WOYWW - Spring Is Coming !

Hi welcome on this special Leap Day ! My desk is trying to be full of optimism at the approach of spring today !

I have finished the March pages in my Book of Days ready for the 1st of March - I always think of yellow as the first colour of spring - with daffodils, gorse & forsythia boldly breaking through the grey lingerings of winter !

So yellow is my March colour !

On Saturday I sneaked off to Carmarthen to the new "The Range" store there - and had a good browse about their craft department - mainly Docrafts stuff but it had the bits & bobs I wanted for making my Easter cards (don't know why I like to make my own Easter cards when I don't do Christmas cards but I always enjoy it !!).

I got lured in by the new Michael Powell stamps - I've admired his quirky Mediterranean inspired designs on cross stitch kits at the shows before - but not being a cross stitcher hadn't had an opportunity to do anything with them. The stamps are lovely though- very fine detail - and I had fun experimenting with different types of watercolour to paint them on Sunday (which I had to myself as the much beloved had gone to footie with friends !).

In between some much needed clearing up & cutting back in the garden & the normal basket of ironing which sits there staring accusingly at me all weekend until I attack it on a Sunday afternoon - I did get to sit in my sunny conservatory & have a few happy painty & inky hours !

Hope you have a few happy crafty hours too this week !

WOYWWW - New Greenhouse Stamps !

Well not much action on the desk this week - but some lovely retail therapy !

I saw these stamps from Stamposauraus advertised in Craft Stamper & thought they would be great for the scrapbook layouts I make about my garden over the summer months !

They arrived this morning & I am really pleased with them - I'm getting nice clear, crisply stamped images & I love the fun quirky designs !

Looking forward to stamping & colouring them in - its like being a kid again - but now my box of crayons are posh Pro-markers & watercolour pencils !!

Also on my desk are 2 canvasses & the rules for entering the art competition in our local family run art shop.

Back in January I was reading a book about giving yourself a kick up the rear about your art & setting goals for yourself (but still having fun !!) - one idea was to show your art - and the entries for this competition get put into the shop window.

So this is a tiny step of putting my work out there in the big wide world !

And supporting a family business - on the use 'em or loose 'em principle !

So I just have to decide what I'm going to do now !!!!

Have a fun crafty week everyone !

WOYWW - My Seed Journal

Well, sadly we are now back in Wales after an enjoyable - if chilly ! - week in Spain - much like the rest of Europe it was the coldest week of the winter but when we could duck out of the cold wind & find a patch of sunshine it was still warm enough to eat lunch outside - unlike at my parents in Sussex where they had 8" of snow all week - so we were lucky !!

At last I had time to work on my Seed Journal - inspired by the project on the Millande website but with my own twist on the idea of exploring the symbolism of The Seed through journal pages.

I have had fun with this - I have used some stamping, some free-hand drawing (whoo ! I am trying to pluck up the courage to draw so this was a big step to a little pea-pod !!) and had fun experimenting with my new Caran D'Ache wax pastels, Inktense pencils & Windsor & Newton watercolours - exploring the differences between them & how each work.

I have thought about what the concept of The Seed means to me - a "Sheltering Pod" that doesn't reach its potential until it leaves its safety & comfort zone, a "Rememberance" - the bridge from last summer to the next, a "Seed By Any Other Name" - appearances & size don't matter to potency & zest for life, the "Scattering Seed" -going out into the world to flourish - and the seed as "a Promise in the Pod" - I've a few more ideas to work up but here's what I've done so far !

What's next ? Well, back at my desk now - I have some scrapping nagging at me but not sure when I'll get the time !!

I have succumbed to some new Greenhouse stamps from Stamposaurus & am waiting for them to arrive - so maybe have something to show next week !

Have a happy crafty week !

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 !!)