WOYWW 268

Happy WOYWW, I won't bore you with my desk today, we only arrived back from our little trip to Salamanca and Portugal yesterday so nothing is happening on it at the moment.
 Our trip was so that Steve could watch his team, Nottingham Forest play a pre-season friendly against Braga in Portugal, unfortunately after we booked a hotel in Braga the game was moved, twice, in the end they played in a small seaside town just 40 mins drive away so not too bad. Not the most exciting place we've ever stayed but fine for a two night stay.
Unfortunately our team lost but Steve had his photo taken with his hero Stuart Pearce, the manager so that more than made up for the disappointment and of course he's been busy sending it to everyone.
We decided to have a two night break in Salamanca on the way to break up the journey to Portugal, after eight hours driving in temperatures of 38c  we were pretty pleased we did,  our hotel was right on the edge of this beautiful city.

Salamanca, the view from our room, amazing, and the room had the biggest bed we've seen outside of America and even had a telephone in the loo!
The parking was via a car lift, which took us down to level -2, pretty scary as I never willingly go into lifts and I was convinced it wasn't long enough for our car and would trap us in there.

Calle Major in the centre of Salamanca, this is only one side of the square with bars and restaurants on every side and other streets leading out of the archways, we passed a pleasant hour people watching before dinner, small groups running around with Brazilian flags capturing tourists to have their photos taken with them, another group performing  a kind of play, we could only guess what that was all about!

With Churches and beautiful buildings on every corner, we gave up taking photos of them after the first day as there's so many. We spent our first evening oooing and ahing at every corner we turned.

 We were intrigued as to why there were so many American students around, apparently they spend a month studying at the University, lucky people as its a really amazing building.

Anyone who has visited Spain will have seen the shops selling Jamon, the little cups underneath are to catch the drips from the ham. Loads of shops selling luscious cakes and pastries, and I must admit to trying a few along the way.

I hope this has been more interesting than my desk, I will be getting down to crafting tomorrow, that's if I can concentrate with the baking heat, 30c at 10.30am this morning so after having a nosy around some other desks I shall be off for a cooling swim, hope you all have a great week, thanks for popping over to visit. Jan x

WOYWW266

Good Afternoon fellow desk hoppers, I just realised the time,  I was so busy spending my craft money, how time flies when you are enjoying yourself. I only get to order every other month so I can spend enough for free postage, it takes me ages to decided what to buy,  as I've been enjoying trying some of the mixed media challenges over on SCS  I treated myself to a book, of course quite a few of the ideas use things I don't have so hopefully when my package arrives I will be able to try some of the techniques.

I haven' t been doing much really as its so hot now but as you can see I've made a start my next fireplace project but a Christmas one this time, notice it is still flat pack, its a bit hard to measure things without putting it together but I have a few parts made.
The box at the back was a gift box with body lotions in, I covered the top with the embossing folder with gears on, its for Joey and Charlie to put the bits and pieces they find on the beach or on our trips out, I thought we could then start a scrapbook/memory box together when I go over, it will be a first for me, I did try but found I wanted to squeeze too many photos on one page, probably as I have so many to choose from.

The other bits are two Halloween cards I cut out on my cricut, they are bats with googly eyes.

I hope you are all having a sunny Wednesday, hopefully not as hot as here in Spain, unless you enjoy being baked, it had reached 31c at just gone 11am but we were already heading home after our daily walk along the paseo and breakfast, nothing beats sitting outside, on the sea front eating toasted bread  with fresh tomatoes with a sprinkling of pepper, freshly squeezed orange juice, AND only 4 Euros! Maybe next week I should take a photo as it would be more interesting than my desk. 

Off for a nose round all the other desks, thanks for visiting mine, take care

Jan x

COME FLY WITH ME

I had just made this card for our Son`s birthday when I spotted the challenge over on the Tando Creative Challenge Blog, COME FLY WITH ME.
 I`ve tried to give the illusion of the plane flying over islands and fields by stencilling with embossing paste, something that is new to me but I love using, I coloured over the paste with distress inks. I die cut the plane out of Co-ordinations Vintage Collection paper and sanded it down a little on the edges.

WOYWW265

Morning everyone,  another Wednesday rolls around and for once I`ve managed to join in WOYWW.

I think I can safely say that summer has arrived in Spain, someone has turned  the thermometer to hot and humid, not our favourite time of year but after our trip to Hastings with the hit and miss weather and  cold winds we were mighty pleased to board the ferry for home although sad to say Adios to our family if only for a few months.

This is my attempt at a pop up card featuring Elmo, he will be sitting on the steps with Big Bird, hopefully, after our ten day holiday in England with our Grandsons and seeing that Charlie (18 mths) was obsessed with anything Elmo I thought  maybe for his 2nd birthday his card should have Elmo on it.
 Unfortunately while we were looking after them the only episode downloaded on their Ipad with Elmo was the one where he is being toilet trained, after two days we took to hiding the ipad,  out of sight out of mind if you know what I mean. only to be found at certain times,  there`s only so many times you can watch the same one I can assure you,  Charlie might only be 18 months but he knows how to switch it off and swish his little finger over the page to change it, then looking up with a cute little smile and saying ELMO, I certainly didn`t envy our DIL having a 11 hour flight back to San Francisco in the company of Charlie and Elmo!

I haven`t spent any money on craft since our trip but I did buy this stool last week, not that I actually sit down much when I`m  messing up here but I saw it and liked it and would you believe it was on sale, discontinued apparently and to Steve`s amazement the cheapest one there and  it spins around so easy to dismount, what more could a girl as for? Well more money to spend on craft but that would be just plain greedy.

I`ve spent the last two weeks working on this for Joey and Charlie for Halloween, I can`t take the credit for the idea as I saw it on the Tando Crafts site, their samples are brilliant  but I could`t find enough items to get free postage, to Spain that is, well I could but I`m trying to save my money for a big splurge for my trip, its not often I get the chance to actually visit a craft store and I do love pushing those titchy little carts around Michaels.
 Anyway I decided I could do this, after quite a few attempts I managed to make the fireplace, made the little tiles and the fire guard, I`m quite pleased with it but its a good job its travelling in my suitcase and not by post,  I`ve decided to make a Christmas version but I will try to keep it flat packed and assemble it over there, well that`s the general idea!
Well that`s all in my crafty space this week, just trying to keep cool so off for a dip in the pool, see you over at your desks to see what you`ve all been up to.
Thanks for popping over. Have a great day
Jan

WOYWW 261

Happy Wednesday I´m so pleased to finally get the chance to join in the fun, after a three week trip to the UK I was all ready to join in the Birthday celebrations, I spent two hours trying to upload my photo, so annoying as for once I had it all ready on Tuesday night, all sorted now apparently when we decided to stop using Google Chrome it stopped me uploading.

Yippee its worked!, back on chrome,  this week I`ve been trying to complete a few challenges across on SCS, never one to do one project at a time you can see four pieces, the Pop up box card is to use stash, cupcakes in my case,
My DIL bought them for me a few years ago and I never found a use for them until now, the card is for our Grandsons friend who will be four next month.

The blue pieces in the background on my desk are the first two attempts to use glue on a card, I saw a beautiful card in my craft Mag and thought, I could do that! but sadly I couldn`t although the pieces may be used for the cover in the next episode of Joey and Charlie´s adventures, Grandad is still writing short stories for them both, the next one apparently has to feature a Dragon!

I finally finished the card although I see I completely cut off the glue bit in the picture so I will post it below.

 I used my glue gun, for only the second time since I so desperately thought I needed one, the stems on the flowers are glue and a few buds!! The background is my mixed media attempt as I`m quite hooked at the moment with Gesso, stencils and embossing paste.

I`ll be off now to Julia`s Stamping Ground take a look at a few desks, , thanks so much for stopping by, have a great week everyone.

Jan

WOYWW245

I did intend to post a piccie of our lovely Paseo in the early morning sun but as always I forgot my camera.

 We were actually down the seafront by 9.15am, I know some of you will be saying, call that early! but as I don't usually climb out of my bed unless forced until 9 after having my morning cuppa, I call that early. ( a perk of not having to work any more), it was quite a shock when the alarm went off at 7.

AND I had already been to the medical centre for an X-Ray too, couldn't believe it, I was seen twenty minutes early, a first over here I can tell you.

Anyway instead you can see my ribbon drawer, I do really try to use ribbons hence the box on the right with odds and ends of tried but rejected pieces,  I just cant resist them though, I think on my next trip to Michaels I will avoid the aisle altogether to avoid massive temptation of all those beautiful colours.

 The box is something I´m intending to cover, I´ve saved a magazine that had an article on how to do it with Glassine paper, so, I´ve had the glassine paper in the drawer for about a year!! I discovered the box in a cupboard I was tidying so its staying put until I get a chance to work on it.

The other bits are handmade paper, a challenge from SCS to make a flower from crepe paper, I didnt have any so my brainwave was to use this instead, extra points for using old stash I think, down below you can just see the pink flower half finished, I made it smaller than as shown, not sure if that was a good idea, after seeing some of the lovely ones that have already been done it may not see the light of day.

 

The gold coloured pieces are for a card I´m making  for our DIL, I used  my cricut to cut the arched card and three separate arched panels,  coloured them with inks and stencilled two with embossing paste, one panel I´ve already glued at the back to show through the window.

I have it there and look at it every day hoping for more ideas, good job I have a couple more weeks to finish it but I usually get there in the end though.

The card with the trees is for another challenge, to use wood! another stencil, another card waiting for inspiration, why have one project on the go when you can have four or five!!! 

 

Looking at the news about the awful weather and floods they are having in the UK I hope you keep safe if any of you are in those parts of the country that are affected.

 

Happy Wednesday from me in sunny Spain, thanks to those who visited me last week. See you over at Julia´s Stamping ground.

 

Jan x

WOYWW 244

Wednesday, where did the week go again, makes me wonder how I ever found time to work!!
I decided this year I would actually join in with a few challenges, usually I see them and think, mmmm I could do that, I start with great intentions but time seems to overtake me and before I´ve finished everyone has moved on to the next one. Surprisingly I did actually finish one, the mixed media challenge across at Splitcoaststampers, it was rather messy but I really enjoyed it.

 My desk this week, well the purple bits of card are left over from the mixed media challenge, I managed three pieces by pressing them over my gelli plate, one piece I made into a card, the one with the white die cut resting on the top I embossed and then rubbed Indigo Treasure gold over the raised part. I would really love more colours but I´m saving my craft money to spend on our trip to England.

You can see in the background a whole mess of bits from discarded projects, yes, you can see a Christmas tree, its a new stamp I bought, another challenge that I didn't finish!! there´s also some stencilled card, I used the bare branches stencil but it didn't turn out as planned so its in the heap, I live in hopes that one day I will suddenly find some inspiration and use all these bits and pieces but seeing as I threw away some from about six years ago I don't think that's likely but being a hoarder I somehow cant part with them.

I hope the weather is being kind to you wherever you are, sunny but a few clouds over here.
Have a great day and thanks for popping over.

Jan x