WOYWW 460

Wow, another Wednesday already!  Time to gather at Julia's again for WOYWW ..

 I am hiding my latest week's spread for ALAD/ASAW (France Papillon's A layer a day, a spread a week) FB challenge)  under some MORE new goodies!!

more stencils, and some more stamps...

oh ok, then. here's the spread up to day 3...
1. paint.   2. leaves stencilled.  3.  stamping



can't tell you what is coming next... it's a secret...

this week's prompt is "secret garden" 

I know what I want to do but my final layer that I am practising isn't going to plan so far...


so time to leave you to head on to the next desk... happy WOYWW!!

WOYWW 459 - last's weeks new stuff

Welcome back.. time for another desk hop.  Julia leads the way here at the Stamping Ground 
Luckily the snow we had again last weekend has all gone.. I couldn't be bothered to suffer yet more rail replacement bus journey to Kew so gave it a miss reluctantly!

Last week you may recall, I was waiting for new "stuff" to arrive..
which it did.. on Thursday (although I had to go and collect it from the post office sorting office as it had to be signed for...

4 new sets of stamps... 3 wordy quotes by Alison Bomber for Paperartsy and a Tim Holtz set... now just need to use them!

I've started a journal page 'just for fun'  there's a numbers theme going on - started with a stencilled clear gel and then added colour, wiping it off the numbers.

I've added some more numbers, stamping in the same colour ink only I seem to have not photographed that stage yet..

it's stagnated there, waiting for further inspiration!


have gone back to photograph the next stage(s) for you!

I stencilled some dots in the numbers for some double stencilling action as well.



Next week, I will have  more new stuff (once I start I can't stop....) I have been watching a lot of you tube videos and joined another facebook group for Dina Wakley and am SOOO tempted by her mixed media journal which incorporates watercolour paper, kraft card, linen and burlap (hessian) pages... just looking for a good price now!    Because, as we all know, you can NEVER have too many journals to play in...!

 In the meantime, I may have ordered some more Dina stamps and a couple extra stencils...

Happy WOYWW deskers!

WOYWW 458

Can't believe it's time for another WOYWW.... week 458... I was looking for something on my blog yesterday to inspire me for this week's France Papillon FB challenge (theme "back to basics") and I got distracted by trying to find the first time I joined in with WOYWW... turns out I've been doing this every week (don't think I've missed one from then - or not many anyhow) since 17 Feb 2010 - before the weeks even got numbered!!

Anyway, that's by the by.   my desk   floor workspace this week doesn't have a lot on it - I'm playing in my latest journal (the square one) with Seth Apter's Baked Textures embossing powders, just messing about with them on a page covered with tissue paper...

 the photo doesn't show the shimmer very well due to the angle I took it at.

they differ in consistency, some are quite chunky and some quite fine and melt really well.


Not done very much with them at all yet, just sprinkled them on some clear embossing ink to try out the colours.

still haven't put the new Fresco paints away in their boxes... and the scraps box behind the tubs of texture pastes behind the paints is in even more danger of overflowing.

Next week, all being well, there will be new stamps to show (order is "processing" lol - my not buying anything for a month or two lasted... about 10 days...)

My ticket for Ally Pally came this week too; which isn't far off now.  I'll be there on the Saturday. 
I'll be visiting your desk soon.. have the kettle on maybe?

Whimsy - a card for the Paperartsy challenge

I cannot begin to think how long it's been since I made an entry for a Paperartsy challenge - but the latest theme is "Whimsy" and I just love Elena's Zinski range - when I was at Stamperama last month I just fell in love with this cute little duck.

When I saw the flower by JoFY it shouted "umbrella" (or parasol) to me... so I combined them in a card.

I coloured the images with Pitt Artist pens (over clear gesso on the flower, so I could smudge the pens a little to blend the colours) and added a little shading with a grey pen for the duck to stand on.

Entering the Paperartsy challenge here

France Papillon FB challenge - week 10 - Broken

Although I've still been playing along with France's FB challenge, I haven't got round to blogging one of my spreads for a while.

However, this week, the theme was Broken; with no other prompts or hints... to be interpreted anyway we fancied.  

Just because it was new, I started with painting the page in Fresco paint shade Sargasso.

I didn't take any step by step photos of each day's layer on my camera, so we'll go straight to the finished page:

and then I'll talk you through  what I did.

Day 2, layer 2 was the brick wall - using fibre paste (mine is by Golden) - used bits of the stencil so the wall looks broken... 

 next I added some stamping - a stamp from a new set for Paperartsy by Emma Godfrey, inspired by her love of Portugal.
It's a kind of crazy paving effect and I stamped it without an acrylic block (broken stamping!)

 I added some hearts and coloured them red.


My main focal point was a stencilled heart - I took a piece of Tim Holtz tissue wrap and a Stencil Girl heart stencil, and Deco Art crackle paste.

As the paste dried overnight, it caused the tissue to crinkle and the paste cracked - never mind crackle!

 I tore the heart in two - do you see where I'm going- broken hearted!

as I tore the tissue, little bits of crackle fell off, and I decided to stick them in the middle of the page

I stamped a border at the top of the page and the word broken on a piece of card (Tim Holtz foam alphabet stamps), and stuck as shown


close up of the cracked crackle paste

I've had to seal it with clear gesso as the pieces were still falling off and I realised I wouldn't be able to close my book (heaven knows what will happen when I do something on the next page!)

however, I really like this page and am very happy how it came out - especially as after layer 2 I had no idea what was happening next! 

WOYWW 457 - upcycling

Time for another WOYWW - luckily we are rid of the snow and freezing cold we had last week - the UK - especially where I am "down south" gets it so rarely (thank goodness) - but as you may have seen on Facebook or in my post on my photos blog (here if you're interested) - I fulfilled an ambition to enjoy Kew in the snow on Saturday. 

Glad it's gone now though!

So, upcycling... one of the advisers at work (I work for a firm of mortgage advisers) had a "thank you" gift sent from a client after he moved into his new home... and they didn't even have to ask me...

the stack of boxes (had been filled with chocolates and other edible goodies) - came straight my way as they emptied!
I was more interested in the boxes, honest (but did help out eating the contents!) and I finally got my hands on the last one today, hence them making an appearance here
I love how they stack, Russian doll-like, inside one another before I "do something" with them... which takes up lots less space round here!   No idea at all yet what I will do with them, but that isn't the point, is it?!!

at the weekend I finished a journal page I'd started just for fun, a while ago - background was some stamps from a new set by Tracy Scott for Paperartsy.

I turned it into a piece for the prompts challenge I'm doing with my friends, the butterflies are cut out from the Tim Holtz tissue paper and coloured with Fresco paints in some of the new greens and blues.



the green page on my workspace next to the boxes, is the latest spread for the France Papillon FB challenge.   To answer someone's question from last week, about how I know when a page is finished... well for this challenge, after a week, as it is a layer a day challenge, over a week.  so 6 (or 7) layers.   If I'm doing a page just for me - well, when it feels finished!!

Have a good week, and happy desking!

I'll leave you with a peek at snowy Kew!

"my" fountain!