Mocha Sample

Well, I finally found a few minutes to finish the sample of Mocha metal that I had been messing around with the last time I posted. Things never turn out the way you think they will but now I am really pleased with the sample. The box is painted with hazelnut paint dabber with a little touch of gold paint from the Precious Metal range by Viva (sorry that these are still not on the website....hopefully they will be next week). The background on the lid was done with the design on the back of Big Daddy 1 and the fleur de lys thing has been a work in progress since last weekend. It start out with a chipboard fleur de lys shape that I used as a temporary mould. I couldn't be bothered to fill the back so I squashed it in a controlled squish with my paper stump. To refine the resulting raised up edges, I used my pointy tool to trace around all the edges. Stuck it to a square of bookboard with humungo tape before I changed my mind again!!! Next, I did the scribbly thing for the background and swiped away some of the coloured paint with Ranger's Sandal alcohol ink. I heated up the whole thing with my heat gun and sprinkled on some gold embossing powder.....this is such a cool technique as you don't need ink to hold the embossing powder, it just melts straight on the metal because it is so hot! Finally, the finishing touches....I filled the whole thing with Sepia Accents and sprinkled in a few beads. Phew....sorry that was such an epic....and to think that this started life destined to be mounted on a card.....you just never know where something will take you!!!

It's been a bit of a mad week. I taught a TSS masterclass last weekend with some great students from far and wide locations. It turned out to be a great class and they kindly allowed me to take piccies of their work. I had 12 students on this class and I apologise now if your work is not one of the ones below but I am sure that you remember, I was having real problems with my camera so the ones I have posted are because these are the best photographs....actually, I still think the colours are not truly represented for which I apologise and the quality also leaves a lot to be desired. Mark has since corrected the settings on my camera so the pictures of the box are pretty good.

I then managed to contract an eye infection which was pretty miserable for a couple of days. My eyes were so sensitive to the light for a few days....I even wore my sunglasses in the shop!!!! Couldn't get an appointment with my own doctor but thank goodness for my very wonderful pharmacist......I will love him forever....he soon got me fixed up!!!

The rest of the week has been taken up with classes. Thursday we did "Blooming Beautiful" which was a book in a box using botanical stamps from Dark Room Door, Studio 490 and a few from PaperArtsy. We included Claudine Hellmuth's Sticky back canvas. Her range of acrylic paints, matt medium and Gesso......very messy but lot's of fun. I can't believe I didn't get any photos, they all did some great work. Today's class was Christmas cards and tomorrows class is a TSS class, where we will be covering a wooden letter rack. I'll try and remember to take photos.

Have a great weekend.

P.S. Only fourteen more sleeps til I go to Manchester to see Take That.....I'm so excited. I am going with my two daughters and my dearest friend from Yorkshire who I don't get to see as often as I would like which makes it even more special!!