Shadow box

Decided I needed to get a move on with the shadow box and took on board all your comments on my WOYWW post, including the hand and the background, so yesterday evening out came the paints and brushes and I covered the box and frame, scanned and enlarged the main image and stuck that down.
This was the result....

I used various acrylic paints in lime, pale green, mid green and blue, including some from Paper Artsy and some bog standard ones from the local stationers, blending and dry-brushing until I got a look I liked.
The stencil is from my growing stash from The Crafters Workshop and I sponged more acrylic through. Once dry I added touches of Viva Inca Gold, well when I say 'touches' it is more or less covered lightly. Had to work hard with this as the wax has dried out a lot but at £8 a pot no way is that going in the bin.  I didn't pay full price as I got it from Lin Brown when she was closing her on-line shop.

Today was spent playing with all the junk, sorry, I meant to say ephemera, placing it roughly where I wanted it and photographing the result because I knew as soon as I started lifting them to glue I would forget what I was doing.  Anyway it progressed and developed and this is the end result......

Quite pleased with the result but of course I would do it differently if I did it again (or I may just add another splash of lime in the bottom left corner and it does look better in the flesh as the colours on the first photo are more true to life.

So that's it ladies, hope she likes it.

WOYWW 221

Every week that I join in Julia's amazing desk journey/snoop I see all these fantastically tidy desks and if there is such a thing as re-incarnation then next time that will be me - TIDY CRAFTER!  Well that's my aim but more my luck to come back as a cockroach.  Not that I have anything against cockroaches, all God's creatures so entitled to be here, just not in my eyesight please, I would rather have pretty butterflies flittering here and there splashing a bit of paint around.....

Enough rambling, you want to see my desk, or I hope you do, so here it is.

 It's been like this since Sunday afternoon, when I get stuck, a frequent thing, just shut the door and walk away for a couple of days.  Keep creeping back in hoping to find a bit of inspiration or, fingers crossed, that the craft fairies will have been in overnight to help, no such luck.

I'm trying to do a shadowbox thingy (technical term) for my Great-Niece's birthday on the 15th.  Always make the two girls something, even though they are 26 and 22 next birthdays.  Emma loves green and brown so I started there spraying flowers, painting, cutting and alcohol inking metal charms.  Not quite sure which direction this will take so I had a play around 'arranging' (very loose term) the bits in the frame.

Think the hand will have to go, and the background needs some colour, and I need some texture, and a bit more lime green at the top, and maybe the picture needs to be a little bigger, but apart from that.....

Have to get it finished this week as we are away next week, taking the campervan to Lincolnshire, Andy will be trying to get me to go to all the old Second World War airfields and I will be trying to find craft shops so lots of fun all round.

Happy WOYWW, see you on the tour.

WOYWW 220

Getting back into the habit of sharing my mucky desk/table each week along with all the other WOYWWyers courtesy of Julia over at the Stamping Ground.  Not as much to see this week though.

As I'm back in the crafting groove I dug out my art journal and had a play yesterday.  I subscribe to Donna Downey's YouTube Inspiration Wednesdays and this week she used acrylic paint and swirled the colours with her finger.  Sounded good to me, nothing like getting messy with pain so out came the cheap acrylics for a little practice.
Of course it doesn't look anything like hers but I the swirly bits on the right reminded me of roses so I added a few stems.  The left hand page was a complete disaster so I smoothed the paint off and made some patterns by dipping a flat brush in two colours of paint and twirling it round.  Just playing but having fun as well and it's good to play with no intention of making anything or going anywhere in particular.

The box on the left of my desk has just had a coat of white gesso while I decide what to do with it-  a shadow box that I want to do for my niece's birthday.  Whatever I do will involve paint, inks, papers and possibly flowers, that's if I didn't clear them all out in my last big tidy.  (How come whenever you decide to tidy and throw out something that has been taking up houseroom for years you suddenly have a 'good idea' and regret throwing it away?)

Anyway, it is good to be back for the second week on the trot. Happy Wednesday blogging buddies.

Just realised this is the second week my desk has hosted a cup of unappetising liquid.  Looks like tea this week but it is my brush washing cup - last week looked like yuk (which it was ha ha).

Cant stop crafting!

Not much to show for three months and then you get two posts in a week, must be mad.

Have had a crafty week this week, even bought a copy of Craft Stamper after cancelling my sub in the depths of my crafty slough of despond.  Busy day today, housework, as we have family for lunch tomorrow so the table where I craft has been cleared.  Just the opportunity to share some of the cards I made last week.

Love this stamp (Stampers Anonymous), she looks so wistful. Stripey paper is Papermania, lips coloured with marker and given a coat of lipgloss (Glaze)

Another sheet from the Papermania pack, stamps by Darcies and I doodled round the edge with white pen.

...and now for something completely different, playing with my Copics before they dry-out from lack of use.  Don't you just love colouring in?  When my friend's boys were little (in their 30s now) I would head for the colouring book when I went round, kept me quiet for hours.  The background is Copic dots, like Pointillism (?) without the talent of a Seurat.

The last two photos are of the deco pages I made.  These will be in the post to USA for the swap I'm in but as the recipient doesn't visit my blog it is safe to post them here.  The theme was 'red' so lots of scope.  First one is a Blockhead stamp, Copics (again) and a sheet from the Papermania pack that started off black and white but I added touches of red to the flowers.  Also added a few 'dewdrops' to the poppy.

Second photo uses Artistic Outpost stamps and a variety of red colourings, including a Cranberry Adirondack pad that was one of my first ever purchases.  It has been re-inked many times but works as well as ever.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Whats on your Workdesk Wednesday - 219

Remember me, I used to be part of your gang but have been missing for a few weeks -well a lot of weeks actually.  Lots of things going on to prevent me crafting and joining in, broken Freezer, replacing freezer, broken washer, replacing washer, holidays, bad back etc etc. Add to this the utter and complete loss of mojo and inability to concentrate on any crafting and you have an unhappy bunny so much so that at one point I packed lots of stamps and stuff up ready to give away and give up. Happy to report that I changed my mind and unpacked it :-) and this week has seen the return of Mojo and I'm on my way to catching up on all the many birthday cards I haven't sent.

Four cards on my desk, nothing too fancy, it's baby steps at the moment in case I frighten off that Mojo person again - if you are wondering what the table knives are doing there it's because they live in the dresser behind me and I was too lazy to put them away after Sunday lunch.  Still they are beautiful stylish knives (Robert Mellor).

So that's me, back where I belong and happy to be taking part in Julia's big desk hop again.  Hope to get around a few desks this week and see what delightful art you have been creating in my absence.  See you on the tour and if you want to see a few photos of my holidays then scroll down.



Saundersfoot, Wales.  The beach was just yards from our holiday home, out the door, 50 yards down the lane and down the cliff steps, perfect for us and perfect for Sorrel.

This beach wasn't quite as 'friendly', Pendine Sands where Malcolm Campbell, (father of Donald Campbell who was killed on his water speed attempt) broke the world land speed record in 1927.  The beach was later used in preparation for the D-Day Normandy landings in WW2 and the chance of unexploded shells.  Scary hey?

And this is what I call a beach.  Further west, we parked at Stackpole Quay and walked over the cliffs to this beautiful beach, down the steps, across the beach and up the other side.  Took us a few hours but the views were stunning.  You can just see Andy at the right edge of the photo