Wind the bobbin up ...

Sang that song so many times during my years (all 16 of them!) running a mother & todder group

so it was inevitable I had the bloomin' tune rattling around my head whilst working on this

An altered vintage bobbin 

really quite different for me

the biggest difference being it is pink

and I absolutely HATE pink

but these are challenging times for all of us right now so I decided to embrace change

and see what happened

I didn't actually faint using pink ... can't see me doing it again any time soon though!

The heart is based very much on a composition Finnabair did during one of her FB Lives (I think) ... I did it once before and was quite pleased with it so decided to do pretty much the same for this

I know we are all feeling pretty much the same and my brain is mush right now

can barely string two thoughts together let alone come up with an original design so used Finn's piece as inspiration

I could easily sit an do nothing other than wallow at what we are all facing but that would do me no good at all so I am working hard at pushing through the fear and uncertainty and keep busy and productive

We are twelve days in to our isolation & it feels like there is such a long way to go ... but, hey, we are all in the same boat so am trying to keep positive and look ahead to all the hugs and cuddles and kisses my family will be getting once this is all over

They have been warned!

I forgot to take any photos as I made this but there isn't much to share really

I wanted to keep the thread that was left on the bobbin so stuck some heavy lace over it

The heart was made flat and then adhered to the bobbin but once in place I decided I wanted to add a little more of the green wax ... but Finn's heavy body gel is so amazing the heart was stuck firm and there was no problems tweaking the colours

PRODUCTS USED :

Finnabair (Prima Marketing)

Art Basics : Soft Gloss Gel / 3D Gloss Gel / Heavy Body Gel

Art Alchemy Metallique Wax : Rose Gold / Mint Sparkle

Art Ingredients Art Sugar : Light Pink

Finnabair Stamp Set : Wild & Free

Mini Stamp : Script

Finnabair Mechanicals : Rustic Washers / Woodland Ferns / Machine Parts

Mitform Castings

Scrapinec Decorative Chipboards 

Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain : Victorian Velvet / Black Soot

Archival Ink Pad : Hickory Smoke

Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Spray : Frozen Jack Frost

Odd bits of lace & cheesecloth & paper flowers

WOYWW 564

Well proof, if ever proof were needed, that I have not staged these desk shots today

because if I had I would have tidied up what is in the background

Afraid tidying is not a huge priority right now as emotions are running high and everything seems more effort than normal

I know we are all feeling pretty much the same - it's all a bit of an adjustment, isn't it?

Want to see more workdesks?  Then you can visit lots all courtesy of our Julia over at The Stamping Ground

I plan on altering the bobbin today

my friend haggled for six of them on a well known site and we split them between us ...  they are most tingleworthy!

I planned on doing the bobbin yesterday but wanted to do a rainbow for our window - it was mostly done to make great-nephew Henry (five today!!!) smile when he comes to wave through the window but hopefully it will make others smile too

It is far too bright for my liking but I decided not to lighten it because it is intended to be seen from a distance through the window

PRODUCTS USED :

Finnabair for Prima Marketing -

Art Basics  : 3D Gloss Gel / Heavy Body Gel / Clear Gesso

Art Alchemy : Acrylic Paint 

Royal Red / Fresh Orange / Pure Sunshine / Dark Forest / Midnight Sky

Crocus Fields / White Pearl

Art Alchemy Acrylic Paint : Sparks Raven Black

Tim Holtz (Ranger) Distress Ink Spray

Candid Apple / Spiced Marmalade / Squeezed Lemonade / Peeled Paint

Stormy Sky / Dusty Concord

And finally ... finished the violin mentioned in last week's WOYWW

it is blogged in a separate post for anyone interested

Wishing you all a happy WOYWW and sending extra love and hugs !

xXx

The violin's ringing like lovely song

Except this one isn't of course

 for it has a new song to sing now

It was in an awful state, destined never to be played again and, being pretty certain it is not a Stradavarius , I arted it up

I had quite a clear plan in my head (as one of the photo's will show) and intended it to be like the night sky with the moon and the stars

Changed my mind but had no option than to leave the stencilled stars in the background ... would rather they have been something else but just had to go with them so am embracing the change of  design

Once ready to colour I found myself automatically reaching for my usual choices ... the background was already blue at this stage ready to become the night sky so another coat of gesso was required

and back to black it went

I gave myself a good talking to and put my much favoured blues and greens and purples back and picked my second most disliked colour ... YELLOW ... but kept the green adding to it a much brighter shade of green than I would normally use - had to add in a touch of my favourite copper but still no blue!!

From there I just kept layering and tweaking and layering some more until I felt happy with the colours

After quite a bleak period of no such artwork on my desk I did really enjoy doing this and am fairly happy with how it turned out

and it is not very often at all you will hear me say that!

 THREE coats later ...

Forgot to take a photo showing all the stencilled stars on the top and back but managed to remember in time to get a photo of them on the sides

Changed my mind about the moons and just about managed to pull them off

they had been left to dry overnight and I have to confirm what I know already - that Finnabair's Heavy Body Gel takes some beating - once it is stuck then it is stuck and I had to tear the base to get them off

Then I just kept adding bits here and there until I felt I  was happy with the composition

Never sure if I love or hate this stage

Stick this bit here ... stick another there ... don't like it so take it off again and move it somewhere else

Think I have it sorted - go to the loo & come back and utter a very colourful word like

Oh Blow!

and tweak it some more

finally decide it will do

Think the stars look stupid at this stage

So here it is all finished ... it will do!

Yes, I know these should be - and were - on the back of the ... of the what?  Whatever that bit you hold is called - my violin playing nephew suggested the scroll or neck

Anyway - I thought them far too interesting to be stuck at the back so artistic license came into force and I moved them to the front

At the end of it I don't think the stars look too bad - don't really fit the new theme but as I have no idea what that new theme turned out to be I guess that's ok!

PRODUCTS USED:

Finnabair for Prima Marketing  :

Art Basics Heavy Gesso - black

Art Basics Modelling Paste

Art  Basics Heavy Body Gel

Art Basics  3D Gloss Gel / Soft Gloss Gel

Art Ingredients Mica Powders - Sunny Yellow / Bottle Green / Copper

Art Alchemy Metallique Wax - Mint Sparkle / Vintage Gold / Bronze Age / White Gold / Aged Brass

Art Alchemy Opal Magic Wax - Green Brocade / Vintage Sik

Art Ingredients - Glass Glitter - Goldrush / Micro Beads - Bronze

Mechanicals - Sentiment plaque & some of the metal bits

Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Stencil - THS115 (stars)

Powertex - Wooden flourishes

Samantha K Elegant Mixed Media Frames - Medium / Small

Lindy's Stamp Gang Spray - Drop Dead Gorgeous Green

Perfect Pearls Mists - Sour Apple / Kiwi / Sunflower Sparkle

WOYWW 563

More of a “can you see what it is yet?” than a view of my desk

Sharing now to join in the weekly blog-hop courtesy of our much loved leader - Julia - over at  The Stamping Ground

I hate all this “sneaky peek” business to be honest - it’s more that I am not sure which way this is heading & I have already prised off several pieces that I stuck down yesterday (Finnabair’s Heavy Body Gel is not to be underestimated & ripping of the base surface was necessary!)

I will explain all when posting finished project

Very much a work in progress so forgive the horrible stage it is at now

Thank you to all of you whom visited me here on my previous WOYWW - I did reply to everyone, or tried to - I had a couple of blogs throw back my comments & had no luck.   But try I did - honest! 

Happy WOYWW’ing dear friends

xXx

From dinosaurs to Superheroes!

Seems I never got around to blogging Henry's 4th birthday card 

and as he is 5 this month I thought I'd do them both together

Time sure does fly and dinosaurs no longer quite hit the mark as he discovered Superheroes & The Avengers

so Great Auntie is on a steep learning curve educating herself on The Hulk, Captain America &, as his card will prove, H's favourite ... Iron Man

Barely a tag in sight!

Wasn't going to blog these at all but al the photos are clogging up my mobile and ipad so I figured if I put them on here then I can zap them to free up space!

These are a bunch of cards I made last year for my friend who raises funds for the RNLI and ... 

SHOCK! ... HORROR! ...

I actually made "proper" cards that open rather than my much preferred tag style cards

I knew my tags would not appeal to the masses so figured I'd best make cards that might ... hence the very different styles for me and out-of-my-comfort-zone colours

I managed to make 100 cards to send to her and feel sure there must be 99 of them left unsold but, hey, I did enjoy making them

Won't go into specific details as they are all pretty straightforward and self-explanatory to any card maker so this is very picture heavy but does save you reading all my ramblings

Ok - so a couple of tags snuck in there ... but I did use them on the fronts of opening cards so they don't count!

WOYWW 561 - Pick yourselves up!!!

Go on - admit it - you have fallen off your chair in shock for I am here!

For the uninitiated “here” is courtesy of the simply delightful & very much loved Julia who hosts the weekly worldwide blog hop over at 

The Stamping Ground 

which gives us bloggers the opportunity to see what fellow crafty artists have on their desks

Bit of a challenge as I am attempting this Workdesk Wednesday business from my iPad having little desire to power up my laptop.

So, what is on my desk?

A whole heap of not very much as I have had to put away all my messy & grungy mixed media stuff in order to make a very crisp & clean wedding card

All pretty straightforward really - everything cut out (well, almost) & ready to assemble. 

Annoyingly I have just spotted the two folders behind the jam-jar-water-pot - they are  podiatry nephew’s patient notes that he has me typing up for him & which will be done on the laptop - so answers on a postcard as to why I continue to try to blog from the iPad - DUH!!!

Julia likes it short & sweet so will not ramble on - I did spend a lovely weekend at workshops near Lincoln & the projects & story are in the post below this one for anyone interested.

So Happy WOYWW’ing everyone!

Art with Olga - Share the vision

Was quite taken with the projects that the delightfully crazy Olga Heldwein was bringing to Sue Tucker's Art Workshops & after MUCH thinking and deliberating, stressing & loss of sleep I decided to give them a go!

Oh, when I say Olga is delightfully crazy I had no idea of that ahead of time as she is not an artist I had come across before - but, now having spent a weekend in her company I am able to confirm she is just that!  

It took a lot of leaning on Sue to get me there - she was her usual remarkable self and went out of her way to make me feel I could possibly attend - nothing seemed too much trouble for her as I put hurdle after hurdle in her way - kinda, sorta hoping she would say, "sorry, Debbie, but don't think that would work"

She made everything work!

Even allowing Phil to stay with me (he kinda, sorta hoped it wouldn't work out either!) where she had not  ever allowed a "helper" to stay before

Really could not have managed without him ... the physical aspect of coping with my rather large hernias are very debilitating and as I now waddle like the British Gas penguin you can imagine my desire to remain hidden away - which I have done, even asking my family not to visit for a long time, so to put myself in a workshop situation was a huge step

I hasten to add my head is in a good place & it is all entirely down to vanity and usually limiting any public viewings of me to only being from the neck up - and that ain't a pretty picture either!

I get dreadfully uncomfortable and fidgety so a lot of shuffling went on towards the end of the day and I have to admit to having to leave half an hour early on the Saturday ... but I still managed ten and a half hours out which was considerably longer than the previous three or four hours I am normally out.  I pretty much made it to the end of the second day too - leaving just a little bit early again, but was not the first to leave so can live with that!

We booked a really FAB - U - LOUS little bungalow about half an hour away so made a long weekend of it and stayed from the Thursday until the Tuesday - an area (Lincolnshire) new to us so good to explore the unknown!

So to the projects -

Saturday morning was 

ROMANTIC LAYOUT

The idea was to  use a photograph

but I am never keen on using photos so took a little slate heart I had had hanging around for years

Was quite pleased with this one despite the fear of using permanent inks as opposed to my more favoured water reactive sprays!

Hey - I coped and will use them again!!!!!

Saturday afternoon was

FACES OF STEAMPUNK

Now, I went fully prepared not to use the faces 

I really dislike faces

BUT once I saw the projects for real I decided to go ahead

We had to make them ourselves from paper clay and a mould and then steampunk them up ... took a bit of a deep breath to stab them in the head with a paintbrush and pokey tool but it was an experience!

I wasn't able to get these finished during the workshop so brought them home and had to use different products to those in class but I am happy with how these turned out

They are not earrings as my nephew suggested - unless you have very large ears - as they are about the size of a CD

Sunday morning saw us tackling 

MECHANICAL BOX

Again I was not able to finish this project during the workshop but then nobody on my table did either so it was another one to bring home to complete

Had all the products needed this time so was able to get pretty much the effect Olga demonstrated

Final project on Sunday afternoon was 

VINTAGE SCRAPS

Again, wasn't able to finish these in the workshop and as I had brain failure when completing them at home I have struggled to keep these from the Box Of Failures

I freely admit to using totally the wrong product prior to dry brushing with all the white gesso ... the scraps should be very white indeed

BUT after hating them all week they have grown on me and I am embracing the shabby-grungy effect and channelling my Miss Haversham vibes

Actually quite like them now!

All in all I had a wonderful weekend

Felt stupid and out of place and totally the freak I now look

but also figured I hide myself away for ever or try to make the most of things and ignore the stares and nudgings and glggling

NOT that any of the lovely ladies at the workshops did any of that

Huge thanks needed to 

Sue - for allowing me to believe I could do it and then making it possible for me to do so

Olga - for the sharing of her talent and her wonderful projects, the fun and the laughter and her education of dangly bits

Lisa Francis - for her unending support, encouragement & friendship

Vicky Cornwell - for her friendship & encouragement and the giggles we have whenever we craft together

and finally to my Phil ... my absolute rock for sitting in a room full of women, doing something he was not keen to do and for his total and unending support - we had a bit of an adventure, didn't we!

Ps : Olga is on the far right ... told you she was crazy!
xXx