WOYWW #542: A quick check-in

I thought I'd better check in at WOYWW today as I haven't been heard from in three weeks. I've been pretty busy at work and my creative flurry of activities a few weeks ago have been followed by a hiatus. I haven't fallen off the wagon completely - actually I've been quite busy in my craft room as well - but I haven't got much to show for it other than a very messy desk. I think I'm in the running for the messiest desk title this week, don't you?

I've worked on a few journal spreads, but didn't manage to finish any of them. Here's a glimpse of one of them - it's just a collage at this point.

I've also watched numerous YT videos and tried a few techniques with more or less success. One of them was the wax paper embossing technique. These are my trial runs:

Then I got hooked on hot foiling with laser prints but I didn't have a laminator, so I had to order one. Unfortunately, it broke within 30 minutes of use, so I'm sending it back. (This was before I realised that I could just use an iron, duh!) I may or may not get another laminator - I'm not sure I need one as I would only ever do this technique on small projects to add a little bling and I don't need them to be perfect as I prefer a distressed look. This is what I ended up with when I tried foiling laser printed images. The foil sticks to the dark areas as the toner melts while the lighter areas remain unfoiled - it's pretty cool! I can see this used on ATCs and little journalling inserts, etc. It looks much more impressive in real life. Here's a video if you want to see how it's done - very simple, really.  More experiments on the way! 

While I was packing up the laminator to send it back, I left it unattended for just two minutes to print off the returns slip and when I came back, this was the scene that greeted me. This is exactly how poor Cupcake ended up spending 8 days packed in a box while travelling around the country courtesy of Royal Mail! (just to clarify: it wasn't our cat that got posted - it happened to another cat I heard about in the news some time ago - the link has the full story!)

Happy WOYWW! I look forward to seeing what everybody's been up to while I was gone! xx

WOYWW #539: Still on a roll!

I've been very productive this past week, I'm happy to report. It is no doubt due to the inspiration of the Life Book Summit which has now been extended by one week until 7th October. I have lots to share today with fellow deskers on WOYWW, so let's get down to it!

First off, my desk. This photo was taken just a few minutes ago. Having tidied up my craft room over the weekend, my creative space now looks much more inviting! That's one of my altered books that I use as an art journal laid out on my desk. I worked on the page on the left last night and I'm not sure if it's finished yet. I might add something to it later on, but for now I'll leave it as it is.

I also added two oracle cards to my collection...

....and completed two projects inspired by Jenny Grant and Tiffany Goff Smith during the LifeBook Summit. They don't actually look much like the lessons, which is not a problem at all. I got a few ideas from the videos and I integrated them with  my own style. 

I have a fun photo to share as well. This was taken up in Scotland on a pig farm, showing hubs with a now well-established beard in a rare state of laughter. Apparently, one of the piglets kept pushing him with their nose, which he thought was funny. They're doing a research project about the facial expressions of pigs and Netflix was there to film it (the guy on the right is a reporter from the US and the lady is one of the collaborators on the project). It will come out next year as part of a science series. I just thought I should shamelessly brag about it. He was so nervous about the filming, but from the sounds of it, it went quite well, so fingers crossed. 

 Hope you're having a creative week too! Happy Whizz Day!