the light can be accessed. Perfect for festive lighting!

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Christmas Quilt

Posted on 10th December 2013 by perfectly4med

Here’s my happy-accident Christmas Quilt that I’ve just finished, my ninth quilt. I started it early this year using a January sale jelly roll, with a hiatus during studio construction and starting the new business. Unfortunately, the lone star pattern I was following wasn’t followed closely enough, and I completely ballsed up the strip cutting. Hence the single lone star in the middle, and the hash borders – which by happy accident have worked nicely. Given everything outside the centrepiece is completely made up, I’m pleased with the outcome. I still haven’t quite mastered the layering of backing, batting and top sheet, especially on my own which is why things are a bit baggy in places. That may settle a little after a couple of washes. Mind you, after 22 feet of hand sewing the binding on, which took 4.5 hours, I’m pretty good at that! Now to find somewhere large enough to display a 6’6″ square quilt… that hasn’t already been bedecked with decorations…