What's on Your Workdesk 133

Couldn't really believe it is Wednesday today, I merely went onto my blog to see what I have missed and there at the top of my list of blogs I follow is Stamping Ground with desk follow number 133!!!

It took me 7 hours to sort, pack and infiltrate stash (both new and old) into my system yesterday, so now you see my relatively clear desk covered in stuff to make the last few Christmas cards for friends and family.

I have been out of circulation and away from my desk since Friday last week as I flew to Johannesburg to teach the 12 Tim Tags of Christmas at a Shop called Beautiful Scrapbooks, owned by Liane.  What an amazing place.  Liane will go to the ends of the earth for her customers and back to try and get everything their hearts desire.  Nothing is too much trouble, it was such a pleasure to work with her on this project.

The kits that traveled hand luggage with me as I would not let them out of my sight!

I taught the "Hope" techniques page on the Friday after landing at the airport at 11 and getting to the shop at 12,  setting up and getting going with the class at 2 till 5.  The class was full of vibrant ladies who all made it fun to teach.

Jennifer very kindly fetched me from the airport and gathered her group of the "Usual Suspects" for me to teach...

The whole of Saturday was spent teaching the 12 tags from 9am to 5pm (we asked for an extra hour) to try and get as much done as possible.  The techniques, stamping and inking were mostly done by the end with 4 full tags finished (by most of the ladies) and the rest had to be constructed at home.  A bit ambitious to do all 12 tags in 8 hours, but we had fun, learned a lot and Tim has such clear instructions on his blog that they will all be able to finish what they need to when they get home.

This is the yummy cake that Jennifer organised for tea, the most decadent Chocolate that I have ever tasted...still dreaming of it now...

Myself, Jennifer and Liane out for dinner at Tribes after wonderful day of 12 Tags.

Thanks for popping by my WOYWW133 desk, and for those of you who celebrate Christmas, may it be a Blessed and peaceful one.  For those of you who don't, may it be a special holiday with family and friends.

See you all soon.






Bella

Whats on your Workdesk Wednesday 132

A lot! is all I can say!  I have been prepping like a mad woman for the past 12 days, as each and every one of Tims tags have been issued.   I am going to be teaching them to 20 peeps in Johannesburg on Saturday 17 Dec. The shopping in bulk has been fun and the die cutting a little tedious, but then the Christmas CD playing in the background did help the vibe and some die cutting and packing help from my assistant at work all day last Friday made a huge dent in the massive amount of work that had to be done.  I am now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and can go to bed before midnight tonight! Everything is cut, and counted, it just needs to be put in little packets so they don't get lost!

Happy WOYWW 132 everyone!

Pop on over to Julia's desk to have a virtual tour of the desks around the world!

Whats on your workdesk 131

TAGS! 6 of them!  Today is tag 7 in 1 hour 20 min...and counting!  I am doing the 12 Tags of Christmas with Tim Holtz and LOVING IT!  I am also flying to Johannesburg next Friday to teach all 12 of them in a tag marathon from 9am to 4pm!  Gonna be SUCH FUN!

So yes my desk is covered in all things Ranger, Stampers Anon and Sizzix at the moment!  I have even taken over my hubbys desk but I am not showing you that corner of the room today...

Happy WOYWW everyone, see you over at Jula's desk for more creative desks, though Mr Linky is AWOL we are carrying on regardless!

Bella

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas Tag 6

Hello there fellow bloggers

I am finally caught up so I can relax about tomorrows tag!

This one was quite fun to do.  I don't have that texture fade, so I used another one.  This one is quite a simple design and so I thought it might give me a few hassles with the painting as there is a LARGE background where there could be potential trouble, but it all seemed to go fine.  Just in the heating stage of the embossing powder, the foil seemed to come loose and buckle a bit, but hey it still looks fine.

All the instructions for Tim's tag below are on his blog HERE if you want to give this a go.

See you tomorrow for Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday and Tag 7.  I can't believe we are now just about to go over the half way mark.  December is vanishing at a rate of knots!

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas Tag 5

For this one I had to wait all night for the alcohol ink to dry properly as we seem to be going through a bit of a humid period and the stuff just stayed sticky.  I used the inside of my embossing folder as my stamp because it is the right way round for this technique to come out reading the right way from behind.

I also (until this afternoon) did not have the die for the wreath so I used a tree branch again which I have trimmed down.  I saw this idea on Tamara's tag (though she has a lovely type of branch).  I had tried all sorts of other things and they were not great.

Now to tackle tag 6 after tonights class, I seem to be one tag behind each day at the moment...trying to get back up to speed!

Tim's tag is below and the instructions can be found HERE!

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas Tag 4

Up until today, I could hand cut or copy the content of the previous 3 tags...Ok, so this is where I begin to digress COMPLETELY from the original in content as we don't have snow in Cape Town so I don't buy anything to do with snow...I have used all his techniques and products, so there is some similarity to the tag created by Tim, but it ends there.  You can go to his blog HERE and follow his instructions on how to make a tag that will look like his at the end of this post!

I used puff paint on his beard, hat and shorts and just pencil crayons to colour in the rest.

Instead of glossy accents I wanted to see what the crackle paint would do in the numbers, so I filled them when I covered the tag.  I think it worked quite nicely.

This is Tim's masterpiece!

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas Tag 3

OH Boy my heart sank when this tag came up this morning!  These two items are not available here in South Africa at all!  Hoping against hope that they are in the shipment that is imminent as they are top of my wish list for under the Christmas tree this year!

I used the Craft Concepts embossing folder and inked the raised areas of the tag after ebossing it in my Vagabond, let it dry and then inked the inside of the folder as per the instructions for tag 1 and put the tag back, lined it up again and ran it through the VB.  I covered it with white embossing powder to hide where my applicator tool had got the ink in the recesses!  I then put all the greenery at the top of the tag instead of the bottom like Tims.

Below you can see that Tim Used his Christmas stamp and matching embossing folder for today's tag and you can find all the instructions HERE.  All 64 photographs of step by step clear and easy to follow instructions...

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas tag 2

Hello there

At least I have the paper pad and sticky backed canvas is all I thought when this tag came up!  Cos I have nothing else!  I don't have the reindeer or the edge die so I have drawn and hand cut them.  Thank goodness for all my training back in the day when I became a graphic designer, so these drawing and cutting skills at least come fairly naturally...

I did in fact have an offer from Gabrielle to send me a reindeer and from Jennifer, so this got me to thinking that maybe this could become a world wide swapping session as we pool our resources!  Not a bad idea.  Maybe we should post what dies we have on our blogs and we can die cut for each other and mail them on!

Any way, I digress... Here is my take on the tag, as near as I could cut by hand and the wreath is a cheap 50 cm high tree (R12/ 1Pound 20) I got at the local China town that I have trimmed to fit her neck.  I don't have star charms, so here is my angel instead!  All the instructions on how to make this tag can be found on Tim's blog HERE!

Tim Hotz 12 tags of Christmas Tag 1

Well the build up to this tag was nothing short of spectacular on twitter and Face Book done by none other than Mario, the BTS king!  I am in South Africa so all this goes on while I am sleeping...I wake up with this excited feeling every morning now and for the next 10 days!  It is just like being a kid again and waiting with an-tici-pation to see what Santa has brought in the morning.  First thing I do is grab my phone ( to switch off the alarm) and then to go back in time on Twitter and FB to see what I missed.  The great thing is that the tags go "live" every monring at 10am for me, so no all night waiting here!

Here is the first tag, as near as dammit to Tim's.  You can find all the beautifully photographed and explained instructions HERE on Tim's blog if you want to join in.

I don't usually buy anything to do with snow because we don't get snow here in Cape Town, except for on the peaks of the mountains in winter for a while.  I have never personally been in snow, so I rather buy stuff a bit more relevant to our (rather warm) Christmas...Hence I have used the Cuttlebug Christmas ornaments embossing folder instead of the snowflakes!

Oh and the Noel die is not in our country yet, so I hand cut this from a piece of cereal box instead!  Not quite as legeble, but it will do!

My day has been frantically busy, so I am just sitting down now nearly 12 hours after this mornings tag of day 2 has been issued to create it.  I can't wait!

Bella

Whats on your workdesk WEDNESDAY 130

And I woke up thinking it was FRIDAY cos I had half my Thursday ladies in last nights evening class!  Talk about confused!

Here is my home desk above and my working studio below...both are organised chaos!

My studio desk 

Works of art in progress...

There is another room behind me, but I forgot to take a picture of it...

At home I am working on Christmas cards and at the studio this is the aftermath of last night and my desk in a permanent state of disarray!

So last week you got to see my chaos at home, now you get to see my creative work chaos.  If you go here, you will see my home studio tidy after 12 hours of cleaning, re-packing and organizing. Better or worse?  You be the Judge...

Now I am off to Julia's desk, WOYWW host, better late than never, today has been one of those days because of the build up to Christmas I think...

Christmas Wreath

Back in September I came across this post by the Crafty Elf where she gives a breakdown of how to make a stunning card using the Martha Stuart Punch to create a beautiful wreath on a card.  Here in South Africa, we don't get that particular brand of punches...believe me, I have looked and asked everywhere...

Today the shipment of Sizzix stuff hit the shelves at my local scrapbooking shop and I had my birthday money burning a hole in my pocket!  I bought the tattered pine cone die, holly branch die as well as the festive greenery and the Autumn gatherings strips. Oh and the movers and shapers mini reindeer and 25 set!

Thankfully my son was invited to a play date this afternoon after school, so I could have a play date with my desk and new dies!  I have had such a blast all afetnoon and evening!

Here is the card I have made using the conifer branch from the tattered pine cone and the smaller ones are from  festive greenery together with the pine cone off the same strip.  I discovered that the pinecone stamp from his Holday Wishes stamp set, fits the die rather well!  For the middle I used a scalopped circle from my eCraft cutter and the 25 from the movers and shapers set.

It was quite simple to put together and I have had such fun.  I will show you more tomorrow with the rest of the stuff I have been cutting and playing with.

A Joyful Christmas

I have had a marvelous day crafting non stop from 10:30am till now, nearly 12 hours later!  I should be exhausted, but I am feeling invigorated from all the creative juices that are just right at my finger tips!  Lovely when Mr Mojo comes to town on a day like today!  Granted, I have not been at my desk the whole time, but give or take a few minutes to go to the kitchen to make coffee and to see to lunch, I have been in my nice newly (as in yesterday - see post below) cleaned and organised craft room.

Here is what I created in just an hour.  I have an eCraft Cutter on which I cut the scallopped squares.  I first designed them in Corel Draw X4 and them imported them into its program to be able to cut them.  Basically it cuts any line drawing that is on my computer screen.  I had created this file before, so just sent it to cut and then embossed the little things with Tim's music embossing folder by Sizzix and inked the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and lightly covered the tops of the embossed areas.

I then stamped the "A Joyful Christmas" with Jet Black Archival Ink on red card stock.  I used the Walnut stain Distress Ink round its edges and glued the music square onto the top 2/3 of the card.

I poked 2 holes right through the card, one above the other and tied the music note on with a gold and red shiny thread.

All that is left to be done, is glue them onto the white card blanks that I bought from a local stationer called Merry Pack here in Cape Town.

Working like a factory line made it easier and they took exactly an hour to make from start to finish with no breaks for coffee...

Have a wonderful week.

Bella

Before & After - You be the Judge!

Yes this is actually the AFTER shot!

I have been on a clean up mission for the past 2 weeks since I fessed up and showed you all the various piles of stuff, on, under and next to my desk for 'Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday'... hosted by Julia Dunnit over at Stamping Ground.

This post could very well be called 24 hours later...I started this time yesterday (5pm) and worked until 11:30pm and got going again in here at 8:30am this morning!  I have been at it non stop for all this time and it feels (when I look around) like there is not much to show for it, but I will let you be the judge! (Perhaps I should show you a photo of the council dustbin - it might give you an idea as to the volume that has left the room!)

I went through all the finished stuff that was on top of my cubby holes and redistributed it round the house to be more visible.  Brenda had commented this past week that if I put any more stuff on there I would not be able to see out the window, but it is not a view I am to partial to as it is the car port and garage!  Julia was also worried about it all blocking out the light, but I have stunning down lighters above my desk so I don't actually need the window, and I don't know about you, but I am usually crafting in the dead of night so don't need the window light...

I have taken all the stuff off the shelves above my computer, gone through the boxes and repacked everything.

Before

After

I took everything out from under my desk and put the stuff in the blue carry bag into the blue wheely tote as this is all my demo stuff.  Chucked out the telephone directory's from last year which were on my sewing machine and put the white box of non fire ceramic stuff in my car to go back to my art studio from where it came originally.  The frames to be decorated and altered are still in the big box, only now I tipped the side up and you cant see them!  The white plastic bag of stuff was integrated into my system on Monday already.  The pink spotty tote is new as I was given a gift voucher for my birthday and this is what I got with it as well as some embossing folders, so in theory that space should actually be open as the stuff from there is gone...reality is another thing all together!

Before

After

I emptied the large deep cupboard next to the  outside door under my desk and put the red box of "wedding" photos, memorabilia items and paper in that cupboard. As well as the large roll of red wrapping paper.

The large deep filing drawer on the right of that has been emptied and has stayed that way as I had hoped to store some of my paper in there, but it is just 1cm too short (that spoiled that plan!).

The pile on top of my shelves to the left of my desk (that only I could reach as I am 6ft tall) has all been taken away as it was really storage for stuff I never used (like the disconnected sound system)  apart from the stamp collection in the clear plastic trays which has remained as I use those and some other stuff off the other piles has joined it...

 Before

AFter

The view to the left of my desk is now one of boxes on my old bedside tables.  It was an avalanche or 3 waiting to happen, so that has been containerized.

So What Do You Think?

Worth all that time?  I think so as I can now put my inky paw on anything I please and it does have a nicer feel to it, but boy, it has taken me ages to do all of this. BBC makeover programs make it look so easy and this did not even include re-arraigning or painting!

Thanks for looking!

Bella

Whats on Your Workdesk Wednesday 129

I am glad to see that I am not the only one who is beginning to feel like there is a black hole sucking our weeks away out there somewhere.  Reading a few of the other WOYWW posts over at Julia's desk last week, there were quite a few bleats about missing weeks and "how did we get to WEDNESDAY again" kind of comments...

Here is my desk, close up and an over view.

The close up is about sticking the packaging of the Tim Holtz tag die onto the die itself.  I am a teacher and use these dies during class, so it is much easier for my students to see the image on the die and not to have to make the shape out on the rubber side.  Yes, before you ask, that is a HUGE roll of double sided tape!  It is the most useful stuff I have ever purchased!  I have a post further down my blog here with photos as to how I do the whole process so I wont repeat it again.  The pile of white card stock is pre-counted and cut pieces waiting to be made into tags for the class I am running on 17 December of Tim's 12 tags of Christmas...96 tags to go...

Then there is the overview of my desk and I hope those of you who were here last week will notice that a few of the bags of stuff under my desk have gone, namely the white one full of stash that I got from a friend.  I have integrated it into my system and now it will all be used.  A few of the piles on top have also gone as these have been filed and sorted into their appropriate boxes.

Happy WOYWW to you and now I am off to see what you have to show!

Bella

Tim Holtz Technique Canvas at the Scrapbook Factory Shop

What a wonderful morning we had!  Summer has arrived with a bang here in Cape Town today so I was very pleased to be teaching all these lovely ladies in an air conditioned venue!

I allocated 4 hours to do the canvas in, most people were finished in  just over 3 hours which allowed an hour to shop, which is always a good thing!  Retail therapy is so good for the soul!  Especially when it is inks and sprays and stamps and stains!

For those of you who were there and need instructions, here we are.  For those of you who were not there, but still would like the instructions, here they are too!

Canvas:
Paint the top of the canvas in Espresso using a paint brush. Just unscrew the top off the paint either decant some, or dip your brush into the bottle.  I suggest a brush for canvas as the “tooth” of the  canvas destroys the foam applicator.  Paint the sides of the canvas with Pitch Black also using a paint brush.  Let this dry.  Lay your mask over the canvas and spray with Perfect pearl Mist in Perfect Pearl

Bird and Flourish:
Spray your square with water. Rub the square with Distress Stain.  Let this dry for a while.  Stamp your bird onto the large square of cardstock using Jet Black Archival Ink.  Let this dry for a few minutes.  Rub over the whole bird with Faded Jeans Distress Ink and cover with clear embossing powder. Tip the excess off and heat. When it has cooled, cut out the bird.  Stick the small mask to your square and over spray with
Lettuce Color Wash. Let this dry for a while and glue on the bird.  Distress the paper edges of the square with the blade edge of your scissors and ink with Walnut Stain Distress ink using the applicator tool.

Flower:

Drag the Pearl/snowcap paint dabber randomly across the square in one direction only.  Let this dry.  Rub the whole square with faded jeans Distress stain and the Ink the edge with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

Colour your flower on both sides with Broken China Distress Stain and let this dry a little till it is damp.

Layer up your flower. Prick through the centre and join it together with your brad, scruntch it up by gathering all the pettals together from below and crunching them into the middle of your flower and press down onto a table. Now open it up and glue to the square.

Zoom:

Stamp the image onto the cardstock with an embossing ink pad.  Cover with embossing powder, pour off the excess and heat from below.  Using the Distress ink applicators, rub over the square with spiced marmalade then a little barn door and finally some walnut stain on the edges.  Glue your word onto the square.

Heart:
Rub the craft sheet with a little Wild Honey and Fired Brick directly from the ink pad. NOW spray the craft sheet with a little water and lay your square into the ink.  While this is drying...trace and cut out your heart.  Cover it in tissue tape.  Put the metal heart on the jump ring, then onto the safety pin and pin onto the paper heart.  Use Walnut Stain distress ink with applicator tool on the edges of the dry square and
then glue your heart onto the square.

I cut 2 cm wide strips of card stock to lay on the edge of my canvas so that I can glue all 4 of my squares down the same distance from the edge.

Stick them down and you are done!