WOYWW #300!!

It is Wednesday and you know what THAT means... What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday!! AND today makes it the 300th time that Ms. Julia Dunnit of The Stamping Ground has posted a "What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday" enabling the rest of us to travel all around the world peeking into a lot of other people's work spaces...

THANK YOU JULIA! 

I have gotten so much enjoyment from playing along with this weekly blog hop, and I have made some really special friends, something I did NOT Expect! But it is so sweet to get such lovely comments from some really special ladies whom I feel like I actually know a bit about as I visit them weekly checking in on their lives. Julia has re-listed all the "How to's" today in her blog post, so why not pop in HERE and see how easy it is to join in?   Now, without further delay, here is a peek into my Work Spaces today...  

In my glass space I am working with scraps of glass to use them up...

These pieces still require grout - which will completely change the look of them, so you will want to come back to see the finished product - Smile.

And this is a snap of my Paint & Paper Studio. I am still managing to get in there once or twice a week (grin) but how I wish I needed less sleep!

Moving in closer you can see my Lifebook Week #9 completed lesson - a Vase full of my "Favorite Favorites", as well as a couple of circle journal pieces I finally unpacked from the last of my boxes (from our move last April).

 

I also want to share this amazing find I made in our local antique store, it's a Large Type Dictionary, Circa 1920's, and I got if for $5.00!

Oh I see you on many projects in the future (and THIS is Large type?)

And lastly... LOOK at my Happy Mail! Yesterday I received my prize package for having the honour of being selected the February Winner for Unity Stamp's {Be Inspired} Challenge. I had the pleasure of choosing 10 sets of "itty bitty" stamps and 3 more sets worth up to $29 each! SWOON!  I am GIDDY with Excitement about using these.  Now Which one to pick for Friday's "Friends with Flair" Unity Stamp Challenge?  PS: The current Unity {Be Inspired} Challenge is open until March 12th... go check it out HERE!!

As always THANK YOU for stopping by to see what I am up to these days, and please, please do leave me a comment if you like what you are seeing!

Scrapbook Lynne Mizera

 

Sharing Some Lovely Tags ...

Happy Friday everyone!  I am getting in just under the wire to link up with Unity Stamp's "Friends with Flair" today, and I hope you like these three tags I created using one of the first set of stamps I ever purchased from Unity, "Decadent Pear", which have not gotten nearly enough use for how beautiful and versatile they are.  

I created the backgrounds for these tags stamping them with sepia coloured Archival ink and using sprays from Dylusions and Tattered Angels.

I stamped my pear images onto 140lbs watercolor paper in again with Archival sepia ink and then sprayed the paper with the same colors as I used on my background, after which I cut out and pasted my images onto the tags, layering and using foam pop dots as required.

I accented with a gold gel pen, added a bit of CTMH Liquid Glass for some shine and created a few shadows with my copic markers to make them pop off the page.

Now if you have been following any of my previous blog posts you know that Mr. Awesome finished my second studio space last week and I have been working pretty much non-stop in there, getting my hands all dirty and cut up playing with my stained glass. (happy sigh) I am so pleased with my first creation in two years that I thought I would share share it with you even though it is only about 75% complete.

I am calling it "Quilt Blocks" and although the glass portion is finished I am trying to decide what to do with the frame, and I think embossed metal is going to come into play, but I will share the completed project with all of you when I am done!

As always, Thank you for popping in today to see what I am up to, and please do leave me a comment if you like what you see!

Scrapbook Lynne Mizera

 

 

WOYWW #299 .... (What's on YOUR Workdesk Wednesday)

Oh Boy-Oh Boy-Oh Boy! It's the 299th What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Can you imagine what a milestone that is? How many of us could carry through a blogging commitment for almost six years? I am sure when Ms. Julia Dunnit of the Stamping Ground started this little challenge and invited her followers to share their work desks she did not realize what an amazing event she was creating, nor that it would catch on WORLDWIDE - but I am truly glad that she did and that I have discovered this awesome play date every week.

I missed last week's joining in and hopping through so I have made a HUGE effort to make sure I am here today and I will absolutely be linking up next week for the 300th WOYWW.  Here is my space in my FIRST studio-where I am learning to use gold leaf in my life book lesson #8...

On this FIRST desk you can see the really cool tool/pen/brush holder I made using a box, duct tape and toilet paper rolls after I saw the one that Zsuzsa Karoly-Smith made (see her blog post HERE). And just in case you were wondering the styrofoam egg cartons are what I use for disposable paint pallets, this way they get one more use before I throw them away as they are not recyclable.   

The "my leftovers" tin is actually my garbage can, altered from an old Coffeemate tin, and the wee book is a child's board book covered in chalk paint which I am currently altering ... I guess you could call this week's desk the RECYCLE/RE-USE space, Grin. And now for the Very First Reveal of my 2nd Space:

Yes, I said Second space, because thanks to the amazing man I share my life with (who shall now be permanently referred to as "Mr. Awesome") I now have TWO studios - one for paper/paint and inky goodness and the other for stained glass mosaics and soft metal embossing... SWOON! 

Can you see my First Studio through the sliding barn-door opening Mr. Awesome created?

This is the Reveal because no one has seen this yet - Mr. Awesome created me this amazing space, dedicated to my mosaic and metal embossing work, from a 4.5ft wide by 12.5ft long unfinished space in our basement.  As you can see there is tonnes of storage...

and although I may add some upper storage in the future, or maybe some magnetic strips for holding my patterns and inspirational photos at eye-level, it is absolutely perfect for me and my stained glass mosaics.

His Being an Electrician means Great Lighting and lots of outlets

Here is a peek at my latest project (quilt squares) and a couple of finished pieces to give you an idea of what I mean by Stained Glass Mosaics

I LOVE this piece and these have become my signature flowers

As always THANK YOU for popping in to see what I am up to these days, and please do leave me a comment if you like what you are seeing...
Cheers!
Lynne Mizera

30 Days of Creativity - Day 30 - A Stained Glass Mosaic Block

Well it's Day 30 of my "30 Days of Creativity" journey and I have something really, really special to share.  I've been working on it on and off for about two weeks now and I was finishing the last stage, grouting, this morning so that's why the post is so late... but worth the wait I hope... This is what the block looks like outside with the sun shining through it ...

But it also has small white Christmas lights inside and this is what i looks like plugged in...

I am hoping to use it outside on my patio in the summer - sparkling during the day and a beautiful lighted accent at night..

Here is some detail...

I LOVE covering things in glass... 

and now for the next step... what do you think about combining metal art with stained glass mosaic? Grin

Thank you for sharing this journey with me ... it took me to places I did not expect and I am so full of creative energy these days... I just may BURST!  I am leaving for a two-week hot holiday in the next couple of days so I will be taking a wee break from all this creativity - except of course I will have my small watercolor palette to play with so I won't suffer too much from creative withdrawal!

Cheers and please do leave me a comment letting me know what you thought about all this "creativity stuff" SMILE

Scrapbook Lynne

Getting Back to my Creative Roots...

Long before I discovered scrapbooking, paper arts and paint I was working with glass... stained glass mosaics to be more specific... but slowly, as I tried to fit more and more creativity into my busy, crazy life, all my stained glass projects got pushed further and further to the back of the line... until finally all my glass stuff was in the garage and I was in the house! 

But my dream has always been to retire and then have three days a week to work with paper and paint; three days a week to work with glass; and one day (Sunday) for my hubby and the dog (Grin).  Now, after two and one half years retired I am finally HERE... and I am so excited to be able to share with all of you my first stained glass mosaic piece in more than Eight years!!! (and the first of many more to come I hope).  Now it's been a while so please be KIND....

It's started out as a wooden birdhouse purchased at the dollar store and now I think it's worthy of a place of honour on my birdhouse shelf... 

It's a little bit rough and the pattern is still evolving since I don't EVER plan anything out ahead of time, I just let it emerge...

But I absolutely LOVE It... it is like a little bit of JEWELED loveliness.

Thanks for stopping by to share with me today and PLEASE let me know what you think of my birdhouse... and more specifically, Would you BUY one?? (smile)

Scrapbook Lynne

30 Days of Creativity - Day 6

I am in the middle of a wonderful 30 day journey of Creativity (see details here) and today is DAY 6!

Today I am sharing some of my stained glass mosaic with you - it feels really, REALLY good to be working with glass again (I took a mini vacation from it when I discovered scrapbooking NINE years ago) and it is my first love.  I created this 8x8 inch picture frame in one night - sitting on my TV room floor, surrounded by plastic cups full of glass pieces and listening to five episodes of CSI in a row... it was a truly wonderful experience.

The end result is rustic, but bright and cheerful and reminds me of a lot of the mosaic work I see in Mexico... I am looking forward to making more pieces using this simple glass technique.

PS:  I am giving a SHOUT OUT to this amazing glass artist - Julie McKee whose piece below gave me the inspiration...

 Thanks for stopping by to share... are you tempted yet to start your own 30-day journey?... Smile

Scrapbook Lynne