WOYWW 473

Here we are again, the BIG Blog Hop run by Ms Julia and joined by many.  Not as many as we used to have but some Bloggers still remain and it would be nice to welcome back some old faces and welcome new ones too.

It is usual to show what is on our desks and for once you almost got to see some cards I had made but I mailed one before scanning and the other two only went in the mail today so cannot show them as yet.  However I went on a workshop run by Kate Crane for Art from the Heart at weekend.  Friday we played around with the Gelli Plate and made some little books, a paper bag and a card.  Below are the bits I have yet to play with.

The three strips on the left are just waste bits that I have been playing around with (son and dil bought me a coaster that says "Make-Do and Mend" ages ago because they think I save everything to make something with it) and now I think they look better on the blue card and so I might, just might, make a card with them.  Next to that is my scrap paper that I used to clean my brayer and my stencils on so it is a bit like oilcloth by now.  Then there is a pile of assorted sized bits and on the red mat three books lined up, each with three signatures in, that I am going to bind into one book like the one we did with Kate.  Not sure where that one is but not in the picture for certain, must be with the bag and the card somewhere.

I really enjoyed the class and felt I learned a lot - not mud as previous GelliPlate experiences -  but I gate-crashed!!!  I had it on our calendar, in my calendar on my cell phone, in my head and so I got up at 6 AM (!) and left for Harrogate at 7.15 (Friday, notorious on the motorway so expect jams - plain sailing as it happened and there well in time) so I decided to make a cuppa in the kitchen whist waiting.  Suddenly Ben said "Neet, you do know you are not booked in today, but are booked in for Sunday".  Oops!  "Guts for Garters" sprang to mind as I thought of Chas being up so early for me.

Anyhow, Ben put an extra table in and I joined the class, but I doubt I will live it down as Kate kept mentioning 'gate crashers' all day long.  Went and bought a larger Gelliplate on the Sunday as I got hooked, at last, and played on Saturday night at home with good results on my little one- well I liked them.  

Then she had to put up with me again on Sunday - but this time I WAS booked in.  I'll have to show you my Journal pages another time as I didn't have them out on my desk at the time of writing.

OK, places to go, people to see, so see you all later - Wednesday's are always busy days for me but I will pop by your blog if you joined in - see you if you are a regular and hope to see you if you are new.  Toodle Oo!

Jeudi Journal

Think this is Wendy's choice, but then it could be mine - I don't think either of us know half the time who chose what.  Anyhow, it is Art Deco and the colours are Red and Black.

I didn't know what to do for this and began by thinking about the sun ray design so popular with this era but then went on to doing another design which I thought was going to be easier, but turned out not so in order to try to get straight lines.

I painted the background Red because this page already had some red on it and then using the same red and a stencil from Dylusions I did a design in the background which I thought echoed the sun rays a little.  Next I painted my black sections and then went around them with my white Molotow pen.  I had a little bit of a diecut in black floating around my desk and so I tried it and lo and behold it fit at the top almost perfectly.

Next was the figure, I drew a kind of Charleston lady to fit under the square arch and began looking for a Dylusion head to fit onto it.  Trying several I ended up with a bouffant hairdo which I cut down to represent a turban type hat.  Was going to add feathers but time did not allow as I was off on my travels to Amsterdam the following morning so it had to stay as was.  (When I asked Chas what he thought he said it looked "Indian" - should I have agreed or been insulted?)

Anyway, here it is, no time to try to replicate Art Deco lettering - it just had to be.  Must say I did not enjoy this one as much as the week before but it was ok - not looking forward to next week at all.

OK so her head is a little large for the body but with an attitude like hers what can you expect?

WOYWW 472

Well, nothing much to show.  My workshop at the club didn't go down too well but then I must confess I did do a lot of 'nattering' with Pat, our Chairwoman.

See the card with the flower and the fern in yellow?  Well that was supposed to have the flower bleached out with using just water.  Didn't work with Adirondack Inks (had just been told to take Dye inks) so mine remained the colour of the background.  In front of that is a pink flower, that was done on Vellum and coloured on the back with reinkers - it looks fine but I now want to use my ball tools and do some work from the back on it like Parchment Crafters do.  My other card was a total disaster as my inks did not dry on the pearlescent card - not my fault I might add.  The fourth card I didn't even get around to starting LOL.

Behind those cards are still the charms for the round journal I showed you last week and there is a super duper little paint palette that I once bought from my friend *Mary which has lots of colours all stacked up on top of one another.  Must open it another week and show you.

To the right is a book I once did with Julia Andress (I think that was her name) which I ever finished but am going to because I know just the person to give it to.  I will say no more in case she comes on here and read this blog post.

Well that is it.  This is a scheduled post because I won't be home until late Tuesday night and could be quite 'cream crackered' after my four days in Amsterdam.  Can't miss out on WOYWW can I?

* Heard last night that they are having a Memorial Service for her in July and her niece in law is going to take her iPad with her so I can link in and be part of the Service.  I was so pleased and am certain to cry a lot but at least I will feel as if I am there.

Jeudi Journal

'Jigsaw Pieces' and Blue and Copper were the parameters for this week.  Luckily inspiration struck and I remembered I had some large jigsaw pieces somewhere, the question was "where?"  I did, luckily, find them and so set to drawing around them so they would not be so bulky in my journal.

The pieces were then coloured using various Oxides and a bit of stamping in black was done on each one to create a kind of background for the figures I planned to use.  The small Dylusion figures were each stamped, coloured and cut out before I set to on the page background colour which I had decided was to be the prescribed blue.

I used Dyan's London Blue which is quite deep as I had some black marker showing through on one of the pages from a previous post and I used my favourite "Diamonds in the Rough" stencil with some Copper paint I had from my teaching days.  Being honest I didn't like what I had done and so I hastily stencilled a border in a Turquoise paint - better but still not happy - so more diamonds went on the page again in the Turquoise.  I was happier.

and close ups

Next, with bated breath, the figures were added to the jigsaw pieces as I did not know whether or not they would work as the pieces did not really fit together.  Phew!  It was ok and so the page was complete as soon as I had outlined the bits of jigsaw in black to separate them from the blue background..  

I kept having the word "discombobulated" running around in my head and so that had to be part of it.  Hope you like my page and think it is fun!  Another one I thoroughly enjoyed making.

WOYWW 471

Week 471 is here and I am joining in the greatest little blog hop around blogland.  You don't need to make anything for this one - you just show your desk to everyone - untidy works really well.  As for a prize - well I can guarantee lots of friendship and what is better than that - oh, and fun too.  Join in here.

I did promise last week I would show you one of the things I made at the Ministry of Mixology the other weekend - the book I did with Kate Crane.  Kate beat me to it and posted on Facebook so you may already have seen hers which was fabulous.  Here's mine:

Here are the various bits of it all spread out

It's a journal and you can see the crumpled pages underneath the circles (no they are not cd's) that I can journal on.  Might use it for quotes, or for holiday notes, or stamp on them .... endless possibilities.

The other side (different stamping and stencilling)

But you came on here to look at my desk - although the journal above was on my desk for purposes of showing it to you - notice the scruffy mat I took the pictures on?  Terrible of me but I have had back ache and could not start again.  

I have been trying to make some atc's for a swap in memory of my friend Mary.  She loved going to a place called Ventura so we tried to take her there each year when we went over, as our treat, also she always told me she had French blood in her and she had a bit of an affection with the country so I thought these images combined the two, well they did for me.

Hope I am not giving too much away but I don't think anyone involved in the swap comes on my blog.  I have also offered to do a set (4 in a set) for a friend who is in hospital, I know she would have been amongst the first folks to sign up for this.  Least I can do.

That is it for now, we will have to see what next week brings - hope it is more sunshine.  Toodle Pip!

Jeudi Journal

Not sure whose choice this is as I did send some themes over to Wendy and asked her to put colour choices in so it could be a mix - Wendy will know.  The theme was Steampunk (which makes me think it was my idea as I am a bit of a fan LOL) and the colours were Vintage Photo and Tea Dye.

This one has a bit of influence from a friend of mine who was crafting with me the day I decided to do it.  Had to be done in advance as I was away over the weekend and knew there wouldn't be much time when I got back (and I would be exhausted after a weekend with the Mixology Gang - yeah!)  The background was done with Vintage Photo and Marmalade and then a paper Tea Dye border was added with a crackle stamp randomly over it.  I outlined the edge with black to finish it off. 

A stamp of some cogs in Archival Sepia were scattered all over the page and the "Deep Red - Lady Captain" was stamped on Tea Dye coloured paper.  (She was also stamped on white and on blue and it was a difficult decision which image to use).

The words started off as a suggestion by my friend but then he said he was a 'rebel' whilst we were talking of something else and so they got changed, just a little, to include that word - a lightbulb moment!  I used Mustard Seed to colour the paper for the words.

A little dull compared to previous posts but hey ho, steampunk lends itself to dark colours and these were what were prescribed.

WOYWW 470

Nice for me that the atc swap wasn't quite over last week as I still had my PiF to look forward to and it came in time - a lovely handpainted watercolour piece by Robyn from America.  Thanks Robyn.  A lovely atc!

Well, I was going to show you my latest project but as I am still "fiddling" with it you can just see one or two little bits that I was doing late last night.

Not much of a clue as to what is there but next week, without a doubt, it will be shown to you.  I just wanted to do some additional things to it - might not work but we can only see.  I have so much enjoyed doing it that I want another one to do, mind has been working overtime with ideas for the next one but I think it will have to be totally different and might not work out as good as this.  But then I did not think up the idea - Kate Crane did and she does some beautiful work.  Wish I could use a brayer like she does!

As you can see I have been using my DecoArt paints and the tiny coloured pieces are the cut outs from a Tando Kit.  Somehow I think these were cut out solely for this project and the next one might be a lot plainer.

Anyway, will leave you with just that photo above, not much to get excited about but I do hope you like next week's picture.  Very colourful is the only clue you are getting.

This is a card I made a couple of weeks ago for a friend's birthday and forgot to show you

That's it as I have to go for an ECG shortly so I had better jump into the shower.  See you over at Julia's blog, the Queen of Deskers where you can view many many more desks.  See you!