WOYWW 189

Have absolutely no idea how Wednesday has crept around so fast again but here it is and for the second week in a row I'M HERE TOO!!!!  For those unfamiliar with our special Wednesdays and the wonderful world of WOYWW'ing it is the day we share our workdesks with fellow bloggers and have the opportunity of seeing crafty going's-on all over the world! Julia is to blame and links to loads of other workspaces can be found HERE

So to my own workdesk ... rather different this week because I am making some sugarpaste flowers for a cake and hope to have them all made by the end of today so I can colour and wire them up tomorrow.

Desk is a little blank as I've not yet really got going this morning having had a rotten night stressing about the flowers!  Didn't go to bed until midnight but woke at 2.10am and then 3.20am and 4.40am whenI finally gave up and played Angry Birds on my mobile until 5.30am ... nodded off and managed to sleep until 6.45am so my mood is not the greatest at the moment!

The roses hanging up need further layers of petals and will eventually be dusted pink:

And on the tray are loads of little filler flowers ... baby orchids, sweet peas, ivy leaves and tiny carnations ... haven't yet decided if the sweet peas and carnations will be pink or left white ... am favouring white at the moment!

I will post a photo' of the flowers wired up all ready for the cake once I've got it to that stage.

Thought I might send this card to the playground that is  PIXIE'S SNIPPETS... the idea being you make a card containing, er, a snippet of something you had left-over ... a bit of ribbon or lace or an off-cut of paper etc.,  Well this whole card was made from bit's and pieces I had left over from a previous, similar card ... I did order new papers and cardstock but it didn't arrive in time so I had to "make do" with what I had.  I was asked to make this card by Nicola, one of the nephew's girlfriends - she hasn't seen it yet so a nervous wait until she does!

It is one of my fold-out-tag-card-booklet thingies and has 6 little tags inside ... the last tag is left blank for Nicola to sign!

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!  

The birds are blue!

Following on from my WOYWW post yesterday I am DeLigHtEd to report the die came as expected and within a very short space of time I had my 21 little birdies cut out and decided they just had to be BLUE.
Will post a photo' once they are done ... one might even be my Pixie's Snippet for this week as I found some short lengths of ribbon that I had saved from something or other ... could have been some pretty soap I got in Scotland ... and if I am very careful and measure twice and cut once, there should be enough to use on the tags.
With my cross-stitching I usually only ever have one project on the go at once so I need to get my next one organised before the current one gets finished over Easter.  I had no intention of stitching another Lavender & Lace angel and fully intended to start my Christmas sewing thus avoiding my annual December nervous breakdown as I work like frenzy to get all my Christmas crafting done.
Alas, those angels are calling to me though and I think I am just going to have to tackle one of them next.  Christmas is still a very long way off, isn't it?  Plenty of time yet!
Right, first task today is to put some blue Stickles onto the birdies so that can dry and then I can attach the wings later on ... then they just need the very carefully measured and tied ribbons attaching and that will be another 21 cards ticked off the list for this year!

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!

Swings & Roundabouts

Yesterday certainly was a swings & roundabouts type of day ... and without knowing it I have subconciously put myself on those swings & roundabouts in Pixie's Snippets playground!  Managed to make two contributions to the cause but then, having a quick peep at past snippets, realised I'd totally lost the plot and just got carried away crafting.  Anyway, enough of that for now and will explain further when I find out what I should now do with them (I know what I'd like to do with them but the bin-men just came already!)
Now, to the painting on acetate fiasco ... had Another Go but had to admit defeat this time and binned all but a tiny snippet (hint, hint) as I couldn't get the paint to stick for some reason.  First time I tried this technique I worked too slowly I think and this time I think I was too fast ... will experiment further and try to find the middle ground.
Talking of experimenting - I have decided to have one day a month as "Experimental Day" ... not plan on actually producing anything but just have a play and take myself right out of my comfort zone and try new and different things.
My crafting has become very "safe & same-old, same-old" I feel and I need to diversify and develop new techniques.  But then again, a certain Mr. Holtz has a very distinctive style and his work is instantly recognisable so maybe I will just stick to "same-old, same-old" after all!

WOYWW 145

Ok, no wondering where the week has gone and no procrastinating about how on earth can it be Wednesday already (let alone it being 14th March!!!!!!) another WOYWW is upon us so here goes!
Haven't actually yet got going today but everything is ready for when I've had my Weetabix and cup of coffee, harvested my crops and fed all my animals (only virtual cyber-ones you understand on my dear little farm over on Facebook!) and had a quick check of my emails just to make sure I don't need to be dealing with anything urgently.
Then I can turn my attention to my snippets.  What's that, I hear you say?  Snippets?  YES!!!  I have been persuaded by the lovelies that are Maggie C and Di to venture into the Pixie's Snippets playground and, risking public humiliation, plan on doing just that.  Of course, I am not actually through the gate yet and might just turn on my heels and run for home but, for now, the plan is pack my can of coke and my sherbet dip and go for a play.
So my very poor photo (I don't do photography ... took a photo of our Christmas tree once and the only thing in the shot were my slippers ... and they were on my feet at the time) shows my workdesk all set up and ready  to go once the aforementioned chores (farming is hard work!!!) are out of the way.

You get two photo's this time but now I see them here I think just the one would have done ... never mind, at least my slippers are not in the shot.  Please ignore hubby's gardening shoes that are under my table ... that is absolutely as far into the house that they are allowed!
There are a few clues on my desk as to what I will be attempting today ... the acrylic paints are back out and I am going to try painting more embossed acetate - out of shot is the large plastic poncho I plan on wearing whilst getting down and dirty because I sure got in a mess last time I tried this technique (yes, Neil, your fault! You are just about forgiven though because it was such fun and I am actually looking forward to having another go).
Well, must crack on and not ramble ... am heading over to the wonderful Julia's Stamping Ground to add myself to the list and then will be back later on to take a good old nosey around as many other WOYWWers as I can.


Enjoy your WOYWW and look forward to catching up with you soon.  xXx