SOMETHING NASTY LURKING!

Hi folks, so sorry I didn't get round many WOYWWers desks, but have picked up something very very nasty on my PC - had to use DD's to post this.  Can't even get onto the internet and it keeps switching the Real Time Scanning off my McAfee software.  Unfortunately I won't be around for a few days so won't be able to get it sorted till 2nd week Sept at the earliest :-(
xx

WOYWW Aug 25th - A Different View

Welcome fellow WOYWWers ;-)

My desk is fairly tidy this week, though there's still lots of stuff at the back that hasn't been sorted out.   Also as I'm showing a different view of the desk today you can see a bit of my messy shelves, there always seems to be a few bits that you can't find a proper home for - or is that just me!  There's a piece of card on the mat that I'm working on for a card and some 'Tim' stamps that I'm going to use.  Well that's it for me this week, short and sweet :-)

If you're new to this pop over to our esteemed leader Julia's to find out what it's all about ;-)
EDITED to say I've just realised it's a very boring desk today - if you want something nice to look at see post below ;-)

Festival of Quilts

I had a lovely day yesterday at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC Elizabeth asked me to take lots of photos of the quilts for inspiration.  They're not just quilts, they are works of art.  Some of them are more traditional but many artists make 'art quilts'.  As there are a lot of pics I've uploaded the quilts to Flickr as there are too many to show here, but see the Flickr pics in the sidebar and click for a bigger view.  I thought it would be nice to show some of the stuff on sale here though.  Just looking at all the wonderful colours is inspirational ;-)

Sunday Stampers - Whiskey In The Jar

Pop over to Hels if you'd like to join in with a challenge with very few specifics - in fact you can make anything you like so long as you include some stamping.  The theme for Sunday Stampers this week is Whiskey In The Jar; so you can include Whiskey or Jar somehow, and in fact Hels has stretched this to include bottles.  The only thing I had to fit were some bottles on acetate from Artchix (they have some lovely stuff)  I was making a card for my granddaughter last night and found these butterflies so hit on the idea of having them coming out of the bottle.  I coloured them with craftynotions Jaffalicious colour spray; though they do look rather gold here due to the shimmer; which I also used on some corrugated cardboard along with Lime Lustre.  The only stamping I've done is using Tim's flourish from his Reindeer Flight set onto transparent tape (think it's by Sellotape).
Ooh am off to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC on Sunday ;-)  It's not all about quilts, though they do have many many wonderful works of art on display, it's really about surface decoration on fabric.  So if you're interested in fabriccy/textiley stuff  it is so worth a visit; lots of fabby products to buy or just look at and feel plus demos and workshops, though the workshops get booked up quickly :-)

WOYWW 18th August

Happy Wednesday WOYWWers :-)  I'm not showing my desk this week as I've not really done anything much at all apart from sewing, mainly altering stuff for DD.  I am showing a cardi that I've altered.  I bought it some time ago from a shop called All Saints, in Manchester.  It's called a Pirate Cardigan for some reason :-/ if anyone has any idea why I'd love to know.  It seemed ok when I bought it apart from the sleeves being about 6" too long, seriously! but I soon discovered that the sleeves were rather tight and I had to drag them up each time I wore it.  I finally found some lovely black stretch lace at £1 per metre so cut up the sleeves and inserted some lace.  I also chopped loads off - just over 6"!! and put some of the lace at the bottom of the sleeves.   I've made some flowers for the t-shirt I dyed the other week, not sewn on yet - do I need 3?  Also not sure about the 'stem' may just use beads or sequins.  Also showing some net for a tutu I'm in the middle of making for youngest granddaughter - it's more of a turquoise than showing here.
 If you'd like to join in this phenomenon called WOYWW pop over to lovely Julia's whose brainwave this was and then dive in, it's all good fun ;-)

Woohoo, new toy from Lidl

I popped into Lidl whilst out this afternoon - I like to see if there's anything I can use for craft.  I bought a woodburning tool for £8.99 - it was too good a bargain, for me anyway especially as I'd been wanting something like this.  It says it's for use on leather, wood and cork; but some manufacturers don't know us crafters LOL.  I've used it here on Grungeboard, but also tried it on wood, cotton fabric, paper and card; it works on them all.  If you get one but have never used one before and maybe try cutting out stencils from plastic milk bottles for example - I only mention the milk bottles as a way of recycling ;-)  you can clean it with steel wool.  Obviously being cheap it may not be as robust as a more expensive one but I think I'll get my money's worth out of it.
xx
Edited The bottom pic shows the fancy tips stamped onto Grungeboard, as you can see there are 7 of them and there are 7 writing/drawing tips

WOYWW 11th August

Alas and alack, still no tidy desk!  Most days I do think 'I'm going to sort my desk out today' but I end up playing instead hehe.  I really was going to do it yesterday but when I started I came across a couple of inky pages that I decided to do a bit more to and one thing led to another.  I added a bit more colour and texture to 2 pages in my art journal as well.  I coloured some gel medium with mica powder and stencilled it onto 2 pages.  I did the bluey one first (the stars and spots as well as the lacy bit) and wished I'd chosen a different colour powder for contrast so stencilled a bit onto the opposite page just to show how it looks in a contrasting colour.  No further on with the t-shirt as I was a bit stumped as to what to do next, but have an idea now.

Pop over to our esteemed hostess Julia's blog if you'd like to join in La Grande Snoop ;-)

Sunday Stampers - Music, Art Journal Page

Pop over to Hels' for more info on the Sunday Stampers weekly challenge.  The theme this week is 'Music'.  I had thought of doing a canvas - have a roll of canvas and some cheap picture frames from Ikea, which are intended for photos.  But couldn't quite decide what to do so thought I'd do another page in my Art Journal.  Background originally had an inky stencil image with lots of white and I wasn't quite sure how to progress with it so tried Ecoline ink which worked well I think.  I used my flower stencil that I cut last week to add some transfer foil; by painting glue through the stencil; behind the music stamp, but it's not showing up well here.  The music stamp is from Artemio and the 'maids' of course are Stampotique.  In case it's not clear I've included a little piece of the 'Three Little Maids' from The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan xx

Edited to hopefully include a slightly better view of the foil :-/

So sew! plus DCD Christmas challenge

I've been altering lots of clothes for DD, when she finds something she really likes but it needs shortening or taking in a little I get the job.  I don't mind so long as it's an easy job; she's not so good with a sewing machine!  As I'm in sewing mode I made myself a bag yesterday.  This has 4 layers, plus lining.  To get the effect you sew through the 4 layers but cut through 3 then rough the fabric up.  I've just remembered I think washing it produces an even better effect.  The top fabric is much nicer than it looks here, it's shot cotton - something to do with the way it's woven; gives a shimmer to the fabric. The bird's eye is a button, which has an effect like little diamantes (just some silvery, shimmery dots), which glistens but again doesn't show well here.  You need to sew diagonally across the fabric.  I made the handle from cord, wrapped in fabric; I just wrapped thread tightly round the fabric instead of sewing it.  The bag measures 12"x10" Haha, just realised I meant to give him a wing but forgot!

The theme for the DCD Christmas Club this week is 'snowmen'.  It's 3 or 4 weeks since I joined in; but I'm nice and early this week as the new challenge is set on Saturdays.  I've used Tim's Vintage Shabby papers for thies.  The image is a Butterfly Kisses stamp from the 'around-2-it' collection xx

WOYWW - Aug 4th

I've gone for an aerial view today, a) because I like them, b) because the rest of the desk is the same mess it's been for too many weeks.  The flower is a tracing from a piece of wallpaper that's going to be a stencil and under that are my August pages for my 365 Journal (2 posts down).  There's a strip of fabric with some foiled and gel spots on just wanted to see how it washed.

Yesterday Julia shared one of her obsessions/collectoins so I thought I'd show 2 collections today.  I've shown the scissors before but didn't include my dressmaking.sewing scissors, so the full collection today.  And my collection of hole punches.

Also showing a t-shirt I bought a few days ago (£2), it was white; not finished yet and you can see the wallpaper flower previously mentioned.  Dyed with Jacquard's Dye-na-Flow.  I've used Markal Artist's oil Paintstiks on the t-shirt, used with a stencil and also rubbed over textured wallpaper.  Pop over to Julia's to find out all about WOYWW ;-)

Sunday Stampers/Art Journal

The theme for this week's Sunday Stampers is 'Old + New'.  If you've not come across the SS challenge before pop over to Hels' pad and find out.  I've decided to do an Art Journal, mainly 'cos I love just messing about and am inspired by the many wonderful journals out there.  If some people pass by and think what I do is rubbish that's ok, I'm happy doing what I do.  I'm just saying this as I know many people out there doing 'stuff', agonise over what they do not being good enough or as good as someone else or if there's a point to it and I sympathise with them, I do think it's a shame.  Much of what I do I do just 'cos I like doing it, I don't believe there needs to be an ultimate purpose in the things we make - I mean there's probably some deep meaningful thing to it anyway but I don't have to make a tag to go on a gift for example.  This page is inspired by those who don't 'get it' and say such things as 'what's it for?'  Ooh this has all got a bit deep.  So guys and gals if you feel like painting, inking, ripping, sticking, cutting, stitching, moulding, or anything else creative don't worry about people wondering what it's for or if they don't think it's good enough - if it makes you happy it IS!
BTW if you join in the SS this week there's candy to be won sponsored by The Artistic Stamper and if you use As stamps you get 2 entries.  I've used my AS dogtooth stamp.  As for the 'Old + New' the new is my Tim stamp down the right edge and the old is the button.  The images are Dyan's
EDITED Just to say no-one has upset me but I have seen comments on other people's blogs, left by some saddo who should get a life, at times implying that what they've created isn't art.  I've also visited other blogs where I've seen wonderful things but sadly the creator doesn't have faith in themselves.  I realise that can be due to lots of reasons and my simply saying, if you feel like creating something and it makes you happy that's what matters, may not help greatly.  I just sincerely hope that if other's keep telling them what they produce is good, eventually they may start to believe in themselves.

365 Journal, August Pages

I've managed to catch up with my August pages apart from wriiting something in for today - don't want to be too early with it, who knows, something terrifically exciting may yet happen ;-)  If not it'll be playing as usual.  I know many of us don't like the 'H' word but I seriously need to do the kitchen :-(  I will try! apart from that, there's a t-shirt I've dyed and am decorating, and sewing to do, not to mention a doll that needs making sometime soon, doing something with that quilted fabric and a couple of challenges; really must do something for Sunday Stampers this week.  I'm happier with the pages so far this month.  I did quite like July's but they were a little dark and I wasn't happy with the squares for each day.  I've gone for a mix of papers this month - pinched the idea from Kathryn ;-)  Am thinking I may add butterflies and leaves.  Looks like being a nice day today, hope it is where you are :-) My garden has been full of bees lately YAY!! they love the lavendar.

For info on the 365 challenge pop over to Kathryn's - she does fabbylicious pages. Always!!

365 Journal July's pages

Have just finished my pages for July as I went to DS's on Saturday and stayed overnight then went to a christening yesterday.  I've just made a start on one page for August and it's not looking good, just as well I can do lots of layers and hopefully make something decent out of it :-/  Pop over to Kathryn's for more info on the 365 Journals.  I did want to add more detail to the little squares but couldn't think what and as time's marching on I thought it best to call it a day.  I've ended up making some of the squiggles on the squares rather too messy but too late now to amend!  The little felt embellies were amongst the little pile of goodies included with my card for my birthday from the lovely Nicci ;-)