WOYWW?

I thought I had a breakthrough and the tablet was going to load photos, but then the browser crashed and closed and now isn't playing. I will try again, I managed to zoom (so I have a better chance of connecting with the correct buttons) - now I can't, I was double tapping the screen. When the top buttons decided to work one option was photos from your phone. I don't know how but it did show me the two photos I took last night on the new mobile I am trialling, but loaded a lot of old ones from goodness knows where, and how is it doing this? Should I be impressed or scared I wonder?
Anyway, it is Wednesday and time to snoop round desks at The Stamping Ground.  I may not be able to link yet or show a photo, I will try, and as a stopgap I will describe the desk. It is covered in piles of laminated sheets of cling mounted rubber stamps because I am in the middle of rehousing them in new expanding folders. I have 4 sheets I stamped waiting to be laminated and a healthy more to do. I am hoping my computer will be mended soon, this is why I haven't joined in for a while, and then I can scan some of the a4 sheets to save time. I really miss my computer, I tried to fix it with a new PSU but that didn't do it.

 Yay! Did it, made the buttons extra big, selected the right photos, so here they are, rubba mountain....

All of this for £10 from our permanent market, look at those pretty scissors - they are really sharp and cut ribbon beautifully, and lace, and buttons!

Glitter here, glitter there......

.....glitter everywhere!

Whoops, had a glitter accident, it seemed like a good idea to sprinkle a little glitter on my frame to stick to stray glue as some lines were a little wider than others, then it looked nice on my image so I decided to get the Art Institute glue out, which took some unblocking but once it was done the glue (long neglected) was perfectly good. I was using a pot of Nirvana glitter which is a lovely blend of blue and gold, and it was going well until I thought to add pearls and before I had the lid on properly, in my haste to finish my card, I turned towards the boxes with the pearls and whoops, dropped the glitter pot. It is safe to say that there is glitter everywhere, I had a whole tub of it, I only managed to recover about half! I used my little dustpan and brush, then my specially purchased glitter vacuum, and then had to get a tea strainer to get the bits out. Shaun vacuumed me, I vacuumed the rug! The rug is covered in bits, it should be vacuumed but I don't want to lose any treasure, I need a big sieve! I drop gems, pearls, tiny stamps from sets, lids for things, all sorts, and there are bits of die cuts, ribbons, all sorts!

I decided to colour this gorgeous Fairy Fae by Delicious Doodles from Stitchy Bear Digital stamps in blue and yellow, and I have a couple of challenges in mind to enter, I hope I am not too late! Blue hair, I hope it worked! I used my Atyou Spica pens on the butterflies and her eyes and lips, then added the glitter to the butterflies and some to her hair. Unfortunately in the photo the glitter doesn't look glittery, it looks like grit and it is much better in real life!
All die cuts are cut with Spellbinder dies, the butterflies are some of the very early dies and got glittered too. As mentioned, flat back pearls were added, and some ribbon from Crafty Ribbons with some glittery cord that was free with a magazine, and a bead. The sentiment is a Debbi Moore stamp, the butterflies are from an unbranded set, I had several attempts at stamping and heat embossing and despite an antistatic bag, I ended up with stray powder that set, even though I heated from below.

This is my reminder project for the Quirky Crafts challenge, I have really enjoyed using these gals, and have taken a lot of time attempting to get them right. So hop on over to join in the Quirky Challenge which is Eyes Wide Open, and all you need is eyes (wide open) on your project, and you could win Fairy Fae and more images!

I have entered the following challenges:

Feeling Crafty - Butterflies (January)
Graph'It Marker challenge - Yellow and blue springtime colours  (Fridays)
Allsorts challenge - Use ribbons but not bows.
One Stitch at a Time - New beginnings
Papertake Weekly - anything goes/New beginnings (Tues)

Meljen's Otter

I love Meljen's otter, and I meant to use it as soon as I bought it, but just didn't get round to it. When we go to Devon we try and visit the otter sanctuary and butterfly farm at least once a year, the butterflies are so calming, I found a peace and relaxation sitting in the steamy manufactured jungle and watching huge beautiful creatures flying round me, and then to go outside into whatever the weather throws at us and see the otters being fed and playing. I saw a pair of otters playing like this under water. I coloured the otters with Graph'It pens, I only have brown and I wanted to enter two challenges (at least), Meljen's and Graph'It's challenges.

I cut out the shapes with a Grand Spellbinders die set, and I the card blank was cut to match in beige rose embossed card. The ribbons are by Junkitz (the worded ribbon) and Crafty Ribbons and the gems are coloured with brown Graph'It pen.

I have entered the following challenges:

Meljen's design's challenge - anything goes

Graph'It  Marker challenge - anything goes optional Chocolate heaven/shades of brown

Allsorts Challenge blog - anything goes (Sat)

Cards Galore - anything goes - 3rd and final entry (Sat)

Avenue 613 - anything goes/optional Winter colours or theme (Sun)

Polkadoodles - anything goes (Thurs 16, winners Tues 22nd Jan)

Blue Christmas - it's never to early to start.....

.....keeping the momentum going is harder!

Here is that Inkadinkado angel again, stamped in white and heat embossed before distress inking the card. die cuts are Spellbinders dies, ribbons are from Crafty Ribbons.

I have entered the following challenges:

Weekly Christmas cards - no colouring (Sun)

I love the cosy hat and scarf on this Penny Black snowman. I coloured the image with Promarkers then covered it with some glitter film from Little Claire before die cutting it with a Spellbinders die. Ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons of course!

I am entering the following challenges:

ABC Christmas challenge - A for Anything Christmas (Wed)

Bearly Mine - colour challenge (Jan)

Pan Pastels - Anything goes/Frosty finish (Sun)

Cards Galore - Anything goes (Jan)

Avenue 613 - anything goes (Sun)

Passion for Promarkers - CAS (Tues)

Papertake Weekly - anything goes/option something new (next Christmas) (Tues)

WOYWW #240 (or "it's Wednesday, I knew it was Wednesday - but IT'S WEDNESDAY!")

Really I knew it was Wednesday, after all I was expecting the blind company to come and quote for a blind, the aerial man, he is here now, and a Riverford delivery, so yes these events were happening on Wednesday - but just before lunch I realised that it is WEDNESDAY today, and I hadn't given a thought to WOYWW!

So here is a photo, not much different to last week except that I am not working on Christmas cards, and haven't yet used the images I stamped and die cut last week, I am working on a Meljen Lyn otter image right now. I haven't tidied up as you can see, and on the desk at the back is an empty tub which held the Christmas lights, the ones that got damaged and have gone in the bin. Hubby offered it to me and when I grabbed it he said "I knew you would"! On top of the tub is a smalll pile of Christmas cards and two Halloween ones I missed, which I was asked to collect from the shop as there is no storage. Unfortunately due to the floods volunteers weren't able to get to the shop and keep it open Christmas week, or I think more would have sold.

Anyway aerial man has gone now, Hubby gave me his old Freesat box which also records (so I can record all the films that I stay up late to watch, all the best films seem to be on late), and plays Blue Ray discs. He only wanted to change it because he had filled the hard drives up with all the stuff he records, but after buying a new Freeview only machine he found how to copy onto disc! Never mind I have a new box, but to use the freesat I needed the cables running round to my room from the old satellite dish, hence the aerial man. My old PVR gave up the ghost years ago, so having this is a real bonus.

If you want to know what WOYWW is all about head over to The Stamping Ground and maybe nosy round a few desks and show us yours!

3rd time lucky - I won on 3rd drawing in Crafty Ribbons Advent event.

I was a third drawn winner of 3 Rick St Dennis images in the Crafty Ribbons Inspiration Advent Event, the first two people drawn didn't claim by the deadline! I am so lucky, these are my first RSD images, and he sent them already!

I won, I won ....YAY

I just found out I was picked as one of two winners to get every new release for the next 4 months from The Cutting Cafe blog! WOW WOW WOW - what a prize, thanks Regina!

The reason for the great giveaway is the 5 year anniversary of The Cutting Cafe! I know there are some great releases coming my way!

Quirky Eyes Wide Open for 2014!

It is the first challenge of the year over at Quirky Crafts, and it is my challenge and all you need to do is make something with big eyes, lots of eyes, the theme is Eyes Wide Open.

I have to say that if anyone enters an image by someone contentious with Stamp Out Stamp Theft, for example Sherri Baldy (if she later clears her name then we will allow her images), they will not be included in the voting.

I used Poppy from our sponsor Stitchy Bear Digital stamps, they have lots of suitable images for this challenge and I really love poppies, but it was so difficult only choosing one!

I coloured Poppy's hair with Graph'Its markers, it is the first time I have used them and I love the colours, I only have browns, the only drawback for me is no extra fine nibs like Promarkers - I will have to look into this and see if there are any, my colouring skills improved considerably with the fine nibs and I had to do a lot of correction after colouring the hair. The rest of the colours are Promarkers. I added a little Spica to her lips and eyelids. She is die cut with Spellbinders dies as are the other shapes (except for the poppy), and I added some flat back pearls mainly because I cannot find a rectangle die that fits the fancy rectangle shape, there is a gap each end.

The poppy is die cut with my new Sizzix Bigz Tattered Florals Tim Holtz design die, moulded with a rub on tool and lines drawn in (badly), finally I added a dark green button, and topped that with Ranger Distress Stickles, which I also put round the button. I added some polka dot ribbon before attaching the black mat to the green mat.

The greeting is from a free stamp set I got with a magazine, not sure which one now.

Will the recipient of this card realise it has taken about 4 hours to complete I wonder? No of course not!

So hop on over to Quirky Crafts to see some fabulous makes from the rest of the team and to join in our easy challenge.

I have entered the following challenges:

Graph'It Marker Challenge - Anything goes and any markers allowed. (Fridays)

Allsorts challenge - Anything goes (Saturdays)

Craft Mojo - All things new (Graph'its and Die) (Jan)

Creative Card Crew - Anything goes (Tues 14th)

One Stitch at a Time - anything goes (Jan)

Papertake Weekly - Pick of the Year, I chose Die-ing for a punch (7th Jan)

Stamping for the Weekend - Anything goes - (17th Jan)

Stamping Sensations - buttons, ribbons and bows - (Jan)

Craft All Day - Handmade flowers - (Jan)

Ali Craft - Anything Goes - (Jan)

Cards Galore - Anything goes (Jan)

Avenue 613 - anything goes

Pink Gems Challenges - Something New

I made top 3 at Crafty Ribbons - whoo hoo!

I am chuffed to bits because I just found out I made top three at Crafty Ribbons Challenge blog with this card featuring a Little Claire stamp and Crafty Ribbons (who are having an amazing sale right now) ribbon.

The Alpha Challenge - I for Individual

Last letter, I for Individual! I have really enjoyed taking part in The Alpha Challenge at The Craft Barn.  I have never done anything like this before. This last page features stamps by Lost Coast, Unity Stamps, and Penny Black, birds are doodled by me.

I missed the deadline but you can see some gorgeous entries on The Craft Barn blog.

I'm looking forward to the next challenge for 2014.

The Alpha Challenge - X for Xmas

It is the end of this challenge, only two letters left, we had extra time and still I missed the deadline! This is X for Xmas, apologies if you hate this abbreviation, I hate it but there wasn't much choice in X.

I used Little Claire stamps, some magazine freebie stamps and a Molly Blooms stamp. They had to share the page with Yoga.

My other page I was going to be the better page, this page has been ready for a couple of days but not uploaded, the other is to be stamped!

I also wanted to make a cover for the book, but it is now falling to bits literally so not sure if I can or if it is worth trying! Maybe I can glue the pages with silicone where they have parted company with the spine, lots of the pages are glued together for stability and that might have made things worse.

So pop over to The Craft Barn to see the Alpha Challenge entries.

Happy New Year & WOYWW #239

I got in the mood for making Christmas cards - after Christmas, and that is what is going on here! At the back is my altered dictionary for The Alpha Challenge, and I have one page to complete but just realised as it is New Year's day I have just missed the deadline, I really didn't want to do that but was convinced I had until the end of the week in my head!

Happy New Year to you all, and head on over to The Stamping Ground for a New Year nosy round everyone's desks. I will post my pages, one is ready, has been for days now, so why didn't I load it - well we had a house full of visitors and after they left Sunday I couldn't get back into routine. They are coming back Friday for the weekend too. So the table is still laid up for family and I haven't got the photo studio out at all.

I would like to thank you all for your gentle hugs and good wishes last week, I am a bit better this week, down to prescription painkillers just at night, though I haven't managed to go out walking, and have only been out by car to family parties since last week.