WOYWW #479

Happy WOYWW! WOYWW? You ask?  It is the What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday blog hop hosted by the lovely Julia at The Stamping Ground where we open our craft room doors to show what our work desks look like on Wednesday.  And to show what fun crafty items everyone is working on. 

So, August 8! I completely missed July.  Mostly because of traveling for work—but even once home I’ve had very little time, or it’s just been too hot to be upstairs in the craft room. So, when I am up here, it’s been a bit hectic. Oh heavens: just looking at this photo even makes my skin crawl.  And since when has that punch been there? And the HoHo envelope is holding a Michael's gift card that I was going to spend on my lunch hour, in 10 minutes.  /sigh.

Front and center is my spread for the Wanderlust Class.  I know I’m tried too hard because I really wanted this one to work-and it sort of looks like a hot mess.  I got carried away with the Paper Artsy Inclusions powder, thinking it would look like the book had been in the field when gathering the flowers, and now the pages really do look muddy.  Any my poor dried daisy is losing its petals.  I’m going to give it one more coat of gel medium, once my hands are less sticky, to see if that helps. I love the scent of the Indian Paintbrush, and it sorta carries, even when dried!  I also need to finish the journaling part, once everything is dry. The lavender is a gel medium photo transfer; worked really cool onto canvas!!

My DH went above and beyond for my birthday this year. We took a lovely road trip into Connecticut and discovered a fabulous store, Inspiration Station in Stratford Springs.  He kept insisting I fill up my little basket with goodies, papers, etc.  What you don’t see is the Tim Holtz Media Mat that is waiting for me to make space for it…it is HUGE!  (well, compared to my usual working area of 6x9 inches! LOL!)  He also had pre-ordered the Tim Holtz Lift Ink bundle and the Dina Wakley Paint Pouring bundle—everything arrived while I was gone, (and is scattered above the journal) EXCEPT the pouring medium, which is on back-order.  That is just too cruel!  I’m hoping to play with the lift off inks this weekend, and I can’t wait to jump into paint pouring! 

The Dylusions Dyalog further up the pile I'll save for another day...chalk it up to me and my big ideas.

Finally, here is another lesson from the Wanderlust class called “Taming the Mountains” by Tori Weyers.  As much as I love the mountains I live on, they are not visually diverse, so I used an image of Hidden Lake in the Adirondacks.   One was to be more realistic, while the other fanciful. 

So, there you have it.  Now jump back to Julia’s and see some more creative spaces.  Stay Crafty, my friends!

WOYWW #473

Happy WOYWW! WOYWW? You ask?  It is the What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday blog hop hosted by the lovely Julia at The Stamping Ground where we open our craft room doors to show what our work desks look like on Wednesday.  And to show what fun crafty items everyone is working on. 

I know…I’m not sure what happened either.  And it didn’t just happen at my journaling desk..lookit:  it happened at the card making desk too!

All this open room is sorta freaking me out.  But it was necessary as I have to get into full card making mode for upcoming birthdays, a few fall craft fairs, and…you are all thinking it…Christmas.

That is a Sheena Douglas 3D Embossing folder I had gotten from the Home Shopping Network craft Marathon months ago. I'm just now trying to use it; it didn't come with any sandwich instructions, and I have the Vagabond and a Big Shot, and I just can not find a way to get it to go through the machines!  Too thick with two cutting plates, too thin with crease folder and all the shims...any ideas?  

I also did get some creating done this weekend.  Here is the finished page of the second half of Kasia’s Wanderlust lesson on using photographs and trees. 

And then, to avoid the hoarder syndrome: last week’s really, really, nice watercolor journal?  Look!! I used it!  It came with a set of water color pencils, so I used my new Darkroom Door stamps (I just had to get thanks to an Instagram post-I have a thing for grape hyacinths!) stamped in pale gray, then colored with the pencils and watered down to blend.  I didn’t ruin the book; the pages don’t suck, I don’t have to hold this book to immaculate standards.  It is just a book, with really, really nice watercolor paper.  (OK, now I have to do that with the Dina Wakley journal…shame to have that sitting there never to be used!!)

So, there you have it.  Now jump back to Julia’s and see some more creative spaces.  Stay Crafty, my friends!

WOYWW #472

Welcome to What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday!  The wonderful blog hop created by Julia in The Stamping Ground, and now in it's 9th year!!

Real quick for me (and late for most of you) as I was actually (gasp!) working in the craft room on Wednesday! I had to run down to print another photo for my Wanderlust lesson, and jumped on the blog while the printer was warming up..good thing!

So what you see is the first side of the lesson from Kasia Avery.  Trees was this month's theme, and this one was to incorporate black/white photos with  colored backgrounds and get different moods.  This is the dark mood.



I've got paint out, stamps piled up, those filled water brushes are there in the back... the paper (actually plastic) plate is my palette.  I'm not ever sure what is pushed in the back of the desk!!

Oh..yes, my new addiction; to replace my patterned paper addiction.--there is a new journal back there...with water color paper...really nice watercolor paper...like, so much better than my art watercolor paper that I'll probably never use it watercolor paper.    See it...the dark blue book with the vellum strap?  (and it came with a travel brush and watercolor pencils!) 

And here the the last two ATC's to arrive from Kelly and Nikki .  Everyone was so creative this year!!

So, I gotta run, I'll visit tomorrow.  Have a crafty week everyone!

WOYWW #471

Happy WOYWW! WOYWW? You ask?  It is the What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday blog hop hosted by the lovely Julia at The Stamping Ground where we open our craft room doors to show what our work desks look like on Wednesday.  And to show what fun crafty items everyone is working on. 

First--does anyone know how to turn back on the email notifications?  I still show it in my settings, but I'm not getting any. Since I do my blogging at work (Lunch hour--really!) it's nice to be able to see comments without actually entering Blogger.

So, a real quickie this week.  Yes, this desk is a mess, as is my card making desk.  When you have the option of 1) spending 30 minutes tidying and reorganizing, and then 30 minutes crafting, or 2) shove everything back and craft for an hour…Guess which wins? 

So, you see the bouquet of flowers I bought for subject matter for the Wanderlust lesson.  It was mindful nature artwork with Chrissy Foreman Cranitch.  Very cool lesson!  A bonus that it actually looks like lilies!!  The watercolors are from Prima Marketing...love these little sets!  The Dylusion’s inks are out from working on my new Dyalog (crazy idea to use it as an inventory of supplies—stay tuned, and stop laughing!)   I also finally finished filling up all the watercolor pens , which are hiding behind the vase.  They all belong in the tote that is currently holding my IPad…didn’t want to take the time to lift it and move them. (The phone is still there, and will be dead by the time I get back upstairs) The pile in front of the iPad is about 4 inches high, and has some stamp sets, a small watercolor paper pad, and I honestly don’t know what else.  You can see a white box  in the back that has my Color Bursts (American Brusho’s) that I listed for my inventory-ing. 

I did close up the paints before I headed downstairs, and underneath was the first exercise from the Wanderlust lesson.  To draw an object without looking at the paper.  It was hard not to peek—we were allowed to look when we changed elements, so my roses and zinnia (?) didn’t all end up on top of the lily.  I was really surprised how this came out! I figured they would all be a hopeless blob! 

So, there you have it.  Now jump back to Julia’s and see some more creative spaces.  Stay Crafty, my friends!

WOYWW #470

Happy WOYWW! WOYWW? You ask?  It is the What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday blog hop hosted by the lovely Julia at The Stamping Ground where we open our craft room doors to show what our work desks look like on Wednesday.  And to show what fun crafty items everyone is working on. 

I’ve received some lovely ATC’s from LLJ, Helen, Monica, Diane and my PIF Cardarian (Dolores). I love how creative everyone is! I’m hoping my wayward mailings have finally reached their  

recipients.

And now, for the desk: As of last night in between dinner getting done and attending a Facebook Book Party…really…like the Scholastic Book Fair from school, but on Facebook.  Bought some books for my grandson, but will keep them at our house, as I know his parents don’t read to him.  Don’t get me started on that!!! I’m working on a birthday card for a co-worker.  The new 2-part stamp set is from Rubbernecker Stamps…they have such cool stamps, and I did some serious spending at their booth.

So, back to the desk; I tried using the Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks…I thought I had seen them used on stamps somewhere, but I had less than stellar results.  In the background are the Nuvo Mousse’s I bought at the show, some stencils piled up, and then all the paints, water brushes, and mess from last week that I literally just pushed back to make room for the stamp platform. But, you know me; that’s how I roll.

And, might as well show the annual stamp show pilgrimage results.  This year had 8-10 less vendors than last year.  It’s kinda sad, I wonder when they will call it quits. On the other hand, we got to them all (and strongly supported the independent companies financially!)  and even got to watch some demo’s. 

Looking at the photos, I’m surprised how few stencils I bought, since I thought they were my latest obsession.  Apparently not, and the new obsession is the Nuvo Embellishment Mousse; Trying hard not to acquire all the colors. And Yay Me! Only 3 Christmas stamps!  And of course: Paper…getting pretty good at judging how much paper I use in the year.  I just ran out of the black layering paper last week! 

And finally, a Journal spread using the new Nuvo Mousses (Moussi? LOL!) and stencils. The page on the left is my attempt at this cool 3-D effect using the gray one as a base.  The right side started as a clean off page for the stencil. You can't tell from the photo, but there is a very nice shimmer to all the colors.

So, there you have it.  Now jump back to Julia’s and see some more creative spaces.  Stay Crafty, my friends!

WOYWW #469

Happy WOYWW! WOYWW? You ask?  It is the What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday blog hop hosted by the lovely Julia at The Stamping Ground where we open our craft room doors to show what our work desks look like on Wednesday.  And to show what fun crafty items everyone is working on. 

First; for all the overseas deskers, of which there are 10 of you that I sent ATC cards to: I am an idiot! Knowing our Global postage stamp is round, I grabbed my Solar Eclipse stamps thinking I was good to go.  Nope!  They are square stamps with a round image…not the same thing, and a few have already come back. They are being sent back out with proper postage as I get them.  But, as a neat note…hold your thumb over the dark image and see what happens when it warms up!! 

Second: Sarah Brennan!!! Every week I mean to do this: Thank you for all your visits and comments! I do get to visit your blog but from my phone only, and then for some reason I have a 50/50 shot at leaving a comment back.  So thank you again…and I am lurking! LOL!

And Finally…my desk, as it was Sunday, and today.   Ever since my first class with Dyan Reaveley I’ve had a bug in my head to do what she did, and fill the Tim Holtz water brushes with her spray ink for coloring.  Great idea when you work for Ranger and can get those brushes at a huge discount.  And you know me—and the name of my Blog; I can’t make do with just 5-6 brushes…Nope: Need 29 of them (talked myself out of the white one! Whew!)   So, finally JoAnn’s had a 50% sale, and Bam…they were mine!  Ummm…now to label and fill them.  Notice I got 3 done! Notice the labels aren’t sticking?

 Of course, that was after I spent 4 hours of precious time trying to find my Muse (who must have gone off with my Husband on his Brewing “Research” jaunt with his friend, leaving me a whole day to play, and not a wisp of inspiration. Grr.) The stencils, paints (new Fresco’s under the stencil, and Art Alchemy to the right) where all used to disastrous results, and since this turned out to be quite the project, I decided it was not my day—went downstairs, did some strawberry mojito “research” and watched sappy movies until the Mr. came home.  For the record, I think his research was more intensive than mine. 

So, there you have it.  Now jump back to Julia’s and see some more creative spaces. Stay Crafty!! 

Happy 9th Anniversary, WOYWW! #468

Happy WOYWW! And not just any WOYWW…but the 9^th Anniversary of this wonderful blog hop 

hosted by the lovely Julia at The Stamping Ground where we open our craft room doors to show what our work desks look like on Wednesday.  And to show what fun crafty items everyone is working on. 

Nine years; remarkable longevity for anything these days—especially something so intangible as a virtual community.  This alone should be proof that creativity, common interest and mutual respect can save the world.  Unfortunately sending art journals and finger paints to every hostile region probably is a bit too simplistic.  Ah well, at least we have our Wednesday’s to touch base with our own tribe!  Thank you Julia. 

 So, on to our main purpose; and ironically based on another virtual community—is my workdesk.  I saw a video on face book; the one with the woman showing string pull art.  So Cool!  So I had to try it!

There was a bit of trial and error.  I used a beading cord, thinking it would be more durable. Yes, but it isn’t very “bendy” so it was hard to get a good number of loops, swirls etc. Nor was it that absorbent…I found Dylusions spray inks worked best, but another friend used Bakers Twine, and could use regular paint and ink, so I’ll try that next.  

Here are some more images...cause I think they are so cool! LOL!

And here is a little ATC Book Box I made to hold the ATC swaps we received at the Back to Back retreat. I used Dina Wakley’s Media paints and stamped on her collage tissue paper. The box is by Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts, and I’ve ordered a few more to hold all my WOYWW swaps from over the years. 

So, there you have it.  Now jump back to Julia’s and see some more creative spaces.  And here’s to another crafty year!

WOYWW #466

Happy WOYWW! What is this? Why, it is the blog hop hosted by the lovely Julia at The Stamping Ground where we open our craft room doors to show what our work desks look like on Wednesday.  And to show what fun crafty items everyone is working on. 

Those faint of heart may want to sit down…you may never see the likes of this again…

My journaling table.  Non-cluttered.  Well, a little cluttered, since I made a Mother’s Day card, but for my usual state, pristine.  I had my friend Julie over on Sunday for some catch-up and crafting time.  Which meant I needed to make room, put away all the paints/inks/mediums that had been piled up, finally organize and put away all the stencils, and basically put stuff where it belonged. 

This is after our play date, where we practiced our Dina Wakley flower painting skills for cards, and then delved into general craftiness.  What is left are boxes of card backs,  the Dina Scribble Sticks (Really starting to love them!), and general scattered supplies. The water glass is supposed to flattening a sheet of practice flowers. The 3-D embossing folders just arrived from the craft marathon on Home Shopping Network. There are three of them, which my husband sorta guilted me into getting…since he was the one who was channel surfing and stopped there, while I (yup, I) was completely oblivious on which channel he stopped on.  The tulip painting was my first take on the card, but I liked the geraniums better-hopefully Mom will too!

Here is that card, using Dina Media paints and some stencils for texture. 

  

So, there you have it.  Now jump back to Julia’s and see some more creative spaces.  Stay Crafty, my Friends.

WOYWW #464

Happy WOYWW! What is this? Why, it is the fantabulous blog hop hosted by the lovely Julia at The Stamping Ground where we open our craft room doors to show what our work desks look like on Wednesday.  And to show what fun crafty items everyone is working on. 

It has been a whirl-wind two weeks!  I just can’t believe May is just a few days away, even if our snow has finally disappeared!  The main cause of the whirl/wind?  My friend Julie and I wend down to Florida to attend the Back to Back Art Journaling Retreat with Dyan Reaveley and Dina Wakley! Three crazy days of art!!   And I don’t want to lose the momentum, so I’m trying really hard to finish up the signatures on the books we made from Dina’s watercolor paper.  We also made books from Dyan’s large journal paper; I never thought I’d ever do that!   

 

So my desk is an ever-loving mess!  There is no room to think!  You see tags that will get tipped in to the journal, some with collage work with Dina’s tissue paper, all with lots of stencils and her glorious paint.  The ultimate goal was to put the journaling back into art journaling, so I still have that to do—the hardest part in my mind!  The scraps top left I’m thinking of weaving somehow to go onto one of the other sets. 

The flowers are for one of the Wanderlust Online Classes with Kasia Avery. As she said, the lesson is a good excuse to buy flowers!  We were to paint flowers with shadows and highlights with early morning light…she did roses, which I thought was safe.  No, my painted roses look nothing like the real ones…I was mostly trying to look into the petals.  Hopefully they will last a few more days so I can get some practice in.  Disregard the paper towel on the floor—LOL!

So, there you have it—my desk in its shameful messy state.  It will have to get tidied if I want to get anything else accomplished.  Now jump back to Julia’s and see some more creative spaces.  Stay Crafty, my Friends.

WOYWW #462

Happy WOYWW! What is this? Why, it is the fantabulous blog hop hosted by the lovely Julia at The Stamping Ground where we open our craft room doors to show what our work desks look like on Wednesday.  And to show what fun crafty items everyone is working on. 

I have no idea where the time has gone!! I just realized it has been 5 weeks since I last visited WOYWW! 

Maybe all the snow storms have tricked my mind into thinking it’s still February and not April (and another 1-3 inch one is predicted tonight). 

But all this forced indoor time has left me with much crafty time, working on the Wanderlust class projects and then working on ATC swaps for—get ready—a Back to Back Art Journaling Retreat in Florida with Dyan Reaveley and Dina Wakley!! We (going with my BFF Julie) fly out tomorrow and come back Monday.  I am so excited I just can’t stand it!!!

So my desk is the pieces/parts for the ATC’s-I don’t want to show the finished ones, since there is a good chance they will be similar to the Anniversary swap.  Lots of little Tim Holtz Flower Pot die cuts…what on earth was I thinking???  I do have the coordinating stamp set,  but it was too detailed/dark, and quite overwhelming to stamp and the match the dies to over 90 of them.  Just a touch of pen seemed much better.  There is also a practice sheet of some watercolor exercises.  I bought a book "30 Days of Water Coloring"--because I have so much free crafting time??  That was Day 4.  Stay tuned!

Other projects: my Brothers Birthday Card, using Distress Oxides.  The stamp is from Northwoods.

(And I actually used a piece of my Washi stash!!! LOL)

Wanderlust Class with Jaime Avery working on sunrises using just one color of paint plus white and black. This is a Cape Cod Sunrise over the sand bars.  This was fun--I need to practice more!

Another Wanderlust Class with Marlene Meijer-van Niekerk using water colors and negative painting. The technique was a blast--now I need to try again using watercolor paper, and my own subject matter.  

So, there you have it. Now jump back to Julia’s and see some more creative spaces.  Stay Crafty, my Friends.

WOYWW #457

Happy WOYWW! What is this? Why, it is the fantabulous blog hop hosted by the lovely Julia at The Stamping Ground where we open our craft room doors to show what our work desks look like on Wednesday.  And to show what fun crafty items everyone is working on. 

 

So last week was a nightmare; Monday flew into Friday, which brought with it over three feet of snow.  The weekend was a blur of shoveling out and just a bit of crafting.  So last night I managed a few moments to see what this week’s Wanderlust lesson was about.  And since it was about pencils; a no muss/fuss/clean-up medium, I managed to play a bit while dinner was cooking. 

Aside from experimenting with pencils, it was also all about basic figure drawing.  Normally I’d be all “No way—not interested…I can’t draw”, but again, it was easy pencils, and I had 40 minutes; so here are my first ever attempts at figures. (I'm sorry they are so light)  And aside from the long guy looking a bit alien-like, I don’t think they suck.  And, because of all the giggling I was doing while drawing said Long Guy, I’m even going to keep practicing! 

And here are shots of some coasters I made for our friends Brewery Tap room, with the new Tim Holtz Beer stamps (the first set I made has had wonderful comments!)  

And then there is our back deck, at the peak of the storm.  The railing is 40 inches high, and this is not drifting, as our deck is protected by the house, and 5 feet off the ground.  Luckily we got most of the snow off, as with today’s storm expected to bring in another 3 feet, I‘d be afraid my deck would collapse!

So, there you have it. Now jump back to Julia’s and see some more creative spaces.  Stay Crafty, my Friends.

WOYWW #455

Happy WOYWW! What is this? Why, it is the fabulous blog hop hosted by the lovely Julia at The Stamping Ground where we open our craft room doors to show what our work desks look like on Wednesday.  And to show what fun crafty items everyone is working on. 

This will be real quick for me today; working through my lunch hour! This was my desk as of last night; in a desperate attempt to finish my Wanderlust lesson; which seemed so straightforward, until I opened my jar of gel medium…and saw it was mostly, umm, paste, as in thick paste, almost unspreadable.  And then there was the missing word sticker booklet from Tim Holtz, which I was going to use since my stencil words are huge…still can’t find them.  

So what you see, my gelato drawer with a few rolls of washi tape, which is flattening out my “walls could talk” page while the thick gel is drying.  I have stencils shrewn about, a small basket of my Deco Media paints, which I didn’t even use for this still hanging out, some sprays paint tubes, a few wood stamps, the trimmer, which is hiding other stencils, print outs and at least two journals.  And water bottles…I see 3, I know 2 got knocked to the floor (glad I always tighten caps!) and I’m pretty sure there is one further to the right of the trimmer. At least you can see my effort in drinking more water!

  

And for those who followed last week, I did get all the birthday cards done the next night…but only after I lit some incense, dumped everything non-essential in a pile on the floor, and then just let what happen may.  And while I forgot to take pictures, I was pleased with the results. 

So, there you have it. Now jump back to Julia’s and see some more creative spaces.  Stay Crafty, my Friends.

WOYWW #454

Happy Valentine’s Day! And Happy WOYWW! What is this? Why, it is the fantabulous blog hop hosted by the lovely Julia at The StampingGround where we open our craft room doors to show what our work desks look like on Wednesday.  And to show what fun crafty items everyone is working on. 

And here is my chaotic desk.  I am primarily a card maker…that is how I got started in this paper crafting hobby.  All the forays into art journaling, painting, etc. are me trying to grow into an artist, but really..I make cards.  Or so I thought...until last night.  It is very embarrassing to even show this; my “main” desk in my room, which was clean and ready to go. Until last night when I had to make a Valentines day card for hubby, and 3 birthday cards for BFF, 10 year old nephew and 33 year old step-son. 

After 3 hours, I walked out with at least the Valentine’s Day card; but it’s “eh”.  (I didn't even take a picture!) I have the small Gelli plate, brayer and Oxide inks out to, I thought, create great backgrounds.  I don’t even know where they went, as they aren’t there.  Tim Holtz’s mini holiday blueprint stamps need to get put away.  The markers are the Sheena Sparkle markers I bought from HSN a few weeks ago, and finally got to try.  They seem a bit difficult to get started, but I only tried two.  The Distressed Doily and heart die cuts didn’t work, so need to get put in my die-cut tin.  And then, maybe tonight…some of my card making Mojo will come back and I can get the birthday cards done.  Fingers crossed!

Oh, and here as the finished Castle page from last week.... the castle done in watercolors, which was kind of fun, once I relaxed.

So, there you have it. Now jump back to Julia’s and see some more creative spaces.  Stay Crafty, my Friends.

WOYWW #453

Welcome to WOYWW! What is this? Why, it is the fantabulous blog hop hosted by the lovely Julia at The Stamping Ground where we open our craft room doors to show what our work desks look like on Wednesday.  And to show what fun crafty items everyone is working on. 

And here is my desk, as it has sat since Sunday. The Wanderlust theme this week was Castles, real or imaginary.  And you know me…I’m a sucker for ancient ruins, of which there are none over here, but conveniently, back on our Honeymoon, I got to explore McGrath Castle (which I haven’t been able to directly trace back with my family, but I’ve gotten at least in the area and within 100 years).  Really wish I knew what happened to the family bible my Aunt Kitty had! 

So you can sort of see the photo upper right that I was trying to copy. Since I’m still new to watercolors, I’m surprised its not all blotchy and you can tell what it is! (My Brother got it immediately!) Now I need to decide what to do with it.

There are some paints, brushes and inks still hovering about.  The white envelope top left has my Stencil Girl Club stencils from January that even I can’t believe I haven’t opened yet!  The Paper Artsy Alphabet stamp set has become one of my favorites, and even I don’t know what might be hiding under the rest of that stack of papers.

So, there you have it. Now jump back to Julia’s and see some more creative spaces.  Stay Crafty, my Friends.

WOYWW #452

Welcome to WOYWW! What is this? Why, it is the fantabulous blog hop hosted by the lovely Julia at The Stamping Ground where we open our craft room doors to show what our work desks look like on Wednesday.  And to show what fun crafty items everyone is working on. 

How in the name of all that is Holy can we be a twelfth of the way through the year?????  I’m still cleaning up stuff from last year! 

The good news; which is always true for January and February, is I’ve had a lot of time for crafting.  Which lately means working on the Wanderlust course.  Bad news, I’ve been relying on my craft fair stash of cards for birthdays, sympathies, etc., so need to get back into the card making mode. (And I have not forgotten about those Christmas images waiting to be colored…they’re still stacked….and waiting.)

So, here is what we came for; the Desk.  Still on the Journaling side.  This is a page waiting to dry.  Taking aspects of the Michelle Turbide lesson for one of the Wanderlust activities.  I have the paints I’m using: 2 bottles of the Liquitex soft body acrylics to the left; my small collection of Deco Media fluid paints in the basket to the right (need more of them!)  2 jars of gesso I’m using in place of white paint, a pile of virgin stencils top left, and a page I felt like covering with paint; we’ll see where that goes once dry. 

And my journal pages from last week’s lesson; A Life in your hand.  First time I’ve had fun doodling-there may be hope for me yet! 

So, there you have it. Now jump back to Julia’s and see some more creative spaces.  Stay Crafty, my Friends.

WOYWW #451

Welcome to WOYWW! What is this? Why, it is the fantabulous blog hop hosted by the lovely Julia at The Stamping Ground where we open our craft room doors to show what our work desks look like on Wednesday.  And to show what fun crafty items everyone is working on. 

I have actually had a lot of time in the craft room this last weekend. Which was good since the week prior’s lesson on Wanderlust was something I really wanted to “get”, and it gave me time to not only do the project in my journal, but I also had the chance to work on actual canvas’s. (Funny how that makes you feel like a “real” artist!)  And while I’ve always had the paints, they were for Gelli plate printing and backgrounds with stencils.  Actually using a brush to create a scene; pretty scary.  And then there was this week; creating Mandala’s.  That is where this has left me:

The gesso and collage medium jars (and scissors) are added weight to the journal to flatten it out while it drys.  There are the circles a bit to the left for the bloom mandala, the Posca white paint pens (Finally---a nice white pen! Got all 3 widths as a set on Amazon!)  A small pot of glitter (!? Yes, I do own some glitter) the collage medium brush from Tim Holtz (cleans nicely---really is a very good brush!)  and then the map cut up pieces for the Compass Rose Manala—and no; I couldn’t bring myself to cut up real maps.  I scanned my old atlas I found in a yard sale to use!  Above that, more scanned pages, then brown packing paper I use to protect other pages in the journal or use when applying glue, then the IPad, for the lessons and music. 

So here are the Mandala’s: the exercise was to let go and Trust the Path.  I have to confess; I love the whole Intuitive, Mindfulness, Zen Being theories.  I wish I could just let go and enter the moment; but Nope.  My brain just won’t shut up, let go, stop working. And doodling; just can’t get it done-hate it. But the top one really needs something more.  And while we’re not to compare to others; my Mandala’s rather suck. 

But, here are the canvas’s I first mentioned.  Again, “Finding the Path” was the theme, so painting while listening to your body.  My body was too worked up about having stones that didn’t look like flat rectangles.  The first piece was following the instructor literally step by step.  The second was after I had watched the last 3 episodes of Outlander; when I got upstairs I was determined go my own way and not follow the videos. I put my playlist on: Loreena McKennit came up first, and this is what happened.  I wasn’t more purple-ly mistiness; but haven’t figured out how to do that yet. 

Whew! That was quite a post.  For some reason I got to work really early, no one has come in yet and the office is nice and quiet.  And I’m trying the new Blonde Espresso Vanilla Latte from Starbuck’s.  Tasty! All lends to blog chattiness. 

So, there you have it. Now jump back to Julia’s and see some more creative spaces.  Stay Crafty, my Friends.

WOYWW #450

Another Wednesday almost got by me...so I almost missed the Hump-Day Blog Hop created by Julia at the Stamping Ground--nicely coined "What's on Your Work Desk Wednesday".

My desk this week,something new!! Yup, shiny, glittery water brush markers!!  And aside from the glittery part, the most shocking thing....are you ready?   I wasn't going to get them; decided I was good with my Distress markers; but Hubby and I were flipping through the channels late one night, and on the Home Shopping Network was a crafter's workshop segment, and they just started demoing them, and I said, "oh, love those colors", and he said why don't you get them?  and I said I was OK, didn't really  need them.  Hubby got all indignant (as an aside, he also wants to get me the Scrapbox 3.0 that he sees on Facebook; I said to wait till when we downsize, and he seems so hurt!), so the next morning I went on line; they still had some sets available, and Bam!...they belong to me!! Next week I'll have samples!

The rest of the desk...all the supplies for my 2nd lesson on the Wanderlust adventure.  Actually painting with the acrylics and inks...so far I've only used them for Gelli plate printing and stenciling...this involved brushes and canvas; quite scary!  And so far only mirrored the teacher, but I have a canvas ready to start that I'm hoping will be more my path-now that I feel I have the technique- and we'll go from there.  

And here is the finished canvas.  It is an interesting process.  I can't even tell you how many layers of paint are on there!

So that is my desk for the week! I'll get around to visiting later this week, as its too late now. Have a great week everyone.

WOYWW #448--First of 2018!

Welcome to the first WOYWW of the Year! What is this? Why, it is the fantabulous blog hop hosted by the lovely Julia at The StampingGround where we open our craft room doors to show what our work desks look like on Wednesday.  And to show what fun crafty items everyone is working on. 

My desk: primed for the first Wanderlust 2018 lesson this Friday. I am quite proud of the fact that I completed 80% of the weeks last year, and enjoyed it immensely.  I’m hoping I can continue that pace. But they have taken out the “catch-up” weeks, so we’ll see. I have two journals out because I still haven’t decided which one to go with.  I love the Dylusions ones, and this can go tall or wide.  I love the feel of the Dina Wakely one; but I’m afraid the different textures (she has canvas and burlap pages in there) might intimidate me—and as the whole “journaling” aspect of art journaling intimidates me, it might be too much, um…intimidation.  And if I really like one lesson, I can always repeat it in the Media journal; so I guess my mind is now made up.

Other items: to the left, some goodies from the Funkie Junkie Boutique’s progressive sale; I waited till the bitter end, and only had the stamp set, two sets of burlap ribbon (the red roll above) and a small jar of citrine pebbles left in my cart.  But I saved a bundle! LOL!  I have my Media Scribble sticks, some watercolor crayons, and some paints out; mostly because getting them back where they belonged is beyond me this weekend.  The pile top left has various papers, calendar sheets, etc. that I found in my work office when clearing for the end of the year, and thought would make good collage items.  And to the top right, my 2017 book, along with a pile of stencils underneath.  And the desk is covered with newspapers, left from the paper painting last week-so that just adds to the overall messiness of it.

Oh, and at the top edge, you can see the floor, still covered with all the Christmas stamps, etc.  I plan on stamping a bunch of images, then coloring them through the year.  Yup…check back with me in a few months to see how that goes!

So here is my desk, now hop back to Julia’s and portal off to other creative desks around the world.  And even if I don’t get to leave comments, know I do peek on almost everyone during my wait times for the printer or on hold on the phone...my few moments for a creative sanity check while at work.  Stay Crafty, my friends!