WOYWW Two Months & Counting Down !

Well, we hit the 25th October over the weekend & with the "two months to Christmas" date looming over me, I thought I had better get my act together and get card making !

So as I was home alone, with Much Beloved in Manchester for the footie on Sunday, I was able to spend the afternoon crafting !

I have been putting Christmas stuff into a project box for a few weeks, so it was handy enough to haul it all out & make a start.

I started with my 2 Chloe Poinsettia stamps and stamped them with sparkling white embossing powder onto burgundy card, layering the larger & smaller petal stamps to make up the full flower.

Then I set to creating a few cards - each with a similar colour scheme of burgundy on cream card made with a selection of other stamps, ribbons & buttons etc. - but each with a bit of a different design.

Then as I have mentioned before - whilst I do love all the mixed media inky, painty stuff - sometimes I just have an attack of the cutes !

I saw these découpage Pippenwood Christmas cards & papers & couldn't resist !

I do like a bit of laying up now & then !
Then making them up with the matching papers.

Well, these may not complete what I need to send to the people on my Christmas card list - but it feels good to have made a start !












One last crafty project for the weekend was another page for my Journal 52 - this topic was Magic - so it really was a perfect excuse to get my Lavinia stamps out !


Have a great crafty week !
Ali x

WOYWW Journal Catch Up !

Well this Saturday the weather was so-so - and I decided to ignore the demanding voice of the garden until Sunday and have a mad catch up on my Journal 52 !

The challenge for this page was "Use Newspaper" - this was far more of a pain then I anticipated as the newspaper was very fragile & very prone to tearing !
I have had these Woodware stamps for a while - they were 2 sets that came as freebies in 2 different magazines - but not got to play with them - so it was fun to give them an airing !

This challenge was "Rhyme" - I had considered picking a sunny up beat little ditty - but I can't get the vision of the Poppy Commemoration at the Tower of London out of my mind.

So I went back to the poetry books I had as an A-Level student (gulp was that 33 years ago !!) and chose this searing Wilfred Owen poem about the First World War - The Send Off.

It reminded me that rhyme can be bitter, emotionally demanding and so moving.

This page was" In The City" and I used photos I had taken around the Tower of London last month.

I love the city all lit up at night and the juxtaposition of the ancient Tower of London with the sleek modern Gherkin building behind it !

This challenge was to create a page with a new technique - so I decided to include two !
These were 2 techniques that JOFY taught us at our recent class at The Stamp Attic - the main panel is the Chalk Board technique.
This is taking a black background and stamping in Snowflake white Fresco Chalk paint - then adding colour with more chalk paints.
And a bit of adding back in the white lines with a white pen !

The 2nd technique was creating a master-board & then cutting it up to make a background.
I used a selection of JOFY stamps (including the new ones Lynda bought me for my birthday) in honour of our teacher !

 The final page - yeh ! this is the first time I have been up to date in months !! The theme for this challenge was to create a page inspired by mosaic.

I used a stencil called Greek Key then added the mosaic effect marking, Then I played with some Lavinia Stamps I bought at Ally Pally back in April.
The page is called Mosaic & Magic !










I was so excited to be all caught up & cross all the challenges off my list, that I just had to celebrate with a G&T !! Well it was evening by then !!

Tonight there are a couple of things lurking on my desk to be finished ...
I have been working on the giant MDF fob-watch I also bought at Ally Pally.
Still work in progress !












And the ABC ATC challenge Lynda & I are doing this year is up to "V" - tricky to decide what to do - Vegetables seemed a bit boring ! So I have gone with Vampire Bat ! Well it is Hallowe'en this month !
And some scribbled drawings - I have started the Sketchbook Skool "Beginnings" course - and am trying to build up the courage to actually pick up a pen & start drawing - these were the apple & pear in my lunchbox today !



And on the floor being packed tonight, a few bits to play with at Craft Club tomorrow !

Well I shall be AWOL next week as I am working at SIAL - the huge food industry trade fair in Paris - so will be in a state of collapse by this time next week as it is very hard work - and much more physically demanding than a normally desk-bound girl like me is used to - so extra comfy shoes are packed  !

So have a great fortnight & see you soon ! Ali x

WOYWW Autumn Glory

Well what a stunning day we enjoyed on Saturday !

Lynda kindly took me up to the mountain behind Pontardulais to walk around the Lliw Reservoir.


At the swimming pool the following day one of the ladies who always swims at the same time as us told me Lliw means Colour in Welsh -and it was a day of such fabulous luminescent Autumn sunlight that it certainly lived up to its name !

Lynda is experimenting with her photography so we decide to make our walk a photo-shoot & had lots of fun catching the views & the Autumn plants in the beautiful dreamy sunlight.

Oh and the pleasures of kicking though those crunchy crisp Autumn leaves !

Lynda even hopped athletically over a gate to snap a close up of the amazing mushroom we saw on a fallen log !

I wanted to show you a few snaps of us all at our Craft Club last Wednesday - Lynda had made up some great Christmas card kits so we could all experiment with Texture Paste - we all had great fun getting messy & trying something new ! Do try it with your stencils !
 Whoops - those biscuits in full shot are a bit of a give-away aren't they !

Next club meeting - we meet fortnightly - we thought we would play with Masterboards (I keep calling them Motherboards by mistake but Much Beloved tells me they are something else entirely !!)

So I made a small & large Christmas version - thought I might see what happens if I Cuttlebug the small one and an Autumn one - just to play with the idea and show some examples next week.











I also finished another Journal 52 page - still playing catch up but am determined to finish the year ! This one's challenge theme was "Making Time"

Oh and just what is actually on my workdesk this week - well beans & chillies drying ! The beans are my crop from the handful of beans I brought back from San Francisco in January & grew this Summer - I wasn't exactly Jack & the Beanstalk but they were fun to experiment with & I just love their amazing patterns !

Have a great week !
Ali x

PS I was really chuffed that Jo Firth Young featured my card from her class the other weekend on her blog this week !!