DragonsDream - TIO - M and Holly

So, the end of the alphabet... this fortnight was Jax's choice at Dragons Dream and she took M, and holly.  Very festive...Here's my tag.

 I started with brushos on my tag, but forgot to take a picture of this stage.
I used Emerald Green and Lemon and let them drip a bit to cover most of  the tag.

I stamped the "Christmas Carol" (Tim Holtz stamp) onto some Paperartsy tissue, with black archival.

It's too wide for the tag, so I tore it to fit and glued it with matte medium

Stamped three of the pairs of holly leaves (also Tim Holtz) on thin copy paper and Library Green archival ink and cut out.
I added some red Liquid Pearls for holly berries.

tied some red velvet and organza ribbons, and then dripped some scarlet brusho and spritzed with water, and dripped it over the tag.


My "M"?  haven't you guessed?  it's Music... Christmas music (or Manuscript) at that!

Come and see what my talented team mates have dreamt up over at Dragons Dream Team.
Hope you have all enjoyed playing along with our alphabet challenge this year, we can't wait for the next round of tags!

See you soon.

WOYWW 287 - it's here (December that is!)

Hi, and welcome for another world trip the easy way - courtesy of Julia's The Stamping Ground .  I am writing this earlier than usual, as Tuesday will have seen me out for an early Christmas "do" after work, and whilst it may not be a very late night, I couldn't take the chance of having time to write this when I got home...
There are, once again, new goodies to share - no Black Friday bargains, but some a bit of a save on some and just plain greed for the rest!

The gelatos are the bargain, with £10 off, and the DecoArt Media sprays I enjoyed so much I had to get a load more... the little bottles are antiquing creams and the fat tub is sand texture paste.  Whilst I was buying them, I had to have the stencils too! (they are 12x12 to give you an idea of size)  Good job I can have parcels delivered at work, although as it turns out they may have been delivered on Saturday at home, but I couldn't take the chance.
Just need a load of free time to be able to play with them all now!

Craft Barn Q&L 24 - Heart/Risk

I look forward to the alternative Sundays when a new Craft Barn challenge is announced.  I look forward to finding a great quote quickly wherever possible, that I know I will be able to illustrate in my journal...

I don't so much look forward to fighting with the computer to keep the internet connection alive but that's my fault for (still) not ringing my provider to moan about it!

However, I have my quote, "words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart" - a Shakespeare quote again today; I have my journal page!

 I have kept it really simple today. I used part of a Stencil Girl stencil, and Iced Spruce distress ink to outline the heart in the middle of my page.  I also used  Iced Spruce to stamp a Paperartsy script stamp (my favourite, MN61) inside the heart to continue the theme of the quote

After removing the stencil, I then used the Art is stencil by Crafters Workshop (I think this has to be my favourite ever stencil) and randomly applied Evergreen Bough through parts of the stencil, around the heart.







I wrote the quote, with a black Sharpie marker, as shown, taking the actual words of my quote, as a guide

so, as I say , a really simple, quick entry today.  Am linking to the Q&L challenge here 

Gift tags - inspired by Lelainia Lloyd for Paperartsy

Sneaking in on the last day, (but better than last month when I failed completely) with some gift tags inspired by Lelainia for  Paperartsy

 followed Lelainia's instructions, so I won't repeat them here, I used Plum and Cherry Red Fresco's

 It's still very misty and gloomy here, so I had a bit of hassle with the photos... but this one came out ok!

I used a mixture of small PA stamps (I don't have the Lin Brown greetings set, so substituted some others from my stash, but the Noel and holly are Lin's and HoHoHo is JoFY's

Not sure if I'll have time to make another entry, we'll see!
Now I just need to buy some gifts to attach to my tags....
Entering the Paperartsy blog challenge here 

...that journal page...

Did a little bit more faffing with the journal page that was on show in my WOYWW "desk" yesterday

 I had started by gesso'ing the journal page, as I discovered that either the brushos or the Deco Art media sprays went through the paper if not.. I tried out all the media art sprays I got (black, white, purple, yellow and green) and some brushos.. I think brilliant red, yellow and black. may have added some leaf green too... Love how the media art drips!

I wanted a focal image but nothing too fancy.. settled for the JoFY flowers, stamped twice, on two pieces of scrap paper.  I painted them with some brushos, mixed in a little pot, with similar colours to my background. Stuck them to the page.

then this morning (bravely, before work!) I took the black media art spray, and with the end of the spray tube, dropped some ink (paint?) on the page above the flowers and let it drip.  Did the same,upwards (ok, so I turned the page up the other way) on the other page.

Luckily I stayed free of black mess on my hands and went to work... Tonight I added some more sprays of black, and let it drip, and a little yellow on the right page.  Some words to finish - had to use alphabet stamps as I don't have any 'vertical' stamps  and voila!
A bit messy, a bit dark (but looks better by the daylight bulb I took the photos by, so maybe in daylight it won't look so dark...) but FUN!
thanks for looking. and try these sprays, they are fab!  I want some more colours....

WOYWW 286 - new goodies (again)

What do you mean, it's Wednesday again?!  Next you'll be telling me it's December on Monday.... oh!
So, if it has to be Wednesday, what better way to spend it than at Julia's Stamping Ground for another desk-hop-fest. And (I know, don't start a sentence with 'and') here's my desk... well, floor, but you know me by now!  You also know me well enough, to expect new stash purchases.... never one to disappoint -

 The brightly coloured bottles are some DecoArt Media sprays which I chose as my prize from the Craft Barn Q&L challenge the other... powerful colours but I am having fun...

the other items in the box, are some EZ mount for some unmounted stamps which I now have no excuse to getting mounted... and another Colour Bloom spray called Storm Cloud which is a kind of grey (storm!) coloured. The 'Stick It' is a thin sheet of adhesive for sticking to card/paper etc before die cutting intricate shapes, and enables you to stick the resulting die cuts easily to your project... time will tell how well it works  I'm thinking letters, and things like Tim Holtz Greenery dies, will be perfectly easy now....

The next picture is for Julia.  Last week she commented on some words on a journal page and said she hoped they were word stamps, not individual funky letters. (I'd have had no chance of lining them up, you are right Julia!!)

well, they are whole words -  Clarity Word Chains, two sets, and I love them!

They come in a chain, joined, but designed to cut apart.  Oh, and the journal pages underneath?  that's some of the new sprays,and some brushos... bit dark and muddy, so needs attention!

So, that's what's on MY workdesk, what's on yours?  I'll be round to check soon.

Dragons Dream - TIO - X and Purple

Hi, and welcome back to the Dragons Dream TIO  for our penultimate tag in the alphabet challenge... boy, that's gone fast!  This fortnight, it is my supremely talented team mate, Julie Ann, who was "lucky" enough to pick (i.e. be left with) X - probably one of the hardest letters in the alphabet to depict... The twist is to use purple...

I sprayed my tag with the crushed grape Dylusions spray.  not before I'd picked up and sprayed a tag with after midnight by mistake - oh well, got a blue tag ready for another time now!  

Got a somewhat patchy coverage (made worse by the flash on the camera!!)   Used the two skeletons from my new super sale bargain price Tim Holtz set (mini halloween) and heat embossed them.

Wrote xray in white pen in the space on the tag, which immediately picked up the purple colour from the spray.  Of course I intended that to happen, it's a shade of purple now!!  It looks whiter in the photo than it does in real life!!
Finished with some chunky purple fibres from my stash.

I know Julie Ann will have made a beautiful, elaborate tag for her entry, because she always spends a lot of time and effort on her tags - but time is against me this time so it's a quickie here!!  Do pop over and see what the rest of the team have dreamt up for this challenging letter!  See you soon.