ArtyFartyAnnie

Pinch, punch, first of the month and there's a new reveal over at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration. There are three inspiring Case Files for June and you have until the end of the month to enter by sharing your page on the CSI Facebook page, to be in with a chance of winning one of the fab prizes. Here's Case File #285 ... And here's how I solved it ... I loved the clean, fresh, fun vibe of this challenge. Although you don't have to, I love to follow the clues which Debbi pulls from the Scene ... Scheme : all the colours are there. Evidence : woodgrain, stipes, chevron, frames, tags, labels, numbers, metal, flowers, stacked things. transparent items, puffy stickers. Testimony : inspiration words neat, bright, read made me think of this photo of my three step-grandchildren all excited and ready for a new school year last September.  Check out the reveal post for loads more ideas and the CSI FB page for daily inspiration.

One of my current obsessions is turning old newspapers and paper bags into useful baskets - first tearing them into strips, then rolling into tubes, and finally weaving into baskets like this ... I'm so chuffed with how these came out - they're really sturdy and I love the look of them. It was amazing to see how many colours I could get from the newspapers without colouring them at all ... I also loved the more natural colours ... And tried out some decorative hanging hearts ...

Another page in my AJ, made with collaged Tomoe River paper, acrylic inks, acrylic paints and Prismacolour pencils ... Really enjoyed playing with Tomoe River paper for the first time - it takes wet media beautifully but it's so thin and very smooth. It's really meant for pen and ink I believe, but I haven't tried that yet. The girl in the boat was drawn separately on a scrap of watercolour paper, coloured in, cut out and applied to the page along with torn pieces of collage paper ... Trouble is, I can't decide whether it needs some words and what the words would be - any ideas??

Had a go at weaving willow over the Easter weekend with expert tuition from the lovely Emma of Willow Phoenix at Alby Crafts here in Norfolk UK. After a few happy hours sitting in the sunshine with some of my favourite crafting companions, we all had sore thumbs and aching arms, but also the satisfaction of producing something beautiful and useful to take home. Here's mine (which is genuinely called a "buttocks basket") ... Although my buttocks are not especially well-formed, I think you can see where it gets its name :o) We used two different kinds of willow. They were both quite green and they were not stripped of the bark, so there was a lot of variation in the colours, which I loved. In this one, you can see why my DH said it reminded him of the knickers we used to put over babies' nappies! This is definitely something I would love to do more of when I have time. Three of my friends made beautiful berry baskets and another made a gorgeous lan...

I recently joined up for Sketchbook Revival 2019, a free online workshop hosted by Karen Abend. For the very first session, Kooje Koene showed us how to create a self portrait, without lifting the pen or looking at the paper. This was great fun, so I tried it a few times - here are a couple of the more successful attempts ... Neither of them look like me, but I do like the sketchy quality and I think maybe they've caught a bit of my personality :o) What do you think?

Hello Fellow Deskers, Sorry I've been AWOL for so long I can't even remember how many weeks, but I'm looking forward to catching up with some of you over the next couple of days. I know there's a big WOYWW 10th Anniversary celebration coming up - I SO wish I could make it and meet you all in person, but I will have to content myself with watching from the wings. The sun's been shining today, so I've been crafting in the garden - my current obsession is turning old T-shirts into rag rugs ... Those balls of "yarn" were made from T-shirts I had for years, worn them to the point where it would have been embarrassing to take them to the charity shop, but this way I get to turn them into something useful AND I'm not really letting these old friends go :o) I'll be back after work to link up over at Julia's and have a snout around to see what everyone else has been up to this week - see you there! Love Annie xxx

Really enjoyed the "Fancy Folds" GoGo Dayaway at St. Albans last weekend. Gorgeous kits and goodies, lots of techniques and tips from Niki and Kirei AND we came home loaded with leftovers. There was also CAKE - perfect :o) All of the pages involved some kind of paper-folding technique. As always, I'm not the fastest scrapper on the block, so I had lots of finishing-off to do. Here are my completed pages ... Folding circles into squares Cut file with folded-back hearts Hearts folded into flowers Pleated paper rosette Add caption Origami stars Folded squares with contrast centres And last but not least, a heart-shaped squash book made from a cut file, with added flaps to give lots of space for photos ... And I still have enough love to make some "extra inspiration" pages - brilliant! :o)

Hello everyone, It's a lovely sunshiney day here in Norfolk UK, really lifts the spirits :o) I've just realised that I forgot to post my page for Case File #281 when the May Case Files went live over at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration . So without further procrastination, here's the inspiration - If you head over to the reveal post, you'll find lots of clues to help you, or you can just pull your own inspiration from the Scene. I usually choose to follow the clues, because that's how I roll. So here's my page ... It was a very easy page to make, as I used a cut file from my Quirky Kit, used the heart to frame this picture of my DH and filled the other letters with scraps of paper, then just added some embellishments and finally wrote my story around the edges of the page. Scheme : all the colours are there. Evidence: plain white background, woodgrain, winged things, frames and potted plant. Testimony : my journaling tells how I love to go ...

Hi there, I'm still loving Wanderlust 2019 , dipping in and out of the lessons as time allows and the fancy takes me. Last month, the theme was "Rivers" and each teacher interpreted this in a very different way. For Week 12, Kasia inspired us to make a little concertina-type booklet made up of a variety of materials and then just let go and play with lots of different media to add texture and colour. This was huge fun and I carried on tinkering with it over several days -  it was a great opportunity to try out loads of different media and see how they work together. Mine ended up grungier than I intended. It's difficult to get a picture because of the format, but this gives you some idea ... Kasia encouraged us not to get too attached, as the idea is to use prompts to continue working on this project, so much of what we've already done will now be covered up. She suggested scanning the pages at this stage and printing off the images to use as coll...

Hi there bloggy peeps, I just finished making this card, using some of the goodies from the March ScrawlrBox ... The March box was full of fun stuff to play with as always - here's a quick peek ..

Hello Fellow Deskers and Bloggy Peeps, It's Wednesday, time to link up over at Julia's Stamping Ground forWhat's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. I've been having a fine old time on mine, using up recycled boxes and tubes and lots of hoarded bits and bobs to make .... TRASH DOLLS ... There are a few more half finished waiting to join them ... I've also finished crocheting a whole ball of wool into forget-me-nots to go to the hospital, where they will become part of a community artwork to help raise dementia awareness ... That's it for now, time to pop over to Julia's blog  to link up and see what everyone else has been up to - Zsuzsa if you've linked me up already, thank you very much my friend :o) Thanks for visiting me today, see you again soon. Love Annie xxx

Hi there bloggy peeps, There are three new Case Files for April over at CSI - you have until the end of the month to submit your entries and there are loads of prizes to be won. Here's Case File #278 - You can either draw your own inspiration from the Scene, or if you go to the reveal post over at the CSI blog, you'll find lots of clues to help you and you can check out all the DT pages.  Here's how I cracked this case - This page is all about a very happy day at Ally Pally with my friend Trina - here we're taking a break to refuel and showing off some of the goodies we treated ourselves to :o) I followed the traditional clues, because that's what I love to do - Scheme: all the colours are there, plus a couple extras sprinkled in. Evidence: solid cardstock, sunglasses, google eyes, clouds. Testimony: I was going to do a bullet-pointed list, but it all got too busy so I wrote it around the edges of the page instead. It was fun pi...

Hello everyone, I have enjoyed and learned from every single lesson on Wanderlust 2019 so far, but with some lessons you just can't wait to get started and Week 11 with Laly Mille was one of those. The new lesson videos are released on Friday mornings and I always look forward to watching them, but it usually takes me several days or even weeks to get around to trying them. However, this time I watched the lesson on Friday morning and finished my page on Friday afternoon - a record for me! Here's how it turned out ... Laly encouraged us to "go with the flow" and made it feel really easy to let go and enjoy building layer upon layer of colour and texture using many different types of media. I particularly enjoyed creating the pebbles by tearing collage papers ... Laly gessoed over her pebbles to knock them back a bit, but I loved them so much that I just couldn't cover them up! Scraps of paper and cheesecloth were added to the horizon line and w...

Hello my friends, The mid-month reveal has just gone up over at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration - check it out for all the details and loads of inspiration. There are three Case Files to solve each month and you have until Sunday 31st of March to submit your entries and be in with a chance of winning one of the fab prizes. Here is Case File #276, full of colour and fun elements ... You can either pull your own inspiration from the Scene, or you can scroll to the bottom of the reveal post to find all the traditional clues. Keep an eye on the FaceBook page  for daily ideas and inspiration. Here's how I solved this case, using the traditional clues because that's what I enjoy doing ... Scheme : most of the colours are there, but I substituted black for the navy and threw in some pink. Evidence : hearts, clouds, sun, string, die cuts. Testimony : inspiration words spirit, fashionable, adorable - my brief journalling is handwritten around the edge of t...

Hello Fellow Deskers and Bloggy Friends, It's Wednesday, time to show us all What's On Your Workdesk - pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground to link up and see what everyone else has been up to this week. Well, it's been a funny old week ... in fact it's all a bit of a blur now. It was my birthday last Thursday and I was spoiled rotten with lovely cards and presents from friends and family, but unfortunately I had also been given a really nasty virus infection - the gift that keeps on giving! :o) I am on the mend now, but it really knocked me for six, so I've been signed off for a few more days to rest up and get properly back up on my feet. Last week I didn't feel like doing much at all, but I did manage some sofa crafting and got started on some crocheted forget-me-nots ... The Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, where I work, is asking for people to knit or crochet forget-me-nots. These will become part of a community art project which will go on displ...

Hello my friends in Blogland, I'm still hopping backwards and forwards with Wanderlust, trying to finish up last month's lessons on the theme of "Faces" before I start on this month's theme, "Rivers". As always, I'm loving and learning from every lesson. For Week Seven, Marieke Blokland showed us how to doodle faces and then expand on these to create a mixed media art journal page. Here's my AJ page so far ... I still want to add some wordage, but can't decide what to say just yet, so I'm going to leave it there for now. It was fun doodling lots of different faces and definitely resulted in a different style to my usual faces which is brilliant. Here are some of my doodles, just scribbled in Inktense pencil which I then "activated" with a water brush to add shadow ... Thanks for stopping by today, have a peaceful and creative week, see you again soon! Love Annie xxx

HI everyone, The March Case Files have been released over at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration . There are three altogether, you can do any or all of them, and you have a whole month to submit your entries via the CSI Facebook group to be in with a chance of winning one of the fabulous prizes on offer. Here's Case File #275 - You can choose to draw your own inspiration from the Scene, or you can follow the clues which Debbi has found to inspire us. Scroll to the bottom of the reveal post on the CSI blog to see all the DT pages and find all the clues, or go to the Facebook group, where you'll find an individual album for each Case File - this is where you'll find all the clues and it's also the place to share your finished page. Here's how I solved Case File #275 - The handpainted style and zingy colours in the Scene really appealed to me and I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to scrap a funny story. I tried to capture the feel of a ...

Hello Fellow Deskers and Bloggy Friends, I've missed a few weeks of What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - life getting in the way again :o) but I'm back! Join us over at lovely Julia's Stamping Ground and show the world what you've been up to in your creative space this week. Most of my crafting at the moment is being done at the dining table in between Other Stuff, so I'll show you that, as it's more interest than my actual Workdesk ... I've been totally obsessed with rolling old newspapers into tubes. There are some wonderfully inspiring tutorials on YouTube showing you how to weave these into baskets - you can see my very first attempts here. I have a LOT of practising to do before mine look anything like the amazing ones I've seen on YouTube, but even these first efforts are actually useful containers for my craft room. The colours you see here are just as I found them in the newspapers - you can roll towards the unprinted edge to ...

Hello Everyone, I'm loving Wanderlust 2019 , enjoying all the different teachers with their varied styles and approaches and learning different techniques and ideas with every lesson. This month, the theme is "Faces". For some reason I jumped in and did Week Six with Marjie Kemper straight away (see the post immediately before this one if you're interested), then went back to Week Five with Kasia Avery. I will come back to this again but here's how it looks now ... Kasia showed us how to start by sticking down a face cut from a magazine, then painting over the top. Here's mine before I started painting the face ... After a coat of clear gesso, I worked with gouache, mixing all the colours from a very limited palette, which is something I need to practice more. I love gouache, to me it has the translucency of watercolours combined with the body and vibrancy of acrylics. I did use some white acrylic as well, then did the lettering with paint pens...