WOYWW 76

Eek ! Wednesday already and time to show the shameful mess that is my desk this morning, and join Julia and all the WOYWWers for a snoop. Find all the details at Julia's Stamping Ground blog.

All this is left in the wake of me having taken delivery of some new crafting goodies and having a play, having made some cards which still have to be sent, and having done some general dabbling.

The two pieces of card on the bottom shelf are pieces of glitter card I've run through the Big Shot in an embossing folder with a view to making my first Christmas cards of the season. I'm quite impressed with the card which seems to have some fabric in it.

Right in the centre of the picture are some little hearts. One of my new toys was a mould. I pressed some clay into it, and now I have to bake and paint the hearts to turn them into sweet little embellishments.

Someone asked before about the blue bag that hangs off the top left of the shelves. It's a lovely little hessian bag that once contained a birthday present, and I now use to hold stamps I am currently working with. These have spilled over somewhat on to the desk. Talking of spilling, I have just spotted a little pot of painty water. Must remove before Nosey Paws sends it flying.

Remembrance

The challenge over at Rainbow Lady's Challenge blog is entitled Lest We Forget - Thinking of You. It was posted on Thursday 11 November, Armistice Day, a day when we all stop what we are doing at 11 am to observe two minutes silence to remember the fallen in war.

Today is 14 November, Remembrance Sunday, when there are gatherings and parades in honour of those who lost their lives in war, and at this time I remember Tommy, the great-uncle I never met because he died at exactly this time of year in 1916 in foreign fields. We don't know whether he died on 13 or 14 November. He was only 22 years old, but only a few days away from his 23rd birthday on 18 November. He was the seventh of nine children, and thankfully his three elder brothers all came back from the trenches alive.

The Seaforth Highlanders wore the kilt. You can see a photo of a young lad in uniform here, and of a group here. In the second the soldiers are wearing covers over their kilts and their Glengarrys (hats) to protect the material from dirt and damage.

So I think of Tommy, and feel pain at what he and so many suffered at the Somme, and the many other dreadful battlefields of World War I. I hope that one day I will find that someone in the family has a photo of Tommy, and I hope that one day I will be able to go to lay flowers at his grave.

I've spent a number of years researching family history, and one of my projects is to find out more about Tommy's army service, and make a little booklet to attach to my piece of work of today. In the meantime this little shrine is to commemorate all the lost Tommys.

The base is wood primed with gesso, painted with white acrylic and dried with a heat gun which produced bubbles where the paint was thickest. The barbed wire stamp is Tim Holtz, and I don't know who made the poppy stamps. Images coloured with red and green water colour pens. Text on paper coloured with Old Paper DI.

Tag It On Challenge - East

Jo of the JoZart blog kindly drew my attention to the Tag It On East challenge which can be found at the Tag It On Challenge blog. Jo is guest hostess, and has been working with some beautiful oriental stamps which she has designed herself. I am so impressed with the stamps and the cards she has created. Fabulous !

I do enjoy working on tags, so I set to work on this challenge last night. My plan was to do a collage using some rather nice Japanese paper that I had squirrelled away, along with toning distress inks, my Crafty Individuals Japanese lady stamp and some Tanda oriental stamps. However, as often happens with me, I didn't like the effect of the paper, so abandoned my original idea. I did press ahead with the other materials, and the colours I had in mind, and completed a tag. I wasn't very happy with that so I did another. The DIs are Antique Linen and Stormy Sky, and the stamping is in Coffee Archival. The Archival was taking a bit of time to dry, so I brushed some Perfect Gold Perfect Pearls over the circular flower images at the top of the tag, and found it gave a pleasing effect. The flower was a bright pink wooden flower that I came by some time ago. I didn't like the pink and painted it brown. This was ages ago and for a specific project. Of course I then decided it wasn't right for the project after all and popped it back in the embellishments box. You see, it all gets used eventually !

This morning I decided that my first attempt wasn't too bad after all, so here it is. Japanese grunge !

Tag Tuesday and What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

For some reason last night I migrated to a small coffee table in the living room, and this stuff is still lying there this morning. Acrylic paints and special paper, craft mat, cut 'n' dry foam pads, inks, Stickles, Glossy Accents, alphabet stamps and box of embellishments. I did the initial steps, the embossing and cutting of the tag on the Big Shot upstairs in my craft space. This is all on show because of Julia. Find out more by whizzing over to her Stamping Ground blog.

This was to produce a tag for the Tag Tuesday challenge organised by Louise at Kard Krazy.

Compendium Challenge 21 and Simon Says Stamp and Show

This week's challenge from Linda at Studio L3 blog is on page 38 of Tim's Compendium - Perfect Distress. I love this technique and it's one I've done a lot.

I used Wild Honey and Forest Moss distress inks and Green Patina Perfect Pearls. Not going to tell you how to do this one. You have to get Tim's book and see for yourself.

When it came to the stamping, I decided to take up the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge and use my favourite Tim stamp. I've used three stamps. So which is my favourite? Well, I love all three and can call them all favourites. The feathery swirly one and the 'What you do today' one are from the Fancy Flourish set which I've had for ages and use lots. Brolly Man is a more recent acquisition, and I love him too. If I had to pick one of the three, then I think it would be the swirly one.

As usual it's been hard to get the Perfect Pearls to show up on the photo, but at least you can see a little bit of the shimmer.

Compendium Challenge No 20 & Autumn Days and Nights

Have enjoyed spending quite a lot of time over the past week inking and painting to make ATCs, cards and journal pages, but very little time at the computer to be able to post anything.

The current fun challenge at Linda's Studio L3 blog from the Compendium of Curiosities is page 54, Industrial Grunge. I decided to make some labels for my boxes of rubber stamps, and some embellishments for the book I hope to make out of my compendium challenge pieces. I've used copper, silver and gold mixative. Thanks, Linda, for getting us working on these techniques each week. It's so much fun.

It's been a busy week with Hallowe'en, a visit to London to the opera and the Gauguin exhibition, Bonfire Night, and just enjoying the fabulous autumn colours in the countryside.

Love those Hallowe'en and autumn colours.

These witches' fingers get everywhere !

In most places Bonfire Night is confined to 5th November, but in these parts there is a long bonfire season. The first ones start in late September, and they continue in many small market towns and villages till near enough the end of November. We had our own one at home last night, with a roaring fire fed with hedge clippings, tree prunings and scrap wood, and ourselves fed with tasty local sausages, baked spuds and beans. The forecast rain did not arrive, and it was wonderful still to be sitting under a starry sky and in front of this fire at 11.30 pm, and listening to the hooting of the owls.

We enjoyed other people's fireworks in the distant skies, and our own private display with fabulous fountains, spectacular rockets, one half-hearted Catherine Wheel, but another that worked an absolute treat, and we took childlike delight in writing our names with the sparklers!

Compendium Challenge No 19 - Extreme Masking & WOYWW

This week Compendium Challenge No 19 made my brain ache a bit trying to choose masks as I wanted to be able to include stage five of the Extreme Masking Challenge that Linda of Studio L3 has set us this week. If none of the above makes any sense to you, check Linda's blog, and all will be revealed.

In the end I did make a couple of masks - one from Tim's Tattered Florals die, and one from the Sizzix bee die. I also used a Tattered Angels flourish mask. The Distress inks were Forest Moss, Crushed Olive, Dusty Concord and Wild Honey, and stamps were Viva, Tim Holtz and Crafty Individuals.

Linda had suggested using some mica spray and I had opted not to, but when I had finished there was indeed something missing that a few squirts of Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist soon put right. Unfortunately you can't see it in the photo !

I am now about to tidy my work places. There are two on the go at the moment - the craft table upstairs and the kitchen table. As it's Wednesday, and the day for snooping at people's desks, it was timely that I should capture this photo of a snooper this morning.

She is very discerning about what she drinks and recognised a fresh supply of water (in the container I use when painting) when she saw one. You will also spot a packet of tissues. I've been telling myself since the weekend that I've not got a cold even though I'm coughing and spluttering and sneezing, and had to visit the chemist's to stock up on remedies. I hate colds. Grrrr ! Anyway, to snoop a bit more round other people's work spaces, visit Julia at her Stamping Ground blog.