WOYWW 157

Well, celebrations over more ways than one.  If you are in the UK as I am it has been a weekend (on and off wet!) of Jubilee Celebrations as well as all the WOYWW'ers celebrating three years of Julia's brainchild - What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday?

That meant that, in some cases, trading could not be done with the ATC's that we were swapping as addresses had to be exchanged and the PO's were closed for a long Bank Holiday Weekend.  Still, I got mine from Annie and Mary Anne so here they are - and both beauties!

This came from my partner Mary Anne and was wrapped up in purple tissue with a lovely bow on and then in a delightful envelope (shown below with the atc).

This came from Annie and was a picture of poppies (my favourite flowers - cups, plates and pictures are around in my house as well as silk ones) - done by dumfing!  I was well impressed!  Here it is with the lovely card that accompanied it:

Love the pot of gold the rainbow falls into

As all of mine have not yet been received I am holding back showing them but several have winged their way across the waters and along the roads to some very lovely people.

Thanks Julia for a wonderful idea that has culminated in so many friendships being formed.  Here's to the next  anniversary and here's my workdesk this week. Sewing is the order of the day!

And before I forget, for those who were here last week - my new cupboard - needs painting like the other one.

and lastly

My battered, wet Poppies in the garden

But look how many buds I have to come out yet - hope this rain stops and I can enjoy them.

If any of you want a scan of the template for producing the pyramid box in the previous two posts send me an email and I will scan one through to you.

Done One More

Well, between watching the Regatta and other things I made another Pyramid box - this is for a friend of mine who was not at the class yesterday and who likes Steampunk.  Still like my green one with the leaf lid the best though - it must be the colours I like.  I did them with chalks ages ago but then just left the whole thing and decorated it on Saturday at the class.

 Inside (click to enlarge)

 Outside (click to enlarge)

I wanted to use my Vagabond but has it has not been used for simply ages I found that I had lost my lead in the big tidy up I have been having of late.  Frantic!  Frantic!  Frantic!  All hands to the deck and all that.  Anyway, at least I put some of the things down in my inventory that I had missed whilst looking and then when I had given up and whilst Chas was wading through a pile of electrical leads I spotted it - on the hostess trolley by the door.  That was a real Phew moment I can tell you.

Anyway, I managed to run some cogs through it for the said box and did some with the Spellbinders Sprightly Sprockets too.  A few stamped images and it was ready for assembly.  Here it is

Complete with some dangly bits made out of shrink plastic and hanging from jump rings on the edge of the top piece.

The inside when opened out

Thought I would flatten and show you the images that make up the outside of the pyramid - I had very few images that would fit but then I always prefer to use partial images anyway as I sometimes think the small ones look a bit lost.

Without looking back through my blog posts I cannot tell you the name of the stamp company they came from but as it is no longer in existence I guess it does not matter.  Shame, as they had a good selection, especially of Steampunk.

Entered into the following challenges
Blessings inc
2 Sisters
Catch the Bug Challenge
Secret Crafter

If anyone wants the template just email me (see right sidebar) and give me your addie and I will scan it in for you.  Self explanatory.

Victoria Stampers

Well, it was the monthly meeting of Vicky Stampers yesterday and I was leading the workshop.  Lynne, our Programme Officer had seen some pyramid boxes at my house the last time she was here and she asked if I would do a workshop on them.

Now these were done for Craft Stamper a few years ago and I'd taught them at a workshop since the publication had arrived at the shops, given most of my samples away (obviously the better ones) so was not that enthused about them.  Consequently I did not start preparing for my workshop that early and when I did I found that the "wings" needed a bit shaving off them to allow for the holes to be punched for the satay sticks so it meant a whole new set of drawings had to be done.

By late Friday evening I was ready and set off yesterday morning with two very old samples and one partly done which I intended to complete at the club.  Well, it went much better than anticipated and here are some photographs of my latest sample and of what the girls made:

This shows the outside of mine and the tiny starbook for inside

(not decorated yet) (pale green pages measure 3/4" across)

Could not resist showing you the second one Sheila made - her funky Jubilee Weekend Pyramid - isn't that fab!

Inside they open to reveal more pictures

Hope you enjoyed this trip to Vicky Stampers!

Pan Pastels

Last week saw me busy playing with what Pan Pastels I had bought and doing some experimenting in a Pink Pig Book.  The only way to learn how to use them is to do some experimenting and here are a couple of my tries.

This one has Mica on it and there is some gold embossing.  Cannot remember what the script stamp is but I know I like it.  The other two background stamps are two from Cath Wilson from when she had the shop and did her own stamps.  Not sure if you can get them now but they are great for backgrounds as fillers.

I think most of these are Tim Holtz stamps

This saw me experimenting with some tissue paper stuck on over the Pan Pastels and you can see I used an eraser quite a bit on this page. Loved this, try it where you erase the whole image and also where you just erase part of it.

Well, I am going to leave it there.  Will upload some more for you another day but right now I am tired and I am teaching all day tomorrow so an early night is in order.  

Hope you like these two playabouts.

Back from Cleethorpes

Just got back from a few days in Cleethorpes.  All of this was a surprise for Sam (one third of the trio on Artful Times) who lives close by.

It started off with my trip to the Lincoln Show which I thoroughly enjoyed and have already blogged about but omitted to say that I saw my dear friend Ali from Ali-Crafts with whom I am doing a workshop in a couple of months time.  Got some gorgeous stamps from her to use in the workshop and bought some too.  You should check out her website.

Sneak Peek

Also didn't put the photograph of Tom and Liam up so here it is now

or the one of Tracey and Tara

After we left the show we made our way to Cleethorpes to enjoy an evening of sunshine in a seaside resort. I had been longing for a bit of sea air for weeks and this lovely weather we were having was perfect for it.  After a lovely meal at Steels (Sam said we could not go to Cleethorpes without a meal at Steels - lovely food, loads of prawns on my dish and you should have seen the size of the fish and chips everyone else had!) it was a quick stroll down on the pier and then back to bed for a well needed sleep.

Next day it was exploring Cleethorpes for Chas and myself.  Here I am by the boating lake and below is Chas playing some musical pipes by the childrens sandy area.  I did want to take photographs of the play area but with the way things are I did not want to upset any parents.  Shame, but that is the way it has got now.

Below - a couple of poppies in the wild garden area

and not a clue what this is - Chas went down to photograph it for me

Bet you thought Spencer had been missed out - well no, how could I not take him, here he is sat on a rice peasants hat (the rice peasant was not in Cleethorpes, just the hat)

All too soon it was time to say Au Revoir to Sam and Fraz.  Here we are, not sure why he is sat on my knee but isn't he a beauty?  You should have seen him with Chas, why do dogs always make more fuss of him than me?

See you soon Sam!

WOYWW 156 WotAMess

Well, what about this lovely weather we are having?  I am sure it cannot be any hotter abroad than it is here today.  The weathermen tell us it is set to break - hope it soon comes back and we get more of a summer than we have had in previous years.  Back to how it used to be when I was a child and my son was a child and ..... even before that ...

Anyway, all you WOYWW'ers out there - hope you are all well and that Julia's dad is healing with this lovely sunshine filtering through to him.  What am I talking about and who the heck are WOYWW'ers? Well pop over here and you will see just what I am on about.  You might catch the gist of it.  You might even swap an atc with it being the THIRD birthday of WOYWW.  Congratulations Julia and all you WOYWW'ers!

This is my desk today.  No crafting for me!  I am waiting for Ian to come and build me another set of shelves like the ones he built a couple of weeks ago.  These will not be as wide and certainly not as deep but I am hoping they will house a bit more of my stuff tidily. So, as you can see, this is normally the area I craft on and there is not an inch of space.  Everywhere else is full too (including the floor in our bedroom) so I just hope I can find everything when I come to put it all back.  At least I am hoping I can put all my books together for once.

click on the picture for a bigger one and see the mess

Now a couple of weeks ago you might remember I asked if anyone would like to meet up in Manchester.  I didn't post about it then as one of our number was over here on holiday.  She and I had been corresponding a bit and she wrote to say she would be over in Manchester for a few weeks so we decided to meet up.

Here she is - that gives you a clue as to where she comes from

So who knows what flag this is?

This was taken in the Northern Quarter in Manchester where Ann, Donna, Jo, Shaz (yes, it is Shaz from Oz) and myself had lunch.  And a lovely lunch it was too.  Here we all are

Me, Ann, Jo, Donna - Shaz took the photo.

Must say that the photos were taken after Shaz and I had spent a good hour in Paperchase (she loved those papers and I think she went back at least twice before she left for home), and we had met the others in Cafe Nero and had gone on to Afflecks Palace where they were all WOW'ed with the Jewellery bits.

In Afflecks

The Diner in Afflecks

We had a wander around the Galleries, marvelling at the prices of the goods, and then made our way to Abakahn where some of us bought rubber stamps (and someone got so hooked on them she bought more at another place another day).

All too soon it was time to say goodbye and as Sharon headed back to her family I took Jo and Donna into Paperchase.  I just left them there - they never disclosed how much they spent or how long they stayed!!!

It was lovely meeting Shaz, especially as we had chatted and emailed before we actually met up, and now I have my own little Australian corner in my craft room.  Thanks Shaz - you are one in a million!

Loving memories of a great meet up

and the Brits are making it a regular occurrence!

Today I Went to Lincoln

Yes, today, in glorious sunshine saw me heading to Lincoln to see my friends, the Oyster Family, and surprise another friend, Sam, from Artful Times. Mind you with hindsight I would not have been surprising Sam (and her lovely friend Maz) as they very nearly didn't see me and I certainly did not see them.

It was lovely when I first walked in to see George at the door and then to see Tracey with Pam, a Design Team member. Pam was in the blog hop with me and we met for the first time - she was as lovely as I thought she would be and before long we were working alongside Barbara, giving Martine a break. Unfortunately I did not get a photo with Pam but Tracey took one of Martine and Barbara with me.





After a quick stint on the stand I went for a recce of the show and saw Wendy from Cardio and Ali with her new designs on her own stand. No Sam or Max though!

Back to Oyster and a hope that Sam would see me. Nothing. A visit to the cafe with Pam, still no sign of the elusive pair. Nothing for it but to demonstrate some of the lovely new dies - and there are some beauties. You want to see the Cheery Lynn flowers, lots of them and the individual ones are so reasonably priced. Loved a new fairy one too and forgot to buy it so I am afraid there is going to be an order wending its way down to Kent shortly. Now don't you be getting your order in before mine!

Not long before it was time for me to pack up and collect my purchases I just looked up and there she was - Sam. It had been her friend Maz who had seen me - and she had only seen me the once before. Here we are





in front of the stand, well a bit of it. It was huge.

It's a shame I can't show you all the photos now but I will load them up another day. Before I go, however, I will leave you with this one of me strangling Tracey - not really it was Tracey who gave me a big hug but only coming up to my shoulder it looks as if I am strangling her.





Will post some of the lovely lads tomorrow. A great show hope I get to go next time too. Before I go, Sam was so pleased to know that Oyster had now got the 20 sized trays in for the Pan Pastels. You really want to check out Oysters website for the great prices and the offer they have on Pan Pastels, but not until I have got more of them myself.

Toodlepip!

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