WOYWW#334

What is on my workdesk? 

You really want to see?

I actually have a before and after.

This is the before 

I ought it was necessary that I did some clearing (although it wasn't that bad for me)

For that, I took a large piece of paper and started collaging everything down what I could find on my desk.

Now I don’t only have a clean desk 

But also a great collage paper

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my workdesk.

I'm looking forward seeing yours.

Halloween

This weekend I finally sat down to execute my plan for this month’s calendar challenge (orange and pumpkin) which I had already drown out  in the beginning of the month but I just didn’t got around making it, but maybe that was faith, because now I can also post it for the weekly challenge (Halloween). 

I used orange DI on a craftmat, sprayed some water on top and dragged my paper through it until it was completely covered. It was a bit too light to my likings, so I grabbed my applicator and made some swirls with the same DI which made it much better.

Then I warmed up my heat tool to cut my haunted house and cemetery stencil.

The haunted house actually consists of 2 stencils, the outline and an overlay for the windows and door.

After some stencilling, stamping and adding some details this is how the finished page looks like.

good luck

With this journal page I want to wish Ian and Sandy from The Craft Barn good luck (this week's Craft Barn challenge) with their new online business. (They closed their physical store last weekend)
I started out by writing good luck in a dozen different languages.

Next added a layer of light green acrylic paint, masked off a center piece and stenciled a border of cloves in a darker shade of green.

In the center piece I wanted to write my quote, but because I believe the background words would interfere too much with the quote I first glued down a piece of tissue paper. I've created the illusion that the piece is hold in place with washi tape. 

As a final touch I added small dots in all the clover leaves of the border. I must say that doodling doesn't seem to unstress me, on the contrary, I get stressed by the slow progress.

to owl or not?

I really liked the process of creating the background on the blossom page and remember I had a few options to go with that page, I eventually choose the flowers, but the owl was also a possibility. So I thought I would redo it, but this time on a canvas. I actually took 3 canvases and used 3 different colors and different media: gel sticks, inktense pencils and Dylusions paint.

Next I grabbed a dozen of my self made stencils and started stenciling away.

I got so caught up in the moment I forgot to take a picture of the green-yellow one but I think you get the picture.

Then I started fiddling with the focal images for each canvas, and guess what the owl didn't make it again. 

Once I've figured out how the set up an online store, these will be up for sale.

I think the princess and mermaid would be perfect for a girl's room.

Light

The last 2 years I've made and sold Christmas cards of which the earnings I donated to Unicef (you can see the designs here and here). Now I'm thinking of expanding by not only offering cards, but also little gifts like little notebooks, canvases...

I probably will try selling them on a local Christmas market on which only handcrafted items can be sold and am thinking of adding a page on my blog with a listing of all items so everybody who's interested can order. Just figuring out all the details, but keep a close eye on my blog.

Because the date of the market is coming nearer I really should get cracking on, so I made for this week's Craft Barn Challenge a little notebook with the theme light.

The notebook measures 9x9cm, the covers are made out of recycled cardboard (cereal box) covered with a layer of black gesso and stamped with this beautiful Lavinia fairy stamp.
I added a quote about light which starts at the front and continues inside: light is the symbol of thruth.

angel

Remember the background I originally made for the animal challenge

 I had worked on it some further since then,

I used the retiform stamping technique and added this woman out of a fashioncatalogue and gave her some wings.

But it still felt like this page was unfinished but didn't have any inspiration on what to do next,

that is until I read this week's challenge over at The Craft Barn, people.

I knew I had to use this page and finish it off.

I added a gold glow around the image and as I was busy with gold colored the tape also in gold, now they are golden rays. 

The only thing left to do was to find a fitting quote and write that across the page.

Now I think it is finished.

Mermaid

This week’s challenge over at the Craft Barn is ocean, this is what I made of it

I started on a page in my journal which already had some marks on from cleaning of stencils from a previous project.

Next I added some aqua colored acrylic paints to create the ocean, 

some gelli printed tissuepaper 

and various stamping.

progression of the background

The mermaid is a free image which I printed from the net.

I colored her body with posca paint pens and glued small circles punched out of various gelli prints on her tail.

I outlined her with a fine black posca pen and gave her some sea creature friends.

The posca paint pens are fun working with, they are also great for kids.

My son decorated his apple box with them (because lots of kids in school have the same box it’s hard to tell which is his, now it won’t be hard anymore with such an unique design)

I was also amazed with his drawing abilities, he drew an ostrich.