Woyww #322 -it's Wednesday again!

Where do these weeks fly? Schools begin in Finland next week, and I just received my teaching schedule beginning next Tuesday... it's hanging on the right, on the screen of our old computer. My desk shows a neat mess of stuff that's left behind after finishing a project: stamps and stencils and Crackle Accents. Most of today's visitors know what this is about, but if you don't, pop over to the Stamping-Ground blog to find a lovely international desk-hop of crafty work spaces.

To finish a hibiscus card project I made some simple mail art on the envelope, visible on the left against the white drawer unit. On top of the drawers is a kraft card base waiting to turn into a bendy card (got to check the tutorial on Angela's blog once more), my art journal and a "how to draw manga" book. The DLP prompts are asking for drawings of faces this week (all month...) and I went to ask my girls if their manga books had some eye practices. There were several, and this one felt least comic-like. I'm still not sure how to dare myself to try! 

My purse is out, because I had to change my credit card info at PayPal... my bank called me a few weeks ago after someone in Africa had tried buying train tickets with my credit card. Took two weeks to get a new one. I'm feeling lucky I just had to suffer the inconvenience.

"Slate" cards

After reading the Garden Slate Panel post on the Paperartsy blog, I wanted to try something similar. Don't have any slate, not really into home decor... I considered covering some card with black gesso, but then I realized I actually have some black card in my stash. After getting started I made three cards, each for different challenges but using the same technique: heat embossing in white, colour with opaque Fresco Finish paints, glitter with Wink of Stella and Stickles and gloss with Crackle accents.

My first experiment involved the same stamps and colours as in the Garden Slate Panel post. I'm posting this card for the Paperartsy challenge (Flowers) and the Craft Barn challenge (Diamonds). I used Smurf as an opaque layer and Southern Skies on top of it to colour the diamond shaped petals.

My second card uses Chocolate Baroque stamps and follows the CB colour challenge (tan, yellow, green, purple). My array of paints is a bit limited, so I used colour pencils on top of the acrylic paints.

Actually it first looked like this, but I felt the multicolour was too restless, and covered the yellow on the left flower and the purple on the right flower with Snowflake and swapped the colours.

I had added dots of purple Sharpie to the purple parts. And despite the opaque paint layers on top, the Crackle accents activated it so that there are orange dots on the butterfly and the yellow flower.

My last card is for the Designs by Ryn August customer challenge. There seems to be some problem with the link, so I'll add this when it starts to work. I used the same blues as for the first card and some Paynes Grey on the moth and leaves, and for the flowers I used Dolly mix as an opaque layer (doesn't really show), and Bougainvilla, a pearlescent pink and Quinadicrone red to add interest.

Colouring in between the lines was mostly quite slow, the first card has fairly small areas to colour and comparing to it the stripes on these hibiscus flowers seemed endless! I mounted each on colour cardstock, they fit perfectly on 5x7 card bases.

Make a wish

I bought some watercolour card blanks recently with the idea that I could do watercolour stamping straight on the card base. I am posting my simple card for the Craft Barn weekly challenge (CAS), the Designs by Ryn customer creations challenge and the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday challenge (Anything goes).

Originally I was trying to make a card for a shrink plastic moth that I made with Ryns Moonwing stamps... the colours ended up being misfit, so I'm saving the shrink plastic for later :) I have stamped the solid hibiscus using Distress inks and a mist of water. I placed it so that it extends to the back of the card.

I made a mask and used a piece of scrap rubber to add some green on the background. The scrap rubber attaches to the TacknPeel block I use for unmounted stamps. I added Bundled Sage with an ink blender and spritzed with water before stamping. I added the sentiment with Aged Mahogany.

Compromises

I haven't done anything in my art journal all July. Gradually I started to realize the reason I was avoiding it was a very compromised spread I had done in a hurry and thought I could live with it... I couldn't. So I redid the page, and now am posting for the Country View July challenge (On your travels) and the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday challenge (Anything goes).

The DLP prompts in July have been about ephemera. I'm no good at that, but I travelled to Italy in June, and so I took out some maps and brochures and thought I'd build something around them. I got desperate and was in a hurry and ended up just "smashing" them in and telling myself to let it be and go on. The spread was ugly and terribly chunky, and it really bothered me, so I decided to think again. There were things I wanted to save: the map with the routes in town that I'd walked or biked, the brochures of a jazz concert and the foam rubber lollies given to me by the daughter of the house where I stayed. I ripped of the lollysticks and covered the spread with clear and white gesso and started a landscape with watercolours. I adhered just the foamrubber, not the sticks (to make the page less chunky), and decided on more white gesso so I could continue the landscape over the broschures. I finished with colour pencils and paint markers.

At least the result is much nicer than what the spread was, and I'm burning to start a new gesso+watercolour spread, the watercolour works in a lovely way!

Friends

The Craft Barn weekly challenge is CAS, and so I've been trying to do CAS on my projects for a change. Actually it has been lots of fun :) The Stampotique Designers challenge asks for Under the Sea projects, and since I have no Stampotique sea-stamps, I'm glad to use my Designs by Ryn Seahorses. Thus also posting for the Designs By Ryn customer creation challenge :)

The "Friends" diecut is from a Kaisercraft pouch that has been unused, because I don't really like these. I started by cutting out some more detail, the e and s had no holes in them, and I thought they wouldn't be recognizable after painting over. I covered the piece with gesso and white acrylic paint and eyeballed my seahorses in place.

After painting the text with FF Smurf, FF Southern skies and Golden Payne's Grey I set to work colouring the seahorses so they would match.  I just spent a day embellishing envelopes for a bunch of cards done this summer, so I'm trying now to do it straight away. I stamped the tiny seahorse on the envelope three times. I used Derwent Coloursoft pencils in several blue shades, burnishing with white to blend the blues and adding new layers until I was satisfied. The painted text was mounted on foam squares and placed on top of the seahorses.

See the beauty

The Stampotique Designers challenge #204 (twinchies) made me dig my stash, and I found a 2x6 panel with some bister that I thought would make 3 nice 2 inch squares. I forgot it on my desk for some time, since I needed a tall stamp that would stretch over the panel. After watching the prompt post for the Paperartsy Flower challenge I realized Jofy flowers are some of my largest stamps, and they'd be perfect for the job. I am also posting for the Craft Barn weekly challenge (CAS).

I stamped the Jofy flowers with Archival Watering Can and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. The background has a touch of red bister, I added Aged Mahogany Distress ink to the flowers and the edges of the squares, I think they fit nicely together. While I had the stamp out, I stamped it on an envelope using Tattered Rose, Aged Mahogany and a light mist of water. Nice and subtle.

I stamped the beginning of the two-line sentiment that comes with these plants, it's quite fun like that! The twinchies are mounted with small foam squares, and I'm calling it done :)

Woyww -it's wednesday again!

Time again for the one and only woyww-desk hop, hosted by Julia. My desk today is quite clean... on it I have a bunch of recent cards, for which I'm making coordinated envelopes. Usually I try to do them along with the card, but I noticed I've been slipping a bit.In the center you can see my TacknPeel block, that I use for totally unmounted rubber.

As for my "new" crafty space... I went to Ikea and got myself one more drawer unit, so there are two on the right, and I found a small one that fits under the table. I'm gradually remembering what I have and where. To my dissapointment I haven't been able to get rid of all my cardboard boxes... I already gave up on that, some serious destash must happen before that's possible!  But I got my socks done, just need to finish the ends :)