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WOYWW 147 (long, need a cuppa to view)

Hi folks - in case you happened on here by accident I am showing views of my craft room after its tidy up.  When you see the photos you might not think it very tidy but believe me you, it is!  This is all for my friends on WOYWW who come and have a rummage about people's craft rooms on a Wednesday morning, but anyone is welcome to have a look around so please pull up a chair, grab a cuppa and sit back with your finger on the mouse to scroll down.  Welcome to my new followers, I do hope you enjoy your time here.

Behind the door (see it is full of aprons and crafting t-shirts) is my "inspiration wall".  That was what the Big Strong Boys (tv programme for those who don't know) called it when they first did my room.  Now the wire that stretches across (think it is for net curtains really) holds all manner of things - notices, things I have nowhere to put etc but it still holds the beads (far right) that they left me.  Above are the squares they painted on the wall and the first one has a beeswax collage on it, the second a kind of canvas covered in scrapbook paper that I did on a Kars Workshop and the third a picture from my mate, Sam.

The folder you can see peeking at the bottom right is stood on a big art folder (full of big papers) and this holds all my die cuts and some cards I take to shows.

Swinging to the left, avoiding the desk that just has a printer sat on it and those Mothercare boxes piled underneath (one for metalwork and one for sewing) plus a big box for ephemera, we have my silver tins which hold unmounted stamps.  The little grey/clear plastic boxes have some of my Timmy embellishments in, the coloured tubs have various tools in, punches on the wall on Ikea rails, my carousel and then cream and red boxes with more unmounted stamps inside. Just sneaking in top right are my Grand Nesties.  Bits and bobs hang from my floating shelf (which Gavin - swoon - put up for me) and it has lights underneath.

Underneath - silver tins hold spray inks, journal paints, fibres and fabric paint, inks are in a box behind.  The blue bag holds my Cricut, the Art Bin is for me to take to shows.  Next to my Grand Calibur the silver tins hold charms, UTEE, molds and books in various stages of completion.  Then above ... my new sewing machine and two silver tins for fabric bits and one for dumfing stuff.

These are those boxes with um's in, also the first tier of grey plastic has them in but then the others have mounted stamps in.  The clear boxes above mainly have my worksheets in them.

Then you would come to the bit of workspace I have but as you see that week after week I have missed it today.  It's just left of this.  These are my 'cubby holes' that hold all manner of things.  Lots of inkpad storage, rolls of ds tape, glues that I am using, embossing powders, foam squares, post it notes, etc.  My acrylic mounts are on top of one set of 'cubbies' as are my stains in the basket I made for them.  My pots for all my most used tools, my stand for my blending tools and then two row of books.

You can also see some of my flowers stacked up (stupidly - need to rethink this one) and bits and bobs hanging from the metal cages.

Underneath is a cupboard.  I keep thinking of taking the doors off so it is easier to access but then I change my mind - dust!!  This has fancy papers in, a big box of ephemera papers at the bottom, some tool boxes, silver tins with completed books in, cd's for using for something (?), glue, spare rolls for my ATG guns, Xyron (unused) machine and endless refills, magnetic paper, cut and dry foam etc etc

Next to that we have the end of the 'tick' that the BSB put up - now full of videos, dvd's etc (all crafting), an old wooden box that has ribbons, lace, etc inside, underneath another old box, but painted this time, that has stencils, shrink plastic, dominoes, Luminarte Polished Pigments, Twinkling H2o's in.  More 'cubbies' with A5 card, large mounted stamps, paints, envelopes, binding rings, etc in and you can see my Cuttlebug and the Cinch in front of my Polymer Clay, Collage and Journal  books.  Blue trays hold glues and wire tools, black ones hold loads of stuff too many things to mention.  Then there is the clock picture, which I love, from Sam, on the wall above it.

Under there is a cupboard with files (atc's, plastic wallets, old stamp system), books, magazines (card making) and the two red folders (that do fit in normally) have my scraps of cardstock in colour coded in plastic wallets.

This is the last bit and is underneath where I sit.  Clay, Friendly Plastic, Grungeboard, Timmy stuff, cardstock mainly fill up my grey drawers; the card holder a neighbour made for me (love it); my bag on the floor with scrapbook papers in, box next to it CHA stuff.  Concertina file and bag with copy paper in are behind the yellow bin and the yellow bin (rubbish) sits in the pink one (paper/card) which is my attempt at recycling.

That's it, wonder how many of you stayed to the end?  You deserve a gold medal.  I got bored uploading it all but nothing else to do on a Tuesday evening when Mr Mojo is on walk about - yes, I am uploading early as there is too much to do after midnight with all these photos - so confession time - this will be a scheduled post.

ps Sam, Von and myself are launching a new Challenge Blog on Friday evening - see the blog button on the right (Artful Times) so if any of you feel like joining in do pop along and see what the challenge is for this week.

As Promised - A Quad Easel Card

I did promise a few of you at Harrogate that I would post instructions on how to do a Quad Easel card just like the one you saw on my table (see here) and prior to that had made a promise to Tam and others via the internet so here goes.

You will need to cut cardstock as follows:
1 square 8" x 8" which will be your base card
1 toning/contrasting square to be your upper layer 7.1/2" x 7.1/2" (seven and a half inch square)
Mat and layer these two together to begin with.  Set to one side.

4 pcs the same colour as your base card 3.1/2" x 7" (three and a half inches by seven)
4 pcs the same colour as your base card 3.1/2" x 3.1/2" (three and a half inches square)

4 pcs in your toning/contrasting colour 3" x 3" (three inches square) - these are to stamp on

(click on picture to enlarge and see sizes if unsure)

Stamp your images on your 3" squares and mat these on your 3.1/2" (three and a half inch) squares.  Set on one side.

Take your 3.1/2" x 7" (three and a half inch by seven inch) pieces and fold in half and then fold the bottom corners up to the centre fold as in the picture below

I always find it best to put a ruler on the bottom square, corner to corner, and score before folding.  That way you get a much neater, exact and crisper fold.  Go over the folds with your bone folder.
(Below I have shown you how the rectangle is folded on some patterned paper just to make sure you can see what I mean)

Now put sticky double sided tape on the triangles as shown below

Then attach your square with your stamped image on as below:

In this one I did not have as many layers as in the previous one so as not to confuse you, so I decided to do a little corner punching to add some interest and stop it being too plain.

You can now add your "stops" - these can be diecuts, stamped images etc with a sticky foam piece underneath or you could put brads on as I have with this one.

Place your individual easels on the base card carefully (do a dry run, I found this confusing at first) so that each one is facing outwards and then fix into position either by double sided tape (strong one please) or using sticky foam pieces which is best if you have used brads, otherwise they won't lie flat.

Top View above

I used brads for the stops but a punched circle with words stamped on for just one of them.  (Birthday Greetings)

Yes, it does fold flat for giving

Tip: 

1) If I want my hole in the centre of the card for my brad or just for placement of anything (it gets covered) I put my ruler corner to corner and mark a faint pencil line and then do it with the other two corners so I have a cross - "X marks the spot!"

2) I always put a hole in my base with my pokey tool to mark where I want the brad and then lie that one on top of the other one and poke through again, repeat with the other two.  That way all the holes are in the identical place on each one.

I hope you can follow this, I always find it difficult to do a tutorial on blogger because you only have a little window to work with.  I will try to find time to do another one but video it just in case you didn't follow but that might be another week yet as it will be a Blue Peter job.  LOL.

If I have gone wrong or missed something please do not hesitate to tell me - at least then I can correct it.  Who will be my guinea pig?

Two Posts in One Day

Well, I did say "I will be back" like Arnie said (see post below) but even I did not think I would be crafting quite so quickly.

Got an idea in my head for a card to support some friends who have just started up their own blog (now don't get confused - yes, I am part of a new blog but this is another one).  Made a chilli for tonight and disappeared into my craft room, looked for my "hat ladies" and came up with this card for "Out of a Hat Creations".

It's a bit of fun and I hope the ladies like it.  So why don't you pop on over to their blog and give a bit of support to Florence, Janet, Sandra and Chrissie.

In case you are wondering what the "R" is for it is "R is for RED"  - remember the poem by Jenny Joseph?  


"When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired ..."

Love it!

Eyes Right!

Eyes Right and what do you see?  A new Challenge Blog is coming to town - The Artful Times!  The terrible or terrific, or maybe 'terribly terrific trio' (big LOL) is best, of Sam, Von and me have got our heads together and started a new bi-weekly blog challenge.  Or is that a Challenge Blog?

When I heard the last one I was on the DT for was closing I knew I was going to miss it so got together with the others and we began planning our next move.  It's taken us a while but we have gone live just for you to have a nosey at, click here, and next Friday, the 30th March, we will have our first challenge up and ready for you to join in.

I've nothing to show you craftwise as I bought a new sewing machine yesterday (whoo hoo) and what with all the research before I bought and setting up a new Yahoo Group and the Challenge Blog my crafting has had to go on the back burner.  But not for long.  Like Arnie - "I'll be back" as I can't leave it long before I craft.

In the meantime I took a photograph this morning of the flowers my son bought me for my birthday, just one rose went brown and is now missing - not bad for twelve day old flowers.

WOYWW 146 and Help!

BRENDA - BUTLERS ABROAD - I CANNOT POST ON YOUR BOG IT KEEPS TELLING ME TO LOG IN.  Sorry about that shouting but I tried and tried to leave a comment for Brenda last week, even yesterday again, but all it kept saying was that I was not logged in.  Can anyone sort me out please.  This is what comes up and I have rewritten my details under the comment box on her blog.  
"That email address is associated with an existing WordPress.com (or Gravatar.com) account.  Please click the back button in your browser and then log in to use it"


I do and it still comes up with that.  There's lots of comments on Brenda's blog from all you WOYWW'ers so why me, why can I not comment?


Sorry about that but hope someone can help me.  Now to my desk which was lovely and clean and tidy when I left on Friday for the show in Harrogate.  I came back whacked out and dumped my stuff, yesterday I emptied my box and this is it :

A shufty to the left and you can see what I bought at the show.  Not showing are the boxes for storage - £15 worth of clear plastic boxes.

Stamps, Dies, charms

and below are some of the diecuts I did back at the hotel on Saturday night with the dies I don't have (as yet LOL)

Those Memory Box dies are so finely detailed that I could not resist and even though I was tired and weary I had to keep going till I had one of almost each die Tracy had in one of her boxes.  Now what can I make?  I've laid them all out to sort into packets as they are so intricate and get caught up in one another.


I will be doing a tutorial on the quad easel card for those of you who saw me at Harrogate and anyone else who would like instructions.  Just give me a mo to tidy the room (again) and get organised with step to step (Blue Peter) samples.  Will be up before weekend, fingers crossed.

Fabulous Weekend

Just thought I would show you one or two photographs from Sunday. It was not quite as busy so I managed to get out of the booth a bit more and have a look around. It was good to see some more of my friends on Sunday too but I was surprised that only one person remarked on my WOYWW badge - and she doesn't post on the blog!

I just walked up from our stand to take this - supposed to show the crowds but doesn't really fit the bill does it?

Neither does this one taken down the side

But ... as promised

This is George

They insisted I put one of the pair of them on my blog so here you are - Gorjuss George and Luverly Liam.

with Calista Calibur - my machine

It turned out to be a lovely day and so I went outside for a breath of fresh Yorkshire air.  It was so nice to see the signs of Spring in the form of the lovely golden daffodils but I didn't get them on this photo.  Doh!  Had it been nice and warm the steps would have been full of people sitting eating lunch and just chattering.

This is Barbara whom I have worked with many many times.  It is always a joy to see and work with her and this time she was mainly demonstrating Becca's (Feeken) Peg Bowmaker alongside other things.  We had quite a laugh over the weekend, the most on Saturday when we were so squashed, because of the crowds behind us, we kept bumping into one another with our backsides.

Here's the boss - Tracey.  You will not believe what she did.  She made my machine squeak so that she could tell whether or not I was working.  Only kidding, but that's what she kept on saying.

These are some of the beautiful cards that were on Tracey's table. Fabulous dies that are so tempting - so tempting that half my pay went on buying new ones.  (The jar at the left hand side is one of the candles that George bought her for Mother's Day)

All too soon it was time to pack up - I say "all too soon" but to be honest we were all tired and ready for the show to finish, I don't think any of us recovered from Saturday being so busy.  Here are the crew packing up the stand (note the difference in the above photographs) - Oyster Stamps family - until the next time.

Before I leave you all I must just show you a shot or two of the room we had at The Days Inn on Weatherby Service Station.  Good value and a lovely wet room type shower.

Ooos!  Nearly forgot!

Do you recognise this lady from the TV?