Monday 28 February 2011

Should I be mean???

..........and not show you any more pics???





Oh go on then LOL :D
so what do you want to see??? more pics of Selfridges??
Me??
T!m????

Oh I see what you want now!!! humph!What??? were you expecting a pic of T!m himself???? I was too busy watching him work sorry :-(














Oh but wait............... whats this????



Its T!m!!!!
:D

Hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

Sunday 27 February 2011

Repurposing anyone???

How fabby are Janettes creations on THIS POST????
I'm loving the house keys :D

I am having issues with my next videos from Stitches as they are too long for youtube - so if anybody has any suggestions let me know because I really want to share them with you all :-(
Oh well - here are some pics from Stitches to keep you happy for now :D





And thats just the Sizzix booth!!!!! more to follow ........maybe a few pics of T!m and his new products if anybody wants to see them???

Hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Batik Bridie canvas fun :D


Don't you just love finding new ways to use products you already have??

I do anyway :D

I saw Tim Holtz demo this technique at the weekend and was desperate to have a go :D


I cut a piece of Claudine's sticky backed canvas to the rough size I wanted, peeled the backing off and stuck it to my non stick craft mat.

I then took a very small amount of Claudine's multi matte medium and spread it on to another piece of the craft mat.

I coated my chosen stamp in the medium by swizzing it around on the mat until i hadan even coat,then stamped on to the canvas

Make sure you clean your stamp immediately as the medium won't come off your stamp once dry!!!

I gave the canvas a quick blast with my heatgun to make sure it was dry,then started inking with my distress inks.

Once you have the effect you want take a slightly damp cloth and wipe over the stamped image and the ink will be removed from the medium. As its a matte finish you can't see it on the canvas and it looks like batik fabric.

044

I painted a piece of chipboard with Tim Holtz Crackle paint, blasted with my heat gun then highlighted the cracks with more distress ink.

I then stamped over it with black archival inks and added a quite on an extra inked piece of canvas

When dry I added distress stickles and spritzed with cosmic shimmer mist .

For the hanger I took a piece of american seam binding and coloured it with my distress ink by squishing the ink on my non-stick mat, spritzing with water, then rubbing the binding in the ink, crumpling up, an d drying with my heat gun.

I punched holes with my cropadile,threaded the binding through and tied it in a knot behind the chipboard.

Add some distress stickles and a few metal charms coloured with alcohol inks and your done:D

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How fun is that???

Now of you go to play :D

Hugs'n'snogs,

Julie xx


Tuesday 22 February 2011

Stitches part one!!!

Well I was so lucky to accompany Moira from Happy Daze to Stitches at the NEC Birmingham this week and would like to say a HUGE thank you for the invite :D
It was a fab weekend, not only did I get to see Moira and Carol again but I also got to ooooohhhh and ahhhhh over Tim's amazing creations :D

Now before we went Moira asked me what I thought about the new distress stains and I had to say.............not much really!!! LOL

well how wrong was I????
They are not just distress ink pads or re-inkers re packaged they are a whole new entity of their own!!!
They are very intense colours - way more than inkpad - it would take you forever to build up that intensity!!!

well here's the first of three videos I have for you.............apologies for the poor photography .......I'm a very short crafter not a camera man after all LOL :D



Did you spot Carols amazing spoon ring??? and Moiras gorjuss sparkley nails??? good job you can't see my yukky nails!!! LOL

I love the amazing technique for the faux batik!!! and Carol is lucky enough to own that tag so if we ask her nicely she might just take us a fabby close up shot!!

Stay tuned for the next one coming soon - I promise :D

Hugs'n'inspired snogs,
Julie xx

Thursday 17 February 2011

Sooooooo, a needle pulling thread.............

Sooooo what do you think hgappened tomy i-pod this week??

Well if music is the food of love play on and I love anything with a sewing theme so I used Tims stamp :D


I started with a plain white plastic cover I bought off e-bay for my precious i-pod and gave it a coat of white gesso to prime it

Next I coloured it with beige acrylic paint and left it to dry.

I stamped the Tim Holtz stamp with archival ink and tinted parts of the image with promarkers.

I added some distress inks with a sponge and dried off with my heat gun. I knew they would lift with anything I coated them with as they are water based and don't dry properly on acrylic paint, so I dabbed on Claudines matte medium with a sponge, building up layers as it dried.

Next I used Claudines sticky canvas and used the same transfer technique with patterened paper as I did last week .

I glued this down and sections of vintage lace with the matte medium and left it to dry.

I added extra stamped stitches then grunged up the edges with the black archival ink

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The embellies are stuck down with a combo of the matte medium and glossy accents.

When everything was nice and dry and sealed with the matte medium I added distress stickles.

005

I'm hoping to see the amazing, most wonderful, and uber talented Tim at the weekend and hope to share this project wsith him :D

Why not customise your gadgets? just find a cheap cover on ebay and go wild :D

Hugs'n'snogs,

Julie xx

Thursday 10 February 2011


I have had this Maya road chippie for a while and it suddenly hit me when I was looking at my Claudine Hellmuth sticky canvas what I should do with it :D

This is a little wall or door hanger made specially for my little niece Jess :D

I started by drawing around the chipboard on to the sticky backed canvas and cut out so that it was slightly bigger than the chipboard shape.

I placed the sticky side down on the patterned side of the paper I had chosen ( K&co Cut and paste) then burnished with the back of a spoon. I gently scored the paper, dunked in a dish of water and rubbed away the paper to reveal the pattern adhered to the canvas.

When all the paper was removed I enveloped it in a towel and ironed it dry.

I then stuck it on to the chippie with glossy accents - my fave glue as its really strong and dries fast :D

I coated it with Claudines multi matte medium when dry as this hides any little pieces of paper you might have missed when you removed it and makes it look neater. You can fray the edges if you like but I would do it before you seal it with the medium

I inked the edges with a chalk inkpad then used Viva Decor stamps using the same ink pads.

My letters were coated in versamark the dipped and heated in cosmic shimmer utee - what a gorgeous shimmer it gives YUM!! 009

Please excuse the still wet glue on the pic!!!

But how nice is the texture on the canvas - this has to be one of my fave techniques :D

I added a transferred canvas butterfly with some perfect pearls, Prima flowers, gems and buttons.

The T-shirt chippie was meant to be in a mini book so had a hole punched on one side, so I added another hole and a ribbon to create a hanger.

Most of the ingredients are available from Caroline at BUBBLY FUNK :D

Well, I got a lovely suprise today :D

I spotted a gorgeous bag and fell in love with it on my last trip to Carlisle bu Disaster Designs but my hubby wouldn't byme it LOL

Well the lovely girls I work with gave me a belated birthday prezzie today - we were meant to be going out for a meal (which is when they planned to give me it) but I was ill, so today I received this....

Thank you Kerry,Kell and Lou :D

You have made me a very happy peep.............its defo coming to Birmingham with me next week :D

Hugs'n'snogs,

Julie xx

Sunday 6 February 2011

Check me out...........

....... :D
I'm on the Tando BLOG today :D
Woop woop :D

My next bit of news is Scrolls Work Stamps is holding another comp over on their FACEBOOK PAGE :D
pop one over and tell them I sent you :D then repost to your friends and ask them to do the same :D
The person with the most referrals by Friday 11/2/11 will win a $50 grab bag of stamps :D

Also a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Jacque who is expecting her second child :D Huge hugs to Jacque and her family who are really excited about the fantastic news :D

Hugs'n'snogs,
Julie xx

Thursday 3 February 2011

Lush Leafy necklaces

Hi everyone,

apologies for it being jewellery again from me but when I received these lovely leaf Tando chippies from Caroline at Bubbly Funk I just had to do it :D

I was inspired by a necklace I received as a Christmas prezzie which has a lovely sparkly feather hanging sideways with a little dangley section at one end, so thought I would try and recreate it my way with..................UTEE :D

I painted the small chipboard leaves with Jenni Bowlin brown sugar acrylic paint.

I added holes to three of the leaves with a hand drill and smoothed it off with a nail file.

When dry spritzed them with Cosmic Shimmer mist in Golden Mint and left it to dry.

I then wrapped around artist wire creating a loop at the small end and leaving a nice long piece at the other end so I could use it as a handle for dipping in the utee.

I inked a Viva decor swirl stamp with versamark ink and put to one side

I heated some clear utee in my meltpot - you could do this with e foil tray if you wanted but heat from below so that your utee doesn't blow everywhere. When completely melted I added a little bit of Cosmic Shimmer utee in Tropic Pearl and Lapis Jade and swirled together with the end of a brush.

I dipped the chipboard shapes in until completely covered then removed and placed on an acrylic block, while hot I pressed in the swirls stamp to create some texture.

When cooled I created another loop on the end of the leaf and would the excess around the centre of the leaf randomly as I had done earlier (now encased in the utee)

I trimmed the edges of the utee with small sharp scissors and a craft knife until I was happy with the shape then smeared on some Distress Stickles in bundled sage and antique bronze.

I then slid it on to a neckwire I bought in my local craft shop and added more wire to hold it in place, added a few trimmings and some dangley beads :D
The second necklace was exactly the same except I drilled a hole in one end and threaded wire through to create my loop.

I love the texture of the stamped utee and the added sparkle of the cosmic shimmer utee :D

Hope they inspire you to have a go with utee - its so much fun :D

Hugs'n'snogs,

Julie xx