Frog and Friends

Good morning all! Welcome to my new followers! I just noticed I have a few more following this blog now! I hope you enjoy what you see and please let me know in the comments! 
I am sorry I missed a blog yesterday. We had had a power cut in the night and whether that was the reason why we had no internet or TV til about 2pm I don't know but by the time we were up and running, I was busy perforating and snipping a project. I can't tell you what yet but you will find out in due course. 
Anyway here I am back again today so all is good.
Today I want to share a canvas I made using the woodland animals stencils. Mel Turner designed this one for Claritystamp. She is so clever how she draw! Her drawing though makes it easy to create great looking pieces of artwork. Maria had these on her show back in November 2018. I can't believe it was that long ago! 
Here is the result of what I did and below are the things you will need to make it and the instructions.

Ingredients

Frog and friends woodland stencil  STE-TP-00470-4S

8x8 canvas board

Texture paste that dries clear

Mica powders

Acrylic paint

1. Working on a canvas board add colour by dry brushing with random colours of acrylic paint to create a background. Leave to dry.

2. Attach the stencil to the canvas so the image is central. Add texture paste through the stencil. Remove the stencil
3. While the paste is still wet add mica powder randomly to the image. Gently tap the excess off.  Use a heat gun to dry the texture paste so the mica sticks and the paste bubbles slightly to create texture. Leave to dry completely.
4. Use a soft cloth to gently polish the mica and remove any from the canvas.

Hope you have a great day whatever you are doing.
Happy Crafting

A heart of Flowers

Good morning to you! 

For those of you that didn't see yesterdays blog post you may notice that my blog has had a slight change from Bits to place and a new URL. This is thanks to Facebook not liking the original name that this blog has always had! But all is good as it's only a small change but one that means I can now share my blog again! It will still be me sharing my artwork with you and maybe one or two other bits too!

Today I thought I would share a piece I did for Tina's show in January.

Ingredients.

Nested Square GRO-PA-40037-03

Nested Hearts GRO-PA-40094-03

Tina's Floral Petites Tall flowers GRO-FL-41143-01

Floral Spacer GRO-FL-41161-20

Straight Border grid No.1 GRO-GG-40350-14

Basic Piercing grid  diagonal GRO-GG-40383-14

Tina's 3D Flowers and Butterflies GRO-FL-40553-15

Semi square perforating tool

Brighton Rock designer paper

1. On plain parchment  emboss the 2nd and 4th largest hearts then make a border around the hearts using the 1st, 3rd and 4th largest squares.  Add the flowers into the heart. Use the floral spacer to fill the widest part of the square frame and add the pattern off the border grid in the narrow part.

2. Emboss dots in the heart frame and white work to the flowers as shown. Add colour using Perga colours on the reverse.

3. Emboss and perforate the grid pattern.

4. Semi perforate around the design with the semi square tool. Emboss zigzags within the perforations then reperforate. Cut waste from this edge and also in the grid pattern.

5.  Attach to a piece of designer paper with brads and mount on a card blank.

6. Using spare pieces of parchment make a flower and leaves and attach to the front adding a flat backed pearl to the centre.

I hope you stay safe, warm and dry today. It isn't very pleasant outside so I won't be going far today

Happy crafting

Wonderful colours

Hello there and welcome to you! I thought it was about time I blogged something else for you! It's been a while but things got a bit busy and something had to give! I really do not know where the time has gone but I cannot believe we are in March already. It will soon be July!! 

I have samples to do today but can take things nice and steady as the rush of the NEC stuff is over and my in try isn't too bulging with things to do. 

Who is going to the NEC? I am not going this time round. I would love to go but it is just so expensive to get there and get in and that's before I buy anything so I will be staying put! I am sure that if you do go you will drop by the Claritystamp stand and say hello to Barbara and the rest of the Clarity gang! They are such a lovely lot! 

Anyway I thought today I would share with you a sample I made for the first lot of Leonie's Stencils. They are so cool and great as backgrounds and lend themselves to so many different techniques. I did this one with alcohol ink on yupo paper. If you have never done this get some and have a go! It is amazing stuff! 

Ingredients.

Leonie's frameless stencil

Wonderful  Wordchain stamps

Marigold and friends stamp set (Infill stamp )

Alcohol inks greens yellow and pink

Blending solution

Yupo paper

1.  Place the stencil over the yupo paper and tape the stencil down to stop it moving.
2. Use a felt to dab alcohol ink through the stencil. Add texture by adding sequin waste dabbing blending solution through it. Add gold mixative to some areas. Remove the stencil and let dry.
3. Stamp the wonderful  and the marigold in Black archival (be careful not to slip). Heat set it with a gentle heat tool. Don't concentrate the heat in one place for too long!
4. Edge with a black sharpie and mount on a card blank.

That's all from me today. Let me know if you have a go at this. Even dabbing the yupo with alcohol ink gets amazing results.

Happy Crafting

Out of the ashes!

Good Morning to you all. Its a lovely bright start here but a bit chilly and a touch of frost. But I can live with that!

I spent most of my crafting time yesterday doing things for the wedding but it was great to have Paul and Maria to watch on Hochanda as I was working! The wedding preparations are coming along really well so happy about that!

The artwork I want to share today is one of the Groovi samples I did for Maria's fantastical shows yesterday. I just loved this phoenix image. It cried out to be decoupaged which I did with the stamp but I also did a bit with the parchment.

Anyway here is the completed card and below are the instructions.

Ingredients
Nested Rectangles GRO-WO-40524-04
Phoenix plate GRO-FY-40363-02
De Boss Alphabet plate GRO-WO-40801-02
De Boss Number plate GRO-WO-40802-02
Semi Square Perforating Tool PER-TO-70021-XX
Black Parchment
Red parchment


1. Working on black parchment emboss the phoenix and the outline of the flames. De-boss the letters and exclamation mark. Use the nested rectangles to add the frame around the image adjusting the size as needed.
2. Add white work to the phoenix feathers. Remove the black colour using a pencil eraser on the parts you want coloured. Add red and yellow using Perga colours.
3. Semi perforate around the frame with a semi square tool and emboss triangles in the perforations. Reperforate and cut waste from the edge. Put to one side.
4. On red parchment emboss the fire part of the plate. Emboss parts with white work. Add red colour to some flames to deepen the colour. Rub out the colour from the rest of the flames and add orange and yellow to the design. Perforate around the flame and cut away waste.
5. Use glue runner or Perga glue to stick the flames in place onto the design.
6. Attach the parchment piece to the gold card with brads and mat on to orange card then mount on a card blank.
7. Add gold ink to the image on the phoenix and in the flames.

If you have a go at this please let me know.

Have a great day whatever you get up to and....
Happy Crafting!

Butterfly in lace!

Hello to you all and thank you for dropping in today.

I had a fab day yesterday shopping with Amy. She was after getting her wedding shoes and also a dress for her trip with the girls to Berlin for her girly hen do which she did! I managed to get a bag to match the shoes I have got for the wedding too! So all is good and on track! It is only 5 months to the big day now!

I keep on getting asked how I do the circular border using the lace corner border plate so instead of words I will show you! 

The border I mean is on this card! 

I hope you can follow the pictures below to get how I do it!

Use the nested octagon as a guide

Choose the corner you want

Position the corner over the octagon and attach your parchment. It is better if you use a lightwave to do this as you can see it better. Emboss it.

Move corner plate to the next corner of the octagon keeping the parchment still and emboss the next corner. It is important that you don't move the parchment as it won't meet up if you do!

Repeat until you have 8 corners done.

Use the octagonal plate to join the gaps

Here are a couple of other cards I have made using the same corner and technique. It is amazing how this border works well for so many occasions. 

I hope that has helped those who want to have a go at this! 

Happy Crafting

Rain Rain GO away!!!

Good morning all. It really is a very wet one today and blowing a gale too! Totally yuk! I really need to get to the post office today so I hope this weather subsides a bit. I only stuck my head out the door and got soaked earlier. 
I do have some crafty secret stuff to do so looks like that's what I will be doing later.

Did you watch the Pergamano Show on Hochanda this morning? I had a lie in and watched it in bed. It was such a fab show and I felt like I had learnt a lot by the end of the first hour! Can't wait for the next one at 12noon. 

It was pure magic watching Linda Williams using the embossing tools and creating a beautiful piece of artwork. And the examples she showed of her whitework were stunning! I can only hope that one day I may be half as good as she is. 

You can imagine my surprise when one of my samples got shown ….I do not consider myself to be a parcher … I am a stamper...that's what I do. But I have enjoyed getting to grips with the groovi system and like to learn the Pergamano techniques now that I can get the line art on the parchment. 

I have not done the instructions for this one today but it isn't hard to do. It uses the 123 plates that Linda designed along with the stamp plates. I used stippling in the edges of the stamps. That took a while to do. And I think what makes this one look so pretty is the colours and bits of whitework on the flowers.

Hope you have a great day whatever you get up to.
Happy Crafting

Daisy and the fairy

This has to be a real quick on tonight.

So I will share a sample and instructions from the weekend shows

A little bit of layering on this one and use of my favourite perforating tool around the fairy! 

Ingredients.

Daisy Fairy with Butterflies  GRO-FY-41172-01

Made with love PTC plate GRO-PA-41114-03

Tina's Floral Layering Plate GRO-PA-41077-03

Floral forest background  GRO-FL-41101-03

Nested Square GRO-PA-40037-03

Semi square perforating tool

Black parchment

Antique silver brads

1. On black parchment  emboss  PTC sized frame with a double line edge. Fill this with the fairy plate.  Emboss white work in the design as shown.  Perforate around the edge with the semi square tool and emboss dots in the edge. Reperforate then cut away waste. Put to one side.

2. On the rest of the parchment emboss a square frame using the 2nd and 3rd sized square then emboss two overlapping areas in the frame. Fill with the background and layering plates. Perforate around the frame and cut away waste.

3. Attach the larger piece to the grey card with brads then add the smaller piece. 

4. Mat onto black card then Mount on a card blank. Add glitter and shimmer pen to the design.

Hope you like it! 

Happy Crafting