Wednesday 28 May 2014

What's on My Workdesk Wednesday 360? 5 year Celebration ATC swaps!

Hello fellow Desker and welcome to my desk in Cape Town, South Africa on this auspicious occasion of our 5th Birthday!  Thanks must go to Julia our intrepid organizer and the mind behind this world wide phenomenon of Desking every week!

I have received ATCs from Shaz in Oz, Nikki C in Canada and Sandra de also from Australia!  What fun it has been to do the extra swaps and receive them early too!
On my desk today you can see me building storage for my Distress inks which normally lie in my vintage suit case at my feet, but I thought it would be easier if they were actually on my desk where I could see them.  I designed it using 5mm and 2.5mm foam core board.  The only glitch is that I did not realise that I had run out of 2.5mm which are the shelves I have scored in the 5mm sides...off to the shops for me later today I guess!  So for now this is a mock up for you to see where I am going.

You can also see the old spice rack that I have now finished painting with the Annie Sloan chalk paint and found some jars for storage which have ready made blackboard squares on to write the contents onto!

Happy 5th Anniversary to you all!
The graphic is courtesy of Nikki C

Bella


Wednesday 21 May 2014

What's on My Workdesk Wednesday 259? Demo Kits

Hello there fellow Desker!  Welcome to my desk over in Cape Town, South Africa!

a LOT has been going on on this desk the past week!
Changing this card kit above to the scrap page below on Sunday.
 Monday night: 
Making strawberry baskets (SVG Cuts) My hubby was testing the big camera lens he had just fixed (so nice to have a techi type DH he ordered the parts on line and did it while watching a Youtube video...it had gone into the shop for repairs and came out the same as before for a huge sum of money!)  I had used the lens so much I had worn out the focus sensor!!! 

 This is me kitting up 8 baskets for future use 
Below is my desk as it stands this morning after kitting yesterday for the Tim Holtz technique demo I am running on Friday and Saturday for 20 peeps. 
We have an allocated power shut down for maintenance today, so not sure if I will get to many desks till later...

Bella

Sunday 18 May 2014

From cards to scrap page!

These are the 4 cards I created for the class, the cover had to be decorated at home after class with the left overs.

Gift set cover above (as I have since decorated mine) and what it looks like inside, below.
One student could not make it at the last minute due to a family crisis at home.  Knowing that she prefers to do scrap pages, I decided to alter her kit into a double scrap page!
I had to swap out the happy birthday stamp on the oval for something else and chose the chandelier , swapped the "just a note" for "limited edition" on the ticket and ran with butterflies as the stamped image on the dictionary paper, rather than the cupcake stand and left the ship out all together.  She will need to add a title when she knows what photos she will be using and that can go at the top of the page.  I have die cut some black lettering for her with Tim's Block Talk die.
These pics are close ups of the clusters of elements on each page.

This was a fun challenge that I set for myself. I really like how the page turned out and might make one for me too!

Bella



Wednesday 14 May 2014

What's on My Workdesk Wednesday 258? Castles in the sky!

Hello there fellow Desker!  Welcome to my desk over in Cape Town, South Africa where the sun is not yet still up at 7:20am!  This is my desk as it stands this morning after some retail therapy yesterday...9 more Tim Stencils, 3 distress glitters and some black Wendy Vecchi embossing paste. (out of shot are the new long Tim Shears too)

Also on my desk is the castle in the sky which I made from an SVG cut file bought from SVG Cuts as a Mothers Day gift from me to me!

Then there is the old kitchen spice rack that was plain pine colour till I got hold of it with the Annie Slone Chalk paint.  This is my tester piece as I want to paint my mothers wall units that are looking every bit their dated selves from the 80's in their yellow pine state with rattan fronts...
Above is an overview of the chaos around me...it will never be a "Pinterest" beautiful space but it is oh so funcional!

This is me having a laugh during the week!  Typo had a sale and I found these Crime scene strips that are supposed to be made into paper chains...well I stuck 5 together and taped it across my son's bedroom door.  My sense of  humour I guess.   He even found it funny! 
Lastly, here is Marmalade on his pillow that he has purloined from the lounge as his and we put it where ever we are in the house so he will keep us company.  My son carries him on it from room to room like a king on his throne!

The ATCs got posted on Saturday, so hopefully they should get to their deskers in time for the party in 2 weeks!

So this is me.

See you at your desk over at Julias place .

Bella


Monday 12 May 2014

Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge 2!

So the challenge set by Linda over at L3 is page 56 of Tim's book Compendium of Curiosities 3.

I downloaded this castle cut file from SVG Cuts as a Mother's day gift to me from me and promptly set about decorating the castle with distress inks through a stencil I made from Tim's brick die in Picked raspberry and the inside of the castle and the sky with Salty ocean.

I then followed the instructions on page 56 and covered the roofs of the castle with Rock Candy Distress Glitter.

Below you can see how the castle folds flat to fit in an envelope.

To get the "wall" across the back of the castle, I folded the wall back on itself and inked the top with Salty ocean, which then meant that the inside of the castle also had to be blue, but seeing as it is my castle in the sky...that is fine by me!

 Thanks for the visit.

Bella

Wednesday 7 May 2014

What's on My Workdesk Wednesday 257? Cards and ATCs

South African Elections


Hello fellow Desker from Julia's place over at Stamping Ground.  Welcome to my desk in a sunny (though not too warm) Cape Town, South Africa.

Today is voting day and Google has made us our own logo!  Cool stuff!

I am however off to work even though it is a public holiday, but we have had so many recently (two last week) and because I work for myself, if I don't work, I don't earn, so class is going ahead today.  We will vote after class.
This is my desk...covered in random stuff from making cards from left over stash from all the conventions I have attended over the years.  Trying to get it used up. Oh and as usual my overflowing ribbon drawer...

Then there are the 4 ATCs for the April swap at my store.  The blue one with the crown is my make as I always make an extra one for myself to keep and the other 3 are the swaps I got!  I love doing these swaps.

I will be finishing off the ATCs for the WOYWW swap tonight and posting them to Ali H tomorrow or Friday so she can swap some at the crop for me.  How exciting!  Those of you who have agreed to swap with me, I will be posting yours tomorrow or Friday too so you can have them in time for the WOYWW party.  Thanks to Nikki C whose ATC has already arrived.  Talk about orgainised!

Have a great week.

Bella