Powertex Tutor Training Days

The last blog Sam shared with us was about her Garden Party experience. (We still have a few spaces left for next years Garden party, it's an event not to be missed!)
Now Sam is sharing her thoughts on her tutor training at Powertex UK HQ with Creative Director Tracey Evans. Read on to find out more. If you feel inspired to become a Powertex tutor for your area please send an email to info@powertex.co.uk.
Fancy learning from a tutor? Find your nearest in the new tutor directory at Powertex UK. 

So guess where I've been the last couple of days? Yes, on my Powertex tutor training course, along with three other lovely ladies all set to become tutors for their designated areas.

First of all we played with the ivory Powertex.

The mdf shape that I was given was an owl and there was a huge box of embellies to choose from, so as you can see I went off piste with mine (what's new there then!) and went down the skull, cog and Halloween route.

We then started working on the next piece.

This was the next piece, either an angel or a fairy, I chose an angel and the others made fairies.

Here at the end of day one are my three pieces all ready for their colour tomorrow.

Back again for day two and today the sun was shining.

We played with different colouring and layering techniques firstly on the bottle.

Everyone is on a roll now.

Michele popped down to see how we were all doing.

I went for the blue for my angel.

This is a photo of the projects I made taken outside this morning in my garden - love them all.

This is a snippet of my certificate, so it's now official!!

And my absolute special favourite is my fabulous apron which I shall wear with pride - thank you sooooo much.

Can't wait to also share my other news with you, but that will have to wait until nearer the end of the year!!

Artful keepsake

Hello, hello one and all.

My project this time is all about keepsakes and memories.
I had loads of ideas running around my head but as I am sorting my home to relocate and having to downsize drastically, this also means my craft stash in my shed, which I have been collecting for about the past 18 years or so!!
So whilst sorting out my stash I came across some pieces that I have collected over the years and have loved and never used, I would get them out to use and put them back, saving them for that "other" project and this my lovelies was this project!
Hands up anyone else who does that, oh come on, we are all friends here lol.

Ok, so I took an old small pine box (another loved object that has been kicking around my shed for a couple of years) and collected some of my loved pieces and decided to make an assemblage of these pieces.

I applied some Ivory Powertex and STONE ART over the box, inside and outside. This has to be one of my favourites, using the Stone Art.

I found some metal bookmarks that I had been hoarding and also incorporated these into my design.
I glued in my pieces and spritzed with red and brown BISTER. I still had no idea with which colour scheme to do and was waiting for my muse to kick in and let me know!

I ended up also adding some EASY 3D to the sides of my piece, using the Alice in Wonderland stencil. I painted the whole box with black Powertex and then was going for a stone look by adding some Ivory Powertex.  Pigments you can see in the photo are what I wanted to use!

I layered (lots of layers) in these 4 colours here until I was happy with the end result. I don't know about you but I could lose hours and hours just doing this part.

I wanted the inside of my assemblage to be different from the outside, so chose colours that I don't normally use and my gosh did it turn out yummy. Again lots of layering with dry brushing.

And this is the end result, An Assemblage of treasured pieces I have collected but never used, now all in one place for me to look at and for it to be pretty. And small enough for me to take with me when I move next month. Win, win I'd say.

I hope I have not bored you too much, maybe I may even have inspired you to try something like this yourself. I really love working with Powertex and it's endless possibilities of turning nothing into something and something into a keepsake, which is also a piece of art.

~See you all soon~

~Jinny~

Simple but effective

Hello, one and all. Me again, this time sharing with you a couple of easy, fun and elegant projects.

The first piece I want to share with you is the seahorse project pack.

Please excuse my  Powertex covered workspace.

( I really need to clean this )

I opened the pack and looked at all the yummy stash in the pack.

Keeping this project simple was the key and I only used some cardboard and a piece of lace, which was from an old top from my Daughter.

I firstly glued to the two pieces of seahorse together with ivory Powertex both sides and dried it using my faithful old hairdryer.

I then soaked a piece of lace in the ivory Powertex and laid it down on my seahorse and again dried it with my hairdryer, to speed up the process, as I was eager to move on.

I found some different lace and thought it would make a good fin shape. I also added the same lace to the top part of the seahorse, after adding some cardboard, as this was my original thought process but decided that the lace effect looked way better.

Now for the best part, the colour transformation. I chose my  POWERCOLOUR and my general idea was to try an do an "ombre" effect but as you will see, sometimes the Powertex has other ideas!

BUT that is the beauty of this product, you can paint it whatever colour you like and if you get bored of it or it does not go with your colour scheme, then you can just change it! 

(I really, really, must clean my workspace) 

I added the yummy bits from the project pack and again glued with Powertex and decided to highlight in the RICH GOLD pigment and also WHITE the two colours of which I do love to highlight.

I titivated a bit more with pigments and varnish until I was happy with how she looked.

So here she is, all done and using just the project pack and a little bit of lace.

I think she turned out rather well myself.

Oh, and I added a small black bead on the eye area. A brilliant project if you are new to Powertex and not much other materials used to create this (I think ) beautiful Seahorse.

Thank you for reading and I hope I have inspired you to get some Powertex and give it a whirl, you won't be disappointed.

Till next time 

Jinny 

POWERTEX.CO.UK

It's always time for tea

Hi there, did you see Tracey on Hochanda? Have you got your Alice themed projects yet?  

I had such a lot of fun creating this colourful piece.  I'm popping some photos below so you can see the steps I took to create it.

First I added rice paper using Easy Coat matte and did a loose layout

Next I covered everything in Ivory Powertex and sprayed with blue and red Bister,  and then left overnight to make sure it was thoroughly dry

I then washed back the bister to leave the nice soft blues and pinks 

Next I used Easy Structure and some stencils to create extra texture  once that was dry I used the gloriously bright Secret Art Loft pigments and inks as well as some Powercolor

Finally I drilled holes with a 2mm drill bit and threaded through some paper string to hang my tea shoppe sign with

Hope you like it and have loads of fun and hope we are inspiring you to create your own unique pieces

Bye for now

Fi

Time flies by Annette

Hello Everyone

I hope you've kept yourselves safe in the recent bad weather and have used the time to get an extra bit of Powertex play in.

This month I've used the new Powertex UK Pocket Watch Project Pack to create a birthday card with a difference.  I've made it for Granny Smyth at the age of 75 but you could create this for any age and just move the hands to different positions and use different numbers.

I hope you have fun and remember to post your makes on the Powertex Addicts United Facebook page, you know we love to see what you create.

To complete my piece, I used the kit along with texture paper, Rusty Powder , Yellow Bister, Easy Varnish and pigments.  I mixed my bisters with a 50/50 solution of white vinegar and water to make the colours pop.






Start by laying out the pieces to see which ones you want to use.  The photograph is a laser copy cut to size.










Take a piece of textured paper and draw around the inner circle, cut this out and place to one side






Now coat the front of the base of the watch with Ivory Powertex and stick the texture paper to the centre. Attach the front of the watch to the back (you may need to add a little more tex around the edge then coat the front with the Ivory Powertex also.





Now spray with the blue and yellow bister mixes
and dry with a hairdryer.







When dry turn it over onto a clean work surface and coat the back with Ivory Powertex, I then used and old credit card to add texture by lying it flat on the surface and lifting it up (bit like making your snow peaks in royal icing).  Spray with the blue and yellow bisters and dry with a hairdryer.  By raising the base from the table whilst doing this step, it will help to stop any stray colours from seeping onto the front.

When dry use a slightly damp sponge to remove the excess colour from the watch.







I choose to colour my embellishments separately.  Coat them all with a layer of Powertex Ivory.

Randomly add extra Ivory then drop on some Rusty Powder and spray with the bister mixes, leave to dry on one side.





You can keep spraying these with pure white vinegar to get the rust to develop further.




These pictures show the cogs,  I repeated the same process for the other embellishments (except the heart) varying the amount of rust and colour I added.






For the heart, I painted a layer of Easy Varnish over the front of the photograph, by holding the paper taut whilst it dries it doesn't wrinkle,  once dry repeat on the rear.  Now using the heart as a template cut out the photograph and using the Easy Varnish attach it to the heart and coat with several layers of varnish to seal it.

Place a small amount of Ivory Powertex into a pot, sprinkle on the
Rusty Powder then spray with the bister mix.  Now stir








Using a paint brush apply this around the photograph then sprinkle on more Rusty Powder and spray with the bister mixes.  As you can see the bister will wipe away from the photograph as you have previously sealed it with the varnish.  Again spraying with more vinegar as it dries will encourage the rust to form.




Now add all the embellishments to the base using Powertex, make sure you clean up any excess as you go,  I used some of the spare pieces in the kit to support the heart in the centre.

When it was all dry, I used a combination of Bronze Gold, Copper and Silver pigments to add a little sparkle.

I hope you have great fun creating your own Pocket Watch and until next time Happy Creative Adventures

Axx