Thanks to Minxy

Last week, I won some Blog Candy from Minxy – woohoo!  I very rarely win anything, so I was thrilled and even more thrilled when it arrived.

This is Minxy’s gorgeous tag.

This is how the Blog Candy looked when it came out of the envelope…

and here it is in all its glory.  Lots of fabby things to inspire… LOVE those flutterbies and can you see all those tickets and trimmings???!

Thank you VERY much, Minxy!!

I’ve been a BAD Blogger the last week or so but my son’s in hospital, so life’s a little chaotic, not to mention emotional.  Thanks for all your lovely comments – I really appreciate them.

Playdate Café Challenge 40 – Splash of Colour

I love the Splash of Colour challenges on Playdate Café, so I had to try this one.  Never done black and white with green, so this is a first.

 

The images are Tim Holtz (Flourish), Raindrops on Roses (words) and Art Journey (woman and butterfly).  The green is Adirondack Clover ink, watercoloured.

A is for Alphabet – Chunky book swap – KCUK

Ever have one of those days where no matter what happens, you know you just HAVE to stamp or you’ll crack up?  Today was one of those.  Since I’d already started this, I just finished it off with a bit more stamping, a little more ink and a couple of embellishments.  Don’t you just love that pen nib?  I do, anyway, lol – I’ve had them for ages and this is the first time I’ve used one – they’re a great copper colour but the hand is just so cool.  It was the ideal thing to highlight the a in the alphabet!  Hard to believe you can actually use it as a nib but you can and apparently, they’re great for copperplate.

It’s glossy card and I’ve used Stormy Sky, Tumbled Glass and Pine Needles Distress inks for the background.  It doesn’t show very clearly because the ink was so light, but there’s an alphabet stamped behind the main image, stamped after masking the little boy.  Might have to recolour that bandana and his clothing and shoes – I used distress inks but they seem to have faded into the background with it being glossy card…  I’ve now added some Copic colour and white highlights, so I think it looks better.  May try to get a photo tomorrow to compare.

WOYWW

Where’s this week gone to?  It’s absolutely flown by but then again, a lot has been happening here.
It’s Wednesday, so it must be WOYWW!
I cheated a little here and took the photos on Tuesday cos I knew I wouldn’t be using my desk for a little while – sorry.  Not so much happening on my desk, I’m afraid – so there aren’t many changes here from last week, except that you will notice – ta da!!!

…my wonderful, fabby, dabby sparkling NEW WOYWW easel, courtesy of the wonderful Julia – and (I presume) Mr Dunnit, bless their little cotton socks 😀  Thank you VERY MUCH, Julia.  It arrived Tuesday morning and made my day!!!
Stepping back, this is the view of the desk.  I did manage a little bit of stamping and inkiness yesterday morning, so you’ll see some of the results (and the aftermath, lol) there.

These are the shelves over the desk.

 

This is what’s behind me, as I work.

You can see my trusty Tonic Trimmer (12×12) here – wouldn’t be without it and have 2 smaller ones in different sizes – love em.

There are more shelves above this worktop and on the opposite side of the room, to the right of the desk is this.

It may not LOOK super organised but it is, in fact, organised chaos and I know where most things are, until I tidy up – then it drives me dotty, lol!

I have family in hospital at the moment, so all my time is taken up on visiting and it’s unlikely that I’ll find the time to visit all the desks this week, as I did last week, so please forgive me.   Life has a habit of getting in the way at times, doesn’t it?

If you’d like to spy on other people’s workdesks, pop on over to Julia’s Blog and check out the links.  It’s fascinating to see how differently people work!  Have a great week 😉

BLOG CANDY WINNER!

Well, I finally made a decision – with a little help – so the winner of the blog candy is…..

SARAH A

Please contact me, Sarah, with your address details and I’ll get the stash out to you early next week.

I also decided to send out a couple of Consolation prizes.  I already know the addresses of two of the people I’ll be sending one to but 

ZOE (Chaos)

can you please contact me with yours? 

Nothing to get TOO excited about – just a little something to say Thank you.

Thanks again to all who left a comment and to those of you who comment regularly on here.  I really appreciate the friends I’ve made through blogging and am often overawed by some of your wonderful comments.  Thank you.  I love to read every single one.

FAIRY ATCs (KCUK) and Blog Candy update

Spent this afternoon making some Fairy ATCs for a KCUK swap, so here they are.

Have to say I didn’t really enjoy making these and wish I’d used one of my favourite winged girl stamps instead but they’re done now and it’s a change for me. 

 

The backgrounds were made with Distress inks – Stormy Sky, Tumbled Glass and Chipped Sapphire (one has some Spun Sugar and Bundled Sage on it, too cos I decided to make some 4×4 backgrounds for the KCUK alphabet swap while there).  I added castles, water, clouds and grass to the first two and used a meadow stamp on the others (Pine Needles and Tombow pens) then stamped and embossed the fairies.  I stamped and embossed them again on vellum, using ultra fine silver ep, coloured them with Copics, then cut out the wings, glued them to the original stamped images and glitter glazed them.  The words were stamped on vellum, then cut out roughly and I drew around them with a black pen. I added white highlights on the castles, too.  I don’t remember using Stormy Sky before, even though I’ve had it since Port Sunny in May, but I’ve definitely fallen in love with it ;)  I love blue.

 

This afternoon, we actually had some sunshine for the first time in a few weeks (apart from the odd little peep from behind the clouds) so I photographed these in the garden.  As soon as I arrived, my favourite little robin baby (we have four or five visiting regularly at the moment) popped up to say hello, so I got some food to feed him/her with and took a couple of photos while I had the camera with me. 

 

This one’s really bold and flies over, really close as soon as he/she sees me, then comes to feed at my feet.  The others are a lot more timid.

Isn’t he/she gorgeous?

 

Wonder how much longer we’ll get to enjoy them before their Dad sends them packing?  Male robins are so territorial and quite nasty, even to their own offspring.

 

Thank you VERY MUCH to all those of you who left a comment asking to be considered for the Blog Candy.  I know I should be announcing the winner but I still haven’t made a decision on it, though I do have a shortlist and will have to resort to asking John to draw a name later tonight.  Watch this space!

Play Date Café 39

These are the colours we were given to work with for this week’s challenge.

Here’s my attempt, though I found it hard to get the right blend of colours – they’re not quite right.  I could’ve gone darker, which would have actually been easier, lol.

I stamped the words and Harlequin in Versamagic Wheat, then clear embossed (not easy to see), as I did the word Love (Hero Arts).  The tulips (Penny Black) are stamped with Versafine, clear embossed, then I added a few white highlights with my Ranger Inkssentials white pen.

That mark isn’t on the card, btw – it’s on my scanner – it’s clean now but it’s a bit late for the card and no, I’m not rescanning, lol.

It’s Wednesday, so it’s… WOYWW

Here’s my VERY tidy (for me) desk!

I’ve deliberately hidden (turned so you can’t see the fronts) of a couple of ‘secret’ things I’m working on and the pile of stamps you can see on the right are waiting to be used, as are some of the mounted stamps. The rest of them stay there all the time because they’re my staple background stamps, so I don’t see the point in putting them away – I reach for them over and over again.  If you look carefully, you’ll see my home made ‘brick wall’ stamp, made with bits of rubber left from cutting out full sheets.  Haven’t tried it yet but when I do, I’ll blog it.  The little basket on the left is filled with Big Shot embossed cards and bits.  The felt tips were used for the card below and the cut out image (Stampotique) on the scratch paper is for an altered book/journal I’m working on.  I’ve prepped quite a few pages and am just getting ready to begin – if I ever pluck up the courage ;)  Oh, and there are some alcohol inked dominoes there, just waiting to be used…

If you’d  like to go nosey – oops – look at other people’s workspaces, then why not visit Julia’s Blog to see what people are up to?

And here’s a CAS card I made quickly and messlessly (don’t you just love inventing words?).

I have to tell the truth, though – this is why the desk is so tidy – half of the mess is on the floor, waiting for me to sort it out and put it away.  At least the desk bit is better!!!

This is the result of a frenzied stamping session or six and the beginning of a major tidy and reorganisation.  I finally managed to get the Filing Cabinet out and taken away by someone on Freegle, so I moved more drawers in and am enjoying having a little more space to organise.  AND all my stamps are clean and sparkling – well, not quite sparkling, but clean, anyway 😀

PS Some of it has made its way back onto the desk already – can’t face putting stuff away until I’ve tried it at least once when it’s in my ‘to use’ pile .

Couple of Quick cards

Today, while having a sort out, I found my blo pens, which I’d never used.  My friend, Dot, makes some great backgrounds with these, so I thought I’d try them out.  This is what I made and I think it’s a fair illustration of Heat – one of the Gingersnap Challenges of the moment.  Stamps are Hero Arts and Stampin’ Up.

This is just a quickie – very similar to some I made before, but with different words.  It’s one of my Ecoline ink backgrounds, which I love so much.  Stamps are Paperartsy and Inkadinkado.  I really love these kids’ words.  Funny, really cos I can easily pass on chocolate, apart from the odd square or two – I know, I’m weird!

Alphabet Postcards, B & C – and Gingersnap Shades of Blue

Here are B & C of my Alphabet Postcards for Lots to Do. 
B is for Blue and for Birds – I used the blues (Distress inks Chipped Sapphire and Tumbled Glass) so that it fits into the Gingersnap Shades of Blue challenge.  There’s also a little bit of Adirondack Slate on there, at the bottom ;)  Stamps from Paperartsy and Time to Stamp.  Large alphabet stamp from Ma Vinci’s Reliquary.

C is for Clowns and also for Colour.  I brayered Tutti Frutti Big and Juicy ink (not one of my usual favourites, I have to add, lol) onto the first background, which was watercolour paper, then stamped and embossed the Clown (Pierrot)  and word stamps from Paperartsy and cut them out.  The image is a bit ‘mottled’ because of the watercolour paper – it’s not easy to stamp.  The second background was brayered with a Mesh roller on my trusty Fiskars Brayer, spritzed with water, then overstamped with the Harlequin stamp, which is a Jumbo rollagraph, taken off the wheel.  Alphabet stamps from Hero Arts.