Art Journal Page: Negativity vs Creativity

Posted on 18th March 2016 by perfectly4med

It’s perhaps not surprising that over the next few weeks you’re likely to see more art journaling than normal – after all, I’m going to need to practice what I’ll be ~~preaching~~ teaching. It’s also not surprising that with the ups and downs of Wednesday’s changes to my working life that not a lot of creating got done (by me that is, there was plenty of creating being done in the Studio by guests!). I started this page last night, using acrylics to create the water splashed background, before adding bubble wrap dots and embossing the white areas this morning and adding the text. What a release to the negativity, and the creativity is back 🙂

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Time Flies Encased Quotation

Posted on 28th February 2014 by perfectly4med

Over at The Crafting Cafe, it’s been the theme of embossing all month sponsored by my friends at WOW! Embossing Powders, and my DT project makes great use of embossing powder to encase elements of the beautiful Time Flies papers from Craftwork Cards. Pop over to my post to read more details of how to make the piece… it’s just 5cm in diameter in case you were wondering…

Family Circle 1901

Posted on 6th December 2013 by perfectly4med

This is my final project as a member of the WOW! Embossing Powder Design Team. This family project published today, here, features my great great grandfather and his eight children. I’m in a black and white phase at the minute, and wondered if the whole frame looked a little funereal, but then others have said it’s quite gothic and in keeping with the end of the Victorian era. I’ll go with that 😉

Sparkling Snowflakes

Posted on 6th November 2013 by perfectly4med

A quick 3D layered collage for winter featuring heat proof acetate and embossing glitters – my design team blog post project for WOW! Embossing Powders for their Christmas & Winter challenge theme this month. More details on how I made this are over at their blog.

Happy Diwali Card

Posted on 6th October 2013 by perfectly4med

It’s stars and stripes theme over at the WOW! Embossing Powders blog, and for my design team post this month, I was inspired to create a Happy Diwali card. For more details, follow this link.

Design Team Call: Second Round

Posted on 1st October 2013 by perfectly4med

I managed to get through to the second round of the Creative Expressions Design Team Call 2013-14, and the next challenge was to create a project using their ‘Belle of the Ball’ stamp set. This comes as a rubber sheet which needs cutting up and mounting on the foam backing suitable for use with acrylic blocks – some of the images could have done with a little more space round them, but I managed 🙂

The closing date was yesterday, which allows me to share the projects with you – and yes, I did more than one: one to show I can make a card, another to demonstrate I can think outside the box, and a third to demonstrate altered art and making something out of a cheap pound-shop photo frame. The centre canvas one is quite a size, and even the bow is adapted from the dress stamps. The frame one is a 4×6″ aperture, with the centre coloured dress mounted in front of the glass – printed with Versacraft black ink onto white cotton and coloured with ProMarkers.

I’ll share another tip with you – the label that accompanies the rubber stamp sheet laminates well, and the foam covered stamps stick nicely to it and the whole lot still slides nicely into the original packaging. Perfect storage solution 🙂

Faux wax seals – using embossing powder

Posted on 6th September 2013 by perfectly4med

It’s ‘Decadence’ theme over at the WOW! Embossing Powders blog this month (don’t forget to enter your creations for a chance to win six powders of your choice in a handy carry case) and I decided to glam up my envelopes by creating my own faux wax seal. For more details, do pop over to my Design Team blog post and check out my photographic guide.

Shadowpainting with Distress Reinkers

Posted on 12th August 2013 by perfectly4med

I’ve liked shadowpainting for some time now, but never seem to use the latex-based masking fluid before it all gunges up in the bottle. It helpfully says on the label to dilute with ammonia to get it liquid again… but I just don’t seem to have that lying around!

Meanwhile, I’ve used WOW! Bright White embossing powder on watercolour paper to do much the same thing – it’s a lot quicker as well using a stamp rather than tracing patterns with latex gunk and waiting for that to set. I’ve used Distress Inks (from reinkers) to colour each of the images. I’ll be teaching the technique at the Manic Stamper Craft Club in Leicester on Saturday 🙂

Faux Stained Glass, Art Nouveau Style

Posted on 6th August 2013 by perfectly4med

It’s another WOW! Embossing Powder Challenge, and my design team post this month takes their ‘Art Nouveau/Art Deco’ theme as its inspiration. I studied the period and art for a time whilst at college, and I loved the classic whiplash shape, the stylised botanicals and especially the stained glass. Here is my homage, using self-adhesive lead and embossing powder as my only materials (other than the 6×6″ deep frame…). More making instructions over at my post.

Papercrafted Clematis Card

Posted on 23rd July 2013 by perfectly4med

As I type, my head is pounding, my ears are popping, and the light-sensitive lights are on and it’s only 11:25am. Something to do with the English heatwave breaking down – there’s thunder and lightning and I love it!

Another challenge stimulated a spurt of creativity this morning – it’s another for the ‘Less is More’ blog, and this week it’s ‘hand made flowers’. This card features my handcrafted clematis flower, using the Leone-em bumble bee paper punch to create the petals and an ash leaf punch for the leaves, shaped with an embossing tool pressing into funky foam. The centre is a sun punch, with a smidge of Aubergine ProMarker underneath to darken the centre and similarly shaped. A quick mount on Bazzill pre-embossed cardstock, and a strip of thick white card with the sentiment from WOW! Everday Sentiments clear stamp set embossed with WOW! Metallic Silver embossing powder.

I’m in the process of planning a ‘Papercrafted Flowers’ workshop at my studio in Leicester – if you’re interested, let me know below and I’ll keep you informed 🙂