WOYWW #180

WOYWW #180

As it’s getting nearer to Christmas I’m getting busier and busier and having difficulty in finding time on a Wednesday to join in with the weekly desk hop. But I miss my visits to The Stamping Ground so I’ve managed a quick post this morning.

My table is as I left it last night after an evening of making more Christmas cards. I’ve still a dozen or so to make so I really do need to knuckle down and get them finished this week.

On the corner of the table is a little pile of cross stitched squares that are waiting to be photographed to go on my sewing blog.

They are for a charity called Stitches Of Love And Kindness (SOLAK) and they make quilts for adults and children with long term or terminal illness.

The idea is that a family member will request a quilt and give us a list of possible themes and colours that the recipient would like and we all sign up on the date base for the squares we want to stitch until they have all eight squares covered, then they are sent to the organizer and the quilt is made up.

I signed up to stitched mine for a lady who wanted handbags and fashion and another who asked for no particular theme but wanted bright Pinks, Purples and Yellows so I went with birds and flowers.

You can see them in close up over at I’d rather Be Stitching!


So that’s it for another week.

Don’t forget to pop across to The Stamping Ground and add your name to the list of busy crafters this week, so we can call in for a coffee and a nosy and thanks for stopping by to visit me. I’ll be by to see what you’re up to later.


Happy Crafting!

Sue

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WOYWW #178 - Hopping Mad!

Fear not my fellow Workdesk Wednesdayer’s, I’m not hopping mad about anything at all really but it’s an appropriate blog title, you’ll see what I mean in a minute.

As you know, it’s desk visiting day over at the The Stamping Ground and Julia is waiting patiently for everyone to link a picture of their work spaces as she does every Wednesday, so without further ado, here’s mine.

I’m still working on layouts.

The one of my brother that I was working on last week is now finished and on My Heritage Blog  and I’ve also put on another page of  Mum & Dad’s Wedding, which you’ve may have already seen on here when I was working on it,  but it never made it to the other blog.

The one I’m working on now is actually a remake of the very first double page LO I ever created.

I was never very happy with these originally LOs, the papers were of poor quality and my artistic flare was nowhere to be seen as you can tell, so I decided I would do the two pages again using some of the original embelishments, including the journaling tag I made and now I’m happy with it I think.


The pages are of my Great Grand Mother and her extended family on their annual jaunt to the hop fields of Kent, hence my blog post heading.

The photos are from various years, my dad was seven in the one of him in the hop bines, so that was taken in 1930 and at least one of the others was from 1951 so the family tradition carried on for many years.


The finished pages are   on my other blog too, together with a first-hand account from my 2nd cousin Roy Jenner who’s featured in the photo from 1951.
In it he recounts one of their train journeys down to Goudhurst from London.

It’s well worth a read if you get a minute because it really does give you a feel for the era.
Roy lives out in Auckland now and is a talented crime writer, in fact the book I’m reading of his at the moment,   'There’s No Hiding Place'  is set in London and Goudhurst in Kent!

Well that’s it for another week.

I’ll be by tomorrow to see what you’re all up to as I’m out on my broomstick tonight, Lol!
Happy Halloween and
Happy Crafting!

Sue

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WOYWW #177 - Big Brother!

Well, it’s not so much ‘Big Brother’ as ‘Little Brother’ really because on my desk this morning is a LO I’m trying to construct of my oldest brother Keith when he was around a year old.

I’m working from an old template from Scrapbook Steals.com and have only just started so nothing has been stuck down yet and I’m still looking through my stash for embellishments.

As you can see, I’ve copied the photo and tried to clean it up a bit in Photoshop but it’s still not great and I think I may have lightened it up a little too must, so I’ll probably have another little play with it before I stick it down.

If it still doesn’t look right I may consider using the original.

I’m know that some people don’t agree with doing that but on the other hand, the photo will just sit on the box with lots of others that don’t often get looked at so it will be safer in the album. At least it will be ‘true vintage’ with all the creases and marks on it.

Last week I was saying that I was in the process of putting some of my other LO’s on my heritage blog but I got a bit distracted and didn’t do any in the end, so this week I really do intend to make a concerted effort to get them on there. I think I’ll aim to put this one on as soon as it’s finished and then add some of the others at the same time…….so watch this space!


So that’s about all I have to show you for this week and it’s just as well because I know that  Julia  likes her What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday’ers to keep things short so it makes it easier to visit more desks.


Thanks for stopping by and ………….

Happy Crafting!

Sue
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WOYWW #176 - Play Station!

Another Wednesday and another What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, which means that Julia is hosting yet another desk hop from her blog, The Stamping Ground.

On my ‘Play Station’ this week is a card I’ve just finished which has a boy playing with his PlayStation on the front of it, which is quite apt really and strewed across my table are all the bits and bobs that I’ve used to make it.

There’s nothing very interesting really, a few tools like my Creative Memories cutting system for cutting circles and my Croperdile which turned out to be no good for where I wanted to punch the holes, so I resulted to the good old fashioned way of adding my eyelets, which a hammer.

There’s lots of Promarkers out too but I really need to perfect my technique with these because my shading certainly isn’t up to scratch.

Also out are my newish set of Paula Pascale Birthday Greeting stamps, a couple of ink pads and the My Mind’s Eye ‘Complete Boy’ papers that I’ve been using.

So that’s it for this week, short and sweet for a change, just the way Julia likes it, Lol!

I've shown a few more of the little pillows for the Advent Wall Hanging on my My Sewing Blog  but have noticed that something on yesterday's post about this months TUSAL needs to be altered, so I'm off to do that and then I’ll be back armed with my coffee for a good old snoop.

Happy Crafting!

Sue
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WOYWW #175 - Where did the year go?

I’ve been such a bad blogger lately and didn’t even manage to drop in on everyone that visited me for  What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday  last week.
There’s no excuse really other than the fact I was a bit distracted by a hospital appointment that was imminent, when I would get the results of the genetic blood test, but I’ll try and do better this week if I can.

The appointment I speak of was yesterday and it didn’t really go the way I wanted it to.
It turns out that I do have the hereditary faulty gene that was responsible for my cousin’s stroke last year, which increases my chances of having one by 5 – 7%.  I’m not going to dwell on it though, after all, I’ve lived with it for 57 years without knowing and had no problems so it’s a case of forearmed is forewarned. The only precaution I have to take is Aspirin everyday so I think I can cope with that.
I still would have been happier if it had come back clear though.

Anyway, enough of that and on to the reason we are here this morning and that’s so I can show you what’s on my desk.

I was quite shocked when I realised that it’s been a year this week since I last updated Family Footprints in the Sands of Time, my heritage blog ………..how ashamed am I………..…so I decided to get my albums out and that’s what’s laying on my table this morning.

It’s not that I haven’t done any layouts in that time, just that I’ve not put them on the blog, so it’s not quite as bad as it looks.

There’s also some very old pages that are not on there either so my aim this week is to bring it up to date with all the things I’ve already done and then work on some new pages.

Maybe I could start with Keith, my big brother, given that he celebrated his 65th birthday and Retirement at the weekend with a family get together.

Thanks for stopping by this week. I’m going to grab a cup of coffee now and then I’ll be by to see what you are all up to.

Happy Crafting!

Sue

x

WOYWW #174 - A Stitch In Time Saves Nine

Even though I managed to miss last week’s round of desk hopping I’m still in denial that Wednesday’s here again and it’s time to let you glympse what’s on my table curtsey of Julia, our leader over at The Stamping Ground.

And despite being AWOL for two weeks I still don’t have very much to show you really.
It’s been a bit of a messy week with lots of odd jobs being done, including the paper work for my dreaded tax return which for once I’m getting it done early instead of the last minute rush I usually end up having.

So anyway, here’s my table as it was at 11 o’clock this morning.

As you can see, I have the sewing machine out again and am just stitching the sides of some of the little Advent Calendar pillows so they don’t fray.

I’ve been spending a lot of time working on it because I’m very conscious that I only have about seven weeks to get it all finished and to its new home but I think I’m on track. I just have seven motifs and seven dates to stitch, and then all the making up to do, so fingers crossed it all goes to plan.

Just behind my machine you can see the fabric that I brought on ebay for the quilt backing that the little pillows hang on. I’m just waiting for the wadding to arrive and then come the very scary bit for me because as I’ve said before, I’m useless at machining. I just keep telling myself that it’s just straight stitching, take my time and it will all be alright but the little scardy cat inside me keeps saying, but what if I mess it up………only time will tell!

I’ve done some more of my own personal Christmas cards over the last couple of weeks too and they are all sealed in their envelopes with stamps on ready to post when the time comes but silly me forgot to take photos of them so I can’t show you…………what am I like!

You can see evidence of some of the coloured images still sitting at the back of my desk though and there still lots more stamped and ready to colour when I get a minute.

Well, that’s about it for another week and I have a few things going on before I see you next time.
The first is the family get together for my brothers birthday and retirement on Saturday, which I’m looking forward to and then next Tuesday is the dreaded hospital appointment when I find out if I have the hereditary gene that caused my cousins stroke last December.
Can’t say I’m looking forward to that one at all.

Lastly, I have a couple of photos to share with you that were taken from my kitchen window of my bird feeder.

Seven little Gold Finches enjoying a meal of Sunflower hearts.

I do love to stand and watch the birds feeding and at one point there were nine of them on there, as well as two Blue Tits on the peanuts and a little Robin on the tray at the bottom.
The Squirrel was about too but he’s just a pain in the bum because he keeps digging holes in the grass to bury the nuts and when he’s not doing that he’s nicking the stones from the tops of my pots.

Well, that really is it.
Don’t forget to visit Julia’s and add your name to Mr. Linky.

Happy Crafting!

Sue

x

Dreaming of a ‘Blue’ Christmas

Just getting in with this one by the skin of my teeth but Enfys over at Going Buggy was running another fun challenge this month and it was to make a Christmas card in non-traditional colours.

I’ve gone with shades of Blue and Brown.

It’s a slightly larger card than I usually make because I treated myself to some 8 x 8 scalloped edge card blanks……….I know, you’re saying that card isn't scalloped, but because as the card is for a man I thought I would trim off the edges.

I started by inking the card itself with Stormy Sky and Frayed Burlap Distress ink and them over stamped sprigs with the Frayed Burlap.

The main image is a Kanban Crafts one, stamped onto Kraft card stock with the Stormy Sky inkpad and then given a light touch of Frosted Lace Stickles and a sprinkle of Polar White Flower Soft.

The greeting is a LOTV one, stamped onto Kraft card and distressed around the edges.


I’m also linking this into the  All Sorts - challenge where the theme is 'Inspired By A Song'.


Thanks for stopping by.


Happy Crafting!

Sue
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WOYWW #172 - Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly, Fa la la la la la la la la

Can you tell I’m in Christmas mode?

My desk on this bright and sunny  What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday is covered with all things Christmas and my Christmas cards are well on the way to getting made.

It’s funny how you can’t face making a start on them but once you get into it it’s really fun.

The cards that are already in my box on the Left of the table are the ones that I made and didn’t send last year due to being stranded in Germany with my cousin for three weeks.
I just simply run out of time in the end and decided it was best not to send any handmade ones at all and keep them so I had a head start this year.
I’ve still lots to make thought so this week I’ve had the stamps out (you can still see them in the box beside my table) as well as some decoupage and die cuts.

Now for those of you who visited me last week and wanted a better look at the Advent Calendar that I’m stitching, you can see it better over at I’d Rather Be Stitchin’, my stitching blog.
It’s coming along nicely but I still have a lot of stitching to do, as well as eventually tackling the backing piece for it, so it should keep my occupied for a while.

And last but not least for those of you who left me comments last week, I said I would put all the names in the virtual hat and pick a winner for my birthday blog candy.

At the time I hadn’t a clue what I was going to offer but in the end I decided on this little lot.

12 sheets Memory Box 12 x 12 double sided decorative papers
Book Print A5 pad - Papermania
1 pack 10 sheets Grunge board – Tim Holtz
1 pack Bazzill Chips Garden Flowers – Bazzill
1 chipboard Flower Book
1 Cosmic Shimmer Mist – Mallow Blush
1 Distress Ink Pad – Fired Brick
6 Maya Road Ribbon Slides
1 pack Creative Acrylics Mirrored Ribbon Slides
1 pack Red Flower and Lace Trims
1 Box Red, Pink & Clear Glass Beads
12 Red Roses
1 pack Forever Friend Spring Time Decoupage Sheets
1 pack Daisy & Dandelion Decoupage Sheets
1 pack Papermania Gemstone Butterfly Stickers
1 pack EK Success Dainty Black Flourish Stickers
1 pack Heidi Swapp Daisy Stickers
1 pack Special Moments Stickers
1 pack Eno Craft Pirate Stickers
1 pack Heidi Swapp Puffy Floral Centres
1 pack Skeleton Leaves
1 pack Go West Studios Acrylics (Thanks & Happy,Smile,Laugh)
1 pack Dress It Up Bakers Dozen Buttons


So without further ado…….the winner (as chosen by Random Org) is

Claire from Cardz By Claire

  Please Email me here Claire  and I will get it in the post to as soon as I can.  Fingers crossed there's something in there that you'll be able to play with!

I hope you all have a wonderful week and until we meet again………

Happy Crafting!

Sue

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WOYWW #171 - Another Year Older

OK, it's just a few days older, but Sunday was a bit special as I was born in 1956 and this birthday was my 56th, so if ever there was a reason to celebrate, that was it and I want all my regular WOYWW friends to be a part of the celebrations too.

My Blogaversary managed to slip by somehow in July without me noticing, so I’ve decided instead to have some Birthday Candy if you're up for it.  I'm not sure what it’s going to be yet but I’ll pick a winner from everyone who visits my blog and leaves me a massage this week and announce the winner next week. By then I should have something together to send to you.

Now then, onto the reason we are gathered here this bright but chilly Wednesday morning and unveil me desk for you to see.

There’s not actually very much going on at the moment but I’ve been getting a few Christmas bits together and today's the day I make a start on the long list of Christmas cards I have to do each year.

After winning the all those lovely LOTV stamps I thought I would also treat myself to their new set of Christmas Grungy Messages and two of their Christmas paper stacks, so they are sitting ready and waiting along with a pad from Hobbycraft and Do Crafts and a Goody Bag from Craftworks Cards, so that little lot should keep me going for a while.

Over to the Left, just behind my box of Promarkers you can see my sewing machine which is seeing the light of day for the first time in years I think!

After dusting it off ….boy was it thick………I was using it to make up some of those little pillows for the advent calendar that I showed you last week.

The stitching still continues in the evenings while I’m watching TV and I now have six completely finished.  Just 36 motifs left to stitch equating to 18 little pillows to make up……should get it done before December……..I hope.
All I have to do now is find some very simple instructions for making up the quilted backing that they will all hang against.

The Stamping Ground is the place to go if you want to link your desk for the weekly blog hop that is What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, so pop across and join in, but beware, it’s very addictive.


Happy Crafting!

Sue

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On a Journey with Slimming World

So here we are then, my second post in a day and my altered frame is all finished.

It's gone from this £1.99 photo frame from Dunelm Mills

to a celebration of food, fit for a Slimming World Consultant about to leave her job.

I started by giving the frame a coat of White and Green Acrylic paint that was sponged on in layers, then when it was dry I stamped swirls (My Paper World – Grasses & Embellishments) with pale Blue Acrylic and finally gave the whole thing a light going over with a metallic Gold Rub-On

I wasn’t actually planning to use the photo mount but in the end I decided to keep it and coloured it direct to card with a Tumbled Glass Distress ink pad and them stamped the leaves and flowers ( Rubber Stamp Tapestry Clear – Nature Plate 4) in Bundled Sage and Worn Lipstick, finishing with some tiny gems in the centre of each of the flowers.

Next up was the outside decoration.

Two chipboard Flourishes coloured with a Promarker and a polish of Gold Rub-On. Flowers cut using Timmies Tattered Flower die and a Martha Stewart punch for the leaves, all topped off with some sticky backed pearls. The centre of the large flower has one of the rolled flowers from my new Craftworks Cards ‘Elegant’ flowers and paper pad, which I’ve coloured with Tumbled Glass distress ink.  All the flowers were then given a brush of Stickles and a touch of Gold Rub-On.

Then last but not least I printed the ‘On A Journey’ on my computer, cut it using nesties to make a tag and tied it to the flowers in the top corner along with a heart shaped charm.

And there you have it!

But as you can see from this photo, I didn’t stop there because I then made a matching card to go with it.

I’m linking my project to the following challenges :-

The Stamp Man - Alter something

and

The Daring Cardmaker’s - Focus on Flowers

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Crafting!

Sue
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WOYWW #170 - You’ve been Framed

A photo of my desk in the sunshine, now there’s a rare thing, Lol!

It’s deceiving thought because when I put my bins out this morning it was decidedly nippy so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will warm up a bit later and I can grab an hour in the garden with my cross stitch or reading.


Before I show you what’s on my desk today I’ll just give you a little update on my eye situation.

I was at the hospital on Monday and had the laser treatment to remove part of the secondary cataract that had grown and I’m pleased to say it went well and no pain or discomfort, so that was a bonus.

My sight improved almost immediately but because it was thicker than they first thought I have a lot of little floaters in my eye from the debris left behind after the treatment but they tell me that they will settle down in a day or two which I hope is correct because it’s distracting……like lots of little black flies buzzing around me.

My only worry now is that one of the side effects of the treatment can be a delayed retinal detachment (which I had in the first place and started the whole nightmare off) so it’s a waiting game and only time will tell, so fingers crossed it doesn’t happen again.

So now it’s back to crafting for me big time and here’s what I have to show all you Whatsonyourworkdesksaholics  (I’ve just invented a new word, Lol)  who congregate over at The Stamping Ground every Wednesday.

All I can say about this today is that it's all Trish’s fault because until she sent me all those lovely paints and the canvas a few weeks back I had never ventured into the realms of Acrylic paint but now, here I am altering a picture frame and getting very messy with it.

I wanted to make a little gift for my Slimming world consultant who is leaving us this week, to say thank you for the support she’s given me over the last Eight months, because without her help to keep me on track (most of the time) I don’t think I would have lost the two stone that I have.

As soon as I saw the chart for this little cutie I knew it was just right for Emma because she’s surrounded by all the good thing we can eat on our plan, Pasta and fresh veggies.
Maybe not the cake she seems to be making but we can pretend she’s whipping up an omelette, Lol!

I’m still not sure what I’m doing with the frame, it will evolve as it goes along I'm sure, so pop back in a day or two and you’ll see how it turned out.

Also on my desk this week are the lovely pile of LOTV stamps that I was lucky enough to win. I’ve not used them yet other than to stamp out the images you see in each packet but I really do need to make a start on ‘Christmas’ so over the next few weeks I’m guessing they are going to get a good bashing.

Well, I have nothing else to report so I’ll say ‘Happy Crafting’ for now and I’ll be stopping by later to see what masterpieces everyone is working on this week.

See you in a while.

Sue
x

Update - You can see the finished frame here.

Feeling Old

At the start of October my big brother will be sixty five and he’s decided to take retirement.

He made the decision to pack up this year after the firm he works for moved premises, which changed his five minute commute to a forty-five minute one on a day  (which are few and far between) and up to an hour and twenty minutes on a bad one, which turned out to be most days.

I  am pleased for him because he really hates all the extra time spent traveling but the thought that he's retiring makes me realize that we are the older generation now, which is not a nice thought. But then again, there’s nine years between us and I’m still the ‘baby’ of the family really so I guess I shouldn’t let it get to me too much…….not yet, anyway!

So, with his birthday and retirement in mind I need to make two card for him and there’s also the possibility that my other brother will ask me to do the same for him too, so this morning I thought I’d get a head of the game, just in case.

For my starting point I decided to use this template from the Here Come The Boys  challenge.

I thought I would go with a vintage feel and have used up lots of my old stash, some of which has been hanging around since I started making cards seven years ago, like the lovely old car.
That was a sheet from a book of Heritage Vellums by Hot Off The Press.

Other old stash includes the papers that are from the DCWV 'The Natural Stack', the tiny brads and the three buttons which I've given a makeover to by colouring them with Promarkers.


I’m entering this into the following challenges:-

Hooked On Craft– Cards for men

Kaboodle Doodles – Tribute to Someone Older 

I actually love the sketch so much that I made another birthday card using it but I can’t link this one to any of the above challenges because it doesn’t fit the brief, but I just wanted to share it with you.

For this one I’ve used a scrap of old ‘In the Meadow’ paper from Daisy Bucket and combined it with some of the new Craftworks Cards Distressed Pad and also a greeting and some paper from their Sweet Pea Collection.


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

Happy Crafting!

Sue
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WOYWW #169 - I’m in Stitches!

It’s time for the Wednesday Desk reveal and as Julia tries to keep her stalkers, sorry, I mean followers in line over at The Stamping Ground, I’ve taken a photo of my desk this morning and it’s looking very different.

As you can see, I’ve been sorting out some threads for my latest cross stitch project and my table is covered with threads, colour charts and some pieces that are already stitched and ready to be stitched together.

When I saw this Advent Wall Hanging in a copy of Cross Stitcher I decided that it was

something I would like to stitch for one of the Kids Company Centres that I help stitch the cushions for, but if the truth be known, that was probably more than two years ago and I only managed to stitch about two of the little squares before having the trouble with my eyes, so it was put in a bag at the bottom of one of the cupboards in my craft room and forgotten about for a while.

I always fully intended to finish it, but when I pulled the bag out a week or so ago I discovered that the chart wasn’t with the stitching I’d already done and I couldn’t find it anywhere.

Luckily eBay came up trumps though and I managed to find a copy of the magazine, so yesterday I started sorting out some more threads to use.

The nice thing about the project is that everything I’m using has been donated.

All the threads you can see are either from the enormous gift from Sew and So  or my lovely friend Nicki in Switzerland and the fabric I’m using was given to me be my equally lovely friend Lythan.
The only thing I might have to buy is the beads and fine ribbon I will need but I’ll have a look in my own stash first to see if I have anything before I go out shopping.

Thanks for stopping by this week.

I’m off to make a coffee now and then I'll settle down for a spot of desk hopping to see what you’re up to, via The Stamping Ground,

Happy Crafting!

Sue

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On A Roll!

Well I’ve definitely taken up the challenge and am on a roll, so here’s another card in the same shades of Blue for the Creative Craft Challenges 2 and Tuesday Throwdown challenges.



I’ve used another stamp that was free with Craft Stamper, embossed the image with clear embossing powder and added some flat backed pearls that I’ve coloured with Promarkers.

Happy Crafting!
Sue
x

Very pleased to say my card was the randon picked winner of the challenge.....Yah!

Monochromatic - Hip to be Square

I always find monochromatic cards a bit of a challenge so when I saw that  Creative Craft Challenges 2  had that as their theme this week I just had to give it a go.

Here’s what I came up with:-

It was simply water coloured squares that were matted on Blue card. I've then stamped and embossed the flowers (Free Craft Stamper stamp) and mounted them on 3D foam over the top.
It's finished off with a Craftworks Cards greeting in the centre.

I'm also linking  this card to  Tuseday Throwdown - where the theme is 'Hip to be Square'

Happy Crafting!

Sue

x

You Have To Be In It To Win It.

Never a truer statement has ever been made!

While I was doing my evening check on the blogs I follow last night I came upon Bev’s blog, All The Things I Love and noticed that Lili Of The Valley were holding a blog hop with two of the most amazing prizes up for grabs.

To celebrate the launch of their four new sheets of Christmas Sentiment stamps ( £50) and ten new Christmas Animal stamps (£45) they had devised a blog hop around the DT with a set of each up for grabs.

So armed with a cup of coffee and a chocolate digestive, I settled at my computer and spent the next 45 mins hopping around each of the design teams blogs and Oooo’d and Awwww’d over all the beautiful creations and thinking that with so many people also lusting for the new stamps I wouldn’t stand a chance in hell of winning one of the sets.

Well, she of little faith…………….

I arrived home this afternoon after a shopping trip with my friend Susan to be greeted to the news that I had been one of the two lucky winners and will be receiving the set of ten Christmas Animal stamps any day now…….how wonderful is that!

I’m still in disbelief and can’t thank LOTV, the design team and especially Bev enough for the fun blog hop and for the wonderful and very generous prize……….I just hope I can do them justice.


Thanks again and…….

Happy Crafting!

Sue

x x x

Tee Time! - WOYWW #168 (but on Tuesday)

Good Evening blog hoppers.

The Stamping Ground will be  ready and waiting for visitors from all around the world to drop in tomorrow and reveal what’s on their desks this week and Julia will standing by to keep us all in order, so without further ado, here’s what was on my desk today, because I'm out tomorrow.

As you can see I was mid-way through making a card, one of six that needed to go in the post tonight, so out are my Promarkers, Distress Inks, MME papers from the 12 x 12 Complete Boy Stack and  you’ll probably notice that I’ve still not put the ribbons and lace away that I brought a week or so ago because it’s still sitting in the bag at the back of the table. Mind you, the fact that it’s there means that I’ve already used quite a bit of it and will have to get myself some more very soon……..any old excuse, Lol!

Also out is this card sketch from the latest challenge over at Sweet Sketch Wednesday

Anyway, here’s the finished card, which I’m submitting for their challenge.

The image is a free clip art that I found on the web.

That’s about it really, oh  but before I go,  I might just have a little confession to make.

I don’t often buy from QVC but I did succumb a little bit this afternoon and might just have some Craftworks Cards stash heading to my craft room very soon……..Hurry up postie!

So I hope you all have a wonderful and creative week ahead.


Happy Crafting!

Sue
x

Love Birds

I had to make a couple of Anniversary cards today and just happened to have a Kanban sheet of Anniversary toppers that features two pretty birdies sitting a branch, so it fits in with the latest challenge over at the  Crafty Boots Challenge Blog.



I’ve decoupaged the layers and decorated with ribbon, buttons, gems and Stickles.

I've never used Kanban products before other than their Acrylic stamps and was really suprised at the quality of the sheet.  Nice thick card and beautiful foiling too, so I'll definitly be using their stuff again.


I'm also linking my card to the following challenge blogs:-

Really Reasonable Ribbon - Purple Pizazz and Ribbon.
and

The Poodle Parlour - Let’s see those die cuts

Happy Crafting!

Sue

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Out of my Comfort Zone…………..BIG TIME!

When I was lucky enough to win the fab blog candy that Trish had up for grabs recently I was really panicking about what I had gotten myself into.

Getting myself messy with paint seriously isn’t my thing and the nearest I’ve come to Acrylics was way back in 2008 when I had a go at a chipboard cover for some glass slides I had painted.


Still, I did win this fabulous prize and I was determined to give it a go, so yesterday afternoon I sat myself in front of my computer screen and watched the DVD from start to finish.




It has step by step instructions for three amazing projects as well as a glimpse of some for Trish’s favorite pieces that she’s made and it was very inspiring to say the least, so no sooner than it had finished, I was at my table with canvas, paints and stamps at the ready.


Who would have thought that ‘slapping’ some paint onto a canvas could be so scary, Lol!

But two hours (and very messy hands) later I had this little creation in front of me.

I can’t take credit for the design really because I was following Trish’s direction on the DVD but the stamp I’ve used is different and comes from The Artistic Stampers Twenties Plate, so it’s not a down and out copy of her work.

I might have overdone the amount of paint I’ve put on it, as it looks rather thick to me, so maybe I should have sponged it on rather than use my fingers first time round but I’m still quite happy with it I think.


You should really go have a look over at Ink, Paint, Beads and see Trish’s creations for yourself because they are all amazing.

Thanks again Trish for the fab prize and for adding another string to my crafting bow.

Happy Crafting!

Sue

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