WOYWW! It's great to be back!

Hello, welcome and thank you for dropping by to look at what's on my workbench this Wednesday! It's especially nice of you to remember me as I've not been around much lately! If you're wondering what I'm chattering on about in my magpie way, do drop over to the lovely Julia's Stamping Ground here, read her lively take on the world of crafting and take the opportunity to show what you've been creating and peek at other crafters' work desks all over the world. Here, after all this time is what's on my work desk, which is still, as it always was, the top of my washing-machine!

That hasn't changed; but life has - in all sorts of unexpected ways! I have joined some design teams, which is keeping me busy, but happy! I was ill with an infected salivary gland, which was surprisingly painful, but that's better now - thanks to anti-biotics! Helping my Mum settle into her new home nearby has - unsurprisingly - been lots of work; but the flat now looks beautiful. She's eighty-four and partially sighted so adjusting has been hard, but she's happy now. Some of you may recall that my son, in his early twenties, suffered a mental breakdown at the start of an MA course and was diagnosed with Aspergers last April. I am so proud of him because he found himself a voluntary job, worked hard and has overcome huge challenges so that the team he works with are now applying for funding to keep him on as a paid employee! And, from stepping into a world that I didn't know existed before last April, that of Crafty Blogland, I have found new friends! The Sunday before last the amazingly creative Alison Hall of Craftytrog's Inky Adventures kindly took me to Stamperama, Stevenage where I met up with all kinds of lovely people: Helen Lindfield, Lin Shields, Deborah Wainwright, Kirsten Sheridan, Sarah Baldwin, Hazel Agnew, Alison Bomber and - of course - Leandra Franich and Darcy Wilkinson. There are other really dear friends who were not able to be there like the lovely Lucy Edmondson who I hope to meet up with soon and the incredibly talented Laura Bomber. Maybe some day I shall meet in person with my friends, Kerry Ann and Dianne who have both filled my life with colour, kindness and inspiration. The kitchen re-furb that I thought was underway when I started WOYWW is no nearer completion and now helping with flood damage is increasing Kevin's workload even more, but we can live with our shabby and far from chic kitchen a bit longer - far worse to have lost your home to filthy waters: my heart goes out to all the victims of the terrible storms.
I mustn't ramble too much, but can you spy what's on my desk today? I have discovered the delights of brayering; using baby wipes for everything including wiping away layers on projects; some homemade stamp cleaner which I learned about through WOYWW and the tiny edge of something secret I'm working on. Well, I have to fly now, but have a wonderful, creative Wednesday. I'll try to visit as many of your desks as I can and leave my number! Happy WOYWW!

The Magic of Lynne Perrella

Hello and welcome to Magpieheaven! As you probably know, I am crazy about PaperArtsy stamps! Not long after I purchased my first 'Ink and the Dog' stamp, I discovered that PA also featured stamps by an artist from the US called Lynne Perrella. Looking at her stamps was to enter the world of my dreams. I just had to have these images to use in my work! When I received my first plate I was so excited! These images were incredibly and meticulously detailed and, with Versafine ink, they stamped out like a dream: crisp and clear every time. I was so excited when Leandra broke the news that Lynne had a new collection ready and they were GORGEOUS! She is right. These stamps are so imaginative, so detailed and so adaptable. I have used them for three quick and easy projects in this post, but I can already see the possibilities for using them with fabric, on altered items of all kinds and journaling! They will be available in your local craft shops from February 19th so please do check them out. Also if you go over to the PaperArtsy blog here you can find out more and see some other fabulous samples from PaperArtsy guest designers!

I loved this plate because it reminded me of a book I read back in the 1980s called 'The Madwoman in the Attic' all about women writers. My first project, a little birdhouse, portrays what writing meant for so many women; escape from their cages - on the wings of imagination! And once you've flown in your imagination that is just the beginning of the quest!

I took a little wooden birdhouse and painted it with Snowflake, as I wanted my colours to be really bright for this project. I also used a little Nougat Fresco and you might be able to see this peeping through in places.

I then sponged on coats of Mermaid Fresco with Inky Pool around the edge and stenciled with Inky Pool and a Prima stencil of flourishes to give a lacy, vintage look. I removed the string that came with the birdhouse because I decided it would be easier to paint this way and then I had the idea to change the fastening to a seam binding one in coordinating colours.

I wanted a really strong colour contrast, so I painted some Smoothy Heavy Card with blended Yellow Submarine, Tango and Autumn Fire Frescos, knocking back with some Nougat Fresco in the centre of my card. If you haven't used PaperArtsy Smoothy Card for stamping, I would strongly encourage you to give it a go. With Versafine ink it is the perfect surface for stamping, especially with stamps as detailed as Lynne Perrella ones. I cut out my lady using a PaperArtsy Eclectica die designed by Lin Brown and made a flower for the roof, using another PA die and this stamp

which is so adaptable that I used it on my other projects too and I see myself returning to it again and again. I also coloured and Treasure Golded a resin flower arrangement to add and used some of that big stamp on a punched out lace edging.

The little bird is a painted and stamped Prima wooden bird and the heart is Crackle glazed and edged with Gold UTEE and a few dabs of Hey Pesto translucent Fresco paint.
I used images from these plates on two other projects

I used clear UTEE to seal and coat my lady and I used the postage stamps with a masking technique and Wendy Vecchi Cornflower Blue Archival Ink to add to the background.

This very spirited looking lady found her way onto the centre of a tag. I used a Sara Nauman Eclectica word and cut out one of the pens stamped onto Smoothy, fussy-cut and embossed with gold and clear UTEE,

I was so inspired by Darcy demoing background techniques at Stevenage at the weekend, that I took a leaf out of her book and played with brayering, drawing around different sized lids with Portfolios, stenciling and stamping and then knocking back and sanding for my background both with this tag and the little hanging I did.

I also used the script from this plate - the images here are so wonderful I haven't touched the surface of what could be done with it yet! Can you tell I'm really very taken with Lynne Perrella's work?

Here is my hanging board, which I edged with some Grunge Paste accented with Treasure Gold - again a tip from Darcy! The clear 'wordy' nugget is an idea I love from Alison Bomber's 'Words and Pictures' blog.

I am sorry for so many pictures on this post but I just got completely carried away by these lovely new images!

Thank you so much for stopping by Magpieheaven today. I've had so much fun sharing these stamps with you. Have a great week and keep safe in the gales, storms, snow and floods or whatever extreme weather is hitting wherever you are! Love from the Magpie's Nest x.

A Dragon Glow!

Hello and Welcome, friends and followers! This week at The Dragons' Dream, the very creative Gabrielle has chosen the recipe of the letter 'G' and 'Birds'. Please click here and take a look at her tag - I love those quirky little birds, and the other tags created by the Design Team are miniature masterpieces every one! My tag was inspired by a wonderful wildlife photography exhibition at London's Natural History Museum. I spent a very enjoyable morning there with an old friend last week. The photos were vibrant, portraying the birds and animals as part of their beautiful habitats. There is a note of sadness about the exhibition, though: many of the creatures in the photos are endangered and so many unique and lovely parts of our world are being destroyed through thoughtlessness and greed. I wanted to create a tag that would celebrate this incredible planet we live on and remind me not to take for granted all the beauty around me.

I used a combination of three or four different stamp plates for my tag, so the Magpie's Nest was in a muddle for a while! I did enjoy mixing and matching stamps.

One of the most glorious spectacles the world has to offer is a sunset. For this tag, I decided to step outside my comfort zone and use some colours that I have not really played with much before, but which evoked a fiery sunset. I took a Jumbo tag, painted with some Nougat, which is an opaque Fresco Finish and makes a good base and then took translucent Frescos in Autumn Fire, Yellow Submarine and Tango, watered them down and then swiped my tag across the watery blobs on my craft mat. I heated the tag to dry it and used misters to spritz my tag until I liked the background I had created. I had decided that my letter would spell 'Glow' and that is what I wanted my tag to do!

I kept adding layers of translucents with a sponge and, although my marbled effect was less apparent, it was still visible. I then edged my tag with some dry-brushed London Bus and French Roast. I have some Crafty Individuals stamps of trees with tiny birds gathering in their branches, so I decided to showcase these lovely images on this tag. I stamped them with Onyx Black Versafine onto card sponged with Yellow Submarine and Autumn Fire and then sprinkled them with clear UTEE and heated. I wanted the black to really gleam against the fiery background. The little sun is from a Paper Artsy, Lynne Perrella plate.

I stamped with some script from Paper Artsy Hot Picks and used my Tim Holtz Worn Alphabet with Black Archival on some more of the card I had painted. I edged my tag with Gold UTEE.

The little birds in the grass are from a Hot Picks plate, stamped onto the tag in Wendy Vecchi Fern Green Archival and then clear embossed. You may just be able to see that I added a hint of Hey Pesto to this area of the tag. I had thought of edging my tag with black lace, but I wanted to keep the bold black contrasts that echo the tree silhouettes so I stamped the Lynne Perrella banners onto what remained of my card and added these as a trim. Some tiny punched out leaves, accented in Treasure Gold complete the tag,which I finished off with seam binding dyed with Fired Brick, Walnut Stain and Aged Mahogany distress inks.

 I do hope you like my take on 'Birds' in  the 'Glow' of sunset. Have a great day wherever you are. Perhaps this evening you'll see a stunning sunset and a sky filled with throngs of birds. All we have to do sometimes is look up.

Last Sneak Peek

Hello and welcome to Magpieheaven and my sneak peek  for today! It's time for the final reveal over at PaperArtsy here. Please pop over and do join in, if you can. I would so love to see what you come up with. Even if a detail that you like takes your fancy and you think you could develop it into a little project of your own, go with it! That would make me really delighted!

Have Fun! 

Sneak Peek Number 2

Hello and a warm welcome to Magpieheaven. Well, I hope you're ready to see if any magic is going on inside the shabby suitcase from last night's blog post!

 I really wanted to do two blog posts, one to give you my PaperArtsy sneak peek and one to post some pics of the lovely things I bought at Stevenage and the tag Darcy made and signed for me as well as give Alison Hall a special shout-out because she took me and brought me right back to my door. Do take a look at  the amazing journal page she has done inspired by Darcy's demo here , it's absolutely stunning!. The Magpie spirit was willing, but I just didn't feel well enough; I'm still a bit of a hamster and not a very lively one at that! The good news is I should be be feeling fine soon now that I've seen the doctor again and I'm on anti-biotics. 
Thank you to all the lovely friends who made yesterday so much fun, anyway.
 If you would like to pop over to the PaperArtsy blog here you can see the second part of my February project and take a little peek inside the case. Have a lovely evening and do please dig out those little suitcases or adapt those boxes so that you can create your own little worlds within a suitcase and play along with me this week!

Sneak Peek

Hello and Welcome to Magpieheaven. I do hope you've been managing to keep warm, dry and safe in these extreme weather conditions. I haven't posted for a week because things became rather busy and then along came an infection of my salivary gland that made my face swell up like a hamster's! Perhaps I should have posted a picture of the Hammy Hamster version of me, but instead here's a sneak peek of a project for Paper Artsy. If you want to see the whole picture, please hop over to the PaperArtsy blog HERE! Today I've been at Stevenage looking/buying(!) wonderful PA goodies and meeting all the lovely #PATwits, thanks to the amazing Alison Hall who gave me a lift and a brilliant 'mystery tour' of London! Sorry, Alison, had to joke about that! And it was fun!

I'm no less petrified than I was last month and I would love to know what you think of my project this week, so please leave a comment and then I hope you will want to play along with me or one of the other GDs. There are so many wonderful new PaperArtsy products to inspire you.This is such an exciting time! Some of you will have seen the lovely new stamps, stencils and paints designed by the very talented PaperArtsy artists at Stevenage, including the incredible Darcy who inspired us with demos today. These new products will be available to buy from your local stockists after the Stitches Trade Show from the 19th  February. Have a great week wherever you are and whatever you are doing. Love from the Magpie's Nest!

Playtime with UTEE!

Hello from Magpieheaven where I've been flapping experimental wings and altering!!! May's beautiful matchbox here inspired me to take my first look at the great challenge over at Altered Eclectics and to have a go at 'altering' a humble piece of cardboard packaging! I should like to enter it for the 'Altered Eclectic Anything Goes Challenge'.

 I had always wanted to have a go at using UTEE, but I thought I needed a Melt Pot. However, a chat with my helpful and craftily experienced friends on Twitter soon put me straight. With many safety warnings ringing in my ears, I sallied forth with heat-gun and glistening UTEE grains. And did I have fun!

I started tearing layers from my piece of cardboard. Then out came my favourite Fresco paints. I was going to indulge myself with my greens and blues.

I used Nougat at the centre, blending into Antarctic, Lake Wanaka, Space Cadet and finally Inky Pool at the very edge. I added just the merest hint of Hey Pesto to give a translucent hint of green. I then stamped over with Artistic Outpost text from Birds of a Feather in black Archival and three Lynne Perrella crowns (LP011) in Wendy Vecchi Cornflower Blue. I then added some Grunge Paste Chicken Wire stencilling and some blended Treasure Gold in White Fire, Green Amber, Aquamarine and Classic.

Now it was time to play with UTEE. I don't know if the photos will do this justice, but I really loved the results of this 'play'! I die cut an oval of Paper Artsy Smoothy card and painted it with a similar blend of colours as those on my corrugated card. I then stamped the image from LPC)12 on it in black Archival and heat set. Now with the wise words of Lesley Ebdon ringing in my ears to 'Be careful, if you touch, it's like hot jam', I coated my image in Versamark, sprinkled it with clear UTEE and - holding my oval with craft tweezers - heated from underneath. When one layer had cooled, I added more Versamark and sprinkled and heated again. The colour was subtly changed and I loved the way that this was beginning to  an resemble an enamel miniature - one of my favourite things! It was getting late, so I didn't want to experiment with more layers. I just added a little gold UTEE around the edges. I then die-cut some leaf shapes with a Paper Artsy die and coloured them with Antarctic and Hey Pesto, stamping Lynne Perrrella images on in Cornflower Blue. I used Clear UTEE on these too, edging them wIth some Shabby Blue Frantage. I painted a little resin rose with some Antarctic and then Treasure Golded with Aquamarine with White Fire. I took two Prima butterflies and painted with Paper Artsy Frescos and then sprinkled UTEE while they were still wet.

Lesley had described how she liked to put UTEE'd pieces in the freezer and then crack them. I was too impatient and it was the early hours so I just twisted and folded and created the impression of slightly cracked porcelain.

After a night's sleep I returned to my altered cardboard and decided it needed more. I recently saw a wonderful idea on Alison's Bomber's 'Words and Pictures' for making 'wordy' embellishments with those little glass nuggets you can use in flower arrangements. Luckily I had some and a beautiful Christina Rossetti poem.

I fixed my nuggets with some Heavy Gel Medium when I first got up and then went out for the day with my daughter in Rochester where she studies Fashion. In future I will give the page a wash of paint to add colour, but this was my first play with the idea. It didn't stop pouring as we wove our way through the quaint little high street, but the day was bliss -  a lovely lunch, a trawl of charity shops for anything 'vintage' and lots of laughter. That evening I was able to add my finishing touches. My altered canvas was beginning to capture the theme of raindrops, I think!

I added some punched out leaves and roses covered in Treasure Gold too! When I covered my leaves with the UTEE, I made a little drip over the edge. I love to watch drips slither from the tip of leaves or the spokes of an umbrella on a wet day!

Now I have my altered cardboard on a little easel above the mantelpiece. It reminds me of a lovely day in the rain with Matilda, my daughter.

Thank you so much for dropping by Magpieheaven today. I hope that whatever you do and wherever you are, you have a lovely day!