WOYWW 450

Good morning ladies. Time for another WOYWW tour round your workspaces.  Apologies for being missing in action last week.  I succumbed to the dreaded flu, and spent 4 days tucked up in bed.  So I am running a bit behind in the great craft room refit.  I had emptied some shelves and packed up a few boxes.  No crafting has been done, partly because of the flu and partly because everything is in disarray.

The brown stripey paper is a book wallpaper I thought might look nice on one wall, but I haven't  decided for definite yet.   I'm looking forward to visiting your desks and catching up with you all. 

Please leave a message so I know you stopped by, I do love to read them, Heather xx 

WOYWW 448

Good morning and Happy New Year!  The first WOYWW of 2018, and what a blustery morning it is here in Lancashire! My desk this morning has the spoils of a shopping trip to Hobbycraft, and as my Wedding Scrapbook is almost complete, I decided a Travel Scrapbook would be next.  Plus I wanted to use the Scan n Cut, and experiment with it straight away.

 So, back to my desk, there are some clouds, airplanes and notebook pages, and a sunshine.  All just basic stuff, but I'm having fun with my new toy.  From the shopping trip, there are a couple of Tim Holtz dies (including a big snowflake for next Christmas), some new brushes and paints, and a few packs of 6 x 6 card blanks that were on special offer.  A trip to B&Q was next, and new units and worktop for my craft room have been ordered, and are due for delivery later this month, so I have two weeks to pack everything away.  But I want to play with my new toy.... oh well, it will be worth it, I'm sure.  I'll do my visiting after work today!  Please leave a comment so I know you stopped by ... I do love reading them, Heather xx

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