WOYWW 524

Good morning all.  Hope you have not had as much rain as we've had this past week.  I haven't been in the garden much at all.  Linking in with Julia at The Stamping Ground for another round of desk hopping around the globe, courtesy of WOYWW.

The bit of time I did manage to sit in the garden was spent colouring covers for my new stamp folders.  One for Lavinia, one for Honey Doo, and at Neet' s suggestion - one for Gorjuss.  And voila, here they are on my side desk:

I loved colouring them, close up shots below.

I didn't quite use every Lavinia Stamp I own, but not so far off.

Lovely mystical, magical fairies and gorgeous flowers/foliage.

I really could have got quite carried away!  Oh wait, I think I did.

Backgrounds are distress inks, and everything coloured in with my old favourites, Promarkers.  Added some Wink of Stella, and some Glossy Highlights and called it a day...

Next up was Honey Doo.  Another of my favourites.

I messed up when I started colouring in the background.  I used brushos, but quickly realised the paper was not suitable at all.

Unfortunately I had stamped all the images before I realised this teeny weeny problem.  So I ripped a scrap of card, stamped a flower and leaf, and did what we crafters do best - covered up the problem!

This was all coloured with Promarkers, including the background.  I added some Wink of Stella and some embellishments to give it a bit of bling for Jan 😁😁.

Last but not least, Gorjuss.  I used preprinted backgrounds, and coloured them all in Pumpkin to add a bit of brightness.

I stamped and cut out two of my larger stamps, and coloured them in, before sticking them on to the backing sheets.

All that I had left to do was make some spines.  By this time the rain was starting so I headed indoors and cut up a couple of card toppers I had previously made for the Lavinia and Honey Doo folders, and used the leftover backing papers for the Gorjuss one.

I just have the two generic stamp folders to decorate next, plus one more empty binder... oooh what should I keep in there.  I see so many different brands that other deskers have - Helen, Sarah, Neet, Angela - I think oooh they are nice, and then I forget all about them!  So ladies, if you could only have ONE brand of Stamp in your stash - what brand would it be?

One last photo - my main desk.  Way tidier than last week.  All the mess of Father's Day cards has been cleared away in anticipation of the grandees arriving on Friday.  Still got a few bits to clear, but that will be done tomorrow.

Have a lovely week, and I'll do my visiting after work as normal.  Unless I get chance at lunchtime- which is rare, but does occasionally happen!  Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment, so I know you visited  Heather xx

WOYWW 523

Happy WOYWW to you all!  From the responses last week, several crafters would be happy for a pre-Christmas get together.  Julia's suggestion was a big house and an overnighter so I shall do some investigating.

I've had a busy week crafting - see below for the shot of my desk last night.  The aftermath of making Fathers Day cards for work.  Usually I am very good and clear away as I go, but there was just too much going on for that.

Side desk ....

Overflowing into the corner

And main desk

And a quick GIF of some of the cards

That's my short and sweet post.  Thanks for stopping by, and please leave a comment or  hi, so I can make sure to visit your blog.  Have a lovely week Heather xx

WOYWW 522

Good morning all.  Time for the post-crop post of WOYWW.  What an amazing time we had.  Was wonderful to see everyone again, and meet some new faces.  I didn't take a camera, so have 'borrowed' a couple of pics from the lovely Lunch Lady Jan!

The group pic, with a lovely banner made by Annie's daughter:

Back Row: Christine, Chris, Sarah, Camilla, Zsuzsa, Annie, Heather, Jo, PJ, Caro, Anne, Neet, Elizabeth, Margaret, Catriona, Shaz

Front Row: Helen, Chris, Julia, Jan, Dolores and Maggie

And a couple of Lancashire lasses at their best, aka Neet and yours truly:

I don't want to wait another year till we all meet up again!  How about a Christmas Crop in November (she said hopefully)!!??!!

Carrying on one last crop related photo - all the ATCs and goodies received from the lovely ladies at the Crop.  

Plus an amazingly detailed ATC from Debbie (Tattered Rocks), who wasn't at the Crop but had sent them with Shaz & Doug.  

They were all beautiful.  We are indeed a very talented group of ladies!  

I can also now show the ATCs received last week.  

Top row: Diana, Sandra, Sylvia

Bottom row: Caro, Zsuzsa, Angela

Love them all, and the envelope and the extras, thank you so much ladies.




And now time for the desks ...

Side desk has seen me organising my stamps.  I had the Docrafts stamp storage folder, but I don't find it user friendly for the A6 wallets.  I had some 4 ring binders, which I have yet to decorate, and these suit the A6 folders so much better.  One folder will be for Lavinia, one for Honey Doo, and one for others.  At the back of the picture is one of my A4 zip folder where large stamp sets or specific brands are kept.  I have about 25 of those, mostly full!  Where did all these stamps come from??

Main desk has the first layouts for Father's Day cards for work.  This month's charity is connected to the Armed forces - not sure how exactly yet, but I'm sure I'll find out soon. I need to get a move on if I want to have a nice stash to sell!

I did have another idea for a layout, but I didn't write it down and have now completely forgotten what it was.







That's all from me for this week.  Except again to say a massive thanks to Annie & Jo for organising the Crop, and to Julia for keeping this amazing blog going ... for at least another 10 years 😁😁😁.  Have a lovely week, and thank you for stopping by.  Please leave a comment, as I do love to read them.  Hugs, Heather xx

WOYWW 521

Oh my word, someone call the Time Police - it really can't be Wednesday again so soon!  It is, and that means a desk hop around the world courtesy of Julia at The Stamping Ground and WOYWW.

Main desk has the start of Father's Day cards for me to take into work and sell.  First idea for a card, so I die cut 7 sets of shapes, might as well do some bulk creating.  I have the idea for design no. 2 but won't be starting on that until later this week.  I received a few ATCs in the post - thank you very much ladies, but my photo doesn't show them - they are just to the left, past my Gold Sparkly Book - close up of that below the desk shot.  I will take a pic of all ATCs after the Crop.

Close up of the Gold Sparkly Book.  It originally had a clear cover but I kept misplacing it.  Now it has a cover that I can spot a mile off!  It's the book where I keep lists of the stamps, Inks, Promarkers, stencil pastes, distress oxide sprays, etc that I have, together with glitter card coloured in with the Promarkers (as featured many moons ago by our "Chief Enabler").  I just stock up on the silver glittercard now, and colour it accordingly.  Plus other useful bits and pieces.

A couple of people asked about the inside of my embossing sample thingy.  So a couple of shots of that.

No side desk shot today, as it is full of a little extra something I have made to bring to the Crop.  Does anyone know how many ladies are going to the Crop?  I hope I've made enough!!

And finally .... a sort of garden shot, but really a pic of our visitor yesterday!    Couldn't believe that he just wandered down the embankment for a munch!  

Have a lovely week, and I'm really looking forward to seeing many of you on Saturday at the Crop!  Heather xx

WOYWW 520 - 10TH BIRTHDAY

Happy birthday to WOYWW - 10 Years old! Thanks to Julia at The Stamping Ground for this marvellous blog link up, and to all the other deskers who make it so enjoyable every week!  For anyone reading who wants to join in, please do so, it's great fun.  I joined in at WOYWW 427 ... and I was made very welcome - (they don't bite).

I took my photos yesterday afternoon, as my craft room is always quite dark in the morning.  I spent the morning having a proper spring clean - polished my main desk as well.  It has never looked this clean since Mr M built it last year!

And a close up of my finished embossing sample thingy.  It looks better in real life:

Side desk, would you believe a little more colouring practice. Some hair styles are too difficult for me to shade correctly, but I like this one ...

I have plenty of ATCs to exchange.  Many will be exchanged at the Crop, but if you want to exchange and you are not going to the Crop, please can you email me your postal address, and I will put yours in the post.  Use the email gadget in the right hand side bar of my blog.

Have a lovely, crafty week.  Please leave a comment so I know you stopped by, Heather xx

Summer is coming ...

Entered in Passion for Promarkers Challenge 493 - Summer is coming

WOYWW 519

I really can't believe another week has gone by so quickly, but here we are on a Wednesday again and time for another tour of crafty desks courtesy of Julia and The Stamping Ground aka WOYWW.

Lots of goodies purchased on Saturday at Happy Stampers - although I was struggling to spend my hard earned cash at first.  But not to worry, like a proper trooper I walked round again and again until my little shopping bag was full of goodies!  And when I got home, I did a bit of online shopping for good measure.  It was great to meet up with Neet, Shaz & Doug and Sarah.  Sarah had one of her cards displayed on the Clarity Stall, so naturally I had to buy the stencil she had used, plus a few others - natural saleswoman our Sarah!   I can't show a pic of all my goodies as I put them all away ready for a crafty session on Sunday.

Desk pic is what we are here for, so ... first up is my side desk - play time with Brushos and Clarity Stencil.  Not to be used for anything, just having a play.  I still couldn't find a guitar stamp, so I used a digital one to finish 2 cards off ready for Fathers Day next month, as I'm having another card sale at work for charity.  The lilac orchids are to finish off some other layered cards I had started.  There is also a shiny new glass mat - for some reason I woke up on Sunday and decided I couldn't live without one, so ordered it online and it arrived Monday!  Now ... what did I need it for??!?

Main desk has another 'experiment'.  I bought a stamp from Inkylicious on Saturday, and tried a few different ways to colour it - Promarkers top left, watercolour pencils top right, and Brushos both bottom pics.  It's the right card for Promarkers, but not for watercolours or Brushos - but I live and learn!  I wouldn't mind but I have 3 pads of watercolour card/paper so I really don't have an excuse for messing up the watercolour sample.  I also thought it about time I put together some colour combinations for hair colouring with Promarkers.  Believe it or not I'm still short of a few colours, so that's next on my shopping list.  However, the shading is coming along nicely.  I also got two cover/card/rings sets on Saturday.  I've used one to make samples of my really big (about 20) collection of embossing folders, which hopefully will prompt me to use them.  My plan during the week is to colour half of each sample with distress oxides so I can see how they look.  Oh, and do something really arty/crafty with the covers.  The beach house card is another trial of a different card.  This one is a smooth coated card from Rymans.  I only did this last night,  but early indications are it looks good, and no bleeding of colours ... I may have found my "go to" card for Promarkers!   Trouble is I now have too much white card for my storage drawers.  I wonder if Mr M would mind if I started encroaching on his office??

Aside from that, I've finished my anniversary ATCs.  Hopefully I've made enough, but if not I have plenty of time to make more as I have a week off work next week - woohoot!  Thanks for stopping by, and please do leave a comment - then I can be sure to stop by your blog.  My visiting will be after work as usual.  Have a lovely week, Heather xx