Rainbow Panel Grunge Card

I love these new grunge stamp sets from Clarity.  Here I used the Art set with bright rainbow colours to create a panel card.

Celebrating 100 Marathons

My sister recently achieved the goal of running her 100th marathon.  She was originally planning to achieve this on our birthday last year, but unfortunately COVID put paid to that.  I am so proud of her achievement - this is the card I made to send to her.

WOYWW 621: Outside Inside

 Welcome to the weekly contribution to WOYWW.  Further details and links to plenty of other desks can be found at Stamping Ground.  It will be the 12th anniversary of Julia's weekly blog link up in three weeks and I am already on the hunt for a nice local postcard of the area.

My desk doesn't change much from week to week.  There is a new sketchbook ready to go as I only have space in the current one for a few more drawings. I do have one surprise, however.

I had a visitor on the other side of the desk - windows open, door open wide, both in masks and with negative lateral flow tests.  There is also quite a tall barrier of drawers, pens and lightbox between us and the desk is 2m wide.  Eva says "hi" to everyone!

The latest drawings.  Stay safe and happy WOYWW.  I'll be round to visit in the morning!

A Multicoloured, Encouraging Art Journal Page

I usually glue my art journal pages into a bound book, but for this one made a page for a two ring folder.  It is intended to be encouraging and inspirational - I hope you think I managed it.

Clean and Simple Engagement Congratulations

 As the Love SHAC stamp set was the Clarity offer of the week last week, I thought I'd have a play and made this clean and simple engagement card with the small stamps which come with the set.

It's A Kind of Magic Art Journal Page

I finally finished my page in response to the April challenge over on Mission Inspiration having started it towards the beginning of the month.  The theme given was 'It’s a Kind of Magic – is it hocus pocus or unicorns and fairies?'  The suggested colours were electric blue, fairy rose and mystical green and the techniques to use were scribbles, inks, lettering, flake and foil and foreign languages.

Using stamps to Lift Ink from a Background

 I thought the buttons from the Holland SHAC stamp set would create the perfect background for the windmill from the same stamp set by lifting ink from one of the Clarity Backdrop stamps.

Multi Layered Tag: Let Your Hair Down

 This fortnight's challenge over on Tag Tuesday is Anything Goes, so I decided to play with a new stamp and some old favourites from Claritystamp in a Spring like colour combination.

Playing with Die Cuts: Ideas and Inspiration

I thought I'd showcase some ideas with die cut apertures today.  If you click on the link each time, it will take you to a step by step description of each project.

WOYWW 620: Deja Vu All Over Again

 Well the break seemed to fly by and I am back to the grindstone once more.  Also joining in. as I do each Wednesday, with Julia and the gang in WOYWW c/o Stamping Ground.

There is a sense of deja vu with my desk.  Apart from sample making and my daily drawings there has not been a great deal of activity in the shed. 

The garden is coming on after a second weekend with skip and hired woodchipper.  We actually have an area where we can sit out now and the pile of wood chips is growing.  #2 son and a friend came and helped us out so our job this coming weekend is to get rid of as much of the foliage as possible that has already been cut down and wasn't suitable for woodshipping. 

The latest drawings as I missed sharing them last week.  I have booked my second vaccination for 2nd May so I will have the bank holiday to recover if I get a bad reaction for some reason.  I won't be able to visit this evening as we have a Twilight INSET session after school until late, but I'll be round in the morning.  Stay safe and Happy WOYWW.

Butterflies, Butterflies: Ideas and Inspiration

 Following previous individual step by step posts using the CHerry Green's Butterflies stamps from Claritystamp, I have gathered all the ideas and inspiration into one place.  If you click on each link, it will take you to the step by step for that project.

Cites of London Paris and New York - Ideas for Three Way Stamps and Stencils

 I thought i'd bring all my ideas for using the City of London, Paris and New York stamps, stencils and masks into one place as the dies have recently been released.  By clicking on the links you will be taken to the step by step for each card.

Metal Flakes with Stamping and Die Cuts

For my last sample using the new City Skyline dies from Claritystamp I used metal leaf flakes combined with both the London die and the 3-way overlay stamp.

Fly Free Forever: Tag Challenge

The prompts for the April Tag It Tuesday challenge were:  Blow paint or ink with a straw, print and attach something from your computer, add some tulle or netting and add a paper clip.  The colours to use were Yellow and Violet.  As you will see I followed all the prompts.

Daily Drawing Update: April 2021 Part 1

When I get to the end of April, I will have filled my first Daler Rowney sketchbook of the year with drawings.  I have found a new source of daily prompts and I am now using the Drawing a Day prompts from April 2017.  Here is a round up of the first half of the month.

A most appropriate prompt for April Fool's Day.

A quick and simple sketch for day 2.

Looking forward to being able to travel again.

Another quick and easy sketch for day 4.

I found a cool tutorial for day 5 (see HERE).

This one also required a tutorial as I am not confident with the human form (see HERE).

I enjoy playing cards so this was an easy prompt to respond to.

Drawn from life.  My favourite mug with Toffee Nut Latte.

I decided to draw lips as I had already drawn a hand (fingers) this month.

The phrase tough cookie came to mind.

I decided to go for a whimsical response.

I was feeling lazy so I followed a tutorial (see HERE).

This prompt reminded me of a friend who makes Memory Bears and buys stuffing in bulk.

Another quick, easy sketch from life (although my rosette says 3rd lol.

To finish the first half of the month, I followed a really helpful tutorial on three point perspective (see HERE).

70th Birthday Card for a Gardener

A former colleague - long retired - turned 70 yesterday.  He is a keen gardener so I made this card for him.

WOYWW 619: Not Ready to Go Back

Morning and welcome to the weekly sharing of desks and linking in with WOYWW courtesy of Julia at Stamping Ground.  I am scheduling the post but will hop out of bed early to link in then return for a lie in lol.  This time next week I will be back at work so I am making the most of the ones that are left.

The desk shot is rather predictable.  I can't show you what I am actually working on as it involves samples for upcoming shows, so you will have to do with my traditional desk shot with my daily drawing sketch book.  I will be starting a new one at the beginning of May.

I managed to snag a hair appointment on Monday, hence the horrible selfie.  Most of the weekend was taken up with gardening.  #1 and #2 sons came over and the five of us spent time chopping, shredding and filling a skip with the remains of a few trees/shrubs as well as several old trailers which used to live behind the shed.  Still plenty of chopping and disposing to go but at least it is mostly clear round the shed and the garden nearest the house.  Next weekend we need to carry on and replace the rotten gate post which is causing the fence behind the shed to fall.  The shed might finally get a proper coat of paint now we can reach it too.

We will get professionals in to take down the rest of the ivy covered tree but at least we lopped most of the branches - some of which were already dead.  I won't bother adding this week's drawings here as I have an update coming out on Friday on the blog and this is already a long enough post.  Stay safe and Happy WOYWW.  I'll be along to visit later, sample making permitting.