WOYWW 69

It's Wednesday again and time to hop over to Julia's blog to join in the weekly snoop at other people's work spaces.

Yesterday I decamped to the kitchen table with my big 26" x 18" Messy Mat to have plenty of room to splosh about with paint and water. I'm doing calendar months in my big A4 journalling book. I was enthused to do more of this after watching Dyan Reaveley's great demo using her acrylics to make backgrounds at Ally Pally at the weekend. She works with such speed, and I decided that that is the best way for me to get on with it; so I now have 5 pages with a bit of colour on. They have dried out overnight, and are ready for more work on them. The book is open at what I am planning to be my October pages. You will see that I succumbed to a couple of pots of Dyan's acrylic paints, and a bottle of her mica spray is now in my box of sprays upstairs. The paints and sprays are in fabulous vibrant colours.

So this morning it was breakfast off the coffee table in the living room !

I also have on my table my 2010 yearbook to do a bit more to it. I made this with my Bind-it-all back in January to hold photos, tags, and bits and bobs to remind me of all the best moments of the year.

Compendium Challenge No 16 - Wrinkle Free Distress

We're now at number 16 of the challenges at Linda's Studio L3 blog. Follow the link for all the information. It's page 33 of Tim's Compendium, and a technique that I often use.

I started out with the idea of using a specific set of stamps, but after I'd used the DIs (Broken China, Scattered Straw, Mustard Seed, and Stormy Sky), the colours and spots and splashes changed my mind about the stamping, and I decided instead to use some of the Crafty Individuals seaside stamps. I also used some Promarkers, the Inkessentials white pen, some Mermaid and Aqua Stickles, and a few blasts of Sea Glass and Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mists.

Compendium Challenge No 15

This week's challenge set by Linda at her Studio L3 blog is the Alcohol Ink Agate on Grunge technique shown on page 53 of Tim Holtz' Compendium of Curiosities. I've used alcohol inks in quite a number of ways but hadn't come across this idea before. The surface I chose was chipboard, and the inks were Lettuce, Meadow, Stonewashed, Denim and Rust with Silver Mixative. I was very pleased with the effect this gives, and will definitely be doing some more.

It was really difficult to get a photo. The first few turned out gold rather than silver. I finally managed to get a truer representation of the colours and an idea of the texture from the brushstrokes, but the reflection off the left hand side obscures the stamping a bit. As I am in a rush, I have to make do with this.

Stamping is using Artemio and Crafty Individuals stamps.

Craft Fairs, Inspiration, CCC 14

This weekend I'm hoping to find some time for a little inking and painting, and trying out some new materials. Last week I spent time enjoying other people's creativity. First at a craft show which was craft in its widest sense - pottery, needlework, knitwear and other clothing, lustre ware, metalwork, home decor, garden ornaments, furniture, woodwork, jewellery, painting - in fact everything you could imagine, and all very inspiring. Some awe-inspiring.

Bearing in mind the William Morris exhortation "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful," I allowed myself a couple of purchases. A gorgeous turquoise pottery jug to replace the rather plain jug that bounced on the kitchen floor a couple of weeks ago, and ended up in smithereens. The new jug is beautiful and useful. The other purchase was irresistible. A book. "The Art of Annemieke Mein - Wildlife Artist in Textiles." First published nearly 10 years ago, but I had never come across it before. Stunning, stunning work beautifully photographed with the artist's commentary to accompany the photos. It's a real joy to look at, to read, and to marvel at, and I know I will return to it again and again to feast my eyes.

Lots of winged creatures: butterflies, moths, dragonflies, grasshoppers, and gorgeous birds ...

Beautiful. More than beautiful. And useful in that it is so inspiring. Not that I, anybody (?) could aspire to produce anything of this standard, but inspiring just by its very existence.

My second craft fair was a papercrafts one. The Craft Barn September Extravaganza. I spent most of my time watching Helen Chilton, Carol Cockbain and Carole Cann. Helen had done lots of lovely colourful work with some of the latest, inspiring Crafty Individuals stamps, and shared her humour, her tips and her techniques with the groups gathered round her table. Carole with an 'e' was demoing her work decorating boxes using some fabulous pieces of paper napkin with PVA glue and Inka Gold; decorating book covers with Ferro and stencils; and metalwork with Viva metallic paints. Carol without an 'e' is the Dreamweaver stencil and pastes expert, and was working on beautifully coloured and textured cards using these, embossing folders and distress inks. So I came away with lots of ideas, and of course, met the organisers' objectives of these weekends, with a few purchases. OK, quite a few. Um, more than I intended.

This in fact caused me quite a few problems with my Compendium of Curiosities Challenge No 14 organised by Linda from her Studio L3 blog. Thank you, Linda. You're a star ! These challenges are such fun. I've got quite a few masks. In fact, I've even got a masks drawer, and I've used them a lot. But they've sort of got forgotten about, and I confess I haven't used them for ages. My problem was that I was desperate to use my new stamps, but I couldn't see how to use them with the masks I've got. I decided on the Tim clock mask, and wanted to use some of my new Crafty Individuals stamps. Wasn't quite happy with this, but anyway have used Antique Linen, Scattered Straw, Faded Jeans and Dried Marigold DIs, and Paper Artsy, Crafty Individuals, and Clear Choice stamps, and I dedicate this to wonderful friends of many years standing - some I see regularly, and others I've recently met up with as if the intervening years were no more than a few days.

As I wasn't entirely happy with the marriage of my new purchases and the mask, I tried again. It's no better, but it's made using Prima flower masks, Weathered Wood, Faded Jeans and Dried Marigold DIs, and Paper Artsy Hot Picks and Artemio stamps.

Have a happy weekend.

CCC 13, WOYWW 66 and Robbles

For the uninitiated, in the title of this post CCC 13 refers to the fun weekly challenge at Linda's Studio L3 blog; WOYWW 66 is my chance to be nosey and see what other people have on their work desks thanks to Julia organiser of snoops from her Stamping Ground blog; and Robbles ? - well , more of that later.

Linda's challenge this week saw us thumbing through Tim's Compendium of Curiosities to find page 65 and the instructions for making grungepaper flowers. My background this time is made using Terra, a technique I first started doing at Lin and Leandra's Paperartsy weekends, and gives a textured effect that I love.

I made this last night so you will see what I used from the photo of my desk taken this morning.

The underside of the flowers is stamped with the Artistic Stamper spotty stamp.

And as for Robbles? Robbles is my regular morning companion who comes looking for a snack when I am feeding the chickens. Robbles disappears in the summer months when it's family raising time, and this morning was my little friend's first day back at the feeding station. The photo was taken earlier in the year, and I am looking forward to seeing my little Robbles each morning over the coming months.

Compendium Challenge No 12 - Chipped Enamel

It's now Week 12 of the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge organised by Linda from her Studio L3 blog, and the theme is Chipped Enamel which is described on page 44 of Tim's book. Thank you, Linda. I love trying out the techniques and seeing the fabulous pieces that others are doing.

I've gone back to using a family photo again - this time of my grandmother. Sadly I never knew her as she died too young of leukaemia, but I do know that she was a gardener, a musician and a champion golfer, and I've taken up the gardening theme here. I've done a batik background as in last week's challenge with Old Paper, Victorian Velvet and Peeled Paper DIs, some stamping with the latter two DIs, and I've used Peeled Paint and Tea Dye Distress embossing powders for the enamel bit.

It wasn't all plain sailing to get a photo. My first attempt produced this.

A certain furry mischief putting her foot in it, and casting a shadow over proceedings.

Now a closer look at the chipped enamel on a memory frame. I decided that the garden twine that I use to tie up plants was the right colour and texture to put on the frame, so ended up out in the garden shed with a torch, rummaging to find what I wanted. It's a lovely balmy night, and I could hear the screeching of an owl as I walked in the garden.

WOYWW 65

Last night after a lengthy ATC making session my table was a total clutter, but I did in fact tidy it a little before going to bed, so this morning rather than being a bombsite, it is just a mess.

If you're wondering why I'm telling you this, go to Julia's Stamping Ground blog and find out.