WOYWW 394

Morning dear WOYWW friends. I'm so glad I'm finally able to join you all again for the last desk hop before the Christmas Festivities.....it's been awhile. Life has been a bit hectic in The Craft Garden over the last few months.

So, here's my desk today.

Not much happening really. I've managed to make some Christmas cards and have just finished a couple of special ones for both my Mums. There is also a paper pine cone lying there from Craft Club last week that needs some decoration to finish it and then it will find a home on the Christmas tree.

Here's a close up of the card.

I thought you might like a look in the other direction to see the carnage that is my craft room at the minute. It's hard to even get into my desk.

I've spent the last few months moving my Mum and although we got rid of a frightening amount of stuff, some of it found it's way into my craft room, books that might come in useful for something, a box of inks I couldn't bear to give to charity and much more....I guess the first job of the new year will be to have a tidy up. At least the Xmas pressies that are in there will have gone to new homes by then. Mum's move was hectic, we did it ourselves, but she loves her new home and has settled really well so it was all worth while.

Well, it just remains for for me to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and lets hope 2017 is Happy, Healthy and Peaceful for everyone.

If you want to join in with this fantastic WOYWW desk hop, then pop over to see Julia HERE.

I shall be round to see what you've all been up too when I've made a fresh cuppa so enjoy your Wednesday and Happy Crafting.

WOYWW 380

Morning dear WOYWW friends. Well, I'm back. There's me thinking, when we broke up for the summer hols, I would have loads of time for blogging.....Wrong!!!! I don't know where the weeks went.

Anyway, I have a rare day off today so I'm here and getting some jobs caught up with.

First things first, here's my desk this morning. Not much happening I'm afraid. It's been too hot!

My DD decided to change her bedroom round a couple of weeks ago which involved swapping bookcases from her room and my craft room so a huge sort out followed, especially in my craft room. I can now see the floor and everything has been put into it's place. I may never find anything ever again. My lovely Hubby made me some more ribbon organisers so I am all colour coordinated.

What else has been happening in The Craft Garden. Well. I am in the middle of helping my Mum with moving house, we had a lovely week in beautiful Cornwall and I was thrilled to call in on Jan (LLJ) at long last. We just managed to catch her before she moved house and we were made so very welcome by her lovely family with tea and cake. It was brilliant to finally meet after chatting on t'internet for the last 5 or so years. I've borrowed your photo, Jan, hope you don't mind.

Well, that's me today. I'm off to my Mum's now for some more packing so I'll be round to catch up with you later.

If you want to share your desk with us, then pop over to see the lovely Julia, HERE.

Enjoy your Wednesday and Happy Crafting.

A Sheena Douglass Inspiration Post

Morning everyone.

As you may remember, Sheena's DT, The Inkoids, have started to take it in turns to do an Inspiration post twice a week using some of her old stamps and it's come round to my turn again.

This time I decided to revisit some stamps we played with this time last year and I made this little canvas which was mounted on an Ikea frame painted with Pebeo black gesso.

People often ask how you stamp on canvas and I've found you can't successfully. The best way is the stamp on one layer of a tissue and then stick it onto the canvas with some matt medium and then colour the image.

Personally I prefer to colour the canvas first. I give the canvas a good coat of gesso leaving it a bit textured and then with this canvas I painted it with Primary Aquatints, yellow and turquoise, letting the colours blend together. It was dried thoroughly.

I stamped lots of images on tissue using black Archival and tore them out very roughly, you don't want to cut them as the edges show, and then arranged them on the canvas until I was happy before sticking them down with matt medium.

I then painted the images with very watered down acrylic paints and was very selective what I painted. A lot of the images look better with just the background colour showing through.

I stamped some swirls around the edge and heat embossed with gold embossing powder and then edged the canvas in the same way, added a sentiment and that was it.

Thank you for popping by today and Happy Crafting.

WOYWW 373

Morning lovely WOYWW friends. I hope I find you well this Wednesday. It feels great to be visiting Julia again to link up, not that it wasn't a pleasure to visit Jan too. If you want to join in with this global desk hop then pop over to see Julia, HERE. 

I'm afraid my desk is a bit bare today. It was far too hot to do any crafting last week and it was Mum's 80th Birthday on Thursday so we were out and about at the weekend. Hopefully I'll get some crafting done later today. I've got a list of jobs that need doing pegged to my ink holder and not many of them have been crossed off yet!!

The postie brought a lovely bit of Happy post the other day. Elizabeth kindly sent me a lovely card and some pink Aquilegia seeds after I admired a photo she posted on Facebook a few months ago. I shall enjoy growing them and will always think of her when they flower.

I haven't any craftiness to share with you but my daughter's class had a go at henna painting on each other in the last week of term and she came home delighted with what her friend had done for her.

And just to show you I haven't been completely lazy over the last few weeks, here's how the garden's looking at the moment. I love this time of year when the roses are all at their best.

Well, that's me today. I shall be round to see what you've all been up to as soon as I've made a cup of tea.

Enjoy your Wednesday and Happy Crafting!

A Little Bit Of Sheena Douglass Inspiration

Morning. I hope I find you well this Monday morning. We have just started our 6 week summer holiday, there are advantages to working in a school sometimes, so it's a lovely feeling so have lots of time for some craftiness.

My fellow Sheena Douglass DT team mates and I, the Inkoids, will be doing some Inspirational Posts using some of Sheena's older stamps every Monday and Thursday from now on. It's great to revisit them, they come out all fresh again.

It's my turn for the inspiration today and I'm afraid I'm starting with Christmas, now don't all groan!!!!!

This card uses the stamps and dies from last Christmas but uses some new techniques I've been playing with inspired by a Dutch lady, Hermine Koster. I love the way she layers up her background with ink and stencils and then adds the stamps on top. It's quite a liberating way of working.

Here's a brief 'how to' for this card. I put Peacock Feathers and Dusty Concord Distress Inks onto my glass mat one at a time, added water and smooshed the card through, drying in between each colour. I find it's easier to control the colours doing this. I used the same colours to stencil through some of Sheena's stencils, but you can use what ever you have. I also stamped some of the words from the Christmas set in the background.

Next, I stamped the baubles in Watering Can Archival ink and painted them in with Dusty Concord, masked them off and stamped the ivy corner around them, again in Dusty Concord.

Lastly the holly was die cut, stamped with Perfect Medium and silver heat embossed and painted with Peacock Feathers. Silver gilding wax was applied around the edges of the card and I used the Dusty Concord to create my matting layer. So all in all I used 3 inks and some embossing powder. It just goes to show you don't need lots of product to create a card.

Next Monday my Inkoid teamy, Nicole, will be doing another Inspirational post, so if you want to have a look at what she's been up to, you can find her at nicolebretherickdesigns.blogspot.com.

Enjoy the rest of your Monday and Happy Crafting!

WOYWW 371

Morning lovely WOYWW friends. Sorry I've been missing for the last two weeks. I fully intended to join in last week but got involved in Wimbledon and the day was done before I realised it. Still only two more weeks to go before we break up for the summer hols so I will have no excuse to be with you every week then!!.

So here's my desk as of yesterday afternoon.

Notice that rare thing shining through the window, we haven't seen much of it lately. A changeable summer the weatherman called it!!
I have been having a lovely time experimenting with lots of new things lately and those weird looking things standing to attention are a jar and bottle that have had the Powertex treatment. I was plucking up courage to put some colour on them, which I did first thing this morning and this is how the bottle has turned out.

Not too bad for a first attempt but I've learnt loads doing this one and have lots of ideas for future projects now.

I've also had a canvas on the go inspired by an article in this month's Craft Stamper magazine where the pieces of wood you get with canvases were turned into beach huts. I have loads of these stashed away so was delighted to find a use for them. My dear hubby cut me some roof pieces for them and this is it finished.

Well, that's me this week. If you want to share your desk too, then pop over HERE and get snooping, it's great fun.

I shall be round to see what you've all been up to after work so enjoy your Wednesday and Happy Crafting!

WOYWW 368

Morning dear WOYWW friends. I hope I find you well today and enjoying some sunshine. Thankfully, the rain of last week has settled down to lovely warm sunshine now here in Yorkshire. I've been out in the garden trying to tame it. Everything is growing so quickly.

Anyway, here's my desk as of yesterday evening.

I've been asked to make a 91st birthday card so that's what I'm in the middle of doing. It's coming along nicely so far and just needs some flowers. No tea today, I'm being good and sticking to water. It's high time I stuck to a diet and lost a few pounds!!! Not much else to share with you that you haven't seen before.

So here's the finished card. I finished it first thing today. We are up at 6am as hubby has a two hour commute and I am far more productive in a morning than late at night so am an early morning crafter.I think I might reproduce it for my Mum's 80th birthday next month. What do you think?

We had a lovely day out last Saturday at Fountains Abbey. We are so lucky to have such beautiful places on our doorstep.

Well, that's me today. If you want to share your desk with us, then pop over HERE and link yourself up.

Have a great Wednesday and Happy Crafting.

WOYWW 367

Morning dear WOYWW friends....remember me???? Sorry I've been absent for so long, the garden and other things took over and I just never seem to get a minute to give my blog any attention, although I have been keeping an eye on what you've all been up too and how our dear Julia has been going on.

So, here's my desk this morning.

I have been enjoying a little down time from DT duties and just playing with some stamps that I've had for ages but haven't been shown any ink up until now and I've really enjoyed getting creative.

Santa brought me the crazy birds stamp for Christmas and I've been desperate to play with them so this is the card I've made for my Sister's birthday this week. She's not a bright person, but I am so I'm afraid I've inflicted her with all my favourite distress ink colours, I hope she forgives me!!!!

I've also recently managed to get hold of some Altenew stamps that I've been desperate for. It's taken a bit of practice to get the layering right but I love the results you get from them.

Well, I told you I've been spending every spare moment in the garden so here are a few pics to bore you with before I go and get a fresh cuppa before settling down to my desk hopping.

If you want to share your desk with some lovely people, you can do so HERE.

Enjoy your Wednesday and Happy Crafting.

WOYWW 358

Afternoon dear WOYWW friends. I'm a little late to the party today. I've had a lovely day out with my Mum which included coffee and cake and some craft shopping, what could be better and have only just got home, so, here is my desk just as I left it first thing this morning.

My very long awaited Altenew stamps (well half of them anyway) arrived on Monday and as I've been waiting so long for them I had to ink them up straight away. Not much else to see this week. I'm on water instead of coffee today and there is also a list there for some DT samples I have to make.

I finished my Prima girl card from last week. Here's how she turned out.

And I also finished the quilled initial for my Mum. I'm now on another one for a friend's birthday next week. I'm finding this quite addictive.

Well that's me this week. If you want to share your desk with us then pop over to WOYWW headquarters and link up.

I hope your Wednesday has been as lovely as mine. Happy Crafting!

WOYWW 357

Morning dear WOYWW friends and what a beautiful morning it is. I am heading into the garden after I've posted this as we started our 2 week Easter holidays last Friday so lots of time for crafting and gardening, whey hey!!

Here's my desk this morning.

I'm in the middle of a card making session, trying to get ahead with birthdays for the rest of the year and having a play with the lovely big Prima girl stamps, I love these. An empty coffee mug...must put that right and just the general mess I live in on my craft desk.

I finished a card I am going to demo at craft club this week. Here's what they are going to be making. I love painting these daisies, I just hope my ladies do too. They did glass painting last session and enjoyed that so I hope this follows on nicely.

If you want to share your desk with us then pop over to WOYWW Headquarters and link up.

My garden is beginning to look lovely and springlike and I nipped out with my camera earlier. Tibby, our new kitty cat was also enjoying the breezy sunshine.

Well that's me today so. Enjoy your Wednesday and Happy Crafting!!

WOYWW 356

Afternoon lovely WOYWW friends. It's been so long since I've been able to join you. What a start to the year we've had. My Mum fell and broke her wrist on New Years Day so I looked after her for the first 6 weeks of 2016. Then the week after she had her pot taken off I was back at The Fracture Clinic with my dear Hubby who jumped out of an HGV and ruptured his achilles tendon. He's been at home for the last 7 weeks and has just gone back to work today so I'm taking this opportunity to catch up with all my desk buddies. Not a lot of crafting has occurred but here's my desk this morning.

Not much to show really. I grabbed a few hours over the Easter weekend to create a little canvas having a go with image transfer, something I've wanted to play with for ages. It wasn't a total success but I was quite pleased with the end result after a bit of patching up. The stencil and heat gun are what I was using.

Here's the finished project.

I also tried a bit of quilling after seeing some gorgeous things on Pinterest and made this for my Mum In Law for Mother's Day. I have one half finished for my own Mum too. It takes much longer than I expected so her's will be for her birthday in July!!

Well, that's me today. I hope to be able to join in the desk round regularly now, fingers crossed so I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone.

If you want to share your desk with some like minded people, then pop over to WOYWW headquarters and see what it's all about.

Thanks for popping by and Happy Crafting!

WOYWW 347

Morning dear WOYWW friends. I hope I find you well this Wednesday and if you live on the East coast of the USA, I hope you are slowly emerging from all that snow!!! Nothing like that here, just wind and rain!
I love the fact that Wednesdays are a little trip around the desk world so for my Australian Desk friends, Happy Australia Day for yesterday.

Right onto my desk today. I took this last night but it hasn't changed and isn't likely to today as it's my birthday so I may be busy eating cake.......

I've been asked to make a 50th birthday card and have nearly finished. I just need to find some number stamps to fit in with the design.

Last week I was in the middle of trying to come up with something for my craft ladies so thought I'd share what we did in the end. Thanks as always to Pinterest for inspiring me. They loved playing with the inks and stamps and creating their own backgrounds and every one was different. (Apologies for the poor photo)

Don't forget to share your desk with us by popping over to see the lovely Julia, HERE.

Well, that's me today. Enjoy what ever you are up to today and Happy Crafting!!

A Bit More Sheena Home Life

Morning all. Well I'm sat here with a yucky cold feeling very cross with myself , in my befuddled state I've just deleted my pending comments by mistake and it doesn't look likes there's any way of recovering them so I'm sorry if your comment has disappeared. I did read them and so appreciate the time you take in leaving them. I shall be more careful in future.

I just wanted to share another sample I made for Sheena's upcoming Create and Crafts shows next week. The first one is 9pm on Monday which means anyone who is normally at work should be able to catch it. My fellow Inkoids have made some stunning samples and if you like baking or gardening, these will be right up your street.

I love this set, the teacup is plain and all the decorations are separate stamps so you can really go to town with the decorations and make them all different.

Right, I'm off to make to make some lemon and honey to ease this raging sore throat so enjoy your Saturday and Happy Crafting!

New Sheena Goodies

Morning lovely crafty friends. Nearly the weekend thank goodness.

I'm just popping by today to share a card I've made with some gorgeous new dies and stamps from Sheena Douglass. She has two sets being launched next week on Create and Craft as a 4 Day Deal starting on Monday at 9pm.

The set I had to work with were all kitchen images and have a real fifties feel. I've loved playing.

This card was made with Distress inks although the jars were coloured with alcohol markers and then clear embossed. It looks quite flat on the photo but irl it is really 3d.

I'll be back soon to share some of the other things I've made so enjoy your Friday and Happy Crafting!

WOYWW 346

Morning dear WOYWW friends. I hope your Wednesday is going well.

Here is my gloomy desk, or rather dining table last night.

I have been trying to come up with a project for my Craft Club this week helped by our kitty, Nerys. An ongoing task which I'm sure any of you who do regular classes will understand. Unfortunately this one didn't make the cut. They want to make a card but coming up with something that a group can all do together is sometimes easier said than done. Still, I have today to play.

We had a surprise fall of snow on Saturday night which looked so pretty on Sunday morning. Thankfully, it didn't last long or cause any disruption.

Our other bit of exciting news is the new addition to the family, 3 year Tibby. Her owner had gone into a Nursing home so she was looking for a new home. She has settled in very well and is a real sweetheart.

Well, that's me this week. If you want to share your desk with us then pop over to see the lovely, Julia, HERE.

I'll be back later to see what you've been up to so enjoy your day and Happy Crafting!!

WOYWW 344

Happy New Year dear WOYWW friends. I hope it's a good one for you with good health & happiness all round.

We've had a bit of a bumpy start to 2016 but fingers crossed it gets better.

I have managed a bit of crafting this week in between getting back to normal.

I needed a new project for my Craft Club ladies on Thursday and found some lovely birdhouse gift boxes on Pinterest so have been making one up so that I can then show them. This was taken last night on the dining table, hence the Christmas table cloth and before you ask, no I hadn't drunk the wine, although it has now gone back in the fridge to be finished off later tonight!! You can just spot the remains of the Christmas cake and my scarf dumped unceremoniously after getting in from work.

Well, that's me this week. If you want to share what you've been up to on your desk with us then pop over to see the lovely Julia, HERE.

I might be a bit late getting round to you this week, but bare with me, I will get there.

Enjoy your Wednesday and Happy Crafting.