Lens

WOYWW 282: A layout in progress & a home decor item

Happy WOYWW, everyone! To find out more about this international party, visit Julia at her blog.

I've got a layout in progress in the middle of the table (seen below in closer detail). Around the left side of the table are the omnipresent paper trimmer and a new package of blank 4 x 6 Project Life cards (which I plan to use both in PL and in my December Daily album.) The rest of the loose items are for my Project Life album -- cards, stickers, etc. Next year I think I'm going to break down and buy an actual core kit, rather than trim down pieces of patterned paper to make my own. It's probably more economical, but it's time consuming.

The purple bit in the middle of the page is the side of the bag from the jewelry store, and I thought it would serve well as the title of the page. It's large, so the page design is a bit over-crowded, but I like it well enough.

I bought the paper mache witch's hat at Michael's and decorated it. It was time-consuming, but easy and I'm really pleased with it. I misted some random flowers with black Dylusions mist and others with the last drops of my orange Glimmer Mist. The leaves were die cut from glitter paper and book paper; the latter were inked with distress inks.

Sorry I'm long-winded! Happy Wednesday and happy Halloween to those who celebrate. We're hoping for no rain and absolutely no snow Friday evening. Eek!

~ Laura

WOYWW 273: Project Life, Ampersand, and New Goodies

Greetings and felicitations to all friends visiting today! I've got my 2014 Project Life album open and I've been adding months' worth of ephemera to the pockets. I have to go back and put in journaling and I've got lots of weeks' worth of photos still to edit and get prints of, but it's all good. :)

This is a home decor item I made, inspired by a project from May Flaum. The edges of the ampersand are still white -- I may go back and make them the same color as the front -- I haven't decided. I may also go back and add a little metallic silver paint here and there. I can't decide, so I'm leaving it alone while I ponder. 

The craft store had some good sales going on when I visited -- the stamps and punches were all on sale and I had a coupon to use on the ink pad. So, only the package of journaling cards was full price. 

Happy WOYWW, everyone! (To find out what it's all about, just click the link to visit Julia's blog!)

~ Laura 

 

WOYWW 254: Yes, that's snow on the ground

Happy WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday)! It's bright, sunny, and 24 degrees Fahrenheit, with about an inch of snow on the ground. April in upstate New York! 

Here's my desk from last night -- please forgive the lighting. 

I decided to make a simple Easter project and just plopped everything on top of the open Project Life binder. 

After making the Easter eggs (see below) I used punches to make some arrows and hearts, which I hope will be useful on a future layout. The scraps were too pretty to toss :-)

I made this fun Easter washi tree with eggs -- found on Pinterest -- original idea here. 

Blessed Holy Week to all who observe. At our church we have a service Thursday evening (Maundy Thursday) and then Easter Sunday. 

~ Laura

Simon Says Stamp & Show challenge: Thank You

I had intended to make something along these lines for Thanksgiving this year, so it matched up serendipitously with SSS&S's weekly challenge! 

I sandwiched a piece of burlap between cardstock and thin cardboard. A very appropriate piece of Tim Holtz paper is adhered to the cardboard (it features Thanksgiving recipes!) and strips from another sheet provides the "sentiment." Using gold Ranger acrylic paint and a Hero Arts stamp, I stamped a floral design on the paper. I sprayed the kraft leaves with orange glimmer mist and stamped words on them with a Hero Arts alphabet set. They are attached with copper brads. The fifth leaf was stamped with a Prima script stamp. I added a bit of twine from The Twinery and some punched hearts. 

Thanks for visiting!

~ Laura

WOYWW #181 | What's on your Workdesk Wednesday

Happy Wednesday! If you've no time to read my verbiage, just scroll for pictures of what's up in my craft room/den. 

To those on my side of the Atlantic, happy day-before-Thanksgiving when we should be accomplishing things but we might, perhaps, be posting to WOYWW first as a procrastination technique. {{imagine innocent look here}} I'm not really panicking, although I am hosting 13 including myself, because dinner is tomorrow at 6:00 (assuming both sisters and families arrive on time). So today is for cleaning, making the stuffing, making the pumpkin pie (don't be too impressed, the pie crust is from the store), and visiting WOYWW friends in between. 

I'm giving the wide view today so you can see my mess. (Yes, in any other context, this would be an odd thing to say.) 

Potential Christmas cards are waiting on the chair while I finish something for Thanksgiving. I've die cut every last scrap of a piece of gold glitter paper and embossed some cardstock. Maybe they'll be cards by next week. 

I'm reasonably happy with this bit of home decor. Not too grungy, not too cutesy is where I was aiming. I had to laugh because I had to be thankful only for things that my stamp set could stamp on the leaves -- hence the reason that "family" is not on the fifth leaf. I tried letter stickers, but the black was too harsh. So. . . . 

Thanks for visiting me virtually, dear crafty, artistic friends. I'm thankful for you, too. :)

~ Laura

Christmas Ornaments . . . very simple

I've painted laser cut wooden ornaments from Michael's with gold and silver acrylic paint. I had originally planned to use Martha Stewart red glitter paint. I thought the paint would allow for an opaque glittery finish. Instead, the paint was almost clear, with bits of glitter in it. Maybe with many, many applications I could have gotten the look I wanted, but who's got that kind of time? So I then tried using Versamark and silver embossing powder. It was difficult to get a uniform layer of the Versamark ink on the wood. So, in the end, I used Ranger paint with a brush. :-)


On this one, I've used silver Stickles. (This was the one that had originally had the MS paint on it, which left a reddish tinge after I wiped it off.) 

Another year I might try white glue and glitter for an opaque glitter finish. But I think the painted ones for this year will be pretty. 

~ Laura

I made this card Saturday on World Cardmaking Day. The paper background was already made, and the stars were already die cut, so it was quick to put together. I sprayed the stars with Perfect Pearls and layered them with dimensional adhesive and used a piece of a journaling card for the sentiment. 

I finished putting together the minibook I made during the month of September during Learn Something New Every Day -- a Shimelle Laine class. 

This will be added to our Halloween decorations this year. I used a 12x12 piece of Graphic 45 paper plus embellishments from the same line. I added a glittered Doodlebug border on the bottom and embellished the patterned paper with Stickles and Sakura pens. 

Thanks for visiting!

~ Laura

Simon Says Stamp and Show | Paint it Up Challenge

Well, this project was sparked by this challenge . . . but it ended up being less of a painting project and more of a collage. The paint that shows behind the floral paper at the bottom covers the whole piece -- I just ended up covering it up! 

I die cut the words out of a piece of Tim Holtz patterned paper. The quote is from Annie Dillard and let's just pretend that the "of course" is set off by commas. Thanks. :)

This is a bit of a carpe diem quote, to my mind, and so I added some things that bring my life meaning: music, reading (the dictionary quote encircled by the copper thing), etc., as well as things that represent time (clock faces, snippet of a calendar.) 

WOYWW #153 | What's on your Workdesk Wednesday

Happy Wednesday! I am just getting around to posting a picture of my craft space and will then link up over at Stamping Ground, where Julia hosts this weekly "party." 

New goodies this week include a handful of Distress markers -- woo! -- which I broke down and bought at Michael's over the weekend, but haven't had a chance to really do anything with, yet. The tan album is my pseudo-Project Life album and it's there to remind me to do last week's page. (I'm doing a page per week on a piece of 8.5x11 cardstock -- minimalistic and therefore fast.) On top of it are the handouts from May Flaum's class which just ended over at BPC. I didn't get a chance to try everything and want to keep those front and center to remind me to play some more.  

I'm making this canvas for my daughter for her room. We read The Wizard of Oz together this year and she's seen the movie, so I thought she might like this. The yellow brick road needs some help. I mixed paint and mist to paint over the top of the molding paste and the yellow isn't anywhere near the yellow in the paper. I am not even sure exactly what to do to it to make it match better. Would a little orange help? I'm pondering Wild Honey distress ink. 

Thanks for visiting!

~ Laura

Things have a way of working out: Canvas

One of the reasons May Flaum is an effective teacher for me is that she helps me get over the "fear factor" of trying new things. This is the second canvas item I've made during the Field Guide class and it was fun!  I'm going to give this to my Mom for her birthday. I used multi medium in the upper left with a stencil, colored the background with distress stains and distress ink, decided the "grass" area needed something, so used a damask stencil there, painted the clouds with acrylic paint. The flowers are Prima (freebies from Two Peas), the butterfly was stamped, colored with inks, and stickled, the bird die cut was from K & Company a year or two ago.