WOYWW #212

Good morning fellow deskers!

A very quick post from me today as I'm off to get the car MOTed today - fingers crossed!

I've mentioned before that I am not much of a card maker, but this week that seems to be mainly what I'm up to.

(In case you were wondering, I was looking on line to see if I needed to cut my poppies back hard now they have finished flowering - the answer is - yes.)

I've just finished making a little notecard. It is VERY simple but I really like it.

Typewriter stamp - Pink Paislee: Daily Junque (LOVE these stamps), Sentiment - Inkadinkado: Picket Fence both stamped in Coffee Archival.

And finally, my Mother in Law is not very well at the moment so I've made a get well soon card for her...

Molly Blooms stamps - Molly with Caterpillar MB-0004H, Flowers MB-0144E

Molly coloured with Copics (numbers) and Promarkers (colour names)

Skin: E0000, E00, E01
Cheeks: RV10, R20
Hair: E31, E35, E37
Top and shoes: RV13, RV14
Socks: E40,  RV10
Trousers: E40, E41
Hat; Powder Blue, Denim Blue
Caterpillar: YG95, YG97
White highlights - gel pen

Flowers coloured with Distress Inks, fine paintbrush and a little water using Mowed Lawn, Scattered Straw and Spun Sugar.

That's all from me, catch up with you later - unless the MOT bill is so huge I'm having a lie down!

One and a half blokey projects

Hello there.

Time for me to post my entries for Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stampers challenge #262  - My Guy (here) and Anything But a Card #21 - Masculine (here)

I've  recently completed my June tag for Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2013 (you can see mine here and his here) and I enjoyed his watercolour technique so much that I decided I'd do another Tim inspired tag but with a blokey theme.

Best laid plans and all that...

I started off with the water coloured stamped images and was reasonably happy with how things were going until I inked the edges of the piece and then I smudged my dapper chappie's hat so badly that he looks rather  seasick...

See what I mean?

And I wasn't happy with the way the Forest Moss DI bled in from round the edges.

So, back to the drawing board. I was happy with my tag background (sorry didn't get a photo) so decided to use my Umbrella Man die to cut out a black silhouette. A typed quote and a bit of inked seam binding and Bob's you uncle - one and a half completed blokey projects.

What a surprise - there's that Cactus Annie text stamp again!

I quite like the giant raindrop effect.

By the way, I'm saving the watercolour to collage on to a journal  page at some point as after sleeping on it I actually quite like it.

That's all from me, have a great weekend.

WOYWW #211

Morning folks and welcome to another world wide desk wander (want to know more? click here for all the info).

Nothing much happening here today as I've been working in the garden for the last couple of days.

Here's my desk...

I decided to take the photo from "the other end" of the desk today so apologies for the light reflections on the cloth.

On the desk you can see the Art Journal class homework I've just finished (theme: 4th July) and in the foreground I've got a huge pile of stamps waiting to be catalogued.

Finished journal page...

And some more finishes which you might be interested in..

Father's Day card

June Tim Tag.

That's all folks - catch up with you later.

Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2013 - June

Tim Holtz's June tag (you can see it here) uses Distress Markers and water pens to create a watercolour-esque appearance. OK, so the main problem here is that I don't own a single Distress Marker. But necessity is the mother of invention and I do own plenty of Distress Inks, and a water brush so I'll just have to use the old smoosh-the-ink-on-the-craft-mat,-pick-it-up-with-a-water-brush-and-hope-for-the-best technique.

So, my second Tim Tag and I've got to say that, although I almost fell at the first hurdle, I'm really pleased with how this turned out.

I LOVE the splatted ink spots.

AND the background stamping. And I think you can just about see the watercolour effect - do you think I've got away with it?

If you're interested I took some progress shots, if not - well thanks for taking the time to stop by, please do leave a comment so that I know you came and I can visit you in return.

Chosen images - butterflies and post mark Crafty Individuals, flourish - Artemio

Instead of Distress Markers I used Distress Inks in Rusty Hinge, Wild Honey, Broken China, Faded Jeans, Peeled Paint, Spiced Marmalade and Ripe Persimmon

I had to repeat the distress technique a couple of times to get a look I was reasonably happy with (I used Salty Ocean DP, Gathered Twigs DI and Dried Marigold DS)

LOVE this stamping - Chocolate Baroque:  Artistic Affirmations, Paper Artsy Ink and the Dog: Clocks 3, Paper Artsy: HP1109 and Cactus Annie: text stamp.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out - and I'm actually itching to have another play with this technique -
Thanks for the inspiration Tim!

Happy Father's Day - a two for one

Good morning all and Happy Father's Day to all those hard working and badly misunderstood dads out there!

Two things to show you today, first up the finished Father's Day card I was working on in my last post...

A close up...

The colouring is done with a combination of Copics and Promarkers. As a newbie to this kind of colouring I always struggle to work out which colours to use where. So I thought I'd list the colours I've used FYI. Colours listed by number are Copics (I use a combination of Ciao and Sketch - if I can't buy a shade as a Ciao I'll get it as a Sketch), colours listed by name are Promarkers.

Skin: E0000, E00, E01  Cheeks: RV10, R20
Hair: E33, E35
Hat, Jacket and Trainers: W-0, Ice Grey 2
Trousers: YG91,YG93, YG95, YG97
Honeycomb frame and Branch: E31, E33, E35
Honey: Y06, Oatmeal, Honeycomb, Gold
Bee: Honeycomb, Gold  (plus black gel pen for stripes and Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Star for wings)
Leaves: YG91, YG93
Beehive: E40, E41, E43 plus Cocoa and Shale for entrance
Heart: Ruby, Cardinal Red
Sky: BG000

Stamps used:

Molly Blooms: MB-0246F (beehive on branch), MB-0248I (George), MB-0245F (wooden beehive), MB-0115C (sentiment).

NB. the bees on the wooden hive actually come from the George stamp - I coloured them with a dark brown Whispers Strokes pen and then stamped over the hive image.

The left hand patterned paper panel was a necessary "fix" as the alcohol ink in the Copics tends to bleed through ordinary cardstock - but I think it adds a certain something (if not just to make sense of George holding a honeycomb frame which he wouldn't have found in the hive on the front!)

My second Father's Day project is my first ever attempt at properly icing a cake - I mean regal icing not melted chocolate and Smarties or gum slashing Christmas cake snowy peaks. Mr M ordered a homemade, iced cake for Father's Day (he actually wanted one for his birthday in May but I failed to deliver). So a quick trip down the home baking aisle, a dash round the cake decorating stands at TKMaxx and Hobbycraft and about 4 hours of baking and icing anguish later...

Ta dah....

OK so it's a bit girly (I wont tell you what Mr M said - but he's lucky NOT to be wearing it!) but I couldn't see the point of spending money on blokey cutters etc that would never get used again! And anyway Mr M is a big fan of oxeye daisy filled meadows. Both the junior Moonshines helped so it's a real family effort - and I've got to say - that for a first attempt - I'm pretty darned pleased with it!

Well that's all from me - we're having Reverse Father's Day here today and Mr M is cooking us all a Full English Breakfast. (The reverse part wont last until the washing up - but hey ho a Full English is a Full English!)

WOYWW #210

Good morning friends, followers and fellow workdesk fanciers!

Thank you once more to Julia over at the Stamping Ground for hosting this amazing event. (For more information click here - but don't forget to come back!) And BIG congratulations to her for the phenomenon that is What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday appearing in FEATURING magazine.

So, to the business of the day... What IS on my workdesk?

Today I am mainly making Father's Day cards!

I've left it a bit late I know, but hey, sometimes that's just the way it goes.

As you can see I'm using some of my Molly Blooms stamps. I had actually finished colouring George (the name of the boy in the stamps - and also, co-incidentally, my Dad's name) as Biggles when I remembered that Dad actually hates flying - so I swapped for something more appropriate - Beekeeper George (well, he does like honey!) I've still got a bit of colouring to do and then some zhuzhing up of the front - I'll post the finished project at some point.

Finally a couple of additions to my lovely haul of ATCs and happy mail from the WOYWW 4th anniversary swap. Far right on my arty washing line (thank you for all the lovely comments about this!) is my beautiful ATC from Anne which combines gorgeous fabric, ribbons, paper and SUGAR crafting. Thank you Anne - it is amazing! And on the easel on the middle shelf of my pot stand is a fabulous postcard from Tracy in Australia.

Well that's all from me, hope to catch up with you later.

U is for... Urbain

Good afternoon all.

Now don't fall over with shock... but I have finished my entry for week 12 of The Craft Barn's Dictionary challenge - AND it was only posted yesterday!

This week's challenge is the letter U - no twist this time - the letter is challenge enough!

I have decided to go for Urbain in my French/English Dictionary which translates - not surprisingly as "Urban, pertaining to town life".  So here it is...

Some detail shots...

The Crafty Individuals CI 274 stamps were the perfect choice!

I stamped the "town" street three times and the "village" street once onto super smooth cardstock with Jet Black Archival ink. Then using a fine paintbrush, a little water and various DIs (Antique Linen, Gathered Twigs, Pumice Stone, Black Soot, Tattered Rose, Faded Jeans, Shabby Shutters, Dried Marigold and Fired Brick) I "watercolour" painted the various houses, trying to make them all different.

I then fussy cut them out (you will notice a certain lack of chimney pots!) After the bottom tier of houses I cut up between the buildings to break up the repeat, and then adhered them to the page with  a strip of hi-tack tape along the bottom of each row of buildings. Leaving the tops unattached, I hope, gives an impression of depth - and that there might be streets running between the houses.

This was a fun - yet fiddly - page which, on the whole, I'm quite pleased with and it was nice to get these stamps out again!

Off to link now - have a happy and creative day.



P.S. New post over at my gardening blog Maisie, Maisie, Garden Crazy  if you fancy a peep at my "outside studio".

Sunday Stampers Challenge #260 and exciting news

Good afternoon all!

I hope the weather is as lovely with you as it is here this afternoon.

Two things to talk about today - the first is my entry in to the Sunday Stampers Challenge over on Hels Sheridan's blog (here). It has been weeks since I've managed to squeeze in a Hels challenge so when I saw that this week's challenge theme was the word DREAM I decided to enter my latest journal page. So here it is...

Some detail shots...

 

The background was created using three shades of blue acrylic paint sponged over a white brayered  base coat and then I had fun building up the layers with some splodges of yellow, finger painted on, black ink pressed through a Stewart Gill mask and finally loads of stamping with both Midnight Blue Staz-On and Jet Black Archival.

My Whimsy Girl's face was drawn on sketching paper then coloured with Neocolor IIs and her hair with Promarkers. After cutting her out I adhered her to the page with Matte Medium and thankfully a stiff brayering (over some scrap paper) got rid of most of the wrinkles. (Sketching paper is NOT the right substrate for Neocolors!)

A few extra stamps, white gel pen highlights and "grounding" her on the page with a graphite pencil around her outline and there we have it - my first ever "portrait" and a page I am quietly over the moon with!

My second piece of news is that my little creative space is shortly to appear in Featuring: magazine, a quarterly mixed media and art journaling magazine. Featuring is doing a piece on Julia Dunnit and the phenomenon that is What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday (details here). I was thrilled to be chosen to submit a photo of my craft room for the article. (unfortunately my photo is on the underneath page below)

You can find out more about Featuring: here.

Well that's all from me today, enjoy your evening!

P.S. I've been doing some insomnia blog hopping and I'm also going to creep in under the wire and enter this page over at the Anything But a Card Challenge #20 "Dust off your OLD supplies". I think this qualifies as the paints have been un-opened in my stash forever and the same goes for some of the stamps!

WOYWW #209 (updated with more happy mail)

Hello and welcome!

Firstly I've got to say a very big thank you! to everyone who has swapped WOYWW anniversary ATCs with me - it has been such a pleasure to receive so much happy mail!

Here is a pic of the ones I've had so far and I know there are more to come.

So in order from left to right - Hugs and thanks to... BJ, Cindy, Mo, Buttons, Sandra and Marit - I love them all!

Update - just had a visit from Mr Postie with more happy mail...

So -  from right to left thanks and hugs to Ria (tag and ATC) and those crafty Bears!

Secondly, and the whole reason you're here, is the question "what's on your workdesk?"  The answer I'm afraid is - not a lot. I'm about to start work on my June Tim Tag so I've pulled out some watercolour paper, a tag and some stamps but that's as far as I've got. Any way here's my desk pic...

Top right you can see the art journal page I started in class last night - the background was made using Distress Paints - for me the jury is still out on these - I'm not yet convinced enough to make the investment.

But speaking of art journals, these are the finished versions of the pages I posted a month ago...

The stamped images on the orange pages are the Jofy stamps I won on the Craft Stamper magazine blog hop earlier this year.

And finally, you remember the faces I was drawing last week? Well, here is my finished journal page using one of my Whimsy Girl drawings...

I'll be posting some more pics of this tomorrow as I'm going to enter it in the Sunday Stampers Challenge.

That's all from me for now, enjoy your Wednesday.