WOYWW 360

Hello and welcome to another Wednesday... time for WOYWW once again.. hard to believe in a few short weeks we'll be celebrating the 7th anniversary of this desk-fest!  If you don't know what this is or want to know more, check the link to Julia's gaff, here  I' m not sure if I'll get time to make more than the one official atc to swap, so don't want to commit just yet...

I don't have much on show on my desk   floor space today, a couple of part done journal pages (starting as mop up from the weekend's play for the Wanderlust journal pages (here and here )
so I'm giving you a bird's eye view..

hmm think it makes it look even more cluttered  busy!

Short and sweet for sure today, I'll do my best to make it to all the desks who visit me at the very least!

More Wanderlust - Birgit Koopsen class work "Follow your Dreams"

One of my very favourite lessons so far in the Everything Art course, was the one by Birgit Koopsen, last week.  She used an image transfer as a focal point, but as I don't have a printer, I just went with the rest of the lesson.

 Birgit worked over mop up paint in her journal - something I often do, but because my Wanderlust projects are all in a Kraft journal specifically for the purpose, there are no mop up pages, so I just painted colours and stencilled paint, on the page.

 adding some pop of orange and yellow before adding some stamped images.

all paints except the orange, are Frescos, the orange is a Decoart








I took the large scribbly circle and the larger flower from two of Emma Godfrey's plates for Paperartsy, and stamped them randomly on the background before the scary bit..

 painting white over the rest of the page to leave the pop of background layers peeking through

 then comes the writing and doodling.  I was doing this yesterday, on the anniversary of William Shakespeare's death, so took some of his more famous lines from plays and wrote them round some of the shapes.

 and the name of the class

had a total ball doing this one and would like to say a big thanks to Birgit for a great class.

Catching up with Wanderlust...

.. have fallen a couple of prompts behind on my Wanderlust book prompts, part of the Everything Art course.  This one, prompt 7, was "Everything I did today" and was going to be something completely different, as Monty Python would have said.

I brayered my journal page with Stone, Mushroom, Zucchini, Winter Green frescos leaving a patchy look to the background.  I lightly sanded it so I would be able to write over it better.

 I hunted through my Paperartsy stamps sets for some springlike flowers and stamped them in Watering Can archival ink, on the page.  It's a bit bumpy because of what's beneath it now, so got a rustic effect!   I also stamped some grassy images repeatedly across the bottom of the page, in both green and black





Rummaged through some old Kew photos (back in the day before I had a digital camera, so had prints of my visits! - this is from May 2009) but the blossom was evident last week when I actually went for the purpose of this page
 then wrote on my page

Regular blog visitors will know how much I love going to Kew, and I have some very happy memories of trips there.

Hope you like this one, now on to the next prompt!

WOYWW 359 - a little bit of this, a little bit of that..

Welcome back, another Wednesday has rolled around and we're gathering at Julia's to share our working spaces.
I have WIPs (work in progress) finished things (yes, really!) and new stuff...
First, the WIP   preparing a background for a just remembered in time birthday card.

hoping the recipient won't see it before Thursday (she reads the blog I think but doesn't comment so I won't know..)

 my floor space yesterday, some altered playing cards (more WIPs) for a swap

 you've not seen this view for a while,,, the pile under the window (that's my armchair) is growing.. one day I will sort it out.. and maybe move the boxes in front of it too.. just not sure where yet!

 the finished thing (another card I just remembered in time to get in the post on Monday - 7 am crafting!)

and this, what you really want to see - the new stuff!

I bought a duplicate stamp set at Ally Pally so sent it back for a swap, and then was tweeting with a friend who mentioned having found some Seth Apter stencils and I went in search of some but found these instead!

Right, have taken too much of your time, I have a birthday card to write and get ready to post first thing Wednesday (today even, although I am of course writing this on Tuesday night!)

Thanks for all your comments last week - I think I got back to everyone, but there are a couple of you on Google Plus which I won't join, so can't comment back. I do read your posts though!

Journal play

I've been in a bit of a creative non place at present, too many new things to play with I think... I am meant to be working on some altered playing cards for a swap, they're coming together very slowly and not really to my liking, and I am still thinking about scrapping some and starting again... anyhow,  some of them involved black gesso and I poured too much out..

so I used some on my journal page and the Copper and White Fire Frescos - took to it today with  a new Paris themed stencil and the Wanderlust stamp plate (stamped on Paperartsy tissue and coloured sparsely with the Frescos )
Scribbled a little round the tissue piece with some iridescent oil pastels I got in Glasgow last October

Thanks for looking.

WOYWW 358. a rather big spend..

Happy Wednesday to you all, time for another gathering and a-sharing of desks with Julia  the link will take you to The Stamping Ground blog and all the information you need about this weekly fun-fest.

So the Ally Pally show has come and gone... and with it a rather large wodge of cash.. lots of you saw the post from Saturday (read about it here if you didn't)  so you may want to look away now..
This was my workmat on Saturday evening after I had unpacked it all and after the blog had been written..

 but I have found room...no, that's not right, I have found spaces for most of it...
..teetering piles in some cases.



there was so much stuff I had to take several shots of it all to get it all in...  here they are again if you didn't see them before!

 reduced stock in a bargain bin... grab, grab, grab!!

 yes, more new journals... oops!

 although I have discovered I already had the stamp set bottom left (the quotes) so I've sent that back to swap....oops again!

(the binder I catalogue my stuff in is too big and heavy to take with me but I maybe need to.again...)

these first 3 pictures are all from Paperartsy the next one is what I got from the rest of the show!

safe to say, Paperartsy was still my favourite.

stencils (apart from bottom left which is a stamp)






I have had a little play with some of the stuff, not a lot to show for it yet though.  I was exhausted on Sunday and spent most of the day lounging on the sofa!

"Crafting at AllyPally" show - today

Hi guys, just home from Ally Pally and the crafting show... it was much better today than in recent times. Hope it continues to be so... Hochanda were filming live from the show so maybe that's why... there were certainly more people!

Anyhow, as I always promise, i tried to take lots of photos for you... here goes. Lauren, hope there are enough to help what you missed by doing your make and takes!

 Didn't start taking pics till after I'd raided the bargain bins at Paperartsy... and a few other things too (more of that later)
already quite a crowd round Leandra and JoFY doing the first stint at the demo table.  a long queue to sign up for the make and takes (which filled up so quickly!)

 Kim Dellow taking the first make and take

 Leandra was demoing with the new Tim/Ranger pastes - this is the opaque paste through a stencil, infusions dropped on a small area and spread over the tag,... we liked this one a lot!

 then she used the Crayola twistables crayons - blending into paint, great effect this and it helps spread the crayon having a layer of glaze or other product before you start adding the crayons we learnt.

 so I had to add a pack of the crayons to my second go through the PA till....

 after a good couple of hours and a bit more, I tore myself away to see what else there was on show.. I like this big wooden carved stamps (Lin S and I have seen these before, and they look great on the fabric at the back of the stand) but they're quite pricy so I didn't get any.

 Anna Marie Designs stand, looking gorgeous as ever.

 sat at the bottom of a pillar to eat lunch and grab a coffee before heading back to PA for some more Twits demos... bit of a birds' eye view, MDF man always gets a big crowd..

 the lovely Lucy demoing transfers... check out her beautiful apron she made.

went for another sit down and chat with Gabrielle.. PA still very popular...you may be able to see Alison (Craftytrog) in the red top and the other end of the demo desk in the pinky purple one, is Anna (not seen her for ages,was lovely to catch up and drool over the PA stuff!)

then it was Gabrielle's turn (left) and Kim Dellow (right) to take the demo stand..  Freya, Gabrielle's daughter grinning at me!

Gabrielle was demonstrating her "animal" tags using the Emma Godfrey stamps.. so clever

Jo V enjoying the demo too

 then after the end of the show it was time for the PA Twits drink in the bar - Jo and I managed to grab a table with enough chairs for everyone whilst they closed down the stand for the night... the heavy rain of the morning had gone and there was a great view out of the bar window (couldn't be bothered to go outside for you though!)

 group shot... Leandra tweeted one which made me think I'd better do one for the blog.. Everyone look at the camera... Emma!!!

 take two.. Emma still not looking...

 ok, let's call it done!
You probably recognise, from LtoR
JoFy, Emma, Alison, Jo,, Leandra, Milly (Leandra's daughter on Elf duty today) and Kim

Was a FAB day, and yes... I did buy a bit...

 had to spread to two bags today though, it would have fitted in one but was too heavy.. and you know how those handles dig in.. so spread it between two.. ahem!!

 the bargain box grabs... a pack of Prima cards (12x12 design, 6 different  - there was only one in the box, and I intend to use them in bits rather than the whole sheet in a project..) some wooden hearts, cotton reels, hessian fat quarters, black tags, couple of discontinued Frescos.

 I know Sam likes her close ups..

 this one's a bit less glary I think!

bit more of the Paperartsy haul - archival inks, couple of journals (oops) the rest of the infusions, some Prima butterflies and some Prima Artstones (for my next powertex project)

 Couple of Donna Downey stencils, the crayolas, some stamps, and the Christina Adolph rub ons that Leandra mentioned in her last scope.

 another close up

and the non PA bits.. (plus some double sided tape that escaped the photo)

and the tag from Gabrielle, her famous fish!

Might just need to put my feet up now!