The new Crafty Notions spray inks were a hit...

This is a long post and has taken me ages to write because I am doing it in the intervals between the Dancing on Ice final. At the moment Sam has skated the bolero - captivating was Jason's comment!! and Laura has yet to skate - no idea who will win as they are both fantastic. At Stitches, the trade show in February I thought I would buy a few bottles of Crafty Notions mica spray inks to try, and boy are they gorgeous!!! Just look at those stunning colours and the mica in them mixes like a dream. It looks delicious being swirled around and they spray really easily too unlike others I have tried....they have also almost sold out so if you want some be quick.

so I had a play on Thursday morning and I sprayed sheets and sheets of cardstock and also in my A4 and A5 Moleskines - a real joy. I converted some of the cardstock into birthday cards adding die cut butterflies as you can see here... they have a batik-like quality to them. Also in the photo below are the journal pages I sprayed and on the reverse the inks leaked gently through and left some lovely images....

Today, was sunny and warm and so I took myself out to the naya and equipped with a can of Pepsi and a Cadbury's creme egg I was all set.

It's weird journalling in an A4 size. I have so many A5 journals on the go and the larger size can be quite daunting at first but I am enjoying working in the larger size. As an artist I always worked large as it is much more freeing but for journalling smaller seemed safer.

Anyway, I doodled around some of the flower images that had leaked and added wording from my quote collection which reads " If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom"

In my A5 journal I had sprayed through a new Sizzix butterfly die cut - I used the butterflies on the cards - and also dabbed the leftover spray onto the page reversing the image...look at these beautiful colours... and today I added some fairies that a friend gave me last year and found some wording which reads "Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life, and everyone deserves a little sunshine" .....which is a beautiful sentiment.

On Saturday morning I introduced the girls to the spray inks and they loved them. Here's Blaithin and Becky with the cards they made...

I find it so lovely when the ladies continue at home what they have learned in class and even more so when they bring it to show...

and on Friday morning two of the ladies brought pieces - Maxine finished her doll painting off at home with a feather and beading - truly a mixed media piece...

and Ruth brought in two examples of last week's alcohol-inked beer mats class that she made at home.....

Both stunning ladies!

So I decided to let the Friday ladies into the secret of these lovely inks and they donned rubber gloves and settled down for a messy time - you could have heard a pin drop the concentration was so great...

Lin doing an Ainsley Harriott, or at least seconds before she had her left arm raised!!! Lol!

Mu, Lin and Florence showing their creations...

Right, they are just announcing the winner so

Bye for now Sue