WOYWW 178

Morning lovely Crafters and dear WOYWW friends. I hope all my WOYWW friends living in those parts of The States effected by this awful storm are safe and dry. My thoughts are with you all, we have been watching it all unfold on the news here  in the UK.

 I seem to be a part time WOYWWer at the minute, not sure how that is happening. I think the weeks are just going by far too quickly for me to keep up. Anyway, it's half term in The Craft Garden this week so we have been out an about but I have been managing to catch up with a bit of scrapbooking in the afternoons which is what you can see on my desk at the unearthly hour on a Wednesday morning when this photo was taken.

Even though I am allowed to sleep in this week I have still been getting up with DH at 6am!!! Yes, that is himself on the LO in progress, taken on the only wet day we had during our Austrian holidays this year. He must be the only person to still wear sunglasses when it is absolutely pouring down!!

I liked the skeleton clock faces that were everywhere in this months Scrap 365 magazine so have cut out my own from a cereal packet and then crackle painted it. Time consuming but I'm pleased with the results. I also broke out the sewing machine for the first time in years and have stitched the border.

If you want to join in this mass desk hop that is WOYWW then pop over to see our Desk Headmistress, Julia, HERE.

Just before I go I thought I'd just leave you with a photo I took on our walk round our local reservoir last Saturday when the sun shone and the Autumn colours were glorious.

Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you at a desk near you very soon.

Have a great Wednesday.

A Finished Layout!!

Afternoon lovely Crafters. It's been dark, damp and dismal here all day today but I've been out and about so it's not been too bad and now I'm home it's lovely and cosy with the lights on and the blinds drawn.

I actually managed to finish the Scrapbook page I was working on last week.

It seems to have taken me an age to rip up some paper and corrugated card and spray the background but I guess when it's not your normal style things always take longer as you never know whether it looks OK. I'll let you be the judge of that!!!!!

Short and sweet from me today, my computer died at the weekend and I now have a hand me down laptop with an old operating system that is taking some getting used too. I also have to keep installing all the stuff I had on the old one so things are taking so much longer than normal.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Monday has gone well so far.

Happy Crafting.
 

WOYWW 176

Morning Crafters and dear WOYWW friends. What a miserable morning it is here in Yorkshire today, cold, wet and windy but I know most of us in the UK are suffering the same weather and it's lovely and warm and cosy inside so it looks like a perfect crafting day.

I was absent from the register of Workdesks last week, my apologies to our wonderful Desk mistress, Julia, but as always, you can't stay away for long. I missed my weekly snoop!!! If you want to join in with this lovely group of friends then pop over HERE to find out more.

Here's my desk as of yesterday afternoon, can you see the sunshine!!! It hasn't been touched since then so looks exactly the same this morning minus the cup of tea.

I've been having some free time from DT commitments recently and have been trying to fit in a bit more "me" crafting before they all start up again so you find me with a scrapbook layout starting to take shape. I have recently discovered a very talented scrapper, Heather Jacob. Her layouts are amazing with lots of textures and layers and she's inspired me to try new things. It's still at the very early stages and breaking out of your comfort zone is never easy but I have lots of ideas buzzing.

Just before I go and get ready to brave the rain, yes, I do have to venture out but will be back for a desk snoop later, I thought I'd leave you with a card I made for a friend who asked for a blingy pink thank you card. Something else that's out of my comfort zone but I really enjoyed doing this.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great Wednesday whatever you are up too.

Happy Crafting

H20 Backgrounds

Afternoon all. I hope you are having a great week so far despite the Autumnal weather we've had today. I had to hang on for dear life when I ventured out earlier, all the beautiful leaves were tumbling fast, but the sun is out now and it's much calmer.

I've put the miserable weather to good use today and got round to bashing out some backgrounds with those little pots of lovliness called H20's. Yes, I bet you thought I'd forgotten!!!!

So here are 4 ideas for you to try if you've got some thrown in the bottom of a drawer long forgotten.

1) Just paint and spray with water as you would Distress Inks. The paint reacts much the same.

2) The Splodge.. very technical.   Spray a piece of thick card with water and then splodge on about three colours with a big brush, don't be afraid to experiment. Make sure the paint is good and thick. Spray the splodges again with water and either dry with a heat gun or leave to dry if you've got some time.

The results are lovely and soft with that mica shine.

3) Clingfilm. As in 2, spray a piece of thick card with water and splodge away again. This time after spraying with more water wrap in cling film and scrunch it around. This one you do need to leave to dry naturally.

All the mica collects in the clingfilm folds.

4) Salt. Prepare in exactly the same way as 2 & 3 and then liberally sprinkle with sea salt flakes. Leave to dry and then rub away the dry salt.

This one gives you a lovely texture.

For all these I used two sets, Passion and Ultimate Romance from the new colours that have re released.

Just to inspire you a bit more to have a play here are two cards.
The first stamped onto an H20 clingfilmed background

and the second actually stamped with the paint.

I hope I've given you some ideas to start loving these little pots of beauty again. They are never far from my desk nowadays.

Thanks for stopping by.

Butterflies and all things that Flutter at The Stampman

Afternoon lovely Crafters. I hope you have all been enjoying this lovely Autumn weather we've been having today, although it's turned very chilly, I had to scrap the car windscreen this morning.

Some of you may have noticed I have been taking a break from The Stampman DT over the Summer. Unfortunately, with all that's been going on in The Craft Garden I just didn't have enough time and Jill very kindly let me take a break. While I've been away, things have changed on the challenge blog and Jill is now setting monthly challenges on her own blog.

This month she is asking you to think Butterflies and all things that Flutter and you can find the full details and where to post your entries, HERE.

This is the project I came up with this month.

You may have already spotted the background in progress on my WOYWW post. Well, this is what it turned into. I stamped the script in Chipped Sapphire and then brushed mica powder over it, which was one of the articles in this months Craft Stamper. I think this may well become a favourite technique, I love the results.

I also distressed some masking tape and added mica powder for the border.

Full details of the challenge rules and the prizes on offer can be found on The Stampman Blog as well as the amazing projects the rest of the DT have created. Jill will be releasing them gradually thoughout the month to keep you inpsired so we hope you'll join in. We love looking at your beautiful creations.

Thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW 174

Morning lovely Crafters and dear WOYWW friends.

Another week has flown by and it's been a week of big, big changes in The Craft Garden. Facing redundancy from the job he has been in for nearly 30 years my DH started up on his own on Monday. An exciting thing to do but also very scary. Thankfully, he has the backing of an established company but they are based in Chesterfield which is a 90 minute commute from here. I think that has been the biggest challenge so far and it means a very early start. I'm now getting an extra 3 hours crafting every day!!!!!!

So what is on my desk this early in the morning.

Lots of distress inks. I was inspired by a desk last week, sorry I can't remember whose, but a lot of blue and brown inks were being used and so I decided to have a play with that combination and I love it. This is my second sheet. The first one has already been used up but I can't share that with you just yet. I love the fact that you can just splodge the inks onto card and they turn into something really beautiful after being sprayed with either water or a mica spray.

Yesterday, the sun was shining so I played at my Greenhouse desk. Do you remember those Lantana plants I was nurturing in my Craft Room last Winter? Those of you who live in Australia will just have to shut your eyes, but look at them now.

Two survived and they are really beautiful. It's taken all Summer for them to get going but they have rewarded me well.

I'm now nurturing my last remaining Dahlia that didn't end up as the monster slugs dinner. Isn't it a lovely colour?

So that's my desks this week. If you want to share yours then pop over to see our lovely Desk Headmistress, Julia,  HERE.

Lots of you commented on my H20's last week and many said you had them lurking in a drawer from years ago. I've recently rediscovered mine and there is so much that you can do with them apart from just painting. If anyone is interested I'll do another post on how to make backgrounds with them.

Thanks for stopping by. It's our 14th Wedding Anniversary today so I'm celebrating with a cuppa in bed even though it's 6.20am in the morning. Hopefully,  I'll see you at a desk near you later on in the day.

Have a Crafty Wednesday.