Hi there how are you doing?  I haven’t visited this blog for a while.  I now have a new Blog/Vlog. It would be great if you would come and join me there.  

It’s called Sams HomeCookedArt.studios on wordpress.com 

https://homecookedart.studio/

You Can Find My New Blog Here

I was having a bit of trouble with Blogger so I had to move.  After a long absence I couldn’t stand not Blogging anymore.  I do hope I can keep my original Blog though just to check in on once in a while. 

I would really appreciate it if you follow my new Blog, see follow button under Blog or Vlog Post vie above link. 

I hope to see you there.

Keep on Crafting

Sam Crowe 

A Little Catch Up

Well I have tried over the last few years to keep up with my Blog, its the one way I like to communicate the most in the craft world. Firstly its a space where all my bits are together. Secondly its a safe place because its mine, but its exciting to get visitors, especially if those visitors Like, Comment or Follow my Blog.  I do have a thing about keeping things contained, I think that is the old Secretary in me,  I have to have paperwork in a plastic wallet that lives in a file that lives in a box file that lives on a shelf and that has to have a mate where I put all my notes, then I need a reminder file to make me look at the notes!! I am sure you get the gist.

I think this is why I have ended up with two Gel Plate FB Pages,- Art On A Gelli Plate was my first one now my main one is Gel Plate Creations,  an Altered Arts and Crafts Page and a SamsHomeCookedDesigns Page, Oh and a Claritystamp Mixed Media Workshop Crew Page???  Mmmm is it a problem or does it mean I am organised??? You decide. I even have a You Tube Chanel, I am on Pinterest and now I do Instagram too - oh and Twitter?? No wonder I go to bed late.



Anyway as you know over the last few years I have had a lot of trouble with blogger.  But now I have pinched my Husbands Surface Computer so lets see if this and Blogger get along.





So last time I visited I think it was May this year.  Well should we do a little catch up?


I am now in my second year of my Claritystamp Mixed Media Workshops.  I have expanded now, I still teach them at  Billingham and now I also teach them  at Crafters Companion Aycliffe Store.

I love both of my workshops for very different reasons.  The Billingham Workshop is a Family Affair.  My Sisters, nieces, Husband, Brother In Law's and Kids all get involved when needed.  They set up the tables, do the shop, make tea and serve cake and biscuits, I have a photographer and so on and so on.  What a great family I have.  We are all very close and its great to be able to run my Workshops with the backup of my family.  Non of them get paid for it, they do it because they love me!! We have always been like that as a family really, if we are needed we chip in wherever and whenever needed.  Sometimes I think I have more family than Workshop Crew at my workshops???

This is me in front of a display of one of my Workshops

for Claritrysrtamp at the Crafters Companion Store, Aycliffe

So if any of you want to come along I will chuck a family member out of the room so that I can fit you in! 

So I run my other Clarity Mixed Media Workshops at Crafters Companion Aycliffe Store.  This is totally different but just as lovely.  I turn up and the tables are set - family are redundant- we get tea and cake in the morning, lunch at 12 and tea and cake in the afternoon from the lovely café in store. I haven't been doing workshops here for very long so most of the people who come to this one are new to me.

We work a lot with Tiny pieces of Art in my

Workshops - I LOVE Tiny pieces of ART

Although I am spotting a little trend where the Aycliffe Crew want to come to my Billingham Workshops and the Billingham Crew want to go to my Aycliffe Workshops.  My intention was to get double use out of my Projects but that is going  a little wry, still I just twist them around a little so anyone who comes to both workshops is never quite sure if they did it before or not!!!

We did a bit of self made de-coupatch papers at my last

Claritystamp Workshop held at

Crafters Companion Ayciffe Store

I have loads more to tell you but for now I will leave it there. I hope you enjoy my little catch up Gallery of some of my workshops and Claritystamp DT Work over the last year or so and I hope you will come back again and join me again.  Please follow if you don't already and please leave me a comment or just say Hi if you are already a follower and I promise I will be back very soon.  Well actually it may be a few weeks but I will be back !

Strike A Pose !

Hi there, so I managed to get one Blog done so I will push the boat out and try for a second, wish me luck. (Blummin eck in hindsight? Its taken me hours - apparently Blogsy couldn't upgrade their IOS so doesn't really exist as it did for IPad? They could have told me!!!)

 Last time Rosella was on HOCHANDA TV for Claritystamp I had been sent these beautiful stamps but only had a few days to play with them. Well I definately work well under pressure - if I have two weeks to play with my stamps I spend hours and hours in my craft room pondering over how to finish one card!!! Days sometimes!! But then normally in the last few days I get all my best ideas but run out of time to carry them off.  

So when my deadline STARTED at the point in which I am normally panicking because I don't feel I have "done my best yet" all those ideas that come at the end of the "fortnight deadline" came flooding in straight away. Of course the fact that I love anything to do with Dressform and Fashion (not wearing it so much as designing it on paper) well that definately helped. 

I am often trying to design some Dressform stamps or Stencils but my drawing lets me down so much. So as I was looking at these stamps I thought, well if you can't draw well enough to design the stamp, you could at least make the Stamp look like a drawing???? So this is where I got the idea of my "Fashion Journal". Just like with interior design, in fashion you always do a "Mood Board" first to decide on the feel of the project and the colour scheme etc. Well, I used to really enjoy doing this bit on my Interior Design Course and love Fashion drawings too. I have some great photos of some from the top designers that I saw in a museum. 

So when you are working with Gel Prints and cut outs and watercolours, you can decide what the end result is going to look like but, as I got the idea of this Fashion Journal after I had started my pictures I decided to reverse the whole process. Instead of making the "Mood Board" at the top and then completing the picture, I completed all the pictures then made the Mood Boards to match, after all, they aren't REAL Fashion Designs!

But if I am honest with you, I always worked backwards like this when I was doing my Interior Design Course.  My Tutor hated that I did it that way so I used to have to hide the fact from her. But seriously, a mood board is a build up of ideas and colours and textures that you want to use in your design, but if you are designing a pattern sheet for instance, you do the doodling and then see what you come up with don't you? You can't pre-plan that can you? So often I used to get my Room Design/Mood in my head, mess about with painting my boards in patterns etc, design my knitted cushions whilst playing with wool AND THEN put it all together for the mood board and put the finishing touches to it from images I liked. Who cares how you get to your end result as long as the end result works??? See you have to show where your ideas came from but I don't really pull inspiration from flowers or trees or the sky or anything really they are just sitting there in a list at the top of my head and when I put a paint brush or Gel Plate in my hand I have no idea what I am about to produce, it just happens?  Then I decide how to finish it off. Of course once I have done a design then I  CAN plan the next version of it.

So I often get almost to the end of my project before I decide what it is going to be.

I really enjoyed doing a bit of "scruffy" drawing over the top of the stamped image to make it look like a sketch. I then watercoloured from Paint and Ink to make the "Mood Boards" look like the finished projects at the bottom of the Journal. Well I was quite proud of my Drawings in the end, but believe me, if I had done this the right way round I definately wouldn't have got the same results!

Most of the "Finished" pictures are made from my Gel Print Clean Ups and GelPress Mini Prints. I love to position the Fashion Stamps in a particular way over the prints so that you know they will have a certain look when cut out. Like the Boots above and below for instance, I positioned them so you would get the line across the middle giving the effect of a "Stitch" Line. I then coloured bits here and there to make a finished Boot. Then I did the handbag or shoe to match.

I was really proud of the one with the Red Shoe - because the bottom shoe is a Gel Print and the top shoe is me with a paint brush - quite close in the pattern don't you think?? The Hair!!! OK so I thought this was a scarf attached to the Hat to fasten it on, do you remember that fashion?? Then afterwards I kicked myself when I realised it was hair - funny how we all read images differently. Of course its obvious now, but I still feel this hat could definately have had one of those scarf fastenings too - so two hats for the price of one. 

So I had done all the pictures on the bottom - and could have carried on for hours, there are so many combinations I could have used. I wanted to use them all but you can't present just a stack of familiar pictures to be shown on HOCHANDA because it would be too monotonous. So I had to decide how to present them. Initially I decided on a Mini Journal Book, but thought it would just look like a bunch of nicely stamped images and a bunch of Not so Nicely stamped images. I needed a way to make it obvious to someone who only gets limited time to look at the Artwork they are sent to understand what they are looking at straight away. So the Mood Board and the finished "Design" needed to be seen together to make it obvious, and that is why I came up with this design - two hours before I had to run to the Post Box! Phew that one was really close to the deadline! 

So I will be doing this in some of my Future workshops but I may Modify the Design a little bit!!

Talking of my Workshops!!!!

I still have spaces left for my Claritystamp Mixed Media Workshop this Coming Saturday! A fair few of my regular Crew Members can't make it this month so please let me know if you would like to come along via Private Messaging on FB on my main page, Sam Crowe (Nee Mee) or one of my Pages

SamsHomeCookedDesigns

Gel Plate Creations

Altered Arts & Crafts

Art On a Gelli Plate

or at the bottom of this blog, leave a comment and a way to get in touch with you.

One of my Next projects for this Workshop is similar to this card and the rest will be a surprise. 

This workshop is held at the Wolviston Village WII Hut in Billingham, Teesside.

The workshop is on from 10.30 - 3.30

My next Clarity stampwww.claritystamp.com Workshop at Crafters Companion Aycliffe Store is on 23rd May 2017 and you can book yourself using this link below. 10.30 - 3.30 

https://uk.bookingbug.com/home/49977-Crafters-Companion

You can also see the projects for this Workshop on the link above. 

Thank you for visiting my Blog - I have more artwork to show you but I will just show a few at a time so that I can give you a little explanation of what went on when I made each card/item - if I can work it out for myself that is???? 

Please leave a comment below to say Hi if you have time. 

Sam Crowe

The Craft Stamper Magazine Take It Make It Challenge - July 2016

Hi  there, long time no see. I do keep typing up Blogs but struggle to get them to post, so wish me luck. 

I am entering this piece of Bunting into
 The Craft Stamper Magazine Take It Make It Challenge for Jul 2016

The Triangles are made using the ClarityStamp Shapes Stamp Set - there are two separate sets.

This is a piece of Bunting I made ready to demonstrate for my Clarity Mixed Media Workshop on 9th September 2016. I purposely didn't show this on FB because I wanted to enter it into the July Craft Stamper Magazine Take it Make Challenge. I often tell myself I will enter this challenge but often don't get the time I would like to make something a bit special. See, I think this Magazine is a bit Special and there are so many lovely pieces of Art entered every month into the challenge, so I wanted an entry piece that I felt proud of.
 

I had done the Centre Top Triangle on another piece of my Bunting and that inspired me to make this piece, I wanted that to be a main feature on the Bunting.  Its the only part of this that is from a Stencil - oops I tell a lie the very centre piece is a stencil too. Everything else is done with Clarty Stamps and a Gelli Plate Print I have an FB Page just full of Gelli Art. called - Art On A Gelli Plate(R).

So lately I have been making some card and Bunting and Tags that I am really quite proud of. When I started my Clarity Mixed Media Workshops in March, fully supported by Barbara Gray, I had asked if I could have some Shaped Stamps. Barbara already had some shape stamps for her Letterset Stamp set and I had been getting some great results with them just dipping them. I Said to Barbara that if these were bigger there is no end to what I could do with them.

Its great to have so many areas to just play with your stamps.

 Well I was over the moon when Paul Church announced that my Stamps would be ready and waiting for the Launch of my First Workshop (Barbara was on holiday at the time) It felt so good playing with the stamps I had hoped for in my very first official Clarity Mixed Media workshop.  Well the workshop far exceeded my expectations, ha that's sounds odd coming from the person who is running the Workshop doesn't it!!!  All will be revealed in a later Blog.

I just love these Row of Bird Stamps from ClarityStamp - so much play with them because there is so much open area.

 But my point is, I said that there are endless possibilities with these Shaped Stamps and here I am 4 months later still playing with them and still with a large list of possibilities in my head of things I know will look good and are on my list of techniques to try. These are my Go To stamps just like my Gelli Plate. - can you tell I am excited about them??

This is the piece of Bunting that inspired me to make the Bunting for the Craft Stamper Challenge.  See how the Flower section really pops off the page.

So this Bunting that I am entering into the Craft Stamp Take it Make it Challenge is made using the Triangle Outline Stamp from one of the Two shape Sets. But this bunting isn't just about one stamp. It is ALL about stamping. A quick explanation is under each photo. The whole of the background of this Bunting was started off with a Gelli Plate Print - I use my Gelli Plate more than my Handbag!!!! I love to show people how easy it is to use too.

My love of colour is enhanced by the lovely #PaperArtsy Fresco Paints that I used. I have also coloured here with #Range Alcahol Inks - they work so well over paint. And I have used the Range Re-Inker water based inks with a paint brush too.

So don't forget to nip by and check out The Craft Stamper Magazine Make It Take It Challenge and maybe have a go yourself?  The theme is Anything Goes as long as it includes a Stamp, well mine includes

The ClarityStamp Journal Stamp Set

ClarityStamp Row Of Birds

ClarityStamp Alliums Stamp Set

ClarityStamp Word Chain Set

ClarityStamp NDC Sun Burst Stamp

Thank you for popping in, I hope you like my Bunting.

Sam Crowe. xxx

 

 

A Quick Catch Up

Good morning everyone. I can't believe it's over a week since I posted on FB - I have so many projects I want to do in crafting and in the Home, there are so many lovely family occasions occurring this year too. Life is very busy, in a good way!  I have four pending Blogs to offer you, I keep starting them and then running out of time, (takes so long to get the photos and the Blog to meet up)? and then they become outdated?  But I think I will just get them all posted anyway?

Hubby is home at last, so he takes up the job of Cab Driver for the kids now Yeh!!!! It's only 8.50 and I am already sat at my Craft Desk (which at the moment is my Dining room table) I am Packing up my craft room ready for a makeover - IKEA Wardrobe ordered, bespoke desk has been designed by my Bro-In Law and my Sister - who had a great idea for doubling the size of my desk!! and I just have a couple of ton of STUFF to get rid of??? It will be all white (with a bit of Red and Green) but apart from that it will be all white with a black checkered floor!!!

These two pictures are similar to how I would like my Craft Room

the one below is about the size of the room I have, and on the one above I have a counter like that now but you just can't see it?  It used to be a Box Room, then

 a Computer Room, Do you remember when people used to need a whole room for computers???

 

 

Can I show you a before and after? No chance! The before is never something I would have wanted to take a photo of?? Maybe I should do an In-between and an after photo though?

 

Say Hi to my Clarity Mixed Media Crew - there are more of them now too and I have some I have yet to meet in July
What a lovely Crew they are.  I am so pleased with the Wolviston Village WI Hut too and the Ladies from the WI are lovely.
Its partly because of this Crew and holding my Workshops that I decided I must get my Craft Room sorted, they want me to get grungy and for that  you need space, and you need to be able to get to all those messy products.  Any excuse eh?

All my Clarity Mixed Media Workshop items are separate in the conservatory which is for now acting as the Garage! See when I clear out my clutter and when I fill up my Charity Bags they always go in the garage first, then my Hubbie comes home and gets rid of the whole lot, it's a guilt free system, for me, it works! For Paul, its annoying!  (Guilt free being the stuff I am getting rid of that has never been touched) yep I am at that stage I just want a clear, clutter free craft room, I walk In there and my brain is as cluttered as the room so one of them needs to be cleared out so that I can start to spill out the arty stuff. It's no good having a mass of arty ideas if you can't be bothered to fight the clutter to get to your GP or your Heat gun or have to do an arm sweep to find a space for your Gelli Plate??? You loose interest or run out of time and the idea is gone, forever! Lazy Crafting ensues and you just know you can be as arty as some of the people who's work you admire, if only you could sort out that craft room and have everything you need at your fingertips! OK does that sound big headed? well it isn't meant to be. What I mean is I have dreams of doing canvas, of finding new styles, of sewing, making books, designing new things and for that I need my Sewing Machine at hand, my Gelli Plate on Tap and my Treasure Gold at the Ready.

 

A sneak peek at something I am working on for my next Workshop on 4th June. Its going to be a three step project. 1- Get Grungy - 2-Get Arty -3-Get Crafty! I have also made a video of me actually designing the project as it came out of my head, that I will put on You Tube a little later on, it was only meant as a prompt for me initially.  At the moment I have some very slap dash videos on You Tube and yet people still ask me to do more, which is another reason I need a nice wide clean desk in my Craft Room! 

 

 

My You Tube showcasing this page.  so far.

 

This is one of the projects I have been asked to do a Video Tutorial for, at the moment the video just shows it off as a Journal Page, but not how to do it,  so I have scheduled it in for just after the Clarity Crowborough Open Days - I did used to find it hard to repeat work, but now I am holding the Workshops I think that way all the time, If I make this what steps would I demo it in for a Workshop?? Maybe this should be a workshop first? I need to add Journals to my Workshop!

 

The Sketched Lady Stamp by ClarityStamp - this is my favourite stamp of all of them.  So its not surprising that I am using it on my Third Worksop, I can't believe I waited this long??

 

I want to add wood too - We have to work on wood if we want the true benefit of those lovely Fresco Paints.

Anyway as I was saying the Conservatory is acting as the Garage at the moment because we are having the Garage made into a Games Room soon? So The Conservatory it is, but no rubbish now just the "Keep" pile items and the charity bags go straight to the shop instead of sitting around for months! But it takes longer this way! Every Bag and Box is laboriously searched through for Keep, Chuck or Charity items - no dumping them till later anymore! Have you ever got to the stage where you don't even look in the box of papers? You just chuck it in the recycle (guilt free) bin? Cor blimey I used to buy some rubbish "Bargains"! I think we all start there though until we know where our arty tastes really are? And I am really sorry Martha but your punches are in the scrap yard - or did I sneak them in the charity box in the end?

I have chucked out more paperwork and rubbish than you could ever imagine over the last month, I have filled more charity bags than they can fit in their shop! Literally!! I am a woman on a mission!!! I want my house back!! The kids are getting bigger and the toys are getting smaller. The craft room is going to become a work room instead of a collectors room and my organisational PA Skills from days of old are starting to come into their own.

This is a little bit of Art done off the Gelli Plate I did during my practice for the workshop - can you believe I am still discovering new ways to play with it? You can't beat a bit of abstract and it certainly beats that stupid Cardboard Box thing that girl had on TV yesterday - now that IS what you call lazy crafting!

So, Busy? Definately! Self induced business, yes definately but I can't wait to see all the results. X

So I am off now, to pack up my Workshop ready for my return from holiday, then I will pack my Caravan, go shopping, and empty a little more of my Craft Room?? See you later!!

More Blogs to Follow soon

Carry on Crafting

Sam xxx

Posted with Blogsy by Sam Crowe

DT Cards for Clarity 23rd April 2016

Hello there. 

I thought its about time I showed you some cards I made for Paul Church's (this is Paul's Blog) slot on HOCHANDA TV the other week for Claritystamp and have a bit of a chat while I am here.  Grab that cuppa again Linda Page! xxx

 

Boy Oh Boy is life a bit hectic at the moment?  Partly due to me, partly due to me and my Arty Stuff and Partly due to the Kids, Oh and Partly due to the fact we are looking to make some changes in the house.  Let me give you a word of advice, don't start clearing out your Garage and the toys in the Conservatory at the same time, don't let your Hubbie return the Skip before you are finished and Don't leave yourself half way through the job and let your Hubbie sneak back off to work??? Ha ha  sneak back to work?  Why do I come out with these things, poor guy has no CHOICE???

Sometimes when I make a card I am happy with where it ended up but feel it has to have more of a purpose which can be a bit restrictive, as opposed to a Canvas that doesn't need to have a purpose? Which is where the Clarity Words come in. There are so many words and letters and verses to choose from now that you can always find a purpose for your cards and still let them be a bit ArtyFarty Canvas style!?! My thoughts with this was that this birthday wish is for someone who is just setting out on life's great adventure.  I made this with a Gelli Print, some watercolour blocks, ink, stencil, masks & stamps. x

So what am I left with, a messy conservatory, a garage I can't dump in anymore because we are thinking of converting it, a messy dining room because I can't hide my Workshop stock in the Garage and the conservatory is still too messed up to be able to sneak it in there - the craft room? forget it??? I can only just get myself in the door without knocking off the papers doing the overhang thing like those 2pence coins in the slot machines.  I have two, 1" foot squared places to work at, well, one is actually 9" by 7" - Gelli Plate Size! or is it 8" by 7"??? I should know shouldn't I???

 

I did enjoy making this one and I am pleased with the Chunky look to it. This has a Gelli Plate print background.

Anyway - things are definitely hectic.  The kids have all sorts of activities on at the moment too. I have been rushing around buying shoes (they have always grown out of them by the time the next medals or sport event comes along?) and we have been looking for a  ball gown! which we paid a fortune for (well my Dad did) and which I am about to get out and start to glue some gems back on, (that was last week?)  £300 worth of gems and they are dropping like flies.  Anyone got any Swarovski Gems they don't want, preferably gold and clear??? I tell you what it isn't easy finding a Ball Gown, we buy our's second hand but even if I wanted new, not many places are advertising themselves?  If I was clever enough to be able to make them I would be rich by now.  Surely they can't be THAT difficult can they?   A bit of stretch fabric with some non-stretch Satin stuck on the bottom with a bit of gold trim (could use Inka Gold?) and a stack of beads glued to the bodice (with the wrong glue!).  If you use a glue that dries rock solid against a piece of satin which is flimsy your gems WILL get knocked off - if you use a flexible fabric glue the gems will move with the fabric!!  Just in case whoever glued these gems on is listening???

 

This card is made on Parchment Paper using the Balloon Stamp and the Philigraphy Hot Air Balloon Stamp and Mask Set and the Skyeline Masks

Anyway - I plod on and in between it all somewhere I get to do the bits I want to do, the bits that are supposed to make me disappear into a little crafty wilderness all of my own, but this doesn't really happen when you have a messy conservatory, the dog is barking at everything and everyone that moves, or doesn't move??? the kids are yelling at me because they can smell their tea burning and I can't remember where I put that cup of tea I made about an hour ago??

So yep I get there in the end. At least I am sleeping at "Normal" hours again so that means I am not falling to sleep as I am driving the kids around? Or whilst burning the tea. Have you ever had that sleep deprivation where the second you sit down you fall to sleep so you just don't sit down???  Well anyway I am not there now so that is good - I purposely changed my Body clock to day time is wake  and night time is forget it all and get to bed time!  What a difference a real nights sleep makes. I still burn the tea! but I don't get depressed about it? xx

 I still have my Blonde moments though, so that wasn't because of lack of sleep then?  I kind of just switch off sometimes and I  have had a few little Son/Car incidents lately. Like the time he threw his bag in the back and the door slammed shut in the wind so I drove off. As I turned the corner and checked my rear Mirrow to see why Matthew wasn't answering me I spotted him stood on the pavement, wow he really looks like Matthew I thought??? Then there was the time he had half stepped into the car so one foot was still on the pavement and Auto Pilot kicked in - Mam stop the car he said I am not in yet? Oops ? But the most frightening was tonight as I dropped him off to run and fetch his friend while I turned the car round and I accidentally put it in reverse?? Matthew was so close he set off my reverse beepers?  Yes, mundane routine is a terrible thing for someone who has very little concentration or who is easily distracted.??? So now we have this thing where I have to say "does everyone have all their body parts in the car" and then actually wait for a response before I drive off !!!

Apparently all these little things are very typical of Arty people according to FB??? So it's official, I am Arty, being Arty can seriously frighten your kids!!!! 

 

So what's with the Gallery? Well I hardly get to blog these days, it has become too much of a palava, and although I love to Blog on a regular basis I  have to make it my lesser priority sometimes. 

Talking of Arty - sometimes I admit to loving a piece of my own work and I am not ashamed of it ! This card below and above is one of those pieces. Did I show you this be before? Probably but I have brought it back out as the Clarity Masks have just been part of the HOCHANDA TV show again with Paul Church. This card was just done with the Tree Mask - boy was this a labour of love - I wouldn't even like to guess how long this took me but you know what, when I am on a mission to make something look like it has a little more depth I sometimes go on a real Arty voyage of discovery.  Isn't paint just beautiful if you get it to do what you hoped for?  and the Clarity Mask worked well above and beyond its duty, it is more than a mask and more than a stencil.

 

So the reason I am posting these cards now is because I want to do catch up and ower Barbara is on HOCHANDA TV this weekend - Sunday and Monday, you can find details here.  So I will have more to blog next week. 

 

Thank you for popping in. 

Carry On Crafting

Sam Crowe xx

DT Samples for ClarityStamp 25-2-2016

Hello there everyone, thank you for stopping by. I would like to say a special Hello to my new blog Followers, thank you everyone for following my Blog I appreciate you all. I do get excited every time the number goes up too!

So does this look Black and White to you???

 

This is my BLACK AND WHITE project - Jigsaw Canvas I did for Barbara's show on 25th Feb 2016 - I am writing this ahead of time, so fingers crossed I won't get any trouble off Blogsy this time? When I say my BLACK & WHITE project, I use the term loosely!!! All will be revealed.

I tried Black and White Alone? I am always trying to do Black and White, I love it? But mostly I find  it is just a bit "Harsh" to look at. It needs a splash of something else??? Its just so hard not to add a Splash of colour, and then of course once you have done that you want to add another splash and another.................

It's funny but I used to joke with Barbara Gray about how I would soon catch up with the amount of followers she had, see I used to tell her it wasn't fair that I had been doing my Blog for two years and she had just started hers, AND YET, she had 600 followers more than me!!! I think at the time I had 49 and I used to be happy with my lot???? So Barbara has gained another 1,019 followers since that first week and I was thinking if all my lovely Blog followers wanted to help me catch up to Barbara all they would have to do is Force / I mean Introduce 8 of their friends to check out my Blog and Make/ I mean let them see if they wanted to follow it?? ha ha OK I am kidding - NO HONESTLY I AM KIDDING?????? Good maths though eh?  I actually have gained an extra 167 Blog followers myself since then and I am more than happy. I was chuffed to bits when the number got to 10 !!!!!

 

So you keep on adding a splash of colour and before you know it you have got one of the most colourful Jigsaws you HAVE EVER SEEN!

Ower Barbara has just won an award for her Blog and Clarity Stamp have also won Best New Product with the Groovy System, I knew they would, it's not only clever but it genuinely helps ladies who would love to do parchment but haven't got the skills, time, or maybe the dexterity for it or if you are like me THE PATIENCE?

 

 

OH look!!! Is that a WHITE piece and a BLACK piece???? See I even had to add colour to that???

 

I did try parchment way back in the day, I loved the look of it, and still do, but straight away I just wanted to get that white ink on there. I bought a book, I bought a kit, I sat down to do it and surprise surprise I just didn't get the results I had seen other Parchers get, so after half an hour I gave up !!!! But now with the Groovy I can have a finished piece in no time and I can't really go wrong, well I CAN but it is very difficult to go wrong!!

 

Well now here I really SHOULD HAVE LEFT A BLACK PIECE!!!!  See that one on the left, with the white dots and Red Stripes,, that was supposed to be Black to balance out that side of the JigSaw - I missed it totally. See the Cockeral has three pieces to it but it doesn't show properly because that piece isn't Black, I had already sent it before I noticed on the photo.  I was going to send a note to Barbara and ask her to paint it Black but I thought she might think I was a little cheeky????

Of course if you chuck lots of ink, or wet paint at the parchment it is not so hot, or if you get impatient and try to do Mixed Media type cutting it doesn't look so great either, but if you just used the Groovy Plates as intended, have a little bit of patience and stop trying to drench the parchment to grunge it up you won't have any of the results that are in my bin. !!!

 

I did a bit of hand doodling here to mix in with the Stamps, I used all four stamp sets from the Show.
You will find them ....... HERE ! 

So this is it! My very first mixed media JigSaw - well actually this was the third out of my batch that I sent off - it definitely won't be my last.
Wouldn't a JigSaw Piece Swap be good?  Mmmmm how would it work? You get 24 people, (there are 24 pieces) they all do a full JigSaw and everyone is allotted a Piece No. to receive and send, hang on let me get the logic of this and I will get back to you.  I might run this on my Art On A Gelli Plate FB Page for anyone who is interested, and may be do a separate Gelli Plate one on my Art on A Gelli Plat FB Page?  I will give everyone chance to get themselves a set of the JigSaws, including me I need to stock up.  You could do all sorts to these pieces, you can add handles, have hidden pictures underneath the pieces?  all sorts. x  Then we will all swap all but 1 piece, so we have one of our own.  Then everyone could add a photo to my Pages, Mmmmm would there be a prize or would it just be for the fun of it?  Anyone interested?????    

So back to the Groovi Plate I have a few ideas of what to do with the Groovi but I need to sort some other crafty things out first - watch this space!! The Groovi DT Team are all brilliant at it, you should check out their work. xx I must say congratulations to Barbara Gray, and Clarity on the Groovi Award, well deserved.

 

Once I had finished the Jigsaw I mounted it onto a canvas and decorated a backing Canvas - next time though I would make that left hand Jigsaw piece black and I would do a plain white canvas background with the stamped edge. But hey I loved playing with these Jigsaws and that's what it all about.

So have you all seen Ower Barbara's Blog? Just in case you haven't I will <give you the link here > Barbara Blogs every day, I don't know how she manages, it takes me three days to upload my photos, two days to correct my Typo's and 5 hours to charge up my computer so that I can actually post it because my IPad won't let me?? See, I do work hard for you all. Xxx Technology, I can't live with it and I can't live without it.

So I will show you the rest of my JigSaws and cards throughout the next week, mainly because Me and Blogsy are getting on a lot better lately, (well that is obviously a lie, remember I said I did this Blog ahead o time???? what day is it now?????? 

Carry on Crafting!

Sam Crowe xxx

Posted with Blogsy by Sam Crowe