WOYWW #532: Faux batik technique

Good morning lovely people of WOYWW! I can't believe we're almost halfway through August now but I can really appreciate the slightly cooler temperatures. I'm on holiday at the moment, but I'm  confined indoors due to my injured ankles. I'm glad to say, they're healing nicely and I hope they'll be as good as new by next week, when I return to work.

My husband is in California for a conference this week, and son and I are really enjoying having the house to ourselves! OK, we miss him a little bit, but not enough to stop us from having fun, staying up very late, having midnight feasts and watching films together. Last night he had some of his friends stay over -  they're all sleeping downstairs like not-so-little angels, probably until mid-afternoon as they were still up at 5 o'clock!

I have several projects on the go at the moment and a few more in the pipeline. I took this photo of my desk on Monday night, trying a 'faux batik' technique that I'd learned about in this month's Craft Stamper magazine. A perfect opportunity for me to try my new Tim Holtz travel stamp platform - I must be the last crafter in the world to get one! I never realised I needed one before!

The faux batik technique involves clear embossing a stamped image on watercolour card, then using watercolours for the background - so far just a simple resist technique, but here's the twist - you then remove the embossing with a hot iron and a sheet of copy paper placed over the design. This melts and lifts all the sticky embossing, leaving you with a smooth surface, which creates a look similar to batik designs.

In the first example I used watercolours on the background, but then I moved on to distress oxides, which created stronger colours, as you can see.

Then I tried the same technique with a stencil. I didn't get a good result putting the embossing ink through the stencil, but then I had an idea to use the inked stencil like a stamp which worked much better! Nice and grungy - probably my favourite of all these attempts.

Gardening news: We bought this lovely plant just a few weeks ago for only £2 from our local garden centre run by the agricultural college down the road. It has since tripled in size and doing very well in its new spot. It's called Campfire Coleus according to the label and looks a lovely orange/red/purple when the sun shines on it.

Instead of an Oreo photo today, let me share a Facebook post by my dear friend, Jackie! This is her dog, Chum - isn't he just the coolest dog you've ever seen? Pssst, we mustn't let Oreo see this post! (edit: if you can't see the photo of Chum in the embedded FB post below, you can find it on Jackie's blog HERE.  He's really worth a look - not just your average dog!)

Have fun everyone and enjoy the last few weeks of the Summer! xx

WOYWW #449: A journal page, a tag and some tattered flowers

I was really sad to take the Christmas tree down this year. I don't usually feel that way but this year was special in our new house - we really enjoyed our first Christmas here. Taking down the tree also coincided with finishing my puzzle (more about that later) which also filled me with a sense of closure of the Christmas period. It's gone now and only the happy memories remain.

I didn't have much time to feel sentimental though as on Monday, I found out that I was offered a job at the local Range to work in the Arts and Crafts department! Yay me, I'm very excited! It's a part-time job, which allows me to continue with home education until my son gets into school (September the latest) and hopefully still spend some time in my art room and blogging. We'll see how it goes - I'm very optimistic about it at the moment.

Onto my desk now quickly, as that's what WOYWW is all about! Here's a photo I took earlier this week. At the front is a nearly finished journal spread featuring my first ever tattered flower - some more are in the process of being made in the background. There's also a tag I used for leftover paint and eagle-eyed viewers can also spot a texture stamp with a brick wall pattern - I ordered it from Aliexpress (thanks Annie and Shaz for putting me onto it!) - it's really good quality and cost me the grand total of £1.17!

Here's a closer look at my journal spread with the tattered flower that was cut from Khadi paper and tinted with distress oxides. 

This is how the flower was produced and assembled: 

My next batch if flowers were cut from brown wrapping paper. I love how the distress oxides behave on that surface! I've made some smaller ones as well with the thinlits die set and put a mini epoxy flower in the middle.

I used one of the small flowers on this tag that I put together (quite haphazardly) from scraps:

And finally here's my completed puzzle! I really enjoyed working on it, though sometimes I wondered whether I will ever be able to finish it! Frustratingly, the last piece didn't quite fit, so I had to find where I went wrong, but I was able to figure it out. Some pieces were almost identical in shape and colour, so it was easy to mix them up! I'm looking for a way to preserve the puzzle - too much work has gone into it for it to just go to waste! 

Thanks for visiting today. I won't have much time to go around until later in the day, but I promise to always get back to everyone who leaves a comment! Have a wonderful day! xx

WOYWW #446: Tiny houses and gelli printed mini envelopes

I'm writing this WOYWW post on Tuesday night, which is quite unusual for me. I will probably sleep in tomorrow as we are officially on holiday as of tonight and we are now unstoppably hurtling towards Christmas! I've got something crafty underneath the Christmas tree, but I can't reveal it until next week!

For now I will just show you these little houses I cut on my Cameo. Aren't they cute? I found the free cut files on this site.  Here's a photo I took while I was inking the edges. The walls are stained with distress oxides and the roofs with distress ink (rusty hinge). That shelving unit on my desk is new (well, recycled - it already has a nice ink stain on it!) and still needs to be fixed to the wall. It will be great for storing regularly used products within easy reach.

I've also made some mini envelopes with some gelli prints I'd created earlier this year. I used a scoreboard, which was an early Christmas present (from myself!). I should have got one years ago - I don't know how I managed without it so far! The envelopes are slightly different shapes and sizes but mainly around ATC size. 

I've been meaning to share this gif for a while but always forgot. This cat looks a lot like Oreo and reminds me of myself when I order art supplies online LOL!

Kitten Cat GIF from Kitten GIFs

I hope you've enjoyed your visit today! Wishing you all a joyful and peaceful Christmas! I hope to be back again next week for this year's last WOYWW.

WOYWW #436: Inside-out 3D canvas

I seem to have fallen into the habit of only posting for WOYWW lately, since I can only manage one post a week these days. As a result, I'm hopelessly behind with my classes, but thank goodness for the download option! My WOYWW posts usually consist of projects that are the result of random inspiration, just like this one. I was so inspired by a video I saw on YT that I immediately had to try my own simplified version of it.

Here's the obligatory shot of my desk while I was working on this project over the weekend.

I worked on a 5" X 6.5" block canvas, inside out to create a deep frame. I've seen this done many times before but this is the first time I have tried it myself! I pretty much followed the process in the video by applying crackle medium, gesso and then distress oxides to tint the surfaces. I'm loving the results! This is what my bits looked like before assembling the project.

And here's the finished 3D canvas, once I arranged all the elements and added the little bottles and labels. I used a couple of dominoes for the shelves and staggered them.

I've got something else to share today. I came across these clear acrylic gems at Home Bargains for just a couple of quid and bought them not really knowing what I was going to use them for. Then the inspiration struck me as soon as I'd got home! I put them into a clear glass with an LED tea light to create this mood lamp. So simple, yet so effective! 

And of course, there can be no WOYWW post of mine without an Oreo photo. Here he is lounging in the airing cupboard - his favourite place at the moment. He can literally spend all day sleeping in there!

Thanks so much for stopping by today - I'll be over visiting shortly! 

Have a lovely week everyone! 

WOYWW #435: Gelli printing with Distress Oxides

Time for another stomp on Julia's Stamping Ground this morning, peeking at crafty desks. I haven't had much time to enjoy my new art room lately, but I did make a last minute dash for it yesterday to try some Distress Oxide inks on the gelli plate. I extended my collection to include Fossilized Amber, so now I have a grand total of THREE oxides (along with Broken China and Vintage Photo), which is plenty if you just want to experiment.

This is what my desk looked like at around 5 pm last night:

And here's the results of my experiments:

I expect you can achieve similar results without the gelli plate, but it was fun trying it anyway. You only need a few drops of ink and some water. Here's a closer look at some of my favourite bits, keeping in mind that the camera exaggerated the contrast a little and made the colours look stronger:

I can use these for collages later. They remind me of my erosion bundles a lot. Perhaps this is a way to get similar results without the waiting and the creepy crawlies - instant gratification - but only the fraction of the excitement! 

In other news: we've solved the problem of Oreo knocking on doors in the middle of the night by letting him roam the house. He is now remarkably quiet (most of the time), although I did wake up the other night to find him sitting next to me, staring at me in the dark! Otherwise, he likes to curl up on top of my chest of drawers on a soft blanket. He's still too nervous to go out, so we're keeping him in the house for the time being and he seems happy with the arrangement. 

I've got this photo of his favourite toy, Sylvester, who needed  a bit of a wash. Oreo sometimes drags him around the house, so we find him in odd places. He even brought him up the stairs the other day, which was quite an achievement, given the fact that they are almost the same size. Perhaps he wanted to show him around! 

Thanks for stopping by today! I'll be over shortly! 

Happy WOYWW! 

WOYWW #434: Two grungy tags

I'm slowly getting back into a predictable routine, so I remembered that it was Wednesday today - time to do our weekly WOYWW desk hop on the Stamping Ground! Now that I have a dedicated art room, I find myself with very little time to use it. I didn't even have a chance to go in there yesterday, but luckily I had done some work earlier, which I can show you.

I had to jump on the Distress Oxide bandwagon to try them, so I ordered two colours just to see for myself what they are like. I opted for the refills rather than the ink pads as seem better value and I would only ever use them for backgrounds anyway. I love the chalky finish they produce - they're definitely different from the regular Distress inks. I tried them on a couple of tags:

Then I went completely overboard and used some fluid acrylics and bits of my erosion bundles to cover most of it up! I ended up with a pair of uber grungy tags - they were not planned - they just happened this way. Everything, including the sentiments, was totally random. I tend to use things that I randomly pull out of my stash, or what is already on my desk, instead of looking for something specific. It's a kind of serendipity, I guess.

Oh, I almost forgot to share this photo - I took it on a sunny morning. Oreo is getting more and more settled each day, but he's still not ready to go outside. He quite likes sitting in the window, though:

Thank you for visiting today. Hope you all have a lovely week!