WOYWW 743

Not sure how it's Wednesday again already, let alone the last Wednesday in August... but here we are, meeting for WOYWW once more...the day we meet to share our crafty spaces or projects.

I had a bit of a nightmare at the weekend as when I got back from Kew I couldn't get the photos to download from the camera... an update by Microsoft had stopped the app that reads the photos from the camera transferring (i think....)  I was all set to have to take the computer in to be "looked at"  on Tuesday (they couldn't do it on Saturday)  but I faffed about on Sunday after I'd stopped panicking, and re-installed the old version of the app and ... bingo.

anyway I am rambling.  Once I'd belatedly got Saturday's Kew trip blogged, I had some playtime on Monday....

I tore the masterboard in half and glued it to each half of the journal, having used another of Seth's new stencils (the one Julia thought looked like teeth...)  round the edges.  

I dithered for some time to think about a focal point and found a couple of older stencils of Seth's (they are all by Stencil Girl) including the large one which is just a small part of a 9x12 stencil.  There are some splatters on the page too but they don't show up very well.... 

Here's the link to the fateful Kew post (so pleased to be able to share it!)  

 the snail that freaked Elizabeth out last week, was still there, and so was this spider 

there was another burst of flowers on this cactus group in the Princess of Wales conservatory too. 

 

perfect timing!  

thanks for visiting, and I'll see you soon.

Happy WOYWW 

Don't all faint... I've crafted.

I felt well enough this morning to carry on with the part-played with journal page that was on my WOYWW post on Wednesday (it's really only the annoying cough that is left) 

and the sun shone, so much that I had trouble photographing the pages for the blog!

 the background was inspired by Seth Apter I love his layers of background paints and stamping  - just keep going he says.


the page needs some words for a title... not sure yet what, so leaving it here for now.

 I hadn't been going to use the butterflies I'd die cut on this page until one comment said how good they'd look over the blue..

which got me thinking.

and then I was watching a video from Creativation of Seth's new release embossing powders, and I decided to use some of his existing Baked Texture release... oh yum I'd forgotten how I loved them!

 some close ups

 supplies -  paints by Paperartsy, stamps by Paperartsy and Seth for Impression Obsession;
embossing powders - Baked Texture by Seth for Emerald Creek;  die by Sizzix ; archival inks by Ranger

just look at the sun!  I am not complaining, obviously

 (wish it had been sunny yesterday at Kew, but they did say today would be the better day of the weekend here)

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?

Monster Mash

Hi there.  I have had this week off work and thought I'd be having a craft-fest but it hasn't turned out like that. After my two busy days out I kind of flopped...

I have however finished a journal page I started a while ago, and of which I really thought I had some photos of the starting point to share...but I haven't!   however, I have used some of Seth's Spellbinder dies for the Paperartsy challenge, which is, die cutting  I loved what he shared on Friday which refreshed the workshop I went on in September.  The card I used to cut, is the leftover piece of smoothy card we did our mono printing with, and I stamped on it with some of Seth's Impression Obsession stamps

The stamps on the top layer of the page are from one of Elena's fabulous new Monster sets I bought at Happy Stampers and they just had to be inked up.   Underneath are layers of paint and stencilling and texture paste, but I wasn't happy with the colours so I went over it with a thin layer of gesso.  I like it much better now.

Entering the Paperartsy die cutting challenge 

WOYWW 380

It's Wednesday again, time to gather at Julia's for WOYWW - week 380

After the flurry of Seth inspired activity of the last week, it's gone a bit quieter here. but Seth is still in my head (as it were) - and made it onto a birthday card

 I may have to cover up the 50 (it's for my boss) as an early card arrived at work the other day with a big 50 on and it wasn't a huge hit... so we'll see (it's stuck too well to get them off without ruining the card)  - although I did tell her that numbers will be appearing on my card for her!

this is my floor space today, another journal mop up in progress, with some of Seth's Impression Obsession stamps getting an inking...

no close ups yet as I am not sure where it's heading right now..

I am off to Ally Pally (Alexandra Palace) to the stamp show on Saturday - perhaps there will be some deskers there?  You can guess which stand I'll be at mostly, I am sure!
and the week after that, it's Port Sunlight and Happy Stampers... we'll see if I manage to resist temptation at either or both of those shows!
(edit.. as Chris has rightly reminded me, there is a gap of an extra week before Port Sunny, time to get paid again though!)

Seth style journal pages

Been playing in my journal (A5,soft cover) since the class with Seth Apter on Saturday ( have I told you, yet, how much I LOVED it?!! lol)

 so as with all things in my journal, this started with the mop up from a birthday card I made earlier this week
Frescos in some bright translucents (I was colouring the new Tracy Scott stamps) - not sure exactly what colours I used now

 started with the stencilling, and decided to add some paint to the opposite side too, in a different colourway.

used the mask/stencils I got on Saturday - on the left, I used a mash up of 'now is the time' and 'you got this' as I didn't want the same thing on both sides,
i used Little Black Dress to stencil with here, for some impact

 nice, but time for the pen work!


















I nearly took the journal and my pens to work on Thursday but resisted (I'd have got carried away and been too long at lunch!)
Instead, carried on after dinner at home, the nice thing about this stage is I can do it on my lap on the sofa, not sitting on the floor like normal!

 lots of pen work... the white is my white sharpie, and the gelly roll white , the black is mainly a micron pen

love how this turned out - and loved putting into practice some of the things Seth taught us.





just realised I wrote this in such a rush yesterday morning I forgot to link it to the Paperartsy "making marks" challenge which is currently running,

WOYWW 379 - what a great weekend I had

Happy Wednesday again... time for another WOYWW 

several of you have seen the posts I wrote about the absolutely WONDERFUL  day at the Seth Apter workshop, run by Paperartsy on Saturday.. in case you missed them, start with this one   and then read this one     I know a few of you have done workshops or classes with Seth - what a lovely lovely person he is, and what an absolutely fabulous day it was.  If you haven't, I urge you to do so. 

this is the finished canvas (finished at home -well, titivated, as it was finished in class, but you can always add a bit more penwork and mark making...) 

 different view of the floor to start with...
taken from the stool I sit at the computer on, pointing left.

 a large pile of stamps (not all bought on Saturday)  sitting on the top of one of my Paperartsy Fresco boxes
I'm in the middle of a birthday card with the new designer range (Tracy Scott) released on Saturday by Paperartsy.

 this is the pile of stuff I did buy though (as shown in the first post I linked to)

and I know several of you have seen this already, so apologies for repeating myself.









when I was painting the circles in the birthday card I used the excess paint on the start of a mop up journal page... looking forward to
 "Seth-yfying" this soon!

Seth's workshop - the finishing touches!

After the excitement of yesterday's amazing workshop (read all about it here if you missed it, or check out the FB group) I woke (for a trip to the loo admittedly) at 4.30 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep.  Eventually giving up on sleep (will snooze later!)  I took my canvas back to bed and carried on where I'd left off last night with some finishing touches.

Here then, it is in all it's finished (probably) close up detail...

Thanks Seth, I learnt so much.

 lots more mark making and outlining and emphasising of the marks I made yesterday (both in class at at home after)

 I just used a variety of black and white pens, and a red Stabilo finerliner

 then time for some paint splattering - I just used black and white

and some closer close ups!

Obviously I didn't do the paint splattering in bed, that would be silly...... I did that in my normal crafting place, on the living room carpet...



Now, to catalogue all the new stuff and then hopefully play with it!

Wow, what a day - Seth Apter workshop with Paperartsy

Glossing  quickly over Southern Rail's attempts to screw up the day, today saw me heading at 6.15 to Shenfield in Essex for the Paperartsy - Seth Apter workshop.
Big thanks to Leandra for picking myself, Kirsten and Claire up from the station (and back again) - loved the detour to the home of Paperartsy and the farm, we can envisage you all the better now.

Anyhow, on to Seth and the workshop - managed to take quite a few photos during the day (and the camera remains paint free) - we were working on a large canvas along with a smaller one to mount on top.  Seth is a very patient guy and explained and showed each step so we all knew what we were doing..

 after Seth got us all to introduce ourselves to the class it was time to get painty..

 Jo and Alison

there were lots of ladies I didn't know, but I do know Claire and Darcy of course

 with her back to me, Caz, Miriam, Jo

 Kirsten and Claire next to Darcy

 first two paint colours mixing on the canvas... you'd never guess by the end of it this is were it starts!

We had a selection of Frescos to work with, including the new Seth colours... oh boy.. fabulous or what!

 couple more layers..

 keep going...mono printing off a sheet of smoothy cardstock (bit like gelli printing I guess)

 tea break, Miriam showing Seth the swap journal she and Darcy and doing

 back to work... get some paint on the smaller canvas, and some water-pulling (I couldn't get this to work, so will be trying again soon)

 big gap in photos now, where we leap to stencils... lots and lots of stencil layers

Seth made sure we all knew what we were doing at each step of the way and helped lots (especially with my water pulling that didn't! )

thanks to Julie Hickey for taking this

 next work in progress shot , getting some die cuts in there

 next step,nearly at the end now, some pen work and shadowing and mark making... we spent 45 minutes on this that flew by (and I will be adding to at home)

everyone listening and watching intently

 Seth and Rebecca who was sitting next to me

 more watching intently

 lots of tweeting going on..

 my table, I seem to have not got Hazel in for some reason, so sorry Hazel!
Bernadette, Jackie and Debs

 someone (Claire!) has already let out of the bag that I had a big splurge.... well like that was a surprise..

 close up...

 closer..  stamps...

 added to my stencil stash too  (sorry about the flash glare)

a HUGE thank you to Seth and Mark and Leandra for putting on this workshop - it ran so smoothly (lunch was gorgeous) and everyone gave so freely of their time.

to the PAtwits I already knew and the ones I didn't before today, thanks for making it so much fun.


just lifted this group photo from Facebook.. in all our painty glory