WOYWW #464

If you would like to share your mess desk with like minded friends, please link up with us at Chez Julia (Stamping Ground).  There's lots of us over there, sharing all our little (or not so little) hobbies.  Come over and join in...........

Now sit down before you look here ......

This is what I call a clean desk .....
It is not only an empty space but it has been cleaned and dried.  I also did my other desk which resides the other side of the green lidded box and has my PC and printer.
Clean desks, clean floor cos I had to sweep all the bits up ......
OK, just the bit in the middle got cleaned..... duh!  I can't move all my inks, card, papers and all the other detritus cos that LIVES there!
I am now clearing boxes - I am calling it 'Blind Clearing' ..... just look at the box, think 'when did I even look inside let alone know what's in it' and then empty it into the rubbish bag.... don't look just chuck.
I managed to do one box .... then I had a quick gandy inside the next one ..... only removed a small amount of paper ....well, you need to keep some to practice stamping...... I have decided it's very hard but I am going to keep trying ........to empty a box without looking inside cos it's sat there for a year or so ...... very hard ...... but not impossible.... no!.... really!? ...... y   e   s ...


Thank you to all my visitors last week, I had a super day with Julia Watts - her classes are just so busy and funny and interesting and .....

PJ found the factory and when he showed the 'boss' what was happening to the weather vane, the boss said that there was a faulty part and replaced it free of charge!  Customer Service!!!  getin!
PJ then managed to find a Halfords so he could replace his wing mirror - damaged on the way out of town in the horrendous traffic.  Why do folks want to rush to work?!?!    
He quite enjoyed travelling round Kettering trying to find these places, loves a challenge to do with travel......

I shall be seeing Little Soldier today - first time since last Monday week.... it's been very quiet round here!!!  I hope to be back here later so that I can pop round to yours and say 'Hello'.

New Range for the chickens

After making a tour of the estate recently, I found it very disheartening.  I was unable to do much in the garden last year and so most of it was left to the chickens .....
It was interesting to see how many of the plants have survived and how many have been eaten/died.  The Hosta at the top of the garden has gone but the variegated one has survived!!  
Why some plants have survived we do not know but, in order to give those that are trying to grow again some protection, we decided that this year we would build a small raised garden round the bushes using recycled house bricks and move the plants into this......


Sometimes it is very difficult to obtain used house bricks so this has not materialised.  
Calls for a change of plan so we just fenced off the area to be cultivated with a plastic temporary fence.


We have used this fencing round our fruit bushes and seems the hens don't mind it.  They wander round the fruit garden digging and pecking and chatting and fertilising and ....

Today was the first day that the 'girls' would be able to come out and destroy enjoy a portion of the garden. 
They had gathered in the corner by the door as if they knew that we were going to let them out.  Hopefully they will leave the roots of the Pear and Apple trees alone ...... cherubs watching over them!!


Once the door was open they made a run for it ..... one of the funniest things to see .... chickens running to get to the food .....

They didn't seem to mind that there wasn't much grass ..... it seems it was just good to search and scratch .....

April Swap

Whilst making the Time Keeper cards for another swap, it seemed a shame to bin the left over papers.  

I have decorated the papers and added relevant sentiments to a Theme - Timely Thoughts.


I looked up the sentiments on the web and then printed them off on the olde PC ..... quite like the black with white text one.

I received the following cards from my swap partner:


Lots of embellishments on this Oriental themed card.

Such a delicate gold peel off on this little yellow beauty.

A very delicate set of papers on this one.

Thank you Bev.

April Birthday

Our eldest Grandaughter celebrates her birthday today - Happy Birthday TK!

I have used one of the images from the latest free papers and attached it to a card found in a pack.

I made several of these as the images seemed so suited to the cards.......you will see them pop up on the Blog every now and then!

TK has a beautiful Border Collie dog so I hope she will appreciate this image - the nearest I could get to a Border.

Hope you have a good day TK, celebrate in style!

March Colour Swap

Brown/Red

No idea!

Then I realised that I had 'floating' around on my desk a card on which I had tested a Distress Oxide ink.  


Super!

I went into my GeckoGalz file and found a brownish image which I fussy cut out.
I cut up one of my TH sentiments and edged them with the red DO placing them round my image.



While searching among my papers I found some almost completed Steampunk cards so these went into the swap as well.I used a gelli print as the background, added some die cut cogs and gears, painted up with metallic paints.
The packaging image of the lady was perfect so I edged her with black and rounded the corners. I printed words on my PC, cut and 'splodged' them with colour and this completed the card.

I stamped and embossed this image on to the same gelli plate print.  I embossed the image in copper and added a few cogs.  I defined the springs with brown Promarker as well as some of the cogs, also adding some red to them and the PC printed sentiments. 

I have received the following cards:

Beautiful Diecuts on a 'wooden' background.
Thank you JanS.

Beautiful Stitched threads and beads

Thank you JanW.

Diecut Butterflies!  Say no more.

Thank you Kate.

Workshop 18th April 2048

We managed to get to Creative Expressions quite a bit early but it wasn't thanks to the traffic ..... horrendous!

Once we arrived I went into the workshop and PJ went off to find the Weather vane Factory etc.
It was a very busy day, a small group which was good for me, and we started bang on 10.00hrs.
All the equipment and products were provided, each card made into a kit which you can see was no mean feat for Julia (Watts) - 6 card kits x 8!
We started off by making the pale blue card on the left .... practising using dies ....

Lots of shimmer shakes, gilding polish, stamps, lots of fun and laughter!

I went into the shop afterwards - you have to walk through it to get out anyway, so might as well have a look.......
Now, I know I wasn't going to buy anymore stamps but sometimes bargains fall onto counters and into bags .....

I had already pre-ordered the Phill Martin DL stamps from Sunrise Crafts but they failed to deliver so I had to cancel my order and demand a refund.  I wasn't very happy with their attitude.
In the shop were all the stamps and products used on Phill's last show but I only selected the two stamps that I had tried to buy and then rummaged through the baskets on the reduced section......... it was the golfing stamp that caught my eye ..... perfect for DDN's partner ......and then one or two really good bargains ........
We travelled through the traffic home again but it wasn't quite so bad going this way .... or maybe it was cos we were going home!!!

BTW
There was a problem with one of the parts on the weathervane, the Company kindly replaced it for PJ and the vane is now turning a treat ..... but looking at it here .... I think it's more a problem with the owner!!!  lol

Did you spot it?
All good now, the directions are turned the right way up and the cockerel is turning beautifully, so you can stop laughing .....

Celebrating Clun Castle Steam Engine

What a super day was had by all!  
Considering it was just one engine in steam to see, we had a great time .....

....... lunch on a carriage (by the window so we could see all that was going on!) ....

......photos by the engine, folk to greet and garden to check. 
Super day!

WOYWW #463

WOYWW - All the deets on how to link up etc. and, more importantly, why you should, can be found at the top to the page.

I joined in a PIF on 'ATCs For All Forum' some time ago where we swapped envelopes of scrap papers - the premise being if it was our old papers we would never use them BUT if they were fresh ones from someone else's stash........
This week I have emptied all the envelopes into the basket ......
Now I am having a look at what there is ...... intriguing when you see them all together....

I think that I shall place all the same colours together and all the images together ...... and have an all together lovely time!
Then..... then .... I will create .... I will ..... honestly!

I am at Creative Expressions today, PJ said he will drive me to a workshop there ...... I am not mentioning the fact that there is a 'weathervane' factory on the same business park, one that made our Cockerel vane, which is not really working properly..... 
I will update you all later in time ......
Have a good WOYWWednesday while I'm away from my desk ......

Blue Glass Butterflies

Sometimes it's just good fun staying in the garden, especially at the Grandees.... I think it's fun but the Grandees call it work .... or helping out.  


When I first get there I have to go explore all round and see 
what has changed, they're always up to sumthink.

Check the fish - down to me to feed them I suppose ....

Check the chickens - down to me again to count the eggs and bring them into the house safely.....


Pick all the old windmills and put them in a pile .... Grandma says it is time for new ones.  
We only bought this bright one the other week, that only makes two, so we'll keep them in this pot for the time being  .....
.... don't know how that old one crept in .....

Check the cuttings - they're coming along fine, need a bit of weeding there though ..... must remember to tell Mommy, I'm sure she'll want some of these Forsythia.

Look at the state of all those glass butterflies!!

I shall just put them into a pot and give them a wash and then build a road .......



Boring!!

Going to explore at the top of the garden and see how fast I can run up and down and for how long .......

..... found some sticks so I will just go round hitting 'things' to see what noise they make.....

Heigh Ho!  Time for tea.....

Another busy day done .........

Love from
Dexter

March Swaps

Full month again!
Noobie Swap     x2

I used one of my Kraft cards for this swap.  I found a selection of DoCrafts papers so thought I would used them up by cutting and pasting in the real sense of the words!








I entered the swap twice this month in order to make up the numbers.


I stamped the top edge of the card with a lace stamp, added some musical background paper which I had aged with a used teabag.  

I fussy cut the image of the piano and placed it centrally onto the card.  
After I had added the sentiment, I edged it with swirly loops using a fine nibbed black pen.  
I then added a ribbon bow to the top left corner, the ribbon having a loopy edge to it.

This little beauty has the bouquet not only decoupaged but popping off the front of the card.

Thank you Olive.

Colour - Yellow
I really had no idea what to do for this card and then, while perusing the web, I saw these papers and my mojo hit in.
I sized both the images on the old PC, printed and cut them out then edged the images with a yellow Sharpie pen.  I used a tape pen to adhere them to the square card and found a perfect ribbon in my box so tied a small bow fixing it to the card with a glue dot.

This is an absolutely adorable card.

Thank you Jean.

Technique - Heat Embossing

This Technique is not one of my strengths but after several tries on other pieces of card, I am pleased with this result. 
I used a Creative Expressions stamp and some embossing powders bought back in the 90's ..... still working though!  lol
I added three tiny pink diamantes in two corners.

Beautiful diecuts and super embossing.

Thank you Karen.

Sketch

I printed some papers from Bear Creek Quilting folder on my PC.  I know these are materials for quilts but they are so pretty patterns.
I then decided which order I wanted them to go and set to cutting and stamping.  Once I had put them all together - OOPs, just noticed, no small circles... will have to add them - I glued two small diamantes to the spots on the topper.

I received this lovely shiney card by return.

Thank you Caro.

Style - Spring flowers
Card

Love this image!  
I printed it out and cut it to size.  I cut the backing card with my new cutter so the edge was patterned... it also gives me a bit of practise!  Once all the papers were adhered to the card, I added a pale orange diamante to each corner.

Beautifully stamped and coloured.

Thank you Bicka.

ATC

You may notice that these are the same stamps I used in one of my other swaps.  I think that this time I have been slightly more successful in the masking!!!  I tried to add a bit more detail to the pots this time and more paint to the backgrounds.

I received this pretty card by return.

Thank you Caro.

March Theme Swap

The theme being Oriental.



I used up two of my Chinese New Year (Year of the Dog) cards.
I have included a photo of the back of the dog image card.  

I love these cards but they are all gone now .... here's to next year!!

For my third card, I collaged some of the papers left over from a stamp sheet bought last year (Year of the Cockerel).  
The sheet has a border of Cockerel images and each stamp has a label attached showing a symbol form the Chinese celebrations.
I used a fancy corner punch for the corners, reminded me of a Chinese Temple, and then went round the edges with a red Sharpie pen ..... the only way I could think to edge inside the 'temple'.




I have received the following cards:


Beautiful die cuts on an embossed background.
Thank you Alexis.

Embossed stamping on a soft shiny surface.

Thank you GwynethRose.

Red fibres over cute singing figures.

Thank you Thelma.