That makes up for it

This arrived in the post this morning from Julia Dunnit.  It is the book she was asked to review and then she put it up as a prize on her blog.  I could not believe I had won, but it does look a really great book.  Thank you so much Julia, and thank you to Mr Dunnit for picking my numbers.

This not all, though.  Also in the parcel was this lovely card from Julia, which really cheered me up.  You are so right, Julia, you cannot rewirnd life.  You have to live every minute as if it is your last.  Make the most of all you have.

Thank you again Julia.

Why did I bother to go to bed?

I feel really lacking in the creation side of life this morning.  I cannot cope without at least 6 hours of sleep each night, and get quite grumpy when I am deprived, not to mention falling asleep at the drop of a hat for the next few days. 

Everything conspired against me last night, starting with the attack of the huge housefly (at least six inches across) while I was reading my Kindle, with the aid of a flexilight attached to the cover.  After he hit me 5 times, I gave up and put the light off.  Then the dogs decided to have an attack of wanderlust for the next hour or so.  They are only small dogs, but sound like elephants when they tramp around at night. 

Then Gemma decided that she had to go out NOW!!!  So I grumbled, not too quietly, fell out of bed, stumbled round the room to the door, managed to leave Flash behind (two dogs barking in the garden at night is not to be desired).  Gemma tore downstairs , woofing all the way, pirouetted at the kitchen door,  flew across the tiled floor, pirouetted again at the patio door.  Trying to put a lead on a dog who is whirling like a dervish is not the easiest, especially when you are desperately trying not to open your eyes.  She shot out of the door, stood on the lawn, and sniffed at the grass, then she came back onto the patio and stared very intently at the garage door.  That is quite unnerving so late at night - you wonder what horrors she can see that might come to get you any minute now.  Anyway she came back in, having done nothing, and rushed to the hall door, ready to go back to bed.

So now, wide awake and cold, I stumble back upstairs, put Gemma firmly back to bed, read a bit more of my book (Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb - a fantasy book), then tried to get back to sleep.  Almost there and the milkman came round the road with much revving of noisy diesel engine and screeching of brakes.  All the local dogs, including our two, erupted into barking.

All through this lot, my OH slept soundly, and did not even notice when I stubbed my toe on the corner of the bed.  He only woke when he had a vivid dream and knocked something onto the floor. 
By this time, I had given up as it was time to get up. 

Now I am even crosser as Geoff has just come back from the weekly shop with the news that some "kind" person has bashed the roof of the Freelander, dented it and put a kink just above the tailgate.  That has to be deliberate.  What pleasure did they get out of it?  No wonder all our insurance premiums are out through the roof.  I wish I could get hold of that person ..... Grrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I have to gather myself together and get back to the cards that have to be finished today and put in the post.

Hope you all have a better day.

WOYWW - 122

I am impressed with myself this week.  I actually did some crafting.  I actually remembered to take the camera (with newly charged battery) up to my craft room, and I remembered to take some photos.  I have also remembered to post a few this time.  By the way, I am putting this post together on Tuesday evening to make sure I remember.

This first picture shows some of my mess.  The Sainsbury's carrier bag is the recycling rubbish, while the non-recycle stuff is in the poo bags (nappy sacks), which are hanging on the light by the window.  I did have quite a bit of clear space this morning, but ideas took over, and the space shrank.

Moving to the right, you can see my computer screen (the keyboard is on the floor, as usual, propped up against the cupboard, and the poor mouse is also buried).  The pretty patterns on the screen are on Windows Media Player and shows that I am playing music, which is stored on the computer.  Today's choice was one of Hayley Westenra's albums, followed by a bit of Spanish pop (downloaded to accompany the photo slideshows from our Spanish trip). 

This lot is on the floor against the cupboard with the two printers on.  I won't show you the printers because you would not see them for all the stuff stacked on top.  You might have gathered by now that my room is full of piles of stuff at the moment.  One of these days I will get around to find space for all the stuff again.

This is my main project for tomorrow - to finish this design.  The stamps are from a set by Sheena Douglass.  I had a go yesterday, but that ended up as a disaster, with no redeeming features about it.  So I turned the card over and started again today, in a more methodical way.  I had intended to colour the train in GWR colours for a friend's birthday, but my colouring  of the black was blotchy and horrid.  so I have decided to do the whole thing in sepia  and to age the card with distress inks.  I shall leave that till tomorrow morning (Wednesday) to ensure that the ink is absolutely dry.

This card is one that almost put itself together and I am quite happy with it.  The couple whose wedding we went to in Spain spent part of their honeymoon in Bratislava, and he particularly loved the castle.  So I managed to find a black and white image, which I turned sepia (using Roxio Photosuite).  I imported it into My Craft Studio and reduced the opacity before printing it on to watercolour card..  That dried very fast, so I trimmed it  a little, before aging the whole thing using cut and dry foam and one of the Tim Holtz distress inks (cannot remember the colour offhand).

I used two different shades of PDA Majestic and Stardream pearlescent card to mount it, first onto dark brown with a very tiny border, then onto the dark olive green card.  I cropped the original image to use as part of the insert and changed the colour of the writing to match (using My Craft Studio).

If you managed to get all the way through to here this week, why don't you click on the link and pop over to Julia Dunnit's pad,  http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

where you will find loads more interesting desks and some beautiful work to drool over.  Meanwhile, I will try to get round as many of your desks this week to see what you have been up to.  Happy Crafting.

WOYWW - 121

No pictures of my actual desk this week, just a couple of cards just completed, done in rather a rush.  I am still in the middle of a major tidy up, so there is not a lot of space in which to play.  This first one is for the anniversary of our close friends.  Hopefully they will not see it before the day.  

I used a couple of the Big and Juicy ink pads to brayer the background onto a Clarity silk art card.  The brayering could have been better, but fortunately the stamp covered the worst faults.  The stamps were all from the Clarity range.  The couple in the boat came out better than I thought they would.  I did the reflection first, by inking the stamp and running the brayer up it.  Then I could position the reflection roughly in the right area, before stamping the main image just above it.  When the whole thing was dry, I used a white Sakura pen to add highlights.  The whole thing was mounted using Pinflair glue on to dark blue card from Paper Mill, and finally on to a A5 Clarity silk art card.

 

This second card was done in the same way, with the same ingredients, but for some reason the printing seems to be darker on this one. I really like the oriental feel of these stamps, and they really lend themselves to this blend of colours.  I do need a lot more practice again with the brayering to get the smooth blends that Barbara Gray achieves.  I still have a lot of Christmas cards to do so the brayer will be well used in the next few weeks, not to mention a lot of masking, embossing and stamping (not necessarily in that order).

I thought you may like to see one or two more photos from our flying visit to Spain.  The area was completely free from touristy rubbish, well off the normal trails, more of the real Spain.  This castle is Berlanga de Duero, so spectacular, and seriously dramatic in a thunder storm.  The wedding reception was held here, the canapes on this terrace, the main meal and speeches in the marquee, and the evening reception back out on the terrace.  The whole place is spectacular, especially when floodlit at night, and visible from quite a distance.

This is the church of San Juan de Rabanera in Soria, again beautifully lit at night.  It is classed as an ancient monument, with good reason, and really well kept.  The area around it was pristine, no rubbish anywhere.  In fact, that was one thing that struck us about the whole town - no rubbish lying around, the town square washed every morning.  The people were so proud of their town.

The last photo for today is not a wonderful picture but it intrigued me.  I took it from the plane as we were dropping down through the clouds coming home.  If you look carefully, you can see the shadow of the plane on the clouds.  It shows a phenomenon called a Glory, where you get a rainbow halo around the shadow of the plane.  Sadly, the rainbow does not show up as well as it did in real life, but you can see the brighter cloud around the shadow.  The science is that the sun is directly behind my viewpoint, so shining through the ice and water in the air to create the rainbow.

Maybe, next week there will be a bit more crafty stuff to show you, but till then, why don't you wander round to Julia's pad (http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/) to find the link to many really crafty people who give us the chance to take a sneaky peak at their desks.

PS Does anyone have any idea on how to get mica powders off a Versamark pad?

Beware of Unscrupulous scammers

This is not one of those mass produced scare mongering warnings.  Some of you may have come across it already, so apologies if you have heard this before. 

Friends of ours were having trouble with their emails and in continued "discussion" with Virgin on the subject.  Virgin could not fix it. 

The next phone call was from a "company" called Comantra.  The person talking was a foreigner, very quietly spoken, and led our friends to believe that he had been put onto them to sort out  their problems.  He then asked them to do a few things on the computer, and then said that they were not registered with Microsoft, and it would cost them somewhere around £80 to sort that out, then they would have no more trouble.

At this point they realised that this company was nothing to do with the problems they actually had and refused to pay anything.  The Comantra man got rather tetchy and hung up.

I have done quite a bit of research on the internet and found that this company has a website and claims to be a partner of Microsoft.  However, this claim is totally false, and there are loads of horror stories about how people have been conned into paying this money and then even more to pay for continued "support" from them.  Apparently once you have paid this money there is no redress, as no actual crime has been committed.  The office of Comantra is apparently in India.

If you have any phone call from anyone claiming that you have a fault on your computer or you have a virus, this is a scam.  All you need to say is that you record all calls for your protection and for the caller's protection.  Ask them how they know this, have they been hacking into your computer.  Ask for their details and suggest that you will check them with the police.  The chances are that by this time they will have hung up anyway.

Microsoft NEVER cold call people.  If you want help from them, it takes a lot of time and endless patience to find what you want from their website.

Check this out for yourself on the internet, and if you agree and find that what I have said is true, then pass it on to your friends and relatives in some way.  Microsoft have done some research and found that out of 7000 people, 1000 will have come across this scam, and out of that 1000, there will be over 200 who will have fallen for it and paid over money to these scammers.

We did sort out our friends' email problems in 5 minutes, and we ran all the protection software to ensure that no hacking had taken place.

Our virus software of choice is Eset Smart Security, which has been proved to be the best in catching new viruses and old.  In addition, we run Spybot Search and Destroy (free to download, update and use), and Malwarebytes, which picks up different problems and clears them.  These 3 programs seem to help avoid the dreaded "blue screen of death".

Another free but very useful program to run is CCleaner, which, if you run it every day, keeps your computer free from the rubbish temporary files and cookies etc that you pick up every day without realising it.  Getting rid of those helps to speed up your computer.

All this has got in the way of crafting this week, but maybe next week will be better, although we do have one more computer to sort out for a friend.

Take care and keep yourselves and your computers safe,  and once you have checked things out for yourselves, then please pass it on to others.  If we all communicate, we may cut down the numbers of those who are conned each year, taking away our valuable crafting money.

WOYWW - 120

I am getting so lax about doing my posts.  My only excuse is that the time is flying by so fast that I cannot keep track of the days, and I am always too late.  I seem to have done very little crafting since we got back from Spain.  I thought I had finished doing all the DVDs and BluRays of the wedding when I found I needed to do three more sets for various people.  In the middle of doing that, I found that I could create BluRays but the same drive refused to play them. Doh.......  That should not happen.  A lengthy correspondence with Roxio resulted from that, but after doing all the things they suggested, with no result, I just uninstalled the lot, reinstalled it, and when that was working I was able to install the BlueRay bit over the top - and it worked!

I need to get back to my room now and actually find a space to work in.  While we have been tidying the house and clearing rubbish from the spare room (before getting the new carpet fitted) anything that could even vaguely be considered as crafting in some way got dumped in my room.  The result is that there is nowhere to sit or work - a couple of days serious tidying required there.  I am suffering from craft withdrawal symptoms, especially having watched Barbara Gray's Pick of the Week.  I cannot wait to set about some of the techniques she has demonstrated, but I must add the new DVD and the stamps to my wish list before I get stuck in. 

I can't wait till Monday when we actually get to see our youngest grandchildren again.  It is over 2 months since we met up, so they will have changed dramatically in that time.  We are lucky with our older grandchildren (the two we share with Shaz Silverwolf) as they live very close and we usually see them at least once a week.

I am off now to get a few things cleared out of the way before the Virgin engineer arrives this afternoon to change our TV box, but I do intend to wander through as many as possible of the lovely desks on view at Julia's place   http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/


Hopefully I will manage some crafting and some photos of my own for next week.   Have a great week all of you.

WOYWW - 117

Outside the church of San Juan de Rabanera in Soria

Hi folks, I have been AWOL for some weeks now, a case of life getting in the way of crafting, or even that a different type of crafting got in the way.  The long awaited wedding in Spain finally took place this month, as you can see from the photos.  I think there was as much planning and preparation involved in the trip as there would have been for a stay of several weeks.  In fact, we travelled out on the Wednesday, had Thursday, Friday (the wedding day) and Saturday there before travelling back on the Sunday.   

Plaza Mayor in Soria - our hotel

We flew from Liverpool (very friendly and efficient) to Madrid (huge and confusing) to arrive in 37 degree steamy heat, where we finally caught our supra coach to Soria - extra space and waitress service, but even more important, very efficient air conditioning.  The family met us at the coach station and delivered us to our hotel, before hauling us out again into the square for drinks and tapas.  From the moment we arrived, we were made to feel so welcome and everything was done for us that could be done.

We all agreed that we have never had such beautiful food, fresh and tasty.  The family took us (eight Brits) for a meal on our second night, just across from our hotel to a restaurant (Meson Castellano, if you ever get to Soria), where the tapas was to die for.  I could have lived on that for the rest of the week, local hams, tiny squid, salad and tuna in a dressing, and several others. 

The castle of Berlanga de Duero - the reception

The wedding itself was so relaxed, with a local choir providing beautiful music, a capella, totally in keeping with the great age of the church.  I loved the confetti bombs afterwards - huge party poppers which shot out rose petals and sparkly bits that shone in the sunlight - so very pretty.  The it was on to the coach to head further up into the mountains to the castle at Berlanga de Duero for the reception.  The canapes outside in the courtyard were absolutely delicious, seven different kinds which just kept coming.  Again, I would have been happy to have lived on those for the rest of the day.  The main meal was in a "permanent" marquee, before moving outside again for the evening do, with yet more food.

San Juan de Rabanera in Soria

The last day started a little late while we recovered from the festivities of the wedding day, and finished with yet another huge meal at night.  Some of our party were taken off by the family to do some sightseeing in the surrounding countryside at even higher altitude, while Geoff and I relaxed around the square.

The journey back was great apart from one real blot on the landscape, which was the toilets at Madrid Airport.  On the outward journey, they were fine, but the return journey was another tale altogether.  We could not find one cubicle that we were even vaguely happy with - bins overflowing with used toilet paper, used needles and syringes, and the floors ......  YUK!!!  Something had definitely gone wrong with their cleaning regime.  We could not wait to get on the plane.

England's Green and Pleasant Land - probably the Cheshire Plain

Final approach to Liverpool

Easyjet were excellent and we could not fault them, and they got us through Customs and Immigration in record time.

Since we got back, I have been tied to the video camera and the computer, sorting out all our photos (from all our party) and putting the videos together, some on BluRay (for the more modern amongst us) and DVD's for the others.  So that and creating the case covers is just about all the crafting I have done recently.

I had forgotten it was Wednesday today, so this contribution has been thrown together rather rapidly, so I hope it all works properly.  I will try to get round as many of you as I can.  I have already had a quick nose at Shaz Silverwolf's post, but the rest will have to wait until our visitors go this afternoon.

I am sure you have already found most of the other posts at Julia's home 

http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/
if not, do wander over there and enjoy what you find.

WOYWW - 111 Back again!

Computers, DVD's, TV's, etc etc.  They are all such a pain to sort out when they go wrong. aren't they?  I apologise for my absence over the last couple of weeks.  It has been mainly down to the failure of various technical devices.  Apart from the total loss of all Virgin services for 24 hours last week, which was so annoying, not to mention expensive as we had to use our Pay as You Go mobiles instead of our "free" minutes from Virgin, we had a new TV system which took some getting used to.  

Then, as the computer was doing a scheduled Windows update, it crashed in the middle of the restart and refused to talk to the screen.  After we had tried all we know (postage stamp amount), we sent an SOS to Shaz (Silverwolf)' very kind husband, who said "I am fairly sure I know what that is, and took it in for emergency treatment and intensive care.

It has now been discharged from "hospital" and we are back online and can communicate again.  thank you so much, Doug.  You are a star.

My craft room looks rather as if a bomb has hit it.  I am only showing you the "tidier" bits this week.  We are about to start on the other bedroom so things are gradually filtering in to my room to keep them safe.  But it will be worth it in the end.  I am in the middle of trying to transfer some of our DVD collection to an external hard drive which will plug into the TV, and save us space.  Hence "Love Actually" on my table - one of our favourite films.  It is almost impossible to watch it without having a smile on your face at the end.  The cards are really Barbara Gray designs, but the prints have been scanned to the computer and then drawn out by Sakura pens in the Silhouette.  Then I coloured with toning Sakuras, and used the Krylon pend=s to do the edges, again toning with the Sakura. 

A few more bits and pieces scattered around while the computer wrestled with a DVD.  The little box under the monitor takes all the tired and broken blades from craft knives and cutters various, ready to take down to the tip to dispose of them safely.

A closer view of the cards and pens various.  The white on was again done by the pen attachment on the Silhouette, and coloured in with Sakura pens.  that is a card which is growing rather organically according to what inspiration hits each day.  I have no  idea what the end result will be.

The last card this week is one I did for our eldest grandaughter with Dufex Flower Fairies, which she seemd to really love.  I adore Dufex so it gets saved for specials only.

Right, I am off to bed now, but I hope to get round as many desks as possible this week.  In the meantime, do have fun wandering round all the other wonderful desks on show at Julia's place (http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/  )  See you all soon.

WOYWW - 108

Not a lot of work going on at the moment, more a case of what was left after some stamping and also the putting together of some decoupage sheets I bought ages ago.  They were very pretty, with coppery gilding highlighting the flowers.  I have no idea who the maker is, as there was nothing to identify them on the plastic bags, but I do know that I bought them on a trip down to Hayley West's shop (Little Lou's in Redditch).  I had come  across them again on a search for something else, and decided it was time to put them together.  If you want to see the results of the stamping, you will need to have a look at my blog from last week.  I have just continued from there, extending the techniques a little.

The important stuff on my desk today is actually what was in a parcel which arrived yesterday morning.  It was my winnings from the very generous Jo's Blog Candy (http://jozartdesigns.blogspot.com/).  I really love it all, and I can think of lots to do with every bit of it.  Thank you so much, Jo.  It is all appreciated.

The rest of the week has not gone quite as well as we would have liked.  Still in the middle of redoing the living room, we had ordered two storage units to take things like the DVD player, the Virgin box and all the other peripherals that go with an entertainment system.  We were foolish in that we took it for granted that a unit shown with what appear to be DVD players etc on it would be right for us.  WRONG!!! Very wrong.  Nothing would fit on those shelves.  So we are now trying to sort things out with the company to exchange them for the ones we really need to fit things on (which are, of course, more expensive).  Very frustrating, but before I totally depress you all, why don't you just nip over to the blog of our esteemed leader Julia, who has handed things over for this week to her Lunch Lady Jan at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/
where you will find the links for more than 100 more desks to study.  Have fun and thank you for joining me this week.

PS Just had a call from the furniture company to say that everything is now set up for the exchange.  They are just waiting for the TV stand to come in next week and they will collect the wrong things and bring us the right things.  Life is looking better.  Right, I am off now to watch Federer and the other at Wimbledon.  Everything stops for that, even crafting.

Using the computer to emboss

This is a technique taught to me by Shaz ( http://silverwolfcards-shaz.blogspot.com/ ) quite some time ago, but I thought it was time to revisit it.  You need an inkjet printer and time to play with the settings (each one is slightly different).  You can use any font you have on your computer to create a sentiment for the front of your card, as shown on these first two cards.  To print and emboss, as on these, you need good quality parchment with a nice shiny surface.


Get all your embossing equipment ready before you start, the top off the jar and copy paper to sprinkle over.  Once it comes out of the printer, speed is all important in getting the powder over the writing, then you can relax a little.  I have found that it is better to print on the normal setting.  High quality takes too long and the writing has already started to dry out, draft is not quite wet enough, but practice on your own machine to find the right balance.  Don't try to do too much on a sheet at one time, as it will have started to dry out.  If you use spray adhesive, such as Crafters Companion Stick and Stay you can stick your sentiment onto backing card before attaching to your card.


The next card was done in a similar way.  I was inspired by the Framer stamps from Barbara Gray (Clarity Stamps).  I took the name I needed, and increased the size of the central "O" , placing the other two letters as I wanted on either side.  (I did the setting up of the word in My Craft Studio Professional).  Once I had that right, I printed direct to an A5 sheet of Clarity silk art card, and embossed it direct from the printer.  I had treated the card with a light dusting of baby powder to reduce static, and then dusted off any stray speckles of embossing powder with a paint brush, before embossing from underneath.

Having got the embossing out of the way, I printed another copy on copy paper and cut out the "O".  I used the flowers from the Flower framer kit to place the flowers in and around the "O", and the Speedball brayer to colour in the background, both in the "O" and around the outside framework.  The flowers were coloured with promarkers.  You can polish the silk card to a high sheen with a screwed up pad of kitchen roll, but make sure you do that BEFORE doing anything else, otherwise you could wreck everything you have done.   I edged the white section with a copper coloured pen, and used a Krylon Copper pens to edge the whole card.    Both those pens will smudge if you attempt to polish after you have used them.  I found that out the hard way.  However butterflies are very useful in covering up minor blips.

I spoke too soon....

I foolishly said that my problems with Blogger had settled down.  Not true today!!!  I seem to have lost all my Followers.  Disaster!  If you look at my blog at the moment, you are not missing because I have fallen out with you.  On the contrary, I love you all and value your friendship.  It is Blogger I have fallen out with.  I hope I can soon get you back where you belong.

WOYWW - 107

My desk this week is a real mess, but I am having a ball.  You can see lots of images in the process of being played with, my red A5 file which is developing into my stamp catalogue, and a lot of other detritus from present projects and past projects.

One of my birthday presents was the large Velvet Lady from Clarity Stamps.  Unfortunately, I still don't have the lamp post to go with her, so I had to improvise and use the one from Cute Companions - not quite right but it will do for the moment.  After all, Barbara does not say we have to copy her exactly, but if giving us ideas from which our own imaginations should take off.    I also used the little spruce tree for the background as I could not think how to create buildings.  To get the shading on the snow, I used a scrunched up pad of kitchen roll, inked up and smoothed out.  With care, it seems to work fairly well.  The lady herself was partially coloured with Promarkers (her skirt) and her jacket and hat were printed and cut from a free downloaded tartan backing paper, which toned quite well with the Promarker.

Then I had a go with the cottage kit, which also involved some use of  things that were a little different from the way Barbara worked, again because my stock is of ink pads is not large .  The first attempt will end up taken apart and redone, but the second was better, but I suspect the next version will be better still.  There are too many trees behind and around the cottage - Geoff said it looked as if it had a beard, so less trees on the next one.  I might try putting a lake in too to get some reflections. (EDIT - tried that and promptly chopped it off, didn't work)

My reflections were very variable too with the brayer, but I think they are getting better.   My first attempt had the same problem as I have taking pictures of the sea - the water was running out.  Never mind, guillotines work wonders to straighten up wonky work.  My first one (not shown) was stamped with the black Adirondack and worked fairly well, being quite dramatic.  The one on the left here was done with Adirondack Slate which I think gives a softer more misty look, which I quite like.  I also really like the blue one (Adirondack Denim).  The background hill on both was done with the kitchen roll pad again.  the tree reflection on the blue one smudged on the brayer, but I think that adds to the watery feel.

I was going to show you the pif I sent to Andria for the 2nd Anniversary, follow the link to her blog at  http://andria-drawingnear.blogspot.com/   .  Her photos are better than mine.  I am glad she finally got it and she says she liked it, so ... result.

Anyway, I think that is enough waffling from me this week and I am sure that you will all have fun by popping over to the residence of our leader, Julia, where you will find lots and lots of fascinating desks with loads of different styles, which you will find at  

http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

WOYWW - 106

Before I show you my desk this week, I have one more important thing to do, and that is to publicly thank Becky Horn for my lovely pif.  It arrived on my birthday at the weekend, which was extra good.  So much work and love in it.  Thank you again, Becky.

I had some lovely cards and pressies, not least the complete set (until No 5 is released) of Barbara Gray's DVD's, which I have been coveting for ages and ages.  They came from my very very kind husband, who is so supportive of my crafting.  If you have a look at Silverwolf's blog, you will see the picture of the beautiful card she created for me, and how she did it.

Now to my desk.  Last week, it was so tidy thanks to a hurricane which hit it.  This week is not quite so good, although it is better than it was an hour before.  Some time ago, I started removing all the horrid sticky cushioning from all my unmounted rubber stamps, and finally finished today, thank goodness.  While the last batch were on my desk, I decided to start cataloguing them, by stamping them in sets into an A5 loose leaf file.  By the time, I had finished , my fingers were totally black and covered in Adirondack black ink.  So far, nothing has removed it, despite my best endeavours.  Any ideas?

I also started a "reflections" card, inspired by Barbara Gray.  As you can see, there is still a lot to do to it, but by then I was so inky, I thought I had better leave it alone for today.  You can also see some of the sheets I have started to print for my stamp catalogue.  I might have another go tomorrow, either at the catalogue creation or just playing with pictures and techniques.

I have also had company for most of my working today from our biggest pup, who suddenly realised I had a small bag of dog food on my desk which might be worth keeping an eye on.  He has be partially responsible for me not getting too much crafting done over the last couple of weeks.  We have just found a new trainer, who is teaching us all the things that really suit a working bred dog, tracking, retrieving and general searching.  Flash loves it and really puts all his effort into hunting.  Gemma, on the other hand, is a little blonde about it, easily distracted from the job in hand.  Never mind, she can only improve with work.  Our trainer, Madaleine, is very strict with us, and gives us lots of homework to practice.  I come back from  training class absolutely buzzing with excitement.  It is just great fun, and so rewarding when you finally coordinate all the things you are trying to sort out.  (I need 4 hands to deal with a clicker, a treat, and a lead, and a few more brain cells to allow me to "get it".)  It is not the dogs who are being trained, it is us as handlers.

By the way, are there any others of you out there who think that things have gone too far in the type of clothes being sold for young children, such as padded bras for girls of 5 and upwards, and the way they are being encouraged to be so much older than their years.  I did hear that pop videos are to be given ratings in a similar way to films, to try to protect young children from being exposed to salacious things while they are too young to cope.  My daughter already tries to vet whatever pop videos that her children watch.

Having had a bit of a soap box moment, perhaps you might like to slip over to see a few more desks at Julia's place, which you will find at  http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/  Thank you to all those who came to visit me this week, and apologies to those I did not get round to visit myself.  Hopefully, I can do better this week.

Another year gone!

I just want to know where the last year has flown off to.  I started this blog just one year ago yesterday without any idea of the number of new friends I would be making, or the number of new ideas I would be given.  Thank you to all of you.  I am so glad I met you.  And special thanks to Shaz (Silverwolf) who inspired me to try it, and who is always so generous with her help and tips.  Also thanks to her lovely husband who managed to solve my photo problem on the blog yesterday.

I had a great day with lots of visitors and some lovely cards and pressies.  I will photo some of them and post them later in the week.  My wonderful husband bought me the four Barbara Gray DVD's (number 5 is due out soon), so I can study her techniques and attempt to do better than I do now.

 This is a card I did recently for some friends who now live on a narrow boat, wandering the waterways.  I found a photos of their boat and printed it onto a piece of silk art card, thenn once the ink was thoroughly dry, I masked it off and brayered and stamped the border, using leafy stamps to create the lower areas.  (The nasty blobs at the top left turned out to be Krylon gold leaf on the scanner plattern - cleaned off now).  Then I removed the mask and drew a wriggly line round the picture with a fine line gold pen.  I edged the whole card with Krylon Gold Leaf and mounted it on green and red  card.  The numbers were printed and cut out and embossed with a glittery red embossing powder.

This card has not yet been delivered, but I don't think he will be looking at my blog.  This one went together very easily until I tried to decide what card to mount it on.  My room looked a wreck when I finally finished.  I have a lot of lovely card, but I am getting to the point where I have not quite got the variety to make choices easy.  The image is from My Craft Studio, and it was all designed and sized within that program.  Once it was all stuck together with Pinflair glue, I left it to dry before giving it a good dose of Spray and Shine, until it was really shiny.  Then I mounted it with a thin border of holographic silver card and then put it on to a silvery blue pearlescent card.  I shaped the boat and the sails before adding them to the decoupage, which, I think, gives it a more realistic look (and hides the glue better too).

This is another card that got the shaping on the decoupage, and a good dose of Spray and Shine  on the finished card.  Again the image was from My Craft Studio.  I think the Spray and Shine enhances the image and brings out the colour.  Because this has to go through the post, I did all the matting and layering within My Craft Studio and printed it out direct to the white supersmooth card.  The gold club and the ball were separate pieces of decoupage, shaped to give dimension without being too high.


We have got a new oak computer desk downstairs, so I have snaffled the set of drawers that belonged to the old desk to store things like my heat guns and things that really have no real place yet.  So I am off up to my room now to sort that lot out.  I suspect it will also become a place for another pile to start.  You all know what happens to clear surfaces in craft rooms.  Time will tell - very soon!

WOYWW - 105

I did it!!  I found my craft mat and my desk (not to mention a lot of dust).  This was how my desk looked yesterday (Tuesday) before I began doing things again.  With a number of major projects to get finished, I had definitely neglected the putting away part, and the piles had just grown too high.  Surprisingly, it did not take took long to put right - and that did mean putting away, not just piling somewhere else.  I felt quite proud of myself.  The wind helped too.  I opened the window - big mistake - everything took off and landed on the floor.  It cleared the tops of the two printers in 2 seconds, so I had to sort that lot out too.  Aren't I good? 

The two plastic storage boxes are so useful.  The one contains my total supply of Promarkers (I do have 24 new ones on the way in the post)  while the other has my Krylon pens (all of them), my gold, copper and silver fine liners, and my Pinflair syringes.  Hopefully, I shall be able to find them in the future, rather than diving under piles of paper and other detritis to dig them out.  You can also see my little pot of dog training treats as usual, and the computer, all ready to start cutting a design with the Silhouette.

Then I decided I needed to get some more crafting done.  So some things had to come out again, but, strangely enough, the desk still remained relatively clear as you can see from the second photo.  You can see a card almost finished for a friend's upcoming 65th birthday.  As you can guess, he is golf mad.  The image is from MCS's Papercraft library. 

The smaller card is one printed from MCS's Countryside Gardens disc, from the NSR (no stamp required).  I printed it quite faintly and then used my limited promarkers to colour it in.  The purple was the result of several layers to deepen the colour and add shading. 

At the back, you can see a couple of completed projects, all ready to go.  I will put up the pictures of those later in the week for those who are interested.  In the meantime, why don't you all pop over to Julia's at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/  to see what is going on in the rest of the world of desk blogging.  Thank you to all those who came to visit this week, and I apologise to all those I did not get round to this time.

WOYWW - 104 Happy Anniversary

It has finally arrived - the second anniversary of this wonderful blog hopping.  Most of the credit must go to Julia, who started it all, and kept it all going throughout two whole years.  Well done, Julia, and many thanks for such a wonderful achievement.  I, for one, have met so many new friends since I joined last year, people I have never met in the flesh, but who I feel I know and can rely on for support and advice.

My desk this week is out of bounds as it is covered by an, as yet, unmentionable project, which I desperately need to finish.  So all I can show you in a crafting line is the box in which I keep all the cards I have done ready for finishing and sending - no inserts or names on, but easy to grab and finish off.  At the front are a couple of boxes of notelets for emergency presents, and a DVD of our grandchildren - my first attempt to print the disc itself with the new printer.

I have chosen not to show my pif, although it is finished and ready to go, as I want it to arrive as a surprise for the recipient.  Once it has been delivered, I will reveal it and explain it.  I hope that whoever gets it enjoys it.

Meanwhile, happy anniversary again and go to visit  Julia and all the other anniversary desks at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

WOYWW - 103

It has been a couple of weeks since I joined in with WOYWW, and I have missed it.  The first week was holiday, just outside Barmouth in Wales, not far from Snowdon - OK but it did not turn out quite as we planned.  My poor OH developed a tummy bug on the second day, which cleared up the day before we came home, so we did not get out and about in the area as we had hoped.  Still, at least he was not trying to do all the jobs at home so it was a little more restful.  I got the bug as we got home and did very little for the first few days home.  Hopefully, things are all sorted now.

The journey to Barmouth was quite spectacular once we cleared the motorway section and passed Shrewsbury.  I spent some time with the camera poking out through the car window taking photos for our daughter.  She loves the area, but complained that she has never seen the mountains through the heavy cloud.  As you can see, the weather was very kind to us as we climbed up past Cader Idris, so spectacular.

We took a slight diversion from our route when we got to Barmouth (not planned) turning left too soon and doing an unscheduled drive along the promenade.  Fortunately, there is an island at the end of the prom so turning round was not a problem, and we were soon turning in the right place and setting up the van for the week. 

Crafting was limited to playing with my Promarkers and finding out just what they would or would not do.  I had stamped and printed a large pile of images on a variety of media before we left home, so there was plenty to play with.  I did learn one important fact - not everything works with Promarkers, some are better suited to water colours.  This particular design (an old embroidery transfer) did work well with the markers, and I think it looks quite good, and in keeping with its original.

My desk this week, is not really a place of inspiration, and has seen very little use, but I aim to get going again later today with a project (cannot talk about that one yet, but maybe later).  The ship decoupage is ready to mount for a birthday later next month, but I still need to find the right backing card.

My final photo this week is a bit of a tease, ready for next week.  You don't get to see very much, so you will have to wait until the right day.  In the meantime, why don't you hop over to Julia at  http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ where our leader has links to so many more desks to study. 

Thank you to my new followers.  You are so welcome and your interest is greatly appreciated.  Also, a special thanks to Shax from Oz, who sent a message to check if I was ok, as I had not blogged for 2 weeks. 

WOYWW - 100

I do love the trees in our garden, and they are at their best right now.  Spring has come at last, even if it is bitterly cold out there.  When you think of trees and grass being green, well, they are, but how many shades and varieties are there in one tiny spot, not to mention the many varied shapes of leaf and branch as well.

Enough of poetic nattering, how about this, the 100th blog.  I have not been here for that long, but I have thoroughly enjoyed my time so far, and got to know so many wonderful and generous crafters, learned so many new techniques, and found so many new things to play with.  Thank you to all of you.  You are all wonderful.

My desk this week is a little clearer than it has been of late.  I did have a major tidy up yesterday, having just completed a major project which I will show you in a couple of weeks or so.  All that is left are a few images that I have stamped or printed out, ready for colouring with my small number of Promarkers, also visible on the desk.  You can also see a very useful set of Staedtler fine liners, which are so useful, a couple of sets of the small Clarity stamps, a couple of ink pads and the vital brayer.  For those who have not already sussed them out, the little pot os Super Stars are training treats for the two dogs, very useful if I want to know what they are up to while I am up here.

I will not show you the opposite corner, which I totally destroyed yesterday afternoon, trying to find a set of images for colouring.  I still have not found them, so that is on my list for today, as well as putting everything back that I threw about in frustration.

While I am busy looking, why don't you pop over to the Queen of Bloggers, Julia at
http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/
where you will find lots more desks to study in detail.  Have fun, and Happy 100th.