#spreadjoynotgerms Blog Hop

Hello there and welcome if you’re joining from the Spread Joy not Germs blog hop. I’m proud to be involved connected with WOW! Embossing Powder with this huge event along side so many talented individuals from some amazing companies who are all sponsoring this event with prizes to be won.

The idea is to spread joy at this difficult time through inspiring cards and I chose to create a postcard with an inky, colourful background and embellished with a bold embossed butterfly.

To create my background I dipped the card into Catherine Pooler inks which I had dabbed onto my craft mat and sprayed with water to activate the ink. I dried each colour in between to keep them bright and fresh. I used the text stamp from the Wall Art stamp set to add interest as well as some doodling and a little scrap of text paper.

The butterfly die cut is from Pink and Main and is one of my favourites. It was heat embossed firstly with 101 Embossing Powder then again with Bang and the combination of the two is beautiful I think.

If you go back to the blog of WOW! Embossing – here, you can continue to visit the other blogs and web sites along the way, or go to the start at Catherine Pooler. #spreadjoynotgerms

Happy hopping and thank you for visiting.

Jaine xx

Tiny TN Insert

Every tuesday it’s #tinytntuesday on the Facebook page of Paper Pen and Plan, when we showcase our tiny pages and think small. This week I decided to think a bit bigger by creating not just a page but a whole insert. My old insert is pretty much busting out of the cover by now anyway, so as I had some time on my hands (like a lot of us do right now!) I thought I’d put together a new one.

Rather than create a new one with blank pages I decided it would be better to make one where each page has already been started to save time later. This is my mop up paper which I keep in a cheap A5 sketch book. I use it to clean brushes, stencils and anything else which might be messy.

It’s perfect for collages.

I cut a strip the same height as my tn from a section I liked, and stamped a couple of stamps over randomly.

I folded this up to create pages.

I glued each fold together,

forming my little booklet.

It was just a matter of covering it with some cute paper (Simple Vintage Garden District by Simple Stories) from Paper Pen and Plan and it’s ready to go.

The Paper Pen and Plan Facebook page is here and the Etsy shop to buy the Simple Stories papers is here

Stay safe

Jaine xx

Sunshine and Rainbows

Here we are at the beginning of April and because of the current situation, i.e. being on lockdown to stop the spread of this awful virus, every day has started to blur into the next. I’ve started to imagine it’s the weekend every day! We’ve had some fabulous sunny days which makes me so grateful to live where I do and have a garden in which to enjoy the sun. I know for a lot of people it’s really difficult right now!

People all over the world are making their own fun and creating a little happiness wherever they can. On social media I’ve seen lots of beautiful rainbows being displayed in windows everywhere, all sizes and formats. WOW! Embossing Powder must have had some amazing forward thinking as the new theme on their Facebook Fan page is Rainbow.

I created my rainbow from these beautiful colours from the Primary’s range, hand painting the brush stroke with the Mixed Media Embossing Brush from Seth Apter. I love how it turned out.

If you’d like to see more rainbow inspired creations or join the fun by designing your own colourful project, go to the WOW Embossing Powder Fans page on Facebook.

Have a good weekend and stay safe

Jaine xx

Canvas Workshop

It feels like an age since I updated my blog but since life has slowed down slightly (due to the current situation), I’ve found a bit more time to do a few things I’ve wanted to do for a while!

I was fortunate enough to be able to hold a workshop just before everything closed down and self isolation became the norm. It was a requested workshop to create a mixed media canvas. I spent ages wondering which sort of canvas to create seeing as we’ve already done collage, texture and mixed media in the past and I really wanted to create something new.

One of my favorite artists is Flora Bowley. I bought her book a while back called Brave Intuitive Painting and love it.

Intuitive painting is the technique of letting go of your inner critic and letting your heart and hands do the painting. The results can be colourful and lively and full of spontaneous doodles and mark making.

I thought I’d let the others experience this for themselves and gave them the canvas and a few materials to get them started.

As watercolour is my favourite medium to use I created a watercolour background to start, letting the colour flow into pools on the canvas and adding some spray to help it move. If you want to add contrasting colour it’s best to let each colour dry first before adding the next otherwise you’ll end up with dirty colour which you don’t want. Once this was dry I started to add doodles and patterns with watercolour pencils. I used them wet and dry as I loved the texture from the canvas coming through. I further added doodles with white and black pens along with a snippet of text paper collage at the bottom.

Canvas Details

It’s already pushed me to get out my art journal and start creating again so while I have some time I intend to make the most of it.

Take care of yourselves and if you’d like to create a canvas of your own you can find the canvas, watercolour pencils and more in the Basement Studio shop.

Jaine xx