Altered, altered canvas at IndigoBlu

Hi everyone and welcome! As promised yesterday, I'm back with a new canvas (well I say new... ) over at IndigoBlu today. It's definitely different for me and there's a bit of a shaggy story behind this one too - I'd love to know what you think.

And if you weren't here yesterday you may have missed out on the prizes up for grabs as part of our birthday celebrations over at A Vintage Journey. Hop on over to join in the fun.

Well the sun is shining here for the first time in a while and those temperatures are finally rising so it looks like it'll be a good weekend! Whatever you're up to, have a great one and take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Anything Tim at A Vintage Journey

Hi everyone and welcome to a special post celebrating the 1st birthday of A Vintage Journey. Can you believe it's been going for a whole year already! And there's lots to celebrate - for a start we are excited to announce that Trace 'Inkypinkycraft' is back with us, hurrah! and we have a new Creative Guide joining us, Shari Trumbull from 'Ain't That Artsy Fartsy', brilliant!

More news, the challenge schedule is being changed quite significantly; there will now be ONE challenge per month with the winner chosen by random.org so ANYONE who enters could win. The prize is being doubled by our generous sponsor, Country View Crafts, to a £20 voucher! The Creative Guides will continue to pick a top 3 'Pinworthies' and they, along with our challenge winner, will be invited to join us as Guest Creative Guides. A special guest will join us each month and even the Destination Inspiration posts are getting a makeover (more on that to come... )

To celebrate our 1st birthday the theme is 'Anything Tim' and there are some VERY SPECIAL PRIZES up for grabs, but you'll need to go over to the AVJ blog to find out about those. 'Anything Tim'... means vintage, shabby chic, mixed media and journalling projects that have a Tim Holtz influence. Will it be his techniques, his products, his tags, books or videos that you choose to inspire you? Whatever does it for you remember to link up to the challenge blog to be in with a chance to win!

Now for my Tim thing... this is a bit of a different colour scheme for me isn't it! It looks kinda complicated but in reality it's quite simple to achieve, making use of the new 'Flower Garden' stamps, 'Mixed Media' Thinlits dies and Tim's 'Distress Watercolouring' technique from the Compendium of Curiosities III. So how did I do it... (remember, just click on the photos for a closer look)...

For a long time I've been mentally willing Tim to release flower stamps and this year he seriously came up trumps - these 'Flower Garden' ones are simply perfect - thank you Tim! I stamped the leaves, stems, and flowers in Distress Ink and then watercoloured them following Tim's instructions. You'll notice there are no black lines as I wanted them to be softer and more realistic, and do you like the Abandoned Coral ones? This colour has quickly become one of my new favourites. With the floral bouquet 'painted' and fussy cut I picked out a section from the Wallflower paper stash but it looked a bit too detailed and I realised it was only the flower part that needed to be seen. Bring on the Mixed Media Thinlits. It was great to partially remove sections without simply tearing them away as it allowed me to add a coordinating Distress Coredinations background that wasn't just a matting layer. Of course as it is a birthday celebration a Simple Saying was totally appropriate.

Told you there wasn't much to it! You could of course go mad and add extra embellishments, but for me this felt balanced and complete. Thank you Tim for lots of inspiration, education, great products and sharing your passion for creating. Now it's time to let Tim inspire you. Head on over to A Vintage Journey to see what my fellow Creative Guides have been up to then you'll need to enter to be in with a chance to win one of the very special prizes up for grabs this month.

I'll be back tomorrow with my regular IndigoBlu spot and hope you can join me for that. In the meantime take care of yourselves. Jenny xxx

It's Time for a Vacation at Frilly and Funkie

Editor's Note: I really wanted you to get the chance to take a closer look at the details on my projects, so rather than sizing all the photos to extra large you can now click on each one to see a close up view instead - hope you approve!

Hi everyone and welcome! It's been busy here again - a demo day on Saturday and some filming on Monday - and with lots of prep to do I was struggling to get my head around this fortnight's Frilly and Funkie challenge theme, 'It's Time for a Vacation'.

Here's what Cec, our host for this challenge had to say about the theme; "If you are like most of us in the eastern half of North America, you are fed up with the brutal cold and snow that has been plaguing us for weeks and you want to get away so the challenge is called 'It's Time for a Vacation' - it could be a warm beach, an exotic locale with lots of sights to see or even in your own back yard".

So why was I struggling with this challenge? Well when it came down to it this was simply a matter of scale and purpose. Many of you who've been generously following me for a while will know I tend to make 6x6 cards which can then be used for family, friends and occasions. So mentally I approached this theme thinking about how to fit it onto a card and make it suitable for one of the many upcoming birthdays. For that reason the original intention was to go down the Parisian route but I also wanted to play with the new Distress colours and some of the new Thinlits dies.

Time to rethink... it feels like a lifetime ago (but in fact was only mid February!!!) that I created an A5 panel as a way of playing with some new Wendy Vecchi goodies (you can see that HERE) so I figured let's just pick some colours and a Found Relative and just play again!

The chosen colours (I used them in paint, ink, stain and stain spray format) were Cracked Pistachio, Salty Ocean, Evergreen Bough, Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Abandoned Coral and Walnut Stain. You'll spot one of my favourite background stamps, IndigoBlu's 'Bubbles Background', at work here. I added Wendy Vecchi's Sky Blue embossing powder and some fine white embossing powder to create the foaming surface of the seashore, then spritzed the blue/green shades of Distress Stain Sprays over the top. Finally I splatted the Salty Ocean and Cracked Pistachio Distress Stains into a few areas to mirror the die cut splats that would be added over the top.

Turning attention to the 'toppings' I started with a beautiful image from the Occasions Found Relatives set that reminded me of one of my own childhood holiday experiences - I don't like adding personal photos of family members onto 'public' projects but this one reminded me of me and my sister paddling at Seaburn when we went to visit our Nana each year. To create a frame I used the ATC Bigz die on a central section, then set about adding colour to it all. Based on previous experiences I decided to use the blue shades of Distress Paint for this job, dragging/drying the 'frame' and brushing/patting the main image to help the girls stand out even more. This was mounted on more Distress Painted card, embossed and die cut with one of the new Mixed Media dies.

The splatters were cut from card covered with silver gilding flakes (Sheffield Steel Mega Flakes) before being dabbed with a little alcohol ink. You'll also spot a Distress Glitter covered starfish, a painted seahorse (covered in Crackle Accents before being overheated from behind for that bubbled effect) and sea greenery, inked up with Cracked Pistachio and Abandoned Coral. The bubbles were enhanced with a scattering of pearls and Glossy Accents and Remnant Rub Ons completed the panel.

Now, as well as acting as a reminder to my past, this has me dreaming of summer days to come and with any luck a chance to get to the beach again. Hop on over to the Frilly and Funkie challenge blog and you'll be able to see what my fellow DT members have been inspired to create.

Then it'll be over to you! Remember, the winner of this challenge will earn the chance of a Guest DT spot at Frilly and Funkie, and everyone who enters and follows the rules will be entered into the draw to have the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

For now I hope the remainder of this week is happy and creative. Take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Rainbow Heart at IndigoBlu

Hi everyone and welcome! Another Saturday, another post for IndigoBlu where I'm sharing another CHA sample.

You may have guessed from the lack of posts recently that I've been back in the craft room; I've been whipping up a storm with projects that will be coming to a screen near you soon...

and today you'll find me at Byrkley Park Garden Centre craft shop demo'ing for all the lovely crafters who regularly join me there.

Whatever you're up to this weekend take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Caitlin with Peonies at IndigoBlu

Hi everyone and welcome. It's time once again for my regular Saturday blog post over at IndigoBlu, and this time I'm sharing a mixed media project created for the recent UK trade show using the new mixed media papers.

This design was inspired by the creative wonder that it Elena Morgun (Sunshine Studio) - I highly recommend a trip to her blog and YouTube channel if ever your mojo feels in need of a real boost.

You can see the whole piece and more close ups over at IndigoBlu together with details of the products I used.

For now have a great weekend and whatever you're up to take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

'Winter Blooms' Friday Focus at Frilly and Funkie

Hi everyone and welcome. Today as promised I'm sharing a Friday Focus step by step tutorial for my 'Winter Blooms' card over at Frilly and Funkie. I hope you can join me over there to find out more.

I'll be back again tomorrow to share a piece made for the recent trade show at the NEC.

For now take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Four days of fun...

Hi everyone and welcome! Thought I'd just share a little of my life recently (and it might go a little way to explaining why I've been unable to drop by your blogs in quite a while).

Think I shared previously (losing track) that I got some shows recorded for IndigoBlu, and these are currently being broadcast throughout February on britishcraftnetwork.tv. And I'm pleased to say plans are afoot for more of those to come in the foreseeable future! Thank you so much to all of you that have passed on fabulous messages of support and praise - it means the world x

Obviously the DT work and demos have continued apace (had the BEST time ever at PoppyCraft in Wallingford) and closer to home at Back2Craft in Walsall it was fast paced and furious with four in depth make n take sessions in one day! Thank you to everyone who came along to these for making them so enjoyable, and to the lovely Verna and Val at PoppyCraft and the wonderful whirlwind that is Sarah at Back2Craft.

And so to the last four days...  it all started on the Saturday with a one day workshop at my local craft store at Byrkley Park Garden Centre, Rangemore with 21 eager and enthusiastic ladies all ready to get down and just a little dirty with paint and flake. To say I got them working way outside their comfort zones, the results were superb - hats off to you all! A huge thank you just doesn't seem a big enough way to show my appreciation to Wendy for organising this and even coming in on her day off to help throughout the day. It would not have been possible without you x

Here are some photos of the day...

Then it was off to the trade show at the NEC, Birmingham to a place I was thrilled to call home for three days, demo'ing on the IndigoBlu stand! Seriously, it was SO busy that I didn't get any photos of the stand (thank you so much Kay for this pre-show shot and for the chance to do this!) The stand had everyone in raptures (huge round of applause to the DT/demonstrators for the awesome samples) and they were LOVING the new stamp designs, papers and seeing what could be done with English Cottage Artist's Acrylic Paints.

Best not to ask me what was on display at the show! I got as far as seeing Finnabair and the Decoart stand (with the fabulous Mark Gould and uber-smiley creative wonder that is Andy Skinner) but that was it. It was lovely to have some of my personal heroes drop by the stand to say hello too - Kath Stewart was taking a well deserved opportunity to just enjoy the show, my good pal Rosella Cottrell flew by in between demo'ing and her shows on C&C, and Jennie Boxall came by too with Mal by her side. Then I finally got to meet the gem of a lady that is Julia Stratford-Wright in person. How long have I worked alongside and 'known' this lady and yet it took until now to finally get to see her irl!

Can't even begin to describe how fantastic it was to catch up with the beautiful Brenda Brown throughout the three days (boy, that lady has stamina!) and we were joined by another creative genius and all round lovely person, Astrid Maclean on Tuesday! You'll probably have spotted that the paint splattered pinny was welded on to me permanently the whole time.

So now I'm back home, getting posts written for the coming days, looking forlornly at the state of the house and trying to figure out which of the long list of creative jobs needs doing first - it's silly busy but incredibly exciting! And now you know why my attempts at general blog hopping/visiting has all but ground to a halt, and I can't promise normal service will be resumed any time soon, but I do have a plan hatched to make it up to you - more on that to come (mwahaha!)...

I'll be back tomorrow with that step by step for Frilly and Funkie so I hope you can drop by for that.

In the meantime take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx