Tuesday, April 30, 2013

From the budgies

Anyone fed up with the budgies yet? Still got loads left, so expect still more feathers!


Budgies and washi tape today :) Hope you're having a fabulous Tuesday!

Monday, April 29, 2013

Less is more.

I'm embracing my inner minimalist. Ha. If only! 
But.... I am trying to make less cluttered cards occasionally, which is a real challenge, when your natural reaction is to throw the craft room at each card!

So- the challenge at Less is More is a Sketch, so I thought I'd have a bash. 


Still in love with Hunk from Stampotique.


The background oval is stamped with Brilliance ink. The party is bumped up with 3D pads so it looks as if hunk is holding it. The spotty stripe is washi tape.

I really like it, hope it's clean enough for the challenge.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Owl wishes


I had this background left over from another project, and it was too pretty to cover up completely.


To see how I made the background, take a look at this post.

The wide eyed owls are Octopode creations. The fab sentiment is from a foam backed stamp set I picked for a song, they're lovely big typewriter-y words.

I'm entering this into the Digital Tuesday challenge- Birthdays

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Hunk + budgie + budgie = card

I'm still working on those budgies. Today- a hunk, budgie, budgie pile up, yay!




I'm entering this into the Stampotique Designers challenge- trimmed stamped images,
and into the Simon says stamp and show some colour challenge.


Wednesday, April 24, 2013

WOYWW, still the budgies...thanks for asking.

OK, WOYWW time, for more desks than mine, go to Julia's Stamping Ground, it's ace.


My desk is still relatively tidy- in that you can see the glass and wood! The budgies are still there, in the lid of  a shoe box now, I'm using them- lots of ideas still, just no time to put them into practice, as usual. OK, sparkly points up for grabs for spotting:

  • Stamped, coloured and cut out Stampotique hunks
  • My Stampotique tag book with a newly coloured couple of pages
  • The corner of a Kraft backed DT card
  • The new stamps box, which has turned into the stamps to put away box


Have a fun Wednesday!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Budgies part 2.......Hot flowers


The second budgie project is ready to be unveiled......


First I dabbed and sprayed....


Then I stamped and cut.....


Then I stamped and glued!


Budgie-tastic. A card for a friend's birthday. Not sure if she's into budgies, but I know the colours are right up her street.

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

CASual Fridays- birthday
Craft Room challenge- so sentimental



Sunday, April 21, 2013

Dark and sparkly

It's all gone a bit dark, lots of black and red for this ATC.


The little zombie ragdoll from the Octopode Factory is so creepy sweet :)

The Stampin' Up flowers are stamped in Brilliance Moonlight white on black card, it's turned out really well!

I'm entering this into the following challenges:
Wicked Wednesdays ATC challenge- black, white and 1 other colour
Allsorts- A passion for flowers

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Happy Hump (and WOYWW) Day!

Wednesday at last! This week has already felt like it's 3 months long.......

Wednesday means half way through the week, and time to look at everyone's desks at WOYWW- hop over to Julia's Stamping Ground to see more.

A slightly more aerial shot of my desk today, for no other reason than I thought of lifting my arms above my head. That epiphany has taken me 3 years......


OK, sparkly Wednesday points for spotting......

  • My Stampotique tag book 
  • A couple of dinky little heart buttons cut off an old t-shirt of my daughter's
  • Something with WOYWW on......
  • A lovely bold HELLO I cut out of a magazine
  • The cellophane bag of budgies- if you want to see Budgie makes part 1, click here


Regular visitors might spot that my desk is a bit tidier than usual..... I had a major tidy/shift around at the weekend, and blogged it here, so take a look if you want to see all the way around my craft space. I won't bore you with the usual "concerted effort to keep it tidy" words, but they're there in my head!

Right, off to eat cereal and get ready for work.....I'd much rather be blog hopping. Thanks to everyone who leaves me a WOYWW comment, and please can I apologise now if I don't get back to you. Wednesdays are manic in my house- but WOYWThursday doesn't quite have the same ring now, does it?

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The budgies.......part one.

So.... the budgies......


I adore my Stampotiques so very much I decided to make something with them to keep. This is a tag book- the outside cover is covered but not finished yet.


A bit closer.....



Awww, the budgies have fallen out of love..... I made this for the Stampotique designers' challenge- April showers.

The clouds are Unity stamps, the background is made with radiant rains and I've used liberal amounts of glossy accents- well, why not?

Monday, April 15, 2013

Blue heart

This is a little mid-month reminder of the A Little Bit Crafty April challenge. 


It's a free Anything goes challenge this month, with some lovely prizes up for grabs, so well worth a punt!



I used another digi from one of our sponsors- A little bit creepie. He looks so very sad :(



Coloured with my favourite water colour pencils.......with a background of Stampotique foliage stamped round the edges and spot of glitter and glossy accents for a bit of zing. 

Your turn. Come and show us your stuff!

I'm entering this into the Simon Says......background challenge.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

It's tidy. Quick look now before it disappears!

I've tidied up the craft space. I know, I know, an abominable use of a Sunday morning, but it had to be done.........



OK, here's the views. First, the overall view, bit
dark this photo. This is in our dining rooms, in our extension, behind me as I took this photo is the dining table and an arch to the kitchen and the rest of the house.



From the left- with the door to the garden on my left, firstly I have the shelves which used to contain all of my stash, ha ha haaaa, that seems like a million years ago...... now it's got boxes with paints, inks, sprays, embellishments, fabric, flowers, chalks, pastels, films, clay, all sorts of things, third shelf down has files with stamped images, plus books to tear up, maps, and the latest Stampin' Up catalogues.

The red drawers are from Ikea and contain bits of stationery, adhesives, sponges, embossing powders, perfect pearls and odds and sods.

On top of the red drawers you have my ink pad drawers, with lots of lovely Distress, Impress, Stazon, Brilliance, Versafine, Stampin Up pads :)

On top of that is the scraps file, baby wipes and begind those, is a letter rack with bottles like Glossy Accents, stamp cleaner and the like. Squeezed down the side of the inks drawers is my trusty A4 Fiskars paper trimmer.

Now onto the desk! Facing the window, it looks onto the drive and the road, not the most scintillating, but it does let me be nosy, lol.

On the window sill, my orange rubbish bin, blue bin with bots to put away and beloved watercolour pencils pot.

On the desk itself- to the left some plant pots I've just emptied of pens, my fabulous pink ATG monster which it sooooooo useful. Box with new stamps to try out, pink box with bits and dabs to use on a journal page, lamp, heatgun (which I intend to hang from a hook as soon as I buy said hook! Picture I've made and want to sell.

The desk is an L shape, with the bit to my right that pulls out to make more work surface. That currently has this month's Craft Stamper, my calendar journal and my Works in Progress box, sitting on 3 A4 green cutting mats, a brown ranger mat and some A3 paper, which I use to line my workmat.

The lovely Mr put me the rail with the coloured pots onto my desk yesterday. Fab innit? Ikea again, it's got pens, glue, mini alphabet stamps which I use constantly, so they don't go back in the alphabet stamp drawers (yes there's more than one....), tapes, scissors and my favourite black inkpads. Plus under the desk is the usual boxes of things to be altered, a Cinch, a Melting Pot.......

Onto the right........ sitting on the edge of my desk, the smaller drawer tower holds ATC paraphenalia (backs and sleeves and such), mini ink pads and blending foams, gel and glaze pens, gems, acrylic blocks, stickles and at the bottom a drawer of found bits- interesting bits of metal usually, or odd earrings, broken jewellery, springs, things that might just come in useful on a project. On top is my address file, and a carousel for blending tool handles.

The taller tower goes to the floor and has a drawer for each colour of ribbon, plus one for buttons at the bottom and one for Flexmarkers at the top.

Then there's the pooter, with Miss Little Legs' GIANT keyboard (there's a normal one just underneath)


 Next shot- pooter and printer and drawers with the kids cards and paper.

Plus a glimpse of the new Ikea shelving. Loooooove it!


OK, top row L-R: Craft books, Journals, Colouring stuff- pencils & H20s in one of the picnic baskets, 12x12 paper pads and smaller paper pads, Himself's "locker".
Second row L-R: scrapbooks, son's homework cubbyhole, drawers with boring stationery in, white, cream and black card and acetate and a few more 12x12 pads, my blue "locker.
Third row L-R: empty shelf (wow!), red paper box with colour sorted card and paper in yellows through to blues, stationery drawers, another red box with papers and card from green through to metallics, son's black "locker".
Fourth row L-R: PC related stuff and scrapbook kits, another empty shelf!!!!, crafting tote, pretty boxes with bits in, Miss Little Legs' cubby hole, then her green "locker".
Bottom row L-R: boring paperwork files, ATC folders, Craft Stamper magazines, Promarkers case and cuttlebug, school file and more paperwork.

On top- library drawers (love them), my librarian knitted by my lovely Nan, boxes of padded envelopes and tissue paper.There are a few little bits on display on the shelves too- things I've made or been given :)

Whew, congratulations if you made it this far. I think I may have been a liiiiiitle bit too detailed in my explanations, but then when I'm noseying at people's craft spaces, I like to know what things are. Our "lockers" are because I was fed up of school and work bags dumped everywhere. You'd be amazed at how much you can fit into one of those little cupboards.I still have empty shelves and drawers to fill, but I'm not stressing over sorting it, because stash expands quickly, so I'm sure it'll all be filled soon!

Ooh, and I nearly forgot my stamp storage- on the wall directly opposite the computer, built by himself- clever old thing he is.

Lots of A4 boxes labelled with categories, in alphabetical order, or as close as I can get it. It's the librarian training....... so first 3 are alphabets (told you, more than one), then animals, backgrounds......highlights include a fish and reptiles box, 3 Stampotiques and one that says weird.

On the top are recipe books, a Stampin Up alphabet that just won't fit without a major move round that I'm not up to yet, an altered house and the white sweetie jar.


Right, I'm going to go. All this tidy space is making me itch to inky it all up! If you visit, leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Better still, show me your workroom and I'll visit. Yay!


Wednesday, April 10, 2013

WOYWW. Budgies, budgies and still more budgies......

Happy Wednesday everyone, Wednesday means show us yer desk time at Julia's Stamping Ground.....so here's mine!


Whoops, no, that's a parade of budgies.....


Here's my desk, with a few of the aforementioned budgies in place! Sparkly points for spotting:
  • Lots of pots of newly acquired Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam. Haven't used them yet, very sparkly exciting!!!
  • My beloved Stampin' Up spiral punch- used on the edge of a piece of beige paper on the card to the left- it punches the holes a piece of paper ripped from a spiral bound notebook would have
  • A picture I made from punched butterflies, liking this a lot, but more on that in a later post......
  • Budgies!
  • Tweedle dee and dum- a new Stampotique stamp, yay!



Oh and budgies.... shall I explain? Nah, don't think I will. Suffice to say that I've been colouring and cutting them out all week and they make me laugh.

Go on then, show your desk too.




Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Teeny tiny cards

These are going to be given as a little part of a bigger gift.





They're teeny. Cute eh?

Friday, April 5, 2013

Clever Miss little legs

Look at what my beautiful Miss Little Legs made!


She did all of the sewing and gluing herself- with a little bit of help holding things.


That's my girl :)

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Stash! That's what's on my workdesk this Wednesday!

Look what I gots me :)


A whopping big stash haul through the post last week. Including a proper Pan pastel bargain which is still making me smile ;D


Plus, this is my Stampotique blog hop prize........yeah! Love 'em all, but particularly please with the little France Papillon birdie. Thank you Stampotique!

I'm not showing my actual desk, cos I've got a secret project all over it, for my lovely friend whose birthday is next week. Shhh, it's a surprise!

Check out all the other workdesks at Julia's Stamping Ground :)

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Can you see a ghost?


Heat embossed with white powder to make a blackboard effect. The Stampotique designer challenge is to use a mask- I sponged white Brilliance ink through and heat embossed to make the tiles.

Monday, April 1, 2013

My withered heart

Today sees the launch of the new A little bit crafty challenge blog.


When Paula asked me to be part of the design team, I made sure she knew my stuff was sometimes a liiiiiiitle bit off the wall, and then jumped at the chance! The April challenge is Anything Goes, and there are some super-duper prizes to be won.

Our fab sponsors for this challenge are:


My mum's craft shop£10 voucher
 
$20 voucher
 
3 free digis
 

My Mum's Craft shop are also offering a 10% discount on all products in their online shop- for the code and details, check out the challenge blog!

I used a digi from one of this month's sponsors- Creepie cute called Withered too soon. 


Brill, isn't he? Coloured with watercolour pencils, the background is Distress Ink splodged, and the some of the hearts have a 3D glaze on. Ooh, and look, look, look! I used my new Drippy Goo punch for the bottom edge (there's actually a double layer but it's hard to make out).

Did I say the challenge is Anything Goes? Well, it is, so whatever you've just made- enter it!

I'm entering this into the Simon Says challenge- Anything goes