WOYWW #282

Another week gone, another closer to the years end,lol.  Back at WOYWW for our regular browse at the desks of the world, thanks to our Champion Desker, Julia at The Stamping Ground. Only a couple of things on my desk this week, I've been swapping stamps over to the Aileenes Tack it Over and Over method, and I must say I'm liking it.

Last weeks selection of Stampscapes, and a few oldies, painted with the glue and drying off.
 I reckon this bottle will last forever, such a small amount needed, and I'm painting it on with a foam brush.
 For those who don't know about it, its a sort of repostionable glue, almost like you find on the edges of Post It notes.  Stays tacky for ever, almost. This way, they stick to the holder sheets, and your acrylic blocks, and generally take up far less storage space than using the foam EZ mount. I did at first put all my u/m's onto that, but over the years have found that it started to separate from the stamps, and quite some number have started to 'cup', which means they don't stay on the carrier sheets, or the blocks. So thats an ongoing project. Talking of stamps(!), Chocolate Baroque, every now and again, have a sale of what they call 'Broken Biscuits'. You can probably figure that out, its stamp sheets that didn't all come out perfectly, so the poor ones have been cut away, and replaced with a good stamp. It means you get all the stamps in a set, they are just not all joined together on a sheet when you get them. As you are going to cut them apart, that's no difficulty. And generally they sell them at roughly half price, which means I got an A4 set for £15, instead of the usual £24.96.The set I bought is called Artistic Affirmations.

I was expecting to get a bag of mainly loose stamps, but when it arrived, it was almost a complete sheet- just one stamp separate from the rest!
 Not a lot of crafting done this week, we called in at IKEA on Friday, and I bought another couple of drawer units, a tall Alex and a wide one, so there has been some tidying and reorganising going on.
Last and final thing I want to show you: Beloved Hubby has struck again! The things he manages to find on the Internet never ceases to amaze me. I knew he had ordered something for me and Mikey, but had no idea what it was. Then on Saturday morning two packages arrived, and he told me to go ahead and open them.
 This is what was inside:

Two cushions, with pictures of Ambrose on. One set for us, and one set for Mikey and KT.The fabric is suede- like, and the image quality of the prints is amazing. Got Mikey to pop over yesterday, with KT, said we had something for them. They were both chuffed to bits with them.
My treatment is  plodding along, still so far, so good. The worst part is the time involved- 45 minutes there, the same back. The actual treatment takes less than 10 minutes, and three days last week I was called in within 5 minutes of arriving. Monday this week, we got there to discover they were running 70 minutes late! Not funny. Also this week, on Monday, I returned to work, doing half shifts at first to see how it goes.

WOYWW #281

Yet again, another week has flown past, and here we are back at our Head Desker, Julias place at The Stamping Ground for another WOYWW.
 I actually have a few pics of purchases this week, so the weak willed amongst you may wish to look away, lol.

 First up, some new Stampscapes unmounted stamps. I do love my scenic stamps and these extend the range of scenes I can build up. The top two are intended to be snowy brooks, but can easily be grassy ones with a change of ink colour, and the next two down on the right are a right and left version of a river bank. Some small filler grasses and rocks, and a wading fisherman to add detail.

Next up is the engagement card I made for Mikey and KT.


Just a simple diamanté buckle threaded onto ribbon, and matted onto matching navy card, with a stamped and heat embossed sentiment.


Next up is a book I saw advertised in a Chocolate Baroque email, about Brusho paints. I still haven't got round to trying them out, been concentrating on the C- cards, but thought this might make interesting reading. Its full of various techniques for using them with other products, such as alcohol inks/gilding waxes etc.

Final pic is something I purchased thanks to Shoshi's post last week- some more mini misters. She had found an online store, Ampulla, selling them very cheaply. I went to have a look, and they turned out to be identical to ones I had bought from the NEC last year, just a lot cheaper.

These are the ones I ordered, and they are 54p each-and it works out to 49p each if you buy 25. I paid about £4.50, for a pack of three, at the NEC, and that's about average if you do an Internet search,so these are a lot  less than a 'craft' version, as usual!
 These are the ones I bought at the NEC, one set was branded, Mist-It!, one has nothing on it. The one on the left is the 'new' one, the two on the right the originals.










Can't find any info on the volume of the Tim Holtz ones, but I reckon these hold at least half as much again, at 8ml. Here they are side by side. And they do spray a lovely fine mist.


 Last couple of pictures now. One from Saturday night, when we went out for a meal with Mikey and KT to celebrate, and also my Eldest son Ant, came along, with Becky and the grandkids.
From the left, clockwise: KT, Becky,Mortimer, Ant, Merlin behind Doug, and Mikey.

 A better pic of Merlin.                                                                                                              

 


Finally,as all of those who know me on FB  know,  on Sunday, we had to have our much loved cat Ambrose put to sleep. He was 16 1/2, and in final stage of heart failure, all his organs were shutting down. Mikey is heartbroken, he and Ambrose were pretty much inseparable when he lived here, where Mikey went, Ambrose followed. I phoned him to tell him what the vet had said, and he and KT came over, so all four of us were with him and fussing him when he died. We all left in tears, he'd been a big part of our lives for so long. I do have to say the veterinary staff inside Pet City were wonderful, and could not be faulted. Later next year, when all this cancer thing is done, we will adopt a rescue cat from Cats Protection, and give another cat a forever home. Speaking of the cancer thing, by now I've had my first day of chemo/radiotherapy, and be having my second later today. I will post up on my page later in the week how its leaving me feeling.The chest infection has gone also, so that's all to the good.

A Documented Life-1/1

So New Year, New projects! I have to thank BJ for mentioning this one, and also how she is doing it, which I have shamelessly borrowed.Despite never having completed more than about 1 weeks worth of entries in one, I still buy a diary every year, with the intention that this year will be different. You do not want to know how many unused diaries I have, stored to use in some project or other. BJ mentioned the project A Documented Life,  and that she was going to use a diary for it,which sort of made me curious.
 Now I have to admit that I am not following the way they are doing it entirely, as they have added a pocket to each week, to add memorabilia etc to. I'm not adding one to every week, I'll just incorporate one if I need it- I do not need encouraging to collect any more bits! We already have a boxful of 'mementoes'- parking ticket stubs, entry tickets, you name it, from places we have visited. I'm just glad photos are digital these days.
 The idea is they give a weekly challenge for you to incorporate into your planner, and the first was Photograph, sketch, paint or incorporate your front door.


So, off to trawl through photos on my PC for a photo of our front door. I was just about to give up and go take another picture when I found this one- taken on what was clearly a nice sunny day, and with the door slightly open- perfect.








Printed it off, and here it is on my desk, along with the said diary, and a stencil I cut out with my Silhouette, of brickwork. I had a rough idea in my head where I was going with this subject, which was a bit of a shocker, to be fair.

Distress Inks and the stencil gave me a cool background on one page.










 Added my photo, torn down rather than cut. This will make you smile- I'm sitting here at my PC writing this post, just added that picture, peered closely at it, and thought 'where the heck have those numbers come from?' Then remembered, its a diary. Not entirely sure I should be allowed sharp pointy things, lol.

Completely gratuitous shot of a mid-craft coffee and Stollen break. You don't want to know how many stollen we need to get through. Thats what happens when you forgot you already bought some.

 Forgot to photograph this page before I finished- I printed out a selection of pictures of the inside of the house, as well as Beloved Hubby, Ambrose & myself. The house pictures were layered up down the page, just torn and overlapping. Then I added Hubbys pic, along with Ambrose and me, torn and stuck over the others.

The writing I did  with a DI marker, and the heart is a triple embossed chipboard piece.
 It was the phrase 'Home is where the Heart is' that gave me the idea for how to do this challenge, and for once, it came out pretty much exactly as I saw it.
 The other bonus with this, is that I keep saying I will do an Art Journal- so I may well be killing a couple of birds with one stone here.
 I'm not actually expecting to do every week- I'm already a week behind, they posted a new one today-I will just do the ones that appeal. I mean, this weeks is 'use a selfie'- thats never going to happen. It takes at  least a dozen attempts to get a picture of me I find acceptable- another good thing about digital pictures. Oh well, off to browse for a reasonably presentable photo of me- that should occupy most of the week.

WOYWW #233

Well our Mistress of the Desks has been redecorating- a nice shiny new blog over at The Stamping Ground, although you may need your sunnies this dreary November morning, lol.
Not a huge amount going on on the desk, so you have 2 shots for the price of one visit today. My usual working desk:

Odds & ends abound- a dead babywipe scrunched up, a piece of kitchen roll (can you tell I didn't tidy for the photo?) a couple of acrylic blocks. Some stamps and a Versafine pad. A try-out for some scene building on scrap paper, seeing if I could mix Stampscapes & a Lavinia stamps cat. I've got a bit of a cats theme on the go this week.( Post below for glittered cats)- no not poor Ambrose, he escaped the glitter storm this time. The two black photo albums at the back hold brass stencils, 5x7, they hold larger ones easily, and I just stapled down the middle of pages to hold thinner/tall ones.



Cheap storage solution, and stops them getting bent.





The 'desk behind the desk'- the long table thats behind me, something I wanted when I put my room together, somewhere to put stamp folders when I got them out, put stuff to dry etc.

Of course, its got all sorts of other stuff on there too- glittered cats, bottom right,  easel,  Indigo Blu Christmas cards from earlier post, Distress Markers, a tub of cotton wool balls, and those little sets of plastic drawers, full of 'stuff' thats too small to store anywhere else, without losing it forever. Underneath are some 4 drawer storage ( from B&Q/Instore), they come with wheels, but I didn't put them on, that have all sorts of stuff (do you notice I have a lot of 'stuff'') I wanted close to where I work in the hope that would mean a) less searching for it and
b) it might actually get used!
 So thats all for this week folks, I'm back on my much loved night shift, so I'll be seeing you all later in the day.

WOYWW #213

Another week been & gone- where do they go to?And into July- half a year flown by. Still, that does mean another round of WOYWW, over at The Stamping Ground, with the adorable Julia! My desk offering for this week, the leftover mess from playing with the Stampin Up Swallowtail Butterfly stamp, used in the previous posts.Really Useful box of sponges (Make up sponges, Poundland), some baby wipes, Distress Inkpads, a card & some more images on the easel. A couple of tags, embossing powder,scissors, heat gun. On my OTT lite, my name badge label from the crop. Bottle of water, for watering my Bamboo, behind it, and filling misters & so on.Not enough caffeine in it for drinking, lol.
OK, enabler alert again, sorry ladies. Called in at The Works (again) at the weekend, and they have loads of assorted Papier Mache boxes in there, and these awesome little drawer boxes.

And at 2 quid a throw, not going to break the bank.





 A few weeks ago, I posted a picture of a planter I'd done, (another poundstore bargain, stacking planters). Everything in it has gone a bit mad:



Just Petunias & lobelias, and a Fuchsia in the top. I shall be looking to get some more next year, when they have them back. They're really good-this pic is a larger version that I've filled with herb seeds. Its got four sections, the one with the flowers in has three. They just stack one on top of another, so you can layer it as tall as you want.









Another garden shot, its an Elderberry, a black-leaved version (now theres a surprise, from me)- the flowers are a lovely pink colour, instead of the usual creamy white.

So thats me  done, fairly short & sweet. Have a really good week all.

WOYWW # 207- not long to go now....

Less than two weeks to the Birthday Crop- I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone! Me & Beloved Hubby are driving down on Friday afternoon/evening, and staying with the lovely LLJ, who has offered us a bed. Staying over Saturday night too, and going to visit some of the local places, like Avebury before going home.Bringing some ATC's with me too, to do some swaps. Haven't decided what to bring with me to do yet-fortunately, (or not) depending on your viewpoint, we have a 4x4, rofl!
 For all the info about the crop, ATC Swap, and general WOYWW madness, wander over to Julias place, at The Stamping Ground, and join in the fun.

This weeks offering, still cluttered with stuff from my shadow stamping & making your own shadow stamp posts. You can see how that worked out in the previous posts.
I think I will mount thecircles & so on  onto Kling-on, just keep the embossed ones as they are, that should help with the smudge issues.

This is the table behind my desk- the idea of having this was to cope with the overspill when I'm cardmaking! I always seem to have so many folders out- stamps, vellum, dies etc, plus tools & cleanup stuff, it used to be all over the desk, the floor- you name it. At least now I can have it handy, but not in the way.

 Now a piccie from the garden the other day-

Ambrose completely disinterested in the squirrel, gorging himself on the fatballs.

I'd just finished filling the planters on the right. Those stacking plastic ones are from one of the pound stores/99p stores. I've filled these with herb seeds, and the Orange thyme, Oregano & Marjoram are sprouting already. I love herbs, they smell gorgeous, and the bees & butterflies adore them too. Have a great Wednesday, see you all later.

WOYWW #201

Well its show & tell with Auntie Julia again, over at The Stamping Ground.
I  haven't been up to a lot this week, so this is how my desk has been looking since Saturday. Those glittered medallions finally getting used. As they were so fancy, I decided just to use plain white base cards, square ones, and to emboss around them.
All laying on my Hougie Board.

A close up here so you can see what I mean. I will just stamp a simple Happy Birthday onto them later this week. I used blobs of silicone glue on the backs, as I find that, or Pinflair glue gel, holds onto the glitter surface best.
 I like these a lot, and have a feeling that I will be doing some more of these. I did find the putting down the glue part very relaxing, a bit Zen-like, lol. There is still plenty of glitter around the house- I spotted Ambrose sparkling a little last night. Shows up really well on a black cat! Which made me think that a black & white version of these would be cool. He's not just a pretty, furry face.

This one was made for a work colleague who wanted  a card for a friends birthday soon. I get some mileage out of those Tattered Florals, you know. To be fair, those dies have been a good investment. I like the way you can mix them all together. The background is an MBossabilities folder, Asian. Also Nestabilites, Labels 8 for the sentiment.  Just a bit of proof I can do Pink, if I really have to!
 We popped in to see Maggie ( Silvercrafter) tonight (Tuesday), on the way home, she is well. As you know, my eldest Son is married to her Daughter. We  spent Sunday afternoon looking after Merlin & Mortimer- well Mort looked after himself, to be fair. Another gamer in the family, *sighs*- a COD fan, so Beloved Hubby approves!
Beloved Hubby also spent the afternoon turning Merlin into a nerd- teaching her all about customising her laptop, shortcuts etc.  I'm on earlies- I LOATHE them with a passion, have I ever said? Five o'clock in the morning is when you should be GOING to bed, not getting out of it. Its nice coming home at 2 o'clock, but it doesn't compensate for getting out of bed in the middle of the night! I'd never have made a farmers wife, thats for sure. So I will be speaking with you all later, have a great WOYWW.


I'm adding this part a little later in the week-  many of you know Silvercrafter, Maggie.This picture is from our wedding, and shows Ant, Geoff, Becky & Marg, with Merlin & Mortimer in front.

Tragically, Margs husband  Geoff died suddenly on Sunday morning. We are fortunate in having Marg & Geoff as co-inlaws. We have been friends for 20 odd years, which is not always the case with in-laws, is it? I know Marg has contacted some people to let them know, and just wanted to let those who she frequently gets around to, that she will probably be missing for a few weeks. We see her quite regularly, so I will let you know how she is.

WOYWW #113

Just Because....
     This was made for a guy who wanted a card for his wife,'just because'. I thought that was really lovely, don't you? I can't remember who the stamp is by, if anyone could tell me I'd be really grateful, as I can credit it then. Thats the problem with u/m stamps, no makers details. I have got a lot better at jotting details down now, in my images folders, but such organisation was not always the case, lol. I suppose I never really expected to accumulate so many (oops), and I certainly never expected to be posting my work online. I am pretty sure that the sentiment came from an Elusive Images sheet, but I may be wrong. That wouldn't be unusual, :)
I can say the vellum sheet with the roses came from a booklet called' Painted Vellum Papers #2, by Paper Pizazz. I bought this a few years ago at an NEC Hobbycrafts fair, so its probably discontinued now! I'm not doing very well today, am I?
 Anyway, the image was stamped onto some white linen card with Memento Black and then coloured with Promarkers. Cut out with Nesties Small Scalloped Ovals using the largest die, and sponged with pale blue ink around the edges. I stamped the sentiment in Impress dye ink, Garnet. Cut out with a Labels 4 Nestie. Some pink organza ribbon tied around the spine, and a couple of paper roses added with silicone glue. The paper roses are from Craft Creations, and they ARE available,lol.
  I do enjoy using the Promarkers, colouring was never my strong point and I hated the lines and joins I always had. The Promarkers do make the blending really easy, and even I am happy with my results, and we are usually our own harshest critic, aren't we?
        Speaking of Promarkers. I have seen ads for another marker lately, Spectrum Noir. They come in packs of 6 matched colours, or 24 packs of pastels, brights etc. I was quite taken with the idea, but on SCS it seems they have been available in the US for a while, and the general opinion doesn't seem very good. A few people thought they did not blend as well as Copics, so I am waiting for a while to get a better view of their capabilities. Some ladies on there from the UK have ordered some and will post their thoughts when they have had a play with them. They do seem to predominately have Copics in the US, very few people seem to use Promarkers, so maybe they fall down against Copics, but will fare better when compared to Promarkers. We shall see.
 The only other thing I have done this week is the inkjet printed canvas a couple of posts down, for my sons birthday. 
 Finally, here is Ambrose, as promised a couple of weeks ago. Looking in fine fur again!. No bald eyebrow, all scratches healed. I think he is losing weight, just need to get round to weighing him. That will probably be as difficult as getting medicine down him.

 

Oh, and for a couple of people who haven't visited yet, there is a versatile blogger award below. Its so hard to choose who to pass these on to, every person I 'meet' on here gives me so many ideas, inspiration and support!So, on that note, I will sign off to go to work, and I will be back to visit tonight. See you all at the Marvellous Julia Dunnits, for this weeks WOYWW.

WOYWW #108

Happy WOYWW to everyone, pop over to the Incredible Julia Dunnitsfor this weeks wander around the workdesks.

This is whats on my desk at the moment- a pair of new blades for my Silhouette, courtesy of E-bay, and two purchases from The Works. A flexible ruler, which I thought 'will come in useful'- I have a houseful of stuff bought under THAT particular mis-apprehension, lol, and the book, Handmade Celtic Cards, by Paula Pascual.

Its a Search Press book with 48 pages, full colour, and some lovely ideas.

As you can see, nice clear illustrations & directions.

Lots of ideas, using stamping, embossing & peel-offs onto card, acetate & metal or metal foil.

And as it was reduced to 99p, I consider it my bargain of the month!

The reason there is so little to see on my desk this week, is that I intended to spend Sunday crafting, to give me stuff for this week. However, that plan went out the window thanks to Ambrose.You may recall seeing him on my post a couple of weeks ago, looking quite handsome. This is a photo of him taken today.

You see the bald spot over his eye? This actually looks a lot better now than it did on Sunday morning. I had taken my coffee out to sit on the decking, with a cigarette (or two), before getting down to stuff, and he comes walking up the garden, looking like the definite loser in a recent brawl! The swelling above his eye was seriously raw, and looked infected. Looking closer, I saw a tick just below his ear, and I think he must have been trying to scratch it off and had scratched off all the fur, and made it bleed. So a visit to the vets was needed, and fortunately, Pets At Home have a vet on the premises on Sundays. 

So he is now on antibiotics- and we had the choice of tablets or liquid. Given the trouble we have had before trying to get pills down him, and believe me we have tried every known method, and invented a few ourselves, we went for liquid. While not exactly any easier, at least he has to swallow liquid- pills he just keeps in his mouth until you finally release him, then spits them out. We've held his mouth shut and stroked his throat for 10 minutes before now- doesn't work- put pills in food- he just eats around it! The difficulty comes in because he HATES being picked up or held- he loves to be fussed, but is not a lap cat, and really dislikes being handled. So it takes at least two of us to get his medication down him, twice a day, and is really not the ideal start to your day at 5.30am! But as I say, it is doing the trick, because he does look better. The other news is that he is now on a strict diet,lol. Apparently he is overweight- 6 kilos, and he should only be 4. So now he is on dried cat food, a rationed amount daily. I admit, looking at the side of a box of Whiskas pouches last night, ( maybe I should have done this before), it does say that a neutered cat should have no more than two pouches, or 1 1/2 pouches & 50 grms of dried food a day. Ambrose had 2 pouches for breakfast!

 To add insult to injury, it was stiflingly hot here on Sunday night, even with the windows open & fan on, I was so hot I couldn't sleep, so eventually I turned myself around on the bed, and lay down again with my head at the foot of the bed, closer to the fan. I did then drift off to sleep- I know this because I got an extremely sudden awakening. I obviously turned over in my sleep. and because I was facing the opposite direction, -THUD- I landed on the floor! I sat up, somewhat startled, and my Beloved Husband ( who had woken up at the thud) checked I was alright, then howled with laughter at me! And no, there are no pictures of that particular event,lol.