ArtsyCrafts sneaky Peeks - March 2010

March 13 and 14 are the dates for our first northern ArtsyCrafts events. If you live in the North of England, then we have organised this event just for those of you who asked us to! DeVere Daresbury park is a wonderful venue located near Warrington, and centrally in between John Lennon and Manchester airports (only 20 mins to either airport).

The main project at Warrington will be the Gothic Arch.  A beautiful wooden frame covered in metal embossed with many diffferent techniques. Inside the frame is stamped, bead embellished fabric, lightly quilted. Hanging from the base of the frame is a row of "Leandra Beads" made with UTEE (Ultra thick embosing enamel)

To see sneaky peeks of the arch and other class samples and for more information about the event check out this video. We'd love to have you join us!

UTEE {Birdcage} ...yes it's possible!

Late last year Ranger contacted me to ask if I would submit a piece for their designer wall at the CHA show in Anaheim, LA. (it's on right now as we speak in) Oh I don't know...let me think about it.... well duh... of course I would do something.  

 What an honour to follow in the footsteps of so many great names who have appeared on that wall in recent years!! And "UTEE: the hottest ticket" as a theme was right up my street, so I was buzzing, excited, flattered and totally itching to get going with all Suze's Melt Art goodies.

 What to do...... hmmmmm.......... hmmmmm.... well its more like what NOT to do in a case like this, I mean we have beeswax (I love), Coloured & Metallic UTEE (I adore), Clear UTEE with to Dye for inks (I can't live without).....then of course what about all of Ranger's other cool stuff that it's impossible to keep my hands off like Perfect Pearls, Claudine's Paints, Paint Dabbers, Archival Ink, Distress Ink, Memory Frames & glass.......matte medium, glossy accents.....you know what a Ranger addict I have been for like my whole life.....so it soon became apparant that I needed to be mega restrictive with what I used. I didn't want to overcook the whole thing with too much Ranger....is there such a thing??? LOL But I also wanted some of those Leandra Beads on there too....and I a bird cage.....hmmmmmm

 So I started by sketching out some ideas in my book. The background was easy. We had a large square piece of wood, and a ticket shaped item, also wood. I started with the ticket, did Claudines peeled paper, then proceeded to cover it all up with paint, about 20 layers until I had it the right shade. Lots of black, pool, espresso, sandal, pebble, white, mushroom, pool....over and over... and over 

 I also was clear about what I wanted the square wooden background to look like. Embossed metal at the edges, blue and red paints in the dips of the texture, and then blacken it all up to look quite dark to enable the 'glass' birdcage to 'pop' as the feature. It's just a background right?... so it didn't need it to be too busy or dominant....I laid out the bits I had done so far to get an idea of where to put the metal. And then got started on that.

Stuck the metal down - it was embossed on a Ten Seconds grid...not embossing the whole pattern just some of them...then stamped into some texture (to disguise the metal joins) And let that dry. Next step paint.

Starting with pool and red pepper in the dips, and then adding white over the top...hmmm...liking it pale like this with the white-mushroom dabbers on the top layers...but I knew it needed to be blacker...so hard as it was to do I kept adding more and more black until it got it darker. You can see here how it ended here below with the addition of a few stamped PaperArtsy flowers and ideaology bellies. I like how the pool and red pepper paints just peek through.

 OK now my Big challenge. UTEE on the cage. I still wasn't sure how to do it. I mean UTEE on a wire frame..had it been done before? If so how? I wanted to UTEE a wire bird cage....where did that come from...I don't know.... but how the heck to UTEE it???? 

More Hmmmmmmmm's..... for days.........wire...Runny UTEE.....??? Dip??? Mold and Pour??? ....hmmmmmm...heat gun??? Heat proof gloves????


Several more days of trying to figure it out......Xmas looming....mother coming from New Zealand ...still ......hmmmmmm....... so I spoke to Lin about it Lin Brown from LB Crafts...and of course she said you want to do WHAT??? and how the heck will you do that????  And how will it get there without breaking???? And do you know what day it is already???? 

You are bonkers....mad.....stuff like that.....and then she suggested 'Maybe you'd better make a spare for me to take with me just in case' ...and proceeded to churn her item out in less than 24 hrs and sent me quicksie kind of blurry pics........hmmmmmmmmm......and of course hers was to die for even though I couldn't see too much detail in her late night pics. But yesterday people at CHA saw it and started raving about it so this is the best pic I found thanks to Dy who blogged it at CHA. Fabulous isn't it!

It includes loads of really great ideas...spoons filled with UTEE, embossed metal, painted texture and of course in her signature colour scheme. She also used beeswax, and 2 of her superb UTEE techniques she developed this year...UTEE poured on Ten Seconds molds, (that was a "ka-ching" moment after Suze and Lin had a play day in Lin's shop last year) and she has demoed it around the UK at shows this last year. Fab idea. She also figured out a twist on Suze's cookie cutter technique. Lin pours clear UTEE over a piece of stamped and puffed metal..see the diamond bellie top left...(BTW we taught both these fun ideas at our October 2009 ArtsyCrafts weekend event last year) Lin is amazing. Everything she does is beautiful, well thought out and executed.......so while her piece was winging its way in a timely manner over to the USA.... no pressure ..... I still hadn't figured out...... how to UTEE over wire....

 Let's just start with the Leandra beads and see what happens. So a couple of years back I figured out how to make beads by dipping wire into UTEE, fondue styley. You can read the original post here with step outs. Sometimes I use paper as a base, other times existing beads or sequins. For this project I picked up the blue from the background, painted wooden beads and dipped them into clear, wrapped with wire and dipped again. The beads are attached to the bottom of the cage in the holes created around the cage base. They also look great with perfect pearls trapped in the layers too.

That just left the cage and it's birdie to go on the perch. I started with some mold and pour pressed on the inside.

 And then started with the UTEE on the outside. I found that perfect pearls can change the effect too, so some sections are totally clear (no perfect pearls) and others have a dusting of PP to make it more opaque and shimmer.  You prolly need to see it IRL to get that bit.

 After all the hmmmmm's , it wasn't that hard after all! LOL I was sweating it though....as I had no plan B if it failed! LOL

In the back of the cage the little metal embossed tweeter is very happy on his perch. And I hope he has been well behaved while all those CHA people are peeking at him throughout the show.

So here it is the whole piece finished. 


Glad to be able to share this with you all, and don't forget the PaperArtsy January sale finished soon. Check it out. We added a Bargain Bin this weekend with lots of end of line goodies in it and more are being added daily.

I'll catch you later in the week with some fabulous 'Clock themed' items from our design team.
Take care

Leandra

Good Times {JANUARY SALE NOW ON} at PaperArtsy

It only happens once a year and it starts now, the {BIG} SALE is on now, here at PaperArtsy. So bag a bargain while stocks last.

We are always well stocked with rubber, after all we do manufacture all our stamps on site here at PaperArtsy World HQ, so if you need rubber we make it!!! That will not run out! However for supplies of omther items such a paints, texture paste, papers, wood, metal, chipboard or canvas etc we rely on other suppliers, so those products may go out of stock, but we will do our best to re-order popular items ASAP. 

To be sure you get what you want, it would be smart to order now. We will be busy little bunnies getting your orders out as fast as we can, and remember every order gets a freebie gift!

Spend over £30 and get 10% off

Spend over £60.00 and get 20% off

Spend over £100.00 and get 30% off

on top of that, use your Voucher code from issue 117 out now from Craft Stamper magazine and all UK customers will also get free shipping!

Coming up this month are ideas with the new Ink and the Dog Clocks stamps from our Design Team - and more Youtube videos from Leandra! Stay tuned!

Wishing you all a healthy and very happy 2010

Mark andLeandra

New coolio things to {play} with

We had a fabulous Christmas this year, the snow, albeit a few days early was magical, and all the trees looks just like a scene from Narnia! We had people over for snowmen competitions and lots of soup and bread was consumed to warm up those cold fingers! Our 3 bird roast was superb on the day, and is extremely tasty on sandwiches too!! (Chicken, Duck and Pheasant with 2 stuffings in between)

Courtney's GCSE mock exams are over so she is more relaxed, and my mother is here to visit from New Zealand too, so she is enjoyed catching up with the kids (and all her many rellies up north) after a couple of years.

I look forward to the week between Christmas and New Year being a great time to play with arty things and ideas. This creative time often continues well into January once life settles back down after the hustle and bustle of Christmas.

Mark was a busy bee putting some new goodies on the site recently, so I thought I should let you know what is there, I am itching to play with many of these bits too!!!

This little 'jewellery' box caught my eye as a nice thing to alter. I would look superb with some metal or paint on it, but it has a clever insert to accommodate a necklace or earrings, so if you make jewellery for gifts, then this is a must for you and at £1.08 (GBP - pounds sterling)

  

We also have a pair of papier mache suitcases; these are the best and would look great on display in a room. £2.84 for both suitcases before VAT.

The small notebooks are a reasonable price too. The ones with the window niche have graph paper, just pale grey squares, so not too dominant, but I totally love that niche in the front. The plain covered books have regular lines, and again, books like this work well with a metal cover to jazz them up.  10x10cm are 51p, 14x14cm are .83p (before VAT)

 

A simple idea to cover the notebooks would be this. Put humungo tape over the entire cover. Run some strips of metal through the cuttle-bug then arrange them on the sticky tape. Where 2 pieces of metal meet each other, it’s a good idea to run a texture wheel (fine dot, or diagonal are good) along the join to ensure the metal has good contact with the humungo tape. Don’t scrimp on the tape, I know it’s expensive, but you need a super strong tape like humungo to do this job or the metal will fall off the book cover before too long.

Next up, the micro canvases. I have been doing all kind of projects on these for a couple of years now and they are so cute. We have 2 sizes, and you get one of each size for .85p I am quite partial to the idea of making these into little houses, with some metal rooves!!

We also have 3 sizes of square canvases (those flat hard backed ones) which fit into a wooden frame. Use them together or separately. Prices from .69p to £1.51 (before VAT)

Loving these wooden ‘icon’ frames, both as a double (£1.05 ex VAT) or triple (£1.56 ex VAT) hinged pieces, they are beautiful to alter and of course, being solid wood, they take metal very well.

Lastly the 3 in a row small frames and the pencil cases are back in stock, these are always popular items. Leandra had a project with the frames in one of the pre-Christmas issues of Craft Stamper magazine.

And a paint palette may come in handy if you plan on using those Viva paints! You will find all the terra, ferro, croco and Viva precious metal colour paints are back in stock so if you were gifted some money to spend over Christmas, those are very versatile products to play a round with for sure!!

Yes we are open this week, and we will be shipping out orders super quick, so if you need stuff either call us on 01277 212911 or place an order online.


Have a great week, we are nearly at 2010!!!! The millenium celebrations don't seem like 10 years ago!!! Yikes! Keep safe.



Leandra

Weeks whizzing by

Yesterday we had snow, and this afternoon and tonight it's going to snow heavily down here in Essex, and the East of England, so I think this morning is my last chance before school ends to get those last few presents sorted out. You  think you have it all done, and then you think of another 6 things you forgot about. So just thought I'd get a note out to you all before I hit the panic button.

My mother is here from New Zealand this year, she has just spent the last couple of weeks up in Lancashire for a family wedding, and catching up with some old school friends, then on Monday she will come down to us. We have lots of evening parties planned next week, so I think by the time Christmas eve arrives we will enjoy a day on the couches watching the tele!!

We launched a PaperArtsy Youtube channel last week and I have put a couple of videos up relevant to recent blog posts. 

Firstly stamping into texture. In this video I used Terra and Ferro, but you don't have to use both on the same project, you could use one or the other. I put a couple of dark colours into the dips, but you can put light in the dips, or leave as is and put darker colours on top. It really is a lot of fun, and great for onto wooden frames or surfaces as well as papier mache or chipboard.

I am expecting a delivery of Terra and Ferro today, so there will be plenty of choice in the shop, plus we have a whole lot of new wooden items to put online too, so get your orders in now ready for that wonderful week between Christmas and New year whihc is a great art-play time!


The second video is the technique of 'puffing' metal. For this you can stamp an image and puff out sections of it. The image might be a bird cage, the castle turrets, birds on a wire, or in the case of the video, a simple flower which makes a beautiful card or scrapbook embellishment. But I also added a simple frame to it.

We will continue to add more videos to the PaperArtsy channel so you can see first hand how to use products that we stock. If you have any specific request, then let us know.

Wishing you all a totally fabulous Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

Leandra & Mark.

Official {ARTSYCRAFTS} dates for 2010

Here it is...the waiting is over......

we have been getting loads of phone calls, emails and enquiries...every day for a few weeks from keen peeps wanting to book.....and now all the info for 

THREE NEW ARTSYCRAFTS DATES 

is online ready for you!!

 

Bookings open Monday 14th December 10am. 

We have had to make some changes to our original March plans as .....big news..... Lin's daughter has set her wedding date for the end of March (much excitement) so here is the new plan.

We have 3 events scheduled for the first half of 2010

Event Dates


March 13/14, 2010 at DeVere Daresbury Park, Warrington (nr Manchester).
This is a one weekend only "Best of" ArtsyCrafts  event). This will include the fabulous Gothic Arch with a new twist, plus the most popular classes from our 2008 ArtsyCrafts events. 


The March event is going to be perfect for people who missed our first ever AC classes in 2008, or for those who have never attended an AC event before and of course for ArtsyCrafts addicts who need a hit of inspiration during the winter months. PLUS it's happening in the North of England, so those of you living up that way won't have so far to travel! The venue offers superb, 4 star accommodation, has a healthy food restaurant, wireless internet throughout and a really nice large room to work in, easy access from the motorway, and only 20 mins from both Manchester Airport and Liverpool's John Lennon airport.


None of the classes will be exactly the same as previously taught, so even though the event is based on prior classes, all of the projects will involve different stamps and twists on techniques to keep it fresh.


Techniques you will learn:

• metal embossing (cuttle bug and moulds)
• stamping on metal
• sanding metal
• tape sandwiches
• adhesive metal
• alcohol inks on metal
  
• making a metal frame from a wooden substrate
• stamping/colouring fabric
• embellishing stamped fabric
• Terra texture with kaiser-colour paint
• the Leandra bead from UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel)
• working with PaperArtsy papers and Stamps
  

May 8/9, 2010 or May 22/23, 2010 " Flights of Fancy" at DeVere Harben House, Newport Pagnell (nr Milton Keynes)

• new curriculum based on the theme "Flights of Fancy" developed by Linda Brown (LB Crafts) and Leandra Franich (PaperArtsy)
  
• plenty of innovative techniques to learn in every session using metal, stamps, paints etc.

The Price for every weekend is £275.00. This includes 

• use of plentiful class supplies (stamps, inks, paints etc)
  
• prepared class project kits (items to make your projects)
• full colour step by step notes for each project
• innovative, technique-loaded class projects over 8 sessions using a wide variety of current products
  
• personal metal working tool kit (on loan for the duration of the weekend)
• tea/coffee cold drinks and snacks on tap
• beautiful lunches in the restaurant Saturday (buffet of many choices) and Sunday (carvery)
• spacious venue workroom: beautiful large working area with plenty of space and easy access
• Well known craft teachers Lin and Leandra facilitating the weekend with their additional experienced staff on hand to assist

Earlybird booking price: £250.00 valid until 31 January 2010

The Accommodation

Accomodation on site is available at both venues if you require it. You will need to book this directly yourself, or elsewhere nearby if you prefer. 

DeVere Daresbury: £50.00 incl VAT for bed and breakfast choice of twin or double bedrooms
DeVere Newport Pagnell: £39.00 ex VAT for bed and breakfast. Double rooms only available so not suitable for friend share.

Evening Meals

We leave you free to organise your own evening meal on Saturday in case you prefer to eat elsewhere locally for a change of scenery.

Transport Links

DeVere Daresbury Park, Warrington. You can fly either to John Lennon Airport, Liverpool, or Manchester. From Manchester take the train to Warrington, then catch a taxi to the venue (5mins).  From John Lennon its a 20 min taxi drive to the venue.

DeVere Harben House, Newport Pagnell. Closest airport is Luton (40min taxi drive). Or take the bus to Milton Keynes, then another to Newport Pagnell. You may need to consider arriving Friday night and leaving Monday morning for easier transport options.



If you want to read more about our most recent ArtsyCrafts event which was held in October 2009, then red about it here on Leandra's blog, or here on Linda's blog. Many previous attendees have left comments or links back to their blogs too. It's a great way to get a feel to see if this might be an event you would like to attend.



To Book you need to follow this link to the ArtsyCrafts Web Page.

 
DeVere Daresbury Park, Nr Warrington:March 13, 14, 2010 booking form here



DeVere Harben House, Newport Pagnell:May 8,9 or May 22,23, 2010 booking form here

How to book?
1. Download the relevant booking form for the weekend you wish to attend.

2. Fill it out, and send it with payment to:
    LB Crafts Ltd ArtsyCrafts
    6 Rose Court
    Market Place
    Olney
    MK46 4BY
    England

3. Pay. Either send a cheque in the post to LB Crafts Ltd ArtsyCrafts, or if you want to pay via Credit Card, then send your form, and once it arrives  we will call you for payment. (for card security we do not want you to send card details in the post, nor can we keep a written record in the shop)

4. Bookings will be processed strictly on a first come basis, and no bookings are final until the completed form and payment are both received.


Any queries please phone LB Crafts on +44 (0)1234 714 848 or PaperArtsy on +44 (0)1277 212 911

A day of {cheers} at PA world HQ

PaperArtsy stamps in Stampington's Stampers' Sampler (try saying that 3 times in a row!)

 

Over the weekend an American retailer we supply emailed to say that some of our stamps were being used in the newest issue of Stampers Sampler that she had just got in the post. I hot footed it over to the Stampington website hoping to see some sneak peeks from inside the issue so I could identify the stamps that had been used.... but the new issue wasn't online yet. The today our rep Kay phoned to say that the artwork was on the front cover. Hooray we said, and went back to Stampington to see this. 

And here's the sneaky peeks of inside the mag. Some of our stamps nestled in among gorgeous hand drawn images by the author, who we are told is Anie Frazer so hope that information is right....well done, we love what you did!

So go get your copy now and then come to PaperArtsy to get the stamps. The image on the left is from SILK1, the arch shaped house. NExt is SIEN1 (xmas trees) with the tall house from SIBM3. The tiny little house nestled in on the flower is also from SIBM3 and Love you more is from SILK1. Then the row of houses under the flowers on the far right sample is from SIBM2.  

I love the combination of stamps surrounded by easily created hand drawn images. And colouring in like this ...lots of fun whether you use waxy pencils, watercolour pencils and of course copics.


Enjoy


Leandra