Christmas and WOYWW

 This week has been void of crafty stuff I'm afraid.  Both of us have been fighting a bug of some kind (not Covid) and are now thankfully feeling much better, but it meant there was no enthusiasm or energy for pretty much anything!

So here's a festive photo and a lot of warm wishes to everyone to have a happy and peaceful Christmas - stay safe and well. 

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW

Christmas Preparations

 It finally happened last week - I was wondering when I'd feel the panic coming on and sure enough I went to bed last Tuesday feeling fine and woke up last Wednesday hardly able to believe I was half way through December and nothing had been done.

Consequently the following 5 days were spent planning and making Christmas cards, gift boxes and tags, putting up the trees and decorations and Christmas shopping (the safer way, on the internet!).

I am confident my nephews and brother-in-law will not be looking at my blog any time soon - in fact, I'm not sure they even know I have one, so I'm safe to show the gift boxes I made for their cash and gift cards.

And now the boxes are sitting on my desk waiting to be filled and the cards are nearly all written.  

Gosh, that feels good!

 

 

I am linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week. 

 

Collage - Image Pairings

In between making a small handful of Christmas cards this week I've continued with Challenge 6 in the Collage Workbook, which is called Image Pairings - to cut an image in half and use each half in a separate and distinctly different collage.

I chose the image of the birds hovering over the sea, and found the collages weren't as distinctly different as I had imagined they would be!  However, it was an enjoyable little project.

Together you can see the continuation of the main picture.

I have also been playing about with some more collages - not quite in the order of the book but I suddenly had an idea and had to act on it!  This one is about peeling back the layers to reveal what's underneath - quite a messy process!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Colour Plunge Collage!

 I've been working on challenge 5 - Colour Plunge - in Randel Plowman's Collage Workbook this week and the prompt is to make a (mostly) monochromatic collage.  I couldn't decide on which colour so ended up doing several and will probably do some more as I'm enjoying these a lot!

 

Just as I was about to pack up and tidy everything away yesterday evening I remembered to take a desk shot - several things are out of shot so it's actually messier than it looks - add a pair of scissors, a steel rule and another two punches!   

I am linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Colour Charge Collage!

I'm still working my way through Randel Plowman's Collage Workbook and challenge 4 is called Colour Charge   - add a colour to a black and white collage. 

 For this collage I used Fluid Acrylic in my favourite colour of Quinacridone/Nickel Azo Gold.

Piled up by my desk are a bundle of old magazines a very thoughtful friend has been passing on to me, so today's task will be be browsing through them for images for my next collages.   

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW

Collage - Black to White

 I'm continuing my collage journey and using prompts from Randel Plowman's The Collage Workbook.  

Challenge 3 is using shades of black to white.  I collected so many scraps I had more than enough to make two collages, although I think I prefer the top one.

I also made another white collage (you can see my previous white collage here).

I made it alongside last week's white collage but it really wasn't working for me. So before finally binning it I played around with it and added some buttons and somehow it seemed to work and bring it all together. 

And finally, I printed off some textures for a future collage and this is how my desk looked last night.  I grabbed a quick photo before tackling the roller and glass plate - the one job I don't like doing when I've been printing!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Collages

I have been on a mission to read some of my many art and craft books and take inspiration from them!   So I have recently been making collages following the prompts from the Collage Workbook by Randel Plowman.  

These four were my first challenge - to make some small 5 minute collages. 

I used some old wine labels as the starting point and was very careful to stop when I reached the allotted time.  This was difficult to do given my propensity for  often over egging the creative cake!  

 

The second challenge was to make a collage using layers of white (no time limits any more I'm glad to say).

 I'm not sure if it's finished but I feel if I add anything more I'll regret it!

And a shot of an unusually (for me) very untidy desk - collage scraps are currently scattered everywhere - they are usually stored in folders depending on colour or subject, but they have got a little out of control!  And I have treated myself to three new soft rubber brayers - they are homeless at the moment so a little bit of re-arranging is needed to squeeze them into a drawer somewhere!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW

Cyanotype printing

 I have been busy collecting the last of the summer blooms and foliage from the garden, and preserving them for cyanotype printing by pressing them.  In contrast to my husband who is head vegetable gardener I am particularly thrilled with the leaves that have been half eaten by pests or struck with disease - the little holes and nibbled and curled bits add so much more to the print in my opinion!

These prints show Brambles, Raspberry leaves, weeds and Tamarisk, and the last two photos show the Tamarisk print before and after rinsing out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 Minute Collages and WOYWW

  This week I've been sorting through art and craft books - some need to go but I have a few that I am keen to read and use as inspiration, so to start me off I have been following the prompts in The Collage Workbook by Randel Plowman.  The first task was to make some 5 minute collages - quite difficult for me as I work very slowly!  However I gathered 'stuff' together - colours that are out of my comfort zone, ephemera that I don't know why I've been keeping, and washi tapes that haven't seen the light of day for years.  I gave myself 20 minutes to make all 4 rather than work on one at a time - I am half way through and should be able to  complete the other 10 minutes by the end of today!  

 I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

 

Making the Most of the Sunshine

 I have been meaning to get some Cyanotype printing done all summer to

replenish my stocks for collage and card making.  Yesterday it suddenly dawned on me as we head towards autumn that I ought to get on with it - the results are better when the sun is at it's highest and strongest, ideally the middle of a summer's day. 

My desk yesterday afternoon was the garden bench and the kitchen sink - I just remembered in time to take some photos!

Out in the sun 'cooking'!

  Foliage removed and ready to rinse

Just starting to turn blue in the bowl of water - the stripes are the shadows of the sun coming through the kitchen blinds!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Card Making and WOYWW

 I've been missing in action for a couple of weeks - nothing interesting going on, just couldn't get myself together enough to craft and post!

However, I have made some cards recently and I also have some leftover backgrounds on my desk waiting to be used up.

I added some foil to a couple of the backgrounds here but it's difficult to see. 

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Enjoying Embroidery

 I've been enjoying the Olympics while stitching - especially now, as anything going on in the Velodrome is by far my favourite and I shall be barely moving from the living room for the next few days!

I have turned a couple of the embroideries into cards and my mini mobile desk is getting more untidy by the day!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

My Mobile Desk!

 My studio has been too hot to work in over the last couple of weeks so I transferred some embroidery bits into a tin lid and that has been my mobile desk!  It's accompanied me around the house and garden letting me settle wherever I want to and although the weather has cooled down a bit, it is currently on the table next to my armchair so I can watch the Olympics!  

In the lid is a jumble of everything I need - embroidery threads in the colours I'm currently obsessed with, some rust printed cotton and cyanotype printed silk that I have torn into squares, plus needlebook and scissors - all set for making card toppers!

I assembled a few cards yesterday with some of the squares but still have quite a few to do. These are in my favourite summer theme of the garden at night. 

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

A Tidy Desk and WOYWW

 It's been an unproductive week craft wise but I have finished sorting through my textiles and pretty much fitted them into the space available - now that's something that doesn't happen very often!  This shelf unit is at the end of my desk where a large trunk of fabric used to stand with a vintage suitcase and decorative baskets on top of it.  Consequently the trunk never got opened as it was such a faff.  This doesn't look as stylish as the trunk but is much more user friendly!  Each box is labelled and despite having a massive clear out you can still see that two large pieces of fabric wouldn't fit anywhere so are wedged around the boxes (top left cube) and the lid won't properly fit on the decorative box (top right cube) as it is stuffed to capacity!  However it's hugely better than it was so I'm happy!!  The tall pile of plastic boxes next to the shelf unit are all for different ongoing projects.

And here's the most boring desk photo you'll see today!  You can see the A1 cutting board and where it  buckled along one edge due to heating something with the heat tool and forgetting to use the heat board - I turned it around and then did exactly the same thing to the other edge - soooooo annoying!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Moving Away from Neutrals!

 On my desk is a little needlecase I made this week.  Last week I was wanting to move away from the neutral colour palette that I work with so often,  but despite envisaging a bright and colourful week of embroidery, somehow it just didn't happen!   

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week

Emboidery and WOYWW

 I have been embroidering a couple of small panels for card toppers and I'm at the bead sewing stage now, hence the fluffy bead mat on my desk.  I also purchased a couple of skeins of embroidery thread to match some linen I already had - I was very pleased with the colour match considering it was mainly guess work as I purchased it online!  I am feeling the need to move away from neutral colours for a while!

Before mowing the lawn I took the opportunity to pick a few of these pretty weeds that have been springing up all over it -I used them for embroidery inspiration on one of the above panels. 

My last ATC of the swap arrived from Susan in Australia - it's gorgeous and features a string pull background, which is defintiely on my 'to try' list - and a lovely little envelope with it too.  I would have posted about it last week but I thought Thursday was Wednesday! 

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.