WOYWW #160 - No Show

Bet you were all thinking that I hadn’t made it to Julia’s today for the weekly show of desks over at The Stamping Ground.
Well, I nearly didn’t because I’ve been out all day and to be honest there’s nothing on my table anyway.

As clear as it can be, with just a Sweet Pea paper pad from Craftworks Cards that’s waiting to be used and not much else really so this could be a very short post.


What I will share with you this evening thought is some photos I took while I was out today.

I've had a lovely day visiting my Goddaughter Kelly at work in London.
She works in the HSBC building in Canary Warf and myself and her mum Sue were lucky enough to be able go up to the 34th floor of her building for lunch and then to the 40th floor to admire the views over London.

It’s a shame that it wasn’t a clearer day but I still managed a few nice shots.

Here you can just see the Olympic Stadium in the distance.

Zoom in on the stadium

Zoom in on the Red Curly tower thing. (Can’t believe they are going to charge £15 to go up it)

This one’s from the other side of the building and you can just make The Shard out through the murk.

Zoomed in again on this one and you can see the London Eye between the buildings and just down to the Right of the Shard you can see Tower Bridge.

After we left Kelly we stopped off at Stratford to have a look at the new Westfield shopping centre. It was very nice, but I think I prefer Bluewater or Lakeside so I don't think I'll be visiting there too often.  It's great for John Lewis though and if you go up to the third floor they have an Olympic shop and from there there’s a great view of the Olympic Park, which is right outside.

So, I'm sorry I don’t have any crafting to show you today but hopefully next week I’ll have something a bit more interesting with a bit of luck.

Now it's 8pm and I have a Thank You card to make this evening, so I’ll be round to visit as many as I can tomorrow, but in the meantime,

Happy Crafting!

Sue

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WOYWW #159 - Back to Normal…………………………..

Well, sort of.


The decorating is all finished now and I have to say I’m pleased with it, despite the upheaval of last week.

Most stuff is back in its rightful place but I’ve gone into cleaning mode and have spent the last couple of days sorting out some of the toot that has accumulated in the kitchen cupboards over the years.

It’s surprising what you find lurking in the dark corners and I’m ashamed to say I came across jars of herbs dated 2005…..shock….horror.   But in my defence, I’ve grown my own for years now and use fresh herbs when I cook so I’ve not been in danger of poisoning anyone, Lol!

As you can imagine, it’s been a busy old week and now, here we are at the middle of the week again which can only mean one thing, What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday!
Thanks to Julia,  The Stamping Ground  becomes the meeting place for lots of nosey crafters who like nothing better than a good old snooping at what’s on your desk, so why not nip across to her blog and join in, I’ll be doing exactly that when I get back this afternoon. 

Here's my space this week.

This picture was taken last night and my desk is not in too bad a state for a change.

You can see my little fold up table is beside my desk with my Promarkes on and at the back of the table is the card I finished on Monday for one of my friends twin Grandchildren, which is still awaiting it’s insert.
I used some Pee Wee glitter on part of the background of it and now I have glitter everywhere.
The table, my clothes, even BoJangles has a nice glittery coat despite the fact that thought I had cleared it all up last night…......obviously didn’t make a very good job of it.


On the cutting mat is the birthday card for the other twin and to the Left is the stack of MME papers that I was using.

The card is finished now and I used the template from last Tuesdays challenge over at Skipping Stones Design but I was too late to enter it.

I tried to make it look like the little boy, who is another digi stamp from Mo’s Digital Pencil was skateboarding down diagonal edge of the pocket.

The only other thing that might be of interest is my bargain Sizzix 'Nouvau' alphabet. 
Now when I say bargain, I mean bargain because if I remember correctly I managed to grab this back in 2004 when it was listed on a web site (sorry, can't remember where) for the incorrect price of around £20.  It was a massive mistake on their part because they were selling for around £60 at the time and everyone on the forum I belonged to was buying them, but to give them their dues, they fulfilled every order that was placed before the mistake was found.

I’m off to meet my friend Susan and her hubby at the garden centre now for a spot of lunch before the weather changes again…….you have to make hay while the sun is shining!

Happy Crafting!

Sue

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I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles!

I seem to be using more and more digi stamps these days especially when I just want to colour but it will never stop me using conventional stamps.
There are so many techniques that you can do with rubber or acrylic stamps so they will never be replaced entirely but what I love about digi stamps is that you can make the image whatever size you like, opening it up to so many possibilities.

I fell in love with this digi image as soon as I saw it.

It’s from   Mo’s Digital Pencil  and is called   Fairy Tabia.

I’ve used a few of Mo’s images in the past and knew it would be fantastic, so when my friend Hazel asked me to make birthday cards from her grandchildren, the twins I made the Christening Cards for a couple of weeks ago, I knew exactly what I was going to use.

For my starting point I’ve used this template from  A Gem of a Challenge #48

and then doubled up on the challenges by working with the colour inspiration from The Ribbon Girl – Challenge #20

Here’s a close up of some of the detail.

Her wings have been painted with Pearl Ex-Press water colours to give a pretty iridescent shine when the light hits them and her bubbles are tiny pearls.

Thanks for dropping by.

Happy Crafting!
Sue
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WOYWW #158 - What a mess!

Coffee and breakfast at the ready……time for another worldwide blog hop thanks to our hopper-in-chief   Julia,  over at The Stamping Ground.


This week it’s not just my craft room that looks like a bomb has hit it but the whole of my maisonette.

And the reason………..a couple of weeks ago I asked a guy who does my decorating for me if he could give me a quote to paint my kitchen and bathroom and also paper and paint my hall way. I didn’t hear anything from him for weeks but then out of the Blue at 7.30 on Monday morning I had a phone call from Pete saying he was at a loose end this week and could he start here.

Well, to say I panicked slightly is a bit of an understatement because I had made plans to go out for the day on Monday to meet up with a couple of crafty friends but if Pete wants to start you don’t put him off otherwise it’s months before you see him again, so I was rushing around to move things in readiness before going out. Fortunately I know him well and was able to leave him my key and still go out but when I arrived back home at around 4.30 in the afternoon I discovered that he and his son had started to work on all three rooms at the same time, so you can imagine the mess in my tiny flat, not to mention the dust.



Today they plan is to do all the paintwork which involves four doors, all off the narrow hallway and emulsion the hall, bathroom and kitchen, so I think I’m going to get right out of the way today and go shopping in search of a new mirror because it’s not going to be easy to get in and out of my craft room or any other room for that matter.

This morning’s shot of my Workdesk was taken at 7.30 before I’d even opened the curtains and is from a slightly different angle than usual giving you a wider view but what you can’t see behind me is all the stuff, including a cabinet that’s come out of my bathroom.

You can see a little collection of cards that I made at the weekend on the one side of my table and one that I was working on last night, waiting to be finished.

My computer desk is as bad and has become a dumping ground too, with lots of paperwork that need sorting and putting away and my breakfast is on there too, which I’m eating as I type!


The large mirror you can see is rather gorgeous isn’t it?

Alas, it’s not mine but it’s something like that I want to look for today when I go out.  I think it would look rather nice on the wall in my hall.

This one is destined to be the base of the table plan I have to make for Carols wedding in August and is my next biggish project.


Well that's about it for today, the boys have arrived and I’m getting out of the way as fast as I can. 
I'll be calling in later this afternoon to see what you're upto this week.

And one last picture before I go.

Even BoJangles is put out by the mess!

Have a good week and.........

Happy Crafting!

A quick update – Just back from the shops and I'm please to say I managed to find myself a nice mirror. 
Not quite the same as the one in my photo but very similar in a Bronzy colour to tone with the new light fitting I brought yesterday…....did I mention that, Lol!

Why is it that making cards for the men folk always has me pulling my hair out?

It’s not just the design that causes me problems when making cards for the men folk but finding suitable papers, which is a strange thing to say when you take a peek in my cupboard where I store my stash and see the shelf full off 12 x 12 papers…not the mention the filing cabinet that has my 6 x 6 and 8 x 8 pads in.




Anyway, this morning I’ve made two but don’t get excited because they are both the same, Lol!



I decided to use this week challenge over at Sentimental Sundays for my starting point, which this week is “Show me your Spots” and also incorporated the template that they have on there too.

I’ve used a combination of Basic Grey Granola papers, a Kanban Tree stamp from the Autumn Silhouettes set, a Kirsty Wiseman stamp for the sentiment from her Frames & Greetings set and a Tim Holtz Alterations Wood grain Embossing folder to make the card and then added some detail to my A6 cardwith Liquid Pearls, Gloss Touch 3D Paint and some faux stitching.

 I've used some creative licence and decided not to put my sentiment in the same place as on the template, but I've still added some detail where it should have been so I hope it passes muster.

Now, I have a little tip to share with those of you who always make smaller cards and have trouble making A5 sized ones.
You wouldn’t think that a bit of extra White space could cause so many problems but I know that for some of you it does.

To be honest most of the cards I make are A5 but it can still be a problem at times and the way I get around it is to make a A6 panel and then mount it onto the larger card, adding a few extra components to finish it off.

As you can see, it’s the same as the first card, this time using Basic Grey “Mellow” papers and all that’s been added are two strips of patterned paper, one of which has been cut and embossed with a Mathew Stewart punch and some Craftworks Card Candi.

You’ll also notice that added a little stamped detail to the background using another of the Kanban stamps in the Autumn Silhouettes set.

And that’s it……easy!

WOYWW #157 - Shopping…..don’t you just hate it!

Nearly forgot to do my WOYWW post today as I’ve been out shopping for ribbon and after trawling the shops most of the morning I come back without any.

There’s a little stall in the inside market in Romford that I like to get my reels of ribbon from and I went over there on Monday only to find it was closed, so I’ve been back this morning and still no luck. Hobbycraft didn’t have any either which leads me to believe there’s been a run on White satin ribbon for some reason, so now I’m just going to order it on line and have done with it.

But having made the trip especially to get the ribbon, there was no way I was coming back totally empty handed so I treated myself…as you do…..to a couple of new Marianne dies, just to cheer myself up.

You can just see them sitting on the corner of my table, waiting to be played with.

I stocked up on some Acetate sheets too because I seem to have an addiction to making acetate cards at the moment………you’ll see what I mean in a minute!


Monday was my last crafting day with Lythan and we had a lovely time together.

As mentioned last week, I took some card kits that I’d put together with me to make up, two of which were acetate cards.

Then I made this one when I got back home but it's not quite finished.  I still need to add a '60' to the little square panel in the centre.

Last but not least I have to thank Annie and Jo for the beautiful dumfling ATC’s that arrived in the post last week.

Annie's is the White flowers on the Blue background and Jo's Red on the Green background

They are absolutly beautiful girls and I will treasure them and add them to my little collection of your work that I already have. 

I wasn’t actually going to take part in the swap this time but both these lovely ladies were happy to send to me and be patient enough to wait for a little something in return from me in a week or two, so thank you so much girls.

I’ve already made a start on the ones I’ll be sending, so you shouldn’t have much longer to wait.


So that’s it for another week.
It’s weigh in at Slimming World tomorrow and after the weekend celebrations I’m really not looking forward to getting on those scales, in fact, I’m seriously considering giving it a miss and spending the morning over at The Stamping Ground visiting everyone’s desks instead……….do you think they’ll miss me!


Have a good week until next time.
Happy Crafting!

Sue

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