WOYWW #169 - Sew True

I managed to get a place on Neil Walker's Class "Sew True" last Sunday where we discovered all things DISTERSS. In doing so we made the backgrounds for a delightful little mini album on the theme of sewing. I've been adorning mine ever since. I have also been to Ikea and got some paint brushes to alter and use, some of their wrapping tape which I think is like Washi tape and a cute little box with paper clips. Earlier in the week I bought some more paints. Oh and if you look real close you'll see I stuck a button on my Pinflair glue syringe head as it had broken.

 

 Here's the little album. I just love it.

And here are all the pages as I'm sure you'll want a nose in it.

Happy WOYWW everyone.

WOYWW #168 - Sewing & Paints!

It's that time of the week where we "show off" our desks to the world courtasy of Julia over at the Stamping Ground.  Here's mine with my newly received SWAP card from another Julia! It's adorable, the theme was "Sewing", and it came wrapped in the pink tissue with a beautiful little tag as well. I have also included the card I sent out. Underneath this is my latest scrapping LO of Epsom Derby Day. Just at the photo stage having cropped them. Also there is my Altered Book with its new bead edging which I blogged earlier.

Oh and the scariest thing is my latest stash of Texture Paste and some Acrylic Paints. I tried a splodge of the paste out and even stamped into it. I am pending using it for the cover of my Altered Book, "Andy Skinner" style as I saw him demonstrating the "Mechanical Bird" at The Craft Barn recently.

Internet Update : Connection stable but set at a very slow rate, we wait in anticipation...........................................  Happy WOYWW Everyone - BJ.

AB - Lesson 15 - Decorative Edges

Oh I just couldn't wait to have a go at the Decorative Edge lesson over at Elizabeth's Altered Book Lover Blog. Was going to do the buttons but the page I  wanted to use was already decorated and didn't have any reinforcing card on the edge. It did have some ric-rac ribbon, and having looked at a link to Ingrid Dijkers "Over the Edge" journal photos, I decided to make it a beaded edge. I cut the edge of the page  (and the previous one) along the ric-rac and punched holes with my Crop-A-Dile II Big Bite. Had I realised I was going to do this I would have positioned the ric-rac better but as it was I had the dilemma of either leaving a space at the top or making a hole go over the top edge. I went with the latter. I had no idea how to attach the wire at the top, especially as I was going to be doing blanket stitch to add the beads, but I just fiddled a bit and carried on. Didn't know how to finish off either but ended up winding the wire around the last hole which looked decidedly better than the beginning so I went back and tried to copy this at the top but didn't really have enough wire there. Anyway it is done and I LOVE it and now want to add beads to ALL my pages - LOL.



Angle Shades Moth

I have just finished the last page in my latest 12x12 scrapbook album. This makes 8 albums of 60 pages each, so 480 pages of life in the Gregory household since December 2003! Of course this doesn't include all my other albums, but it is the main stay of my scrapping.

This little moth was dozing on a bush outside our house back in May so I just had to put my little Sony Cyber-shot camera's macro ability to the test. As you can see it takes jolly good closeups.

The wooden leaves were part of my cyber hug from Dawn and were just the thing for a moth who happily disguises itself as a leaf.

Best get my new album out now.....Jubilee and Olympic photos await.........BJ

Altered Book - Lesson 13 - Windows (& Doors)

Knowing the next lesson in the Altered Book Course is pending this weekend I was determined to do my Window page, from the current lesson. I had no set plan (except avoiding paints - LOL). So I leafed through my scrapbook papers and came across the Sunflower paper and the leafy paper - excellent. With intermittent internet I set to work without the instructions handy! Thought one of the sunflowers would look good through the window so cut the paper accordingly. Forgot the window worked TWO ways so had to join 2 scraps together to make the other sunflower!

I decorated the pages (both sides) before cutting the circle window with my X-Cut cutters. Then realised I hadn't added acetate! So I made circle frames to conceal it! I wrote a couple of poem quotes on the main sunflower page. "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" and "windfall-sweetened soil". The printed words are from the back of the sunflower paper. The "Rusty Pickle" just tickled me - LOL. Found it was really hard to photograph the window, so have added a further picture so you can see through it.

Despite wishing to avoid paints, I ended up painting the green on the leafy paper as it was Kraft colour before and just didn't look right and the sunflower letters didn't stand out enough before either. So considering I didn't have any plan at all, I do believe I have managed to do my window pages at last (please don't mention the doors!)

WOYWW #167 - New Bike

Oh dear our internet connection is still giving us problems and it has been over 4 weeks since we raised it with our ISP and BT. So when I saw it was working early this morning I hopped out of bed to do my WOYWW post before the day got going and things became unmanagable again. Then I realised it was only Tuesday! Oh well better make hay whilst the sun shines, so here goes.

Here's my desk and I am actually doing some scrapping! It's of my husband and his beloved new bike - he thinks he is Bradley Wiggins! Nothing is stuck down yet so I am open to suggestions. I managed to add a white painted boarder using a paint dabber. I think I am much safer with paint dabbers than plain paint and a brush!

So that is me for the "What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday"  mega blog hop courtasy of Julia over at The Stamping Ground. Happy WOYWW everyone.

Dylusions Spray Play (AB update)

Hi folks and wonderful followers, here are some pictures of my latest exploits with Dylusions Spray Inks and some updates on my Altered Book (which I forgot to post earlier).




I bought 5 more of the Inks (avoiding black!) and had a go with them last night. The Pink and Turquoise make a lovely Purple. Here's where I have got to but think it needs something more?


I have played around with the first page using black and white pens. Inks from the next pages seeped through aswell but I am "Embracing the Imperfections".








These are the ATCs I did for my School Spread pockets. Quite a few pictures from my hubby's Electrical Engineering Magazine, some from the Radio Times and a map (has home and Craft Barn on - LOL). I used my Postage Stamp decorative Scissors on the stamp pictures. The small pictures below show the before ATC tags and after.

Here are the heart tags I made for my Valentine's page. Not sure what to put on those yet, so I suppose another update when I think of something - LOL.

WOYWW #166 - WORDPLAY

Happy WOYWW everyone. Last week it was the ironing board now it is my sewing machine! As I had finished the ironing I was left with my son's school trousers to lengthen. I took them down and just machine sewed the edges as small as possible but I guess he might even outgrow these before the Summer is out! For his jogger bottoms, I just sewed the end of one pair on the end of another (think I might have done them a bit long - LOL).

As for crafting I have now tried my WORDPLAY die in a Bigshot and had the same poor results as in my Cuttlebug! which is, the centre row of letters at either end tend not to cut properly. Then we popped the Bigshot "Solo" shim on the bottom plate and hey presto it cut all the letters well. I guess I will need to make a shim for my Cuttlebug now.

Anyway, had a play with the letters and my Dylusions and even started another Art Journal (as the last has really turned into a TAG and ATC folder - LOL).

Altered Book - Valentine Page

Here's my Valentine page in my altered book whilst following Elizabeth's wonderful "free" course. It isn't any particular lesson but the big hearts are sort of pockets, as I have only stuck the pointy sides. I slipped up a bit by putting mulberry paper behind them though. Used my new WORDPLAY die for the lettering.

TH #8 - August Tag

Yay Timmy Tag Time again! I seem to have gotten over any thoughts of, "Bother I don't have any of those resources", it is more like, "Hmm that looks cool, I wonder what I can do like it?" OK so I did have the Pinecone die, but better still I had made the 3 flowers I used some time ago and they were beginning to annoy me as they kept falling off my shelf so what a better use for them. The silhouette is a die cut a fellow crafter gave me yonks ago, I peeled off the gold layer of the card and embossed with my sparkly black powder (only black I have!). Just felt my tag needed something at the bottom so used some of the handmade lace given to me by an internet friend in Spain. Also popped some pearl beads in the flower centres. Gosh anyone would think it was my wedding anniversary!

Tim Holtz - WORDPLAY - Die

Just tried out my replacement Tim Holtz WORDPLAY Die, as you can see on the left. From one pass through my Cuttlebug (with 2 long "B" plates) and super smooth card it had trouble with "X" "Y" and "Z" at one end and "N" "P" "Q" and "&" at the other. And I don't just mean little nicks which didn't cut properly, I mean whole sides/sections.

 I then had a go with these letters individually passing them through a number of times and that only left "N" and "Z" needing a tear out of the card!! Hope to try the die in a friend's Bigshot too but I suppose it is liveable with this time.

The photo on the right shows the problems I had with the original die. At least straight edges are easier to cut out of the card.

WOYWW #165 - Something Pressing

Hi Everyone and thanks to those who found my late entry last week which was due to an Internet outage. In addition to my update about our problems where BT did "something" to the line my hubby has since changed our phone filters and we have even bought new phones! We might have cracked the problem and it could well have been all three things going wrong.

Desk is a bit sad this week and there is an even more "pressing" chore infront of it! Good news is that my Tim Holtz replacement "WORDPLAY" die, which I ordered back in February from QVC, has finally been posted out. The folder contains all my attempts to cut out the letters from the my original one but one end of the die was not playing ball with card let alone any other material. Die is still in transit.

Here are a couple of ATCs I made earlier this week using my Dylusion spray inks on pre embossed card. The first is a BIG thank you to Dawn for my Cyber Hug (which I showed last week) and the other for an August SWAP.

Happy WOYWW everyone and think of me at badminton with my son this week as it is the Summer holidays here in the UK.