WOYWW or should that be Garden!!!

Evening all. I shall refrain from the usual utterance of Goodness is it Wednesday again. I think we all say the same thing every week. Why is it that when you do something on the same day every week that day just always seems to be here? It must be one of life's little mysteries.

Anyway, WOYWWer's. I hope I find you well and if you are in the UK, what about this gorgeous weather. Septemebr 28th and 25 degrees here in Yorkshire. Perfect.

So instead of showing you my desk which I can assure you I have not been sat at today, I thought I'd share with you my garden which I have been sat in. My dear friend Shaz in Australia shared some of her exotic plants last week and so I thought I'd share mine this week, not as exotic but equally beautiful.


We bought two Dahlia bulbs that were reduced to 99p and these are the results. The plants and flowers are huge. I love their cheerful faces.


My Lucky Lips Salvia. What a great name.


It's been a terrific year for roses and they are still going strong.


Although the temperatures are Summery, there is still a definite touch of Autumn and what about all these spiders!!!!!!!


If you want to share your workspace this week, pop over to see Julia HERE.

Just to prove I have been a bit crafty earlier in the week, I made a card for my best friend who has been very poorly recently and I just wanted to tell her I was thinking about her.


This lovely Papermania image is stamped and watercoloured with distress inks and I spotted a brilliant article about making your own Bakers Twine with crochet cotton and promarkers here and so here is my first attempt. I love the fact that you can match it to your project perfectly.

Right, I'm off to hop around some desks so thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your week.

Pears or Pairs at The Stampman

Here we are at Friday again. I could swear the weeks go faster and faster. I do hope no one gets hit by a chunk of Satellite today. We are all wearing hard hats just in case!!! With all the technology available to the scientists these days you would've thought they could give us more warning than just saying they WILL land somewhere wouldn't you?

It's time for a new challenge over at The Stampman and firstly we are thrilled that the very talented Siobhan has agreed to join the team. Her blog, Recovering Stampaholic is full of her beautiful work.

This challenge, the lovely Janet has asked us to think about PEARS OR PAIRS. She has done some interesting research into the meaning of Pears around the world and it's amazing what she's discovered. If you want to know more pop over to the Challenge blog and have a look.

After a good rummage through my stamps I couldn't find a pear image anywhere so I have gone for Pairs and a few of them to make up for my lack of the fruity kind.


My regular readers will know how much I'm in love with the Umbrella man so what better than to have two of him. My original idea was to put him on a pair of tags but this expanded into something a bit larger and I created a background for everything with distress inks and Tim Holtz stamps on this lovely textured paper.


The photo corners have been triple embossed with the same stamps and a pair of TH Sissix swirls added for good measure.


I used mainly Dusty Concord and Spiced Marmalade on one tag and umbrella man was then stamped with dusty concord and clear embossed and on the other the main colour is Stormy Sky. I added Starburst Stains to the tags to give them some sparkle but as always this doesn't show up too well on the photos.

I'm not going to bore you with all the finer points of what I did. I always think I waffle on too much and must bore you all to death, but if you want to know anything, please don't hesitate to shout.

The rest of the Design Team have created some wonderful Pear delights so don't forget to have a look and as always the Winner will receive a £10 voucher to spend at The Stampman so why not have a go.

Thanks for stopping by and mind those falling satellites!!!!

WOYWW and Getting Organised

It's that time of the week again when we are officially allowed to be nosey and have a good rummage around each others desks under the watchful guidance of the Desk Leader, Julia so if you want to join in with all the WOYWWer's pop over HERE.

I felt an urgent need this week to organise my life which is not an easy task. I keep everything and have a huge pile of empty boxes of every shape and size under my desk waiting to be turned into something amazing but in the meantime fall on me every time I sit down. Stamps are shoved into my filing trays and my promarkers are in a wooden box and make a terrible noise when I rummage for that certain colour that is always at the bottom!!


First job was the stamps. I keep them in handmade books and so this is what I have in progress on my desk this week. The front and back is two pieces of thick card that were at the back of a pack of envelopes in a previous life. I painted them with acrylic paint and then made a panel for the front with distress inks and paint fusion daisies.


The pages inside are thin card which the clear stamp protectors are stuck to and I make a note of the make and name of each set for future reference and hey presto. Stamps organised and easily found.


Hubby made this fantastic holder for my promarkers out of a sheet of foam board from Hobbycraft which cost all of £2.50. It sits neatly in the box the pens lived in previously to keep it all rigid and it's light enough but strong enough to be moved about easily. Isn't he clever? I love the fact that they look so organised and I can get just the colour I want first time.

By the way, if you are wanting new promarkers, Hobbycraft are selling them at £1.49 each, which is the best price I've seen them at.

So I'm feeling much tidier now. There's just that mountain of boxes to tackle...... well maybe next week!!!

I'm off to see what all the other WOYWWer's have been up to so thanks for stopping by and I hope your week is going well so far.

With A Little Help From My Friends

How are you this Monday afternoon? I hope you are all doing OK. There are so many funny bugs and viruses about at the minute but I hope you've managed to avoid them and if not are beginning to feel much better. We've both been suffering silly colds recently but thankfully they have shuffled off from where they came now.

I have to say a big thank you to you all for your wonderful suggestions following my last post. I read and pondered them all and firstly took Claire's suggestion to sleep on it!!!


Lesley suggested a quote, white fluffy clouds and birds (Shaz also agreed with the bird idea) which I liked and Jo thought a straw hat would be good and Gay suggested decoupaging it. Both worked a treat.


I didn't want to add a quote to the front as I quite like the big sky look so added it to the edge instead. It reads:

A garden of sunflowers beckoned to me,
Come join us, my lady and joyous you'll be.

So I now have a finished canvas I'm happy with. I knew you'd come up trumps and you didn't let me down. I feel like I've had a lovely crafting session with all my talented friends.

Today I've had to go back to card making for yet another Golden Wedding. We seem to be surrounded by Golden Wedding couples at the minute, how wonderful to reach 50 years of marriage. I hope we get there one day.


Anyway, here is the card I've made using the lovely Stampin Up medallion stamp. It was quite quick and simple but this is such a beautiful stamp I don't think it needs much else.


I raised up the main panel and cut the 50 using a Sissix die.

Well, I'd better go and get tea on so I'll just say thanks for stopping by and see you soon.

I've just looked at the photo of the card on the post and realised the bow was wrong at the top and it's now in the middle!!!!!

What Do You Think?

Morning lovely crafters. Is it really Friday already? After the gorgeous mellow Autumn sunshine yesterday it's a bit grey and gloomy here today but at least it's dry.....so far.

I recently bought this lovely La Blanche stamp, there's just something about that hat that called to me. She looks like she's stood in a field of sunflowers which led me to this little canvas. I used the Fusion daisies to create my sunflowers as the actual fusion sunflower stamps are too big. The canvas is only 5"x7".

Anyway, I'm happy with it so far but after finishing all the foreground sunflowers thought my figure should probably have been further up the canvas and I'm now left with a lot of plain sky but I don't know what else, if anything to do with it so I'm picking your brains. What do you think? What can I do on the rest of it? I need someone to bounce ideas off.

While my little canvas sits waiting for it's finishing touches I'm off to play with some other new stamps I treated myself too. Why is it that when you've been deprived of crafting for a few weeks you go mad with the crafting pennies. I must be good now until Christmas!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend whatever the weather.

Blowing In The Wind

Afternoon everyone. I hope you are not being blown away in this invigorating weather. I've just been out in the garden rescuing my tubs from hurtling across the garden. Still at least the sun is shining and the sky is blue.

Following on from my Scrapbook resolution last Wednesday, the beauty of the Bo Bunny papers are that they are double sided and both sides are utterly gorgeous and just have to be used so here is the Layout I did on the reverse of the page you saw on my Workdesk.


I'd bought these papers in anticipation of visiting Venice while we were in Italy, which unfortunately didn't happen this time due to unforeseen circumstances so I've used some pictures of the gorgeous painted buildings we found up in the Dolomites instead.

DD has also been busy crafting after being inspired by the wonderful workshop by Barbara Gray on Create and Craft the other Saturday. She was showing how to create scenes with a brayer but DD used a shaving brush to create hers and she intends to do four, one for each Season, but here are the three she's done so far.


Don't you just love those two birds chatting on the telephone wires?

Thanks for stopping by. I hope your Monday has gone well and you stay safe in these winds.

New Stampman Challenge-Monochrome

Hello everyone. I hope you are managing to keep dry. What a week for weather we've had.

Over at The Stampman Challenge it's time for another new theme and it's my turn to host this fortnight and I'd like you to think in Monochrome!! Not just Black and White but White and one other colour so that should give you plenty of scope.

Here's what I came up with using the lovely Non Sequitur stamps Jill currently has on the website at half price so they are a real bargain and you gets lots of stamps on each sheet.


I teamed my image with some embossed Nestabilities and a Martha Stewart punched ribbon. The background was stamped too with another little stamp on the same themeplate. I added some perfect pearls to my lovely lady and there you have it.


The rest of the Design Team have created some beautiful projects so I hope you have time to pop over and admire them, they are well worth it.

Jill is offering a £10 voucher for the winner to spend on The Stampman website so come on, let's see all your Monochrome projects.

I'm also going to enter my project into the Try It On Tuesday challenge. They also have a monochrome theme this week.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

WOYWW and A Bit Of A Catch Up

It's been a real crafting day here with this awful weather. I've sat in my craft room watching the rain heading in over the moors and felt quite cosy. It's hard to believe that this time last week I was sat on a sunlounger enjoying gorgeous hot weather.

It feels like ages since I last joined in WOYWW and sad to say the first thing I thought of this morning after I'd waved DD off to school was I must take my workdesk photo!!!! so here it is.


My Autumn resolution is to do more scrapbooking which is my first love and sadly has been neglected this year so I've made a start on my holiday photos using some gorgeous Bo Bunny paper I bought a few months ago in readiness. It's still in the early stages but I'm loving the colours already.

You might also be able to spy my new embossing folder and nesting die I bought at the weekend along with a tub of ice cream sprinkles that now contains cogs and watch hands and other exciting things my lovely Hubby collected for me after we watched a programme on Steam Punk the other day.

I can't wait to catch up with some of my favourite desks and if you want to join me then you need to visit the desk Headmistress, Julia, HERE.

Just before we went away I received some exciting packages from dear blogging friends with some amazing artwork inside so I thought I'd share these with you and take this opportunity to say thank you again to the lovely Shaz all the way from Australia who sent me the top pieces in the photo, aren't they gorgeous!!


and also to my dear friend, Jo, who I know many of your WOYWWer's know and love. She sent me one of her stunning Star creations. The photo just doesn't do it justice, the sparkle and stamping detail on it is amazing. I love them all and have them displayed where I can admire them everyday. Thank you so much ladies for your kindness.

You may remember that I'd also been very busy making samples for Sheena Douglass' new Christmas Paint Fusion Pick Of The Week Shows on Create and Craft back in August and I was absolutely delighted that one project in particular was very well received so I thought I'd share it with you.

I made a hanger from the circle chipboard pieces and the Christmas Tree and spruce branch set of stamps which also has pine cones in. My pine cones need a bit of practice to my critical eye but I really enjoyed making it and intend to make another one to hang on the fireplace at Christmas.

The edges of the chipboard have been embossed with gold WOW embossing powder and really sparkle.


I also made a card from the same set of stamps and it just goes to show the different looks you can achieve. I created the sky on this one using distress inks and mica sprays and the paint fusioned trees work a treat with it and they are really quick and easy to do.

Thank you for stopping by and for your lovely comments. It's so good to be back in Blogland. Enjoy the rest of the week

I'm Back!!!!!!

This morning the schools went back here and the weather turned decidedly Autumnal, how strange is that.

Anyway, I'm back after a lovely rest and raring to go with all sorts of things and I have an awful lot of catching up to do with all my lovely blogging friends, I had a quick peek last night and can't wait to see everything you've all be up too.

We came back last Wednesday from a brilliant holiday in the absolutely beautiful Lake Garda in Northern Italy. If you've been you'll know what I mean, if you haven't then try and go, it's a magical place with views at every corner. You'll be spoilt for photo opportunities.

This was our third visit. We don't normally revisit places as there are so many new things to see in the World but it just sort of draws you back and there are still new things to discover. We were also incredibly lucky with the weather. It's a mountainous area and so you cannot always be guaranteed sunshine but after weeks of rain we hit upon a fortnight when they were having a heatwave and the temperatures were in the mid 40's. Too hot really but a good excuse to lie on my sunbed and spend hours in the pool with DD.

Here are just a few photos to give you a flavour.

Looking down on all the higgledy piggledy buildings.


Lots of picturesque harbours.

How about these for lemons!!

The lake is alive with wind and kite surfers in the morning winds.


Someones beautifully decorated house name plate. Looks like Sheena may have been here with her paints!!

Thank you for all the lovely comments you left me while I was away . I can't wait to get back into my craft room and then do some blog hopping so thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting.