WOYWW 369 the post birthday edition

Hi again desk hoppers..  Head to Jan for the link up while the lovely Julia continues her recovery  and if you didn't read her post on what she's been/going through yet do - it's here

I'll apologise first because I won't get to many of your desks for a couple of days as today is my trip
to Wimbledon for the tennis, thanks to my lovely boss.. third year running.  All I can say is, thank goodness Centre Court has a roof, I think they'll need it!   However, I will visit as many of you as soon as I can!

Anyway, desk time... and the big reveal from my birthday gift I was keeping for Sunday.

I woke really early (not planned) on Sunday and resisted for as long as I could, but having brought the pile of cards into the bedroom the resolution to make them last burnt away...

 so, Sam's bag of goodies, revealed several individually wrapped (in hand stamped tissue paper) gifts...

 which later opened to these gorgeous paints.. hope to get time to play soon!









Back at work on Monday, lunch out and some more gifts... the perfume and stunningly beautiful scarf/pashmina from my boss, and the Kew book from another colleague.

What a lucky girl!

these are my cards - proudly displayed on the window sill. (a couple arrived late yesterday which I haven't photographed yet)

They are all gorgeous, and I will take some close ups and show them properly in a few days when I (reluctantly) take them down.

I went to Hampton Court for the day on Saturday (breaking with tradition of Kew) if you fancy a look this is the post you need

Now, I'm off to the tennis.. see you soon!

WOYWW 368

Morning again desk hoppers.  Reporting for duty - head to Jan's  for the link up

Not much been happening here, two more half done journal pages with the new stamps I got last week, but not sure about either of them, may gesso over the black one on the right...still undecided.

I've just realised I haven't done any pre-birthday splurge shopping... better put that right!**  I've kind of staged the desk this week as some early cards have arrived together with a gift my mate Sam gave me when we met up at the Angel Powertex workshop a few weeks ago, haven been patiently keeping it on instruction not to open it early (which I never do anyway!)
It's on Sunday so not long to wait now!

Hoping that both Jan and Julia have had good weeks after Jan lost her much loved Dad and Julia's continued recovery of course.

That's it from me today, short and sweet.. happy desk hopping day!

**edit... have done some online shopping since writing this... lol!

WOYWW 367 - they keep coming!

Hello deskers it's that time again... it's wonderful to see our much loved Head Desker Julia making the odd comment and post on facebook, so glad you are (slowly) on the mend..
We are also grateful to Lunch Lady Jan for stepping into the breach and heading up the desk sharing for now... I've cleared my cookies and browsing history so let's hope I can link up by myself today!!

anyhow, "they keep coming" could refer to - anniversary atcs  -  or knowing me - shopping..
as it happens... it's both!

 this is how my desk WAS going to look today.. my anniversary swap partner was the lovely Bridget in Australia and her gorgeous sparkly atc arrived last Thursday.  there's also a newly started (and very pink) journal page and a birthday card

 then, on Sunday my entry to the Paperartsy 'houses' topic challenge was randomly awarded a prize which I spent no time in claiming and choosing my goodies  which arrived today (oops, Tuesday I mean)
so it could have looked like this...

 but, also on Tuesday, I had a surprise in the mail too, from the lovely Dolores (Cardarian) of another atc and a beautiful card... very unexpected and so welcome!
Thank you....

so, it actually looks like this!!


Happy desking, catch you all soon!

Happy WOYWW 366

We are welcoming our beloved Julia home from hospital and even though she has a long road ahead of her, home is where she should be.  Take it easy, Julia; we are all cheering you on.  Also, Jan, thank you for the updates and news, it is much appreciated as we all pray for a full recovery.

So, it's all over to Jan's for the linky (wonder if it will play nicely today?) and some desk sharing...

 I am just back at work after a few days off, just chilling (and a couple of days at Kew, one chilly and overcast and one gloriously warm and sunny, both of which resulted in hundreds of photos (click the fountain in the side bar if you want to look)


But I did also have time for some crafting and this play in my journal - neither quite finished yet!

I was touched beyond measure to receive an ATC and a handwritten card from Julia last week, posted just before she went into hospital.

Thank you, Julia, it will be much treasured and I will, play hard!

I did do a little shopping last week when I went to Kingston to find some new clothes (failed there) but got some goodies from the art shop (gloss and matte medium) some charms from a fabric shop for some mixed media projects (they were a bargain and some little bits from Tiger..
the cup cake stands aren't going to be for cakes, I thought I could use them to put (lightweight) projects on to photograph... but they may be a bit small...

that's it from me today.

Another Wanderlust book prompt

With this one done, there is only one left to catch up on, but that was only launched this week so I'm sort of up to date with this part of the challenge...
Prompt 10 was "What do I have to let go of?"

Decided not to really try and interpret this as such but just have some fun in the Wanderlust journal (which feels very large for some of these prompts!)

I started by applying white gesso to the page, with an old credit card; then sprinkled Infusions into the still wet gesso, (Sunset Beach and Orange County) and scraped it around with the card and a brush, spritzed it with some water to dilute the infusions a bit more - titled the page to let the colours run, then dried them

 added some Prima Art Basics Soft Gloss Gel through a stencil randomly on the page

and let it dry

 took various bits and pieces from my stash (this is what I'm letting go of, maybe!) - a Prima atc, some lace which I painted with a Fresco mix of Coral and Rose paints; a piece of netting from a bag of fruit, old book page,

all kinds of bits. Used a mixture of glue and staples to fix it together

 stamped on the background in Tea Rose and Orange Blossom archival inks, Paperartsy stamps from the Art Everything sets and a Stampotique French script stamp, before placing my focal point..
stamped a Paperartsy butterfly to the atc and painted it with a mix of satin glaze and Eggplant

Wrote 'memories' in a micron pen, because I felt it needed a word or title or something, in the top part of the page...

these aren't really colours I use together much, but am quite pleased with the look...

Catching up with Wanderlust

I am on top of watching the weekly video lessons but not putting paint or ink to paper... I have two Wanderlust book prompts for you today, weeks 8 and 9 (I am not going to do them out of order..)

Week 8, the prompt was "my future"... I freely admit I am finding the "prompts" extremely vague and hard to find inspiration... however, this is my future.. "Anything is possible, right"

 I applied a layer of heavy white gesso on the journal page and spread loosely with a palette knife, then added Frescos China and Zucchini, spreading them with the knife too, to give an uneven coat of colour. I liked how the white shows through.

I dribbled some Infusions across the middle, spritzing with a very little water.  Added a line of fluffy blue/white fibres and some lace, fixing it with some soft paste. Smeared some coarse texture gel above and below, and let it all dry.

 Spread fibre paste through a brick stencil (Crafters Workshop) and mixed Mudsplat and Cinnamon Fresco and dry brushed the bricks.

added some more fibres at the top and a ribbon and more lace at the bottom, added some script stamping (Paperartsy Mini 61) in a toning blue and green, so that the script barely shows, stamping randomly without a block.

My focal point is the  black die cuts (Memory Box dies, I love both of these, the Prim Poppy and one I've had ages but never used before, Bella Bouquet.

 the title is another Paperartsy stamp, from a Sara Naumann set.  My Future - Anything is Possible, Right?  well, we'll see.

The inspiration for the mechanics of this come from Alison Bomber's beautiful project here







Prompt 9 was "What am I most grateful for"  another one that is meant to get us thinking but it's not the kind of introspection I do... so I just used some new stamps and some old scraps (got to get rid somehow...) and this is the result. "Peace"

I starting by tearing an old dictionary page into random pieces and also an old book page, glueing them to the background.  Had some watercolour paper I'd been playing with Infusions on, and a new Paperartsy stamp, added that too

 added some Zucchini Fresco, some infusions, spread them around a bit with the paintbrush and some added water,then added more paint, think I used Mushroom, Chalk, Limelight and Chartreuse  In between some of the paint I used a dry brush with gesso, I didn't want anything too bright.

when I'd been die cutting the flowers on the other page I had done some in book paper, these are very flimsy but I added them to the page too.

The title is from a Paperartsy set, stamped in black archival top and bottom corners

I also added the stamp from the watercolour paper in Leaf Green archival, at the bottom

only two more book prompts behind now... and a "few" lessons...

Paperartsy - Topic 11 - Our House

The Paperartsy topic announced on Sunday, is "our house" - Darcy found some fantastic samples of houses incorporated into art... I was taken by Kate Crane's journal page, and Karla's page full of houses on Sunday, and also Lucy Edmondson's inspiration from Madness "Our House" (in the middle of our street)

 This is a page in my A4 Seawhite journal.  I used heavy gesso as a base on the page, then scribbled the Crayola Twistables - yellow, orange, pale blue and red, mixing and blending before the gesso was fully dry to ease the blending.  Forgot to take a photo of this stage...

I stamped and masked the houses (Paperbag Studio) multiple times over the page, nearly filling it.

I stamped the plain house on a book page painted with diluted Fresco paints, and glued them over the background.

To allow the houses to pop more from the journal page I smudged the black Twistable with a damp brush, to create a background

Borrowing from last fortnight's challenge, I took a black micron pen and scribbled round the outline of the houses, and underneath with a soft pencil, smudging the lines, and then scribbled again with the micron pen, and finally a white sharpie.

stamped the words from ELB13 (Paperartsy) on white and mounted on black card, before adding to the journal page.


Entering the Paperartsy challenge here 

WOYWW 365

Can't quite believe it's time to write another WOYWW post... it only seems a couple of days since the last one.  What with the Bank Holiday weekend I kind of missed that yesterday was the day scheduled for Julia's surgery until I saw Jan's post on facebook whilst I was eating my lunch at work on Tuesday, and ever since then I have been thinking about her and wishing her well, I know we all have. **

Find the link for this week's desks at Jan's blog here

I have received some ATC's from the anniversary swap - my swap is coming from Bridget sending from the other side of the globe so obviously that is still on the way, but I did receive one from Annie and Jo (Wipso and Twiglet) and also from Jill, who was my partner, and who sent me back one.. and they are all gorgeous:

 Annie's beautifully stitched scene came with a lovely poem too.. Jo's flowers are simply stunning.  thank you both so much - especially as I didn't have any to send you back.

and this is Jill's - love the little bee, and the wall is so textured.  

I mentioned last week that I was going to a Powertex workshop, and it was absolutely fantastic - I wrote about it in the previous post but this is the standing Angel we made - 

 Powertex is a fabric stiffening liquid, you get very very messy but it is fabulous fun!

the painting of the dried fabric is very subtle, meant to be - just some dry brushing with a shimmery paint - a bluey-green and gold.  I may add a little more, I am letting it sit on the window sill for a while and will see what I think 

She measures about 20 inches tall













**  Edit.  Jan has heard from Julia's husband to say that Julia's operation went well and she is now in HDU recovering.  Lots of love and hugs to Julia, what a relief. Now lovely lady, you can get better; fully and soon I hope  xx