WOYWW 119

Well, hope I have the number right this week.  In case you don't know what on earth I am on about it is What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday time again, the time of the week when we bare our desks and let everyone see what we get up to, how tidy we are or what a mucky mess we are in.  So here I am - reporting to our glorious leader - Ms Julia Dunnit.

As you know if you have read my previous post I was away all weekend working for Oyster Stamps at Harrogate, having a right laugh with them all and selling lots of Spellbinders Dies and the Grand Calibur of course.  The only problem I have (and one which I  had this weekend) is that I spend what I have earned and sometimes above and beyond.  It's great - having fun with lovely people and coming away with goodies.

Yesterday was spent sorting things out so here is an overview of one end of my room where my workdesk is, at the far end:

You will see I now have my Vagabond on a trolley.  Got fed up of storing it away on a shelf and pulling it out each time, on the middle shelf I store my TH dies and the box on the bottom has my Embossing Folders in and the one on the floor houses my Spellbinders and normally sits on the bottom shelf as well.  Ooh look, there is my Grand Calibur in all its raspberriness.

Below are some of the dies I have been filing away - I got Anenome Flower Topper (which looks like a gorgeous waterlily to me), Bird Sanctuary and Parisian Accents.  Ooh, lovely.  (Butterfly die is out as I was measuring the magnetic paper I store them on) ...

... and these are my Big Dies (bought two more - Grand Squares ('cos I can't mount one sheet on another for toffee) and Grand Labels Four 'cos I have wanted it for ages but it has always been sold out.

At the moment I am trialing hooking each set with a D-ring thingie and putting a tag on each set so I know what it is called and which ordinary dies co-ordinate with it.  Not sure if this system will work as I only have five of these sets and already the cup hook is full.  And Leigh Show is just around the corner so no doubt I will get at least one other.

For a non-die-cutter I didn't do bad as I bought three other dies as well.  This is a card I made using two of them.

This one uses the Lacey Butterfly - ooh you should see it with glitter on it - fabulous.  There are two dies used for this one as the purple underneath is also a die which co-ordinates with it.  This is on its way to Naomi with the message that it took me ages to cut out all those little bits - I did tell her later I was only kidding,

This next one is like a Chinese Papercut and I think it is adorable.  It is called Emperor Swan and needs very little adding to it, in my opinion, as it is so beautiful in itself.

So there you have them, all the dies I bought from Oyster Stamps at the weekend.  Did buy one or two other things but haven't had time to play with them as yet - patience, there is always another day.

My last card today is for a friend who has been in hospital, who likes Asian things so I wanted to send her this little girl, who is a material motif.  I found out that last night was the Chinese Moon Festival so added a gold circle to represent the moon to this card.  Check out what happens on this night: 

http://chineseculture.about.com/library/weekly/aa093097.htm

That's it for now folks - toodle pip!

Got Back - Tired but Happy

Well, I got back from Harrogate last night absolutely full of beans because I had had such a good laugh with Tracy, Graham and the "boys" during the show.  Fell asleep watching TV later and just about crawled into bed (but it was nearly midnight).

Met lots of my internet/group friends who I normally see at this show, Janet, Alison, Diane, Kath, Liz, Susan, Val and must not forget Sue and Lorraine who were there for the two days so I got to see them lots of times.  I'll let Lorraine tell you about her "hotel" in her own blog when she gets around to it.  We certainly had a laugh chatting about it.

Then I had the pleasure of meeting up with Jaqi (check out her latest LO's) and her friend (sorry I did not ask what your friend was called Jaqi - and she is lovely too) and had to have a photograph taken.

That's Jaqi in the centre - and Jaqi, it will be lovely to be able to fit a face to a person on JFF now.

Anyway, Saturday came and went so Chas and I left the show, went to the Squinting Cat for something to eat on our way back to The Days Inn where we met up with Tracy, Graham and George.  I was rather surprised by the place we were to stay.  I knew it was on a Service Station so did not expect it to be of the standard it was.  I loved it!  Lovely bathroom with walk in shower, comfortable bed (I usually suffer with mattresses when away), the usual coffee making facilities, and a lovely new flatscreen tv on the wall.

Before long it was time to make our way back to the Showground so after a delightful Continental breakfast, which had enough on it to satisfy our appetites certainly, we set off once more for Harrogate.

Here are a couple more cards I did:

It was a little quieter on Sunday at the show (still selling Caliburs though) but I was made up when another blogger came to see me.  This was the second time she had travelled down from Grimsby to see me and it was lovely to meet up again with the talented Sam and her friend Maz, who took the photo for us.

I  am quite pleased to report that we only had one Calibur left out of a total of 26 by the end of the day.  I love mine and must use it more than I do at present but now I have some of the Grand dies (bought two more at weekend) I can get going on an idea I have had in my head for ages.  On Sunday Tom (George's twin and the one I have worked with in the past) came with Liam as Oyster Stamps needed more stock.  Now how do you cope with three 19 year old lads?  When I got back from lunch they were full of it - they had sold two Caliburs whilst I had been away - and had lined all the cards I had cut in a long line across my new cubby- holed table.

Anyway, all too soon it was 4 pm and the show closed, time to say my Goodbyes to the Oyster Stamps Family (miss you guys) - until Leigh which is on Sunday the 2nd October (thanks Paul who alerted me to the fact that I had put September - doh!).  Hope to see lots of you there - I will now leave you with Sam, my blog friend and buddy.

Must put my head up and not down when having a photo taken so you don't get that double chin.  Also must remember not to wear my badge on my sleeve the wrong way down - looks like a rather large Elastoplast.

I Am Not Here

I'm there.  Now where is "There"?  It is Harrogate, where all the lovely crafters go.  Yes, I am working this weekend and will be busy on Oyster Stamps with the lovely Tracy and Graham (not forgetting Tom), die-cutting my little heart out.

Did mean to make some huge samples using A2 cardstock with my Grand Calibur but got rather side tracked seeing how many of the Fleur de Lis Accents and Pendant dies I could get from one sheet of A4.  Unfortunately it is packed up so I can't show you today but I can tell you, you get one heck of a lot out of one sheet when using the GC.  Line 'em up folks!

Here's a few that I did

That's it for now folks - will show you the others tomorrow - need to get an early night.

Thinking about my American Friends particularly today and, indeed, the whole country.  I pray that nothing comes from the latest terrorist warnings.

Vintage Anyone?

Well, the last challenge over on Just For Fun certainly attracted a lot of entries but then we crafters do tend to have a way with "words" don't we.

This week the theme is Vintage.  Now I chose this theme because I love making things Vintage, anything I see others have made I "ooh" and "aah" over.  It all gets to me when I see the lace and pearls and the old sepia photos.  Sometimes I think I would have loved to live in the Edwardian Days when everything was so elegant.  I adore anything Art Nouveau  * "with its flowing organic forms which were reflected in the sinuous curves of the Edwardian lady".  Therefore I was surprised when I looked it up on Wikipedia to find that clothing pre 1920's was defined as "antique" and that "Vintage" was clothing from 1920 to 1980.  Still, I love the flapper styles too and maybe those dresses would have suited my figure as it is now (sadly).

Well, as per usual I was behind with everything to do with JFF and Zoe had to ring me to ask for some "blurb" re my chosen theme.  It was at the time that I was sitting, once again, at my desk and wondering what the heck to do for the challenge.  I ended up rushing a tin through and this is it

Not happy with it, it just kept evolving.  Fell in love with this paper from a pack the lovely Jude sent me so I covered a tin that had had mixed nuts and raisins in (eaten that afternoon) with it.  Next I put some braid around the top, then found the beading and added that.  It makes the perfect tin for my feathers which have been lying around gathering dust for far too long.

Well, that is it from me this week folks, not a happy bunny with my effort but my head is now coming round and I hope I can do a bit more justice to things in the future - watch out - vintage I like I will do!

* taken from a very interesting page on the internet "Fashion in the Edwardian Era".

WOYWW 117

It's WOYWW time again - thank goodness others think the week goes by too quickly - thought it was just me.  I've no sooner tidied my desk up than it comes around again and I am once more, not tidy. Well what is on my workdesk this miserable wet (chucking it down) Wednesday?

Actually I am quite tidy, because I have been doing very little.  Life has just taken over these past few days but I was busy on Saturday. This is what is on my desk at the moment:

A pizza box full of paper butterflies!

These are what we made at Victoria Stampers on Saturday afternoon. Well, what others made - I spent my time working with my Grand Calibur cutting out loads and loads of butterflies for people to take home and colour up ready to bring next month.  I haven't counted how many we made but I do know that Mo, who was not with us on Saturday had her family making some for us on Bank Holiday Monday and they have made 115.

Now to get my finger out and make some more for my effort.  I was hoping to see Chloe and get her to make some with me but her mummy has had an abscess and had to go into hospital to have it operated on - and now she has chickenpox!  (Mummy, not Chloe - yet!)

Here are some of them I photographed to put on the group in the Album for September.  You can see folded ones, origami ones, some made with sycamore leaves for the wings, and the ones in the bottom right hand corner were made by our oldest member, Joyce, who I am sure won't mind me telling you that she is 82 years old.

There is one above that is made with skeleton leaves and top centre you might glimpse some that are made with Prima flowers - both the brainchild of Alison along with the sycamore leaf ones..

Now why are we making so many butterflies?  We are sending them off to Houston, Texas for the Holocaust Museum Butterfly Project.  In an effort to memorialise the 1.5 million Jewish children who died during the Holocaust, the Museum is collecting 1.5 million handmade butterflies for a special exhibit in 2012.

The Butterfly
The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.  
Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing
against a white stone ...
Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly way up high
It went away I'm sure because it wished
to kiss the world goodbye.
For seven weeks I've lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don't live in here,
in the ghetto.
            Pavel Friedmann 6.4.1942


Pavel Friedmann was born on 7 January 1921 in Prague and deported to Terezin on 26 April 1942.  He died in Auschwitz on 29 September 1944.


I hope this inspires some of  you to make some butterflies and send them off to Houston.  All the details are on the link above and when I collect the remaining ones which members have made at home at our next meeting I will let you know how many we are sending - remember we will have Mo's family's 115 as well by then.

I Really Am Hopeless

Done it again!  Made some cards and put them in the post without scanning them to show you on my blog.  Watercoloured three images, two have been sent out and the third is ready to go, sealed up in its envelope.  So that's yesterday afternoon and this morning with nothing to show you BUT ...

Got some lovely cards in the post from others so I would love to share them with you.

First I got one from Chris with a gorgeous photoart stamp on it

Then this one arrived from Mary, again with a beautiful photart stamp.  Now I know Mary has a blog but for the life in me I cannot find the name of it, searched high and low to no avail.

 And finally from Ann with this cute little girl in the rain - the raindrops are done in glitter and they look most effective.

Now who's a lucky person then?  Three beautiful cards to have on display, each very different but all equally beautiful.  Thanks ladies!

Must get on now, have one or two things to get ready for tomorrow. It is our Open Morning at Padgate Community Centre so if you fancy popping along to see what we do, taking part in a Make and Take or just having a coffee and a chat you will find a welcome there between 10 and 1 pm.  After that we are making butterflies for the Holocaust Project but more on that another day.

Just For Fun - Wired

Ages ago I got this circuit board, think it was from a computer, and thought it would come in useful for something "arty".  I loved how it had the drawings on the base of it, the gold and black lines, the little capacitors and the chips.

Then along came the JFF challenge - "Words".  I thought of all the lovely sayings I have, the funny ones, the meaningful ones and of all the cards I could possibly make using them - but nothing seemed to be right and then I saw this stamp.  Actually it is one of two, the other is a profile version and I knew this had to be used, but how?

Armed with my stamp and the circuit board I thought of the phrase "Wired for Sound" and so my rendition for this week was born.  First of all I covered a piece of mountboard with black acrylic paint, tore some "sound" bits from an encyclopedia and stuck them on (you can hardly see them).  Then I stamped the head in Black Archival Ink and put some clear embossing powder over the top, moved it around the circuit board until I decided on where to place it and stuck it on with some foam pads.

A quick line up of letters (Spellbinders) on a bit of black waste card and I had the words done with the number "4" in white to take the place of the word "for".  There are a couple of holes at the top which I have pushed through on the mountboard so it can have a hanger attached but at the moment it stands on a plate rack.

So there you have it - my entry for "Words" for Just for Fun - which is what I had making it - "fun".

Can't wait to see what you all produce with this challenge, am sure it will be a popular subject and I wonder how this month's Challenges will compare to last months which were very popular and produced some stunning pieces from you all.