Art Journaling – a vivid quote

Posted on 5th September 2014 by Neil

I took some time out from the TV last night – mainly to stay awake – and worked on a page in my art journal. Inspired by this month’s art journal session, the text is outlined with Black Sakura Gelly Roll pen, painted in with Dr Ph Martin’s Bombay ink, and edged with blended and stencilled Distress Ink. And the blue streaks? Wayward Brusho crystals following a spillage last week – those darn crystals can travel!

I think I’d like the fill-in colour wash to be lighter so that the black text stands out more – the ink was already diluted 50-50 with water. The colour choice was based on a {design seeds} image – a fabulous site for when inspiration isn’t coming quite as quickly as you’d like:

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Powertex Stone Art

Posted on 8th August 2014 by Neil

As I was teaching my Powertex workshop last weekend, I was also able to make a piece as we went – after all, one of the best ways to learn is to see one, do one… So this was the result of my Stone Art playing. It’s yet another piece that hasn’t made it to a stock list as it’s now taking pride of place in the newly decorated hallway. However, if you’d like a copy, please get in contact 🙂

‘Made In The Image Of God’ Mirror

Posted on 1st July 2014 by Neil

I’ve been using the tarmac technique again today, again on a trusty Ikea mirror. This time, I’ve used my Silhouette Cameo to cut shapes and letters from 300gsm card which I’ve stuck down directly to the frame. I kept the waste to use as a stencil later to layer the colours. Both colours are metallic, and much more iridescent in reality than in the picture. Careful masking with the waste layer and touching up with a brush allowed the lettering to be picked out against the main colour. I put an Art Deco style border around the mirror itself just to pick it out a bit more – of course, the viewer will be framed nicely. Add a bit of bitumen, rub back, and the piece is done.

Available to purchase (or order), £25, p&p extra. Please email with your requirements.

Country Garden Gift Boxes (for Craftwork Cards)

Posted on 22nd April 2014 by Neil

Here are four gift boxes, with self-designed construction, featuring the new, and fabulous, Country Garden papers from Craftwork Cards. They are embellished with Card Candi from the same range, as well as paper bows from the offcuts. A smidge of Liquid Pearls here and there, and hey presto, a lovely project. And they got even more air time during the Craftwork Cards Birthday Bonus on Create & Craft on 15th/16th April – thank you Julie!

Full instructions and links to the templates are available at the Craftwork Cards Blog, here.

Craftwork Cards Dressform Workshop

Posted on 12th April 2014 by Neil

Unfortunately, not enough people booked for the workshop to be held at Craftwork Cards HQ near Leeds on Saturday 26th April, and it has now been withdrawn.

As I’d got everything ready, I have sets of templates ready to go, so I have decided to run the workshop at my home studio in Leicester. Please book with me directly by following this link to my workshops page and scroll down to the April section.

Topiary Trees with Candi

Posted on 3rd April 2014 by Neil

I’m a bit behind on my posts this week… This is a pair of topiary trees that I made especially for the Craftwork Cards Candi Week, and they’re a giveaway prize over at their blog (still chance to enter if you’re really quick!). To see more on how I made them, go to this post. The planters are made from sheet greyboard, covered with titan buff acrylic and weathered with dry brushed Vintage Photo Distress Paint and Distress Ink. The balls are 8mm beads skewered onto cocktail sticks. The trunks of the trees are wound paper, and I rumpled tissue paper round it to add a bark effect.

Upcycled Mini-Egg Tube Storage Solution

Posted on 27th March 2014 by Neil

The master of crafty invention, Tim Holtz (along with his friends at Ranger Ink), has come up with a brand new mini-applicator tool for the ever popular Distress Inks – if you’ve not come across it yet, it’s circular and smaller than his previous rectangular ones. I’m still waiting on my order for the tool, but I had a delivery of the replacement foams…

I came up with a storage dispenser for the foams, but the design was a little flimsy and I wasn’t entirely happy with it. As I was munching through some Cadbury’s mini-eggs (don’t you just love this time of year?) I was pondering the design… and then realised as I was about to chuck the tube away that it might be the solution. A quick check showed it was just the right diameter to take the foams, and a new design was born. Before… and after:

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More from my archive…

Posted on 22nd December 2013 by Neil

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?

Cake Decorating – an edible donation cheque!

Posted on 12th December 2013 by Neil

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″.

Christmas Quilt

Posted on 10th December 2013 by Neil

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…