Wednesday 27 October 2010

WOYWW-Nothing!

Morning lovely Bloggers. How's your week going so far. The weather's not been too bad has it, today is lovely and sunny but windy here, perfect drying weather.

It's half term for us this week and as I said last week that means decorating. We are getting on well and the new floor is going down today but because of all the stuff we've had to move out of our room this is as near as I can get to my workdesk at the moment so not a lot happening on it this week. Anyway, I thought I'd still share the general chaos with you for WOYWW. The wardrobes all this came out of are up against our bed so we are having to do acrobatics to get into each night which is causing great hilarity. We're not as bendy as we used to be!!


If you want to share your desk this week, pop over to Julia's blog to see what it's all about.

Because very little crafting has been going on I thought I'd share with you some photos of our trip out on Monday. It was one of those stunning days when the sky is amazingly blue, although cold. We went to have a look at a new installation ( I think that is probably the best way to describe it, or maybe Sculpture) that has just opened on the moors near where we live. It is to celebrate the highest quarry in England and is called The Coldstones Cut. They have built a street with lots of streets going off leading to viewing towers over the quarry one way and then out over the moors the other. You have to walk over the moor to it so it's quite strange to suddenly come upon "a street".


It was incredibly high up and very very cold but well worth it. The views were spectacular. We worked out we could see Ferrybridge power station which is about 50 miles away! The viewing area is circular and all the way round is a chart that shows you where places are around the world and how far they are away. We thoroughly enjoyed it and it's well worth a visit for all you Yorkshire Ladies, although you need a good pair of walking boots and to be well wrapped up!


Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the week.

Sunday 24 October 2010

My First Magnolia

Evening lovely Bloggers. Hasn't it been a gorgeous day and it looks as if we'll get one more sunny day before the wind and rain returns!!

Just a quick post tonight, I don't want you to think I only post on Wednesdays these days!

I reached a milestone recently and bought my first Magnolia stamp, yes I know quite incredible!! I'm not really a cute person, apart from Lily Of The Valley but wanted a stamp with the image sitting down and this was the only one I could find. I have to say that now I've used her I think she will become a firm favourite. I really enjoyed colouring her with my promarkers, before cutting her out and sitting her on the ribbon.


This is the card I made for a friends daughter's 12th Birthday. She's not a pink kind of girl, hence the blue. The BPs are all from a free CD and the flowers were punched with card candy added for the centres. The greeting was my trusty Dawn Bibby set.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you've had a great weekend.

Wednesday 20 October 2010

WOYWW With A Touch Of Bling

Hello lovely Bloggers. I've blinked and it's Wednesday again which must mean it's time to share my workdesk. I thought I'd try a different angle today, don't want to get boring, so I stood on my stool and took a high rise shot.


You can see how strong I like my tea from up here!! Christmas cards are still in full flow. These are the gorgeous Lily of the Valley images waiting to be made up. I'm trying to get as much done as possible for the school Christmas fayre before we start decorating our bedroom next week during half term, hence the lack of blogging I'm afraid. My craft room will become a dumping ground for all the stuff from under the bed and in the wardrobes for a week. Just the thought of it is filling me with horror.

What else of interest is there? My box of mint imperials is peeking out from under the growing pile of useful scraps. My DH buys nails and screws from an old fashioned iron mongers who still sells things in boxes and they are great little storage boxes. You can see the green and blue ones which contain different coloured card candy.

Well I think that's about it for this week. If you're wondering what on earth I'm doing waffling on about my desk, get yourself over to Julia's blog. She is the lady responsible for all this extremely addictive nosiness ever week.

Just before I go I thought I'd share a scrapbook layout I did a few weeks ago. Scrapbooking after all is my first love and I don't seem to get much time for it these days.


These photos were taken during our holidays and they were of the basement of the Swarovski shop in Innsbruck which is a grotto made of crystals. It's amazing and very magical.

I used my special Bo Bonny Snowy Serenade paper which is so luscious it's just too nice to cover up but it matches the photos perfectly. I decided that by using lots of curly chipboard painted white and glittered, you could still see the paper through it. The titles were done on the computer, cut out and had glossy accents applied and I added lots of white flowers and one pale blue one, using silver card candy and jewels for the middles and accents on the chipboard.

Thanks for stopping by and for the wonderful comments you leave. I love reading them. I apologise for not getting round everyones blogs as much lately, I will try and catch up, there is so much lovely creation happening. Enjoy this gorgeous sunshine if it lasts and wrap up warm.

Wednesday 13 October 2010

WOYWW

Apologies for my lack of posts this week. Life seems to have got in the way of blogging, although don't ask me how, I'm not sure where the days have gone. We've also been making the most of this beautiful weather. We've been so lucky this week, after a dull forecast the sun has shone every day. Even the weatherman said he's given up forecasting it because it hasn't been anything like they expected, in a good way for a change!!

If it's Wednesday again it must be WOYWW. Check out Julia's Blog at Stamping Ground to see what it's all about and get sharing your space. Bits and pieces this week on mine. I have been colouring these beautiful Lily of The Valley Christmas images and experimenting making my own glitter card to mat them onto.


Jules shared a wonderful tip recently of using the same colour promarker that you coloured your image with to colour the card to mat your image onto, instead of spending hours hunting round for something matching, obvious really when you think about it. This little tip has sped up my card making no end. I've tried then adding clear ink onto the pen line and embossing with glitter embossing powder and it works a treat, much cheaper than buying endless sheets of glitter card.


Another blogging buddy, Sylvia shared a kitchen roll holder she uses as a ribbon holder in one of her WOYWW posts and I showed it to my Hubby. He then disappeared into the magic shed and came out with this!!!! A ribbon holder made from a piece of dowel attached to a piece of tree I cut down in the garden recently!!! Genius!!


Here's another Christmas card from the ever growing pile. I "borrowed"this idea from my Mum, inking the Cuttlebug folder with Broken China Distress ink using some cut and dry before running it through the cuttlebug. Clear ink is then rubbed over the raised part and silver heat embossed. I love the effect you get. It was then matted with the promarker idea and job done.


Lastly, before I sign off I wanted to share with you this amazing photo my DD took while on a walk in the woods last Sunday. These tiny little mauve mushrooms where everywhere and although I took some photos of them too I just loved this one.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your week is going well so far. Don't those wonderful images of the Chilean Miners being rescued today make your heart sing. Human beings are capable of incredible things.

Wednesday 6 October 2010

WOYWW and a few cakes

Happy WOYWW. Here we are again at midweek. It'll be the weekend again before we know it. Where do the weeks go?


Here's my workspace this Wednesday still with lots of Christmas cards on the go. I've spent the day Slicing snowflakes!!!! and staring out of the window while the machine was doing its stuff watching the weather changing down the valley. One minute gorgeous sunshine, the next rain.


I also thought I'd share the view I have out of the window and the reason why today has been a very frustrating Wednesday. Yesterday two lovely Gas men arrived to dig this hole at the bottom of our drive to repair a gas leak. They had to turn our gas supply off but promised at 4pm yesterday afternoon it would be back on within 4 hours!!!!! At 4pm today I was making my 3rd phone call to see where the engineer was and when the gas would be back on. Having no hot water for 24 hours is not funny!! Happily he arrived at 5pm and we are now fighting for the shower and have had a lovely cooked dinner. No spinny dinner tonight.

Lots of lovely WOYWW's have asked for some piccies of my cakes so here are a few. They are all Wedding cakes apart from the large flower which was DD's 7th birthday cake.


I hope I haven't bored you to death with them all and if you are wondering who these mystery WOYWW's are then you need to pop over to Julia's blog and all will become clear.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the week.

Tuesday 5 October 2010

Altering

Afternoon Bloggers. I'm glad to say the weather is much improved on the weekend here in West Yorkshire and we've had beautiful sunshine this week up to now. Yesterday was gorgeous with an amazingly deep blue clear sky. Perhaps I shouldn't have said that, it'll probably rain again now.

I have been pondering what to alter to enter into The Stampman's current challenge which is being run in conjunction with a great Blog Hop that's well worth joining in if you haven't already. There are only a few days left so pop over to Jill's blog and get hopping.

Anyway, back to the altering ponder. I was doing these ponderings while sitting on my craft stool and in a Eureka moment I realised I could enter my stool. After all it has been altered, even if it was a few months ago and hasn't been entered into any challenges so here it is. Apologies to those regular visitors who have seen it before.


I grew up with this stool, my Mum used two of them at our kitchen table and I sat on it everyday for many years. The bars where chewed by a dog we used to have and so it holds a lot of memories but was a bit worse for wear.


I painted it with ordinary emulsion and stamped with EI Patchwork Butterflies and Inkadinkdoo stamps using Brilliance ink before colouring it with watercolour pencils and brushing out the colour with a water pen. Distress Ink was then rubbed around the seat. It was then all given a coat of varnish to seal it. I sit on it everyday and love it. It's actually very comfortable.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your week is going well so far.

Sunday 3 October 2010

Autumn Has Arrived

I am sitting here bathed in sunshine. Can you believe that after the deluge we've had all day. It didn't just rain, it was a Monsoon!!! I hope where ever you are this Sunday you've managed to keep dry and enjoy whatever the day had to offer. I only just seem to have dried out after Friday's awful rain too. Autumn seems to have arrived with a bang this year.

Tuesday Taggers theme this week is Autumn, appropriately enough and they are being sponsored by The Craft Barn so it's definitely worth a look if you haven't joined in already.


I've been thoroughly enjoying getting back into tags again lately so I thought I'd do another. The background was done with Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Vintage Photo distress inks and sprayed with gold glimmer mist. The Crafty Individual trees were then stamped with vintage photo and a little bit of barn door sponged on top of them.


The little leaves where from the Tall Trees EI plate. I gold embossed them and coloured them with twinkling H20's before cutting them out and giving them a little shape.

Thanks for stopping by and for all the lovely comments you leave. I really enjoy reading them and appreciate them very much.