WOYWW 312 and 6 Year Anniversary

WOW how time flies.  I have to say I have only participated in WOYWW the last couple of years but those years have been fun and I've made some good friends and have been privileged to see what has been created on them.

I think Julia who instigated the What's on your work desk Wednesday blog hops has done an amazing job in gathering a bunch of artists together who would otherwise not have met.  The internet is great isn't it?  So why not pop on over to Julia's blog the Stamping Ground and see what I mean about connecting to artists from all over the world.

In the meantime I'd like to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who visits my little blog world and leaves a comment or two or if you just happen to pass through.

Not much going on on my desk.  I bought these lovely ceramic beads from a facebook friend who was doing a destash and I'm trying to decide what to make with them.  I know there will be several pieces made but that's as far as I've got.  I may use copper or brass wire with them - what do you think?

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday #297

Time for some WOYWW (what's on your work desk Wednesday) read all about it here on the Stamping Ground blog.  

I'm running late today with my post.  There's a mixture of last nights drawing items and new goodies bought today.  The face is for the 29 Faces Art Challenge painted with my water soluble wax crayons.  I'm trying to get ahead but it's not working - never mind it's not a race so no pressure.  I bought some new goodies for a steam punk style project that I want to make.  I've had an idea which I want to try but we'll see if what I see in my head transfers itself to card.

Thank you for visiting and leaving a comment.

Anita

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday 296

It's a sunny Wednesday and time for WOYWW.  Pop over to Julia's blog the Stamping Ground to find out more and to join in.

Normally I only show you the bit of desk where I have my work.  However, today I am going to show you the whole of the desk.  Are you ready? Here we go .........as you can see it's full of stuff most of which gets used on a regular basis so it's silly having to put things away and get them out again.  The acrylic paints have their own place to live but I've been using them this week for the 29 faces art challenge  I'd started working on today's face last night but I prefer to paint in day light so left it looking a bit forlorn.  On the back wall is where I put up some of the art I have traded or collaborated in.  Those are inches on the black board and propped up against it are 2 canvas boards with some Moos/moo houses.  The green box contains papers and ATC blanks ready to be worked on and a few other nick naks on top that lives my pencil case  with my markers and other pencily stuff.  

Thanks for popping by and for leaving your comments.  I'm off to the gym shortly and then have a reflexology booked so I'll be visiting all the other blogs later to have a nosey at what's on everyone's desk  

Have a great day.

Anita

Oh and just a little plug for my earlier post where if you leave a comment you can be in with a chance to win one of my Swarovski heart necklaces and handmade embossed heart card.  Click here.

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday #294

Hello to another WOYWW and time to nosey on over to Julia's blog the Stamping Ground to see what's on everyone's work desk.  You'll also find details of how you can join in the fun.  I like a bit of a nosey around don't you?

I'm afraid I have nothing to show on my desk this Wednesday.  This is how I left it before going off to the gym.  So here are the remains of the items I'd been using to make some inspirational cards for my gym buddy.  Packs of gems, my glue sticks, bottles of paint and a selection of rubber stamps which still need to be cleaned up - yeah I know I should do them straight away but hey I was on a roll.  I'm liking how my clean off paper is looking - that will go towards a new background to a canvas or something.

Here are the 2 inspirational postcards I made for Angela (my gym buddy).

Happy Wednesday 

Anita

Oh and just a reminder and apology for the 'NOT A ROBOT' check instead of word verification you can ignore it.  It can't be removed unless you have a Google account which I do but have no idea how to remove it.

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday #293

Oh goodness well I nearly missed this weeks WOYWW - why didn't anyone remind me it was Wednesday?  Anyway I made it and all by myself hahaha.  Not much to show this week.  I have 3 floral arches made to take to Arizona with me in a few weeks time.  I'm meeting up with some arty friends - approx 40 of us and other than ATC's we'll be trading arches as well.  Oh and if you think I'm making 40 of them think again I can't possibly make that many unfortunately.  I will of course have a load of other things with me so there will be more than enough.  Well that's enough waffle from me.  Here's my desk..............oh and if you're wondering what WOYWW is then pop over to Julia's blog Stamping Ground and all will be revealed.

Before I go I want to share this with you regarding the "NOT A ROBOT" check (I've pinched it from Julia)

HOUSEKEEPING:  several of you are complaining that I (and others) have a 'NOT A ROBOT' check instead of word verification. You're quite right. But not by choice and we can't remove it. If you have a Google account, you can, I've discovered, just ignore it. But its been forced onto us Blogger users and we cant change it.  Sorry. And if you know different, please share!

Thank you for visiting my blog

Anita

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday 292

It's Wednesday already I can't believe how quickly this week is going by.  I'm sure January is supposed to be a long month and the weeks drag by.  Oh well never mind here we are for another WOYWW #292.  Pop over to the Stamping Ground and I'm sure Julia will tell you all about it.  

So what's on my desk this wet and cold Wednesday?  This is how I left my desk last night.  You can see the 2 eye studies I did in pan water colours (Daler Rowney) for the 30 paintings in 30 Days challenge hosted by Leslie at Slices of Life.  One of my goals for 2015 is to become friends with pan and tube water colours and also to study the facial features to help improve my face drawings. 

Here are a close up of the eyes.  As you can see this eye is far too wide.

This one is much better and more in proportion.  I worked out that the white parts of the eye were approx half the width of the iris.  Of course I'm well aware that everyone has different size eyes.  

Thank you for visiting and leaving the comments each one is read and replied to.

Anita

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday 291

Well this is the last WOYWW for 2014.  I missed last weeks as I was ill (spent all of Christmas in bed) I had all good intentions of writing a very quick post but it just didn't happen.  To see what WOYWW is all about then pop over to see Julia she'll explain it all over at the Stamping Ground.

So what's on this weeks desk well I can't really share what's on my desk as it's for a magazine article.  I can however show you what I had left on the desk yesterday (and was still there this morning) so technically it still counts right?  This is another painting I started last week.  It's on a much bigger scale than the one I made in the 5x7 journal - very daunting to have all that white space staring at you.  

Well that's it from me short and sweet.  I hope everyone has a wonderful New Years eve and brings in 2015 with a massive flurry of sparkle.

Stage 2 adding colour and details

The beginning- stage 1 

Gelli prints from last week.  The bottom 2 right prints are on Daler Rowney cartridge paper - ghost/clean off pages they always seem to be my favourites.  The other prints are on fusible interfacing.  I used Stewart Gill textile paints.

Happy New Year

Anita

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday #289

Welcome and good evening to another Wednesday WOYWW #289.  What's it all about?  Find out here on Julia's blog the Stamping Ground.

I hope your Wednesday has been brighter than it has been up here.  It's been a day of constant drizzle and rain and today of all days I decided to visit the Christmas market in Manchester.  It was now or never as it ends this weekend.  It was a nice day out just drifting along from one stall to another.  

Anyhow you're not here to read about my day out.  Here is how I left my desk this morning. What you see on the desk is some magnetic backed frames which I bought from Pound World they were a horrible pink colour (see 2nd picture).  I've applied some black gesso to them to which I'm going to add some metallic paint and some of the gems I bought yesterday which are in the round containers sat on top of the wax crayons on the left.  I'm thinking of putting some of my gelli art prints inside them instead of photographs.  

Here are yesterdays bargain buys from the local Pound World in the nail art section they had these pack of gems which you use on your nails but you know what they're also great for your artwork and you can't argue at the price either.  The large pack of crystal gems (540 approx per sheet) I found those in the stationary and craft items.  The packs of coloured gems were off the local market at 50p each.

Thank you for all the visits and I must apologise for not doing many visits last week as it's been a case of making and delivering stock to Authentic and then a day or so later getting a message saying my stock is running low.  Not that I'm complaining.  I'm just over whelmed with how much people are liking my work.  I'll try to do better this week.

Have a wonderful week Anita

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday #288

Good morning time for another WOYWW - go check out Julia's blog the Stamping Ground for all the details.

On my desk this cold Wednesday is a painting or at least my attempt at a painting.  It's at the very early stages where I've added some base colour.  I've never painted dark to light so it will be interesting to see if I can paint this way.  When finished it should be of a traditional Indian woman - well that's what I'm aiming for but we'll see.  As you can see the shading looks a bit dodgy hopefully that will correct itself as I work on it.  

I'm off to put it away for now as I need to make some more cards for the shop. Thank you to everyone who commented on last weeks post and apologies that I couldn't visit as many blogs as I would have liked to - hope to rectify that this week.    

Have a lovely day

Anita

I'm Late Very Very Late WOYWW #287

I'm running very late with this weeks WOYWW - better late than never right?  Would you believe I've visited 3 different hospitals in one day?  Yup that's right 3 - 1. for my mother's appointment, 2. to pick up mother's letter and 3. bring the father home after nearly 10 weeks in hospital............phew I'm tired from just typing that out.

Anyway this is how I left my desk this afternoon.  I have some work in progress penguins.  They're waiting to be embellished with my favourite rubber stamp (for now anyway) they will be attached to a coordinating clothes peg and will be making their way to a lovely little shop in Uppermill (Saddleworth) to be put on sale.  These 2 are to replace the 2 which were sold recently. 

The owl is going with them.  As you can see he's keeping his beady eye on the penguins as they can get up to mischief - see the last two pictures.

Penguins waiting to be finished off.

Mr Owl keeping his eye on the penguins - wings and eyes are made with my gelli prints.

They started on the wine as friends.....

.....and ended up falling out over chocolate

To find out more about What's on your work desk Wednesday pop over to Julia's blog the Stamping Ground and all will be revealed.

Thank you to everyone who takes the time to leave a comment I really appreciate them and will always reciprocate.

Anita

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday 286

It's a dull grey Wednesday here today but that won't last long as there are many colourful desks to visit - check out Julia's blog over at the Stamping Ground for all the details.

This is how I left my desk last night.  As you can see it's all very nice and clean after my weekends cleaning blitz and not just the table but the whole studio has been cleaned.  The painting on my desk is a gelli print that I pulled some weeks ago.  The print was made with acrylics and I've started to paint it with gouache.  It's still a work in progress as this point.

Gelli print mixed media art

This is the original gelli print

Happy desk hop and thank you for all the visits last week.

Anita

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday 284

Here we go again with another look at WOYWW - want to know more and how to participate?  Then pop over to the Stamping Ground where Julia will explain all.

My desk this morning consists of a painting I'm trying to finish for the Flood the Street with Art project - find out more about that and how you can take part on the face book page.  This is how I left it last night after adding black outlines around the flowers and painting the cogs green in the center of each flower - they were stenciled in using texture paste.  To the left there is a female figure cut out and painted in black which is now made up into an altered clothes pin (made this morning while my computer had a hissy fit).  Sitting on the handle of the pots at the back you can see the two dress altered clothes pins I made yesterday.

The finished clothes pin "Don't forget me"

That's it from me I'm off to see what everyone has on their desks

Anita

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday - Gelli Art Prints

It's time for some WOYWW - What's on your work desk Wednesday.  You can read all about it here on Julia's blog the Stamping Ground.

This photograph was taken yesterday (Tuesday) and it's still that way now.  I had an afternoon of painting and pulling prints with my gelli plate.  I only have the one size and it just fits neatly into the space where I make stuff hehehe sounds very techie doesn't it?  But you know what I mean.  I have a large desk but only a small space to create in - nice and cosy.  

Anyway what you can see on my desk are the prints I made using the Gelli art plate.  I'm finding it very addictive and have to be strict with the time I spend with it - it's like having a creative relationship haha.  I've used some of the new goodies I bought from hobby craft on Sunday (I'd only popped in for some white envelopes).  

These prints will be used as part of a Christmas card project I am involved in for a company in London and will be part of a blog post - the 12 days of Christmas.  I'm really drawn towards the print on the right hand side of the photograph.  You can just see the colours on the first print and I've purposely hidden the rest of the image as it was the first one I pulled and I really love how it's turned out and will feature in my little project.

Gelli art prints

My goodies from Sundays visit to Hobby Craft

(the envelopes were on the other table).

Right I'm off to grab a cup of tea and heading over to the Stamping Ground to have a nosey around what everyone else has on their work desks.

Anita

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday #282

On my work desk this morning is a big box of embroidery threads with which I have started to stitch my textile artist trading card with.  I need to get this finished for the end of this week so I can send it off to it's new home.  I host an ATC - artist trading card swap every month for the gallery I volunteer at Art With A Heart and one of the players Ottilia-Bogdan Cormos this month has made an ATC on perspex and I loved it so much that I asked for a personal trade and she very kindly agreed and sent me this totally gorgeous ATC - the theme for the swap was Halloween or autumn.

Here is the ATC that Ottilia sent to me - isn't it gorgeous?  The colours are so vibrant.

And here is my desk as it stands today.

Want to know more about What's on your work desk Wednesday?  Then pop over to Julia's blog The Stamping Ground for the details and to see what the other artists are sharing on their desks.

Anita

#blogtoberfest14 day 29

I'm also linking up with Claire Justine for the Wednesday blog hop

It's Time for WOYWW 281

Or as it's also known as What's on your work desk? Wednesday - find out more at the Stamping Ground.

I've been playing with my gelli print again.  This time trying out the dark over light technique.  This involves allowing the paints to dry before adding the final dark colour prior to pulling the print.  I have to say I love this technique - I like being in control of the design and laying the design precisely as I want it.  on the desk there is scrap piece of thick tracing type paper which I salvaged from an envelope and I'm using to practice some designs and colour combinations.  You can also see perched on top of my pencils a fabric ATC (artist trading card) waiting to be finished off.

This is one of the prints I made using the dark over light technique.

These prints are just some normal prints  - the above 2 are on glossy card  which I've been told NOT to use as it will affect the gelli plate - lesson learnt.

These 2 were a couple of messing about prints just on copy paper which isn't ideal as it's too thin and goes wrinkly but that's okay they will get used in another project.

That's me for this Wednesdays WOYWW.  Do pop over to the Stamping Ground to see what everyone else has been up to.

Thank you to everyone who visits and leaves a comment on my posts.

Anita

I'm also linking up with Claire Justine for Wednesday Blog Hop 

#blogtoberfest14 day 22

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday 280

It's time for WOYWW or What's on Your Work Desk Wednesday - find out more about WOYWW on the Stamping Ground blog run by the lovely Julia Dunnit.  

I don't have very much on my desk today other than the remnants of yesterday's card making - some stamped images and off cuts of paper/card, a set of snowflake stamps from Oak House Studio which I used to make the background for the heart with and the embossing along the edge of the gelli print paper.  I'm hoping to make up the off cuts into another card topper.  You can see the card I made yesterday below.  I would have made a couple more cards but I got a bit obsessed with getting the photography correct or attempted to.  

My messy desk

Photograph I took today in natural daylight

yesterdays photograph using lighting

I'm off to peruse as many of the WOYWW desks.

Anita

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday #279

Hello, hello and good afternoon on this rather grey but dry Wednesday.  I'm a tad late posting this weeks WOYWW post - want to know more about WOYWW or fancy joining in the fun then pop over the Stamping Ground where all will be revealed.

On my desk today are 2 shop bought cards............yes yes I know but these are so cute.  Well okay I'll let you into a secret I'm not actually going to send them to anyone.  I bought them to use as stencils!!! innovative or what eh?  Want to know where I got them from?  Ahhh heck okay I like to share and I'm nice like that hahaha - Paperchase yep good old Paperchase.  There were a few other designs but I opted for these two (for now) and at £2.50 each you can't grumble.  It's a nice weight so can easily get some good use from them.

Well that's me for today.  I'm going to link this to #blogtoberfest14 for day #8 of blogging - find out more here at Shells in the Bush 

Anita

WOYWW #278 and Blogtoberfest

Good morning to you all on this sunny Wednesday.  It's time for WOYWW - What's on your workdesk Wednesday #278.  You can find out more about WOYWW at the Stamping Ground.  

Today is also the start of Blogtoberfest - the idea behind this is to blog everyday of October - more details here on Shells In the Bush blog. 

I have a messy desk with not much going on today.  There is a card which is something I've been working on with rubber stamps from Oak House Studio where I'm on the DT and was trying out some different uses for the stamps.  The skellies and cotton reels are for a swap on iATC  called Oddball Art Ornaments.  Not sure what I'm going to make yet.  I have an idea but how to execute it is the next step.

So that's it from me for this weeks WOYWW.  I'll be back tomorrow (hopefully) for Blogtoberfest. 

What's On Your Workdesk - WOYWW 277

Time for this weeks WOYWW - What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday.  Want to know more then pop on over to the Stamping Ground.  

On my desk this windy Wednesday is a painting of a face.  I recently bought some acrylic inks from Oak House Studio.  I love painting with acrylic paint but have never tried the inks.  I did find them challenging as they do dry very quickly so you can't blend the colours together.  After a few goes just using them on dry paper I decided to wet the paper I was using and use the inks as you would use water colour paints.  I think this technique worked better but you do have to be careful and let the paint dry first if you don't want it to bleed - like the lips - they were still slightly damp and when I added the water around the face the red from the lops bled onto the upper lip and under the nose.  A lot more practice is needed me thinks.

Want to see what other artists have on their desks this Wednesday?  Then pop on over to the Stamping Ground and follow the links you never know who you're going to bump into.

Have a wonderful Wednesday

Anita