WOYWW

Hello everyone....its Wednesday again...hump day as some say...but for us its 'What's on your Workdesk Wednesday' and a chance for a legal snoop around desks across the globe. This is all co-ordinated by the lovely Julia over here

So on my work desk this week are some more naked mail art I have made, the post card on the top right of the desk made with dylusion inks and one of my homemade figure stencils.  Fellow WOYWWer, Donna, has encouraged me to have a go at naked art!  So why not (full deets are on the previous post)!!

I also have an ornate doorbell I bought from the 99p store...I am thinking of altering it somehow (and ideas gratefully received)!

Also on my desk are a couple of small metal pots which contain sequins, these are for a felt doll we are each making at our weekly coven meeting.  Hopefully I will have this finished in a few weeks (we only do a couple hrs a week, and a LOT of that is taken up with tea, cake and gossip!  A fabulous stress reliever)!

As to my 'Man Bites Dog' cards.....'Cruel Priest Blames Blonde Model'!!  Well, considering I am in the UK and this week the highest bloke in the catholic church resigned amongst a lot of scandal I think that its an apt saying!!

Happy Crafting
Kyla
 

Naked art!

So, I have finally girded my loins and sent some 'art' in the post naked!!  No envelope...just sent as a postcard!!  Now, I was worried about sending it so I even phoned the Post Office head office and asked if this was ok and whether I need to keep certain areas free of paint (because of automated sorting machines)....their response was 'bemused' to say the least!!

This is my first one, I sent it to America.  Jane Davies is an artist who owns a post office in Rupert, Vermont in the USA.  Now this has to be the prettiest post office I have ever seen, a small beach hut type post office, all painted white with picket fence, so pretty.

However, there is a threat that it may be closed so in an effort to increase the through put of post she asked people to send handmade post cards.....I am not sure she expected quite as many (there are 15 galleries of cards already!!)...see all the details here

I also decided to send one to my Nan (in NZ) who has been poorly since before Christmas to brighten up her day.
 

Now I am a little hooked on this!!  Fellow WOYWWer, Donna  (http://www.adonnathing.com/doings-of-doone-blog/) takes part in a European collabor-art project who also have a mail art circle where you post handmade postcards naked too!  Donna has challenged me to join and I am proud to say I have just emailed them asking if I can join in (fingers crossed).

Right, my craft room is calling me (its what Sunday afternoon's were made for!).

 Happy crafting

Kyla

 

A wedding, various Birthdays and soldering!

Afternoon all, I have not been about for a while, work is far too busy and it was my birthday last week so my hubby took me to London for a few days away.  It was lovely (we had about 2 inches of snow!!), I watched a Japanese tea ceremony, Chinese new year in chinatown and spent far too much money and time in the 3 story art shop CASS Art in Inslington (I love it there, the staff are so knowledgeable). When I got home the crafty coven made me a cake and bought LOTS of crafty goodies!!!!  Thanks ladies x

As well as my birthday, last week was also several friends birthdays, my brothers birthday, his wedding (in Ecuador where he lives) and his wife's (ooh that sounds odd, good, but odd!!) birthday too!!!  What a week!

I did at least manage to make my hubby a Valentines card.

As he is in  a band I added some music paper and since it was from me I added some stitching.

I also had a go at making a flashing LED heart for him!!  My solder technique isn't great (my first time!!)...but I think he appreciated the effort that went into it!

Right, as its sunny outside I am off to clear the dead leaves from the guttering round the garage...oh what a glamorous life I lead eh?!

Happy Crafting

Kyla

WOYWW

Hello peeps...a rushed post today (pay the bills job busy, blah, blah, blah).  On my desk this week are some letters I am painting green (they spell holiday) ready to stick on an old whisky tin I am turning into a money box (for guess what....yep, our holiday fund).  The money box is costing nothing (using scraps and papers I don't like, odd gems, tissue papers etc) and I am hoping a pretty money box will incentivise me to use it!!!

Also on my desk are a pack of blank postcards (I bought them from Woolies before they closed down....yep, I know that was a while ago...its amazing what you find when you tidy up!!) I am going to try to paint a postcard to send in the post (I know, WITHOUT an envelope!!!!! Gulp...not sure about this!!).

Finally my "Man Bites Dog" cards this week spell out "Cruel Model Slays Thousands"!!!!! (not sure how I feel about that!)  lol!

So, feel free to pop over here to Julias blog and legally snoop on desks around the globe!!  

Happy crafting
Kyla

Feb 365 Challenge

Hello, are you having a nice weekend?  Even though I am super busy at the moment, I somehow have managed to surpass myself and have February's 365 calendar page ready!!!  I know, I cannot believe it either!  How smug do I feel?  (believe me it won't last long....!)

So this months pages are coloured with Dylusions, stencilled, stamped and splattered with white distress stain.  I stamped hearts and added oil pastels to colour them, edging them with a black china pencil and some white paint.  I added some pink sequins in one of the hearts for a little subtle bling (what would February be without bling?  The month of Valentines, pancakes and my birthday!!).

I also die cut some hearts from dylusion coloured copier paper and ran them through the sewing machine adding an outline of zig zag stitches and I left the threads dangling for some added texture.

I added some borders to the page with Tim Hotlz sticky tape (I love this stuff) and some heavily glittered letters to spell out Feb (bright red stickles add just the right amount of bling without being too in your face)-perfect for a stylish touch.

This is my second month taking part in Kate Cranes 2012 365 challenge, all the deets can be found on her blog here 

Happy Crafting

Kyla
 

WOYWW

Hello everyone.  I do hope you are all well? 

 I don't like to start with an apology but I have been a bit tardy with return visits this week. 

 I am sorry, but my pay the bills job is really busy and the next 6 weeks will see the culmination of the delivery of one of my projects (very boring, but the build and roll out of a computer application across nearly 700 people! Sounds as dull as it is, but it is taking 100% of my energy....but after all it does pay my craft stash bills!!!).

On my desk this week is some dylusion sprayed papers which I have overstamped and plan to make into valentines cards....well that's the plan!

My "Man Bites Dog" cards this week spell out "Lady Bites Beauty Heiress"!!!! You really couldn't make it up!

If you'd like to have  a legal snoop around desks across the globe then pop over to see the Queen of workdesks, the lovely Julia here

Right, back to work!

Kyla

Altered and upcycled box tutorial

Hello, everyone.  I do hope you are having a lovely weekend.

If you follow me from WOYWW you may have seen an altered box hiding at the back in various stages of altering.

Well, I finished it and thought I would do a tutorial.  Its a little photo heavy as I still cannot fathom why youtube takes so long to upload (hrs for a 3 minute video!!), but if you'd like to learn how I made some embellishments for pennies then read on.


 I started with an empty box.  It contained a natural sweetener and the box seemed too good to chuck so I thought I would alter it and turn it into a treasure chest.

This is the before

 This is the after.  It cost virtually pennies to make!

 

I painted the box with acrylics, a mix of brown, black and green.  I then dried it with a heat gun and added some gold, black and green wax to the edges, buffed it up and painted a satin water based acylic varnish over the box to seal it.

To make the embellishments I made some moulds from a metal cog and a skull and cross bones pendant.  

I used a hot glue gun to fill the moulds

 When dry, pop them out of the moulds, there may be some overspill but there is a real easy fix

Tidy up the embellishments with scissors.  I use my Tim Holtz scissors, they have amazing micro serrated blades and this means they are a great work horse.

 When they are all tidied up I covered them in black acrylic dabber and then rubbed gold wax over them and buffed them up.  I sealed them with the same acrylic  sealant and now they are ready to use.

 I glued them to the box with multi medium and added some hinges that I stamped with a paper artsy stamp onto grunge paper and cut out.  I coloured the hinges with copper distress stains and attached them with mini brads

I also made a lock with a paper artsy stamp on grunge paper and added a couple of larger brads at the front which I texturised by walloping with a hammer!!

So there you have it.  A treasure chest ready to fill with whatever you choose.  I was thinking scrunching up some brightly coloured tissue paper inside and filling the box with chocolates!!  

Either way, I think this is a great gift box, a one off and best of all its upcycled and cost pennies...whats not to like?

I'd love to know what you think.

Happy crafting

Kyla

WOYWW, a tikki and a mop up page

Hello everyone, how are you on this cold and snowy (well in the UK at least) WOYWW?

So, on my desk this week is my heat proof mat with some hot glue skull and cross bones and cogs that I have made ready to decorate my "Truvia" sweetner box (hidden at the back) that was on my desk last week.  The box is drying at the moment (I love multi medium as a glue but it really does take overnight to dry!) so I hope to post the finished box and another tutorial (I really cannot fathom youtube!) on how to make the hot glue embellishments later this week.

My "Man Bites Dog" cards this week are "Romantic suspect slays crazy naked star!"  They really do sound like plots for books sometimes!

I thought I would show you the snowman that my hubby decided to make....
 

Yep, a scary tikki head.  Placed at the end of the garden to spook the neighbours kids!!  I told him it was crafting...but in a manly way!!

The great thing about the snow is that I don't feel gulity about staying in at the weekend, catching up on housework and of course, rewarding myself with some serious craft time.
 
If you saw my stencil tutorial on my last post, I thought I would share with you the 'mop up' page.

This is the page I pressed the leftover of my inky stencils onto.  I really liked the page (I find it difficult to leave white space, I love the effect, but it is something I am really going to concentrate on experimenting with during 2013).  I then did some scribbles in black ink.  It does actually say something meaningful (to me at least) but I have tried to scribble it to disguise the words a little.  For a leftover page I am really pleased with this.

If you would like a legal snoop around desks across the globe you can join in here

Stay safe and warm and happy crafting

Kyla
 

A Dyan and Dina inspired stencil tutorial and journal page

Evening all.  I awoke to snow this morning!  Now I know for some of you that is not unusual, but here in the south west of the UK we don't get that much, and certainly not that fast, 5" in a few hours...its covered up all my weeds and dead plants in the garden and it looks so pretty now!

Have you been watching the CHA 2013 video's on the web?  I know I have.  They are so inspiring and I now have a rather long lust list of Tim Holtz new goodies (his new paints look fabulous) and Dylusions (WHITE spray ink!!  I need it, plus ALL the new colours!!).  

However, after spending SO long clearing out my craft space I vowed that anything coming into the room needed to be productive and get used (that includes me!!  I admit I often sit here, Spotify or BBS6 music playing and before I know it an hour has passed me by!!)  and the fact that January is rather a lean month, so I thought I would use up some more of my stash to see if I could make new stash.

Inspired by both Dina Wakely and Dyan Reavley (they are both so talented) I decided to make a figure mask from some leftover plastic.

I chose a figure from a magazine

I traced it with a permanent marker

and cut it out so I had both a postitive and negative image.  

I inked through the stencil with Dylusion inks and then used black acrylic with gold interference paint to add some depth, using the figure cutout to protect the image.
 

I stamped through with a Dylusions background stamp (I use these all the time they are so versatile) and also stamped it with white stayz on using the stamp without an acrylic block so I could bend the stamp slightly and use part of the image.

I added circles of white paint (using the dylusions ink lid as a stamp).

I love the effect, the stencil is no where  near as good as the dylusions one (in either detail or quality) BUT its a great way for me to see if it is a product I would use in the future before I look to making the investment (which lets face it will probably happen quite soon!!).

That's it for now, I am off for a warming cuppa (or maybe some mulled cider.....much more suitable with the snow outside I think!).

Happy crafting

Kyla
 

 

WOYWW

Hello peeps.  How are you all keeping?  Well I hope.

On my desk this week is my 365 journal as I am trying to get ahead of the game and am already prepping Februarys backgrounds.

The truvia box is empty and it seems too good to throw away, so I am thinking of covering it, painting it and turning it into a treasure chest!  Not sure yet, just an idea I have floating around.

I will keep this short as I know fellow WOYWWers will have many desks to get round, but if you'd like a legal snoop around desks across the globe, feel free to join Whats on Your Workdesk Wednesday here .  The Queen of WOYWW, the lovely Julia is very friendly (mad as a box of frogs if you meet her, but a lovely lass) and there are SO many of us loyal followers that you are bound to be inspired (I know I am).

Happy crafting

Kyla