What’s On Your Work Desk Wednesday?

What’s On Your Work Desk Wednesday?

Yes it’s that day again ……………….and I’ve only just remembered, so here’s a few photo’s of what’s on my table this week.


I’m in a mess as usual (most of which is out of shot……namely on the floor Lol!) but at least there’s a space on my desk to work on for a change.
You will notice a small pile of Christmas cards on the corner of the table. These are for a few orders that I've been asked to make and the good news is that I’ve managed to finish my own cards too.

These are the order cards. (All A5 size)











You can also just glimpse the felt Christmas stocking that I have been hand stitching over the last week or two.

Way back in 1981 I brought two Bucilla Kits while on holiday in Florida, intending to stitch them for my God Daughters. Every year since the stockings are hung from the mantelpiece but now Nichola is married, Paul feels left out when the girls hang up their stockings so I was asked to do one for him too.



As you can see there’s such a lot of detail in it and it was great fun to stitch too.


Bucilla do some nice tree skirts too and I would love to do one of those at some point but I don’t think it will be in time for this Christmas as I’m still also stitching the squares for the hospice quilts. May be next year!

Don’t think there’s anything else on my desk that might be of interest other than my new storage from my Promarkers and Marvy LePlumes.

It’s just an IKIA CD rack that’s been given a quick Decopatch treatment, the trouble with that was that I got a bit carried away and also Decopatched my tool holder and the round tin I keep the foam for my Distress inks in……..oh yes, and a book end but you can’t see that in the photo.

Well that’s it from me for now.
If you what to join in with WOYWW and be part of the best blog hop in town pop across to Julia’s Blog and add your link.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sue
x

It’s ‘What’s On Your Work Desk Wednesday’….and the wanderer returns!

It’s not been easy but I thought it was about time I tried to get my act back in gear to some extent and get blogging again. And what better day to choose than a Wednesday, the day we all pop over to Julia’s Blog and have a good old nosy at what every one is working on at the moment.

I’ll come to what’s on my desk in a moment but first I wanted to show you the Order of Service I made for dad’s cremation and the Thank You cards that I made to send out to those who sent flowers and very generously gave donations to St Clare Hospice, where dad spent his last days.

Back in June I was feeling very guilty and upset……..the reason, I didn’t have time to make the usual six Birthday and Father’s Day cards that I have to do for Dad every year. I was forced into going out and buying cards for him, which really went against the grain and I just couldn’t get the feeling of guilt out of my mind.
So despite having to make fifty, that was the reason I wanted to make something very special for Dad’s Order of Service for his cremation.



Dad was very proud of his days in the Army, so it seemed right to have a photo of him, age 20, in his uniform on the front.

I didn’t have to make quite so many Thank You cards, but I still wanted them to be personal and special so I knew exactly what stamp I was going to use, my good old Penny Black Iris….you can never go wrong with that!




Now then, what’s on my work desk today?

It’s some of my Cross Stitching!




When Dad started his treatment at the Hospice back in May I found myself thinking about what I could do to give something back to them because the way they cared for dad was second to none.

Partly inspired by a beautiful quilt that my good friend Nicki sent over from Switzerland for dad when he was first diagnosed, I decided it might be nice to cross stitch a quilt for each of the eight rooms and one for the central seating area, with a cushion to go with each one. Not only that, I needed something to do while sitting with dad for several hours a day and this was perfect.
Dad loved the idea too and gave me some money towards the materials, which was a lovely gesture.


This meant a lot of stitching was ahead of me because I would need nine squares for each of the quilts and one for the cushion, so a total of 90 squares!
After some thought, I decided to go with geometric designs on the quilts.
They would be good for either gender but the quilt for the seating area would be different. That one will have Yellow Gerbera’s all over it because that is the hospice logo.

Nicki kindly agreed to do all the quilting for me and drummed up some more help in the form of two ladies in Holland who stitch another for another charity project. They will be stitching the squares for four of the quilts and another good friend Sharon has offered to stitch all the Gerbera’s for the seating area quilt, so we now have a truly international project on the go.

As it is such a personal project for me, I wanted to have a piece of my own stitching on each of the quilts, so the ladies in Holland will receive a pack containing all of the materials they need, including at least one of the squares already stitched by me









and when Nicki receives everything ready for making up there will also be a matching label which says ‘St. Clare’ and have the Yellow Gerbera log on for each quilt.



I've already stitched all ten squares needed for one of the quilts and cushions and these will be winging their way over to Switzerland for Nicki to get started on when she has the time.




Well, it’s been months since I blogged properly and I don’t quite know when the next one will be……… but that doesn’t mean I won’t be keeping an eye out!

Lots of Love
Sue
x

Sad Times

It’s so long since I’ve blogged and I’m sorry to say that this entry is a very sad one.

As some of you know, my dad was diagnosed with untreatable cancer back in April.

He was having his symptoms kept under control by the wonderful and caring staff at our local Hospice, St. Clare’s but sadly, dad lost his battle on Friday evening with myself and my two brothers at his bedside.

Rest In Peace Dad

Love you lots

What 'Was' on my Work Desk on Wednesday!

I wasn’t planning on posting but I really have to share with you what was on my work desk on Wednesday.


As you can see, my table has become a dumping ground over the past weeks and apart from the very photogenic BoJangles, who’s hogging the picture you can just see the contents of a box that the postie had just brought.

Look on in envy girlies because I’m now the proud owner of a beautiful ‘Dumfled’ magnet clip made by the crafty sisters Wipso and Twiglet.
It was my prize for coming up with a suggestion or two for the Wedding Shelf of their on line shop...........just look at all this gorgeousness!



There was also some ‘Annie Magic’ in the parcel too, in the form of a cute little Comfort Bear, intended to help me through what is turning out to be the toughest time for my family but enough said about that.

Anyway, my main reason for posting was to thank Annie and Jo for the flower clip, teddy and the most beautiful card I’ve ever seen. I’m going to get a little frame to put it in.

Thanks girls!

There's nothing on my Work Desk this Wednesday!

You’ll have already noticed if you’ve checked out my blog over the last few weeks that I’ve not been updating it. This has been mainly due to the fact that I’ve not been crafting, well very little anyway.

I’m being plagued by migraines caused by eye strain so crafting has been kept to only things that are really necessary and I’ve even stepped down from the daring Cardmakers design team for a while to ease the strain.
I’m really not sure at all when I’ll be able to get to it again but I’m hoping that my new vari focal glasses when they eventually arrive will go some way to helping the situating.

So for now there’ll be no photos of my work desk because there’s nothing going on there but I’ll still be round to check out what everyone else is up to, even if I don’t comment on everyone’s.
Can’t believe how may of you are joining in now and it takes nearly all week to get round everyone.

Also added to the stress of the above, my 86 year old dad was rushed to A & E on Saturday with a suspected blocked bowel and is still in hospital. He’s in so much pain, which they don’t seem to be able to control and I hate seeing him like that, it makes you feel so helpless.

Can’t say I’m impressed with his treatment so far either.
It seems that everything shuts down over the bank holiday weekend so dad’s still waiting for a CT scan so they can find out exactly what’s going on. First they told me it would be done on Tuesday and then they changed their mind and said Monday. Then it was back to Tuesday again and when I went to see him yesterday afternoon he said they had cancelled it again because of an emergency and it’s now supposed to be being done this morning. Not only that, you can’t find anyone to tell you what’s going on, so it’s a sorry state of affair if you ask me.

Well, I’m off out to do a quick spot of shopping now and then it’s up to the hospital but I’ll be back later if I get time to check out your desks. And just because I’m not join in this week it doesn’t mean you can’t so get on over to Julia’s Blog and join in the fun.

Have a good week
Sue
x

Only A Rose I Give You (sung in my sweetest voice Lol!)

Good morning What’s on your Work Desk Wednesdayers.

I’m in denial that seven days have passed already and I need to get the camera out again but I guess it’s flown by because I’ve been busy packing and posting things I’ve sold on eBay and making a few cards that have already been posted to the lady who ordered them.
When I have weeks that like this I can’t help wondering how I ever used to find time to go out to work.



My table this morning reveals a couple more of the acquisitions from my recent spending spree:-
A bargain set of Marvy Le Plume pens from eBay for £4.99 and a lovely Papermania ‘Build a Rose’ stamp set which was £5.99 but £2 of that goes to Cancer Research UK.

As you can see, I was playing with the stamps last night. It comes with a large stamp of an open rose head that you can colour and use on it’s own or there are six separate components that you can stamp and layer as many times as you like to build the flower. Here’s a close up of my first effort.


There’s a little ‘project in waiting’ sitting on the back of the table too.
You know I said that I had sorted and labeled all my Distress Inks and then put all the Cut and Dry foam into little bags to stop cross contamination of the colours, well after I had done that I couldn’t get them all back into the space between the inks in the drawer. Luckily thought I kept the round container that had my Kenco Coffee in and it’s perfect for storing them, so by the time you come back next week I hope to have done something spectacular with it…….or failing that it’ll just have a sheet of pretty paper wrapped around it!

Don’t think there’s much else that would interest you on there so I’ve had a little downwards swing this morning.


Am I the only one who has an enormous rubbish bin but still manages to scatter most of it on the floor?

Hiding to the side under the table is the Black canvas bag that is my fold-a-way lighting studio. It’s the best thing I’ve ever brought when it comes to taking photos of cards and stuff. Before I had it I could never get a decent picture without it being covered with shadows from something or the other.
Next to that is my can’t do without paper trimmer which really need a new blade but I keep forgetting to order one……..must do that now while I think about it!

Most of the other bits under there are just things I moved off the top shelf when I was making room for the spice racks, the jars of really large flowers that I never know what to so with, the overspill box of ribbons and oh yes, there’s yet another eBay bargain hiding under there.
I was looking for a new heat resistant craft sheet but for the Ranger ones they wanted around £16 for one that was 15 x 18 inches. I did a search on eBay for a Teflon baking sheet which is exactly the same thing and found one which is more than double the size for £8.99….result!

Well that’s it from me again for this week.

If you fancy joining in then Julia’s Blog
is the place to start. Leave a link there, get the coffee on and I’ll be round to two ticks to see what you have lurking on your work desk.

Have a good week
Sue

First Day of Spring

Well, I should say yesterday was!

It’s been beautiful here over that last few days and I’ve been able to spend time working in the garden, as well as doing a spot of Spring cleaning.

That’s the part of Spring I hate, the cleaning.
You get a little bit of sunshine and then all the grubby paintwork and cobwebs start to show their faces and no matter how hard you try you just can’t ignore them after that.

That’s reason I’ve been a bad blogger and not put up my dare card from the The Daring Cardmakers challenge last week.

This week it's Vanessa here to set the dare and I really love this time of year because the nights are rapidly getting shorter and the days longer. Spring is in the air, the birds are chirping and tweeting early in the mornings and I'm starting to think about mowing that lawn again!

Your challenge this week is:
Tweetie Pie

Please use a bird or birds on your card and that's it, any kind you like.

I have a few rubber stamps with birds on but for my card this week I decided to use my little used Sizzlets Owl die.

I’ve cut him out a few times and paper pieced him so that he stands out from the card.


A5 Card Blank – Craft Creations (Embossed Hammer)
Printed & Plain Paper – Basic Grey Archaic
Ink – Ranger Distress Ink (Vintage Photo)
Dies – Sizzlets (Owl) & Spellbinder Nestabilities (Labels 1)
Stickers – Basic Grey (Letters & Numbers)

Other Stash Stuff
Brads
Eyelets
Buttons
Fibres

What’s on your Work Desk Wednesday?

Just a big mess this week I’m afraid!


You can see the aftermath of a card making session last night but as usual I can’t show the cards yet.
No wonderful stamping techniques on them though, I was just literally playing with paper, but not just any old paper. They were the MME Wild Asparagus papers that Lythan brought me as a little get well gift when I had my eye op and they are one of my favorites at the moment. She also brought me these gorgeous ‘Say it in Studs’ Prima embellishments


and as you can see I’m finding it had to bring myself to use them.
I’d much rather sit and stroke and admire them because they are soooo lush!

You’ll notice that I have acquired another of the spice racks. I was lucky to get it as it goes because when I went back they only had two left.

Originally I was going to put my beads in this one but us I’ve already brought special storage boxes for the beads I decided to use this one for all my brads, eyelets and card candy and leave the beads where they were.

There’s not much else of interest on my desk other than the new Xcut border punch that I brought on Friday and the cd case that I store my Nestabilities in………that might just be sitting there awaiting so new arrivals, who knows!

Right in the centre of the table is a bundle of DMC embroidery threads that I’ve just sold on eBay and am about to post. It’s one of the 200 or so that were donated to the Kids Company stitching project that working on and I’m selling them to raise money to help with our postage costs to and from Switzerland and to buy the cushion fillers that we need……..we’ve used more than 300 so far!

If any of you lovely ladies are in need of any threads and would like to help support us I’d be grateful of your help.
There’s over 52 meters of thread in 29 colours (varying amounts of each colour) in each bundle and I’m selling them for 99p + p&p (payment will be via PayPal.)

I have several listed on eBay but if you are interested Email me and there’ll be no eBay charges and I can keep the p&p to a minimum.

Right that’s my cheeky sales pitch over and it’s on with the day.

I have about half a dozen extra wedding invitations to make that are being collected this evening and I was hoping to get out in the garden and do a bit while the sun is still shining, so wish me luck.

Don’t forget you can join in the nonsense that is What’s on you Work Desk Wednesday by visiting Julia’s Blog. See you there hopefully!

Sue
x

The Flowers that bloom in the Spring, Tra La…………….

Breath promise of Merry Sunshine......

and that’s just what the The Daring Cardmakers are hoping for as we embark on the dare this week.

Last week we were asked to make cards featuring Aquamarine, the March birthstone and this week Lynda would like to see cards that feature the flower of the month…..…The Daffodil.


Due to the lack of papers and embellishments featuring daffodils I resorted to cross stitch again and stitched this little Host of Golden Daffodils in a little pot.



When I came to put it onto a card I couldn’t really decide how I was going to do it.
My first thought was to use an aperture card but then I had the idea of making into something that resembled a little canvas and mounted it so that it stands out from the surface of the card.

The card itself I wanted to keep quite simple so I decided on mats of Navy Blue and Yellow and finished it off with the addition of some brads and ribbon.



Square Card Blank – Craft Creations (Embossed Hammer)
Ink – Ranger Distress Ink (Faded Jeans)
Paper Punch – Martha Stewart (Scallop 3 dot)
Cross Stitch Threads – Anchor (Various Colours)
Fabric – White 14count Aida

Other Stash Stuff
Plain Navy & Yellow Paper
Navy Brads
Ribbon

WOYWDW and more Reorganization

I’ve been at the hairdressers this morning having a quick bouffant so my photos for What’s on your Work Desk Wednesday were taken a little later than usual today. It doesn’t really matter though because what’s on my table has now has been there all night.


Sadly, the card I was making was a Sympathy card for the 89 year old mum of a lady who orders her cards from me and what makes it all the more sadder is that I had just made and sent her 90th birthday card but she didn’t make it to the big day.

I don’t know about you but I always find this type of card difficult to make but I fell back on an old favorite Penny Black stamp for the main image.

The evidence of my home make Water Stamped backing paper lay scattered all over the desk……Distress Inks, Pearl Pigments , Tim Holtz ‘A Compendium Of Curiosities’ ( for instructions) and a recently acquired set of Artemio stamps that are just gorgeous.


I loved doing this technique, especially with the Pearl Pigments misted across the top of it because it gives it such a lovely finish, so I’ll definitely be having another go at it some time soon.


Now I’ve moved my camera up a bit and you can see that the reorganization still continues.


I’ve now emptied all the spices from the little jars and refilled them with flowers and buttons. I still can’t quite believe what a good buy it was and I’m seriously thinking that I may go back and get another one to store my brads and beads in. Not only that, they look so pretty sitting on the shelf.

I have a few new Organza ribbons that you may have spotted, waiting to be wound onto bobbins and put in their rightful place in one of the five boxes of ribbons. I have to confess……..That’s just some of my ribbons, I have an overspill box that in its turn is spilling over, so I really do need to address that problem quite soon.
I guess the sensible thing would be to use some of it!

You can also see a glimpse of another of my Cross Stitch picture that I have on my wall.
I fell in love with this picture years ago and wanted to stitch it but it was all done in very dark colours. Don’t get me wrong, it looked beautiful but it wouldn’t have gone in any of my rooms, but I was determined to stitch it so I decided to have a go and changing the colours. It was worrying while I was working on it because I didn’t know how it was going to turn out but it didn’t look too bad in the end. I think the Blue frame worked really well too.

Well, I think that about all there is to see this week.
If you want to have a nosey at a few more work areas pop over to Julia’s Blog where you’ll find a list of everyone playing along in her comments.

Hope you all have a good day and I’ll be along soon for a good old nosy.


Sue
x

Didn't we have a lovely time...............

the day we went to Folkstone!

Afternoon folks!

Well, I have a few things to share with you today.

The first is the finished W.I.P that was on my desk for ‘What’s on your Work Desk Wednesday’ earlier in the week.
It’s a page for my Heritage Album and blog Family Footprints in the Sands of Time and it’s certainly been a long time coming because the last page I did for it was back in October last year. I'm probably averaging one LO a year, which really isn’t good but at least I eventually made myself sit down and have another go.


I came across this fantastic photo of my Nan and Granddad (Dad’s parents) and my Great Aunt Emily (Left as you look at the photo) which was taken by my dad when he meet them off the coach as it arrived back in London after a day trip to Folkstone, in Kent.



The Daisy D’s papers that I had were just crying out to be used on this LO and the whirligigs that are all over it evoke memories of my own childhood trips to the seaside.





12 x 12 Patterned Papers – K & Co Classic Designer Papers Pad
8 x 8 Patterned Paper – Daisy D’s Chasing Butterflies Pad
Inks –Ranger Distress Ink (Barn Door)
Dies – Sizzlits Alphabet (Nouveau)
Brads – Basic Grey
Glossy Accents – Ranger (Clear)


Other Stash Bits
Plain Red Card
Red Cord
i-top brad covered with Daisy D’s paper
Fine Black pen for hand journaling
Computer and Printer for word tiles

The next thing I have to show you was also mentioned on Wednesday.

You may have read that I won some Blog Candy from the amazingly talented Nicky; well it arrived this morning along the gorgeous card that she had shown on her blog.

Just look at all this gorgeousness!


.

I'v said to Nicki that if I can turn out anything that looks half as good as her card I’m going to be over the moon, so watch this space in the near future to see if I manage it. Mind you, it may be a little while because I need to get some more Kling-On or something for the back.

Thanks again Nicky, I still can’t believe that I won.

Lastly I have a little acquisition to show you that I acquired this morning.

I don’t know about you but whenever I’m out I keep an eye open for things that might make good storage in my craft room. Well, this morning while I was out I popped into the new Robert Dyas shop that has opened in our High Road. I love shops like that, lots of kitchen nick knacks and garden bits....a real treasure trove and as I was walking round I came across a stand full of these Antony Worrall Spice Racks.


They were marked down from £29.99 to £14.99 as the managers special offer......too good to miss if you ask me!

I can just see it sitting on the shelf in my room with all the little jars filled with flowers, buttons and lots of little colourful things but first I either have to do loads of cooking to use up the spices or find something to decant them into.......wish me luck!

DCM - March Birthstone - Aquamarine

Can you believe that we are already into the third month of this year?

The months are just flying by and the fact that we are ready for the first dare of the month it means that the The Daring Cardmakers are bringing us the third in their series of Birthstone challenges.

The birthday stone for March is traditionally the Aquamarine and I can remember going to the Natural History museum in London when I was at school and looking in amazement all the lovely sparkles that nature provides for us. Mind you, that was a lot of years ago now and most the stuff I learned back then has long left me.

The internet is great thought and a quick ‘Google’ brings up all sorts of interesting facts about the stone……things like

The word Aquamarine is derived from the Latin words "aqua marina" which means "sea water"

Because of its link to water the gemstone is often used as a charm by sailors for protection while at sea.

The largest ever stone was found during 1910 in Brazil. It weighed in at 243 pounds (that’s enormous) and was then cut into smaller stones which yielded over 200,000 carats.

It also says that the Aquamarine comes in a wide range of natural blue colours and shades from blue and blue-green, through to sea-green, so it gave me lots of scope when I came to make my card.


This time I got very messy with the old Acrylic paints and had a go at making a Grungepaper Rose.


There was a lot of ‘waiting’ time involved it making this.

Stamp the three flowers and cut them out.
Paint the backs pale Green and let it dry.
Turn it over, paint the fronts Aqua and let them dry.
Stamp the spots.
Cut, shape and stick the layers and wait for the glue to dry.

I got there in the end though.
I finished of the flower with some paper punched leaves and some crystals and beads dangly bits that I’ve threaded onto wire.

For down in the bottom corner of the card I made three paper roses which I’ve again arranged with paper punched leaved and wired beads.

Finally the whole thing was given a liberal coating of my newest favourite thing………Rock Candy Distress Stickles………soooooooo lush!



Square Card Blank – Craft Creations (Embossed Hammer)
Patterned Papers – Basic Grey (Wisteria)
Inks – Ranger Distress Ink (Weathered Wood) Adirondack (Denim)
Acrylic Paint – Ranger Adirondack Dabbers (Aqua & Juniper)
Rubber Stamps – The Artistic Stamper (Flowers & Spots)
Dies – Cuttlebug Nestabilities (Large Deckled Rectangle)
Embossing Plate – Fiskars
Paper Punch – Martha Stewart (Frond) Fiskars (Ribbon Slits Border punch)
Glitter Glue – Ranger Distress Stickles (Rock candy)

Stash Stuff
Plain Paper (Navy)
Ribbon
Beads
Wire
.

'What's on your Work Desk' Wednesday

Another busy start to the week for me.

Monday I had my three month check up at Moorfields and I came away with the good news that all has gone well and they’ve discharged me.

The not so good bit is that I was hoping that they would say if and when the cataract could be done but it not growing very fast and it could be years before they do anything about it. All I can do now is keep reminding myself that things could have been a lot worse, I could have lost my sight in that eye completely so I just need to be patient.

Yesterday I went to Lakeside shopping with my friend Susan.
She was looking for an outfit for her daughters wedding in August and I was looking for some new jeans but our shopping spree didn't turn out to be fruitful. She came back with nothing at all and I brought six pairs of knickers.
We did have a nice lunch out though!

Then, this morning I had to take my Dad for a blood test but then got so carried away with myself when I got back that I almost forgot it was ‘What’s on your Work Desk’ day. Still, better late than never and the photos are done now.

Just a quick word of warning to Angie though before I show them to you ………Angie, you need to be sitting down because what you’re about to see may make you feel faint.


I’m actually working on a page for my Footprints in the Sands of Time heritage album........ and how many months since I did the last one........I'm ashamed to say!
I was looking through the box of old photos again and I came across this one of Nan, Granddad and Granddad’s sister, Great Aunt Em. They were just arriving home after a day trip to Folkstone, in Kent.

I love this picture......just look at the shape of the old coach.


I’ve had a go at restoring the picture in Photoshop because it had some quite nasty creases in it but I didn’t really know what I was doing so it was more a case of hit this button and see what happens. I eventually came across the healing tool and managed to remove the marks but I just can’t seem to get the colour right, it looks very Green to me but it’s the best I can do.

So, what else is there to see?

Well you might have spyed some pegs up on top of my boxes.
Don’t worry, they in no way indicate that I’ve been doing washing, perish the thought. No, I was using them to make one of those Grunge board roses and they were the only thing I could find to hold it together while the glue dried. Check out the Daring Cardmakers on Friday morning after 10am to see the finished article.

There’s also evidence on my desk that the long awaited reorganization that I’ve been threatening for some time has begun.


My collection of Distress inks has grown rather since last weeks craft day on QVC, so I thought I would make a start on them by labeling all the containers on the sides and also sorting out some little reseal able bags for the Cut and Dry foam to keep them from getting too messy.

So that’s about it from me for this week. Don’t forget to pop over to Julia’s Blog and join in the fun, its great having a good old nosey around everyone’s desks.

Just one last thing before I go.

I want to say a huge Thank You to Minxy because I was lucky enough to win her birthday blog candy last week. The strange thing was, although I read her post last week and left a message it didn’t register that there was blog candy up for grabs, so imagine my surprise when I had a message to tell me to stop by again.
Now I can’t wait for the beautiful stamps to arrive…….so thanks again!

I really am going now so get the kettle on and I’ll be stopping by to see what you’re all up to this week.

Sue
x