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Wednesday, 15 January 2025

WOYWW 815

 Welcome to Crafting With Jack and What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, a day when we link up to Sarah's Craftshed and have a look to see what everyone has been doing.  

The snow has disappeared here and the weather is not so cold which is good!  Saturday I got out of bed to find my heel was painful, it got worse and Saturday and Sunday I was sat with my foot up, working on my laptop.  Yesterday it seemed back to normal which I am very thankful for.  We discovered the stairlift was not working have been trying to find some to fix it, apparently it is old now and parts are unavailable so today someone is coming out to give us a quote.

I wanted to draw a smiling face for a journal page, a smiling mouth is just beyond me!  I looked to see if I could get any help online and was amazed I couldn’t find anything.  I did find a face tutorial with a method of doing semi realistic faces for art (Karen Campbell).  I usually only draw from photographs so I had a go, I was a bit critical of her first, but I quite like her now, she is not actually smiling though.

Later I drew a whale for another page and then a whole lot of Bible verses on the laptop. Most of the verses for the Scripture challenge are now done plus a few digital designs. I spent some time inking the edges of my journal pages and managed to complete 6.


The honeycomb and bees is a digital design and I coloured the whale digitally too.


Psalm 23 is my favourite psalm.  I found a photograph on freepix and turned the girl into a silhouette, the background is from of my papers.

See you later x




Wednesday, 8 January 2025

WOYWW 814

 Welcome to Crafting With Jack and What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, a day when we link up to Sarah's Craftshed and have a look to see what everyone has been doing.  

I have been working on the challenge, I studied the Scriptures for quite a few of the challenge prompts and decided on what I was going to do. I made a list - A4!  Then we had visitors Saturday and on Sunday.  After my husband saw my list and asked me what it was for on Monday morning, he decided the Christmas decorations were coming down. He walked the dogs first so I managed to find suitable papers and get them stuck down in my journal.  I started doing some hand lettering and then the boxes came downstairs for the decorations.  It  all got put away in good time although we ended up with a couple things left behind.   I decided to finish off the lettering on the laptop, usually I spend ages deciding on different fonts and I never can remember the names of the fonts.  So I thought why not go through them and print them out. Nine pages in total.

Having easy access to the fonts made the lettering much quicker.  I helped my niece with her printer problems in the afternoon, but by the end of Tuesday I had four pages done.   

Today I have the dentist at 8:45, I am not looking forward to the early start!  See you later x



Wednesday, 1 January 2025

WOYWW 813

 Welcome to Crafting With Jack and What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, a day when we link up to Sarah's Craftshed and have a look to see what everyone has been doing.  

First may I wish everyone a happy new year.  Another couple of days of Christmas and then the sad business of putting it all away. It always seems sad to me anyway.

If you remember the card designs I showed you last week.  I printed quite a few for next year.


I joined in with a free Scripture challenge on FaceBook "She Sketches Scripture"  The challenge has sketches to paint, but so far I haven't used them.  I have used digital work and collage.  The houses came from a couple of pictures from Rawpixel, which I overlapped in places to make it look more like a city.


The lady on the bicycle, also from Rawpixel I thought was perfect for "Seek first".  I tried a few backgrounds before I was happy.  I think she looks as if she is setting out early.  I made two vintage looking cards for the next one.

I tried something different for the next one.  It took me ages to get it to where I was satisfied. I used some flower stickers to finish.  For the last one, I improved on the face that I had done a while ago, I used one of my papers for the dresses and finished with some flower stickers.


Last photograph is of my craftroom.  I hope to get back in there today as I only have finished 6 of the 30 challenges so I would like to do a few more and I have till the 5th January.








Wednesday, 25 December 2024

WOYWW 812

Today is not an ordinary Wednesday, It's Christmas Day.  a day to celebrate with friends and family and remember:


A huge welcome Crafting With Jack and What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, a day when we link up to Sarah's Craftshed and have a look to see what everyone has been doing.   I wanted to wish you all a very happy Christmas.

I have been busy designing - well my husband calls it playing!  As well as the above I did the designs below.  The Nativity image was from Raw Pixels and the frame from Public Domain Pictures.  The frame and image needed blending in to make a vintage image.  I ended up with four variations.  Which one do you like?



Wishing you all a lovely Christmas








Wednesday, 18 December 2024

WOYWW 811

Welcome to Crafting With Jack and What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, a day when we link up to Sarah's Craftshed and have a look to see what everyone has been doing.  

It’s now half past ten and breakfast (scrambled eggs) is finished and I am ready to start my blog.  Last night I decided I would get up as soon as I awoke (not counting getting up at 3:45 for the loo!). It was ten past nine when I awoke!  I don’t seem to wake up early in the winter months, okay I’ll admit it, it’s along time since I was awake earlieršŸ¤£ though I often am awake in the early hours and often go downstairs for a cuppa.  I blame my husband as he doesn’t wake up early either.  His grandmother used to get up at six every morning!

I can’t possible show my craft room, or maybe I can with just clearing the middle so I can display my latest goodies.  I am constantly trying to squeeze a little more room in my craft space by reorganizing and frequently say things like “I had forgotten about that!”  

On the left is a black book which my husband took the middle out of yesterday morning and I am putting my Christmas journal inside, so the cover has to be covered and the signatures sewn in, I might try holding them in with ribbons or twine instead.  On the right is a box I was given “to do something with” and as it was on top of the Christmas box it came down with it.  In the middle are my recent goodies.  I don’t usually get lucky in sales, but I couldn’t resist these Tracy Easson stamps, a Woodware one and two Matt Tints.  I also bought a mdf reindeer and sleigh which is waiting to be built up.


This arrived yesterday, often things are smaller than I thought, not this one!  My new printer is, well, big!


Finishing with a picture of my dear MIL and me at a garden centre.


Wishing you all a very happy Christmas!









Wednesday, 11 December 2024

WOYWW 810

 Welcome to Crafting With Jack and What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, a day when we link up to Sarah's Craftshed and have a look to see what everyone has been doing.  


A couple of views of the finished kingfisher by the pond.  At least that is one finished project.  I would like to finish a few more before Christmas.

Within three days of being back from my MIL the Christmas tree and decorations were up and life seems to have been busy ever since.  I have been alternating between doing stuff and resting.  Crafting has not been on the agenda though I  have been doing some online shopping!   

An assortment of stickers, tiny image books, a roll of "Merry Christmas" stickers, a pack of paper clips shaped like crosses.  The sticker book on the left is half sticker and half with a white edge.  The circles on the right I actually bought 4 packs of because I thought they were different sets.  All from Shein.

The picture on the right show two accordion kraft paper books with  nice thick covers from Shein. The picture on the left shows some acrylic paint pens and underneath six 2 inch books. both from Amazon.  Lastly some flower tissue paper and self adhesive foam sheets from the Range.



My daughter’s MIL died while we were away and we offered to do the refreshments after the funeral.  We thought the numbers would be quite small in the beginning, but they doubled and I wasn’t sure if we had enough chairs.  As it turned out, those a few hours away decided to go straight back - quite sensible considering the weather. 

So yesterday I was determined to get in the craft room and then my husband spoke to my grandson!!

Our garden backs on to the primary school’s grounds, so quite often we speak to Joshua at playtime.  My husband helpfully reminded Joshua about the Christmas cards he wanted to make and told him to come round after school!!  Now because we were away I hadn’t got any of the Christmas craft stuff out.  So I did get in my craft room, just not what I intended to do.  He made six cards and is coming back today to do the rest.



See you later x





Wednesday, 27 November 2024

WOYWW 808

 Welcome to Crafting With Jack and What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, a day when we link up to Sarah's Craftshed and have a look to see what everyone has been doing. 


I haven’t done a great deal, but I did do 3 portraits, of which this is the best one, all using the same reference picture, which is a painting by Cyprien Eugene Boulet.


I really like this painting.  I might have another go this week.

I bought a Dan Brown book "Origin" from a charity stall a few weeks ago.  I actually bought it for an art journal (to go with all the other books I have already bought!),  my husband read it and enjoyed it and now I am reading it too.  I don't think it is as good as previous books of his.  I read them for the story, but with a healthy dose of scepticism and Google by my sidešŸ¤£šŸ¤£.   Some facts are interesting like details of a cult church with it's own pope, split from the R C Church, but I must admit I am a bit bored with it. 

My cold is gradually improving, thank you for all your good wishes.
















Wednesday, 20 November 2024

WOYWW 807

Welcome to Crafting With Jack and What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, a day when we link up to Sarah's Craftshed and have a look to see what everyone has been doing.  

In the post before this one, I showed some papers that I had made.  I printed out quite a few to take away with me and brought a whole variety of pens to see which ones worked best.  Unfortunately I  am down with a cold and haven’t felt like doing too much, but I have nearly completed three. 




The object was to see which pens worked best on the inkjet prints. They all seemed to work in that they didn’t effect the ink on the paper, but a lot of the colours didn’t show up as well as they would have done on a much paler background.   I still have a few more ideas to try out.

We are back in the caravan looking after my MIL, I haven’t actually seen her since the day after we arrived as I don’t want her catching this cold.  Last week we didn't have any Internet as my SIL had changed companies, but we have it now and a signal for the TV which means I have been watching both the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts series.

Looking forward to visiting you all later.




Wednesday, 6 November 2024

WOYWW 805

 Welcome to Crafting With Jack and What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, a day when we link up to Sarah's Craftshed and have a look to see what everyone has been doing. 


I made a sketch using a watercolour pencil and a stabilo pencil.  I downloaded a set of images from Arthouse Whimsey and used one as a reference.                

                        

For the next two pages I used some of the images free from the Women of the Word conference.  I printed them in circles and made some of a different colour for contrast.  I found the picture for Naomi online

My husband “found” a kingfisher ornament in the garden, all colour gone and decided I could repaint it!  I will take a photograph when it’s finished.






Wednesday, 30 October 2024

WOYWW 804

 Welcome to Crafting With Jack and What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, a day when we link up to Sarah's Craftshed and have a look to see what everyone has been doing. 



I started a watercolour of little squares and rectangles that I had seen in a tutorial by Wendy Soganik on one of the free courses.   Although I was quite pleased with the result when I took a photograph it was more obvious that my lines were decidedly wonky.  I decided to digitally alter that.  All the wonky ones were straightened out and looked much better.  Then I had a play with the colour blends!  The picture above is a selection of the results.  The original watercolour is A4 so these are quarters.  There is a second stage to the tutorial which I hope to get to this week.

There was a Women of The Word conference a couple of weeks ago.  The free downloads are available straight away so I have those although I didn’t manage to watch all of them.  I have been doing a study of women in the Bible. And did my first page yesterday. This is of Miriam, a prophet and sister to Moses.  

I had planned to use my brayers, but they were nowhere in sight so I used a palette knife to spread the paint and then did some stencilling. I wasn’t too sure I liked the result, but in the end carried on.  On the left handside is the page with some colour added digitally, on the right the actual page.  Now I haven’t actually stuck down my image so I may add to the background.  The image started off as a download from the course, but I wanted a stencil so I altered it, including a new head :) 


My workspace!  Tomorrow I must look for my brayers!




Wednesday, 23 October 2024

WOYWW 803

Welcome to Crafting With Jack and What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, a day when we link up to Sarah's Craftshed and have a look to see what everyone has been doing. 


I added wax to some backgrounds I made last week with my rock pigment watercolours, and then polished them until the colour stopped coming off. I tried Liquitex on a couple of others.  Both the Wax and the Liquitex worked at sealing the paint and stop the colour coming off on my fingers all the time.  The left hand side are the originals and the right are sealed.


The paints seem to grow a little mould every day, I have been scraping off and throwing the mould part away, so I decided to top them up with distilled water, but the mould floated to the top!   I decided to do some more backgrounds with them today.  I had a very happy play!  The first background I did the paint was very patchy and I decided to mix in some PVA glue with the paint.  I added quite a bit and made lots of brush marks.  The second one I used a fine hole stencil mesh, I couldn't get a print by laying paper over the stencil so I put the stencil that had been on the paper on fresh paper and repeated a few times.  then I pressed the paper onto the painted paper and did a few lift offs.  The bottom layer is actually the same colour as the rest, but came out different.


I had several bottles of the PVA glue and I decided to mix the watercolours with it.  I had some very old ink bottles, which you can see above.  The watercolours turned from slightly lumpy to very smooth and I think a better colour.  I guess the proof will be in the using, stay tuned for more news :)

The desk!

I just had to share this with you.  My talented granddaughter made me a niffler for my birthday - a creature from The Fantastic Beasts films - and a fabulous Hogwarts card with a little note in an envelope asking me to look after the niffler from Newt Scamander himself.

Wishing you all a great week!  Angela x

Wednesday, 16 October 2024

WOYWW 802

Welcome to Crafting With Jack and What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, a day when we link up to Sarah's Craftshed and have a look to see what everyone has been doing.


Beautiful birthday flowers from my daughter for tomorrow.



The natural rock pigments I bought on holiday are proving to be the worst buy ever!   I mixed the powder with the Gum Arabic and honey - a lot of stirring.  A couple of colours just did not want mix, phthalo green was the worst one.  The tiniest bit of powder stains and it seemed to jump out the pot of its own accord!  The mixing took me the best part of two days.   I thought I would try various brushes and brush strokes also I wasn’t sure how much water to use.  All of these were on dry paper, so next stage is wet on wet.  At one point I got a little frustrated and added some Liquitex, which is the darkest shade above.  

I visited my niece yesterday, she is expecting her second baby in February, such exciting news!