Woyww #325

Here's my desk this Wednesday morning, the morning sun is shining from the opposite side of the house (from the left through the living room). I'm posting for the fun and addictive worldwide deskhop (woyww=what's on your workdesk wednesday) hosted by Julia. I have been working on two calendar pages at once. It was quite fruitful: when one came to a halt, I had an idea what to do with the other one, and when that started to feel difficult or needed to dry, my mind had sorted out how to continue with the first one... Ever tried something like that? 

This of course led to quite a mess, so last night (as I moved to finishing touches) I had to clear all the papers away that I've used for the colourful collage calendar you can see at the top of the picture. The mixed media one is underneath it. Still some ribbon and stamps and paperscraps hanging around... I'm working on three calendars for the Craft Barn calendar challenge. It seemed like a good idea at some point in the spring, but right now I'm just sighing in relief that they are done for the month. I know I'll be glad I did it when I get to give them for Christmas! Lot's of work and little playtime is getting expensive, cause I've been shopping :) All sorts of goodies are just being shipped, not arrived yet. Besides, a Finnish craft store is shutting down and good bargains are good bargains, right?

I wish I might...

The Paperartsy challenge this past fortnight has been gels and mediums. I do have some, and haven't really used them for much, so the abundance of tutorials and inspiration has really been useful and fun. Since the new Craft Barn weekly challenge happens to be sprays, I'm posting for that too. I have used heavy gloss gel (Liquitex) to make skins on (the two) embossing folders I have... Here's a card I put together with one:

I tried spraying the skin as it was and drying with a heat gun, but I found that the thin edges of the skin stuck to the scrap paper I had underneath, so I adhered the skin to a card base before I continued spraying. I tried lots of sprays (Lindy's, Dylusions, Perfect Pearls, Tattered angels...) and other stuff (inka gold wax, perfect pearls, wink of stella...) to enhance the texture, but a lot of it seems to wipe of, so I decided to leave the feathers as a background. I stamped the flower from Jofy 31 and the sentiment from Rubberdance affirmations sheet on some silk card, heat embossed with clear embossing powder and sprayed with all the same sprays I used on the background (practically all the blue and green sprays I have). After cutting them out I stamped the flourish and some extra petals on the leftover inky bits and cut them out too. After assembling and adhering them on the card I added a touch of Glossy Accents, and while it was drying I did a bunch of stamping on the envelope, cleaned up my desk and wrote this.

My other embossing folder experiment with glossy gel ended up as a transparent pocket in my art journal, you can find the post here (it's in Swedish, but lot's of pics).

I also tried the Gel on a stamp. Not being sure it would come of I took a faulty stamp for which I have a replacement. The stamp turned out to be so deeply etched that the gel didn't turn transluscent after a couple of days of drying! But it came of nicely, caught lots of detail (and all the dust that happened to be in the part torn off in the mail)... this might be a way to clean stamps! Next time I'll try colouring the gel before spreading it on the stamp... and perhaps a shallower stamp too :)

I really like this smooth side, the texture shows through the gel...

Yes, please!

I'm posting for the Stampotique Designers challenge (repeat yourself) and the Craft Barn weekly challenge (sweet and sugary) with this card.

Besides the Stampotique skully I used the sentiment and muffins from an Alice Palace stamp from Crafty Individuals. I put together an ATC, but decided to mount it on a card, since I happened to have a bubble background that fit nicely. I stamped some goodies on the envelope too... makes me feel like baking!

Want some more?

I thought I'd have to skip this week's challenge at the Craft Barn simply because I don't have any stamps with sweet things... But while searching for something else, I actually ran into this CI Alice Palace stamp and realized I could use it.

I've already earlier cut the stamp into four parts so I can use the sentiments, goodies and dog separately. The image was coloured with distress markers and I used an embossing folder to add texture in the background. Made me realize I should perhaps stock a few folders, to have options... this is the one that came with the Cuttlebug. To my satisfaction I was able to use a blue card blank and envelope from my destash pile :)

I made some extra muffins, planning to pop them on front of the image, but decided not to... so I guess I'll have to make another entry for this challenge just to get rid of them! 

Go where your muse takes you!

A very simple page for the Craft Barn August calendar challenge (pink and butterflies).

I chose a background paper with butterflies and used a stencil with them too. The background is actually a nice soft green, but the picture doesn't seem to show it... The tulip stamp is from Crafty Induviduals and the sentiment from Rubber Dance. I drew he July calendar grid behind this page, and realized to my horror, that I've also done the July calendar grid behind the July page (where June should be...) so I'm going to have to fix that somehow :(

The previous pages of this "scrappy" calendar can be found here

January 

February

March

April 

May
June
July

Woyww #324

Joining in the world wide desk hop hosted by Julia at the Stamping Ground... just a quick shot of my work-in-progress desk. I gathered stuff for the Craft Barn August calendar (pink and butterflies) last night. I have to leave for work at 9:30, planning to get the page done before I go.

I have been cooking juice lately, and I took some pictures in case some of you have never seen how that is done. Ended up documenting quite a surprise too! The cooker is a three part kettle. The lowest part holds water that is brought to a boil. The second part has a "chimney" that moves the steam to the berries. The juice collects around the chimney. The top part holds the berries and sugar (doing red currants and cherries) it has small holes for the steam to go in and the juice to seep out. Just let it cook for a couple of hours, and you have 5 litres of concentrated fruit nectar. I store it in the freezer and serve on special occasions.

As for the surprise... Well, the first litre of juice should always be poured back through the berries, it helps the top berries to get going, because they get less steam. As I was pouring it, my hand slipped and I spilled it all over the place! Luckily not very much on myself, since it is hot, but had to forget about papercrafting that night...

Adventures in grey

The VivaLasVegastamps August challenge has a beautiful Black-Grey-White moodboard. This card has been bubbling inside me since I saw it, and now I got it done. I am also posting for the Paperartsy "gels and mediums" challenge.

I watched Leandra's glaze- and medium videos last night and realized I could at last try my Fresco Matte Glaze... So after gluing newspaper on a piece of cardstock, I used the glaze to thin out my white paint so it wouldn't cover the text completely. After stamping all the images, I added a layer of clear gesso. This made it possible to continue with black watercolour and a black Inktense pencil which I used to paint the background scene and darken the frame areas.

I've been enjoying Tera's Mail Art Monday posts (I cut that little writing circle after watching the latest one :) and made a matching envelope for the card. I usually try to do these straight away while the stamps are still out... that way it doesn't take more than a couple of minutes, at least if it's kept as simple as this.