What's on My Workdesk Wednesday No303? New Tim stash and fallout!

Quick post from me as I have already dropped my son at school at 7am, set up his food fair table, collected the cake for our home cricket match this afternoon...still have to go collect the sewing done for my studio on my way to work before 9am...I need a 24 hour day before I even start!

So What's on my desk?  A beautiful little case which is in need of serious repairs.  It came from a lady who is down-scaling and not crafting any more.  The contents of the case are on the left of my desk together with a lot of gold glitter fall out as the lid had come off the jar in transit...

Then there are the new and as of yet un-used stamps and stencils I purchased yesterday.  I wanted the alphabet one so I could try Tim's latest tag with it as my current version is rather heavy handed on the gold using the harlequin stencil...

Silver Hat

I just realised that although I made this hat last year and I blogged a short post about it, here are some close ups of it finally finished.  It is for a particular gentleman who is a specialty coffee roaster...hence the 3 stages of the beans!

No step out photos of this as I made it impulsively and did not think to pick up a camera!  This was the first one in the series.  I have made a girly steampunk hat for myself and again...there are no step outs...It will appear in the next blog post!

Steampunk Hats - The final one!

I have been busy with a series of hats for a personal project.

Here is the last one!

I give you Apple Mac meets Steampunk!

I had fun with the thought of what Apple's branding would have looked like steampunk style...like a step back in time!

To create this one, I did the same process with the metal foil as per the silver hat, but then I sprayed it with white spray paint and sanded it back a bit to show the silver.

 Then I added the hat band with a cog to hold it in place.

 Next came the white embellishments which I had to hold in place with painters tape while the glossy accents dried.

 I felt it needed a little more after this so...

 I found some of the DIY straws and some micro beads to make it a little more funky!

 Here we have the final hat...front, back and sides!

These hats have been incredibly rewarding to make, lets hope the final project they are meant for goes ahead eventually.

In the mean time, I am entering this in the 3D section of Sandee and Amelies steam punk challenge for March which is "Gear it Up" as the whole top and rim of the hat has embossed gears on it as well as at least 6 dimensional ones for good measure!

March tag of Tim's 12 tags of 2015

Here is my take on Tim's tag for March...Mine seems to be all about the texture paste and embossing powder where as Tim's is all about the butterfly...visually speaking that is.

I think this has happened for two reasons.
1:  I don't have his beautiful big butterfly stamp (yet) and used my biggest Darkroom Door one instead.
2: I don't have the alphabet stencil yet either.

Knowing that these tags are all about the process and making them your own...

I chose to use the harlequin stencil which has LOTS of coverage, unlike the subtle alphabet one.  Perhaps I should not have covered the whole tag with the embossing paste...then it would not be quite so overstated.  However, the technique is a fabulous one and worked particularly well, though I had to actively practice some patience while the texture paste dried over night and I could heat gun it the next day to emboss the powder.

The nice thing is that I got two more tag bases out of the paint I had on my craft sheet, so I can try a few more versions when I get a chance.  I think I was a little generous with the paint to start with...

Roll on 1st of April, I can't wait to play again!

Junk in your Trunk

Hello there

I am excited to tell you that I have been invited to be guest designer over at Our Creative Corner this month where the Challenge set by Candice is to use the "Junk in your Trunk."

Here is a sneak peek of the project which I designed especially for them using bits and bobs I have been collecting and storing with the intention of using...but never really getting round to it...you know the stuff?  I am sure you do!  Well this was a great reason to use up a whole lot of stuff and create a canvas...Steampunk style!

Please pay them a visit over at Our Creative Corner to see all the step out photos I have for you there!

PS:  for those of you wondering where my What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday post is...well My dear Mom collapsed (I thought it was a heart attack, it was so scary!) on Monday from what turns out to be a severe bladder infection and has been in hospital ever since on an antibiotic drip, so blogging and crafting has taken a back seat while I carry on teaching my normal art classes and run back and forth to the Hospital in between as well as try keep my family afloat and fed.  I did not even realise today was Wednesday till I switched on my PC for the first time this week tonight and saw the blog list!  Thankfully mom will be coming home tomorrow and life should return to normal as we know it!

EDIT:  Mom is home and doing well.  Life will now continue as normal! YAY!  Gonna start playing catch up!

Finnabair style journal cover

 I am excited to say that I am attending a Finnabair class in October this year!  The anticipation is killing me, so in the mean time, I am playing up a storm and preparing for my adventure.

I say adventure as the class is not being held in my home town and I have to travel to JBay to attend the event.  There are 9 of us Capetonians going, 7 of us are in the same group on the Saturday and Sunday class and the other two are doing the Thursday & Friday class...

I was inspired by this post on Finn's blog:  Industrial Book Cover

Here is my journal cover in step out photos, so as usual...make yourself comfy and peruse at your leasure.

I started by covering my journal with clear Crackle paste by Viva called Facetten-Lack Transparent.  I let this dry overnight.  Then I painted it with black acrylic paint as I don't have black gesso.

Once this was dry I added Silks in Key Lime and Bolivian Blue and Viva Inka Gold silver.

 Having now covered everything in paint, I decided I needed more embellishments and added a few.

 Then I had to paint them black too...

 Finally, here is the finished product!

 Here is a close up showing the micro beads together with glass beads which I added with gel medium for extra texture.

What's On My Workdesk Wednesday 289? Valentines tag

Hello fellow Desker from Julia's place.  Welcome to my desk over in Cape Town, South Africa!

This is actually as my desk looked on Sunday morning after I was inspired to make Tim's Tag for Feb, late on Saturday night.  The chaos you see is now all gone and you can once again see my floor and desk...which is boring, so I am showing you a more realistic view of what goes on most of the time.

My accounts are done and handed in!  YAY!  So the yellow file on the floor is GONE now.  The yellow box on top of the file is from new molding putty I had played with all day Saturday...not so sure about the putty.  I prefer the results from the silicone molding stuff, though it takes 16 hours to set!

February Tag of Tim's 12 Tags of 2015

Well, I was trawling blogs tonight and saw Redanne's Tag and was inspired to go to my desk and get cracking!  I have not done January's tag yet, but seeing as today is Valentines day and Tim's tag is full of hearts...I decided to just go for it!

I did not however have the energy to set up my sewing machine, so my trusty stapler came to the rescue along with a hat pin!

Below you can see the nice splatter I got from my spritzer...love that tool. 

Happy Valentines Day!

This tag is from me to me, by me for me!LOL!

What's on My Workdesk Wednesday 297? Accounts

Hello fellow Desker from Julia's place.

Here you see a rather large file full of my annual accounts.  It is financial year end for me at the end of Feb.  Yuck.

Not much crafting going on other than to test the Soft Matte gel by Finnabair.  I used it to glue some fabric onto a little decoupage box.  It worked a real treat.

You can also see some keys (at the back in white) I molded on the week end and the copper spray paint I plan on using on the blue ended "DIY straw" for a future project.

This post should be called "testing, testing, 123!"  cos I am testing products as well as concepts and the accounts are testing my patience!

What's on My Workdesk Wednesday 296? Sewing Machine!

Health Warning!  For those of you who know me well, be warned...there is a sewing machine on my desk!

As a RULE...I don't sew.

UNLESS there is an emergency.

The repair pile is hitting emergency status.  I had to sew a new (industrial) zip onto my son's Golf bag cover.  They supply a piddly thing and of course after no time at all it had derailed.  That was last nights job.  Still on my desk are his school shorts and some of my tops that need altering for various reasons.

They might or might not get done.  The golf bag was URGENT as he has a tournament on Sunday.

The rest...we will see.

There is a pile of cut sticky backed foil vying for my attention...I think it might win me over for a while!  I need to get my steampunk on, then I might have the energy to tackle the rest of the sewing pile...time will tell.

Yes that is a roll of sticky backed foil which I found in a local craft shop.  It keeps me out of mischief!

For those of you who saw my clock on the go last week, here is a link to the tutorial of how I made it.