Using up waste paint....

Good Morning Ladies,  

Up and out early this morning as I have an appointment with the Urology Consultant,  I think it must be a 6 month assessment.   I don't think that the Bladder installations have been as successful this time, between them being poorly administered causing my Interstitial Cystitis to flare up and having 3 uti's I haven't really felt the benefit of it,  who knows if it would have been worse had I not had it, who knows,  Im guessing he'll be the one to make that call.  🤷🤷‍♀️

Now I was going to just wash off my little Gelli plate that had the black light bulbs on it,  from where I had added black paint and then added the little light bulbs to create the thrinchies from yesterday.  I had left the residual paint on the Gelli plate overnight so they were nice and dry,  Tracey tried to create another background with the leftover paint but hers were still to wet,  I thought that it seemed a shame not to have a go,  so I added Turquoise paint, brayered it over the black light bulbs, then placed a thrinchie over the wet paint, took a piece of scrap paper and rubbed firmly over the thrinchie to make sure it made good contact with the paint,  the anticipation is crazy, I started lifting the piece and to my delight it lifted everything perfectly,   So I had to decide ...do I bin it or keep it as a reminder that even the left over bits can create something fun.  I chose a fun sentiment,  adding the essential splatters, matted onto black card and added to my journal. 

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love & hugs 

Sandra xxx

Abstract Thrinchie part 2

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies, 

Here is part two if the crazy abstract Thrinchie,   I can't make up my mind if I like them or not,  I still cleaning the paint off of my hands, even after having a shower and washing up!  

The colours on the one on the left look much brighter although they are the same colours.             They are fun more than anything, sometimes it's good to get your hands dirty!  🤣😂

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love & hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

A very 'abstract ' Thrinchie 🤣

 

We will always remember them ! 

Good Morning Ladies,  

Well did I have a messy craft day yesterday!!! 🤣😂

I had  paint everywhere!! 

I followed a Tracy Evan’s tutorial for Thrinchie number 58 (i think), it's the first of a pair.

I took just about every colour acrylic paint out that I own,   the idea is you take a tiny drop of each colour on the end of your finger and just dab it on your Thrinchie,  the tiny amount of paint dries really quickly so the colours don't make mud.  I forgot to take a photo of the finished piece before adding the black,  you do have to 'trust the process' as it looks very abstract!   Next step is to take a gelli plate ( I happen to have a 3x3 one),  cover the gelli plate with black acrylic paint, a good coat is needed.  I then used my Tracey Evans Light Bulb stencil, it comes with all of laser cut light bulbs cut out.  So I arranged a few of the bulbs onto the black paint covered Gelli plate, then carefully lined up my thrinchie and placed it over light bulbs, I put a piece of scrap paper over the top and rubbed it all over to get good contact with the paint, you can use your brayer for this part. 

Now comes the fun part  ....... peel away the thrinchie and see what it's picked up !!  Little tip here  .. .it doesn't work perfectly every time!   Mine weren't perfect but they were ok.  

I added some white splatters (which are a good distraction from the imperfect bits 🤣😂

I popped a sentiment on then added a black mat. 

They are definitely colourful and it surprises you how much better your abstract finger painting looks with the black over.  

Now off you all go and get messy!! 

I hope you all have a good day,  

Love and hugs,  

Sandra xxx 

Tim Holtz Journal page

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

Welcome to the start of a new week,  this week looks a little wet and cooler.   The garden will appreciate the rain I guess.  

We had a busy day in the garden,  we had about 80 bulbs to plant,  I filled pots with a lot of them, Paul put the rest in the garden.  We bought a load more from the garden centre on Friday as they packs/bags of bulbs were all reduced to half price! Even Paul got carried away with picking some out. 🤣😂

We managed to get them all put in, such a relief or so I thought,  when I came in to get ready for lunch I found another bag of bulbs that had fallen off of the box that I had put them on, so they where out of site. So now I need to get a contrasting colour to go with them and I'll put them in pots of the front. 

Today I am sharing a journal page that I made using all Tim Holtz /Ranger things.  

I blended Faded Jeans & Stormy Sky Distress Oxide inks over my journal page.  Using Typo stencil I added lettering with Vintage Photo oxide ink

I then took the Diamond stencil and used a baby wipe to 'faux bleach' some of the background.  I added some stamping around the edges and then added some black splatters with a Posca pen.  

Next came arranging some Collage Strips,  I cut bits from a few different ones, following inspiration from Vicky Papaicannou.....

The final touches I wasn't sure about if I'm honest but after searching through the bag of paper dolls to find the right one I just trusted the process !  

I picked out the Transparent Butterfly and added it to the page, I used permanent tape for this as I thought wet glue would never dry.  

As always a few white splatters and some sentiment strips finish the page!  I really like this one!  

I hope that you all have a great start to your week, 

Love and hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx 

A look back at this weeks makes

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,

We had a lovely day yesterday,  the sun was really bright and it was warm too,  we popped out for some shopping and I thought it looked chilly so I put a thermal base Layer on and my cable knit jumper,  that way I could just wear my gilet rather than my big coat, as I am finding it too clostrophobic, what I mean is that I will struggle to get my arms out because its like a fleece inside a waterproof outer coat,  I never had any problem before that awful MRI but now anything that restricts me moving sets me into the worst panic attacks,   its pathetic and I'm embarrassed to admit it but there you go 🤣😂☺️  The point of this story was to say, I dressed for it being cool but the sun was so warm I was really hot. Not your typical November weather.  

Enough waffle let's see what Lilian & Maria made this week....

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

Hello, here is my card for this week.

I used categories 

Stencil. Leaves. Colouring.

The stamp is from Temu it had a die with it but I can’t make it fit.

The stencil is from Stamperia.

The pens are koi water colour.

Everything about your card is beautiful,  I love that stencilled background, it's subtle but you can definitely see it.  That flower is so lovely a great stamp for colouring too, your painting is incredible and looks very realistic.

Thank you for another amazing TicTacToe card XXX

Maria

Maria's Description:  

Card for tomorrow.

Embossing folder, Xmas and a bit of sparkle by using spare crystal art drills 😊

Beautiful Maria,  brilliant idea using your left over Crystal drills to use for the berries, they add sparkle and dimension to your card.  That embossing folder is lovely,  it must have taken ages to colour all of those little elements,  worth the effort though.  All you need is a nice bold die cut sentiment.  If you don't have one I can see you some die cuts.  

Thank you so much for a lovely Christmas card XXX

Sonia

Sonia's Description:

Die cuts/inks/sparkle

A background I had previously made using mica sprays. Unfortunately the sparkle doesn’t show up in the photo. I used a Tim Holtz (Bold Text die, I think)  die cut from the sprayed background and the letters put back into it on the white die cut panel. Matted on brown card.

Wow what an amazing effect those sprays have given,  it has given the card a real modern/ Tim Holtz  look, I love it.

Thank you so much, its lovely to see you back in your craft room XXX

*************

Ladies I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday,  

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Mixed up Saturday

 

 🥳 Happy Birthday Brenda 🥳

Good Saturday Morning Ladies 

Please join me in wishing Our Lovely Brenda the Very Happiest of Birthdays 😘  I hope that you have a whole weekend of Celebrating with your lovely family ❤️ 

Lilian 

Lilian sent me a photograph of her stunning Christmas Cactus,  I don't think I have ever seen that many flowers on one plant, such a beautiful colour too, keep doing what you are doing Lilian it definitely loves it. That's an amazing display for its first show of flowers. 

Thank you so much for sharing it with us XXX 

Maria

Maria has kindly shared her NEC shopping haul with us,  you got some lovely things Maria, those little Dewdrop inks are the perfect shape for inking up your stamps, having that pointy end is great for inking tiny elements like leaves etc,  I believe they have reinkers in same colours too.  

Those flower stamps are beautiful,  are the stamps (top right) stamps for adding crystal art drills to?  What a grest idea.  All you need now is the inspiration and enthusiasm to use them ! 🤣  Did you take lots of photos?  

Thank you so much for sharing your shopping with us XXX 

Lindys Gang 

Magical Shakers 

I treated myself to some Lindys Gang Magical Shakers......

And I love them  !!!

The colours are lovely and vibrant, let me show you ......

The first three of the 5 colours 'Penny for your thoughts ', Wisteria Hysteria & Twig it out' are lovely,   that beautiful peachy pink would look beautiful painted onto flowers.  The blues & purples of Wisteria Hysteria has some beautiful colours and so much shimmer.  Twig it out is just as described with yellows,  orange & browns with gold shimmer.

The Lazing in the Laurels' is my favourite, the shade of green is spot on, perfect for leaves and stems.   Last but not least is Hello Buttercup'  how perfect for Spring,  you can actually see the gorgeous shimmer.

Just a quick background made with just three of the colours. 

The shaker top is the best Mica powder pot I have seen, the powder doesn't just fall out,  you have to shake them and it gives a perfect distribution.  

They aren't the cheapest Mica powders at around £25 for 5 pots but they will go a long way,  I think they are definitely worth the cost.

Have any of you tried them?  

I hope that you all have a great day, 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx

Friday Festive Oldies

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

These Friday's are whizzing round aren't they!  

Yesterday was unseasonably warm, Soph took me for brunch to a new place for us, it is an actual Coffee Roasters factory,  you can watch them roasting the coffee.  Not that it appeals to me, I went off of coffee when I was pregnant with the girls and haven't liked it since,  Paul & the girls are real coffee lovers though.   Coffee has gone crazy over the last 5 years,  I remember years ago you were considered a coffee snob if you had Nescafe Gold Blend,  do you remember the old Mellow Birds advert ?  Where the lady tipped her coffee in the plant pot because it wasn't Mellow Birds,  or the love story of the Gold Blend couple.  Adverts were more fun to watch in the old days when they had sequels,  the Oxo family,  Papa & Nicole with Citroën!  

Anyway I didn't get anything finished for today's blog post, I had a bit more mopping up and cleaning to do, I then started playing with some new Mica powders and I love them, I will share them with you tomorrow. 

So some Christmas cards from 2019 for you today,  I still really like both cards, they haven't really dated in 5 years.  

I really must start making Christmas cards,  do you want me to set that as a challenge specifically or just leave it as part of TicTacToe so you have choice?? 

I hope that you all have a lovely Friday, 

Love and hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx