WOYWW - only 1 more before Santa comes ;)

Check out Julia's blog for more about WOYWW and see what others have on their desks! On mine today is a carrier bag, amongst other things, which contains a Secret Santa gift for the craft group I go to once a month. I thought I'd show the desk from one end to show the rainy view today through the back door. It's quite a nice view actually once you see beyond the houses as we're quite high up, not that the view shows up well here. At the near end you may just make out a little pile of cards also for said craft group. At the other end is some yarn; which I used for the mane for a Pegasus/Unicorn I made for my granddaughter, it usually lives on the top shelf; and all the ingredients for a birthday card waiting to be assembled. The Pegasus/Unicorn can be seen here I'm off to Julia's now :)

x

Sunday Stampers weeks 82 + 83

Over at Hel's place she runs the Sunday Stampers challenge weekly. I enjoy this challenge as you can do anything so long as there's a bit of stamping in. For week 82 the theme was 'Angels' and I have some background paper which I was going to use, but I've yet to find it! I downloaded an image and sheet music for 'Hark the Herals Angels Sing'. I used the flourish and snowflake stamps from Tim's 'Reindeer Flight' set. On the 'Christmas' one; week 83; I've used the trees from the same set of stamps and again the snowflake and flourish stamps. the large snowflake I cut with my Robo and embossed it with 'Pearl Violet' chunky embossing crystals :)

Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas - 4-12

I've finished all 12 of Tim's tags this year, though have to admit at times it was a bit of a marathon. I was quite chuffed with the one with photos on as I managed to find a little strip of film without any pics on - it was in the first pack of photos I looked in too ;) Unless you're a photo buff you wouldn't have any of that these days with digital cameras. For the one with the lampost I used one of my own photos :) I did chop 2 of the lamps off though. For number 11 Tim used an 'itop' gadget to cover some brads; I just sewed scraps of fabric onto some buttons which works just as well ;)

x

WOYWW

What is WOYWW? Check Julia's blog to find out and then join in - simples! Mine's reasonably tidy, unless you look at that jumble in the centre of the desk at the back, I just keep piling bits on there and very little of it has been moved for a couple of weeks, just the top few bits to look for something :-> I had a tidy up on Sunday and since then have just been working on my '12 Tags of Christmas' a la Tim You'd think it would be easy following his instructions but there are so many items he uses that I don't have and which I'm not going to buy; sometimes I have a reasonable substitute; and that then involves a lot of faffing while I try something that doesn't quite work and have to try something else - you KNOW how it goes I know you do! The tag on the cutting mat is a prime example; it was finished but last night (or rather the early hours of the morning) I decided I dind't like the baubles so pulled them off. Talking about the early hours of the morning, I couldn't sleep last night and got up twice (on the computer the first time then a little crafting the second time) and was awake till after 6.30!!! I got up at 10 :-/ I had a night out last night but was home by 10.30 pm. obviously tooooo much excitement at my age LOL

Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas - Nos2+3

Managed to do tags number 2 and 3 today. Hmph, lots of faffing though, had 3 goes at number 2 :-/ And though I'm not copying exactly, mainly following the techniques, I am trying to get close. I even had 2 metal corner thingys which I rescued from something some weeks ago for tag number 2. I wasn't sure about the (argh, it's one of those again - the stuff used for making hats can't remember what it's called!!!) 'stuff' on tag number 3, but once it was finished and I caught sight of the tag without meaning to look at it IYKWIM, I thought it looked fine. The 'snow' word was made using a piece of an old table mat (from Ikea) which is the sort of stuff you can heat with a heat tool and then stamp into it. So I did that and then rubbed on Pewter Metallic Rub-On and goldleaf pen round the edge. The picture's not very good, taken at this time of night.

WOYWW

To find out more check out Julia's blog; it's just for fun and we don't mind how messy your desk is :) Mine's a right mess today. I had intended to put a lot of stuff away at the weekend but it never happened. I've taken the pic from one end so you can see the whole mess :-/ Are you having a go at Tim's 12 tags of Christmas? I am and you can see the first one on the desk with the ubiquitous reindeer ;)

For a better look click on the pic ;)

Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas - No.1

If you want to know what this is about check out Tim's blog. I did a few last year but didn't have enough larger stamps and didn't want to keep using the same 1 or 2 all the time. I'm going to try to do them all this year, even if I don't do 1 a day :) For this first one I couldn't get my flourish right, didn't like the colour and in the end decided it was too big, so used a smaller one. I painted it with white acrylic paint and covered it with Crystal embossing powder which has given it a slightly distressed look after heating - I know we don't need to copy exactly but I did want to use a flourish for embellishment. I don't have Rock Candy crackle paint so used another crackle medium, but painted it over my snowflakes :-/ I had to scrape it off as it covered them too much. I printed the 'snowflakes' word off the computer and stitched it onto the tag. :)

Sometimes simple's good.

I've scanned this card as it's quicker but it has caused a shadow at the top of the card. The butterfly is a velvet iron-on (they came on a A4 sheet of which I had about 3 diferent designs, but can't remember who they're by) which I bought to use on fabric or card, and have had for years! What's new ;) I cut the scalloped square and the greeting on my Robo which I love but wish someone would design a longer-lasting more robust carrier sheet for! I'm using a fairly new carrier sheet and am back to the old masking tape to hold stuff in place! I must get a repositionable spray adhesive to try.

Sunday Stampers - The Holly + the Ivy

I've finally done my entry for the Sunday Stampers over on Hels' blog I couldn't decide what to do as I only have one reasonable holly stamp but as I'd cut out some holly on the Robo I decided to use that and use Tim's reindeer for the stamped bit. I did have some green holly - there's a novel idea LOL - but didn't like it with this card so used the shiny holly - can't think what you call that paper :-/ Ooh now I've uploaded it the colour looks a bit funny, the background paper is bluey-grey not pinky, but I'm going to leave it!

WOYWW!!!

If you want to know what it's all about check out Julia's blog You get the chance to see what mess others make when crafting but also what fab things they may be up to. I had to make a quick card last night before I went to keep-fit, that's why there's so much mess LOL. Last week a couple of people asked me to show some of the Christmas cards I'd been making as they were just out of focus last week. So here are a few - lots of variation ;)