London 28 April 2011

It was good to have a walk around in London today to see how things looked before tomorrow's big event. Regent Street was decked out with Union Jacks for its full length.

In front of Buckingham Palace there were structures on each side of The Mall to accommodate the world's press. This is just one small section of one side.

And the other side.

Crush barriers were in place.

Hundreds of Portaloos had been delivered from Wales !

There were towers erected along The Mall for the press cameras.

People were already camping out, and some had come quite a distance.

Some not so far.

Others were settled in chairs.

Parliament Square is festooned with Union Jacks.

More camping out, this time by the Abbey.

Westminster Abbey was closed to the public. Was this the red carpet waiting to go down, or is this just some spare ?!!

On the sign outside mention of the wedding is fairly low key !

A Pearly Queen happy to pose for photos.

And from this shot who would guess that there was so much activity all around, and that it will be the centre of attention in just a few more hours.

Grungy Monday 5

Linda's Grungy Monday challenge no 5 at Studio L3 is a Tim Holtz dimension technique which dates back to May 2008, and can be found here on Tim's blog. It involved using fun foam to create dimension by making a niche. I decided to use the tag die to cut card, fun foam and Kraft resist card. I coloured the card with distress inks, and stamped with Coffee archival and Viva swirl stamps. I made the woman's head with clay in a Karantha mould and coloured it with alcohol ink and various colours of Inka Gold. I edged the card and the niche with gold leafing pen.

In this part of the world we've been having glorious sunshine and high summer temperatures not usually seen in April. I've noticed that this has lifted people's spirits and everyone is so cheerful and talkative, and of course, not only have we had the four day Easter weekend, but we now have another four day weekend to look forward to with the extra bank holiday on Friday for the royal wedding followed by the usual early May bank holiday on Monday. Temperatures have now cooled a bit, and all fingers are crossed for dry weather on Friday for the processions and street parties.

I've been out and about with friends, visiting exhibitions and enjoying music in London, sitting in the sun on the Thames embankment drinking tea, and eating evening meals in the open air. Instead of the usual roast dinner on Easter Sunday, it had to be a barbecue, and we needed a walk to burn off some of the calories from the Easter eggs, so it was off into the fields.

Everywhere is so fresh and green, with touches of the bright colours of wild flowers.

The colour is not just in the flowers. Fungi can come in vivid colours and amazing textures.

The holly is covered with flowers. Looks like there will be a good supply of berries.

This log had been positioned here as a horse jump, but it's ideal as a walker's resting place to enjoy the view and the peace and quiet for a while.

And now what I came down this path to see - a fabulous carpet of wild English bluebells with some beautiful silver birch trees.

Like an impressionist painting.

Gingersnap Creations - Spicy Supply Challenge

At Gingersnap Creations there is a 'Spicy Supply Challenge' to use mists. My fingers were still stained from using colour washes for Linda's Grungy Monday challenge earlier this week, but I was most definitely up for more spraying.

This time I used layers of Dylusions ink sprays in Fuchsia, Sky Blue, Hot Pink and Burnt Orange on white card, together with the Dylusions Fuchsia mica spray and Glimmer Mist in Sweet Pea and Candlelight. Towards the end of the spraying I placed sequin waste and a Tattered Angels mask on the card to create a patterned background.

I wanted to make some Easter cards, but didn't trust myself to draw decent oval shapes for eggs. Luckily I found a free template at a website called First Palette and printed the eggs on to some card, cut them out and gave them the same spray treatment as the background. Then I embossed them with my favourite Ranger gold powder (love the smell of the melting powder too), and Viva Decor swirl stamps. I rubbed the back of each of the 'eggs' with a large headed embossing tool to get the card to curl a bit and look more egg-like. I cut a piece of the background card, and ran it through the Big Shot with a border embossing folder, and then mounted the 'eggs' and the 'Happy Easter' on the card with large sticky pads. Couldn't resist photographing the finished article with today's haul from the henhouses.

Still got background card and eggs left to do some more cards.

Simon Says Stamp & Show Some Distressing ... and the New Arrivals

The Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge this week is distressing. I'm really enjoying experimenting with my new Fresco Chalk Finish paints so decided that, teamed up with some crackle glaze which was lurking at the back of a cupboard, they might produce the ideal effect for this challenge.

The background has Honey Dew as the base colour and Vintage Lace as the top coat which crackled quite satisfactorily. Umbrella Man has Honey Dew underwear and a Toad Hall top coat ! The stamping is Tim and Paper Artsy (not sure whose the 'Hopes & Dreams' stamp is); and the seam binding is coloured with Antique Linen and Spun Sugar.

Thought I'd just check on the nest today and lo and behold .............

Soon these little beaks will be upstretched when mum and dad come back with some juicy worms.

Grungy Monday 3 - Colour Washes

Linda's Grungy Monday challenges are all about the techniques and products of Tim Holtz, and this week our task was to use Adirondack Colour Washes. No dilemma for me about what colours to use as I only have two: Lettuce and Denim. I've had these for ages and it's a while since I last used them. I started yesterday and wasn't happy with two attempts that I made. I went to bed leaving on the table the bits that I thought I might still be able to use, and as often happens, I woke up with not just one but two new ideas. The night before I'd been playing with some cream coloured cotton fabric which has a butterfly design in white. I had found that the white acted as a resist to the colour wash. So I decided to try out one of my ideas: inking up another piece of the fabric with Denim, drying it and then passing it through the Big Shot with the Brolly Man die. Then it was out with the clear embossing powder and stamps to create a resist background, and the Distress Stains - Peeled Paint, Wild Honey and Faded Jeans. Then some more stamping and an edging with Walnut Stain on the blending tool. Stamps I used were Artemio, Paper Artsy and Tim Holtz. Then lacy flowers coloured with denim and some ribbons and fibres.

Somewhere I have some ribbon with butterflies on it and had hoped to colour it and use it but needless to say couldn't find it anywhere. However, while rummaging in my ribbon box, I found the lovely yellow lacy butterfly in the photo below. It's a bit crumpled so I plan to wash and starch it and put it on display. It has a brooch pin on the back, and mum used to keep it pinned to a curtain. I coloured the square of fabric on the left with Denim and Lettuce to use in an earlier attempt at the challenge, so I will keep it in my box of bits for future use. The metal flower is a first attempt inspired by Lin at Yours Artfully. I used the small Tattered Florals die, metalwork tools, Fresco paint and Denim Dimensional Pearls. It was based on the type of flower Lin makes using alcohol inks. I need a bit more practice and I see that Lin is planning another metal flower tutorial this time using the Fresco paints.

Do pop over to Linda's Studio L3 blog (link at the top of this post) to see lots of great examples of the use of the washes.

WOYWW

Have missed a few weeks of WOYWW, but have made it back again to join Julia's International Desk Snoop.

First, desk no. 1 which is in fact the kitchen table where I move when I am being ultra messy endangering carpets with copious amounts of sprays and paints. There's a clear plastic stamp box and a pink plastic basket containing tools and materials used in my recent tag making and circle journal page making. The stuff on the craft sheet represents my ponderings on the Grungy Monday challenge, but I fear that it will be back to the drawing board on that for the second time. The little book by the way is a children's one from a charity shop all gesso-ed and acrylic-ed and waiting for something to happen. To the right of the craft sheet are my new paints acquired at Ally Pally at the weekend.

Upstairs where I would normally be working are more Ally Pally trophies. You will realise that I have already played with the die, the mould and the flowers. I've also used some of the ribbon. Oh and yes, I've dipped into the manila cardstock. So just a few more items still to play with.

Those of you who always score high at Kim's Game will remember that there was a blue box of Stains in pic no. 1. I have just restored it to its usual home. I got this little unit in the January sales a couple of years ago as storage for I knew-not-what inky painty stuff. As you will see it's blue and somewhat distressed. My plan was to change the colour, keep the distressed look and generally do it up a bit. I will one day, but for the moment the bottom drawer is perfect storage for my Stains collection. Perfect that is until Sir Tim decides to bring out more colours. Of course you say, you could just stick with those colours, but then you know that wouldn't happen.

Sunday Stamper - Blue

Decided to go for another colour scheme for some further play with my chalk finish acrylic resist, and it so happened that I picked blue which is the theme of Hels' Sunday Stamper challenge this week. The blue is Broken China, Faded Jeans and Weathered Wood DIs, and Faded Jeans on white satin ribbon. There's Vintage Photo around the edges. Stamping is Tim Holtz, Paper Artsy, Hampton Art and Artistic Stamper in Coffee Archival.