What's on your Workdesk? Wednesday - Just

I know I'm a bit late today for WOYWW #174, but I have been to my sister who lives over 60 miles from me and got back to pick the little grandchildren from school as the eldest is back in hospital and will probably be in for a while again. Since her big op she has been sick (physically) and the doctors don't seem to know what's going on. I hope they get it sorted soon.

As my desk has everything piled on it that was on the floor, ready for hoovering, I thought I would show you some of the shelves behind my chair. Not that interesting I know but maybe the next picture will be.

If you visited me last week for WOYWW #173 you saw part of a canvas peeking out and many of you said you would like to see it finished, so this is it.

It was the canvas we made at my workshop on Saturday and the ladies just loved it. 

Text paper and scrumpled tissue paper texture for the background, patterned paper squares edged with glitter, The Eiffel Tower image and die-cut and some embellishing.

Ooh, la, la.

I am entering this canvas into the Make My Monday challenge of Paris.

Happy WOYWW, hope you have had a good day if you are in the UK or ahead of us in time, and having a good day if you are behind us.

Please pop over to Julia's lovely blog at the Stamping Ground, she who organises and hosts this great opportunity to visit people's work stations all round the world. If you haven't yet ventured into desk hopping I have to say it's great fun.

See you soon.

hugs {brenda} xox

My Give-Away Winner

Just a quick post to congratulate the winner of my Give-Away. 

I used Random Org to select and as you can see the number generated from 46 entrants is number 2 and that is .........

***************

****************

*****

******************************

****************

********

********************************************

************************

************

KATHYK of PURPLE PRINCESS DIARIES

Congratulations Kathy.

I hope you enjoy the new supplies and if you send me an email (address on my sidebar) I will get these in the post to you.

A huge thank you to everyone who took part.

Watch out for another give-away coming soon as I have just reached 600 posts and I thought that should warrant another pressie for some-one.

I have been out all day today but I am now gonna feed the grandchildren and then once I have dropped them home I will get onto WOYWW.

See you soon.

hugs {brenda} xox

UPA - Add dimension to your canvas

It's October, can you believe????? with a new monthly theme at Unruly PaperArts and we are looking forward to seeing how you use canvas in your projects.

There are two RAQs (Reader's Art Quests) for you to enter, the first being a painted project and the second is about how you add dimension. My piece for the RAQ introduction is for the second one.

The addition of texture adds another dimension to your canvas. Textures can include gesso, modelling paste, fabrics, string, chipboard pieces, tissue paper, just anything you want to add really.

Here is my collection adhered to the canvas before I added a coat of gesso. We have muslin (fabric), kitchen roll, book text, paper lace, string and decorator's jointing tape.

This is glued to the canvas, once it was dry I covered it with  a coat of gesso, stippling in places to blend the pieces and creating more texture where needed.

You can see the changes in texture and some of the stippled gesso behind the butterfly.

This is my grandaughter, taken while we are at Disneyland this august and before she had to have that emergency op a few weeks later.

She is a star, so there had to be one on the canvas somewhere.

I feel like a Prima lady with all these flowers, but I really enjoyed making something different for a change and I am going to hang this on the dining room wall. It was recently painted and needs some new things to decorate it.

 I will be doing a step-by-step on how I add dimension and texture to my canvases which will be on my Eclectic Elements column for Unruly later in the month.

"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things." 

Have a creative week.

hugs {brenda} xox

Challenges to have fun with -

Anything but a card - shiny, sparkly, blingy (lots of bits and pieces on here to meet that requirement).

Totally Gorjuss - Punches and dies

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

Autumn - Fall into Fall

I did a workshop yesterday for a lovely group of crafters that come regularly to my classes and we made a French themed canvas (I will post it in the week), very shabby chic in style. When I got home I was really fired up to make something vintage and pretty and had a few challenges in mind to enter.

Frilly and Funkie - Fall into Fall

Sugar Creek Hollow - Wings (bees and butterflies on my tag)

Stampin' for the weekend - Floral

The Playdate Cafe - Wine, pumpkin, moss colours

So this is the result. I am really into extending my tags at the moment and have made 3 recently where I have added a DP mount, lengthening the tag, providing a frame for it and extra space for some embellishing and sentiments. I am going to call it my extended tag.

If you look closely you can see two honeycomb patterns, one was stamped the other a mask, I also stamped some plants and bees using Nature walk from SU.

The lace is from the Funkie Junkie Boutique and the words are computer generated.

I love the dimension of these flowers using the TH tattered flower garden die.

Have a great Sunday, it started beautifully sunny earlier but the wind has got up and the clouds have rolled in. Just hope it stays dry.

hugs {brenda} xox

Other challenges to have fun with -

Crazy 4 Challenges - Leaves

Sunday Stamper - What makes you happy (Lots of inky playing)
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

PanPastels - It's all in the sentiment

Another Sunday has rolled around and we see a new challenge at PanPastel UK where the focus is on using a sentiment on your project.

I lived up to my sentiment and decided to take a risk, well more than one actually. I have used a topper, unheard of for me, and also backing paper from the same set. 

I have mixed styles too adding a Dylusions quote and a journalling style backer using PPs and a great new embossing ink pad (for me) which really changes the colours. 

The butterflies were cut out from a spare piece of the backing paper. I have been doing some quite grungy pieces lately that this pastel card was very very refreshing, not something I have been doing lately. I don't think I have missed a moment of magic, but I certainly enjoyed playing with different materials and ideas.

I hope we will see you in your sentiment this week over at the PP challenge blog and if you are lucky you could win a fabulous prize from 'Your Creativity Store'.

Hope you have some fun creative time for you today.

hugs {brenda} xox

First Christmas piece for this year.

My second post for today. This tag was on my desk yesterday for WOYWW and as I said I needed to get it finished as I want to enter these challenges;

 Simon Says Stamp and Show - For the love of sparkle. 

Compendium of Curiosities at Studio L3 - Riveted Patchwork

The Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas - Week #2 

(I've still got #1 to do but ordered some things so I can join in)

I have also made this for Crafty Individuals using stamp plate CI 136.

I used gold, cranberry and bottle alcohol inks on the metal riveted patchwork tag (this technique was my inspiration from Linda's fabulous tag) and red pepper on the metal star. I used stickles and treasure gold on the vintage Noel and have a glittered bauble; then taken the patchwork, and snowflakes as my inspiration from Linda.

I have used one of the mini snowflake rosettes from Tim's new dies.

I used prisma colours for the image but disappointed they didn't show up well on these photos, irl there is much more depth of colour on the faces and beard.

Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas is an inspiration challenge and there will be a winner drawn at the end of the 12 weeks as long as you enter each one. There is plenty of time to enter as each tag challenge will remain open until the 17th December, giving plenty of time to catch up if you miss any. The sponsor is The Funkie Junkie Boutique, which is Linda's fantastic on-line store where she stocks lots of fabulous products to produce vintage, shabby chic projects. So let's see if I can get all 12 made this year.

The sun is shining here although the clouds are rolling in. Maddison had her first full day at school yesterday so I no longer have to pick her up at lunchtime, but I miss her already.

Hope your day is going well.

hugs {brenda} xox

Halloween - bloody, skull moon

Had to have a play with some Halloween bits.

Background made with smooching and dipping dark DI's. Stamped with crackle stamp and black archival ink. Dipped again in festive berries and ripe persimmon mixed with cosmic shimmer mists. Ribbon dyed with same colours.

Embellished with - a blood moon with skull (moon made with vintage optometrist lens), cobwebbed cat and spiked railings.

For some reason the photos look blurred to me today, I will try them again later.

Go wherever your creativity takes you.

hugs {brenda} xox

Challenges to have fun with -

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

City Crafter - An early Boo

Crazy Amigos - No cards

TIOT - Lots of Layers

WOYWW #173 - even more of a mess

Firstly a warm welcome to my new followers. Thank you for joining me on this creative journey that keeps wending itself through fogs and forests and then wonderful mojo filled landscapes that capture my total attention and imagination.
I hope you find some inspiration on your journey with me.

Well this was how I left my desk Monday night and I haven't had a chance to get back to it.

The canvas you saw last week is still peeking out at the end there. It is my workshop piece for this Saturday and just about completed, just got a bit more prepping to do for the class members. I'll show it properly later when I've done the class.

A Christmas tag in the foreground, well on it's way to completion. Got a couple of challenges I want to enter with this, so must find a bit of time today to finish it if I can.

Otherwise there's all the materials and tools I have been searching through or using.

So why the interest in my workspace? Well that's because I have caught up with "Whats on Your Workdesk Wednesday" hosted by Julia over at The Stamping Ground, and if you would like to see what creative workspaces look like all over the world, then pop off and take a peek for yourself. You'll have great fun.

Right I am off to visit some of your lovely people that take part, I try to comment on the numbers that end with the same as mine, my friends and those that visit me (letting me know what number so as I can find you).

I have a Governor's meeting later this afternoon. Since I have 'retired' I became a governor of one of our local primary schools so that I can put something back into the education system and our local community. Takes quite a bit of time though.

Take care and Happy WOYWW.

hugs {brenda} xox

Flower book for Crafty Individuals

Jean posted this little book on the Crafty Individuals blog last Saturday. Don't forget if you enter the September challenge - Last days of Summer - you can get a code for 25% off everything in the on-line shop and that includes stamps, images, alterables, masks, dies and other bits and pieces. Everyone's a winner eh?

I love making books and this is a real mini, just 3ins square, but originally made from one 12 x 12 piece of paper and once made up I cut the book in half.

The front cover (above) and the inside pages (below).

The images are Crafty Individuals Flowers Film Strip, each one trimmed and mounted before adding one to each page with small embellishments and trims and presented collage style.

I had an email about the words I used, they aren't stamps but computer generated. I love to make these up so they fit exactly with my theme.

CI has alot of new items in their on-line shop and these images are perfect for making these mini books or quick cards.

Have a fun and creative day.

hugs {brenda} xox

Experiments with PanPastels

Today sees a new challenge at PanPastel UK and I have been experimenting with the Pans and other supplies to try and achieve a distressed grungy effect.

I think I need to play a bit more before I reveal all, so that I can show you comparisons.

But this was the background before I added the second layer.

I love the effects achieved with the fabulous TH stamp and would you believe the image is in PanPastels?

Why not take a look at the challenge blog, the theme this week is GOOD LUCK and hopefully you will be inspired by our fabulous team and if you enter you are in with a chance of winning a fabulous PanPastel kit from Your Creativity Store. They have free P&P and a 10% saving on the PanPastels and tools at the moment.

I went to Ally Pally yesterday and got to see my friend Heidi (Little Claire's), Lin Brown, Hels, Alison and Hazel, I also got to part with money and bought quite a few bits and pieces - more than I intended to, but then that's often the way isn't? I was really lucky to find Tim's Mini Snowflake Rosette, so I am looking forward to using that and I also bought some of his new Christmas stamps.

Sorry if I am not getting round to you very much at the moment, my internet is going to be on a go slow or out altogether until at least tomorrow and as that is the fourth date I have been given, I am not holding my breath.

I hope you are having a creative weekend.

hugs {brenda} xox