WOYWW 191

January is almost over, roll on the spring, daffodils, crocus (or crocii if we are being pedantic), gentle warming sunshine and bright blue skies.  I live in hope anyway, and in the meantime, and in the rain, I can craft away at my desk.  Here it is when the light wasn't too bad Tuesday afternoon.

Worked on my art journal yesterday and made my own 'rainbow' (see previous post for a closer look) so that's on there, as is the pile of fat quarters I bought on Monday ready to start on the quilt I'm about to make (my first ever) for the charity JoZart blogged about on her LillyBo blog.  I'm dithering a bot about what to do - if you think steeling yourself up ready for cutting into a pretty piece of paper is hard how do you think I feel about getting the scissors going on this pile?  There is some more fabric on the chair, including a very, very pretty piece.  I'm not sharing with you yet - want to keep the surprise until I finish the quilt, if I ever get it started.

Also in sight, two new stencils and a couple of sheets of Graphic 45 paper (you have to take my word for that as the sun (???) is glaring of a plastic bag so you can't see it.  What you can see is the beautiful paper bag the shop put the paper in, that's it at the top left under my paint storage box, all leaves and autumnal colours - saving that.

That's all for this week but if you want to have a look at my finished iPad case that featured on earlier desks then pop over to this post.

Then pop over to Julia's place to join in the fun, it's Wednesday so make yourself a drink, pull up a chair and get snooping.

Journal colour on a grey day

I subscribe to Donna Downey's You Tube channel where she posts 'Inspiration Wednesday' and the last one was using watercolour wax crayons direct to the page before blending with your wet finger (water is better than wine).

Liked this and decided to try it and the result certainly pops of the page.  Not what I expected as I'm still getting used to my Neocolour II sticks.

The colours are uber-vibrant, and not just in the photo, toned them down with a spray of gray acrylic/water mix (again a Donna idea) and overlaid with stencils and stamping.  The larger font letters are my new Graphic 45 Antique Typewriter wooden stamps - they come in a tin so are irresistible, well I think so.  Stamped bottles are from a PaperArtsy plate and I coloured those with my Portfolio pastels before blasting with my heat gun - makes the colour sink in and become nice and glossy. All it needs now is a bit of journalling - I find that the hardest part.

iPad case

The Graphic 45 drawer pulls I was waiting for arrived yesterday so I set to this afternoon to finish my iPad case.  Good job it was yesterday as the Postman at our local depot suspended deliveries today.  It snowed all last evening and into the night and we woke this morning to a fairytale scene, which Sorrel immediately spoiled running all over it and leaving a trail of footprints over the pristine snow-clad lawn.

Back to the iPad case.  Very pleased with how it has worked out and the instructions from Laura Dennison's site were clear and easy to follow.  Here it is on my table.

The front cover...

open.....

standing......

The front cover folds to the back and ledges underneath a strip of covered chipboard.

Did you notice the nice clean screen, should have seen it before I cleaned it, talk about mucky fingerprints.

And if I do get a stylus I can easily add a ribbon loop to hold it in.

Two cards, one snowy dog.

Got a surprise when I opened the curtains at 7:00 am this morning - snow, again.  Wasn't expecting that here, and it's continued to snow on and off all day but very lightly.

I've had enough of it now so spent the afternoon sorting out my acrylic paints (didn't realise I had so many different tubes, pots and bottles) and making a couple of cards.

The first is for the monthly challenge on Katy's Corner Yahoo group and the theme, surprise, is 'winter'.  Had to climb up on a chair and pull my Christmas stamps from the top of the wardrobe to get to the one I wanted, stamped it and then climbed up again to put them back.

It's a bit wobbly (my camera work, not the table).  I painted on a weak solution of bleach to make the fur trim white and then scribbled a line round the edge of the card.  Makes me cold just looking at her.

On a different theme altogether was the next card, bright breezy colours and a bit of oh, la, la.

Could have done a few more but I messed up a couple of backgrounds and then Sorrel kept begging me to let her play in the garden, honest.  Here she is after a five minute madcap run around with snow clinging to her pretty feet. Sorry it's a side-on photo - can't get it to turn round.

Do you think she would wear bootees if I knitted her some?

WOYWW 190

I know this post is headed as Sunday - how did that happen?
taken yesterday afternoon, Tuesday and scheduled for this morning but something went wrong. trie to amend it but i think i altered the date as well - oops.

Loads of brushes on my desk last week so what goes with brushes?  Paints of course - lots, and lots of paints.

I saw the 'suitcase' biscuit tin on Hettie's desk a couple of weeks ago and had to have it for my Distress inks.  It's now full (of inks) and empty (of biscuits).  No, I haven't eaten them all, even though they are scrummy, but decanted them so I can do a bit of organising.  Once the DIs were stored I had room to put all my various paints in two containers.  Only realised how many I had once I got them all out.  Combination of Lumieres, Dabbers, Freso Finish, DecoArt, fabric paints etc, etc and I still have a few tubes of artist's acrylics in the drawer with my coloured pencils, watercolours, pastels and chalks. Can you tell I'm a pigment-olic?

On the productive part of my table are two green journal pages for a monthly swap and two cards, a 'Winter' one for a challenge and a 'just-because' one - just because I could.

Ive shown you mine, so now show me your's and join in the fun over at Julia's Stamping Ground blog - the best place to spend your Wednesday.

Did I overdo it?

Snowing here most of the morning but it was light so it didn't keep us in.  Sorrel loved it, just like a child, running and jumping in this cold white stuff.  At the end of our walk she had little balls of snow stuck all over her feet - very funny, well I thought so.

Back home, warmed up and snug so out with the journal page I started on Tuesday and a raid on my stash of magazine images.  It started of looking like this.  Then I added splodges, splatters, rings and a bit of spray ink dribble.

This is the half-way point.

and this is the finished page.

Lots of space in the centre for journalling but I'm not sure about the finished page.

Do you think it's overdone?

WOYWW 189

Wednesday again (well it will be tomorrow when this gets posted) and time to share what's on my desk with all the rest of the Whats On Your Workdesk gang over at The Stamping Ground, courtesy of the fabulous Julia.
When I took these photos the sun was shining on my desk and I had to close the blinds to get a half-decent shot, hence the muted colours.  Getting back to normal now after Christmas and spent a lovely afternoon Tuesday crafting, which is a change over the last few weeks when nothing much got done.

Have almost finished the iPad case I'm making.  This is a super project devised and video'd by Laura Dennison of Follow The Paper Trail, it as easy to follow and I love how it turned out.  All I need now are some Graphic 45 drawer pulls to hold in the tablet and then it is finished.  More pictures below if you want a peek at how it stands.

Out for lunch Monday to a garden centre that also (surprise, surprise) had a craft shop so I went on a mini-spend on Monday (that's when you pay with 'proper' money and leave the plastic at home).  Bought a couple of bottles of acrylic paint and the two stamp plates at the top, one a Stampers Anonymous re-issue and the other (words) by Lindsay Mason Designs (new to me but some great journalling phrases).  Speaking of journals, there are the paints in the page, I have no will power and opened the bottles as soon as I got home, mixed them up, splodged them on, splashed with water and dried with paper-towels.  Saw this done on Creative Jump Start and I never thought to splash water to remove acrylic before - it works very well.

Can you believe that I bought some more paintbrushes as well - have put out all my old ones to show you just how many I have.  Think I'm getting like Julia with all her scissors.

Enough for today, here is a closer look at the painted journal pages and the iPad case.

Hope to get round more desks this week so see you on the tour.

WOYWW 188

Another day, another journal page (but a new journal), that's what's on my desk this week.

Thank kind elderly gent who visits around the end of December gave me some money (well someone did) and I have been very careful in spending it.  I bought a moleskin sketch book and some new acrylics and have already done my first page following the techniques used by Kate Crane in the DVD I also got from Santa.  The colour is truer on the close-up here.

Bit more peach than apricot, or is it the other way around - I'm not a fan of squidgy fruit nor of any that has hair on (peaches - yuk).  Middle is blank for some journalling - yes, I'm actually going to write in this one.

Not being happy unless I have more that one thing on the go I started cutting out the greyboard to make a case for my iPad (yet another Santa gift, but from me - to me this time).  The idea, comes from Laura Dennison of Following The Papertrail and I had to watch a good few hours of her videos to get all the measurements and instructions.  I've dug out some papers and fun foam for the cushioning and now need to get hold of some clear sticky-backed plastic so that I can start but can't find any :-(
Am scheduling this post for Wednesday morning as I'm planning a lie-in as I had a bad night Monday (cold/flu bugs!!!) but I will catch up later.

Hope everyone had a good break and can't wait to see what you all got from Santa.  Trying to get round a few more desks this week - see you over at Julia's place for the starting line.

WOYWW 187?

Missed last week's WOYWW and a bit late for this - it was almost 9:00 when I woke this morning and that is very late for me.
Well the festivities are over and it's back to normal at my house.  Very busy couple of weeks and time now to take down the decoration (I never wait until twelfth night as there is nothing more depressing than an unlit Christmas tree and dusty cards.  That's why my desk looks like this.

Craft stuff at the front including my new Caran D'Ache watercolours wax crayons (thanks Santa).  I have already had a go with them making the background for my January journal pages (resolution to do one set a month during 2013).

Here they are in close-up. Background is various shades of blues and greens then I flicked colours from the crayon with a wet brush.

The Christmas stuff at the back (top picture) includes a Pergamano tree I made years ago (it has to come out each year as I spent weeks of my life on that one), a Christmas wreath (complete with robin) that hangs in the hall and various other bits and pieces from around the house.  The tree will come down tomorrow when Mr B can get up in the loft for the boxes.

Sorry I missed the Christmas WOYWW but here are a couple of photos for you.
My Christmas table (complete with Mother-in-law).

Sorrel opens her presents (the hat stayed on for 2 minutes before she decided it was better as a toy).

Can't you just tell she hates it.

Off to h ave a quick hop over to Julia's place (mistress of this whole blog-hopping mini-world) and then it's off to HobbyCraft for some new paintbrushes and some grayboard so that I can start the case for my new iPad.

Happy New Year everyone.
Love
Ann
xxx