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| Me and Tim |
I had a great time at the 'Ranger On The Road' gig for retailers, teachers etc, at the Birmingham NEC on Saturday. |
| My three, done in the workshop - copyright Susie Jefferson |
In 3 hours, we all decorated (and finished) three canvases each, and I had a whale of a time playing with all the new products: sticky-back canvas, Distress inks, new Paint Dabbers, Claudine Hellmuth's paints, Perfect Pearls in 4 new colours...
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| Me with Tim |
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| Me, Tim, and Chris McMillan |
Tim in Real Life is a total sweetie, warm, very funny and has the patience of a saint! He also posed with me (and with
Chris McMillan, one of the teachers at
Blade Rubber Stamps, also on Blade's
Design Team along with me) as did
Mario - another total sweetie, and
Dyan Reaveley from
Art From The Heart, who is also a very fun person to get to know.
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| Closup of Tim's first project - using the new Distress Stains, sticky-back canvas and Tissue Tape |
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| The wings are grungeboard, with Crackle Paint in Clear Rock Candy painted first, then the cracks emphasised with the new Distress Stains - I used Antique Linen. |
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| Extra shadowing and antiquing added using Distress ink in Black Soot (very lightly) on the edges of the canvas torso, wheels, phrase and frame. |
The background paper is treated so the print resists the Distress Stains - I used Antique Linen on the canvas torso of the dress model, and also on the quotation. I used Broken China all over the background paper (which is Grunge paper, so it's that natural brown - covered up really well, too). If you want more depth of colour, add more Stain.
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| Dyan Reaveley from Art From The Heart, who designed this project (and the stamps!) |
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| This is my version! |
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| Showing my doodling along the sides and top of the frame (using Perfect Pearls) |
This project, designed and taught by Dyan, features a background using one of her own journal pages printed onto Sticky-back Canvas (using an inkjet printer) with Tim's Birdcage die, and Dyan's stamp designs (chicken and flowers - all painted with Perfect Pearls).
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| Me and Dyan |
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| Dyan, Chris McMillan and me |
She had the most amazing diamante skull pendant, which I lusted after...
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| I seem to be the only one who painted in their windows! My house has someone living upstairs... |
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| I also stamped all over the sides, top, bottom, background.... |
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| As you can see: very dimensional, with the lolly sticks used to stir the paint repurposed (don't you love that word?) to form little trees, then buttons stuck on top for foliage - and a LOT of stamped and cut-out flowers. |
The final project was the messiest (hence kept till last) where Tim featured Claudine Hellmuth's new stamp designs - a solid one, applied with her acrylic paints; and a line image which is stamped over the solid image. The line images are very loose, very sketchy, and not intended to index perfectly - so just let loose and allow the stamp to hit wherever it wants to!
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| Me and Mario - he's a little shy, very sweet - and has the most lovely smile |
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| This is where someone nearly dropped my camera - Mario's laughing - I'm slightly panicky... |
I then collared Mario for a photo opportunity - another great guy with the patience of a saint! How many middle-aged women run up to him and Tim begging for more photos and more photos... and Tim was stood there signing autographs (including some of the projects - so if you see any of these canvases on eBay, I can tell you they aren't Tim Originals!)
I have this awful feeling I've finally officially descended into Groupie-dom. Nevertheless, off with a happy heart... Chris and I were sitting with another Chris (part of the Design Team for Your Touch of Craft) along with Kay (
Your Touch of Craft) and Kay's daughter had a stand at the show selling WOW Embossing Powders - so Kay was able to sneak us in for a quick look around. There wasn't much to see as everything was being set up, so I didn't take more than a couple of pix...
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| Chris, me and Sara |
You'll all recognise
Sara Davies, owner of
Crafter's Companion (and the inventor of those amazing embossing boards et al - National Business Person of the Year 2010, etc). Sara's now got her boards into the US (the US rep was there) and also Canada (
Carmi represents her in Canada).
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| Me with Sheena |
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| Sheena with Chris |
Sheena has just gone solo, and this was her very first wholesale show as
Sheena by Sheena Douglass. All the stamps you see are her design, she has a new DVD just out - and I rather think she'll have done very well somehow!
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| Work in progress... |
I thought I'd finish this post with pix of works in progress at the workshop - these are Chris's and Kay's. You can see they are all the same - yet all a little different, too
