WOYWW 303

Hi All, sorry I missed the weekly desk hop last week, the weather was rainy so we decided to take a trip to Ikea, by the time we arrived home I decided it was just too cold up here and as I've yet to master blogging on my Ipad I had to give it a miss.

I'm pleased you can only see my desk this week, I've burst a blood vessel in my eye so you can hardly see my pupil, and of course being the supportive husband that he is Steve has done his best to cheer me up with his usual crabby jokes, first one, when did I join the Black-eyed Peas, second one, is my favourite programme Bullseye,(sorry that might be before every ones else's time) even Miriam the doctor asked if Steve had punched me!
 oh and he even took a photo to send to our sons, our youngest asked if I was late taking his Dad tea in bed. Lots of sympathy as you can see.

First a cheery picture from last week when we had a short break in the clouds, Steve trying to coax our little friend to take the bread from his hand, he really wanted to be brave but in the end chirped and flew to the floor, he had his breakfast treat and even hung around for seconds.

Still messing around in my journal, I decided to have a play and thought after seeing the boats in the marina blowing about I would use that as my idea.  I started off trying to make the bottom half look like sand and rocks with screwed up tissue paper, after one step too far decided to make it crashing waves, so plenty of layers again, glass beads, crackle paste, you name it,I used it, I wont be winning a prize in any art competitions with it but it cheered me up, I get a little stir crazy after a few days of dull weather, we're not used to being cooped up. 
The pile to the right are bits of card, some embossed, some stamped, mostly the grain of an idea that fizzled out so I've left them there hoping to use them later.

Sorry this one is a bit dark, I took it yesterday afternoon, as I said the weather hasn't been  too good so no sun to brighten the place up.
 My pieces for the accordion card are thrown in an orderly heap!! I started doing the journal page and had so many paints out before I realised the card pieces were in danger of being ruined, I really need to get the card finished, I keep laying the pieces out but my mind seems to keep straying to other projects. 

Well that's all I have to show for this week, with the weather I haven't done much but hopefully you have all accomplished much more, I really enjoyed reading everyone 's comments last time, thanks so much for popping over for a visit.

Jan x

Bird on a Branch

This is the first page of my first ever journal so when I saw the Art Journal Journey Challenge to create "Things with wings" I decided to post my first effort.

I'm really enjoying Mixed Media although I'm useless at drawing so using stamps is ideal for me.
Sorry I can't show my page in stages, I had already finished it before I happened upon this challenge.
 I coloured the Background with Chalk Acrylic Paints, they are new to me and I really love them. I stencilled the birds and branches with embossing paste and coloured them with distress inks and chalk paint.
The flower stamps are Paperartsy, coloured again with Chalk paints, Its hard to see but I've used glossy accents on some of the flower heads and crackle accents on the large leaf. 

WOYWW 301

Wednesday again, nearly forgot by the time we arrived home, we had breakfast on the seafront and as we were heading for home we bumped into a couple we met last year, we should have gone back for another coffee as we haven't seen them since last October so the quick hello turned into an hours catch-up, anyway my desk this week.

Still enjoying playing with my Paperartsy stamps and paints, strange for me as I always say I'm not a stamper but they've got me hooked, can't wait until I can order more colours.
I've been trying to make an accordion flip card, I spotted a beautiful card in the Stamper Mag and seeing as I have the Sizzix die, never used, I thought I would give it a try, as you can see three tries later I still haven't quite cracked it but I had another read through the article while drinking my tea in bed, as you do, and noticed that they did it with layers, typical of me, rushing ahead without reading it thoroughly!

 Finally finished the cover of my Travel Journal, I'd already embossed it with the street map stencil on the brown cover and decided I wasn't too keen so I painted it all over with Chalk paints and a lovely shimmer paint over parts of it but never knowing when to stop I decided to put another colour on which looked awful so I repainted it all, tried dabbing over the top with picket fence distress paint, I think it's dried up a bit as I couldn't get it to come out so I squeezed it and had it all over my mat!! By this time I decided enough was enough so I just dabbed the picket fence over a few places, embossed the word Special at the top, made a label with "Family" on and used Glossy accents over the top, whilst rummaging through the drawers looking for something else I found a metal tag so I typed "Memories" to put inside, after that I decided to leave well alone before I had to start again!

The other piece is a play with the largest stamp, I stamped in black and embossed with Cosmic ultra thick embossing crystals before painting, now I just have to decide how to use it!!

Many thanks for all your lovely comments about Jennie's card, it still hasn't arrived in over two weeks so fingers crossed it arrives by Friday!

 Looking forward to seeing what you've all been up to over at Julia's Stamping Ground.

 Have a great weekend.

Jan x

WOYWW 300

Wow can't believe WOYWW has been going for so long, all thanks to Julia over at The Stamping Ground.

My desks this morning are showing quite a bit of activity, below are my new Paperartsy Chalk paints, they are brilliant, my parcel from the Craft Barn only took five days to arrive in Spain, a record I think, I couldn't wait to get home from shopping to rip open the box, unfortunately in my excitement to play I forgot to take a photo of all my new goodies

As you can see I've been having a great time playing with my new Paints and the Jofy flower stamps, you can see my first attempt isn't a masterpiece but I've really been enjoying myself, paint everywhere, all I can say is thank goodness for baby wipes.

I treated myself to an art journal, really just so I could play with my mixed media collection of gesso, texture pastes etc, ect, you know how it is, LOL I've had it a while, had a play, didn't make anything worthwhile so its been stuck in the drawer along with the Gelli plate I was so desperate to own!

At last Jennie's Birthday card is finished and winging its way to the states.

I must admit after spending two weeks in the making it was quite a relief to get it posted, funnily I was struggling with the last touches and then, ping, it all fell into place, anyway hopefully it will arrive on time for the big day.

The pink mesh on the front I've had for a zillion years so I was chuffed to find a use for it as long last, I made the little tag from shrink plastic, went a big curved but that was my last piece so couldn't try again. The inside photos can slide out to be changed of course the first frame I made was too small to slide the photo in!

I reprinted the flower paper and fussy cut extra flowers to make them stand out although it was quite thick when closed so cost a bomb to post, still she's worth it.

Hope you all have a good week, and that the weather is warming up where ever you are, the sun has just broke through the fog here, who would have thought fog in Spain.

WOYWW 297

Hola from Sunny/ cloudy Spain, this is the first day I've been up here since Sunday, Monday was too cold and yesterday we just managed our morning walk, drove home and it started raining, eventually I lit the fire and had a lazy afternoon, ha,ha, not much different from the norm.

Thought I'd share this photo of my coffee from
yesterday, heart shaped sugars, how cute, the waiter had a little smile when he heard my comments about them. Steve just tutted, not impressed.

Lovely cups too, very colourful.

My desk this week, well I've made a start on DIL's  handbag card but decided to use the pink papers instead of the dark red, prettier I think so as you can see its still in the early stages, the fushia pink card has a lovely sheen to it, it does't really show in the photo but I`m quite pleased as it matches really well and I've had it for years. 

My second travel page done, I decided not to do the second page of my train journey yet, still mulling it over.

 I think I mentioned before that Halloween is my birthday and that our eldest Grandson is convinced I`m a witch, I`m pretty sure Grandad has something to do with that!
 its always a busy day, Joey (scary Dragon), Charlie (puppy dog) had parades at school and of course Trick o Treating in the evening, fair wore me out as they live at the top of the cliffs and most houses had umpteen steps to the door, one man said we were the first visitors for two years, hardly surprising as they must have had thirty steps to climb, it was well worth going out just to see the houses and the boys were  pretty pleased with all the goodies they collected

The top Pic on the page is our DIL who dressed as a cat complete with long tail, they had to go to work in costume and had a competition between departments!

Nothing else too exciting happening here so until next week, have a great weekend and once again thanks for all your lovely comments.

WOYWW 296

So Where did the last week go to? My Dad always said it was a sign of getting old when you think time flies, how true that is! Anyway another Wednesday and a chance to snoop around every ones desks, thanks to Julia over at the Stamping Ground. 
 Hopefully you`ve been a little more creative than I have, although I did manage to finish my first travel journal page, never thought I would but here it is.

I had a huge amount of encouragement from Sharon, Foxy Stamping, thanks Sharon, and I have started on my second too, as you can see below, well I`ve printed some paper for the BG although I found some I liked much better when I was searching for the dark Red paper.

I'm attempting a card shaped as a handbag but inside it holds two photos so it can be used as a photo frame, this is a test one to see if I can make it work, if it does I will make it for our DIL and put photos of her boys in it, as we both call them, (our son and grandsons) I have been trying to find colours to match their bedroom as any cards with photos are kept in the bedrooms after the birthdays are over.

This is a photo from last week, we usually only have coffee here and have a few birds sit on the back of the chairs chirping at us for food, this week we had breakfast and one decided he could share it with us, they are so tame, he obviously enjoys croissant for breakfast.

Sunny and windy here today, we' ve been spoilt as it was 19c last weekend so now it feels chilly, I know, most of you would really love 14c!

Must dash now as I`ve promised to make Scones, they normally turn out like griddle cakes but I'm determined to get them right, one day, Steve still eats them and tells me they are lovely, what a kind husband he is.

Have a great weekend and keep safe if you are have all that horrible white stuff around. Thanks once again for all your kind comments last week.

Jan x

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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