Hot off the Desk

Hello from Horace again. Last year I joined Lifebook 2015, a year long art course hosted by the very talented Tamara Laporte. Although initially I enjoyed the lessons and kept up quite well, halfway through the year medical problems forced me to stop all creativity and I stopped almost all art. This year I ummed and Ahhhed about joining again but as I now have the super new creation station and am taking it easy health-wise I thought I needed some inspiration to get me back into art. So Lifebook 2016 it was.

So far, despite joining later ( registration is open all year but I was about 2 weeks later than the start date of 1st January) I have already completed 3 classes. All by Tamara. She also invites other artists to teach lessons and show us different techniques.

Lesson 1 is always a gentle warm up to ease us in and Tam takes her time to show us all of the lesson, never rushing through or presuming that everyone is to a certain standard in their art. I started with my blank, brand shiny new book




And dove straight on in with collage papers, neocolor2 watercolour crayons and white gesso, to form a lovely colourful arty mess.


I added some stencilling with acrylic paint


Loosely following Tam's example as I went along.


I chose a word for the year - self. Not exactly as in selfish but more as in learn to take care of myself, love and accept myself and put my health first.


I'm quite happy with my finished first page. In fact, so happy that the very next day I started on lesson 2, but that can wait for another blog post.


By the way, do you like my desk cover?



See you soon.

Love from Horace

Wedeskday

Yippee, here it's not Wednesday, it's Wedeskday. The desk arrived flat packed early this morning and after an extra snoozelet I set to assembling it. The instructions are complex for a bear with a furry brain.




But with the help of my trusty electric super tool





I think I managed to make a good job of it. I finished the drawers in super speedy time




Then it was onto building the desk itself



Phew, it was making my fur hot to screw all these bits into place


But I was soon done, and thought I'd take a selfie on it


It fits just nicely into the space, in fact, I think it was made for it.


Can you spot my paw in the picture?

I may even create something on my lovely desk soon. Or I may just admire it a little longer.

Love from Horace

We All Need a Blog Resurection

Hello there dear friends. My goodness. It's almost a year since I used the blog. It's probably also almost a year since I decided the desk didn't look right in the bedroom, so I dumped it! It was a very cheap, MDF type of desk, not that I have anything against MDF but this was very poorly made and it showed. Anyway. I was ruminating over my lack of creativity since the desk's demise. Now if I want to get arty I need all the art supplies taken into to the kitchen, which really doesn't work. Half the time I find I need other supplies and it seems I've only just begun creating when it's lunch or dinner time and I have to pack everything away to make room for food.

I browsed several websites for desks and eventually found a lovely chunky style desk in Littlewoods




It's rather smart looking isn't it? It also has good reviews and will go in with the other bedroom furniture too. I went ahead and ordered it. Then we measured the available space for it. Ooops, it was 5 inches too long for the space!!! So now I need a 5 inch extension on the bedroom before the 15th January, when the desk is due to arrive. The male human seems to think that with some wriggling, we can manage to fit everything in, but there's a small set of drawers that can be sacrificed if not. I need to learn to measure then order, not assume then panic!

I'm so excited to be having a creative space again that I can hardly sit still. I thought I'd pass the time by eating the rest of Santa, who was one of my many delicious Christmas presents.


He was delicious, as was one of the mince pies our friends gave us when we went there for a takeaway dinner last week.


I shall be back to crafting soon so watch this space. -> <----

Love from Horace

Chasing Butterflies

Hello there once again dear friends. Horace here on this slightly warmer weekend to show you my latest journal page.

So, now it's a little warmer, I've braved the desk in the bedroom. I admit, I had the electric fire plugged in while I crafted, it's certainly not warm enough without it just yet. I was feeling creative so pulled out the large Dylusions journal to play in. As you see, the desk is very well covered, the plastic cloth even covers part of the wall behind the desk. This is because last time I played with India inks in the bedroom, I upturned the whole bottle and it dripped down the wall, behind the desk, onto the floor.... The whole bedroom needed redecorating after that little mishap. Now it's cover everything or play in the garden only, and it's still far too chilly for that as yet!!



My page background consists of old book pages which are liberally sprayed with Dylusions and other mists. Then I added some texture paste through a star stencil and waited 10,000 years for it to dry so I could paint my stars. Next time I think I'll mix the colour into the texture paste before applying it!



I wanted to add some stamping to my background. I keep all my stamps in these A4 ring lever arch ring binders.


Inside the ring binders are A5 plastic wallets that I pawchased from The Works, a shop that sells a bit of everything really, books, stationery, art supplies.....


I chose my favourite Tim Holtz background stamps, these are very well used.


I dipped the stamps into white acrylic paint


And randomly stamped the image across the page.


Last Christmas I received this horror colouring book, it has images from films in.


I think this is the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He suited my theme idea perfectly. I coloured then cut him out.


Next I sorted through my veritable stash of ephemera and found some flutterbyes. Perfect.


I need another jar of Golden matt medium, this one is down to scrapings now.


I used the Cricut for my wordage, and my favourite Type Candy font.


I wanted the page to look like my man was attempting, but failing, to catch the butterflies, hence the bigger butterflies were nearer his too small net.


Here's the completed page, Chasing Butterflies.


Time for small smackeral after all that creating.

TTFN

With love from Horace.

WOYWW - Lifebook doings

Hello there and welcome once more to the Wednesday fun that is WOYWW, a fabulous blog hop where we all nose at desks across the world. Click on the link, read the how to and join in the fun.

This week I'm still in the lounge due to the bedroom, where the craft desk is, still being a little chilly. I'm hoping it'll start to warm up in the coming weeks but for now the emergency desk will do me fine.



I'm creating a dream catcher as part of my Lifebook class. The background is made from old safety envelopes, then painted over with metallic paint. What a shame the shimmer doesn't show on the photos as it looks fabulous on paper.

In the class, the tutor adds a doily to the page, I had a doily stencil so used that and stippled white acrylic through. I then poked holes through and added some string, from which I dangled Sizzix heart die cuts. These were all painted with the same metallic paints as the background.



I may add some dangly words to my page. I haven't quite decided yet. I'll let it sit for a while until I decide.


I'm off for a blog hop before I pack my stash away. See you soon.

With love from Horace.

It's Never a Good Idea

Hello, it's me, Horace here again to show you my completed page from this week's WOYWW post. I was in the middle of finishing my page, which was in response to too much over sharing of personal lives on social media. I came to the conclusion that it's never a good idea to air your dirty laundry in public, and as I thought this furry thought, a vision of dirt stained laundry flapping on a washing line rippled through my brain. I just had to get my journal out and create.


My laundry was drawn, coloured and cut and my washing poles drawn in, and a simple sky and grass background added. I glued the tops of the laundry over the string washing line and left the bottoms of the clothing free, as if the washing was flapping in the breeze. I halved my mini pegs so my journal still had half a chance of closing. I added a sentiment with marker pens and hey presto, my thoughts are recorded.


See you soon.

With love from Horace.

WOYWW - Dirty Laundry

Hello dear friends and welcome once again to another WOYWW , the first in February. If you're wondering what that strange acronym can mean then click on the link and be transported into a world of blog hopping and desk noseyness, hosted by Julia at Stamping Ground.

So what am I doing this week? Abandoning the desk in the bedroom for a start. As the weather grew colder, so did the north facing bedroom. This, coupled with the lack of light in the room lead me to set up my emergency craft station in the lovely warm south facing living room.


After seeing various over sharing posts on many social media posts, an idea for a journal page crept into my furry mind. I'm of the (maybe old fashioned ) opinion that dirty laundry should not be aired in public, no matter what the provocation. I felt strongly enough to have a little visual rant in my Dylusions journal.



I drew some clothes, coloured them then added smidges of 'dirt' with my Albrecht Duhrer watercolour pencils. I cut the items of clothing out and added them to my 'washing line' .


I found some cute mini pegs in The Range, perfect for my page, so I spent this week's pocket money on a pack.



My washing line was some string from an Art from the Heart purchase.


I made holes in my washing poles to feed the string washing line through. It'll add some texture to the other side of the page when I come to journal on it.


Now I just need to add the pegs to my washing to complete my page. I think I'll have a little blog hop before finishing though.


With love from Horace.