WOYWW and Gelli Printing

At last, after a long period of inactivity I finally have something happening on my work desk, so I decided to join in with WOYWW - why not pop over and see what other people have been up to!

I got my gelli plate out, did some printing, and had a fun afternoon messing about with paint!  I chose a colour scheme loosely based on the two little wooden hearts in the photo - Paynes grey and Neutral grey, Naples Yellow, Burnt Sienna and Portrait Pink - I 'm quite pleased at how they work together.   

The sketchbook page is made up of the leftover bits of prints - I think they show the colour palette quite well.

Some close-up shots of what I have been doing with the gelli prints in my sketchbook.

An almost finished page - it needs something else but not sure what!

Pussy Willow

Spring is nearly here, and to get our minds focused on warmer weather and budding flowers I thought I'd post some photos I took last spring of Pussy Willow twigs.  They were about 3 to 4 feet tall and lasted for weeks and weeks, and looked so stunning around the house.  I'm off looking for some more shortly, as it's about time to change my house over from autumn/winter colours to spring/summer colours.

I am linking up this week with Mary over at Mosaic Monday.

A Walk Around the Local Boatyard

A walk around a local boatyard offered up some wonderful colours and textures to photograph.   Even the boats whose bottoms were about to be scrubbed were wonderful photographic opportunities!

This week I am linking up with Mary over at Mosaic Monday and Sally over at Blue Monday 

Color This Quote

 I've just finished this month's challenge for Colour this Quote, over at Artists in Blogland, and the quote to inspire us was

'Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year'

                                                                    Ralph Waldo Emerson 

This was quite a difficult challenge for me, as at the moment every day is most definitely NOT the best day in the year!  However, I decided to think about 'best days' and immediately holidays and childhood sprung to mind.  A lot of distress ink, Ranger dyes and rubber stamping later and I finally finished.  I stepped out of my comfort zone and moved away from my favoured cream and neutral backgrounds and palettes.  I am disappointed that the gold embossed writing along the top just didn't show up clearly in photos or scans, and it's also a bit wonky - but that's because I didn't do it on one of my 'best days'! 

 If only every day was a day like these!

 Close up showing the gold embossed writing along the top of the page

I removed the ink with clean water on a fine brush to write the words next to the image, and it reminded me of the 'invisible' writing we used to do as kids - I think onion skins were involved somehow - anyone remember that?!

A Studio Still-Life

 These are what I call my 'lovely bits', although I don't think the family would agree - the word 'clutter' is often mentioned!  I usually have a glass dome over this little collection but the reflections got in the way when I tried to photograph it, so the dome had to come off.

The green glass bottle stopper is in the shape of a crown and I found it on e-bay for pennies - I am very in love with it at the moment!

These 'lovely bits' are in my dining room cabinet and occasionally get used for posh teas!  Some of the little cake forks and tea knives belonged to my great-grandmother but some I've picked up in antique markets.  Did I tell you I'm a bit of a hoarder!

More from the cabinet! 

I'm linking up with Mary over at Mosaic Monday.

Color This Quote

Over at Artists in Blogland there is a new challenge called Color This Quote - it sounded interesting and fun and I immediately had an idea of what I could do for it, so I decided to give it a go - I hope I am not too late!

This weeks quote is 

'Good friends are like quilts - they age with you yet never lose their warmth'.

The image is of my mum Joan (on the left) and her best friend Eileen - they had a warm and strong friendship for over 75 years.  I hand stitched small pieces of 'quilt' to represent the unbreakable bond between them - the little scraps of letters, the stamps symbolizing the miles between them, and fragments of memories from their days out in London, where they both grew up - all carefully held together by strong threads.

Mottisfont Abbey

I've had an unintentional break from blogging for what has amazingly turned into about 4 weeks - what on earth happened there!  I have been busy with many other things and I really don't know what happened to January. 

My nephews have learnt all about the Chinese New Year at School and so we made some cupcakes to celebrate - I must apologize if the Chinese symbol is the wrong way up on the cupcake - my sugar paste cutter isn't marked with the words 'this way up' unfortunately!

I am joining in this week with Mosaic Monday over at Little Red House. 

The cupcake is one I made and decorated a while back, and the little water jug, next to it, is an antique/junk shop find - it's currently my favourite possession! 

The chandelier was photographed on a recent visit to Mottisfont Abbey and the watercolour is a sketch by Rex Whistler - he decorated a room at Mottisfont using Trompe l'oeil techniques, and it's simply stunning.  The following photos are of the Whistler room and are from the National Trust website.

Pretty much everything is painted to give a relief effect - even the curtain swags aren't real!

                                                                               

Playing About with Bits and Bobs!

In an effort to get myself somewhat inspired and 'arty' I decided to collect some bits and bobs together over the weekend and have a 'photo shoot'!

Out of the many, many photos I took I was really only happy with a very few - my success rate is about 1%!

Anyway here's a few of them and I am linking this post with Mosaic Monday over at Little Red House.

I used Kim Klassen's texture 'Nested' on this photo