Tuesday 13 December 2016

WOYWW 393

I’m doing this on Tuesday night because I’ve got a busy day tomorrow. It’s so nice to have something on my desk to show, after neglecting my studio for so long. I’ve managed to put in a few sessions this week and it makes me realise just how much I’d been missing it. Here’s my drawing zone again, with mini-album pages laid out.

WOYWW 393 14-12-16

I’ve been doing more work on my mini-album about Mamhead woods, and have now progressed to the stage where I’m working out which pages should go together. I still have a few pages to make with the as yet unmounted photos, so I am choosing suitable backgrounds for them, to go with pages I’ve already done.

If you scroll back to my previous posts you can see how I’ve done the new pages. I’ll share a few pics here.

Leaf making:

45 Completed Leaves

These are a mixture of die-cut leaves and leaves cut with Sheba, my Cougar cutting machine. The middle-left ones are made from glassine paper and were cut by hand. All have been hand-embossed and are ready to embellish the various pages.

The purple pages I showed you last week, now complete.

49 Purple Pages Complete

I added gold embossing, using a nice grungy background stamp. I love this effect.

I cut a frame to go round one of the photos I’d manipulated and didn’t really like the border.

34 Frame After Spritzing with Water

Designed in Inkscape on the Mac, and then cut from white card on Sheba, and then darkened with Black Soot distress stain and a touch of the pewter one, and spritzed with water to blend a bit.

Here’s the completed page together with its partner.

56 Black Woodgrain Pages Paired with Framed Pages

For the left-hand page I embossed some card with the Cuttlebug and added a bit of silver gilding wax. I deliberately chose a photo of trees with tall straight trunks to complement the picture on the right. I may add some text.

I’m now working on a double page spread with pics of my hubby and his friend walking ahead of us. I took another of my pieces of inked kitchen paper and tore strips which have been applied with gel medium, and a bit of glitter added to enhance some that was already on the kitchen paper.

53 Inked Kitchen Paper on Friends Pages

Here’s a detail shot of the left-hand page.

54 1st Friends Page

There will be some text between the strips of kitchen paper.

I have a sheet of lovely quotes about trees and woodland which I found online, and I shall add these at various points through the book.

I’ve also been really busy clearing out a load of Mum’s stuff, finally finishing clearing her kitchen (bar the cleaning). There is someone in our church who had a disaster in her home and we are all doing what we can to help replace all their stuff which was ruined. A great incentive to get on with this job!

The lady from the forum has now posted her piece after her Skype interview with me last week. I feature in it a LOT! It’s great, and has links to art therapy sites etc. There have been quite a few responses to it, all very positive. As well as emailing her privately about it I’ve also thanked her on the forum and have contributed further to the thread and asked again about getting our own art board. We shall see. This thread is a “public” one, so visible outside the forum, and if you are interested, click here.

Health Update

I’ve been suffering with a very frequent and extremely severe gripping pain in one leg which the doctor said was a nerve pain so I’ve been put on gabapentin which has certainly helped. He told me to make a physio appointment because he thinks it’s coming from my back, but I think it is more likely to be an ME-related pain (stupidly forgot to ask him that!).

Today I went again and saw another GP because on Saturday night I developed a very painful and swollen knuckle joint and the pain was spreading to the next joint. She said it was osteo-arthritis and I should continue what I was doing, applying ibuprofen gel and the flare should subside in about a week. My fingers are looking like sausages and I told my hubby I didn’t want sausage fingers! – and to go all gnarled and old… He said “You poor old thing,” and I said, “A little less of the ‘old’ if you don’t mind!” and then he started calling me SausageFingers.

Try saying ShoshiSausageFingers when you’ve had a few.

Tonight I told him I couldn’t possibly lose the use of my hands – I’m an artist! He said I could apply glue and glitter with my mouth. Nice.

I did mention to the GP this morning about the leg pain and she said, “Well, you know ME pains – they wander all over the place!” and said it was quite likely to be that, and was pleased that the gabapentin was doing the trick.

I’ve got the support garments lady coming back to see me tomorrow afternoon, to sort out the alterations that need to be done to the first pair of support pants they’ve made for Miss Piggy (my hernia). They are only minor problems, and once they’ve sorted them and I am happy, they will go ahead and make up the remaining two pairs that I can have in a year.

Happy WOYWW and have a great creative week, everybody.

14 comments:

  1. Hi there Shoshi,
    I won't call you Shoshi sausage fingers, I have osteo so know all about it, a flare up isn't fun. My mother had rhuemetoid though and that was much worse.
    Hope all your pains settle and things are made up fur you in good time, love those leaves, gorgeous.
    Thanks for sharing,
    Shaz in Oz.x #7

    {Calligraphy Cards - Shaz in Oz}

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  2. Hi Shoshi, lovely to see those album pages. They do look amazing. Hope you are both well, Hugs, Shaz xxxx

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  3. Ooh, your pages are looking gorgeous - I love what you are doing with this project. The leaves are beautiful and I love how you've used them on the purple pages. I'm liking how the pages are all so very different but all tie together with the same theme.
    Sorry to hear you've been having pains - I hope your hands are OK - I have osteo arthritis and have started getting trouble in my left hand knuckles - thankfully I'm right handed, I'm trying to keep my fingers crossed (as much as I can anyway!!) that I don't get it in the right hand. It is worrying isn't it. I laughed at the sausage fingers remark!!
    Have a good week,
    Diana x #20

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  4. Wow, those leaves are amazing - they look so real! And I love the atmospheric tree art too, very gothic!
    Hugs, LLJ 11 xxxx

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  5. Your album pages are so cool! And those leaves look very realistic in the photo. I hope you get to feeling better. God bless!
    Carol N #26

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  6. I honestly thought those leaves were real! They certainly look very realistic. I admire the time and effort you put into each of your pages. It would be lovely to see a flip through of your whole album when it's ready! Sausage fingers LOL - how rude! Hope things will improve healthwise and there's no danger of you losing the use of your hands, even temporarily. That would be truly awful!

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  7. Love those leaves, and the album - that frame is fabulous!! Hope your aches and pains ease soon! Helen #1

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  8. Your pages look absolutely stunning! I can't wait to see the finished album. I've been meaning to ask you about the technique you used with your trees - is that something you made up or a technique you've found online somewhere? I have been taking many tree photos and fungus photos (my favourite!) and would love to be able to do something special with them.

    I'm sorry to hear about your pain. I hope it gets alleviated somehow. Shoshisausagefingers is quite a mouthful (especially after a few drinks) and sounds quite painful!

    In my life, on a good note, heard today that Mum's tests came back all clear so no appointment for another six months! Fantastic news in time for the holidays and makes it a lot more of a relaxing time for her!

    Take care
    Sharon K #27

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  9. In spite of all your health problems, you certainly have remained creative and busy! It's so nice to see that you don't let that get in your way. This book is coming along so beautifully! Thanks for sharing! Lindart #35

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  10. I'm so loving your crafty stuff today. Those pages are brilliant and I really like the leaves you've done. Thanks for the visit to mine, have a great woyww and happy crafty week, Angela x 12

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  11. Your layouts are lovely. I hope the medicine works for you and you don't have to glue with your mouth. :-)
    April #29

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  12. My word theres a lot of steps to each piece you use an embellishment...I realise now why I don't have the soul of an artist..I'm too lazy!
    So sorry about your knuckles, its a bugger isn't it. keep wm warm and above all, keep em moving!

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  13. Love those leaves and pages in your book.That border is great.I love it!
    I have Sausage Fingers too.I just rest them when cutting/drawing/colouring gets too intense.

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  14. Happy Belated WOYWW. So many wonderful photos. Your leaves are incredible - they look so real. I have been too busy with the farm, Christmas shopping etc to do much crafting. I was going to do some lettering in my bible this morning, but then had filing to sort out and electricity contracts for the farm (boring!) and now it is nearly lunchtime. I am out this afternoon for hopefully my final shopping trip (a few things to go to the post office, plus gifts to buy for our staff, and a few cheeky things for me - I may well be going into the Works!). Tree to put up and decorations this weekend (if hubby finally gets up into the loft to bring them down). My mum has just announced she will be coming to stay with us for Christmas, so have more house cleaning/organising to do. At least we are going to a local hotel for lunch on the day. Sorry to hear you have been having some pain and 'sausage fingers'. I always think how awful it would be to lose the use of my hands. Earlier this year I was getting a lot of pain in my right hand/wrist, but thankfully that seems to have eased. Have you got support gloves? They are really useful. Ali x #25

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