Woo Hoo!, it's Friday .....

Morning all,

It's the weekend, well, not really but it kind of feels like the weekend starts here and, to be honest, it's the first weekend (other than Christmas weekend) when I've not feel really rubbish too, so I'm REALLY looking forward to it! Feeling heaps better, at least I was .. UNTIL I answered the phone to a pal on Wednesday and his opening salvo was "Blimey you sound rubbish"!!! Hmm.

Anyhoo, I have finally managed a little time at the ToC (that's Table of Craftiness) and realised I was a little short on anniversary cards for 2017 - so,

My card

The front and back of my card and reverse of my envelope

The inside of my card

Materials used:

• White C6, 250gsm, card and matching sized envelope
• Two white card panels cut to 14.3 x 10cm and 13.8 x 9.5cm
• One piece of gold card cut to 14.3 x 10cm
• Inkadinkado three hearts image stamped using Delicata golden glitz and Ranger Archival jet black inks
• The Cats Pyjamas sentiment stamped using Ranger Archival jet black ink
• Self adhesive "diamond" gems and red glitter droplets added to bling it up - it's been ages (or feels like ages) since I added gems to my normally CAS cards

I'll be entering the above for the following challenges:-

1. Inspiration Destination - challenge No. 119 - JFF ... ANYTHING GOES
2. Mod Squad Challenge - January 11th challenge - SEQUINS, RHINESTONES, GLITTER (in other words BLING IT UP)!
3. Inky Chicks - challenge No. 77 - ANYTHING GOES
4. Crazy Challenge - challenge No. 239 - THREE (hearts) OF A KIND
5. CAS-ual Friday - challenge No. 165 - EVERYTHING TURNS TO GOLD

Enjoy your weekend and do take care if you have snow where you are.

We woke up to this ... a light dusting!

Welcome to What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

Morning readers and followers,

You may have noticed that I've been a bit out of sorts .... no, really .... had a cold since late December and really struggling to shrug off the germs. Hubby's had it too and the pair of us have been sitting around a shared box of Kleenex coughing and spluttering for England. It's quite put me off my crafting stroke and my ToC has been sadly neglected of late.

I'd also like to apologise to those bloggers that I normally visit (either LIM or WOYWW) if I don't make it to your blog this week - hopefully, normal service will resume next week.

However, hubby made it out on Monday evening and I made it to my ToC for a quick card which I'd like to share with you below - we're both hoping this implies we are on the road to recovery though I ALMOST made it in to a get well card to send to ourselves!!!

My card

The front and back of my card and the reverse of my envelope

The inside of my card and front of my envelope

Materials used:

• White C6, 250gsm, card and matching sized envelope
• Two pieces of white card cut to 14.3 x 10cm and 13.8 x 9.5cm
• One piece of black card cut to 14.3cm x 10cm
• Snippets of card in both white and black - for my image panel
• Taking the white snippet I taped it to my blending mat using low tack tape
• Using Distress Inks I blended my colours to an "ombre" finish, using squeezed lemonade, fossilied amber and spiced marigold - I used Crafters Companion spray and shine to seal the inked panel against the elements!
• Penny Black image stamped using Versafine onyx black ink
• The Cats Pyjamas sentiment stamped using Ranger Archival jet black ink
• Organza ribbon "ombre effect" gold through orange to pink to complete the effect

I'll be entering the above for the following challenges:-

1. Simply Less Is More - challenge No. 310 - Colour challenge week - OMBRE TECHNIQUE
2. Get Creative - challenge No. 54 - ANYTHING GOES
3. Incy Wincy - January 2nd challenge - CELEBRATE
4. Dragonfly journeys - challenge No. 83 - BIRTHDAY BASH
5. Ribbon Girls - January 1st challenge - ANYTHING (with ribbon) GOES

And now, since it IS What's On Your Workdesk .. I'd like to share a pic of my desk, which I'll be entering over at Julia's WOYWW #397 challenge, where I shall be entry #15.

My desk hasn't changed much this week

Morning and welcome to a lazy Sunday in January

Morning all,

How's your weekend coming along?

If you visited my blog yesterday then you may recall I posted the latest batch of materials I received from my trading card swap buddy and you may well have stopped by to see what I turned them in to .... well, I cannot tell a lie, I didn't care for the colour of the paper the sentiment was stamped on to so I set about changing that with an alcohol marker. HORROR of horrors, the ink started to smear, cue change of plans here .....

My ATC

And a closer view to show the sheen of the Delicata ink

ADDITIONAL Materials used:

• Katzelkraft "Les Jungles" monkey image stamped using Memento tuxedo black ink, on to a snippet of white card slightly larger than ATC size
• Alcohol markers and Kaisercraft glitter and opaque markers used to colour image and background, I also used the glitter markers to go over the sentiment which had started to run as I attempted to change the colour of the background paper .. leading me to cut out the sentiment!
• Paper Artsy splat images stamped using Memento sweet plum and Delicata golden glitz inks
• Faber Castell "S" thickness pitt pen used to doodle a border around the sentiment and the outer edge of the ATC

Can't remember what I received? Well it was a piece of yellow paper with the sentiment stamped on and a row of connected "faux" gemstones.

I'll be entering this for the following challenges:-

1. Catch the bug challenges - January 7th challenge - ANYTHING GOES
2. Fun Day Friday challenge - challenge No. 170 - ALWAYS ANYTHING GOES
3. My time to craft - 31st December challenge - SOMETHING NEW (Katzelkraft stamps)
4. Pixie's Crafty Workshop - challenge No. 263 - USE SNIPPETS

It was foggy and miserable this week and my mojo has, mostly, been cowering in a corner .... but I think I used the indoor time wisely by practising my pencil colouring - not sure I'm winning .... yet!

Using Crayola coloured pencils

This was coloured using pound shop coloured pencils

I think the crayolas layer better and build a better colour .. but I could just be fooling myself! Still need LOTS of practise!

It's the weekend!

Hi there peeps,

Had a good week? Hubby and I have been fighting off germs - and failing! We've had rubbish days and worse nights, waking feeling truly dreadful some mornings. This winters brand of germs seems particularly virulent! I hope you all manage to avoid these germs. If you've swung by hoping to catch a glimpse of my make for the Simply Less Is More challenge (my Saturday "Go To" challenge) then you are out of luck - I feel so dreadful this morning that I simply can't face heading to the ToC (Table of Craftiness) to make anything ... so, all I have to share is a little something I made last night and which kind of sums up how I feel this morning too!!!!

Who doesn't love new stash?!???! Yesterday, I accepted a delivery of new stash and could hardly wait to get these fab images inky .... guess even my missing mojo couldn't resist this set!

My card

The front and back of my card and reverse of my envelope

The inside of my card and front of my envelope

Materials used:

• White C6, 250gsm, card and matching sized envelope
• Two pieces of white card cut to 9 x 13.8cm and 9½ x 14.3cm
• One piece of red card cut to 9½ x 14.3cm
• Katzelkraft Les Jungles image and Hero Arts sentiment stamped using Memento tuxedo black ink
• On a snippet of white card I stamped part of a Santa image using Memento tuxedo black ink before cutting out just the Santa hat
• Alcohol markers used to colour the image and hat
• Stardust stickles used to highlight

A Clean And Simple, Christmasy card and slightly comic too - IMHO! Perfect addition to my 2017 quota!

I'll be entering this for the following challenges:-

1. CAS-ual Fridays - challenge No. 164 - CELEBRATIONS
2. Colour Crazy challenge - challenge No. 1 - ANYTHING GOES
3. Cards und More - challenge No. 174 - PARTY ANIMALS .. OK so there's only one animal but - must have been one heck of a party!!!
4. Brown Sugar - challenge No. 232 - ANYTHING GOES

Many of you will know that I swap ATC materials with a pal from the Isle of Skye, got my latest batch yesterday ...... As always, I welcome your suggestions

Incoming materials, a stamped sentiment and a joined up line of gemstones

Check back tomorrow to see what I turned those materials in to ..

Some of you may also wonder what some of the ATC's my swap buddy makes with the materials she sends me duplicates of ...

 

On the left was my take on the materials (a stamped image of tweedledee and tweedledum) 

and on the right was Pam's original ATC

Have a great weekend

Welcome to the start of the weekend

Morning 

Here we are, Friday again, sadly this week is the first week without the regular feature of my Friday Funny - I didn't get many usable submissions (plenty were really funny IMHO but could be easily misconstrued, so I couldn't put them on my blog) so had to stop my weekly FF - might try it monthly, just have to see how many funnies I get sent!

Anyway, I decided that 2017 was going to be the year of the coloured pencil (more like my attempts to get to grips with this medium) and canvassed opinion on which coloured pencils to buy. I watched a whole load of YouTube videos too, which merely convinced me that I was no colourist and that, before I splashed the cash, perhaps I should work on my technique. To that end, I ordered some coloured pencils - a pack of 50 by (wait for it) CRAYOLA!!! Now before you fall over laughing you SHOULD know that I watched a whole bunch of videos regarding coloured pencils and even one where they compared Crayolas with MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE pencils .. now it should come as no surprise to find out that the more expensive cpencils won out on density of pigment and finish etc, but I was at least convinced by the argument that Crayolas layered well, went on pretty smoothly and had a good range of colours - my tenner was spent before I went much further! You can decide whether it was WELL spent! I had been wandering about in the wilderness that is facebook (having lost hours there over time) and came across a post by Gerrina .. in it she shared a card with some fab art deco ladies on - it reminded me that I had the same image and I couldn't stop myself opening it and stamping it on to 300gsm card for my first experiment in grown up colouring in! Here's a link to Gerrina's blog - in case you fancy checking it out.

My card

The inside of my card and reverse of my envelope

The front and back of my card

A close view of the image panel

Materials used:

• White C6, 250gsm, card and matching sized envelope
• Sparkle 'n Sprinkle image stamped on to 300gsm white card using Ranger Archival jet black ink
• Crayola coloured pencils and sansodor used to colour/blend the image
• Once coloured and cut to size the image panel was matted on to light blue and then orange card - to match the image and stardust stickles applied to add twinkle
• For the insert I stamped the Anita's sentiment using Ranger Archival jet black ink

Thanks to Gerrina for reminding me about this fab image! I'll be entering this over at the following challenges:-

1. Inspiration Destination - challenge No. 119 - ANYTHING GOES
2. Mod Squad - January 4th challenge - ANYTHING BUT CHRISTMAS!
3. Cards und More - challenge No. 175 - PARTY ANIMALS .. it's a little tongue in cheek but these ladies look like party animals to me!
4. Seize the birthday - January 5th challenge - ANYTHING (Birthday) GOES

A pal set some challenge prompts on a private blog I belong to .... they were 1) base coat, 2) finger painting and 3) stencil - and here's how it turned out. It's interesting because two other people have also produced work for this and once produced a suitcase and the other a printers tray - so, all very different!

Materials used:-

• Crawford and Black journal page, gesso'd
• Distress Crayons "brights" blended with a moistened finger
• Stencils (by TCW and Tim Holtz) used in conjunction with a nearly dried out baby wipe, to knock back colour
• Fresco paint in bora bora to smoosh the circles (with my fingers) and then squid ink added and I simply added my finger print to the centres before stamping the Visible Image scribbled circle stamped using Ranger Archival jet black ink
• Stamplorations sentiments stamped using Ranger Archival jet black ink
• Hero Arts circles stamped using Ranger Archival watering can ink
• Purple lake acrylic ink splatter over the page
• Stardust stickles to outline some of the scribbled circles

Have a great weekend

The first What's On Your Workday of 2017!

Morning 

I guess it's back to normal for many of you this week - come on, own up - how many of you have already taken down and put away the Christmas decorations? What? HOW MANY? 

New Year, new start ..... I have a card to share with you and .. guess what? It's NOT a Christmas card! Bet you thought I was never going to make any other kind again!

My card

The front and back of my card and reverse of my envelope

The inside of my card and front of my envelope

Materials used:

• White C6, 250gsm, card and matching sized envelope
• Two pieces of white card cut to 9 x 13½cm and 9½ x 14cm
• One piece of red card cut to 9½ x 14cm
• Snippets of card in white, red and black
• Inkadinkado image stamped on to white snippet using Ranger Archival jet black ink and then colour added using Kaisercraft glitter gel pen
• A white gelly roll gel pen was used to doodle a dotty border on the first black layer
• Red woven ribbon and an offcut of silver ribbon - 2017 is the year I've decided to use up some of my vast stock of ribbon so it was great to use not one but two pieces in this card
• For the insert and envelope I also stamped the Cats Pyjamas greeting and flourish using Ranger Archival jet black ink

I this might make a cool valentines card too but .... I'll be entering the above for the following challenges:-

1. Incy Wincy - January 2nd challenge - CELEBRATE
2. Lemon Shortbread - challenge No. 32 - ANYTHING GOES

I decided that 2017 was the year I got to grip with colouring pencils ..... now, I've had a set of pencils for a while but never really used them. I've also found that a number of my "travel" alcohol markers had dried up and I wondered whether to switch to pencils ...... then I was given some pound store pencils (surprisingly good considering there were 20 for that pound!). So, I stamped out an image and set to colouring ....

My first attempt using (mostly) my original pencils

My second attempt using the pound shop crayons

Now, I'm no artist and am never likely to be but I wanted brighter and more vibrant colours ..... I'm contemplating the purchase of some Prismacolours or Polychromos pencils but before I invested .. I watched a few videos. One artist actually made a comparison between Prismas and Crayola!!!! And the Crayolas, whilst coming second (OBVIOUSLY) didn't do too badly so, I've invested £9 of my hard earned pennies on a set of 50 Crayolas - to give me more colour choice and will see how I get on. Watch this space - any tips or hints peeps?

And now, since it IS Wednesday, I'd like to share a pic of my desk. I'll be submitting this for the WOYWW challenge #396 so ... if you're not familiar with it then please feel free to follow the link and find out. I shall be entry #14. Lately, the light has been so totally pants that I decided to sit in my office and colour in, made a nice change actually !!! As you can see, my Crayola's arrived - sadly, one's rather bent so probably won't sharpen well, as the pencil wears down.

Happy WOYWW

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Morning all,

Hope there aren't too many thick heads from last night's celebrations! I hope that 2017 will be great for everyone.

I don't "DO" New Year Resolutions but, if I did, I'd probably be planning to lose weight, take more exercise and drink less - NOW you know why I don't make them in the first place!!!!

For those of you who've popped by my blog this morning, THANK YOU. I have some crafting to share with you, not a lot mind you but ..... I thought this wrapping paper was totally LUSH and decided to upcycle it! Little did I realise how tricky it was going to prove. I have three tag shaped dies and several sizes of each ... NONE of them fitted! The placement of the wording on the wrapping paper was just in the wrong place for them all. I tried a board tag that I had and which was quite narrow. As you can see, the reindeer looks a little TOO trimmed! I finally went with a circular tag which seemed to work - mind you, now it's done .. you should have seen the glitter haze it generated!!! Luckily, we have a new vacuum and it proved more than up to the task of glitter eradication! Of course, I'm pretty lucky, the people who BOUGHT the paper in the first place must have had an absolute NIGHTMARE and I'm given to understand that Tesco (who sold it) have been inundated with complaints about it too!

My snippets tags - mark I

The reverse of my tag

And another little batch - mark II

And the lovely gift wrap I upcycled!

Materials used:

• Glittery wrapping paper which I stuck to 200gsm white card and also to a stampboard tag using acid free silicon glue
• Once the glue was dry I die cut circles and then used my crop-a-dile to punch a hole in one and used my craft knife to cut around the thicker tag, filing off any rough edges using a coarse nail file
• Kaisercraft sentiment stamped on to the reverse of the tags using Ranger Archival jet black ink
• Finally I used a Faber Castell metallic pitt pen to edge the tags in gold (to match the reindeer!

I'll be entering the above for the following challenges:-

1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - challenge No.262 - USE SNIPPETS
2. Allsorts - challenge No. 396 - SOMETHING NEW .. tags from (new) wrapping paper
3. CraftyHazelnutsChristmasChallenge - challenge No. 314 - ANYTHING (Christmas) GOES
4. Gem of a challenge - challenge No. 184 - ANYTHING (Christmas) GOES
5. Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - challenge No. 74 - X is for XMAS

Wishing all my readers and followers a very