WOYWW #140 February 8th

Whats On Your WorkDesk Wednesday #140 8th Feb 2012

Good morning All, Thank you all for so many wonderful comments and all the visits to my blog, over the past week.  I made it around all of the desks last week and left comments on 99.5% so I was feeling rather pleased with myself, however my poor ME addled brain didn’t like it much at all, so might not manage so many this week!!

I will try and keep my ‘waffling to a minimum today so onto my desk: 

Well quite different this week, yes a ltlle bit messy, I have been playing, colouring and getting sticky near the light you will see  some ‘pink’ decopatched items, a little piggy, a heart with a magnet on the back (so it can stick to the fridge) and a box and a large puzzle piece covered and made into a key ring, and a box which is what I planned on doing and ended up doing the rest as well! I bought the decopatch at Christmas along with variousshapes and boxes and a collection of decopatch tissue/papers for myself and my daughter to play with over the holidays, she made some lovely gifts for family and friends, and with half term coming up I would recommend it as a rainy day activity for children, its messy sticky fun but very easy to do,  a little expensive, however buying it direct from  The decopatch Place works out cheaper than Hobbycraft and you can buy single sheets of tissue, you will be surprised just how much you can do with one sheet, you could also make your own shapes or use items boxes/tins/frames that you have at home, It is fun and kids love it!

Also on my desk I have all my everyday tools and my wonderful pens, along with a few ink refills for some copics, a card  made for the lovely craft group I belong to on Yuku, following the sketch that is one of this months group challenges, my small red plastic basket filled with coloured images, Oh and a box of Glimmer Mists I bought in the Hobby craft sale, (I bought a few more things but they are out of view) £2.99 for 4 bottles, ( I love a bargain!) I have never used Glimmer mists before and have no idea what I will use them on but I am sure it will be fun playing.

Lastly, a wonderful new Stickles storage that hubby made me, it was so simple, a visit to B&Q, and a rummage through their wood box, that holds all the odd ends of wood that they sell of cheaply and he found the perfect piece of wood, It cost £1 and at home after finding the correct sized drill bit, he drilled 45 holes into it, it fits into my craft cupboard (old kitchen wall unit) perfectly and it now is my perfect stickle, liquid pearls, and anything else that comes in a similar sized bottle storage, and I have lots of room for more.  However it looks very plain and boring, so what can I do to it??? I have never altered anything before so any ideas (and instruction) very very gratefully received

Hope you all enjoy your weekly snoop around all the crafty desks/floors/tables or laps and remember to pop Over to The Queen of the desks at The Stamping Ground and leave Julia some love for coming up with the wonderful idea that is ‘What’s on your work desk Wednesdays’

Have a great week and thanks for your visits.

Lou x

P.s  Nearly forgot ‘a piccy’ of one of my fur babies, unhappy (well sulking really)  because of the snow!

Just For Fun - Practise will make perfect! One Day!

I have been practising colouring images, I still need to practise a lot more! But here are a few of my recent attempts:

This is my first ever attempt with Prisma Pencils

They have all been coloured with copics except this last one, which I didn't think was too bad for a first attempt, obviously still need to practise lots more with all colouring mediums, but i enjoy it and that's why I do it! I have also found that in real life they look 'OK' and look as if they have a 'OK' amount of depth and shadow, but in photos they need much darker shadows, I also have found that i need to learn how to take 'nicer photos' I think I will get there, in the end and in the mean time its fun trying!

Thanks for Looking, Hope the weather isn't causing you too many problems, Be like me, stay wrapped up in the warm 'colouring'!

Thank You My Friend Magnolia Card

This is one of my favourite Tilda’s from Magnolia, when I first saw these stamps I must admit I wasn’t keen on them, but they grow on you and now I have a small collection. I think this is called Sweet Tilda but I am sorry i have no idea what collection it comes from.

I actually made this card a little while ago but haven’t blogged it

(I'm sorry i haven't got any details )

I would like to enter this card into:

STAMPtacular Sunday Challenge #149

Diamonds or Pearls

also

Do You Stack Up challenge # 57 Anything Goes

Diva's by Design Challenge #20 Anything Goes

As you can see i have used pearls, I use a lot of 'pearls' on my cards and usually just buy white ones and colour them with pro-markers or copics.

A HUGE WELCOME to my new followers, i am amazed that i have 30 followers and every single comment means so much to me, the fact that you have taken the time to visit my blog and leave me a comment, touches my heart, and it makes me want to make 'better' cards and to improve my colouring and to expand my techniques so THANK YOU.

Hope you are having a great day

Lou x

Blog Candy at Laineys Den

Please go check out Laineys Den, not only does she have some amazing candy on offer but her cards are gorgeous.
Whenever I see blog candy that says become a follower I have to go looking through the persons blog because if I don't like the cards/creations the person makes i won't join (no matter what the candy is) so i started looking through Laineys Blog and thought Wow these are fabulous, Laineys blog is fairly new and had it not been for the blog candy i might not have found it, so i am advertising the blog candy so you too can go check out her blog and if by some miracle i do win it well i won't say no hehe.

Lou x

Hugs and Kisses - Friends Forever

A tiny 4x4 card, Penny Black stamped image from a Transparent set called
HUGS 30-020
coloured with Copics
E31, E33, E35, R20, E00
YR23, Y38
C0, C1 ,C3, C5, C7 & Blender Pen
I stamped the image twice and cut out the flower so i could layer it up like decoupage, used blue chalk for a very light sky and went round edge of image with blue ink.
Sentiment is a 'peel off' and tiny sticky backed flower gems are from stash and no idea where they came from!
Simples!!!!!

I would like to enter this card into these Challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge #186 = Floral Frenzy - flower of some description, must include a Penny Black stamp/sentiment/sticker
Stamps & Fun Challenge # 84 = Animals & Blue
Card Crafter's Circle Challenge # 7 = Friendship create something cheery for a friend
The Crafty Pad Challenge # 155 = Show some (anniversary/valentine) Love

Thank you for looking :-)

Whats On Your Workdesk? Wednesday #139

Wednesday has come round fast again, but no complaining from me because it means I get to Look (snoop, be nosey) around all the wonderful crafty desk’s and why do I do this I hear you cry, well if you are from Mars and have no idea what I am on about you might cry it but otherwise you will know, because everyone knows it’s WOYWW, you see on a Wednesday Julia from The Stamping Ground, hosts a weekly party that is WOYWW and us nosey crafters can put pictures of our desks/tables/laps/floors, on our blogs and then we all have a good look around other peoples crafty spaces, leave a few comments and enjoy it a lot!!!. Last week I managed 168 desks and left comments on almost all of them, Thank you for all your lovely comments it was lovely to hear from you.

So onto my desk firstly is my laptop, at the back is my little blue bucket with my every day tools in, also at the back is a little glass, my daughter decorated for me many moons ago, and that holds my Sukura pens, my 2 fine tip glue’s, are always on my desk, (I use these all the time) some double sided tape oh a few stamped images and the copics that I haven’t put away from colouring the image on the tiny card in the front, in the wooden box is CD cases filled with the small free sets of stamps you get from magazines, on top of the box my newly acquired blending tool and some distress inks, (got to learn how to use this) and to the left is my ruler and scissors and the remnants of the card I used for the tiny card in the front, so no new crafty stash, no lovely layouts or artistic journals or a wonderful sewing project, no knitting, not much at all really

So I decided after showing my Marker hints and tips book, last week, I would show you another book that is always on my desk.

Card designs are always something I have always struggled with, either lack of mojo, or I just can’t ‘think’ (a problem that many CFS sufferers struggle with) so a couple of years ago whenever I saw a card sketch I liked I would save it to my computer, well that wasn’t much help because I could never find them again, or by the time I had looked at them all, I was either fed up or too tired and couldn’t craft, so I started printing them out and sticking them in a book, In hindsight, I should have printed the sketches much smaller and kept a better record of where they came from and who designed them, and the date I found/printed it, but whenever my mojo is hiding, I look through my book of ‘inspirational sketches’ and I can always find one that suits the situation. Image or design papers, and now I am never stuck for ideas, it sort of gives my brain a little kick and I might turn the sketch around, I might add or take away something, I usually simplify it because I like simple cards, but I am not wonderfully gifted like many of the card makers out there, I cannot look at an image or some papers, and a great card design instantly pops into my head in fact this hardly ever happens, so these great sketches, that wonderful people with lots of skill and talent create, I keep in a handy book, so I am never without a layout idea. It is a huge help and stays on my desk along with my marker hints and tips book.

I also thought I would show you how I store my Spellbinder Dies, as I explained before, my craft room is really my Sons bedroom so when he comes home from university during the holidays I want all my crafting ‘stuff’ to be put away in the cupboards so he can have his bedroom back.

I use Old DVD Cases (again recycling otherwise would be rubbish)

As you can see I have two strips of Magnetic tape stuck on the inside of the case and the sets of dies ‘stick’ to this so aren’t loose, so don’t get lost, and then on the outside of the case I have used copy paper, printed the name of the die set, and a layered the shape (square in this case) and also included the sizes of the dies, to show me what’s in each DVD case –Having the layered shape also helps me know/notice if there is one missing!! I had heard of people using CD cases but I had lots of old DVD cases and thought I would use those and again it works really well for me, the larger rectangle and label dies fit in them and they stack nicely in the cupboard with easy to read labels on the spines.

I hope that by sharing these ideas with you, they might be of help to someone.

I did warn you I can ‘waffle’ on my blog header lol if your still with me, Thank you, :-) pop along to Julia’s and leave her some love, and see how many others have joined in this week.

Thanks again for visiting and for your comments, it really does mean a lot to me that you take the time to leave me a message. Hope you all have a great crafty week.