WOYWW 195

Morning lovely crafters and dear WOYWW friends. I'm back on the register this week after getting all those pesky jobs that had been hanging around finished last week. If you want to join in too then pop over to see the Desk Headmistress, Julia, HERE.

It's a bit chilly in The Craft Garden today as our boiler of 23 years has decided to curl up and retire at last. Can't say it owes us anything really but why do they pick the Winter to do it. So it's extra layers and hot water bottles for awhile as British Gas are so busy it's going to be a week or so before we can have a lovely new shiny new one.

Anyway, you came by to see a desk so I'd better show you one.

I am in the middle of more DT work at the minute but Mr Mojo has decided to have a break so I thought I'd have a change and play with some new stamps that were just asking to be inked up. Sometimes a change can spark off the old creativity again. I've been dying to try out some new flexmarkers that just fell into my basket during a visit to Hobbycraft last week. They were the bargain price of £7.50 for 6. They are hair and skin tones, something you can never have enough of I find.

While I was taking my desk shot, this caught my eye and made me smile. Not the coffee cup that had just contained my morning cappuccino fix but the purple liquid in the jar. Bet that would make an interesting colour for a drink. I've been painting with purple H20's and it had made the water a lovely colour. I am also trying to keep off the chocolate and be healthy by munching dried apricots instead!

Right, I'd better go and make myself respectable for work but before I do I thought I'd just share with you the finished Lillybo quilt from last week complete with it's fleecy backing. The sewing machine is now firmly back in the cupboard and I don't think it'll be seeing the light of day again any time soon. Sewing is definitely not my thing but I'm pleased I managed to complete the two quilts for Jo's wonderful cause. They are now packed up and winging their way over the Pennines.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Wednesday whatever you are up too.

My New Filing Cabinet

Afternoon folks. I hope you are enjoying the weekend so far. It's chilly again here in Yorkshire and we've had a few snow flurries this morning but it's not amounted to much and is now just grey and dismal. After last weekend's taste of Spring I think we are back to Winter again.

DD has gone off to Grandma's for the weekend so we have spent a quiet day doing just what we want which for me has been playing with paints and stamps of course.

DH has been clearing out the contents of his old office to transport down to his new office and in between it has all been living in our Conservatory. A very old filing cabinet appeared and he asked me if I could use it. You don't have to ask twice!!!!! It had originally been rescued from a mill when it was closing down and must be decades old judging by the original state of it.

Last weekend we rubbed all the old paint down and this is the the back of it so you can see the original colour.

With some love and care, it now looks like this!

I used some of my MIL's left over emulsion paint to give it several coats and then just started playing. I added some coloured acrylic paint, stamped with distress inks and sprayed with glimmer mists to create a background and then used some of the new floral stamps from Sheena. I love the way you can build up any size of design you want with them.

They were stamped with Stazon and then DD painted all the leaves with twinkling H20's. I then added the flowers and painted those with the new polished pigments. The shine you get with them is amazing but they were a bit solid for my liking so I added some detail with white acrylic paint.  

My lovely Hubby has spent the afternoon cleaning up the handles and it looks like new. I'm really pleased with it and can't wait to get it into my craft room and filled with all the A4 paper and card I currently have in boxes all over the place. I've just got to make some space for it. I can feel a tidy up coming on.

Thanks for stopping by and for all the lovely comments you always leave me. They always make me smile.

Happy Crafting.

Busy Busy Busy

Morning lovely crafters. After the beautiful sunshine of the last few days it has spoilt itself today and turned grey and cold. Still, it means I can crack on and try and get all these half finished jobs done without the temptation to be outside all the time.

I'm not joining in with WOYWW today as it's half term here and I really am determined not to be distracted by other  things and whittle down the to do list but I'm currently half way through my second Lillybo quilt and  couldn't leave today without showing you the work in progress and my heirloom sewing machine.

It belonged to my Mum and is probably as old as me. When she upgraded to a sparkly new one about 10 years ago she passed it on to me in the vain hope that I may do more sewing I think. I have used it for turning up curtains and very simple things but it has sat in the cupboard for years very much unloved. I surprised myself when I got it out for quilt making the other week that I could actually remember how to thread it up and use it properly. The only down side is that it's soooo heavy that I have to have a strong man about to lift it onto the table for me.

Well, that me today so thanks for stopping by and I hope you are enjoying the week whatever you are up too

Happy Crafting.

WOYWW 193

Morning lovely crafters and dear WOYWW friends. How are you this chilly Wednesday. We have more snow forecast later. I can't wait for Spring to finally show it's face. It always makes me smile when I visit my WOYWW friends in Australia and can share in their lovely warm sunshine, although I know they've been having their own troubles lately.

Anyway, you came here to see my desk and not hear me moaning about the weather, so here it is.

As you can see I am preparing for that special day that is fast approaching. This is my DH's card. I'm safe showing it as he never looks at my blog. I have some chocolate hearts to go inside it. All say Ahhhhhh!!

I am obeying Julia's instructions for once and keeping it brief this week but before I go I can't help showing off the first Lillybo Quilt I've finished.

A lot of blood,sweat, tears and love went into it. After fighting long and hard with my heirloom sewing machine I remembered why I don't sew very much. Still, this was definitely worth all the effort and I'm now on number two. Hopefully, that will be easier. I have also to tackle the bags for them so don't hold your breath, Jo.

If you want to join in this brilliant weekly desk hop then pop over to see the lovely Julia, HERE.  

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Wednesday whatever you are up too.

Another Peek at Sheena's New Florals

Afternoon folks. I hope you are keeping warm today. There doesn't seem to be much sign of Spring just yet does there?

As promised here are two more of the samples I made with Sheena's new Little Bit Floral stamps and even though the garden is bare at the minute, playing with this gorgeous Iris stamp reminds me of the joys to come.

It's such a big stamp it's perfect if you like detail colouring or if you want to be a bit more arty.

With this first one I had a go at coloring it with the H20's. I have some gorgeous orange and mauve ones in the garden and this is what I was going for but my detail painting leaves a lot to be desired. I decided to add some distress inks to the background and then sponged some H20's on top and I liked the result. It also brought the gold embossing to life. Just goes to show you should never give up on something!!

With this second one, I just cut a piece of card to fit an 8x8 card and started playing.

 I sprayed the card with water and brushed H20 all over it and then stamped the Iris inked with the same colour H20 into the wet card and sprayed it with water again. Everything was dried and then the iris was stamped again using the paint and the wet colour was used to paint the flower. I added swirls and embossed swirls and then the sentiment. Can you guess I like this one????

All the H20s I've used for these stamps come from the basic rainbow set. I've had this one for ages and not used it thinking it was a bit uninteresting as they are a primary set. How wrong could I be, the colours are gorgeous once you start playing with them. I think they'll be a firm favourite now.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to catch one of the shows on Saturday if you can. The current times are 9am, 12 noon, 4pm and 8pm.

Some New Sheena Sneaky Peeks

Two posts in one day, don't faint with surprise!!!

If any of you saw the card in progress on my desk in my WOYWW post. Well I can now share the finished thing with you complete with it's lovely stamped images.

Sheena has some new stamps "A Little Bit Floral" being released on Create and Craft this Saturday and if you like flowers you are going to love these. I have had a wonderful time playing with them and these are the first of the ones I'll be sharing with you throughout the rest of the week.

I inked the embossed background with Spun Sugar Distress ink and then painted the Magnolia branches with  pearlescent H20's and just a touch of rose pink. The sentiment was from the last stamp set that formed part of the 4 day deal.

With this one I created a background with various Distress Inks and then stamped the flowers and removed the colour with a water brush before blotting with a tissue . These were then masked before the faded background branches were added.

I hope you like them. I could have played for days and probably will now the pressure of making the samples is off.
 
Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to pop back tomorrow to see a few more.

WOYWW 192 and Two Seasons in Two Days

Morning lovely crafters and dear WOYWW friends. Another Wednesday whizzes round which must mean it's time for another desk snoop. If you want to join in the fun, then pop over to see the Desk Headmistress,  Julia, who keeps us all in order HERE.

Here's mine this week.

If you'd like a choccy help yourselves although there's not many left (they were a birthday present) . I also have a bag of Yorkshire Mixture on the go so if you'd prefer one of those!!

As you can probably tell I'm playing with my H20's for some DT work I've just finished and am just preparing a card to put some lovely new stamps on but I can't share it with you just yet.

On the floor waiting for attention is some fabric waiting to be turned into some Lillybo quilts. 

I can't wait to get started on them. Thanks for the tips and advice last week. I shall be dusting off my sadly neglected sewing machine later.

Before I get off to work I thought I'd just share with you two photos I took in the garden. I was so delighted to see this little Iris start to flower at the weekend and took a photo on Monday in the lovely sunshine.

This is exactly the same poor flower on Tuesday!!!!

Yes, we have snow again. Just when I thought Spring was round the corner it's turned bitingly cold again.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you've got some heating on when I pop by your desks later on, I'll be ready to warm my tootsies and share a cuppa of something warming.

Enjoy your Wednesday.