WOYWW #599: Beginning to feel a bit like Christmas!

I've been completely sidetracked this morning, so I'm joining in a bit late on WOYWW today. #599, my goodness! Wouldn't miss it for the world! Lucky, I've already got my pictures prepped, so I'm sure I can throw something together quickly. It's been a busy week with work, my son's GCSE revisions and a bit of arting on the side and whole lot of online retail therapy in "lockdown", which really didn't feel like lockdown at all this time around. Here's a shot of my desk, taken some time at the weekend.

I've been experimenting with metal - this is just kitchen foil stuck on paper and embossed - I couldn't wait until my order of foil tape arrived, but this worked just fine and much cheaper. Here's a closer look (yes, I realise that I used the wrong side of the embossing folders if you look at the letters, but let's just call it a "design decision" as it worked better this way with the images, which is actually true!):

I've also made a little Christmas ornament with a new Sizzix Impresslits. This was done with black cardstock and gilding waxes, but I'll have another go with foil tape later.

 

I stuck the three pieces together back-to-back to make this 3D ornament:

As you can see, we've got the Christmas tree up and it's definitely put me in a Christmas mood!

We even got Santa down and he posed for his annual portrait - hasn't aged a bit since last year! 

Enabling is not my forte, but I'll have a go. I couldn't resist these MDF kits by Lisa Horton and already started on the mini bookcase and plan to complete the calendar by December 1st, so we can use it with our advent calendars. I might wrap the rest of them up for Christmas. 

I also couldn't resist getting the advent calendar inserts again this year from CraftBox as I did last year - it was so exciting opening them every morning! I also got this paper kit to build a Christmas scene of buildings and trees - one for each day - you can hide little treats underneath. It looks better than the photo - all gold and glittery. I'm thinking, after Christmas, I can give it a mixed media treatment! 

And finally, look what popped up on my Facebook feed last Sunday, November 22nd! It was 5 years ago that we got Oreo - these photos were taken the very next morning (also a Sunday!). My son (then 11) and Oreo literally grew up together! Such lovely memories!

Thanks for your visit - I'll be around soon. If I can't make it today, bear with me, 

I'll be over later in the week! xx

WOYWW #598: More random projects

Every time I go into my craft room with the intention of tidying up, somehow I always end up making an even bigger mess! Blame all the scraps lying around - I touch them and instead of throwing them out I start thinking: hmm, what can I do with these? This was exactly the case with these wooden shapes that come with stretched canvases to tighten them (I never knew what they were used for until I looked it up!) Anyway, when I put them together, they resembled little houses, so that's what I made out of them. I stuck the shapes together and decorated them with the altered scrapbooking papers I'd made earlier. Here's the proceedings shown in my desk shot, taken earlier this week:

I used my gelli prints for another random (unplanned) project and covered these cylindrical containers. They're great for storing my foil and tissue paper tubes.

Next, I used bits and pieces of leftover scraps from other projects to produce yet another grid. Yes, I'm definitely addicted to grids! 

So there you have it, my random scrap projects. I'm getting very excited about the 600th WOYWW two weeks from now and our Zoom Crop the following Saturday. Find out more on Julia's post here. If you're vain like me (and who isn't?), here's a little trick to make yourself look good on camera, even first thing in the morning without makeup. It smoothes your complexion and even whitens your teeth! Go into settings, then click on Video and tick 'Touch up my appearance'. You can adjust how much enhancement you need - I used maximum LOL! I wish I could do this in real life - takes a decade off you at least! This works on the PC desktop - not sure about mobile apps. 

I tried to get Oreo in the picture as well but he wasn't very co-operative and wouldn't look in the camera, so he just comes up as a black blob. He got a bit annoyed because I was trying to get him to do something against his will. He's sulking now somewhere after letting me know in no uncertain terms that he wasn't happy - he even bit me! Not seriously, just to put me in my place. You can't just boss a cat around, right? I hope he will willingly make an appearance during the crop and it would be great to see all the other WOYWW pets too!

Thanks for visiting today - I'll be doing my rounds later - hope to see you all soon! xx

WOYWW #597: Journal page and this and that

We're well within reach of #600 of WOYWW! Can you believe that Julia's crafty blog hop has been running for almost 600 weeks?! That's 11.5 years in old money. This must be some kind of record, for sure! Here's this week's obligatory desk shot from me. 

I was in the process of working on this journal spread. I actually contemplated leaving it as just a background - there's no law that says you have to complete each and every page, but I still went ahead and added a few more bits and bobs, incorporating some of my gelli prints, washi tapes and other elements. While I don't love the entire spread as a whole, there are some areas I quite like, so I took some close-ups of those as well. 

Apart from this spread, I played a bit more with alcohol inks and stencils I stuck one of my gelli prints on a little container that I had saved from the recycling box:

I just want to show you one more thing: we had a canvas print delivered yesterday to go above the fireplace. We'd been looking for years for something suitable - the right size, the right image - you wouldn't believe how difficult it was to find something that all of us could live with. (My own art is relegated to my own areas LOL!) I wanted something abstract, while my husband insisted on a "real" thing that we have a connection to. In the end we settled on this scene in Utah - my hub's been there and stood next to that rock. It adds a bit of colour to our otherwise neutral interior and who doesn't like sunsets?  Yeah, I can live with it. Oreo just casually walked into the shot while I was taking the photo this morning. Perfect timing!

What have you been up to this week? Let us know and link up with WOYWW! 

WOYWW #596: More gelli prints, grids and a journal page!

I'm still on a creative high following all the inspiration in previous weeks. I literally can't stop creating! So, I'd better get down to business and show you my desk for WOYWW and all the makes that poured out of me in the past week. Starting with my desk, I'm still hooked on gelli printing with alcohol inks, inspired by Birgit Koopsen. This time, I used my 6X6" gelli plate with a new stencil I picked up on Amazon that was a perfect fit. 

Here are my prints, pulled with copper and gold acrylics, which gives them a lovely shimmer. The second photo is a simple mop-up of my stencil on deli paper and the third was an experiment on Yupo, but not a gelli print.

I also developed a crush on washi tapes so I had to get some new ones to add to my collection and also acquired this drawer unit to store them (I think I saw it on Sarah's blog first and have been coveting one ever since!):  

On top of this unit, there's a new grid project on the left and I made another two after that! This is such a fun way of creating, I have to keep making them! It was originally inspired by Laly Mille, but I think I managed to put my own stamp on it. Here are the three squares I created - they're all on my gelli print clean-up-sheets just on ordinary printer paper, which I then attached to some cardstock:

And if that's not enough, I've also made a journal page - or rather finished one that I had started some time ago. My alcohol prints came in handy! (That's a picture of Catherine of Aragon as a child, by the way)

Cat news: I had to break up a confrontation between Oreo and the neighbour's black cat who invaded his patch. They were staring at each other making that stupid noise they do just before a showdown. I stood right next to Oreo and negotiated with the invader, who reluctantly and veeeryyy slowly moved away, admitting defeat. I hope he won't be back for a good while - or perhaps ever if he was sufficiently traumatised by the experience.  I locked Oreo in the house for a couple of hours just to be safe before letting him out again. There hasn't been any problems since, but I'm on the look-out! Nobody messes with Oreo - he's under my protection! I hope the message got through! He posed for a portrait for me this morning:

That's it for today! Thanks for your visit. I look forward to visiting as many desks as I can today and during the course of the week. Happy #596!