WOYWW #780 - 15th Anniversary

EDIT - Please be aware that some comments are not showing up on my blog but I'm still getting the associated emails - phew

Happy Anniversary to WOYWW, can't believe it is 15 years! I missed the first couple of years but have been here on and off since my post #145 in March 2012. 

A Mahoosive congrats to Julia and gang for keeping this all going and showing up for us all each week much appreciated. After all it keeps me sane and reminds me what day of the week it is.

Here's my craftcorner yesterday, not quite as messy as Monday but messier than usual none the less.

I have made 12 ATC's and I have had a few requests for SWAPS in addition to whosoever I get as a partner so still some going if you'd like to swap or just have one, let me know. I think my collage work has improved on last year somewhat, good to know the courses are working.

I made an extra one for me, for the purposes of testing out my hairspray as a fixative, it seems to work.... Best not to get them wet though, the black Woody is very rich.

Have just discovered the Inktense pencils react to water initially but after they dry, are permanent, must get me some of those soon.

Here's my daily journal pages from the Messy May prompts

07:moments with watercolour paints

08:rays

09:open

10:reflect with Gelli Prints form Day 3 of Nest Fest

11:curiosity with the tea cards I found in an emporium

12:uncover

12:uncover (uncovered LOL!)

13:gathering of people/cloth/botanicals - lilac flowers from a walk so I added lilac oil to the cloth - divine.

14:shadows I made mine happy and stencilled better/properly since the Nest Fest lesson on "stencils" Monday.

So my third set of lessons started Monday and I got into a right pickle. Encounters in Colour is turning out to be where my heart is, it is scripture based and the Facebook group is delightful.

I did Monday's page in a whirl of stash and my room was like a bombsite over 3 hours later!!!! I was much more organised Tuesday with the prayer cards and even repeated Monday's verse in my mini Bible. 

And I got HAPPY MAIL yesterday too. Long story but my best school mate's Mum passed a while back and I mentioned the x-stitch I loved as a child and it was passed on to me. Maybe as I have ballet in my blood it is so special to me, who knows.

And the tea cards.

What a week.

Happy 15th WOYWW Anniversary

WOYWW #779 - May Retreats!

Desk is clear again as usual and bed set up with cloth and a piece of hard board for more space when I'm creating...

I finished off April's journal with a page recounting our lovely sunny day geocaching in Godstone last week.

I painted both the covers for April and May. The latter cover is made from an Amazon cardboard envelope so it needed disguising somewhat.

I was pondering my May journal and came across #MessyMay2024 a stroke of luck so I can follow along to their videos each day this month, just like JunkJournalJanuary. 

Here are my first 6 pages with the following prompts:-

01:prologue (introducing ourself - I used my " what you look like as a hippy facebook generated photo)

02:nourish - what nourishes me - my Faith in Jesus -  John 15:5

03:enchanted - with the dragon fantasy picture from Gecko Galz last month.

04:blooming - using the RHS May magazine envelope picture of Wisteria and filled in painting.

05:marks - amazing process video - worth signing up just to watch this one

06:backgrounds - with inks using old calendar pictures and left over bling from my May page below.

Somehow made a few birthday cards as well this week.

And did my May Bible Journaling Ministries page and my Faith Inspirations page too in my Faith Journal.

Both focused on shiny stuff, first on metallics (I used copper foil tape and Easter egg foil wrap) and the second on bling (I used my gems) Both have stickles and liquid pearls too.

I used my metal roller mark making tools on the copper tape, not used them in years!!! Plus my 2 new circle punches.

All very sparkly, just how I like it.

Nest Fest starts today! It is 2 weeks of daily focusing on particular techniques or stash. Hoping I can combine it with Messy May in my daily journal, we'll see...

Encounters in Colour starts next week! A week long online Christian Art Retreat. I will be doing mine in my Faith Journal. All content available to the end of May. Great Facebook group too, not sure how long that will remain though.

WOYWW 15th Anniversary next week too - managed to make 12 ATC's so far in 3 groups of 4 so if anyone would like to SWAP or just have one (I don't mind either way) let me know and send me your address. My email should be in my blog profile. First come first served after my SWAP partner and Julia of course.

Phew - is that it - Hope so.

Lying down in a dark room will be required soon methinks.

Happy WOYWW everyone.

WOYWW #778 - Collage Papers Galore

So I did the freebie, lifetime access 5-day course "Collage Kickstart" last week. 

Day 1 - collecting household objects to use

Day 2 - Acrylic paints and printing with objects

Day 3 - Texture Paste on Tissue Paper. The tissue melts away when glued to a page so lots of patterns ready to go. My favourite new technique.

Day 4 - Circles and Glue resist

Day 5 - Making up a grid of collages

Then would you believe the warm up exercise for the "Encounters in Colour" retreat was making collage papers 

It had the extra bonus for me of writing scriptures out in different ways. Obviously you could write anything, like poems or prose but I really liked how the repetition of a verse helped it sit in my mind.

So to my actual desk, I bought some new wax water soluble crayons - Stabilo Woody 3in1. 

A couple of artists I follow use the black one in their are journals but I splashed out for a set of 18 with a sharpener and paint brush. 

They are much bigger than I'd expected but oh so creamy and the colour saturation is superb. You can buy them singularly or in much smaller sets though.

I got some 2 inch book rings at last so last years weekly scripture 52 cards can be stored as one.

I'm a day behind in my daily journal so here's just the last 6 days...

I entered the first one into the Gecko Gals April Steampunk Challenge

The second one (purple) has handmade doodles cut out and stuck on inspired by Lindart last week

The middle 2 have new paints I bought in the week, Orange, Purple, Gold plus my new Ultramarine mixed with yellow making a lovely green.

The bottom two use my new collage papers.

I guess that's me this week, I bit of catching up to do but mainly on track, better get a wiggle on with the ATCs though, but I do have loads of collage papers - I wonder....

Happy WOYWW Everyone.

Gecko Galz - April Steampunk Challenge

I've been seeing Gecko Gals images in a friend's blog for quite some time now and this one grabbed my attention. I finally got around to using it in my daily journal last night and remembered it was for a challenge so thought - why not....

#777 - Freebie Taster Courses

The freebie/taster courses just keep on popping up. 

I have signed up to the Christian "Encounters in Colour" Art Journaling Retreat May 13th-19th hosted by Jenna Burne Art Journaling. It has an associated Facebook group.

Also the Nest Fest a 12-day virtual event 8th-19th May hosted by Roben-Marie Smith 

And the latest is a Collage Kickstart with Catherine Raines which is a 5 day lifetime access course, it's on my PC screen here.  Whoop Whoop 🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️. It also has a facebook group...

Go me. 'Twill keep me busy in my craftcorner....

I finished the last taster course, but not that happy with the end results, it was a bit like the host's previous taster on colour, obviously not my cup of tea overall but I did like the floral/foliage drawing warm up on day 1.

Daily journaling continues...

I think I need a colour mix up/combo shift... don't realise till you see them together how they are a lot alike.

I did cool colours yesterday...

 ...and warm ones today.

If anyone would like to offer some colour combos that would be great.

Monday I popped to Ikea (if that is ever possible) just for the paintbrushes as I love them for acrylics and glue, so needed some to watercolour only. I got the rest of the stuff from Hobbycraft. The only impulse buy were the wooden eggs but at 50p I couldn't go wrong really.

This week's scrapbook page is of our tree trimming back in October last year. We will have so much more light this year, I hope it isn't too hot this Summer, I'm already struggling at night even with my windows open.

Oh and I had to do a factory reset on my mobile phone Friday as it kept freezing. Still finding stuff which needs sorting out. Oh my life!

Happy WOYWW Everyone.

WOYWW #776 - Happy

SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) light bulb (old fashioned fluorescent tube) arrived last week but sadly there was something else wrong with my light so it didn't work. We pondered buying a new light but at £100's, not a great prospect. 

Then hubby said he could try to fix it with new LED bulbs which he could fit into the inner plate, for only £20. He did and we're up and running again.

I had spent a few evening crafting in the semi darkness which was really doing my head in, so I am really pleased to have my light back. whoop whoop. Hubby sure is nifty with DIY. My craftcorner is really dark even in the sunshine so I use it all of the time, and I'm not one to lug stuff downstairs to craft either, so happy bunny now.

Here's my daily journaling.

Saturday I did my Faith Inspirations page following the video and then my journal page on the back of that...

Sunday was our church for everyone service, or as I like to think of it, crafting at church week.  We made clouds with fairy lights and raindrops and pondered things which helped us have peace in all the chaos of life.

My Sunday journal page was off the back of this so I was pondering the message all afternoon as well. 

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

Monday I started another free art course called Flower Flow Taster Week. I did one by Laly Mille last September. I really enjoyed the first day's play..

We gessoed various papers, drew rough flowers with a "black" water soluble pencil and then used matt medium with our fingers to activate the pencil marks and smudge it.

The only pencil I had which worked well was brown, but I'm going with that, a sort of sepia vibe. Charcoal was OK though.

I used some pieces for yesterdays journal page.

Oh and that wasn't enough I did a couple of scrapbook pages for last October too. The start of picking up the 10 "X" Marks the Spot puzzle caches hubby had been working on for some time (got the last one last week as it happens).

Happy WOYWW Everyone.

WOYWW #775 - SAD!

Oh my life, spot the main difference between my desk photos... 

I was just sitting at my desk and it went dark and it wasn't the eclipse! 

Now I'm SAD indeed.

Hubby has ordered a couple new bulbs but thinks, now he's taken it apart, that it may be something else! Oh no!

On a brighter note my April journal has become quite eclectic, some pages I like and some less so, but by doing something daily I surely will find my vibe.

Yesterday's page reflected our geocaching walks in the woods which were very Hobbit Like. 

I love moss on rocks and it reminded be of the times I spend alone on Dartmoor as a child when I visited my Dad's farm in the holidays.

The brisk wind reminded me of walks on the cliffs as a teen along The Gower coast.

I have yet to do today's page and that will be interesting without my brilliant SAD light.

I finished off August 2023 in my scrapping. I find anything to go with these photos so ended up plain plus various handmade items, inking and stamping etc.

There is journaling on the tags behind the top left photos on each page.

For September 2023, I was obviously very conservative with my photo printing so just, the various painting courses I did and our son's annual visit for his dental appointment and car MOT plus some geocaching, badminton and chess.

Happy WOYWW Everyone.

WOYWW #774 - April

March journal completed and started the one I made recently for April. Tuesday's page pending on desk.

Even managed a couple of scrapbook pages and YES Julia I swap out the ones hanging up when I make new ones, until the next couple are made...

March's last week. 

I particularly loved the dying process for the ribbons and fabric strips. It was done in a plastic cup and I used my silicone "brush" and tweezers so didn't need gloves either. Dried the pieces on cardboard packaging too, such great tips from the BB week.

Did a lot of stuff on Sunday afternoon, so a crafty Easter for me.

Easter Day Bible Watercolour form Devotion in Action.

The last day of BB's freebie week with the prompt of "Stitch" I also did another "Cluster" gaining great inspiration from the Facebook group which went with the course.

Here's are my dyed ribbons and fabric strips. I dug out my Tim Holtz crinkle ribbon, must have bought that over a decade ago for such a time as this - LOL.

I did my April Bible Journaling Ministries with their free mini kit

And here's my April Fool's day page - hope I can keep up with my challenge of a journal page a day this year. Three months in the bag so far, so a quarter accomplished...

Happy WOYWW Everyone.

 

WOYWW #773 - Art Journal Free week

BJ's Craftcorner. I bought a couple of those plastic storage boxes for my bits and bobs this week.

I'm still going strong with my daily journaling. Came across another freebie week of Art Journaling Prompts and Videos - BB Bash so will be attempting those to the end of the month.

I also tried a couple of Jenna Burne's videos too.

19) Mushroom and toadstool dies

20) Gnome House dies (should be Christmas but works well otherwise)

21) Very hungry "new circle punch" caterpillars 16mm & 25mm

22)Jenna Burne - Trusting #8

23) Jenna Burne - The Wonderous Cross

24) Baptisms at church, I watched live online whilst making this page.

25) Day 1 of BB Bash - Prompt Messy.

My Bible Watercolour this week was from Isaiah 53 where Christ's Passion was foretold all those years before it actually coming to pass.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 

I did some more watercolour "doodles" whilst I had them out. More leaves and also some Easter eggs which I made into a few cards.

I also made an engagement card and my friend's 60th/New Home card.

That Gnome House it so cute, put 60 on the door. I think the whole thing could be made into a big gnome too, pondering that.

Off to the dentist for a check up this morning, will visit you all when I can...

Have noticed I get some blog comments which don't generate email notifications and some get an email but no comment online - good job I look at both...Blogger pickle I shouldn't wonder.

Happy WOYWW Everyone