What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday 4th Anniversary!

 

Happy WOYWW4 to all you wonderful desk hoppers and I hope you have a fun day today!

It goes without saying that a massive vote of thanks, three cheers, and hats off goes to our wonderful hostess Julia Dunnit over at the Stamping Ground (here) for providing us with this amazing opportunity to play in somebody else's creative space for a few minutes each week. THANK YOU JULIA and here's to the next four happy years.

So the point of all this is to show you lovely visitors what is on my workdesk this week - well it's time to knuckle down and do my AJ homework again - blimey that's come round quickly! This month we were set the challenge of producing a journal page featuring...  a portrait. AAAARGH! That's me straight out of my comfort zone of splashing ink and stamps about! As you will know if you are a regular visitor - I AREN'T AN ARTIST!!!! so I've been dreading this homework and have put it off until now (halfterm) in the hopes that having extra time to play might improve matters a bit. So I've been practicing drawing faces...

I'm afraid my desk is a bit white and boring looking today - but I'm quite chuffed with the results. (Sorry they're a bit difficult to see as they are still only pencil out lines - if you click on the pics you can see them better). 
 

I'm waiting for some Neocolour IIs to arrive so that I can colour the faces (I think I'll photocopy them first as this is bound to go hideously wrong!) I know I've copped out majorly by doing whimsical faces (and especially closed eyes) but hey - I know my weaknesses!

Before I go... I have a few WOYWW4 ATCs available for swapping so if you would like to swap with me please leave me your email address in your comment - or let me know that you're interested and I'll try and get to you via your Profile.

Have a great WOYWW birthday - see you soon.

K is for ..... Kyrielle

Hello again - it's time for another submission for The Craft Barn's Dictionary Challenge.

This week's challenge letter is K and there is no twist this time around. Once again it has taken me forever to decide what I was going to do for these pages, but eventually I chose my K word which is Kyrielle meaning litany or long list of words.

I decided to tackle the layout by producing a list of words which reflect the pages I have already submitted for the challenge. I then faffed about (a lot) with how I was going to arrange my list on the page. This is the end result...

and some detail shots...

This page is a little different from the others I have made but still fits in with the overall look of my altered dictionary, using the same colour palette and main design principles. I'm quite pleased with how it evolved as I really had no master plan when I started out.

I just LOVE that alphabet washi tape!

See you again soon

WOYWW #206

Hello fellow WOYWWers.

Just a quick post as not much is happening here today.

I went to a Hels Sheridan Melt Pot workshop on Sunday at Crafty Bunch in Telford and this is the canvas we made as our workshop project. It is not yet finished as I am looking for some more embellishments to add.

The canvas is painted with Distress Paints (Mowed Lawn and Bundled Sage). The images were stamped on to tissue (Kleenex type) and then adhered to the canvas with melted beeswax. We then made the embellishments using UTEE. The rose is a mulberry paper rose dipped in clear UTEE and the other bits and pieces you can see were made with metallic UTEE marbled in to the remaining clear UTEE and then either poured in to a memory frame, mould or Texture Tread.

Today I have added additional Peeled Paint harlequin stamping and blended Vintage Photo DI around the edges of the canvas to add some more interest and to tone down the very bright green of the painted surface.

You might notice that I have a new black "craft mat" underneath my traditional brown one - it is a heat proof non-stick oven liner which at £2.99 is much cheaper than a traditional craft mat - I'll let you know how it goes on.

Ria - if you pop by today - I've had a very quick play with my X-cut screw punch and am pleased with it. Cutting holes in felt is now quick, simple. has no fraying and is silent! The punch is easy to use you just press down on the palm sized handle and it twists itself through the material - no wrist twisting necessary. The different sized punch heads are stored in the handle (genius!)  - as I say I haven't given it a full work out but it does what I want it to so far! MMx

That's all from me have a happy WOYWW.

A is for....Absinthe

Hello and welcome.

Do you ever have the problem that your design looks better in your head than it does when you've made it? Well that's how I'm feeling about my newest pages for The Craft Barn Altered Dictionary Challenge.

This week's letter is A but there is no "twist" this time round. It took me until yesterday for the inspiration of what word to use to strike (the challenge must be posted by Saturday), and I worked on this yesterday and finished it this morning. But as I said - it looked better in my head than on paper. I chose the word Absinthe which is the notorious green French liqueur made from wormwood. The liqueur used to be advertised with a green fairy (portrayed by Klylie Minogue in the film Moulin Rouge) so I have included an "altered" Flower Fairy rub-on in my design.

Here it is....

and some detail shots...

The bottle was made by stamping a vintage  bottle image and then enlarging it on the printer/copier and printing on to inkjet acetate. The absinthe is Meadow Alcohol Ink painted on to the reverse of the image. The label is a Graphics Fairy image to which I added text (and changed the colour) in Word. The neck of the bottle is wrapped in green organza ribbon (the photos have bleached the colour a little) and then a Papermania gold sealing wax embellishment added. The bottle is adhered with a big blob of Pinflair Gel in the middle and with hi-tack tape at the edges to create a curve. The fairy rub-on was painted with Meadow and Clover Alcohol Inks and a green gem star added for a wand. The background is my usual Antique Linen DI with green Lavinia Stamps stars to complement the fairy theme.

Off to post this now, catch up with you again soon.

WOYWW #205

Good morning workdesk wanderers!

It is time for the weekly worldwide wander around the workdesks of the creative and crafty, hosted as ever by the wonderful Julia over at The Stamping Ground - find out all about it here.

Yesterday was Art Journal class with Kaz Hall (you can see some of her work in this month's Craft Stamper), so today I am going to try and complete at least one of the three layouts I have on the go. I didn't quite finish my homework this month (it was all down to doing the Tim Tag - ooops!) so I'm hoping to at least get that one finished AND make a good start on my Altered Dictionary pages - which I must have posted by Saturday (only decided what word to do in the wee smalls last night) - no pressure then!

So this is what my desk looks like today...

The green layout is one I started in class last night and still have to finish. The layout below is my last month's home work piece (a song lyric which has some meaning for you) which needs some final titivation...

This layout was started in class, and - a usual - because I am not a go-with-the-creative-flow journaler  I have no idea where this layout is going, but I'm liking the ghosting in the background...

I also have some new stash... an X-Cut screw hole punch which  I am hoping does what it says on the tin and will allow me to punch holes in felt, some fab wing stamps which I hope to use in my AJs and some gorgeous little seed packet pockets from the new Papermania Home to Nest range.

That's all for now, got to get on an do some creatin'....

 Have a great WOYWW, leave me a comment to let me know you came and I'll pop in to see you too.

Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2013 - May - Had all but given up hope...

Welcome friends!

Today you find me patting myself on the back as I have (at last) joined in with Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2013. (OK so it's May and I'm already four months behind but what the heck - I've made a start!)

And can I just point out that it is only the 2nd of May - so I am well up to speed with this one!!!!!

Sssh - whoever it was that said -yes - but what about your Dictionary Pages AND your AJ homework AND we've noticed you've been neglecting Hels' Sunday Stampers Challenge??? All I can say in my defence is - when  Mr Mojo sashays in to town you've just got to go with the flow (shame he keeps sashaying past my bed at 1:30 - but a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do..)

To be honest it was another dose of insomnia that had me checking out Tim's blog last night and I had a sudden burst of inspiration. So I tucked my jammies in my slipper boots, pulled on my fluffy dressing gown and tiptoed across the landing to the old Chambre des Crafts and to cut a long story short ...

Here is my first EVER, and hopefully not last, Tim Tag...

Some detail shots... 

I suppose the first thing I should say is that this tag has been an exercise in invention as I had hardly any of Tim's listed supplies. And the second is that it is, in a way, my homage to THE GREAT MAN for inspiring me to have a go at this technique and join in with the challenge. So thank you Tim for your creative energy, your inspiration and for making us all believe we can do it too.

If you are interested in the whys and wherefores please read on... if not then please leave a comment so that I know you've been and I'll try my best to pop over and see you too.

OK - so the details and deviations

First off - I didn't have any of Tim's Remnant Rubs so I've used a combination of American Crafts Mini Marks Book 4 and 7 Gypsies Rubbings Elements (Whimsy, Alphabetique and Architecture).

Then I only had grunge coloured Distress Stains and really liked the vibrant colours Tim had used in his demo, so I swapped in Dylusions Vibrant Turquoise, Fresh Lime, Bubblegum Pink and used Distress Stains Scattered Straw. I used the Wrinkle Free Distress Technique as Tim had done with his tag, but I always forget that Dylusions can end up being a bit muddy when you mix the colours wet - in hindsight I should have swiped the tag through a couple of colours, heat set and then used the other colours.

Next I stamped my images. I've had to flip my design over to be on the left of the tag as my focal image stamp faces the opposite way to Mona Lisa. The face is Isobelle by Inkylicious, the "Make Art" quote is part of a quote from Chocolate Baroque's Artistic Affirmations, the numbers are Paper Artsy Hot Picks 1102 and the grunge background is Kaisercraft Grunge, and the inspire sentiment is a Making Memories Express It magnetic stamp.

As you can see I didn't have either the enameled  tags or word bands so I improvised with a transparent cabochon which I glued over a 7 Gypsies Notebook journal sticker with Dimensional Magic. I used a  Making Memories label holder to frame my sentiment.

I know there are a few tweeks which would have improved the look of this tag, but it was great fun to try out a new technique and at lat to be part of Tim's Tags.

Thank you for looking, hope to see you again soon

WOYWW #204

Morning WOYWWers (confused? click on the WOYWW icon in the side bar).

A quickie from me again as I am off to the Docs this morning - nothing serious but some tablets I've been put on recently are stopping me from sleeping - and as a serial insomniac "that don't impress-a me much".

Made a major booboo - got it in to my head that the Anniversary ATC swap was this week (I'm blaming the tablets for that too!) so whilst I was awake between 1:30 and 5:00 this morning I was frantically raiding the depths of my Mojo and willing ye olde heat gun to be quiet.

Having just logged on to Julia's site - realised my error but don't have time to retake my photo - so if you're planning on taking part in the ATC swap, always post your link after no. 50 or so and don't want to spoil the surprise DON'T LOOK TOO CLOSELY AT THE PHOTO!!!!

You have been warned...

Got to shoot off now - catch up with you later...