Awesome tutorial from Gemma!

Happy Sunday everyone and you are all in for a treat as we have a wonderful tutorial from gemma today. Before you whizz down to the tutorial, please remember that you have up to 31st December to enter this months challenge, (Challenge #3) - details HERE - and if you fancy being a GDT for Love 2 Create, add GDT after your name when entering your project.

Now over to Gemma ... 


I have a fun Christmas/winter canvas to share with you all today, I love making this kind of project, it is not too time-consuming and the process is fairly simple to recreate in lots of different sizes and on different bases.

 I printed out a few background sheets from the wonderful Polkadoodles Festive Christmas collection, Keeping in mind that I wanted papers for the sky and ground as well as different patterns on cardstock for the trees. 

Then I tore my sky papers into little squares and glued them to the canvas with a mat gel medium, I covered about two-thirds of the canvas, not worrying about the edges as I had already decided I was adding a painted frame. 

I tore the ground papers into stripes, giving then a curved shape and I glues them to the canvas in the same way.

Before cutting my printed card into triangles and some scrap card into rectangles for my trees, I went around all the edges of the papers that were glued down with my Pitt brush pens and blended the ink with my fingers. This helps to bring everything together and make it feel like one piece. 

After my trees were glued into place, I edged them with the same pens. At this point, I also stamped out and glued my chosen text onto the canvas and edged them as well.

I then took a lovely wintery themed stencil from my stash that reminds me of snow falling and applied texture paste through it onto the canvas. before the paste could dry I sprinkled glitter over the top.

Then I just needed to frame it and I did this by adding brown paint to texture paste, I applied it to the canvas with a palette knife, which gave me the effect of a very rustic bumpy imperfect frame.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial, there is still plenty of time to join in this months challenge. We love seeing what everyone is making.

Gemma

Products from Polkadoodles
Festive Christmas Collection

Challenge 11 PRETTY SHABBY CHIC

Good morning and welcome to a brand new challenge! Our theme for the next two weeks is

Pretty Shabby Chic

Before we check out the inspiration from our DT, a big thank you to everyone who entered our 'Metallic' themed challenge, our lucky winner as chosen by random.org is 

12. Teresa

congratulations hun, email us quoting the code PPWK10001 to claim your prize!

and our top 3 for challenge 10 are:

1 Yogi
9 Samantha Wade
15 Rachel Fisher

Congratulations ladies, don't forget to grab your Top 3 badges for your blogs!!

If you've got a few minutes why not pop over and join our Facebook group where you can share your projects and find lots of inspiration too

We've got a fab prize of Premium  Craft Brands goodies up for grabs thanks to our generous sponsors Your Creativity Store! You don't have to use our products to enter the challenge but of course we love it  when you do.

So lets see what the DT have been busy creating for inspiration for the new challenge......

Claire  I had loads of messy fun altering the cover of a Next directory to create an art journal cover. After priming with a coat of Maimeri Gesso  I used  Maimeri Light Modelling Paste through the Fabric  and Mosaic stencils from Dutch Doobadoo for some texture. I added some colour with Turquoise Tint and Magenta Tint PanPastels and used Gold PanPastel for some shimmer. Next came lots of die cuts, again coloured up with PanPastels, I used a touch of Raw Umber to distress things here and there. The die cut flowers were made by using Maimeri Iridescent Paste on fabric, I brushed the paste on and then added a little colour by dusting over with my PanPastels and blending with a brush. I sprinkled on a little clear gitter and left it to dry for a couple of hours before die cutting the flowers and layering them up

Terry I had me some fun with a Bottle Label from Dutch Doobadoo...I worked on the background with Shabby Chic papers, lots of butterflies, Varens Honeycomb Card-SoftBoard and the large butterflies are colored with PanPastels, placed some lace and  and various roses. 

Tracy - Hello sweet friends, I spent a happy time in my shed mixing a few Pan Pastels with Gesso to create the colours I wanted for my shabby chic project today. Let me introduce you to  . . .

 The keeper of our Dreams

More details over on my blog. xox

Anjie - I've decided to go pretty this week to show how versatile the products are, you don't have to be a grungy or arty crafter, you really can use them for anything! I have embossed a piece of card using the stencil and have then coloured through it using the Turquoise Tint - Pan Pastel & Magenta Shade - Pan Pastel. I have used the Spun Sugar distress ink around the edges of the paper and card after using a file to slightly distress them. I have made the bow from Spider web.

Lou: for my project I have decided to use Pan Pastels to alter the colour of my papers and embellishments to create my shabby chic card. I have covered my papers in white Maimeri acyrlic paint and then altered their colour using Raw Umber, Titanium White and Permanent Red Tint pan pastels. For my flowers, I have coloured them first using Permananet Red Tint and Ultramarine Blue pan pastels and then brushed over with Titanium White with a wet paint brush. This breaks down the fibers of the paper flowers and allows me to manipulate them (as well as softening the colours).

 

 I also stamped the images using Raw Umber pan pastel by creating a water mix and then applying this to my stamp. it creates a "washed out" and aged feel to my image.

My project has then been finished with some ribbon offcuts, a chipboard button and die cuts.

****************************************************************************************************

This challenge will run for two weeks so you have until  Saturday 19th April  to enter the challenge so you have LOADS of time and the winner will win a super stash of Premium Crafts goodies including Pan Pastels, Mediums, Masks and who knows what else! The winner will be announced on Sunday 27th April.

We don't really do loads of rules here but we do have a couple so please take note:

1. No back links

2. Only 2 entries to make it fair for everyone

3. We'd love you to TRY and play along with the challenge if you can although it's not a hard and fast rule but extra brownie points are awarded to those who do. 

4. The main prize can only be posted to a UK address - if the prize is not claimed within 14 days it will be offered to someone on the Top 3 from the same week.

5. You MUST be a follower of this blog to enter

And remember - our Top 3 is eligible for the running to be offered a place as a forthcoming Guest designer too!

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Wk 8 - Pan Pastel UK Challenge...Use a stencil

Good morning folks! 

Oh my goodness its such an exciting time here at Premium Craft Brands with lots of new products coming and and some changes too. 
First of all, the challenge is now fortnightly so you've got lots more time to enter. This means that our lovely DT ladies are going to have more time to share share some fab tutorials, tips and techniques to give you lots of inspiration to use your Premium Craft Brands products!!

So today we have some more inspiration for our Week 7 

Use a Stencil to make an embellie Challenge 

which closes at the end of this week. 

Click here to go to the challenge linky!

Before you check out the inspiration from our talented design team its time to announce the winner and Top 3 from challenge 6 so without any further ado, our winner (as chosen by Random.org) is 
22 Samantha Wade

wooo hoo congratulations Samantha, email us to claim your prize of gorgeous goodies from Premium Craft Brands!!

Goodness me you're such a talented bunch you don't make it easy to choose the Top 3 from such a beautiful array of artwork but our DT are up to the task and the Top 3 are

3 Shaz in Oz

8 Jackie Wallace

14 Angel North

Gorgeous work ladies, well done to you all and don't forget to grab your Top 3 Badge for your blogs.

So let's get to our extra inspiration for the Stencil Challenge! You have until Sunday 2nd March at noon GMT to enter and don't forget to Click here to go to the challenge linky!.....

Terry Hey there guys, so I had a hubby that was having his birthday and I did not know what to give him...so I thought of a large envelope and worked on it mixing three Pans, the green, lemon and blue pans. Stamped a Pilote image on top and lots of background sentiments. Then on top the DD stencil with the darker green pan. The Tag was made with a stencil, Light Modelling Paste and the mixed three colours Pans.

Claire  I've made a canvas using PanPastels, my favourite butterfly stencil and Maimeri Iridescent Paste. Guess what colours I used to make the purples on my canvas ......

Did you guess?? I used magenta and turquoise, adding a wee bit of magenta extra dark too!! Its so much fun to mix colours with PanPastels, they blend beautifully

The chipboard letters were coated with Maimeri iridescent Paste and sprinkled with silver PanPastel

and Glitter, I've also added a bit of crackle here and there for some texture

Tracy -Hi everyone, my inspiration for my little wood art today, came from pretty shades of blue Pan Pastels, touches of metallic Pan Pastels, lots of yummy Maimeri Mediums . . .

. . . along with a few new products,  Dutch Doobadoo Fabric Art Jeans and Art Masks.

 You can find all the information about how I put this together on my blog here. xoxo

Lou: I have used the pink mask stencil on my project with Maimeri Matt Gel, white acyrlic paint and soft gold metallic pan pastel.

I have highlighted all the sticker elements using the Glitter Shake GraphIt pens for an added "pop". The foam stickers were also covered in white acyrlic paint and then highlighted using a mixture of meatllic soft gold pan pastel and the Glitter Shaker pens.

Nikky...Last week I was busy making lots and lots of samples for the UK trade show at NEC and I made this as I was messing about playing...as you do...I am absolutely in love with the brand new range of Dutch Doobadoo products which Premium Craft Brands are now distributing in the UK and I cannot stop using them! I'm going stencil crazy but here I actually used the dot stencil over the top of one of the kraft hearts and also added some of the bricks from the brick stencil onto the little piece of denim at the top. I've had that watch face in my stash for years and not wanted to use it because it was too precious but I liked this enough to bring it out of the dark! 

Keep checking in to see the fab tutorials we've got to inspire you!! 

The DT have got some amazing ideas up their sleeves so you don't want to miss them.

Don't forget this is an inspiration post, you can find the linky for the challenge here and you have until Sunday 2nd March at noon to enter and win some lovely goodies! 

Click here to go to the challenge linky!

Wk42 - Pan Pastel UK Challenge - Autumn Colours

Hello and welcome to another Creative Sunday!

We are well and truly into the 3rd season now and whether you call it Autumn or Fall I think we are all agreed that it's one of the most inspiring seasons with all the beautiful colours that become apparent around us! Here in the UK Autumn is a little late this year but this week the trees are turning into stunning shades of red, so of course we had to use that as inspiration for our theme this week.

First of all, don't forget our October Blog Candy which is up for grabs! 

Simply share our candy on your blog, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Mars and the Moon and back with a link to this blog 

PLUS

YOU MUST SIGN UP TO FOLLOW THIS BLOG

and leave us a comment under this post and we will choose one random winner on 7th November to win this gorgeous prize which is worth over £120!! WOW - that is a LOT of stash!!

In the candy is a fantastic Pan Pastel set including a palette tray and Sofft Tools, 3 Maimeri Mediums and Gesso. 2 Stencils/Masks and 4 Stamp sets (A6) - all fantastic products you will love and use over and again!

Don't forget to leave us a comment - we will check that the winner has shared AND FOLLOWED US to be eligible so don't try and bend the rules! ; )

HUGE thanks to everyone who has entered the current Week 41 challenge - don't forget you still have an extra couple of days to enter as it doesn't close until Tuesday! 

So let's announce our Random Winner for Week 40

...Big Congratulations goes to No 6 Sam!

The team also choose our favourite Top 3 entries too, which are:

4, Yvonne 5, Barbara 6, Sam

Congratulations to you all! 

Sam please email here to claim your prize and please grab your badges from the sidebar to wear on your blogs! Your names will go in our hat and you may be asked to guest design for us next month!

Remember to join our Facebook group too, Premium Craft Brands, where we have daily inspiration and share some of our favourite makes & hints and tips every day, it's a great place to be. 

So let's get to the challenge!.....

....AUTUMN

(You can use ANY products to enter our challenge!) 

The team had great fun with this theme, so let's see their inspiration! 

You have until Tuesday 29th October to enter and the chance to win a great Pan Pastel prize, plus our Top 3 favourites may be asked to Guest Design for us next month!

Zoe

I've used Pan Pastels to create my background on this card, please checkout my blog for more details.

Terry

I had loads of fun making a Scents Bag with lots of Autumn Colours, worked with Gesso,Modelling past with a Leaf stencil, on top the Metallic PanPastels. The background was made with lots of ink, versamark ink and a sentiment stamp and on top the Metallic PanPastels. the butterflies have ink and Metallic PanPastels on top. A little Lace is to finish my project.

Claire

I got out all the gorgeous new metallic PanPastels and added a little Phthalo Green, Yellow Green Shade, Burnt Sienna and Raw Umber to create a distressed metal effect on my canvas. Once I'd added all the bits and bobs to create the texture I brushed on a coat of Maimeri Matte Gel and then sprinkled the PanPastels all over, leaving it to dry before I blended the colours. More pics and all the deets are on my blog.

Suzi

I had fun with my Graph'It Markers, lots of Pan Pastels and some Maimeri Matte Gel with the addition of a few flowers and gems to create this pretty Autumnal Card. Full details over on my blog.

Tracy...Your Wings Exist all you have to do is Fly.

Hi everyone, I had so much fun with this challenge altering a box, making a tiny dress and a set of wings all enhanced by Maimeri Mediums, Hansa Yellow Shade, Magenta Extra Dark, Permanent Red Shade and all the new Metallic Pan Pastels. Please pop on by my blog here for more details.

So there is our inspiration from the fabulously talented Pan Pastel UK team this week!...

You have until Tuesday 29th October at noon GMT to enter below by adding your creation to Mr Linky below - don't forget you have the chance to win a fabulous prize!

The winner of this challenge will be announced on Sunday 4th November here on this blog.
Please check our rules for all entries:
1. All entries MUST follow the challenge theme. 2. Please link your blog post and not your blog address with the linky tool - this saves us from searching your blog for your entry. 3. No back-linking to previous posts - these will be disregarded from our voting.4. Please ensure you follow the challenge theme!

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WK40 6 OCT - Pan Pastel UK Challenge - Water

Hi everyone! Welcome to another Challenge from the Premium Craft Brands team!

Firstly, HUGE thanks to everyone who has entered the current Week 39 challenge - don't forget you still have an extra couple of days to enter as it doesn't close until Tuesday!  We're sooo pleased to see so many entries, it looks like our new rules have made it easier for you all, so the team are all really happy to see all the makes! If you're not sure of our rules you can see them all in the tab at the top of the page - we don't have many! 

So because the current challenge is still running, we don't have a winner to announce this week - the week 39 winner and Top 3 favourites will be announced next Sunday so make sure you follow our feed or sign up to get the emails when we post.  

Remember to join our Facebook group too, Premium Craft Brands, where we have daily inspiration and share some of our favourite makes & hints and tips every day, it's a great place to be. 

So let's get to the challenge!.....

Water effects...

(You can use ANY products to enter our challenge!)

The team had great fun with this theme, so let's see their inspiration! 

You have until Tuesday 15th October to enter and the chance to win a great Pan Pastel prize, plus our Top 3 favourites may be asked to Guest Design for us next month!

Claire

I've water coloured my little scene with PanPastels and added some raindrops with Maimeri Glassy Gel Medium. I added some shine to the fish with the glassy gel and created the background with shades of blue PanPastel and the A5 Delicate mask....

Terry....The background was made with a sentiment stamp and lots of Metallic PanPastels....

On top I worked with a leaf stencil and used lots of Maimeri Modelling Paste for it. And to make the waterdrops on the leaves I used Maimeri Glassy Gel, Metallic PanPastels and embossing powder. You can even color lace with the Metallic PanPastels guys, so what are ya waiting for, you just have to get those in your crafting room!

Zoe

I've used Pan Pastels and Maemeri Gesso to create this tag, pop along to my blog to read how I created it in more detail...

Tracy :

Oh my, I had such a messy, crafty time popping this set of journal pages together using a mixture of the new Metallic Pastels, PanPastels, Maimeri Gesso, Iridescent Paste, Gloss Gel Medium, Matt Gel Medium, stencils and Rub Ons...

  . . . fun, fun, fun!! This looks complicated but it's really easy to do - just work in layers, you can see more on my blog...

Here`s a closer look of my pretty stockinged lady splashing and dancing in the puddles . . .I used the Iredescent Paste { LOOOVE } to make the puddles and splashes, applying with my fingers and a Palette Knife, rubbing a few colors of Pan Pastels over the top in  - Phthalo Blue Shade, Neutral Grey Shade and Titanium White.  I have used so many colors and mediums for texture, so please pop on by my blog to see more HERE.   Happeeee Crafting!!

Suzi.....For my water inspired project I chose a beautiful mermaid digi from Polkadoodles which I coloured with Graph'it Markers. My background papers were created with embossing folders, Pan Pastels and some Glassy Gel Medium on some of the punched out bubbles....

I really wanted to show a project which shows that you can bring messy products into your basic cardmaking really easily. I love how the Glassy Gel acts the same as Glossy Accents but you get a massive tube so it works out so much more economical!

Lou ... for my project this week, I want to really stretch myself (as it were) and decided to have a play with all my goodies! I knew the quote I wanted to use but not how I wanted to display it. I have primed my canvas with gesso and then dry brushed a mixture of blue acyrlic paint mixed with the pewter metallic pan pastel. I used a mask to create a background using the same paint mixture but added a good dollop of the irredescent paint in to it as well! I even raided my garden for some lickle stones to add an underwater feel. Full details of how I made my canvas can be found on my blog ....

So there is the inspiration for our water theme - I'm sure you'll agree that the Design Team have pulled it out of the bag again this week!

You have until Tuesday 15th October to enter and the chance to win a great PanPastel prize, plus our Top 3 favourites may be asked to Guest Design for us next month so just add your creation to the Mr Linky below - please make sure your make fits the challenge! Thanks for joining us!

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Wk39 - Anything Goes! Pan Pastels, Mediums, Masks and more

Welcome to our new look Challenge! 

Before we get to the challenge news, we want to welcome our fantastic new Design Team members who will be bringing some great inspiration to you over the coming months - it's very exciting! We have had a little facelift and relaxed our rules to enter the challenges so just to recap:

1. You do NOT need to use Pan Pastels or our other products on your entries as long as you follow the challenge theme - obviously we'd love you to use the products but realise not everyone has them.
Each challenge runs from Sunday 8.00 am and ends the following Tuesday at noon GMT - this gives you 9 days to add your entry and join in with us. 
The winner of each challenge will be chosen at random by a random number generator.
Please note: Due to postage costs the Random Winner Prize will be posted to a UK postal address only - but overseas entries are still welcomed and will be included in the Top 3.
In addition to the random winner the Design Team will also choose their favourite Top 3 entries for that week who will all be able to proudly display their winners badge and may be asked to Guest Design for us. Overseas entries are welcome and will be included in our Top 3.

So we hope you like the changes and it has made it easier for you all to enter! 

So let's get to the challenge! 

ANYTHING GOES......

You can use ANY products to enter our challenge!

Before we get to this week's inspiration and prizes, it's time to announce the winner of last week's challenge which was ANYTHING GOES. From today we are changing our weekly prize winner to a RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR so that everyone has an equal chance of winning. IN ADDITION we will also pick a Top 3 and may ask one of those people each month to join us as  Guest Designer. So here is today's winner:

No.5, Clare

So a huge congratulations to  Clare!

Please email us here to claim your prize and please grab your badge from the sidebar.

Let's get to the great team inspiration this week...

Remember to join our Facebook group too, Premium Craft Brands, where we have daily inspiration and share some of our favourite makes & hints and tips every day, it's a great place to be. Here's the Design Team's creations:

Claire

I've used Magenta Tint PanPastel as a background and then used some of the gorgeous new Maimeri Acrylic Paints and masks with my gelli plate to make a little card and altered a PanPastel box.

Terry

I've used the Gesso and the fabulous A4 butterfly stencil with roses with Light Modelling Paste to make the texture on the frame. The Metallic PanPastels were used on top of the frame and give the frame a shine. The wooden hearts are worked on with Metallic PanPastels and Crackle to give it a fragile look.

The background in the frame has lots of texture from a honeycomb stencil and a sentiment stamp. On top I played with the Metallic PanPastels. The butterflies are from Wendy Vecchi and I played with Embossing Powder and Utee to finish them. 

Nikky
I made this large hanger using a 3 MDF shapes which were cheap as chips. I covered the top house in paper and added an embossed piece of card to cover the roof, then coloured it with Metallic Pan Pastels, using Versamark ink to get a richer colour.

On the centre panel I used a mask and Pan Pastels in Permanent Green and Phthalo Green, using a hairspray to fix each layer so I could then add another layer on top to get some depth of colour. This project was actually a workshop I did on various metallic effects so it also has metal gilding flakes applied to it in some parts but I REALLY dont like them, I wish we'd just stuck to the Metallic Pan Pastels instead, I prefer the look! Finally, I glued a die cut swirl onto the bird and then inked all over with Versamark and applied the Metallic Pan Pastel over the top to make it look like brushed and embossed metal. You could easily make this with sturdy card too or mountboard.

Zoe - Hello there I'm Zoe and I'm so excited to be joining this fabulous team! Nikky has done an amazing job of revamping the blog! Onto my first projects with Premium Craft Brands!

I've used PanPastels for the background in two layers, you can get more details on my blog!

My second project is PanPastels again, using the fabulous A5 Victorian mask. Again more details on my blog for this project....

Many thanks for joining us on this exciting journey x

Tracy - Lets get messy with mixed media!
Hi everyone, so happy to be sharing my joy in using a mixture of Pan Pastels from mixed media sets 1 & 2 along with the new Metallics and Maimeri Mediums on some recycled cardboard packaging.

So quick to put together . . . a quick coat of Maimeri Gesso over the cardboard and for the splats of color on the background I added a little Pastels to the Maimeri Gesso, added water and flicked it using a paintbrush.

While that's drying take some old book pages and cut out the shapes before applying the Pan Pastels with the Sofft tools, sponges and my fingers.The raggedy boots and little hearts had a touch of Maimeri Glassy Gel added and I wish you could see how lovely they look in reality. I used the Maimeri Matt Gel Medium to fix all the shapes in place before adding some journaling and doodling along the way. For a little more texture I randomly applied Versamark ink, sprinkled with Utee and heat set. 

Lou
My turn to say "Hi" and so excited too to be part of this talented team. For my 1st project I have used the PAB Christmas stamps, masks and pan pastels to create a quick Christmas card.

I have used the metallic Copper pan pastel married with Magenta on the edges of my papers to create a warm feel. I have used the Perfect Poinsettia stamp to add over stamping on the 2nd paper using distress inks. The border strip has been embossed with the long baroque mask and then pan pastelled,

I stamped the poinsettia on to some heavy weight vellum, highlighting the veins with the soft silver pan pastel to give a shimmery effect, finishing with a brad. I have even found a use for the wax paper we all use when cutting out our dies and it works fabulously with pan pastel. Pop over to my blog for the full details.

So there is our inspiration from the fabulously talented Pan Pastel UK team this week!...

You have until  Tuesday 8th October at noon GMT to enter below by adding your creation to Mr Linky below - don't forget you have the chance to win a fabulous prize! 
The winner of this challenge will be announced on Sunday 14th October here on this blog. 

Please check our rules for all entries: 

1. All entries MUST follow the challenge theme. 2. Please link your blog post and not your blog address with the linky tool - this saves us from searching your blog for your entry.  3. No back-linking to previous posts - these will be disregarded from our voting.4. Please ensure you follow the challenge theme!

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