WOYWW #550: Advent Journal 2019 - Part 3

I wasn't sure if I would be able to link up today for WOYWW but then I thought I'd better because I won't have a chance to say merry Christmas to everyone before next week. So here I am. A quick shot of my desk this morning - literally taken a few minutes ago:

 After boasting last week about my ability to do daily journalling, I fell behind with the Advent prompts - serves me right! I'm three days behind - four including today. No worries - it happened last year as well - I will catch up! I can show you the pages I made for day 11 through 14. Day 11 was about about smells and it has real cinnamon on the page - it smells lovely! How about that for a 4D experience?

This is as far as I got - more than half-way through with the prompts. Here's a shot of my journal at this stage, filling up nicely:

I've also received a cute little Christmas card from Shaz Silverwolf - somehow, quite undeservedly -  I got onto her Christmas list! Thanks so much, Shaz - it was a lovely surprise! I managed to take a photo of it showing the sparkle in the snowman.

Oreo had his annual jab on Saturday. I had to wake him up from a deep sleep, put him in his carrier and take him all the way to the vets - how cruel! We used to have a mobile vet, which was a lot less traumatic for him, but I couldn't find one around here. When we got back he went straight back to sleep. I bet when he woke up he thought 'what a terrible nightmare I had!' Here he is curled up on the settee, newly vaccinated. I hope we won't have to see a vet for another 12 months! 

I'm not sure I'll be able to link up next week, so I'd like to wish a very Merry Christmas to everyone!

Enjoy your festivities! xx

WOYWW #549: Advent Journal 2019 - Part 2

Looking back on my desk a week ago, it looked positively tidy compared to its present state. Here's a shot of my desk fresh off my camera this morning - and I had a surprise visitor as well!

I was working on Day 11 (today) in my advent journal following Kasia's prompts, so I'm all up to date. I'll finish this spread later today. When I originally constructed my journal, I only included 24 pages - one for each day - but I soon realised that I prefer working on two pages side-by-side (i.e. a whole spread) so I started sticking in additional pages. Luckily, my book spine is big enough to accomodate the additional thickness. Here are my pages from day 4 to day 10. There's a yellow tinge on these photos as the sun was rising around the time I took them this morning - except day 9, which was taken on a previous occasion.  I tried to include a little gold on every page - it's Christmas after all! 

It's really not hard to keep up with the daily journalling and I can even do it on my work days. 15-20 minutes is all it takes and it makes me feel good that I did something creative, no matter how small or quick. I could get into the daily habit of doing this. The key is that you should not worry about the outcome, which is something I still have to work on but I find Kasia's attitude to journalling very inspiring. 

We've added some more twinkling lights to our decor and it's really beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! Thanks for your visit - I'll be over soon! xx

WOYWW #548: Advent Calendar and Journal

Hello again lovely WOYWW peeps. I'll jump straight in showing you my desk as I have lots of other things to share. This photo must have been taken on Sunday might as I was just beginning to work on the first prompt of Kasia's Advent Calendar.

So far I managed to keep on track and even managed to complete day 3 after work yesterday - which seems like days ago but it was just last night! Here are my pages so far. As you can see, I included some of the art cards I made earlier in the year - I thought it would be nice to give them a home in my journal. I will be working on day 4 later today - we're encouraged to spend just 15-20 mins on each page, so it doesn't get overwhelming. 

I've also managed to complete my DIY advent calendar in the nick of time for Sunday. Here it is all decorated. It came with little red velvet pouches each containing a number of charms. When I received it a few weeks ago, I couldn't help opening them but I didn't look! I touched them with my eyes closed and tried to work out what they were - this way the surprise is not ruined but enhanced! I'll show you what it contained today and I'll show you all of them in the end. I open them in the morning and it's a good motivator for me to get out of bed early! 

I haven't done any new pours but I have been working some more with resin. I added die-cuts to some of my "failed" pours with a layer of resin over the top, which really enhances them. I've learned so much along the way - especially that resin is very forgiving and you can repour it as many times as necessary to get a good result. The one on the left has three layers and at one point it really looked like it was a gonner, but I managed to save it! 

I've also managed to fix this one I showed you last week - I just had to sand it back and pour another layer of resin and all the scratches, bumps and imperfections disappeared! Here it is again - do you recognise the reflection in it?

Just in case you didn't: 

We've also put our tree and lights up. Same a last year except for this little fixture I made from some lighted branches from Aldi, a glass vase from Home Bargains and some glass pebbles from Ebay. Once you add these up, it wasn't exactly cheap but we can use it all year around not just for Christmas. And of course our little rustic Santa came out of exile as well. 

Happy #548! xx

WOYWW #547: Two advent projects

Hello fellow deskers! Normally I would say, Wednesday already? - but looking back, it seems last Wednesday was ages ago. Even yesterday seems like two weeks ago - why is that?

I had to shift gears and go into 'advent' mode, which means I had to swap my pots and pans around and put my pouring projects on the back burner for now. They're still very much there simmering in the background though! I got this DIY advent calendar from CraftBox a few weeks ago and I realised I had to get going with it as it is nearly December now! I managed to put it together without any instructions - it was a bit like working on a puzzle as it came flat packed. Here it is on my desk, just waiting to be decorated. I'll show you the finished project next week.

My other advent project is a mini book that I cobbled up in just an hour from recycled packaging and file folders ready for Kasia's Advent Calendar course starting on the 1st of December.  If you remember, I took part in this event last year and enjoyed it very much. The course is free but Kasia has asked us to consider donating a few pounds to her chosen charity in return, which I think is a wonderful idea and very fitting, especially around this time of year.  This is the book that I made and I think I will do a similar design on my advent calendar, so they'll match. It has 24 pages - one for each day to follow along Kasia's prompts until Christmas Eve. 

I've also put together a little tray of basic supplies so I'm ready to go. I might still change these later - we'll see...

Another thing I've tried this week was putting resin on one of my canvas pours. I really should have waited a few more weeks for the paint to cure completely, but I just couldn't wait to try it! It's only a small practice piece and it's not perfect by any means, but I can see how this might work. The resin intensifies the colours and gives it a super smooth, crystal clear, ultra glossy finish. It's almost irresistible to touch - I keep stroking it, leaving my fingerprints all over it. I might try another layer of resin on this to smooth out the imperfections around the edges. You can see these towards the top where there's a ripple and the canvas texture is showing. I think it can be fixed, but I need to read up on it. I don't normally bother with imperfections, but resin is an exception. 

Wishing you all a creative week and a lovely run-up to Christmas! 

Our decorations are going up this weekend! xx

WOYWW #546: Still pouring my heart out

Usually Wednesdays (aka whizz days) come around quicker than we expect them - today, however, I'm thinking 'has it really been just one week since I last posted'? It's because I'm having so much fun staying up late painting, getting by on just 5-6 hours sleep that my days seem longer somehow. I'm here for WOYWW again to share my creative space, tada:

This is one of my many pours over the weekend - I had to stop as I ran out of places to dry my canvases - they do take at least 3 days to dry. I bought a cheap baking tray to catch the drippings and they dry as an acrylic skin - eventually - mine's still drying after 4 days - but once dry, the paint will just peel off - it's pretty neat! Here's a closer look at the canvas while it was still wet, and another shot now that it's dry. It's not just the lighting - they do look quite different when they're dry - even the colours have changed! 

I've also made some cabochons with these colours by dipping them into the wet paint. I can turn these into fridge magnets, make more pendants or use them in my other projects. They would look great in a polymer clay collage! My mind is buzzing with ideas! 

Here are some of my other pours from the past week. I may not keep all of them - if I'm not in love with a piece, I ruthlessly resuse the canvas in hopes of a better pour or turn them into a mixed media project. 

 

I've been looking into using alternative surfaces as the canvases are not that cheap and take up so much space. Here's a pour on a CD. This could be turned into a clock:

and some more glass cabochons - these are 1" squares:

Sometimes my best artwork is the one that stays in the cup. This one reminds me of a group of people standing in a circle:

Thanks for visiting! I'll be spooning around your desks soon! 

Happy WOYWW! xx