WOYWW347

 Here we are again, where has this last week gone, well I know where our time has gone,  trying to fix the internet connection, eventually they replaced the little dish on the roof and box here in my room, then when we called our family using facetime they couldn't see us, sons probably thought that was a bonus, ha,ha 
The company made the mistake of telling Steve about a app that checks the speed, foolish people, he is now obsessed and checks every restaurant we go to, apparently is was the upload???? All I know is we can see our family again and they can relax knowing Dad won't keep emailing asking them to ring to check if they can see him, of course youngest rang and sat still, pulling a funny face pretending his picture had froze! 

My desk, As you can see I'm still working on my scrap page, it has moved to another of my desks so that's progress, I started out making this journal to give to the grandsons, mainly of our holidays with them and the trips we make during the year but I do find it hard work, I've already printed out three pages for BG but can't decide If they are what I'm looking for so don't be shocked if it's still here next week.

The box card in the background is for our youngest son, crazy birds popping out, I have to get my moneys worth out of them so looks like it will be crazy bird cards all year!

 The pile to the side of it is a second box card cut and covered, then I decided on another idea for a friends birthday card so I haven't managed to put it away to use at a later date yet, there's also my box of Fresco chalk paints I've been having a play with.

 Other than that, dare I say, I've been making Christmas Cards for the challenge I do all year round with SplitCoast Stampers and I'm pleased to say I've been using the card blanks I found when tidying and using my bits of card from my stash to die cut.

Before I go I'll just tell you something that hopefully will give you all a smile, Steve has kept his birthday card on the shelf, I commented and asked if he really like it so much, he said, yes but every time I see it I realise it's probably cost me thousands just for you to make it for me!!!!

Jan x

WOYWW 364

 Cool start to our day but maybe not as cold as some of you are experiencing so I won't complain tooo much!
 For some reason I thought it was Thursday so when our friend rang I asked if he was ringing from Alicante Airport, it was only when he said no he wasn't leaving until tomorrow I realised I had skipped a day.

My desk this week, well it doesn't look like there's much going on as I had to tidy yesterday so I could find a space that was actually clean after colouring with inks, paints etc.

On my cupboard top where my cutter and scor pal sit, you might just see them underneath, on the left some free papers from my craft mag and a card I'm making for a friend who it turning 50 next month, spent ages stamping the flowers and colouring them, couldn't quite get the colour the match the colour of the card so ended up with about six altogether.
The other side, in the hopes of doing some scrap pages I opened my smash book, that's as far as I've got with it, I seem to get easily distracted at the moment starting one card and jumping on to another when the idea I had fizzles out, I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking about. The paper on the top is where I write my points for the stamp 2 spend challenge over on Splitcoast stampers.

 Not sure if I mentioned the purchase of some multiple photo frames, well I'm still looking for two more photos from my extensive collection and of course I have to pick one of each of them, I'm not rushing as I hate the next job which will be how to hang them, straight, staggered, really can't be bothered with that at the moment.

I'm determined to use up odd pieces of card so I've left this container out to remind myself, unfortunately that is only a small selection of bits I've saved! That's a good thing about die cutting versus Cricut you can easily use the smaller pieces and the bonus is I use the off cuts to light the fire, so no waste at all.

Thanks for all your lovely comments last week, they are much appreciated.

Happy WOYWW

Jan x

WOYWW 345

Happy Belated New Year to you all, been missing for the last two weeks, totally forgot both weeks that it was Wednesday until late afternoon,  last Wednesday, January 6th, a big day over here of course, Epiphany
 January 5th, night of the three Kings arrival in a fishing boat, we took our friends Chris and Mary down to the port to watch the parade, of course as normal it started an hour late but it was worth the wait to see the children dressed up and the floats. The last float with the three kings on it throwing boiled sweets at the kids, its a wonder no one was knocked out, especially when the Kings (three young men) spotted three young girls, dressed to the nines, they couldn't resist throwing hands full at them!

The first picture is a mural in the fish market, its where the fishermen sell their fish to the restaurants etc.  The second was a boat that had just come in, great to see all the different fish waiting to be sold, the fisherman casually watching us all.

The children dressed as Snowmen and the older girls dressed as Christmas Trees

We also had a scrumptious meal afterwards, enormous portions so we were pretty stuffed afterwards, not even room for afters although the waiter did bring us all a free Baileys to finish our meal with our coffees, poor Chris had to suffer and drink Steve's as well as he doesn't drink!!

Well now it's all over and life has gone back to normal so I've been busy trying to get ahead with Birthday cards. Yesterday was  Steve's birthday, 65!! scary as I always thought it was only our parents that reached that age! 
Well not such a good birthday after having to be at the hospital at 8am Monday and yesterday for Cardiology tests, an hours drive away too so a very early start both days, it seems no major problems although he has his appointment in two weeks for the results, luckily at midday so not so early, thank goodness.

Of course I had to make a card with the Crazy birds!

I've stamped out quite a few and the accessories when I was full of enthusiasm, as you do, then spent quite a few afternoons playing around with them without actually making anything so I've put them away for now until I get inspired!

I did stamp on shrink plastic intending to use the birthday present on Steve's card, as you can see they shrink away and end up so tiny, that's why the balloons are still untouched.

Well that's me for this week, I have been following what you've all been up to but had a problem commenting from my ipad for some reason, I will make up for that this week.

Until next week, from a sunny, Spain, 20c yesterday, take care all.

Jan x

WOYWW 342

 Hola fellow deskers, welcome from a cloudy Spain, we have been promised sun again tomorrow, can't complain as its been cool first thing but wall to wall sunshine by lunchtime every day!

So how come this time of year always seems to sneak upon us? We know the date, it's the same every year but somehow we all think we have all the time in the world and then, bang, it's here, LOL, well over here it's pretty laid back, but then the Spanish have another one to come in January so they are saving themselves for that, photos at a later date...

Well my desk.....

Still messing with the crazy birds as I had all my cards finished and posted last week. 

So after reading what I thought was a great idea to use the backing from the glue dots to make your own bling, well see for yourself

Seeing as I have far too many stickles I tried a few, the gold glitter obviously was far too runny and came out in a big blob, after scrapping it into the holes I left it all to dry. Some look quite neat at this stage

Took an absolute age to dry, some didn't dry and those that did are quite mishaped, not the best idea I've tried so if anyone has done this, successfully do let me know the secret!

I think all that's left to do is to say, Have a great Christmas one and all and hope to see you next week, flaked out over your desks recovering from all that food no doubt, off to make sausage rolls and mince pies, programmed the cleaning for tomorrow, oh joy!!

Jan x

WOYWW 341

Hello again fellow deskers, didn't think I would make it, after a hectic day yesterday, early drive to Alicante to drop DS1 off, back home for doctors visit, we decided to have a leisurely morning starting with tea in bed, just started the washing machine going when I realised the water was going off so had to turn it off and decided to go for our walk, just arrived at the seafront and bumped into some friends who are over for two months so we all ordered coffee, next thing its 11.30 and we hadn't even had breakfast, honestly its all go when you are retired!!

So, one of my desks, I ordered a Clarity stamp folder and inserts while I was away but unfortunately it didn't arrive in time for me to bring home with me, good job really as I didn't realise it would be so heavy, I would have been really over weight with my luggage!

So yesterday afternoon I started transferring my stamps into the folder, not sure how it should be done but I've attached the stamp picture on the front of the insert and the stamps on the back, is that how it should be done???

I have more stamps than I thought so its a good job I ordered extra inserts, I seem to have loads of Christmas stamps! and as I have mentioned before stamping isn't really my thing, I am trying to enjoy it but I much prefer to do decoupage.

A view inside one drawer, I've tidied my dies so I could fit the new ones in, these are just the nesting ones, others are in a CD pocket on a piece of magnetic sheet, for now, I'm still looking for a system to save on room as I'm gradually running out of storage space, it doesn't help getting interested in mixed media as now I have paints, stencils,  etc, etc, I did buy a Clarity small stencil holder to save them being damaged floating around the drawer but need to sort out how to store all my paints and ink blending tools now, maybe when I do I will dare to show that drawer!

sorry I didn't manage to visit many desks last week, will try harder this week even if isn't until tomorrow, have to make a Lamb pie for tea now so see you later, thanks to those who left comments last week, it's good to be back.

Jan x

WOYWW 340

Hello from a cloudy Spain, its been so long since I joined it took me a while to get into my blog. 
We've just come back from a two month visit to our sons in San Francisco, still getting our heads straight after being away so long, must admit we've had a great time with our family, especially our Grandsons who've both had birthdays while we were over. 

Its lovely to join in their every day lives, school run, going to swimming and piano lessons, a couple of visits to the cinema, had a amazing Halloween, seeing as I was the birthday girl that night I had to be a witch, Charlie 3 was a cute Batman and Joey was a shark, even walked through a full sized pirate ship in one garden, after two hours the boys had far too much candy so we made our way home.

I was volunteered by DIL to help at the art class one morning, we helped Joeys class make owl pictures with pasta and wool, this was Joeys finished piece, some of the girls were such perfectionists, I see a few future crafters amongst them

Of course I managed to spend quite a bit!! Some might say more than a bit but I had great fun perusing the web sites, must admit I bought more online, far more discounts I found this time, anyway you can all see for yourselves.

Very excited about the Crazy birds, I managed to get the stamps and dies and the accessories, I've seen loads of great cards using them so just hope I can do the same with them.
The jury is still out on the piercing dies and the Spellbinders enhancing Circles, not sure if that's the right name, anyway had a quick play with them, I didn't realise some of the set are just embossing shapes not cutting ones, takes a while to figure them out, or maybe my heads still spinning after all that travelling! 
Of course it took me two afternoons to put it all away, I had my sets of dies in a drawer laid out on magnetic sheets, having collected a few more I couldn't get them all in one drawer, after a whole afternoon I re-arranged them all, some are now on magnetic sheets in CD sleeves, for the moment!

I have a stamp folder and sheets from Clarity on its way with eldest son, he rang last night and asked if he could pop over Friday for five days, of course we were very pleased as we only had a one night stop over with him on our journey home, DIL isn't able to fly as they are expecting a baby next May,  we are to be Grand parents again which is such exciting news.

Before I say bye and seeing as it's that time of year, a photo of the Christmas card I made for our Grandsons, it's a shelf sitting Snowman, instructions can be found on the Splitcoast Stampers Tutorials.

Have a great weekend, I will try to visit as many desks as possible but now I have some cleaning to do before Friday

Jan x

WOYWW 318

Good morning fellow Deskers, and for once it is still morning, it's usually after lunch when I blog but yesterday the temperatures were so high, 10.45am and already 35C on the way home from our walk, so we have suspended our walks, it was up to 44.8C in our conservatory yesterday!! it's promising us lower temperatures after next week, apparently a cool 28-30C!! I hope so as our family are coming over on 27th from San Francisco and they would hate this extreme heat.

Anyway on to my desk, I took this photo Monday afternoon, good job as I didn't do anything yesterday apart from tidy for ten minutes before giving up.

Still playing with my Brushos, had another craftstamper mag download and part 2 master class, so the one that caught my eye was using cling film, I must say I enjoyed it and you can see the pieces, some in purple and some red and green. Steve did give me a funny look when he saw me taking the cling film upstairs, he didn't ask, probably didn't want me to go into great detail and ruin his watching of the Tour de France.
Anyway you crinkle the cling film and then lay it out, spray with water or as in the pieces here I used watered down Mica powders and then sprinkle the Brushos, lay the card on the top and then fold the cling film around the card, turn over and rub your hands over the cling film to spread the paint, making sure there's creases and leave to dry. 

A close up of said pieces, I did cut them in half as I had a germ of an idea to use the purple for the BG on a birthday card but heat stopped play. The piece on the right I made using photo paper, which is quite effective. The Mica powders give a shimmer to it all, a bit hard to see here.

Thanks for all the lovely comments from last week, pleased to know I'm not the only one being challenged by Brushos but if anyone has any other ways to use it I'd be very interested to hear about it.
Until next week, Happy WOYWW from a slightly melted Desker, off to have a swim.

Jan x