PDCC#38 - thankyou, thankyou, thankyou

I just want to thank everyone who helped us to exceed 100 players this week - you are absolute stars!  Thank you :)

You've got my choice of colours this week, inspired by strong-coloured summer flowers that really make a statement.

I love lupins, but they just disappear in my garden; I think the slugs come from far and wide to gobble them up!  I wish I could grow them though;  I think it's so fun how raindrops gather in the centre of the leaves, and form mirrors or drinking water for the fairies. 

You've got two cards from me this week.  That's because I needed a card for today, and wanted to keep one, and when you're making spray cards like this you might as well do more than one at once.

Both cards are 5" square, with the front edge torn to reveal a sprayed edge inside the card.  I stamped the image with Versamark fine (black) then sprayed ink over the top once it was dry.  

Artistic Outpost are generously sponsoring our challenge this week and there's loads of inspiration over at the play date cafe.  I used the Serenity set, but I have to say, it was really hard to choose which stamps I wanted.  There are now lots of 'wants' on my list lol.

WOYWW?

Hurray!  I've managed to clear space on one of my desks in my cellar room that serves as my space :)  It's an old oak bureau that my Mum and Dad gave us, and took a bit of  getting down to the cellar I can tell you!   I'm so glad I can at last share my own bit of table in WOYWW? 

I've been playing with my Altered Originals spray inks from Dyan Reaveley...

and need to find time to play with my yummy birdcage stamps by Basic Grey that I picked up from the Stamp Attic last time I was down.

Ok, that was the tidy space, here's where everything else is ...

I've got most other things piled onto the tables in the middle of my craft space, waiting to be sorted into plastic boxes and given a place in my newly organised room. 

I'd like to just say a huge THaNK You to everyone who pulled together to make Saturday's workshop at The Stamp Attic happen.  Both Wendy and I truly appreciate it.  We can only put workshops on if we have enough people to run them, and we have - YAY!

And also a big THaNK You to everyone who helped us exceed 100 entries over at The Play Date Cafe.  Some numbers have more meaning than others, and we were soooo close to 100 we just wanted to reach it.

we'd love to reach 100 at the PDCC

Over at The Play Date Cafe this week we've got a record number of players already, but would love to just push it to 100 well, 'just because' really!  

 

This week's challenge has so many opportunites for colour combos so why not check out that card you just made and see if it fits, then head over to the cafe and link in your image.  Of course, you may have made a tag, a journal page or a scrapbook LO, or even a felted piece.  Whatever it is, as long as it uses some of these colours, you can play along, and be in with a chance to win a wonderful package of paper goodies from Jelly Bean Designs :)

hippos, seahorses and giraffes

Just look at all these yummy goodies Julie sent me (and there are more lurking underneath these).  This was the second parcel I received on Thursday.  I visited Julie in the US in 1991, attending her fantastic retreat 'The Art Stamp Cafe', and we also managed to squeeze in a day trip to Chicago where I bought this cuddly hippo

who, 9 years later, still sleeps on my bed!  So imagine how I felt when I turned up these two stamps in the parcel!

I was so touched, and a bit teary!

It's been a bit of a weekend for animals.  I've been eyeing up Carla Sonheim's Drawing Lab on Amazon for ages, waiting for it to be released, and it finally arrived on Saturday morning. 

I've been wanting to get back to drawing for ages but the voice in my head has been super, super critical of any attempts.  What Carla does brilliantly in this book is give 52 exercises that, certainly so far, silence that voice completely.  I think this is because you complete the exercises in a way that mean the image couldn't be perfect.  For example, the first one is to draw an animal, from imagination, whilst leaning on a mattress.  You do this 30times and if you find you are getting too concious of what you're doing, you switch to your left hand...

...hence the two seahorses on the far right who look like they've been electricuted LOL

The next task is to draw a giraffe using one continuous line, looking at the giraffe image 100% of the time and not looking at the paper.

I'm really, really enjoying this book.  If you have it, or end up buying it, I'd love to see what you come up with , and how you feel about it :)

I'm in love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wasn't feeling great on Thursday (suffering with sinisitis and waiting for my antibiotics to kick in - they now have - hurray!!) so when the postman knocked on and gave me TWo parcels, I was very excited, and they cheered me up no end :).  The first was from the lovely Dyan at Art from the Heart, and inside, a gift of her yummy new inks.  So I had to have a play straightaway - expecially with the granite one, I've wanted a grey ink for aaaaaaaaaaaaaages!

Then my favourite blues and greens:

which I then sprayed over using 'burnt orange', masking with a torn envelope.

before dabbing the envelope edge elsewhere on my page.  So what has made me fall in love with these inks?

well,

the colours are vibrant

they spray in a grungy way, a mixture of fine mist and splatters

you can overlay them

and best of all, you can work back into them with a baby wipe (or a wet rag/paintbrush) just like the Adirondack sprays

so watch this space for more play and journal pages :)

I can't share much of my second parcel as it contains highly classified play date cafe material ;), but will share what I can tomorrow.

Meanwhile, had a bit of a shop (ok, five carrier bags full over 2 days lol) on Thurs and Fri.  Since my painkillers weren't working, I decided 'distraction' might work against my headache, and went out to my local antique and collectables place to get some hardback books for my texture workshop at The Stamp Attic in Wantage on Saturday (click here for deets)

Some other bits n bobs happened to join the books in my pile :)  I can't wait for the workshop, we'll be playing with texture which makes for a great journal cover, but also looks fab on Maya Road die cuts or even around the edge of a picture frame.  [great for Chrissy pressies] 

Then yesterday, Sue Roddis asked if I'd go with her to her local antiques and collectables place and not to disappoint a friend I dragged myself there [ok, my antibiotics were working so I sang along to my music on the way and bounced into Sue's ;)  ]

and came home with this little lot and more!

play date cafe challenge #37: Julie's french fancy

Julie LoVeS anything french, but especially when it's related to the Provence region, so when she saw this photo she had to use it for this week's challenge at the Play Date Cafe.

You will notice that there are no colour 'buttons' this week.  That's because we'd like you to choose from the range of colours that are in this wonderfully colour-rich photograph.  I chose to start with yellow, then layered it with orange and terracotta before adding my highlights in blue.

These quails from Stampotique (and available at The Stamp Attic) always make me smile.  They are definitely off somewhere with a particular purpose in mind!

The 'day out' ticket is one I recently purchased at The Cubby Hole; it's by Crafty Individuals.

I was intending to share a felted piece with you for this challenge, but my sinuses have been playing up and for some reason, it's easier to journal when I'm feeling a couple of degrees under. I feel much better now after having a good play with my paints and stencils, alongside some other journaling friends :)  I'm sure the felt flower will get finished at some point lol.

Don't forget to head over to the Play DateCafe to check out this cool prize from Jelly Bean Designs, and to see what my fellow design team members have put together using the photo for inspiration.  We had record numbers playing along this week so I'd just like to say a HuGe thankyou to everyone who joined in.

WOYWW?

Hurray!  I managed to join in :)  Normally on a Wednesday I'm finishing off my Play Date Cafe project for posting in the middle of the night; and I can't show you that! 

Yesterday my daughter stole my normal crafting spot at the dining table and busied herself making ATCs to send to a crafting friend.  They're all packaged up and ready to go.  

These papers are the result of a bit of a shop at John Lewis yesterday - they were reduced gift wrap.  I've been eyeing the butterfly one up for a while but wasn't prepared to pay the full price of £3.25, but half price?  Yes please :)

Further along the table is a package that made me smile - my DT resources for my next challenge onJuly 16th.  Since it takes at least 5 days for packages to reach me, and it's a fortnightly challenge, the wonderful people at USArtQuest wrapped up and dated my next three packages.  It's like Christmas!

And finally, here's my new companion in my crafting space - well, she's sitting next to the computer waiting for the real crafting space to be sorted so she can live in there!  The talented Tracy Doorbar made her :)

And all these!  Guess which one is Sue Roddis' favourite lol.  Available from The Cubby Hole.

Sorry, that post sounded like a shout out for some of the people I work for and it wasn't meant to be, it's just where my work space is at!