What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - WOYWW Week 308

Greetings WOYWW Deskers, Followers and Fellow Bloggers,

I get withdrawal symptoms when I can't make it over to Julia's as happened last week, so just had to join in today.

Quite a tidy desk to show today, although had I taken the photo yesterday it would have been a different story! I've claimed back more than the 12"x12" that had been my working space for the last couple of weeks. It was such a muddle, I had to do something before I ran out of space altogether. So not much to see ... a card almost finished; some gems and enamel dots - just deciding which would be best to add to the card; a snowflake die that should be put away; some paper scraps leftover from making the card; distress inks; adhesive pads. At the back, just off camera, are boxes containing bits and bobs - all essential stash that maybe should be somewhere else, I just can't decide where!

Not much more to say today except I'm up to my eyes in alterations that are keeping me busy with the sewing machine at the moment. Both my niece, Louise, and I have lost weight, she's lost a lot and I've lost a lot less but the result is the same - good news for us but it does mean our clothes don't fit anymore. So far I've taken in the waist on four pairs of jeans with more piled up just waiting to be done!

Feel like revealing your desk to the world, not joined in before but would like to ... then pop over to the Stamping Ground - where you will find a warm welcome, I'm sure - and link a post showing your desk. You'll enjoy the experience :)

Hope you all have a great week ahead.

Happy WOYWW,

Sweet April Card

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are well and enjoying rather better weather than we have had up here. It's been snowing! It's almost May ... so not so sweet April after all :)

This card, with it's inappropriate sentiment for the moment, was made for this month's UKPC swap. The theme was 'rain' hence the little quote from the 16th century poet, Thomas Tusser  - 'Sweet April showers, Do spring May flowers'.

Here's a list of materials used:

• White die-cut easel card base from Creative Crafting World
• Mustard yellow smooth cardstock - American Crafts
• Patterned paper, black with multi-coloured polka dots - KI Memories Flourish Delightful
• White cardstock for stamping and printing - Neenah Solar
• Stamps - Water Droplets stamp - Designs by Ryn; Rubbernecker's Poppy Field
• Ink pads - Tim Holtz Black Soot & Scattered Straw distress inks; Archival Black
• Watercolours - various mixed to create the shades of yellow/oranges used
• Dies - Spellbinders Nesting Labels Twenty-five; Tattered Lace Mini dies - Butterflies
• Embellishments - white pearls and yellow printed ribbon

As can be seen in this photo the card is a back to front easel shape. I decorated the part that props the card up to give it a bit of rigidity, otherwise it was in danger of flopping down due to the weight on the front.

Well, would you believe it ... the sun has come out!!! You would never guess it had been snowing an hour or so ago :)

Thanks for visiting. Take care and have a good evening.

Happy Crafting,

In A Vase On Monday - Sunlovers

Hello Everyone,

On Monday's I like to join in with Cathy's meme, In a Vase on Monday so here's today's vase - actually make that vases!

These stunning tulips may delight in the name of Sunlover but there's no sun out for them today. It's bitterly cold so I didn't linger for long out, just long enough to take a few photographs. Despite the change in weather these tulips have been causing quite a stir around here. Our immediate neighbours have been admiring them and a few have even been passed over the garden fence ... I think I may have to source a few more bulbs come the autumn!

A bit of an odd angle for this photo - taken on our back doorstep which clearly needs some TLC - just to show that there are four bottles in the crate. I bought this set after seeing Cathy's milk bottles in a previous In A Vase On Monday  found in the Handpicked Collection. I liked them so much I hoped to order a set too but they were no longer available when I looked online. Instead, I found this great alternative though I  have to admit that's not all I bought ... a couple of other vases just slipped in at the same time :) That's the influence of Cathy's challenge ... I'm now even more of a collector of jugs and vases than ever before.

Half an hour in the warmth and the tulips have opened up even more.

 Most of the tulips are yellow splashed with orange stripes but surprisingly, given the illustration on the label, a couple turned out to have the colours reversed, and be this stunning dark orange with yellow stripes.

Although Cathy is on holiday this week, that hasn't stopped her posting as usual today. However, it's a very special post, marking her 1000th In A Vase On Monday and to celebrate she's put together a delightful collage of just a few of the many and various jugs and vases used over all those Mondays. Well worth a look!

Rudolph Day - April

Evening Everyone,

Here's the card I've made for ScrappyMo's Rudolph Day for April.

I had the topper already coloured and ready to use so I picked out cardstock and paper to compliment it ... in fact, I raided my oldest stash for the materials. It was a quick and simple enough card to make ... nothing complicated, just a lot of trimming of card and paper to size and matting and layering, a ribbon and a greeting and job done! 

Here's a list of materials used:

• Ready-made white A6 sized card base
• Two sheets of Papermania Textured cardstock - in two shades of blue
• A snippet of patterned paper from Papermania's Penelope & Percy A5 pack - this is a very old paper pack, possibly going back 4 years.
• The Tilda with Present topper which had been stamped on white Neenah Solar card and coloured with ProMarkers ... a long time ago.
• Printed digital greeting - can't remember where I got this design from but it's been in my stash for a couple of years, at least!
• Scalloped edge Stampin' Up punch 
• Scrap of white seam binding

The Rudolph Day challenge is a great way of getting started on Christmas early. Want to join in the fun? Then I'd encourage you to pop along to Scraps of Life by ScrappyMo where you can find out more about the challenge. There always lots of inspiration from other card makers and there's a lovely die to be won this month too. 

I'm also entering this card for the following challenges:

Pixie's Snippet Playground - anything goes but must use snippets

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - 20 minutes or less 

CHNC Challenge Extra for April - any Christmas card goes

Happy Crafting and,

Friday Smile - Week 116

Hello Everyone,

I hope you've had a good week with lots to smile about. I've had plenty to smile about and have a few photos to share with you and, of course, my joke of the week too.

First, here's a photo of my sister and I taken on her 61st birthday. She's still in hospital but benefiting from all the physiotherapy and occupational therapy they are putting her through - she even made the bead necklace she is wearing herself. We are all hoping she will be allowed home soon.

My great-grandson, Brodie, with a look of deep concentration as his gran, Juli, takes a selfie. Note the bruise on his forehead ... he's a typical wee boy always getting into scrapes :)

His sister, Rhian, having a nap. Children look so adorable when they are sleeping!






And now, my joke of the week:

A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. Suddenly, the man realised he would need his wife to wake him for an early morning business flight the next day.

Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and lose) he wrote on a piece of paper 'Please wake me at 5.00am tomorrow' and left it where he knew she would find it. The next morning when the man woke up it was 9.00am and he had missed his flight. Furious he was about to go and see why has wife had not woken him when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The paper said, 'Wake up, it's 5.00am'!

Men are just not equipped for this kind of contest!!!

I'll leave you with this shot of one of my fabulous Sunlover tulips:

It's the size of a saucer :)

That's all for this week. I hope you have enjoyed seeing what made me smile this week and that you will follow the link to Annie's at A Stitch In Time, where you will see what has been making her, and others, smile too.

Keep Smiling,

Purple Drawstring Bag

Morning Everyone,

Happy St George's Day!

Apologies for being a really bad blogger at this time but blame the garden! I've been weeding, digging, raking, planting and sowing seeds, all of which takes a lot of time. And let's not forget the watering ... it's been so hot and dry here that I've been out with the hose every evening making sure those seeds survive! All this physical exercise leaves me totally jiggered by the end of day with no energy for crafting. Normal service will be resumed eventually ... just don't ask me when!

I did, however, take a quick couple of hours out recently to make this little drawstring bag for my sister's birthday.

Made from Debbie Shore's Bag's Galore Molly bag pattern, it took only two half fat quarters, some adhesive applique paper for the heart shape, satin ribbon, scissors, thread and a sewing machine. It's fully lined. The pretty purple/pink flower patterned fabric is a Kirsty Allsop's design - a fat quarter which came free with Love Sewing Magazine - and the plain purple fabric was just a piece left over from another project.

I fringed the square on the front before attaching the heart shape with a satin stitch ... not perfect but I was in a hurry :)

That's it for now ... off to sow a few more seeds in the cutting patch.

Have a great day whatever you are doing.

Happy Crafting,

In a Vase On Monday

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for dropping in, I hope the start of the week has been good for you so far. As you probably know by now, Monday is the day Cathy at Rambling in the Garden asks us to share a vase of flowers picked from our own garden - something I'm very happy to do. It's a lovely sunny day here in Ayrshire so I was able to enjoy my wander round the garden looking at and choosing what to include in today's vase.

Not too difficult! My pot of tulips is at it's optimum and I could not resist cutting a few of the Angelique tulips.

I've been growing this variety for years and they never cease to be delightful with there deep pink petals shot with green and white.

I've teamed them up with the first of the bluebells - not fully opened yet but I'm too impatient to wait - and Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow' - I remembered to put on my garden gloves to handle this plant, the sap can irritate the skin. The foliage that fills in the front of the 'arrangement' - read plonked for arranged, much more appropriate - is from one of my husband's pet plants, Astilbe arendsii 'Fanal'. The young leaves are a lovely bronze red colour - sadly, they will change to green as they mature.

The pretty jug is yet another charity shop find - the Red Cross this time - made in Poland. It's so nice to think that it has come all that way from Poland to Scotland to grace my home!

And to end with I thought I'd share my pot of tulips, Angelique, Sunlover and a couple of others I don't know the name of ... my husband sneaked them into the bag before I planted them up.

Stunning! I don't know what possessed me to mix pink and yellow/orange tulips together, not to mention the sneaky purple ones, but they certainly brighten up what is the working area of the garden, and they make me smile every time I pass them. The cane is there to support a clematis that's tucked away deep inside, Clematis tex. 'Princess Diana' ... you might just be able to spot the new shoots peeping out from between the tulips.

So that's my vase for this week. If you feel the urge to join in do pop over to Rambling in the Garden, I'm sure Cathy will be delighted to see what's in your vase too :)

Happy Gardening,

Stamping on Fabric

Evening Everyone,

Hope you have all had a lovely day. It's been such a sunny day here that, after zipping through the dreaded housework, it was out into the garden to weed another stretch of border. Mind you, I'm paying for it now ... there's not a bone in my body that's not complaining :) Enough of that, let's get on to my latest project.

Just a bit of experimenting ... stamping on to fabric rather than paper. I used a scrap of white cotton fabric and my favourite snowdrop stamp from The Wild and Free Collection from get Stamping ... chosen mainly because it is a simple image ... nothing too taxing :)

 The outline is stamped with Versafine Olympia Green, an oil based pigment ink ... I don't even know if I've used the right stamp pad here, it was just what I had in my stash, but as I doubt whether it will ever be washed I thought it would be okay. The tiny amount of colouring was done with green and yellow ProMarkers. When done, I ironed it to, hopefully, set the inks - just in case!

And here's what I made with it and how.

• I cut it down to a square measuring 2¾".
• Ironed some adhesive applique paper on to the back.
• Traced and cut out a heart shape on to copy paper, using a template found in a book of hearts, Hanging Hearts by Rachael Row from Search Press. 
• Cut two heart shapes from the green/white polka dot cotton.
• Removed the backing from the applique and pressed it on to the heart shaped piece of cotton that would be the front then machine stitched around the sides of the snowdrop square using white silk thread and a satin stitch.
• The two sides of the  heart were sewn together, adding a loop of white satin ribbon at the top before stitching. 
• Finally, the heart was stuffed through a gap, deliberately left for just this purpose, which was then stitched up.

Though I realise I still have a lot to learn about stamping on fabric, I'm well pleased with this wee heart which is now gracing the hall here at Casa Worthington :)

Thanks for dropping in, as always, it's much appreciated. Have a great evening, what's left of it, and take care.

Happy Crafting,

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - WOYWW Wk 306

Afternoon Fellow Deskers, Followers and All,

Almost forgot once again that today is Wednesday and therefore What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW). After several chilly, showery days it's now warm and sunny, so those of you who visit here often will not be surprised to learn that I've been out working in the garden! That done, I've made it up to the craft room to take these shots of the mess that is on my desk this afternoon.

As you can see, I've got so much stuff there that I'm now working on the proverbial 12" square. I'd put some of it away but I need it or, more accurately, anything in those boxes might come in useful. So at the back: a pot of embossing powder, my new punch that's still there from last week, that black thing behind the punch is a cordless glue gun which gets shoved around to make way for other stuff, the blue box is full of stamps, some of which, I'm ashamed to say, have never been used (NBUS), then the box that was there last week - it contains bits and bobs I need for scrapping with the kit that is in the 'pizza' box you can just see under the guillotine to the right. And then there is Bonnie, keeping me company whilst soaking up the rays!

At the front there's a pile of stamps, papers and a pack of floral card stickers. That print-out on the left gives me the directions to make a card in a box ... I'm thinking I'll make one for a birthday coming up, once, that is, I've made up my mind what materials to use :)

Briefer this week - our head desker, Julia, will be pleased :) 

Thanks for popping in, have a happy WOYWW and I wish you all a great week ahead. 

For now, it's goodbye from Bonnie ...

... and it's  bye from me.

Coming up Daisies

Afternoon Everyone,

Just back from the dentist with gleaming pearlies! And I don't have to go back for another 6 months - yippee!!! In the meantime, my dear husband, who lost a tooth last week ... it just fell out, no warning, nothing! ... is now there - his appointment being later than mine - so I thought I'd share with you something I made at his request.

A cushion for the garden bench, or form as he calls it. He thought it would be a dawdle ... I wish! Despite using the Teflon foot that's right for sewing the oilcloth chosen for the job, I managed to break a needle.

I also ran out of bobbin thread and only noticed it after I'd sewn quite a few inches - fortunately on the back seam which isn't on view.  The problem was that he didn't want a zip fitted so I had to stitch the back seam with the seat pad in situ. As the pad is cumbersome, it was really awkward to manoeuvre and by the time the job was done my patience was stretched to max! Never again! Needless to say, my dear husband no longer thinks this sort of sewing job is a dawdle!

Right, I'm off to undo all the hygienist's good work by having a bit of lunch ... no biscuits though :)

Thanks for dropping by. I hope you are having an enjoyable Tuesday. If not, just remember tomorrow's hump day and the week will be half done :)

In A Vase on Monday - Oranges and Lemons

Hello Everyone,

Monday is the day Cathy at Rambling in the garden asks us to share a vase of flowers picked from our own gardens - a task I'm very happy to perform. However, I did have to nip out between those April showers to make my selection to plonk in today's vase.

Still not exactly spoilt for choice but there's more to choose from than there has been over the first few months of the year. Spotted the pretty daffodils growing in one of the huge pots my husband has planted with spring bulbs (he never keeps labels so I've no idea what they are called) and whipped a few - there are so many he'll never notice!

In the interest of fairness, I sacrificed one of my treasured Sunlover Tulips - it's going to be a stunner when fully open! The splashes of orange can just be seen hiding in the yellow and those green tinged outer petals are delightful.

Just a week or two after Cathy suggested that I could probably find Caithness glass vases in charity shops I discovered this pretty little blue one in a DEBRA shop on a visit to Castle Douglas - how lucky is that! I now have a collection of two :)

I couldn't resist a few sprigs of our newly planted shrub, Forsythia Weekend 'Courtalyn'. It's replaced an old berberis, inherited with the garden, that was so thorny it made it impossible for me to weed out the ground elder that grew behind and the blackberry (bramble) that wound it's way through it. There's three very beautiful berberis still growing in other parts of the garden so I don't feel guilty about the removal of this one.

The foliage at the base of the 'arrangement' is from two pretty aquilegias, one white and the other pink, that have been in a pot for years ... I fear that if I transplanted them into the borders they wouldn't survive.

Garden update ... more on the new forsythia.

Forsythia Weekend 'Courtalyn', aka Golden Bells Weekend, is, I'm told, ideal for smaller gardens and, though the flowers are a much less brash shade of golden yellow than other forsythias, it will still create a striking harbinger of spring ... just what that border needs.

And finally:

My husbands trailing violas, and one sneaked in geranium, in his homemade pot holder, an idea he first spotted on a cottage in Cornwall.

Happy Gardening,

Put on your red shoes ...

... and dance the blues away!

What is it about red shoes ... I have always loved them and must have owned quite a few pairs in my long lifetime.  More than any other colour, red is the most cheering, especially in shoes, so when I spotted this topper in Hunkydory's Little Book of Decoupage I just had to make a card using it.

Materials used:

• A6 white card blank
• Red/white polka dot patterned paper from Raspberry Road Designs' Summer Goodness 6x6 card pack (freebie from Quick Cards some time last year, I think) cut to fit the card front leaving a narrow margin
• The belly band, just visible under the topper, is a snippet of white card - the edge was die-cut using one of Tattered Lace's mini dies, a set of 20 bought at a bargain price - covered with a scrap of red organza ribbon
• The topper from The Little Book of Decoupage, Sports, Hobbies & Pastimes from Hunkydory, cut to a circle using an X-cut die. 
• Matting and layering the topper - I made the red layer is the polka dot paper again, this time the circle was made by tracing around the same circle die, the white layer was made with a snippet of white card die-cut using yet another X-cut die - this time from the Spiro Circle nesting set.
• The shoe embellishment is another Spiro circle cut from a scrap of white card topped with two tiny red shoes, another of the dies from Tattered Lace mini set. They are cut from yet another snippet - this time red mirror card.
• The birthday greeting, another of the Tattered Lace mini set, was cut out from snippets of white for the front of the card, and red mirror for the inside.
• The teeny wee daisy motifs in the corner are from the waste produced from trying out my new Tonic Daisy Border punch.

The inside and back decorated with off-cuts of the polka dot paper and one of the tiny shoes.

I see I have less than 10 minutes to hop over to Pixie's Snippet's Playground or I will miss the deadline! As this is my only snippet make this week that would be just too bad of me.

Thanks for popping in. I hope you have a very good weekend.

Happy Crafting,