Ally Pally PaperArtsy Giveaway

Hello all!  I'm sorry I've been so absent from Craftyblogland... this is how life gets when I'm deep in a rehearsal process.  I'm missing being at my craft table and I'm missing visiting you all regularly.  Soon... soon...  In the meantime, as a thank you for your lovely visits and comments, this post includes a GIVEAWAY, so do check the details at the end!

I'm glad you've been enjoying revisiting some of my Calico Craft Parts projects - and there are more of those to come - but I'm aware it's now over a week since the big craft fair at Ally Pally, and I haven't got around to filling you in on my first bit of live demonstrating.

As The Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show at Alexandra Palace clashed with Version Scrap in Paris this year, PaperArtsy needed some extra people to keep things interesting in both places, so several of us were roped in to help with the demo-ing at Ally Pally.  I'm never much of a fan of photos of myself, so I'm going to leave you to track those down elsewhere... I'm just sharing a few of the samples I ended up with from the day.

I know lots of people have already been sharing the fun - including Alison (Craftytrog) from the Saturday, Deb (who I took over from on the stand) and lovely Julie Ann, who was demo-ing alongside me on the Sunday (her bird women are even more fabulous in real life!) - plus you'll find a great Saturday round-up from Helen, and an overall one from Darcy if you've still not caught up.

One demo plan was to share how I painted all those Lynne Perrella stained glass windows for the new releases earlier this year (see and buy the LPC stamps here) - and I did get round to creating an alternative version of the stone tower tag.












The translucent Frescos are so good for creating a glassy look - especially those new blues - and with a coat of gloss glaze over the top you get a lovely shine.

I always work with dots of paint and plenty of water on the craft mat to keep a really light, translucent look.









People were keen to see the Grunge Paste in action - and this tag seemed a good way to show it off - as well as how to layer up the Frescos with washes and dry-brushing to make the most of the texture.








I knew that the Lynne Perrella images would be quite time-consuming, so I thought it would be good to have some simpler makes up my sleeve.  The Sara Naumann images seemed like a good choice if I wanted to create something quick and easy (check out Eclectica ESN).  This was my planned sample.

And it turned out to have been a good idea to be ready for anything.  The thing people seemed to want to see more than anything else was the Crackle Glaze and how it worked...







... so I found myself creating a number of crackled backgrounds one after another - demonstrating the glaze in different ways.

As you can see, a couple of them still need a bit of finishing off, but I'm pretty sure the people I made the backgrounds for went off to buy some Crackle Glaze.  In my book that's a result!








The jumbo Sara Naumann tag was a bit of a tag by committee!  First up I was showing the Crackle Glaze with paint applied directionally to get the weathered paint look (that's the top right corner, demo'd in neutrals, as requested)...









... and then lower down the tag I showed what happens when you apply it with the Cut'n'Dry Foam for more of a porcelain crackle effect, and that time the request was for teals and turquoises.

The crackle ended up mostly covered up by the "ground" shading in the end!







Someone else arrived to watch and was curious about stencilling, so I added some of that.

I was enjoying the challenge of not knowing what would be next... to be honest, it's not that far removed from my own creative process where I generally set off with no particular destination in mind!












The stamping came about as I offered up the tip about clear-embossing an image when you stamp it, which frees you up to paint, stencil and stamp, knowing you can always wipe the image clean to keep it popping nicely.











At Ally Pally I also used the bird to show how to mask and stamp "behind" the image, but once I got home I added a pop of dimension with a whiter crackled bird to echo the original crackle in the top corner.

After a few more layers of stamping and a bit of doodling I had a tag which, though I'd've never come up with it all by myself, I rather like the look of - so thank you to all my creative collaborators on the day!












The other tag I created was mainly about showing off those fabulous translucent blue shades, and it's definitely ended up being my favourite.

I started with a Crackle Glaze background (another watcher was wanting to see what it could do, and I'm always happy to play with crackle as you know!) and then created an adaptation of some of the tags I made back in 2013 for my PaperArtsy design spot.

It's really a combination of that 2013 trio and the recent ATC created with the glassy blues.  Where before I was creating my bottles with moulded ATC, now I can just deploy the fabulous Glass Blue, Southern Skies and Blueberry Frescos, and I'm away!














Once I got home, I added some text stamping and ChitChat stickers, as well as some shading around the edges...












... and gave the bottle a nice firm base to stand on too, using a combination of pastel and watercolour pencils.















Finish it with a coat of Gloss Glaze and who needs acetate any more?!










I had loads of fun on the stand... it's really interesting how the creative process is modified by people watching (and suggesting and requesting) - though I think, in essence, I'm probably more naturally a solitary crafter!  It was great chatting to people, and lovely watching them get enthusiastic about these paints, glazes and stamps that I love using; and I always enjoy a good learning curve.

Big thanks to Leandra and PaperArtsy for inviting me along, to Darcy for support and to lovely Nina from It's Crafting Time too.  I hope it won't be the last time I get to play that way.

GIVEAWAY

As a massive thank you for your continued visits and lovely comments, even while I'm hopelessly and helplessly absent, I'm offering up these four sample tags as a little giveaway, 

and there'll probably be some other little bits and bobs in the envelope too, I should think!

If you'd like your name to be in the hat, just say so in your comment below.

I'll take entries up to and including the 1st of May (23.59 UK time on 1st May)

and then pick a name out of the hat.

Persuasion is clearly a form of demonstration, since we are most fully persuaded when we consider a thing to have been demonstrated.
Aristotle

The current recipe over at the Dragons Dream Tag It On challenge is Blue and Words... are you kidding?!  Must have been written for me!!  So I hope at least three out of the four of these will fit right in.