Oh I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside

Thank you one and all for the lovely entries to our last challenge, my choice, we had some lovely work as always and we now have a resource to draw upon when we have to make a card for a man.  Always good to have somewhere to go for inspiration and quite often these cards do cause us a bit of a headache.

"Oh I do like to be beside the sea,
Oh I do like to stroll along the Prom Prom Prom
When the Brass Band's Playing Tiddley Om Pom Pom"

Gosh that takes me back a bit - to being a child and having an ice cream whilst strolling along on a sunny day in my best cotton dress, white ankle socks and new sandals.

Thanks for that Von - yes, it is Von's choice today and she chose "Oh I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside" as her theme.  I have used the Victorian seaside stamps with the children on several times so I thought I would use something different this time.  Von had used Michael Powell's quirky bathing huts a short while ago so I plumped for his harbour scene.

Both Jo and I fell for these stamps when we saw them on a recent trip to Manchester but I didn't realise just how much colouring there was to this stamp.

I decided to use my new Pan Pastels and gaily went along smudging Blues, Magenta and Yellows into the sky and then, using the tiny tool, proceeded to colour in the houses along the front.  Not sure how I should have been using these but declined from using them on the boats and chose to use my Caran D'Ache watercolour crayons instead.  I was going to use my Gel Pen to colour the buoys in but opted instead for my Aquarelle pens - I must use them more often as I realise just how veratile they are now.

Hope lots of you are in the holiday mood and raring to go with Von's challenge.  It has been lovely seeing all the wonderful artwork that you all come up with week after week so here's to meeting up with you all again at the Artful Times.

I Like Playing with PP's

The back was a little easier yesterday, today not so but have just taken the tablets so fingers crossed I might get some crafting done.

Taken the opportunity to show you what else I did with my Pan Pastels so here are the last two samples in my book - now what can I experiment with next with them?

This first one was using them all over and then using a mask and spray ink on top.  The first one I did was a complete mess and I am not keen on this second one.  (I am not that good with spraying inks - doh!)  Then I  put some tissue tape in strips on top and went over with PP's.  Remember this is just a background and needs a focal picture on - perhaps I should have put one on in my book!

The second one was where I stamped some script on first of all and then went over in a very light colour.  I then added some bits of torn masking tape letting them overlap the script in places - it doesn't obliterate it.  Next I came in with other colours of PP's and finally stamped the flowers on.  This has to be my favourite of all the pieces I have done to date - but maybe that is because of the colours.

I have some stamped images left over from my workshop at Art from the Heart so I might do some experimenting with them - if I can think up some different techniques that might work with these chalks.

Hope these give you some ideas to get going with your PP's - remember to check out the previous ones by using the Pan Pastel link to my other work in my right side bar.

ps remember at 6 pm tonight there is the Artful Times blog entry on here and that used PP's again.

PP's Again

As I have not been crafting this week due to my back being bad I thought I would upload another couple of pages from my Pan Pastels experiments.  These are pages within my Pink Pig Book which I hope will carry lots of ideas in the end.

This was just using Versamark on a stamp and then going over with another colour on the top.  It was quite exciting to see (as in the top leaf) where one colour touched the edges and gave a variation.  If you use the lighter colours (tints) you get quite a nice shadow effect. I love doing this with them.

This was where I used Versamark and a large background stamp.  I really do like this idea and it will make for lovely mounts, especially if you experiment and tie in the colours with something in the main image.  I then stamped the poppies and just coloured them in with one of the pointy tools and sleeves. Don't forget that you can erase the PP's quite easily so any smudges when colouring in like this can easily be taken out.  It was a bit too intricate to cut out all the stems but it does look a little strange with the white showing.  Still I used the excuse that it is only in my 'experimental book'.

I will leave it there for today, tomorrow is an Artful Times blog entry which is scheduled and funnily enough features PP's as well.  Then on Saturday I will upload my final two pages (final as in how much I have done at the moment, not as in finished book) of experimental work for you to see.

I would love to see your experiments with the Pastels.

WOYWW 159

Well, nothing exciting to show you this week - just my desk as it was on Sunday.  I have had a real bad back for the past few days and no way am I going to be crafting at the moment.  Can't get an appointment with the doctor I want to see until a week Friday and only then if I ring early this Friday and manage to grab one.  Might have to visit the osteopath instead.

Here is my desk - pretty tidy - but as we had workmen in it had to be sorted at the other end - we were having a loft ladder installed.  This end just got left - but it did have a dust sheet over it.

Well, second time of keying this in - it just showed up as solid white lines when I went to do a preview (at the end!!!) so it is fingers crossed and a constant checking paragraph by paragraph.  (so far so good)

Starting at the left there is my Grand Calibur, a couple of ATG guns and a 'sewing house' I have only painted.  This is going to be shabby chic (or so I hope) and is a gift for the lady at the sewing shop who has been so kind to me (sh! it's a secret she hasn't to know) and only has the sewing machine in as yet because it arrived today.

Then there is a box, waiting to be decorated and have more paint on it, with some bags in and at the front you can see the lovely bunting that Helen sent to me when I bagged one of her lovely atc's.  Next is the fab Art Bin box that I bought from Oyster Stamps to store my dies in.  This is a fabulous buy and I just might have to get another whilst they have them in stock.  (I keep checking each paragraph and when I click Preview I get an orange square with some cogs going round inside it and then just those solid white lines I mentioned above.  I hope it is going to publish just like it looks here and not like it shows in Preview.)


Next you can see my card from Shaz in Oz (Hi Shaz, madly waving to you from the UK), then below on the desk some card and some Spellbinders dies I had used.  Sorry it has been a boring week for you but I hope that next week I can be a bit brighter and show you some cards I have been making as I need to get some done for friends who have had birthdays over the past few days.

Now you pop along to see Julia, Queen of Desks (be they tidy or untidy) and have a real good nose around.  Me?  I'm off to the massage chair before trying to get some sleep and then hopefully I can do a bit of crafting later in the day.

A late arrival which brightens up my post today:  at lunchtime the postie came and brought me this delightful atc from Dolores in Slovenia.  Thank you so much, it is fabulous - I love the lettering - goes so well with the little owl and the wood background.  Another lovely atc to add to my collection!

Another Page

Here is another page I made yesterday for my Fabric Book that I almost finished at the ArtsyCrafty weekend.  I just had this page to do but now am wondering whether to continue and make more so they can go back to back and create a meandering book or whether to call it a day and start another one.

I already have ideas of what I want to do in a new one so am bursting to get going - think Fabric is going to be the new me - thanks L & L!!  My PlayAway friends will be pleased to hear that I have been converted over to that medium and I cannot wait for us all to meet up - next year is such a long way off - thank goodness I will see some of them beforehand.

Anyway, this page did have a lovely white button on it so I thought I would enter it into the Out of a Hat Creations challenge but then this morning (I was up mega early) I was looking for another button to go with it and found the one I have used on his head so had to change the other one too.  Now they are a greyish shade of blue.  Slate?

Right, stop woffling and get on with it - here it is - a little less lavish than some of the others ...

... my entry for the Out of a Hat Creations blog challenge.  So sorry I missed you the last couple of times girls - don't know what happened - guess life just got in the way.

A Rusty Relic

Well, this is the last thing I made at the ArtsyCrafty Weekend and I enjoyed myself so much with all the different elements that went into the final piece.

This time I sat on a table with Freema and Inke and her lovely other half, Mark.  Must say that this Dutch couple have perfect English and it was lovely to hear them switch between the two languages so easily.

For this piece we did some rusting, painted metal, corrugated card and glass pieces, used polymer clay, wire and we cut away with wire cutters to our hearts content.  We also used tissue paper, Mica and Puffa Paint to get the overall effect that Lin and Leandra had so carefully planned.  The paint we used was the PaperArtsy Fresco paint, which I love.  It goes on so many surfaces and it has a beautiful chalky finish to it.  The main sample was in black but I chose to go light with mine.

This is Inke with hers

and Edwina with hers

The Class Sample

and mine

Closeup showing the rusty tree, frame and wings

the rusty bird

A bit of patina on a charm (Fresco Beach Hut)

Mica wrapped with wire

All too soon it was over and very sad to think that this was the end of an era.  We marked it with a few gifts for Lin and Leandra - some flowers, wine, chocolates and a rubber duck.  The flowers will fade, the wine will be drunk, the chocolates will be eaten but I hope they remember us when they bathe and sail their Jubilee Rubber Duck.

As I did the presentation I could not get any photographs so had to make do with these at the end

Thanks Lin and Leandra for a wonderful final ArtsyCrafty!

More of That Fabric Book

Went to the sewing shop and Wendy fixed my machine in no time, she also loved my book which I took to show her.  I now want some fabric that I just cannot find - I know I have it somewhere - it is the fabric that I made the "fancy dancy" curtains out of years ago and there are reasonable sized pieces in a bag somewhere - at least I think so - probably with all the organza I once had big ideas about using.

Anyway, here are the remaining pages from the weekend - had a chill out day today, think the tablets are putting me to sleep again so I have had a good old kip this afternoon.

This was from the Lucky Dip bag

(another image transfer)

Regal Bird (painted acetate)

Dragonfly

This last page was supposed to have dyed flowers on but I used them on the Lucky Dip one at the top and left them white.  I didn't make my "illegal flowers" when I got home but will do and then I will put them on this last page in the top left corner.

Hope you enjoyed these last few pages - now you will have to wait and see what else I come up with but tomorrow I will show you the "Rusty Relic" I did on Sunday.  Totally different and not a stitch of fabric in sight - but it did have stitches!