WOYWW

Afternoon lovely Bloggers. Not sure I like this dismal weather after the lovely sunshine. I can feel my mood taking a downturn too. Isn't it funny how the weather affects how you feel. Hopefully the sun will return tomorrow.

Well here we are at WOYWW yet again. These Wednesdays just come round faster and faster.


My desk is full of bookmarks, again!!!!! The Mothers Day stall is tomorrow and Friday morning and I suddenly felt I needed to make some more. You watch, I won't sell a single one now I've got a box full. I decided to laminate them to make them more hard wearing and these in progress have poppies on them. I've stamped and coloured one half of a long strip and then folded and stuck the halves together to cover up the bleed through of the promarkers.

If you want to check out what all the other WOYWW'ers have been up too, pop over to Julia's blog, Stamping Ground. You'll be sure to find some inspirational work happening.


DD has been invited the party of her best friend on Saturday and wanted to make a special card for her. I've been desperate to play with my new big Go Kreate dies and as an Easel card was wanted this seemed the perfect opportunity. I cut all the pieces while DD went through my stamps and chose my one and only Magnolia stamp. She stamped, coloured and cut her out and also stamped and coloured the Happy Birthday and then put all the pieces together so it was a joint effort.


I think I need to take colouring lessons from her!!

I have also been very busy with pressies for both my Mums but I can't share those with you until after Mother's Day.

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

The Stampman Challenge-Anything Tim

Afternoon lovely Bloggers. I hope you are still enjoying this lovely sunshine.

Frankie is hosting The Stampman challenge this time and is in her element with Anything Tim. I think we've all been looking forward to this one, who can resist playing with products from the King Of Craft.

This is my DT piece and I thought it was time for another box.


I used some new alcohol inks I bought from The Stampman at Harrogate last weekend, Citrus and Pool, to make the background and then stamped the heart from Tim's Urban Chic Stamp set in black Stazon.

The main part of the box was inked lightly with Broken China Distress ink.


The hearts inside were cut out and painted with turquoise Cosmic Shimmer watercolour paint and turquoise stickles added on top. I sandwiched the acetate between two hearts. For a change I added a little raised platform in the middle of the box just to give another dimension.


Unfortunately I didn't have any Tim hardware for the lid so raided Hubby's shed and added a washer and nut and little knob I found as a homage to Tim!!


There are some stunning pieces from the rest of the Design Team so please pop over and have a look and be inspired. As always, The Stampman are offering a £10 voucher for the winner so it's well worth having a go.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the weekend.

WOYWW and some Fushioneering

Evening lovely Bloggers. I think Spring has finally arrived. Hasn't it been wonderful over the last few days? I apologise for my lack of Blog Hopping but as you can guess I've been making the most of the sunshine and getting the garden knocked into some shape. I will catch up with you all I promise.


If it's Wednesday it must be WOYWW but there was nothing on my workdesk today so I'm showing you where I have been working instead. My other favourite workdesk, my greenhouse bench. As you can see I've got some little seedlings showing their heads in the warmth and some lavender cuttings I took when trimming back some pots I have in the garden. Hopefully, I'll get lots more from this pot full.


I planted this basket of Violas in the Autumn for some Winter colour and they have survived temperatures of -18Oc, snow and wind and have flowered their soaks off and now the sun's come out they look wonderful.


The Forsythia is also looking gorgeous against the blue sky.

If you have a workdesk you want to show to the world, don't be shy, just get yourself over to see our esteemed leader, Julia at her blog Stamping Ground and get yourself linked up.

Last week I had another play with my Paint Fusion stuff and came up with this wall hanger. I used the Simply Sweet set of stamps and embossed them with the brass WOW powders before painting the design.


The crackle background was done with matt emulsion and PVA glue. If you haven't seen Sheena demonstrate it yet, it's really easy and very cheap. Paint some card with dark matt emulsion and dry with a heat gun (not too close otherwise the paint bubbles), then paint slightly watered down PVA glue over it and dry slightly before painting with a light Matt Emulsion and when you dry this layer you get lovely crackles. I did this with DD and she got really deep crackles and mine were more delicate. I guess the more you just slap the layers on the better the result. Tester pots are great and very cheap but make sure you get MATT.


The edge was finished with more brass WOW embossing powder and Peeled Paint Distress Ink was rubbed over the finished thing. I then made some little paper roses out of cartridge paper that had been spritzed with glimmer mists .

The lettering was done on the computer, traced onto the hanging and then painted with acrylic paint.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the sunshine.

What A Weekend

Evening lovely Bloggers. I hope you've had a great weekend. Where do they go?

I had a very special day yesterday which started at 4.45am. Can't say I was exactly thrilled at having to get up at that time on a Saturday morning but once out of bed it was fine. It was my MIL's 70th birthday last June and the whole family clubbed together and bought her a hot air balloon ride which is something she's always wanted to do. Well, the weather was not kind to us last year and each trip was cancelled but at last she got the all clear and take off was 6.30am yesterday morning from York race course.


It was a stunning morning. Frosty, clear and calm and off she went. The flight lasted about an hour but after seeing her today she has still not come down to earth and is still floating among the clouds. A once in a lifetime experience.


After getting home and having breakfast I went off to the Northern Papercrafts Show at Harrogate and had a lovely day, shopping and chatting. I met so many friendly bloggers and crafters it was wonderful. I was very restrained in my shopping but got some gorgeous new stamps that I can't wait to play with and was thrilled to have a chat with Sheena Douglass who is as nice in real life as she is on the telly. She was kind enough to give me the sample she painted, which I shall treasure and keep on my workdesk as constant inspiration.

Before I sign off for another early night I thought I'd share some of the bookmarks I've finished for the school Mother's Day stall.


The flowers are from Inkadinkadoo and were just coloured with promarkers and I coloured the holders with Peeled Paint distress ink and stamped a smaller version of the flower in the same ink.

Thanks for stopping by and I wish you a happy and safe week.

WOYWW and Being Clean!

Afternoon lovely Bloggers. Here we are at Wednesday again and we seem to have had several seasons in one week here in Yorkshire. Monday was fabulous, sunny and warm and since then we have had cold, damp, thick gloomy fog. It's so dark I'm having to craft with the light on as you can see on my workdesk this week.


I've been having a play with making some bookmarks I saw the very talented Barbara Gray making some time ago. I've been asked to make some things for my Daughter's school to sell on their Mother's Day stall. The idea is the children can buy things to give to their Mums so everything is priced at around a £1. Obviously they make their cards in school so I've had to rack my brains for something quick and inexpensive and that will appeal to 4-11 year olds. Now there's a task.

I'm just at the experimental stage but think these will work OK. Fingers Crossed!!!

As you can see I've decamped to the dining room table at the minute. I've been up to my eyes in Sheena's Paint Fusion over the last few weeks and as I need loads of space for paints and stuff, I find the table is much easier to spread everything about on. You might be able to spy a lavender propped up waiting to be finished. Anyway, I seem to have taken root as slowly all sorts of other things have gradually crept downstairs.

If you want to see what all the other WOYWW'ers have been up too this week pop over to Julia's lovely blog Stamping Ground and get snooping.

I have also been persuaded to join in with the huge phenomenom which is the new challenge Blog Less Is More. I've been seeing some stunning entries all over Blogland in the last few weeks and so didn't need much arm twisting to get involved and so here's my very first entry for this week's theme, Off The Edge.

Just a little update on the decorated specs at school. They are still a work in progress. I only get two children at a time as they come out of their lessons to do them so we only get about 8 finished in a morning's session. When they are finished and displayed, I'll make sure I photo them and show you as they are gorgeous. In the meantime, here's one of mine that I use to give them some ideas.


Thanks for stopping by and I'd just like to finish by saying that along with the whole of Blogland, my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan. The horrors that are all over the TV at the minute are almost beyond belief.

The Stampman Challenge-Flowers For Mother's Day

Hello lovely Bloggers. I hope you haven't been blown away by the awful wind over the last few days. Thank goodness it's dropped a bit today and we have some lovely warm sunshine.

It's a Training Day for us today, the kids are at home more than school at the minute. It's the Easter Hols in 3 weeks time!!!! Anyway, we've had a lovely walk into town this morning and a wander round the shops and a look at all the swans and ducks on the river so I thought I'd just get a bit of blogging done while I rest my feet.

Here's my DT piece for the new challenge over at The Stampman. This time Vix is hosting and she has the theme of Florals with Mothers Day just around the corner.


I made the background using Moonglow mica powder which is applied after swiping versamark liberally over watercolour paper and then stamping into it and finally clear embossing the whole thing. You can see full instructions for this technique here.

My clear embossing powder has been contaminated with bits of glitter but in this case I quite like the effect it gives.


The flowers are Aspects of Design Funky Flowers painted with Cosmic Shimmer watercolours and layered up and the others are white embossed on heat proof acetate.


As always there are some stunning creations from all the Design Team so it's well worth popping over to have a look and there is a £10 Voucher from The Stampman for the challenge winner so why don't you have a go.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend whatever you are up too.

WOYWW

Afternoon folks. How's your Wednesday going? Today is the day I volunteer at my Daughter's school and I cut out 36 cardboard spectacles this morning ready for them to be decorated, including the holes where the lenses go. To say my fingers are sore now is an understatement so only gentle crafting for me tonight!

This might go to explain what is on my workdesk today. Here it is in it's full glory for WOYWW. If you haven't shared your desk yet where have you been. Pop over to Julia's and join in with the ever growing phenomenon which is WOYWW. You're bound to meet some great people and find some totally inspirational blogs.


I sell a few cards in my hairdresser's shop, which is how I fund my crafty habit and over the months I've discovered that the cards that sell really well are pretty decoupage with ribbons and bows. My lovingly stamped and coloured ones tend to be much slower to go. It's quite nice though to craft without too much thought, it's quite therapeutic and here you can see a really pretty Hunkydory die cut decoupage kit in progress. I have mounted them on a Marianne D die I had for my birthday. It's quite big and the perfect size for these.

Here's one of the finished cards


Just to remind me of "proper" crafting I have a beautiful card on my desk sent to me by my lovely blogging buddy Sally.

Thanks for stopping by and I will do my best to get round as many desk as I can this week although I may still be visiting next Tuesday, there are so many nowadays so bear with me.

Delicate

Afternoon lovely Bloggers on this beautiful Sunday. I hope you are all enjoying this wonderful sunshine if you live in the UK. I know in other parts of the world it is either very warm or very cold at the minute depending on which continent you are living. Whatever you have I hope you are having a great weekend.

I'd just like to say a big hello and welcome to my new followers, there have been a few lately and I'm very happy to see you. I hadn't realised that I've been blogging for just over two years now and when I started I never thought anyone would visit at all so I'm always thrilled to see a new face and I appreciate the loyalty and friendship both through cyberspace and now in real life of many of my long term followers. Who'd have thought life could change so much just by trying to prove to my lovely Hubby that I could do something on the computer by myself without his help, which is how this blogging lark started for me!!

Now back to crafty things. Frankie's Tag It On challenge this week is DELICATE inspired by a brilliant tutorial by Shari Carroll. It you love techniques pop over and have a look, she has some wonderful stuff on her blog. Thanks to Frankie for pointing me in her direction, I love finding new inspiration.


Here is my tag, which is the third attempt to get something I was happy with. It's a very easy technique but as there is quite a bit of water involved my poor tag wasn't really thick enough to cope with it.

The script is from Crafty Individuals and is clear embossed and then Milled Lavender Distress Ink was rubbed over the top and sprayed with water. This is not quite how Shari does it but I struggled with her method to get a colour that showed the script through.

I used Peeled Paint, Broken China and Dusty Concord Distress inks on my craft mat, using them as an ink pad for this Elusive Images stamp. Water is then sprayed on the stamp before using it. Again my image was much darker than I wanted so I sprayed it with water and blotted it to make it more delicate.

I then went back over with cut and dry and the Milled Lavender to make the script pop a bit more. With a bit of playing I ended up with something I was reasonably happy with.

I want to try it again with much sturdier paper. I think it'll work much better doing it the way Shari does.

Thanks for stopping by.

A Field Of Poppies

Evening lovely Bloggers. How's your week going? It's been grey and cold here today after some lovely sunshine earlier in the week. The weather doesn't seem quite sure what to do with itself at the minute does it?

The flowers are beginning to make an appearance now though which is wonderful. I saw my first daffodils today so Spring is definitely nearer than Winter I think.

I have been playing with more of the great new stamps from Sheena Douglass this week. Anyone who knows me will know how much I love my garden and plants, there is a constant battle from now on for my time between gardening and crafting so to have some gorgeous flower stamps to play with is my idea of heaven.


These poppy stamps are great as they come in separate components so you can build your design as you go. I haven't mastered the painting technique for these yet so decided to paint them with Barn Door and Aged Mahogany Distress Inks and decoupage them. A few flowers were finished with pearlescent paint. The middles were done with texture paste before being painted.


The background was done with Peeled Paint DI. I blended it with cut and dry foam, spritzed it with water and then stamped some pale poppy leaves all over before edging it with more Aged Mahogany and gold embossing.


I also made a bookmark with the same stamp using grungeboard. The background was painted with Cosmic Shimmer Angel Gold sparkle paint before the leaves and poppies were stamped on and painted with acrylic paints. The paint is so thick it doesn't matter if you stamp the flowers over the leaves as long as the leaves are not painted too darkly. I added gold embossed swirls for a bit of bling.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the end of the week. Thank crunchy it's nearly Friday!!

Just Playing.

Evening lovely Bloggers. I hope you have all been blessed with the beautiful sunshine we have had in Yorkshire today. It's been wonderful and I have spent most of it in the garden so am one happy bunny tonight.

I don't know whether any of you have been watching Sheena Douglass on Create and Craft this week. She had a Pick Of The Week with her new Paint Fusion last Friday which was a run away success and had completely sold out within 48 hours, which I have never heard happening before.

It's a new painting technique and she makes it look very easy. The DT were lucky enough to receive all the goodies to have a play with along with Sheena's new DVD which explains everything in great detail and is a brilliant watch. Some of the techniques are incredibly easy and so effective but others take a bit of practice and my hand eye co-ordination is not quite getting it yet. Still that means lots more playing time for me!!


I thought I would share a card I made yesterday with the daisy stamps which are my favourite at the minute and I'm entering it into the Try It On Tuesday challenge which this week is a card Inspired by a song. If you haven't worked it out mine is "Daisy Daisy give me your answer do" I'll stop singing now, it's not pretty.


I embossed the flowers first with the Platinum sparkle WOW embossing powder so that you can just see it once they are painted. My technique is still not quite right, I'm being a bit stingy with the paint on my brush but if you want to see how it should be done, have a look at the gorgeous samples on Sheena's blog.


I've had another first this week, my first ever ATC which was for The Stampman's ATC swap. You won't believe how long this took me as I had to look up what size to make it. I kept it simple and made a distress ink background with faded jeans and peeled paint wiped over and then sprayed with water and blotted to make it really pale. The script was stamped in peeled paint and then the text in broken china as was my lovely Umbrella Man. I clear embossed him and stuck him on with foam pads. The DT have made some far more detailed and gorgeous examples so if you're into ATC's why not pop over and have a look.

Thanks for stopping by.