Wednesday 30 May 2012

WOYWW #156

Hi there everyone
Yes, it's already Wednesday again! Time to join the massive blog hop of desks courtesy of Julia at Stamping Ground.
Today being the 3rd anniversary, there is the ATC swap, mine's safely packed away so as not to spoil a surprise (or disappoint!)
Here's my desk this week though before you go in I thought you may like to see the outside! Welcome to my world....
And perhaps the flowers too......
They are doing well this year.
So, onto the inside and as a special treat I've taken a longer view this week; I've also moved the shelf away from in front of me to allow me to get all this lovely natural light so at last I think I've got my space right at last!

 So, some new old stuff from bootfairs - I picked up the hand a while ago and the book has an amazing hinge that will look really great I think when I've changed it! The covers are lovely chunky wood. Then there's this awesome brass clock, I was thrilled to discover that it actually still works (If I remember to wind it up, that is) so I think I'll have to re think my original thought of taking it apart!
 Then there is this little book that I started to play with, so far I've just been playing with glassine to get this lovely textured paper to go on the cover. so far it's been embossed a few times, had some ink and UTEE and I really like how it's come out.
So there you have my place this week. Happy anniversary all you WOYWWers; a toast to the next year!
Hope you all have a blessed and creative week ahead.

Tuesday 29 May 2012

Tando printers trays

Good morning everyone. This week over on The Craft Barn blog it's everything Tando. If you're not familiar with Tando they do an amazing line of lazer cut chipboard shapes and masks. One of the products I like are the mini printers trays. But, of course, being me; I was trying to look at them differently and came up with this....
 I've taken my large journal which has been made with thick card sheets and used all 3 parts of the tray to insert "windows" into the pages. Each window has acetate both sides and different inclusions. It's a bit difficult to photograph well but the effect is great!
Alcohol inks colour the window. The rest of the page is masked and painted with the washers die in areas and then the die cut has been adhered to the left side. The flourish adds a bit of dimension too. The white pen came out to add highlights and a marker adds journalling around the window.


 These give you a better idea of how you can look through the pages........
I also think they make great niches for the fronts of books; like this one. There is a full step by step how to do on The Craft Barn blog HERE so I won't go into details here but I hope you'll go over and take a look!
Have a lovely day everyone!


Cardstock (I used 7 dots 12 x 12 paper)
Tim Holtz tissue tape

Monday 28 May 2012

Dream card

Hi there everyone
Hope you are all enjoying this glorious sunshine, I certainly am even though there has been the odd rumble of thunder!
For my Katzelkraft blog piece today I shared this card. I think it would make a great Father's day card or masculine birthday card. Simon says Stamp and show "something for the Boys"  this week so I'm entering this into that too.

 To create the background I blended distress inks in Mustard seed, Barn door, Vintage photo and walnut stain. I stamped the corner image in Barn door too. The bright yellow adds a lovely depth to the colours! A spray of water adds the lovely "age" spots.

 To create the tile I cut mountboard to size and added 3 layers of Bronze UTEE. When the last layer was heated I stamped the Vetruvian Man into the soft UTEE.


To finish the card I mounted the tile onto black card and mounted it onto the background. I added these lovely letter tiles which really suit the image.
Hope you all have a lovely afternoon and a blessed week.


Products used with links if you are interested.
KTZ65 Vinci Vitruve (Direct from France HERE or in the UK from The Craft Barn HERE)
Bronze UTEE
Distress ink - Mustard seed, Barn door, Vintage photo and Walnut stain.

Thursday 24 May 2012

New class schedule page

Hi there folks
Just a quick heads up; I've popped a page on here that will keep all my class schedule details together (you should see it on the top of the blog) so if you want to see what I'm doing please keep an eye on it. I'd love to see you at a class one day! So at the moment if you check it out there will be the date, link to The Craft Barn sight for booking and further information, description and photos (if I remember to take them!)
I'll add the new ones as we go along and remove the old ones too.
So, for example if you popped over now you'd see the classes for June,
I like this one
What do you think?
Have a lovely evening folks, I'm off to bed!

Wednesday 23 May 2012

WOYWW#155

Hi folks
Welcome to my world this glorious sunny day. It's time to share our creative place with the world courtesy of Julia at Stamping Up so here's mine
 There's a bit of a clear space for a change! In this pic you can see all the bits and bobs of a bit of a session.

 But hiding on there is my little Ranger Uni Journal It's all finished now, written up and stuffed full of tags, calling cards etc.
 Just opened it to show you a bit of the inside!

Then there's this which I use a lot, these acrylic boxes fit perfectly in a beautiful wooden box and I have assorted vintage tape, fake rivets, nuts and bolts in there. I have another one full of old watch parts too.
So there you have it, my creative space today.
Hope you all have a lovely day.

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Professor Fizziwillig's exploration box

Good morning everyone
I hope you are well, yesterday was spent on class samples and other commitments but at about 10 pm I'd had enough and moved on to finishing this: Professor Fizziwillig's box....
(Yes you've seen it in bits and pieces but here is is finished at last; well I'll add some more story to the book but essentially it is complete!)
 So here is the outside of the box, just for those who perhaps have not seen it before.
 Opening the box to reveal the treasures within. The lid is lined with tattered maps, I like to think that these were the good professor's starting guide on his travels. Inside is a notebook, unusually covered along with a pen, and some vials the contents of which we shall get to in a moment.
 The lids of these vials are most unusual and caught my eye immediately. Though tarnished with age they appear to be human; though from whence they came I cannot say, I have not seen the likes of them in this land before......
 The pen, crafted from some exotic bird's plumage, is well used though there appears to be no more ink in the box. The base of the box is crafted from some form of metal, again rather tarnished with age, the markings remain fairly clear.
 The book itself has an unusual cover, it appears to be made up of some form of pressed flower though not one indigenous to this land. The first few pages are written in the professor's own hand. Unusually the first page is a warning not to open the vials as things are not always what they seem. Curioser and curioser.......
 There is also a sheet of photographic negatives of the men who set off on this adventure, remarkably well preserved for the age I have to say.
 And the vials; containing some unusual leaves and what appear to be claws in the top. The second has more of the plumage that the pen has been crafted from. Then there appears to be some kind of reptile skin and preserved paws in the next one.  The last contains a cunningly crafted arrow, along with some unusual paper like bark. I can't help but wonder if perhaps the bark is used to manufacture some sort of poison for the arrow........
My curiosity has definitely been aroused; I think I'll have to see if I can dig up some more information about this relative of mine...... in the meantime I do think I'll heed the warning and leave the vials alone; at least till I know more........

I'm going to enter this into Simon says Stamp and show, a summer holiday; I'm sure the good professor was enjoying a bit of summer on his voyage!

Monday 21 May 2012

Dreamweaver at The Craft Barn

Good Morning
Hope you are all well. It's a new week and the start of a new week of fun over at The Craft Barn where this week we are looking at Dreamweaver pastes, powders and stencils.
I'm starting off this week with a simple 6 x 6 canvas.

All the details are on the blog HERE.
I love this quote; I can't remember where is came from, (probably Facebook!) but it spoke to me as a faith reminder so the canvas will be hanging in my studio to remind me of the One who does understand me, and still loves me. It will probably end up in my journal too.
These are the products I used to create it
Dreamweaver Celtic Cross stencil
Dreamweaver Pearl embossing paste
Dreamweaver metal FX powders
Cosmic shimmer misters
Canvas 6 x 6
Sponge applicators
Gesso


Sponge applicators


Saturday 19 May 2012

Winner from yesterday's fun.

Hi, just a quickie post.
Yesterday I said I'd send a little something to the first comment about my "Mistake" and Joanne from Mytobyjug was very quick to respond; so if you'll email me your address Joanne I'd like to send you a little something.
Have a brilliant Saturday all.

Friday 18 May 2012

Journal page

Hi there folks
I've been busy with class samples and other things this week but in among that I've done this journal page that I can share.
One of the things I've actually found myself falling in love with recently are the Dylusions spray inks- all those vibrant colours! Anyone who has been following me for a while will know that I am naturally drawn to earth tones in my work so this surprised me......
Still; a guy's got to keep you on your toes with the unexpected, right?
 So, in true Dyan fashion, I spritzed and mopped and dabbed and ghosted and stamped my way to this scrummy background!
 I stamped the wings around the page and coloured with distress markers in peeled paint and used a white pen to add detail lines. Leonardo image sits in the background nicely too.
 One lesson I've learned in working on loose leaf double pages is to remember to keep the pages the right way up while working if the pages are pre punched...... Wonder how long it'll take for someone to notice what I mean? (First comment left on this post telling me what my "mistake" is will win a small prize from me! Just for fun!)
I stamped the Vetruvian man onto old book page and cut out, coloured in with distress markers too.
The journalling is just some of my random musings......."I wonder sometimes what would have happened if Leonardo da Vinci thought that his dreams were just too big to cope with for the world? If there were no sketches of helicopters would someone else have dreamed of them?
I think that all we dream and imagine is important, perhaps not as grandiose as these, but important enough for us to share - perhaps one day someone will build something remarkable from our dreams too...."

Ugh, just looked out the window and it's raining again! Still it means I don't need to water my veggies today so that's good.......... Hope you all have a wonderful and creative weekend ahead of you.

The Leonardo stamps are from one of my favourite Katzelkraft stamp sets, available direct from France or if you are in the UK they are sold exclusively from The Craft Barn.

Wednesday 16 May 2012

"Stone" at The Craft Barn

Hi there , me again....
This week over on The Craft Barn blog we are exploring faux finishes. Today I have a step by step on creating a faux stone finish, ideal for Halloween gravestones and for many other masculine projects. The full step by step post can be found HERE
Materials used are:
Decoart Americana - Avocado, Deep midnight blue, Slate grey, Snow White and black Acrylic paint.
Gesso - Claudine Helmuth Studio line
Sponge Applicators - These are great for adding texture with gesso!

Have a good day everyone!

WOYWW #154

Good morning;
Lovely to see sunshine this morning! Not too much happening in my studio; I've been unpacking and trying to fit all my new goodies in!
So here's my desk of WOYWW hosted as always by Julia at Stamping Ground
 Not very exciting is it?
 My new paints, mediums, distress powders etc are now on this shelf, perched on the dolls house!
 My Dylusions inks (The full set Yay!!!!) and perfect pearl misters, stickles, liquid pearls and crackles etc have found a home on this shelf.
 There are these two tags, waiting to be completed, on the desk; just playing with my new inks and stamps.
Lastly there is this little ship magnet waiting to be transformed for my configurations, which after  about a year, is finally taking shape but I'll share that with you later.
So there's my place today. Hope you all have a blessed and creative week!


Monday 14 May 2012

Journal folder

Hi there folks.
Hope you all had a good weekend. Yesterday, being so sunny and glorious we headed down to the coast and soaked up the sun by the sea (spending a bit of time browsing a bootfair along the way!)
I'm glad we did as the rain is back today too. I've not had much time to craft but did manage to get the final layers on my folder. I'm using this to create a loose leaf journal. As Simon says Stamp and show anything this week I'm entering this into it too.
So here's the front
 There's 7 layers so far so I thought I'd better stop! There's paints, salt, tissue paper, colourwash, paint wash, crackle and glaze. All added and removed and added and scrubbed to create layers of age. I'm sill going to add some embellishments but I love the feel of it so far. Here's some of the back detail.
 And some detail of the front too.
Inside I've added some wrinkle free distress end papers (practising to get the finish right!) And a journal page using some of my new stamps and Dylusions inks.
 I love this wild west set of Tim's and the words are from Wendy Vecchi. I added some doodling to and just generally had fun.
Also one of the things I learnt and really enjoyed at Ranger was the transfer techniques that Claudine shared but I was concerned that I'd struggle here as all her images were laser prints so I printed an image from a card on my home printer to try and am happy to say that it worked!!!!!!! Yay; so here it is and soon I'll do a tutorial for you!
There's no colour as it was just an experiment but I like the subtle tones anyway. Now, I'm trying to find space in my shed to unpack my new goodies, not easy but I'm not complaining! So I'll catch up with you later. Hope you have a blessed and creative space in your day!

Sunday 13 May 2012

Ranger Uni - Day 3

Day 3 dawns nice and sunny. Can't believe it's the last day but I'm going to enjoy every moment!
 Breakfast first though!
 Tim started off the morning with colourwash before handing over to Dyan Reavely for her Dylusions range of inks.
 Cue mucky paws!
 Lunch was Subs, delicious fillings but I forgot to take a photo! The afternoon was taken up with ALL things distress.
 Then it was over! Certificates handed out
 Class photo taken
 Time for some photos with new friends (Ellen and Hege from Norway)
 Then out came these amazingly large boxes! This is mine!
 Yes I know you are all curious so here it is spread out! I had to remove most of the packaging to get it in my cases (that's my excuse for unpacking it anyway!)
 Next morning it was the cab back to the airport
 Last pic at the airport before saying goodbye to Kaz and Kate.
Then home! Tired, head buzzing with ideas and  this is what we covered on day 3.....
 Colourwash - just love the faux batik!
 Dylusions

 All things distress _ some of these have to be seen in reality to get the full beauty!
 Distress stains
 Distress markers
3 amazing days,80 technique tags and memories to last a lifetime. That's my Ranger Uni experience. Thank you for putting up with these marathon posts but I do hope you've enjoyed sharing it vicariously with me!