WOYWW #391

This is What'sOnYourWorkdeskWednesday - if you want to find out more then checkout the WOYWW tab at the top of the page - and our thanks go to Julia for hosting this weekly meet up.

What a super day we had at the Crop!  Thank you again everyone who made it so much fun.

My desk is very boring as it is sortof getting ready for the next project which should be ....... Christmas Cards!  yeah!

For the moment I have had a quick clear up after finishing my Film Stars ATCs begun at the crop - see previous post - and my new postage stamps are flung there.
They are for a Chinese New Year swap which is for  ... next year!!!  
I have bought them now as I can use the stamps, without the labels, on my Christmas Cards .... which I will make soon - honest!!


I'm signing in late today as me and the boys have been out shopping ....

..... I caught this happening as I came out of one shop ....

That's in then, if I ramble much more it will be Thursday!

Have a good week, craft much and stress less.

December Colour Swap

I thought I would use some more of my Steampunk cards for this swap - I didn't realise there was a 'Green' swap when I created these.


I have used my Gelli print backgrounds with embossed Chocolate Baroque stamp images.  

I added a few PC printed sentiments, edged with green ink and several different die cuts, inked with green inks again.

Yep!  I definitely like these stamps - hope there are some in a New Year sale!

Love, love these cards.

I received the following swap cards:

The extra embellishments may be tiny but they add so much.
Thank you JanS.

A lot of matting had gone on here.

Thank you JanW.

Stamping and heat embossing.

Thank you SueF.

December Theme Swap

Film Stars
I spent most of my Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons at the Cinema during my teenage years, watching films was my favourite hobby!!!
I went to the Crop with my papers, glue and photos.  I did manage to make a couple of cards, finishing the other two at home on the Sunday.
I used a sheet of paper from my paper book which I thought looked very sixtyish ...... then decided I would cut out some of the flowers to 'pop' the image. 

Here is Rita Tushingham.  
I first saw her in A Taste of Honey.  This film dealt with the kitchen sink drama of the times and even now when I hear the songs .... the memories come flooding back....
The title was pc printed and fussy cut before glueing to the card.

Here is Dirk Bogarde and he was just ....whoar!  

I loved all his films, was devastated when he died and even now, looking at his picture, my knees do the wobble bit!

Spending Saturday evenings watching the 'Carry On' films was, I believe, a British pastime.  
I loved them all, have them all on disk and, when you're feeling down, have a quick watch ... honest ...watch one and see how it cheers you up!!!

This card says it all.  

Two beautiful stars, one gone too soon and the other .... lived life to the full!  

Marilyn with Tony Curtis in Some Like it Hot ...

Elizabeth with Richard Burton in Cleopatra.

Once I had finished these cards I inked round all the sides of each card with black and shades of green inks.
These cards are really bright in reality and I am very pleased with them.
My return swap cards arrived safely:

A beautiful decoupage of a Beautiful Lady.
Thank you Barbara.

Isn't he the cutest?  Long lasting film star.

Thank you Margaret.

True Classic Film Stars.

Thank you Pat.

Cropping WOYWW!!

Late on the Thursday before The Crop I decided to make some ATCs as mementos of the day.
I cut some card sized gold, silver, red and green papers/card.  I sorted out the Christmas tags and cut them down to size.  It was just a matter of attaching papers and tags to the cards, attaching backing papers and writing them up.

I completed thirty card fronts by lunchtime Friday but then had to stop as Little Soldier came for a few hours.  After tea that night I returned to 'Bertie' (we finally decided on a name for the room - Bertie, as in Allsorts!) and completed all the cards but decided to just write on the backs as time was running out - there was still packing to be done.

We loaded the card and left home about 07.00hrs, taking the back roads out of town.  We do not favour the motorways and were very pleased to see so little traffic on the roads.  
We had hoped to stop at a 'greasy Joe's' but forgot it was Saturday, there were none about!!!  
I loved all the Autumn/Winter scenery, beautiful at every turn.

One part of our journey was through a village of 
thatched roof cottages, the chocolate box kind.
We arrived at our destination about 09.45hrs but could not distinguish which building we were supposed to be in, thinking it was a community hall.  
No matter which way we drove we still came back to 'The Ram' public house - no we are not going to have a drink!!  

Just before our meeting with Darnell some weeks back, Shaz Silverwolf gave me her phone number and now we chose to use it.  I cannot state how grateful we were for this, it would have taken much longer to get to the Crop without this helpline - 

Thanks again Shaz.

Inside the hall, crafting had already started .... much laughter and chatter emanated from the room ..... there they were!!!

My photos were taken early on, I call them action photos .... definitely not posed!   If any of them offend by not showing folks in the best light ..... I'm sorry ..... I just took a few photos on my phone.




That's PJ in the hat FYI - painting butterflies through stencils.  I think he is the only one who stayed in his seat - except for lunch!!






There was Erica and Shaz .....









...... Then HelenH - concentrating - and Glitter and Glue......

..... LunchLadyJan and ScrappyStinkyInkyMess ....chatting about ....?





Don't ask me why these are the only photos I have .....  I think I became caught up in crafting .....

I managed to make a couple of ATCs, chattering away to KathyK (PurplePrincessDiaries) and Margaret (GlitterandGlue), small chat times with others and a catchup with PearShaped Chris, (we have another joint interest besides crafting .... Paris .......)  
Thank you all for being there and sharing all your crafting with us, I loved all the different work being done.





During the course of the day I received four mementos ...

A pretty star from Mary Anne (scrappstinkyinky mess) - hope you'll post the pattern.

ATC from Erica - Love that silver stamp BTW

ATC from Margaret (glitterandglue) - beautiful card.

ATC from Cardarian - good to meet up with you again.

Lovely mementos for which I am truly grateful.







I collected some Distress Inks and stamps from the free table,  I could not believe that those inks were there.  I soooo wanted to add some more to the few that I had but pennies have to be watched this side of Christmas ..... Thank you so much Shaz.

I used a couple of dies, thanks again Shaz and a big THANK YOU to Erica for all her help with the Big Shot, and the use of her cutter.

I also collected some very useful papers from the table that I stowed away in my box, and then cut them up into usable sizes for my ATCs.  Thank you so much whoever you are.

Packets of mica powders could not be passed by, I will store them all in one of the stackers pots when I get home.

I left some magazines with stamps and some other stamps sheets.  
PJ brought a couple of boxes of stackers pots and managed to donate the leftovers to Morti and DH - Thank you for helping to give me more space in my hallway!!!

I want to say a big thank you to all the men for their efforts in releasing us womenfolk to craft. They were the icing on the cake, the best cups of coffee and tea, the cleanest plates, the best sharers of laughter .... THANK YOU all.

But surely the biggest thank you goes to Julia and Jan - for everything.

WOYWW #390

This is What'sOnYourWorkdeskWednesday - if you want to find out more then checkout the WOYWW tab at the top of the page - and our thanks go to Julia for hosting this weekly meet up.

Woo!  Hoo!  Three days to go to 2016 Crop!!  

I don't have a photo of a desk to share with you today.   
Storm Angus blew over this country and, being in the Midlands, we caught the tail end. Everything is alright now, no panic, we are drying out thank goodness, much of our mess is being/can be dried.

I had heard the wind and the rain during the night but was just thankful for being warm and dry whilst sending up a small prayer for those who were suffering through this storm.
On Monday morning when I went into the back lounge ....... devastation!
Thankfully all the water was in the extension, buckets, saucepan, plant covers came in very useful as the water came in through the ceiling.  I always keep a small stash of newspapers in my 'Studio' and they were brought downstairs to use.   
Needless to say the rug was soaked and is drying out in the garage!  My poor piano was soaked at one end but I have managed to dry that out.  Papers are soaking up the rest of the water but all has to stay now until I know for certain that the storm has well and truly passed over.

I have Little Soldier today so tomorrow I will start to clear and tidy on Thursday.
At least the floor has had a good wash!!!

Further to my oven photos last week ..... 

.... my first cake was a success, thought you might like a few photos ..... 

..... I bought the baking tin from Betterware and can cook three flavours at once, usually plain for SIL, Ginger or Fruit for PJ and Carraway Seed for me e e e e.

I love my cooker ..... did I tell you?   lol


Have a good week, I'll see some of you at the weekend, others ..... next week.  :-)

A Jar Full of .......

Another interesting swap from ATCs For All!

My ideas sheet included, buttons, stars, etc, and I intended to stamp and cut the jar out of acetate.  I don't have any Stazon ink so had to use plain old black ... doesn't dry ..... guess how I found out!!
A Jar full of .... Elegance


I used some of my Gelli print papers for the backgrounds of all the cards, choosing various colours.  The Debbi Moore sheet had shades of green in it so I chose an orangey background. The jar was stamped across a small picture of the backgrounds, fussy cut and then attached to the background paper.  I used an image of a lady dressed in white but managed to get black ink over her dress so she had to go!  Luckily the design image I was using was of two ladies, I started all over again with the lady in black!  I fussy cut her out and attached her within the confines of the jar.  I added some silver marks across the card and around the edges, then outlined the jar details with a fine liner pen.


A Jar full of  ... Blessings
I used pale blue background for this card, stamped the jar in black ink and then stamped the sentiment within the jar. I stamped a second image on some spare card as a mask, fussy cut this and placed it over the sentiment.  I  added some stamped leaves using various shades of brown and green ink and various sized stamps.  I removed the mask and then 'touched up' the leaves with Promarkers and Gelpens.  I stamped a lid onto the jar and then used the Promarkers to colour the lid and ribbon.

A Jar full of .... Sunshine
This time I needed a background that would show of the yellow of the 'sunshine' so chose a dark fuchsia and blue background.  I stamped the jar on a separate piece of card and then punched lots of flowers and butterflies from some bright yellow papers.  I attached these punchings to the jar image, then trimmed them so that I could edge the jar with a black inkpad.  I cut a piece of patterned tissue paper, punched a pattern along the long edge and then folded this all up to fit along the neck of the jar.  I overlaid this with a strip of bright yellow ribbon and added a yellow diecut button in the centre.  Once the 'jar' had dried I attached it to the background ensuring that the edges of the 'lace' were attached behind the jar.  I edged this card with navy blue ink.
A Jar full of .... Buttons
This was the first card I made .... the idea was to have a 'glass' jar but not having Stazon ink, I had more ink than clear acetate!  Lol.  I gave up trying to fussy cut the jar, left the acetate cut to cover the card and stamped the image in the centre.
I chose some pastel coloured papers for my 'buttons, diecut an assortment and then attached them to the background card holding the acetate carefully over the card to check I stayed within the jar outline.
Now I had fun!  
My idea was to place the acetate over the buttons and cover the card completely...... I did it but had to hold my breath!!!!  I edged the card with a light brown ink to finish.
Now to post them off!

November Swaps

I decided to used these three cards for the swap this month.



One is just plain stamped with added embellishments, the other two are silver embossed images ...


.... with the addition of cogs and sentiments of course!!  

I have received these cards from my partner.


A pyramage image is always acceptable ..... 

Cutout images ona pretty background.

Debossing on a grunge background.

Thank you Barbara for a lovely selection of cards.

Steampunkin'...

The latest Theme I have signed up to is Steampunk - 

What is steampunk?

In three short words, steampunk is Victorian science fiction. Here “Victorian” is not meant to indicate a specific culture, but rather references a time period and an aesthetic: the industrialized 19th century. Historically, this period saw the development of many key aspects of the modern world (mechanized manufacturing, extensive urbanization, telecommunications, office life and mass-transit), and steampunk uses this existing technology and structure to imagine an even more advanced 19th century, often complete with Victorian-inspired wonders like steam-powered aircraft and mechanical computers.

This is one of my favourite themes ..... not really ..... it is my most favourite theme!
So I gathered up my supplies - not really - I just opened my box labelled 'Steampunk'!!
I sorted out my stencils, some card and papers, then opened the paint drawer .......

After I had applied a few colours to my Gelli plate I took some prints ..... then some more ..... then some more ..... then I stopped myself ..... it was getting dark!!

Once the papers had dried I added a few more colours through a stencil and then stamped, embossed and had a brilliant time.  I diecut some cogs and gears out of the leftovers, adding touches of silver ink along the edges.  
I printed some sentiments on different papers using several 'Steampunk' fonts, tearing out single sentiments and tapping the torn edges into ink pads.


Then I set to work changing these sheets of paper into ATCs.

I covered the base card with decoupage paper, added a diecut cog, some stamped & fussy cut flowers and leaves. 
The sentiment edged with ink and added across the lower corner.

I fussy cut one of the pink images and attached to a decoupaged base card.

No cogs added this time, just the sentiment.

After stamping the next two cards, I watercoloured the images, added some cogs and sentiments.  


Edged these cards in Light Brown Ink.

I think I went a bit overboard with these Gelli prints/ Stencil papers ....

but you must understand ......I  was having a good time!!

I used silver embossing powder for these few cards, colouring the cogs with paints to match the backgrounds.  

Once again the sentiments were PC printed, torn and then edged the sentiments with inkpads.

Choosing a sentiment to match the image, printed using 'Steampunk' fonts, I edged again with inkpads colour to match the card.

I edged all these cards using inkpads to match the background colours.

I have been using some of my Gelli print papers for the pink/red cards, but now I have changed to stencilled blue/green papers.  

I stamped and heat embossed the images on these cards, adding cogs which I had inked up in matching colours.




Once again the sentiment and card were edged with inkpad colours to match.

Some of the images I heat embossed with a shiny green powder, some with blue.








Ooh! look!  back to the Gelli prints!!


This time I used a black onyx inkpad to stamp the images.


Cogs and sentiments as before.


What a wonderful time I have had!  I have selected the cards I will send for the swap, another three for the monthly swap ...... and still some left to look at and admire!