WOYWW #156 - 3rd Anniversary *

OK, it is anniversary week on WOYWW and I seem to have become even more Partiotic MAD. Patriotic Biscuit Tin, Patriotic Mug, where will it ever end? Hoping to see the Queen on Saturday making her way to Epsom Derby, I am SO excited!!

Anyway I have added a few bits and bobs to my Patriotic card and entered into the Stamp Man Challenge. I made a Jubilee page in my AB and found enough pictures of the Queen to put on all my tags in my kitchen roll book (see below). One of my badminton friends is 50yrs today so I made her a card too. I also finally used my tag with the bark embossing and made the tag shown top right aswell. Then the two parcels I got yesterday, 1) my photos from Photobox and I only ordered the day before! 2) some pattern pieces from Sherry - thanks a million. Bundle so nicely tied up, I don't even want to open it - LOL.

Stamp Man - Card for a Queen

I couldn't pass by my Patriotic card so added the "Westminster" title and some glitter and have linked to the Stamp Man Blog for their "Card for a Queen" Challenge. I think my card encompasses all things British with the softness of the lace accents. I do believe our Kings and Queens actually lived at Westminster way back when.

Finding Fun - Hands

Here's my Finding Fun for this week. My 13yrs old son's hand and my friend's 5 day old baby girl's hand with beautiful long fingers. Aw - need I say more?

Altered Book - Jubilee Page

Currently in our AB lessons we are looking at colour. I made the colour wheel last week and just needed to do a page using a colour classification. I have sort of gone for the Primary selection here, using Red, Blue and White. OK, so I am still in patriotic mode and was dying to use the pictures of our Queen which I have been collecting.

I have to admit I'm not that "into" using paint for my pages. I have tried it a bit on previous spreads but for the time factor, waiting for it to dry, having to add numerous coats and then the pages tending to stick together, it is all rather laborious for me. So I decided to cover my pages with Mullberry paper instead. I didn't have enough white so added a random patchwork of red and blue to fill in the spaces. I added silver and red glitter to the red patches, for Diamond Jubliee  "sparkle".

Without really thinking I grouped the "then" type pictures of our Queen on the left and the "now" ones on the right. The big pink one is of her at the Epsom Derby last year and we are planning to cycle over there this year and try to get a glimpse of her as she drives past on her way there. I'd just love to see our Queen in real life not just on the TV - how exciting.

WOYWW #155

Yay WOYWW and I've actually done some crafting!! Shock Horror! Opened my Altered book and found some of my labels had stuck together, so got out my typewriter to make some more. That done I set to actually using some of the new products I have bought recently. First the Artemio London stamps (you might have spotted them lurking last week). I have been wanting one of those Union Flag stamps in 2 parts, so you can stamp the 2 colours separately, for a while now - cool (must try it with different colours!). Used my new Nestie Moroccon Accents dies to set off the stamps on the card. I got the nesties at the Sincerely Yours Show in Biggin Hill last Sunday. I wore my WOYWW badge but didn't meet any other WOYWW badge holder - shame. I have also made a tag using the gears embossing folder I bought a few weeks ago. Thought it made a good backdrop to the Tower Bridge stamp. I guess that is me for this week, makes a change from all the Timmy Dress Formness which ensued from doing his May tag last week!

Finding Fun - Dressing Up

Horrah - I found some FUN. This week is all about Dressing Up and as I seem to be having a Timmy Dress Form "moment", I thought I'd dress one up! I reinforced the back of the diecut and made a little strut so it could stand up on its own. I inked the diecut and stand with various brown distress inks and speckled with water. I used the netting from my friend's wedding, the rose from mine. Aww.

Even More Timmyness

Just couldn't help myself, Julia had kindly cut me some of Tim's Sewing Room Dies so I just HAD to put one on my last sewing LO, together with the cotton reel wound with embroidery thread and finished off with a brass safety pin.



















Also had to make another "flatter" version of Tim's tag so I can put it in my Art Journal for May. Got my old typewriter out again for the words, love using it.

Altered Book - Colour Wheel

Lesson 8 on Elizabeth's Altered Book Course asked us to create a colour wheel from old magazines and definitely NOT scrapbook papers - LOL. I had already made the latter, and some may have spotted it on a former WOYWW post (Elizabeth certainly did). Have to laugh now as I can see I did my original one back to front!! Anyway here's my interpretation with the magazine pieces I had handy. I used my typewriter to make labels for the segments and further neutral magazine pictures as backing with a bit of glitter dotted here and there.

Thanks for all the suggestions with respect to my Maypole pages. I have since picked out some of the patchwork with faux stitching. I framed the postage stamps with dots of glitter and framed the other pictures with glossy accents. I have also darkened the Mulberry paper pole as it didn't stand out well enough. Think that page might be finished now - LOL. Thanks again.

WOYWW #154 - Timmy MAD!

So here we are yet again for the wonderous WOYWW and not much has happened on my desk save I have gone Timmy Tag MAD! Yep Tim Holtz published his May Tag a few days ago and I made up my version over the weekend. And it snowballed from there....ending up with a couple of cards and an ATC too. Did make a couple of Baby Girl cards for my friend who is expecting next week too. You can just see my new patriotic stamp set in the background too.

TH#5 - May Tag

Yay, Tim's May Tag at last - YIPPEE. Always quite challenged by these due to stash requirements, but love to try my best to emulate as far as possible with my limited supplies but limitless imagination!

So what did I have this time? Ummmm well I did have a manilla tag, although having the die now I could easily have cut my own! No appropriate stamps so didn't bother with the tissue BUT did remember a printed vellum pack I bought some time ago and as luck would have it, pattern pieces and dress forms - excellent!

Just bought some printed measure twill tape - that will do nicely and I even got the sewing machine out to sew it on! Old white plastic cotton reel duly cut in half in husband's workshop with BIG saw!!! Now that was FUN! Tried to cover the plastic with ink and embossing powder but fortunately the string does most of the job nicely.

Used some flowers left over from my wedding (all those years ago!) inked with the Spring colours and just dunked in ordinary embossing  powder as neither have UTEE nor melting pot!

Made the coat hanger out of a brass paper clip and the dangly from a fragment and more of the vellum. The round stamp is all I had round and again had to stamp and emboss as I only have black archival. 

Think the lady who appears behind the flowers is quite cool, complete fluke though, who'd have guessed?

Finding Fun - Kitchen

Finding Fun this week is looking at the KITCHEN! Yikes, I hate cooking! Anyway the Muppets playing the drums made me think of my son playing his drums! He started on "kitchen" saucepans at 3yrs and progressed to play in the school concert just before he left Primary school when he was 11yrs. I scrapped this a couple of years ago.

As for me, the best thing about my kitchen is its double aspect. So for "fun" I cleaned the windows today and repositioned all my stained glass objects. And for the more hawk-eyed you'll spot my son's birdhouse from last weeks "fun" down the garden on the fence.

Pirate Card

Here's the Pirate Card I made for a SWAP last week. I guess it also counts for Finding Fun last week too. Better late than never.

WOYWW #153

.Morning everyone, thanks to those who visited my desk last week, on the wonderful journey of WOYWW. Here's a treat this week, an actual messy desk! Have to admit I am itching to tidy it up and pick the glue off my fingers but managed a photo first. Typically after, applying 2 coats of gesso to my latest Altered Book pages but not deciding what colour to paint the background, I had a eureka moment and decided to make it a patchwork with green papers! Had already planned the ribbons to represent a Maypole and the various magazine pictures and old stamps of May nature. Think it still needs something, but I'm not sure what, any suggestions? 

I have just finished my latest scrapbook page too of my photos of Mothering Sunday where I got a cake as they had forgotten to get me one for my birthday the previous month! It is hanging on my hanger. The little easel holds my ATCs made for various SWAPs so can't divulge those yet I'm afraid.

Here's a couple of close-ups. Can you spot Roudolph wearing my WOYWW badge? And you get a good view of my special Distress Ink Shelf too.

Altered book ...bring May Flowers

Did a spot of painting and made this page in my Altered Book to follow on from the previous "April Showers..." page. We have such a Camellia, Wisteria and Bluebells in our garden right now, so I thought it was just the right time to put these in my book. I added glitter and glossy accents to the pages along with a bit of stamping. At least it brightened up a dull day.

Finding Fun - Houses

 Week 2 of Finding Fun and the theme is houses. I think my AJ page speaks for itself here (if you click on it, it should enlarge). I moved around alot as a child so this is a special house to me as we have been here since 1999.
Used my new Tim Holtz Spring inkpads for my page and had my first doodle too.

Just had to add my son's Bird House which he made in Technology Class in School last month. His Dad spray varnished it and put it up last night, it is so cute.
We all love the birds in our garden and hope they will come to live in the little house. My son made 2 Robin boxes a while back and we definitely have Robins in one this year.

Big thanks to the blogger who mentioned using her typewriter as I got my husband to find mine from the loft and used that for my page too. It has a new lease of life now.

WOYWW #152

Hi Folks, well here we are again displaying our desks for all to see and trawl through courtesy of WOYWW. This week I am in receipt of a couple of orders from Create and Craft after seeing Rosemary Merry on their Sunday Scrappers show last week. Excitement faded to sadness after opening the first parcel as the black scrapbook album you can see was damaged severely. Looks like something was dropped on it or something but it is quite unuseable. They have agreed to send me a replacement - phew! It is my first album with the new "Snap Load" binding system and that looks very promising indeed after all the troubles I have had with extention posts in the past. Second parcel was the acrylic sheets for mini albums and the pad of card - jolly nice. I have also ordered their Great British Crafting kit from Kanban but that is still "in the post". As for actual crafting, you'll be able to see my altered book and the ATC's I made from the left over paint (one is hiding on top of the heart drawers for the anniversary SWAP soon). I have also made my Pirate SWAP card for the MAY SWAP on my craft group (UKPC) but that is also hiding behind my altered book! I received a "Pass the Book"  book via Carolyn and some yummy chocolate too - thanks Carolyn. I have my next set of photos ready to scrap of Mother's Day, and my Beth Moore Bible Study book. I think I need a tidy!!! BJ