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!

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!)

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!

Just a quickie - art journal progress...

Evenin' all!

A very quick post as I am on the way out (that sounds a bit drastic!) but I wanted to share the progress on the faces I was working on in my last WOYWW post (here).

It has been a bit of a steep learning curve... the most important thing I've learned is don't use Neocolor IIs on sketching paper - it can't cope with the water and goes wrinkly. That said, here is the first of my Whimsy Girls...

The face is coloured using Neocolor IIs in Salmon, Salmon Pink, Pink and Light Ochre (I quite like her with white hair - I may have to do a white haired lady in the future).

Having learned from my mistakes I've coloured the hair with Promarkers, believe it or not I have used Sandstone, Caramel, Cocoa and Shale to get the multi tones (apologies for slightly dodgy lighting)

All cut out and ready to go...

A sneak peek of the background..

That's all folks.

Happy Mother's Day and The Secret Project Reveal

Welcome friends - and a Happy Mother's Day to all my UK visitors.

As you will know if you visited on What's on Your Workdesk? Wednesday (WOYWW) I was working on a TOP SECRET project - which was, of course, a Mother's Day card for my lovely Mum.

The card, securely packaged in a Jiffy Bag arrived in the post on Friday. By 12:00 Saturday Mum could resist temptation no longer and opened her card... NAUGHTY MUMMY!

I'm pleased to be able to report that she LOVED it! (Phew!)

Anyway I promised I would post some pics so here we go...

And some detail shots...

This is the full shot of the sneaky peek I posted on Wednesday...

The card is made from a Papermania Kraft Stepper Card - but I fiddled with the folds to make it work for my design.

I began by choosing the images I wanted to use and stamping them on super-smooth white cardstock using Memento Rich Cocoa. The images were then coloured with a mixture of Copics and Promarkers. Where I have used decoupage to give added dimension (Molly's hat, apron pockets, the tea towel, oven glove and window blind) I stamped additional images and coloured and fussy cut them out and then adhered them using PinFlair silicone glue.


TOP TIP -  when making these additional dimensional pieces bend the image around a pencil, Promarker or similar depending on the size of the piece and then apply PinFlair to the concave section and a thin smidge of very quick drying wet glue to the edges that are going to touch the background. Press these edges down with a pokey tool to get good adhesion without flattening the PinFlair glue. The pie and bowl of eggs were also curved in this way.

Having chosen the baking theme I decided to set my little scene in the kitchen, so next I cut the background papers for the "kitchen walls" and then inked the edges with Tumbled Glass DI.

The stamps are all Molly Blooms (Having seen my previous post here where I showed the results of a Colouring-In-Therapy (CIT) session, Mum has recently fallen in love with, and bought me, loads of Molly Blooms stamps  - it would have been bad form not to use them on her card wouldn't it?)

The window is made using Molly Blooms Winter Window with the snowy panes removed and a "view" made by stamping and colouring the branch section of the Honey Hive stamp on a piece of card inked with Broken China DI which was then glued to the back of the window frame. The window blind was stamped on to patterned paper, cut out and adhered using PinFlair silicone glue.

The sentiment was stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa on to a Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Banners die cut.

Supplies

Patterned Paper - Papermania Happy Days 6"x6" designerstax

Stamps - Molly Blooms unless stated otherwise

Winter Window Inside - MB0045 H

Farmhouse Kitchen Shelf - MB0090 F

Molly the Chef - MB0108 I

Apple Pie - MB0109 C

Milk and Eggs - MB0089 E

Honey Hive - MB0246 F

Sentiment - Personal Impressions - Cute Characters Set 2

Inks

Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass, Broken China

Memento - Rich Cocoa

Markers used are as follows

Window Frame, Farmhouse Shelf, branches and brown eggs - Copics E31, E33, E35

Molly's Jeans, egg bowl and pie plate and oven gloves Promarkers B119 Powder Blue, C917 Denim Blue

Blue hearts - Promarker V234 Indigo Blue

Molly's Blouse and cheeks and pale checks on tea towel - Copics RV10, R20

Leaves and drawer knobs - Copics YG93, YG97

Molly's Apron, Hat and white eggs - Copics E40, E41, E43

Flesh colours - Copics E0000, E00, E01,

Red heart and red checks on tea towel - Promarkers R455 Ruby, R244 Cardinal Red

Pie crust - Copics E31, E33, E35 and Promarker O555 Gold

Freckles, highlights and spots are all white gel pen

This was such a fun project - apart from the CIT - which is always good, I really enjoyed putting together various elements of different stamps to make a "unique" scene. 

Molly Blooms has new stamps coming out (hopefully this month) so I'm sure there will be more CIT sessions in my craft room soon!

It only remains for me to say. Thanks for the stamps Mum, have a very happy Mother's Day - I love you.

Get me - not crawling in under the wire! Sunday Stampers #244 and ABAC #12

Hello and Happy Valentine's Day to you and a very big thank you to all my WOYWW visitors who inspired me to carry on with a project which - if I'm honest - was a bit like pulling teeth!

Any way... 

I can't believe this is my THIRD post of the week - (OK I'm only managing this because I'm ironing on a need to wear basis!) I wanted to get my submissions in for Sunday Stampers (Endless Love) and Anything But A Card (Share the love) without having to rush (too much).

So here is my offering...

And here are some detail shots

(Handmade lace flower)

I have never done a project that has been such a roller coaster ride as this one! 

I loved my initial background stamping, but OH DEAR when I added colour to the canvas AAARGH!!! I hated it, not even my favourite crumpled tissue paper trick worked - it looked more like something from Chainsaw Massacre than Endless Love! So on Wednesday (gosh was that only yesterday?!) a coat of gesso and a rapid retreat were called for. 

After a spirit lifting voyage round the WOYWW world and some kind and uplifting reciprocal visits, I hit my craft room in a flurry of lace and flowers this morning and - in my eyes anyway - a phoenix has risen from the ashes! (or maybe that should be splashes? - groan)

Here or the (now not so gory) details

Canvas

8x8 ins Daler Rowney canvas board

Die

Sizzix BigZ / Tim Holtz Alterations - Caged Bird

Stamps

Background text - Paper Artsy Hot Picks HP1006; Tiny Harlequin - unknown

Winged heart and rose vine - Kanban Stamp 09

Inks

Images - Ranger Archival - Jet Black (second impression used for rose vine)

Background - Distress Stains - Spun Sugar, Fired Brick, Weathered Wood

Bird cage - DI - Vintage Photo

Scroll - DI - Antique Linen

Markers (for colouring heart) - Promarkers - Ruby, Cardinal  Red

Wings - highlighted with Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Star

Paint

Bird cage - Hobbycraft acrylic - antique gold

Other

Embossing powder - (bird cage) Stampin Stuff - Vertigre

Cream cotton lace

Vintage brass button

Mulberry paper roses

Red foam roses

Heart shaped deco pin 

Well that's all for now, I'm off to post my links, hope you like the end result, see you soon.

Having a little proud moment...

I've just found out that I was made a Featured Artist for my "These wings were made to fly" project over at the Anything But a Card challenge. I'm SO thrilled!  It really is nice to be picked for something like this as it gives your creative confidence a massive boost!

To save you scrolling through all my posts (although please do if you feel so inclined!) here is a pic of the finished project and if you want to see the details and a mini tutorial the link is here

I must confess that I'm itching to do another altered dress form soon -  it was such a fun project to do, I think I'll go shabby chic with the next one as I do love the vintage look, mind you the possibilities are endless aren't they?

On a completely different note I just wanted to share with you some Colouring In Therapy I have been doing over the past couple of weeks or so. My lovely Mum and the Mini Moonshines gave me some Copic Markers for Christmas and I have been having a very soothing and relaxing time practising my colouring technique. (At the moment Colouring In is my go to stress buster. I simply ink up a stamp (Molly Blooms being my absolute favourite for this) and colour my worries away (OK Copics aren't cheap but I'm sure they're better for me than chocolate!)

Here are my first efforts - and even if I do say it myself I don't think they're too bad for a beginner!

The faces of the next two images were coloured using Promarkers (before I got my Copics) and although they are nicely shaded the complexions are a bit washed out looking. (The clothes are Copics.)

I LOVE this Molly Blooms stamp! The jeans are coloured with Promarkers and everything else is Copics. You can see that the complexions are much warmer with the Copics.

A couple of close ups of Molly with wings just to show how using a white gel pen really adds fantastic highlights to the finished piece. (The red of the heart and candy cane are Promarkers)

If you've ever looked at other artists cards and coloured stamped images and wished you could do it too - you can! There are loads of colouring with Copics/Promarkers tutorials on YouTube and at the end of the day - if it all goes horribly wrong just re stamp your image and try again - it's only paper and felt tips!

Hope to see you soon