WOYWW 169 - where's Mojo?

Well, you know the game Where's Wally? Instead of What's on your Workdesk Wednesday,  I am playing Where's Mojo... cos he sure as hell ain't here.... I had thought I'd spend all last weekend (it was a Bank Holiday in England) crafting. But Mojo had other ideas and jollied off and left me....

I did eventually get something done, but my workspace was bare for most of it....  and is bare again now too....

This was it on Friday - I had some happy mail - from Wendy Vecchi herself - a 'leave a comment and randomly win a prize'  giveaway - one of her new sets of stamps and matching art parts.... and still I was stuck!

I eventually started.....  a scrap of canvas (check here for what happened)

Anyhow, off to Julia's with you and she'll let you see hundreds of other crafty spaces and I'll catch you all soon...

A Two-fer challenge

Well, so much for spending the Bank Holiday crafting! I didn't do a thing, didn't have a clue what to do...why does Mojo always desert you when you have time on your hands....

Anyhow, I was extremely lucky recently to win a stamp and art part set from Wendy Vecchi for leaving a comment on her blog and which Mr Postie had delivered on Friday.... still I didn't know what to do... But the two-fer....

Hels' Sunday Stamper challenge was to use green, based on her chosen song title Green Tambourine.... and the Everything Wendy Vecchi yahoo group, hosted by Lori, sent us to page 28 of Wendy's book 4 and to use canvas.. so I decided to combine them, with the new stamps..

I took a piece of sticky back canvas (Claudine Hellmuth) and sprayed it with a mixture of lettuce colour wash and fresh lime  Dylusion sprays.   I stamped (using the rolling method to get an uneven coverage) the larger of the text stamps from the prize set of stamps (Tales of Art), and stuck it to a tag (also sprayed green)

The other stamps I used are from the same stamp set, apart from on the black card, which is the background stamp from Celestial Art, and was clear embossed before painting with apple green perfect pearls (mixed with water) .  Used up some scraps of tissue wrap behind the tag and added some green ribbon.

Not perfectly happy with this, but it has got me crafting again and I hope to get back in the swing properly now!

Art for Art's Sake - Tag It On

Welcome to another fortnightly challenge at Dragons-Dream. Frankie herself is chef-de-cuisine for this recipe titled Art for Art's Sake.  Your ingredients - the obligatory tag, one real stamp - and a handmade background, an interesting character(s), a quirky twist.

I left this nearly to the last minute, on what turned out to be the hottest weekend of the "summer" so tried to do as little as possible that needed heat setting (lol!)

 My base background is Dylusions spray, turquoise and pink, then I used puff paint (Crafty Notions) which after heating (I couldn't avoid the heat gun for that!) I coloured with some steel blue Inka Gold "goop". The numbers are a Paperartsy 'mini' stamp.













Then I used some Paperartsy Crunchy paper (similar to Tim's Glassine paper) which was screwed up, dusted with perfect pearls powder (a pink one) and brushed the high points with salty ocean distress ink, not that you can see it behind the tag.....



The interesting character is Lucy,  from the Dylusions stamp set Love Struck Lucy and I coloured her with portfoleo oil pastels.

I used a tissue wrap flower that was left over from an unused project as it matched my pink/blue colour combinations, and the text "success" is a Paperartsy stamp, which I tore in half so I could fit it on my tag....

I found a couple of pink wire trim things (got them from Paperartsy too, years and years ago....) and the 'if I had wings' is my quirky twist.... that's from the Art Sayings set by Sam Poole for Creative Expressions

I finished by mounting all of that on a piece of black card covered with some - not sure what you call it - mesh stuff!!!


Anyhow, pop over to Dragons-Dream to see what the rest of the very talented DT have conjured - cooked - up for you, and we hope to see you play along!

WOYWW 168 - tidy scraps!

Not Wednesday again - really??? You're here for WOYWW then.... check the link for Julia and she'll tell you all about it...

apart from a couple of DT pieces (come back later for the Tag it On one) I am still not back in full crafting mode after the Olympics..... so on Tuesday night, I decided to tackle my 'scraps' box....

which was not if nothing, full!  My dumping ground for all those teeny weeny bits of leftover favourite patterned papers that I couldn't chuck, and offcuts of this and that, rejected tags, and punched out bits and pieces.... so I started to delve....I was ruthless, anything not big enough to be useful, went, into the bin!

And this is all that is left.... and (for now anyway!) it's tidy....
the black (and under it the yellow) are pieces of fun foam and as there was only one sheet of each colour in the pack, I did keep these.... they probably won't be useful but....

other than that, I have a load of 'backs of tags' that I can use again, one day!!

Nothing much else going on here, craft wise for now (though do come back and see the Tag it On challenge later!)
Hope you have a good week, and I'll get to as many of your desks and spaces as I can, promise!

Tweet Tweet - Crafty Boots

It's time for a new Crafty Boots challenge and Amy has set this one - and it is for anything bird-related.

I decided to use my 'caged bird' die from Tim Holtz's range.

Started with Dylusions - melted chocolate, bibrant turquoise and fresh lime. Painted the cage with French Roast and Old Gold Fresco paints, and the bird I used walnut stain distress ink and spiced marmalade stain.

Used a Paperartsy 'mini' script stamp in walnut stain randomly round the edge of the tag, then added some Dylusion solid leaf stamping.

You have two weeks to join in - hope to see some great tweeting!!

WOYWW 167

Welcome back to What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday. The lovely Queen Julia's brainchild which sees us all hopping round snooping - there is no other word for it -  at workspaces.

Now that the Olympics have finished (boo, I'm missing it!) I am hoping to get some crafting done again, but haven't got there yet!

I spent a lovely day on Sunday at the Stamperama show in Stevenage, meeting up with some lovely crafty bloggy tweety friends! I had a very restrained spend

See! I can do small stash purchase!

I met my friend Kirsten in London and we then travelled to London's Kings Cross station where the refurbishment work that was causing such chaos last time I was there, has finished - look at this fab ceiling structure!

We both had to take photos like a couple of tourists (just as well the Olympics are on, people with cameras everywhere!!)

 Leandra of Paperartsy fame was demo'ing a fabulous image transfer method so when I got home I jumped onto her website to get some... so when I have time, I'll try it out.

I'll leave you with a birthday card for my nephew on Friday (hope he doesn't see this before then!) he's 16 and just done his GCSE's so his future is ahead of him, so I thought this appropriate.

See you next week - hope to visit as many of you as I can!

It would have been my Dad's birthday today, so he is in my thoughts.

TIO - Nightmare

Welcome to another Tag It On  challenge from Dragons-Dream - Your challenge, should you accept it is to use the recipe of a blue moon, a chill wind and a murder of crows.  It may not surprise you to learn that this is Blackdragon's choice! Sadly, she has suffered some family bereavement and is taking a breatk.
Don't forget you must make a tag, and use at least one 'real' stamp! Good luck....

My tag features Crafty Individuals CI 319 with the bird (I am calling it a crow!) stamped another twice and cut out.
I did wonder how to demonstrate the 'chill wind' ingredient - but tried to use my scribbly pencil strokes round the edge of the stamped image to illustrate that!

WOYWW? Gold Medal City

I know it's not nice to boast but - wow, Team GB are doing so well at the 2012 London Olympics - I have been enjoying it so much.... not done a lot other than watch Olympic events on TV and listening to the radio commentaries all day at work....

So, once again my "workdesk" for What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday looks a little bare.... my sadly neglected journal and the marathon route map, and a little souvenir booklet with a load of London Olympic trivia that was being handed out on Sunday.

So here are a few pics of a very wet Women's Marathon on Sunday - I went to spectate in the pouring rain and the full story is here  (some of you have seen it already, thanks!)

I will try and get round more of your desks this week, after all the Olympics finish on Sunday so I should have some more time!! They have totally taken over my life - I will miss it but kind of looking forward to having some time for other things!

Come back later for another Tag it On challenge!

Go plaid for Wendy

The yahoo group Everything Wendy Vecchi has a 'plaid' challenge this time round - and I wanted to make sure I made this one, as the Olympics schedule has kept me glued to the TV and our successes coming thick and fast - go Team GB!

Anyhow, Lori wanted us to make something with plaid, not from any of Wendy's books this time.

I used the large background stamp for this, and peacock feathers and shaded lilac distress inks, though there is more of the former than the latter!  I went for a tag for speed (had to get back to the sport!)

I stamped 4 of the larger flowers from Accents for Art in peacock feathers ink, and coloured it with shaded lilac and squeezed lemonade.  The centres of the flowers have rock candy distress stickles on - probably should have waited for it to dry before photographing it...

Added rick rack and a Wendy sentiment.

I had a great - if wet - day out yesterday in London, spectating in the pouring rain for the Olympic Marathon. To read about it and see the - very wet! - photos - check my other blog here 

Crafty Boots - Postcards

Welcome to another fabulous challenge set by the Crafty Boots DT - I just about tore myself away from the Olympics to make this!  My lovely team-mate Gabrielle chose this theme - and I turned to my Stampscapes.

If I could find my instructions on how to position two pictures side by side I would have....

I used the squeezed lemonade, tumbled glass and salty ocean distress inks to colour the post card and archival ink for the stamping.

Do stop over to the challenge site to see what the others have dreamt up this time. Hope to see your fabulous entries too.

WOYWW 165

Hello all, and Happy Olympics! Really enjoying the Olympics - a few more medals would be nice, if I'm being greedy but.... the opening ceremony was fabulous (it probably helped if you knew a lot of British history but that was my favourite subject at school! but I thought it was inventive, very funny (I even laughed at Mr Bean and I don't normally) and so much to see. ) The venues look fantastic, and I am so proud to see the Olympics in my own country!  One of my neighbours is a 'Games Maker' volunteer - and she's based at Wimbledon for the tennis (it's quite near us) - I can't wait to catch up with her and find out how she's enjoying it. Whilst I am enjoying everything in the first week, I am really looking forward to the athletics that start on Friday.

So as you can imagine, I have been watching quite a lot of all sorts of sports I've never seen before, flicking between 24 channels showing everything imaginable!!  Accordingly, my patch on the floor is totally not creative at the moment .......I haven't so much as inked a stamp since last Thursday...***

The TV guide with pull out section.... day by day planning! So, you may not be surprised to hear that I may not visit many desks this week.... hope you all have a lovely creative time (I must get some DT pieces done at some stage, wonder if I could dispense with sleep for a couple of days....) so happy desk hopping, check out the link at Julia's pad here.  See you next week - may have some art to share!

***actually, that isn't quite true - I stamped a 'happy anniversary' to go on this card for my brother and sister-in-law's wedding anniversary which is today!
I forgot to re-photograph the card after I fixed the greeting to the front (and one inside too) - it's stamped with the cover-a-card trees stamp I got at Newbury, and the background is pan pastels. Hope they received it in time...