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

WOYWW317

Finally made it, we've had a stressful morning, Steve had to be at the surgery at 8am for a set of bloods ready for his Cardiologists appointment and an ECG afterwards, unfortunately the nurse saw a problem so we had to wait two hours before the doctor could see him, now I'm even more stressed, Steve being Steve says he feels fine and not to worry! 
So we've just had breakfast as he wasn't allowed even water before the blood test!!

My desk this week, I took this photo yesterday before I tidied up. This is me being carried away with stamps and embossing powders, have you ever stepped on embossing powder? Its not a good feeling, especially when its glittery, I did have lovely pink and lemon soles though as well as a piece of glittery BG card made using a brayer with embossing ink and embossing powders.

I downloaded the craftstamper mag on my ipad as I noticed they had a few articles on Brushos, you may remember I had been tempted into buying a set, they had some beautiful pieces and they really made it look simple, LOL, well many attempts later and I'm still wondering why I'm really not finding it so easy! They showed how to stamp and emboss the flowers then sprinkle a tiny amount of powder inside the flower head and spritz, so far so good, mine bled into the BG but I think the problem is that my nozzle is too big and its spraying too wide so later I'll try another mister, hopefully by next week I might be able to show you a finished card.

The other side of the room, Julia asked it I stood up to craft or where did I put my legs when sitting, well I do stand most of the time but you can see on the first photo the desk has a lip where I can pull up my stool, that also has a secondary role as a place for ironing waiting to be done so not much sitting gets done.

So the Flowers are out as I was looking for a colour match to make a Shabby chic card for a challenge, not my thing so that's as far as I've got with it. The Roses are Buttonholes from the Wedding I've just bought upstairs to put away, paint brushes etc are left there from my Brushos experience and a piece of blue curled up paper that is supposed to be crackled, I bought some crackle paste but much prefer the crackle glaze, maybe I'm just not doing it right but it never seems to crackle enough, if you know what I mean.

Before I go, this is our American Grand-dog Splodgey, he was 15 yesterday and posing with the birthday card I sent him,  unfortunately he couldn't go out partying due to his age and being quite poorly, he even takes more meds than his Grandad does but he still had a birthday cupcake to celebrate complete with candles blown out by Joey and Charlie.

Well I think its time to say goodbye and cool off with a swim, temperatures have been brutal this week, over 45c yesterday so I'll head over to Julia's place and hope to see some cooler places from around the world.

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my last visit, they were much appreciated, I'm still trying to work out how to post thanks near the comments box, I'm sure I'll work it out eventually.

Jan x

WOYWW 315

My desk this week, well one part of it, doesn't look as if much is going on but I have finished three projects. I really should take the photo before cleaning up, at one point  I had so much paper out I couldn't find my paper trimmer.

I had a little play with my Brusho paints, after getting ideas from you tube I stabbed a hole in the top of the pots, which makes sense after I took the lid off and ended up using far too much paint, you might just see on the top piece of card. I decided to use one of my new stamps, PaperArtsy Mini flower, to stamp on top of the blue, cut them out and make flowers with them, I actually only finished the one, I think you can just see it, but I quite like it.

This is for our eldest son, his birthday isn't until next month but I wanted to get it finished while I had the idea in my head. Its actually a similar colour to his wedding suit, not sure the shirt collar is the right size for the jacket but after making a few that was the best of the bunch, I even had to make an envelope, as usual I just started the card without any thought of not having an envelope big enough! 

I even managed to finish Katie's card, our Grandsons friend, the balloons I've had for years but they did match the Birthday paper quite well I thought.

And just to show I haven't been slacking this week, my Scraplift page. This was our day out with Joey in San Francisco last year, to take him on the Muni, Tram and Cable car. 

I've started using my Smash book as a Journal of our holidays and special events.

Well that's me for this week, hope you have a great weekend, thanks to all who popped over last week and left lovely comments.

Jan x

WOYWW 313

Looks like you all had a great time last week with the ATC swop, I was quite pleased with myself as I managed to do a scheduled post which Julia linked up for me, I hope the ATC arrived Julia!
Whilst all the desk hopping was going on we were en route to Bydgoszcz in Poland for our eldest sons wedding. Everything went to plan, we all managed to meet at the hotel as planned before flying out the following day.

 My room looks the same as last week, almost, with the addition of a pile of ironing which I'm sure you really don't want to see so here's a few piccies instead.

Bydgoszcz is a very pretty town with lovely riverside walks and plenty of restaurants and coffee shops selling an amazing assortment of cakes, I did have to partake, just once, honestly, a blueberry cheesecake which was absolutely delicious.

The bride and groom arriving at the wedding reception, a novel way to arrive, sipping champers while the guests wait on the balcony. Magdalena was quite concerned about it beforehand as we all joked it would be a rowing boat, Steve actually thought the whole wedding party would be joining them!

Bring on the Wedding cake, Polish style, we were amazed it didn't melt with the heat.

We had already had the main course, Chicken, rolled beef, pork knuckle and all the trimmings, after an hour or so of dancing the waiter wheeled out a roast pig lit up with fireworks! I was so amazed I totally forgot to take a photo.

We left just after 1am so missed the soup that was served at 2am!! Apparently some guests were still partying at 4am. 

We had a lovely four days, the last day spent at the summer house near the lake with the family, sadly we all had to say goodbye, we all flew back to Stansted together, bride and groom home to London, youngest son to San Francisco and we stayed in the hotel another night as we had a 6am flight back to Alicante.

Just off for a swim so until next week, Happy WOYWW

Jan x