WOYWW 291 - Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all, hope 2015 is a happy, healthy and creative one. I hope you are sitting comfortably, because I've had a bit of a tidy up... sorry to shock you!

I had Christmas at home on my own this year and decided I wanted a bit more space to sit in, so as I was off work from Christmas Eve, set to then...

look at all that space round the sofa! (I also turned the fraying rug round to hide the ragged ends) My space on the floor is tidy, too - the MDF chest I painted over the weekend is still there as I haven't decided where to put it yet. (see previous post for more info about this)
(the scraps box has been purged and tidied, the two boxes stacked, next to the craft mat holding 'essentials' has been stripped of unused and useless contents and also tidied)

 Had a very lovely pile of presents to open on Christmas Day - savoured them and spread out the opening over the day!

 and what a lovely pile there were - the handbag, scarf and the day's photography course (at the local adult education centre) are from my very generous boss)

 this gorgeous box (Prima - my sister in law knows me well!... she knew I'd want the box too!







contained a lovely pile of crafting goodies...

Now, you probably know from previous week's reveals that this newly found space means a lot of things had to go somewhere....

the dining room!!!  EEEK!
This is the view from the doorway (which, due to my Christmas Eve clear out, also included a couple of bags of clothes for the Charity shop, means I can get through the doorway, without ducking, which is nice!)  That IS a dining room table there under books...)

As you can see from the first picture, I haven't brought back all of the stuff that I moved.. I will probably not either, but will try and sort out some of the piles in the other room, before too long... or at least next Christmas, lol!!

Well, I haven't been short and sweet, but hopefully Julia will forgive me... now, you have other desks to visit, so hop on over to the Stamping Ground for the rest of WOYWW and see what you can see - I'll catch you there soon. Oh, and if you like my photos from Kew, there is a post on the other blog from Monday, when I visited (click the picture of the fountain at the top of this blog)

Christmas Playtime!

I bought a little MDF chest of drawers about a year and more ago at Ally Pally, and have been meaning to do something with it ever since... with my tidy up I decided it was time, it will be ideal for my Prima bits and pieces to be stored in.

 I gave everything a layer of white gesso,  inside the drawers too

 I had a good rummage through my vast collection of patterned papers and chose a piece designed by Finnabair for 7 Dots Studio, from the Dreamer collection. It's been sitting there, being stroked for so long, but it was time to use it (it's ok, I have a spare!)  So, I gave the whole chest a coat of Fresco paint in Guacamole, so it would have an opaque base to sit on, and then added colours to match (roughly) the colours in the paper - Beach Hut, Limelight, Zesty Zing, Yellow Submarine and a mixture of Cherry Red and Blood Orange.

 the top and back got a coat of Beach Hut

 and I painted the drawers to match. I used my Deco Art media sprays inside - luckily I just have enough to match each drawer (had to use the yellow for both drawers)

 on the back, I used Finn's Prima bubbles stencil and Bora Bora, then stamped in the bigger circules with Paperartsy mini 61 in black archival ink.

 the drawers need more - so I took some archival inks in roughly similar shades to the paint, and Ellen Vargo stamps from EEV05 and 06 and stamped all round the drawers. I used Forget-me-Not, Fern Green, Dandelion, Orange Blossom and Vermillion.

 the top has a layer of Crackle Glaze, and Chalk Fresco on top.
I sanded the edges of the paper lightly to distress it  a little.

 love the drawers!
















and got some great cracking this time!  


This was a whole heap of fun to do. Now to decant some bits and pieces into the drawer - and find somewhere to stand it!

3UP - Masterboards

So today at Paperartsy, the 3UP favourite technique, is Masterboards... you've seen what I and my fellow 3UP-ers love about this technique, this is just to share a few more of the photos

 my supplies! (I did add South Pacific too)

 the first layers of paint added

 and after the addition of some extra Antarctic and Ice Blue

 and the first layer of stamping with paint - scratchy circles in South Pacific and diamonds in Antarctic

first layer of stamping with Watering Can archival and the Lin Brown branch from ELB10

second layer of ink stamping - black this time - the bauble and robin from the same stamp set

 coloured with Inktense watercolour pencils.

cut up into squares (I got 6 plus some smaller offcuts) and ready to layer on to some card blanks - I used the same tree branch and Cornflower Blue to tone with the shades on the masterboard - on my card blanks (they are approximately 6 inch square)

and a greeting from one of the JoFY early Christmas sets

with the offcuts I took a smaller card blank and images from the Hot Pick set HPXM05 and the stars from the ELB10.  9 cards from one A3 piece of paper - and still a little strip left.  Not bad - hope  you enjoyed seeing these, and have fun with your masterboards!

Thanks again to Leandra and everyone at Paperartsy for allowing me to play at being a 3UP-er again.

Happy Christmas!!

WOYWW 290 - It's Christmaaaaaasssssssss

So, the cards have been delivered, the presents have been wrapped,  the food has been bought - or, I'll be at the supermarket buying the fresh stuff that needs to be done last minute (depending on when you're visiting)...  so sit back and enjoy a very  festive What's on Your Workdesk? Wednesday... 
Julia likes us to keep it short. so I'll try!

 had to move into the hallway for the weekend present wrapping...

 made some wallet-y type things for some monetary presents...

 tied them up with ribbons

 and a special card for my brother and sister-in-law (hope they're not looking, as not sure when they'll be getting this)

and another pile of goodies for me again!  the stars from the card above, are the die here in the picture.







Oops, and there's more...

I'll leave you with this photo I took on Sunday in London (more here) -

So, that's me - it just leaves me to say, Happy Christmas - may your crackers crack and your turkey be perfect (I'm having roast beef though!)

See you all soon.

WOYWW 289 - it's beginning to look a lot like....

... Christmas... even here, where I have no space for a tree.. well not a big one!

 the hand made cards I've received so far are on the living room window sill where I can see them all the time.. The little tree is battery operated but sadly doesn't show up so well today... it's lovely and sparkly though!  The tall jar of pot pourri needs re-fragrancing too....

 and the window sill at the end of my hall/top of the stairs, has my remaining decorations, the lovely basket of dried spiced fruit I got last year at the York Christmas market, and a greenery swag, and this year I bought a little set of battery operated lights (again they don't show up too well)

 a little better here and you can see the wooden icon I decorated a couple of years ago. (the red lights you can see are a neighbour's, down the road, lol!!)

but you're here for a desk -
well,of course I don't have one, but here is my floor today,  I have been Christmas shopping - for me.... well I did get some gifts at the same time, but when a girl has a SIL who also crafts, it's too tempting to buy things for me too.... this is today's haul, there are more on the way!!!

Now, I've kept you long enough, you need to get back to Julia's Stamping Ground to visit some more desks. Happy nearly Christmas!

Brusho Canvas

The brusho canvas really caught your eye in my WOYWW post last week, and even though I thought it needed something (words maybe?) I couldn't decide what...
When I was out Christmas shopping yesterday, I popped into CassArt in Kingston and caught sight of the Liquitex paint markers... I've seen people using these (or similar) and saying how good they are, so picked up a black and a white... and then thought as I won't be going back anytime soon, I may as well have a few colours too... (only 3!)

Anyhow, after I finished my Craft Barn challenge earlier today, I was looking at the pens, and the canvas, and decided to outline the stencillled flowers with the black paint marker and the stems with the cobalt turquoise.
I had taken a few pics during the early stages of  working on the canvas ... loving the red

 then we jump to a bit later on, used orange, both reds that come in the starter selection, turquoise, yellow, and probably some black too..

 as you can see, I was having trouble deciding which way up it would end...but I love the drippage with the turquoise

 as you can see, it turned again!  Used the JoFY stencil with black gesso over snowflake fresco, which picked up the colours underneath, so tainting them pink!
Also stencilled some of the bubbles from Lin's stencil too.

so, I'm still not sure if it's finished, (the edges should probably be coloured over all the drips!) but for now, I quite like it, and I'd hate to do something which would then ruin it...



*Edit*  you are right, Sam though I am not sure the picture picks it up too well... edged with black

oh, perhaps it does..

Craft Barn Q&L - Faith/Harmony

Today seems the final Craft Barn Q&L challenge - it's been a bunch of fun and I have a journal full of great quotes, a random win and a wall of fame page!! 

This last quote or lyric is to use Faith or Harmony (or both)  This is my page.

 Background is brushos - turquoise, ultramarine at the top and leaf and emerald greens at the foot.  I smooshed the colours with a brush to blend and cover the pag, then when they were dry, spritzed white shimmer DecoArt  Media spray through a dotty stencil, but due to the slightly wrinkly page it's gone a bit splodgy, so I blotted it with kitchen towel.
love the shimmer though, (sorry it doesn't really show up)

 I wanted to use "David" by Tim Holtz as he was itching to be inked and thought he could be the subject of the quote, I stamped him on white card in black archival ink and stuck him to the page,
then stamped greenery (both from Tim Holtz sets) firstly in Fern Green along the foot of the page, overlapping David slightly, and the second in Potting Soil archival inks,

The bare branch at the top, is a Stampscapes stamp, stamped in Potting Soil and Black archival inks.  I filled the top, again overlapping the branches to get depth and to aid with the quote..

which is,

Hopefully, David is living in harmony with himself and the universe!!  Thanks for looking, and thanks to the Craft Barn for a great year of challenges, can't wait for January to see what's next! 

WOYWW 288

Glad you could come back for another desk-hop round the world... no doubt Julia sent you
I expect you're all ready for the big day in just over 2 weeks... cards finished and presents wrapped.... well I can tick the first one off at least!

Sunday saw me buckle down and get them written -

 here they all were in the box waiting.. I found a few tasks to do before I progressed to the next stage...

 getting them out of the box, and laying them on the sofa!

But they had to be done, and by the end of Sunday, they were...

here they are in a pile waiting to be posted on Tuesday (because I was buying the stamps on Monday!) - together with a card to collect a parcel from the sorting office this  yesterday morning

As you can see, I even had time to play a bit at the weekend too, with a canvas I'd been messing about with a few days/weeks ago, with brushos (the background) and some stencilling (the flowers)
It's by no means finished as I'm stuck with what to do next!

My craft mat still looks the same now (minus the cards which are now hopefully being dealt with by Royal Mail!)
I've got a couple of hours off this afternoon (now getting very confused about when I'm talking about, as it's still Tuesday night...) to do some Christmas shopping, got a couple of presents to buy that need to go in the post, but hope to be home early enough to visit some more desks too.  Catch you soon!