WOYWW

Hello peeps, first I would like to start with an apology...I wasn't able to get to many desks last week as I was in Devon in a middle of a field for the past week on holiday with no phone signal and only wifi when we went to a local coffee shop!

To see my shenanigans please see my previous post-I got up to lots of arty inspired stuff (I am lucky that my hubby is arty-in fact he got an A level in art-I never even did art at school!!).

So on my desk this week is my 365 journal pages I am making ready for May...and a load of stuff I took to the caravan to read and craft with but I have not gotten round to putting away (unless dumping it all on your desk is classed as putting it away...hey, at least I have taken it out of the car!!).

My "Man Bites Dog" cards this week are 'Blind Wife falls for intern'....must have been a slow week for the headlines is all I can say!

So, if you fancy a legal snoop at desks across the globe then pop over to the Queen of desks, the lovely Julia for a full listing.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Seasick Steve, Gilbert and George and some yarnbombing

 Hello peeps, well I am back from a week in that there Devon.  

The weather was not as good as the previous weeks but we managed to dodge most of the showers and on those days when the weather was not too great we managed to visit quite a few exhibitions and museums.  

We even managed to get to the RAMM (Royal Albert Memorial Museum) in Exeter which is free and also has a great cafe.  The museum was recently refitted and boy does it show-I recommend it if you are in the area.  Also, they had a temporary exhibition by the contemporary artists Gilbert and George-no photos but if you search on the net be warned that a lot of their work is a tad explicit-great to see such contemporary artists outside of london and for free!

Some photos I did take of the week though included some yarn bombing in Lyme Regis

 

 Some new graffiti here too

 We also visited Hannahs near Newton Abbot.  It  is a sustainable social enterprise that promotes learning, experience and adventure and specialises in enpowering people with a range of disabilities and their families.  They are in 90 acres of Devon countryside and have a therapy centre, art studios, fabulous bistro, rooms, gardens and music practice rooms and recording to name just a few things!  I love this place and always visit the small independent workshops that artists can rent out to sell to the public and run courses-so anything you purchase from these artisans go towards also supporting the great work at Hannahs.

The exhibition I went to see was "The Curious World of Becky Adams".  She had some amazing 3D stitched pieces...this was the only photo I was allowed to take:

 The jacket is stitched from book covers!

We also went to Bovey Tracey to the Crafts Guild to see an amazing paper exhibition.

These were all hand cut and this one stood several feet tall!!

We also visited the Thelma Hulbert gallery in Honiton and was lucky enough to see the preview for an auction of art they were holding in aid of Dementia week.

All this art was free!!  It just goes to show what you can do with a bit of research (and a little luck!).

To top it all we popped into a music shop (hubby is in a punk band so is always on the look out for kit) and Seasick Steve (the American blues musician) was sat in there trying out a guitar!!  I couldn't believe my eyes!!  Of course, being reserved British we all left him alone to try out the guitars!

A great week off.

Happy crafting

kyla

 

WOYWW

 Hello peeps, are you enjoying the lovely weather in the UK?

It's been stunning weather, I may work in an office with no windows but at least when I get home it is still light and reasonably warm and all the washing is drying lovely!

So, What's on my Workdesk this Wednesday?

Actually some new stuff for a change!

I have been sorting through my scraps box and separated all the green shades of paper (including a clothing tag from Seasalt-it was too pretty to throw away!)  

I am not sure what I am going to make, but I did have some leftover kitchen roll with purple, green and yellow inks soaked into it that I used as a mop up cloth from making my ATC's (which are hidden at the back of the desk-stacked up, I have made 17 in all) so I separated the layers and stamped some brown script all over and glued it to a manilla tag.....I am sure inspiration will strike at some point (I do admire those of you who plan your layouts and cards....I must admit I sort of stare at my stash and scrap box, chuck a ton of it on my desk and floor and then wait for inspiration to strike,  you can tell I don't have pets or kids!!).

I have also been experimenting a bit again. Below is  a necklace pendant I bought for 10p at our local church jumble-I know, a whole 10p!

The first Buddha head was made with my scrap store foil tube over the top of the face and rubbed over then dyed - not very good definition.

The second head was made with the same metal tube but this time it was placed into the recess of the face on the back of the pendant and once again rubbed all over with a paper stump to get definition.  I dyed it with alcohol inks-I think this is my favourite.

The third was made again in the recess but this time with air drying clay then some gilding wax applied to highlight some of the features.

I am hoping to try this will my thermamould that the lovely Julia passed onto me and maybe some hot glue, I will let you know how that turns out!

My "Man Bites Dog" cards this week are "Girl Model Shoots New Hubby".....no comment!

So, if you fancy a legal snoop then pop over to the lovely Julia's blog.

Happy Crafting

Kyla

 

A new journal page

 Hello peeps, are you enjoying the sun and school holidays?  I love the fact that it means my commute is SO much quicker in the school holidays-so as far as I can see it's a win/win situation!

Only a quick update today, I have been playing in my journal again.  This time its my small travel journal that I often take with me for days out.

 

The background is a mix of acrylics, interference paint and inks with some ultra lightweight paste through a stencil for the numbers.

The words are printed off the computer and I keep a few random words in the back of my journal for use, the heart padlock tattoo was from a leaflet from a tattoo and music festival I went to last year...yep,leaflets and junk mail are a great source of stash, I just wish we had tyvek envelopes over here a bit more often for our mail so I could really go to town with the inks etc!

I added some barbed wire borders by hand and then wrote some personal testimony which I then lightly covered with white ink to partly obscure.

I finished it off by flicking some white ink.  The green blob in the middle is one of those issues we all have with other pages leaking through now and again...I tend to use quite a lot of ink so even gesso lets it bleed through sometimes.  I embrace it when it happens as it reminds me it is a handmade page and not digital (no issue with those that do digital crafting, but part of my job is being a bit of a computer geek so I try not to use one at home for craft!).

Right, off to check out my new solar lights!

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

April 365

Hello peeps, if you are in the UK I hope you are enjoying the fabulous Spring weather we are currently enjoying.

It has been fabulous and the sun has been shining all day....the washing has been having the breeze blowing through it all day-its a small pleasure but one that really does cheer my soul.

Another reason to cheer my soul is of course crafting.  Looking through my past posts I realised I had not shared my April 365 Journal Challenge pages-most remiss!

So here they are:

The nice and bright background was created with Dylusion sprays and the flowers along the bottom of the pages were coloured with inktense pencils and some water, when everything was stamped and some washi tape added I flicked some paint across the page to add some finer detail and the mess up the page a little (I am not too great with nice, clean and 100% perfect-house, craft room and journal pages!!).

If you'd like to see other pages then why not pop over to Kate Cranes blog.

Happy Crafting

Kyla

 

A card fit for a film star

Hello peeps, finally it's the weekend!  Hurrah, it has been a long time coming this week!

For the past couple of weeks I have been run down with a chest infection, sore throat and cold-there is certainly a lot of it about at the moment, but I have the added problem that with RA I have a compromised immune system so things like this tend to hit me hard and takes a lot longer to recover-but its the weekend so a medicinal whiskey is in order!!

As I mentioned in an earlier post I have a stash of wall paper I need to use up so have set myself a challenge to make some cards from it.

Here is next one I made.

This was a wallpaper border of Marilyn Monroe which I matted and layered onto red and black card.

I added some Tim Holtz film strip across the top and bottom of the card and voila! Another card finsihed.

Happy Crafting

Kyla

 

WOYWW

Hello peeps, welcome to yet another Wednesday!!  I know, they come round quicker each week, but at least the Spring is here and the days are longer-which is always a good thing.

So, What's on my Workdesk this Wednesday?

Well, its a bit of a work in progress.  After seeing MaryAnne's amazing ATC's she is making for the swap and crop I thought I should at least start thinking about it!!

So, I had a think as to what crafting I am known for...that didn't help as it would mean soldering, LED's, ink, stitching, leather, metal, paper...the list goes on!  Yep, I am a jack of all trades and master of none!

 I had a think and have started with my colourwheel to choose some inks.....I am not sure where they will go from here...I am freewheeling it a bit-fingers crossed they turn out ok!

On the left of the desk is my poundland paint spreader cum stamp cleaner-Shaz mentioned it at the last WOYWW crop and I went straight out and bought one-saving myself over a tenner on a proper one!!

My "Man Bites Dog" cards this week are "Blind Wife Sues Mystery Angel"....ooh, a bit of an odd one.

So, if you would like a legal snoop as desks across the globe, then all you need to do is pop over the Queen of the desks, Julia

Happy Crafting

Kyla

 

Am I the only one who walks around a DIY store with scissors?

I have to come clean, I cannot pass by a freebie...especially recycled freebies.  Skips, bins, swaps, freecycle....and I am a hoarder-this does not make for a good mix!

Over the years I have amassed quite a lot of wallpaper samples.  You know, in the DIY superstore you can rip bits off to take home and decide if you would like to buy it.

Now, I have always seen this as a crafting freebie and even take scissors along so that I can take some nice cleanly cut pieces.

However, I have gotten out of the habit of using them-so I have set myself a challenge to use up some (but not all-that would be unrealistic!!) over the coming weeks.

So here is my first card

This wallpaper has a gently glitter on it and I teamed it with a quote which I mounted on purple card and blue metallic card to complement the printed butterfly.

I also added some butterfly stickers (which are on acetate with a holograph background so they sort of flutter) and hey presto, a quick card from snippets that would have gone in the bin!

One down...several more to go!

I am entering this in the Snippets playground challenge

Happy crafting

Kyla

Truly unique at 90

 Hello peeps.  I hope the weekend is treating you well.

The other week it was my Nan's 90th Birthday!!  I know, she is totally amazing.  She lives in New Zealand so I wanted to be 100% sure that she had opened the package before I blogged about it!

This is the card I made her, I used some vintage paper from an old finance book (in old money!) and stamped some butterflies.

I then mounted this on a patterned background and added a hand stamped and coloured butterfly.  I distressed the edges of the card adding some paper brads from craftworks which I coloured to match the card.

Finally I gold embossed the 90 twice and added them to the page.

Now the present was a real dilemma. I had NO idea what to make Nan.  It had to be something I made as I have been making gifts for my Nan since I was about 7 years old and made her a felt pincushion.  I made her a hand painted and stitched wall hanging for Christmas so that was no good, I made her jewelry recently too...what to do?

Then it hit me...I could cover a notebook with a felt and machine stitched embellished cover.

  So that is what I did.  I took a day off work and spent the day at the sewing machine, a fabulous day and I was really proud with what I achieved (as well as putting doing the ironing off again!!).

 

I layered different colour sheer fabrics, ribbon and hand dyed wool and first used a blue then gold thread to over stitch.

I also used a blue thread to edge the book cover so it was all nice and neat.

There you have it, a one off and truly unique gift for a one off and truly unique Nan.

Happy Crafting

Kyla

WOYWW and metal embossing

 Hello peeps, I hope you are all well?  So What's on your workdesk this Wednesday?

Mine for once is productive.  I recently popped to the scrapstore in Lacock, Wiltshire.  This place is fabulous, there are similar ones all across the country.  They are charities and they take industrial waste that can be used in craft and schools.

On this trip I got some metal tubes (just one or two!!), some blue leather from Mulberry (they may be posh but I am lucky they are local so there is some fabulous leather offcuts in this scrapstore.  The Bristol one is near Cameron Balloons  so you get lots of ripstop in there-you just need to do a bit of homework about local industries) and a few empty film canisters for storage and some felt that I plan to use for book covers all for £1.50!

 The tubes are unused cream tubes

 I cut the ends off and slit up the side.  I then bashed the tubes flat with my leather and copper hammer (it's called Thor-I love the fact that the hammer actually has a name!!) with the metal over a piece of funky foam (to limit the dents on the metal).

I then used one of my Ten Second Studio moulds with a paper stump and created the stars. 

  

 I then coloured it with alcohol inks and when dry rubbed it back with a sanding block (forget those expensive craft ones...I get mine from the hardware store-50p!!) to expose some of the base metal.

There you have it....a metal embellishment ready to be used for almost next to nothing!

My "Man Bites Dog" cards this week are "Killer Heiress Sues Fans".....well, I for one will be watching the news for the next few days!!

So, if you fancy a legal snoop at workdesks around the globe then pop over to the lovely Julia's blog 

Happy crafting

Kyla