My Prize

Well, I’m going the break with tradition and do a ‘What’s on your Workdesk Thursday’, as well as Wednesday’s one this week, and the reason……….………I wanted to share with you the gorgeous goodies that arrived in the post this morning.


This is the lovely stash that was my prize from the Particrafts draw at Alexandra Palace on Sunday and I can’t believe how much was in the box.

Lots of Cosmic Shimmer stuff including Mist, Fine Glitter, Mica Pigments and Iridescent Glitter Film and as well as that little lot the was also four sets of stamps, Lumin Arte Pure Colour Concentrate, 3D Crystal Lacquers, Ranger Distress Ink and Perfect Medium, Stick Pins, the most gorgeous Burgundy Organza ribbon and a Heat proof craft sheet (someone must have known I needed a new one)


What with all the bits I brought and this little lot I’m going to be having lots of fun over the coming weeks.


I’d just like to say a huge thank you to everyone at Particrafts for putting such a wonderful prize together, it’s absolutely fab!

Foot Soak anyone? WOYWW (#121)

That would be me then!

Oh yes, since seeing you all for last week’s What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday my poor little tootsies have done a far few miles in the name of crafting and I spent Sunday ambling around all the lovely stands at the Alexandra Palace Big Scrap and Stamp Show.
In the past I’ve usually gone on the Saturday but Sunday was much nicer, you could actually get to the stands and see what you were looking at without getting pushed and shoved from this direction and that….all very civilized I must say!


Needless to say I came home with a few new goodies and didn’t over do it for once, Lol, but can you spot the deliberate mistake?

My new stash includes, Distress Stains, two sets of Marianne spiral flower dies, a beautiful Lili of the Valley stamp and some of their die cuts, pin flair glue and glue dots, two bags of Christmas Card Candi, some Platinum Stickles and no less than five Masks to use with the Distress Stain......and eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that one of the designs I’ve managed to buy from two separate stands...........what am I like!

Oh well never mind, I’ve decided to give it as blog Candi to one of my commenters this week so if you fancy having a play with a Christmas mask just leave me a comment and mention that you would like to win it and I’ll do a random draw and announce the winner next week.

So now onto my desk and what’s on it this week.

As you can see I’ve already been playing with some of the new stash and made a Christening card using the stamp, Flower dies and spotty mask.

I’ve also used the Sketch from Cutie Pie Challenge

The card for the lady who asked me about the wedding invitations last week and there’s some good news on that front too. She’s asked me to do them for her so I’ll have lots of work coming up but I don’t mind.

I’ve managed to track down the special card she wanted so my next job is to make a proof for her to sign off and then I can get stuck in. The wedding is in August next year so the bulk of the order can be done after Christmas but she would like to get her invites in the post in early January so the sooner I make a start on them the better………….so pleased I make an early start on the old Christmas cards now.


If you want to see more desks go and see head desk hopper Julia and she’ll set you on the right road to see the craft spaces of the world and I’ll be back next week to reveal who’s the lucky winner thanks to my stupidity.

Until then……….

Happy Crafting!

Sue

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Update :- Well they say that generosity is returned twofold and that seems to be the case here.


Ally Pally has certainly turned out to be a lucky day out for me because I’ve just received an email from The Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show team informing me that I have won the prize draw on the Particrafts stand…………and to think I wasn’t even going to bother filling out the slip.

Do I need to tell you all I’m a very happy bunny!

Morning all,




Just thought I would pop in before heading off to Alexandra Palace for ‘The Big Stamp & Scrapbook Show’.

Will let you know later what goodies I snap up while I’m there.



I have some good news on the Wedding Invitation front……I’ve been given the commission, having tracked down the correct card stock, so watch this space…………yah!



I also thought I would pop a quick link on here to the bits I have up for grabs on eBay….well I needed to finance my imminent spend this morning Lol!

There’s still some bargains to be had and few finishing today so it might be worth you having a look.


http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/budrose7/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562


Well, my carriage awaits, so I’m off to the ball!



See you soon.



Sue

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WOYWW?……….Lots! (#120)

As you must know by now Wednesday’s are the day we all join in a worldwide blog hop to visit everyone’s craft desks and generally have a good old nosey at what everyone has been up to this week.

I've taken some photos of my desk this morning but they’ve got nothing on the pictures that greeted me when I popped in to visit Wipso   this morning………........beautiful photos of the Twins that we have all been waiting for with bated breath.

Thanks to Wipso we’ve had updates on their development all through ‘M’ pregnancy and so many of us have been waiting for the news of their arrival.
So it’s Congratulations to ‘M’ and her OH and of course to Nan and Granddad and a big welcome to the world for little Lexi and Sam. They’re so beautiful!

Ok so now to what’s on my desk this morning……well, it’s a collection of things really that are left over from yesterday.

First is the Album sitting at the back of the desk under the pile of Christmas cards.

This is out because it’s full of Wedding Stationery that I’ve made in the past and a few samples and I was showing it to a friend of my God Daughter who has asked me to possibly do her stationery for her.
I haven’t worked on any big orders like this since doing Nichola’s at the start of last year so it will be a nice change to have something to get my teeth into.

(These are the ones I did for my God Daughter last year)

Carol already has an idea of what she wants so it’s just a case of sourcing the materials, making a sample and coming up with a price, so watch this space!

Next up is a pile of cards I’ve been working on.

All of these were made using toppers that I had made in the past but still had to mount onto the actual card and one of them was mounted onto one of my ‘need a card in a hurry’ card blanks. These are the ones I make with the scraps I have out after a crafting secession. Instead of putting paper scraps away never to be seen again now try to make a few card bases so that if I need a car in a hurry I just need to slap, sorry I mean add the topper. I have quite a collection now and although the one I’ve used wasn’t for a card I needed in a hurry on this occasion, it seemed to suit the topper I had to hand.

Last but not least are the Christmas cards I was working on last week.

Because I tend to work a stage at a time when I work in batches so I still don’t have a completely finished card to show you. I’m almost there though, I just need to add the greeting.

30 made and 20 to go!


So that’s the weekly tour of my desk, why not show us yours if you haven’t already?
Go visit Julia at The Stamping Ground and she’ll set you on the right road to join in with What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday.

Thanks for stopping by.
I’m off to grab a coffee now and settle in for a trip around your Workdesk myself now.

Happy Crafting until next time!

Sue
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Answer - Just One.

Question ………How many candles?

And that’s exactly what the The Daring Cardmaker’s are asking us this week.

They want us to make a card with candles on to celebrate the launch of the new Funky Hand CD, Happy, Happy Birthday and Anice from Funky Hand is even offering a copy of the said CD as a prize, so it’s well work making a card and joining in which is exactly what I’ve done.


I don’t actually have much in the way of candles in my craft stash, a QuicKutz die and just one stamp to be precise, but the stamp is rather a cute one so I’ve used that.

I also took the opportunity to use up a few scraps of some really old (and I mean rearlllllly old) papers and play with my Prisma Colour Pencils too, which was quite satisfying.

So here’s my card

Card – Craft Creations, Creative Cover.
Patterned Papers – Blonde Moments, Sugar Dumpling
Inks – Tsukineko, Black Staz-On.
Pencils – Prisma Color
Rubber Stamps – Penny Black Critter Party (image and sentiment)
Glitter Glue - Stickles

Other BitsBrads
Fibres
Ribbon
Button

Christmas is coming!………….WOYWW (#119)

A very Good Morning to my What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday pals out there and what a beautiful morning it is.
It’s still a little breezy here but the sun is shining and that makes a big difference in my book.


I can’t really say that I’ve had a very productive week to be honest and the heritage LO that I had hoped to make a start on hasn’t happened but I have made a start on the dreaded Christmas cards.
I like to get my own ones done and dusted before my friend start asking me to do theirs for them so an early start is essential if I don’t want to be chasing my tail come the start of December. And would you believe, I’ve even made a start on buying my Christmas presents so I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself.

My desk today is actually my desk yesterday and it shows the makings of my Christmas cards.
Just for speed I usually try to stick just a couple of designs for my own cards, so yesterday I was stamping and embossing with my new Penny Black stamp and getting in a right old mess with the Gold embossing powder.

Is it just me who ends up with it sprinkled all over the table and myself despite having a craft sheet down and one of those plastic trays to catch everything in?

So my first photo gives you a shot of my computer desk and some of the stamped images drying after I had coloured the berry’s and covered them with Glossy Accents.

The idea was that once it dried I would ink over the image with Distress Ink which I did on some of them and others I coloured with my Promarkers. As it goes I like the finish of those ones better but in reality when I need to make more than fifty the Distress Ink is going to be the quicker option.

My next photo shows the mess I was talking about previously.

Here I’ve cut out some of the tags from the images with the intension of layering them onto the card after coloring them with more Distress Ink and then I decided that instead of leaving it with the stamped snowflake I thought I would emboss some chipboard ones to stick on the top.

The other part of this card that’s time consuming is that I’m doing a spot of ‘fussy cutting’ (I only heard the term last week and Oh how I love it) by cutting around the images before putting them on the card so it’s just as well I’ve made an early start.

So that’s my desk this week.
Don’t forget to visit our ‘Queen of Snoop’ Julia for all you need to know to join in, but beware, it’s very addictive so don’t expect to get anything else done on Wednesdays. Lol!


And just before I go can say Thank You to anyone who had a look at the crafty bits I’m selling on eBay and made a bid on any of them. I’m pleased to say it’s gone really well and I’ve made around £40 to be split between the two charities, so Thanks again for your support.

I still have a few bits up for grabs Here here but they are not on eBay at the moment, so if you’re interested in anything just let me know.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sue

Wonderful day with a ‘Crafty’ friend…….WOYWW (#118)

Hi all!

Well it looks like we’ve seen the last of our Summer and yesterday felt more like November rather than the start of September. I personally don’t mind it being a bit cooler or even windy but I have to draw the line at the torrential rain and I spent a good part of the afternoon watching the water level rise on my patio.


Still, it was a good excuse to stay inside and finish off the LO that I started on Monday over at my wonderful friend Lythan’s.


We take it in turns to visit each other for a play from time to time and this week it was my turn to go to hers which also meant a trip to her local craft shop Imagine That…….….needless to say I didn’t come home empty handed. Lol!

New Papers, some Distress Stains, 3D K & Co Stickers and beautiful adhesive Pearl Flourishes where part of the haul I came home with as well as a mystery package that is a pressie from Lythan for my birthday on Friday…… Thanks Lythan, I can’t wait to find out what’s inside!


Anyway, the main reason I’m here is because it’s Wednesday and that means it’s time to show you what’s on my work desk. I’m sure by now there can’t be anyone out there now who doesn’t know what this is all about but just in case you’ve been on another planet for last two years pop across and see our boss Julia, she’ll explain what What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday is all about.



So here’s my desk.

I have a few things going on, some left over from last night and a few parcels that I’ve packed up this morning to go in the post. They are the bits that I’ve managed to sell on eBay to raise some money for St. Clare’s Hospice and the Charity Stitching Project so I’m really pleased that I’ve managed to sell a few bit.

There’s still lost on there so if you fancy picking up a bargain pop across to Here and see what’s on offer.


I haven’t done very much to the address book that I started last week, in fact I didn’t do anything more to it until yesterday when I covered the front and back with some of the new papers that I’d brought on Monday and I’ve now got as far as adding ‘Address Book’ to the front in chipboard letters. I just need to think about what I’m going to do for the pages inside now…..you never know, I might just have thought of something by next week!


Also on my table is the ‘sort of finished’ Lo that I started at Lythan’s on Monday.

It’s the second part of the double Lo I was doing for Mum and Dad’s wedding
(The first page is here) I couldn’t completely finish it because I want to add a couple of 11mm Mother of Pearl buttons to the seam binding as I have on the first page but I’ve used all the ones I had so I’m going to have to go on line shopping to see if I can find some more. Apart from that everything else is done and I’m pleased with the way the picture of the church they got married in looks printed onto the Vellum.

Unfortunately the photos are not that great.
I tried copying them but they had so badly deteriorated with lots of marks and that metallic sheen you sometimes get on old photographs that no matter what I did they weren’t coming out well at all. The saving grace is that there were multiple copies of each of the photos so I’ve actually used originals.

I’m already planning my next two pages.
They will be of my dad’s Grandparents and I hope to have at least one of them done by the time I’m back here next week, so keep a look out for it.

In the mean time I hope everyone has a good week with lots of time free to pursue your crafty activities.

I’ll try and get round to as many as I can this week especially as I was rather bad at replying to those who left me messages last week. Please forgive me if you were one of them, it wasn’t intentional, the week just got away from me but I hope to do better this time round.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Crafting!

Sue

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I’m tired and want to go to bed.

Just a quick post from me tonight as I’m tired and want to go to bed.

I just wanted to let you know that I’ve put some more bits on ebay today.

They had a free listing weekend and so I’m hoping to raise as much money as I can for our charity stitching project and St. Clare’s Hospice it was a good time to put them all on there.
Mind you it’s taken me nearly all evening to do it and I have a numb bum now!
Please pop over to the other page on my blog to see what’s on offer and if you’re interested in anything I’ve added links under everything so it will take you straight there.

Thanks for taking a peek.

Sue
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And the award goes to......................Me!

Last Thursday the lovely Twiglet, aka Jo, contacted me to say that she had left a blog award for me and I’m ashamed to say that I’ve only just got around to putting it on here, so apologise Jo.

The delay is probably down to the fact that I’m still in denial that she chose me because it’s the ‘Appreciated Followers award and when you consider that Jo has 88 other people that follower her blog, how she came to pick me I will never know.
Apparently she says and I quote, “I’m a very positive lady who takes a real interest in all of their crafty activities and is one of those really clever card makers”.
All I can say to that is that it’s easy to be positive and encourage people when they (Jo and her sister Annie) create such beautiful things. I know they’ve been a true inspiration to me since I found the two of them.

I decided to have a snoop at the other people she gave to award to as well.
Annie I’m already a follower of so I know what she gets up to in her craft/sewing room anyway, but I can’t say that I have ever visited Suz’s Blog before and wow, what a blog it is! It’s so full for beautiful colourful crocheting and it’s encouraged me to show you the very first double bed cover that I ever crocheted.

I was probably about seventeen when I made this so it’s been around for around 38 years.
It doesn’t get used on the bed anymore because It doesn’t go with the room, but I would never part with it.


Now I have to pass the award on to three of my own followers which is not going to be easy to do because I've always appreciated every single one of my followers,so for that reason I'm giving it all of you so please feel free to pick up the award if you would like.

But if I really have to pick just three who I feel have a made a big differance to me since I've been blogging I’m going to cheat little here and mention four.


My first award is going to go right back in the direction it came from to Jo, and her sister Annie, the sisters of crafty creations.
I envy these two ladies for their skill with a sewing machine and for all the beautiful things they make….......…a real inspiration!
I also can’t thank the pair of them enough for all the kindness and support they gave me last year when my dad was so ill.
Annie, I still carry my little Red teddy in my handbag!


Next I’m going to pass the award on to Angie from Glimpsing the Past.
If it wasn’t Angie I would never have got my finger out and continued plodding away with the Heritage Album that I started three years earlier.
She a real inspiration and full of encouragement, as well as being a fab scrapbooker herself.


And last but not least I'm going to pass the award onto someone who’s talented beyond belief, the lovely Vicki, from Stamped Smiles.
Apart from being an amazingly creative card maker her blog has loads of tutorials that she’s written from her own experiments, which are so helpful.

So pick up your awards girlies and display them with pride, as I intend to do.

Thanks again Jo for making my day!

Sue
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