WOYWW - Tidy at Last !

After a productive weekend my desk has returned to some sort of calm & order !

I had a major blitz at the weekend on several fronts !

The first big job was emptying out all the remaining folders I had my stamps in & sorting them all out into subject themes.

So now I have 20 folders sorted by things such as foliage, art journalling, alphabets & text, backgrounds & borders, Christmas, cute & cardmaking etc - over the next few months I aim to stamp each stamp into my record folder so I can flick through & see what I have when I want to work on something - trouble is it could be a lifetime project !!!

Then I went through 6 months of crafty magazines ripping out articles to keep & chucking the rest into the blue recycling bags !

As well as finishing my February pages for my Book of Days, I also did a fair bit on my 20,000 leagues project.

The inside is supposed to be the engine room of a Steampunk style submarine - and the outside is a scene of under the ocean - its the first time I've used foam-board & covered it to construct things such as the engine parts & the treasure chest - I was quite pleased how it's turned out !

On the left of the desk are the photos for the next project on my "to do" list - the photos of the gorgeous Alpacas I met last weekend - I'm planning how to scrapbook them - as I'm totally in love with Alpacas it will be a really fun project !!

Have a fun crafty week !!

February Pages

At last I had time this weekend to get to some crafting !

I've been trying some of the advice on the Creative Jump Start course which has been running this January - just make a start & play with your supplies - so I sat in our sunny conservatory yesterday with some Invoke Arts heart stamps & some ink pads & played around adding the 2" squares & decorating the February pages of my Book of Days.

This put me in the mood to create more of my 20,000 leagues box - but more of that when the glue has dried !

I had a final blitz on my stamp collection, emptying the final unsorted 5 or 6 folders, sorting all the stamps into themes then labelling each folder accordingly & filing them all away - it was a massive job and at one point it looked like an explosion in a stamp factory - but I ploughed through it & now they are all sorted by subject matter. Now I just have to spend the next few months stamping them onto my record reference sheets so i can flick through easily & see what I have when I want to create something !

WOYWW - Messy Messy Messy !

Well the desk has descended into chaos & messiness this week !

A combination of being away all weekend & having so many things I want to get round to doing & not enough time to fit them in !

So this week I find my desk heaped with stamps - I am trying to re-file my stamp collection by theme & stamp each one onto a reference sheet so I can flick through when I start a project & see what I have.

Trouble is I have so many stamps it's a mammoth task !! Hence the mid-project chaos !

I have made a start on the inside of my 20,000 leagues box - but just want to get stuck back into it !

I also have the lovely artwork by Millande from her Seed Journal project - I hope to create my own journal when I'm away in a couple of weeks & want to have it with me for inspiration - even I don't intend to do mine in the same style.

So its a week to get tidied up & get some time at the weekend to get creative !

I love Alpacas !

This weekend we went to see my family in Hastings & took the opportunity to go over the Romney Marsh to see my adopted Alpaca - Dana.

The team at Haugelands had arranged a fabulous private visit & I got to go into the pens with the baby alpacas (called crias) and the females - to touch & feed them - and then go to see the males of the herd out in the fields !

I had a brilliant time & have fallen for Alpacas in a big way !

Alpacas are completely adorable !!

(Well I think you can tell as I have dozens of Alpaca pictures & none of my family !!)

WOYWW - 20,000 Leagues !

So, not masses on my desk this week but to the left is yesterday's weekly lesson from my Life Book 2012 course - this one is about collaging your hopes & aspirations for this year.

In the middle is the Triangular Box I had gesso'd up last week - I kept asking it what it wanted to be - and at last it said "a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea piece please" !

So outside will be the scene under the sea - it was the Octopus that swung it for me !!! - and the inside a sort of Steampunk of the inside of the ship .. just the paint basecoats done so far but Rich has 2 days of football this weekend - so I have a lovely weekend as a football widow to play at my painty creative stuff !!

On the right is a photo sheet with some shots I took at the museum in Jersey last summer - fabulous steampunk inspiration that I knew would be handy one day !

The box (which had Chocs in it which Rich munched happily !) has a lovely magnetic snap down flap - isn't it just waiting to be altered for something !!

Well off to play in my journal & sketch a few plans for 20,000 Leagues box !!

Life Book 2012 : First Lesson !

This afternoon I got the chance to sit down & create the first page of my new year long mixed media class called Life Book 2012.

I had watched the videos that Tam had filmed for the first lesson earlier in the week.

This morning I decided to treat myself to a box of 30 lovely Caran D'ache watercolour crayons & 18 Inktense watercolour pencils as I had seen how good they look (compared to my current "poundshop" cheapie watercolour pencils !!) on the video lessons that Tamara had given.

So I had a happy afternoon dipping into the new Life Book Kit I have assembled & playing with the watercolour crayons !

Our first lesson was to create a page learning how to draw, shade & paint a 3/4 face & to celebrate our positive personal qualities - or what she calls our "Inner Goddess Powers"!

It was hard to write these down without feeling self-conscious & that I was blowing my own trumpet ! But I felt better asking the much beloved what he thought my good traits were & then adding a few of my own - the fear of being seen as big-headed must be very deeply ingrained !!!

On how the page has come out - on the positive side you can see it IS a face and a woman's face too ! I like the colouring & shading considering its the first time I have EVER drawn & painted a face !!

The eyes are a bit too big - especially the left one as you look at it & I think I should have drawn the whole portrait bigger in relation to the page - so those are the learnings for next time !!

I enjoyed using the crayons - scribbling them all over the page & then swooshing the scribbles with a wet brush & watching them smooch down to watery effect - I've never done that before & it makes lovely background colours - will definitely use the technique much more now.

Also I think I got the Sea Goddess feel across - which was what I was aiming at !

So all in all a very enjoyable first lesson with still lots to learn but at least at last I am actually drawing & painting - not just thinking about it & wishing I could do it !

Hopefully during the year on the course my skills will grow !

On My New Year's Workdesk !

With the Christmas festivities all done & dusted, the mountain of ironing attacked (& very nearly subdued !) and the decorations safely stowed back in the roof, there was finally some time to myself on my last day off of the New Year break to let a bit of creativity back into my life !

I have nearly finished my Christmas Journal - just a couple last entries to print out & stick in - I like to finish mine on New Year's Day as by that time I am ready to move on to new creative adventures !

And Friday I had a major blitz of tidying all the "stuff" that had been dumped on my desk whilst I was too busy to even take a seat there !

I have started a new Journal which I have called "Create 2012" - I'm hoping that this will be a place for creative experiments - somewhere to plan projects, make notes & collect ideas that I can dip back into when I'm having a "blank page /blank mind" day !! I don't intend it will replace my current rather battered (& by now rather treasured !) Art Journal but that they will work together, interplaying between the two.

I have also created a "Book of Days" - I have seen these on other girls blogs - each month has its own decorated page with little squares for each days to add a note or a doodle.

I have January all laid out with the background page mostly done & the squares glued in - theses are recycled from pages I made by smudging leftover inks on them at last Summer's Artsycrafty weekend ! See - you never know when something will come in handy !!

Rich had a selection box of mustard's for Christmas - they came in an intriguingly triangular shaped box - which was just calling out to me to be altered !! So today it got a couple of layers of gesso & I am waiting for it to tell me what it wants to be !!

I have also been playing about adding layers to my Lynne Perrella inspired Woman icon style canvas - still sticking with the duck egg blue & eggshell but now trying to add texture & depth.

So, I am hoping for a year of creative endeavours ahead - maybe a few hours a week happily covered in paint & ink will help keep the gloom of the world's economies unravelling & the consequent austerity measures - and the endless Welsh rain - at bay & out of mind !!

Here's to a Happy Creative New Year !