Various things have got in the way of finishing the Online Card Class: Extraordinary Embossing Folders. Eventually, I got annoyed moving the kit from one end of the studio to the other and decided to get on with the course again, if only to be able to put everything away! Day 3 combines dry embossing with dies. Again, I’ve made use of what I have to emulate the course makes and have benefitted from the loan of kit from one of my valued Studio guests.
Continue readingArt Journaling Session: Washi Tape
I unpacked a box of ancient washi tape rolls for this evening’s art journaling session and eventually got them all to unpeel without tearing. We used them to build background collages in black and white and colour, and layered them for maximum contrast in this finished layout:

Bible Journaling: Revelation (BJ-28)
Here are five new illustrations for verses from Revelation. They were the templates/samples for this evening’s Bible Journaling Session at the Studio. You’re welcome to book in for this monthly session, usually held on the second Monday of the month and open to beginners or confident artists. For more details, see my workshops page. As normal, the templates are available as a free download for you to use (but not share!). Scroll down for further information about how I completed each illustration.





Commission: new bedroom artwork
It was time for a bedroom refresh… The turquoise feature wall (read chimney breast) needed updating due to a change in bed linens and their warm grey no longer complemented the blue-green paint tones. I was given free rein to choose a replacement bedspread and create a new art piece above the bed. That didn’t quite work out (see below), so this was the final(ish) outcome:

Bible Journaling: more pee-pulpit verses
If you recall, I recently was asked to help design posters to be displayed in the toilets at my church. They are particularly prominently placed front and centre for the urinals, hence me dubbing them the pee pulpit. My first is shown here. Since then I have moved to digital creation, mainly for speed, but also for a little more impact. Herewith a gallery of the last few months of posters…
Continue readingArt Journaling Session: Shiny Distractions
Today’s Art Journaling Session at the Studio revisited working on aluminium foil. Last time, we used thinned acrylic paints to cover the foil with multilayer colour. This time, we played with alcohol inks. The inks are designed to stick to shiny surfaces and really pop against the reflective metallic background. There are various ways to add depth and texture, take ink off and add other inks on to make a very shiny and interesting collaged background for a suitable saying. I’ve included making notes below, along with a video of the techniques.

Card making: Online Card Classes – Extraordinary Embossing Folders Day 2
I’ve been playing with more dry embossing for Day 2 of the Online Card Class; Extraordinary Embossing Folders. For these cards, I have used inks in different ways with the folders, playing with contrast and the debossed and embossed sides. There was also a technique using shadow word dies, but I don’t have any of those. Instead, I created the same effect with my Silhouette Cameo and laser cutter using cardstock and an offset set of text:
Continue readingCard making: Online Card Classes – Extraordinary Embossing Folders Day 1
In the first of a series of posts, I am going to update you on what I have been doing during my blog’s radio silence… Several groups have been postponed for various reasons, so I have not posted about them, and I have spent the time on a number of projects. This week has been a new Online Card Class; Extraordinary Embossing Folders. For five days there were two videos per day with techniques to expand your use of embossing folders. It’s been a while since I did any card making, so it was good to do some today based on the first day of class:
Continue readingArt Journal Session: PanPastels
Next week’s Art Journal Session at The Studio will still take place on Monday (6th May) at 7:30pm, despite it being a bank holiday. We’ll learn about PanPastels and use them with rubber stamps to create our spreads. There’s no online tutorial this month as capturing the techniques is tricky as a step-by-step (and I didn’t have a chance to do a video), so you’ll have to book in and come and try for yourself! Here’s my sample page:

Art Journaling Session: Pink, turquoise and gold
This evening’s session was all sparkly with gold leaf dust! We spent our time working on a colour theme of pink, turquoise and gold, throwing in some dry embossing and distress oxides along the way. The main focus was on techniques for layering acrylic paint to build a background and the incorporation of imitation gold leaf for a very shiny bit of bling:
