Floral Spray on an Abstract Background

 I like to make use of my Clarity New Design Club membership goodies.  The project booklet is always inspiring.  Here I adapted Jane Telford's project using the June 2025 stencil.

WOYWW 843/63: Learning to Relax

Welcome to the weekly sharing of desks which is WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday?), the brainchild of Julia, who kindly entrusted it to me to continue after the first 15 years of togetherness.  Please feel free to link up your desk and visit others' - we are a friendly bunch. 

My desk this week shows my latest purchase - an early birthday present to myself.  Last year I bought used descant and treble wooden recorders which are fabulous but I have been contemplating getting this tenor recorder for some time.  It is a Mollenhauer Denner Comfort Knick (bent) tenor recorder in cherry wood.  I am gradually playing it in for no more than 20 minutes a day for the first fortnight so it will be ready for my next recorder group session.  I effortlessly plays up to top D and has a lovely tone.

As you can see, I am back on track with my #dailyart2025, although I still have some of the gaps to go back and fill in.  I have been trying to do at least a couple of drawings each day.  I am starting to get the hang of this retirement business.

I have been 'enjoying' the Euro 2025 Women's Football with Eva if you can call it that.  We watched the quarter finals and semi finals together but I only managed to watch the second half of the final and extra time, as I was over at Mum's for a family meal when it started.  I couldn't bear to watch the penalty shoot out, so tuned in later for the result.  An amazing team effort!!!

I hope the cooler weather is a bit better for everyone.  Just need a little less rain now lol.

Stay safe and Happy WOYWW.

Cute Hedgehog Among the Flowers

I finally got around to using this cute hedgehog stamp which was the Clarity New Design Club stamp offering for May this year.  It came with various sentiments so I used one of them too.

Thank You Love Heart

I have been making use of scraps and left overs on my desk recently and decided to work with a Doodleology postcard which I had previously foiled in gold and die cut for another card (see HERE).  This is what I came up with.

Garden Bird Flight of Fancy

I came across a print left over from a previous craft session (see HERE) and decided to use it as the base for a card using the stamps from the Garden Birds Cut Card Kit from Clarity Crafts. Here's how it turned out.

Fairy Leaf Print

 Once again I made use of a ready made background to create this magical card.  This time a print made at a workshop with Leonie Pujol - gel printing using alcohol inks and leaves.

Sam's Shapes Mixed Impressions: Ideas and Inspiration

 Sam Crowe's Mixed Impressions stamps and stencils are great for making backgrounds, but also for fun ideas and cards with a twist.  Here are some of my projects using them. As usual links to the original step by step are given below each photo.

A funky panel using both stamps and stencil (see HERE).

A tag card (see HERE).

Creating flowers from the stamps (see HERE).

Creating a border with the square stamps (see HERE).

Can also be embossed (see HERE).

Building up a background (see HERE).

They are cool for tags too (see HERE),

and HERE.

Magical Phoenix

 The current challenge over on Try It On Tuesday is Make it Magical.  I thought this card fitted the prompt well.  I made good use of the mask which comes with this phoenix stamp from Clarity to create a coloured panel.  It's a technique which could be used to create a card for any occasion.

I started by masking off the top and bottom of a piece of 7" x 7" Clarity stencil card using some of the blank mask sheets, leaving a 2.5" aperture.

I then Stamped the Phoenix stamp along the opening using (from left to right), Blaze, Fall Fiesta, Orange Popsicle, Cinnamon Tea and Hay Stack Artistry inks, masking and overlapping each image in turn.

I used a black fine liner along each edge of the inked section once the masking had been removed.

For the topper, I stamped the phoenix onto a separate piece of stencil card in Onyx Black Versafine ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.

The image was die cut using the middle deluxe oval picot die from the set.

I coloured the image using the same inks used to create the background and a water brush, then edged the oval using a black pen.

Before adding the topper to the background, I stamped 'magical' from mini word chains 7 & 8 above the inked panel in the same way as the phoenix topper.

The background was trimmed to fit a 7" x 7" black card blank.

WOYWW 842/62: No Difference So Far

Welcome to the weekly sharing of desks which is WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday?), the brainchild of Julia, who kindly entrusted it to me to continue after the first 15 years of togetherness.  Please feel free to link up your desk and visit others' - we are a friendly bunch. 

My 'desk' this week shows some of the lovely gifts I received at my retirement get together last Wednesday.  In addition I received two leavers' hoodies.  The first one had been sent by mistake and had all the names of the students that were leaving on the back.  The second one was the correct one with all the staff names on there.  

My collection of cards has grown considerably too.

The flowers on the left were from school and the ones on the right from Eva and her husband Nick.  To be honest I won't really feel like I have retired until school goes back in September.

The arm is feeling a lot better but I have not yet caught up with my #dailyart2025.  I have set aside a couple of days next week to really get back on top of things again but I have been busy with samples and getting blog posts sorted.

Thanks for all the good wishes I received last week.  Stay safe and Happy WOYWW.

Mid Month Mini Make Tag

 The mid month challenge over on Clarity Crafts Mini Makes & ATCs is to make a tag for a friend using items off your desk and some navy blue and mixing Groovi and stamping if possible.  This is what I came up with.

Another Retirement Card

A colleague from the office was also retiring this time and I decided to use a similar colour scheme to one I had made before.

Leaving for Pastures New

This card was made for a colleague who was leaving for a post at another school.  He ran the chess club which made the theme an easy one!

Enjoy Your Retirement

I made this card for a colleague who was retiring with me this year. As she taught in Y6 for many years, I thought I would include that on the card.

#dailyart2025: A Spanner in the Works

I am behind with my #dailyart2025 for July having trapped a nerve in my non-dominant arm at the beginning of the month.  I am slowly catching up, but still not completely up to date.  As usual I have been working in a Clarity Petite watercolour journal (just started my fifth) following prompts from 365 days of drawing prompts and other art.

A difficult prompt to start the month.

Not drawn from life!

Here's hoping.

An obvious response having just returned from Paris.

Another apt one for prom time.

How I have felt not being able to do much.

Another apt one as the school year comes to an end.

One to mark my retirement.