What's on your workdesk Wednesday? 108

Over at Julia's desk it is What's on your Workdesk World HOP! Pop on over to see what I am on about, but be warned, it is addictive!

My PIF from Sandra in Australia arrived on Thursday last week. Boy, oh boy, did she spoil me! I have taken photos of the whole lot and hope that blogger lets me load them all, sometimes we fight!

Sandra made me a set of 8 greeting cards, each one different in some way and 9 gift tags as well as a beautiful ATC in its own special envelope and finally not one but two pendants that she made to go on a beautiful simple choker. I was so excited to receive my PIF that I opened it at the Post Office, much to the delight of the lady serving me! I explained the whole international

Pass It Forward gift idea for the two year anniversary of Julia's desk hop and we both had such fun unpacking the beautifully wrapped gift. It was so nice to have some one share in my excitement.

Above is the ATC and envelope

The 8 greeting cards came so beautifully wrapped it seemed a shame to open it! They are beautiful and will be used sparingly, Here is the Congratulations one, there are birthday ones too.

This is the beautiful card Sandra made and wrote in for me that has pride of place on my desk.

These are the two beautiful pendants which she made and one has the WOYWW 104 on the back.

This is a selection of the gorgeous gift tags which I will use for special friends only! Got to ration them out!

So please forgive me for no actual desk photo, but you can see why I have been so over the moon. I have been truly spoiled! Thank you to you Sandra, I hope you are having a wonderful vacation, where ever you are in the world today!

Bella

Grungy Monday 13

Hello fellow bloggers! Linda starts her post over at Grungy Monday with "Welcome to the Lucky 13 Edition of Grungy Monday!" Lucky for some! is the title I chose and the technique this week is alcohol ink. Pop over to her blog to see all the inspiration and then on to Tim's video at Ranger to see how to do it from the master!

I used Tim's Bingo embossing folder with the sticky backed foil on card stock and then I used watermelon and pitch black alcohol inks on it. After they had dried, it took my sandpaper to it and took off the ink on the raised bits. The 13 is off another of Tim's embossing folders and I just cut the 13 out and put it on pop dots.

I also used alcohol inks on the domino's which add up to 13 and a little bit on the king card whose value is 13! I had such fun literally playing with all the games parts to create this canvas!

The stars in the background are created using a paper stencil and Perfect Pearls mist, it shows up more in the photos than in real life!

Thanks for looking, I would love to know what you think so please leave a comment if you have time!

Bella

Oil Painting

Well, talk about the delay queen! Not really, yes really! I offered my skills at a school fund raiser last year in November to paint a portrait for the highest bidder...needless to say my best friend won it, not collusion from my side, I might add... and then she moved house...

She said not to do it immediately, then this year just ran away with me and without a deadline, I just kept putting it on the back burner. I had drawn it out in January and that is as far as I got!

New rule for me and my projects: always have a deadline, even if I make it up myself!

You guessed it! Today was D day! I had nothing planned so I scheduled in this Oil Painting and 7 hours and 15 min later, here you have it!

Below is the photo I worked from and the beginning stage after 4 hours

Phew, now I can cross it off my to do list!

Tomorrow I can play with my Tim stash and not feel guilty! HOOORAY!

What's on your workdesk Wednesday? 107

Hello fellow desk hoppers! My word, Wednesday seems to be here in the blink of an eye. If you are not sure what I am on about, go to Julia's desk and read all about it.

Here in SA, schools are winding down for the end of term and going off on 3 weeks of winter holidays on Friday. I have had my son home sick since Sunday so things in my life have been a bit chaotic! Juggling work and kids is an art! Thank goodness for grannies and friends!

Well here is my desk covered in the latest shopping spree...needless to say it is all Tim Holtz stuff and 2 bags of glue sticks in assorted colours and glitters. My mind did flick flacks when I saw these and I can't wait to power up my glue gun and play!

The other things in the background apart from the obligatory cup of coffee, are those squares that build a cube. I had such fun doing the father's day one that I got some more to make other projects with.

Grungy Monday 12 and SSSAS Metal

Hello fellow bloggers and followers! Today over at Linda's desk its Grungy Monday and she has traveled back in tome on Tim's blog to find this gem of an idea and technique. Click here to time warp back to 2008 where Tim gives very clear instructions on how to create the effect I have done below and above.

I have one of those Dymo thingy majiggys and am so miserly with the tape it uses because it is so expensive to replace and in most cases almost impossible to find, well he has the perfect answer to that problem at the end of his post, so you simply have to go there and see how he does it. I tried it and it works a treat as you can see on the close up below.

I am also entering this in Simon Says Stamp and Show Metal as the little heart on the beads is metal, the key-ring att. it to the tag is metal and the little plane charm is metal!

Whats on your workdesk Wednesday 106

Hello fellow desk hoppers. Julia is having internet issues and so there is not a desk in sight at her blog, but the hop goes on! Thanks goodness for her friend who could help out by lending a laptop!

Here is my desk in the throws of making a sample mini book for a class I will be running at a local school for their Continuing Education Program in November. Yes it seems really early to be doing something for so late in the year, but their prospectus is out already as it is near the end of this term. Standing at the back of my desk is the canvas I did inspired by Tim at his convention in Puerto Rico this past week-end.

Grungy Monday 11

Well, I am not going to get a chance to do something new (work calls) and seeing as I threw everything Tim in the book at this canvas just this Sunday, there just happens to be a square with PLAY on it that adheres to this weeks Grungy Monday challenge... The challenge this week is to do the resist Tim's way using embossing powders. I did not iron mine as I like the shine the embossing powder gives you, so it is not quite the same technique, I just stopped one step before the end! Click on Tim's name above and it will take you straight to the instructions on how to do this. If you click here, it will take you to my previous post where I show you a few more close ups and give a few more explanations of the other blocks and the inspiration from Tim's VIP canvas for Puerto Rico.

Tim inspired Canvas from Puerto Rico

I have had 3 canvasses hanging around my desk for weeks now and then Tim posted the special project he created for the Puerto Rico convention on his blog and I just knew what I had to do! I got out his book A Compendium of Curiosities and trawled my memory banks for the techniques I have learned on 2 of Tim's conventions he has run here in South Africa! And here we have my first canvas. I am also adding this to Grungy Monday where Linda says we can show anything that uses Distress inks, well there is tons on here!

I used my full arsenal of Tim's products: Distress Ink and Distress Stain, Perfect Pearl Mists and plain Perfect Pearls powders, Color Wash, Glue n Seal, Tissue Tape, Crackle Paint, Alcohol Ink and Paint dabbers as well as masks. Oh and some Grunge board letters and blocks.

This block has crackle paint on the arrow and the background is done using pg 33 Wrinkle Free technique using distress inks.

I created this flower with the Sizzix flower die and a punch for the small center flowers. I tore pages out of an old book and die cut and punched them, then I coloured them using Distress stain, let them dry. Layered them up, added the fabric brad and crunched them together. Dragged the flowers petals across the Walnut stain pad and there you have it! The base square is as per one of Tims tags he did way back when...in 2007 : drag your paint dabber lightly across the paper, let it dry and then ink up with distress ink.

This square had crackle paint in a THICK brushstroke and left to dry, the thicker you apply the paint, the bigger your cracks will be. I then stamped the butterfly using perfect pearls ink pad and dusted it with Sunflower sparkle which I then sprayed with water from my mini mister to set the perfect pearls powder. If you don't it will brush off later when the ink has dried.

I threw everything at it! Each block has at least one technique if not more on it and the background got a good dose of paint dabber with a mask and Color Wash Espresso on the left with Perfect Pearls Mists of Perfect Pearl on the right with the mask again.

Simon Says Stamp and Show: a Tag

Over at Simon Says the theme is Tags for this week. Well, for someone who loves to do tags, this should have been a walk in the park...on Monday I thought YAY my best, and then I ran into a hectic week at work and at home. Needless to say, I find myself on Saturday night and not a tag in sight! This is for a friend of mine who is popping in tomorrow and it was her birthday during the week, she is very musical and loves roses, so this was made specially for her using that as inspiration!

Father's Day desk cube

I recently arrived at one of my suppliers to collect stock and they were doing a class where there was a gap...needless to say I joined in and had so much fun. It is an interlocking wooden cube which is easy to assemble and glue together and add the paper and embellies to. The gold brads are like little 4 pronged pins which you hammer into the wood. This is great for the center of the flowers as they make the foam compress and the second little flower raises up and becomes 3D!

I am also entering this in the Grungy Monday challenge where it is anything using Tim Holtz Distress inks, this cube is covered in distress ink! In fact the red paper was not red at all to start with, but pink (not very fathers day like) and it got a heavy dose of Fired Brick and the corners Walnut Stain.

Whats on your workdesk Wednesday 105

Well, I took this this morning, but I am only getting to my computer now, Wednesday is nearly over! Pop over to Julia's desk to see what she has been up to...

Here is a look at all the kits I am prepping for, the fairy who lost its wing and is in from the cold for repairs and the two emergency lights I had to use the other morning to scrap by as we had a private power failier...it was fixed 2 hours later but it was 6:30am and my hubby had gone riding and I had the cycle friends kids so could not go back to bed, so needed light to craft by, a girls gotta do, what a girls gotta do to get things done!

Artist Trading Card (ATC) swaps

I am so excited, I opened my post box today to find my ATC swaps from Lesley in Canada. I 'm loving being involved in these swaps. It takes me back to that excited feeling I used to get as a child when I found an envelope addressed to me for my birthday, or for Christmas. Funny how these little envelopes filled with ATCs bring me such joy.

A few weeks ago when Blogger was really playing up, I forgot to re-post that I had received my ATCs from The Stamp Man in the UK. I want to thank the ladies who participated in the swap and for the lovely little artworks that winged their way all the way to me in South Africa.

Bella

Taming of the Beastie!

This week has been a fantastic learning one. You see I purchased this large pink beastie and it was misbehaving. It ripped up more paper than I care to think about and the local supplier had no experience with it...long story short, the help desk in the USA via email were outstanding. It turns out that the blade it came loaded with must have got damaged in transit so it did not cut properly, but snagged the paper instead. Now I have a dream machine that cuts just about anything...so far so good.

Here are 2 alphabets I cut and a bracket frame, now I am such a happy bunny it is just not funny! Oh how I love a happy ending!

What's on your workdesk? Wednesday?104 is 2 years today

Over at Julia's place it is a celebration of 2 years of desk hopping! If you want to join in the fun of gifting (PIF) Pass it Forward then you put an * after your name! This is going to be such fun, gifts are going to be winging their way around the world soon!

Here is my desk. I recently purchased this eCraft cutter. As with when you get new toys like this, there is always the learning curve as to how to make them jump through the hoops you want them too and discovering their limitations etc. I am on such a curve with this large pink beastie, in fact, there is no curve, it is a perpendicular line straight up! (note the chewed paper next to it...)

Any of you got experience with one of these hairy beasties? I NEED HELP!

The bag of dabbers are going into kits for classes and for sale...busy, busy, busy bee....

Bella