Let the colour ZING

Michelle has another fabulous inspiration piece for us today on the Paperartsy blog where she has used bright bold colours in her journal that really spoke to me.... so I turned to the last page in my original book and this is the result...

There was a swipe of blue paint on the page already (Baltic Blue, I think) from something else, then I used Beach Hut, Zesty Zing, and Limelight to fill in the background.  I splattered some Snowcap white ink with the end of a cocktail stick on the page, and then stencilled Ripe Persimmon distress ink through the small Dylusion dotted flowers stencil.

Used Paperartsy stamps and black archival ink, and on the sentiment I dry brushed some of the leftover paint to blend it in with the journal page. Outlined the edges with a black marker. The black on the solid stamp didn't show up as well as I'd have liked, so I remembered Leandra's tip to use Fresco Satin Glaze over it, which has helped.

Housekeeping....

....No, it's all right, I haven't had a breakdown! Not THAT sort of housekeeping!

I just mean tidying up with some forgotten finished work to share.

My brother's card (sneak peak in this post) turned out like this. Finished it with the Big Ben stamp from Paperartsy Hot Pick 1208.
The bubbles and numbers are both stencils.  I used Dylusion sprays for the bubbles and walnut stain distress ink for the numbers. The greeting is by Penny Black.

I loved making this journal page (shared briefly in WOYWW this week), using Paperartsy Fresco paints' stencils and JoFY stamps. The girls at craft club where I finished this off, loved these stamps.

 sanded a bit hard here, made a hole....oops! Used Paperartsy Mini's stamps (script, seen here; and numbers (see next pic) on the background...

Just LOVE these stamps of Jo's - can't wait to see the rest of her new ones when they're released (hurry up, Paperartsy, LOL!)
the single leaf made quite a nice addition to the border.

Just love the Beach Hut fresco paint - can't believe I didn't already have it, so when I ordered the stamp set, had to put that right!

I didn't have much with me at craft club for colouring so used some distress inks and the tip of a blending tool - used salty ocean, wild honey/rusty hinge, mowed lawn and picked raspberry.

There's one page left in this journal, and whilst I love the new Dyan Reaveley one, I am going to miss this size - so may have to get another one!! I think you can say I am hooked - it's only taken about 14 months to fill this one.

Inspired by - Michelle Webb with Frescos

The fabulous people at Paperartsy have a new Guest Design team working with them this year to help us embrace all things Paperartsy, with challenges along the way.

Now, you MAY have noticed (ahem!) that I am partial to a Paperartsy product or twenty so this is right up my street!

The first Guest Designer is the lovely Michelle Webb from TheHobbyRoom - just check out her fabulous creations!

I decided to tackle a canvas.  Michelle covered her wooden piece with torn poem pages, and painted over that, but I painted the canvas first and then used torn tissue wrap to partially cover the canvas.  I forgot to take step by step photos - too keen to get on!!

I used Baltic Blue, Beach Hut (it's new to me, just arrived this week, and is YUMMY) and white. I gave the whole canvas a light gesso wash to knock it back a little, before stencilling the bubbles in baltic blue again.


Then I took the leafy vine stencil (I've been dying to use this since it came to me just before Christmas...) I used puff paint applied with a paint brush and spread with an old credit card, before puffing it and adding some Fresco paint in Limelight.

Did some random stamping of a script stamp (Mini MN61) in black archival ink, rolling the stamp to ensure I only got part of the script.

for my main image I took the seed head stamp (Hot Pick 1005, this remains one of my favourite images) and stamped it on the Paperartsy Crackly paper, in black. I painted a light coat of Honeydew Fresco on the reverse of the seed head, before cutting it out and gluing it to the canvas.  The text is the beautifully written text from the JoFY new collection, and although they're not strictly speaking, flowers, well you get the idea!

So, a big thank you to Michelle for the inspiration, and Paperartsy for putting together this new GD team (run by the delightful Gillian ) I can see we are all going to have lots of fun with this. (there are even prizes on offer!!)

TIO - While Dragon's Dream #133

Time for another recipe from the Dragons DreamTeam... 'While Dragons Dream' - A night sky, a clear moon and mythical animals.

I had to stretch the definition of 'mythical animals' as I really don't have any suitable stamps of animals, and could find any images (my printer doesn't work, so couldn't download anything!) so I chose a fairy for my animal... 

I made the night sky on my tag with Dylusion inks (black marble and london blue) and some irridescent gold shimmer for stars (I couldn't find any silver shimmer!). Hope you can see them, I can't get a decent picture, it's too dark during the day and the flash at night doesn't help...

The fairy (Personal Impressions) is stamped on acetate with stazon ink, and painted with alcohol inks on both the front and back.  I then painted the back with a light coat of white paint to enable it to show up more on the dark tag background. The moon is by Stampscapes and I scribbled white paint and also some pewter distress stain on the tag to allow the moon stamp to show up.  The words come from a set I got years ago from The Stamp Bug. 

Look forward to seeing your tags. Don't forget to use at least one real stamp. 

WOYWW 188

Hello, fellow desk hoppers! It's time for our weekly round up of crafty spaces - hosted by the delectable Julia at the Stamping-Ground.  I am most excited, as she is planning another WOYWW crop for 1st June (check here for initial details) Make a note of the date!

Today is the day after Craft Club so there are pictures from a proper desk again.  The theme was set as "Scrapbooking Christmas" but as (a) I don't scrapbook and (b) didn't have any decent pictures from Christmas to use, even in a journal instead, I just went with my art journal!!

I have just about finished up the old book, so it was time to spray some ink (Dylusions ink of course) at my new Dylusion journal. Oh my, is this book good!! Lovely thick pages that ink doesn't immediately soak through (I have got some bleed through but not much yet)

Not only is the journal new but so is the hollyhocks stencil I've used on one of the pages (new to me, anyhow) It is one of Donna Downey's and I already love it!!! All I did at club, was to outline it in white pen (I took the 3 white pens I own, and used them all! The one that worked best here was one designed for work on fabric.

I had also sprayed the first page with greens and yellow, and done some stencilling here too, but all I added was some solid leaves - didn't have the right things with me to add to this one!

And I was also working on one of the last pages in my other book, with Fresco paint - I just added the stamping at club - the new Jo Firth-Young stamp set that arrived on Tuesday - so it needed inking..... me likey this set, a lot!

This is longer than it should be for a WOYWW post, so I'll leave it here, and let you get hopping round the world. See you soon!

Crafty Boots challenge - "Bright"

So here we are, a new year of challenges - to be honest I am struggling to get back into a routine after Christmas, but here goes!!

For this fortnight at Crafty Boots, Freya would like you to use black and a bright colour.

I had this journal page partly done, with Bubblegum Pink and Black Marble Dylusions, so just needed to add some finishing touches.

I've used a few stencils on here, by Dyan Reavely and the Crafters Workshop. The text is from a Rubbadubbado stamp I was given.

WOYWW 187 - but back to work

Happy New Year to all you WOYWWer's - I've had a lovely few days off work over Christmas, have caught up on much needed sleep, and ate loads and watched loads of tv (childhood favourite films, as you do!) but today is my first day back at work. (yuck! not looking forward to it!) so am leaving my 'desk' for you to look at in my absence. Julia will fill you in on all the details here...  I hope you all had lots of fun and food and family get togethers. I spent a couple of days with my brother and his family, which was lovely.

 And these are the fabulous crafty pressies I was lucky enough to receive, some from my brother and some from my Secret Santa (see here) It was a heartwarming tale by my Santa to make sure the goodies arrived.

This is part of a birthday card that I've been working on but I can't show you the finished thing yet as it's for my brother on Sunday, and he may see it before then, so this is a sneak!

I'll try and get to as many of you as possible, hopefully it will be quiet at work, catch you later!!