Silver Pendants and WOYWW

 It's been such a long time since I blogged and I don't even have the excuse of having moved over to Instagram!  I've just been unmotivated and rather preoccupied with other issues and I've really not been in the right frame of mind for being creative.  However I couldn't give Christmas a miss, so lately a little crafting has been happening.  I made some silver pendants last week, the ones at the front of the block are white because that's how they come out of the kiln - they need to be wire brushed to bring the shine up like the two at the back, and then they all need to be sanded and polished.

The one at the back of the block I made for myself, from a mold I made of a lump of quartz rock. I finished it last night with some green onyx stones (right-hand photo) and it will match perfectly with a favourite winter top of mine. The smaller pendants are Christmas presents - it won't take long to polish them and add a jump ring to the smallest one.  I'm going to have a go at soldering the jump ring closed if I can - it's not something I've ever done before but I've seen the Hubs soldering and it doesn't look that difficult!

    Wishing everyone a happy and healthy Christmas and New Year.

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW

ATC Swap and WOYWW

 I so enjoyed last week's 14th Anniversary ATC swap for WOYWW.

These are some of the ones I sent out...

...and I've received these little lovelies over the last week - such happy mail...

...thank you so much Julia, with the fab little badge, Angela (Felix the Crafty Cat) and Mary Anne whose ATC is so ingriguing and clever I'm still trying to work it out!

I'm still sorting my rubber stamps and this is the floor by my chair where I'm chucking the ones I don't want!   The desk is clear at the moment before I start on the last box, but I think the garden might win my attention today as the sun is shining and it's in need of some TLC!   

I'm linking up with the deskers over at Julia's place at WOYWW

WOYWW 14th Anniversary Swap

  This week we are celebrating 14 years of WOYWW - what an achievement!  A huge thank you to Julia and Jan who keep this going each week - it's a wonderful group, full of friendship, creativity and fun.  

To celebrate we are holding an ATC swap.   I completed mine last night, forgetting that although I made them in plenty of time (smug face) I forgot I had to stamp and attach the labels on the back, then fill them in - so a last minute job after all! 

  

Here are some beauties that I received over the last few days - I do love getting happy mail and these were a joy to open - thank you Angela (Crafting with Jack), Jan, Helen, Twiglet and Wipso.

 

And now I'm off to join in the celebrations over at WOYWW!

Collage - Layered Tissue

 This week I have had to clear my desk from the ghastly mess of rubber stamp sorting that I was doing last week in order to concentrate on ATCs.  Once they were finished I made a quick collage using the next prompt in The Collage Workbook by Randel Plowman.  This one is using layers of tissue paper.

I used some very old Gestetner paper I had in my stash - anyone else remember using the old Gestetner machines before photocopiers came along?  I think I'm showing my age!   I also added a strip of acetate across some of the collage - that's the reflection showing in the photo below.

I'm off to mess up my nice clear desk and do some more stamp sorting, but before that I'm joining in with Julia over at WOYWW.

Finger Paint Collages

I've just finished off two collages that have been hanging around half finished since October.  The prompts I've been following are from The Collage Workbook by Randal Plowman.  This prompt was all about adding finger painting to a collage.  

And now on to the absolute disaster that is my desk this morning - it's very unusal  for me to have anything on my desk as I always clear away as I make - but yesterday I decided to use a stamp for an idea I had.  Despite the fact my stamps are all catalogued and can be found by drawer number and then inside the drawer by a specific box number, the stamp I wanted was missing.  I couldn't find it anywhere so decided to have a combined search and sort out of all my stamps.  This is drawer 1 and I have a small pile of stamps 'to go' by my radio and an overflowing box of stamps that I don't know if I want to keep or not but will probably let go.  I can forsee regret in the future!

The catalogue pages are bottom right and new pages are being made with tiny stamps that I never bothered cataloguing in the past - after all if I'm doing this ghastly job I might as well do it properly!

I'm joining in with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Collagraph Printing and Winter Seedlings

I have some collagraph prints lying around on my desk this morning - I've been wanting to try this technique for ages and used my XCut machine to print with after finding a Facebook group all about it.  It's a great way of making prints without investing in a proper press and I am quite pleased with the results.  I kept the plates very simple - I didn't want to invest a lot of time and effort in them if it was going to be a disaster!  I also kept to my current theme of the winter garden.

These first prints turned out quite well and I was able to take several copies from each plate.  I found the only print I had real problems with was the minimalist one (bottom of first photo) - it smudged from the very first print and all subsequent ones - just proving that I'm not cut out for clean and simple!!

 

I decided to try a little more detail and scratched this leaf into the surface of some board.  I only had 3 successful prints with this and then the board deteriorated beyond use, but it's all a learning curve!

These are the used plates, some still strong enough for another print run but a couple have had it. 

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW 

The Garden in Winter

 I'm still in a wintery frame of mind, helped along by the freezing conditions we are expecting later today!  I'm holding back on this sketchbook page for a while as I'm liking the simplicity of it at the moment - I'm good at over-egging the cake so I'm trying to stop myself flinging everything at it!

I made a birthday card for my brother-in-law recently - he loves working with wood and is very creative so I tried doing a wood inlay card using some wood effect papers that I've had in my stash for years, and a medallion die.  I was hoping for a Morroccan look to it, but he referred to it as lace so not quite the response I was hoping for.  Still, I had fun making it!!

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

Winter Snowdrop Collage

 This week I finished a sketchbook page in celebration of these pretty little winter flowers that are blooming my garden at the moment.

I have one small group of Snowdrops and I'm hoping they'll spread - they originally came from a friend who has sadly passed on but I have so enjoyed making this page and thinking happy thoughts of her.

I'm also getting stuck in to another wintery page - I'm being drawn to that soft sage colour lately  - not a go to colour for me usually but I'm enjoying it and will be using it until I've worked it out of my system!  

  

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

Frosty Seedlings Collage

 I surprised myself by finishing the page I started last week in my sketchbook.  Still working on the winter garden theme and loving it!

    Some detailed shots... 

   ... the photo on the left shows 'Frosted Crystal' Distress embossing powder - I just love it's matte texture - so frosty!

I've also done some little ink doodles with a view to using them in collages.   These are currently on my desk, along with stencil brushes to be put away and the sketch book that should be back on it's shelf!

Some photo collages with the doodles for my velvet moth photography blog - the MakroTex challenge theme this week is 'collage'.   

I'm joining in with Julia over at WOYWW this week, a great place for seeing what other people have on their desks at the moment.

Silver Clay and the New Kiln!

    I was incredibly lucky to be given a small jewellery kiln for Christmas by the Hubs.  What a wonderful man - and he let me use it in the couple of weeks before Christmas so I didn't have to wait for it - he knows me so well!!

This little pendant is a Christmas gift I made for my sister, using silver clay and the new kiln - it's based on a beachcombing theme, using a cuttlefish bone impression for the 'waves' and silver frit for the sand, I topped it off with a piece of pale amethyst 'treasure'.  It's quite small, about 2.5cm across, as my sister does delicate - if it was for me it would be at least twice that size!!

Also pre-Christmas I made little boxes for my nephews for money and gift cards (which they seem to prefer!), and that's the sum total of my Christmas crafting...

... however, shoulder and elbow seem to be improving and I've felt enthused enough to start a page in my sketch book - I don't know where it's going but hopefully it will have changed by next week!  I'm thinking winter garden - a recurring and well loved theme!

 

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