Imperial the Unicorn

Morning everyone,

Just wanted to share a quick post with you, I did a demo at the brand new Hobbycraft Store at Bristol Imperial Park last weekend, and myself and my lovely colleague Anna had the not so small task of Decopatching a rather large Unicorn.

We had a fab day, met lots of lovely people and the Unicorn got finished, with the Store Manager Simon naming it after the business park the store is on, so our lovely Unicorn is there for all to see, and is called Imperial!  Which I think is a pretty cool name for a Unicorn.

She was my second Unicorn, and next Saturday I'm decorating another, at the brand new store in Ashford, Kent.

Imperial has a few painted parts, inside the ears, horn, and those big eyes!  I used DecoArt Media fluid acrylics, in prussian blue and titanium white for those big peepers.  Pyrrole red mixed with the titanium white made the pink for the horn and ears.  He was then covered in some of the fab new Decopatch papers from Exaclair.

The horn is just awaiting the staff to add a little glitter... I hope they've made him their own!

Here's a few pics:

We had great fun making him, he's going to have pride of place in the store somewhere now, so you might come across him if you are in Bristol!

 I think everyone should have their own unicorn... but I'm not decorating all of them :)

Have a good week,

Nikki
xx

Craft Stamper TIMI Challenge May Reminder- Take A stamp

Morning everyone,

It's time for a quick reminder about the Craft Stamper TIMI Challenge, our May theme is just 'Take a Stamp', so it's nice and easy.

The rules are simple, one entry per person, with a link in your post back to the Craft Stamper Blog, and your blog post must only contain the one piece you are entering.  No cased entries please - your own work.

For full details see the Craft Stamper Blog HERE.

In return, we have two amazing prizes on offer as always, firstly our Design Winner , who is chosen by our DT, who all vote for their favourite designs from all of the entries.  This winner will have their winning project published in Craft Stamper Magazine, (with a 2 page spread of their very own!), they will have a GDT slot for an upcoming challenge, and will also feature in their very own Winners Profile blog post!

And then we have this totally amazing prize on offer, to our completely random winner.
Our sponsor this month is: Designs By Georgina 
Prize: As pictured. 3 stamp sets and 3 new release stencils.

Over on the Craft Stamper blog our team have some fab inspiration for you, here is my offering:

I made a tryptiche with Tando Creatives mini Arches, and painted them with DecoArt Media Acrylics, in Andy Skinner's Rust style, and using Andy's stamps, the steampunk set.

I painted a piece of card in the same colours, and stamped the butterfly and clock in black versafine, and clear embossed them, then cut them out.  The clock was shaped to arch and cut around, to make it fit.

The skull is a Tando mini, I LOVE these!  I'd put them on everything if you let me.. It's painted again, then embossed with Frantage embossing powder, in aged copper.  It has some amazing texture to it.

The three little arches are held together with some mini hinges and glossy accents, but you could use ribbon or washi tape as hinges too.

I stamped on top with the steampunk words in black, to add a little more interest.  And the whole thing was coated in a layer of ultra matte varnish, to make the rust more realistic and take down the shine from the embossing.

So I hope you can join in the challenge at Craft Stamper this month, and you enjoy our team's inspiration.

See you soon,

Nikki

xx 

Craft Stamper TIMI May Challenge - Take a stamp

Morning,

Today is the start of Craft Stamper Magazine's Take it Make it Challenge for May.  Our theme this month is 'Take A Stamp'.  This means any new stamped creation you have made, with rubber stamps.  The rules are simple, one entry per person, with a link in your post back to the Craft Stamper Blog, and your blog post must only contain the one piece you are entering.  No cased entries please - your own work.

For full details see the Craft Stamper Blog HERE.

In return, we have two amazing prizes on offer as always, firstly our Design Winner , who is chosen by our DT, who all vote for their favourite designs from all of the entries.  This winner will have their winning project published in Craft Stamper Magazine, (with a 2 page spread of their very own!), they will have a GDT slot for an upcoming challenge, and will also feature in their very own Winners Profile blog post!

And then we have this totally amazing prize on offer, to our completely random winner.
Our sponsor this month is: Designs By Georgina 
Prize: As pictured. 3 stamp sets and 3 new release stencils.

So my inspiration for you today is a Tando Creative Tag.  I painted it in DecoArt Media acrylics in Dioxazine purple and mixed with the tinting base which is white, to give a variegated effect.  On top of this I stamped in stazon's vibrant violet and gothic purple, using Andy Skinner's Steampunk stamp set.

Next I used Stampendous' Frantage in Jewel Purple, all around the edges of the tag.  I used Flitterglu to hold the embossing, as it doesn't heat or boil when used, and is excellent for embossing purposes as it's very high tack and holds it brilliantly. 

Next I took an mdf heart and painted it purple, then used DecoArt's Media Crackle Paste in a nice thick layer on top.  This gave some lovely deep cracks across the heart.  I also dropped the green interference paint into the paste as it was drying, and used a pin to swirl some edges out, making little pinwheel shapes.  It has a lovely green irridescent sheen across the heart in patterns.  I went round the edges of the heart with some more paint, and then stamped part of the steampunk stamp set across the top.  

For the finishing touches I painted a piece of card in the same way as the tag, and stamped and embossed in black versafine, the steampunk butterfly from Andy's set, and DREAM, which was from a PaperArtsy stamp set, Eclectica 18 by Emma Godfrey.  These were added with glue and pads to give dimension.  

I hope you like my inspiration, and can hop over to the Challenge blog to see the rest of our amazing team's work, and enter for yourself!  

Craft Stamper magazine is available in magazine format HERE, and also available digitally, in easy to read format on your tablet or pc or phone, check it out HERE.

Best Wishes,

Nikki

xxx

It's a Jungle out there!

Morning all,

Not sure if I was thinking of my allotment when I made this page...  seems like the first time this year I've managed to get over there, and it's daunting how quickly weeds grow!  And I feel just like 'Percy', with his arms crossed in a huff!

My page started with some Decoart Media fluid Acrylics, I dabbled and mixed some colours on a palette, so there is orange, white, teal, titan buff, more white.. and a bit of red..
I then stamped some background stamps from Indigoblu, tasty textures set, with different colour stazon in first and second gen stamping.  Next was the Laurel Leaves stencil with a faber castell pitt pen to do the leaves all the way round the page.  It took a while but I love the effect.

Extra stamping in white paint was done with Kate Crane's lovely spiral stamp a friend bought me at Kate's class a couple of weeks back, and some old lids to make rings.  I then doodled in places on the page around white bits.

'Percy' is by the lovely Lindsay Mason, he's a digi stamp available in Lindsay's Etsy Store, and I absolutely love him.  He is coloured with Prismacolour pencils and cut out, then glued to my page and lightly pencilled round to ground him.

This is my first piece for Lindsay on her fab Design Team, I hope you like it. Here are a couple of closer pics.  The moth was one Kate printed for us in her class, I had a few so cut him out and added him here.  Although all I had today at the allotment was cabbage white butterflies...!

You can see more of Lindsay's design's in her store, and on her blog.

Have a good day all,

Best Wishes,

Nikki. xx