WOYWW 488 don't all faint, but....

Well hello deskers and happy Wednesday....

time to report for duty once again at Julia's   share and bare all.... desk wise 

so, why am I warning you?  

I had an idea pop into my head, for a theme for some of this year's Christmas cards....

when I unexpectedly went to Kew after all on Saturday (yes, I got WET!) I put it off for a day but..

I was awake early on Sunday to watch the F1 Grand Prix which started a stupid-o'clock (6am uk time) and afterwards I thought.. well I'm up... get on with it.

It's one of my all time favourite stamps, a poinsettia by Penny Black, one of their brush art range, from years and years ago..

and  of course, Distress Oxides...

I used a variety of not very traditional Christmas colours (love to do that!) and in no time at ll I had about 18 (see first pic) stamped up ready to mount up - my favourites turned out to be the blues! 

and I have even matted and layered some of them into almost finished cards!! 











It took me a while to find card blanks to match the colours of ink I had used - but at least they're all stored in colour-organised boxes!  of course, the ones I wanted were all at the bottom of the piles..

can you tell I used to make a lot of cards!  

Go me!!  Early October and I've started.... will probably all grind to a horrible halt now, but at least there are some done.

well partly done... no middles stamped (I don't use inserts, just stamp straight onto the card base.) 

so, that's me... what have you got to show and tell this week?  I'll be over soon.. 

WOYWW 487 - back to work

So my time off work has come to an end and I am back to work today... had a great few days though, some glorious warm sunshine and lots of photos - couple of trips to Kew (here and here) , one to London and one to Hampton Court..    Somehow we have found ourselves in October... how did that happen?! 

time quickly to share a floor space for WOYWW  with Julia and the gang
I didn't go out anywhere on Tuesday to give my legs a rest (and the camera!)

 I got a few more layers done on a couple of the FB challenge for France Papillon..

this one is "pretty in pink"

and this one is "nobody said it was easy"

bit random on this one..


of course I didn't make a start on the dreaded Christmas cards (it was only a very vague idea, the weather was much too nice to stay in!)
guess I will have to soon though.

I'll visit as many desks as I can before work, the rest once I get home.

WOYWW 486

Welcome to another week of desks... Julia is hosting, as always - catch the link here 
I'll be late this week getting to your desks - and linking too, as I am off work for a week and taking an early trip to Kew today so unless Julia is really early, I will miss when the post goes live and have to catch up later.

but, you're here for a desk.. not that I have one of course; still working on the floor.

 the stencils I was waiting for last week arrived, and have been tested already... should have included the results... hang on I'll see if I can find them


(more stencils you say... yes. . what of it.... there can never be too many stencils) 

aerial shot of the tatty rug and my France Papillon journal (page doesn't really fit the theme but it's another one finished...)

here's the test of the harlequin stencil.  was only playing so it's not meant to be fabulous.



Anyhow, I will visit your desks when I can,
catch up later! 

WOYWW 485

Time for WOYWW again - saying nothing about how fast it's come round again

the new stash I was waiting for last week of course arrived on Wednesday but I don't know how to edit posts on my phone and I was at work, so had to save them for today..


two of the sets of texture fantasy/rust pastes by Finnabair for Prima. 

I did get to Ally Pally on Saturday, arriving about 12.30 after I'd been to Kew

this is the Stampers Grove stand who have taken the Paperartsy space in the hall and had a fairly good range of their stamps on show...





Lauren was demoing for Stampers Grove with some of the new Paperartsy stamps







when I arrived I thought it looked fairly busy but it soon seemed be thin out (it was lunchtime I suppose...)

 


and these few pics I took certainly make it look empty..


I did bump into Erika shortly before I left - I only stayed 2 hours - but no photo evidence to prove it!

I really didn't buy much - I don't think those of you I mentioned this to on Facebook afterwards really believed me... but this is it!

one set of stamps, 3 stencils, an ink pad (heard so many good things about the Versafine Clair inks, so thought I'd try a black one) and some odd bits and pieces. 
I can't remember the last time I bought so little at a craft show!

There just wasn't a lot there that was my kind of thing, a lot of stands with "everything's £1" or cheap bulk buys, or packs of card - I have enough to stock them myself -   and without the major draw of Paperartsy, I don't think I'll be going again..

I was lucky enough to be given a ticket by someone who couldn't make it, so it was worth going just to see what it was like without Paperartsy, if only to prove to myself what I suspected...

I finally managed a bit of crafting- my boss and another girl at work have birthdays this week so I made a couple of cards - forgot to take decent photos before I sealed the envelopes...

I made some backgrounds over some patterned paper and used some of my new distress oxides for the stamping - gathered twigs, which is a dark brown, and wild honey (the silhouette on the right was stamped first in wild honey then overstamped in gathered twigs as it wasn't dark enough)

I found a bottle of liquid pearls for the centre of the row of flowers that I hand coloured with sprays - can't remember the last time I used liquid pearls! 

WOYWW 484

I have poured over the photos from last weekend's crop - complete with surprise overseas guest!!  and am even more gutted to have not been able to go.  Jan posted about it here and there were various other reviews too.    But, it's time for another desk share.... not that there is anything really going on here...

in my most recent spending splurge, there is another order on the way!

 I haven't cracked on with anything much - but this the first couple of days layers on another of the France Papillon challenge... I forget which week and forget what the theme is!

so I can't leave you with just that.. I thought I would share the storage for my Paperartsy stamp collection.... although a couple of the boxes do have a few stamps from a couple of other companies (Carabelle mainly) these 4 boxes are all Paperartsy.. and as you can see there are extras on top that haven't yet been filed away!

I think you can safely say I am a Paperartsy fan!

but you knew that.




There was a visit to Kew on Saturday of course, when the crop was in full swing... pics (lots of pics!) here 


I am um-ing and ah-ing about going to Ally Pally craft show on Saturday (after a trip to Kew, obviously) - haven't quite decided yet.  If so, there may be extra new stuff to share next week!!  Til then, happy desking with Julia for WOYWW... 

WOYWW 483 - happy mail

Hurrah, lots of happy mail in fact!   Before I enable you though, let me tell you why you're here.. it's Wednesday, so it's WOYWW   (what's on your workdesk? wednesday)  week 483... brain child of our beloved leader Julia. 

so.  happy mail...

 this one arrived on Tuesday....
the Dina Wakley collage papers are mixed in the packets, the Dina stencil looks great in action (it's called ladders) - I saw it on you tube somewhere, it makes a fab background...  and I loved the Aall & Create one with the little squares..

they came from Artist Trading Post and I only ordered them on Sunday!


these ones arrived last week - the ones I was waiting for


the Dina stamps and the stencil came from That's Crafty and the paper dolls (Christmas edition) and trees from Country View Craft - Sue had a bank holiday weekend sale....

I finished another delayed  page for France's facebook group challenge.


this one was the one that was entitled "self talk" or how do you talk to yourself...
and was from week 30.  we're on week 36 now.. so I have a few to catch up on (although I've done week 31, that I shared last week)

Don't blame me if you now go shopping...!  enjoy your WOYWW.. 

WOYWW 482

Welcome back to Wednesday... we had a Bank Holiday on Monday here in England & Wales, so I am out of sync with the days... but it is Wednesday (well will be by the time you read this) and time for another WOYWW....   where we lay bare our desks and crafty spaces and what we've been up to since last week....

I somewhat rashly mentioned having time to do some crafting over the Bank Holiday... so of course Saturday was spent at Kew (see pics here)  and Sunday it rained and I should have spent the day crafting...(what happened??)   and Monday I went to London in search of rhinos  (see pics here )  and then it was time for work.

well ok so I did finish one of the facebook challenges for France Papillon (must check that I've uploaded the picture to facebook...)  with some of the new Distress Oxides... which you can see I have unwrapped but not yet found anyway to put them..

I did have them to the right of the earlier two sets (you can just see them in the corner of the photo) but I kept kicking them over coming into the room...)

I did have time to do some crafty shopping but haven't yet had the goods, so they'll be here for next week!  Till then, it's time for some more desk sharing and no doubt lot's more productivity.
Happy WOYWW ! 

In case you want to know more about the rhinos; it's a series of 21 rhinos to raise awareness of the plight of the black rhino - website here (sorry for all the links)

all painted by different artists including Ronnie Wood (yes, that Ronnie Wood) 

this was one of my favourites
it really portrays the sadness of the species.

The rhinos will be on show for a month and then in early October, auctioned off to raise money for the Tusk save the rhino charity.

I rather think they will be out of the pocket of "normal" people but I hope they raise lots of money.