WOYWW 196

Morning WOYWWers, Followers and Fellow Bloggers,

Happy Wednesday to you all. I have a shot of the two desks in my craft space for WOYWW today.

Desk No. 1 - where I usually craft but, as you can see, right now, with the exception of the two Kraft/white pieces of cardstock, it has been taken over for the cataloguing of stamps. So far, I've indexed about half the wood-mounted stamps - the Christmas themed is waiting in the wings - and a tiny fraction of the cling variety ... and that's progress :) The Kraft card is the result of me experimenting with my new white stamp (Colourbox Frost White) and a new Chevron mask. The piece to the front is just simply inking through the mask on to the card and the piece at back is what happens when you don't clean your mask but put it through the Cuttlebug and emboss it - it works a treat to give a different effect. Now I just have to decide what I'm going to do with the pieces. There's a pile of stamping blocks - they've been well-used this week - a couple of distress markers - my entire collection - a black marker, and a bottle of stamp cleaner. I won't itemise the stuff at the back - it's always there - but I have to draw your attention to the fab ATC that's propped up against the plaid accessories. Created by BJ, a frequent WOYWWer, the postie delivered it this morning - many thanks BJ, I love it :)

Desk No. 2 - actually the worktop that I use for guillotining (sounds gruesome) or Cuttlebugging but today it's been cleared so that I can get messy with shaving foam and shimmer mists. I'm working on something for a challenge ... great fun and it smells gorgeous - but my hands are a disgrace.

So that's me done! Short and sweet. Julia will be pleased :)

Happy WOYWW to you all - take care and happy crafting,

WOYWW 179 - What's On Your Desk Wednesday

Hi WOYWWers, Followers and All,

Wednesday really has crept up on me this week ... it seems like only yesterday it was the weekend. And being Wednesday it's time to reveal my desk in all it's glory. But before I do I'd like to welcome my newest follower and encourager, Diana ... thank you for joining me here. I hope you continue to pop in whenever you can and perhaps even leave the occasional comment - always appreciated :)

Okay, here's the state of my desk today for your delectation.

Oh my, where do I begin!!! This is a long view in the other direction showing a teensy weensy glimpse of the other worktop in the top right corner ... you can even just spot my wastepaper basket from this angle.

To the front is a couple of layouts I'm working on. One just needs the journaling added - the notes for it are in the tiny notebook by the saucer. And the saucer? I used it as a circle template to cut the photo that is peaking out from under the top layout. The stuff that's lying all around the layouts - inks, punches, alphas, pens, adhesives, etc. - just the materials used this session ... you'd think it was a week's worth of mess. The desk was immaculate before I started scrapping, honest!!

In fact, this is the first actual crafting I've found time for in several days. The reason being that I've been sorting stash, The red basket on right edge of the desk is testimony to that. It's intended to be the temporary resting place for any newly acquired goodies but in practice it was piled high with stuff that shouldn't have been there. No more! What's in there should be there and everything has been put where is ought to be :))

It all started with me deciding, as a result of this course I'm doing - scroll down to see more - that the way I had the 12x12 paper organised was not suiting me at all. And once I had sorted that out I was on a roll, 12x12 cardstock, A4 paper and cardstock, 6x6 paper, it all got sorted. Thanks to those of you who commented with helpful tips. Here's just one shelf ...

... is that not a thing of beauty? :)

I opted to organise by colour rather than by maker as before ... it just seemed to make selection a whole lot easier.

Admittedly, I did use up all the EM's labeling tape so a quick reorder was necessary, but it has been so worth it. I rediscovered some lovely sheets of paper I had all but forgotten, including one of the pretty papers on my workdesk right now.

I did promise myself that I would be brief this week but I've rambled on again ... must do better next week. And if you have wandered in from Mars/Venus and don't know what WOYWW is all about, do pop over to Julia's at the Stamping Ground where you will find an explanation and invitation to join in the fun. We show ours, so all you have to do is show yours :))

Once again, it's the wee small hours so I'm off to bed for now. I'll join you all later and can't wait to see what you've been up to.

Take care everyone, have a great WOYWW and happy crafting,

Life Is A Daring Adventure - Another Snippet Card

Afternoon Folks

It's a cool day, damp underfoot but not raining, so not bad for a November Sunday.  There are even a couple of rosebuds and snapdragons lingering in the garden ... on hard frost and they'll be gone.

The EM has stepped up his bird feeding adding an extra feeder for the winter. As I write this the summer birds have gone but the winter visitors are arriving and a couple of coal tits and a blue tit are helping themselves to lunch.

Autumn watch at Casa Worthington :))

On to what I have to show you today.

It's the card I was in the process of making on Wednesday - scroll down and you can see the butterfly stamp in the photo of my desk in the WOYWW post.

Method: I stamped butterflies over the Vintedge Flourish paper, using the second generation of ink technique. The topper is a small square of the paper, measuring 2¼ "x 2", stamped with the wonderful Helen Keller quote from Our Daily Bread, Quote 1, stamp using VersaMark and heat embossed with brown powder. The butterfly was stamped with a brown ink and then dusted with gold mica (set with hairspray) before cutting out and adhering to the corner of the matted topper.

It's Sunday, so I'm going to steal a leaf out of Jules', Always With A Heart, book and not give a list of the materials used. So, it goes without saying, if there is anything you would like further details on, please do not hesitate to contact me, either by comment or email ... always happy to oblige :)

And, also because it's Sunday, it's time to take a trip over to Di's blog, Pixie's Crafty Workshop to check this snippet make into the Crafty Snippets #45 list. Seems that Di's a mighty busy lady at the moment - off on a 'teacher training' course ... oh goody, we can can play hookie and have more play time :))

I see it's lunch time again so I'm off for a cuppa and a bite to eat and then it will be back into the craft space for a session of scrapping. I'm having a great time following Shimelle's course even though it is making me look at how I organise my stash yet again. Currently, I have my 12"x12" sheets organised by maker but I think, after all the rummaging I've been doing, this needs a re-think and perhaps by colour would make more sense. How do you organise yours? What works for you? I'd be really interested to know how your organise your scrapping paper.

In the meantime, I do hope you are having a lovely day, whatever you are doing.

Happy crafting,

WOYWW Mark 2 - What a Difference a Day Makes

... now, I'm not bouncing up and down full of beans, but I'm a heckuva lot better than I was yesterday and here's the proof.

Yes, I've found the energy and enthusiasm to tidy the desk. It all started with a visit to the craft space from the EM - he stared at my desk, aghast, and remarked that he couldn't see where I worked, there wasn't a clear space big enough. Sound familiar?

I did realise that I was beginning to accumulate stuff around me ... to hand ... for quickness and ease of use ... while I was trying out inky techniques, but putting it all away again, that was a different matter. I sat there and thought, and thought, what to do? And having thought about it a bit more, I decided that what I really needed was a vegetable trolley! As you do!!! Not only that, but a vegetable trolley that would fit under my workdesk and still be big enough to store stamps and ink pads galore!!! 

Lots of research later and the best one I could find, right height, right depth of basket and right price, was to be found at Argos. This all met with the EM's approval and so this morning he hot-footed it down to our nearest branch and picked up this little beauty :)

Operation centre, aka the dining area, and here I am with my Tommy Walsh mallet finishing it off. The Fairy Liquid was a tip from the resident handyman - smearing the tops makes it much easier to fit all the legs on!

Job done :))

In the craft space and here's what I've done with the rack.

As you can see it slips under the workdesk perfectly.

Lower basket - a mix of rubber and clear stamps.

Middle basket - Claritystamps

Upper basket - ink pads

Now, if I drag this sort of stuff out on to the desk, it will only take a matter of moments to stow them tidily away again.  After all the stamps were decanted into the trolley I was left with this empty basket - perfect for storing some of the smaller punches I do keep on the desktop.

And the final touch, the first sweet peas from the garden - picked especially for the occasion by the EM :)

Gorgeous!

Tomorrow is our 16th wedding anniversary and we are going to celebrate. Now that I'm in recovery mode and the tortuous trotters are very much better ... still not up to any serious mountain walking but short strolls are allowed ... we are going to revisit Kirkby Lonsdale at the weekend. We passed through there last month, on our way to Harrogate, and liked the look of it so much we wanted to return.
As I said at the outset, what a difference a day makes, even the sun is shining :)

Thank you to everyone who sent get well wishes ... they worked!!!

I hope you are all well and looking forward to the weekend too.

Happy crafting,

WOYWW 162 - Messing with Inks

Hi Everyone,

Wednesday - WOYWW day - so time for everyone to hop over to Julia's place, The Stamping Ground, and reveal the state of their workspace once again - just click the WOYWW icon to the left for a quick link.

I've been messing with my lovely new distress inks, making backgrounds on ATC blanks - four with perhaps too much water spritzed over the ink and one with maybe not quite enough ... I can see it is going to be a case of trial and error.

This basket is a new addition to the workdesk ... I've seen similar on a few WOYWWer's desks ... and spotted the one Di has on her desk last week ... her basket of goodies waiting to be used for the first time. Thought it was a great idea because, as I have a well-developed neatnik streak, I tend to put new goodies away immediately, stashed thus forgotten, so I've pinched the idea in the hope that I'll use everything at least once before it's put away :))

Eliza wanted to know how I use kitekat in art ... well, here's how - I store toppers in the empty box. I've been intending to cover it with something a bit more decorative looking for eons but it's just one of those projects that gets neglected - rather like the soap tablet box that can just about be seen in the background :) It's got more toppers in it ... maybe I should just get a bigger prettier box to hold all the toppers!

Just one last thing before I go to bed.

Last month I entered Sarn's Rudolph Day challenge - to make a Christmas card on or after the 25th of every month - it ends on the last day of the month - and blow me if I didn't win the draw ... number 13 - lucky for some, lucky for me :) This morning the postie delivered the beautifully packaged prize - donated by the lovely Di this month - together with a lovely card from Sarn. Many thanks to you both.

So that's me this week. The tortuous trotters are improving and, indeed, I did get out on Monday ... the first time in two weeks. I couldn't and didn't walk far ... baby steps :) Many thanks to all who have left messages of sympathy ... they were much appreciated.

I did rather better than usual last week and visited just over 90 blogs ... it would have been more but for the a few where I wasn't able to leave a comment. This week I hope to do as well, if not better ... well, I'm nosy and I like to see what you are all up to :))

As always, I hope you are all well and that none of you have been too badly affected by the unusual weather conditions that seems to be out lot for now.

Take care and happy crafting,

Shopping in Paris ... a card from snippets

Morning Everyone,

Actually, when I started putting this post together it was yesterday! I hope you all had a good weekend wherever you are. I've had a busy one, spending time with the family on Saturday and out walking yesterday so time crafting has been limited. In fact, I've only got this little card to share with you tonight ... it's one for Di's snippet challenge.

I've been reorganising the shelf above my craft desk ... the one I tend to put all sorts of bits and pieces on for want of a better place to put them ... and during the sort out I found this topper, cut out of a birthday card I received a couple of years ago. To me, she looked a very chic French mademoiselle so I thought of a card dedicated to shopping in Paris.

And this stamp from Born to Shop seemed very appropriate.

For this card I used the following materials:

• White hammered cardstock, 1 piece to form a card base measuring approximately 4" square and another measuring 3½ x 2½ for topper.
• Wild Rose Studio paper pack, Letters from Paris
• Docrafts stamp set, Bubbles, Born to Shop and Memento ink pad, Tuxedo Black
• Tim Holtz Distress ink pads, Victorian Velvet, Black Soot.
• The silver and black card is an M&S label, too pretty to throw away!
• Pink and white lace and pink gems from stash.

I'm also submitting this card to the Fat Pages and Cards With Attitude Challenge 7 - Theme Anything Goes/Bling

Other things that have kept me from crafting this weekend. Well, during a trip up to B&Q I discovered two really good sized plastic storage boxes so I've been sorting out that shelf. Now all those little boxes are stored tidily away in these new bigger boxes. The EM very kindly got out his label-maker and I can now see at a glance what is in each one.

Another time-consuming task I set myself over the weekend was to sort out the labels on this blog ... I've not been very organised with this in the past and I now have far too many labels cluttering up the sidebar ... something has to be done.  I've made a good start on re-labelling the 350 plus posts but I could be some time :)

Saturday we took our youngest grandson, Alun, to MacDonald's to celebrate his thirteenth birthday ... can hardly believe he's a teenager now! Here's a photo of the birthday boy:

He's growing up fast ... plays football for the school now and wants to play for Celtic when he's older. It's that or join the army!

Right, it's after midnight so I'm signing out and going to bed.

Happy Crafting,

WOYWW - Week 82 - New Toys from Santa + Workspace Re-organisation

Good Afternoon to you all,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa was good to you. I can't believe it is a week since I last posted. The holiday has just gone by in a flash and to make matters worse my great-granddaughter, due on Christmas Eve, has not yet arrived. We are all on tenterhooks here.

Welcome also to my new followers, Debbi and Claudia Rosa. I hope to keep uploading posts that will be of interest to you.

Now, to What's on my Workdesk this Wednesday - not sure what this is about then please pop over to Julia's here and take a voyeuristic peek at many more workspaces :

It's my new Hougie Board - one of my crafty presents from Santa (aka DH). Other craft related goodies I found among the parcels were:

Not had time to play with them yet as I've spent the last 3 days having a massive re-organisation of my workspace. This was a job long overdue! The place was a mess and I was starting to get very frustrated with the muddle left from all the Christmas card making neglect. It's much better now, I know where everything is and I can see my where all my stamps are.

There's not a lot of the wooden-backed stamps but they were tucked away in a drawer, I couldn't see what I had, and I read somewhere that it is best to store them on end like this. Other stamps are stored in DVD or CD cases which I've started to label so I can see at a glance what each one contains.

Once again I have to apologise to those of you that I failed to visit last week, Christmas just got in the way - I promise to do better this week.

Now that I've sorted out my workspace I can get down to some serious crafting and playing with my new goodies. There are a ton of new techniques I am eager to have a bash at and share the results with you.

In the meantime, I hope that those of you who are still on holiday continue to have fun and those unfortunate enough to have returned to work, well, it's only a couple of days before the New Year and hopefully you'll be off again for the weekend, at least.

Here in Scotland the New Year celebrations can be somewhat protracted, going on for a few days. Although I feel it is nothing like the fun it was when we were all young and the extended family, with friends, got together  in each other's houses and partied a few days away! We used to travel from Edinburgh out to the suburbs, Musselburgh, Dalkeith, Danderhall, Old Craighall and Rosewell, all on the best bus service in the country, to make sure we'd wished everyone a Good New Year. Now we all live too far apart, Aberdeenshire, Stirlingshire, the Borders, London and even Australia, so we have to make do with a phone call. Changed days.

We're off to M&S this afternoon - some vouchers are burning a hole in DH's pocket. So glad the weather has improved.

Bye for now.

WOYWW - Week 78 or is it Week 77?

I'm confused and don't really know what week it is, Julia says Week 77 but by my calculations it's Week 78.
Whatever, another week gone in a blur! So much to do and so little time and here we are at another Wednesday and this is what my desk is like right now - haven't done a thing so far to make it look any better : (

This pic was taken at 8.30am this morning and the light was terrible but hopefully you can see enough of the detail. At the front is the makings of the next card in the Alphabet series. There's the base,Tilda, some embellishments, and a bright red felt ornament - as Rolf Harris would say, 'can you guess what it is yet?'

To the right is some bits and pieces for a birthday card I have to make today. Leaning against my chicken cupboard are some stamps already coloured ready to be used - just awaiting further inspiration!

Featuring also is my latest crafting acquisition, a can of hairspray. Now, I don't use hairspray in the normal way so this had to be a special buy. I'm told it is a good idea to spray it over a piece of work featuring Perfect Pearls. This apparently fixes it so it won't rub off - also on projects with chalk. Will try it out when I find the time to experiment with the Perfect Pearls - soon I hope : )


Last week I showed you the ribbon stand my DH made for me and I bet you thought that was all the ribbon I have. You would be wrong if you did - amongst many faults I have a fetish for ribbon and buy it by the yard/metre whenever I see something pretty that shouts to me, you know, 'buy me, buy meee'. So here's another means of storage which, this time, I devised:

When DH constructed my workstation he added this panel at the left side, affixed hooks for scissors, templates, etc., and I later constructed this ribbon holder thingy from a binder ring and some card off-cuts with slots cut into them to thread the ribbon through.  I try to keep the ribbons filed roughly by colour on these cards. If it ever gets to much for one ring I can always start another.

That's my workdesk today and for those of you wondering what WOYWW is all about please step over to Julia's blog, Stamping Ground - link at the top of this post, where you can find others like myself revealing theirs.

In the meantime, bye for now,
Elizabeth

Birthday Goodies

Good morning - more snow for us here. I love it but DH hates it - he sees it only from a driving perspective so it's just a nuisance to him! Anyway, it's my birthday today - I'm 63 and I can hardly believe it as I really don't feel that old - and I want to share with you my birthday goodies.

For once DH knew exactly what to get me because now that I'm crafting he picks up the vibes as he follows me round the craft shops. So, yippee, I now have a lovely collection of Sheena Douglass stamps, and a set of Rock a Blocks to put them on - hopefully this will save me hours of cutting out kling-on, a really horrible job. There's also some Perfect Pearls, some small paper packs, including Woodland Folk and Festive Frolics from Papermania - gorgeous papers - and a really lovely pack from Paper Cellar which I believe came from Tescos! The book is entitled 'Word for Every Occasion' by Judith Wibberley, and it really does have verses and sentiments to fit almost any situation. I really appreciate this as I'm always looking for sentiments that I can print out myself. Last, but not least, is a pack of DVD cases for me to store the new stamps in - a great idea I got from Kelli of Kelli's Table Scraps.

I'm off to have a nice cup of tea and then I've a card to photograph, another to finish and ditto, a card to make for my Auntie Millie's 86th birthday - maybe I'll use one of these new Sheena Douglass stamps. Oh, yes, must find time to snoop around the workdesks I've not managed so far : )

Bye for now,
Elizabeth