Art Journal
Trimcraft Maker: Modern Marks art journal page

Posted on 1st February 2020 by Neil

I’m on a roll! Today’s make is an art journal page featuring the new First Edition Deco Maché decoupage paper in the Modern Marks design. I decided to augment the marks and colour matched the marks to Distress Paint colours (listed below). The paper behaved itself today – I used less of the glue and the wrinkles were kept to a minimum as a result. It’s certainly a lot harder to work with a sheet rather than pieces, so bear this in mind. Time-lapse video below.

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Art Journal
Trimcraft Maker: Rose Gold Tabbed Journal

Posted on 31st January 2020 by Neil

I can’t remember the last time I made a mini-book from scratch… I suspect it was one of my travel journals, and the last one of those was over a year ago. I spent the night (literally) dreaming up things to do with the other decoupage papers from my Trimcraft goodies. One that stuck was to make a mini-book using the Deco Maché Rose Gold Geometric paper as the cover. Turns out that I am a little out of practice, but cobbled this together this evening:

I love the muted pastel tones in the background and the foiled papers look splendid when not being photographed!

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Altered Art
Trimcraft Maker: First Edition decoupage papers

Posted on 30th January 2020 by Neil

Hooray! After much anticipation (and waiting impatiently) my first pack has arrived from Trimcraft. You may recall I became a Trimcraft Maker at the beginning of the year, which means I get to play with new products – fun! The pack has four of twelve new decoupage paper designs along with matt glue and brush set:

From left to right: First Edition Deco Maché decoupage paper in Gold Rose Geometric, Modern Marks, Modern Floral and Animal Print designs. Foiled papers are two to a pack, unfoiled are three sheets per pack, all £2.99 RRP. They will be stocked at Craft Stash and in-store at The Range in the next few weeks.

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ProMarker Projects
ProMarker Challenge: Week 527 – for a child

Posted on 28th January 2020 by Neil

It’s the weekly colouring challenge over at Passion for ProMarkers and the theme this time is ‘for a child/children images’. I have a number of potential stamps that would have done the trick, but I’ve gone with the cute Tatty Teddy. I’ve chosen ProMarker colours to pretty well match the background paper.

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Art Journal
Art Journal Pages: Butterflies

Posted on 26th January 2020 by Neil

Next week’s Art Journal Session has the theme ‘butterflies’. I’ve three new pages to share, but there are several in my past library that you can find using the search facility.

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Art Journal
Bible Journaling 8: Illuminated letters

Posted on 23rd January 2020 by Neil

The next Bible journaling session at The Studio (10th February 2020) features as its theme ‘illuminated letters’. I’ve long loved the mediaeval manuscripts with the fancy drop caps and the shiny gold gilding. Could this be done in modern-day Bibles? Yup! Here are four examples and bonus conventional illustration:

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Card Craft
Less is More: One Layer Card

Posted on 21st January 2020 by Neil

Another challenge blog, another challenge! This time, it’s the Less Is More challenge to do a one layer card with the focal point off centre. In card making, one layer cards are quite tricky – you have one time to get it right, and if you’re layering or positioning stamps it’s easy to misprint and have to start all over again! Of course, you only get to see the final take…

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Card Craft
Passion for Promarkers: Include a tag

Posted on 21st January 2020 by Neil

Over at Passion for ProMarkers, this week’s challenge is to include a tag. No distress inks here, it’s all done with ProMarker alcohol pens:

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3D Projects
Sculpture: Here be dragons I

Posted on 21st January 2020 by Neil

Over the last month or so, I have been working on a new sculpture of a dragon. Made from scratch, I first start with a tin foil armature (the essential shape and skeleton of the beast) and then cover it in stages with Pal Tiya, a specialist modelling material that handles like clay but hardens in water. Once the Pal Tiya has cured for a week submerged in the pond, I let it dry. Fine details were modelled with an epoxy clay which sets rock hard over 24 hours. The fibres in the Pal Tiya make fine detail modelling quite difficult, especially at this relatively small scale. I finished off with dry brushed acrylic paint. The sculpture is designed to go outside and should be weather resistant.

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Card Craft
ProMarker Challenge: Spoiled Dog?

Posted on 15th January 2020 by Neil

Another weekly challenge has landed over at Passion for ProMarkers. I was pleased to be in the top five chosen submissions in last week’s challenge, so I thought I’d have another go. Gotta be in it to win it after all. The theme is ‘animals’. Some time ago I encouraged people to use the tag #nbu – never been used – in an effort to use that crafty stash that once purchased languishes unloved in a drawer or box. This stamp is one such example…

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