HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY WOYWW-Week 208

Well here we are again on another special WOYWW day celebrating four wonderful years of meeting up on a Wednesday to share not only desks but bits and pieces of things that are going on around our desks too all thanks to the amazing Julia, who had the brilliant idea of starting this thing off in the first place. If it wasn't for her we wouldn't have this midweek day which I think all WOYWWer's look forward too as it means we can put down what we are doing for an hour or so each week and just have a good old nosey around each others spaces and a bit of a chin wag while we are at it. I have made so many friends from all over the  World and there's not many places you can do that.

So without further ado, here is my desk as of about 5 minutes ago!!

I am still, hanging head in shame, making my ATC swaps!!! This has been a work in progress since Friday night because DD is having her bedroom decorated at the minute and so we have spent every spare minute clearing drawers and emptying toy boxes of 12 years worth of stuff and trying to prise baby toys she is so attached to from her grasp. Most of them are now in the loft!!

The ATC's will be finished and on their way out very soon I promise and thank you so much for the ones I have already received.

Here are two from Annie (on the left) and Jozarty (on the right). Thank you so much ladies I love them.

If you'd like to swap with me, please drop me an e-mail with your snail mail addy and I'll get one in the post, I promise!!

Last week you might remember I was experimenting with some uncompressed paper and lots of you asked what it was like for flowers.

Well the answer is brilliant. I love them and have been making lots. What do you think of them?

Finally, as the weather was so beautiful we had our first trip to The Lake District in nearly two years. I was having serious withdrawal symptoms as it's one of my favourite places in the world. So to sign off I'd thought I'd share a photo with you of the Langdale hills from Elterwater.

Thanks for stopping by and  here's to many more years of WOYWW. Cheers Julia for all you do.

What A Beautiful Day

Afternoon folks. I hope you are enjoying this beautiful sunshine today. What stunning weather and as clear as a bell. We have been out onto the moors this morning and you could see for miles. Magic!! So different from yesterday. Lets hope it lasts!!

Sheena had two brilliant shows today and as usual sold out of most things which is great. That means you love these stamps as much as us Inkoids!

I enjoyed making the samples so much I thought I'd share some daffodils with you today.

Another completely H20'd card, hope I'm not boring you with these, but the stamps just lent themselves to creating a set.

This second one is again painted with H20's but I made the background out of distress inks and over stamped with the Ageing Beautifully set.

Thanks for stopping by and have a brilliant Bank Holiday.

A Whole Bunch of Lily Of The Valley

Morning folks and what a morning it is for the start of the Bank Holiday. Blowing a gale, pouring with rain and freezing cold. If I didn't have to go out today I wouldn't.

As promised I'm back this morning with more Sheena samples, this time of beautiful Lily Of The Valley. Sorry if I'm a piccy heavy but I really enjoyed this stamp and just had to share all the samples I made as I couldn't choose a favourite.

The first will look familiar. I loved the bluebell card I made all in H20's so much that I had to do each flower on a similar theme so I ended up with a matching set.

The second one is the bleached technique using Distress Inks. I stamped the flowers and then masked them out before stamping the leaves and just loosely colouring them with cut and dry foam. I just wanted an impression and then the delicate little flowers to be the detail. The top part of the card was sprayed with gold radiant rain pourables I have decanted into a mister bottle. You have to have a bit of mica don't you?

And lastly I saw an image of a plate with Lily of The Valley all round the edge on my travels and wondered how to recreate it so I made a circular easel card. Everything was stamped in Peeled Paint Distress ink.

Don't forget to catch Sheena's shows if you can tomorrow at 10am and 3pm. I know she has got some gorgeous demos planned.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Friday.

A Flowery Sheena Sneaky Peek

Afternoon folks. At last I can share with you some sneaky peeks of the samples that have been keeping me quiet over the last week.

For someone who loves their garden and flowers as much as I do, these new stamps were a dream to work with, especially with the new clear rock-a-blocks that Sheena has eventually persuaded Crafters Companion to make for her. It was a bit of a joke at the DT retreat that I didn't like the old purple ones but I have to admit to being a total convert now. These are sooooo easy to use.

The very first stamps I played with were the Bluebells.

I created the background with H20's splodged onto wet card and then overstamped with the bluebells inked up with the H20's. The decoupaged flowers were stamped and painted with the same colours.

The photos don't do the mica justice but I just managed to capture it a bit.

For this second sample I used Fusible fibre for the flowers. I have Karen (a fellow Inkoid) to thank for reviving this idea and it suited the bluebells beautifully.

I'll be back tomorrow with some Lily of the Valley and Sheena will be on Create and Craft this Saturday with all the new stamps and clear rock-a-blocks at 10am and 3pm.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are keeping warm in this lovely Summer weather. We've had hail and sun and a balmy temperature of 6oC today.

WOYWW 207

Morning Crafters and dear WOYWW friends. Another week has flown by and I have been sadly absent from the  Blogging World again. I've been up to my eyeballs in DT work and also scuttling outside to play in the garden every time the sun shone over the weekend. Well it is such a rarity, you have to make the most of it don't you?

I very nearly didn't share my desk this week as I had put everything away last night after finishing the last project but then my lovely DH came home with a new toy to play with so everything has come out again.

He uses uncompressed paper to make whatever it is he does at work and as he's always interested in my craft he wondered if I can use it with my inks and stuff so we have been experimenting this morning to see what it does and how it's different from plain ordinary card. I have to say I'm feelin the love. You can use it in all the same way as card but it looks and feels like fabric and inks on it are beautiful and soft.

The uncompressed paper is on the left and the card on the right. I spritzed both with water and dried them. I'd be interested to know what you think.

We've embossed it and die cut it so far and played with distress inks but I need to put it through it's paces a bit more yet.

So that's my desk today. I can't wait to get round to see what you've all been up too. I haven't done any blog hopping for a week so need to have a catch up.

By the way, if you want to see what we got up to on the DT retreat last week, Sheena has a photo on her blog. 

Thanks for stopping by and if you want to join in the fun of WOYWW then pop over to see our lovely Desk Headmistress, Julia, HERE.

WOYWW 206

Afternoon lovely crafters and dear WOYWW friends. I can't believe where this week has flown to and what a week it's been. I got back last night from two days in Newcastle playing with my lovely teammies and The Boss, our Sheena, at our first DT retreat. I will share more details later in the week. What a brilliant couple of days and my head is spinning today with new ideas that have to be tried out but unfortunately, there is the small matter of work first!!!

So I'm nipping by to share my desk before I get my head down.

Not a lot to show except a right mess really. I am prepping for Craft Club tomorrow night. We are doing a small scrapbook layout and as most of the people who come are none papercrafters I'm keeping it simple. There is still a lot of stuff to get sorted though.

You can just see the project we did last time peeking out. One lady shared rag rugging with us. I have to say I was a bit dubious, thinking of the old fashioned rugs you see, but this was different. Bright colours and modern designs. She was making a huge Union Jack which was stunning. We just had a dabble but I loved it and finished mine at home. Here it is in all it's glory. Several of DD's tiny T-shirts I couldn't bear to part with found their way into it which makes it extra special.

I also need to get on with my ATC's for the WOYWW swap. The weeks are whizzing by and as always I'm chasing my tail. Nothing new there then!!

If you want to join in with all this desk sharing then pop over to see our lovely Desk Mistress, Julia, HERE.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Wednesday is going well.

Happy Crafting

A Bit More Sheena

Afternoon folks from a very wet and soggy Yorkshire. I just got my car washed just before the rain came... maybe that's what brought it. My Mum always used to say that cleaning the windows made it rain!!

As I haven't been very crafty lately and I've enjoyed all three of Sheena's programmes today I thought I'd share a few more of the samples I made for her.

If you've been watching you'll recognise this first one, although it didn't actually make an appearance. Sheena did an amazing canvas on air which she very kindly said had been inspired by this. I have to admit I LOVE what she did with hers and will definitely be trying adding torn book pages as a background.

The sunflower was just very loosely painted with the acrylic paints and then over stamped with versamark and gold embossed.

This one was my favourite of all the samples I made. I love making these hangings and the daisies are my favourite Paint Fusion stamps so it had to be my favourite didn't it? The background was done with all sorts of acrylic paints and distress inks and stamped with the Ageing Beautifully set.

The paper daisies were cut from a Sissix die I had forgotten all about.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope your week is going along smoothly.

WOYWW 205

Yes, I know, shout if you want.... two posts in the same day and both typed with a thick head and so many mistakes that I've had to go back and correct, but hey..I've missed WOYWW and my friends so much over the last few weeks that I just had to join in this week, as long as you'll excuse a very short post and any typos I've missed.

Not that there is much to show you on my desk this week.

Life has been so busy that all I've managed to do is a bit of shopping which has been dumped waiting to be put away. The tins contain little scrapbooks which I'm going to make into birthday presents and those lovely stamps are going to be used to decorate a large cog clock for my DH as he is celebrating a BIG birthday next month.

The pink mask has been put there by DD as it's needs a repair.

So....if you want to share your desk with everyone then don't forget to pop over to see our lovely Desk Headmistress, Julia, HERE.

I am off to get a cuppa before I come and see what you've all been up to while I've been absent so thanks for stopping by and have a lovely WOYWW.

Oh I forgot to say, I know I haven't been around much lately, but if anyone wants to swap ATC's with me just drop me an e-mail or leave me a comment. Ta muchly.

Some Fun With Paint Fusion

Afternoon folks

Sorry I am continuing to be so quiet. After the hectic few weeks we've had The Craft Garden collective are now all suffering from the same stinky cold and for once it's no fun sharing!! My sinuses are causing my head to hurt so much it's no fun sitting at the computer or even crafting for that matter. At least the last couple of days have been nice enough just to sit in the garden and enjoy the spring flowers.

A few weeks ago I did have lots of fun with my paints and inks making some samples for Sheena's Create and Craft shows tomorrow. She is revisiting the old Paint Fusion stamps but this time we have been allowed to play with them in anyway we wanted.

Here are a couple of the results.

I made some huge flowers with the large rose stamp and enjoyed the Hels Sheridan canvas I made sometime ago so much that I went down the same route again but this time painted the background with the Pebeo acrylic iridescent paints. They are totally yummy. I have definitely found a new love. I used texture paste through a stencil to create the border before adding embossing powder. The little raised dots were also done with paste and highlighted with a watercolour pencil. The rest of the background is created with bits of punched and torn paper stuck onto the canvas before it's painted.

The second canvas does exactly what it says on the tin. I paint fusioned these gorgeous Fuschias and added the sentiment before embossing the edges and adding the swirls with gold sparkly embossing powder.

 Short and sweet I'm afraid but thanks for stopping by and I hope to feel up to some blog hopping very soon. Don't forget to catch Sheena's shows tomorrow if you can.

Happy Crafting