Card Catch up - June, July and August

JUNE
Noobies Swap
Back to my Steampunk roots!   Using up some leftovers on the desk.

A really beautiful heavy card.

Thank you LindaS.

Style swap - Circles

Stamped some circles using a piece of foam.  Image from some wrapping paper.

Gorgeous embossed and coloured card.

Thank you Lucie.

Technique - Fun Fold
Swing fold using the Teddy Bear paper.

Bridge fold in super colours.

Thank you Olive

Colour - Red

Diecuts and peel offs.

Sparkly gel pens used for colouring here.

Thank you Olive

JULY
Noobies Swap

I did so enjoyed using all these stamps from Creative Expressions.

Opening this great card certainly brought a smile to my face.

Thank you Karen.

Style - Floral

Loved this card until I put on the wrong sentiment!!  Hope my partner can do something with it.

More diecuts!!  great minds and all that.

Thank you LaVerne.

Technique swap - Stitched

Still tidying up and still finding stash - this time peel offs.

Beautiful stitching on this card.

Thank you Sheila.

Colour Swap - Multi



Will have to get some more Brushos so I can repeat this card - simple but effective.

Watercoloured 'flowers', whats not to like?

Thank you LaVerne.

SlamDunk Swap - multi coloured, stitched, floral card!!



More stash being used.

Love the frames and that butterfly .... just sitting there...

Thank you Jackie.

AUGUST
Noobies swap

Using one of my Go Wild stamps on a chalk background.

Love the design of this card and superb papers used.

Thank you Lucie.

Technique swap - Make your own background

I spritzed a piece of card with yellow and copper then embossed it while it was still damp.  Very pleased with the result.

Very clever technique of using cellophane.  Love it!

Thank you Olive.

Colour swap - Gold

Shades of purple with diecut from gold card.










I didn't join in with the style card as it was Children's card...... hope to acquire some suitable stamps & dies soon.

Card catch up - March, April & May

It would appear that I haven't posted any details of my card swaps since February ..... could you stand seeing them all brought up to date here?  Nah!  Wouldn't inflict that on anyone ...... maybe a month or two at a time.
Here we go:
MARCH
Noobie swap

My card used some papers and toppers from Making Cards magazine.

A beautiful mixture of peel offs used on this pretty card.

Thank you Sheila.

Colour swap - Pastels

 My card uses some beautiful paper from my stash with peel offs.

Several embossed diecuts laid out on this card.

Thank you ChrisN.

Style Swap - Floral

Pretty and vintage.

 Lots of hard work gone on creating this card.

Thank you Olive.

I didn't join in with the Technique swap as it was Eclipse cards and I don't have any suitable dies.

APRIL

Noobies swap

I love this little piggy image!  I didn't add a sentiment but left a space for one to be added.

This is a gorgeous piece of embossing - love it.

Thank you LindaS.

Colour Swap - Grey

Grey backgrounds brought this card into the right colour.

Love this design!

Thank you Lucie.

Style Swap  - April Showers



I used one of my Lacey Sunshine images for this card.

Beautiful parchment card from the Boss Lady herself!!

Thank you Jackie.

Technique - Matting and Layering

I'm not very good at this so considered this as practice!!

Another bright and cheerful card.

Thank you Olive.

MAY

Noobie Swap

An image from my stash coloured using watercolour pencils.

A very pretty card with a tiny notecard enclosed.

Thank you LindS

Colour Swap - Brights

I found this background in my stash as I was 'tidying up'.  After adding the bright yellow embellishments I think if fitted the bill.

Now this really is bright and I think the words 'Patience' and 'Job' come to mind when looking at the background.

Thank you Lucie.

Technique swap - Peel Offs

I paper pieced this peel off and added a few butterflies around.  Simple but I think .... sweet.

This is a good idea.... peel offs added to vellum and coloured before fussy cutting.

Thank you Jackie.

I give up with Blogger ..... wish I could figure out how to make it stick with the layout I want!

WOYWW #533

Another exciting (and tiring!) week had gone by.  We have visited the same old places but did manage to find a new place to play......
First off the desk....

...it's a wonder there was time for anything here but I did have a calm and crafty Sunday.
I managed to complete the whole of September's swap ATCs and Coins on a really good day!!  (later post).  On my desk you can see this month's copy of Creative stamping has arrived, lots of C stamps, and some printouts of card folds which I intend to try out.
Then we moved into the week proper with all the typical English weather changes.
An overcast showery Wednesday saw us out at Studley

Just playing around and then we drove through the countryside to have dinner ....



.... which was followed by...

Thursday was a much brighter weather wise but we spent the time wandering through Solihull.
Friday was awful, rain was pouring but, luckily, PJ had found another soft play area so we went off on an adventure (yes, another one!!)
This one was H U G E but really good fun.

The whole place was divided up into safe areas....


....the toddler area was interesting for the older children as well!!!
....although the novelty soon wore off and we were off to our own area

GSD is the small shot of orange half way up ......



The rest of the week has been spent trying to persuade these ....

......to stay and play with these!!!

so here's to another eventful week!!!

Hope you all have some fun during the next week.
My thanks again to Julia (see tab at top of page) for hosting another get together of desk.

WOYWW #532

Gonna get in early this week so I am all prepared, last week I only just scraped in by the skin of my teeth  .....
Another busy week going on around here, different places to be but with the same old (young!) people.  We have several places to visit but not until after the important swimming lessons, I am so proud of the boys being able to swim at such an early age.  They have both been to swimming lessons since they were babies.

The desk....

It is Tuesday and I am sitting in the sunlight crafting ..... who could ask for anything more?
  You can guess the theme for these ATCs.... I hope to put all the papers together today before I close down for another day.
Short but sweet as they say!
Have a good week and I hope that your weather behaves itself.

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

Embossing Powders

I had this idea in my head ..... don't know where it came from but it wouldn't go away .....

So I sent off for a selection of embossing powders and then tried them out.
Here is my first sheet of paper ....

Powders sprinkled onto paper... not quite what I had in mind.....

Using Versamark pad and then cut to ATC size later.  Still not what I am thinking but....

Oh! heck!  try all the colours with butterfly stamps and Versamark.....

OK!  give up for today

Sitting down and looking at all this embossing I can see some ATCs appearing.....

Bright but good

Shiny, very, very shiny!

Just love them all and lots of colours and paper left over for another day.

WOYWW #531

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...........

I think the party started some time ago but honestly!..... I've been away from home .... no I haven't.... just looking after the Grandsons!!!

We have had three fantastic, absolutely wearing out, funfilled days.  We are shattered now so only just found time to sit at the PC and join the fun.  I nearly missed it .....

The desk

sorry about the lighting, it's that window that does it!!!

I have been looking for an I-Spy book so there is everything everywhere ..... haven't found the book yet though!
Lots of paper from last week plus a box of odds and ends that landed on the desk.
Such a super week though considering the weather....
Day one

We visited  Wythall Transport Museum and enjoyed looking at all the old vehicles.  After our picnic we went for lots of rides on the train!  Then we found out we could sit upstairs on a really old fashioned bus and rode all round the countryside.

Day Two

We went to Cannon Hill Park again.  Lots going on here as it's the school holidays!!!  We ended the day having rides on the funfair..... 

Day Three

We travelled into town on the train and out again on the tram to West Bromwich.  We were headed for the soft play area which will be the first time for GSF.  GSD knew where he was, shoes were off and he was gone!!!  It's very difficult to photograph him as he rarely stays still long enough....

We had tea in the Square Peg so that we could watch the Trams as they went past.

DDN and DDC caught the same train home but we never met until we went up to the main road home.

Superb days, good weather (surprisingly!) and lots of fun.  Very tiring for the Grandees who just came home and went to bed!!!

WOYWW #530

AUGUST!!!!!!!!
Can you believe it?!!  I had soooo much planned for July but have only completed about half of it......  let's sprint into August then ....

The desk

Not much going on here.... a few more ATCs for this month's swap.

I did buy a couple of these
which meant that I could empty some boxes and make a bit more space in the the old place .... at one point it looked like I would be spending the night in here as there were boxes every where!  I now have all my card and envelopes in one trolley and my ribbons in another

Then there was this
A large space cleared on the patio so that we could make a new roof for the chicken ranch.  Chickens weren't impressed with all the banging, cutting and sliding onto their place but at least it the roof was in place in time for all the rain!

We had the boys come round yesterday, hence the late post, which meant shopping and soft play and creating.  DGSD and I visited a new play area and also supermarket for a few supplies and then came home to make a cake.
A watermelon cake....
I had visions of

 .......... would have been happy with this

.... ended up with this .... not bad eh?!

..... might try to make these next time!!!


All good fun and just about edible!!


Have a good week and lots of fun.