What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 475

Hello Everyone,

Well, it's Wednesday again and time to report to Julia, Head Desker Extraordinaire, at the Stamping Ground. Not that there's been too much going on here this week. It wasn't the nasty bug bite on my arm, see this post here, that's prevented me from crafting. No. It was the meds the doc prescribed ... one induced sleep, the other induced - no, I won't go into the gruesome details but, suffice to say, I feel grim!

However, it's not been all bad news - there's a new addition to my desk.

A new storage box, from Craftelier, which holds everything from 12x12 paper to tiny leftover scraps. It's a dull day here ... yeah, we've got rain! ... so I've had to put the lamp on to take a half decent photo. Most of the stuff in front of the new storage was there last week although I did manage to create a couple of cards with the misted offcuts seen on last week's desk shot. Here's a pic of the storage as it looks when empty.

Nice! In front of it you can just about see the new T-square ruler that I have suddenly found absolutely essential. I'm hoping it will help me place titles on layouts perfectly level instead of the higgledy piggledy way I usually manage. It will also enable to keep layers on the page straight too - well, that's the plan.

Thought I'd show you what's hanging at the side of my desk. That trim is ancient, the plastic envelope holds a set of alphabet alignment guides from Thickers which promises 'perfect alignment every time'. Hah! I've tried but still manage higgledy piggledy - not that I blame the guides ... the fault is entirely mine. The keyring holds paper design templates and beside that is the glue gun. All to hand when needed.

And that brings us to books I've listened to over the last week. Not many, actually.

This one, written by Kate Jacobs, appealed to me because I go to a craft club - it's not exclusively a knitting club but some of the ladies do knit - so was intrigued to know whether they have anything in common with the ladies of the Friday Night Knitting Club. I won't give any spoilers but it was an entertaining read. All that chat about the merits of luxury yarns got me reaching for my needles.

This was altogether a different read - non-fiction this time. The author Will Schwalbe's mother has cancer and is dying. She's an avid reader, as is he, so they start their own 'book club' with a membership of just the two of them. It's about the joy of reading and how good it is to share that joy with others. I found it an inspiring read.

This is the book I'm listening to as I write this post. It's typical John Grisham - a legal thriller. this one features a two partner law firm who take on a major pharmaceutical drug company. I'm finding it good listening - there's humour in the characters and the legal machinations they are involved in.

Okay, that's me done for this week. Hopefully my desk will have seen more action by next week.

In the meantime, take care and have a great week.

In A Vase On Monday - Heat Wave

Hello Everyone

I thought I'd make a change from roses today for Cathy's meme, In A Vase On Monday, so went for something completely different.

My selection of colours, red, orange and yellow, were chosen to reflect the prolonged heatwave we are enjoying/enduring (delete as you think appropriate). My first choice is the Hypericum 'Magical Red Flame' with it's bright yellow flowers and red berries. 

Next, growing just beside this shrub, and in danger of being overshadowed by it but not quite yet, is Leucanthemum 'Banana Cream' .

And I couldn't resist the marigolds (calendula) that happily seed themselves around the garden every year. One packet of seeds strewn around the herb patch four years ago and now they just keep on popping up wherever suits them.

Two white flowers accidentally found their way into the bunch as I went around the garden making my choice. The yarrow (achillea millefolium) is there because I unintentionally cut through the stem  when I was aiming for a little yellow marigold that was particularly pretty.

 

And then there is the fluffy white spear - above the yellow marigold here. It comes from a shrub that was planted as part of a mixed hedge years before we moved in here. I have no idea what it's called, possibly a variety of spirea, but it has a tendency to send out growth into the border where it is not wanted. I fear it is intent on world domination!

The jug is yet another of my many charity shop finds. It's fairly modern - it's marked dishwasher safe - but the brown design on cream so reminds me of the seventies. In fact the colours in the whole arrangement takes me back to that time, bringing back memories of  other hot summers, and The Jam performing 'Heat Wave', hence my title this week.

Hope you are enjoying getting out in your garden and cutting flowers. Me, I've found that gardening can be a dangerous sport.

I've been bitten by some bug that left more than the usual calling card. The red marker was put there by my doctor this morning - if the swelling continues to spread outwith that line I have to report back for another examination as it's just possible it may develop into cellulitis. In the meantime, she's prescribed antibiotics and antihistamines. And all because I decided to cut back the overgrown shrubs down in the woodland area!

That's me for today. Do pop over to Cathy's Rambling in the Garden for her In A Vase On Monday.

Scrappy Sunday - Two Floral Cards

Hello Everyone

Happy Sunday to you all - I hope you've had a lovely weekend. Bloglovin' tells me I have a few new followers - welcome! I appreciate your interest and hope that you enjoy what you see here. Today I've been playing with inks and paints on scraps of cardstock and, because I hate to waste anything, I've created a couple of cards with my efforts.

Card No. 1 - the base for this card is the result of testing out a mist - Mister Huey's Heirloom Blue - on a scrap of white cardstock to see if it was the right colour for a scrapbook layout I'm in the middle of making. It wasn't but I liked the effect so thought it would make a good background for some stamping.

How I made the card:

1. The misted card was trimmed down to a 5" square to create a topper to fit a black card base from my stash.

2. More experimenting, this time with stamping using the Poppy Field flower from Rubbernecker.  I wanted to try out whether it is possible to stamp using Vicki Boutin's Mixed Media paint, Sugared Strawberry, so, using a paintbrush, I covered the surface of the stamp, misted it with water, and then stamped - it worked a treat.

3. After the paint had dried the outline was stamped using a Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad. 

4. The topper was then layered on to a patterned paper, from Wild Studio Rose's Spring Fling 6x6 paper pack - an old one leftover from way back when I was on the DT for Handy Hippo -  which was then adhered to the card base.

5. Confession time here - I did stamp a sentiment directly on to the background but then realised that it was a bit skew-whiff. Not to worry. I just stamped it again on a snippet of the white misted cardstock, layered it on to a scrap of the patterned paper and stuck over the mistake - only you will ever know because I've told you!

6. For the final touch I added a few pink sequins.

I'd like to submit this card to Pixie's Snippet Playground where, as always, the requirement is that we use up as many snippets in our projects as possible.

Card No. 2 was made in much the same way using another scrap of which cardstock previously spattered with Spectrum Noir' black Aquatint ink. This time I managed to stamp the sentiment perfectly straight. The white card base used measures 5" x 7" and instead of sequins I used tiny black 'pearls' made by Craft For Occasions.

Blimey! It's only just still Sunday ... I started writing the post hours ago but got distracted by a programme on TV about two of my favourite tennis players, Federer and Nadal, and then Poldark.

And now it's time I went to bed. Take care and have a great week.