Site of the Week; Kelly Rae Roberts

Welcome Back

As a break from tradition, I thought it might make a change if I shared some sites that I particularly enjoy visiting with you.  Next up is Kelly Rae Roberts. I adore Kelly and her work as it has so many layers its wonderful, she is a mixed media artist and since this months theme is Paint, it was a perfect site.

I have followed Kelly for a number of years and she occassionally teaches online classes too. She has written an amazing book called Taking Flight; Inspiration and techniques to give your creative spirit wings, and an excellent ebook series too.

Kelly Rae Roberts

It’s coming up holiday time and the good weather means long tutorials are not likely to go down well at the moment as either everyone is just going or coming back from holidays or battling with their over growing gardens.

Fear not tutorials will return, and this will give me time to create some crackers for you for the later months of the year In the meantime if you are missing your tutorial fixes, check out the Tutorials Tab at the top of the blog for goodies you may have missed from the archives.

Do stop by and have a look at Kelly’s wonderful site, leave her a comment and say who sent ya if she asks Her spirit and ideas make you feel so happy and want to create.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Site of the Week; Julie Prichard

Welcome Back

As a break from tradition, I thought it might make a change if I shared some sites that I particularly enjoy visiting with you.  Next up is Julie Prichard. I adore Julie and her work as it has so many layers its wonderful, she is a mixed media artist and since this months theme is Paint, it was a perfect site.

I have followed Julie for a number of years and she teaches wonderful online classes too. I found her work thanks to Suzi Blu and she also regularly has work in the Stampington publications.

The Land of Lost Luggage

It’s coming up holiday time and the good weather means long tutorials are not likely to go down well at the moment as either everyone is just going or coming back from holidays or battling with their over growing gardens.

Fear not tutorials will return, and this will give me time to create some crackers for you for the later months of the year In the meantime if you are missing your tutorial fixes, check out the Tutorials Tab at the top of the blog for goodies you may have missed from the archives.

Do stop by and have a look at Julie’s wonderful site, leave her a comment and say who sent ya if she asks

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Site of the Week; Suzi Blu

Welcome Back

As a break from tradition, I thought it might make a change if I shared some sites that I particularly enjoy visiting with you.  Next up is Suzi Blu. I adore Suzi and her work as it has so many layers its wonderful, she is a mixed media artist and since this months theme is Paint, it was a perfect site. I have followed Suzi for a number of years and she makes wonderful videos for You Tube and also teaches online classes too.

A Lovely Dream

It’s coming up holiday time and the good weather means long tutorials are not likely to go down well at the moment as either everyone is just going or coming back from holidays or battling with their over growing gardens.

Fear not tutorials will return, and this will give me time to create some crackers for you for the later months of the year In the meantime if you are missing your tutorial fixes, check out the Tutorials Tab at the top of the blog for goodies you may have missed from the archives.

Do stop by and have a look at Suzi’s wonderful site, leave her a comment and say who sent ya if she asks

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Site of the week; Seth Apter

Welcome Back

As a break from tradition, I thought it might make a change if I shared some sites that I particularly enjoy visiting with you.  First up is Seth Apter. I adore Seth’s work, as it has so many layers its wonderful, he is a mixed media artist and since this months theme is Paint, it was a perfect site.

The Altered Page

Just click on the name to visit Seth’s amazing blog.

It’s coming up holiday time and the good weather means long tutorials are not likely to go down well at the moment as either everyone is just going or coming back from holidays or battling with their over growing gardens.

Fear not they will return, and this will give me time to create some crackers for you for the later months of the year In the meantime if you are missing your tutorial fixes, check out the Tutorials Tab at the top of the blog for goodies you may have missed from the archives.

Do stop by and have a look at Seth’s wonderful site, leave him a comment and say who sent ya if he asks

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Tutorial; Storing Paper & Card Part 2

Welcome Back

Since this month’s theme in The Virtual Crafting Challenge is Paper & Card, here is a quick tip for storing you card & paper, for short-term storage.

A4 Cardboard Storage Drawers

As I  mentioned in the previous article, light and moisture/humidity are the worst enemies of card and paper. Light will quickly fade your precious papers and moisture will make them curl and distort, or mould if left for prolonged periods in such conditions.

If you are looking for a space-saving storage to have next to you on the desk, the A4 set of drawers I showed above, from WH Smiths are ideal. You get a lot of storage for only an A4 size of desk space. One thing to be aware of is that because this item is made of cardboard, it may well contain both acid and lignin. So best not store precious papers for any length of time as it could damage your card for archival projects.

These are really useful and I also have several sets to store my unmounted stamps in too. Just avoid direct contact between the board and stamps or precious papers to avoid possible damage to them. (rare, and would take YEARS, but worth mentioning).

Personally I would avoid the corrugated card boxes to store decent card in, they are often very low-grade card and high in acid and lignin. It would be a shame to have your expensive papers ruined by your storage system!!!

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Tips for Slice Elite; Crafters Companion Stick n Spray

Welcome Back

In today’s post, I’ll let you know how I got on using the Crafters Companion Stick n Spray adhesive, with The Slice Elite.

I really struggled to apply sufficient glue to the 12″ x 12″ glass mat for the Slice Elite using its own liquid glue. My paper would lift during cutting and destroy the die cut as it went round. A friend (Glitter Monkey) recommended using the Crafter’s Companion Stick and Spray glue as an alternative adhesive. I gave this a try and here are my results.

Using Crafters Companion Stick & Spray with the Slice Elite Glass Mat

Pros

• Much quicker and easier to apply an even coat of adhesive, compaired to  The Slice own paint on glue
• I have had no problems cutting even the most detailed design with my Slice since using this adhesive
• Any smell from the initial application of adhesive, quickly dissipates as the glue dries.

Cons

• I highly recommend you use this spray outdoors if you can, as its quite smelly.
• There is a small amount of sticky residue left on the back of the die cut, it is minimal and since I tend to stick the resulting die cut to a project, it hasn’t been a big problem for me. Reduce this by using a piece of scrap card and stick it to the mat and peel off repeatedly for a few times just to take off the access sticky from the mat, before you use your favorite card/paper.

Tips

***If you have pets indoors, especially if you have birds, then apply spray outdoors.***

• Spray into a box to catch the over spray
• If you have a flat glass mat for your slice, cut a piece of acetate to lay over it for storage in between uses. It will keep ‘fluff’ off the mat and help the glue last longer. The Glass mat with the hands free kit, had a drop over cover in with the packaging, put that on when you put your mat away to protect the surface for those.

Links

Crafter’s Companion is a UK-based company but their products are available in many countries. For more details please follow the links below.

• Crafters Companion This is the online store.
• Stick n Spray This is the product I used on my Slice mat.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Reivew of Friendly Plastic Bend it Shape It DVD

Welcome Back

In today’s post I will be reviewing; Bend It Shape It. An introduction to Creative Design using Friendly Plastic

Bend It Shape It. Friendly Plastic DVD.

Product Details

• Manufacturer/Brand; Creative Force Films; Rare Bird
• Item number; ISBN 0-9544649-1-5
• Run Time; 90 Minutes
• RRP at time of writing: £17

Reason For Buying

After seeing some demonstrations by Liz Welch on Create and Craft, I was really inspired and just had to buy this DVD to learn more about what could be done with the Friendly Plastic. I chose this particular DVD as it covers 3D projects and beads.

Pros/Cons

• Excellent stand alone DVD, no prior knowledge needed
• Covers tools and equipment you will need
• Well Presented
• Everything is well explained
• Like a Master Class on DVD
• Re watch any time you need to
• Lots of techniques
• Plenty of scope to use the techniques in your own way

Cons

Haven’t got any, other than now I ‘need’ everything shown on there as I want to get going.

Build Quality

This in an excellent quality DVD not just the content and presentation which I covered above but the production quality is superb. The tutorials are well-lit, perfect sound and superb camera work too. No busy distracting backgrounds. The only music is during gallery sections so no struggling to hear instructions over background music.

Value for Money

Excellent. If you are interested in trying Friendly Plastic for the first time, or have some already that you neglect, then this DVD is for you. A good range of projects and ideas.

Would I buy it Again?

Yes and would recommend it to everyone.

Summing up

Like alcohol ink, Friendly Plastic has been around for a few years but when you first see it, you can’t work out what on earth to do with it. Until I saw Liz on Create and Craft, I didn’t ‘get’ Friendly Plastic at all. Once I’d seen her demos I was very excited and wanted to know more.

Rather than get a pile of plastic and just look at it, I decided to buy the DVD first and find out how to use it. I’m so glad I did, now I feel really inspired about the kind of things I’d like to try to make with it, which will help me choose plastic  in colours I’d like. You need minimal tools and if you have been paper crafting for a while, you will probably have most of them.

I really enjoyed the DVD and highly recommend you get one. The best thing is, that you learn so many techniques and see the projects created all the way through. This gives you the tools, to explore the techniques so you can use them your own way. I had so many ideas for projects I’d like to create, as I was watching. This is like taking a Master Class with Liz, so if you can’t get to a class with her in person, this DVD will be a good alternative.

Now I just need to save up for lots of Friendly Plastic.

Links

Liz Welch is the artist behind the DVD, here are a few of the places you can find her and more of her products. The DVD reviewed today, can also be found in her online shop.

• Liz Welch – Blog 
• Liz Welch – Friendly Plastic Website including shop and where to find classes Friendly Plastic shop.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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