Getting Messy with my Pals !

Apologies to my regular visitors for the lack of new posts recently, I've been dealing with 'stuff' and spending a nice long time with my lovely Dad, plus - as you've probably guessed from the title of this post - having a little fun time with some of my lovely crafting buddies.

You may need a whole pot of tea or coffee rather than a mug as this is a very pic heavy post - apologies !

Part of the time spent with my Dad was in Spain - he suddenly decided that he'd like to visit Spain (his first visit for over 20 years !).  So we headed out for almost two weeks and he thoroughly enjoyed it - apart from the little tumble he had which saw us at the local hospital at 8am one morning.  Only minor injuries thank goodness - although lots of blood as he cut his head - and he was soon patched up and back to his holiday home to continue his holiday. 

Here's my 'little wounded solder' - 'shaken but not stirred'

He had a slight headache from the injuries, but the noisy green parrots in the tree outside the apartment window made it worse LOL

Once he was over the shock of the fall, we were pleased to see he hadn't lost his appetite ! 

"Scampi and Chips por favor"

So, now on to my other reason for not posting lately and the reason for the title of this post.

I spent a couple of days with some of my lovely crafting buddies - pals from around the country gathered at Kathy's house to try out the 'Tarmacking Technique. 

I discovered this technique through the lovely Karen aka The Clock Lady, she has created some fabulous projects using it, you can check it out here on her Blog.  She runs workshops and has also posted up a tutorial on the technique on her Blog.  We followed Karen's tutorial during the weekend and had lots of messy fun - thanks Karen.

Kathy, Cherry, Debs and I gathered at Kathy's house on Friday afternoon to begin the weekend and start our projects.  Kathy had kindly bought an Ikea wooden mirror, wood backed canvas and a picture frame for each of us to work with and also provided the Bitumen Paint and White Spirit needed for the technique.  Plus, the very necessary plastic sheeting, old newspapers and rubber gloves !   Thanks so much for everything Kathy.

Here's 'the gang' partaking of a little 'light refreshment' purely to assist with the flow of the creative process of course

 



Firstly we sorted through a pile of pieces of white card embossed with various folders, plus some diecut shapes and decided on the designs for our projects.

Here's my canvas after the first step was complete - card pieces, card candy and diecuts stuck down

We then painted our projects using various colours of metallic acrylic paints - painted randomly over the whole item.  Looking good so far ?

Mixing the Bitumen and White Spirit 50/50

Now the scary bit !

Painting the bitumen mix all over the projects - OMG !

Are you SURE this is going to work ?

 

 

Finally the 'magic'  - using white spirit and a soft cloth, wiping over the tarmacked area and revealing as much or as little as you like of the painted elements underneath.

 

 

Here's my finished mirror

 

 my finished canvas

 

and finally my tag

 

 

It's hard to believe that all of these can be created using white card, acrylic paints and some Bitumen Paint and White Spirit.  I really enjoyed doing it, it's messy but well worth it I think.

 

I hope you enjoyed seeing my latest projects, I have another couple of busy weeks ahead but will post on my Blog if I get the chance.  

Reach For The Stars

Welcome to Stamping Grandma's crafty space, nice to 'see' you and thanks for visiting.

Reach for the Stars -  is the theme for our latest challenge over on the Cute Card Thursday Blog.   I'm sure we will see some amazing interpretations of the theme this week.   Our prize sponsor is Bunny Zoe's Crafts.

Here's my interpretation of the theme for my DT card

 

I have to confess that this wasn't my first attempt at creating a project for this week, I had something entirely different in my head !  Does this happen to you ?  You get an idea for a design in mind, start playing around with stamps, inks and other tools but it just doesn't come together how you imagined it would. 

I was looking through my stamp stash trying to find images which would work for this week's theme when I came across the Urban Beats stamp set by Creative Expressions.  This particular set was a birthday gift from a great crafting pal and contains some great images, one of my favourites being this star image.

Firstly I cut a piece of white cardstock and created a background using Crushed Curry ink from Stampin' Up! and Kaiserkraft 'Sketchy' stamp.   I then overstamped the star image using SU! Midnight Muse ink.  I then put this stamped panel through my Cuttlebug using a star embossing folder.

I sprinkled some Shabby White Frantage embossing powder randomly over the panel and heated from underneath with a heatgun.   Touches of Stardust Stickles in the centres of some of the embossed stars gives added sparkle.

Using SU! cardstock in So Saffron and Midnight Muse I layered up the stamped panel and another panel.  The sentiment was sitting in my box of bits and this was also layered onto more scraps of the SU! cardstock.  Finally I added some square gems which I found in my gems stash.

I hope you've enjoyed your visit and today's project, the creations from the other members of the DT can be found on the CCT Blog.