WOYWW 217 - it's nearly August!!

Happy Wednesday, welcome back for another round of desk hopping, thanks to the lovely Julia at the Stamping Ground

I know I say this every week lately, but there isn't a great deal going on here at present - let me show you!

A blog prize from Paperartsy (the Jo FirthYoung stamps) and some of the thin flexi blocks which I've been meaning to try for ages. Will report back soon if they really do make you stamp better!

The Memory Box poppy die is there to remind me I think I'm going to use this for an impending DT piece I need to get done sooner rather than later.... and anything else is just the normal detritus of my floor space!!

It's going to be mega busy at work today so I am not sure how many of your spaces I will get to visit - I will do my best!

I think this is probably the shortest ever post for WOYWW - Julia will be pleased with me!!

Inspired (and contributions from) Darcy for Paperartsy

This week saw Darcy's final Guest Designer projects for the Paperartsy blog - and what amazing stunning wonderful projects they were. I am sure you have all seen them - but if not, check them out here, here here here and here  and if you're quick you stand a chance of winning a bumper prize for naming the giraffe - possibly the most amazing thing I have ever seen in blog-land!!

I haven't been feeling quite right this week and whilst I was keen to try out various of the projects Darcy made, time wasn't on my side.  Then a couple of days ago, after the giraffe was unveiled, I was lucky enough to win a quick twitter give-away of some of the paper cast flowers Darcy made for the giraffe's spots.  They arrived this morning....

I debated how to use them, I could have added them to a tag, but that seemed a bit tame. In the end, I took Darcy's first project, to make colour combination cards with Fresco paints, and my journal... though I did use the excess on a tag too!

 I took Ice Blue, Limelight and South Pacific, and scraped them down the page....

and across the page to fill it

 didn't need to go multi-directional on the tag!!

here are the flowers and leaves Darcy sent me - so grateful as I would never have had time to try to make some of my own!! (nor do I have the space...but that's a feeble excuse too!)

I sprayed the flowers with Cherry Pie Dylusional ink and then painted them with Blood Orange Fresco paint.

Faffed about with some Snowcap too on one, didn't really like that much after all...luckily my brush was still a bit painty so that rectified that ok.   The leaves I sprayed with Melted Chocolate Dylusion, then painted Old Gold Fresco

Added some Treasure Gold in White Fire (flowers) and Aztec Gold and Renaissance (leaves)

Stamped the corresponding flowers on the journal, so I had some stems for them to stand on, and the words from JoFY 11


Do check out Darcy's posts, they are simply staggeringly gorgeous.

Dragons Dream - Tag it On - Stencils, paint and ribbon

Welcome back to another recipe challenge from the DragonsDream team - and this time it's my choice.

I am really into my stencils at the moment, often in my journal (but that won't work on a tag challenge, eh?!)
So I would like you, on your tag, to use stencils or masks, paint, and ribbon.

I made a tag for a twitter friend who is in hospital and a group us wanted to send him some cheery wishes!

 I took a size 10 tag and painted it with Sage Paperartsy Fresco paint, then stencilled the mini ledger with Tinned Peas Fresco paint, using cut and dry foam.

I stamped the man (from Paperartsy ID04) in black onto some manilla cardstock that I painted in Sage paint, cut out and stuck to the tag, then made a mask and stamped some background stamping in coffee and black archival inks.

The stamps are all from the same set.

 Took some of the new ribbons I bought at the Newbury stamp show a couple of weeks ago, to finish.

sorry about the glare from the flash, I needed to get the photos taken so this could go in the post to Leandra (Mrs Paperartsy!) who is coordinating the delivery to Steven, who is in France.

WOYWW 216 - still not a lot

Happy Wednesday** to you.... if you're here to see a crafty workspace for WOYWW then once again you catch me with nothing in progress on my floor - just my bulging journal!  I did get some bits done at the weekend when it was a little bit cooler (for a while) but have already blogged them (and there's one coming up later today for the DragonsDream challenge)
** Julia has posted early due to internet issues, so I'm publishing now too!

So here is my space on the floor...

Not sure how fat it will be when it's full!!

and a slightly more interesting shot for you!





I have been gripped by the news of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their new baby boy - they looked a lovely family when they left the hospital on Tuesday evening - but it was hilarious watching the tv crews filling for hours before the baby was born, trying to find something interesting to say while saying nothing new at all!
But good luck to them all...
Have a good day, and I'll be round to check out your desks - or as many of them as time allows - soon!

Crafty Boots - Animals

Time for another Crafty Boots challenge - Bev has chosen the theme of animals.

I decided to use an old favourite stamp (and quite a hunt for it there was too, as I forgot which drawer of stamps it was in!)

Anyhow, I also decided to revisit an old technique that I've not done for a long time either, a shadow box card. This about the only time I measure anything when I'm cardmaking!

 I used distress inks on the background and stamped the giraffe couple (aren't they sweet!) - the stamp is by Stampendous in sepia archival ink onto the background.

the fern fronds are also by Stampendous.

Stamped the giraffes again on white card and cut out to mount onto the front of the frame.

Ancient Cities...

I recently made a journal page which (for once) I really really liked - and today have done a kind of variation on a theme...

When I did yesterday's journal page with the 'burst' stencilled in black over my background, I had a load of black paint left on my craft mat, so painted a page in the journal with it... Today was time to work on it.

 I added Paperartsy Grunge Paste through the ancient letters stencil.  In hindsight, I should have left the paste white... I started out with Picked Raspberry DI.  Didn't quite do it - wiped it back with a baby wipe... faffed about a bit, added Walnut Stain (worse) then ended up with Ripe Persimmon...

The main image is a stamp by Judikins called 'churches' - though I always think it looks like an ancient city, Rome or somewhere (not really, and I've never been, so only know it from photos).. anyhow bear with.....

Stamped it on white card and tore and distressed the edges with Ancient Linen and Ripe Persimmon DIs.

The other stamp is by Toybox and called 5 Women Frieze. Treated this the same way, cutting them into individual parts.

 The colour is wrong, but I quite like the actual page despite that....

Going for a lie-down now, it's got hot again!!

Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - T is for....

.... Time-zone

Luckily my dictionary had more T  words to choose from that Y's in the last challenge!!

I remembered while I was flicking a stamp from B-Line Designs that I've not used in a while (don't I always say that?!)  and off I went..

 I painted my page with Irish Cream Fresco paint by Paperartsy. Stamped the world map and the time-zone stamp on tissue paper and glued it to the dictionary. They did get very wrinkly...!

The destinations are from the Tim Holtz Papillon set, I just cut out the city names.

 Stamped various clocks and drew some times on them by hand.  I seem to have LOTS of clock/watches stamps....

Click here for the Craft Barn challenge - you can join in any time!

Cool enough to play!

After so many far too hot days, it was finally cooler today and I had the energy to play in my journal...

I started painting a double page with Paperartsy Fresco paints, London Bus and Smoked Paprika. There is more Bus than Paprika!!

 Then I took the large 'Burst' stencil and Little Black Dress...

and finally I die cut 'Dream' (Tim Holtz) in black card, mounting on white so it would show up, and the flowers (Memory Box) in white card.

A lot of faffing ensued for the positioning... and I'm now picking glue off my fingers... lol!

This was a lot of fun, even if it took ages to finish (mainly because I didn't know how it was meant to look!)

WOYWW - not much, truth be told! Episode 215

This week my workspace for WOYWW is empty..we're in the middle of a heatwave in the UK and it's too hot to do anything much at all, let along fire up the heat gun!! I think my mojo has melted, too!

Plus the new job (it's going well, I really like it) is pretty full on and I am not in the swing of it yet, so by the time I'm home and eaten, I just slob out in front of the tv most nights! (and twitter of course!)

poor craft mat!

Even my Stampers Anonymous stamps are hiding from the glaring sun during the day! (I am sure they'd be ok, but I'd rather not take any chances and try to keep the brightest sun off them if I can)

I hope inspiration and mojo returns soon as I have some DT challenges to get done soon!

Don't forget to check out more amazing desks at Julia's, for now, have a good week!

A Grand Day Out

Most of you have seen my stash haul from the Artstamps Newbury show last weekend and when I tweeted a photo of a (large!) pile of credit card receipts, someone said it would make a good base for a journal page... which is what I've done.

I also used my entrance ticket, and part of the London Underground map with my starting points marked (the less said about the return journey the better - it's here if you missed it)

I used a glue stick to glue the receipts and other pieces to the journal, then gesso'd over the page. Time to decorate the page with some of my new stash.

Using the leaf swirl stencil and Bamboo pigment ink I added some leaves..

I used Beach Hut Fresco paint  through the butterfly stencil, and then some of the Majestix flowers using some of the other pigment inks I bought...

I heat set that, and added the 'sparkles' stamp (Hobby Art) in black archival ink round the border of the page.

it was looking a bit busy, so I decided to knock it back a bit with some watered down Snowflake Fresco paint.

 of course the pigment inks started to smudge, so I had to just paint round them!!


The large butterfly isn't actually from Newbury, but one I bought from the Happy Daze closing sale (it's by Jo Capper Sandon for Stampotique) and came the week of Newbury, so figure it counts as Newbury stash - well, it's new anyway!

I stamped the butterfly on white card and coloured it in watercolour pencils before cutting it out and sticking it to the journal.


Using an alphabet set, I stamped out the title and added it to the other page.

Turning a sunset into a journal page....

A week or so ago, I captured a beautiful sunset from my bedroom window, on my phone.  My friend Sam suggested it would make a good journal page. I can't get the photo from my phone to my blog (it's on my Facebook page or way back in my Twitter timeline) It's probably just as well you have nothing to compare this to!!!

I am NOT an artist - that's why I love my rubber stamps!!  But this morning, I decided to try.. I can't capture the light properly... but it's ok-ish!

The little bird sitting on the telegraph wire is a die cut that my friend BJ gave me a whole bunch of, and I knew it would be ideal (though not in scale!)

Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - Y (with a twist of yellow!)

The latest letter for the Craft Barn Alpha dictionary challenge is Y. But you have to incorporate yellow into your offering.

Not making excuses, but my dictionary is seriously lacking in Y words (when you consider I painted over some when I did my W word...)  This is what I had for Y and Z

Luckily I have another dictionary I can "borrow" some pages from.  I decided to do 'yacht' but also liked the idea of 'yarn' - so thought, in for a penny - why not use both!

I started by painting the page (yes, over my remaining y and z's!!) in Ice Blue Paperartsy Fresco paint, then stamped some fluffy clouds in Snowflake Fresco paint (stamp is a Texture Mat by Caroline's that I have had like for ever!) across the sky.


I used a Stampscapes stamp (it's called Shimmers) and cobalt archival ink, for the waves and the flying duck formation (also Stampscapes)

I originally intended that the yacht could be sailing on a sea of yarn, (well in my defence, it is very hot today!) and positioned the yacht (stamp by Hobby Art) accordingly.

After it was well stuck down (I tried!) I realised the yarn looks like the sandy beach... oh well, let's pretend that is what I meant all along...

The fibres are from a pack of mixed fibres I got years ago from The Craft Barn itself, plus some mohair that I was meant to be knitting into a jumper.. like that's ever going to happen now!  I stuck them to a strip of microporous tape before sticking that to the dictionary page.   The 'Y' letter is by Dylusions, from her alphabet set, stamped in saffron archival ink.

Thanks for sticking with me (literally, it's so hot!) I really didn't think I'd get there with this letter!

DragonsDream TIO - Vintage, Texture, Flowers

Welcome back for another challenge from the DragonsDream Team - this time it's Trace setting the recipe.

We would like you to incorporate on your tag, texture, flowers, and vintage.  Don't forget to use at least one real stamp.  

To me, vintage summons up slightly sludgy colours, not that there is anything wrong with that, I am a big fan of sludge!

 I started by stencilling some Grunge Paste (Paperartsy) through the mini ledger stencil and let it dry.  Then I mixed a tiny bit of Chocolate Pudding Fresco paint into Stone Fresco, and applied to the tag, with cut and dry foam.
I then added some Squid Ink round the edges, and Treasure Gold (Renaissance) to the tag, hitting the grunge paste and the edges

I stamped the 'dream' girl from the 'One Penny' plate 2 range (Paperartsy) on manilla card, in coffee archival ink and fixed here to the tag with foam pads.

The Cherish stamp is by B-Line designs, stamped on white card coloured with Vintage Photo and Milled Lavendar distress inks. I distressed the edges and swiped some of the same ink round the edges.

The flowers I bought at Newbury last weekend, and I poked a little hole in the tag to stick the stems through.

Added some grungy purple ribbon from my stash.

WOYWW 214 - 10th July

Morning again, welcome to another issue of WOYWW. (If you don't know what this is there are lots of details here - but really, where have you been!! )  I'd like to start by repeating my apology of last week, for not being able to visit many of you, it was a hard week adjusting to the new job, lots to learn and not being able to browse desks at work, even at lunchtime!  I'll try harder this week...

Firstly I'd like to start by sending Cindy a huge thank you for the belated birthday card and gift which recently arrived - it is gorgeous!! (and all the more treasured for being late!)

 beautifully wrapped and decorated

inside (yes I saved the fibres, who wouldn't!) was this stunning gift...

that opens up to this!!

Thanks, Cindy, it's lovely!


On Saturday I went to Artstamps Newbury (nightmare journey home, if you have time it's detailed here )






and - ermmm -   spent a little!!

and yes, there's a bag of Minstrels on the floor too...

Didn't meet any WOYWWers (forgot my badge... oops!) but did meet a twitter!

Oh dear... more shopping since Newbury (sorry, Mary Anne!)  Had to be done, I didn't get any red line double sided tape so had to order some. It seemed silly to just get that so...

So, now I have taken up so much of your time, I had best send you on your way to Julia's, to catch the rest of the desks on show...have a great day!

Crafty Boots Challenge - Music

Welcome back to a new challenge for Crafty Boots - the theme of Music is chosen by my teamie Sara.

However, I have failed somewhat because when I went to upload my entry on the DT site, I re-read Sara's original instructions.. which read "include your favourite song, group, musical event or musical instrument on a tag or scrap book page" Oh dear....because I made a card... Hope I'm forgiven and you do better at reading than me!!   Perhaps I should have just pretended this was a scrapbook page!  (I have checked with Sara and she's fine with this - so now you have another option to go for along the music theme!)

I stuck Tim Holtz tissue tape to a piece of white card, using Matte Accents glue, and tore the edges, then added Mowed Lawn and Vintage Photo distress ink to colour it.  The composers stamp is an old old stam I've had for years, stamped on white card and lightly inked with Vintage Photo. I mounted this with 3d foam pads.   The piano keyboard is a piece of ribbon I bought specially at the Newbury artstamps show on Saturday (nothing like last minute crafting is there!) and is fixed with double sided tape.  The violin is another stamp I've had ages.

You have two weeks to enter this challenge, as usual.

Artstamps Newbury

What a day..... Newbury Artstamps show was great but the journey home not so...

Here is the picture you all want to see... as you see, I bought one or two bits and pieces.

Lots of stencils, lots of ribbons, some stamps, (and yes, some are Christmas!) some things to alter and so on...






Lucy wanted to know if it was worth going - I hope this isn't too late for you only I have only just seen your comment on the last post, Lucy.

I would say, yes. Although several traders who normally go, weren't there (no Craftwork Cards, no Ali-Craft) but lots of good ones (as you can see!) were there!

I don't know how you are travelling but if you're going by train good luck with Reading it's chaos!  If you're driving then you should be fine.

The crowds were much smaller than usual, and because there were less stands, there was lots more room to look round. It depends what kind of things you really like - but from my haul you can see the kind of things there were there..   The only people who had any Paperartsy stuff were Snazzy's who had a few of the JoFY stamps, but nothing more.

The journey home was a complete nightmare - I forgot to keep an eye on the time and missed the one train an hour back at 3.15, so had to wait an hour.... luckily there is a shelter to wait in, on the Reading direction platform but it was a long old wait!  The train from Reading to Paddington was ok (air conditioning working for one thing!) but the tube across London to Victoria was beset by problems because Victoria underground was shut due to a person falling under a train - so I had to get off the tube at Sloane Square and find my way to Victoria on foot - with a group of other people, we followed the maps at bus stops and so on. Luckily it's only about 10 minutes to walk. (still very hot though!)
Finally got to Victoria about 6.30 and home an hour later..... just think, if I'd made the 3.15 train I could have avoided all that hassle (assuming the tube was ok still then) but there you go....

Just need some energy to play tomorrow, now!!   Hope this helps, Lucy, if you see it before you go, and if you do, have fun!!

Tag Screen - inspired by Sue for Paperartsy

This week has been tiring for me, starting my new job and having to concentrate on learning new systems and processes, and not to mention working all day to 5.30.... got so used to having afternoons off!  Still the arrival (finally) today of part of the redundancy pay perked me up no end and after dinner I had to get painty...

This week, Sue was back at Paperartsy and showed 3 gorgeous projects.  I am not going to have time to try them all however (I am going to Artstamps Newbury on Saturday, can't wait!) but did want to join in at least one.  I decided on yesterday's tag screen (all the instructions how Sue did this, are HERE)

This is mine....

Lots of photos, but I'll leave Sue's post at Paperartsy to explain the methods, as it's only fair being her idea.

 Limelight and Ice Blue, stencil with Snowflake

finished tag (the one I took of it on it's own, was out of focus but of course I didn't notice till I came to upload it...

 Limelight and Bora Bora

 Limelight and Beach Hut.  Instead of blending out with the babywipe I pounced the babywipe to blend.

 stencilling (love this stencil so much!)

and it's finished tag

 final tag, I used Limelight and South Pacific.

Mounted them on black card (thanks to Darcy for helping me with the way to do this using 2 bits of black card even though I still messed it up, I was able to rescue it!!)

I decided to have the two darker ones on the outside and the two lighter ones in the middle.

As it's 11pm it's a bit hard to get decent photos of the finished thing, hope you can see ok

 Sue, I am so glad I got to play along this week, thanks again for some lovely inspiration (I want to have a go at a canvas like your second project but that will have to be one for later!!)

Entering this to the Paperartsy challenge and also to Simon Says as they have an "anything goes" week.