Week 145 Joining in with This Weeks Smiles

I think I have only ever joined in Annie's blog post hop once before but this morning as I was getting ready to go shopping I thought I would show you my bag.  I did feature it a few weeks ago but here I am modelling it - made by my friend Jo.  I love it!  It is not a "go anywhere" bag (sorry Jo) because it is rather special and only for use on some occasions when I want to look a bit smarter than usual.

Off doing some shopping and thought I would give the town a bit of a treat in allowing my bag to be seen by many.  Apologies for my hair being scraped back - it is blustery and wet so no point in messing about with it (and I am busy looking up at a neighbour across the road hence the gormless look).

Thanks Jo for making me smile each time I look at my bag.  Now to link up to Annie and read her post.

WOYWW 336

Nope, I did not find my witch hat and nope I did not do any painting or even any drawing.  Went to the craft club on Saturday to do an owl picture in a similar style to Finnabair and said I would take some of my old ones to help Lorraine (who was tutoring) out with some ideas.  On checking through my blog I found that I never shown you this one which I did for Chas for his birthday.  Why a horse? Not a clue except it was the closest thing to a rocking horse which was the workshop Lorraine and I had missed out on and really wanted to do. (Incidentally the horse is brushed with silver, not gold as it shows up in the picture - tried to keep to 'cold' colours)

Did try to get another one finished which I was doing as a gift for someone but I can't show it to you until I give it to her.  Forgot all about nylon net melting with heat and wondered where it had gone when I had tried to speed up the drying process - DOH!  However here is my owl one done on Saturday.  I didn't want to do it the same as all my others, with cogs and wheels etc, so I raided the pot pourri for the elements and added bits to the leaves I had die cut and coloured with Distress Inks. I think I got my inspiration for this from Angela who had made a super picture for Halloween and used leaves which has stayed in my mind ever since seeing it.

Love this stencil I used of the window

Well, this is my desk this week.  Full of churches I have been busily cutting out for days.  This is a Spellbinders die and you can get it from Oyster Stamps but be warned there is only one die in of the window frames and you need six of them.  That's six passes through your machine - took me ages to get the packs ready for everyone but I guess not everyone cuts them out for a class of 20 (20 x 6 = 120 passes but it worked our more as I could not always get all the dies on the one sheet without wasting card for so many - fine if you are just doing a few for yourself).  Excuse me from advertising but they have an offer on of 4 Spellbinders dies for £40 at the moment. That's £10 a pop!

Jo 'begged' my sample church when she was here last week (but she said she really loves it when I spoke to her a couple of days ago so I didn't mind doing another sample yesterday) but now I have cut enough out.  Hope nobody else wants one as I think I would have to say "no" as I am all "die cut out" after all that cutting and I still have some window frames to do so I guess I had better get on with it.

In the meantime pop along to see the lovely Julia and visit some more desks - you never know you might just find inspiration for that special "C"Card you have been looking for on someone's desk.

Will be bringing my ceramic poppy (one of the Tower of London ones) in tonight as I don't want the frost to get it over winter and I might forget it if I leave it until later. Tonight seems an appropriate time to me.  Thankfully it has a lovely box to rest in until the frost has all gone.  Are you bringing yours in?

Thank You

Thanks to those of you who offered to do some crafting on my corset.  I will be in touch and look forward to having you add your own interpretation to it.  I am excited all over again now.
Thank you.

WOYWW 335 and Yes, it is a Corset

My desk has work in progress on it and I don't feel ready to show you quite yet, maybe another week when I have done some more work on it.  A workshop with the fab Tracy Scott on Sunday saw me attempting to draw and paint a whimsical face.  Perhaps next week folks ... but in the meantime my other desk reveals ... a corset!!!

In 2008 when I was doing workshops for Paddy she gathered a few of her tutors together and with her niece's friends down south we were given a corset each.  (Paddy's mother used to work for Spirella so this was to be a project dear to her heart).  We each had to choose a theme so I remember having "Deconstructed', "Christmas", "Peacock Lady", sorry cannot remember the others - but mine was "Viva La Diva" based on Las Vegas showgirls.

Penny's Playing cards (painted on canvas)

and Sarah's collage work

I have no idea what happened but despite me working on every single corset mine was worked on by only a few.  I was gutted when it was finally returned.  I am not sure what everyone did as they did not write in the book I made to accompany the corset - apart from Penny and Sarah.  Penny (down south) did the playing cards which are fab, I think Gloria added the swirly sparkly fabric and some sequins, again I think Sylvia did the red bottom flounces but I know Sarah did all the beautiful sequin collage work that you can see as she wrote in the book too.  

I dyed the corset to begin with, sewed dice on the suspenders and across the top of the whole thing, made the clay heads and put the feathers behind (Sarah added the turquoise ones as someone else was supposed to add large feathers later) and turned some poker chips into buttons before it set off.  It has been with Jo for quite a while (we both forgot about it) but I am not sure if she added anything and as she is away I cannot ask her.  I so wish everyone had worked on mine or even if just the northern girls had it would have been so much better.

Guess I had better do some work on it myself.  That is unless I can get a couple of friends to add something.  I does have some bare patches and was supposed to have huge feathers at the top but the person never came up with the goods despite having the corset for a long time.

Well, it will have to go on hold for a short while as I will be busy in the coming weeks and I do want to finish my painting so I can show it to you all.  In the meantime here are a couple of whimsical faces I did draw (quickly I might add) to check I had proportions right - maybe I will get around to painting them another week.  Be honest as to what you think of them.

Have to be at the Docs for 7.50 this morning (she does work hard bless her, best doctor in the world) so must dash out now and then come back to see what Julia has to say and who else has joined in the Great International Blog Off.  Click here to get there quick or for a peek at what I am on about if you are new to this.

ps I lost my witch hat - if I find it by next week will wear it for a photo with the wig.

WOYWW 334 And A Surprise Guest!

Well, the guest was not a surprise for me but she will be a lovely surprise for you.  But before you see who 'came to dinner' (lunch actually) here is something I made on Monday in readiness for my visitor and also my friend's little one who is coming on Friday.  Think I might leave the decorations up for bonfire night too (see later photo).

The backside of a canvas to make an aperture painted black with some corrugated card down the sides and along the top, again painted black but with some interference paint on.  On the back you can see a skeleton face (Skulduggery - Andy Skinner), plastic skelies inside and a rubber spider.  Do you like my spiders web?  Made from glue with a bit of Glamor Dust sprinkled in it.  One or two bits of laser cuts painted and added on the sides finished it off - for now.  No doubt will add to it as time goes on.  I want some Angel hair but cannot find any - maybe Christmas stuff.

Here is the worktop that this little canvas stands on along with what has been made previously - and purchased, like the witch at the back who is fantastic when her eyes flash and she cackles.  Love her, she came from Prague.

Below is my worktop (after all it is supposed to be a post about Workdesk Wednesday (click here if you don't know what I mean, or use it as a short cut to the greatest blog hop that takes place each Wednesday).

As you can see I have been busy painting another skull, some bats, witches and spiders - all in readiness for the canvas at the back which is going to be yet another Halloween addition, hopefully this year.

But at the left hand side you can see a gorgeous scarf which my friend (visitor today) brought me for my birthday, a notebook and some brooches for me to include on my Finnabair type canvasses and - that gorgeous bag.  Now that should give you a clue as to who my visitor was.

Who can make a bag like this?  Love it - bet you all do too.  Some of you will have guessed now, those who are newer to WOYWW may not quite get it but the ones who have been on for a few years will certainly guess right.  Ok, so now I have teased you long enough - here she is with her clay decorated jar that she came to make because she missed my workshop at Vickies.

 

 Yes, it's Jo of Jozart.  We haven't seen one another in ages, somehow our paths refused to cross but at last we made it.   Jo is holding her decorated jar - should have been a bottle but she forgot to bring it so now she is going to make a pincushion top for the jar and use it as a sewing aid.

It was lovely to spend a day with Jo and hopefully we will not leave it so long next time.  Thanks Jo for the lovely gifts, can't wait to go out later this morning with my new bag - it is gorgeous.

WOYWW 333

It's all the three's today - where?  Over at Julia's blog - and heading the posts for all her faithful followers.  Go and have a peek, nobody bites.

Well, as I said last week, I was away with a friend at weekend doing another of those Finnabair workshops that we seem to be hooked on.  Gosh she is a tremendous tutor and so nice with it too. This time it was up in Teeside and under the supervision of Sue Tucker.  Anybody and Everybody should do a workshop organised by Sue, there is such a lot we can all learn from her.  Nothing is too much trouble in the organisation, she puts 110% into it (and more if truth be known).  Thanks Sue, thanks Debbie (Sue's helper), thanks hubby, thanks Anna and thanks everyone who went - some real nice people participating.

So what did we do:

close-up of the brush part

I want to do a bit more to this canvas as I feel the rays need to be a bit wider and feather out a bit more - patience and I should achieve what I want.

The other canvas we did was also with a brush so I did it landscape to detract from the eye a bit - but it was using different colours and also a totally different method of working.  Looks much better irl as you can see the sheen of the powders, sprays and the tiny micro glass beads.

As is always the case when you have been to one of Anna's workshops you come home with lots of goodies and this was no exception.  Two workshops and we were given all that you can see used above plus most of what you see below on my desk.

The red bag at the back was a gift from my wonderful friend, Lorraine.  The suitcase tin was mine, the pouch was a gift (for every participant) from Debbie; the ArtBin pages, the cogs, wings and Texture Paste jars are what I bought.  I think it is safe to say the remaining stuff was what I had left over.  I just love those cardboard flowers - not seen them before.

So now my desk is getting ready for a couple more canvasses which is why I don't want to show it to you as I have them laid out in readiness for sticking down.  I would rather show you the completed versions ... but I have been spurred on by the two amazing workshops I attended at weekend.

Thanks everyone!  See you over at Julia's.

WOYWW 332

Am uploading early this week as I am off at the weekend with one of my friends on a workshop - think it will do us both good and we don't have full days, both are afternoon sessions - but more on that another time.

This is my tag made last week for Vicky Stampers.  It was the letter "T" - can you guess what it is?  I don't mean it is a Dylusion figure - why is it "T"?  The tag is coloured with Dyan's paints, the stamps are hers but for quickness I used my Promarkers to colour in the image.

I realised I still had a photo of the "S" tag in my folder so a quick run through my blog - nope, didn't show you what I did - and for once it was nothing to do with Dylusions.  I seem to be hooked on them! Instead it was a stamp I had seen by Sheena Douglass which I fell in love with, reminded me of Johnny Depp I think.  Pirates of the Caribbean??  This was entirely coloured with Pan Pastels and I did enjoy myself doing it.

Last week I didn't show you the contents of my bag of goodies from Harrogate (all bought from Oyster Stamps except the white card from Anne Marie - thanks Tim) and a few of you wanted to see what I had so here goes:

More of the tiny Distress Inks, unfortunately Tracey had not taken the tins so I will have to wait for those but these tiny pads are ideal for taking with you to crops.  At the back Compendium of Curiosities 3 for a friend of mine and a photo album for a Christmas present, some Finnabair metal bits, stamps and dies.  I had been demo'ing the step card quite a lot over the weekend and it finally got hold of me and jumped in my bag of shopping - makes a great A6 card with no messing about cutting with a scalpel, as do the other two .

Same stamps plus some sentiments and another step type card plus a really good card which I must do to show you some time and then a cobweb, a corner die and some of those that cut bits out.  Might seem a bit expensive but there are four different cut outs in each packet and they make gorgeous cards.

So that is my desk, last week and this. Now I dare you to show us yours over at the stamping ground - just a bit of fun and odd times you get tips too.

btw - T is for "Torn" - the image has been done on another paper and torn around the edges.