WOYWW 191

So why am I showing you my Oh So BORING workdesk today I hear you ask?  Because it is all the WONDERFUL Julia's fault over at the Stamping Ground who came up with the idea that a What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday would be a great way of seeing what fellow crafter's are up to!
After a simply rotten night's sleep I am not up to much BUT have got to get started on my cards for February - the first three of which MUST be posted on Friday ... no pressure then, and, more alarmingly, NO MOJO!!!!!

So what can you see on my desk ... firstly a little "Spot the WOYWW Badge" game ... gold star to you if you find it.  You can just about see the list of cards I have to make for this year ... being mojo-less I am finding it a bit daunting so have it partially hidden under three (three cards to post on Friday remember!) embossed designs I did last night knowing I wouldn't be able to face my lightbox this early in the morning.  My much loved Glossy Accents are lurking close at hand and my Tim ***sigh*** Holtz distress inks ... odd name that, but very appropriate for my current state of mind ... DiStReSsEd! Or is that just stressed ... either way works for me.
Martha Stewart punch in the front of the picture and laptop very close at hand for when the no-mojo fizzles into absolutely-definitely-no-mojo.
The bright orange folder waaaayyyyy out of reach is my quizzing folder ... which I must not - MUST NOT - touch until I have these cards made!
So Happy WOYWW'ing everyone and enjoy browsing the world of craftland today as you share your desk and visit those of others ... those others to be found HERE

WOYWW 188

Well, it has sure been a while but here I am!!!!!  WOYWW'ing for the first time in ages and having totally forgotten how to do it!  I shall post my photo of my very messy desk right now and then head off to see if I can figure out how to add it to Julia's list!
Don't know what WOYWW'ing is all about? Well, each Wednesday, in the world of craftland, we share photo's of our desk and have the opportunity of visiting desks all over the world to see what fellow crafters are up to ... it is just fascinating seeing lots of items and products that we all use scattered far and wide and all being used to produce such different results.
Taking a peek at other crafter's desks has kick-started many crafter's-block moments and, of course, it's great just to be nosey!
So here is my work desk right now ... not much going on and not really happy with the card I am making so have yet to decide whether to go with it or bin it and start over!

This isn't yet my "normal" craft desk ... mild here in England but still too cold to work out in the conservatory where my huge table and storage cupboards are so am squeezed onto the end of the dining room table!

These are some of the cards I made just before Christmas for my January birthdays ... used the resist technique for the pink tag cards and had to experiment to see if I liked a cream background showing through or a white one ... decided I preferred the white so will be making more like these for further birthdays throughout the year.  Had loads of little strips of vellum left over from making some invitations so am using them up by adding the person's name ... super and quick to emboss and saves throwing away such lovely thick vellum.

It is not often my sister has anything nice to say about my cards but she did comment on the one I made last year for daddy ... I used a beautiful brass stencil that I have had for years ... so I dug that out and the men's cards this year will be based around that.  
I used glossy accents to highlight just the little hot-air balloon and left it at that ... well, after I'd distress-inked it to within an inch of its life, of course!

I used a linen-effect paper for the embossing and after I inked it with my much favoured brown tones of Tim Holtz's distress inkpads it resembled burnt wood and you can just about spot I used my new Martha Stewart punches I got for Christmas.
Right, am off to see if I can link this at Julia's Stamping Ground and then will pop back here to post the link to her WOYWW list!  
So,  Julia's Stamping Ground is where it all happens! (just hope that link takes you there ... SORRY Julia if it doesn't ... I will ask Maggie C to help me out!)

Happy WOYWW'ing everyone ... I've really missed being part of our Wonderful Wednesdays!!!!!

Titanic Tags

What a rotten week!  Couldn't even blog but did manage to get some crafting done and as I am a massive TITANIC fan I just couldn't let the Centenary pass without doing something so made two tags ... one for me and one to send to another Titanorak ... an internet friend that I met briefly at the Titanic Exhibition at the Science Museum in London in 2003.
They are just my "standard" tag size ... distressed with various shades of blue (couldn't be any other colour really ... it's supposed to represent the ocean!) And I added some swirls and flourishes, some of which I dusted with gold perfect pearls to represent the waves.  Absolute artistic licence, of course, as there were no waves that night.
The clock shows the time the Titanic sank (I am having to explain that to just about everyone who sees them!) and the bow of the ship was a challenge but all the effort was proven worthwhile today when daddy saw them and asked where I bought them from!  I scored down the back of them and bent them a little bit and then covered them in glossy accents and just hoped it wouldn't all slide off as they dried.  I Walked Away so not as to fiddle with them and then when they were nearly dry teased them into the pointy shape I wanted.  Only problem here was I couldn't then attach the bottom edge of the ship to the tag and didn't want to rely on the great blob of silicone glue behind to hold them into place.  Super-sticky "red" double sided tape to the rescue and I "encouraged" the bottom edge of the ship flat and then quickly stuck the message label on with more silicone.  Seems to be holding so far so think I have got away with it.
Wasn't sure about the red flag and label and experimented with grey and white but eventually came back to the red ... it seemed all too wishy-washy otherwise.
They didn't turn out quite as I imagined in my head at 2am when I was thinking about making them but they will do as a little memento of the Centenary and I just hope my friend likes hers which will be in the post in the morning!

Okay, okay ... partial success & a Snippet for Pixie

Can report partial success on three fronts ... well, it was three but now I can only remember two of them so will work on those and hope the other one comes back to me!
Firstly - have inky fingers so that can mean only one thing ... I HAVE been crafting today!!!!! And secondly - whilst not being entirely happy with the results I am NOT beating myself up about it and have actually enjoyed playing around all morning.
Started just after my post this morning at around 8.30 and stopped only when daddy came ... he sits eating a slice of something (just plain Victoria sponge this week) or dunking a biscuit and reading my Radio Times and I collect my eggs and milk my goats (just the virtual kind, on Farmville, but needs must!!!)  Have just finished now - so that's very nearly almost five hours of inking and stamping and Vagabonding and bashing yet more brads with the what-was-the-meat-hammer-but-which-is-now-my-brad-basher!
So the question I ask is ... how many snippets does a Pixie Challenge require?  I do believe it is just the one to qualify as a Pixie Snippet so how does 31 grab you?  Yes, you read that right and to make sure you don't think it is a typo I shall spell it in letters ... THIRTY ONE!!!!! 
I knew that somewhere I had sheets and sheets of those silly little 1" square "tiles" that came with my Cosmo Cricket kit but which I had never used because I didn't know what to do with them.  I figured I would make them my snippets this week and the idea of a patchwork effect began to filter through.  
Do you think I can find them?  Can I heck!  I guess I must already have sent them to the charity shop along with a whole load of crafty-stuff I had no intention ever of using ... that will teach me!
Soooooo, I gathered together all my little teeny-weeny bits of paper left and salvaged what I could and cut my own little squares so these cards really and truly are snippets!  31 (still not a typo!!!) on each card and I made three so that is either dedication or utter stupidity.
I thought I had a "cross-stitch" stamp ... again amongst some I have never used, but it turned out to be a zig-zag instead ... so, not quite the effect I wanted but hey-ho, go with the flow Debbie!
Also had a very tatty and crumpled small piece of hessian left over from some project or other and as it isn't large enough to use for sewing (which is what it would have been bought for originally) I argued it also qualifies as a snippet.  With very careful cutting and placing on the die I managed to get almost enough petals to make some flowers ... they are not what I envisaged AT ALL but am still calm and going with the flow here folks.
I chose one of my favourite sentiments and added little keys and, voila! 

Want to know what Pixie's Snippets are all about?  You can check it out HERE

A Snippet for Pixie

Well, I say a Snippet for Pixie but have, as yet, no idea where to put it!  I have emailed the lovely, lovely Di for HELP and hope she will be dreadfully polite when she tells me where to stick link it.
So, this may, or may not, turn out to be my venture into the playground this week!

Everything is pretty much a snippet ... little bits of paper and card salvaged from the "little bits for sticking" box ready to go to my friend for school.  The base card used for the tags was new though.  
They are little "memory" cards and this one is for our nephew Nick's family.  I send one to each of his aunties and uncles as well as his mom & dad (Phil's brother) and Nick's sister and her husband.  So there are nine cards for Nick, another five for my late uncle's wife and children and then seven individual ones.
I wanted to keep them very plain and FORCED myself not to use distress inks or grunge of any kind.  And as soon as I saw the die for the little bird I knew I wanted them blue (see previous post!)   They took far longer to make than I thought they would but mainly because I orginally made them with a plain straight bottom edge but then decided I didn't like that and added on a lacy edge cut with the Martha Stewart punch ... and it is VERY difficult to cut embossed card I found.  Next time I must remember to punch first and then emboss!  I just put a teeny-weeny little tag ... snippets of the smallest kind!!! ... on the back to write on.
So here is the link to  Pixie's playground - thanks for reminding me what to do Di!  

Pixie's Snippets

Ok ... here goes!  Have been persuaded into the playground that is Pixie's Snippets and what a jolly nice place it seems to be.  I have been taken firmly by the hand and encouraged to join in the fun so here are my first two snippets EVER!!!!!


They all follow the "tag" style I prefer rather than being "proper" cards so I do hope that is ok?!?!?!?


The first one uses a snippet of painted, embossed acetate ... a tiny piece I had left over and below that is a really teeny-tiny snippet of a piece of card that I used when my hubby's brother and his wife came round for a curry and she made the mistake of asking a question about crafting.  To cut a long story short out came various crafting bits'n'bobs and I ended up demonstrating my Vagabond ... that little embossed and die-cut snippet had been put into the recycling but whilst tossing and turning trying to persuade myself to enter Pixie's Playground it occurred to me that it too was a snippet!


The butterflies are cut from snippets of card left over from birthday cards I have been making for this year and which otherwise would have gone into the biscuit tin of offcuts that I give to my friend for the kids at the school where she works to use for "sticking".  The string was also a bit I had lurking in my box ... must have been cut from the reel at some point and not used.

The next offering is almost a total snippet as I had thrown out the base tag which already had on the label with the wording "The Journey Awakens the Soul" stamped on it and the bird which I had glossy-accented.  I had no intention of ever using it and was only keeping it to remind myself what not to do next time.  It was more a reject than a snippet!
Whilst thinking about Pixie's challenge I realised the message on the card was representative of my little journey into the playground and I thought I'd see if I could tweak the tag back into life.  I have had a little battered pocket dictionary for years and years ... it was originally my sister's when she was at school ... it has sat on my shelf for 30 years or so but only this week I threw it in my "Tim" box.  So the tattered flowers are grungepaper onto which I have stuck pages from that dictionary ... hope they are classed as snippets!  The ribbon at the top was dyed with distress ink to match the tag and I added a little round disc that says "wander" as I thought this also described what I was doing by wandering into the playground.

SO here I am ... whizzing around on the roundabout and putting the straws into the little bottles of milk (someone promised I could be Milk Monitor as it was my first time!!!) and getting ready to sit in the naughty corner with a Dunce's cap firmly on my head as I find out I have totally lost the plot and missed the point completely when it comes to snippets.
I promise to try harder next time!

ALL NEIL'S FAULT !!!

Yes, Mr. Neelz Expressionz I mean YOU!!!!!
There you go - posting photo's (keep 'em coming PLEASE) of your FaBuLoUs work on your blog and then being very helpful indeed by answering my Email query and then posting step-by-step instructions on "how to emboss and paint acetate" with barely a mention that not only would my experimentally-embossed-acetate would not be the only thing covered in paint!

I was covered!  

My craft-mat was covered!

The laptop was covered!

The house-phone was covered!

My mobile was covered!

And there was even paint floating in my coffee!!!!!

And I wasn't at all pleased with the results either!!!!
BUT - at least I stepped out of my comfort zone and Had-A-Go!  
The result was this card:

Oh but what a disaster!  Once the mess was cleared up and I could see the crafting for the paint I went to bin the acetate.  Then Anna Griffin's words popped into my head ... "there are no mistakes in crafting - only layers" and I figured I must be able to salvage it somehow.  

I'd just not worked fast enough to remove the paint from the acetate before it started to dry and so had tried to "encourage" it off with a craft knife blade and then my pokey tool but, of course, this just scratched into the acetate ... duh!

Ha-ha! I thought, determined not to be beaten ... Stickles!  I dibbed and dabbed a layer of Diamond Dust Stickles all over the back and managed to disguise the scratches just fine.  BUT the stuff would not dry - at least not fast enough for me.  I decided, after several hours waiting for it to dry, to go to Plan B.  Stickles is glitter GLUE right?  So why not use it to stick the acetate to a backing card?

Because that won't work either.  Took another few hours and leaving it pressed under three heavy hard-backed books to find that out.  SOOoooooo - pealed non-sticking acetate from the tag and wiped off as much of the Stickles as I could.  Mmmmmm ... actually quite like the effect of that so further salvation from the bin.

I left the backing card (which I had distress-inked already) with the blobby bits of Stickles on as these would still "match-up" with the acetate once I put them together again ... clever thinking, huh?

Eventually the acetate dried.  Eventually the backing card dried and with the help of that "red" super-sticky-double-sided-tape-stuff I managed to get the acetate and the card stuck together ... and the tape doesn't show through!!!!!

Finally I had something I felt was acceptable(ish) and chucking it in the bin might not be necessary after all.  I decided to go ahead and finish it and then Make-A-Decision on whether it would be good enough to use.

Cut two little hearts and embossed them - even they went wrong though as I wanted them dotty but got the Texture Fades embossing folder the wrong way up so I had debossed dotties instead.  Happy mistake as it turned out ok.

Bit more dabbing of the Stickles and distress-ink dying ribbon to match and printing out a little message and I actually think I have got away with it this time!

It is a card for my friend whose baby daughter died at nine months old and each year I send a remembrance card.  Sarah would have been 25 now.  I am worried it is a little too pink and sparkly for such an occasion and have never actually put Sarah's name on the cards before ... always just put "thinking of you" or "remembering" or some other such sentiment so am quite nervous and unsure about sending it.  Will have to think on that one.

SO Neil ... see what trouble you caused me?  Can't wait to have another go mind you and see if I can get into more of a mess this time!!!!!

Visiting fellow bloggers

Thanks to hubby being at a committee meeting last night I managed to get around quite a few fellow WOYWW'ers last night.
I find it fascinating seeing how we all work with pretty much the same products but in such very different environments and locations and all produce such different work.
I always search your workdesks for anything Tim Holtzy and LoVe seeing the results from using his stuff and the words "distress inks" and "grunge" seem to leap from the page to me.
I enjoy seeing work that is not to my style or taste but which can trigger an idea and get the creative juices flowing - especially during times of Artistic Block or lack of mojo!
Probably no time to craft today - really annoying as I have lots and lots I want to be doing - but need to get ready for our little trip away!

WOYWW 139

Although not entirely as I pictured them in my head I got the anniversary cards for this year finished ... 18 all the same so was able to get a little production line going and they didn't take too long at all.  
The longest time was spent "experimenting" to get the look I wanted and after playing around with distress inks trying to get the grungy look I love I decided to go for the crisp & clean look instead.  
I also decided against a red mat for any of the layers as I wanted the full impact of the red heart and glossy-accents has really made that heart stand out!  Was going to mount them onto a white opening card but I am favouring "post-card" style cards this year so what you see is what you get ... you just turn it over for the greeting.
Not sure what, if anything, I will be working on today yet ... once I figure it out you will be the first to know!!!!!  Happy WOYWW'ing everyone!