Wednesday 31 October 2018

WOYWW 491: Ups and Downs

For once I am actually writing this post on the day itself, although I must admit that the pictures were taken earlier.  It was our friend's funeral yesterday so I did think ahead ready for this morning, otherwise there would have been nothing but a tidy, empty desk to look at.  Check out what WOYWW is all about via the Stamping Ground, where Julia keeps us all in order.
My side of the desk is staged, but it does show the results of some actual crafting (posted yesterday if you are interested).  I have one more day of drawing to do for Inktober then I will have completed the challenge for the first time.
Although yesterday was difficult, the past week has not been all sad.  On Sunday Christine (Bishopsmate) and her husband Peter came over to the shed for a mini WOYWW meet up.  Peter brought his train with him that he was working on at the crop and takes Eva's place on the other side of the desk this week, as she is away for half term.
Christine brought some water colouring and stamping with her and there was also cake!
I hope to be making this Midlands Meet Up an annual event for the first Sunday of half term each October, so if you are within travelling distance, you will be welcome next year.
The specialist I saw at my hospital appointment yesterday morning assures me that the nerve studies that they have done on my left arm and hand show no problems so I am being discharged for the moment.  I did get to see some of my art work displayed rather prominently on Hochanda yesterday in the 4pm show with Louise Withers, when I watched the recording later. Charlie seemed particularly taken with the mask that I had made and decorated using the Amsterdam acrylic paints (see HERE).
As you can tell, an up and down day yesterday.  I am off to the NEC on Friday, thanks to winning tickets from Claritystamp.  If anyone is going to be there, I will be watching the live Clarity hour at 12pm at the HOCHANDA pavillion.  I'll take plenty of pictures!

Tuesday 30 October 2018

Lest We Forget: A Tag for Remembrance

As 100 years since the first Armistice approaches, I wanted to once again count my blessings.  We have much to be thankful for, to all those men and women who have given their lives over the years that we may have the freedoms we enjoy today.  Rather than use a poppy stencil,  I decided to suggest the symbol of remembrance through the colours I chose.

Monday 29 October 2018

Flowers: An Art Journal Page Inspired by Yvonne Coomber

I have been enjoying the October 'Inspired by' prompts over on Nina Ribena's Art Journal Prompts and More.  Week 3 was 'Inspired by Flowers' and the choices of artist were Monet, Heidi Reil, Yvonne Coomber and Georgia O'Keefe.  I chose to create my page in the style of Yvonne Coomber.

Sunday 28 October 2018

More Ideas for Christmas Cards

I thought I'd share some more ideas for Christmas cards.  Once again, some quick and some more complex, some traditional and some, not so much! See HERE for details of the first make, I used the cling film technique to create the background.

Saturday 27 October 2018

Christmas Cards

I thought I'd share some past Christmas card makes today.  Some are quick and some take a little longer to make.  The first one was even shown on Hochanda (see details of make HERE).

Friday 26 October 2018

Yet More Cards for Men and Boys

This is round three of sharing cards which I have made, suitable for men and boys.  It is the category that I am most frequently asked to come up with ideas for.
The first one uses the Tim Holtz Hipster stamps (see HERE for step by step).

Thursday 25 October 2018

Nevermore! An Edgar Allen Poe Themed Tag

I haven't crafted for nearly a week, but as I was up early today and had some time before I needed to go out, I thought I'd check out the current challenge over on Tag Tuesday.  It is Edgar Allen Poe and I decided to make a quick tag.

Wednesday 24 October 2018

WOYWW 490: A Sad State of Affairs

My desk this morning is in a poor state.  It is totally staged (although the photo was actually taken this morning for a change).  It shows the only things that have been going on there in the last week: marking, although I have managed to make a couple of tags and am just about keeping up with Inktober.

Tuesday 23 October 2018

Birthday Cards for Little Girls

After sharing two lots of card ideas for men and boys,  I thought I'd bring you some suitable for young girls.  These were all made for my great niece who is now 7, apart from the first birthday card, which was made for a friend's daughter (see HERE for details).

Monday 22 October 2018

5 More Birthday Cards for Boys and Men

I thought I'd share five more birthday cards that I have made which are suitable for men or boys, following the popularity of my last post on the subject.  The first one is suitable for a motorcycle buff (see HERE for details).

Sunday 21 October 2018

Value Friendship, Commemorate Peace

As we approach the 100th anniversary of the Armistice which ended the First World War,  I decided to use friendship and peace as a theme for my tag for the Flags/Bunting challenge over on Tag Tuesday.

Friday 19 October 2018

5 Birthday Cards for Boys and Men



It's my youngest son's birthday today.  As I have three boys,  I have made a few masculine birthday cards over the years.  They are all young men now and I often get asked for ideas.  Here are five of my favourites.
This card is perfect for a tech savvy young man  (see HERE for details).


Thursday 18 October 2018

Inktober 2018: Over the Hump...

For the very first time,  I have been taking part in #Inktober2018 and thought that I'd share my journey up to the half way point of the month.  I am not a confident drawer, especially with ink, and have made a light under drawing in pencil each day before committing myself to inking.  Sometimes I have kept things simple and cartoon like and sometimes I have attempted a more artistic effort with shading.  There are lots of alternative prompt lists available,  but for my first year, I have kept to the official prompt list.  I have used a fine, black Posca pen for inking each day.

Wednesday 17 October 2018

WOYWW 488: Can't wait until half term

I must admit as I share my desk today, that I am really looking forward to the half term holidays.  First of all because I seem to be tired all the time these days and am ready for a break from work, and secondly because the first Sunday (28th October) sees a mini WOYWW get together in the shed as arranged at the crop in September.  I haven't forgotten and will be letting people who said they could make it know my address (several already have it) via PM on Facebook.  Please confirm in the comments and let me know if you need me to send you information.  I am thinking of 11am until 3pm.  Luckily clocks go back that weekend, which hopefully allows extra travel time without having to get up earlier than normal. 
My side of the desk shows what it looked like yesterday morning after completing day 16 of #Inktober2018.  It is the first time that I have participated and I am enjoying it so far.  (I will be sharing day 1 to day 16 on my blog tomorrow if you fancy popping back.)  I keep my supplies in the Kipling pouch that you see on the desk.  You can also just see the wand that I made for Harry Potter day at school on Friday, peeking out from behind the journal (see HERE for how it was made).  This week my coconut latte is in one of my Moorland Pottery Stoke City mugs.  The other side of the desk is unfortunately empty!
There was no Eva yesterday (she will be popping in tomorrow), so I am sharing the picture from last Thursday of the stamping stash that she brought back from Port Sunny with her!  It looks as if she managed to find plenty of stamps that she liked lol.  Off to work shortly (7am) so will visit when I get home.  In the mean time, if you pop over to The Stamping Ground, you will find plenty more desks to look at, as well as exciting news about the 10th anniversary crop.

Tuesday 16 October 2018

Christmas Card with Angel Wings

I was recently inspired by a beautiful DL card that I saw on Facebook designed by Lizzie Dzadiak using the Angel Wings stamp (and die) by Gemini from Crafter's Companion.  I decided to make my own angel wing DL card.

Monday 15 October 2018

Pablo Picasso Portrait inspired Journal Page

This week's prompt over on Nina Ribena's Art Journal Prompts and More is Inspired by Portraits.  The artists to choose from include Pablo Picasso and Frida Kahlo.  As I have previously created a page inspired by Frida Kahlo (see HERE) and I am not the most confident portrait drawer, I went with Pablo Picasso, using an image from Nina's YouTube video as my starting point.

Sunday 14 October 2018

Wand Making

To celebrate reading, our school will be holding a Harry Potter day on Friday.  As this will entail dressing up,  I thought that I had better make myself a wand.  Having seen a few YouTube videos where a chopstick and hot glue were used as the basis for such a project,  I thought that I would have a go at creating one for myself.  Having raided the pantry for chopsticks,  I made a start.

Saturday 13 October 2018

Eileen Hull Wrapped Journal Cover: Masculine Finish

Yesterday I shared how I created the wood effect for the inside of this Wrapped Journal Cover (see HERE).  Today,  I will show you how I added texture to embellishments for the outside of the cover, once again in keeping with the masculine theme.


Friday 12 October 2018

Eileen Hull Wrapped Journal: Cool Wood Effect

I decided to make a more masculine journal cover using the Wrapped Journal Bigz die designed by Eileen Hull for Sizzix.  I have made one before (see HERE and HERE) but it was more feminine in appeal.  Today I am sharing the inside on which I built up a cool wood effect.

Thursday 11 October 2018

W is for Water colours and Water soluble oil pastels!

These ATCs were created for a swap over on JJAMMMA (Junk Journals and Mindful Mixed Media Art).  The prompt letter was W, so I thought it would be the ideal time to try out my latest purchases, a box of Van Gogh water colours and some water soluble oil pastels both from Royal Talens.  As usual, I stuck to using stamps from Claritystamp on my ATCs.

Wednesday 10 October 2018

WOYWW 488: It's Not Cheating Honest

I'll start with two apologies, firstly I won't be visiting anyone today as I have an open evening at work and won't  be back until very late, secondly, the photos of my desk weren't taken today (shock horror).  I have got used to the 'working on Wednesdays' routine now and prepare my blog post a day ahead so that I can post it and link up with WOYWW at The Stamping Ground before I leave for work at 7am.  I even comment on the early bird blog posts before I leave.  Today's photos however are a bit of a cheat even for me lol.
My side of the desk was actually only taken yesterday (this morning it has my lap top and the books that I have marked on it: not so interesting).  I was busy creating something to share on my blog and came up with some Halloween themed ATCoins.  You can see my cup of coconut latte and my new purchase, a box of Van Gogh watercolours from Royal Talens.  This photo was taken mid create, but you can see the finished items HERE.
The other side of the desk is a bit more of a stretch.  Eva hasn't been able to make the last couple of Tuesdays, so I took a picture last Thursday when she came over for a crafty afternoon.  She has been working on parchment pieces using the Claritystamp Groovi system and Pergamano tools over the last few weeks and has now more or less finished the white work.  I will take another picture tomorrow when she comes over.
Hope everyone has a good week and I'll pop in over the weekend to see you all.

Tuesday 9 October 2018

Halloween Artist Trading Coins

I was inspired to create some Halloween artist trading coins as we are in October.  I had three 2.5" blanks left over from some batch cutting using my Brother Scan N Cut, so grabbed them to get started.  I didn't have a set plan in mind as I started, the coins evolved as I worked on them.

Monday 8 October 2018

Inspired by Orr Ambrose: An Art Journal Page

The prompt for October over on Nina Ribena's Art Journal Prompts and More is 'Inspired By'.  Each week there is a choice of three artists; this week it was Klimt, Kandinsky and Orr Ambrose.  Having previously tried an art journal page inspired by Klimt (which I wasn't overly happy with: see HERE), I decided to base my page on the works of Orr Ambrose.

Sunday 7 October 2018

Halloween Tag Bookmark

The current prompt over on Tag Tuesday is Autumn/Halloween.  As I have just made an autumn tag for another challenge,  I decided to go with Halloween for this one.  I also had a new stamp that I wanted to use!

Saturday 6 October 2018

Wednesday 3 October 2018

WOYWW 487: On the Road Again

This will be short and sweet, just as Julia likes it.  I was on the road yesterday as it was the four weekly meet up at Hobbycraft in Stockport for JJAMMMA (Junk Journals and Mindful Mixed Media Art).  Eva wasn't with me as she had to sort out a course that she will be taking.  However she will be popping over for a crafty day tomorrow, so I will try and remember to take a photo for next week's desk share. Please visit The Stamping Ground for all things WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday?).
For once I took some non-messy crafting with me (much to everyone's shock), as I wanted to prepare some pieces of parchment ready for the line art.  I had already cut some squares and rectangles out of A5 parchment at home, using the Claritystamp Picot edge dies.  I was busy using the accompanying Groovi plates to emboss a double border just inside the edges, ready to add some images within the pieces.
I also found time for my second ever #Inktober piece.  The prompt for day 2 is tranquil, so I tried out a line drawing of a swan.  I confess that I did sketch an under drawing first in pencil, which I later erased, as I am by no means confident in my drawing skills.
Guesting on the other side of the desk today were some regulars at the group: Jane was working in her journal, Lou was busy painting on fabric and Paul was just there for a chat.
Maria Moorhouse came to join in for the first time too, busy getting inky with stencils, a brayer and a Gelli plate.  We hope that she may be able to pop in again another time, work permitting.  Gill, Chris, Janet and Kaz were in attendance too (our largest ever get together) and at the rate we are growing we may need a bigger space next time.  It's great catching up with crafty friends.  I hope everyone going to Port Sunlight has fun; I won't be there this time, but I'm looking forward to next May already.  Have a great WOYWW and I'll be round to visit after work later.

Tuesday 2 October 2018

Monday 1 October 2018

3D Large Tag

This is another 3D piece that I created for a challenge.  The substrate is one of the second largest tags from the MDF Tag set from Clevercut and is approximately A5 size.