Well my last post one here was the Gelli Plate debate and the fact I couldn't clean the paint off my Roller. I have been told that maybe it was the type of paint.  So take note people because I think this does make a difference.  After all as Eileen Goodwin told me she doesn't have any trouble with hers and she also said to definately NOT use any Pallet Knife on you your Gelli Plate!!! I had actually been using a fast drying chalk paint, which  I love for Journaling, boxes, Tags etc.

Looks like Tom must have
chucked me out of his seat

Barbara Gray / Clarity have just launched the Gelli Plate at the NEC I can't wait to get hold of mine.  She said that they will be launching some Paints to go with it too so I will be looking out for them,  I know Annette and Maria were at the NEC today and I have asked Annette if she will put a Gelli Plate aside for me so I am hoping it will be in my Craft Room very very soon.
I might even do a video of me playing with it.  I have loads of ideas in my head for patterns and using it with my SplodgeAway Masks etc.  I did watch one video of a lady who had just got hers and you couldn't see her face but you could imagine her face, she was so excited, she ended up with a big pile of patterned papers, they looked a bit like art journaling pages.  Some of them I felt were a bit child like as mine propably will be when I first set off.  I want to get a refined proper printed look out of my Gelli Plate as well as messy- so lets wait and see. 


Dimp Till Assistant!
Soz Mojo not got you?

Tom surrounded as he
always is!

So talking of videos I have launched four videos on You Tube under" Sam Crowe Art Journal 1"  (then 2, 3, 4) . They are rough and ready and I only did them to see how they would turn out if I filmed myself with my/the Kids IPad hanging over the edge of my craft shelf looking down on my SplodgeAway Mat below?  I was going to put them on, ask for a few tips etc and then take them off and do more professional videos??  But straight away I got a like off Karen before I had even fully uploaded them, then three women said they were now going to start Journaling and to keep the videos as they are, they said they liked the natural approach AND my Daughter watched me filming the 3rd video, made me stop so she could try the technique I was showing and asked me to buy her a Journal the next day, which I did and now we sit and do our Journals together.  Can you believe one lady called Margare said "thats it I am off the buy a Journal" and got back from Asda 20 minutes later with it. said she was going to start the next day -- as it was 11.40 at night!!!  So there is definately some inspiration in my videos somewhere?

Me doing Demoes at Ross PaperCraft Show
Is that Sue Tucker I see beside me??

So I have decided to keep them up.  I have only 1 Dislike on the videos and I know who that is off  - so not a problem everyone else who has looked have said they enjoyed them and I have 3 new Subscribers to my You Tube, one of them being Michelle Webb, thanks Michelle.

So If you want to see them click on this link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lebsvRBmKzs  or search in You Tube for "Sam Crowe Art Jurnal 1, 2, 3, 4 The reason I did 4 is because I don't know how to Pause a video on the IPad??

I always leave Eye Candy so here are some pics from our SplodgeAway stall at the Ross Papercraft Shows (thats the Royal Our Stall)! Its very Rare I post pics of myself???

So Carry on Crafting and I will be back soon.

So lets talk Crafts & Gelli Plate!!

OK so I have just been watching a video about the ever increasingly popular Gelli Plate. I DO NEED ONE!  But at £30 a shot it seems a lot when you have a lot of paints and inks that you need first.  Of course the Gelli Plate will compliment the paints - Oh what a dilema, think I have already spent this months budget.  (which silly couple decided to live without credit cards!!!) Its tooooooo hard.  There is a cheaper plate a 6"by6" which is £20 but I personally think you may as well push the boat out to the extra tenner and get the 8"by10" there is always a time when you will want to do a bigger project especially with printing like this.  Thats what the Gelli Plate does see, its a kind of screen printing but with paints. So my answer to the problem??

My IPhone Cover, cool or what!!

I bet I can get this same affect on my SplodgeAway mat with my paints.  So I put a blob off BLACK acrylic fast drying paint on my Mat, I couldn't find my "scruffy" breyer so I used my "new breyer" for the job. I spread the paint over my Splodge Mat with the Breyer, good so far.  I put my SplodgeAway Heart Mask over the painted area and rolled over the mask once with the breyer, I put some Clarity and Elegance paper over the top of the image and breyered over that (non porous paper also gives texture as well as pattern with this effect).  So not bad, a bit more practice, a larger surface area of paint and I would be off.  So I get out my water spray, clean most the paint off my Splodge Mat and finish it off clean and ready to use with a bit of surgical spirit - sorted! 

So I spray my breyer with water and get out the kitchen roll, Mmmmm, Ok I get out a baby wipe scrub for a little while, Mmmmmmmmmmm OK I think I will just run it unnder the tap for about 10 minutes constantly adding soap to get the tiniest bit of paint off my brand new brayer just a teeny weeny bit at a time until I eventually just get it all soapy and scrape off the paint with my nail.  My goodness if I had to do this every time I used my Gelli Plate it would completely putt me off getting it out.  I did get it back to good condition in the end but tooooo much wasted crafting time.  I could use the old method of elastic bands round the breyer but you would loose most of the play.  So people are using breyers with Gelli Plates because???????????  Do you think there is a difference to these two breyers, I used the one on the left.  They do look different?


There is always a solution, I think if I or when I do get a Gelli Plate I will be using a palate knife to spread the paint. The SplodgeAway Mat faired very well in this experiment. The end result, well I kind of needed to do it again because I now knew I wanted to fill the full piece of card but by the time I had cleaned off my breyer I couldn't be botthered.
I will give you some eye candy just because I think a blog is lost without it - hey check out my phone cover I love it!

An Ode to a Ferrett

Ok I know this is normally my Craft Talk blog but sometimes I think of someone or see something and a poem or a ditty or an Ode just pops into my head, I write it down immediately or it has gone - they aren't always good but they are usually quite personal to a particular subject or person. So good or rubbish (I  never really know myself) this just popped into my head and was written down in about 5 minutes - so don't expect too much.

AN ODE TO A FERRET

fOR Eileen Goodwin and Ken

by Sam Crowe

Snowflake is a Ferret, a very lucky one too, you could say she's treated like roaylty compared to me and you.  Eileen is in dis-belief as her Hubbbie panders to her, the Ferret you fool, Not Eileen, on his list she is much lower.  Snowflake had run away to search for a better life and now she lives in luxury, a life free of trouble and strife. 

 Although there was a slight problem with her bedding, it wasn't lush? She now likes her new one much better simply because it says Shssssss.

We all fell in love with Snowflake from her days living in the shower,

she enjoyed a finger or two of Kens' Ow, Ooooowww,  Ooooowwwer!!!

Holly and Daisy were in awe just for a little while,

and when the Ferret got a name we all gave a little smile! 

She's a "Keeper" we said on FB Oh how happy we were,

but Eileen kept trying to say "no were not keeping her"!!!! 

Then Sadly her owner was found all our hearts just sunk to the ground!

We were gutted and angry and sad, till the owner said "Aw you can keep her lad"

or something like that???

And so the Saga continues, like I say Eileen's in dis-belief,

as Ken now has plans to build a "Playground" so the dogs walk is brief!!

So we are excited to hear the rest of this lovely story of Joy -

Maybe one day our Snowflake will find a handsome boy!!??  Mmmmmm Ferret Babies?

 So thank you Eileen for keeping us entertained,

and Ken, what about a plaque to get her officially named?

To Snowflake we thank you so much,

even my kids ask me how you are doing,

and to the lady who found the owner we do apologise for booing??? 
To be continued.......???

Hi there, I have been trying to put a post and some pictures on FB but after 15 minutes of "freeze" I have given up.  So I thought I would do a Blog instead, I am way overdue a blog anyway.  So its not like me but I don't think I have even shown you all my cards that were on TV with Tom of SplodgeAway and Maria Simms the other week.  Some were shown on the SplodgeAway Blog but they weren't necessarily my favorite ones - if truth be told I don't think I sent photos of them all - that so wouldn't have happened with me a few months ago?????

I have been really busy lately with crafting and helping out with the Shows and doing work for other DT's etc (more about that later) that when I was stood in the kitchen cooking the other day my kids stepped back in amazement - I had to announce "Mammy is Back in the Kitchen" !  My hubbie does an OK job but he never does Veg?  Their response?  "Oh NO"!!  Well they should have behaved themselves for Daddy shouldn't they.
Anyway I wanted to talk about the Pay it Forward Craft scheme that Paula Whittaker has set up on FB - I think it started with her, I missed her last shout out but got my name on this one, I will put the rules on FB if it will let me??? 
So basically you offer 5 pieces of art, tags, cards, whatever you want to do, to the first five people who put their name forward on your post.  Then they send their address and you send the item to them at any time over the next year, I think element of surprise is part of this too.  But those five people must offer the same on their face book to keep passing it forward.  A good idea I think as long as everyone keeps to their promise. 
So I am the lucky one I got Paula Whittaker - OK so if your name is on my timeline - you got me, but look on the bright side, my work is a bit eclectic so it will definately be a surprise?  And you never know you might even get a piece that has been on TV - a "famous piece" if you like?  OK I am getting carried away again, I am an excitable person when it comes to crafts!!!  Anyway if no-one puts their name forward I will just have to add a few of my friends so that no-one knows that my work is not wanted!!!!

Here are a few "Famous" items from the last TV show with Tom and Maria for your perusal.

See you soon
Sam

SplodgeAway TV Demo

Well I think its about time I change this Blog post don't you - since the last time I updated this Blog a lot has happened - My daughters Birthday, Santa Claus left some goodies, my Sister had to fill out a jigsaw puzzle which had a proposal of marriage in it and we have seen in the New Year - and very soon I will be taking yet another year off my age on my Birthday on 10th January

Sooooo - Enjoy your office party, Happy Birthday my Princess, have a HappyXmas everyone, Happy New Year to you all and AW thanks for the card but you didn't have to bother!!!  There I think that puts me up to date on this Blog now!!

Oh except for the fact that Tom has been on the TV again with http://www.splodgeaway.com/ he was on two shows with
Maria Simms http://inkymits.blogspot.co.uk/  the items he took with him sold out so fast that poor Maria only got to do one of her Demoes on the first show under a lot of pressure because it was selling out as she was doing it, she did do a second Demo in the afternoon show of a lovely Brown and Blue card which you will probably be able to see on here website above.


 Tom did demoes on some of the Stenscapes but by the time the second show came along in the afternoon almost everything had been sold and they wanted him to do a demo on the stenscape he had already done on the first show.  Well I sat and watched him wondering what on earth he was going to do and I was absolutely amazed at what he produced just off the cuff.
 So just for once on this my "Private" blog I am going to let someone else take the glory.  I am not even going to show you any of my cards/tags/note pads that were on the TV - however you can find them on our SplodgeAway blog http://splodgeaway.blogspot.co.uk/   over the next week or so along with the rest of the DT's work - there were some lovely samples handed in.  You can also buy the products on the splodgeaway website http://www.splodgeaway.com/                        

Ooopps how did one of mine sneak in there!!!

 Thank you for dropping by - I will be back soon.

Why is there a large Dress Form stuck at the top of my page you might ask yourself, well this is one of my proudest moments.  I did this with my SplodgeAway Mat and my sponge and nothing else except the piece of A4 paper I had left after I had cut the Dress Form figure out of it. (a self made stencil)

You might think that the colouring on the dress form looks easy but it took a lot of control and a lot of twisting around to make sure the lighting was in the right place.  I love the Clarity Femanine stamp down the centre, which just came to me, can you remember that the proper dress makers dummies used to be sectioned off for measurements of each individual piece of material?  Below is another version of the same thing but the black one was done using a SplodgeAway Stenscape and Rose Mask and Blending.

Do you have a proudest moment - come on you can tell us this is a crafters only blog.  Why don't you leave a comment at the bottom of this Blog saying "My proudest moment is........." and we will all go blog hopping to see each others proudest moments on your individual blogs??  Anyone fancy joinging in.  Go on we could all do with a little self praise!!!

I will be waiting......... Sam

Not a TV Card in Sight!!

Hello everyone, I am back from the NEC which I will be talking about on here, sorry to anyone who didn't get there, but hey, it doesn't mean we have to be MISERABLE too!!!  If I can't get there next year and you can I will let you TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT !!!!!!??????? So here we go , if you can't bear it SWITCH OFF NOW!

The first day, the Friday I sat in the car from 9.30, got a warning from Sue & Tom (who were half an hour ahead of us) that they were stood still in traffice at 10.30  Its OK I have a CLEVER Husband who hadn't gone the same way as Sue and Tom OHHH I LOOOVVVEEEE YOU!  So when two hours later there were massive tail backs from the stationary traffic HE KNEW A WAY TO AVOID IT  I sttiiillllllll love you, half an hour later "Oh look he says" ? What? "I have just missed the turning that would avoid the traffic cues"!!!  I LOVE YOU  Bite lip pretend to be reading Map!!

At 12Noon he starts to say "I think you might miss your meeting with the girls at 2pm (whats he talking about the NEC is only about 3 hours away, with traffic 4 hours, we set off at 9.30 no probs!) 

AT EXACTLY 2.35 we arrive at the NEC!   Still Sue and Tom came and met us at the door. Tom in Agony cos a pallet had fallon on him, (no I did NOT wish that that had happend to my Hubby!)

There does that make all you crafty girls who couldn't make it feel better?

Now for the good news, condensed.  Great to see Tom "Live" on the C&C stand, lovely to have a bit of time with Sue out of "Our" shop (eeewww she hates that) ITS HERS!!  I buy the CLARITY LETTERBOX SET - the kids buy an AIRFIX FLYING THING within 10 mins which Costs £50 I could have got more clarity stamps with that!! Kids do painting class with that bloke off telly, the famous one, you know the good one???

Next day meet all the lovely girls (most of the lovely girls) that are the crafty talkers on Face Book.  Felt like we all knew each other, except the ones who have a Dog as their profile?  They looked a bit different.  All had lunch and shopped together and watched Dean together - he is soooooo hilllarious, I didn't like his Mustach on TV but its actually really Sexy (watch it hubby!!!). Bet he knows a way to avoid the traffic! 

It was great for Annette Lee to see me passing every half hour after the girls had gone for th e train!  And it was even lovelier for Maria to bump into me, I bet that made their day.  You couldn't see Barbara Gray she was totally surrounded for thee whole time. The Indigu Blu stall was great and it was lovely to meet Kay Halliwell Sutton who we will be seeing at Suzicraft next year for a class! It was great to stand and watch "The Craft Chick" from paperartsy, and it was lovely talking to Wendy from Crystal Avenue.  It was great to have a little chat with Leoni who couldn't believe my kids were helping my Hubby to carry Tom's stuff, and seeing Carly Duff in her flat shoes. But most of all it was just lovely to connect with the people I talk to now on a daily basis, who I have never met before but who I feel will be keeping us all cheerful for the next year ahead on FB.  I hope more of us can meet up next year.

Well I have waffled on enough, so I will give you the more juicy stuff bit by bit, and will put some creations on here that I have made with my new stash - nothing was bought that I could have got in my Favorite Shop!! Suzicraft. 

Right - are you bored??  You deserve a good cup of tea or a nice glass of wine if you got right to the bottom of this so go on, treat yourself, I am off to my craft room.  Would be lovely to hear from any of you?
Sam (My how she waffles)Crowe.