WOWW? 508 - WIP, that's what!

Amazingly, at the weekend after Kew on Saturday (glorious - check here - )   I, (much like Julia it seems)  spent some time on Sunday  morning pruning a couple of large shrubs in my garden (it is at the front of the maisonette, so meant to be kept neat... ahem!) and then I played...

So, for the first time in ages, for my WOYWW desk share, there is actual proper crafting!!

It is still only a WIP... needs lots doing to it but I'll share a couple of the in progress pics - that amazingly, I remembered to take as I went along...

 I started by sticking some pieces of cheesecloth to a canvas board with heavy gesso

 and then got out my Dylusions sprays that hadn't seen the light of day for a fair while...

 added more texture... torn book pages, and scraps of paper (using scraps, whatever next,  from the leftovers of diecuts cos you just can't throw them away can you...)


then added glass bead gel and some art stones

starting adding metal embellishments and some wooden flowers too...

added some more sprays - Lindy's this time... in the gorgeous colour that is Tibetan Poppy Teal and Bells of Ireland Green (way too much) 

and thought oh s&*t I've ruined it... but they dried lighter and some dry brushing with white acrylic paint helped


and there it sits... waiting the next layers..

needs more metal.. and some more stamping and text of some kind... but that is for another day and I have kept you far too long, Julia will be putting me on the naughty step!



Do try and check the Kew photos - there are some beauties.. let me tease you!

not bad for a phone pic, eh! 


sadly after a fabulous few days we are forecast rain on Saturday so the droplets may be rain rather than from a watering system!   

WOYWW 507...

It's time to welcome you to my crafty space for another Wednesday's WOYWW  only there isn't very much going on... so this is a bit of a staged post today.

I was wondering what to share with you today (and if I am brave enough in a minute I will share something really scary)

I've had a  new stencil sat on top of some new stamps waiting to be inked (I don't usually put my new Paperartsy stamps away in the boxes until I've used them)

Whilst I summon up the courage to share the picture of shame..   I took the stencil out and tested it out

I started on the piece of patterned paper under the journal to start with, but it was too patterned to show off the stencil

so I grabbed a matte spray (by That's Crafty) in aqua, and opened the journal.  If I had been thinking I'd have used a double page so I could have 'reverse printed' the image rather than wipe off the stencil.

I quite like the aqua spray though!


ok  am I brave enough..   You've seen pictures of my craft space (living room, don't forget) which is - er... full...

here is the "overflow"  (dining room or second bedroom depending on your needs... don't even go there!)

it's become a bit of a dumping ground (I wonder what the window cleaners think when they come..  I only think this on the day - today-  when they do come - they've just collected their money) (writing this Tuesday night as usual)

the table - that IS a table there, top centre... is full of books that won't fit in bookcases - apart from the front edge which has piles of craft stuff...   bear in mind all that craft stuff on the floor was once in the living room .... I do intend to go through the stuff in here... I might even read the pile of magazines (bottom centre) - they are craft magazines, mostly Stampington ones - I don't buy normal magazines.
So, the overflow room of shame... my shame..   Do you dare show yours?  Head to Julia's for the details

Shall we finish with something pretty to make us feel happy?
from Kew (here) on Saturday

there was a huge display of crocuses, they were stunning.

WOYWW 506

Hi deskers, here we are again! thanks for all your comments last week; and it was especially good to be able to comment on the Sarah and Zsuzsa's sites after they've been de-google +'d!  

This weekend (after Kew - gorgeous orchid pics )  I had some birthday cards to make,  and although my SIL does sometimes read my blog I don't think she stops by these posts so can share the cards I made

I used distress oxides for the background (bundled sage, twisted citron and picked raspberry)  and the stamp in picked raspberry is an old old favourite by Stampington. 

I used some of my new dies for the accents

this is for my SIL  -



and this for my niece - they have birthdays one day apart  so I always get them made and sent at the same time.


the large flower here is by JoFY for Paperartsy and I painted it with spritzed distress oxides in yellows and oranges.

I also played in my journal page with some mop up ink (the purple version of the first card didn't quite work so has been demoted to the scraps box) 

the stamps are new, from Paperartsy (Sara Nauman designs)

so quite a productive weekend, after a glorious morning at Kew (will be going back again this weekend obviously!) 


Oops, haven't told you why we're here... it's WOYWW of course, where we meet each Wednesday to share our creative spaces... see you there

WOYWW 505 - enabler alert (again)

Er... sorry!  been spending pennies again.  But before I share, let me welcome you back for another Wednesday desk hop... time to share all with Julia here 

So....

  this time I bought the new thinlet wildflower dies, 5 to a set this time, and a friend wanted to know the difference in size to the others - the ones on the right are the original smaller ones (7 to  a set) and the ones on the left are the Bigz dies.

 then I thought you'd need to see them all in their packaging for a bit more of an idea.

sorry about the glare on the pic.  and the smaller pack has some spares inside kept safe for use on a project!

Seems the best place to store die cuts...

 I had a couple of friends who had birthdays recently, so I used the original smallest thinlets (as the others hadn't come and the bigz didn't fit the card blank I was using!)


both ended up being very similar






I have more goodies on pre-order but it'll be a while till they come (the Distress Oxide sprays, I couldn't resist in the end, even though I swore I didn't need more sprays... but having seen them in demos I caved.....
I am also very tempted (to the extend that they are sat in a virtual shopping basket) with the new Seth Apter Baked Velvet  embossing powders.. also a pre-order... by the time you read this they may have been purchased too!    Till next week,  happy desking! 

In case you missed it, last Saturday was SUNNY and Kew was beautiful... lots of pics on the other blog (here)  but here's my favourite to tempt you over...

I love the duck that sped through my shot!  

Journal play time

So I had to use my new Wildflower die by Tim Holtz - the Bigz one...  the individual flowers measure about 6 inches so quite a bit bigger than the regular images.

I cut a few from different papers from my rather large stash (still taking care not to use favourite stroking only pages...)

 I started by sponging lightly some brown shades of distress oxide to get a bit of rough colour on the page, I didn't want total coverage.

I then added some Dreamweaver crackle paste through the Crafters Workshop brick wall stencil and let it dry.  I didn't think it's crackled much, it's a very subtle crackle but it is there

 I added some distress oxides to some of the die cuts (I had done one on plain card stock but added some extra colour to some of the patterned paper too)


 once happy with the layout I glued them down (at least with the Bigz dies they are a whole heap less fiddly to glue than the thinlet wildflowers






Added some stamping (Kaisercraft script) in Peat Moss archival ink and some rings using ground espresso on a bottle top

 Used the smaller of the tattered butterfly die, this was on a different sheet of paper to the flowers that had some mauvey script in the print, so I smooshed the butterfly in some purple distress oxide

edged the border with ground espresso DO and added chitchat stickers for the sentiment