WOYWW Wk 256

Morning Everyone,

It is still morning - just! And I almost forgot what day it was too!!!

Wednesday ... not just any Wednesday but only our Julia's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday! I know I'm not the first to say this, and I won't be the last, but where do the days go? We need more days in the week to get everything done ... at least two, methinks ... of course they would be purely crafting days :)

Well, here's the desk you've probably come to see, as it is this morning. There's been plenty going on this week - when I've not been in the garden, that is. I mentioned in the previous post that I'd been doing a bit of colouring - you can see the card featured top right. I have since been creating a few more cards with those images. The pile at the top, behind the gem wheels, is all I've made so far, and those on the top of the left hand pile are waiting to be transformed into something- could be cards, or tags, or something else - I'm not too sure yet. Dies, washi tape, glues, googly eyes, ribbon, punches, card candy, leftover scraps of card, peel-offs and scissors - such a lot goes into making just a few cards. When I dusted down the box of images I found it contained a pile of gelli plate prints that I'd stashed away too ... I'm now awaiting inspiration :)

I'm keeping it brief today ... yes, sometimes I can! And, as it is raining here in my patch of paradise, therefore no gardening to distract, the plan is to visit as many desks as is humanly possible.

But first, I need a cup of tea :)

Happy WOYWW and happy crafting,

Snippet Card - Live Every Moment - and the view from my craft room window - the sycamore and the magpie

Morning All

On Saturday afternoon I got out my little box of images, which had been all but forgotten since we moved here. It's a treasure trove of printed/stamped but not yet coloured  images ... mainly digital images that were printed out at the time they were acquired, some pre-printed that came free with various craft magazines, and just a few that were the product of test stamping sessions. I sorted through them and to while a way an hour or two I got out my collection of ProMarkers and spent a productive hour or two just colouring ... bliss!

I'm ashamed to say that this Black-Eyed Susan Corner - a Floppy Latte digi - is a NBUS (never before used stuff) from 2012! As you can see, I've exercised a bit of 'artistic' licence with the colours - the real thing is a much brighter, in-your-face, shade of yellow and I favour something a bit more subtle. I used a combination of marshy greens, pale golden yellows and poppy red ProMarkers to colour the image.

The sentiment is from an IndigoBlu set that came free with this month's Simply Cards & Papercraft stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black it fitted perfectly in the space around the corner image. Note: I did find that, as this was a clear stamp, I had to give it a gentle rub with an emery board to stop the ink from puddling ... fine if that's the effect you like but not if a more pristine image is what is wanted!

To mat and layer the image I picked out coordinating colours from Docrafts Papermania Textured Card and then adhered it to a black card base. Bonus was that I was able to use the red card leftover from one of the Rudolph Day cards posted a few days ago.

For the decoration the butterflies were punched (a Woodware punch) from the tiniest snippets of the red card - nothing goes in the bin unless I've exhausted all possibilities :)



Finally, two colours of Stickles, Xmas Red and Platinum, and a couple of Crystal Stickers red gems were used to add a bit of bling.

After all that I'm hoping there's enough bling in this submission to satisfy Mrs A's Butterflies Challenge #6 - Glamorous Butterflies

I'm also nipping over to Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 122 ... I always enjoy scrolling through Di's round up for the week because she does a great job of the showcase and it never fails to amaze me how ingenious crafters can be when it comes to using up even the tiniest leftover scrap from their snippet collection.

It's a dull day here, looks like rain, and the temperature outside had plummeted too so I won't be doing much pottering in the garden today. However, I'm not down because this is the view from the craft room window.

The sycamore in flower ... apologies for the the badly focused photo, it was shot through the window. I know a lot of folk consider sycamores nothing but thugs because of the way they seed so freely but this one just makes me smile. And if I am really lucky the magpie will come and sit on one of the nearby branches.

This photo was taken earlier in the spring, again through the window. He's surprisingly nervous so I had to sneak up on him to get this shot. I think, because he can see right down the full length of the garden from here, the sycamore is his favourite perch .

That's it for today, thanks for visiting - I hope you enjoyed reading it and, it goes without saying but I'll say it anyway, any comment is greatly appreciated :)

I'll wish you a good day and leave you to keep crafting.

Materials used: base - square black card; cardstock - Docrafts Papermania textured in red, cream and green; stamps - Black Eyed Susan Corner from Floppy Latte printed on to Neenah Solar cardstock, sentiment from IndigoBlu's Exclusive Stamp Collection - free with this month's Simply Cards & Papercraft; ProMarkers - greens, yellows and reds; punch - Woodware small butterfly; Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad; Stickles Xmas Red and Platinum; Crystal Stickers red gems

This Week's Smiles ...

... just a day late :)

This post was meant to happen yesterday but time just ran away with me and here I am, like the cow's tail, still trying to catch up. And I've had such a lot to smile about this week that it's hard to know where to begin. Okay, here goes ...

Regular readers of this blog will have seen the card I made for my daughter, Juli, and son-in-law, Graeme, to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary. Well, here is a lovely photo of the two of them and don't they look happy together? They were the last couple to be married in the chapel at the Mission for the Deaf in Kilmarnock. It was a service like no other I've been too,  it was conducted in sign language - even the hymns were signed - very special!

Many of you will know that I have been impatiently eagerly waiting for the cherry trees that form an arch over our front gate to come into blossom. That's the EM posing for me beneath them.

Now, finally, they are smothered in white blossom - especially gorgeous against that blue, blue sky!

This little green beech made me smile this week because I thought it had died. We discovered it during our Highland holiday last year at a nursery on the shores of Loch Ness. We were unable to plant it out immediately and what with one thing and another, like a house move, it stayed in it's pot for well over a year. We finally planted it out in early spring, in what will eventually be the woodland area of the garden but I have to admit I had little hope of it having survived. And here it is, tiny but perfect ... those leaves are so soft to touch and I just love that fresh shade of green :)

We have so many bluebells in bloom now that I was able to pick a lovely big bunch for indoors. The EM planted  tulips in October last year, before we even moved in so I picked one for the bud vase - I think they are the variety called Purple Prince, though it isn't looking very purple in that photo.

And someone else likes being among the garden flowers too! 

And finally, just had to show you this photo of my great-granddaughter, Rhian, making what the family refers to as her 'fish lips'! I don't know who taught her to do this but she's good at it and it certainly makes me smile :)

If you want to join in with something that makes you smile on a Friday, or just see what's making other folk smile each week, just click on the Share A Smile icon at the top of this post to take you to Annie's blog. It's good to smile :)

Rudolph Day Get Ahead - Get A Hat

Evening Everyone

Hope life's being good to you today.

I've had a busy day, doing my domestic goddess thing, so these two cards, made especially because it's Rudolph Day over at Stamping For Pleasure, were made in short bursts!

Two totally different looking cards but both have a lot in common ... they fit in with Hazel's CHNC 'get a hat' theme this week, the toppers are recycled (from cards received last Christmas), and the patterned papers used are scraps rescued from the snippets drawer.

I've used a square Kraft base for this card and covered it with a piece of leftover K & Company Susan Winglet Nature paper which is not actually a Christmas pattern paper. To make it more festive looking it was stamped, randomly all over, in green (VersaFine Olympia Green), with a holly snowflake stamp (free with an issue of Craft Stamper). The topper is matted and layered on to green (Papermill Direct Forest Green) and red (Docrafts Papermania Textured) cardstock. The snowflakes were die-cut (a Crafter's Companion Die-sire set) from the green card, decorated with Platinum Stickles and finished off with red buttons. Oh, and the teddy's wee nose has been blinged up with some of the Stickles too :)

This card was such a quick and easy make. The base is a ready-made tall scalloped edge one. The red patterned paper layer is a scrap leftover from a Hot of The Press pack that I think came free with a Scrapbooking Magazine last year. The topper was already glittered but I've added a touch of Xmas Red Stickles to the lamp and the little person's hat to add a bit of colour. Yes, that quick and that easy!

As well as Sarn's and Hazel's challenges, I'm also submitting these cards to the following:

Hazel's other monthly challenge for Christmas cards -  Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for April.
and
Di's challenge - Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 121

So there we have it, two cards for another Rudolph Day, and with the added bonus that I've used up loads of snippets and old stash :)

This brings my total C-cards made to date to 19 ... nowhere near enough! I think I better try harder, get a wriggle on, and up my monthly output, otherwise I'm going to stressing at the last minute!

Hope you all have a great evening.

Happy Crafting,

Have a Lovely Day

Good Evening Folks

I found some time this evening to finish the card that can be seen lying on my desk in this morning's WOYWW post so I thought I'd share it with you now before I trot off to bed.

It's a wee card, only 4" square, made from scraps of card and paper found during a sort out of the snippet drawer. Even the base is made from a strip of leftover white cardstock (Papermill Direct linen textured card). I just trimmed it to measure 8" x 4" and folded in half.

I then covered the front with a couple of strips of patterned paper in a sunny combination of yellow and aqua blue, added a belly band made of another strip, this time white card - the top and bottom of which were punched using Martha Stewart Butterfly Border and X-Cut's Scalloped Edge punches - wrapped with a length of yellow saddle-stitch grosgrain ribbon.

I've used a free stamp from Craft Stamper, stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, to create the topper. The die used to cut it is from Spellbinder's Labels Nine set and it was Adirondack Sunshine Yellow that was used to sponge around the edges. The die was traced round on turquoise cardstock to make the faux label for matting.

The three small butterflies were punched (using a Woodware punch) out of a scrap of aqua cardstock and decorated with tiny yellow gems (Anita's). The blue and yellow gems decorating the corners are slightly larger in size.

The inside and back are decorated in each corner with triangles of the patterned papers. I used punched squares cut in two diagonally to make the triangles - that simple!

No question that this is a snippet card so I'm off to Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 121. I hope Parsnip has got over being dressed up as an Easter bunny!

Wishing you all a wonderful day tomorrow.

Happy crafting,

WOYWW 255

Morning Everyone,

Happy St George's Day!

Another Wednesday, another workdesk for Julia's super bloghop, that's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday?! And, as has become the norm in recent times, there's not been a lot of action on mine this last week ... the glorious sunshine has been too much of a lure :) Anyway, here's what the craft desk looked like late Tuesday evening, and believe me there's been no change since.

Apart from the usual tools of the trade, scissors, guillotine, pen and pencil, there's a couple of pots of crafty goodness - embossing powder and silver gilding wax. There's also a much neglected box of peel-offs, only rescued from the dark recesses of the craft room for a greeting used on the silver anniversary card featured in my last post. There's a card in progress - I'm still thinking about what finishing touches to add - that's what the pile of scraps and other bits and bobs on the left are there for.

My new potting table and pots of seedlings ... a major distraction at this time of the year, especially when the sun is beckoning too :) That's my increasing auricula collection on top ... until recently I was the proud owner of just one - in the big pot at the back! Our old auricula theatre fell to pieces last year so they are all there until we find another way of displaying them.

The rain came back yesterday afternoon and there's more forecast for today - perfect weather for a bit of desk snooping visiting. So I'm looking forward to seeing what you are all up to today, and leaving as many comments as I can.

Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday and happy crafting,

Silver Wedding Anniversary Card

Hello Everyone,

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

So sad that the weekend is over ... but what a lovely weekend it has been. Not only did we have fabulous weather - yes, Hettie, it's been so warm I can well believe that it was the best recorded in the UK - but we've not been around much. Instead we took a trip to Wigtonshire to visit the book town and find a few choice plants at the nursery there. We also caught up with our grandson before he returned to Shetland where he now works. And today we are off to visit my daughter, Juli, and her husband, Graeme, because it is there Silver Wedding Anniversary.

I made the topper for this card using a brilliant app just recently discovered ... Tagxedo. Tagxedo turns words, whatever you choose, famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, etc., into a 'word cloud'. It's a lot of fun and I have to admit I spent way too much time playing around with words, colours and shapes before I decided on the one that was perfect for this card.

This close up shows just how personal the cloud is ... it even includes their names.

Because it's possible to save the cloud in JPG format it's easy enough to alter the size the image, which is what I did to create the insert.

And also create a tiny topper for the back of the card too.

Materials used: 

• base - smooth grey cardstock from Papermill Direct
• Matting & Layering - matt silver cardstock from Create & Craft, silver & white embossed cardstock from Kanban
• Punch - Martha Stewart arched edge
• Ribbons - 1" white silver ribbon from stash, 1cm white satin from Meiflower
• Topper - created on Tagxedo, printed on Crafter's Companion printable light card and edged with Pebeo silver gilding wax
• Greeting - silver peel-off from Craft Creations
• Insert - the image printed on the white copy paper
• Back - image printed on to white card and matted on to the silver matt cardstock

Right, I'd better be off ... time for a quick lunch before getting off to see the happy couple :)

Happy crafting, 

Better Late Than Never ...

... but, of course, better never late!

Hi Everyone,

This card was intended for Hazel's challenge over at Crafty Hazelnut's last week but didn't complete on time. However, as luck would have it, because it is square shaped it fits in with her challenge for this week - CHNC challenge 172 Make it square ... or include a square on your creation.

So it's a black square card base which I covered in paper from a Kaisercraft 6" Christmas Paper Pad that came free with Simply Cards & Papercraft some time last year. The belly band was made with a coordinating paper matted on to a snippet of black card. To decorate the band, I wrapped two lengths of some leftover aqua grosgrain ribbon, patterned with white snowflake, round it and added a faux bow to each piece. The topper and decorations all came from a Penny Black Stickeroo sheet, Winter Fantasy; I took Pixie Di's advice and stuck the topper on to a backing of white card first before trimming and matting on to yet another snippet of black card. The decoration of aqua gems was snipped from a flourish by K & Company.


Because the base is black, I've added some smooth white cardstock matted on to a square of the patterned paper to the inside ... much easier to write a greeting on.

Having used snippets of black card, not to mention the leftover length of ribbon, I'm popping over to Di's, that's Pixie's Snippets Playground, for Week 120. It's been too long since I checked out the ducks on the pond :)

I've somehow managed to alter the toolbar across the bottom of the screen on my PC here and I have no idea how to reverse it. Such a pain! Fiddling about, clicking this and clicking that, hasn't made one iota of difference so I think I'm stuck with it as it is - at least for the time being.

Now feeling technically challenged!

Hope you've had a brilliant day.

Happy crafting,

WOYWW 254 - the neglected desk

Morning WOYWWErs and Fellow Bloggers,

After last week's epic post, this is going to be a brief, very brief, one today ... Julia, our Keeper of the Desk Register, will be pleased :) So without further ado, the desk as it is this morning.

As my title suggests it's a much neglected desk you're viewing ... the fabulous weather here has lured me outside and into the garden!  And what a mess it is too! It's my middle sister's 60th birthday soon and I'm planning to make this scrapbook in a tin for her, which is why there's several pages of photos lying beneath the lid. What else? A card made for last week's CHNC challenge but finished too late to submit, a pile of stamps that should have been put away by now, a pile of old original photos that have been scanned for printing out, and various glues, rulers, scraps of card and paper and other crafty bits and bobs ... as I said, a mess! It's forecast to rain this afternoon so perhaps I'll get something crafty done then :)

So that's my less than creative desk today; if you would like to see many much more interesting desks just pop over to Stamping Ground - it will be a revelation :)

Happy WOYWW,

Found Growing Among the Weeds

Morning Folks

Yesterday was such a lovely day we spent most of it outside in the garden which doesn't leave much time or energy for anything else ... even dinner was a scratch meal of Scotch eggs and salad! We managed to plant a few more roses, in what is now being called the rose bed, and climbers against the newly erected trellis. And then there's the weeds ... so many of them! I think I'm waging a losing battle against the ground elder but on the plus side there's lots of lovelier things to see in the garden right now so here is just a few for you to enjoy.

Bluebells fighting there way through the sticky weeds just beside a clump of Celandines.

My prized Epimedium, also known as barrenwort, bishop's hat, fairy wings, horny goat weed, rowdy lamb herb, randy beef grass or yin yang huo ... I think I prefer fairy wings :) We found this white one in a nursery just off the shores of Loch Lomond whilst on holiday there.

Spirea Gold Flame looking much healthier now that it's been transplanted from a pot to the rose bed.

One of the EM's pansies ... I love this fresh looking white one with it's tiny yellow centre.

Another of the EM's plants. I'm not really keen on primulas but this one I do like ... I think it's the white edging round the deep coral pink petals that make it a bit special.

And more from the EM's green fingers. He planted these daffodils and narcissus even before we moved in ... he just couldn't wait! This one looks lovely but it's perfume is pretty awful ... only found that out after having cut a few for the vase!!!

Daffodils, the narcissus and bluebells ... sadly, because of the rogue narcissus, this looks much prettier than it smells :)

It looks as though it is going to be another scorcher today so I'm off to don my gardening boots and gloves and carry on from where we left off yesterday. Got to make the best of today because rain is forecast for tomorrow.

Hope you all have a wonderful day whatever you are doing.