my woyww atc

This is the ATC I made as part of the WOYWW Third Anniversary ATC swap. It's part of a range I'm calling Wordy Art.  I'd really like to have a better name for it, but words have deserted me.  Let me know if you can think of something better.  

The process for this is pretty much the same process I use for all my wordy art.  

1. Sketch and doodle until I like what I have.  
2. Ink it in.  I tend to keep the letters quite plain at this point.
3. Trace the inked version so you have a nice, clean, inked copy on thin paper.  
4. Use a light box to trace the image onto watercolour paper.  You're not trying to do an accurate trace; try to keep your lines fluid and don't worry if things change. 
5. Give your letters some character, thickening some bits and adding flourishes if you feel like it.
6. Slap on some watercolour paint. 

Sometimes step 1 is actually a bit of research, such as looking up rose names or how to say Happy Birthday in different languages.  In this case I just went with words that spring to mind when I think about WOYWW. I nearly chose WOW as well, but that would be too many W's.  W's are tricky letters to make interesting (as well as I's and M's) so WOYWW was not easy, but at least it has a nice O, all ripe for a flourish.

Yellow is not a big feature of my art, not on it's own like this anyway.  I find it a really hard colour to use, almost as bad as white.  But here it's a total saviour.  The green and pink were fine on the words, but when I added the purple the whole thing died a bit.  It was just too samey.  Yellow and purple are complementary colours, so I figured that it would help brighten things up at bit.  I think it's worked.  It's nice to step outside my comfort zone and not get slapped in the face!  

Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday yesterday.  I didn't have my birthday lunch, but I did have a lovely dinner.  What can I say, no work for weeks and then you suddenly have to be there asap!  

Alas, it does mean I haven't visited anyone and gawped at their desk yet, but that's what the long weekend is for! That and catching up on sleep.  I'm so tired!  In fact, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to bed.  Goodnight.

woyww - the birthday edition

Happy Anniversary to Julia Dunnit and What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. For the last 3 years Julia has encouraged us to share our workspaces, large and small, neat and tidy. To share our triumphs and our disasters. To share our messiness and our tidiness.  Basically, to share a little bit of our lives with other people who totally get us!

Thank you Julia.

Now, what's on my workdesk on this momentous day?  Pretty much bugger all!  Basically, these are the tools I've gathered to start a small project I've been commissioned to make:

• Table mat, serving as lap desk. (Do I get extra points for it being a Tiffany window table mat, or does that count against me?)
• A5 cutting mat
• Watercolour ATC
• Mechanical Pencil
• Lead Pointer (like a pencil sharpener, but for leads, not pencils)
• Pen (Copic multiliner .3)
• Knife (exciting retractable scalpel with very cheap refill blades)

How exciting is that? I normally use a BagPuss effect to make even the most mundane WOYWW pictures look intriguing, but today I went with plain honesty!

Of course, how much art actually gets done today is uncertain.  Because it's my birthday and I'm going to be one of the ladies who lunch. The first glass of Prosecco should slip down at 12.45.  After that, who knows!  Fortunately, I've already made my anniversary ATC.  I wonder who'll get it? Here's a little sneak peak and I promise to give you it in all it's glory once it's been received.

I hope you'll go check out Julia's blog and all the desks from around the world. I will be, when I'm not busy drinking!

pee po belly bum drawers

I'm not a happy bunny.  I'm really not a happy bunny. I'm taking part in the Inspiration Avenue postcard swap and I have to get them posted by the end of May.  (They should really have arrived by then, but I'm hoping people won't mind too much.)  

First problem: no inspiration.  But we get over that and create a nice little digital collage.  The plan is to print it out and then do some doodling or stencilling or stamping over it.  

Second problem: printer issues. Not a problem, because I have more inspiration and I create the little number above.  I draw five versions on watercolour paper and start to colour them in with watercolour paper.  

Third problem: I only had cheap paper and it sucks!  The paint won't do its thing properly and then the paper pills and it sucks and I hate it. (Stamps foot like petulant child.)

Now I'm going to have start all over again. So, pee po belly bum drawers!*

*I remember this silly poem from when I was little: Mum's out, dad's out, let's talk rude: pee po belly bum drawers. Nowadays, if you ever hear me saying it you'll know things are bad, because I only mutter it to myself when regular swearing just isn't enough.

twiggy bobbins

Twiggy Bobbins sounds like the name of a character in a book set in a 1930s boarding school.  Jolly hockey sticks!

What it actually refers to are my homemade bobbins with twigs stuck in them.  I'm thinking that eventually they'll become part of a little installation/shadow box creation.  But this as far as I've got! 

A few little birds might look good.  Or not. 

Maybe I should make more bobbins and make a forest. Or maybe not! 

I guess these will be going on the side for a bit while my subconscious figures it out!

woyww - the i'm back edition

I haven't woyww'd in forever.  I'll be honest, it's been because I knew I couldn't visit as many people as I should.  I hope you'll forgive me if it takes me a while to visit you.  But I will get there, I promise. 

If you're thinking that my desk looks remarkably like a floor, then you're absolutely right.  At the moment I'm tending to work either on a lap desk or, if it's bigger, then on the floor.  It certainly makes it easier when I drop things.

Unfortunately, I tidied yesterday, so there's not nearly as much to show as there was this time yesterday!  You can see my cutting mat, and I have been doing an awful lot of cutting.  I've been creating a portfolio of my cut cards so I can start visiting more shops and finding some more retailers.

You'll see my beloved ATG.  It's red, which I love more than the pink ones, and I got it from a framing supplier.  ATGs were a framing tool before crafters got them, and we (framers) know them as Adhesive Transfer Guns.  It does make substantial taping down so much easier.

Let's see, what else is there?  Oh yeah, little vintage nudes for a background project I'm doing.  A pink and white bag that currently has postcards in it, but will end up in a collage.  Oh, and my handy tray that I use to collect all my bits of paper before they get recycled.

Quite a workmanlike space really, with not a lot of creativity, so here's a digital collage I've been working on.  I'm going to print it out and then draw on some flowers or flourishes.

Have a great day and enjoy visiting Julia and all the other woyww-ers!

thanks for the memories

Huge thanks to Inspiration Avenue for the, well, for the inspiration (not the memories). I had this background and no idea what to put on it.  Then along came Inspiration Avenue with the suggestion of mermaids.

It was perfect.  I grabbed my mermaid stencil and went for it.  I've used pearl paint for the mermaids; it gives them an ethereal quality. Or at least I hope it does. I've resisted the urge to add anything else, not fish, not bubbles, not nothing.  I'm keeping it simple. Although maybe... No!  I'm keeping it simple.

drafty houses

I'm still playing and doing rough drafts, hence my "drafty" houses.  it's very freeing and means I'm not disappointed that this hasn't quite worked out.  Now I know that it's a good idea, it just needs a slightly more interesting sky and houses that are a little more normal looking.  I'll save these funky bad boys for something else.

Funky bad boys?  I've got to find a better vocabulary!