WOYWW - Live Life In Colour !

Hi there - my desk this week is the calm after a little frenzy of crafty action !

I have actually completed some projects !

I am reading my bargin copy of Visual Chronicles about art journalling and they suggest little projects to get you into things.

The first is to create a personal colour palette book - you map out "your colours", those of family & friends, of the colours you associate with different moods etc.

I thought it a bit odd at first but went with the idea, raided the colour swatches in the paint department of B&Q & made this little book - once I got into it I really enjoyed it - i did colour combos for DH, parents, sister (and me !) - then anger, melacholy, peacefulness & the 4 seasons.

I think going forward I could add to it with colour combinations that I come across which inspire me !

I also have another colour project - the little book I've made with all the colours of my Distress Inks as a quick reference for inky projects !

To the right hand side I have some "test pots" of chalky emulsion period paints - meant for decorating but great to make the background colours for things like this box (on the left) I'm in the midst of altering (another TK Max bargin!).

In the centre are my Silkies inks & stamp a free gift for renewing my Craft Stamper subscription - yet to play with these !

Some new stamps - also TK Max bargins - bought a new album & papers too but they are stowed away !

Oh and a mini canvass which is sitting drying - made to sit on my dressing table out in Spain !

Anyway hope everyone has a happy Wednesday - can't believe it is September already & another summer has slipped through my fingers !

WOYWW - New stash !

Hi there - hope everyone well & enjoying their Wednesday - severe weather warning out for Wales this afternoon - gales & lashing rain. In August. Great ! Just working up to a typical rain soaked British Bank Holiday Weekend I suppose !!

Anyway, I have new stash to play with so I can huddle at home & stoically ignore the weather outside !

On my desk this morning are my new yummy papers - bought at Paperarts in Stroud at the weekend. Nice little shop with mainly scrapping stuff - but I was completely ignored until I got to the till - I don't like to be "pounced on" by staff demanding to know what I want when I'm just in for a brouse in a shop, but a Hi, Good Morning or even just a smile of welcome would be nice! Or is that just me ?

Anyway - have some nice new papers & hope to use them in my Learn Something New Everyday class next month. I have the last 2 distress inks I wanted to have the whole set ! I've made little cards with a big smudge of colour on them & the name of the pad. I'm going to decorate a couple of chip-board covers to make it into a swatch book so I can refer to it as I'm crafting & get just the colour I have in my head !!

I have me new Visual Chronicles book about art journalling - bargin at £3.99 in TK Max (over £20 on Amazon so I felt smug at finding it !) - hoping to start some of the ideas in it this weekend too. DH is off to football for the day Saturday & I have a thousand plans for my free day - I need it to be about 72 hours in the one day !!

Anyway looking forward to seeing everyone's desk tonight when I get back from Scrap-Club - but visiting everyone might be plan 1001 for Saturday !! Have a happy crafty Wednesday !

Learn Something New - 2010 Class !

Can it really be a year since I did the last of Shimelle's Learn Something New Everyday daily scrapping & journalling class ?

I did really well for the first 18 days but then went on holiday & despite good intentions everything fell apart !

So I went back on 19th March this year and followed the last 12 prompts & finished the scrapbook - better (6 months!) late than never !!

Here's hoping I can keep up this year !

I'm going to prep my album this weekend & hopefully that will set me up for day 1 & the rest of the month !

Watch this space to see how I do !

WOYWW - Back to Scrap !

Hiya ! After a fun weekend taking part in Shimelle's Summer On Line crop I am still in a scrapping mood ! On my desk this week I have a layout in progress - a lovely, relaxing, hot Summer's day following our friends playing golf on the stunningly beautiful course near El Escorial north of Madrid.

The ladies at Scrap Girls fab digital scrapping website have a 23% off sale on - so I'm in the middle of downloading some of the digital stash I have just bought - great site & such helpful guys there - check it out if you don't know it - http://www.scrapgirls.com/. I don't use the stash for digital so much as haven't had time to learn a software system (retirement project maybe !!) - but I use it to print out & scrap with & for work projects too.

On the left is the finished box for my board book - with my grunge roses - don't let Sue at Jaberwocky (great blog - check it out too !) see them as she was lamenting if she sees another one it will be a century too soon !

Still I think they are quite cute for a first attempt !

Have a happy Wednesday & thanks so much for stopping by !

Scrapping with Circles Challenge

One last entry to Shimelle's Online Summer crop for tonight. Scrap a page featuring circles. Here are my circles featured to show off the photos I took when we went to Silla de Felipe II in July with our friends the Perez family near El Escorial north of Madrid. A hot, fun summer's day to remember - climbing up to the seat was really steep but Rich was determined that his disability wouldn't leave him feeling left out - so he made it to the top - great views with great friends !

Craft Desk in the Sun !

Take a photo of your craft desk - finally a sunny Sunday here in West Wales - so a temporary desk in the garden !

Finally a Scrapping Challenge completed !!

Of all the scrapping challenges this weekend - I know I won't have time to do many !

So I decided the "Show 10 Things You Love" would be a good way to scrap a lot of this weekend's challenge photos.

I thought that celebrating the little things I have enjoyed this weekend - no big events or anything earth shattering - but just a way to put down some fun things and maybe looking back on this in future years will give a snap shot of my life these 2 days !

Photo Challenges !

2. Here's "take a photo from the Knees down" - a self portrait of my feet ! Finally sunny & warm enough to wear my sandals !

3. Take a picture of a Sign - here's our favourite local restaurant - the (usually) makes us smile !

4. Take a photo thought a Window - here's Swansea Castle taken through Pizza Express window last night.

5. Take a picture in Close Up - here's Ivy on the bridge at Nantgaredig.

Take the Wide View ! Nature in all her Glory !

Some more challenge photos for Shimelle's Summer Online Crop !



1. Take a "Wide View" photo & take a photo of "Something from Nature" - here's the view over the River Twyi from Nantgaredig Bridge early this morning.

Summer Online Crop Weekend with Shimelle

Hi - decided to try my first ever online crop this weekend - this is half photo challenges and half scrapping challenges. As I was out all day yesterday the scrapping pretty much went by the wayside but I did try as many of the photo challenges as I could !

So here are my photos ! First the "Take a picture of a man-made object" challenge - I went to the Egypt Centre in Swansea & took these 2 pictures of objects made over 2,500 years ago - and yet they are so vital, engaging & timeless could have been made yesterday ! It was stunning to see the continuity of human art - these were their way of recording life in a world before photography was dreamed of !

Another Challenge was "A Lght at Night" this was taken at the Grand Theatre last night. And finally "Shoot the Sky" - I loved this brooding sky out over the stunning beaches we have heare on the South Wales Coast.

WOYWW - All (Zen)Tangled Up !

Hi - not so much happening on the desk this Wednesday - but happily this is due to projects having been finished !!

Today I have my new Zentangle Basics book - just getting into the whole Zentangle thing & think it could become addictive !

Also a chart I found of all the Distress Inks - I kept wondering what colours I was missing - now I have something to keep in my bag when I'm out & about & happen by a craft shop !

And my work in progress on the box for my board book - my first grungepaper roses !

I have seen all the folk using grunge paper but having dabbled with it now I'm not sure what to make of it - or if I'm doing it right ! Seems to come out very dark (should I use white paint or gesso under the Distress Inks ??) and I expected it to be more "shapeable" - should it fold & hold a shape ??

Any hints & tips gratefully received !!

Have a fun Wednesday !

Things with Wings - Journal Page

I made this page in my Journal for the "Things with Wings" Simon Says challenge.

I had made a note of this quote in my Journal a while ago - I have to do it at the time or I loose them !! - then have created the page around the text with Distress Inks & die cut & stamped Moths (Paperartsy) and stamping to frame the page.

The concept of "the life I had settled for" caught my attention & made me think about where I am in life now & how I got here .. and if I want things to be different & how I might have to behave to achieve this ... but maybe that's for a follow up page !

Home Tweet Home !

Well finally got round to a crafty afternoon - felt virtuous though as we did go swimming - 60 lengths today & then had a good walk round the Botanic Garden - lots of plant photos to shoot at this time of year - so did try some of the Shimelle techniques on her Love Your Pictures course !
Today I decided to decorate the bird house I bought at Artsy Craft - had great fun with it ! My base paint was just a matchpot from B&Q - loved the blue "Dapple" its called ! used some Distress Inks to give shade & tone - really into the Tumbled Glass colour !




Then I created the 2 sides of the roof with a new embossing folder from Indentz - plus scallops cut on my new Tim Holtz die. Then I stamped my "Quirky Bird" as I call him !! - stamps from Hero Arts - with a few more from my stash- like the Home Sweet Home one - thrown in. I had great fun stamping & inking and using my new set of Aquamarkers that I succumbed to in Hobbycraft in Cardiff yesterday !!


Really pleased with how bright & fun the little house has turned out ! Just have to think where to display him !!

WOYWW - My Garden Journal this week...

Hi there not too much action on the craft desk this week .. I actually have had a bit of a tidy up - not that you can really tell !!

Mainly I have my Garden Journal - a chipboard book I am working on each month using the Wild Asparagus papers (well they are lovely & their name fits with the garden theme !!) - and the recycled parts of the lovely garden calendar Mum gave me for Christmas. This month's entry is all about last weekend's big tidy up - my very first mini cucumber ever and a friendly Freddie Frog who seems to have moved in !

Just tucked off to the edge is a sheet onto which I have stamped my new great fun Born to Shop stamps - ready to have a play colouring in with my new Pro-Markers !

Also waiting patiently for the weekend is the box for my Old & New project .. more next week on that I hope !

Well thanks for stopping by & have a great Wednesday ... looking forward to seeing your Craft Desk blogs this week !!

Four Seasons with Beer Mats !!

Well here's the final finished Four Seasons canvas - inspired by "acquiring" 4 beer mats at our favourite local Indian takeaway ! I really liked the sloping shape of the edges of the canvas !

I painted the background with Kaisercolour paints - black & aubergine with a layer of Glimmer Mists & some stamping to reflect each season. Then those tree stamps on the painted beer mats !! Some of the new Tissue Tape mini calenders - which seemed to fit the seasons theme!
I had thought of putting the Maya Road chipboard "Seasons" words on the front but it seemed all a bit too "obvious" - suddenly it struck me to put the words on the sloping sides of the canvas ! So these were duly inked up & stuck on !

Then dipping in various finger tips I added a good smooch here & there with some different Inca-Gold paints to highlight & then it was ready to hang up !

Old & New Challenge

I decided to have a go at the Old & New Sunday Stampers/ Artistic Stamper challenge. First I had to do battle with the wilderness that was my garden - now relatively tidy & tamed ! And to go swimiing having missed 4 weeks due to holiday & family commitments - so all that done I finally got to play time about 3pm yesterday !

I'm on a mission to use my OLD stash & try NEW things - so here is my project - a folding board book (NEW) painted white with Gesso & on which I have been wiping OLD bits of Cut & Dry everytime I make something - over a couple of weeks the various colours formed a basis for the decoration ! I tried a NEW to me technique - ripping out pages from a particularly dull thriller & pasting this on with a layer of OLD white tissue paper on top to mask it down a bit.

I used my NEW Paperartsy Hot Picks & Hero Arts stamps, some OLD die cuts & bits of left over stamping (like my lovely owl) - then a mix of OLD & NEW colours of Distress inks. Good job I did this in OLD clothes as I got gloriously covered in ink !!!

I've also had a go at a NEW way to insert the photo - making a collage out of it on the Piknik website (no need to download anything or register !) - all the pages are the same size in real life - but it gives the feel of it !!

Anyway - I'm pleased with how its coming on - the book goes into its own box .. so decorating that is the next task !!