Inspired by Tim

What an amazing WOYWW it was yesterday - thank you all for visiting and commenting. I did get round everyone in the end, apologies if I didn't leave you all a comment.

Now, I was surfing the net this morning at work (before working hours, I hasten to add!) and came across a video I haven't seen before on the Ranger website from the Maestro himself, Tim Holtz. 

He used the blending tool and distress inks to make a blocked background on a tag, and I had to have a go straight away when I got in from work tonight.  I used the new colours of DI's and left just a couple of gaps for a bit of contrast.

It's a bit like using the Hero Art "shadow" stamps I got some years (!) ago - basically you just ink the blending tool foam and stamp it on the tag in a random pattern.

I stamped the sentiment (Tim's, of course) straight on the tag over the background, and the little boy (also by Tim for Stamper's Anonymous) on a scrap,  both in black arcival ink

I think I'll be using this background again!

Sorry it's a bit wonky, I didn't have time to scan it again, Liverpool are playing again tonight and I've got to get ready!!

Now, all together now - COME ON LIVERPOOL.....

See you soon.

WOYWW 28.4.10

OMG.  After all your amazing comments last week I thought I'd sit down and count up how many stamps I have... luckily that doesn't mean I have to get into all those boxes and drawers and things- I keep a ring binder listing of them (I take it to the shows with me so I don't duplicate... although once at the Craft Barn I bought 2 of the same stamp on the same day - cos obviously I don't log them till I get home.... dohhh!!)

Anyhow, on Saturday I counted them up. Now, bear in mind that boxed sets or sets like the Wendy Vecchi ones that come on a sheet with several on, are listed by the stamp set name not individual stamps and so count as one not the full number .  Are you all sitting down?   The list came to..... 1479... Oh My Bloody Gosh!  I knew I'd got to 1000 some time ago, but..... That's enough to open a shop (not that I could part with them, not even the ones I rarely use - so I'm sorry, but I won't be opening up for business!)

I list them alphabetically by manufacturer, with stamp name and stock code. Luckily for my heart muscles I didn't record how much each one cost, cos it's gonna be a LOT, isn't it....!!!  I could have paid off my mortgage... but not had anywhere near so much fun, obviously, which is what matters, right!
Now, this is a very boring picture, but I've opened the page at Hobby Art cos they were responsible forgetting me into stamping, when they had their shop here in Sutton (sadly no more) so, Jenny and Chris, it's all YOUR fault!!
At the back of the binder I also have things like books and inks and glimmers and things...anything that I don't really need 2 of, basically.

Now, after all that waffle, you're probably thinking, (if you're still here, that is!)-  where's all the stash this week!  What can I swing round to show that I haven't before???  Well, this is another pile of "overflow" stamps that don't fit in the organised units - this is a plastic box I got from WH Smiths and it's not up to the job - the sides keep falling apart (could be something to do with how much I've crammed in....  My fave script stamp is right at the front, in easy reach (this box is to the left of my craft mat/desk on the floor - I don't have to do more than stretch to reach it!!

This is another box of "bits" of ephemera and embellies that I was going to use one day, honest! Not sure why that little bag of ribbons isn't in the ribbon muddle with the rest!

Finally, as this is what's on your WORKDESK Wednesday, what have I been up to this week?  Well, I've started decorating the pages in the Tim Ruler book, (I will blog them all together when it's finished) but here are a couple to tickle your tastebuds!

This is the cover :  some more grungepaper layered flowers by Wendy Vecchi (I don't know what I did before I discovered her stamps!  -well, ok, I had a few to play with, but you know what I mean, lol!)
the large flower does have a light layer of rock candy distress stickles (the bottle was nearly empty) but it's only shiny cos of the flash!  I did blog a sneak preview of this yesterday with details of the colours, etc.

and one of the inside pages:
 Apart from the text (Wendy V) the stamps are Paperartsy.

Now, I'm off for the marathon that is hopping round to see you all - please forgive me if I don't leave a comment absolutely everywhere, but I will get to you!

If you've just chanced upon this and are thinking, what??? check it out here or click the WOYWW logo on the right.

Sneak preview of my desk on the floor

I've been working on the Tim Holtz Ruler book this week, some pages I'm ok with, some not so, so they may get tweaked some more before anyone sees them!  This, though, I quite like.

It's the cover, fairly obviously! I mentioned in a previous post that the first attempt at stamping the plaid background failed cos the distress ink I originally used wouldn't dry over the painted base coat!  This is an archival ink in coffee. 

The flowers are by Wendy Vecchi on grungepaper and inked with distress inks - forest moss and crushed olive forthe leaves, the rose is rusty hinge and I used the numbers and splatter backgrounds for two of the petal layers.  The large flower is one of my favourite images from the latest release of Wendy stamps and I used wild honey, with a light layer of distress stickles (rock candy) - the bottle is just about empty now.

Red Hearts full of Hope

(Well, Liverpool play in red and we need to win some games for a change...but we're not doing so at the time of writing!)
After the quite dark grungey tag yesterday, I am back with bright red - barn door in fact - for this square tag.

I did use a little rusty hinge in the centre for a bright spotlight. After inking, I used some spray (a perfect pearl/distress re-inker mix). The stamps are from the Tim Holtz "urban chic" set that arrived yesterday and I added some idea-ology and glitter.

As Hels' Sunday Stamper challenge lasts this week too, for her 100th challenge and she wants as many entries as possible, I am entering this with it's "free" theme.

**EDIT** it worked - we ended up winning 4-0! Yay!!!!

And now for something completely different

(As Monty Python would say!) As an antidote to all that pretty, girlie stuff on the card for the Stampotique challenge I have gone back to a more grungey style for this tag.

I used brushed corduroy and dusty concord for the tag, and the smaller of the Paperartsy flowers from the Hot Picks plate, which I stamped in a "tumbling" fashion down the tag - oh,ok, you sussed me - I stamped the top one upside down so decided to carry on turning the stamp for each image... right, where was I? the criss cross comes from one of the Flora and Fauna Paperartsy sets (not the Hot Pick set as I blogged when I used it before, oops) and added some scraps of copper metal on which I stamped the cogs from Artisitic Stamper (another Ally Pally purchase used here for the first time!), a Muse token from Idea-ology which I attached with some twisted wire and a maya road cog that I centered with a washer.

I am up early this morning to watch - from the comfort of my armchair - the London Marathon - I don't DO running at all - but I love to watch all the thousands of people running round London streets.  It's raining at the moment so they'll be happy as the forecast was for hot - not good fun-running weather - and I toyed with the idea (as I do each year!) of going up with my camera, but again decided to take the lazy option! Good luck to everyone running, though.

SDC #5 - It's a Girl Thing

The latest Stampotique challenge is "it's a girl thing"and you have to do girlie girl things!  Now, I am a bit old for girlie girl stuff, but I had to have a go.  Although it isn't essential for this challenge, I have decided to use a Stampotique image.

You will not BELIEVE how long I spent looking for the right papers to use but in the end I've used some patterned papers I got from QVC years ago (!) - I am sure they cried when I cut them - and a Timmy H stamp (the flourish) that arrived today... ahem.... which I stamped in Spun Sugar distress ink on the edge of the card round the girl. I did some matting and layering with the papers, added some sheer ribbon and a couple of Prima flowers that I got from my sister in law Lynne's online store All Things Crafty, (although mine were a swap for a sheet of stamped grungepaper Wendy V butterflies); and which match the pinky theme quite nicely. I used a couple of pearls for the flower centres, cos a girl's gotta have bling!

Go check out the other entries, there are some crackers!

Sunday Stampers - 100 not out - and Candy!

Hels has given us 2 weeks to enter her challenge as she's busy moving house - it's a candy week to celebrate 100 challenges, and it's a free theme. Check out the prizes on offer here .  I gave myself yesterday evening off crafting to watch Liverpool - but sadly we lost, boo!!

Anyhow, this evening I have done this tag using some new Paperartsy stamps from the Hot Pick Flowers set, (and some Wendy ones, natch!) I've used crushed olive and wild honey distress inks. 
Luckily, you can enter Hels' challenge as many times as you like, as I'm not incredibly pleased with this.

WOYWW 21.4.10

Wow, Wednesday again!  There isn't much on my "desk" on the floor today (did you spot I added a bit to my blog header?!) after I finished the frame (yesterday's post) earlier than I thought.

I have however, found a few more drawers you haven't peaked in yet - more stamps - these are some of my Stampscapes stamps (I don't do anything by halves, as you may have gathered...) The drawer on the left has them double depth as it's a deep drawer.. and there are lots that haven't fitted in either drawer (I really wish Homebase hadn't stopped making these units....)

and this is a sort of anything goes drawer!
I haven't used some of these for a long time (possibly never for some of the train/plane/boat ones) I am sure I bought them for a reason...

Lastly this is a box of all sorts that is a real mess - boxes of glitter (bottom left) chalks, stuff I don't use much. My coloured UTEE is in here too, somewhere - I really WILL get my melt pot going again sometime...

The maps I tore out of an old diary a couple of years ago, as I thought I could use them - for something!!  One day....
This box lives on the spare armchair behind the "Timmy" box I showed you a couple of weeks ago.
(You can tell I don't get many visitors, can't you!)

I haven't got much further with the Tim H Ruler book - I stamped a Wendy V background on it, but in distress ink and found it wouldn't dry over the paint - it smudged even after heat drying and leaving it overnight - so in the end I washed it off with a damp paper towel and stamped it again in a permanent ink.
In the top right corner of my craft mat are some butterflies left over from the flower frame from yesterday.

I am not sure when I will get to link this to Julia's blog, but I will try and get round to see you all soon!!  If you have been reading this and don't know why I am showing this right mess, check it out here where every Wednesday an increasingly large number of like-minded people show everyone what they've been up to in their craft spaces.

Floral frame

I have finshed the frame for the flower I showed you the other day. 

I couldn't get a very good picture because there's no natural light left and the flash has bounced off the gold paint!
I may try again tomorrow if I remember before it gets dark...





I started by painting it with a base coat (traditional tan by claudine hellmuth) and adding some terra paste round the top corner to create a bit of texture. 
Whilst that was drying I stamped a BLine flourish stamp in the opposite corner and I then added some inka-gold paint in gold (it's so lovely and creamy) to the whole frame.  I kept it kind of rough and ready for an aged look. (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it)
I made a second rose (rusty hinge for the colour) and some butterflies (Wendy V, of course) and added some bling for the body to some of them, others I just gel-penned. and stuck everything on with silicone glue.
For the middle, I wanted to keep it quite simple so just stamped the saying (penny black) on some white card and brushed some stormy sky distress ink to dull the bright white a bit although looking at the finished frame, it hardly shows.

Flowers

I had a lovely morning at Kew Gardens yesterday and have posted some of the 72 (!!) photos I took on my other blog.

So today I made some grungepaper flowers - I am going to put them on a frame, I think but I haven't finished that yet.

All stamps are by Wendy Vecchi and all inks distress, of course!

I had the blue flower already made some time ago (broken china) and following the tutorial Linda did at Ally Pally made the rose, which has come out better than the other ones I've tried - I realised after seeing Linda make hers, I had been using far too much glue - no wonder they never stuck properly, the glue never dried...

Anyhow, I used wild honey to colour it and sprayed a little cinnamon glimmer mist over it.  The middle layer is crushed olive, but the flash on the camera has altered the colours a bit.

The leaves are from my newest set of Wendy stamps - Rose Art part 2 whcih are forest moss and covered with rock candy distress stickles.  These stamps arrived on Saturday and are my prize from the Everything Wendy Vecchi yahoo group - I won a random prize for a Wendy inspired piece of art.

A right raspberrilicious mess!

I started this tag yesterday but got into a right mess with it.

I wanted to try out my Spun Sugar distress ink, which is what the tag is coloured with.  Then I took the Craftynotions colour spray - Raspberrilicious - and then the fun started.... somehow whilst I was shaking it to mix up the colour the top started to come unscrewed - you can guess where I am going next, can't you!!  Suddenly drops of bright, bright pink started flying round the room (got some lovely spots on my rug on the floor....) and you should have SEEN the colour of my hands....

So I mopped up some of the ones that kindly landed on my craft mat using the tag, and finished shaking the bottle (top firmly screwed back on) to spray the tag.  I took the thistle (I think it's a thistle) from the Paperartsy Hot Picks plate and the Stormy Sky distress ink, and the criss-cross stamp.  I had a piece of the flower left from a previous sample that happened to have been coloured with Stormy Sky, so stuck that on the corner of the tag. The text is from the same stamp set.

Off to try and create something without turning the living room pink (or any other colour....)

Chip Chip Hooray!

Some months ago I bought a tin of Maya Road chip shapes and haven't used any of these square ones yet. 

I coloured this with rusty hinge and stamped the checkerboard backround (all stamps are Wendy V) - new from Saturday! - and overstamped that with the leaf border. I stamped and inked two butterflies (crushed olive - that's a yummy colour too, everyone who had already got it, told me so, and they were right... and used the same on the flower, which is overstamped in forest moss with another Wendy background.  It was getting late so I didn't have time to stick beads to the butterflies for the body, but used a copper gel pen instead, added some idea-ology foliage and an adage ticket, and stamped "art" on a scrap of grungepaper which i coloured rusty hinge to match.

Got to go to bed now as I get up at 5.30, but the best thing about having 3 days off at the start of the week means that tomorrow is Friday already - yippee!!!

Tick Tock Tag

This is the rusty hinge-coloured tag that was on my workdesk earlier.  After I caught up with reading my blogs and hopping around people's desks, I got down to play.

I used Paperartsy stamps and a maya road cog-shaped piece of chip that was in my bag of stash from Wanda.

The flower shaped time piece is coloured rusty hinge with a touch of wild honey and 3'd and attached with 3d foam. The centre piece is a button I found in my box of buttons I looted from my never to be used sewing box!!

Much as I like to go and see my Mum, I am so glad to be back with my computer and my stash!!

WOYWW - goodies!

Hi, all.  I have just got back from a couple of days with my Mum down on the south coast (west sussex) and the first thing I do is race upstairs (I live in a first floor maisonette!) to turn on my computer to get this posted - how mad is that! 

I left this on my workdesk (yes, the spot on the floor) when I left on Monday morning  - it's a Tim Holtz Rulerz book I've just started work on (i.e got as far as the base coat) , plus a tag I've coloured with rusty hinge (one of my new Ally Pally buys from Saturday)

I had a fab time, as I said in my post from Saturday evening, at Ally Pally - it was great to meet Linda and Alison and Carmen "in the flesh", Hels I had previously met - I think I should change my blog name to "I work on the floor" as you all seemed to know me as soon as I said, I'm Stamping by H!!!  In case any one missed it, here is a pic of my stash from Saturday - now THAT made my back ache carrying it...

Now all I need to do is find somewhere for it, eh?
Lots more stamps, inks - the rest of the new distress, some new shimmer sprays from Craftynotions, idea-ology, etc etc!







However, in the post waiting for me, was a bunch of goodies sent from the States from a blog buddy from the Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo group I belong to - how great are these piles of stash to play with!!

There is a ziplock back crammed with Maya Road frames, buttons and pins and all sorts - can't wait for a proper rummage (you'll probably see it better and quicker than I am....) and some Maya Road chips for me to decorate - and one Wanda has obviously done herself.
So I've had no time for swing rounds this week (not sure if there is anything you haven't seen now, amyway).

I am just going to grab some lunch and catch up on my blog whilst I've been away, and then I'm coming to find you!!  I can't wait to see what you've all been up to.
Hugs,
on the floor.

A Bird in the Hand

I had this chip circle already "prepped" before Ally Pally - black acrylic paint,terra paste which I'd stamped into and coloured gold with (I think) butterscotch adirondack dabber paint and a light covering of gold (viva prescious metal) and suddenly the mojo deserted me.

However, at Ally Pally I bought a superb Paperartsy plate Hot Picks 1, with these cute little birdies and wham! I knew what to do to finish it.

I put a light,irregular covering of scattered straw distress ink on a piece of white card and stampted the "love birds" stamp on it and cut it out.  I coloured the birds in toning colours for the chip, and stamped the other two birds from the set, cutting them out and also colouring in matching colours.

Ooh, crush a grape

Thought I'd leave you a tag I made on Sunday whilst I'm away.  Sorry about the post title, I couldn't think of anything sensible.
I used my new crushed olive and forest moss inks - oh, they are so gorgeous,especially the crushed olive -.
and a new set of Wendy stamps, from my new stashpile. 

I stamped the flower from Be Inspired ..Make Art in crushed olive on the tag and again on a piece of white card to cut out and overlap the tagged flower.  I used the leaf from the same set in crushed olive and the text  and the leaf (which curls the other way) from Love to Make Art in forest moss.
I finished it off with a grunge paper flower (it's two of the half flowers from the Make Mine Mini Art overlapped and stuck together, with a prima paper flower coloured with crushed olive and a raised washer from the hardware store.

Play Date Cafe Challenge - PDCC 24

Some stunning colours for this week's challenge in the play date cafe, which is my second challenge of the day.

I have used some more new stamps from Ally Pally - both Penny Black and both half price so I figured I was saving money, yes??  I stamped "letters and flowers" on a piece of white card which I then coloured with dusty concord distress ink, tied a plum coloured ribbon round it and added it to some cream handmade paper and a stripey patterned paper by Making Memories which I stuck to a square card.  The other PennyBlack stamp I coloured with milled lavender distress ink, but I think there was more dusty concord still on the blending tool!  A couple of plum (or dark lavender if you like!) flowers finished it off.

Off to watch the rest of the golf now and get ready to go down to see my Mum tomorrow.

Sunday Stampers - Silver (Hammers?)

Good job Hels was only joking when she mentioned hammers as her theme this Sunday - but I do have silver!

I made this little card for my sister in law Lynne who I went to Ally Pally with yesterday using some of my new stash - well one - a Paperartsy stamp from the Hot Picks 1 plate.

The base card is an "elegant rectangle" in silver from Craftwork Cards, which I bought at a previous show and not used before (!) which I stamped with a fine script stamp (A Stamp in the Hand) that I've had for ages and LOVE!

I stamped the paperartsy flower (?) on the silver back of some TSS metal and puffed up some of the areas but didn't fill it so it will probably flatten in the post - I stuck it to a piece of card using the tape sandwich method and cut through some of the petals to allow it to be curled a little.  I painted a white prima flower silver with viva precious metal paint and used a heart shaped brad for the centre.

It's on it's way to Lynne with some grungepaper butterflies I've stamped for her as she loved the little butterfly (Wendy V) that Linda was demo'ing yesterday. I also made a spare flower for my niece who also came, so she doesn't feel left out (OK, Rach?!!) I haven't got any brooch pins but if you find some you can turn them into brooches, because the one on the card is stuck on with 3d foam and should if you're careful, peel off....

Sorry the light of the scanner has reflected on the silver metal, hope you can see - this really is a gorgeous stamp plate - check out Paperartsy if you haven't seen this set before, there are some cracking images on it (I spent ages mounting my new buys on EZ mount last night, a job I hate - and ran out with one stamp left to mount up!!)

I had a really late start this morning - I didn't wake up till 9 - mainly because at 3 in the morning a car alarm went off outside in the street seemingly caused by a girl kicking a car to raise some attention and the resulting argument went on some time, so I had a very disturbed night.

I am off to my Mum's for a couple of days tomorrow so will probably be late getting my desk posted this week, but see you then!  In the meantime I want to play with some more of ny new stash!

Ally Pally - what a lot I got...

Well, I had a great time at the Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show at Ally Pally today - I spent far too much money - as this shot of my stash pile shows...

It's falling off the box I balanced it on to photograph it... There were a few extra bits like some tags and a pack of white card, which I just couldn't fit in.

You can see, I bought plenty of stamps - Paperartsy, Wendy Vecchi, Penny Black, B Line.. lots more idea-ology, including one of the packs of paper Tim's designed - OMG beautiful or what!! (not sure how I'll be able to actually USE them, lol!) some Maya Road chip pieces, ribbons, the remaining distress inks from the new set (the only one I don't have at all now, is tea dye...) and some craftynotions shimmery sprays which Hels convinced me (not that it took much once I saw them, lol) I needed. They are soooo bright and beautiful (let's all sing together!) - really intense colours, much more so than glimmer mists (and cheaper too, so really, I saved money, didn't I!!)
It was really lovely to meet Linda, and several other ladies I feel I know from our WOYWW excursions - Alison and Carmen it was great to meet you too. Linda was great demo'ing and if you're reading this, Linda, you did great!   I got my picture taken with Linda, but I am sorry, I'm not blogging it until I can find a Photoshop programme (thought I had it installed) as I look completely dreadful. I never like photos of myself and can't bear to put this one up as it's really not a good look!
The weather was beautiful, my sister-in-law and niece and I had lunch outside in the park

(sorry, Lynne and Rachael, but you look ok in this so it's going up!)
and as I never have my camera with me normally (the big 35mm camera is too big and heavy to take) I took a couple of shots of the view across London and of Ally Pally itself .

The view was taken when I got there around 9am and it's still a bity hazy.
This is the entrance hall to the Palm Court where they hold the show.  It is a lovely building - some of you may know that this is where the BBC first starting their television broadcasting - the reception was good because it is right at the top of a very steep hill.

Ok, I need another cup of tea then I need to log my new stamps in my book (I have to keep a list of them all, there are so many - I take them with me, stored in a big ring binder, to make sure I don't duplicate!!) and then hopefully - make art!

Oh yes, knew there was something else - this is the lovely badge that Lin from LB Crafts made as a giveaway - the first 15 people to spend £25 on Paperartsy products got one - and the second piece is a metal embossed tree (cuttlebug or similar)  on black metal, coloured with stream alcohol ink and the little picture is made by placing some black metal over a style stone and embossing the patten onto the metal with a paper stump.

Poor Lin was still feeling pretty poorly having been ill all week, so I think she did absolutely great to keep going all day - so thanks, Lin for this lovely piece of art. Hope you are ok for tomorrow, too!

ATC's

I decided to make a few ATC's to take to Ally Pally today - not for the general swap they usually host, but for Linda -to wish her luck with her demo'ing for Lin -and then thought I'd do one for Lin herself, so she didn't feel left out!  and for Hels - for hosting the UK end of the recent Gingersnap Art Exchange.  Obviously I'm having to schedule this as I'll be out (spending money...!!) and I don't want the girls to see them before I give them to them on Saturday.

I did all three with the same stamp - Tim's atc sized "urban tattoo" which has a small sized version of that scrummy heart at it's centre - but in different colourways. I know Lin is a green kind of girl but have taken a chance for Linda, whom I'll be meeting for the first time on Saturday - and Hels, so I hope they like them!!

Anyhow, enough waffling and rambling, here are the ATC's

Linda's is stamped in walnut stain and the heart I stamped on a separate scrap in wild honey and attached it to the main ATC.  Well, I had to do a Timmy stamp for Linda, didn't I!!

I filled the heart with glossy accents and covered it with some fine glitter, then stamped a couple of Wendy flowers (well, ditto Wendy stamps....!!) which I coloured with wild honey and pine needles, I overstamped the green flower with the Wendy numbers background for a bit of added interest.  I made a small hole in both flowers and pinned them together with a co-ordinating brad before glossy accenting them to the ATC's.

To finish it off, I stamped "art" - Wendy obviously - on another scrap and wrote "make" at the top in gel pen as I don't (yet....?? have the stamp set that does say make art, in true Wendy style)

So, that was Linda's. 

This is Lin's  - same method, different colours - tumbled - bundled (I told you I keep wanting to call it wrong!) sage and the cut out heart is tumbled (!) glass. Same colours for the flowers as on Linda's but reversed.

And Hels.  Tumbled glass and chipped sapphire here, the second flower is ???? I've forgotten.  pine needles I think, sorry!

Anyhow, I hope they all like them.


Thanks for your inspiration, girls., and no doubt I will have bankrupted myself on Lin's stand, so she'll be happy!!!

A new challenge

I was catching up on a few blogs tonight when I got in from work and came across Craftytrog's ATC's that she's made to take to Ally Pally tomorrow for the swap- and decided I'd make a few to take too - this is the first time I've ever taken in any to swap, so we'll see how it goes.  Here they are:

Scattered straw on the ATC, wild honey on the scrap, all stamps are by Paperartsy.

You'll see I'm still using up little bits and bobs (the copper clock pieces are left from something or other!



And these two:

These two are tumbled glass and the swirl has been accented with some glitter.  The text is Wendy V's and the flowers Prima.

Not sure if I'll get time to make anything else tonight, there is lots on TV I want to watch, but we'll see.  Now, I'm going to watch Tim's new videos he's uploaded on the use of his alterations dies.

Have a good weekend.

Now it's a guitar...

A couple of Wednesdays ago, I had a rusty hinge on my workdesk which I'd made using the "drunken scotch" technique (check back for the link to the "how to") and I have been at a loss to use it ever since...

For a while, I've been thinking... it looks like a guitar if you stand it upright (no?  oh, only me then....) and all it needed was something musical to attach it to. So tonight, during the football (AND it's Liverpool, I should be WATCHING...) I have dashed off this quick tag.  Bet you can't guess what colour I've used.... oh, you guessed - wild honey ...lol...

I did use some aged mahogany too. The stamp is by (goes to drawer to check...) Wordsworth - and I love it. I deliberately stamped (and scanned...) it slightly crooked,to match the "waves" between the words.  If you believe that, you'll believe anything.

Added some sponging through some sequin waste in the same inks and some matching ribbon, and it's done.

I have been working on something else for a couple of days, too, but I can't show you until Saturday.

As a side note, I would just like to say thanks to all the lovely peeps who came looking at my workspace this Wednesday - I had a record number of comments made, and each and every one made me smile.  I wish you could all come rummage in my drawers too!!!!

Now, off to watch the second half of the football properly, and I've just made another cup of tea which I am determined to drink before it gets cold - see you soon!

WOYWW - Just when you thought you'd seen it all

Hi everyone. Ok so I may have been exaggerating in my last post, teasing you with something amazing coming up.  BUT, this Wednesday finds me with -(DRUMROLL) ... twice the amount of space.... I spent part of Easter Monday (you'd better all sit down somewhere safe...) tidying up my stash. (well, some of it, anyhow)

So now I have maybe DOUBLE the amount of floorspace (i.e. my desk) to work at.... didn't go so mad as to get the hoover out though.... you can only go so far, right?

(sorry about the arm of the sofa, I'd transferred the photos before I stopped to look at them properly..)

I moved a couple of piles of old scraps of part made cards and other things that didn't quite work out - chucked some of them away - managed to find room in a box; moved some craft magazines (2007-10.... yikes) and pulled out this cardboard storage box (a less than perfect QVC buy, though it's ok...the drawers don't open very well) and moved it to just inside the doorway. Thought I'd show you some of the stamps inside - I haven't used many of them for a while as previously it lived behind those blue boxes (the Timmy/glimmer mist one) so there wasn't often room to pull it out.

I also put the contents a collapsing plastic box full of (dusty) stamps into the box under the Timmy box .... which I have to move to the sofa if I want a stamp from this box, but life's not perfect, right?!  Ok, so the first time I need to find a stamp in here it will get totally messed up... but I couldn't get to many of them in the old place...
Some of these stamps were already in this box, but it was being under-utilised!  And now I look at the piccy there is still a huge pile of sweets on show.  Oops (I have a very sweet tooth!!)

This created the spare floor space - I've "pushed back" my pile of distress inks (they don't fit in the drawer where I used to keep them and as I use them all the time, there's no point putting them away - and my melting pot, against these stamp towers that you saw a couple of weeks ago.

The plastic tub on my workspace (in pic one) came from work - my manager brought it in on Thursday before Easter - it's a "Toy Story" tub of eggs which she handed out - and I grabbed the empty tub.  Not sure what I'll fill it with yet, but there'll be something, rofl. (At the moment it still has an uneaten egg inside it!)

So there it is this week.  If you want to see some more - much neater, lots of them - workspaces, check them out here .  I may not be here next week, unless I schedule something as I may be going to spend a couple of days with my Mum, but if I get back in time I'll come visiting.

simply butterflies

I made this tag yesterday evening (after the slide mailer in my previous post) but didn't get time to scan or upload it.

I used some bundled sage (for some reason I keep muddling the name of this with the tumbled glass one and want to call it tumbled sage...) over the tag, just lightly in the middle and wild honey (its so still my favourite!) in the middle and used Tim's numbers and Wendy's leaf border in the same colours.  I stamped some 4 small Wendy butterflies on white card, two in each colour, then cut them out and stuck them back to back and mounted them to the tag.  I stamped (yes, it's wonky, oops!) the message over the top. If I was doing it again, I'd stamp it separately and stick it on... doncha love hindsight!

Hope to play - sorry, make art - again tonight so I could be back.  If not, boy do I have a treat for you tomorrow...

Slide Mailers

Several years ago I bought some slide mailers from Lin but haven't really used them much. So today - after I'd (whisper it) done some tidying up in my living-come-craft room (yes, I know!! check out the results on Wednesday) I came across some in a drawer.

The outside is coloured with chipped sapphire, the inside with tumbled sage.

I stamped Tim's mini flourish front and back in walnut stain and outlined some of the flourishes with a white Inkessentials pen, the "believe in  yourself" is Wendy's.

On the inside I used chipped sapphire for the flower border (Wendy Vecchi) and stamped the penny black Gandhi quote on a scrap of white card and stuck it inside the mailer, edging with glitter glue.

This is the finished piece - the Wendy heart is grungepaper coloured with barn red distress ink, some silver bling and rock candy distress stickles on the top part.

It kept me away from the chocolate for a while!!

Hope you've all had a great Easter.