Dragons Dream - Tag it On - Numbers

Welcome to the Dragons Dream and a new series of challenges - this time, we're using Numbers.  Although we're starting with the number 1, don't get lulled into thinking they'll be in order... and there may be a twist along the way, who knows?!

So, here's my Number One tag...

 I started by stamping the strip of numbers (paperartsy) in Forget-me-Not archival, over the tag, then painted a wash of Glass Blue Fresco paint, wiping some away with a babywipe.

Added several "one"s in Watering Can archival..

 Stamped the "one penny" from another Paperartsy plate, on a spare tag, in black archival
and masked just the One and stamped it again.
used 3d foam pads to mount.

stamped the seed head (also Paperartsy) in Forget-me-not on tissue, and tore out, glued to the tag.

Finished with a couple of blue ribbons.

This came together really quickly, hope you will find time to check what the other Dragons have done, and join in - don't forget to use one real stamp on your tag.

WOYWW? Anyone for tennis?

It's Wednesday again and Julia is mustering the troops at the Stamping Ground for desk inspection...

The lovely people at Paperartsy are part way through a week of new releases, which are in the stores now and I "may" have bought some on Sunday (launch night)

 someone commented about the green canvas water bucket a few weeks ago which I forgot to reply to - sorry, can't remember who it was... it doesn't leak because it's lined with plastic

close up of the new stuff - one stencil and 3 new stamp plates (and another on order...)

well, it's been at least a couple of weeks since I bought anything!!




I won't be able to visit many desks until later in the week (or maybe after the weekend) because today will see me at Wimbledon watching the tennis again (love my boss!) and then at the weekend I am going to the Peak District to do a couple of workshops.. luckily I have next week off work to recover!  If any of you were interested in the Hampton Court flower show (I went on Saturday) there are 3 (yes, 3) posts on the "photosbyh" blog (click the picture of the fountain at the top of my blog... enjoy!

the Birdman cometh...

When I saw the new Hot Picks at the Paperartsy launch on Sunday, I reached for my credit card straight away...  they flew off the shelves and several were out of stock within hours - but the first 3 sets arrived today (thanks to Sue at Country View Crafts) and I had to play!

 Purple Rain Fresco leftover paint on the journal page, I muted this down with Snowflake,then stencilled Lavender through the numbers stencil (also new from Paperartsy); randomly.

 I took some of the stamps from the "birdman" (or possibly woman) HP1504 plate and added them to the background, I used archival inks for this. (Hydrangea, by Wendy Vecchi, and the crosses are Sweet Plum, a Memento ink

I stamped the head onto white card in black archival, tore it closely round the image, and used a watered down wash of Wisteria Fresco.

I coloured the edges of the paper with Hydrangea archival and glued it to the page,

I had so much fun with this, and am entering this to the Paperartsy stencil challenge here 

Stencils - a Paperartsy challenge

It's taken me ages to find/make time to create a stencil project for the Paperartsy challenge - good thing there's an extra week this time!
Yesterday, whilst I was recovering from my marathon photographic trip to Hampton Court Flower Show,  I saw Liz Borer's amazing layered triptych and this afternoon I had a play in my journal..
I used the same stencils as Liz, but the effect is somewhat different.

Whilst I adored Liz's base of black, I didn't want to directly copy, so I've covered my page with Guacamole, and used Tinned Peas for the leaves, with some Hyde Park to add some tone to them.  There are a couple stencilled with Limelight too.

 I stencilled the words bloom, and grow, from the JoFY stencil, in Blackberry, and stencilled some of the flowers onto tissue,using Purple Rain and adding Wisteria to the centres and Blackberry to the outer edges, before tearing them and glueing to the page, bedding them in with a little more quacamole (mixed with Chartreuse to reduce opacity.

 outlined the outside edge of the letters which a white sharpie marker.

Entering this to the Paperartsy challenge here

WOYWW? 317... not a lot..

I am going to moan... I know I shouldn't, because we moan when it's cold/wet ... but it's too hot!! I don't like the intense heat we have at the moment.... so there's not a lot on my floor workspace to share with Julia and it's certainly too hot to do anything!  plus the tennis is keeping me occupied..

 I think most of this was there last week... it's barely moved!










My finished canvas from the weekend before last (full details here if you missed it)


So the high temperatures do not suit me, but we have had some stunning sunsets lately.. I caught this one about ten pm , just as I was going to bed a couple of nights ago.. and yes, I did get the long lens out for the camera to take this! Had to hang out of the bedroom window a bit...

And this is tonight's (oops, Tuesday night's)

and if you like the photos from Kew, I went again last Saturday



So, not much on my desk, hoping for more to share next week... although I won't be around much next Wednesday as I'm going to Wimbledon for the tennis (thanks, boss!) Really hoping it's not going to be quite this hot...
Happy WOYWW!!

Finished canvas from the Lin Brown Weekend - Live life be happy!

I was determined to put the finishing touches to the canvas before too much time went by...

 so, as I showed in the post about the weekend, it started as a canvas which we covered with patterned papers.

I don't have many pictures of the metal work in progress, as I was having too much fun

 but this is probably my favourite, the stamp by Donna Downey.

I used Stazon to stamp it onto the metal, then outlined over the stamped lines with a teflon tool, on a foam block, to create the outlines

 used the brass brush on the background of the metal piece, and a dotty wheel on the reverse of the leaves, on the acrylic block, to add some texture to the petals.

t

the paint goes on! (see the post here for further details

so this was as far as I got at Lin's - the metal pieces stuck  down.  It's not quite as dark as it looks in this picture, as you will see...

 I constructed the metal flower (using Lin's technique ) - nowhere near as good as Lin does them...
I used DecoArt Turquoise shimmer for the bottom and top layers of the flower, and left the middle petals plain silver

 the letters hanging from the dowel at the bottom

 close ups

 the whole thing..

now for some more close ups






Drew a large L and a large ball and cup to create the look of the rivets.  Filled the space round it with a mold. The rest of the word live, are some die cut letters stuck to the background and covered with self adhesive metal.

 A selection of paper flowers (mostly Prima) and some metal embellishments, I added some Treasure Gold in Silver and Sapphire to the plain white flowers and to the metal leaf

and some more flowers at the bottom of the canvas (much tweeting and discussions this morning of the placements of these!)








And here it is,. hanging on the wall in my hallway.

Thanks so much for the class, Lin, it was brilliant and I am really pleased with how this came out..

Happy Birthday to me..

I was lucky enough to receive some fabulous hand crafted birthday cards today, as well as a bunch of beautiful shop-bought ones too..
Here are the hand made ones from my lovely talented crafty friends - thank you all for making the day special.

 lol! ok, I'll share them...

 here they all are laid out in the hall...

now for some close ups.

(sorry about the light, it's trying to rain!)

 on the left, Debs, on the right, Linda
beautiful flowers, wonderful layering

 left - Sam, right, Kirsten
they know I'm a fan of Lonely Girl and Tim's crazy birds!, gorgeous backgrounds too.

 left, the #PATwits group - card made by Catherine Johnson,  right - Lesley
more fab backgrounds, and Dina again!

 left - Lesley, a FB friend and right, Chris - love the wildflowers on both of these

and, last but not least, left - Hazel  and right, Lin.
love how Hazel's used the bird on a map, and simply love all Lin's layering.








I think you'll agree, these are all fantastic, thank you all so much!   I may just give up making cards completely myself....