WOYWW 187 & New Year Wishes

A very Happy New Year to all my Crafty friends. I hope your Christmas festivities were very happy ones and Santa brought you all that you wished for and that 2013 has started well.

We had a lovely time with lots of delicious food and drink, generous presents and precious family time. I have done no crafting whatsoever and am now raring to go again. Trouble is the state of my craft room. I feel ashamed to show you but as it's WOYWW then here it is on all is disgraceful glory.

I hope that by the end of today some order will have been restored. We had a big sort out of DD's bedroom yesterday and she inherited the easy chair that had become a dumping ground in my craft room and took up valuable storage space. I had to move lots of things out so we could get it through the narrow doorway and just pushed everything back in last night and closed the door. There are also lovely Christmas presents waiting to find a new home. I think I will take the opportunity to have a big sort out and tidy up.

Before I go and make a start you might remember the oval mirror that was on it's way to becoming my MIL's Christmas present last time I joined in WOYWW and just to round things off here is the end result. She was delighted with it and we had a good laugh when I told her the story.

If you want to start off the New Year in some lovely company then there is no better way than joining in the biggest weekly desk snoop in the World so pop over to see our Desk Headmistress, Julia, HERE.

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

WOYWW 185

Morning lovely crafters and dear WOYWW friends. I hope your Christmas preparations are coming along a treat. Can you believe it's less than a week to the big HO HO day as Chris Evans would say. I really don't know where this year has gone, it's absolutely flown even though it has definitely been a year of big ups and downs in The Craft Garden. However, we are still here, healthy and happy and there's an awful lot to be said for that and for which I am eternally grateful.

This will be the last WOYWW of the year from me. I always have a crafting break over the Christmas holidays, there are always so many other things going on, so here is my last desk of the year taken in the gloom of early morning.

I am in full pressie making mode. You can see a cheap mirror being turned into something for my MIL. Weeks ago I made some altered mirrors for everyone using those square ones from THAT Swedish shop, but I discovered while we were moving my MIL that she doesn't like things with corners and always chooses round mirrors and so on where she can. This came after a discussion about how much she disliked the square mirror she had inherited in her new bathroom!!! I couldn't then give her a square one for Christmas could I?? By chance I discovered this oval one included in a pack of photo frames which was what I was originally shopping for so two things off my list in one fell swoop.

The other things you can see drying are vases which I am painting with Pebeo Fantasy Prisme paint.

 I found it works really well with the paint fusion poppy stamp, although I've made my job harder by choosing a round vase. The paint takes ages to dry and runs if you do too much at a time but a gentle heat just seals it enough to move on to another area. It's still a slow job but the paint makes a lovely effect.

You'll have to excuse the rough edges, I have yet to go back over with the black outliner to tidy up the edges. As I said, it's very much work in progress.

So that's me today. I can't wait to see what everyone else is up too so I'll be round to have a peek later in the day. If you haven't yet discovered the biggest weekly desk snoop in the World then pop over to see the lovely Julia, who keeps us all in order, HERE.

Thanks for stopping by and if I don't see you before the big day, have a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy, Healthy and Crafty New Year and thank you for being such wonderful friends over the last year.

WOYWW 184

Morning lovely crafters and dear WOYWW friends. I can't believe it's a week since I last posted anything. To be honest I can't believe it's a week since the last WOYWW, surely it was only yesterday we were all desk hopping!! If you want to join in the fun, then pop over to see our lovely Desk Headmistress, Julia, HERE. 

It's another chilly morning here in Yorkshire. Very seasonal but it makes driving interesting. I slid all the way to drop DD off at her friend's so that they can walk to school together. When you live on a hill whichever way you go makes for an interesting experience. I love the cold weather though, at least we get the sunshine.

Here is my desk as of yesterday afternoon. It looks exactly the same this morning and won't change much until later.

I'm still prepping for my workshop tomorrow morning. I never really know numbers until a few days before so don't do the main bits until then. You can see the wreath bases cut out ready and I've just stamped up some paper to cut out a few more tattered florals. It's so much cheaper than buying or printing paper and when mixed with all the other layers looks just as good.

This is what the finished wreath will look like. I first made it this time last year for a challenge over at The Stampman and it stayed up all Christmas.

The flowers are layered up and held together with a brad and then scrunched around to give them some shape before being spayed with mica powder and glittered. Some mirricard swirls are added for a bit more shape and a nice bow finishes it off.

  
I've cut out flowers in blue and in the more traditional red and green so I hope they enjoy making it as much as I did.

Right, I'm off to work now and then I have a Christmas tea party this afternoon so I'll hopefully see you at a desk near you this evening.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty Wednesday.

WOYWW 183

Morning lovely crafters and dear WOYWW friends from a chilly but bright West Yorkshire. Another Wednesday flies by so that must mean another chance to visit lots of wonderful desks. If you haven't yet discovered the wonders of WOYWW then give yourself an early Christmas present and go and visit our Desk Headmistress, Julia, HERE and find out what you're missing.

This is my desk as of last night as it's empty at the minute as we've just had breakfast. I've abandoned my craft room for now as it's a bit cold and also full of secret Santa stuff if you get my drift!!!! so I'm back to the dining table.

I'm in the middle of prepping for another workshop next week. We are making a Christmas wreath from paper flowers so my Cuttlebug has gone into overdrive.

I'm afraid there's not much more to see this week. My new pots of Pebeo Prisme paints are waiting to be played with in the background. I have lots of ideas for some Christmas presents using them, but apart from that I cleared up earlier so it's all looking pretty uninteresting.

Short and sweet again as I need to come and see what you are all up too.

Thanks for stopping by and have a Happy and Crafty Wednesday.

Just Dropping By

Afternoon lovely Crafting friends. I'm just dropping in to say hello. I have been such a poor blogger lately, there seems to be so little time to fit everything in so blogging tends to fall by the wayside for which I apologise.

Anyway, I have a card to share with you today which is not festive in anyway, I'm still struggling away with those. I made this card some time ago for a challenge and it got over looked so I thought I'd just share it with my lovely friends instead.

It has lots of different embossing on it and the butterfly has been cut out of vellum and decoupaged. This was one of those cards that just came together and I really liked the colour scheme although I hadn't planned it all in the beginning. Funny how that happens sometime.

Well, I'd better go and crack on with those Christmas cards, they are not going to make themselves!!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have had a good Monday. We started the week with a Funeral which I wasn't looking forward too but it was actually a very nice service and lovely to catch up with family we don't see very often.

WOYWW 182

Morning lovely crafters and dear WOYWW friends.

Well, I've been absent from the register for the last couple of weeks. I didn't think you'd want to see a photo of an emulsioned wall which is what my workdesk has been, even though it was a very pretty lilac colour. Thankfully I am back at my proper workdesk today so I feel I can come back and play.

Here is my desk as of last night. I'm out all day today, this morning at work and then out for lunch with my dear blogging buddy, Sylvia, who I haven't seen for ages, so it won't change until tonight, apart from being cleared to one side so that we can eat!!! Yes I am back on the dining table. My little craft room is a bit chilly now.

I have been playing with some gorgeous Thomas Kincade Christmas decoupage from Joanna Sheen. Something a bit different for me but I only make Christmas cards for close family now and liked the look of these. I can also sit and cut them out in front of the TV so for once the cards are actually getting made in good time. In case you were wondering, I do send cards to the rest of the family but they get bought ones!!!!

All the usual card making paraphernalia  card, inks and glue but no cup of tea for me, just a glass of water. I have been told too much tea is not good and I should be drinking more water. I have found that the fizzy stuff is more interesting but it certainly doesn't beat a good cuppa. I save those for special times of day now!!

Here's a peek at one of the finished cards if you're interested.

If you want to join in the biggest weekly desk hopping session in the world, then pop over to see the desk Headmistress, Julia, HERE.

As some of you know, the reason I have had an emulsion brush in my hand instead of a craft brush is that we have been moving my MIL into a new flat. I bought this MDF blank in readiness some months ago so have been decorating it this week as her housewarming present.

The flowers have been made using the Tonic Petal Pairs punches. I have found a new love!!!

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

More Sheena Sneaky Peeks

Afternoon folks. I hope you are enjoying your Saturday. It's been cold and foggy here all day but we've had a lovely outing to Skipton for a bit of Christmas shopping and a coffee.

As promised here are two more samples using the new Sheena Douglass stamps which have been created for the Pebeo fantasy paints.

 I used Dusty Concord Distress Ink  to create a background and embossed this lovely flower with gold sparkly embossing powder before painting the inside of it with more Dusty Concord.

This lovely scene is painted with H20's. I stamped the flowers again onto scrap card and cut them out to stick them onto the frame that I added to set it all off.

The rest of the team have created some stunning samples and I'm sure you'll spot them during your blog hopping.

Well, short and sweet from me tonight. I have some Hairy Biker Chilli bowls to rustle up for tea.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Long Time No See

Afternoon lovely crafting friends. Did you wonder where I'd got too?

What a hectic few weeks!! My MIL recently got the keys to her new downstairs flat. She lived on the third floor with no lift and was increasingly finding the stairs difficult. Anyway, to cut a very long story short. We got this very distressed phone call two Fridays ago saying she'd been taken to see the vacant flat and given the keys and it was awful, no carpets, bare plaster walls etc etc and she only had a week to move in and didn't want it anymore!!! So DH and I and my SIL and her Hubby spent the following week with paint brush in hand and then scrubbing the kitchen and bathroom from top to bottom to make it habitable. Carpets went down in record time and last Saturday we moved her lock stock and barrel and by tea time she was unpacked and settled and declared herself very happy with her new palace. Amazing what a bit of hard work can achieve.

This week I've hosted my very own card class which was a real buzz. I loved it. I had a group of 7 complete craft novices and 3 hours later they had really blossomed. Roll on next month.

So, very little crafting has actually gone on in The Craft Garden. I have found time though to do some samples  with some beautiful new Sheena Douglass stamps that are being launched on 27th November on Create and Craft. Unfortunately, Sheena is still not well enough to travel far so her good friend Leann Chivers from Crafters Companion is going to do the launch along with some beautiful new Pebeo Fantasy paints that are well worth having a look at.

I didn't play with the paints as I knew my time was going to be limited but thoroughly enjoyed using the stamps with all the usual mediums. Here are a couple to give you an idea.

This first one is painted with H20's

And this is just coloured with Promarkers.

I hope you like them. I'll pop back tomorrow with a few more.

I'm sorry I haven't managed to visit anyone for such a long time and will try and catch up over the next few days. I've missed seeing what you've all been up too.

Thanks for stopping by and stay safe and warm in this wild weather.

WOYWW 179

Morning lovely Crafters and dear WOYWW friends. Wednesday again and November already. Where did the year go? It doesn't seem five minutes since last Christmas and here we are heading for another one. I don't know, it's frightening sometimes how fast time flies by.

Anyway, enough wittering, you came here to see my desk so here it is and....gasp....horror.....

is that a Christmas card in progress at last????? I thought I'd better stop fighting it and start getting organised so the Christmas stamps have been dug out and I have made a start. It might not last, I'm sure I'll find something better to do tomorrow!!

If you want to join in this wonderful world of workdesk hopping, then pop over to see the Desk Headmistress, Julia, HERE.

Yesterday morning when we were having brekkie there was an amazing sunrise out the kitchen window and cereals were quickly forgotten while we got the cameras out. It's just a shame that after such a promising start in proceeded to rain all day and blow a right gale. What is it they say, "red sky at night, shepherds delight, red sky in the morning, shepherds warning!!!!!

I have tried to keep in short and sweet today in accordance with Miss Julia's wishes so I'll see you at a desk near you very soon.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting.
  

A Gorguss use for an old CD

Afternoon lovely crafters. It's been a beautiful day here in Yorkshire after a very frosty start. It was white over this morning. Does this mean Winter has finally arrived?? I know some of you had an unexpected fall of snow yesterday!!!!

We are all back to normal today after half term but on a wet afternoon last week DD and I made some hangers from old CD's. I saw a demo doing this on C&C and had just had a clear out of loads of CD's that come free with the Sunday paper so had a big pile to play with.

I borrowed this Gorguss Girl stamp from DD, she collects them. I just love this one with the little foxes. Her stripped hat is great.

The CD was covered back and front with some lovely glittery paper from First Edition and I made the roses from another sheet from the same pack. The Gorguss girl was coloured with promarkers. I'm not too happy with her face, my flesh coloured pen needs replacing. I have tried to improve it but without much success so don't look too closely.    

Right, I'm off to find a responsible adult to light my sparklers so I'll wish you a safe and happy Bonfire Night.

Thanks for stopping by.