WOYWW 295

Good Morning!I'm joining folk across the World over at Julia's Stamping Ground to show my desk!
You'll be pleased to see a bit of productivity! This photo was taken yesterday afternoon in the fading light after we came home from picking our GD up. My son, I may have mentioned this before so forgive me, has a job as a teaching assistant at last. You may remember last year he was quite poorly and didn't want to change anything until he had recovered fully. His school finishes a little bit later than my GD's school so we are involved two days a week picking her up and walking her home. It's often only a matter of minutes until her dad gets home and we combine it with our shopping and cinema trips so the drive isn't so bad and we get a cup of coffee, a play and chat into the bargain!!
So…want to see?

Bottom left, slightly hidden, are what I was working on before we went out - one already posted last night and the other will probably be posted later on today.
Now, guess what? We are off to the cinema - a choice of two, so I'll let you know next week what we choose!

Cinema Review (from last week)
'Into the Woods' was brilliant - the music (Sondheim), Meryl Streep, the costumes, the whole fun aspect of the story - I will be buying the video when it's out!!

That's it for now, I hope I can get around a few more desks than last week.

Thanks for looking, Chris 

2 fer!

I am enjoying playing in my journal and I've been encouraged by Brenda at Bumblebees and Butterflies! 

This first page started, as often happens by just using up some grey paint, which I wiped onto my page with a baby wipe. It is the first page in a new journal - from Rymans with smooth white paper.
From here I had the idea that I wanted to make a monochrome page - I had bought Sara Nauman's Paper Artsy Eclectica set ESN09 a while ago but it was still in it's packet!! The stamps include a set of random marks and I chose to repeat two of them over the page. I also spattered some Fresco paint - Little Black dress over the page too.

 It was really just a case of those early beginnings….. 

 …..and the addition of the boy prince from Paper Artsy's Lynne Perrella set LPC013 stamped onto the page then onto white paper and cut out. The three strips are from the same stamp - they were the border.

I added the word stamp from Sara Nauman's set ESN04 and a small piece of sticky backed plastic from a shoe decorating kit I bought in Boots sale for £1.30p. Still not happy, I added more buildings from the prince's crown along the bottom of the page to arrive at this.

The next page was started the same way with swiped paint only this time deliberately!

 This time using Paper Artsy Fresco paint - Irish Cream and the same Sara Nauman set(ESN09)
I then stamped the image from Paper Artsy Lynne Perrella set LPCO09 onto tissue paper and stuck it on with Multi Medium Matte. I added some cut out the bird and cage images from some of my Mambi Paper and some from a little pad I bought at a craft show that I have split and left the main pad at our caravan so don't know exactly what it was but it has a lovely flower image in the corner! I also used some of the same piece to stamp the quote from ESN09

 I think I may be breaking out into colour for my next page!!!
I am linking to Brenda's Visual Journey link party here and planning to make a few visits as soon as I can.

Please bear with me over the visiting and commenting - when we go to our caravan there are very few times when I get a connection(phone or other wise and I like to ring my family when I can)At the moment we are home but I have had to attend meetings and appointments so I am still struggling to catch up - if you leave me a comment on any of my posts I will always try to get back to visit you! 

Thanks for looking, Chris

Altered calendar challenge

When I saw Darcy's invitation on her blog Art and Sole to join her in altering a calendar page a month(add crackle and book page for January) I set off in search of a calendar - it took me until the middle of the month to find one I liked and that was the right price! Fortunately, I was also looking for an organiser for my son too - a trip to 'The big stationers' in the UK that we know and love came up with nothing except overpriced calendars that apparently stay at full price all year!!I found an organiser in Boots sale - 70%off, but nothing for me until I ventured into a card shop - can't remember the last time I went into one, but Clintons had a sale and with fingers crossed I found what I was looking for(sort of!)
I started by adding PA Fresco paint in 'Sky' - it was then I realised I hadn't photographed the page so what you see is a partly completed page

and then a painted page

and then the photographs stop - I added some script stamping using a PA mini stamp and some crackle paint and then went away for a long weekend!
While away I just wanted to get back to it so what you see here is the completed page with ink added over the crackle,some sakura pen dotted around then outlining the butterflies and then 'pulled out' with a water pen and some book paper butterflies cut out with a punch and smooshed through some distress inks. The book I used was an old gardening book so I cut out the word butterfly to translate the word 'papillon' at the top of the page.

There's only one problem - the paper didn't like crackle paint being added to it and its gone a little wrinkly - bit like my face now - ha! ha!
Thanks for looking, and for all the encouraging comments you have been leaving for me, Chris 

I believe in Angels!

I do, but that isn't the reason for me making this tag, though it is a reminder that every time I've seen a white feather on the ground have been times of stress or worry and I have felt comforted!
When we were selling our house I found one outside the door at our old house and then we came here to our flat to do some decorating there was one on the door mat here - not so unusual - we have an outside door but I am convinced that an angel was telling me that we were doing the right thing!
Okay, I'll stop rambling! My tag is using some Christmas leftovers.

I painted a tag with PA Fresco paint - Sky - by dabbing it on with a sponge as I wanted a smudgy effect and then added some text using a PA mini stamp
My leftovers were - a stamp that I took from an envelope, the angel scrap image, from a set I bought with the intention of sticking them onto envelopes I sent(I remembered about six!)and the quote at the bottom that was inside a Bacci chocolate wrapper (they have some lovely quotes but this one - seriously - was the first one that came out of my little scrap bag - after I had assembled everything else - angels at work???)
I dragged the edges through some Brushed Pewter distress stain then used stormy sky and antique linen to dab through some stencils. I also added some tinted Decoart crackle paint through another stencil.
The rest was just some layering of scraps of papers and fabric and then I added some Frantage (shabby white and chunky white)
Finally the wing (from a Primark necklace) was painted with PA Fresco paint - snowflake and then rubbed over so the white stuck in the grooves then tied on with  a linen scrap.

I would like to enter this in
Our Creative Corner - Christmas Leftovers challenge
Try it on Tuesday - Add some Fabric

Thanks for looking, Chris

WOYWW 294

We've come around to Wednesday again and time to share desks at Julia's Stamping Ground. My desk is full today - of a pile of bits and pieces!
This is the photo I took yesterday afternoon

What can you spot? 
It came to the stage where my bit box (bottom right) had overflowed into a plastic container so it really was time to do something - so I just tipped it out!
I did start to sort it out - I had spent yesterday taking jewellery apart and realised that I needed to sort to my bit boxes containing beads, charms, metal bits and pieces etc - so now I have a lot of little piles to put away in said boxes (Confession time - I had to use another bigger box!)
So…here are the sorted piles..

This was taken this morning, as this is how I left it last night when Holby City came on TV.
Bottom left is an escaped necklace - it's one I bought for a pound at Primark and has some lovely charms on it.
So before I get off to the cinema I'm hoping to get some of these stored away and I may just leave some things out for a project I have in mind!
Elizabeth asked where I got my big craft mat, so I thought I'd tell you all in case you were wondering - it is a baking mat from 'Lakeland' - not sure whether it was any cheaper than a regular craft mat but it is bigger!

Cinema review….last weeks film - 'The Theory of Everything' was everything I expected it to be! We both really enjoyed it! If this film - and Eddie Redmayne in particular, doesn't win some awards it will be a shame!!
Off to see 'Into the Woods' today - the trailer looks good!

If you want to see what excitement there was in Carnforth at the weekend, where we have our caravan, see here.

I'll be round later if that's ok, thanks for looking, Chris

Tea time….

….well not quite for me! Hubby and I have given up caffeine apart from our breakfast cup (not ready to give that yet!) So, it's either decaffeinated or water for me  - hubby has an option of fruit juice or tea(I have an aversion to tea - it makes me ill and of course being diabetic, juice is not an option)
So…in my new mug, a Christmas present, it's water! I've been in my craft room but the desk is rather full at the moment(as you will see tomorrow!)so the mug is balanced by my handy fabric and lace basket that gets replenished every so often - it's just handy to reach out for stuff rather than go in the drawers!

Last weekend, while we were away, Carnforth's new craft shop opened - Rowan Tree Crafts - right by the doctors and the chemist and right next door to my favourite boutique! How very convenient, and just around the corner are the car park and Booths and Aldi supermarkets too!! The business used to be on the outskirts of the town and they are now in bigger premises with the promise of workshops!

You can see just a few of the goodies here are right up my street, Tim stuff,Indigoblu,Lindsay Mason and lots of lovely bits and pieces

Here you can see Kitty Brown's too, and the inside…

I have bought quite a lot here in the past and got a lovely top in the sale on Saturday after I had a spend in Rowan Tree Crafts!
I shall be volunteering to get the food shopping on my own in future! 

I'm joining Elizabeth for Tea on Tuesday although it's probably nearer to cocoa time for some!

Thanks for looking, Chris 

A New Baby!

My lovely hairdresser, who also happens to be the mother of my youngest grandson, has a new baby girl, Lily Rose! The baby will be no relation to me as her Mum was my son's partner and she is now married to someone else! They are a lovely couple and already have a little girl together. I haven't made a new baby card for ages and didn't even have a suitable stamp for a baby girl until I found one in a sale the other week! 

I decided to take some inspiration from the Craft Hoarders Challenge where you can choose the elements you want to use - see here!

I chose - ink,ribbon/lace/thread,die cutting/stamping,dry embossing/metal, flowers/bling.
I had also seen the challenge on Stamping Sensations so my new-ish dies could be used again.
I decided to round the corners with a corner cutter to soften the shape a little.

I rubbed Victorian Velvet distress ink over the raised dots of the embossing,and although I had been going to distress the edges decided against it.

The flowers are some I've had in my stash for ages(some I think are from when I first started crafting)I put Worn Lipstick and Victorian Velvet distress ink on my mat and then spritzed the flowers and mat with water and ran them through it. The metal curls are the wire stems of the roses.I added some threads pulled from some muslin as I had seen this technique used on Nancy's blog 'Tattered Treasures' recently

I would like to enter in the 

Craft Hoarders Anonymous Challenge - Choose Your Challenge
Stamping Sensations January Challenge - Dies and Punches

Thanks for looking, Chris