WOYWW #143 and a TUSAL

As we all know by now Wednesdays see us all hopping from desk to desk for What’s on your Workdesk Wednesday and it seems all the more appropriate this morning as its Leap Year Day.

For anyone who has a birthday today, I wish you a very Happy Birthday and hope that you have a very special day.


It’s just a quick post from me this morning as I’m waiting for a friend to arrive and then we are off out.

My desk this morning is as I left it last night…….yes, it’s almost clear for once so I thought I would give you a wider shot of my craft room, but please ignore the fact that I failed to put the vacuum cleaner over in there and that the wall paper is coming off under the window……..I really should redecorate)

On my table is a small pile of bits and pieces that I picked up in The Range yesterday. Nothing too exciting, just some foam pads, a permanent adhesive roller and some White tissue papers because I want to have a go at making some tissue tape. There’s also a New Leaf 8 x 8 paper Pad which I’ve had my eye on for a while now and the new Papermania Bookprint paper pack.

At the Right of the table are a pile of cards I finished at the weekend and are waiting to go in the post.

I can’t take credit for this last card because it’s an almost exact copy of a card in an old copy of Cardmaking and Papercraft, designed by Marlene Ashby.




Now, I can hear you all saying, what on earth is a TUSAL when it’s at home.

Well, it’s an acronym for Totally Useless Stitch-a-Long….a sort of WOYWW for stitchers and the idea is that once a month you post a picture of your thread clippings or ORT’s (Old Ratty Threads), so sitting on my computer desk this morning is my very first TUSAL.

You can read more about TUSAL Here if you’re interested and fancy joining in the fun.

There’s also a collection of free cross stitch kits sitting my desk that I’ve been scanning. I used to be able to work directly for the original chart but these days I find I struggle to read them, so I now enlarge them to A4.

So, I’m off shopping now but I’ll be back later today to see what everyone is up to this week.


Happy Crafting!

Sue
x

London Calling

Yesterday I had a fun stamping day and have managed to make six cards in total, three for ladies, two for the gents and an anniversary card, so not a bad days work me thinks.

I thought I would have a look and see what challenges were around as well and first headed off to Kathy’s Waffle Sketch File  to see what the latest sketch is and found this.

I had in mind to use my new Craft Individuals stamp and it works perfectly with Kathy’s sketch.

Here’s what I came up with.

The papers I’ve used are some old Basic Grey Granola.  I really loved this paper when it first came out, so much so that I brought two 12 x 12 pads and two 6 x 6 because I liked the scaled down designs as well,  so I expect I’ll still be using it for the next ten years, Lol!

The London themed stamp as mentioned before is from Crafty Individuals.

I stamped it twice with Black Memento ink and then coloured it with Promarkers and layered some of the images.

The tickets were also stamped using my “Just The ticket” set from Imagine That


I’m linking my card to the Friday challenge over at the Sweet Stampin Blog   where this week’s challenge is “It’s a Man Thing.”

WOYWW #142

When head desk hopper Julia was taking the register for  What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday   last week, I’m afraid I was nowhere to be found……….and no, I wasn’t behind the bike sheds, Lol!

I did manage   a post on Friday   though and that explains the way my week went and also shows the finished frog card I was working on the last time I played along……….actually I was quite pleased with the way it turned out.

Anyway, despite pleading for clam and quite on Friday, I didn’t get it.

I don’t know what it is with me, Saturday’s and water but for the second weekend in a row I spent the afternoon mopping up water, this time in my brothers ground floor flat from the flat above. Fortunately not too much damage, unlike poor Pat last week but it still disrupted my weekend plans.


So here I am........and on the right day too!

What greets your eyes is a big clutter with barely any room left for me to work in, which seems to be the norm of late.


I’m in the process of finishing off a birthday card which has decoupaged flowers on and because I loved the way the diagonal easel card turned out for the frog card I thought I’d do another one but this time it opens the right way.

There’s also three finished challenge cards on back of the table. I’ve given you a glimpse of each one but to see the finished card click on the links to the individual post.

This is the card  for the Waltzing Mouse Challenge.

This one is for   the Going Buggy Monthly challenge.

And the final card   is for the challenge at Sir Stampalot.

For anyone who’s interested in my needlework, I’ve added lots more of my old cross stitch projects to my sewing blog   I’d Rather Be Stitchin



Ok, I still have loads of cards to make for next month so I’d best get on, but not before I’ve made a cup of coffee and hopped around a few desks.

And by the way, if you are wondering who that is in the top Left-hand corner of my blog, it’s me. I didn’t think I could get away with my old profile photos any longer because it was taken more than five years ago on my 50th birthday and I look nothing like that anymore……..now I’m completely Grey and have loads of wrinkles too!

Hope you all have a good week and……..

Happy Crafting!

Sue
x

Sir Stampalot Challenge

My last card this evening is for the Sir Stampalot challenge this month.

Their theme is “In the Garden” so I think my butterflies and flowery background should just scrape through!

For this one I thought I would have a little go at one of the Distress Stain techniques in the last Craft Stamper.
You have to cover the card with your chosen colours of stain and while it’s still wet you ink your stamp with Picket Fence Distress Stain and stamp over the top.
As it dries it seems to sink below the coloured ink.

This card also uses an old template from CPS, which I've turned on it's side.

Going Buggy Challenge #2

I’m on a roll this evening and finished another challenge card.

This one’s for Going Buggy and the theme this month is Lace and Butterflies.

I just happen to have two beautiful butterfly stamps that stack together and I’ve not used them for a while so I’ve given them an airing.

I’ve stamped with VersaMark and embossed with fine Gold embossing powder and then coloured them with a combination of Pearl Ex-Press Watercolor paints and Promarkers.

My lace border was cut using a Martha Stewart “punch around the page” set and I’ve used an old template from CPS

Talking of Promarkers, Enfys also has a fab prize draw over at Going Buggy thanks to Letraset.

It’s not Promarkers, but the new Flexmarkers, …….a whole set…….that’s 90 pens……… and the colours match the Promarkers perfectly apparently, so a nice addition to have if I’m lucky enough to win them.

Waltzing Mouse Challenge #85

Waltzing Mouse    have a fab template challenge  this week.

It’s ages since I’ve played along so I thought I would join in and given the unusual tempretures we’re having at the moment,  I was inspired to go with pretty Spring colours and flowers.

As you can see, I’ve flipped the template round 90 degrees and used the border and flowers stamps from the Waltzing Mouse “Say It With Style” set of stamps.

Calm and Quiet Please & Truly Scrumptious #74

I managed to miss my usual WOYWW (#141) post over at The Stamping Ground this week, so I thought I would do a little up date this morning instead, just in case you missed me.

It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster of a week really with so many ups and downs I can’t tell you, but today things seem to have settled down again and I really hope it stays that way.

After I left you last week I finished off the frog card that I had started.
I had only just started to stitch the frogs when I showed you and had no idea what I was going to do with them. In the end I settled for a diagonal easel card and then promptly creased the darn thing the wrong way, so I ended up with a card that opens on the Left rather than the Right.


Here’s the finished card, which I’m entering into the challenge over at Truly Scrumptious
this week, where the theme is All Creatures Great and Small.

I did have fun finishing it off.


The bull rushes were made by covering wire with glue and dipping them in Brown Flower Soft and I did toy with the idea of adding some glitter too but didn’t want to overdo it.

I was really pleased with my Lily Pads too because they look like they have water droplets all over them.

Now Saturday was definitely one of the down days on my roller coaster ride, not so much for me but for my 80 year old neighbour.
Poor Pat came knocking at my door at 2.15 in the afternoon all in a panic because she had water coming from her loft. When I got over there her hall, bathroom, and second bedroom were awash and the carpets in the lounge and main bedroom had just caught on the edges but the water was still poring for the celling . She had two burst pipes and I was there with her helping to clean up until turned 8pm.

Sunday and Monday were ok but Tuesday started as a down day because I had to go to the dentist………..to say I’m terrified is an understatement. Then it was a good day because apart from a quick clean everything was ok....(breaths sigh of relief)

Wednesday was an up day.
Went to see the nurse for a BP check and it was 124 / 76…..perfect.....…but then took a real plunge because in the evening as I was eating my diner I broke a tooth after getting the all clear the day before.

Thursday was definitely a down day.
Went to Slimming World in the morning and only lost ½ lb this week and was really disappointed. The bigger picture is all good thought because I’ve now lost 1st 3lb. Then it took another downward plunge when I had to go back to the dentist to get my tooth fixed.

So now you know why I need a nice calm and quiet weekend.


I did manage to make a couple more cards but I'll put them in a different post because this one is turning into an epic.


Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

A Stitching Time……….WOYWW (#140)

Was it really me who was sitting here last week gloating about the fact that winter hadn’t hit my neck of the woods yet?
Well someone must have been eavesdropping and said, “I’ll show her” because as the week went on it got colder and colder and then on Sunday evening it happened………..snow….. loads of it!

Fortunately I didn’t have to go out in it but not too far away from where I live people were stranded on the M11 overnight and others had to walk down the train tracks at a nearby station to get home.

I’m really hoping that we don’t get any more and as I’m typing this the sun is shining and melting a lot of the snow, which is good as far as I’m concerned.
All I hope is that it doesn’t freeze over tonight when the temperature drops again.



Oh well, enough about the weather and onto what I’ve been up to this week.

Actually not a lot really because I’ve been spending my afternoons cross stitching squares for the Kids Company cushion project and catching up on a couple of old films I wanted to see.

The squares for the girls cushions are easy because there’s lots of charts for flowers, butterflies and other pretty things but finding charts for the boys cushions is always a bit of a challenge. Fortunatly I came across these fab card designs in a copy of The World of Cross Stitching mag and they’re bright and colourful and just perfect.

Here’s a sneak peek at the one that’s on my hoop at the moment.

 

I’ve also taken some time this week to update a few more of my old cross stitch projects on I’d Rather Be Stitchin

There’s a couple of Christmas projects

The Spirit of Christmas

The Twelve days of Christmas

And there's a couple of other projects including my very first Stitch-a Long and the start of my involvement with the Kid's Company project.

Kid's Company Project

My First Stitch-a-Long


And as for my desk………there’s stitching on it too, but not cross stitch......and it's tidy for once!

These little chaps were in one of the many Form-A-line kits that I brought a few years back.

There’s three designs in each kit and I go back to them time and time again because they are so versatile.

I’ve been asked to make a very special birthday card for a twenty year old who’s really only 5…..yes, you’ve guessed it, he was a Leap Year baby so what better than a frog on his card.

I’m not quite sure how I’m going to put them on the card yet or even the lay out of the card but hopefully once the stitching is complete I’ll come up with something……..at least I have until the end of the month to get it finished, so there’s no rush.

I've also had some feedback from Carol this week too, about the wedding invitations that I made for her.
Apparently she’s had lots of people saying how beautiful they were and even had a friend ask for my details because she’s planning her wedding,  so I might just get another order in the coming weeks.
Fingers crossed!


So that’s it from me for another week.
I’m off to make a big cup of coffee and then I’ll be back to do a spot of deck hopping.

If you fancy an hour (or several) seeing what’s happening in the world of What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, you’ll find all you need to know over at The Stamping Ground.

See you all soon.

Happy Crafting!
Sue
x






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WOYWW (#139)

I know that everyone says how quickly Wednesdays seem to come around but what I’d like to know is what happened to January?

Can you really believe that here we are - the first day of February and up until yesterday afternoon when the temperature dropped and there was a sprinkling of White stuff (sleet rather than snow) we hadn’t even seen a sign of winter down in the South East.

So now the heating has gone up a notch and I’ve put another layer on because sitting beside the window crafting can be a little chilly sometimes.



And talking of crafting, it’s time to show you what’s lurking on my desk this week.

Looking at the picture, I’ve just noticed that I’ve had a definite ‘push to the Right’ without even realizing it, Lol!


I’ve just finished the card I was working on and all the bits and pieces I’ve used are still out, including the two sets of stamps that I brought when I went to visit Lythan a couple of weeks ago.

The Green set you can see are My Paper World (Grasses and Embellishments) and were just £4.99. I couldn’t believe how cheap there were but they were a bit of pain to get off the backing sheet the first time I used them and I was a bit frightened to pull too hard in case they snapped. Does anyone else have that problem with their Silicone stamps?

The second set were a real find too.

They are a lovely set of Technique Tuesdays ‘Botanika’ stamps that usually retail at £16.50 but because a couple of the stamps had been used in one of the shops workshops, they had been reduced to just £5.         Oh how I love bargains like that!


The rest of the mess on the table includes nesties, inks, embossing powder, gems, paints, card Candi and more stamps, all I used on the card for Flutterby Wednesday where we had to use Butterflies........think I managed that one..........just!

The inspiration came from a card designed by Glenda Waterworth in the April issue of Craft Stamper last year and uses the free ‘Chocolate Baroque’ butterfly stamp that came with it.

Unlike the card in the magazine, I’ve made mine an easel card and inked and stamped directly onto the card using the two new sets mentioned above and a couple of peg stamps from my Tiny Grape and Holly Border Tapestry Stamp set. The greeting is from Imagine That’s Mix and Match Sentiments set.


To add a little bit of interest to the butterflies, I clear embossed them before painting them all with Perfect Pearls and Pearl Ex-Press paints and then added some tiny gems to the body and wings on a couple of them.

So that’s my desk for this week.



If you want to join in with the desk hopping, call in on  Julia, at The Stamping Ground   where you’ll find all you need to know to participate.

Thanks to everyone who left me comments last week. I know how hard it is to get around to everybody each week so I really do appreciate you taking the time to stop by.

And a special thank you to  Dotty   who not only stopped by last week but also left me this blog award.

Apparently the idea of this award is to get blogs that has less than 200 followers noticed by a few more people. Not sure if it will work but I like the concept and am happy to pass it on to others who have most definitely inspired me since I started blogging.

So the rules

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them…………….Done.

2. Reveal your five picks for the award and let them know………….Done and in the process of doing that.

Angie over at Shozzys Place
It was Angie that got me back working on my heritage Album. Her own pages are beautiful and full of family history that will never be lost.

Lisa from Lisa’s Craft Garden
I’ve chosen Lisa because her stamping is amazing, as is her painting. I really wish I could paint Sweet Peas the way she does.

Lythan from Slightly Squiffy
She chose that blog name because she recons that her work is always slightly squiffy.
I say…never in a million years.
Lythan’s creations are always an inspiration and she produces the most beautiful LO’s I’ve ever seen. She’s a bestest friend to boot and I’m really going to miss our play days when she moves.

Jan from Lunch Lady Jan’s Fabric Frenzy
I’ve nominated Jan because I’m envious of her sewing skills.
What she turns out on that sewing machine of hers just amazes me because I can’t sew a straight line to save my life.
She makes beautiful creations week after week for us to feast our eye’s on.


My last nomination for the Liebster Blog award is a bit of cheat really because I’m linking to two people. I really couldn’t do one without the other because they are the Sisters of Crafty Creations, better known as

Annie from a Stitch in Time and  Twiglet
Both are amazing crafters whether it be sewing, knitting, embroidery…if it’s done with a needle, you name it and they’ll have done it.
But what’s really inspirers me about these two lovely ladies is that despite all the trials and tribulations they’ve went through their selves last year, they were still there to offer encouragement and support to everyone else…..and make, I don’t know how many, little dressed for the African children…..now that’s what I call dedication to a charity project…..well done girls!

3. Post the award on your blog………………Done.


4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the blogshare-other bloggers......… I'll try and do that.

5. Finally and the best rule of all..........have fun and spread the love………..Willingly


Ok then, that really is it from me for today. 

I’m off to hit the shops and have a spot of lunch with a friend now, so I’ll see you all later.



Hope you all have a productive day and …………………….

Happy Crafting!

Sue

x