Men are resistable

Not that I'm bitter and twisted at all!

I just needed a bit of time to do something crafty - Mum was discharged yesterday but sent back again today to the hospital!!!!!!!!!! 

I went to see her on my way home from work and she is waiting to see the doctor again tomorrow.  She sent me away after an hour because she said I looked thin and as if I needed a good meal, and tired - was I sleeping - answer, not much no!!

So to take my mind off things, this is my entry for Hels'  Sunday Stampers - Resist; and Simon Says Stamp and Show - Men Only.

As soon as I saw the theme for Simon Says I knew there could only be one man - Umbrella Man!  I used the die and cut him twice from the Kraft stack (scraps, please note!)
Used pumice stone over the resist technique and stormy sky on umbrella man, with tea dye and aged mahogany on the sentiment, edged walnut stain.
Thanks for all your good wishes, it is nice to know you are thinking of us at this tough time.

These boots are made for walking - TIO 98 & WOYWW 121

Welcome to another Wednesday desk-snooping. Each week head Girl Julia marshals us around 100+ desks (or other weird workspaces - ahem!) and we have a right good nose. Check them out at The Stamping-Ground

You'll be surprised -after my trip to Ally Pally for the stamp show on Saturday - that my craftmat is clear - that's because the stash is re-distributed already - not put away, obviously - just re-distributed.  For those of you who didn't see it this is what I got:

(Julia, what you thought was packaging for the hemp was in fact a really cute little bird cage - which in this version seems to be out of shot...it's sitting on the very edge of one of the crafters workshop templates  at the top of the frame)

Oh, but look what came in the post today (Tuesday) They were from America and on special offer, I know they're available here too..

Over at Dragons-Dream Tag it on, we are still thin on the ground - but this week we are grooving with Nancy Sinatra "These boots are made for walking" and the theme is shoes.   Come check it out - we'd love to see you take part. 

Here is my tag - I traced round a boot shaped card on my large tag and played with some of the Dylusions stamps from Saturday and some old stash from long ago!

Cut round the boot shape and used mustard seed and wild honey distress stains.  The sentiment is one of Wendy Vecchis, cut up.



Hope to see you soon - I probably won't get to visit as many of you as usual as my Mum is in hospital, waiting for some tests - first results show a small mass on her bladder, sadly,  so my brother & his wife and I will be back and forwards to the hospital - she went in at the weekend (yes, you guessed it, whilst I was at AP!) Poor thing, she really doesn't understand where she is or why. It's so hard.... I know you'll be thinking of us!

Pan Pastel Challenge

My fellow DT member from TIO, AJ, is also on the DT for the brand new Pan Pastel UK Challenge Blog - and because I got some yesterday I thought it only polite to make something for them to join in.

This week, the  theme is "anything goes" and as I have limited colours - 3 greens and an orange - autumn came to mind.  I used my new Tim H die bought yesterday - Autumn Gatherings - boy those leaves are tiny.... and some tattered leaves from my scraps pile (yippee!)

The circle chip is also something I'd started to use for a different challenge a while ago and rejected - it was the right colour (distress stains) so I recycled that too!  Added the Tim sentiment and sprayed some Perfect Copper for some sparkle.

I cut the tiny leaves from some of the Kraft stack by Tim (more scraps!) and coloured them with my pan pastels. 

Stuck all the leaves with a prit-stick glue.

I may not be able to join in many of these challenges, till I get some more colours, but we'll see!!

Ally Pally & pan pastels

Well, I had a really great day at Ally Pally; went with my sister in law my niece and a friend of hers. Spent - well, see for yourself - about what I intended to....

 pan pastels, (and equipment to use them) stains, stencils, trims,
Tim's fab new autumn leaves die,

stamps, stamps and stamps...  refreshed some idea-ology I'd run low on...  bits and bobs!



After dinner I had to play with the pastels.

This is my first effort - Lin made it looks pretty easy - and fair play, it's not hard.    The colour isn't as dark as it looks, but the light is bad - I'll try again tomorrow when I can take the pic without flash.    Also used some of my new stash!

I might have to get some more of these.....!!

But I'm bushed now, so Casualty is calling me, then Match of the Day...

WOYWW 119 and TIO

Morning all - yes, it's Wednesday again already!! Time for the weekly snoop round the workdesks/space of the world - find them all at Julia's here  It is also Ally Pally this weekend - hurrah!! I nearly made it without doing any stash buying - but not quite.  I was very good though....

I forgot to show you these buys last week which I got on my week off

Whilst I was up near the British Museum I "popped" into Blade Rubber stamps (the only craft shop I know of in London!) and picked up a copy of "Where Women Create" featuring Tim Holtz in a guest feature... and some mini tags  The tag book - Keep Calm - was in a sale at Paperchase - intended for shopping lists but I love the thick kraft nature of these and couldn't resist.  Well, it was my "summer holiday" ...

by the side of these goodies are some book page leaves and flowers I cut and ended up not using (yet) for a challenge that went down a different route in the end (see the ATC in Monday's post!)

And because it is Wednesday, it is also DT day for Tag it On.  One of our new members AJ, set us to use embroidery and to the tune of "Mother" by Pink Floyd.  Now, I have mentioned before that I can't sew for my life - though I did a fair bit of cross stitch a long time ago..... so this WAS a challenge.... all I will say, is Sorry!!

I "embroidered" an M on some jute mesh that I won (more of that in a mo) in some blog candy and arrived just in the nick of time to help me out..... the ribbon border to the mesh is attached with my Tim Holtz tiny attacher ( my kind of sewing, lol!) I did use some sewing type stamps for the tag which is coloured with distress stains (got to get some more on Saturday) and the rest of Mother is a Tim alphabet die cut... I am sure I had a second alphabet but can't find it - so maybe I didn't buy the other font yet..... I added some faux cross stitches round the border.   

My blog win was courtsey of the fab Artyjen in a blog giveaway recently - and I was very lucky indeed because she had to do the draw 3 times before someone (me) finally claimed it.... this is the mega prize I got - including a set of her self designed stamps for the Artistic Stamper.  Thanks again, Sioux!

So, that's me today.  Thanks for all your comments last week - I got round a fair few of you in the end last week!  I can't wait for the show at Ally Pally - looking forward to it - maybe I'll see you there... I'll be the one with loads of bags....
Oh, and I know I've got the week wrong - its 120 - can't change it or the link will break!

A Monday Threefer!

I don't know what's happening lately, I seem to have no time or inclination to play at the moment!  I think it's probably the start of the new football season and the beginning of the autumn tv schedules - even if I do craft on the floor in front of the TV!! It's too easy to sit on the sofa.

Anyhow, today I managed three challenges in one!  The EWV yahoo group set me off - for challenge 26 we're looking at polka dots and faces  - Lori our list mom has set us working from book 2 page 27 so I am using Wendy Vecchi stamps throughout.

This morning, Simon Says show an ATC which gave me my format and Hels' Sunday Stamper - "going to make you a star" gave me an accent.  So, whilst apologising for the photo - the flash is bouncing off the embossing - here is my Threefer ATC.

 I used wild honey and picket fence distress stains on the atc, stamped the polka dots in vintage photo (I think) and the stars - which are clear embossed - in rusty hinge. Stamped Mr Serious on a scrap of white card and used foam pads to fix him to the atc. The star brads are from my large stash of brads and found the feather in a bag of feathers (doh!) that just happen to have spots on.... and they moulted all over the carpet when I opened the bag...

Back to the TV.... thanks for looking!

WOYWW? Tag it On #96 - Fashion

Well, my week off flew by and I am back at work now. Had a lovely time and had a couple of days in London, playing tourist (see some of the photos here)  

So, you're either here for WOYWW - Julia's brainchild when we all gather to share our (sometimes strange) places we craft...
On Saturday my brother and I went down to Mum's house to start boxing up some of her belongings, if she stays in the care home she will have to sell the house and there is a lifetime's stuff to move!  I brought a few bits home that I can "use" -

Some old maps, dictionaries and a great box of my Dad's that I will "do" something with!

Or, you may be here for Dragons-Dream Tag It On - this week the theme is chosen by Wanda and we're listening to a Dedicated Follower of Fashion  The Kinks - here is my fashion tag. 

I have used 'my mother's dress' by Inkadinkado - a stamp I love but don't use often - shocking! Painted a piece of white card with sky Paperartsy fresco paint and stamped and cut out the dress. the handbags are Hero Arts.   There was a fashion supplement with the weekend paper so cut out some suitable words from the pages and added some fab multicoloured fibres. The coathanger is one of Tim's idea-ology hanger clips
The tag is coloured with antique linen distress ink and sprayed with blue patina perfect pearl spray.

Make sure you check out Frankie's blog for the results of the Bird Cage swap she recently organised to celebrate her blogaversary. I hope the link is right as at the time of writing, it isn't there yet! But check out her blog anyway, it's fab. Here's the one I made - distress stains, Tim stamps/dies and idea-ology.

I hope to get round as many of you as I can, but with being back at work it may have to wait till later.

Sunday Stampers - A time to remember

Today, fittingly, for the anniversaryof the 9/11 attacks, Hels' has chosen a theme of Memories /Remember for her theme at Sunday Stampers.   In some ways it is hard to believe it is 10 years, but for those directly involved it must seem like yesterday.  Am thinking of everyone affected, as once again the pictures fill our TV screens.

Have used a PSX stamp of New York, and some die cut leaves to represent the beautiful fall day it was before.
I'll be back soon!

Ten minute tag!

Hi,.

After yesterday's walk round London I took it easy today - and the day has drifted away in a blur of - nothingness! 
However, I did see that Lori set a new challenge for the yahoo group Everything Wendy Vecchi and this time rather than using for inspiration one of Wendy's works from her books, we are just challenged to make a tag with no more than 2 sets of Wendy stamps.   In fact I just used one, Botanical Art - love that set.... and a flower I had made a few days ago with Tim's tattered floral die and some inked old book pages.

Covered the tag with tumbled glass distress stain and inked the old German script in the same ink, before adding some flowers (stormy sky) to the tag.  Stamped the solid flower (chipped sapphire) (tis my favourite stamp!) on a spare tag and stuck it to the main tag. 

Will have to find something to do or somewhere to go tomorrow or I will be back to work before I know it!  Hmmmm and it needs to be cheap!

I've just been up to collect the photos from yesterday - I didn't take any inside the V&A at the Power of Making exhibition though, sorry for those of you who wanted to see! Will try and blog them (on the other blog) later, or my cup of tea will be cold!

Dragons Dream TIO #95 A Colour Challenge (RED)

Welcome to another TIO challenge for Dragons-Dream - this week it's my turn to choose the theme and I had the colour RED in my mind - so I am challenging you to use (mostly) RED (Liverpool being my team and it being the beginning of a new season and I am all hopeful....) and the song I picked to go with it is UB40's Red Red Wine (all together now, red red wiiiiiiiiiiiine!)

So here is my tag - hope you can join in this week - we had some fabulous metal creations last week -

I started by clear embossing the star - it was the Craft Stamper giveaway stamp this month (October issue) designed by the uber-talented Jo Capper-Sandon for stampotique - and then covering the tag with fired brick distress ink, some more of the stars in the same colour. I stamped the Tim Holtz sentiment on a scrap tag and cut it into portions to add to the tag (mainly so I didn't hide all the stars!) before adding some of the flower trims and trinket pin.  The heart is from the packaging of an order from Art from the Heart and now I am going to prise it off to use again somewhere else too!!  I didn't realise until too late that the middle section of the sentiment looks rather like a pair of (Bridget Jones) big pants.... lol

OK, I've rambled on far too long! Hope you'll come and play with Frankie and the team this week!

WOYWW 118 if my maths are right

Morning peeps! YAY I really AM on a week's holiday now!!! Whoo whoo whoo.... not got many plans, will wing it. Hope the weather is better than Tuesday though - don't mind if it's not hot, just dry would be helpful.  Thanks to a mention on twitter from Jo Firth-Young I am probably going to the Victoria & Albert museum today to see a new exhibition "Power of Making"
Oh, welcome to What's on your Workdesk Wednesday, I should have said! Check out some amazing desks shared by Julia

I am still prepping this on Tuesday night though, because I really hope I don't wake up at 5 in the morning (Memo to self, must turn off the radio alarm....)

Still haven't got any new stash (oh.... well.... there was ONE stamp I had to buy..... it's not here yet though.... so will keep it for next time!)  
My ever-decreasing patch on the floor is quite empty today -some part done journal pages

and this is my Sunday Stampers challenge piece  for this week.



Keep your fingers crossed for some nice weather and I'll see you all later!

Sunday Stampers - Love is the word

For Hels' Sunday Stampers challenge this week I decided to play in my journal. Hels' is celebrating her 4th blogaversary this week and has set the same theme as her very first Sunday Stamper - Love - or as she says, Lurve!! 

I started by covering the page with fired brick and spiced marmalade distress stains mixed and diluted with some picket fence (what did we do before we had this must have product?!)

I then over-inked with the same distress inks (from the pad this time) through the brick wall mask and added some sentments - "dream" is by impression obsession and "let your heart" is one of Wendy Vecchi's.  I had the Eiffel Tower already stamped and cut out of grungepaper and the circle is the 'waste' centre from the Tim H 'weathered clock' die, also grungepaper that I've had hanging around for weeks, waiting - for this obviously! Coloured that with the same inks/stains and stamped the Tim sentiment on it. It needs something else though.... so off to think a bit more. (who's got my tiny Hero Arts heart stamp??? I know it's in a drawer somewhere, lol!  I'll let you know what I come up with...

EDIT - found something! Two of the little wooden hearts I got a while back!

I saw today that the divine Lin (LB Crafts) is having a pan pastel giveaway - think how fab they would be on this page - check that out here just see what you could win

These are on my wish list for Ally Pally on the 24th/25th (I'm getting excited already!)