TIO 172 - P and cogs

The challenge this fortnight at Dragons Dream is set by my lovely teamie Gabrielle - and what a challenge she has set!  We're to use P and cogs... o-kaaaaaay!!

I don't seem to have ever got round to buying a cogs die... rummage, rummage - ah, Maya Road box of chipboard pieces labelled gears, but they'll do...  Now, the P bit...

 I covered a size 8 tag in Grunge Paste  and used one of the Catalyst tools to make a pattern in it.  Let it mostly dry and then painted it with watered down Peacoat (ooh, another P!) Fresco - the older, translucent one.

painted the cogs with Fresco - snowflake first, then sprayed it with some of the Snowflake/Beach Hut mix I used in the journal page the other day - was too similar to the background.. dried that, painted it white again, then French Roast, before adding Treasure Gold - Onyxite, Indigo and White Fire.

Stamped Dina Wakley's Lonely Girl on white Smoothy card, and water colour pencils to add some colour.
Glued the cogs to look like speech bubbles, and stamped a little "dream" onto a scrap of white card.

Hope you have fun with Gabrielle's challenge, we'd love to see what you come up with.

WOYWW 269

another month nearly over... it is boring to say, but where is the year going? It seems such a long time since the WOYWW anniversary, and it's nearly 1st August... which means I need to make an anniversary card for my brother and his wife... oops!
anyhow, you're here for desks.. WOYWW, the brainchild of Julia (info here) asks us to share our crafting spaces...Can you SEE a space here?!

Decided I'd take this week's "desk" shot from a standing position... really shows up how much clutter (mess) I have surrounding me when I work... the journal page on the left is a WIP and the one on the right is a finished one I did for a Paperartsy challenge last week.
The scraps box is overflowing again (that's the box you can't really tell is a box, out of which is poking the "reserved for stampingbyh" card from the WOYWW crop from a couple of years ago..

Does it look any better from sitting down?! you can make out the white of the scraps box, behind all the pen pots,  at least!

I think I need a sort out sometime soon... not sure when it will get done though, as I'm busy on Saturday having my hair cut and highlighted (got to make room for the hairdresser somehow too...) and Sunday is the Stamperama show at Stevenage which I am going to with some crafty mates... always a good show, small but perfect! (and yes, that means stash will be on show next week!) and of course I'm still hooked to the Commonwealth Games on tv, go team England (and Scotland and Wales!)

I'll leave you to rummage, and will go and make that anniversary card... see you at a desk nearby soon -  don't make a mess will you.....!

Drift Flowers Journal page

Been re-discovering the joys of my journal again lately, this page actually started out in my Craft Barn Q&L journal but I couldn't make it work for the quote, so I carefully cut it from that journal to use in my larger A4 Seawhite journal that I'm currently using.

I cut a Paperartsy post card into different sized strips and glued it to the journal page with multi medium.

I had a little paint left in my spray bottle (Beach Hut and Snowflake) which I spritzed over the journal page, and dried. I gesso'd over the page too, using watered down gesso, to blend the postcard strips into the background more.

Stamped the Drift Flowers (by Memory Box) using Cornflower Blue archival, randomly to fill the page.

Added splatters of gesso flicking it from a paintbrush and dried that

 Then using a Stickles lid and black gesso, stamped some circles over the page.  Took one of my 2 Gelatos (I won them in a giveaway and have never used them) and blended it round the edges of the page, then used Black Soot distress ink around the border, because I wanted to define where this page ended, and the background journal started.

Spritzed the background journal with the last of my spray paint mix, and brayered it to blend out, then used the Paperartsy mini splatter and Salty Ocean distress ink, round the edges.

Stuck the loose page onto the background page.

Am liking the black gesso, (a little of which goes a long way, I had enough left on my craft mat to completely cover a size 8 tag for use later)

Craft Barn Q&L 15 - Mind/Ignorance

Time for another Craft Barn Q&L challenge - this fortnight, the song lyric or quote is to include the word Mind, or Ignorance (or both).  I went for a quote by Confucious "Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance"

 I brayered my journal page with Peacock Feathers distress ink which gives an almost stippled look to the background.

I used Watering Can archival ink for my stamping, Tim Holtz images with second generation stamping for some of the ???'s







I used the Paperartsy mini stamp on a piece of smoothy card and painted the image with watered down Dolly Mixture Fresco, and Beach Hut for the glasses.

I wrote the quote on my page with a Pilot drawing pen, going back over the letters to get a slightly thicker lettering.

and finally edged the page with Black Soot distress ink.

Entering the Craft Barn challenge here

Kate Yetter inspired journal page

This week Kate was back with three fabulous projects, one of which was a gorgeous journal page - you can see it here 

My page underwent some changes of heart along the way - the first image I was going to use, was too solid so I couldn't paint it and then my drippage wouldn't drip properly!!

Anyhow, eventually, after melting all over it, here it is... the colours aren't very good as I've taken the photos tonight, and the flash has fired for some and not others

 I started trying to get Eggplant to drip without watering it down in a bottle, big mistake!  the blue is ok, that's South Pacific mixed into a bottle that already had Snowflake in it, and although I don't like how it's dripped, it's dripped better than the eggplant - I switched to Dylusions then.

look how different it appears with flash!  The true colour - the purple is the fuschia Dylusions spray - is in between the two!!  I may try taking them again in daylight tomorrow.

I coloured the Lynne Perrella image with Eggplant  Beach Hut and Vanilla Frescos, watered down

anyhow, I am entering this to the Paperartsy challenge here

WOYWW 268 - 23.7.14

Time for another hop skip and jump round the desks of the worlds - check out the link up here

Not much to show today - a started journal page for a Paperartsy challenge - some new stash (of course!) - the Tim Holtz stamps/framelits die set - truth be told the butterflies are a bit tricky to die cut, the dies kept sliding off the stamped image when I put the top cutting plate on top, when I first tried them - but they'll be fun to use.  The Eiffel Tower however works a treat !
Just need to find something to use them on now...
Do you ever buy stuff and not know what you're going to use it for?

Short and sweet for me today, just like Julia likes it!!

Just playing - journal time

Hi, I was drawn to playing in my journal today, just for fun - haven't done that for ages!   I used the A4 Seawhite, with it's lovely heavy paper and for the first time in absolutely ages, my Dylusions sprays - took the turquoise , fuschia and white linen.

I blended and spread the sprays with a brayer before spritzing with water and brayering a bit more (hence the crease in the page!)

 Then I used one of Lin Brown's stencils and Snowflake Fresco, the sprays kind of come through, being waterbased, I added a bit of Dolly Mixture on the blooms, and Seaweed on the stems.

 used plum archival ink and the mini text stamp (MN75) through the stencil

 and one of Lin's flower greetings in the corner.

Inspired by Joanne W - Paperartsy

Well, after missing last week completely I had to have a go this time... and on Wednesday the lovely Joanne Wardle was back with some "simple" cards... you can see her's here

I made three - but one was a bit of a disaster, so I'm not sharing that one!

 My Kraft card isn't the best - I bought a pack of A4 card at a show, and it's really not card-making quality, it's not smooth, so quite hard to work with (blaming my tools, you see!)

Anyhow, this one is with the Lin Brown flower, a Paperartsy background and a Kaisercraft clear stamp.  I used archival for the background text, as I really didn't want to get paint in all those spaces!!
Added some splatters too, after I'd "finished" - Joanne is right, it adds something that just makes it better!

and this one, with the solid leaf (although not solid paint-application!!)

Entering the Paperartsy challenge here... now off to melt some more somewhere - all I can say is, thank goodness Fresco paint IS so slow drying, couldn't have born to use the heat gun today!  The thunderstorm that woke me in the middle of the night doesn't seem to have got rid of any of the humidity.

Dragons Dream - H and brown

This fortnight at Dragons Dream, it's the choice of May and she has set the letter H, and to use brown...

I've used my JoFY beach hut to represent "home" which as we all know, is where the heart is...

 took a size 10 tag and painted it first with Mud Splat and then French Roast Fresco's, applied a layer  of crackle glaze (wet here, as you can see!)

 Stone as my top coat - fabulous crackles

 took my JoFY beach hut and stamped it on Heavyweight Smoothy Paperartsy paper, coloured it with Frescos and pencils (Mud Splat then Toffee lightly for the wood, and brown pencil for the roof.)

Cut the doors (painted with Beach Hut) and then stamped the heart (Darcy's for Paperartsy) behind where the open doors would be, stuck the door down.

Stamped my other hearts and the text - the alphabet is one of the Inkadinkadoo sets I got at Newbury.

Added some brown check ribbon to finish.

We look forward to seeing your H's at TIO. Don't be shy, don't forget your one real stamp on your tag.

WOYWW 267 -

Well once again, it's time for the weekly desk-fest that is What's on Your Workdesk? Wednesday.  Link up here and join the fun.

Not much happening on my workspace right now...

 recently I was lucky enough to be picked for a random prize, for leaving a comment on a blog post at Our Creative Corner (fab challenges!) and on Saturday this box full of goodies arrived!




Wow, just for leaving one tiny little comment - can't be bad!

A selection of stamps, ribbons, embellishments, some paper
and some fab looking things called "sew easy" - stitch piercers- several different stitch styles - sewing without a machine! Can't wait to play with these. I've never heard of these before, but they look great fun.

I had a great day out last Saturday at Hampton Court Flower Show, if you'd like to see LOTS and LOTS of photos check my other blog here!

Craft Barn Q&L 14 - Imagination and/or Logic

As soon as I saw the challenge posted this morning I knew I'd use one of my Tim Holtz stamps for imagination - so whilst it's possibly not a bone fide quote, I hope it'll be allowed.

 I used two of Tim's other stamps too, stamped in Potting Soil archival at the bottom and Fern Green at the top.  I wanted to knock them back into the page though, and so used a watered down wash of Honey Dew fresco paint

 The 'imagination' stamp onto heavyweight Smoothy card from Paperartsy, edged with Tumbled Glass distress ink.
I die cut the Memory Box butterflies from the same card  and before I eased them out of the card (they remain attached when you die cut them) I brayered them with Beach Hut Fresco.

Glued the butterflies around the quote round the page, kept it really simple this time!

Entering the Craft Barn Q&L challenge 

Julia's "Big Birthday" Birthday Card

Monday was the birthday of our lovely WOYWW leader, Julia.  As she proudly announced on her blog, it is her 50th... a milestone indeed.  I had mine a few years ago, lol!!

Anyhow, I needed to mark the occasion and sent her a card lovingly crafted with my favourite Paperartsy Frescos. I've had this post ready to publish since the weekend, but thanks to our "fabulous" Royal Mail, the card only arrived today, even though it was posted in plenty of time to arrive early never mind on Monday!  Never worry, Julia has confirmed it's arrival, so here's a bit of a step by step to creating it.

I used different colours to the last time I did this technique - but didn't write them down, which is a shame...

 lots of layers brayered on, before the chalk knock-back layer!

  then stamping starts!

 before cutting a 6x6 square to fit a card blank, and some more stamping with archival ink this time...

and some die cut flowers. You'll notice I didn't add the 5 or the 0 out of kindness!!

Hope you've had a fabulous birthday, Julia!

WOYWW 266 - 9.7.14

Morning all.  Hope you are all well and geared up for another desk-fest! Chief cheer-leader Julia has the info here   It was her birthday on Monday, make sure you wish her well!

As promised, I have new stash to share with you from Newbury on Saturday, when I had the pleasure of meeting up with fellow deskers Janet and Mary-Anne again.

 I wrote about the show here but am showing the pics again here!

I was at home on Tuesday afternoon waiting for a repair man to fix my hot water  and had time to finish my Darcy journal page (here) but you'll see some of my goodies back on the "desk" waiting somewhere to put them away to!

Have a good Wednesday, and happy desking! I really hope the card's arrived by now, Julia!

Darcy's Month 6 journal page

Darcy's Month 6 journal page for her regular Paperartsy challenge grabbed me as soon as I saw it, and I started it straight away.
It's taken me a while to get the next stage done though, but today when I was forced to stay in while British Gas fixed my (lack of) hot water (all sorted now!) I carried on.

 Followed Darcy's background technique - I used some Limelight in with my Chartreuse.  I used an archival ink though to stamp my greetings, as I didn't want to get my text stamps painty.  As the ink (fern green I think now) was quite dark, I put a light wash of watered down Chartreuse over the top.

 Followed Darcy's instructions for my flowers and leaves.. really wasn't happy until I'd doodled round the flowers with a black pen!





but I love it now!

 I did the grunge paste stage several days ago, it's quite a thick layer....
This is where I carried on today - painting over the journal - used Spanish Mulberry, Claret, Eggplant, Dolly Mixture (I think) Blood Orange and a bit of South Pacific, as these seemed to tone well with my top layer.

 Used both Chalk and Snowflake, and a mixture of brayer, brush and cut and dry to get the look I wanted

 two or three layers of white/chalk

 then the hard bit - tearing up that fabulous background!  Cut a strip off for the punching and die cutting... at this point I realised that my circle punch that would have been teh right size, is broken... typical!!

the only flower I like really, is the top right one, as I used a thinner nibbed pen - the others are a brush tipped Pitts artist pen and the lines are too thick, I wish I'd tried the thinner one first!!

Didn't have much success with my ruler and the edge markings, so did some with a credit card too.

quite liked how the stems came out though.
Don't have a tag punch so just omitted them!







I did opt for a title, just felt the page needed some words.  I like the dots Darcy, great finishing touches.

the finished page.  Entering Darcy's Journal challenge here