What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 514

Hello Everyone,

It's Julia's Whizzday, more usually known as WOYWW, so time to reveal the mess that is my desk today.

I've been getting back into crafting, the hitherto elusive mojo has returned, so there's stuff, lots of it, on my desk to show for it. I had a lovely day recently experimenting with paints and inks using a much neglected Creative Palette - more details in this previous post - and now I've begun to make cards with the results. Admittedly, there's only one completed card but it's a start. Still out, because I haven't gotten round to putting them away,  in a cluster in front of the screen, are the bottles of ink and the tubes of paint, a saucer of bits and bobs used for creating markings on the paint/ink covered palette, the brayer, the palette and a stencil too. To the front, from left to right, is the stamps used on the card, adhesive, and the pile of printed pieces and some plain card left from making the card.

The background for this card was created with a combination of Vicki Boutin's Blue Hawaiian acrylic paint, Limon ColorBox Crafter's ink and Heidi Swapp's Hot Pink Metallic Texture Paste which gives a lovely shimmery effect. And I admit that the die-cut butterfly is there to hide an spot of bad stamping! 

And finally, the book bit. Just one again this week but it's a lovely one.

Lucy Mangan's 'Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading' is a joy. As a child my late brother and I were two little bookworms and this book captures so perfectly the necessity we both felt to read just one more page/chapter, and of being totally unaware of anything/anyone else when when our noses were well and truly stuck in a good book. However, Bookworm isn't just a funny and endearing tour of the author's childhood reading but it also delivers an insight into the eccentricities of her family, some of which made me laugh out loud. It's a book full of food for thought and I heartily recommend it to bookworms everywhere.


That's it for today. Until our next Whizzday, I wish you all a wonderfully crafty week.

In A Vase On Monday - Tulip Time

Hello Everyone,

The daffodils are almost past - just a few late bloomers in the grass - and now it's tulip time in our garden. So it's a simple arrangement of  flowers and buds in an equally simple vase for Cathy's In A Vase on Monday.

If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know by now that my husband doesn't keep  the labels that come with anything he plants ... these tulips are no exception. I'm hazarding a guess that the fully opened orange/yellow ones might be called Flair - a single early dwarf tulip - but the yet to open yellow ones are a mystery. No matter what the name they are all a ray of sunshine at this time of year.

Here they are in situ. I'm ignoring, for now, the ground elder that is threatening to take over the round bed and just enjoying the colours of Spring instead. Word around the garden is that it is definitely Spring!

After taking the photos outside, the light is so much better there, the tulips were brought in and put on top of the fire - it is never on so never too hot for flowers - together with one of my latest acquisitions, a little wooden Easter bunny that, coincidentally, is holding a tiny wooden tulip.

To see many more flower arrangements - so much more artistic than mine - follow this link to Cathy's blog - links are always in the comments.

I wish you a wonderful week, weather permitting, in your garden.

Mixed Media Backgrounds - Part 1

Hello again ...

... two posts in one day - I'm excelling myself! Actually, it's been lovely finding time to mess about in the craft room. It feels like an indulgence to be able to experiment with paints and inks again, and the Stampendous Creative Palette I mentioned in an earlier post. Here's the results of my playtime.

As you can see I dug out the brayer ... I can't remember when that was last used too ... and for these background pieces I used a selection of ink refills - from Colorbox, Ranger's, Vivid and Rollagraph - all almost as old as Methuselah but still very usable! I tried placing a stencil (Clarity) over the wet inks with mixed success but scoring the inks with the Vicki Boutin Art Wedge, comb and bottle top was more successful.

Next, I tried out acrylic paints, Vicki Boutin (Blue Hawaiian), Maggie Holmes (mint and blue) and Heidi Swapp metallic texture paste (Hot Pink).Love this combination of colours.

For these backgrounds I added a base of some cheap white acrylic, Wilkinson's, which worked very well. As did the more pricey Daler & Rowney cream Simply acrylic. Vicki Boutin's Juicy Pear provided a great pop of bright citrus against the blues and pinks already mentioned.

Finally, the disaster! This is what happens when the phone rings and the card is left down on the painted surface too long. Patches of the card softened and stuck to the drying paint. It's quite textured and looks rather like flock wallpaper. I'm still debating with myself on whether it's at all usable or only fit for the bin.

Next, I plan to use the backgrounds for cards. Immediately!! Well, at least within the next few days. So much better than stashing them away in a box to be forgotten. So, part 2 should follow soon.

Hope you found this resurrection of old crafty tools of interest. It's my shame that they've been languishing in a drawer forgotten and neglected. They deserve better treatment!

Thanks for visiting.