Wednesday 25 January 2012

WOYWW (#138)

So here we are at Wednesday again and as we all know, that means a mega blog hop courtesy of Julia and the What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday gang.




I actually ducked out of last week’s visit because I was trying to catch up with housework and stuff.

For some reason I was so behind but it was most likely due to the fact that I spent all day on the Monday crafting with my lovely friend Lythan at her house.

We haven’t seen each other since before Christmas so we exchanged Christmas gifts too which made it even more fun but our meeting was tinged with a little sadness because she’s moving down to Devon in July and I won’t get to see her so often.

Still there’s five months until then so we’ll have to fit in as many crafting sessions as we can between now and then!





Anyway, what’s on my desk this morning is the thing that I started when I was at Lythan’s and haven’t touched since.



When hopping around the desks the week before last I dropped into    Jacqui’s   blog “Jacques Junque” and watched a You Tube clip of a mini album she had made using the inside tubes from toilet rolls.




I got to thinking that it would make a nice little extra to go into my heritage album as I have quite a few photos of my Grandfathers siblings but only want to make one page for each of them in the main album. It would be such a shame not to include all the other pictures and this would seem to be the perfect solution, so I’m going to give it a go.

The papers that I’ve chosen for it are K & Co’s Blue Awning, which have a beautiful vintage look and some of the papers are textured too.




Also at the back of my desk this week you can see a plastic box which contains the finished wedding invitations I was making.


I’m just waiting for the bride to come and collect them and then I’m done for now until she gives me her list for the evening invites.

 



Please don’t think all the writing is smudged on the actual invitations, obviously I’ve done that so you don’t all gate crash her wedding, Lol!






For those of you who are interested in seeing some of my cross stitch projects that I’ve worked on over the years I’ve now several more projects to my other blog  “I’d Rather Be Stitchin”,  bringing it up to 2008.

Those I've included are a group project for a children’s hospice, my first squares for a charity group called Stitches of Love and Kindness and a project for a very special friend,  so please pop across and have a look, I’d love to know what you think.



Links to latest projects added.

Please don’t take any notice of the dates on these posts, I’m in the process of putting all my old projects on in date order.

Cross Stitched Scrapbook Page Frame

Wall Hanging for Children’s Hospice

Stitches of Love and Kindness

SOLAK Squares

People who don’t like cats

More SOLAK Squares

Another SOLAK Quilt

Sharon’s Quilt


Here's a sneek peek



So that’s what’s on my desk this week……..now let’s see yours in all its glory.

I’ll be round after lunch to see what you’re up to.



Happy Crafting!

Sue

x

Sunday 15 January 2012

Monochromatic

Monochromatic describes paintings, drawings, design or photographs in one colour of varying shades of one colour and that’s exactly what the challenge over at Sir Stampalot Challenge Blog is this week.



As you can see I’ve gone Pink tones, inking directly onto the card and stamping over the top, which is something I don’t do very often.



Ingredients:
Stamps
Artemio - Modern Grasses
Craft Stamper – Free Flower Stamp

Inks, Paints & PensRanger – Distress Ink (Victorian Velvet, Tattered Rose & Spun Sugar)

SundriesCraft Creations – White Hammer Cardstock
The Range – Smooth White Card
Anita’s – Tiny Gems
Craftwork Cards – Birthday Greeting
The Paper Studio – Pearl Brad
Dovecraft – Glitter Glue (Crystal)
Ribbon
Blooms

65 Years Young

I quite often get asked to make cards by family members and boy did my brother Michael come up with a corker on Thursday.

He wanted me to make a card for a friend of his called Bob, who will be 65 next week and the brief was Bob the Builder or something to do with scaffolding because that’s his job.

At first I panicked but after the initial terror subsided I started to have a little search on the web and came up with a kids colouring page of Bob the Builder standing on scaffolding……perfect!


The card was put together using the latest sketch from Sketch By Carly.




To continue with the building theme I decided bob looked as if he was guiding something up to where he is standing, so I’ve made it look like the number 6 is being pulled up on a chain by a crane and the 5 is already fixed to the wall.


Ingredients:

Patterned PapersDCWV – The Natural Stack

StampsImagine That – Just The Ticket

Inks, Paints & PensTsukineko – Memento (Tuxedo Black)
Tsukineko – StazOn (Jet Black)
Ranger – Distress Ink (Aged Mahogany & Forest Moss)
Making Memories – Acrylic paint ( Evergreen)
Letraset – Promarkers (Various Colours)
Sharpie – Fine / Ultra-Fine Marker (Black)

SundriesCraft Creations – Cream Hammer Cardstock
Dovecraft - Glitter Glue (Crystal)
Basic Grey – Alphabet Stickers
Chain
Photo Anchor (Black)
Brads (Black)
Earing Finding

Thursday 12 January 2012

Going Buggy - Challenge #1

Emyfs has a great challenge this month over at Going Buggy.

The challenge is to make a card or project using Red, Gray and White and as I had a Ruby Wedding card to make colour choice was perfect for me. You might had already seen it on my desk yesterday when it was still a work in progress but it’s all finished now.




I started off by stamping the flourishes and some of the flowers directly onto the card stock.

My plan was to attach the die-cut with foam pads to make it stand out a bit from the card but I wanted the stamping on it to match up with the card so I had to think about how I was going to achieve it.

In the end I decided that my best plan of action was to lay a sheet of acetate over the card and positioned the die-cut no top where I eventually wanted it to be. This enabled me to line up the acrylic stamps with the image already stamped on the card…..result!

Next I stamped some extra flowers, painted them with Red Pearl Ex-Press watercolor and then decoupage them over the flowers already on the card, finishing them off with some diamantes and glitter glue.

I then added two little punched butterflies which I made bodies fir using gold wire and red seed beads and finally I finished off the card with a computer printed greeting, Red bow and stick pin.




Ingredients:

Stamps

Artemio – Arabesque 2
Papermania – Hampstead
Rubber Stamp Tapestry – Cherry Blossoms

Inks
Ranger – Pumice Stone Distress Ink
Versa Color – Cardinal
Versa Color – Chateau Gray

Punches & Dies
Personal Impressions – Butterfly
Nestabilities- Scalloped Oval
Nestabilities- Small Classic Oval
Go Kreate – Wavy Frame 1

Sundries
Craft Creations – White Hammer Cardstock
Craft Creations – Dark Gray Vanguard Cardstock
Dovecraft Glitter Glue – Crystal
Anita’s – Tiny Gems
Creative Expressions – Decorative Stick Pins
Red Organza Ribbon
Red Seed Beads
Gold Wire
Computer generated Greeting.

Wednesday 11 January 2012

WOYWW (#136)

An anniversary card is the order of the day, a Ruby Wedding one to be precise.

As you can see from the photo, the card is almost finished and as per usual all the things I’ve used to make it are still on the table, creating an every decreasing work space.


My Cuttlebug is out, along with the CD storage case that I keep my dies in, my Candi Cane is sitting in the drawer I use to store all my diamonties and gems and there’s several sets of stamps out too...........couldn’t decide which little flowers to use. You’ll also notice a couple of butterfly punches because again I couldn’t decide which one to use.

All this indecission I here you say.............it must mean I have way too many craft toys!

As if, Lol!


Anyway, once this card is finished I’ll be having a bit of a clear up and then it’s back to the Wedding Invitations.

I spoke to the bride on Thursday to see if she had her final list of guests ready and she mentioned that she would like to come and see me to discuss a couple of changes, so we meet up on Friday.

Turns out that she’d had second thoughts about the plain white card the invitation insert and RSVP is printed on and has decided that she wants it on Stardream instead.

So on Monday I went over to Craft Creations to get the new card stock (which you can see sitting on top of the drawers on the left) and now I need to make a new sample for her to ok before getting my teeth into it all again…….just as well I didn’t get very many of the RSVPs done last week because they all have to be scrapped now.

It’s not a problem because it’s important that she has everything exactly as she wants, but the down side to this is that she had already given me the ok on the first sample and I had brought everything I needed and started work on them.
Now I have to start from scratch because she’s also changed the wording and the colour of the text and she’s going to have to pay out again for the new card.

So that what’s going on in my neck of the crafting woods this week.

Why not join in with What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday and share the secrets of your work space with Julia and the gang.
We all love nothing better than having a good old nosy at what you’re up to at the moment.

I’ll be popping in later, so get the kettle on and have some virtual chocolate biscuits ready…….I’m so missing them since starting my diet back in October and this is the only way I can have them, Lol!

Happy Crafting!
x x x

Oh I nearly forgot to tell you that I had a bit of welcome news this week.
The card that I made for the Crafty Ribbons challenge last week was picked as one of their top three, so thanks girls, I’m glad you liked it.

Sunday 8 January 2012

Daring Cardmaker’s – First Friday Colour Challenge


It’s been a while since I’ve joined in with a The Daring Cardmaker’s dare and this is what they have in store for us this week.


This week we have the very first in our brand new "First Friday" series. Over the last couple of years we've used Birthstones and Flowers for these challenges, and they've both been
interesting and inspiring themes to work with.



For 2012 the First Friday of each month will feature a Colour Combo Challenge





As soon as I saw the colours for this week dare I remembered that I still had some sheets left in my Linen Closet stack from DCWV that would be perfect and I ended up making no less than three cards.






Wednesday 4 January 2012

The first WOYWW of 2012 (#135)




Can you believe that here we all are, congregating over at the Stamping Ground for Julia’s first WOYWW of the year, that’s What’s on your Workdesk Wednesday for those not on the know…..although I don’t believe that there’s anyone left out in blog land who hasn’t heard of WOYWW, Lol!


If I’m honest, I glad to see the back of 2011 and I’m looking forward to a quieter year ahead but it’s not had a good start so far.

I got up yesterday morning to find my Right knee has swollen to twice its usual size and I’m limping like an good ’ne at the moment.
Every so often I get a collection of fluid on my knees and have had to go and have it aspirated in the past (not very pleasant I can tell you) but for now it’s just a case of keep popping the Nurofen and rest it as much as I can in the hope it goes down by its self.


Fortunately it’s not stopping me from sitting at my table and working on the wedding invitations you can see on my desk this morning.


All the wallets are stuck together now and this afternoon my plan is to cut all the Navy card to size and print the RSVP’s, which should keep me quiet for a little while.

I also want to get my tax return sorted in the next couple of days so I’d best get a wiggle on if I want to get it in on time…..don’t want any nasty fines dropping through my door now, do I.

Happy New Year to all my WOYWW friends …..and anybody else who just happens by my blog……I hope 2012 is a good one for you.



Happy Crafting!
Sue
x x x

Sunday 1 January 2012

Happy New Year everyone!

No partying for me last night but I did see the New Year in with some very special people.

My God daughter Nichola & her husband Paul invited me to join Nichola’s Mum and Dad and Paul’s Mum for a games night.
We played a DVD horse racing game first and most impressively I didn’t manage to win one single race, then true to form I finished almost last in Trivial Pursuits too, Lol!

Still, I was all good fun and we had a bit of a laugh.

I hope you all had a good evening too.


So now, I’ve just got home after staying the night at Sue & Edd's and after a quick shower and change of clothes I’m off out again for lunch over at my brothers house, but before I go I wanted to share with you my first challenge card of 2012.

It’s a template challenge set before Christmas by the Crafty Ribbons challenge blog, but it’s still running so I thought I would use the template to make a birthday card.

Here’s the template:-



And here’s my very first card of 2012:-




Thanks for stopping by and .......

Happy Crafting!
Sue
x