WOYWW 447

Good morning every one. Time for another WOYWW desk hop, courtesy of the lovely Julia.  I hope your Christmas was merry and bright. We travelled to Leeds this year to spend Christmas at my elder daughter's house.  Before we set off Mr M insisted on dismantling my "downstairs desk" and re-assembling it in my craft room.  I thought he had gone daft but ... back home now, and my present has been unwrapped!  And I needed extra desk space for it!

My regular desk is just too small ... but there is hope!  Plans have been drawn up for my new crafty space (on the back of a cracker box), and trips to Ikea and B&Q are planned for the new year!

Nothing much to show on my desk this week. The Happy Birthday was just a quick play with the Scan n Cut. On the left is a basket full of dies that I have used for my Christmas cards - mission this week to put them all away properly.  On the left is a tub full of A4 card - I am sure my card stash has been breeding.  I couldn't possibly have bought all this card!!

I was inspired by Zsuzsa's clock the other week, and I wanted to do something special for my wedding album.  I had bought an MDF piece, so ... I bought some gesso (never heard of if before but Zsuzsa makes it look good!) And maybe next week I will have a finished album cover to show you!

You may as well see the other side of my crafty space - random socket cover for when the little 'uns sleep over.  A new tool for getting the fiddly bits out of intricate dies, tape measure to double check the measurements for the new layout, and my new inks that I still have not tried.

That's all from me, apart from to say ... my desk hopping has been great fun for the last 6 months.  Concentrating on card making helped me occupy my mind, rather than pondering all the "what ifs" after my cardiac arrest in February.  Meeting you all has been an added bonus, and thank you for making me welcome.  Wishing you all a wonderful new year and will see you in 2018.  I'll be visiting desks this afternoon. Take care, Heather xx

WOYWW 446

Hello ladies
Ok own up ... who pinched the last 7 days!  I can't believe another week has flown by!  Time to show and tell for WOYWW .  My last day at work was Monday, so yesterday was a crafty day, but something a little different for me.  My daughter asked for advice on a present for my grandson to give his teacher.  I volunteered to make something.  And my desk has the finished item, and the remnants of what was used.

On the left is a new stencil I bought last week.  In the middle is some Hessian on a roll that I bought from Michaels when I went to Canada. Another purchase from Michaels is the Escape to Nature box.  I had heard of Michaels in many blogs, and wanted to pay a visit, and luckily there was one in my sister's town.  I didn't buy much, but these two were items that drew my attention.

A pen pot is the finished item.  Formerly a coffee jar!  Cheap and cheerful, might make myself one too!  

Ok, I shall wish you all a wonderful and merry Christmas, and start my tour of your desks.  I'll get round as many as I can!  Please leave a comment - I do love reading them.  Have a lovely week, Heather xx

WOYWW 445

Goodness me, another week has flown by.  Time to visit Julia and the rest of the WOYWW ladies!  If you want to know what it's all about, head on over to The Stamping Ground.

My desk is feeling Christmassy.  I have 6 cards for My daughter, I left them to dry overnight, as I had added glitter pen to the penguin's jumper, glossy accents to the snowman's nose, and googly eyes to the owl.

The pink cards on either side are also for my daughter.  My grandson started school in September and is enjoying being invited to lots of parties from boys and girls.

Couple of close up shots:

I also used some of my Chinese dies for the first time.  The cards are on some shelves by the side of my desk, so one more photo ...

Ok, off to work for me, and I'll do my visiting tonight.  Please leave a comment so I know you stopped by. Happy WOYWW, Heather xx

WOYWW 444

Good morning all.  Time for a weekly jaunt round the desks of Julia and other crafters in WOYWW.  I have a day off work today, for a 10 minute hospital checkup! So the plan is to spend some time designing my ideal craft space.

Not much crafting has been happening at my desk this week as we had visitors at weekend, and my craft room doubles up as the guest room! However I did leave Mr M to his new XBOX game last night and make a start on a card.  The polar bear was a free stamp with a magazine.  The magazine had a shadow added under the bear.  I tried that and it looked weird.  Months ago I would have just binned the attempt.  But, as is the case since I started snooping around your desks, I thought just play around and see what happens ... and I outlined the bear (covering the shadow) with some blue glitter glue.  My youngest  grandson will love it, and he won't mind or notice that it's not perfect.

A close up of the polar bear

The rest of my desk is the tools and materials used to make the card.  I used the brayer again, but ended up using the ink duster to finish it off and even out the blue. Thanks for all the tips last week, I have added some stamping card and gloss card to my shopping list, so will further experiment with the brayer when I get those.

It's like having a dozen crafting sisters teaching the young 'un, although I'm not that young anymore.  I really do appreciate the tips and advice.

The only other new item on my desk, in the bottom right corner, is two boxes of Artistry Inks, free gift with a magazine subscription.  I have not used them yet but the names of the inks are lovely! 

Ok, craft space design beckons!! I have tape measure, pencil, paper pad, and an instruction from Mr M not to go too crazy as he has to build it, with help from my brother and my son in law if needed.  Now ... where do I begin??  Thanks for stopping by, I'll be snooping around later today. Heather xx

WOYWW 443

Hello fellow deskers.  Time to take part, albeit late in the day, in WOYWW.   If you want to know what this is all about, use this WOYWW link and head over to the Stamping Ground and all will be revealed.

On my desk this week ... to the left are a few dies from China.  Not used yet, but they look ok.  In the centre at the front is my Black Friday goodies from Inspirations.  Behind these are the first two brayer experiments.  More on these later.  To the right of the desk is my TH stamping platform.  I finally got around to using it ... and the brayer, in the same week.  Quite pleased with myself for taking the plunge.  Finally, to the front right of the desk, mainly obscured by the Stamping platform, are some Christmas bits that I assembled ready to make more Christmas cards.

So, on to the brayer attempts.  I watched a you tube video.  The lady stamped, then embossed in white, some snowflakes, and then brayered over the top.  I tried this with the right hand exhibit below.  On you tube, it looked lovely.... on my card it was a mess!  I ended up using ink Dusters to even out the ink, but the white did not stay white.  It ended up being a pale shade of the ink colour I used.  However, I used holographic embossing powder as I didn't have white!  Not sure if this would have affected it or not.  The lilac one again didn't brayer very well,  but may be it's the ink or the card I am using.  Further practice needed.  However it was fun experimenting, and I did pick up on highlighting the tree branches with a white gel pen (Mr M was quite impressed with that).

On to my last photo .... Not sure if you can make it out but Mr M has decided I need a proper crafting space with lots of worktop room and storage - especially before my Christmas present arrives! So ... this was one solution.  Unfortunately I used the grand design as scrap paper in my excitement at using the brayer!  But it involves wall to wall desk surface.  So I'm quite excited at getting a new crafty space! 

Now I'll be off for a peep at everyone's desks.  Please leave a comment when you stop by, so I know you visited and I can visit you.  Have a lovely week Heather xx 

WOYWW 440

Good morning fellow WOYWW deskers.  Time to show off my desk and my very productive weekend ... but first, an explanation on my northern lights picture of last week.  I did like my end result (it was better than I anticipated it would be) but ... it was produced from a kit I bought from Inkylicious, and there was a picture on the box as an example.  My disappointment was that my picture (exhibit A below) looked nothing like the picture on the box (exhibit B below).
Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Clearly more practice is needed with the ink Dusters!  My new brayer was not used, and still hasn't been used.

Now on to my desk this week.  Christmas cards ideas were top of the agenda this weekend.  My plan was to play around and create a few cards, and then make a batch of each one during the next couple of weeks.  I managed 4 before my inspiration was all used up.  But .... I have jotted down a couple of ideas, so all is good.  My desk has the various bits and pieces I used, and a few things that were cast aside but not yet put away.  I also received some stencils I had ordered from China. Not tried them out yet but at 99p each I can't grumble.  They are on the left of the desk.

And a close up of the cards

I'm looking forward to my tour of your desks.  Please leave a comment so j know you stopped by.  I love reading them. Take care, Heather xx

WOYWW 439

The year is flying by!  Another week gone and time to show off my desk to the world... ok maybe not the world, but to Julia and all the other lovely ladies at WOYWW.

My crafting week has involved a leisurely trip to my local craft shop to spend some birthday money.  Amongst other things I bought a brayer ... not sure if I need one, but what the heck, live dangerously.

My desk is a tad messier than usual. On the left I had a go at creating the northern lights to make a card for my daughter who is off to Iceland in a couple of weeks.  Maybe I'll wait and see what the second attempt turns out like.  I also made a few Christmas cards.  Had to leave them on my desk to dry.  Not sure I like them but they may grow on me.  I used the die cutters I bought from China - worked a treat!

I managed another few pages of my wedding album too, so that should be complete by the time we next meet.

Have a lovely week, and please say hello and leave a comment so j know you stopped by! Heather x