WOYWW - #56 ......... & A BIT OF 'ART'

Here we are again WOYWWers. I've been pretty busy on the crafting since last week (for me anyway). I've finished projects from 2 workshops I've been to in the last few weeks (scroll back a couple of posts) and almost finished a 3rd plus I've finished my piece for our June project for the blog I share with my 3 friends - check the blog out here if you have a little time. I'll be posting my offering on there either tonight, time permitting, or tomorrow. Quite a few photos to share today so I'll try not to waffle (always the hard part for me, Lol!).


This is the 3rd project from a workshop I did at Graphicus with Lynn Robinson-Hunter - one of the Ikea mirrors that are brilliant for showing off different techniques, this one being all things Ranger. I just want to make a couple of Grungepaper flowers to finish it off. I'm halfway there with them as you can see by the pieces.


As promised last week, this is the 'untidy' (for me) end of my long worktop.


If you want to see what's hanging on the door covered by the carrier bag go here. I still haven't found a proper home for it! There are lots of pieces crying out to be 'altered or decorated' but one thing I won't be changing is the gorgeous set of little drawers that I found last week in TKMaxx!


The drawers/cubby holes set was another TKMaxx find which was a bargain having been quite battered. I've prepared it ready for decorating but haven't decided what I want to do to it yet.

That's it from me this week and if you want to see what all this WOYWW business is all about visit Julia. She explains it far better than me and you'll see just how many more of us (lots) are getting hooked. I'm looking forward to getting round as many desks as I can tonight.

Have a lovely day everyone.

Hugs
Lesley Xx

Craft Stamping Quartet

'Morning Everyone,

Just a little reminder about the blog I share with my buddies, Jo, Judith and Elaine. It's almost the end of the month and so it's time for us to start posting our projects. We got a little behind with last month's and myself and Elaine haven't even got that one done yet. It was supposed to be an 'easy' project chosen by your's truly and it proved to be anything but. I will get it done eventually though - I REFUSE TO BE BEATEN, Lol!

Jo did a gorgeous canvas last month and she's first to finish again with her fabulous flag book. Please go check it out here on Craft Stamping Quartet. Mine will follow in a couple of days time.

I'm off to take the dog for a lovely walk now it's so much cooler and more comfortable.

Hugs
Lesley Xx

TWO FABULOUS WORKSHOPS

Hi Everyone, how's this weather suiting you? Personally, give me a nice clear, still, frosty day anyday. I really don't like this heat as it makes everything such an effort I find. Sorry about the whinge, I'm obviously getting old, Lol!

Well, I promised to post photos of my makes at two workshops I've been to recently. The first one was at the beginning of the month while I was away with my crafting buddies and we took in a workshop with the lovely (and she is) Linda Elbourne at LBCrafts. If you don't already know her blog and like anything Tim Holtz, Grungepaper, Distress Inks and Wendy Vecchi then you ought to give her fabulous blog a visit here. Not only is she very talented but she is also extremely funny and we came away from her workshop with a lovely piece of artwork and some memories of a great time too. We also bought loads of goodies from the wonderful shop, LBCrafts, owned by another lovely lady, Linda Brown.




Making this canvas hanging involved techniques such as stamping onto tissue paper and Grungepaper and making the Grungepaper roses which I love. We also made the little black hearts using the Melt Pot and UTEE.


The second workshop I went to this month was at Graphicus with the equally lovely and talented Lynn Robinson-Hunter when we made some articulated tags. These were what I call Classy Grunge, lol, and again used a lot of Tim Holtz favourites. We should have made a total of three but ran out of time. We didn't quite manage to finish two but brought all the goodies home with us and I've completed the two that were nearly done. The third one will be made as soon as I have finished a couple of other urgent projects.


This tag involved an image transfer onto Claudine Hellmuth Sticky Backed Canvas as well as making the paper flowers.





I thoroughly enjoyed both these workshops and can't thank Linda and Lynn enough for such fabulous workshops.

I hope to be back in a couple of days to give you a sneak peek of my project for this month on the blog I share with my crafting buddies, Craft Stamping Quartet. It was a project I thoroughly enjoyed doing and I'm really pleased with the finished piece.

Have a good week all.

Hugs
Lesley Xx

WOYWW - #55

Well, here we are again and my second WOYWW. It doesn't really look as though much has changed since last Wednesday but I was away for a couple of days at my daughter's and going to a fab workshop at Graphicus. Since coming back I finished the card that was on my desk last week and two of the articulated tags I made at the workshop and today I finished off a lovely little wall hanging that I made at a workshop with the lovely Linda Elbourne (another WOYWWer). I'm going to post the tags and the hanging over the weekend but I've added pics of the card from last week to this post.


Centre stage on my desk you can see the rose leaves that I was sponging with Black Soot DI and the final red rose I was making for my Linda E wall hanging. I missed the actual hanging off the photo and you can just see the teeniest corner on the right edge. I promise to blog it over the weekend though.


This week I decided to show you a pic of one end of my long worktop. You can see my metal wall decoration which I bought to hang all my bits and pieces I've received from other crafters plus some of my own creations. I do rotate them regularly though because they fade so quickly from the intense sunlight in my craftroom/conservatory. The pieces of Stampbord at the bottom are mine and the two tags I finished this week are towards the right plus a few other things. I had a lovely couple of hours yesterday rummaging at a local charity shop where I got the pretty little jewellery box and the Papermania spiral bound book (which was still in it's packaging) and some other stuff I'll show next week from TKMaxx. The Papermania has lovely strong covers and thick black card pages which I hope to decorate at some point. The other book I bought to make a sort of stock list in because the one I'm using at the moment is full to overflowing and getting in a bit of a jumble. If I don't take 'my crafting bible' with me when I shop for stash, I end up doubling up on inkpads, paints, etc., Lol! There is another work in progress under the paper. I cover most stuff when I'm not working on it because of the sunlight and heat. Last week's thermometre reading was nothing compared to yesterday afternoon's - 50 degrees centigrade because I had been out for about 4 hours and so had to lock the doors and windows. It really was like an oven.

One or two people mentioned in their comments last week that they hadn't thought of the heat damaging their stamps so I thought I'd just mention for anyone that doesn't know, it's not the heat that's the problem apparently because the stamps are made under extremely high temperatures but it's the UV rays that damage the rubber (and the polymer ones too). I think it makes them brittle but I'm not going to leave them out to find out.


Finally, this is the card I was working on last Wednesday. The image is a Stampendous cling stamp which I watercoloured with Distress Inks and then covered with a piece of acetate that I'd coloured with alcohol inks. The piece of embossed cardstock I touched lightly with Versamark and embossed with Moonglow EP. I made the little roses from designer paper and inked the edges. I used the dark blue and kept to blue tones because it was for a 45th Anniversary which is Sapphire.


Next week, I might show you the other end of my long worktop. Now that is very untidy at the moment but I might get chance to have a bit of a sort out before next Wednesday. To see what the other WOYWWers have been up to this week or to join in yourself go visit Julia here. I'm hoping to visit a few more than I managed last week myself.

Thanks for looking and have a happy week.

Hugs
Lesley Xx

PS I forgot to say WELL DONE to the England footie team. I actually watched most of the match this afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it except that I nearly returned to my nail biting habits from childhood, Lol!

I've Finally Given In - WOYWW!!!

Yep, I've finally succumbed to the lure of that Julia Dunnit lady who you can find here along with links to all the other WOYWWers. As so many of my favourite bloggers have joined in the fun of showing off their messy desks on Wednesdays I decided 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em' so this is the piccy of my desk this morning. I couldn't post when I took the photo at 11.00 am as I was dashing out to pick my Mum up.


It's actually looking pretty tidy at the moment as I had a mega clear up of the whole craftroom yesterday. By evening though I started to get things out again - as you do - so there are a few stamped images waiting to be coloured and the pieces in the foreground are the beginnings of a card I've been asked to make. The two piles top left are lovely magazines that my daughter keeps giving me to raid for images for mixed media projects but I never seem to get time to look through them. One thing that's not on my workspace is rubber stamps and that's because my conservatory is my craftroom and it is getting mega hot in there just now as you will see from my little thermometer below, so I try to put my stamps away as soon as I've finished with them. It actually got hotter than that this afternoon even with the french doors open and the fan going full belt, Phew!!

I'm going to try and visit as many desks as I can this evening. Have a good week everyone!

Hugs
Lesley Xx