WOYWW #239

Father Christmas came to our house!!!!

I saved a lot of packaging just in case ... something to practice with ... stored it in an Audrey Hepburn box cos I so agree with what she says ....





... and I am happy!!!!




Sorry you had to look at my DH's desk but mine is covered with 'stuff' and can't be found!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
HAPPY, HAPPY, JOY, JOY!!!!

HAPPY 2014!  GOOD HEALTH!  GOOD LOVING!

WOYWW #238

Happy Christmas Everyone!
Yes!  this sad person is WOYWWing - tis Wednesday after all!
And ....IT'S CHRISTMAAAAS!

Now then, gather round ... this is my desk ....

You will see that the modelling paste has multiplied!  Couldn't resist could I?
Empty Costa cup - bought specially to enter a photo in their contest - link was broke, I complained, they gave me extra points on my account!
New Snowman ATCs - they needed to be handpainted - he! he!  Hysterical they will be!
That is not a Christmas pressie opened in the lower left corner - birthday present taken out of the box so I could put some Dollars in for my GD's Chrissie pressie - she'll never guess what they are!!!
So that's the desk for today, tomorrow, and the next couple of days!
IT'S CHRISTMAAS!
Christmas Dinner at our local Carvery with DH & C, followed by Boxing Day with N - then a couple of days to recover ......

BUT
I shall be visiting around later on - don't know when but I will....

WOYWW #237

Woo!  Hoo!  It's Wednesday!  The last gathering before Christmas!  Gathering?!?! if you don't know by now all the details are on the tab at the top of the page - WOYWW - if you want to join in contact our gracious hostess Julia.

Here is my desk today - actually today, not yesterday some time, but this morning .... early ... after it was light....

There are no Christmas things, a few birthday cards (cut up or whole), left over nets and half made snowmen ATCs among the 'stuff'.  

I am entering a swap for Hysterical Historical Snowmen, so Caesar is about to get a robe, Louis XIV has an embroidered waistcoat and wig and so far Rasputin has an egg!

More importantly for our UK desk viewers there is a jar of this - Moulding Paste .... didn't know what it was, there were three types on the shelf at Lidl so I bought the course hoping it was similar to Gesso, of which there is a big white tub of already.

It is like Gesso .... spread some over a bright green card and left to dry, I smacked it with a rainbow inkpad next day and .... different!  

Love it!  wish I had some before to use as snow!!!  

But I can wait till next year .... 

huh! 

as if!  

Perfect excuse to make some more Christmas card backgrounds for next year's post!!!

Background Making Day

I had such fun just trying so much out.  Some I like and some I will cover over with something else.  Who knows which or with what.

I sorted out all my stencils, nets, punchings, stamps, Gesso and glues.
I mean business.

I am using green card as I have an excess of it at the moment.


Card One - spread with Gesso using my fingers to form smallish swirls and put to dry.  I then used three sizes of bubble wrap with red ink stamp pad to press the pattern all over the A4 sheet.

Card Two - while the Gesso is open I covered the Art Nouveau 'stencil' so that the outline stands proud.  I stamped a banner stencil with yellow, an ivy leaf with blue, some punchings in various colours.  I painted through the Art stencil with yellow H2O pearls, brushed it over the gesso in the top right and then, using all three colours brushed it zig zag style in the lower corner.

Card Three - I tapped a varied colour ink pad over this sheet, spritzed with three colours and put to one side to dry.  When dry, I used an open card to spray a circle or two.  I stenciled a few flower shapes using the punchings and then .... used my brayer and various inkpads to bray along the 'lines' to give a cross hatch.

Card Four - I used an ivy stencil with a red inkpad and then turned it over and pressed it down to give a negative, and then pressed it again  which gave a slightly paler print.  Taping down one of my nets I sprayed the page with spritzer and stencilled some of it with yellow H2O.  When dry I used an ivy patterned brayer in lines of green.

Card Five - I placed circles of card randomly on the paper, stamped with the varied inkpad, dabbed Gesso randomly, added some gold paper bits and put to one side to dry.  I then removed the circles and stamped random images over the dry paper.

I took a sheet of white tissue paper and scrunched it up tightly into a ball.  Opening it out, I stamped a fir tree stamp in blue and black along the length.

Going back into my room the next day I decided I wasn't really happy with the randomness of sheet five so I adhered the tissue paper using Gesso and put it to dry.

I still don't know!!

December Fun

I love to enter into the Technique Swaps on this Group as Melody sets some wonderful challenges.  The first look makes the card look simple but it hardly ever works out like that!!
I thought that it is easy to create our own take on a card which is what it looked like, however .... I then re-read the instructions ... yes! I know! read twice and inwardly digest!!!

Here is the card (which you can find all about here)

Now I read the instructions - stamp an outline and then fill the outline with smaller stamps.
The only suitable outline stamp I own is a flower, which I stamped in black and embossed in black.  I filled in the petals by using some of my smaller Tapestry stamps ...
.... it doesn't look quite right so I went back to the relevant post and read it again ....

I emailed Melody as it looks like the challenge is to stamp the pear shape ... I don't want to buy a new stamp for a one off ...
.... no!!!
use the outline of the pear and copy the style in your own way.

So I found a digi of a pear outline, filled it in using flower stamps to shade the pear from deep orange through to lemon, using green ink and leaf stamps for the leaf and a brown butterfly for the stalk.  It was good to use my Tapestry stamps a different way.

A piece of paper with leaves punched through, a piece of pink wall paper and then ... three metallic leaves all complete the card.
My take on this card is complete!

Birth Card

Bonfire Night Party meant I met our new neighbour's daughter - so close to having her baby.
A week later she had a little boy - Toby - so I finished a crocheted shawl that just needed the ribbon adding and made a little card.

The decoupage was put together at an earlier date, as the shawl was, and just waiting to be finished.  I added the peeloff and wrote a little message inside.

I love making up these decoupage sets and keeping them ready for emergencies!

Sympathy Cards

Sadly I have had occasion to make a couple of Sympathy cards just recently.  I am not very good with writing sentiments so I made one that was really plain and yet ...
The first card came as a kit - from a long time ago - and was not intended as a Sympathy card but I changed the peeloffs.

One white card with the lower half covered in black/white paper - here I have used dots but, on occasion, I have also used stripes.  I wrapped a black ribbon round the patterned paper before attaching it to the card.  Use another piece of ribbon to tie a bow round the ribbon strip and the stem of a flower.  Tuck a small tag with the peel off behind the ribbon using a glue dot.
I wrote my message inside, without a verse, and sent it off.  I hope that my love came through.

WOYWW #236

Here is the desk of a crafter about to skive off work and indulge in a bit of messy play.  

All the gear is collected real close and she is about to don her pinny and create backgrounds to her hearts delight..... but she has to be quick before she is discovered ......

Note for Julia - that 'stencil' is out again ....

Have a good week everyone - happy WOYWW

Christmas Cards ready to write

The first batch are now waiting for inserts - when the PC works again!  I have spent some time putting these together and once posted I will start on the second batch.  I have been slowed up a bit by having to make some more ATCs as it looks like my last postings for 12 Days has gone astray (see ATC Wannabee Blog) ... but I am pleased with these.

almost good enough for WOYWW!!!

WOYWW #235

Look!
Clean Desk!
Why?
Cos I am decorating, painfully decorating!  i used to love decorating in every form but now the body doesn't enjoy climbing ladders, pasting above my head, painting all round etc. etc. but ....
.... just remember it will all look wonderful when finished!
so here's the clear desk ... everything to hand but no crafting.

Enjoy!
I know you won't ..... and why?
cos this is 'What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday' that's why!
Just check out the tab at the top of the page and you can find all the info as to why we are desk hopping round here .....

oh! and Julia - found this on a railway station platform, don't know why but it made me think of you .....

love the caterpillar and butterfly ....