WOYWW - Getting Painty!

Hello from Magpieheaven! Today being Wednesday it's time to show what's on my washing-machine top! Just in case you think I've gone crazy, well a bit crazier, I have to say that I'm not the only person who crafts on top of the washing-machine! How do I know? Well, nip over to Julia's 'Stamping Ground' HERE and find out where crafters all over the world like to Gesso their canvasses; whir their sewing machines or distress their substrates!!! All crafting life is there!
 Last week some lovely people left me really heart-warming comments. Thank you again. I treasured and took heart from every one. Although it's still been difficult to find crafting time, my mum had her offer on the flat she liked accepted, so her move nearer to us is 'all systems go'. Today I met with an ex-colleague of my DH whose auntie was an expert on Aspergers and she was able to give me some really positive thoughts on supporting my son! Also my dear crafting friend, Kezzy sent me a lovely little package of 'Happy Mail'. Suffering from a migraine I stumbled down the stairs on Saturday morning and there was a gorgeous card, some beautiful hand-made buttons and the prettiest tissue!

As you can see I've painted my little rocking horse girl and I'm sorting through these lovely designs to find the perfect butterfly and maybe some roses to add when the painting has progressed further. I haven't had time to photograph the lovely card she sent. I promise to show that next time. It has pride of place on my mantel-piece at the moment.

The other week I talked about Crafting being the sugar we can add to make delicious lemonade out of life's lemons. Well, the lemonade has been positively fizzing, as I've been having so much fun lately altering this old spice rack - my fingers seem permanently Sage and Mermaid! Our kitchen is just the same as it was on the lemonade post!!! But Kevin will return one day with cupboard doors and in the meantime I can dream! This spice rack had dulled to a really yucky faded blue and it's nowhere near big enough to hold all our spices so I took it down to make way for the new, bigger cupboards and I'm giving it a makeover. It's the perfect size for my Treasure Gold so when it's finished it will be a pretty piece of storage. I've been inspired by Carol over at Paper Artsy so when it's finished I hope to enter it in the Paper Artsy draw. I had the idea of making some Shrink Plastic flowers from the Tim Holtz tattered florals die and I was really pleased with how they turned out. I've totally fallen under the spell of SP and all the embellishments you can make with it!

I pressed the die-cut layers together while they were still hot and used tweezers to shape and mould the petals, which I coloured with alcohol ink and Treasure Gold adding a little pearl at the centre of each. Right now I'm off to take a look at some desks. Have a great WOYWW!