WOYWW April 7th

WOW it's time for WOYWW already, the weeks are racing along.  If you want to know more pop over and visit our leader Julia then show us what's on your workdesk today if you dare!  Some of us are messy some are tidy, but we welcome everyone; it's great fun to see what others are up to :)  Mine is certainly messy today!  Nothing much of interest, the wire cutters are there after I brought them in from the garden yesterday where they'd been left for a couple of days, totally forgotten.  Gardening with wire cutters? you mean you dont?  A few people wanted to see the Viking costume I made for my granddaughter last week but I haven't managed to take a pic of her in it yet, I'll try to do it this week and show it next week ;-)

Lucky me ;)

I've been given 2 awards - well 3 really but 1 was a 2in1.  I've received them from 2 lovely bloggers and fellow WOYWWers  The 'Inspire' and 'Sweet Blogger' awards are from  Linby who is a lovely lady and busy studyiing for her MBA.  These 2 came without the usual specifications.  The 'Encanto' award came from the equally lovely Paula who's having a tough time healthwise just now but still manages to make the rest of us smile.  Now this one I have to pass on to 12 others and I haven't thought about who just yet so hopefully will do that in a couple of days - I just wanted to get them posted and thank Lin and Paula ;)

PS pics from the Fabby Dabby weekend can be seen here if you are interested - scroll down to post dated 2nd April.
EDITED to include the names of those I'm passing the awards on to.
Firstly the Amazing Blog and Sweet Blogger awards I'm passing on to Annie and her sister Jo - don't wany any sibling rivalry LOL - just a joke.  They both do wonderful things with felt and have a joint enterprise here

The other award I'm passing on to the following people, in no particular order, for their kind words and inspiration and in the case of Pam, just 'cos she's got a pink cutting mat - ROFL
Pam
Maddy
Alison
Nicola
Nicci
Lyn
Susie
Hels
Linda
Chris
Lin
Paula - right back at ya ;)

Sunday Stampers - Lace

Finished my entry for the SS challenge quite early this week - early for me anyway ;)  The theme this week is lace.  If you've never had a go but enjoy doing challenges why not pop over to Hel's and then give it a go.  So long as you add some stamping you can do anything you like :) I've use a mini canvas which I painted with a mixture of white acrylic paint and mica powder.  I stencilled the spots on uisng Golden heavy gel medium coloured with mica powder (Golden is the brand name).  I used a rollagraph stamp at the top and text stamp in the centre and while drying the ink the paint bubbled a bit but that's fine.  I drew the flowers myself and cut them out of the same piece of 'Whitewash core'dinations' cardstock but flipped one piece over and embossed both using a Cuttlebug folder and finally added some leaves and lace ribbon each end :)

Susie + Vikki's Christmas Club - Reindeer

Over at Susie + Vikki's Christmas Club this week the theme is 'Reindeer'.  The challenge is set each Saturday, I'm good an early this week ;)  I've used the beautiful reindeer stamp from Tim's Reindeer Flight set.  the background paper and strips are from Prima Tropics.  I've embellished the centre of the centre of the snowflake with beads.
xx

Sunday Stampers - Birds

Finally finished my tags for this weeks Sunday Stampers challenge over at Hels' place The theme this week was 'Birds'.  I was messing about with backgrounds and nearly did 3 tags, but then did 2 completely new ones.  On the 'born on the wing' one I used crumpled paper inked with DI and then ironed and part of a page out of a book.  The birds stamp is from the 'Birds Galore' or 'Oiseaux a gogo' (apparently) set by Inkadinkado and the flower is a bit of 'Felt Fusion'.  Thought I'd try a bit of doodling too ;)  The other tag is covered with mica powder and stamped round the edge with an Anna Griffin flourish.  I used one of my new stamps; a PaperArtsy Mini; on the torn piece of paper and tied the fancy button with string.  I triple embossed one of the little wooden birds I got at AFTH when I did the weekend workshop last week (scroll down a few posts id you'd like to see what we made and what I bought) and stamped him with the same stamp.
Thought I'd show the other backgrounds I did too :)

WOYWW - March 31st

What is WOYWW? Well pop over to Joyful Julia's to find out, then join us - simples!
I've gone for an aerial view today.  Mine really is very very messy but somehow it never looks quite so bad in the pics; a good thing perhaps!  I've just dumped stuff on the desk and left it as I've been making a Viking outfit for my granddaughter for school.  I just managed to finish it before keep-fit yesterday evening.  Quite a bit of time was taken up on Monday trying to blog stuff, but as I'm sure many of you will know, Blogger was playing up.  I did a fabby workshop at the weekend at AFTH in Harrogate, if you'd like to see what we made, scroll down 2 posts.  The canvas in the pic is one of the things we made - I used a piccy of DD in a Halloween outfit including a wig, her own hair is extremely curly
:-)
xx

OMG! These are even better in 'real life'.

I won a fabulous prize from Maddy and it arrived this morning.  I was so chuffed to win as Maddy is a very talented lady, she does the most wonderful Fimo creatiNs as well as beautiful cards - the Calvin Mouse logo on the right hand side is one of hers.  She also occasionally does tutorials and did one for Herbert so why not have a go.  I'm going to attempt one with the grandkids over Easter, ahem!  Can't imagine what it will look like! Anyway here's my prize, even better in 'real life'; just look at the detail on Herbert and friend.  As you can see Herbert came complete with his own little home - just need to get him some carrots or Maddy will report me to the FSPCA (Fimo Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).  The beautiful card was also part of the prize :)  I did have some in for him honest Maddy, it's just that DD needed some for tea yesterday.  Oh just remembered I need to post a piccy of him in his new home for Maddy too, but as Blogger's been playing up (took me 4 goes to post the previous post) it'll probably be tomorrow now ;)
xx

(FOR PICCIES OF FABBY DABBY WEEKEND SEE PREVIOUS POST)

Fabby Dabby weekend

Blogger was playing up yesterday so I couldn't upload my pics.   I did the Fabby Dabby workshop with Dyan at Art From the Heart in Harroagte.  I stayed over 2 nights 'cos I didn't want to get up early to travel and also it made it a mini break which was great.  We learned how to draw vines 'cos this was going to be part of the canvas we did we had lots of practice on paper first, then before committing to canvas we painted some card and drew a couple of vines.
We scrunched some tissue paper and stuck it onto the canvas then painted the canvas with Claudine Hellmuth's paints using a babywipe.  The dress (also legs and shoes, which are hidden by the flora and fauna) were stamped onto Claudine's sticky back canvas then coloured.  The wings are Grungeboard.  We stamped the flowers and butterflys onto some of Dyan's 'Blonde Moments' papers.  I've used a pic of DD in her Halloween costume on the canvas.  The wig was red as were the horns, but I decided to use monochrome.

The tin was covered with 7Gypsies papers and stickers.  The 2 tags were made using 7 Gypsies rubons and Dyan's downloads after colouring with DIs and using the faux bleach effect.  On the tag with 'Joy' I used the letters from the download sheet and outlined them but using an unbroken line (on the 'life' I used a dotted line) but for some reason the pen developed a mind of it's own and went too far round the 'y' which I wasn't happy about, it looked a mess.  So I took the letters off and filled in with some doodling.  We did quite a bit of doodling over the weekend; it seems to be very popular just now.  The little book was a zig-zag book but we stuck the pages together at the back and covered the spine with some paper.  We did other bits and pieces including UTEE.  We did make another book which we painted, sprayed using stencils/masks and stamped, then stamped and cut out some Stampotique images to use.  But mine just looks a mess so I'm leaving it out!

This is the stash I bought hehe. In case you can't make it out, that's Grungepaper at the top left of the pic.
xx

Susie + Vikki's Christmas Club - Christmas Food

Firstly, had a fabby dabby weekend, that's what it was called too ;)  OOh it was bloomin' fantastic, got all inky and painty.   Will blog about that tomorrow.  For now I'm posting my card for Susie + Vikki's Christmas Club My card was chosen as the winner last weekend.  Thje theme for this week is Christmas Food; I chose Christmas pud.  The background paper was a free download from Summer Designs for Christmas 2008.  Summer puts together fantastic free kits so pop over if you'd like to see more of her designs.  The border top and bottom was made using a MS punch, the Christmas pud and holly I initially cut on the Robo but then cut round the pud and used different card and mounted on a Robo frame, the 'sauce' was cut from a 'Glitter Sheet' by Craftime,  these sheets are lovely and glittery if you love your glitter ;)  The pud is decorated with sequins.  I cut the top of the greeting with 'Bubbles' fancy edge scissors by Dovecraft . OOps just noticed one of the sequins has fallen off!
xx

Just a quick one

Should be posting my effort as guest Designer for Susie + Vikki tomorrow but I'm at a weekend workshop at AFTH Was going to do pre-post thingy but I had a terrible migraine last night and just a hint of headach today so no time to faff  sorry.  Hope you all have a lovely weekend.  See you all Sunday ;)
xx

WOYWW or Yes it is Wednesday already Julia hehe

If you're not with the programme yet pop over to mine host Julia and get with it.  It's all about showing what is currently on you workdesk, messy or tidy we don't mind.  On mine are the stamps I received from Susie + Vikki for winning the Christmas Club challenge last week and some lovely stamped Christmas images.  There's a card in the making for my nephew, the first aid box I'm in the middle of tarting up which has various bits pieces piled on top.
I'm including a picture of the finished tree complete with apples; whadda ya mean they look like cherries! xx

Susie + Vikki's Christmas Club - Baubles

The theme for Susie + Vikki's Christmas Club challenge this week is 'Baubles'.  The background paper is from Trend Line stack by Kars, the blue layer is self-adhesive cardstock by DCWV,  the flourish and embellishment dies were cut on the Robo then glittered.  I used the MS doily punch for the lacy strip and the bauble is cut from AC (American Crafts) foil Specialty Paper.
I won the challenge last week and received my goodies this morning, but will have to post later as I'm off out shortly ;)
xx

Yippee - Christmas Club Challenge

I'm made up (delighted - I say that 'cos in Liverpool that's what it means, but in Yorkshire, or hereabouts at least, it means 'bunged up'!!) 'cos my card was chosen as the winner this week.  If you want to get a steal on your Christmas cards for this year pop over to Susie + Vikki's and join in. See Christmas stocking 2 posts dow. Winning means I get to be guest DT for this week; great but ...........ooer!
xx
I'D LOVE YOU TO LOOK AT MY PREVIOUS POST WHILE YOU'RE HERE ;)

I didn't make the little green apples, but I'm sure there is such a thing as Dr Seuss and Disneyland

This is the first completed apple for my tree (scroll down to WOYWW) - I have made 6 others but they don't have the stalks on yet.  there are leaves to be made too.  For an apple it makes a good cherry don't you think? hehe  It's made from felt including the stalk, well for those into felting I feel I have to say the outside layer is some synthetic fibre which you can't wet felt but you can needle-felt it (needle felt, needlefelt needle-felt - take your pick).I think the apple is fine but not sure about the placement of them on the tree as I may not actually make any mor so think the placement will be important as there will be so few.
I thought I'd take this opportunity to show you a felt vessel I'm making.  I did this in the early hours of the morning as I couldn't sleep, the only bit I've done today is the stitching on the rolled edge.  I think I finally dropped off about 6am! only to be woken by someone knocking on the d**n  door at 8am grrrrr!  I've stuffed it with paper to help shape it.  It needs a bit of embellishment yet.
If you don't understand the title but would like to know what I'm on about look here xx

Spam or anonymous comments

I've had a couple of comments recently that have been in Chinese and Anonymous ones advertising some website or other so for a short time I'm only allowing comments from people with Google accounts and have also enabled 'word verification'  I aplogise to anyone who'd like to comment but doesn't have a Google account but I'm hoping this will deter unwanted commentors.?  If anyone can advise what other option there is - eg Registered users (not sure what that means) which would make it possible for genuine comments for those without a Google account, please let me know.
xx
EDTED - My concern is that if it's Spam it may cause problems.  But Jane has said it is Spam and can bypass 'word verification'.  So I'll wait and see.

Susie + Vikki's Christmas Club - Presents & Gifts

A bit later than last week but better than the previous week hehe.  I've finally finished my entry for Susie + Vikkie's club this week.  It was mostly done a few days ago but I wanted to cut some snowflakes on the Robo and only managed to do that yesterday.  I may also enter this for Christmas Cards All Year as the challenge for March is to use mainly green.  But I've got another 4 cards to go for that one!
xx

WOYWW 17th March

I'm currently trying to finish my tree before Saturday.  I'm a member of York Dolly Birds which is a cloth doll group, we meet once a month and in the main make cloth dolls.  We do lots of other stuff too one of which was making a tree using a toilet roll holder for the base.  This was painted then we wrapped wire round to form the trunk and branches.  This was then covered in pre-felt, or in my case a felted wool jumper.  We made some felt which was then needlefleted onto the base.  I've just checked and actully posted the unfinished tree in Nov 2008 :0 !!  At the time I ran out of felt to finish the tree and ordered more online, but unfortunately it was a totally different colour.  I only discovered yesterday that at some point since I'd bought wool tops that were a near match but obviously had forgotten about it.  As many of the members of the doll group were working on a project, the lady who runs the group set us a challenge to finish one of our UFOs. This is going to be an apple tree; I realise it may not look a lot like an apple tree and it started off as a generic tree but I've decided to make some felt apples to put on.  The foam is there so I can lay it down while needlefelting near the ends of the branches.
If you'd like to show us what's on yoour workdesk pop over to Jovial Julia's to find out what it's all about ;)

Sunday Stampers - Bits and Pieces

Hels has a weekly challenge called Sunday Stampers with a different theme each week.  As the name suggests there has to be some stamping in whatever you do, even if it's just a little bit :)  The theme this week is 'Bits And Pieces'.  If you pop over you'll see Hels uses songs to inspire the themes - I only remember this song 'cos my older sister used to sing it - honestly ROFL.  This week anything goes really.  I've used a mini canvas - cheapo from 'The Works'.  I've used Perfect Pearls on the background and stamped a couple of flourishes, though they're mostly hidden now.  I ran a piece of metal through my SIzzix using a Cuttlebug folder and coloured it with alcohol inks then rubbed it down slightly with sandpaper, I used my MS doily punch along the edge.  I also used the metal to make a couple of leaves also coloured with alcohol inks.  I had made a Grungepaper flower but it didn't go (if I'd made a rose I think it would've), so just pleated a piece of card I'd previously punched with a MS punch and attached it with a large designer brad from We R Memory Keepers.  The studs on the left were intended for use on fabric and I've had them for years and years.  I made a little figure using wire and wrapped with wool (the arms look as though they are coming out of the midriff hehe), the face is made using air-drying clay and a mould, the wings are German Scrap from Scrapz which were red but coloured with alcoohol inks.  I ripped the saying into 3 as it didn't look right on this piece as it was.
xx

Happy Mothers' Day

Happy Mothers' Day to all the mums ;)  Though my mother died when I was in my forties she was only really my mother for the first 81/2 years of my life.  I was fortunate in that my big sis took over the role when I was 15, not just for myself but also for my youngest sister and my brother. Can you imagine that; at 24 she not only had 2 of her own children but also 3 teenagers to look after! Amazing!  I'm a very lucky mum now 'cos though I've only got 2 children I've actually got 5 cards for Mothers Day, yippee!  I've got one each from the 2 sets of grandkids and also one for 'mother-in-law' from DDs' OH; I think that speaks volumes :) and the usuall choccies - far too many, but I couldn't possibly give them away now could I?!  I'll just have to munch my way through them.  I got a few other little gifts too.

Yesterday I did 180 miles round trip! I went to see DS and two lovely granddaughters, and after dropping them off I went to visit one of my nephews who is quite poorly in hospital and as my great-niece lives only a few minutes from the hospital I thought I'd pay a visit. She had a little boy 4 weeks ago so I got to hold the newest member of the family - my great-great-nephew.  eek! makes me sound ancient LOL I didn't think to take a photo but pinched this off Facebook ;) My greatniece had ordered pizza and garlic bread before I arrived and asked if I'd like some.  As I'd only had a plate of chips (at Playtown in Southport) and a Mars bar I said yes please.  She handed me a plate with 2 slices of pizza then added as an afterthought, 'you're not vegetarian are you'? Just as well I'm not considering she'd just handed me some 'meat feast' pizza hehe.  So not a healthy diet yesterday!
Hope you all have a lovely day ;) xx

Great candy giveaway over at Maddy's

Pop over to the very talented Maddy's blog to find out how to win this fab candy.  I just love her Fimo creations ;)
xx