WOYWW 69 - I want to go back to Arran

Decent accomodation, beautiful scenery, fab company and the beach all around sigh...........

The only thing I didn't do much of was crafting! - didn't manage to find much time, did do some christmas cards and a birthday card.  So on to the point of today, what is going on with my workspace - firstly and ta for your patience, yes the big fat object on the windowsill is a HP photosmart printer - originally for scrap-booking, currently for printing off records of my cards!

Starting work on Christmas cards as I have a few gifts I would like to make to.  Been using the free stamp I got with craft stamper magazine.  Thought I'd also show the Cosmo Cricket entries I put into the Quick Cards competition. All papers were Golly by Jolly which I picked up last year. Pu1nched circles for the tree and then stamped the tree trunk on acetate using versafine and then clear embossed. The acetate was fixed using woodware maguc vellum.  The second card used the nesting label 1 to frame cut up strips of paper and die cut snowman.

Click on the WOYWW link if you want to start where it all begins. Have a good week if you can.

WOYWW 67

Thanks for all the brilliant comments from last week. My card has gone and is in the lap of the Quick Card judges - unfortunately never to be seen again. I figured that it was about time to stop showing cards and actually get down to the point of the bloghop and show my workdesk. I'm proud of managing to get round all of the desks over this last week and am in awe and envy of more than a few. So for your delight my desk of indeterminate purpose - in this case craft table :) On my craft space is the start of my christmas effort, we are off on our summer hols the end of this week (beautiful island of Arran) and there may be 'gulp' no internet access - it doesn't bare thinking about so I may go a little quiet. Anyway being away does not equal no crafting so I'm getting my craft store ready :) You can nose around at your leisure it is all a work in progress. I guess most people have a source of caffine, the poisons of my choice is always in easy reach!

Thought I'd also give you one of my competition entries (so many of my babies are being judged) the competition closed yesterday - so more of thoe lovely owls. I know that iris folding is a little out of fashion at the moment, but when I first saw these I knew I could make my mum a happy lady, it is only my 3rd or 4th one and I had to do the template for this myself so a little bit of a work in progress. The embossing folders are Tim Holtz (one of those got to have things love the wood and brick textures) inked using versafine for added depth. All card is from the papermania colossal pad - my stock cardstock. The duo of cards came about as the cutout was used for one and the imprint for the other. Lamp-post was pierced from black card. Right I'm off to do packing 'see' you all in a week or 2. If you want to join in click on the WOYWW link on the right bar for the low down.

Inspired by Rainbow Days

One of the great things about all this blogging stuff is seeing something fantastic that someone else hase done and then with their kind permission having a bash yourself Julie over at Rainbow Days produced this stunner a couple of weekends ago, either click on the picture or the link above to see this and other variations. Inspired by this and a comment Julie made about not having a nestie squares which would have made it easier. Now I don't have nestie squares....yet......... but I do have label 1 and my flower punches were at my mums - and I think I agree with Doone's earlier comments that spellbinders good and Martha Stewart punches not so much - at least they don't come out anywhere near as much for me (not the case for everyone I know) however, I do LOVE my stamp and punch MS, I have a cupcake and a butterfly one and along with the hugs and honey scraps of paper I made this thank you card for a friend. I was also short on a sentiment so I used my Sakura glue pen (I really love those things) and broke into my MS all the colours of the rainbow and some glitter pack and there you have it. So thanks Julie for the inspiration :)

3 owls, an embossing folder and some googly eyes!

OH and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary yesterday - well I say celebrated we exchanged cards and got some nice Thai food in for dinner. For my creation I had lots of fun with googly eyes, spellbinders nesting owls and a Tim Holtz impressions folder. I used a trick he displayed on his blog, carefully using a craft knife you slit along the crease of the embossing folder, allowing you to create a longer / bigger image - only when you are embossing pay attention to the creases when you add the rest of the bits so you don't end up adding un-needed prolifary items! I decided to create our family in owl form so baby owl is a combination of 2 big owls. I don't really know if he liked it - I think he smiled, but he has only expressed a reaction to one of my cards and that was the seasons winning card from a few posts back - that one he didn't want to part with! Hope you all have a lovely weekend. We are wrestling with fitting roof bars and a roof box to the car we are taking on holiday at the end of next week - when the rain stops that is.......

WOYWW 66 - the finished Dahl

Ok you have all been splendidly patient. This card may not be a Quick Card winner who knows but it was certainly a labour of love. I had to play around with the card 'padlock' to my original idea as the point was for it to hold the gates shut! Okay so the gates and ticket were cut from card and painted using smooch inks - they are nice and shiney and gave the metallic feel I was after. Papermania magnetic buttons were sealed into the padlock parts to keep the gate shut All figures were hand drawn - for me Roald Dahl always goes hand in hand with Quentin Blake and it would be nye impossible to separate the two. They were coloured using Promarkers and versafine ink (for the skin colour and brown - henna promarker had lid come off and dried up and for some reason I have never got round to skin coloured promarkers - must remedy that). Printed off the banner (font was a free one Fontdinerdotcom Sparkly :) I found out that yellow was Roald Dahl's favourite colour. Wrapped the banner round 2 cut off wooden kebab posts before fixing. Hope that it doesn't disappoint you all - for me if I am reluctant to let go of the finished article then I feel like I've done alright...........

Anyone stumbling in and wondering what on earth WOYWW (What is on you workdesk wedensday) is all about follow the WOYWW link on the right hand side for inspiration abound

Ooooh Spellbinders

Ok just so everyone doesn't think I'm a one card only girl here is something to keep you entertained until tomorrow's big reveal. I am very happy I have booked myself on to a scrapbooking course at my local shop stampeeze - I figure that way at least I'll have a go once a month if not at any other time and I really want to make sure I get my baby boy captured while it is still fresh (ish) in the mind. So to today's card, my big cousin turns 50 this weekend so after trawling the web I came across a couple of decent phrases 'don't think of it as getting older, think of it as becoming a classic' and 'congratulations on turning 18 with 32 years of experience'. Then thanks to Eileen and her wonderful spellbinders creations I recently invested in 3 or 4 to go with my nesting owls. So out camethe bigshot and the nesting labels 2. The 5o is created by inking up your stamp with versa mark and then heating with clear embossing powder - neat effect and can be used for 'watermarking' in all kinds of backgrounds. I cut the owl out of 2 types of card so I could make the wings a different colour. The caption was just done (as I'm sure you all know) by printing first onto paper then taping my cut shape over the top and re-running through the printer - I use this a lot with acetate to. Once I have my competition entries in I'll post those up - end of the month. Looks like a boy card I hope.

A further Dahl teaser

Thank you to all the lovely people out there who have said hello and left comments - they make me more determined to find time to craft. We live in a middle floor flat and my son and I have to be as quiet as possible when we wake up (anytime from 5.30, although nearer 6 at the moment). The little fella is very into Pixar movies at the moment. So breakfast and Pixar for him and crafting for me for a couple of hours and then we can go out and play. So anyway the last 2 mornings since Wednesday I've finished off all my bits and pieces. Time to begin assembley of the master creation :) We are waiting for a parcel to be delivered today - it could be a long one...............

What's on Your Workspace Wednesday

I've been doing quite a lot of blog hopping recently and came across this fantastic idea, WoYWW which will hopefully motivate me towards more craft and more blogging :) I'm also hopeful of meeting a few more bloggers as so far it is proving a lonely world. So what am I up to just at the moment. Lots of little bits. I'm putting together a card for a Quick Card competition celebrating Roald Dahl's birthday (13th Septemeber - by the way). I have an idea in my head of what I am hoping to achieve and these creations are working towards that. I decided that the fun light effect added to the atmosphere of the picture.........
My workspace is also my study desk and the dining room table - very multifunctional, a table of indeterminate purpose if you like.