WOYWW

Morning all! I remembered to take my photos early this morning, so with no further ado, here goes.....

One messy desk. WE could do a Where's Wally (Waldo) on this photo! Can you find.....
my little wooden crying/praying man?
a fab fudge tin to be altered?
my pink ipod?
my newly made little red canvas?

Hee hee, I could go on for hours..... Here's a close up of the actual work on the desk.

Some wooden letters from a sale bin, which I've started to work on to put on my wall. One for each of our initials. The G and H have worked best so far- they've been Ferro'd (texture paste) and stamped into. All 4 need a lot more work! The ATCs were some I made at Kay's yesterday morning, I got chance last night to take some of the ink colour off with bleach and a paint brush, and I'm really pleased with how it's worked out. Watch this space for some more close ups once I've scanned them in.

Right, enough from me. What's on your workdesk? For more nosying opportunities, check out Julia's blog, The Stamping Ground.

Think texture, think Ferro.......

The theme at Tuesday Taggers this week is to add texture. I had a play with some Ferro paste a while back, and then ran out of steam on this tag. Today I thought I'd finish it....

I stamped into the Ferro with my Old French Writing stamp from Hero Arts and a Paperartsy squiggly ink flower and swirl. Then, inspired by seeing Leandra demo at the NEC, I painted it with a darkish red acrylic paint, making sure I got into all the nooks and crannies. Once that was dry, I brushed more lightly over the top with blue and green so that the red still showed through.

I finished it off with some metallic flowers I picked up in my local craft shop for pennies, and a little frame and bulldog clip. The paper is from Cosmo Cricket. I suspect I was over thinking this one. It needed something more than just the stamping and paint, but I was trying to put too much on, rather than keeping it to a few more simple embellishments. After all, I need to let that texture speak for itself!!!!

I'm entering this into the Tuesday Taggers touchy feely texture theme challenge, and it is easy to keep stroking this one!!! They're sponsored by Tandastamps this week (thanks for the heads up Zoe) so it's well worth a look!!

A little bit of this and a little bit of that.

I've been adding a few bits and pieces to my Docrafts gallery, and thought I'd share a few bits here as well.


First there's this- made in December for my friend's little girl (she's also my little girl's best friend). It's a little 8x8" canvas. Painted, inked, stamped and embellished. Simples! Couldn't put it up before Christmas in case her Mom saw it....

This ATC is one of my entries for a swap (again on Docrafts)- for back to basics stamping, using just black and white. I've used a Stampin' Up dragonfly and clear heat embossed him to make him pop up a bit. I love my dotty stamp as well, so I used it on the flower too! Couldn't find any black ribbon so I took the scissors to the inside of my top and cut off the hanging ribbons......go on admit, it, you've all done it!!!!

And finally...... some tags that are works in progress.....

I made these after watching a Paperartsy tutorial on You Tube via their blog. Take a look it's fab. So, these are made using Ferro paste and stamping into it to get a raised effect. I used all Paperartsy stamps too. Once dry I rubbed darker colours of acrylic paints into the stamping and then followed it with lighter colours on top, so that the indentations stand out. The blue one has a smudge or two of silver Croco on it too, which is a Crackle paint I just had to try out...... So, my next move is..... well I have no idea what to do next. They need something else on top of them, but inspiration hasn't struck me yet!! Any suggestions?

A box for my nephew Jack

My gorgeous nephew Jack is being Christened tomorrow, and I'm so honoured that I'll be his Godmother. A special present was in order, so I've created a keepsake box for his treasures. I particularly wanted to make something that wasn't babyish, although he's not quite 7 months, but I wanted something that would last. I had a box in mind, a blank about 8in square that I picked up ages ago with 4 apertures in the lid. So, after several weeks of painting and spraying and stamping, here it is......

I primed the box with gesso, then painted the whole box with blue acrylics. Once dry, I sprayed with Cosmic Shimmer Misters in Aqua Lagoon and Midnight Blue for a bit of shimmer. It gives a lovely depth to the flat acrylic colour.

 

 

His name- Jack William- and date and year of birth were stamped round the edges of the lid using a lovely See D's Ancient alphabet, really elegant lettering. I used a Stazon Midnight Blue inkpad so that it wouldn't rub off or fade.

I wanted something special for the apetures on the top, as they would be the main focus of the piece, and I toyed with each of the 4 letters of his name in the squares, but hadn' got stamps big enough. Eventually, inspiration struck when I visited the Paperartsy blog and remembered I'd bought some Ferro paints at the NEC show. These are thick paste like paints, which can be stamped into. I had a pewter colour and an antique gold. The trick seems to be to have moistened your stamp before you stamp into the Ferro, and also to have applied the right thickness- too much and it squelches and sticks to your stamp, too little and the impression isn't deep enough. A little trial and error led to the following....

Two sections are stamped with a Heidi Swapp clock stamp, the other two with a dotty background stamp and my favourite Hero Arts Old French Writing stamp.Once dry, I spritzed with more cosmic shimmers, in lots of different shades- blue, red, gold and green. Here's some close ups.

I finished off with the words Memories and Treasures on the top of the lid.  I'm really pleased with it, it has a lovely shimemr to the whole piece and the little squares are lovely to touch, very tactile. I hope Jack and his mom and dad like it as well!!