WOYWW's & ATC's

It's been a while since I've posted for a lot of boring reasons, and my desk stayed empty for many, many days. It was a sad desk. It is happy now. 

I've been working on a floral ATC challenge for Art Chix Studio, a favorite site of mine. The ATC has to have flowers and at least one Art Chix product.

And my favorite one, on a background of washi tape laid out in a crazy quilt pattern.

Another big happening since I last checked in with WOYWW - wait. Are you wondering what WOYWW is? Why it's What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday which is hosted by the lovely, talented and patient Ms. Julia at her blog Stamping Ground. Please do check it out. 

Oh yes, exciting happening. I got a present from the Netherlands! Yep. Addressed to me and everything!!

It's from Monique, who's blog I discovered in another WOYWW week.  It was her birthday so she made a lovely little book and had a drawing. And yes - I was lucky enough to win!! It has a love theme. I love it.  Isn't it grand???

But only did she send the book, there were other goodies as well!! 

Dictionary pages, a cool little file folder with a hint of sparkly, and lots of lovely embellishments. I haven't thanked her properly, but I can tell you I was like a kid in a candy store opening up the package. I mean even the package looked cool!!

I'm a happy girl....hope you are too!

The Tale of Two Workdesks - WOYWW 215

Mid week greetings! This is what my desk looks like at this very minute:

Because this is what is has looked like for about 2 weeks solid. In the middle of working on my Secrets Journal, I had to stop and make the project for the shop's July project. In the middle of  doing that I managed to run out of pretty much every adhesive I use; the Elmers didn't work out so well for me.  I make a MESS when I am working on embellishing journals...It got to the point that I couldn't stand it and I spent about 3 hours cleaning and organizing on Sunday afternoon.

Why am I telling you this? Because every Wednesday, come rain or shine, Julia hosts us at the Stamping Ground so we can post our desks and look about at others.

I did finally finish the Secrets Journal. Here are some of the pages you haven't seen. Not all of them are finished, but I am on my way. 

 A little distance is a good thing...when I finished I was really wondering....looks better to me now. 

Hope you all have a great week ahead, and the sun is shining where you live. 

Build Me Up Buttercup

It's getting to be birthday time in our family and I wanted to make a card for our son who turns 24 (yikes!)  soon. I also just wanted to PLAY. I've finished the July project for Stamp Cache, and my Secret Journal and spent literally hours cleaning up the Fun Room. So I checked in with Hels on her blog Ink on my Fingers just in time for Sunday Stampers. This week the challenge was building up layers. Get it? Build me up Buttercup? I love reading her blog as much as I love looking at her artful creations.

The outside of the card has 11 layers. Here goes:. 

1. First I sprayed After Midnight, London Blue and Yellow Dylusions Ink sprays over a size 10 manilla tag, and blotted up the extra colors
2. Sprayed After Midnight through a Dylusions circle stencil and blotted with paper towels.
3. Sprayed water through the same stencil. Waited about a minute and blotted again.
4. Sprayed the amazing White Linen Spray Ink through a Julie Fei-Fan Blazer tiny circle stencil. The White Linen absorbs some of the color beneath it...which is just so cool. 

5.  Using black archival ink, stamped the small blueprint cupcake three times.
6.  Embossed the cupcake with clear embossing powder.
7.  Put green glitter in the candles...you know, in case the embossing powder wasn't shiny enough.
8.  Sprayed a size 8 manilla tag with straight yellow Dylusions spray ink (the label came off the bottle 

     some time ago, and I don't remember the snazzy name, so I just call it yellow - my favorite).
9.  Sprayed another manilla tag with Dirty Martini Dylusions spray ink. Cut 1/2" strips and glued the 

     yellow on top of the green.
10.  Took some of the Tim Holtz's little letter stickers to spell out my message.
11. And the last step was cutting a piece of white paper for the inside of the tag so I could write a little note.

   
And there you have it. A layered card, suitable for a guy. Thanks for the prompt Hels!

Secret Squirrel WOYWW

I haven't had much time in the Fun Room, but I have managed to make quite the mess. Thank heavens for the floor!

It's been very much catch as catch can as we worked with landscapers all weekend doing some dirt work, putting in flower beds, building a rock garden, etc. Actually there was a lot of watching and deciding and not much work until Sunday afternoon when we hustled to plant perennials. When I had a free moment I would come in and work on my secrets journal.

I signed up for 21 Secrets this year and have really enjoyed the few classes I've taken. Terri Kahrs has a workshop for a journal that can hide your secrets and she's introduced me to some great new background techniques. My favorite one is neo-color crayons on paper and then with a wet brush and gesso spreading the color around. Example below.

The color, page and texture are all very smooth. I've used it a lot since I did the background pages for the journal and have come up with some cool background layers. Terri has a distinct style and I loved her inspiration journals, so off I went trying to replicate that.

On the left side....but it's just not me. See right side and following pictures. More me.

Secret spaces are under the number flaps and in the envelope....and

...the tag waiting for a fiber of some kind under the gold tag. But because I like Terri so well, I've decided to incorporate one of her elements on each spread to remind myself of the experience. That's how pup in a cup ended up on the tag. FUN.

So I've explained the Secret Squirrel part. Wondering what the WOYWW part is in the title? What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday which gives us a chance to snoop about desks world wide. Julia Dunnit hosts us each week and you'll find the specifics on her blog.

Happy snooping.