WOYWW 175: some inky tags and a bit of shopping

I've not been doing much moodling lately so I tiredly sprayed up some tags the other night.  They were a little dark so, after tidying my desk (!) I slapped some paint etc on them.

So my desk, unveiled today for Julia Dunnit's 175th 'What's on your Workdesk? Wednesday', is scattered with a few tags and my sketchbook [I'm trying my best to do some work for Jane Davies' Extreme Composition workshop].

I added some transparent fluid acrylic to this tag which really lifted it, before adding a black acrylic paint/india ink flower.

And to this one I painted and stamped some squares, added some strips of tissue tape and a 'Chloe Stem' that was lying around my table!

On another table in my house are some of my purchases from The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair.    I'd love a few of these butterflies up my wall but only had the funds for the one.  Check out what Anna Collette Hunt did with thousands of these and other insects at Nottingham Castle here

Cheryl Ewing's piece was almost too nicely packaged to even open! [don't you just love brown paper packages tied up with string ?  ;)]

Inside, another piece for my hallway...

I mentioned Julia Jowett's wonderful work in my last post, and ended up spending more than I intended at her stand!  But it's just sooooooo gorgeous!!! (and I don't usually 'do' birds!!!)

(love the printing on the above felt, might need to try that at some point!)

A new bathroom is on the list of DIY jobs at the minute so when I saw 'Harriet' by Kate Lulham I knew she had to come home and live there!  She's so quirky she really makes me smile.

And finally, a fabulous felt 'stone' forming a fun pin cushion by the very talented Lindsey Tyson :)  Her nuno felting is to die for but these pebbles were more in my price range.

Thanks for looking!  I'm off to blog hop a few desks myself :)

the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair 2012

I had all good intentions to keep making and blogging whilst back at work but I've just been sooooooooo tired!    Today though, my daughter, niece and I took a trip into Manchester to the great northern contemporary craft fair, a veritable feast of gorgeousness!

I AdOrE fifites designs so these modern takes were a purchase must!  (I also LoVe toadstools!)  It took me ages to choose which pieces to have but eventually went for the toadstool mug and plate, the leaf jug and the green bowl and dinner plate.  I'll certainly be adding to the collection of pottery by Sarah Heaton.  The grey pieces are gorgeous too...

There's so much to see at this show.  These paper birds were delightful..

..this wooden pendulum clock a masterpiece, and mesmerising to watch...

...and this ceramic work by Claire Baker is such fun!  (Check out that 'cup handle' made from a spoon!)

Liz Cooksey's beautiful textiles are tiny and intricate and just stunning!  I love how they look like miniature quilts..

... and they're such a contrast to Holly Levell's equally amazing textile pieces which re-create retro food and sweets!

I made a number of purchases (oops!), which I'll share tomorrow, some of which came from the very talented Julia Jowett who, it turns out, recently joined Unit Twelve, a favourite gallery of mine :)  Isn't this wire work stunning?

... and the girl's dress in the above piccie is all hand embroidered!  I'm DeFiNiTeLY signing up for her workshop in February 2012 :)

There's sooooooo much to see at this show, and I didn't get pics of everything I loved, but we did have a fantastic day, and snapped some pics of some of the fabulous Manchester architecture on the way back to the tram :)

extreme lines

Our first challenge on the Extreme Composition online workshop is to create lines.  After completing some of the tasks I turned to my journal and, finding a page I'd created from scrap paper, I started adding lines...

The page started out with some overspray, and some cleaning off of one of my favourite script stamps.

I added some lines using india ink and a kebab stick!

Then added some extra detail to some of the lines with a fine line pen.  I also did a little exploration of line across what was once a waaaaaaaaaaay to colourful page which I 'diluted' by brayering over with white paint.

The background colour was created with Dylusion spray inks and I love how the colour has come through onto the white lines created with white acrylic ink.

from doodle ... to journal page

After slapping a few shades of yellow and orange down on a page I decided I needed my main image to be in black and white...

... so I took some paper that I'd painted stripes and dots onto, and cut out some rectangular shapes in order to create a fern.  This was based on a doodle I'd done a few months back...

After sticking the rectangles onto the page I used a stick dipped in india ink (a favourite technique of late) and outlined the leaves and created the stem.

I added a few splashes of black ink in the background too, along with some textual stamping.

There are a couple of snippets of red paper in there too.  This page came about after watching some of Jane Davies' work on youtube.  I've just signed up for her 'Extreme Composition' online workshop which went live this week so I'm planning on getting some 'playing' done this weekend, between report writing that is!  Ahh, the life of a teacher lol

picking myself up off the floor!

I am absolutely thrilled, and honoured, to be featured in Tim Holtz' blogworthy links post today! (Actually I'm bouncing around with happiness!!!!)

The 'shout out' was for my use of Tim's alpha parts as a stencil :)

"4. Sarah Anderson: very clever way to use the alpha parts as a stencil along with the colorful dylusions ink sprays"

I AdOrE lettering of all types and just love the splodginess that using the alpha parts as a stencil produces.  In fact, I hadn't realised how often I used it!!

Top tip: the alpha parts are sticky on the back so press them against your jeans a few times in order to lose the stickiness, otherwise they stick to your page (which is actually what they're designed for!!!)

:)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)

Nooooooooooo! Not peach!!! PDCC148

I know I've said it before, but I am highly allergic to the colour peach!  I can't stand it!  Yet rename it 'Wild Honey' and I'm fine.  This week's play date cafe colours are navy blue, peach and stone and look so elegant together in the colour story (and in the DT samples!)

So, not to be beaten by a mere colour, and as useful procrastination (I should be typing out my planning), I set too with a tag.

I dabbed my wild honey distress ink on the back of a plastic wallet (I think I own a bit of teflon sheet but this works just as well and there's usually something plastic to hand!) and spritzed it before picking up the colour on some white paper.

I repeated this with some Dr Ph. Martins Hydrus watercolour, creating some dark blue paper to cut out on my Big Shot. It's not my favourite tag, but I'm happy with that peach  wild honey so I'll tick it off as a success :)

Scrappy Journaling via my iPad

More recycling! I glued some of my scrap paper into my little A5 moleskine. This page then only needed a focal point - so I cut out some leaves from more scraps and added some stitching.

But the best bit? If this post is successful I just created it all on my iPad for the first time - yay!