WOYWW Week 845 - A Busy Week

Hello WOYWWers, Followers, Everyone

I hope this finds you all well and that you've found the time to be more creative than I have these last few weeks. That's not to say I haven't been busy. I really have. There's just no scrap pages to show for all the busy-ness! Instead, I've forced myself to tackle the black hole that is the shed at the top of the garden. There's boxes in that shed, the contents of which haven't seen the light of day since October 2022. Contents like the file of stencils and box of shimmer mists that can be seen on my desk this morning. I can't tell you how delighted I was to find them again!

I've been tackling the emptying of one box at a time with the aim to clear the shed completely by the end of August. It's been quite the eye-opener too. The shed is leaky, not to mention crawling with spiders, and far from the ideal place to store anything, let alone my lovely crafty stash! The plan is to replace it with a new, clean and dry, shed once everything has been sorted and cleared. 

Rain, rain, go away. 

Come again another day.

Storm Floris and the generally bad weather that followed has meant there's been very little gardening done. Everything got a thorough drenching and was looking bedraggled following the high winds. 

But, now the sun is out again and the garden is getting over the damage, flowers like these sweet peas and cornflowers have perked up again. 

Here's a photo taken from Saltcoats this week.

I'm not sure what the RNLI were doing up our way but it's always concerning to see the lifeboat out. There's been no news report, so I think this time all was well. 

What with storms, fires and the frequent appearance of the rescue services, there's rarely a dull moment here in The Three Towns.

But on a quiet summer's day there's nothing lovelier than the South Beach, Ardrossan.

Silver hated the stormy weather.

She's over it now and off out chasing butterflies. 

And finally, 

This mirrors exactly how we both felt during the horrible weather.

Silver has perfected the above!

That's enough from me today, I'm sure. To see more creative workdesks pop over to Sarah's blog, Sarah's Craft Shed. If you don't already do so, feel free to join in the fun and show us what's on your workdesk this Wednesday. You'll be made most welcome.

Have a great WOYWW day and a fabulous week everyone,

Take care everyone,

Elizabeth

Tuesday's Card - A March Morning

Afternoon,

I've been playing with stamps, inks and sprays to make another card using the March Hare set from Hobby Arts.

Unfortunately, it proved to be a difficult card to photograph and although this one is the best of a bad bunch it doesn't show the depth of the colours that can be seen in real life.

Here's a close-up that is a bit better.

Here's how it was made:

1. a smooth white A4 (8.27 × 11.69 inches) sheet of cardstock was cut in two halves and then one half was folded to make the card base.
2. the card front was sprayed with gold Cosmic Shimmer. To do this the fully opened card was taped to the craft mat and the back covered to prevent the gold spray getting anywhere but the front. It was then put aside to dry. Note: I should have kept it taped down to prevent the cardstock buckling as it did - I think you can just detect that in the photograph. 
3. the topper was made using a scrap of watercolour card which was lightly spritzed with water, then the images of grasses - from Hobby Art's March Hares - were stamped using distress inks - Squeezed Lemonade, Scattered Straw, Crushed Olive and Shabby Shutters - and then it was given another light spritz of water to encourage the ink to bleed then left to dry.
4. once dry, more stamping was done using VersaFine Vintage Sepia first and then Olympia Green - again it was left to dry before the next step which was to spray a little yellow colour, created by mixing Mustard Seed from a re-inker with some water in a spritzer. This spraying was concentrated n the centre. Next a light flicking and spritzing of the gold Cosmic Shimmer was applied and left to dry before stamping the greeting, borrowed from Sarntangles stamp set, using Memento Rich Cocoa ink pad.
5. finally, the topper was matted and layered on to scraps of dark yellow and kraft cardstock and then adhered with sticky fixers to the front of the card.

A technique described by Jaine Drake, found in an old issue of Craft Stamper, provided the inspiration for this topper. She, in turn, was inspired by the effect of the sun on her herb garden.

It's a fun technique and well worth having a bash at so I hope I've explained it clearly enough for anyone who would like to give it a try.

Happy Crafting,

Cardmaking - Snow Capped Mountain Scene

Morning Everyone

Today I have a card made for the November UKPC Swap. It got forgotten because of our really bad December and only rediscovered today when I was tidying up computer files, moving last year's photos into a 2016 folder.

The challenge for this Swap was to interpret the sketch below.

As you can see the sketch is portrait but inspiration didn't come until I switched it to landscape. I could then see that it was clearly a mountain scene - snow capped mountains in the moonlight, of course!

Since making the card the list of materials has gone missing and, as it could be anywhere now, I'm going to have to rely on my memory - that will be fun :)

Here goes:

The background, a piece that had been tucked away in my stash for a year or so, was made using cling film and Cosmic Shimmer Mists in shades of green, Meadow Lush & Blue Lime, and Rich Gold. Once it was trimmed to size it was embossed using a Textures Distress folder from Crafter's Companion.

The hills were made using kraft card, trimmed to shape, and heat embossed in the style of Stampendous' Fran Seiford's famous Frantage, only I mixed up my own from a variety of powders already in my stash. They were, as far as I can remember, Papermania Seafoam White, Heat It Up! Gold & Silver, Sheena's WOW! Lime light and I added, for even more texture, a scattering of Flower Soft Sage,

The 'moon' was created using a Clarity Circle Dot stencil and Pinflair Silver Buff-It which has a nice gritty texture with a glittery finish. The sentiment is from Clear Impressions' The Wild & Free stamp collection from an issue of Get Stamping.

Also used is in the background is a stamp of house and trees from the Winter Wonderland stamp set, a freebie from Creative Stamping Magazine, Issue 36. For embellishments I simply used some natual twine stapled into the positions suggested on the sketch.

That's all as far as I can remember but I'm sure to have forgotten something. As I said, I did note everything down at the time. It's probably long gone, a casualty of my frequent tidying sessions. That being so, if there is anything I missed that you want to know more about do let me know, I'll do my best to answer any questions.

In the meantime, take care, stay safe and have a great weekend.