WOYWW

Hello peeps.  Wednesday again?  Yep, that means its time for the legal snoop at desks across the globe courtesy of the queen of desks Julia.

On my desk are my almost finished November pages for the 365 Challenge (see previous post for my October pages).  I thought I would do pages to represent fireworks in a dark sky.

The eagle eyed amongst you may spot a new stamp at the back of the desk I have carved.  Its chevrons and I thought it would be a good background but also good to represent tyre tread for congratulation cards for passing driving tests etc (it all came about from a design I spotted on Pinterest and thought I could adapt it and make it myself...I can (and often do) spend HOURS on pinterest looking at stuff....I buy so few magazines now as pinterest does it all!!).

"Man Bites Dog" cards this week is 'Model Shoots Wanted Mob Boss'!! Once again a blinder!

If you'd like to join in with Whats on Your Workdesk Wednesday all the deets can be found here

Happy crafting

kyla

 

 

365 Challenge

Hello peeps.  If you are in the south of the UK I hope you survived the storm.  The wind howled and the rain chucked it down, but luckily everything in chez Kyla was ok, though my heart goes out to those poor souls who lost their lives Monday during the worst of the storm.

A few people have been asking how I am, so I thought I would do a quick update.  Following my ankle operation, the stitches are out and all healed and the physio is working me hard to try and get as much movement and stability in my ankle as possible-so fingers crossed it will be better than before the operation.  My rheumatoid arthritis means that I am totally exhausted but I am definitely getting there-so a huge thanks for your kind thoughts.

Now, onto the crafting stuff, in the drug haze I forgot to post October's 365 challenge page!

I am really pleased that I have been able to keep up with the journal.  For full details you can visit the highly talented Kate Cranes blog here

Right, its getting bloomin' chilly here so I am off to put the heating on and some fluffy socks!!!

Stay warm and happy crafting

kyla

 

A devil of a card

Hello peeps I hope you are well.  I have decided to make a few 'spookyish' cards and this is the first with the bombshell stamps.  I made a mask for the eyeball and stamped the flame over it and coloured it with promarkers.

I coloured some of TH tiny attachers with ink and used them to attach the layers.

My free photo editing software (Picasa) seems to be playing up and wont allow me to rotate pictures so I can only apologise if you are reading this in public and are now getting strange looks as you cock your head to the side to see the picture!!

I thought I would enter this into the Simon Says Challenge which can be found here 

If you are in the UK I hope the weather over the next 48 hrs treats you well....the storm has already hit here in the South West...wet and wild!

Happy crafting

kyla

 

WOYWW

Hello peeps, its back round to Wednesday again, which can only mean one thing....Whats on Your Workdesk Wednesday...the legal snoop across the globe at desks, some clean (and I mean REALLY clean...LLJ I would love to spray some ink on yours!! lol!) and others not so!

This week my desk is clean (yes, I know...after doing Tim Holtz latest course I cleared away after EACH session!!!!) so I have moved onto the dining room table and am having a go at making PaperCloth.

 

I borrowed this book of a fellow Craft Coven member and am having a go.  Basically its cotton fabric layered with tissue paper, book pages etc and mixed with watered down PVA.  When I move onto the next stage I will colour some parts a little more (I have only used mica so far), cut it up and stitch it into something (goodness knows what!)

I quite like the texture of the PaperCloth so I think it will be interesting to see how it can be used.

"Man Bites Dog" cards this week is 'Judge Bites Blonde Tourist'!!!  Possibly the oddest yet!

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Creative Chemistry 102 Day 5

Hello peeps, well today is the last catchup day of my CC102.

As usual, I don't have many of the products (goodness knows how, since I have an entire room stuffed to the rafters full of craft stash!!) so I wasn't able to do all the techniques, but I did manage a few with 'different' supplies and some workarounds!

These are my favorite three techniques from left to right: faux rust, vintage shabby and tarnished silver.

The vintage rust was difficult to reconstruct but I did have some shabby shutters distress embossing powder to I mixed this with various different grades of other powders to create this rusted finish-I must admit I really liked how this one turned out.

The tarnished silver was similar to a technique I already use so it gave me an opportunity to develop this a bit more.

It was a great online course and has given me a host of new techniques and triggered my experimental mojo once again!

If you did the course, I hope you too enjoyed it and fingers crossed Tim and Mario do a CC103 soon!!!

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Creative Chemistry Day 4

 Hello once again-I thought I would blog my Day 4 of Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry class (it was last week but its taking me a week longer to complete as I am shattered after the surgery, and lets face it the whole point of an online class is the self pacing, right?

So, Day 4 is alcohol inks-now for a change I actually have several of these as I fell in love with them MANY years ago and I must admit I experimented back then with different techniques.  However, I have gotten a bit stuck in a rut and stopped experimenting so I was delighted with Tim's idea of alcohol inks and stencils!  Genius.

Yet another technique I will be using again, that's for sure.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Day 2 and 3 of Creative Chemistry 102

 Hello peeps, just a quick catch up with Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 102 course.

As usual, I don't have many of the products but I have tried nearly all the techniques, some are mahoosive fails since I didn't have any similar products but others seemed to work quite well.

 The right hand tag was made with a homemade stencil cut from an image from the sunday papers!

On this tag you can hopefully see the depth I managed to get with embossing with a stencil (I really like this effect).

I do have some rock candy glitter so was able to do this technique (tag on the right) and I loved the 'smudge' technique on the left hand tag.  This gives a real muted retro feel to the tag and one I will definitely be using again.

Several people have mentioned to me that they don't have many Tim Holtz products so decided not to sign up for the course.  I would say if you have distress inks then a lot of the course you can experiment with your own paints etc.  Yes, the results may not be the same but once you have the knowledge you can experiment with other products and brands and see what results you get!

Either way, I have enjoyed the course and its pushed me to try new techniques with some old and forgotten products!

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

WOYWW

Hello peeps, how are you today?

Well, this week I have been recovering from my ankle operation and have been able to have a bit of a play with my Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 102 course.

All my tags are on the desk.  I have not been able to do them all (I think there were about 30 to do) as I don't own the products, but for several of them I have been able to try the technique with similar products (some of which have worked really well).

My "Man Bites Dog" cards this week are "Bored Lost Star Fall For Teen"....never watched the programme Lost, but the headline sure does work for me!

So, short and sweet as Julia likes it.  If you fancy a legal snoop at desks across the globe why don't you pop over to the lovely Julia's blog (link on the right).

Happy Crafting

Kyla

 

Creative Chemistry 102

 Hello peeps.

So, after my ankle surgery (which I timed to coincide with Tim Holtz next Creative Chemistry class!!) I have finally managed to do a little crafting (not easy with keeping my ankle above hip height I can tell you....my craft room is now a hotchpotch of stools and cushions which I balance my leg on for about 15 mins at a time before I need to move around a bit....its testing my patience I can tell you!!)-but it is worth it as the course have been fabulous so far.

Now, the course started with Distress paints of which I owe none!  Tim says that its all about understanding the principles with these courses, so I decided to try different acrylic paints on his effects and see if they work.  I tried Anita's, Windsor and Newton and Rowney but the one that worked the best was Eco Green paints.  Now, they are not the same as distress paints so I had to pre mix them down with water, however, now I have learnt the techniques I have the knowledge to try and experiment and hopefully at some point I may get some distress paints.

 This card was made with the tag (I have another which I have printed out the instructions on and added to my Creative Chemistry 101 tags) demonstrating rusted metal. 

 I used the Eco Green paints again mixing the brown top layer in with Bronze Distress Stain and I really like the effect.  I added a metal cog I cut from a metal food tube and coloured with alcohol inks and a cog I made with my ever trusty hot glue gun (I SO love making mould and using hot glue to full them!!) and a rusty washer that I rusted myself with vinegar and cheap cola!!)

The marbled effect didn't really work with any of the acrylics I had (they still produced a nice effect I wouldn't have experimented with unless I was doing this course) but the tag above was the best with the Eco Green paints once again.

Finally I made a metal tag.  Now, once again I didn't have the metal, the embossing folder or the paint.  However, armed with the knowledge from Tim's instruction I decided to have a go using some metal tape from the tool box ( I think its what you bind round pipes?), black gesso and a different embossing folder.  I thought this would make a perfect background for my cyber man topper I made a couple of weeks ago from some resin!

So there you go.  Proof that you don't need to have all the products, but once you have the knowledge you can take it to the next level and start experimenting.  I know I will certainly be playing more with the oxidized metal technique on my first tag as this has lots of potential.

Right, time for my next lot of pain killers and another ice pack around ,my ankle!!  Happy crafting

Kyla

 

WOYWW

Hello peeps, I will be keeping this really short (see previous post for reason).

My workdesk this week is my bed and my October 365 journal.  I was able to do an hour crafting on Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 102 course yesterday, which was fabulous and I hope to do a bit more today but keeping my leg up in the air in my craft room is not easy!!

 

"Man Bites Dog" cards this week is "Dunks Burns Missing Rare Movie"-I wonder if there is  a famous film director called Dunks?

So, if you fancy a legal snoop at workdesks around the globe then pop over to the wonderful Julias blog (link over on the right).

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

A quick update

Hello peeps, I thought I should do a quick update as I have been absent for a while (I even missed WOYWW!!).

I have been in hospital for an operation on my ankle.  As some of you will know I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis nearly 3 years ago.  Now, I am not very good at accepting I cannot do everything I used to or that I need to slow down (and sometimes I even need to stop).  So the idea of not working 5 long days a week, crafting, gigging and generally being out and about for a few weeks was difficult to consider.

Now I have had the arthroscopy (put a camera inside my ankle, good old nose around and clean out and a lot of scar tissue inside cut away) and am on the big dose pain killers I now HAVE to accept that I am housebound for a while!  

Concentration is not great but hopefully over the next few days I can wean myself off the drugs a bit and maybe get some crafting done-but until then, my blog may be  a bit sketchy (not in a journal way!!).

Happy crafting (eventually)

kyla

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