Mamma's Got a Brand New Blog

Here it is - I hope it all works!  Please let me know if it doesn't. You will find lots of information such as my CV, a gallery of work - which already needs updating, details of d4daisy books and Workshop on the Web which includes a free workshop on making metal flowers. This is for those who aren't members of WoW (why aren't you members?) .

Then there is a page containing two free workshops - one on oiled paper and a download on using Shrinking Plastic. Next week I will expand this into making the Shrinking Plastic books.

Giveaway

I am giving out sheets of Shrinking Plastic so leave acomment if you would like to be included.

Let me know what you think of the new look - I have to make a new header but it is lunchtime and I am hungry!

Comment on Comments

I am so sorry.  I switched my comments to allow moderation because there was so much spam and then forgot to look for them. I was feeling neglected and then - wow- there you all are!  Lovely to read them all and thank you all for the kind wishes.

I hope I can find them again tomorrow when, I hope, the new blog will be launched. I'm experimenting with new looks - quite like this one. What do you think? I must have a new header, this is the original one.

Did you all have a lovely Christmas? Ours was quieter than expected as daughter Claire and her brood were either ill, contagious or pending. Thankfully they are all better now and we are having Christmas with them tomorrow. We did have a good time at other daughter Fiona’s, although Phil was on a cocktail kick and they were lethal. I was enticed by something called a woo-woo (tasted like lemonade) but I became over woo-wood and had to lie down in a darkened room when we got home!

Smudge had a new catnip mouse - you can see it dangling from his mouth in the pic, above. I think i will entitle it 'Manic Cat'. The photo is a bit blurred as he was moving very fast.

Hope to see you tomorrow.

Happy Christmas Everyone

Isn't it hard to get anything done at this time of year? I seem to be going backwards - just when I think I've finished I remember something else to do. I have had a good day today but only due to the sad fact that my lunch date with the crones was cancelled, due to two crones being poorly. Hope they are better soon. We meet to celebrate the solstice and I was planning a huge pudding in case the end of the world was late.

This is one of my solstice cards - based on the oiled paper technique that I will show on my next blog. For now it is my Magstitch Christmas card.

So I am wishing you all a very Happy Christmas. It has been lovely chatting to everyone and I hope you will come and find my new look blog after Christmas (and hopefully before New Year).

Christmas, Throats and Oiled Paper



This Christmas stuff takes up a lot of time, doesn't it?  I have made my presents more personalised this year - can't tell any more in case the recipients are reading this blog - I will show you after Chrimbo. I think it has cost me twice as much money ( I kept seeing 'just the right thing' after I thought I had finished) but it has been huge fun.

I have also been playing with oiled paper, a technique that I propose to show you in a step-by-step in the new blog, which launches just after Christmas - in case you are bored in the gap between Christmas and New Year. The piece below is an oiled paper version of a photo of a stand of birches, near our house. I took the tablet thingy for a walk and got good results from playing with Phototouch.



Here is a close up - I love the texture that this method produces. I will also include the little shrinky books on the blog so there will be lots to see. We will have a give-away, too.

I fear I have yet another throaty cough thing. I am so cross as this week there is lots of singing going on with the Local Vocals group. Yesterday we went to Stourhead, a lovely National Trust house and sang three sets. We had a captive audience in the resataurant. At one point the heavens opened and we broke into an impromptu version of Singing in the Rain.  I had an exciting moment when my throat pastille shot out in the middle of a particularly enthusiastic chorus of Fa-la-las! I quietly picked it off the coat of the person in front (luckily it was an old waterproof so didn't leave a mark). I had difficulty controlling the giggles, though.

In the meantime it is back to the Lemsip, which has to taken from a Beatrix Potter mug. It's a comfort thing. Off now to get some Manuka honey from the health food shop.

Working Up to a New Blog

What an amazing sunrise this morning, very cold but a wonderful sight, sorry about the clothes line, but I wasn't going out in my pjs to take it down.



I am busy (in between Christmas stuff) building a new blog, with a lot of help from Clive. It will have a gallery of work (I hope) and lots of tutorials and suchlike. Taking me much longer to do than expected.

What with that, Christmas and singing with Local Vocals, it's all go here.

I have made the usual cards for anyone who gives a gift subscription to Workshop on the Web. These have kept me busy, too. The cards go to the giver as a thank you from us.

This year I have attached tiny books made from Shrinkit and embossing powder. When the new blog happens I'll write up the technique as a tutorial.

I love these oil slick colours and they sit well on the stamped, torn paper backing.

For those who don't do Facebook, I am adding the latest pic of Mr Smudge (as Wabbit calls him). He is watching the birds, disguised as Buddha. Don't think it has worked, Smudge.

Keep a look out for the new blog - did I mention that there will be give-aways?

It's all Happening Here

It looks like being an exciting weekend. I am waiting for a book delivery - Lynda Monk's new book,  Exploring Creative Surfaces, which I hope may be here this evening. It is such a great book and she is doing amazing things with such ordinary things as scrim and Tyvek, as you can see here.

I also love her easy screenprinting tips which result in wonderfully colourful surfaces like this one.

Taken to the other extreme she describes techniques for cut-outs that can be fragile and lacy or made to resemble metallic surfaces. Below is a shrine made using the metallic look, with a detail under it.




There is still time to go to www.d4daisy.com and put your name on the let me know list. No obligation and you might win one of Lynda's special packs of 'stuff'.


We will also be giving away some of these packs with the first Exploring Creative Surfaces books that we send out. They will enable you to get on and try Lynda's great ideas straight away.














It is also Workshop on the Web time again, as if you didn't know, and it's an exciting edition.

The great thing about WoW is that we can give such detailed step by steps for techniqes and we have a real expert on printing (Laura Boswell), a lovely Bondaweb idea from Jessica Richardson, shown right, articles on using embossing powder, mixed media books and much more.

 The pic below is by Carol Wiebe, and looks at stitching digital printouts.

Tomorrow is the official start of Christmas in the Grey household as we are off to the Stanpit party, always the first Saturday in December. This is where we all took our City and Guilds exams in the long ago, dark ages. There has been a party ever since and usually my group organises it but we have handed on the baton to another group. The new group's first action was to ask me to do the talk, so I am delighted to still be involved. They can't get rid of me that easily! The subject is Faces and Places. I rely on Jane Wild for many of the Faces - I love this painting of hers - it reminds me of the Gaudi chimney pots in Barcelona.



And, while we are on the subject of drawing this is one of mine, called One Tree Hill.

 As soon as this weekend is over I must get on with Christmas but I am also hoping to revamp my blog - so watch this space!


Sorry about these two pics - they were not invited and they won't go away - a bit like the telephone cold callers we are currnetly plagued with.

Lovely work

Just had to show you this lovely piece by Gillian Boyle. She made it from techniques in my Dissolvable Delights book and the free lessons that went with it. I don't know if this shows samples laid over each other, Gilian. If it isn't, I think you should stitch it together straightaway as it is a super shape. Gillian's 2013 project is to create a panel for each season of the year. Hope she shows us the other ones as they come along.

I received the printer proofs for Lynda Monk's new book, Exploring Creative Surfaces,  yesterday and he is promising it for early December so have a quick look on www.d4daisy.com and put your name down if you'd like us to tell us when it is here and have the chance of winning a giveaway. There will be free online classes from Lynda in the new year and I can promise that they will be wonderful.

Today Clive and I are going to John Lewis to buy a new laptop. The one we use for talks has served us well but is getting a bit creaky. I hate new computers - all that hassle transferring everything. We are going to John Lewis because they seem least likely to fold in the current downturn (also because they do good lunches.)

We are working on a new look for the blog, so watch this space.