W is for... Wisteria (with circles)

Hello and welcome.

By now you will no doubt know that I am taking part in The Craft Barn's Dictionary Challenge.

This week's challenge letter is W with the added requirement of using circles in the background.

I am using an old French - English dictionary and so had a very limited number of french words to choose from (33 in fact), so after not much consideration I chose Wisteria.

I used Distress Inks to paint a wisteria bough on to tissue paper which I then matte medium-ed over my usual Antique Linen DI background. My circles come in the form of an Artemio seal stamp which I stamped in Pumice Stone DI

A couple of close ups (although to be honest this page is better viewed from afar!)

Aaargh! terrible stamping  (I caught the acrylic block in the spine of the book)

I'm not all that happy with these pages, but given that I had no other pages I could use to start again, it will have to do. X is going to be a challenge too!!!


TOP TIP

If you do any stamping/painting or whatever on tissue paper and then want to "cut out" the image to use on your project,  "paint" a border all the way around with water (I used a water brush) and then carefully tear through the wet tissue. The tissue will tear where you want it to and not where it fancies!

That's all from me today - thank you for visiting.

WOYWW 203

Hello and welcome fellow WOYWWers!

A very quick one today...

I'm working on my altered dictionary again - this time it's W and as I only had 33 french words to choose from I plumped for wisteria - now you can see how very NOT artistic I really am!!!

I have "painted" my wisteria with DI inks and a water or paint brush on tissue paper which I will Matte Medium on to my dictionary page. I'm hoping that the circle flourishes on the background (a deviation from my normal style but a requirement of this week's challenge) will show through the tissue.

On the far right - in front of the kitchen towel is my stamp catalogue (the big pink book) which I really need to update - and looking at the photo reminds me that I really must take that sellotape back downstairs.

That's all from me for now, catch up with you later...

Thanks for visiting, please leave a comment so that I know you've been.

R is for ... Reine

As you may know I am taking part in the Dictionary Challenge over at The Craft Barn (you can see the details here). I am using an old English - French dictionary so my entry for this weeks challenge, R,  is Reine, which is French for Queen.

I've kept the same overall theme going on these pages (colour palette, vintage look and my pointing hand stamp) but as anticipated I didn't have anything very much in my stash which had a regal theme so there is very little in the way of embellishment on this page.

Anyway here it is...

And some detail shots...

The Queen image is a download from The Graphics Fairy (you can find her amazing blog here) which I have fussy cut and then over stamped with a metallic gold fleur de lys, and added glitter to her dress and crown.

 

This shot shows the metallic gold crown stamp used to add interest to the Antique Linen DI background

Close up of the embellishment, the mini playing card is from a Christmas cracker, and the leather fleur de lys has been inked with Promarkers to match the colour palette. A washi tape border grounds the image and a Prima flower adds texture and dimension.

Well that's all for now, see you again soon.

WOYWW 201

Hello again lovely Peeps and thank you for visiting on this trying to be lovely morning. If you've come here from The Stamping Ground you already know about the phenomenon that is What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, if not you can find the details here.

What's on my workdesk this week is mainly a mess I'm afraid. I've just finished the journal page I started in class last week and I'm working on my entry for The Craft Barn Dictionary Challenge. The rest is stuff I haven't put away - I was doing so well on tidying up after each project and now I'm regressing!

Anyway for better or worse here we go...

The eagle eyed among you will see that there is one of the new Molly Blooms "Out and About" stamps hiding under my art journal - It is George dressed as Biggles - very sweet but a good one for those difficult boy cards. My lovely Mum has given me loads of Molly Blooms stamps this week as a cheer me up. THANK YOU Mum!

The background on these pages was created using Pan Pastels blended with a sponge and then additional layers laid down with the same coloured pastels (sorry can't tell you what colours I used as they were class supplies, not my own) and some additional red, all sponged through Dylusions stencils. The harlequin design is stamped in Jet Black Archival (Dylusions Basic Backgrounds stamp) the red lines are DecoArt Santa Red acrylic paint laid down with the edge of a credit card. The houses are from a digital kit by Nancy Baumiller at Crowabout StudioB (Joyous Journeys, Row Houses).

My Dictionary page is in its early stages, the letter this time is R (for Reine, meaning queen), I need to find some more embellishments, but off the top of my head I can't think of anything in my stash that is suitably regal!

Oh yes, just in case you wanted to see it here is my completed Zentangle Diva spread.

Don't you just love that text! - for more of Dyan Reaveley's sentiments with attitude check out her other stamps here, here and here.

That's all from me today, hope to catch up with you all later. Have a great WOYWW!

WOYWW 200

Aaaand it's a double Century for Mrs Dunnit! that's TWO HUNDRED whole weeks of hosting the amazing phenomenon that is What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Well done Mrs Dunnit - superb!

If you have no idea what I'm rambling on about you need to go here for the heads up.

It is the Easter break here in the UK and I am enjoying two weeks of NOT ferrying the Mini Moonshines hither and yon and generally re-charging the batteries. I'd LIKE to be spending my time playing nice in my craft room, BUT I've signed myself up to do a stall at the Village Hall fashion night on the 12th of April and I really MUST do some sewing and get some non-Christmassy stock made! My cunning plan is to make myself sew for a few hours in the mornings and then play in the afternoons - Yep - that's a good plan - I'll start tomorrow!

 Today I'm playing in my Art Journal, I'm finishing my homework layout (oops should have "handed it in" last night but thankfully Kaz is a very kind teacher and doesn't give us lines if we don't come up with the goods!)  So here's my desk - in restrained AJ mode (I did my messy background work and covered everything  in ink at the weekend)

Apologies for the weird lighting - it is gloriously sunny here at the moment and as my craft room gets the morning sun I have had to shut the blinds - otherwise the pics would have been full of stripey shadows

I'm just playing with the positioning of the images at the moment and still have the word "Diva" to tangle.

The Diva in question is a Dylusions stamp "Curious Corrin" which, if I'm honest, I wasn't all that keen on, but I really like her "all tangled up"

I've never tried Zentangle before and was keen to give it a go, I've got to say that I didn't find it all that relaxing though! Doodling (in fact any form of drawing) does not come naturally to me (Oh how I wish this wasn't the case!) and I found myself with hand cramp very quickly. I know I need to relax more but I found it quite trying to keep my work neat - perhaps I should have used an XS Pitt Artists pen rather than the S?

I've also finished (except for a small repair job) the pages I was working on using the Dylusions and Perfect Pearls technique. (You can see the post here) The lighting REALLY doesn't do these pages justice as the Bubblegum Pink and Squeezed Orange Dylusions inks background is SOOOO vivid.

I really didn't have a plan for these pages when I made the background in class, but the twice that I sat down to finish the layout I was recovering from a migraine - I'd stamped the cool Dylusions Monster Mash image on white cardstock in class with the thought of using it in a creepy looking layout, but with my monster headache still stabbing me in the eye the direction of the pages became blindingly obvious (ha ha - no pun intended)

I have used some phrases cut from my migraine tablet information sheet (one has fallen off - hence the repair job) and my journaling round the trees lists my triggers and symptoms. I love the Monster Mash monster and feel almost sorry for having inflicted my pain on him! If you look closely you can see he is rather green around the gills, and is having a whole lot of trouble on that left hand side of his head!

I'm off to visit with my WOYWW friends and neighbours now, have a great week and thank you for visiting, please leave me a comment to let me know you were here and I'll try and visit you too.