Monday 28 February 2011

TATTY TAGS!

One Stamp, one technique, six colour schemes...six different looks!

I made a set of six tags last week, using the main Tatty Button image and a resist technique that was inspired by an article in an ATC workshop book by Bernie Berlin and a project in Craft Stamper magazine. I wanted to see if I could create six different looks just by changing the colour schemes and embellishments.

The first three were created using brightly coloured acrylic paints...staying true to the magazine project. The pink/purple colour scheme tag has lots of nice silver highlights in it that don't show very well in the photo but I think I want to add more silver at some point....maybe some silver wire either threaded into the fibres or wrapped around the actual tag.
The final three were created using more natural shades and distress look with Tim Holtz Distress inks.......I think these three are my favourites. The red/pink shades tag hasn't really been done justice in this photo....it's really quite pretty. Close up of this tag shows how I also splattered the coloured tag with water droplets...so that they reacted with the Distress Inks and gave it a more distressed and aged look. I also stamped and cut out three of the Tatty Flower image and layered them up for a dimensional embellishment.
Close up of the green shades tag with a wooden button embellishment. This my favourite tag.
I didn't have time to photograph each individual stage of the resist technique but I'm going to do a mini tutorial on it here very soon...so watch this space!

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Tatty Button Suppliers Info

I'm getting a lot of requests for info on who will be stocking the stamps and cd.

Well, firstly, I believe orders start going out until this week....so items will hopefully be hitting shelves and webshops within 2weeks but I don't really know yet who exactly have ordered except for a couple......that info is Creative Expressions side of things as really I only design the images and am not employed by them or deal with the sales/orders.

Creative Expressions do not sell to the public (except at their annual show 'Ally Pally') and only supply to trade....so if you wish to find out who your nearest retail stockists are, their website has a store finder. If you are a craft retailer and wish to become a CE stockist, then the contact details are all there too.

http://www.creative-expressions.uk.com/index.php

As time goes on I hope to be able to compile a list of retailers who stock Tatty Button products, and then share the details here.

Hope this helps for now

Ange x

STITCHES & THE TATTY BUTTON LAUNCH!

Just a quick update and upload of some photos of the Creative Expressions Stand at 'Stitches' Trade show NEC Birmingham Feb2011 where the launch of the first range of Tatty Button stamps and interactive cd took place.

I had a great two days mooching around all the other stands, checking out new products coming out soon (some really great stuff happening!), meeting up with the wonderful design team and staff at Creative Expressions...and chatting to customers.

A BIG THANKYOU goes to all at Creative Expressions for making this happen...and to the amazingly talented team who created some fabulous card examples...each with their own individual look. I hope you are as proud of this as I am!
The Creative Expressions Stand - Five demo tables with Nigel from Card Creations, Spellbinders guest demonstrator, Jo Channon, Karen Lines and Sue Wilson...all doing a sterling job of exhibiting the new Creative Expressions lines and products....including Tatty Button, of course! You can just see me chatting to Karen (I'm the red head with the black&grey check shirt).
HERE SHE IS! The Tatty Button display! I love the look of the packaging, nice clean lines in simple colours that make the images pop! Inside you will find a precut AND mounted stamp (YAY! no need messing around trying to cut out and stick onto foam yourself), plus two examples of cards you can make.
TWO WONDERFUL LADIES! - Jo and Karen, taking a breather from a second day of demoing.
Tatty Button card examples made by the talented designers at Creative Expressions.Well, we know what WE can do with her...I'm now looking forward to what everyone else can make!
ME! - Day two, standing by the Tatty display...looking rather sheepish and having a bad hair day...and hating having my photo taken gggrrrrrrr!
Some of my cards and projects were on display on Karen's table. I wanted to show that the stamps were just a good used on dimensional projects, as they were for card craft

ON THE BIG SCREEN! - The interactive cd, created by the lovely Nigel of Card Creations who launched and demoed the product. There's some very interesting and new features on this, not previously seen on their cd products. Great job Nigel!
Sue Wilson and Karen Lines busy at work with demos. More wonderful and pretty Tatty Button card examples.
IN GOOD COMPANY! - Tim and Tatty products were display neighbours.

Thursday 17 February 2011

Ange Lee Arts & Crafts

Check out my new Facebook page...dedicated to all my new artwork and crafts projects. Join Facebook, visit me and hit that 'LIKE' button please!

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Ange-Lee-Arts-Crafts/193987797291485

Wednesday 16 February 2011

Piece de resistance.....

TATTY BUTTON STAMP PROJECTS II
My final dimensional project for the moment...and I thought it deserved a blog post of it's own. I've got to say this has been a labour of love, has taken me the best part of two weeks to complete inbetween working on the other projects....BUT I'M SOOOO PLEASED WITH HOW IT TURNED OUT!

THE TATTY BUTTON GRUNGE PAPER PATCHWORK BAG

Sadly I do have to say that this isn't my own design entirely. Credit must go to ANNELIESE BATES who did a wonderful project in the October 2009 edition of Craft Stamper magazine...I have been itching to do this one for a long time and now the Tatty Button stamps are available, decided to have a go using them. I have done a little adapting of Annalieses design mainly due to my limited materials available, but it does stay reasonably true to her original style.
The Patches are individual squares of Tim Holtz Grunge Paper that have been inked (Distress inks) and the either stamped with Tatty Button images (plus a couple of other pattern stamps) or embossed using various plates for texture. The patches were hand stiched together to form panels for the two main sides.

Unlike Annelieses bag, mine is much smaller, consisting of nine patches per panel, rather than fifteen. I also lined my bag with canvas fabric and edged the top with fabric. Anneliese lined her bag with extra panels of Grunge Paper and left the edges raw. The lining I left in it's original natural colour, and stamped over it using small Tatty Button embellishment stamps.

The end panels and base of the bag are single pieces of Grunge Paper, inked up with Distress inks and embossed. This one in the photo is a Creative Expressions embossing plate design by Sam Poole and goes very well with the Tatty Button range...and of course it's only right to use something of Creative Expressions...after all they are the company producing my stamp designs.

Anneliese used patterned 7 Gypsies Gaffer Tape and Tim Holtz Idea-ology metal componants for the handles and attachments...which I unfortunately didn't have to hand. I think those pieces lend a much more professional finish to her bag, but I had to make do with some simple brass eyelets and black fabric tape, hand sewn to match the patchwork stitching...I still think they work well though, and the black handles tie in with the black edging around the top of the bag and highlight the black ink of the stamped images. Looking at the photos now though, I think the brass is too new and shiny looking so will probably give them a wipe over with some inks to tone the 'brassyness' down.

Tatty Button Projects

Well, after the intial gazing happily at the lovely pristine new Tatty Button rubber stamps that arrived, not wanting to get them dirty (how sad is that...I'm usually chomping at the bit to work with new stamps!)...and getting over my slight nervousness that these are MY designs and I have to think of something to make with them that does them justice....

....I've finally come up with a small selection of projects that I think shows that the designs are very workable and have scope...from distressed effects to downright pretty and girly. I have a number still WIP and will upload photos once completed...but for now here are a few finished pieces.
'HEART HANGER' - This piece shows that the stamps can be used to create embossed metal projects. I used the 'Best Friends' image and stamped with black Stazon ink onto silver craft metal sheet, then used various metal embossing tools (TenSecondsStudio) and a foam mat to trace around and in the design to create depth and texture. The back was filled in with polyfiller (speckle) to stop the embossed areas from getting crushed or flattened and once dried, mounted into a chipboard heart frame which was completey covered in pink handmade mulberry paper to seal it all up securely. After setting eyelets and attaching a chain I set about making embellishments. The two flowers were created by stamping the plain Tatty Flower image three time (for each flower) onto metal sheet, cut out and shaped and layered to create dimensional petals. I felt the metal looked to bright and shiny, so toned it all down a bit by working black stazon ink into the metal. This, not only brought out the embossing but gave it a nice gunmetal colour finish.
'PONY PAL CARD' - The original Tatty Button drawings are sketchy graphite pencilwork in grey scale and when the images were adapted for the rubber stamps this look was sadly lost but I was determined to see if the stamps could actually be used to recreate that original pencil look again. I'm delighted to say it is possible...and this card shows it wonderfully. The stamp 'Pony Pal' was inked and stamped out in a pale grey then used as a guide to pencil and shade back in with HB graphite pencil. The completed image was then framed with cardstock, embossed (cuttlebug) and die cut (Spellbinders nesties) and embellished with co-ordinating ribbon and a small charm which is the 'Tatty Button' stamped on clear shrink plastic.
'PIP PENDANT' - I was keen to see how far I could go to create an 'ungirly' piece and although there are more stamp designs in the pipeline that I think would be more suited to this, rather than wait, I went for the small 'Pip Mouse' image that will be available in this first range. 'Pip' was stamped onto copper craft sheet and slightly distressed and hammered to create a bit of aging and texture. It was then mounted into a frame of embossed and silver inked Grunge Paper (Tim Holtz). The frame was assembled using cold connection technique (ie not soldered as it is fabric) by way of metal rivets (which can actually be removed so that the image can be replaced with something else) and then hung on heavy linked chain. I'm sitting on the fence over this piece at the moment as, I really like the idea, but not so keen on the choice of material used. I think I might rework this one at some point and perhaps used metal for the frame.'FAIRY SHOE' - And now for something really girly! I found the project and template for this shoe in an old CraftStamper magazine (I'll sort out links for this later and also give credit to the original designer of the piece once I find her name!) and is made out of Grunge Paper which I painted with white acrylic paint then stitched together using fluffy pink threads. It was given a spritz of Cosmic Shimmer Mist (Angel Mist) although this sadly doesn't show up very well in the photo and decorated with handrawn swirls. The 'Tatty Button' and 'small flowers' images were stamped and cut out of more grunge paper then attached and wings added with ironed and stamped fantasy fibres....and sections coloured pink with a Promarker. Further embellishments include silver glitter, gems and tiny silver bells.'CHARM BRACELET' - At some point I want to make pieces using all the individual stamps from this initial Tatty Button range but time is short at the moment so....I have made a 'showcase' charm bracelet using all the stamps on white frosted shrink plastic, with additional coloured and silver beads. I think the clean simple lines of the designs work well when shrunk down on this craft material...with no detail lost at all. I had fun making this bracelet and might have a go at making a coloured version at some point too.'PURPLE FLOWER TATTY CARD' - I wanted to concentrate more on the embellishment stamps in the range on this card, and so stamped out multiple 'flower' and 'leaves' images onto purple card and used them layered up to create a frame around a simple stamped 'Tatty Button' image. These flower stamps have a fair bit of scope and can be stamped out as outline only if desired and also cut out and shaped to create more dimensional paper flowers...more on that later!
'PIP MOUSE CARD' - The 'Pip' stamp comes in two sizes, one tiny stamp that is great for embellishments, and background papers etc and this one used in the card above, which is the larger version. This is just a simple stamped card showing the image stamped out in brown Tsukineko Memento ink and coloured in using ProMarkers. All the Stamp packages come with the images shown coloured in to help as guidence should you wish to create work in the original colours (as found in the cd) but obviously these stamps can also be coloured in any shade you wish!

'GREEN TATTY FLOWER CARD' - A card that shows the embellishment type stamps can stand alone from the main Tatty Button character images. Using co-ordinating patterned papers and cardstock, two 'flower' and 'leaf' stamps were stamped out and layered up multiple times to create depth. The stems were drawn in freehand using a black fineliner pen.

Tuesday 8 February 2011

IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING!

Wow.....sooooo much to tell but sooooo much I can't tell (or show)....now isn't that frustrating!




But I will let you into a little bit of my news......



If you follow my blog you'll know that there's been a few things in the pipeline regarding my Tatty Button (hence why as precaution and protection I shut down my other blog and all Tatty artwork was removed from my web sites). Well, I think I can now tell you she's going to be entering into the craft world...very soon!



It's all felt a little surreal what with how it all came about...but that's a story for later on. For now, I'll tell you I've been very busy over Christmas working on adapting the pencil Tatty artwork into suitable images for rubber stamps which are being made and marketed by a very good British company. When we all first met up last year to discuss what the requirements and plans were, and a date for the launch of the products...it all seemed an age away. The company have been lovely in keeping me in the loop on how all has been going....but really the process has felt a little weird. This has been something very new to me and a huge learning curve too. My head has been down, furiously reworking images and then seeing them disappear off into the post...and that was it...all out of my hands...and out of my control...



...a bit unnerving really! I've felt a bit like a new mom, sending her child off to school for their first day...my baby was being handed over to someone else and I was left wondering what was going on...and feeling a bit strange and empty...waiting....just waiting for Tatty to come back home...



...be patient...be patient...be patient...


...that was what I kept telling myself! Christmas, family, rugby and other art commissions kept me busy in the meanwhile but time just seemed to be drag....


...when was I going to see Tatty again!



And then.....WOW! yesterday a lovely big brown parcel arrived on my doorstep and out spilled the first set of Tatty Button rubber stamps! OMG such lovely little things all pristine and new, all etched smartly in grey.
They're here....actually here...finally here...in my hands...the feeling was quite bizarre! And it hit me there and then...now I'd physically got something in my hands....IT WAS FINALLY HAPPENING!


Reality has kicked in now. I have designed rubber stamp images! They have been made into actual stamps...and for crafters to buy (hopefully LOL!)...ok, so lot's of people do this....but this is something I'd never ever considered myself to be able to do....


...and now and I'm feeling a tad nervous...time that was once dragging is now speeding up and in barely two weeks time she is GOING LIVE.


OH BOY YIKES!


'The World of Tatty Button' craft products are being launched at a trade show this month...and that's it...she's out there in the big wide craftin world! I might seem all calm and confident on the outside, but really inside I'm freaking out over how it's all going to go and how she is going to be recieved...


...be patient...be patient...be patient!