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I hope you enjoy reading my posts, and please leave me a comment. I always enjoy reading them, and will try to visit you in return.

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You are welcome to copy any of my designs, as long as you do not take credit for them yourself. I am very happy for you to sell them. If I have used anyone else's design, I always try to give credit where it is due. If I have missed anything, please let me know and I will put things right.


This is intended to be mainly about my crafting stories, as a personal record of what I do. However, I interpret crafting quite widely, not just paper crafting but other things too. I have a butterfly mind and like to change from one thing to another depending on what I feel like on a given day - knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, cards, baking and several others, including my favourite right now, parchment, both traditional skills and Groovi, very relaxing and calming to do.

I have decided to put some structure into my blog so that each day will have something of a theme.
Monday- for Mindfulness; Tuesday - Tidy Up Day; Wednesday - What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday; Thursday - Technique and Tips; Friday - Finish Off Day; Saturday - Start Something New; Sunday - Anything Goes
These themes are not hard and fast and will be changed if I feel the need.

Wednesday 20 May 2015

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday 311 - Doesn't time fly?



 This is the first batch of the lovely ATC's I was given at the WOYWW Crop on Saturday.  What a great event in every way, so beautifully organised by our leader, Julia, and the lovely Lunch Lady Jan, who fed us so well again.  Rather than show all the ATC's in one great rush, I have chosen this year to do a few each week to give you a chance to really look at all the wonderful ideas and beautiful creations.  Top row, left to right - Fee Richardson, Eliza, Jo (Twiglet); bottom row - Cindy Ashplant, Chris, Helen.

The rest of my post today is really to show what has been on my various "workdesks" over the weekend down in Wiltshire, whether at the Crop, the B&B or in the car overlooking Avebury at the Sanctuary/Ridgeway car park.  I made some marble backgrounds and stamped the Clarity flowers on various types of paper or card.  I have been experimenting with what works well, what combination of pens and pencils give the best result on which type of media.


 This was one started from scratch and them mounted up when I got home, Clarity Wee Folk with a new stencil, Distress inks brushed through to create the landscape.

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 These next ones were my experimental efforts, and actually did not bring me to a definite decision on what worked best,  It was just as case of liking them all in different ways.  The first three were stamped on alcohol ink marbled backgrounds on different card.  No 1 was on plain white card, then coloured with Aquamarkers, over the top of which I used my blendable pencil crayons to lift certain sections.
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No 2 was done on the high gloss Chromo card, just using Aquamarkers.  On this occasion, the pencils could not find enough "tooth" on the card to make any impression.


No 3 was back to the plain white card with the mix of Aquamarkers and pencil work, just a different colour mix.

 
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No 4 was on black card with just pencils  this time.  I like how the paler blue is slightly grainy and gives (to me) more impression of texture in the flower.  The colour also seems to glow.  This one was stamped and embossed in clear detail powder before colouring in.  Without embossing, it would be very hard to distinguish the outlines on the dark card.

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No 5 has two versions, one using the Aquamarkers before the pencils and one with just pencils.  I will leave you to decide which you think is just pencil work.  I can see a very clear difference on the cream card.

As part of my experimenting/playing, I tried to do an alcohol background on shiny black card  - not successful at all.   I will forget that idea.

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No 6 is the new Silk Ribbons Bouquet stamp (designed by Julie Owens) and again It was part of my experimenting with Aquamarkers and pencils mixed.  It looked good with the Aquamarkers alone but the highlighting with the pencils lifted it to a totally different level for me. The colours just became so much more vibrant
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This very last offering is also a new stamp, designed by Amanda Branston, and just shows how a weed can also be a beautiful flower and worthy of our close attention.

On the subject of weeds versus flowers, the grass verges around the town have been glorious with huge swathes of golden dandelions, and are now billowing with the more delicate buttercups, both plants that we yank out of our gardens as weeds.  Out in the wild, they shine as they should.  Just take time to breathe and look at the glories that Mother Nature puts out there for us.


 Having waffled on for ever today, I will leave you now to visit some of the other desks on show over at Julia's Stamping Ground.  Have a good day wherever you are and whatever you are doing.






9 comments:

shazsilverwolf said...

Hi Marg, love all your stamping and colouring experiments. The blue on black is particularly stunning. My only objection to Shepherds Purse is how fast and far it spreads! We used to have a Norwegian neighbour, and that plant is known by that name by them as well- how odd. Love to you, Shaz xxx

Lunch Lady Jan said...

Ah, it was great to see you on Saturday...thank you for making the effort to come down. It was a grand day, we really enjoyed it all :-)
Love your stamping/ colouring and especially the lovely pic of the dandelion!
Hugs, LLJ 15 xxx

Helen said...

It was lovely to see you again last weekend, and you had such a productive time, well done you!! Helen 7

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Ah Maggie, I saw you in pictures at the crop. What lovely ATCs you got. I hope you got one from me, too.

Love, love, love, LOVE your cards. They are simply stunning. Happy WOYWW from #1.

April said...

Such lovely flowers. I love all the techniques you used. April #69

Sylvia/LittleTreasures said...

Sounds like you all had fun. Love the ATC's you have shared. And I love the flowers you have created in different ways. They are all lovely. Hoping for Mr. Sun to show up so I can go out and see my Real flowers. Have a lovely week off to make a few ATC's

Hettie said...

It was a fun day though all too soon it came to an end.
Loving your experiments ..agree with what you said about shepherd's purse. Love them.
Hugs
Hettie 49

Laura said...

Love that marbling effect - beautiful!
Thanks for visiting me
Laura
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Unknown said...

Like you, I like them all for different reasons. The blue on black is stunning! Diane #27