Polished...

Happy Saturday,

Well this is really something different Saturday as Its MDF and the nee Metallic Gilding Polishes, masks and some stamping!  This piece shows the wonderful polishes perfectly which I will be introducing to everyone on Hochanda tomorrow night, along with the second half of my spring stamp launch, tomorrow night at 8pm.

I will be demoing at the NEC hobby crafts show today for the Art of Craft so pop along and say Hi if you are at the show.  Today's piece started with the beach houses set form Creative Expressions and is decorated really easily with the polishes.  With the polish you don't need to gesso the MDF at all you simply add the polish, using the tool that comes in the pot with the product.  I used Mediterranean blue, ocean teal and pearl white in bands across the beach house, as you can see the colours blend perfectly.

Next I used more of the polish through the new Mini 3 x 3 masks from creative Expressions to add the diamond patterns .  Next I added waves using the gilding polish to stamp the new clear stamp designed to go with the by the sea MDF accessory pack that I used here.  The seahorses are separate piece that I coloured in the white and shaded using the teal and blue around the edges.  I then stamped the detail of the seahorses using jet black archival ink ( the polish is water based and so takes any ink over the top)






To finish the piece I added cosmic pearl dots and glued on large clear microbes to give the feel of water.

A very different piece but one that I really love as you can see form the pictures It has already found a home in my House!

Enjoy...

Something Different Saturday...New

Happy Saturday,

I thought you might like a sneak peak of one of the products I was demoing at the trade show last weekend.  All of these projects are made using the Brand New Cosmic Shimmer Metallic Gilding Polish which, for me at least, is a revolutionary product.  It works with paper, MDF and so many other surfaces it blends colours, coats evenly ( without need of a base coat) and has its own unique applicator in the lid.  There will be more of this when the polish is available in shops later this month or early in march and I am haloing to demo it on Hochanda as soon as possible.  But I thought you might like to see some go the creations I gave made before that as they are very different for me!

They are all based on the new MDF driftwood pack and I have used one pice form the six ( of 2 different sizes) that come in the pack.  The pack is designed to to used all together to create a panel however I just loved the shoe of the individual pieces that I used one per project ( cheap aren't i? lol)  I believe the MDF is already winging its way to the shops along with the stamps I have used in the projects as well as the MDF shapes that match each set.

The above piece, which features the seaside MDF shapes as well as matching stamps, uses three of the colours of Polish and shows how they bland and the stunning effects you can get easily.  Heres I have used one of the new mini masks as well as stamping and PVA to make the sea feel realistic.

Finally another piece that has ended up in my home using the sentiment form my Lily of the Valley set haloing with the MDF seagulls and driftwood.

I hope you like this difference I have a few more pieces including a Seahorse stable to show when the polish is released.

Don't forget I am back on Hochanda tonight at 8pm with the One Day Special featuring my favourite dies from the Sue Wilson designs realised in November.  I will be demonstrating the orange blossom flowers and leaves box I made a few weeks ago that everyone keeps asking about.  Shows continue tomorrow at 9am, 12pm, 4pm and last chance at 7pm.  Hochanda is on freeview 39, Sky 663 and freest 819 as well as online live in HD at www.hochanda.com.

Mondays child differently...

Happy Saturday,

Well I do like to mix things up a bit so this weeks something different is an MDF tag.  I did this piece for a workshop with Gloria and the lovely ladies of Diss.  I started by covering one of the CE MDF Tags in white crackle decoupage paper from Craft Consortium using Cosmic Shimmer Matt glue and seal.  I didn't seal over the top as with these papers you don't need to, if using other brands of Decoupage paper you may need to add a seal over the top so that the stamping and embossing has a surface to cling to.

Next I stamped the Mondays Child poem form my clear stamp set of the same name, onto the tag using perfect medium and heat set it using CS detail white embossing powder.  I then stamped the snowflakes and stars from my snowdrops set in black archival around the left hand side.  I added dots of cosmic white dimensional PVA on some of the snowflakes and stars to add texture.














Finally, I stamped the shaded camellia stamps and cut them out with the matching Sue Wilson dies.  I added these around the bottom right and rubbed pewter gilding wax over the sides and edges before adding a tie of white seam binding.

A little dark but in real life there is a soft white and silver shine, honest!

Ingredients:
Card Size: Tag
Colours: White, Black & Silver
Stamps: JL Mondays child & Snowdrop elements
Embossing:Detail white embossing powder
Inks: Perfect Medium, CS True White detail embossing powder
Embellishments: None


Enjoy...


For any of my stamp sets please Click HERE 

Heather Hearts...

Happy Wednesday,

Im glad you all enjoyed the MDF shows yesterday with Lisa and I I really learnt some new techniques from her!  I thought you might like to see that Heart Wreath that I did as a sample to go with the stunning demo Lisa did with this MDF Heart.

I used the stunning Bird papers along with the matching florals form the set to cover the hearts.

 I Covered the base of the wreath using the Cosmic Shimmer Crackle paint in Heather and covered the frames on the hearts in the same.  I then, once dry and cracked, rubbed vintage plum gilding wax all over the heart frames to bring out the cracks and make them shine.

I simply added all the hearts on the the wreath alternating with those with frames and those without.  To finish I added a bow and ribbon hanger and a tail at the end.

Enjoy...

Stationery...

Happy Monday,

I hope you can join me and Lisa Horton for the launch of the One Day Special on Hochanda tonight at 8pm.  For those who may have missed Hochanda it is on Channel 39 on Freeview, 663 on Sky and online (in HD) at www.hochanda.com! Lisa and I will be introducing the Brand New range of papers from Craft Consortium as well as some Brand New MDF pieces from Creative Expressions.  I thought I would start the reveal with this fab Staionery set which comes flat packed for you to decorate.

This large piece is the first one I will be demoing on the launch show, so you will have to tune in to see how this is put together and covered! lol

This comes as part of a 2 piece set with a smaller holder that is perfect for your pens and pads etc as well as making a really useful remote control holder.  I believe that Lisa has decorated one of these as a remote holder, I'm hoping its in the right colours as I could do with one for my lounge!

I really hope you can Join me and lisa as she has some brilliant demo's planned!  I have added a few more pictures of both units in case you want some inspiration.

We will be on all day Tomorrow at 9am, 12pm, 4pm and 7pm !

Enjoy...

More Shows...

Happy Thursday,

I hope you all enjoyed a look into my wardrobe yesterday with my first demo card on Hochanda!  I'm back tonight with the second One Day Special on Christmas Decoupage and MDF!

This is one of the techniques I will be demoing tonight gilding MDF items.  I'm not sure if this piece will be demoed however I will be showing how to gild the Christmas MDF.  There should be some pictures of the pieces I am demoing however I can't seem to get them to appear!
I thought you all wouldn't mind seeing his piece instead.










i will be demoing at Sharon's Card Craft in Swanley until 3pm today, pop along and sat i if you are in the area!

The winner of Mondays card was Josephine, please email me your address to Lockers @live.co.uk and I will send it out to you.  All other cards and prizes have been sent out please if you haven't received your card by Friday email me to make sure everyone gets what they have been promised!

The Design Team call for Creative Expressions has gone out!  If you would like to join our exciting team then click HERE for more details!

Enjoy...

How to Make Christmas?!?...

Happy Thursday,

Firstly a quick note to all recent winners, if you haven't already could you email me your address to lockers@live.co.uk.  Those who have your prizes will go out tomorrow.  I am sorry for the delay I simply have struggled to get time to go to the post office!  I will make sure I clear the decks for next week as there will be a new giveaway on Monday!

Back to today and I have added a load of pictures of yesterdays workshops at Crafty Company in Fleetwood to Facebook.  WE had a brilliant time and don't forget I am there again today for a free demo day so if you have any questions just pop in and say Hi and I will try to answer them!

I have loads of emails asking how I decorated the Happy Christmas for the shows on Hochanda and so I thought I would give you a mini tutorial !

I stared by painting one coat of the Cosmic Shimmer paint (for the Happy Christmas I used russet Red) all over the piece as in this picture.  I hasten to add it is wresting against a bag of display snow!

Next I added a liberal amount of Vintage Holly gilding wax around the edges.  Using my fingers I rubbed this in around the tops of the letters and added some, in patches, on the front.  This gives and aged look to the piece.

Next I took some of the 2 sizes of MDF holly from the accessory pack and painted them with a single coat (the great thing about the shimmer paint is that they cover MDF with no base coat required in one coat) of the peacock green shimmer paint.  Next using a large wash brush I added aqua gold shimmer paint to one side of the holly leaves, in one stroke if possible, to add some variation to the holly and make it look even more 3D.





finally, using enchanted gold gilding wax, i rand a thin border with my finger around each leave.  I attached them randomly to the happy Christmas using cosmic shimmer dries clear glue.  I added berries using vintage berry twinkles for that glitter sparkle and finished.

For the winter wishes I used a light silver shimmer paint and pewter gilding wax to give a completely different look adding a bit of bling with a CE stick on sparkle.

Enjoy...

Sorry Guys...

Happy Wednesday,

I am spending up the motorway as you read this, if you are an early bird lol, to go for a workshop day today and a demo day tomorrow for Crafty Company in Fleetwood.  I believe the workshop is sold out however the demo day is free and open to everyone so if you are in the area pop in tomorrow.

Ive titled this sorry guys as there is no Design Team card or project form me today.  I simply haven't had time to make them for this week either, between my denying commitments and Hochanda all my time seems to have been eaten this last couple of weeks!

Therefore Today I am showing a round up of some of the projects I have made during my shows, hopefully the website will be running form lunchtime today so you can check www.hochanda.com to see all the products I used!

New Project tomorrow, and some shots from the workshop today hopefully!

Enjoy...

Gingerbread Wreath...

Happy Tuesday,

I know it sounds strange but that what I will be demonstrating at 9am this morning on Hochanda!  Not a wreath made of gingerbread (my culinary skills aren't that developed) but made of MDF gingerbread i.e. the one in the picture lol.

To find out how this was made you will need to watch the show however I used the shimmer paints for the bases of all the MDF items.  Next I stamped them using the matching stamp set in perfect medium and heat embossed each image using cosmic shimmer detail what embossing powder.  I then arranged them around the base MDF wreath, painted in silver shimmer paint and added a bow and ribbon detail.  Finally I added some of the small gingerbread men, from the christmas grab bag, to fill the gaps.

It would be great if you could join me for this and at least 6 other demos / workshops today times etc are in the side bar!

Enjoy...

One Day Special, its a Wreath...

Happy Monday,

I'm sorry the pictures of today's sneak peaks, for tonight's show, are not the best!  As you can imagine I was beavering away all day yesterday to make new samples and demos so that I had enough to show you tonight at 8pm and then tomorrow at 9am, 12pm, 3pm and 7pm!  I took these this morning featuring the MDF wreath set which I was only able to get ( stocks only came in on Friday) on Saturday!

This first one is painted with the Cosmic Shimmer Shimmer paint (a mouthful I Know) but these give a beautiful sheen and shine and cover the MDF in one coat.  I cut the holy spray dies in different shades of green then added some classic poinsettias.  These were cut using paper form my 12 Days paper pack which makes creating detailed flowers like these easy as you just cut and assemble.

Next is a wreath made with the Craft Consortium decoupage papers and the MDF wooden baubles.  I added Olympic gold pearl PVA and some MDF poinsettias  just to highlight them.  The wreath has a lovely shimmer and shine to find out how I did this you will need to tune in!

Finally a notebook, ideal for your Christmas Card list, simply covered in the Decoupage papers and decorated.

Hopefully a few of you can tune in and if you have any questions please email in at studio@hochanda.com!

Enjoy...

What another Sneak Peak?...

Happy Sunday,

Today's project is, again, a sea peak of next Monday / Tuesdays One Day Special on Hochanda!  This is part of a winter decoupage special so there will be more paint. stamping and embellishing workshops headed your way (if i can think of nay more lol)

Today's piece is a storm lantern, that looks to me at least, as if its been made of wrought iron rather than MDF.  If you want to see how I did this you will need to tune in at 8pm tomorrow (Monday) Freeview 39, sky 663 and freesat 822 or online at www.hochnada.com.

I used the range of shimmer paints and other cosmic items I have on the show to get this effect and this is one part of the One Day Special hopefully (if I get an samples finished today) I will sneak peak the other special offer item tomorrow.

Enjoy...

Covered in Glue...

Happy Friday,

Well i'm now covered in glue and shimmer paint having made a load of demos for Todays shows, if you can it would be great if you tune in (if only to see if i get my hand clean) at 10am and so one lol

I thought you might like a look at some of the bits I have been prepping!  I will also be taking a christmas tree with me so you should be able to see loads of these in situ as it was!  These are two of the demos that I will be doing through the day.  The first is what I came up with the decorate and display the beautiful MDF Christmas Grab bag.  I used a section of Cosmic Shimmer products, shimmer paints, gilding wax, PVA pearl and Twinkles to make these cute card or 3D projects decorations.

The second shot is of a sweet jar and tag decoupaged in one of the Craft Consortium Decoupage papers, perfect if you make your own christmas sweets (scan to Christmas 2013 for my take on home made chocolates with recipe!)

Hopefully see you all later!

Enjoy...

Sneak Peak!

Happy Thursday,

I thought you might like a sneak peak of some of the items I have on the shows for Hochanda tomorrow!  for those of you who are new to my blog family this may seam like a bit of a departure as its not  card but it's still paper crafting, honest!

I will be presenting the new range of Craft Consortium pares and Creative Exoressions MDF for Christmas tomorrow on Hochanda at 10am, 2pm and 6pm it would be great if you can tune in on freeview 39 and Sky 663.

 I will be demoing the techniques I used to make all of these MDF shapes as well as a long demo on how to cover the sleigh with paper and then decorate it.  Honestly the show has some really simple techniques using Special Decoupage papers, paint, gilding wax to make christmas shine!

Enjoy...

Something Different...

Happy Tuesday,

Firstly thank you for all the lovely comments yesterday about the Sneak Peak of my new stamp and paper ranges for Christmas.  I can now reveal that they are packaged and will be ready for dispatch from Thursday.  Therefore form Thursday I will share a set (or two) a day along with  a sample (or two) from each set!  I don't want to share them all in detail until I know where and when they are available.

For today's post I am showing something different, still in the Christmas theme, and I hope you will like it!

Creative Expressions have just launched the new range of Christmas MDF and decoupage papers so I have been busy beavering away making samples for the launch last week.  I wanted to share a few of the samples I made with you all especially as for the last couple of weeks the studio has looked like Santa's grotto or workshop with paper glue paint and glitter (and of course Iced Snow) flying everywhere!

First picture is the 3D sleigh, which I covered in the new Craft Consortium papers and shimmer paints.

Next is the Happy Christmas stand up words and holly form the Christmas Grab Bag.

The third piece you may recognise as it is an MDF stand up version of the CE tree die by Sue Wilson.

Finally, for this session I have made loads, is the Storm lantern with classic poinsettia die cut flowers also using my favourite two time ribbon in red (the stocks of this are really low Julia has some 3m lengths left click HERE for more info)

with so much MDF and decoupage I am thinking about setting up a second blog to cover it all, what do you think?





For now I will post a piece every Sunday from next week with more detailed explanations.  I have also decorated some 10 different MDF baubles and tree decorations so there's plenty to go at!

Back tomorrow with the promised Ornate Noble Christmas Card in white.

Enjoy...