WOYWW 295

Hello fellow Deskers on this warm and sunny Wednesday morning, this is how it looked today on our walk along the Paseo.

What a difference a week makes, last week snow on the mountains, not often it happens and it didn`t disappear completely until Monday. I know it`s not much compared to other places but that`s the closest we get to snow down here, and pretty thankful we are too.

Much happier crafting this week, even complained I was burning my legs at my desk near the door, you just can`t please some people!!

My desk this morning and sorry its at a jaunty angle, the sun was too bright as the desk is next to the patio doors so I had to stand in front of the door to take the photo.

 A few pieces I`ve been playing with at the back in pink, trying out my new EB folder on core-dinations, abandoned that idea as it wasn`t quite the effect I wanted.

 I made a card using triple stamping for a challenge over at Splitcoaststampers and just thought it might work with triple embossing, hence the white and purple pieces,  not sure about having the small top piece but I quite like it with just two layers, something to make into a card later, hopefully.

The other card is decoupage, I do love doing them, I`ve used a House Mouse image, and made a frame for it using the Fleur De Lis die, one of my favourites. The other papers are freebies from my craft mag, the gardening images I might use for my BIL`s card at a later date.

I`ve just finished this card for our youngest, can`t believe he`s nearly 41, seems only five mins since I was racking my brains to make his 40th card.

I`ve kept the colouring to a minimum as its not my strong point but I`ve just noticed the strings on the balloons have come adrift so it`s a good job I haven`t posted it yet. 

Must say bye for this week as I haven`t shown the other side of the room with the ironing that really needs doing so I`ll see you over at your desks later, take care and thanks once again for visiting my desk last week and your lovely comments.

Jan x

WOYWW 294

Thanks to everyone who popped over to Spain for a visit to my desk last week, it was so pleasing to know that I`m not the only one who has a Smash book and can`t get started with it but as you can see from the first photo I have actually made a start.

 Only a small start granted but I have glued my maps in place and you can see from the small pile of photos I managed to pick out a few, well quite a few really and probably too many as it wasn´t until I was browsing through the photos that I realised after taking a photo of the train leaving Chicago I didn`t manage to take another one until Denver, must have been the excitement of looking around the train and choosing the time for our evening meals, so it looks like page one will be quite bare. I`ve made a small folder and tied it in the middle of the two maps to keep the timetable and tickets in and printed a couple of photos of the Cabin.

The card at the front is for a challenge on Splitcoaststampers to try triple stamping, I wouldn`t say it totally worked but I used the Memento Ink Rhubarb Stalk I`ve had for ages and never used and the stamp has only been used once before, its a Sizzix stamp with a matching embossing folder.
I found a place napkin that`s been in the drawer for years, the colour is quite a good match with the ink so I used it for the layers, I just need to finish it with a sentiment and backing card.

 Oh and on the left you can just see the free papers from my craft magazine, there`s some lovely images, just need to think of someone who likes dancing!!!

Nothing too exciting going on here, I was trying to think of ideas for our youngest sons birthday card when I was up here last week, didn`t have a clue so decided to have a play with some of my new dies, a couple don`t actually cut very well but I do love the Romantic and Nobel Rectangle Dies.

You can see one of the mini snowflake rossettes too, Tim Holtz alterations, I could have done with another pair of hands trying to hold it together while sticking it to the backing part as it kept springing up in the middle so if anyone has an easy way please share it with me before my patience runs out!

The pile of white card on the right is a Sitting snowman card I started after seeing it on Splitcoaststampers, I discovered my circle dies aren`t big enough so its been sitting there for a couple of weeks waiting for me to set up my Cricut. 

 We`ve had a cold snap here and having no heating up in my craft room,( it`s on the solarium) I haven`t been spending much time in here so I think I`ll go off to do a bit of snooping around other desks before I get too cold.

Jan x

WOYWW 293

I`m doing well managing to join in the desk hop two weeks running, I cant say I`m doing quite so well on the crafting front! 

Well here`s my desk showing my new smash book, I´ve been wanting one for absolutely ages and was quite excited when it arrived, flipping through the pages thinking of all things I could put in to it, so why is it as soon as I open the pages does my mind go blank! 

 I`m using it as a travel journal to have a reminder of all our trips and for the family to see what we get up to over here, so thinking our train journey would inspire me I decided to make that the first layout, big mistake, I have so many photos I can`t choose between them so I`m already thinking this might have to be a double spread, I`ve watched so many You tube videos about this and it looks sooooo easy, you never know maybe next week I will have been inspired and have it finished, don`t hold your breath though!

Under the map sits my Big shot, I suddenly thought yesterday just after I had switched the computer off that maybe I could scan parts of the map to stick on the page already there,  showing the places we passed on our journey!

 I think I have to give that idea a little more thought really.

You might notice the small tins on the shelf behind, they were a spice set our Grandsons gave Grandad for Christmas, I think Grandad knew he wouldn`t be able hold on to them for too long as soon as he saw my eyes light up.

 Nothing in them yet but I`m sure they will be useful, one day.

Lovely and sunny here in Spain although a little cool first thing, well 9C!!!

Hope to see you over at your desks, maybe for some inspiration.

Thanks to everyone who popped over last week and your kind comments.

Jan x

WOYWW 292

Happy New Year, its been a few months since I've been around to join you all on a Wednesday as  we had an extended visit to our family in San Francisco. We started our trip in London with our Eldest son and Gf before flying out to Chicago for three days, it really lived up to its name ¨The Windy City¨as you can see from the photo below.

 This was out on the lake, where we all ended up in the downstairs
lounge leaving the poor girl narrating on the upper deck on her own,
luckily she did have some cover from the rain. Thankfully the other two days were dry.

We spent three days and two nights travelling across country on the Californian Zephyr, an amazing experience, we had an en suite cabin on the top deck so was able to take in all the views going through Denver, Salt Lake City and the Rockie Mountains, arriving in San Francisco where our youngest son was waiting for us. The train is an amazing sight, being a double decker,  I took this photo after we had passed through the Rockies.

We celebrated our two Grandsons birthdays, my birthday, which is Halloween so we had an evening of Trick O Treating, our Grandson who is six told all his friends I was a witch and said I needed to prove it to him by making his bed fly around the room, If only!! 

We were fortunately able to stay long enough to spend our first Thanksgiving with them too before flying home. Luckily we had really warm weather so we had some lovely days out down the coast.

Of course quite a few days were spent craft shopping at Michaels and Joanns with my DIL who managed to spend even more than I did, we followed that by meeting up with our other halves in the city to have lunch at Macy`s Cheesecake Factory, no wonder she bought me a Jawbone to monitor how much exercise I`m doing!

 I haven`t done any crafting since, just a little try out of my new dies, I seemed to have lost my mojo so I`ll just show you what I managed to squeeze into my suitcase.

I`ll finish there and nip along to see what exciting things you all have on your desks, until next week, Happy WOYWW