WOYWW #477: Altered terracotta pot

Has anybody else had enough of summer 2018? I feel like we've had 10 years worth of British summer jammed into the past 8 weeks. But hey, soon we'll be moaning about the darkness and the cold, so we'd better enjoy the heat while we can. Some rain would be nice, though - and preferably not while I'm out and about.

Anyway, I'm not here to moan about the weather, but to share my crafty desk for WOYWW. Here it is:

Yep, it's yet another air-drying clay project. This time an altered terracotta pot. I've tried not to use my usual blue/green colours, so it ended up a deep, earthy red this time with some copper highlights. These were the paints that I used along with two IOD moulds, one of which you can see lying on my desk.

Here's the finished product, shown from different angles.

As an afterthought, I stuck a little cabochon in one of the clay shapes, which was a perfect fit. It's only in there temporarily until I find something more suitable. 

In other news, I found out on Friday that my tea bag collage was in the Top 3 of the That's Crafty June challenge. I emailed Laura and she was kind enough to send me my prize even though I was two weeks late claiming it. I received it yesterday - I chose two 8" mandala stencils from the available selection. Aren't they pretty? 

I've got another freebie to show you. You know how you can get free wallpaper samples from most DIY stores? Well, I've raided my local B&Q and came away with these. Now I'm super motivated to accompany hubby on his trips to the DIY store - no more hanging around feeling bored while he's browsing - I've got more "samples" to collect!

I'm working today and tomorrow again, so I'm unlikely to be able to visit until later in the week, but I'll make sure to get back to everyone who leaves a comment. If I missed anyone from last week, give me a holler! Happy #477! 

WOYWW #476: Altered picture frame with air-drying clay

I was planning to take part in last week's WOYWW, but somehow managed to run out of time. It was totally my fault for leaving it too late. I'm trying to do better this week, so I'm writing this on Tuesday night. Here's a photo of my desk on Saturday while I was altering a cheap picture frame:

The scrap cardboard underneath the frame turned out very exciting! You can clearly see the grit that's in the rust effect paint I applied as the first layer. Here's a closer look to show the texture:

The clay pattern comes from an IOD mould made by Prima Marketing. These moulds are not cheap, but they're very good quality. I have a few more on order.

When the clay was completely dry, I painted it with the rust effect paint followed by some blue and green turquoise acrylics. I know nearly everything I make turns out blue or green, but I just love those colours! I finished with some bronze gilding wax to bring out some highlights. Tada!

And look who's earned the privilege to have his mugshot in a fancy frame - not that he appreciates the gesture!

Thanks for all the visits and comments! I will be visiting later in the week as I'm at work today and tomorrow. How is that for short 'n sweet for a change? Happy #476! 

WOYWW #474: Playing with air-drying clay (again)

WOYWW is upon us once again, so it's time to share our crafty desks. I walked into my art room yesterday morning to be greeted with this scene: Oreo had taken a shine to my scrap box and took up residence in it.

As you can see the evidence on my desk, I've been playing with air-drying clay and made some tiles and embellishments by pressing stamps and metal filigrees into wet clay. These are a bit wonky - air-drying clay will always have a more organic and rustic feel to it than polymer clay and that's part of its appeal to me (plus the fact that it's much cheaper!).

I've also experimented with moulding air-drying clay. Here's a medallion I made using one of my home-made moulds.

I made the mould using silicone putty and a large metal charm years ago. You can find the original post here. It was meant to be used as a stamp, but it works just as well as a mould. I always think some of these charms are too good to use in a single project and never again and this way you can reproduce the design as many times as you want.

Another advantage of air-drying clay is that you can mould it to curved surfaces and just let them dry, which you can't do with polymer clay. Using a bit of gel medium, it will permanently bond to the surface as well. Here's an altered jar I made earlier in the week using air-drying clay in commercially available moulds. (It's an empty marmite jar, in case you're wondering!) 

Here's another picture of Oreo, lazing around trying to stay cool in this heat. There was a nice breeze coming through the window and he made sure that every inch of his tummy was exposed to it.

I forgot to tell you last week that I'm starting a new job on Monday working in a small office 15 hrs per week. This means I can still keep up with my blog, so I'm very happy! I was hoping the weather would turn cooler by then, but it's predicted to heat up even more over the weekend - oh, well, the heatwave won't last forever and we'll think back on it with fondness come January. 

Happy Independence Day to my US visitors! My blogiversary was just two days ago - that's how I always remember! 

And happy #474 to everyone visiting through the Stamping Ground. xx

Happy 4th Blogiversary!

It's July 2nd today - I started writing this blog exactly 4 years ago with this post. I had only just discovered mixed-media (and the joy of aquiring every art supply under the sun) and I was eager to share my new-found passion with the world. Never in a million years did I expect that my blog would still be going strong after four years!

I missed my first blogiversary (aka blogaversary), but I commemorated my second and third by showcasing my favourite projects, so I thought I'd do the same this year. With 53 blog posts over the course of the past 12 months (which translates to an average of one post per week) I haven't exactly been prolific, but I still feel it was an active and creative year. I let inspiration take me in different directions exploring new techniques and mediums and I allowed my journalling to evolve of its own accord rather than just following tutorials.

I actually found it hard to select only a few favourites, so I have a rather sizable grid to share today, including most of my projects and journal pages over the previous 12-month period. Each and every one of these projects brings back memories of the joy and excitement I felt while I was working on them, which is exactly why they are my favourites. You can easily find links to all these projects through my archives going from July 2017 to June 2018.

Thank you for following me on this wonderful art journey. 

I hope to share lots more in the next 12 months until my next blogiversary!

WOYWW #473: Peeled paint gelli prints and some tags

Hello again for another round of WOYWW.  Come join the fun over on the Stamping Ground where we snoop around our fellow crafters' messy desks. Here's mine as it was over the weekend:

Those of you who have seen the latest video by Birgit Koopsen for Gelli Arts will recognize this as my attempt at producing a peeled paint effect by using sellotape on the gelli plate. I had lots of fun playing with this technique and managed to get some good results, though not all the prints came out as well as I had hoped. Here are some of the best ones and some close-up to show the textures better:

The tapes coated with paint are the by-product of this technique and I used them on these colourful tags, which I then further embellished with old postage stamps, die-cuts, an ink stained doily, ribbon and book text. 

I received some happy mail last week from Annie, who'd sent me all these beautiful ephemera and napkins. Those playing cards are from a Hungarian deck of cards that I remember so well from my childhood as well as the book pages from Hungarian children's books. Thanks Annie for bringing back a glimpse of my childhood!

I'm also very excited about my avocado sprouting - this is the first time I've managed to achieve this. You can see the roots beginning to grow and the stem will soon split the stone and emerge on top. I'll have to wait until the roots are more established before transplanting it into a pot. I'll keep you posted about the developments! 

I've also got a pot of dahlias for the front garden from B&Q when we went to pick up some compost. It was love at first sight - literally - I glanced at it, I picked it up and I couldn't put it down. It's got at least a dozen buds on it - I might keep it in the house for now to admire it and maybe try to save it over the winter for next year. 

Well, my plant babies took over Oreo's place this week. He's been enjoying the warm weather outside and I completely forgot to take photos of him, but he'll be back next week, no doubt! Happy #473! 

WOYWW #472: Books, Beads and a Bracelet

I'm here today for another round of WOYWW on Julia's Stamping Ground - #472 to be exact! I haven't spent much time in my caft room this week but I have done a bit of digital housekeeping around my blog. I've tidied up my Pinterest board as it was very neglected. They've introduced some changes since I last visited and now it's possible to organize your boards into sub-categories, which is quite a good idea. I've also added a snazzy little Pinterest widget on my sidebar. It's all part of gearing up for my 4th blogiversary in a couple of weeks' time!

I took a photo of my desk this morning, although I had to rearrange some stuff for a better view so it might look "slightly" staged.

Remember that plain gessoed journal cover from last week, waiting for inspiration? Well, inspiration struck on Friday and I was able to finish it in one sitting. You can see it in the middle of my desk - for a better view, you can visit my previous post here. Next to that is a journal background that I'm stuck on - I might just leave it the way it is. Why not just create backgrounds if that makes us happy, right? You can also see some beads I bought for making danglies for journals. On a whim I made a bracelet, even though I never wear jewellery. Perhaps now I will! Also on my desk are two books that had been sitting on my Amazon wishlist forever. I finally took the plunge and bought them and my bookcase is now completely full. They're both so beautiful and inspirational. 

Of course, it was Fathers' Day on Sunday (or Father's Day, depending on which side of the argument you stand on!)  I made a quick digital card for hubby (from our son) with an image "borrowed" from the internet. I think it's originally a fabric print and just what I was looking for. I know it's a cop-out but I'm not very good at making special occasions cards. He was more interested in the chocolate, anyway!

I have no new Oreo photos today, but I played around with some of his old photos and created this collage in Canva, which is an online basic graphic design app. It's free to use with your own photos. It was recommended by Roben-Marie Smith on her blog, along with other tools for a creative business. It's super easy to use for simple graphic design tasks. 

Thanks for popping in!  I will be visiting later today! 

Happy #472!