A Bit of Scrapbooking

A short time ago I was asked to embellish  a 2015 Blank Calendar.

A bit of photo printing, (photos chosen by Georgie).

A little distress ink, and stamping (with paints and inks).

A few patterned papers, ribbon and lace.

A tad of sparkle and buttons.

A few die cut shapes.

And so, this is what I came up with.

  

Job done.....

Summer Holidays

Every year I undertake a summer project which I can fit in between attempting to entertain the girls, cooking, cleaning, ironing, organising new school uniforms, packing for holidays, etc etc.

So this year my project was to revamp an old writing desk.
 

The desk was given to me by a friend,  it was used by her hubby as a child. His mum was moving to a smaller house and had no room for it. 

I must admit I've  had it in the garage for about a year, maybe two waiting for my hubby to take the legs off so that I can get stuck in. When finally he announced he had put a little something on the dinning room table I thought, Yipee, a surprise, what has he bought me?

Anyhow, turned out to be the desk.

I began by taking out the roller top, after a good hoover I sprayed the whole thing with disinfectant to get rid of spiders and creepy crawlers, at this point I had a good look at it make sure no work needed doing.

After sanding I gave it a coat of gesso or two to seal it up and give a nice base for whatever I decided to do.....

Next day I popped to local shop and purchased some good quality thickish papers, graphic45 and others and set about gluing down the papers. It was at this point when I noticed a little white grub hiding in one of the corner compartments and thought, Oh Bother!!!! (that was polite version). 

As I had hoovered disinfected and painted gesso in all possible areas, and already stuck down most of my expensive papers I was a bit down hearted.

Hubby checked out the internet and I decided to seal as much as possible with spray varnish and keep my fingers crossed the little fellas would not make it, I was surprised as I particularly  looked out for woodworm holes before I began and didn't spot any, then again grubs normally are inside the wood having a munch not on top.
 

Back to it.

The roller waspainted with Paperartsy paints, and put back into the guide rails.

To add  detail I stamped images onto tissue paper and stuck it on to the rollers this process didn't do anything for me, so quick as a flash I removed it, now I'm in limbo and have left it with it just painted for the time being.

 More storage just what every crafter needs.......

Photo Dilemma

Yesterday evening, I decided to clear off some  photos from my phone and create space for other stuff.

Really, really bad move!

It appears if I remove them off my phone, it removes them off my blog.

In this world of technology everything is connected and if like me you haven't got a clue you don't stand much of a chance.

So then I spent hours trying to locate the photos on an external drive and replace them, only then to discover like a laptop or similar your photos go to a bin and hover there for ever until you do something else with them. 

When I discovered this, after three hours of getting distressed and cursing myself for being an idiot. I began messing about with the phone, it took another ten minutes to find out all you have to do is touch the photo and a little tick appears on it then you touch a little icon with an arrow in a sideways u shape (back button).

As if by magic the photos I couldn't find appeared back on the blog.

There is just one missing now from the first post I did with a beach hut, I think the easiest thing for me to do is take another picture and add it on in the usual manor.

 Live and learn!

Canvas and Paper

It's amazing what you can create with a blank box canvas, paper, a bit of paint and lace.

When I say a black canvas, it was previously painted and I didn't like it very much so I re-gesso'd it producing an almost perfect blank.

I covered the canvas with different lace and ribbon, then gesso'd the canvas again.

I then set about making flowers and spirals from a thicker quality card, thin strips were cut and wound around using a pair of tweezers, the tension released a tad and the outer rim was glued to give the effect of a coil.

Flowers were made from a rough circle by cutting a swirl into the centre, then winding from the outside inwards and gluing in position, a larger one was made in same way with the addition of folding over the outer edges of the cut swirl to produce a sort of rose petal.

Die cut smaller flowers were shaped with a ball tool and layered together,

a couple of die cut cogs were stuck together to make it appear thicker and the same with the butterfly.

 

A stamped image was coloured with pencils and arranged on the canvas with all the paper bits and pieces. Once happy with the layout, it was all stuck down and more white gesso was painted over. An extra stamped image was cut to fit over the first to protect it from the paint being applied.

Once dry a couple of different colours were put in a spray bottle and water added to dilute the paint.

Paint was sprayed in a pleasing manor and dried, treasure gold was used to highlight different areas, and a charcoal pencil used to add shading then blended in.

A little perfect pearls was added to the centre of the small flowers.

Finally a small embellishment added as a hair bobble.
 

 

Hope you like it.....

 
 

August Art Calendar Page

So today I  managed to complete  my art calendar page for August.

 As I had made up the basics of the page whilst taking part in SOC 4 Challenge, all I had left to do was the journal  blocks and the heading.  As I wanted to see the design as much as possible I used blocks that measured 8cmx 1.5cm.

I was very happy with the result and can fill in a few more days journaling before I forget  what I've been up to.

Hope you join me in popping over to see the other entries on Kate Cranes Blog for this month.