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Thank you for taking the time to come and look at my blog, I really do appreciate it. I would love you to leave me a comment, even if it’s just to say Hi. It means I can come visit you!

All my designs are original, so copyrighted to me. If I have been inspired by someone elses work, I have named them in the post, and where able, I have provided a link.

Please feel free to use my designs for inspiration, I just ask you to credit me, and provide a link back to my blog.

Thanks, Shaz XX

Wednesday 7 August 2013

WOYWW #218

So how is everyone this lovely Wednesday? I'm guessing here that its a nice day- I'm writing this on Tuesday afternoon, lol. Stroll over to the Lovely Julia's, at The Stamping Ground, and join in this delightful cruise around the crafting desks of the world, messy or tidy, ( the messier the better, tidy makes some of us feel guilty!), we love to see what everyone is up to.
 Two things I spotted over the last couple of days, wandering the net, as you do. Two of our friends on here had great weeks- Maisie Moonshines name was on the list of winners for the Tim Holtz Tags of 2013, August, this week, and Chris at Pearshapedcrafting won the Artistic Stampers July challenge!We all know how fabulous our friends are, lovely to see their creativity being rewarded.
 So, my desk then.
It was while browsing the various challenges, that I saw on Clarity Stamps that their challenge this month is Animals. I have two sizes of her Wolf stamp, so decided I'd have a go this month. Only got as far as stamping the image, and I'm not sure yet which one I will use. I used a variety of cardstock to stamp on, but all were stamped in Adirondack Pitch Black, so I could use a waterbrush over them to just pull some colour into the image.I can just about handle that sort of colouring. The three on the lower right are on Clarity card, using the Acrylic plate stamping method from a few posts ago as a background for the image.Its a fairly glossy cardstock, but it worked quite well. The top right one is stamped onto a marbled cardstock, and the left hand one is just on a plain white background. One or two I'm not overly happy with how the colour pulled in, one or two sharp lines- I might try a little more blending.Then again, maybe I'm being overly picky & precious- its only card & ink!
 In my net browsing, I found myself on Pinterest ( how surprising!), and looking at some humorous pins. I saw this one, and instantly thought of all my WOYWW friends! So here, ladies, is the perfect answer for why we have untidy craft rooms-
You see, a perfectly logical & sensible reason for it. Its a self defence thing.
 My Buddleia, commonly known as The Butterfly Bush, has been living up to its name this year, its been covered in Peacock Butterflies. Dozens of them over it, along with a few cabbage whites.
But here's a question for all the Brits on here-
have any of you seen any Ladybirds this year?
I haven't seen a single one anywhere, not even during those really hot summery days.
 Probably could have been briefer, sorry Julia- its a good job I'm writing, not talking, lol.You'd be here for days, rofl! Have a fab Wednesday, catch up with you all later.

32 comments:

Lunch Lady Jan said...

Nope, no ladybirds here either :-( which is rather baffling, I hope to goodness they survive the winter and come back next year. Nice to see buddleias and butterflies combo too! My thyme bush out the front is literally swarming with bees, it's a marvellous sight to see..the whole plant is quivering with them.
Love the Wolfie image..good luck with the challenge!
Hugs, LLJ 58 xx

Maisie Moonshine said...

Hi Shaz - Firstly thank you for the name check and for your lovely comments, I was a bit shocked/chuffed with the win I can tell you. Secondly - those stamps are fantastic. Thirdly that notice made me laugh out loud - glad I'm here on my own - the boys look at me strangely otherwise. And finally, I hadn't noticed the lack of ladybirds until you mentioned it but now I think of it I haven't seen one either, and my butterfly count is well down too. Hope they all survive! Have a good week MMx #65

MaggieC (Silvercrafter) said...

No ladybirds here either, and a serious shortage of butterflies, apart from a few cabbage whites. Very few moths either. I reckon my spiders have eaten them all. I knew there was a reason why my room is a wreck. Mind you, you should see Bec's old room at the moment. I seriously need to get in there. After the kids (very kindly) took a load of stuff back up there, Doug would need to cling to the ceiling to get to my server. Conservatory is tidy though. xx Maggie #10
PS Good luck with the Clarity challenge this month. Counting down till the workshop later this month.

House of Bears said...

We love your wolf stamp, have fun creating with it, as for the pinterest sentiment, thank you for the excuse to be messy. Hee hee.

Waving hi from The House of Bears @#84

CraftygasheadZo said...

Loving your wolves. Not seen any ladybugs here. Wasps, bees and butterflies are about though much to Baxter's fascination! Take care Zo xx 72

Krisha said...

LOL, oh Shaz if we were all talking there would be nobody to listen...LOL Love the wolves and Pinterest is a fun place to visit!
Krisha #19

Shoshi said...

Your stamping experiments are very interesting, Shaz. It does seem to make quite a difference what sort of card you use, doesn't it. I find I end up on Pinterest without noticing how I got there sometimes, and can spend the whole evening wandering around in there, no trouble at all! Same with Youtube.

I can't remember seeing any ladybirds either. Sad, isn't it. However, I don't miss the wasps. They can stay absent as far as I'm concerned. We've got a buddleia in the garden of our new house and I'm looking forward to seeing butterflies there when we move. What a beautifl photo - peacock butterflies are so gorgeous! We always like the idea of encouraging butterflies because they are getting scarce too, and a friend of ours has given up beekeeping because all her bees kept dying. It's a serious problem...

Happy WOYWW,
Shoshi #75

Winnie said...

I wrote to Maisie when I saw her name. I was excited for her. Love the wolf stamp, so beautiful. I will always think of you when I see one. Such beautiful animals. Love the photo of your bush and that mag butterfly, so pretty! Enjoy the week!! Winnie #76

Julia Dunnit said...

Not a single Ladybird, now you mention it. How alarming. I couldn't agree with you more - it's a genuine thrill to discover the person who's won a competition is actually someone you know! I like the wolf on the marbled stock; isn't it incredible how the same ink pad gives different sharpness on differing stock. Loving the postcard....it applies here!

Anonymous said...

Not a ladybird here in Gloucestershire either - a subject we were discussing a day or two ago - and even more unusual is that we normally have hundreds of ladybirds overwintering in our spare bedroom and there wasn't one last winter. There are a few wasps about but not so many as usual. Loads of peacock, marbled whites, red admiral, small tortoiseshell and blue butterflies here though. Also seen Comma butterflies but not a sign of a painted lady yet.

Love your stamped images and what a dfference cardstock makes. Have been having fun with the foam shadow stamps as per your instructions but found some scraps of EZ Mount and put the foam shapes on that and what a difference it makes to the stamped image! Thanks for all your fantastic tips and hints :)
Lynn xx

Gráinne said...

What a great wolf image, love it! And the sentiment is just hilarious. I said this to my daughter some time ago when she's been afraid of a possible burglar LOL her room is such a mess more often than not that any burglar would rather break a leg or something than get far ... Happy WOYWW, Suzanne #49

Deb said...

Love that wolf stamp and the quote is just fabulous, will use that one day! Gorgeous butterfly pic too!
Debxx

Tera Callihan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tera Callihan said...

That's a great wolf, Also i love the "why i keep my craft room messy" lady!!! Also, thank you for your nice comment on my blog, you where right it was me you found from my moms blog... I talked mom into starting the WOYWW with me, and as you saw, we've been busy redoing her room this last week :D
-tera #104

okienurse said...

awesome prints of the wolf! My daughter is a wolf fanatic and would go nuts over them! Nice meme about your room...mine as you could tell is worse shape then ever. Love the butterfly bush and butterfly pic. Purple is a favorite color! Have a great week and thanks for stopping by my desk and commenting. Vickie #36

Mrs.D said...

Shaz, No ladyirds here in North Wales either, bit worrying but I haven't seen any greenfly either so maybe there is nothing for ladybirds to feed on.
However we have an abundance of butterflies, especially the cabbage white, not as beautiful as your Peacock. I love that idea of keeping the room messy, only problem is the only likely to try kill me is hubby who is so frustrated by the mess.
Less mess, fewer people wanting to kill me!
Keep up the stamping of the Wolves, they are gorgeous, look forward to seeing final coloured images.
Chris #66

Unknown said...

Hi ya Shaz.. well made it back for my 2nd week. But I messed up all ready :-( I have been leaving the wrong number all morning. Dang newbies lol any way it was nice to see you on my site. as you can see I hadn't gotten to yours till now. This just take so long. Im not going to do them all just ones that seem to hit my smile botton. :-) Bright blessing to you and yours!!

Helen said...

Now you come to mention it, I haven't seen any ladybirds for ages! Hope you have a lovely week. Helen , 6

fairy thoughts said...

hey shaz.. funny isn't it how many things we start and don't finish eg the wolves. keep going with them.
love the pin it's as a good reason as any hehe!
As for the ladybugs they have been ousted by the bigger yellow ones and are very endangered. if you see one please report the sighting to the wildlife agency, sad but true. another thing I haven't seen for a couple of years now is wasps, but no sad loss there.
have a good week
janet #27

BJ said...

Funny you should mention ladybirds as I saw one when checking to see if my neighbours compost bin had been emptied or not yesterday, it was crawling about on the top of the stuff in there. Had I realised there was a shortage I'd have rescued it, but I guess if there is one there ought to be others. Thanks for visiting me this week BJ#85

Fiona@Staring at the Sea said...

No ladybirds here either. Plenty of bees and butterflies though and even a couple of wasp sightings in the last few days. I'm not much of a one for colouring in stamps but I do like using that technique. Enjoy the rest of your week xx

pearshapedcrafting said...

Many Thanks for your congratulations the other day and today's shout out - you can imagine how excited my grandchildren were at me actually winning something! Love your wolves - is that stamp still available? I see your buddleia has peacock butterflies, mine has small tortoiseshells and cabbage whites - the buddleia itself actually almost died the other year over the hard winter but I gave it a chance and it came back after a years rest and is better than ever! We had loads of ladybirds at the start of summer but haven't seen any since then! Have a great week, Chrisx 113

ddazzled71 said...

I am loving your beautiful stamped wolves, my favorite is the one your watermark covers with the subtle watercolor background. Your butterfly bush is gorgeous and I love the fabulous photo of the peacock butterfly. I'm not in Britian but can honestly say I haven't seen a lady bug in ages here either, lots of bees however which is a good sign in our parts. Hope you have a wonderful week and good luck with your challenge entry. Happy WOYWW! Danie #14

Cazzy said...

Hi Shaz, thanks for visiting and Happy WOYWW!
I know just what happened with the number - it happened to me too a few times. You had Julia's blog there, you went to add and it gave you the next number on the screen, but you didn't refresh or you would have found that a load of others got in there and your number was later, so always refresh!

Great wolf stamp.

I keep my room really messy because if we have burglars they will think that they are too late!

Lovely butterfly, and I did see ladybirds very early in the year but none lately.

Cazzy x

sandysewin said...

Love the wolf image AND the reason for a messy room. :-)

Happy Woyww,

Sandy #9

April said...

I was at a Bed and Breakfast this weekend that had a butterfly bush. It was great fun just standing and watching those beautiful butterflies.
April #122

sandra de said...

I like your pinterest pin.... very appropriate for woyww.
Sandra

Unknown said...

Love the pinterest quote.

Great butterfly plant too, my Mum has one in her garden. No, not seen a single ladybird either, how sad.

Lynda #82

Unknown said...

I live in Greece and now that you mention it I have also not seen any here!! Love your humorous quote..I too work in a fort.....keep well and happy stamping !

Anonymous said...

LOL! That's a good one, and the site that has those graphics is my favourite after Handmade Ryan Gosling :) I see them all over the place and they never cease to make me smile.

Thse wolves are amazing - such detail. The one on marbled card looks fab just as it is.

Happy (still catching up) WOYWW!
Mary Anne (28)

Nan G said...

Gorgeous butterfly! Love the messy quote. I like the top two on the right. :) You're are being picky...the only one I don't care for is the far upper left. Thanks for the earlier visit! Happy WOYWW! Nan G #8

Darnell said...

Lovely post, as always, Shaz. We have those beautiful butterfly bushes, too, but rarely get butterflies. Odd, huh? Your photo is absolutely stunning of your brilliant visitors!

Love the funny you included, too. I'm a neatnik, myself, but it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round as all of us WOYWWers know so well! Happy Belated WOYWW and enjoy the rest of your week! Darnell #12

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