WOYWW?

Hello to Wednesday, WOYWW? the rain and my desk... which is becoming quite an elusive stranger at the moment. Mummy duty has required round the clock feeding and some serious night shifts on top of the long days this week so I'm glad to even make it to the shower by lunch-time, let alone my craft room.

Ooooooooh, the creative itch is so hard to scratch right now and I'll just have to make do with the art of creative 'sicky cloth' folding for now. Lovely.

Scraping by with my scheduled DT posts and the odd inky dabble but alas no time for Blogland, so forgive me if I'm not around or hopping right now. THANK you to everyone who called by last week. You are all just fabulous!!!!

It means a lot and I really cherish all the encouragements and advice - it's SO, SO good to know this chaotic, scary and brain frazzled life is the norm!

Just sharing a little of my week... Managed a Journal spread! The full on riot of colour, stuff and splatty action is the epitome of my life right now. The quote has to do with me being glad to see the dawn...and know I've made it through another night!

But when I see this little face looking up at me, the worries of the world disappear, the fatigue fades and my heart leaps. Every single time.

Hooray, time to share some goodies. Fabulous ATCS from Cadarian and Bridget! Thanks ladies!

A really sweet and great girly piece from Twiglet all created with fabby fabrics and stitching!!! Merci, merci , merci!

I am so spoiled, more gorgeous goodies arrived today from Jo which I will share next week. Sigh, so much loveliness...

Just look at my bunting. Well Ruby's then...

Created by lovely Lunch Lady Jan. Thank you so much. I have hung it in the nursery and it looks absolutely wonderful. I feel so blessed and happy to have such amazing WOYWW buddies and love... So blessed!
That's it for this week I think, so I must dash and resume nappy duty...
Have a great week, Sarah.

Six Years Old...

Here we are again folks, back on the Monday morning bus! I hope you had a good weekend and found a little time to be creative. If like me, you can't resist vintage and shabby makes then maybe the new theme of "More than One Layer" at Simon Says Stamp & Show is right up your street.

I love working with lots of layers but I wanted to try something new to me and decided to see if I could work on a 12x12 sized base. I'm not a scrap-booker, and never will be, but the expanse of space was both appealing and intimidating!

After a think, I decided to start off by creating a tag as I really wanted to use my Girls Rule stamp and I also like to have a hint of a story or mood in my head. I stamped her onto torn and crumpled Kraft Glassine Paper in Jet Black Archival ink and then heat set the image.

You do need to heat set to ensure the ink becomes embedded into the paper.  I swiped a little Walnut Stain Distress ink over the wrinkles and attached it with eyelets to a stitched tag cut from Kraft Resist Paper Stash first washed with Picket Fence Distress Stain.

My layers are made up of embossed paper, chicken wire coloured with Alcohol ink, and a page from an old poetry book stamped with a Tim flourish. Lots of torn edges and Distress ink along the way of course...

and more layers of gessoed gauze, cardboard, crochet lace and an aged Idea-ology number. In the corner I added a snippet of text from the same poem, "You promised me high heeled shoes..." A matter of of great importance if you are just six...

More splashes of Idea-ology...  Ball chain, a strip of ruler ribbon and an inky Ornate plate which contains a typed scrap covered with Mica. Here you can also see the stitching and more stamped flourishes on the background paper.

I just had to add a few shabby flowers so I cut lots of the smaller Tattered Florals from old brown paper and used four layers for each one. I scrumpled them up, aged them with lots of Distress ink, before fixing them together with a brad. I also added a spritz of Perfect Pearls Mist for a little antique sheen.

I wrapped the tag in wire and brown string, adding a Philosophy tag which I 'rusted up' with Distress Embossing powder and Alcohol ink. For a contrast in colour I layered a music page scrap under the tag, adding a few butterflies and a trinket pin.

 I played around with the composition for quite a while before finally deciding to stick it all down - taking a quick photo beforehand to remember where it all went! I even added more lace, string and a button at the end... I set the whole piece on distressed corrugated cardboard as a sort of frame and for extra strength.

So there you have it, my first 12x12! Vintage layers galore... You could go for layers of paper, paint, stamping, fabric. Pile 'em up and on I say. Just take a look at all the ideas the Design Team came up with! Do join in as we love to see everyone's different creations. You could win this fabulous $50 voucher or maybe be one of our top three artists! I hope you enjoyed your visit, thanks for being here! See you soon,
Sarah.

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WOYWW?

WOYWW? Well, not a lot seeing as I've only managed an hour in the inky zone. My world is all baby bottoms, boobs, bottles and burps... Sat typing this at midnight trying to get a bright-eyed and wriggly Ruby to realise that not everyone, including the neighbours, is in the mood for an all night pyjama party...

So a quick shot of my first after baby desk.... We have sorely missed each other and have but waved briefly in the night.
But enough of that. Most importantly, I want to say a VERY, VERY big and heartfelt, enormous thank you to so many of you for the floods of wonderful words, wishes and love... hundreds of you!

I am totally overwhelmed at such friendship, love and care. Thank you to every single one of you!!! Ruby is doing well - still lots of ups and downs for both of us... I swing from total joy and elation to sobs and mini nervous breakdowns every day - I'm at my worst at 4am! But I am still utterly in love with my little lady. She is precious beyond words.

I have received so many cards, but here are three special stars from the realms of WOYWW. From L to R, one beauty from Mrs Dunnit herself, next, my very first birth card, superbly custom created by Annie (Wipso) and then another sweetie from my Dutch friend Franka! Thank you - they all mean so much to me!!!!

So - just time to do a wee bit of tagging around. I was rather rusty and brain-dead so I took inspiration from Mr. Tim's 2012 July tag and gave it my own twist...

Got to vent all these girly emotions somewhere - so why not in abstract ink. I just picked the wildest colours I could find and did whatever my fingers told me to...

Discover yourself...embrace imperfection. Hmmm, I'm doing my best with both of those.
Well, at last the little lady has nodded off to dream land so I am jumping along for the ride too...before the next round begins... Happy desk hopping - see you all soon - well in the odd minute of me time!
Once again - THANK YOU!
Sarah.

Splish, Splash, Splosh, Spritz, Spray & Stencil!

Yes.. it's all the S's at Simon Says Stamp & Show! which is quite a mouthful indeed so early on a Monday morning! Thanks for popping in - how was your weekend? I always say I can find both inspiration and solace in a paint pot! My old DT buddy Lynne would be proud of my private splodge party which was oodles of messy fun. 

So the new challenge is Spritz, Spray or Stencil - and I went for all three! I love rooting around in stationary shops and have a bit of a thing for envelopes. After hoarding too many for too long, I thought it was time to actually let two come out to play...

These are 10x5 inches, really sturdy with gusseted sides and are a great size for turning into gift bags. I found them in Holland. No idea what they are called though...I decided to just go for it with my supplies and not worry about being pretty or neat. I wanted to create a wild and freestyle look with lots of colour and texture. Definitely the hand made genre!

I gave the bag a good coat of Gesso to add white and also create a good base for the other inks and paints.

If it's a 'non-crafty' substrate you never know how the products will react so a coat of Gesso, (available in white, black or clear) is always a good plan!

I started by spraying circles onto the bag using Color Wash and Dylusions inks. I used my various circular paper punches to create my own stencil so if you don't have any bought ones ... just get die-cutting, snipping and punching and create your own! After drying I added areas of Punchinella, flipping it to also get a reverse print and followed with some water to create drips and dribbles...

It's important to dry in between so that you don't end up with a muddy mess... I went on to add another layer with the Numbers Collage not worrying about any random spray or drips - it's all part of the story....

To create texture, add white contrast and break up the solid lines I added random swooshes of gesso and dried well.

Then my fave bit - getting all messy and funky with the red flowers. I used my Red Pepper Dabber and the mini-mum stencil. Nothing to do with your mamma...

   but the chrysanthemum flower methinks...! Just dabbing it through with my fingers. Not always super neat but what the heck!

I went onto add splatters of Black Marble and Sunset Orange and a bit more gesso or ink where needed. I gave each bag a name... Bag of Stuff" and "pretty Things" using an old tag end, cardboard and letter stickers.

I finished off with some random stamping and big words using a great Tim letter set I found on ebay! You can stamp anything you want, use die-cut letters or even cut up newspaper! You just have to have fun, let yourself go and go with the flow. So get in the crafty zone, get messy and spritz your cares away..

Just not up the wall like I did. Ooops. Note to self - next time pizza box at the ready.
There's sooooo much you can do with this theme - take a look at what the Design Team came up with! I'm looking forward to seeing your creations and colours and wonder who will win the fab $50 spree this week?!
Thanks for calling by and have a great week!
Taraa for now...
Sarah.