WOYWW 153 and a busy desk!

Hi everyone, I've been quiet for a few weeks, been a bit chaotic here, and not much crafting being done at all
 :-(.................But this Bank Holiday weekend I managed to spend some time in the craft room, and this is how I left it...........messy, huh?

I know those lovely crafters who manage to tidy away after themselves will be looking at that and thinking OMG! I am a messy crafter, and even though I now have a lovely craft room and big desk, still end up with piles that threaten to overwhelm the desk.

Quick tour round my desk, bottom left some papers for a DT project I was finishing off, with my ultra sticky tape, and just above that a couple of older projects that I love and am trying to decide how to display. Above that to the left you can see my trusty heat tool peeking into the pic, and my DAB radio, cos I have to have music while I craft! I am often heard singing along to the Bee Gees....ssssssshhhh, don't tell anyone!!

then you ahve my craft caddy stuffed with essentials, behind that various shades of pink tissue paper for making paper carnations, my memento black inkpad, which never leaves my desk, a pile of paper with sketches and notes for cards (think back of a fag packet style!), my steel edge ruler, craft knife, reels of tape, and 2 pairs of scissors, one detail scissors, and one pair I use just for 'sticky stuff'.

That's my desk, if you're wondering why i;m sharing hop on over to Julia's stamping ground where she hosts the fab Whats on Your Workdesk Weds blog hop through craft land

happy crafting!!

Debs xx

Here's to using up leftovers!

Many of you already know that I run regular craft classes, so I thought I would share the aftermath of my Weds night class.......

 This first pic is all the stamps and Distress Inks piled high on my table, ready for cleaning and sorting.  We always end up throwing everything in the crates at the end of the night, and I start my day with a cuppa and a sort out!  Well, this particular class used a lot of card pre-cut to size, and I had an awful lot of identical sized strips of card left afterwards.........................

Being a typical crafter, I didn't want to throw it away, lots of good quality card, what could I do with it...hmmmmm..............the craft brain went into overdrive and started thinking about weaving the strips together to make a decorative background, so out came a set of Penny Black stamps I've been wanting to play with, and my trusty Pro Markers, and I had so much fun!

I coloured some strips to match my main stamped image, and left some white, then wove them together in a basket weave pattern.  The main trick is to stick one end of each strip (just one direction to start with) in place with double sided, then to weave the strips thru from the other direction until you're happy with the layout, then attach double sided tape to the underside of the end of each strip and fix each one in place as you go.  I found using the lines on my craft mat invaluable to line up the strips evenly along both edges!

They looked a bit boring on a plain white background, so I stamped a quick background with one of the small flower stamps from the set (Micey Day) and quickly coloured the centre of the daisies to match and presto! Big improvement. See what you think.............

And as I had so many strips, I made quite a few cards, but can only give you a quick peek of one here, as they are now destined for Making Cards magazine, along with a set of tea bag folding cards I've been working on.  Again, I had a ball making these, not having tried tea bag folding before, so I made flowers, medallions and butterflies, and made a beaded body for my folded butterfly out of twisted wire, and it came out pretty good! But that's for another post......

For all those who asked, I will get around to a TP mini album soon, and show you how to make one from scratch, and the finished sample...it's on the crafty to do list!!!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a fab crafty weekend

Debs x

WOYWW 141 and the Craft Room Workout!

It has been a really busy week, and I couldn't believe it when I realised that the last time I blogged was a whole week ago! And here I am again, wondering where that week went lol!!  I think I've learned my lesson about scheduling classes so close together.  I have run 4 classes in the last week, and what with packing kits, sorting the toolkits after each one ready for the next, and finishing my samples for the NEC trade show, I am pooped! 


So, I thought I would share with you what I've spent the last 45 mins doing................

 BEFORE...... this is the Cuttlebug work station, aka the kitchen counter (can you tell???? lol!) 


and you can just see at the bottom right of the pic, a big carrier bag full of......... loo rolls.


I needed to flatten these, and a pile of kitchen roll tubes, ready for a future class where we will be making TP mini albums. For those who have never seen them, these are cute little mini scrapbooks/brag albums made from.............you guessed it..... loo roll inner tubes!


Now for the AFTER............

A whole carrier bag full reduced to a few square inches! All neat and ready to go. 


Now for that workout bit, it took 45 mins of manual labour on the Cuttlebug to achieve this, and it was hot work! Who needs Zumba classes when you have a Cuttlebug and a bag full of loo rolls???  Doesn't sound that great, does it!!!??

An now for something completely different.........................  this is the men's Valentine's card I made for the WOW! Embossing Powders design team blog. Random hearts and sentiments stamped all over the inner pop out section and embossed in Platinum, and the sparkly heart dangling in the aperture is embossed in 2 different colours, one on each side of the heart so you get a really cool effect as it rotates.

OK,  I am off to load up the car for tonight's class, and when I get back, or possibly tomorrow morning, I will scoot round as many desks as I can in the weekly snoopathon hosted over at the Stamping Ground


Thanks for stopping by


debs x

Hide n Seek card

 The sun is shining today, but it's really cold here! I've not had much time to be creative this past week, but wanted to share my Sunday afternoon creation.

I love playing with paper mechanics, when a card does something other than simply 'open' which explains my recent obsession with boxes, and the Matchbox Easel card I have planned for classes this week!

This is a Hide n Seek card, where the card has a 'hidden' interior section.

This is the first thing you see when you open the card, a lovely series of stamped and layered panels. Then, if you close the card and push the outer edges back ,when you open the card again.........

Ta Da!!  A 'hidden' message, in this case, the panels say 'With Love'

this is actually a really easy card to make, but takes ages to decorate all the panels. It's great fun though, both to make and to receive.

Start with a piece of A4, crease and fold to an A5, then add further creases as though it is a gatefold card, mountain fold the centre crease, and valley fold the 2 outer creases.

On the centre fold, mark and cut 3 evenly spaced horizontal slits, cutting from the centre fold to the outer folds at 5.25, 10.5 & 15.75 cm.

Fold each panel you have created alternately left and right. Cut 4 panels of mirror board at 21cm x 7.2cm , sandwich them back to back in pairs. Slide one mirror strip through the 2 left hand panels, and the other through the 2 right hand panels.

fold the card open and closed a few times to make sure it folds smoothly, then decorate to your hearts content!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs

WOYWW 138 and more boxes!

This is today's crafty corner of the dining room, prepping samples for this Saturday's class making gift boxes.  Centre front we have a cute little butterfly hexagon box (templates from a CD by Payperbox) stamped and decorated with butterflies.  Behind that is a pyramid box decorated with hearts (yes, Valentine's Day soon dear, if you're reading this :-)

Then you have a small collection of my Stickles glitter glues, and just behind that a teeny tiny set of dragonfly and butterfly stamps that I've had for years and absolutely adore! They are tiddly tho, perfect for backgrounds!

I didn't dare take a pic of the whole table, cos anyone who read my blog last week might notice that most of the same stuff is still there! Have been super busy this last week, and lost a day yesterday after a visit to the osteopath (old war wound lol!) after which I felt like I'd been kicked by a mule (actually petite and blonde, but she still packs a punch!)

After doing a quick flick thru my Blogger reading list, has anyone seen the preview of the new Distress Ink Marker Pens???   Ooooooooh, I really NEED these!!!! 

I have deadlines coming at me all over the place, 3 classes in the next week, and samples to make for the trade show at the NEC, so forgive me if I don;t make it to your WOYWW entry this week.  I will do my best later today when I have a bit more time, so for now, I'm off to add my name to the list over at Julia's blog, then it's back to the inkpads :-0

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOYWW 128 - Christmas boxes

So I'm a bit slow with the WOYWW pic today, if you hop on over to Julia's blog at the Stamping Ground, you get to take a peek at lots of crafters creations - it's great fun but be warned - it's hugely addictive and can swallow a whole day if you're not careful!

I've spent the morning playing with templates for Christmas gift boxes ready for an upcoming class, and you can see a couple of them on my cutting mat, and another unfinished, with a red ribbon around it and a finished icicle box next to it. Lots of punches, some gems, some Pro Markers, a box of distress inks and the ever present baby wipes! And top right, a box of wires to try out with my new toy - a Zutter bind it All! I bought this on E-bay a week ago and didn't have any binding wires to try it out.  Christmas calendars here we come!

I have some beautiful craft cd's, including the Joanna Sheen 'Ivory Cats' cd, and they have fab Calendars on them, so I'm looking forward to giving calendars to friends and family. Just have to think up ways of personalising them so they aren't just 'print and bind' pressies. Also need to find some of those big cardboard envelopes for calendars - if anyone knows where to get them, let me know!

Next I need to plan and organise my Christmas 'bake in'. My Christmas starts when I make the christmas puddings, mince pies and cake - and I'm a little late this year so need to get my act together. I started making my own Christmas puds about 20 years ago, making only one that first year from an old Family Circle recipe (anyone remember that??) which I still use - it doesn't even have metric measurements! Then family members asked 'are you making them this year?' and it grew from there. Now I make lots of them!  They take about 6-7 hours steaming, the whole kitchen gets soggy, and while they are cooking I make the mince meat (sugar and fat free - so you can have twice as many lol!!) Then I bake the mince pies (8 dozen last year!)and I play Christmas music all day long, much to my husband's disgust!

I love this part of Christmas, the traditions and rituals that are my build up to the big day. Everyone is getting home made pressies this year, and I will be baking, cutting and sticking for a few weeks!
Happy blog-hopping everyone, and thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOYWW

So an early entry from me today for the international snoopathon that is over at Julia's where we get the weekly delight of being able to see what others are creating, and show our workdesks to the world! Mine is relatively tidy (for me!) cos you can still see the table top in places!

Centre stage is a wedding card I'm working on for an old student of mine, and to the left are a batch of stamped images and samples ready for this weekend's Pro Marker workshop, and my 2 fave daisy punches, which I use again and again. Above that a pack of core'dinations and some beautiful Cheery Lyn dies I bought at the NEC - if you haven't seen these take a look, they are gorgeous! I have used one on the top right of the wedding card.

Hiding at back left behind my caddy is a tea bag box waiting to be altered, flip top tea boxes are just right for recipe cards etc. and to the left of the table out of shot is a huge bag of loo roll inners ready for more loo roll mini albums and Christmas crackers!

Hope you're having a fab Wednesday, and enjoy blog hopping around the other desks out there

Deb x

Kitty update and WOYWW

Thanks to everyone who asked after Barney the kitty over the last few days.  He is home now on 'Mummy Watch' feeling rather sorry for himself, but I think pleased to be home judging by the limpet-like attachment to my lap!  Not conducive to crafting!

One unfortunate side effect of his having been on an open catheter is the awful stink. Good job I love him. Let's just say every surface is covered in old towels to avoid contamination!  Poor little guy is still on tons of meds and with daily vet check ups, but definitely on the mend, so I gave him a bit of a wash earlier today - not sure who got wetter - him or me!

So, crafting mojo seemed to have left the house with the Kitty, and I was forced to tidy my craft table -eeek!! found half finished projects I had set aside for later (erm.......forgot about) and that pesky quickie glue pen that disappeared suddenly, miraculously reappeared.

So here's  a pic of the 'tidy' table - bet you can't tell, huh?  the clue is in the visible table top, a rare sight around here lol lol!!

Am part way thru prep for tonight's class and the glitter is out in force :-) the little purple and lime zippy centre stage is my glitter storage bag, an old cosmetic case that is plastic lined and so doesn't let the glitter out unless I set it free!

Now I'm off to Julia's blog where she hosts the weekly sneaky peek at other crafty desks around the world, have fun desk hopping, and thanks for stopping by.


Deb x

Bella Crafts - Distress Inks workshop Sat 17/9

We had a lovely time on Saturday morning, getting inky with Distress Inks! We scrunched, embossed, blended, bleached, masked, stamped and painted - whew!

We started with background paper techniques, these are some Christmassy ones (I couldn't resist!) The bottom sheet is taking the inkpad direct to paper to create a harlequin effect (seen in an earlier post) and the top sheet is scrunched, opened out then the inkpad lightly dragged across the surface, scrunched again and lightly drag a Versamark embossing pad over the new creases, then sprinkle with metallic powder and emboss - looks fab!

These two examples were made using masks, first dabbing the ink thru the mask, then inking the rest of the card, placing the mask over and spritzing, then lifting the water off with kitchen towel.

This makes a great background for overstamping, I particularly like the one on the bottom, the colours and masked areas work really well together.


OK, that's it for tonight, more crafty fun soon!

Distress Inks Techniques class 310811

We had a full house for the class this week - everyone is back from holidays and raring to go!  We covered so much ground we ended up running over time but no-one wanted to go home, as everyone wanted to finish up their projects.

These are some of the papers and images we created. At the top of the pic is a scrunched, inked & embossed background paper. Below that we have 2 variations on stamped backgrounds, 1 using the Distress pads direct to paper to create a harlequin effect and the other stamped in 2 colours.

You might recognise the bleached snowman stamp from an earlier post! And finally, bottom right, we finished up with how to blend and use different layers to create depth and perspective in a scene.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the class, and went away with lots of new ideas ready to try them at home. We just ran out of time as I still had a couple of other techniques to show!  Always the way!

Today the sun is shining, and I am working on a project using heat embossing - why is it I always end up using heat on hot days????

Also, got some lovely craft pressies for my birthday last week - Hubby bought me some amazing Stampscapes stamps that I have been lusting after for some time :-) If you've never seen these stamps, check out the website Stampscapes - hopefully I will get a chance to play with them soon and then I will post some pics.

OK, off to emboss! Thanks for dropping by.

Deb x

WOYWW - 31/08/11

I don't know where this month has gone! I know that I was away for a few weeks, but it's September tomorrow - how did that happen??

It seems like my feet haven't touched ground since we got back, between demo's and design work, and so the blog has been a little quiet the past week or two.  Time to investigate some challenges!

IN the meantime, wanted to join back in with the WOYWW posts, and had a quick sneaky peek at some of the other posts at WOYWW HQ - some people have such tidy craft desks!  mine is my dining room table - which is pretty obvious cos I haven't cleared the place mats away yet!

I started sorting the kit for tonight's class - Distress inks - and on the left you can see my first attempt at one-stroke painting (or paint fusion, only I didn't use any stamps - decided to jump in with both feet and try it freehand)  Must say, the demo's I've seen made it look easier than I found it! Maybe I need better brushes or different paper/card!

Top of the pic is a set of water brushes ready to be filled with bleach, and then boxes of distress inks. To the right are some of the samples I will be taking with me.  And underneath all that are the place mats that give away the true purpose of my crafting space!!

Off to finish my sorting for tonight's class x Deb

Creative Expresssions Card of the Month - July 2011

OK, I know I said my last post was the last before holidays, and I am in the middle of throwing everything into my suitcase (and throwing the cat out, again, and again, and again..........) but I wanted to share this...............

I just found out that this card won Card of the Month for July at Creative Expressions.

It was made using their U Mount Leaves and Trees stamp set, and distress inks in Shabby Shutters, Antique Linen and Brushed Corduroy. The card blank is stamped with the leaves, and they are stamped again on a separate piece of card, cut out and clear embossed. The central panel is coloured with the same 3 colours then mounted on gold mirri. The mini envelope and tag are made from K&Co papers and stamped. the resin embellishments were found buried in my stash drawer and seemed to fit my theme really well.

I win 3 sets of Creative Expressions stamps, (to play with when I get home - yay!) and the card is featured on their web page Card of the Month at Creative Expressions !

OK, off to turf the cat out of my case again, and to see where I can fit the kitchen sink!

Thanks for dropping by, and I'll be back soon.

Debs x

Distress Inks Demo - Hobbycraft 24/7

For some reason, my demo's at Hobbycraft this summer have all fallen on sunny days! WE get naff weather all week, out comes the sun and I'm packing the car and driving off to my demo leaving Hubby to his lazy Sunday.......

Yesterday's demo was to show how you can use Distress Inks to achieve different effects. This first card is made up of 3 panels I did yesterday, and today I made them up into a card, adding some background stamping, an extra layer to the focal point and some die cuts. Didn't plan this, it just happened - can you tell I'm into the autumn colours at the mo??????

Lots of people have asked me where I got the bare trees stamp, and sadly I think it's a retired image from Komodo. Creative Expressions still list it as in stock, but no retailers appear to have it - shame, cos it's really beautiful.
The background and top left panel are made with this really sweet Ivy Border from Personal Impressions, and the larger base panel uses the Ivy Border and a Clarity Stamps mini fern.

I am entering this card in the follwoing Challenges:

• Stamp Man challenge 'Anything by Tim'
• The Crafty Pad 'Embossing Heat or Dry'
• AIFActory 'Layer it up'

So now I need to go get my kit together for Wednesday night's class - the last one before my hols - I have been so busy I haven't had a chance to think about the holiday (a real break for the bank balance, cos I haven't bought a ton of new clothes LOL :-))

Thanks for dropping by

Debs x

Stamping Techniques Workshop - Bella Crafts 9/7/11

 I had a great time with the ladies at Bella Crafts yesterday - the workshop was so much fun and we got so inky!

We tried a range of stamping techniques, Pro Markers and different inks, but the Tim Holtz Distress Inks were the runaway favourites.

We also tried stamping with watercolour pens, applying them directly to the stamps, and this produced some beautiful designs.

Belinda kept us topped up with tea and coffee, and cakes! We had to stop for a cake break! The class produced some gorgeous designs, backing papers, stamped toppers and masked scenes - there were some amazing scenes taking shape behind garden fences, as well as scenes with butterflies and words - they were all beautiful.

We all had a great laugh, ate WAY too many cakes & biscuits, and produced some fabulous stamped images - what a nice way to spend a wet Saturday morning!