WOYWW 576

Before I forget, I have not found where to comment on Marianne's post for the past two weeks.  Am sure I have commented before but I searched and searched these last two weeks and found nowhere!
Once more we are at Wednesday - they come around quicker than (what?).  It is actually Tuesday night and we are having a terrific thunderstorm and the rain is coming down ever so heavily.  Not as bad as last night at my friends in South Manchester - she said the noise was terrible and her kitchen was under about an inch of water.  Not much fun when you are on your own and you have to face something like that.  People who join in with What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday are never alone.  IT's a happy bunch of friends, nobody is a stranger so why not join in and show us your desk.

Well, I have been crafting a good bit this week.  Nowhere near as much as some but good for me.  As well as doing the iCAD's, yes, I have kept up with them, I have made a tag and a canvas (only it wasn't a canvas as I didn't have one so it was a circle of card which is going to be stuck on a canvas backing when one arrives through the mail).  I did another one but changed it a little and did it on a rectangular block of wood that used to be a picture of Van Gogh's Boots.  Remember those, think they were 'Athena', pictures that were all the rage years ago?  This is my canvas that isn't:

I can't show you my tag or the other canvas (again that isn't) as yet but I can let you see my desk which was tidy(ish) so I put my iCAD's out for you to see my week's progress.

More or less the usual stuff but now I have some templates to do circles with on the left, some Honey Doo glue (love it), a dirty water pot (green paint had been used), two PPA paints, a tag (which shouldn't be there), a tissue for wiping up and my new vases for use on things.  The cardboard roll is full of messy pieces of kitchen roll for journalling with and to the right of the iCAD's is a piece of Kitchen roll and a messy towel and a huge AALL & Create stamp.

and here are the iCAD's in close up

That's it for this week see you next week!

WOYWW 574

Another week has gone by - the weather has been lovely, pandemic rules have lessened a little (although some folks seem to think it is back to "normal" if normal is ever going to be normal) and I have done very little.  Somewhere in the past couple of weeks I began an online workshop but because of my back it didn't get finished, in fact I gave up on the Sunday morning.  So I bought Tracy's from her and that had now arrived and will go up on the wall in my craft room when Chas gets around to it.

I didn't want two the same so there seemed little point in finishing mine so I began "hacking" at it and turned the circle into a hexagon.  Got my melt-pot out, added some honey coloured paint, a Sizzix bee and a few different stamps.  

This is my desk as it stands at the moment.  As you can see there is the canvas above, plus Tracy Evans's and some hearts from another Tracy (Easson) that need putting on a background piece.

I just cannot decide how best to display those hearts but I want the board underneath for something else I have planned.  Will it come to fruition - I haven't a clue, all depends on the antics of my back.  I have not had a good week again so we will have to wait and see.

In the meantime why not pop over to WOYWW to see what Julia and the girls have been up to.  I will be saying 'welcome home' to Alan, back home from his long stay in hospital with Covid, and saying 'hello' to Helen who had a nasty fall last week.  Hope the two of them are feeling much better this Wednesday as are all of you out there.

If you can, stay in and stay safe.

WOYWW 560

Back with Julia and her happy band of crafters on WOYWW.  Pop along here and find out all about it - then join in with us.  You'll make lots of new friends and have an excuse to show your desk every week on your blog - regardless of whether it is busy, tidy or totally messed up.

(Added later: have been stopped from commenting on Shoshi's blog which is so annoying as I had written lots to her and now it has all gone.  Just a warning to others - copy your comment before sending in case it happens to you.)

My desk this week shows you the fact that I have been crayoning.  See those flowers on the bottom of the journal, they were all coloured in with my Prismacolours.  I so enjoyed doing them and was able to do it sat in my chair with the journal propped up on my trolley. I had to cover the rest of the page up so used the birthday cards I have been making.  They just want sentiments putting on them and then they can go away.  

The other page is blank but that is my folder of Prismacolours on it and to the left of the whole lot you can just see the fairy stamps peeking out from the folder that holds my overspill Dylusion stamps.

The next bit of my desk is littered with two die cutting machines, just as last week, not done any die cutting.

My eBosser, Paris box full to bursting with Dylusion stamps and my Vagabond, my trusty lovely Vagabond.  Don't ask me to describe what is behind, there is just so much stuff!

As I don't have anything much to show you thought I would take a photograph of my wall behind the door.  This holds Ministry of Mixology canvases.  Well, not all of them but some.

So there we are - see you next week!

WOYWW 423

These last few days have seen me doing as much as I can in my craft room and doing a little, bit by bit, on my canvas which I did at the last Dare2Create.  I wasn't happy with it so I pulled it to bits and started to redo it.  I did a little altering on the board we did with Tracy too.  In fact that one is finished:

Love the bump technique I did with the circles (thanks Leandra).  I just remembered it and decided to use it in my background.  The colours are so me but not my usual choice when I am at retreats - usually blues and greens - sea colours - but no lilac.

Well, the desk was a bit tidier and I had room to work but gradually I moved one or two things back into the craft area from the study and porch and this is it ... again!

Can you see the difference between this week and last week?  You can hardly see the pretty paper on the board on the right.  I did say it might as well have just been painted, would have been a whole lot cheaper!  Poor Chas has painted endless boxes for me, you can see some of them lined up along the back of the worktop.

Below is the wall joining onto the bathroom, where the door used to be.  If you look closely you can see more of those cubby hole type boxes that Chas has been busy painting.  Then there is the white set of drawers he painted which I edged in pink and the set of pink drawers underneath.  I haven't the heart to repaint the green box on top as it is covered in pictures of Paris and is something I did a long time ago - when recycle bins first came into being.  Yes, they delivered more than one to our house seeing as we have two doors on the front of the property - many people get mixed up with it and think it is two bungalows, not just the one.

Maybe next week you will see an actual work desk.  We went to Ikea on Tuesday night and bought two more sets of drawers on wheels (guess what - they have changed the colours AGAIN!!!) and two shelves.  Once they are up I will need some boxes but it seems they do not do the metal ones that I have quite a lot of.  Oh heck, why do they have to keep changing things?

One thing that does not change is Wednesday morning for us crafters. There is always WOYWW for us to join in with and so I am heading over there to see what Julia has for us this week.  It's another visit to the Chinese Medical Centre for a bit of acupuncture in the afternoon (he talked about doing the "cups" as I still have the pain now and then but I am going to try to talk him out of it, don't fancy it at all).  It has been much better most days although Friday was pretty bad but that was my own fault for reaching high up and cleaning a rail in the bathroom on Thursday night.

Well, will leave it there for this week, hope to see some of you over at Julia's and then I can see what you have been up to.  Happy Crafting to you all!

WOYWW 409 (and a Little Mouse with Clogs on)

"A little mouse with clogs on

'Well' I declare

Going clip clippety clop on the stair"

Yep, I have been to the Netherlands.  Only a short short trip - flew out Saturday morning and returned Sunday evening.  Both ways were good flights but I thought the pilot was having a laugh when he told us on the way back that we would probably be "ahead of time" as he was "going to take a shortcut".  Never thought of that in the air!

Won't talk too long but we went to a show run by the Art Specially people over there, somewhere I have wanted to go to for simply years.  It is a stamping show, mainly rubber stamping but with a fair amount of mixed media in it now and it is full of Dutch and some French (and a Swedish) manufacturer's stamps, plus English (apologies if I missed someone).  There are lots of free workshops too but we only managed to join in one of them as we were too busy enjoying watching the demonstrations plus two &T's (lots of them - UK take note please). 

These are what I made, followed by two ATC's that Eva (Wanders - who I made the hummingbird card with at a Make and Take) gave to me - the tag was made with Bettina from Scrap Unlimited in a workshop and the top card was made at a Gilding Wax Make & Take

Anyway, here are a few photos from the show - first of all some cards that were on display

There were mixed media canvases

I bought lots of the metal pieces from Scrap Unlimited

and below is a stamped canvas I liked

Hope you enjoyed the pictures - but you came here to see my desk (oops - sorry Julia!)

The thing that struck us mostly about the Netherlands was the friendliness of the people. Not just at the show but everywhere we went.  And, of course, they all spoke really good English which made me feel so embarrassed that I could not speak their language at all. Mind you I did find it difficult to pronounce and have just about mastered "thank you" after a whole weekend.  Next year, yes, we are hoping to go again, I hope to manage "excuse me" for when people are stood in the way.  Next time we want to tag another day on so that we can see something of the Old Town in Amersfoort which looks lovely on photographs and which we glimpsed as we passed on the train.

Hope you enjoyed my photographs.  Now it is over to Julia, our "Queen of Deskers" to see what she has been up to and to link up with so many others.  See you over there.

WOYWW 407

Happy Wednesday to you all.  Hope the sun is shining like it seems to have done for most of the past few days, well in the afternoons at least.  It is "Julia Day" too, so that makes it sunny in itself.  Want to join in?  Follow this link to WOYWW and away you go, it's all explained there.

So what is on my desk?  Well, I have been journalling but this time in my Dyary.  No, not a typo, it really is spelled that way - a play on Dyan Reaveley's name.  I have so enjoyed it and I can sit and colour with my back up straight in Chas's chair with little or no effort.  Don't think I am giving any secrets away (not a soul baring journal) by letting you see the first page, not the one I am working on at the moment as it is a bit bare.

I collected it last weekend when I did a workshop with Tracy (Scott) and ended up spending a fortune, but a happy spend with birthday money.  Plus my bezzie mate bought me some stamps especially for this Dyary! 

If you didn't see my birthday cards they are in the post beneath this one, take a look - great inspiration!

This is the canvas I made with Tracy - 

Really enjoyed the day - and my back held out ... until I got home.

Can I please ask that you put your number against comments, makes life so much easier to get a comment back.  Sorry, not meaning to nag but if you have several blogs and we have to go to your bio it can take a while to find the correct one.  Have a great week!

Wish It Was Still Last Weekend (Continued ...)

Sunday - another beautiful day (in more ways than one) saw the Four Amigos doing the Andy Skinner Workshop, photos of what I did here.

I had a photo taken with Tracy ON HER OWN but SOMEONE SNEAKED IN!  What's the face for Andy?

So Sunday saw us in the other classroom with Andy Skinner.  Now the evening before he had told me what they were doing and guess what? A million to one chance that someone would have been to his class at CHA would be attending Dare to Create LIVE - but I was that one. Bless!  Andy gave me other things to decorate my book with and I came up with 

Now I wish I had used a rust effect on the cogs but as I have plenty left over (and I bought some a while ago) I can do rusty ones on something else.

We are at the far end of the first table

and here's Lorraine and me painting our books

and Tracy with Cassie (with my apron on inside out)

After yet another hearty lunch (and a dib in the dried figs outside the classroom) it was time to do the collaboration - never done before but by golly it worked.  Tracy and Andy swapped about doing bits of the next workshop and we had a brilliant time.  

Not sure what Tracy was doing here

The only trouble was that with being so many of us the stencil I wanted was in use and so I had to wait for it for ages and now I want to do something else to my picture and give it more texture. Not had chance as yet but am working on making a slot in my timetable.  

That is me stood at the back by the screen - and Lorraine is in a red apron with a stripey top to the right of me.

Wonder what I was asking?

Nice photo of Lorraine - but me!!

When I got home I did add the 'eye' to it - I love Andy's eye with the little hand crawling out.  It now says "I (eye) Love (heart) ART" get it? Or is it better without it?  Not stuck yet so I'll see what others think first.

Now for some samples that were on display in the shop.  Not a clue who had done them but they were lovely to look at.

A firm favourite was this by Sue

(sorry about the hand and camera)

Here we all are with our works of art stood outside in the sunshine

I'm third from the left behind the lady in pink and next to Marc

So that was it - the weekend was over, sadly.  Time to pack up and go and make sure there were no last minute purchases you wanted in the shop.  Luckily Lorraine and I were staying over one more night but our choice of eatery was not good and we wish afterwards we had walked out.  Think if I hadn't paid £25 on entering for the two of us I would have thought about it. Here is Lorraine with her pudding though

and me trying to make her laugh

Next morning really was sad as we said goodbye or 'au revoir' to Tracy and Andy in readiness for Tracy to make her way to the airport. Well, Tracy looks sad but Andy looks delighted (only joking).

I'll leave you with a picture of the Dream Team - Sue and her helpers and then a picture of Sue with Bianca.

Whacked out - thank you all of you - you worked so darned hard to help the weekend go so smoothly - what a team.

the lady responsible for it all with Bianca

BIG THANK YOU's to Sue - She is Amazing!