Compendium Challenge No 4

The weather we're having at the moment is causing the garden to be neglected and making it especially nice to be dry and warm indoors getting painty inky fingers. Today I've been putting the finishing touches to the little book and mini suitcase I had lots of fun making at Linda Elbourne's workshop at the Craft Barn yesterday. Will do some photos when the glue has dried.

I also had a play with the Faded Layers technique from page 43 of Tim Holtz' new Compendium of Curiosities book - the challenge set this week by Linda at Studio L3. I've opted to make an envelope again and have used the new Spring distress inks and Aquamarine Archival. Spot the deliberate mistake - I've written the wrong page number on my tag !

Compendium of Curiosities 2 - Week Three

We're already at Week 3 of Linda's challenges taken from Volume 2 of Tim Holtz' Compendium of Curiosities. Visit Linda's Studio L3 blog to see lots of lovely examples of this week's technique from  page 46 - Marbled Stains. Eclectic Paperie are kindly sponsoring the challenge with a gift voucher.

I used Pine Needles, Tumbled Glass, Scattered Straw, Wild Honey and Picket Fence Distress Stains. I've chosen to use the Tim envelope die again and have decided to do so where possible with all of these challenges, so that I will end up with a pile of envelopes each with a label inside describing the technique. Then I guess I'll have to make a box to hold them all !

The colour of the envelope suggested to me that I should fish out my Artistic Stamper peacock feather stamp, and I've used Indigo Blu glue and their Yorkshire Dales Mega Flakes to decorate the envelope.

A woodpecker has always been a regular visitor to the feeding station outside my kitchen window. I had a marvellous opportunity the other day to get a great photo as he was this side of the feeder showing off his lovely plumage, but of course my camera was not to hand, so this is the best I have managed so far.

Woodpeckers are omnivores and known to attack the nests of small birds such as bluetits, taking eggs and newly hatched babies, so it always amazes me that the other birds don't seem at all perturbed by his presence at the feeders. Yesterday I couldn't get the camera out quickly enough to capture him peck violently at a bluetit who had dared to alight on the peanut feeder beside him. The woodpecker continued feeding by hammering against the peanuts with a tuft of bluetit feathers stuck in his beak, and the bluetit was apparently unhurt but had opted to eat from the nearby fatballs instead.

Compendium of Curiosities 2 - Week Two

This week Linda over at Studio L3 has invited us to try out the Faux Patina technique which features on page 58 of Tim Holtz' Compendium of Curiosities Vol 2.

I wanted to try out my new TH envelope die on glossy card but thought the card might crack. However it worked a treat and in fact has made quite a robust envelope. The flowers are Tim metal ones and the colours I've used are Stream, Lettuce and Sailboat Blue with Pearl mixative.

Compendium of Curiosities 2 - Week One

I was delighted to hear that Linda at Studio L3 was going to start a new series of challenges based on Tim Holtz' recently published Compendium of Curiosities Vol 2; and happily, my copy of the new compendium, ordered back in February, has arrived in the post just in time for me to join in the first challenge. I loved doing all the challenges set by Linda from Vol 1, so hope to complete all those in number two. Simon Says Stamp is sponsoring this challenge with a US$25 shop, so am keeping my fingers crossed for a win some time soon !

This week's technique is how to make custom foam stamps, and comes from page 66 of the new Compendium. It's a technique I've used before when making some of Tim's Christmas tags. Here I've made a stamp of one of my favourites, dear old Umbrella Man. I'm not a great one for Union Jacks and monarchy, but as this year is a special year with the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of 60 years of the Queen's reign and gives us an extra public holiday, and is also the year of the London Olympics, I couldn't resist the Artistic Outpost and Crafty Individuals stamps, and a flurry of red, white and blue inks and pastels. I guess amid all the doom and gloom of these times of recession, a bit of celebration will do us all some good.

I used Chipped Sapphire and Barn Door distress inks on a mask for my background. Umbrella Man is stamped with my foam stamp and Versamark and coloured with red Pan Pastel. The rest of the stamping is in black and crimson Archival. The little gold crown is embossed in the wonderful Ranger super fine gold EP. The whole tag is covered in Paper Artsy's Satin Glaze to fix the pastel.

WOYWW 137

When I'm going to be using paints, I usually decamp to the kitchen where spills can be more easily wiped up. So this morning, this is the sight that greeted me. I had been making a birthday card using metal tape and acrylic paints as Tim did in Tag No 6. Finished card on the left.

Front right, a packet of tissues. Have gone through several of these as I have a dreadful sniffy cold. I feel OK, but this is day seven and I am fed up sneezing and blowing my nose, and having red flaky skin at the side of my right nostril. Ugh ! The crumpled white paper in the middle is kitchen towel - not a used tissue !

Also on the table is a journal. When I am using paint, I usually smear the leftovers on to a journal page for future use as a background. I've now got pages and pages of backgrounds, so am hoping to actually finish them this year.

For more What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday photos and tales, hop on over to Julia's !

Happy Wednesday !

WOYWW 136

Wednesday is the day when everyone meets up at Julia's to see whose workdesks are on show.

On mine this week are some New Year cards I'm making to take along for the folks at our local Stamping Club. Plan to add the embellishments later today. Still a couple to make using that piece of Kraft Resist that has to be inked and sprayed some more. The smudges of white on the craft mat are from the painted grungeboard snowflakes and there are gooey bits from the Stickles.

To the left of my desk are these shelves which could do with a good old tidy up although surprisingly I do know where things are ! There are various boxes and sets of drawers containing embossing powders, scraps of card and embellishments, and there are loads of things I've collected for altering.

Happy Wednesday, everyone !