DragonsDream TIO - Self Propelled Flowers

Welcome back to DragonsDream Tag it On challenge. My good friend Gabrielle's choice of theme this fortnight, "self propelled flowers" and we are to use, flowers, butterflies and movement or locomotion.  This last ingredient WAS a challenge, hope Gabrielle thinks I've achieved it...

I started by using Dylusion sprays on my tag in fresh lime, cut grass and vibrant turquoise, spritzing the tag first with water so the inks run and blend whilst I dry them.

Then I took my mini daisy cluster stencil (crafters workshop) and the picked raspberry distress ink and randomly (suggesting movement hopefully) round the edges.

Took some Prima flowers from my (extensive!) collection and two butterflies I had stamped on black Clearly for Art film (Wendy Vecchi) using the bronze metallic distress stain.  Once I molded the butterflies into shape with the heat gun, I added some picked raspberry colour to the wings.

Hopefully the scattering of the Prima flowers also suggests locomotion/movement  as they are meant to be self-propelling themselves up the tag (or down the tag if you prefer!)

used some little pearls in the centres of the flowers and a toning ribbon to finish.

WOYWW 178

First off I want to wish all our WOYWWers from across the Pond well after the truly dreadful storm that has been hitting the East Coast. Hope you are getting back to normal and haven't suffered too much damage.

So, it is time for WOYWW again - time to spare no blushes and share your crafty space. Julia, Queen of Desks, is the host.

There isn't a huge amount going on here - I have had a couple of DT pieces to do last weekend but they're all cleared away.  I am working on a canvas but not really sure where I'm going with this yet - it is meant to be a present and I need to get cracking!! Mojo, where are you....

 this is how it looked from my seat crouching at the computer....

the snowflake is the free stamp from the December Craft Stamper mag which arrived on Tuesday.

I love the pattern the canvas left in my journal when I mopped the journal surface with a blank page - you can see the texture of the canvas (hopefully) on the page. Now I won't want to cover it up...!!











I did have time at the weekend to complete a journal page (which I haven't blogged yet) - in greens this time.

the main image is a Paperartsy stamp.

That's it for me this week, thanks for stopping by - and see you soon!

Crafty Boots - Tag/Invitation

Morning!! time for another DT inspired challenge from Crafty Boots.  The theme this time is for a gift tag or invitation.

I decided to invent a Halloween party and you're all invited!!

 I used Dylusion spray inks in Halloweeny oranges and purples to colour my tag.  My witch is by Stampotique and her hat is a Dylusion stamp from the Love Struck Lucy set - which has circles all over it, so I used the back and coloured it black, I hand drew a rim round the hat before cutting it out.

The little pumpkins are from a cake case (fondant fancies in a Halloween edition called Frankenstein fancies - vivid green!) which happened to be a spare - I found a double on a cake so it wasn't all messy - and I just cut them out from the case.

Hopefully it doesn't look more like a cowboy hat than a witch's hat!!

Added some orange and black ribbons.
Sorry about the rubbish pictures, it has been very gloomy here today!

Simon Says - Inspired by Wendy Vecchi

It has been TOO long since I had time to join in one of the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenges - but with the challenge being 'inspired by Wendy Vecchi' I just had to make time this week - and just creep in with a day to spare.

I took a square canvas, my Dylusion spray inks and some Wendy stamps & an Art Part.

I spent an age faffing about with the sprays on the canvas, blotting and re-spraying until I got the colours (more or less) how I wanted them - which is more fun than it sounds. I love these sprays.

Then I took the script stamp from the 'live and make art' set, inking it with coffee archival, and rolling it randomly over the sprayed canvas to get partial impressions.  I had prepared the art part flower for something else initially, but it didn't work out for that piece, so decided to use it here, overstamped with the matching stamp.  I stamped the same flower in black archival on the canvas twice and added the text on a piece of kraft card.
For a final touch, I lightly brushed (with my finger) the tips of the art part petals with Treasure Gold wax (Spanish Topaz which is a gorgeous goldy bronzey colour but I don't think it quite shows up, the light here is dreadful today!)

Thanks to Simon Says for another great challenge, and for one lucky randomly chosen entrant, a $50 prize voucher. If you're quick, you can still join in!

WOYWW 177 - homework done!

Welcome to another Wednesday blog hop fest, hosted by Julia at the stamping ground - go on, I dare you to share your desk or craft space! That's what WOYWW is all about.

Well, as the title of this post suggests, I have completed the "homework" set by Julia and Jan - in our goody bag we came away from the WOYWW crop with, was a little card kit - you may have seen some of them completed last week

This is the contents of the kit we got.

and this is how I interpreted it.  I couldn't work out a way to incorporate the house, so have kept that for another time.
some of you at the crop know I was faffing about (very technical term, that!) with the Tim Holtz snowflake die I'd just treated myself to and which just happened to have been cut out in red distress coredinations paper










I also had the chance to do something with the other bits and pieces I'd saved from the day, and have scrapped them in my journal.  Now I don't do "proper"

scrapbooking, but wanted to make a memento of the occasion.

I borrowed a copy of the group photo that LLJ's husband took and printed it out, plus me in "my" designated space, of course...

 painted the journal page with black paint,and dripped some watered down paint down the pages.

My name badge, and the ribbon from my chocolate medal (ate the chocolate of course!)

the tag from the goody bag, and the group photo.  Used a textile pen for the words, love how well it shows up on the black paint.

And so you don't feel cheated, there is a "desk" (floor) shot too, with some work in progress!

Thanks for your comments last week, hope I didn't shock you all so much with the extent of my stash spread that you refuse to come back again...!!

have a great WOYWW.

TIO 127 - Resist

Hallo again, I'm back with another challenge from the Dragons' DreamTeam!  My lovely teamie Sue has chosen "resist" as her theme - the full title is "I can resist anything but temptation" and the recipe is to use - the colour red, a resist technique and temptation on your tag, and don't forget one real stamp.

I have made a "thank you" tag this time.

I went for an embossing resist and took the hot air balloon from Tim's 'remnants' set, which I love.  I clear embossed it on my tag and then added festive berries ink with my blending tool... I used the chicken wire stencil for a bit of added interest (and because I don't have a cloud stencil...)

I added a chocolate (my temptation) and a tiny tag on which I wrote "resistance is futile" before using the tiny attacher to add my message.

Hope you come along to check out the rest of the team's entries and have fun playing along with us again.

WOYWW 176 - after the Crop

We all had a lovely time at the WOYWW  Crop last Saturday - about 20 of us - eating and chatting and laughing - oh, and some crafting too... My story and the photos I took are in the post here   Julia and Jan did a fabulous job organising it all and looking after us all day - thank you both again. Can we have another one, please?!

So anyway, today I have wide angle views of my living room/craft room - totally shaming, in all it's messy glory! I probably shouldn't show you this in this much detail, it looks awful! (Julia, I didn't win the lottery so not only no 15 bed mansion for the retreats, but no designated craft room either!)  You can tell I live alone (and don't have many visitors....)

 the cushion on the stool is where I sit (crouch) at my computer (showing Twitter of course, I am addicted to Twitter!) surrounded by stuff...You've seen in most of the boxes before.

 this is where I kneel on the floor - my craft mat now has the laminated sign from the crop that Jan made and I brought home with me...I shall treasure it.

 workspace close up - everything nice and reachable!

the far corner next to the sofa - under the radio is a stack of 2 crates of papers and stuff that I rarely get into (for obvious reasons!)  the drawers hold  various bits and bobs and the box on top, TH stuff. In the foreground, some of my craft mags that need reading.


Haven't had time to do my challenge card from the Crop yet, Julia - should be ready next week!

Check out some much tidier spaces here at Julia's place!

Crafty Boots - Home

Time for another Crafty Boots DT challenge for you - Emma T wants us to use "home" as our theme.

I went for a page in my journal.

There weren't many stages to this so there are no step by step photos - painted the page with mermaid and sky fresco paints (wiped with a baby wipe to remove some of the strongest paint stripes and blend it a bit better than the brush did!)

Added a cloud - the frayed cotton edges from some Christmas Cards I was making on fabric yesterday (at the WOYWW crop, but more about that on yesterday's post!) I knew they'd come in handy!!

The castle is by Paperartsy and I extended the "hill" so it is sitting on top. The little people returning to the castle are by Stampscapes.  I need to practice my writing in my journal, for sure!

Have a good day, and hope you find time to join us in this challenge.

WOYWW Crop

Saturday 13th October... a day to etch in the memory - the day of the crop finally dawned!!  Rather than make Wednesday's WOYWW post very very long, I decided to record the day here for you all now!

Set off for the station with my heavy bags (I don't do travelling light)
First disaster averted- signalling problems meant my first train to Clapham Junction was running late - would I make the connection?? Just....phew!

Julia met Janet and MaryAnne and me at Andover station - we'd recognised one another as WOYWWers by the size of our bags in the car park.... lol!

 Was greeted in the hall by Jan's idea of my working space.... to make me feel at home! However, I did take advantage of the table also provided, as the floor was (cold) hard - I am used to carpet, dahling!!! Brilliant fun though, thanks Jan - I have even changed my profile picture in honour...

 sorry I have cut MaryAnne in half here - Janet and Jo working hard...

 Di and Sam (Hettiecraft) working hard - and my Christmas card production line! Sam and I soon  made ourselves feel at home and spread out on the floor at the end of our table.  I painted the fabric for these on the floor (a carpeted bit!) to avoid splashing Sam's beautiful book she was working on.

 This is my fellow Crafty Boots DT member, Zoe. Lovely to meet you, (see you in November!)

 Even though the morning was spent eating cake (oh, what cakes, they were wonderful - wish I'd taken a photograph of them too!) we tucked into a hot lunch provided by Jan - beautiful food, (ate far too much of that as well) Here we all are, well away from our crafty tables - good job it was a big hall...

Janet's beading class in full flow...
Sam (her back) Janet, Cardarian (Dolores) Donna and Morti

 Sam's Fergus came along to keep an eye on things.

Lots of people taking photos all the time... Kyla, Di and Sam here...

Zoe and me - I look a little serious here! Must frown less...

The lovely Julia herself with me, we're in the middle of clearing up (hence the badly positioned table!)

and Sam with Julia (and the same table!)




I got home around 8.15, caught the end of Strictly Come Dancing, and soon went to bed, cream-crackered! But what a lovely day - a HUGE thanks again to Julia and Jan (and Jan's family) for the hard work setting everything up (not to mention the goody bags) and well done on raising so much in the raffle, Jan!
Have spent most of today dozing on the sofa, as I was overcome with fatigue!! but I have made a few more Christmas cards too...

WOYWW? Christmas has landed!

Yes, Christmas card preparation has landed! Only because of the gorgeous new range of stamps designed by woyww'er JoFY for Paperartsy - have you seen them?  OMG they are so beautiful... and so I had to get a couple... which meant I had to ink them...

After last week's craft club, I am back where I belong - crafting on the floor! Don't you just love that headless snowman of Jo's?!!

Arial view  (i.e standing up!) of the craft space

and a close up of some of the finished cards - a long way to go.

Hope to get round lots of your desks today (I am off work, waiting for the British Gas engineer to come and fix my boiler - I currently have no hot water as the pilot light won't light - not ideal, and I really really hope they can fix it as I can't afford a new boiler....)

I also need to decide what supplies to take to the WOYWW meet on Saturday - so if I decide, I hope to see you there!

Realise I have got right through this post without explaining why you are seeing shots of my very untidy floor - it's show all time, What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday - desk not essential!!

Check the link at Julia's here

World Card Making Day!

Today is World Card Making Day and to honour it, I have made a card - something I've got out of the habit of a little.

I started by playing with the Tim Holtz's hot air balloon which I stamped on Clearly for Art and heated it to allow me to curve it to get the inflated balloon shape. I was inspired by a tag I saw on Gayle's blog yesterday which sparked this idea.

I took an old book page which I covered in Paperartsy Fresco paint (mermaid and claret) and then added some puff paint to create some clouds over a Stampscapes cloud space stamp

The base card is stamped with a hot air balloon scene by Rubber Stamp Craft which I have had forever

I fixed the CFA balloon to the book page with glossy accents, re-heating it very gently to allow me to bend and push the edges to the paper.

I am entering this to Crafty Boots and Paperartsy World Card Making Day competitions.

Tag It On - Leaf Me Alone

It's time for another challenge recipe at DragonsDream, and my turn to choose the recipe.  For Leaf Me Alone, I want you to use the colour orange, some metal, and leaves.

 I went to my Dylusions stash for this tag - a wet tag (water) was sprayed with the lush 'squeezed orange' spray, spritzing again with water to blend/move the colour around, and dried. The edges were inked with the Tim Holtz distress ink 'ripe persimmon'.

The stamped sentiment is also from Dylusions and so are the leaves - both the small sprig on the tag, and the ones on the copper metal.

I applied some Treasure Gold (aquamarine) with my finger tip and a painted button is also covered in both this and the Spanish Topaz TG.

Added some flower trim to the base, also sprayed with the 'squeezed orange' spray, and though you can't really see it, added some orange stickles glitter to the centres.

Can't wait to see what you dream up to share with us this fortnight!

WOYWW 174

Well this is a bit of a different desk for me - like actually a desk!! -  I've been to craft club, a new one run by my sister-in-law who lives quite near me.  So we were out yesterday (Tuesday) The fact that I nearly forgot it was starting this week is neither here nor there.... woops! A hurried packing of some crafty supplies and....

This is my bag before I set off and, what I was playing at.... There is an autumn theme this time round!

Have desk, will make a mess.... this is my space at the end - everyone else was much tidier, and not using messy paint like me!!

My SIL (pointing) and her co-club runner Toni (standing)
Everyone was working on slightly different things - though the other ladies did use Lynne and Toni's kits and make some cards/tags.  One lady was doing some beautiful cross stitch.

 It felt VERY odd working on a desk - I think I am better on the floor.... couldn't get a decent stamped image at all!!!

but these two pages in my journal are what I was playing at

There were so many things I wanted that I hadn't packed to take - must make a list before I forget.... like the white pen to highlight these leaves... still I can do that later now I'm home.


Next month's club has a sewing kit for tree decorations - I will NOT be doing that (can barely sew a button on) so I will be probably doing some Christmas cards....

So come along, share with us all (link here at the lovely Julia's) - what is on YOUR workdesk this Wednesday??

Three - for Crafty Boots

The theme this fortnight, for Crafty Boots' challenge, is 'three of something'.

Wasn't sure what to do, then caught sight of a stamp set from Paperbagstudios which has 3 houses.... hmmm.

I painted a journal page with Fresco paint (mermaid, new from last weekend's haul!) Stamped the 3 houses on white paper (well, thin card) and coloured them with distress inks (I always mean to colour the card first then stamp on top....) and decided to cut them out rather than have them in a straight row.

You'll have to forgive my atrociously drawn 'long and winding roads' - I am no artist that's sure..  The little people returning home are by Stampscapes. Wonder which house they'll go to..........!

Come and see what the rest of the team have done and please join in at Crafty Boots.