Bokeh tutorial.......

Good evening all!!

Tonight I'd like to share with you a little tutorial for my new "fave" technique - "Bokeh" :-)

I know I promised it on Boxing Day but you know how that time flies thing is....

So what is "Bokeh" ???

Well it originates from the art of photography and is basically a soft out of focus blur/haze on a photo. Often seen on pics of fairy lights at this time of year.

Surfing the net at the beginning of December I came across a couple of cards created using this effect and fell in love so I created my own version of the technique ( It is also covered in a different way/medium in January's Craft Stamper)

So how dowe do it......well it is super super easy...

What do you need?

Substrate - card/mdf blank or whatever you want to cover

Selection of acrylic paints - for this projects I used 2 shades of gold and silver

White acrylic paint

Scrap card

1 inch flat brush

make up sponge

Circle cutter/nesting circle dies

stamps

(Gesso if using Mdf - cover with this b4 step 1)

Step 1) Cover your chosen project in a couple of layers of your coloured paints. Make sure they overlap slightly and blend.

Step 2) die cut 3 different sized circles from scrapcard to form your template (I used black here to help with photography - I would suggest you use white to prevent any die leaking out of the card stock and ruining your project...)

Step 3) Squeeze out a little white acrylic and then sponge through your various circles taking turns to overlap. Be careful to only apply a thin layer of paint - if you are anxious about overloading colour you could add a small spritz of water to the white to let it down slightly. Not too much though or it may run under your stencil. As you overlap the depth of white increases. You can cover your entire project for a very soft look or you can leave some blank space like I did.

Once dry stamp and decorate to taste

.....simple easy but beautifully effective I think! 

Why not try using a pale pastel / translucent paint (a paint with see through properties ) or as suggested in CS, a chalk white ink as your Bokeh layer instead of white acrylic.

Hope you have enjoyed tonights tutorial

Thank you for stopping by and saying Hi

Crafty Cheers for now

Love 

Rae

xxx

Fly Free......mixed media mirror gift

Afternoon/evening blog friends :-)

Thought I would pop by tonight with a quick share of some more Christmas crafting for a friend ....

This is an ikea mirror that was painted and then layered with stencils and more paints and gilding waxes as well as some metal embellishments and stampin to finish it off.....

Hope you are all still full of christmas cheer/pudding!!

I am off to curl up with my christmas books and a whole lot of cheesy festive films :-)

Stay safe and wrap up warm

Frosty cheers for now

Love

Rae

Xxx

Christmas at last!!!

Well well well here I am ....LONG overdue and muchly sorry!!

It's been a crazy few weeks at Casa Fairefoxes and sadly the poor bloggage has taken a back seat BUT I have just about made it in to show some final Christmas orders!

These are some Plaques I was asked to complete all bespoke and as you can see varied lol!!

Some simple mixed media, paints, gel mediums, texture pastes, stamping, stencilling and embossing went into these....

Hope they go down well with the recipients .....

Right off to finish the rest of the orders and my remaining Christmas presents while Fe heads off in search of a Christmas mousey

Have a good Sunday everyone!!

Crafty Christmas Cheers for now

Hugs

Rae

xxx

Mixed media Christmas Class @ Inspirations Preston

Good Afternoon peeps.

I have been invited up to Inspirations Preston and teach a Christmas Class on November 29th 10 am until 4pm.

The class costs £25 and we will be making a selection of mixed media techniques to make some lovely Christmas cards like these 

I am really looking forward to seeing you there - so if you want to join us then you can by ringing and booking directly with the shop on 

 01772 880852 

Crafty cheers for now 

Hugs

Rae

xxx

Live the life you've Imagined - a Brusho Canvas

Good evening Blogworld!!

Tonight I thought I would share another Brusho canvas......I do like colouring all my mediums with Brushos

I have coloured the Gesso used on the base and buttons and the Gloss gel (applied through stencils) with the same Orange pigment - I just love the colour variants. Purple Brusho was sprinkled over and then sprayed with Silver Gesso spray instead of water to add a shimmer. The Serenity Prayer stamp is from Oak house studio and is available on it's own or as part of a set HERE

I have recently started to (finally) teach myself some (simple) photo editing skills.so I used Serif CraftArtist2 to edit together my portrait and a sunrise photo of an open road. 

Next year I am off traveling and learning for 5 months - doing something I always wanted to do so the "live the life you've always imagined" tag finished it perfectly

Thank you fot taking the time to stop by

Crafty Cheers for now

Hugs

Rae

xxx

Fly High Brusho Canvas - Sample #2

Evening all!!!

Here is the second sample for Saturday's Brusho's workshop......

a little mixed media canvas.

Really looking forward to teaching this class!!

Check back tomorrow for our final samples :-)

Crafty Cheers for now

Love

Rae

xxx 

Brusho workshop Sample #1 High Legh, Knutsford

Good evening campers!!!! 

Yikes Wednesday already - this last week of summer is vanishing at a lick!!

Anyway here is the 1st Sample for Saturday's workshop at High Legh, Nr Knutsford

Thanks for stopping by - hope you like this :-)

See you all soon

Crafty Cheers for now

Love

Rae

xxx

Eileen Godwin's Splodgeaway Workshop 3/10/14

Evening all!!

Sorry I was AWOL last week - super silly busy! Anyway here (finally!!) are my makes from a lovely day's crafting with my friend Eileen and loads of other friends including Splodge and Oak House Studio DT teamies.....

We got all nice and inky and painty - it was a great start to a wonderful crafty weekend!! 

All the stencils used are available from SplodgeAway here :-)

Apologies for such a quick post but I will be back soon!! Off to prep for my Brusho class this Saturday - I still have a couple of places left if you would like to join us :-)

Crafty Cheers for now

Love

Rae

xxx

Oak House Studio Mini One Stamp Day.......

Good morning all!!

Hopefully as you read this myself and Hyacynth will be winging our way along the A55 to Pentre Brew, Anglesey.

However over at Oak House Studio today we have another of our fabulous One Stamp days using the fabulous Christmas Corner which is available in two sizes HERE

The above tag uses the Colour Chemistry spray inks in Bobby's Grey, Spode Blue and Glorious Gold (grab them here) over a clear embossed background of the small Christmas corner, The tree was altered with the same products and Gold EP. I ABSOLUTELY love these spray inks - so many fab colours - def worth the investment!!

This second card uses the pigment ink pads and the lush arcylic inks (in this case the gold - Take a look here

Pop over to the Inkspired by Oak House Studio Group and join to come and see loads more stunning ideas from the DT

Crafty Cheers for now

Love

Rae

xxx

Orrrr Sheena .... samples for Anglesey Crafters Companion Demo day....

Evening all.......

Here I am again twice in 24hrs!! Steady on lol!!

Just a quick post tonight to share a couple of samples for Saturday's Demo Day over @ Holland Arms, Gaerwen, Anglesey. 

I will be there from 10 - 4pm - Hope to see some of you there!!

Crafty Cheers for now

Love

Rae

xxx

Finnabair weekend......Oh WOW!!!

Happy Hump Day everybody!!

Well what a wonderful weekend I had!! I headed up to Stockton, M'boro on Friday morning for a wonderful class with my lovely friend Eileen Godwin (pics to follow from that!) and lots of other great friends and some Dteamies from Splodgeaway.

Then on Sat and Sun I had the amazing chance to take a whole weekend of classes with the super talented and super lovely Finnabair at another of Sue Tucker's Art Workshops 

Sat morning was the Tea for Two scrapbook project....

Sat afternoon we got all canvasy........and I wholeheartedly blame my "partners in Chaos" Ally and Shazza for this tongue in cheek composition lolol......

....which is now hung in the hall ha ha....

 

Hey a girl's gotta dream right?? Anyway Sat eve we had a lovely get together over food and we were very honoured that Ania joined us! 

So to Sunday and that involved the making of an Art journal which may just have been my fave thing ever...

  

  

I simply adore these covers and then we finished the weekend off with a couple of scrap pages...

I have NEVER had such an AMAZING craft experience with so many friendly fun like minded folk - words really cannot describe the feeling.....or the buzz it has left us all with....even now.

If you ever get the chance to go on either a Finn workshop or one of Sue Tucker's workshops (although selfishly I would like to keep these little treasures to myself  - I can't!) Please please jump at it - they are simply the Best!!

So filled with inspiration I am off to the Lab ..... I think I have fell in love with crafting all over again

Many Many thanks to Ania, Sue, Debbie, Suz, Lynnda, Sharon, Mandy, Ally, Karen and of course Eileen who put up with me and made it all so memorable!!

Crafty cheers for now

Love

Rae

xxx

*****NEW CRAFT CLASSES ADDED*****

***NEW CLASSES ADDED***

KNUTSFORD 

I will be running a Brushos workshop on Sat 25th Oct, at High Legh Garden Centre, Knutsford 10.30 til 4. £25 per person full day. Contact me on 07525 775959 

OSWESTRY

Sat 15th November, The Craft Bug, Chirk nr Oswestry 10.00 -12.30 and 13.30 - 16.00 or all day £15 per session or £25 for the Full Day. To Book Contact Della 01691 774842

Autumn Colours - Oak House Studio Challenge

Hello there Bloggers!! Hope you are all well? Lovely to see you all again

Lynnda has very kindly invited me back to join in this month's Challenge as a Guest Designer so here is my make for you today....

I used sponges to create the sunset sky after cutting out a large circle from a post it to mask out the sun. Using torn paper as another mask I was able to add in the hills with the same sponging technique. I used Lemon Yellow, Daffodil, Valentine and a teeny touch of Yummy chocolate.

The sentiment is stamped in Chocolate and the tree is first inked up in Valentine before stamping off 1st generation onto scrap paper and randomly applying touches of Yummy Chocolate. English Garden Words available HERE, tree available HERE

The corner panels used the same mixed colour stamping but were heat embossed with clear this time before being masked over to colour the background. Clematis tower available HERE

The colour was added to the flowers using the inks and a water brush.

I hope you have found some inspiation in this month's DT samples - they are all wonderful!

Thank you Lynnda for asking me back and I cant wait to see all your entries

Take care

Crafty cheers for now

Love

Rae

xxx

Holiday's are coming........Brusho and Chocolate Baroque Style

Good afternoon all!!

Popping by this afternoon to share a little more Chocolate Baroque.....and yes I have made a start on my Christmas cards!!!

I have kept it simple here by only using Brusho's to stamp and to colour with but adding a little subtle shimmer with my Clear Wink of Stella - a MUST have for the festive cards.

available from Hobby Art here

All the stamps I have used are available here I have used Winter Church (though it will cover all seasons!!!) ; The gift of Christmas and Snowy Penguins :-)

Finally if you like the Brusho's (shown below as a stamping medium) they are available from Oysterstamps

I hope you like today's offerings :-)

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

I will see you back here tomorrow with a Guest DT piece for the lovely Linda over at Oak House Studio

Crafty cheers for now

Love

Rae

xxx

Chocolate Baroque Roses .....

Good afternoon from Blogland!!

A very quick share today with the lovely yummy Brusho's and some fabulous Chocolate Baroque stamps - available here...

I hope you like it.......more to come on Brushos soon.

Meanwhile thanks for stopping by :-)

Crafty cheers for now

Hugs

Rae

xxx

Playtime from Leigh, Sincerely Yours

Good afternoon Bloggers!!

Hope you are all enjoying a pleasant Sunday afternoon :-)

Yesterday was Day 1 of my local Craft show, Sincerely Yours @ Leigh so I popped along to see what was what n catch up with folks

Was lovely to catch up with Tracy, Martine and Neet @ Oysterstamp n I picked up a few bits including some Brushos to add with my Luminarte pigments so this morning I had a play...

Adding in some of my Visible Image stamps to make this little card :-)

I also had a lovely meet up with Della n Dai from the Craft Bug, Oswestry - hope to bring you some exciting news on that front soon :-) and then I got round to a good old natter with Lucy from Sweet Poppy Stencils :-) Needless to say I didnt leave there empty handed I can't resist the amazing stencils!!! 

This tree caught my eye with a potential for some lovely Chistmas cards but this morning I have gone with an Autumnal colour way using Brushos and Luminarte pigments (I DOOOoooo wish the Mica would show up on photos!!) and I added stamps from Designs by Ryn (now avail in the UK through Oysterstamp) and Donna Downney.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend :-)

Crafty Cheers for now

Love

Rae

xxx

ART from Oak House Studio

Hi there folks. Hope you are well? 

I am here to share my final piece with Oak House Studios as we prepare to welcome in the new team :-)

This challenge was all about words so I came up with this mixed media piece.

I coated the letters in Gesso and then used a mix of the fabulous spray inks - Peacock Green, French Wine, French Lavender and French Mint over the letters to create a base....

Once they were dry I did a base layer of stamping, directly onto the letters using the navy,orchid,sea blue and cobalt blue pigment inks and heat setting.

I then took a sheet of tissue paper and stamped more images in a mix of colours. Some I painted on the reverse with white and coloured acrylic paints before I cut them all out and layered them up across the letters. Wording was also stamped on tissue and torn into strips before being randomly added using matt medium. Stamps used include, clematis tower, both sizes of double daisies, English Garden words, Mountain Ash leaf, music background, Walesby flourish, serenity prayer and squares border.

To finish the project I added a selection of coordinating paper flowers and some dazzles....

I hope you find some inspiration in this piece. I'd like to say a big thanks to Lynnda and the rest of my DTeamies for a lovely semester - I cannot wait to see what the new guys come up with

Crafty cheers for now 

Love

Rae

xxx