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!