What's on your workdesk Wednesday? 116

Hello fellow desk hoppers, and a good day to you! Mine is already going pear shaped and it is only 7:30am! I just blew the clutch on my car so have had to call on the services of my mom to get me to work and a student to take me home. That is this morning sorted, now to start working on getting my car towed in to Renault!

But over to more exciting things! Here is my desk after last nights card making session where I have started to make Christmas cards already. I read Julia's post yesterday which debated how long is too long to make a card and have been mulling this over. It is an interesting concept. I guess with me it all depends on if I am experimenting with punches and dies or inks etc and not really worried about the time, but enjoying the learning process or trying to do a card or scrapbook page for a class, then it becomes about the money and time is money, therefore I need to get my A into G and move it!

Oh and the pile of 12"x12" canvasses in the right hand corner of the photo is the next project I have to work on for my samples using all Tim Holtz products. I am really enjoying this new venture and also have to make another 6 tag samples for displays. I used this as a good excuse to purchase the Stamper Anonymous set of "Stuff to Say" which has really wise and thought provoking sentiments. You can see it in the top left hand corner of my desk.

Well I guess I better get of this computer and onto the phone to get my car sorted...

For those of you who have no idea why I have been rambling on about my desk, pop over to Julia's desk at Stamping Ground and see what it is all about.

Some stuff out of the ordinary

Hello friends in blog-land.

It's Monday and I am having serious withdrawals from Simon Says Stamp and Grungy Monday, both of whom are not running any new challenges for a while for various reasons...

I have had a wonderful week-end creating with out inking a thing, my hubby checked my temperature to see if I was ill, but no, just trying something a little different.

I am so behind on my sons school album so I decided to tackle last years class photos as the back to school bug seems to have hit blogland lately and inspired me. Our schools only change in January and run right through to December for our long summer break.

I went to a card making class on Friday and it was so nice to be on the receiving end for a change! The ladies who ran the class made some stunning intricate cards that have inspired me no end!

I recently discovered the joys of digi stamps and have entered into a challenge over at Designed 2 delight by Faith. She gives away a free stamp on Fridays and so I am playing along. Here is my entry with her cute little character called Maisie Belle. The mat was punched with a MS punch around the page set and I added the text to the image before I cut her out.

Simon Says Stamp and Show Some Travel

Over at Simon Says the theme is Travel for this week. I have been wracking my brain as to what to do for this one and then I remembered a set of stamps I bought on sale 2 weeks ago that were all about travel! They duly got taken out of their plastic and inked up!

I have an old atlas that I had as a kid that is so out of date now it is only worth decorating things with, so I dug it out and found the places my hubby and I visited in 1998 when we did a 6 week back pack tour of England, Scotland, France and Italy. I took 36 rolls of 36 exposures in that short time and I remember it costing me a fortune to process when we returned! Not only that, there was no album big enough to handle that many photos, so I set about making one from scratch that is A3 in size. It weighs a ton but is great to look through and reminis.

So I took some snaps with my digi camera of the photos in the album and printed them out teeny tiny to fit on my little cube that is only 8cm x8cm big! They look a bit purple in theses pics of the cube, but they look "normal" in real life...

I cut out the relevant cities and stamped the images on to the maps and then added the photos, glued them onto the wooden cube and added the door knob from Tim Holtz to the lid - adhered with glossy accents and hey presto, a lovely memento of a trip done many moons ago.

Oh and no project of mine goes without a dose of Distress ink, in this case Walnut Stain, which I used on the edges of the cube.

WOYWW 16 and Exciting news!

Yes! It's Wednesday, so it is the day to do the global desk hop. Join in over at Julia's desk as she is the convener of all the snooping that goes on between friends and countries for Whats on your Workdesk Wednesday, even though she is having some technical difficulties, she is still hosting!

Well I have been very busy the last week making samples for a local company who imports some of the Tim Holtz and Ranger products. After some discussions, I am now officially their demo person for all the shops that request demos and I am to make samples to be put in the shops to inspire customers!

I am beyond excited at this opportunity and am loving being creative with a purpose, not just for fun!

So the photo above is all the samples I have made thus far with the instructions written on the back. The pictures below are some close ups.

Oh and I finished my mannequin too so here she is in all her new glory.

I would love to hear what you think, so please leave me a message.

Happy WOYWW16 to you!

Bella

SSSAS and GM by the skin of my teeth!

Well over at Simon Says Stamp and Show it is bling and at Linda's Grungy Monday it is distress stickles. I have had a very busy week and have had a half dressed mannequin on my desk just waiting to be adorned for these two challenges and finally I have had some creative time at my desk!

As posted on Wednesday, I showed you the mannequin as I bought her, click here to go to that post.

To add the bling I used my new glitter glue sticks for my glue gun to stick on the skirt made from layers of the rosette die and they work a treat, I also used perfect pearls on the kraft glassine paper which I die cut the wings out of. So that is my bling that I added to an already blingy lady!

Then for the Grungy Monday part I added gold distress stickles along the top of her bodice to link the base with my colour scheme.

What's on your workdesk Wednesday? 115

I can tell you that a lot has been on my desk since last Wednesday, and I can't believe that I have not managed a blog post for a whole week! Where did this week vanish to? I can also tell by some of your blog posts that I am not the only one feeling a bit like we are on the slippery slope down to Christmas!

The picture above is of a little perfume bottle mannequin that I found in a cheap shop when I should have been looking at stuff I really needed...but could not resist buying her (well three of them really - if I am honest) to re-decorate. I stripped off the fabric and plastered her with old book pieces, now I am toying with wings and what skirt she should have etc. She is definitely a work in progress! I think that serviette started me off on this whole mannequin thing, now I am addicted, I can see a Tim Holtz Sizzix die in my future...

Now, Do you think the bottom wings should be out or in? I can't decide...

I have been very busy re-organizing parts of my desk to make my crafting life a bit easier, so I took all my ribbons off their reals or out of their packaging and cut strips of cereal boxes to the height and length of my cubby drawer and wrapped the ribbons round them in colour combinations, now it is so much easier to see and use my ribbon and very much easier to access without a birds nest occurring each time I dig in that drawer.

Well, folks, that is me for this week, hopefully she will be finished soon and I can maybe add her to the Simon Says show some Bling and the Grungy Monday Distress Stickles Party, some time later this week.

Now go on over to Julia's Desk to join the rest of the world in the great desk hop and snoop!

For those of you who participate, have a wonderful WOYWW!

What's on your workdesk Wednesday? 114

Oh my word, I have had a long week-end as we had a holiday yesterday and schools were given Monday off so today feels like Monday but is actually Wednesday, so I am feeling all Topsy Turvy...

So here is what has been happening in my world since last Wednesday when we did the great world desk hop hosted by Julia over at Stamping Ground.

I have made a tag with the beautiful serviette I found at a local craft shop.

A few weeks ago, I asked what you all do with the tags you make and I got offers to swap some, I have been rather snowed under with life lately so it took me a while to get to the post office, which I finally did on Monday and received a parcel from Neil yesterday! So here are the tags I got from him! So cool!

I took all my hoarded Tim Holtz stash out their packaging and put it in a clear divided box for easy access and now I am using it (which you can see in the RH tray in the photo below)! I also made a travel box for all my Tim stuff from my Vagabond box as it was too cool to throw away. You can see all the stages of how I made it in my post here!

Then I have also been busy with a clean up of the corner of my desk that seems to gather stuff... (slightly tidier view than last week at the top of this post)

I sorted the pile that was about to slide off the desk...And finally I made a frame with some of the papers that were lurking in that pile... which I have entered in Simon says Stamp and show any Tim Holtz techniqe this week!

Been a creatively busy week for me which has been very good for the soul! I have even done a few other things, but will post more about them later as this is getting to be a very long post!

Now I am off to peruse others desks the world over, have a great WOYWW everyone!

Bella

Simon Says Stamp and Show a Tim Holtz Technique!

I was given a whole box of these frames and have been staring at them for months. Over at Simon Says Stamp the challenge is any Tim Holtz technique. So I dug out one of these frames and tore up some paper that I have also been staring at for ages...inked the edges with walnut stain distress ink and then glued the strips together to make one page again, glued it to the frame, cut the centre out and folded it back, folded the excess round the frame and hay presto, stuff that I have had no inspiration for suddely spoke to me!

I sprayed the top LH corner with espresso, then I got out my TH stash of stuff I have been hoarding and got going with my new glitter glue sticks together with some roses I bought in a fit of madness cos I don't do very 3D scrap pages and gave them a dose of distress ink too and added them to the TH stash and then I dug further into my stash of stuff that is "too good to be used" and found the bling word "laugh" and added that to the frame.

LIFE IS NOT A RACE,

BUT INDEED A JOURNEY.

BE HONEST. WORK HARD,

BE CHOOSY. SAY “THANK YOU”,

“I LOVE YOU” AND “GREAT JOB”

TO SOMEONE EACH DAY.

LET YOUR HANDSHAKE MEAN MORE

THAN PEN AND PAPER.

DREAMING DOES MATTER.

IT ALLOWS YOU TO BECOME

THAT WHICH YOU ASPIRE TO.

APPRECIATE THE LITTLE THINGS

IN LIFE AND ENJOY THEM.

SOME OF THE BEST THINGS

REALLY ARE FREE.

DO NOT WORRY,

TAKE TIME FOR YOURSELF

PLAN FOR LONGEVITY

The words in my frame are from The poster in Tim's studio as photographed on Twitter by Mario can be purchased here from Primitives by Kathy!

Vagabond Box storage!

How gorgeous is the box the Vagabond comes in? I could not bring myself to throw it away, so I have been working on a way to use it so it does not become a dust collector!

I saw Tim's new storage containers that came out this CHA and that inspired me to make my own until I can get my grubby paws on his ones.

So this is what I did:

First I cut off the two small flaps, then I measured the centre of the side of the box. I measured the lid which is 17cm and cut a slit 17cm down the centre of the sides of the box. This way the box can flap open and use the two lids as supports. Having cut the slit I then cut the perpendicular way from side to side of the box.

I opened the box and just scored the inside from side to side so it can bend.

I had to create a box to hold the flaps up and used foam core to do this. They measure 8cm high x 35.2cm long x 15.6cm short (x2 each) I taped these together and glued them to the flaps making sure that the handle has space to move on the outside.

I broke the foam packaging apart and used the long strips to separate my bottles in the bottom and the flat bits to create a lid so that when you shut the whole thing nothing moves around.

So now I have a mobile Tim Holtz studio! I still want to get two straps with buckles to wrap round the outside of the box for extra strength and security...

So what do you think?

Scrapbook kits now Available for Sale!

The shop owner took nearly all my kits on consignment which is fantastic, but that leaves me with the following kits still available for sale!

So if you would like any of the following, leave me a message and I will make a plan for payment and postage! I am still setting up my Paypal account, which I did ages ago and can't remember my passwords for it...

Father's Day (well actually you can use any title, as there is a full alphabet set in the kit!)

I have 5 of these kits left and they include a paint dabber at R205 plus postage of R35 local and R105 international

Very Special Moments (again you can choose your title, but moments is pre-stamped for you)

I have 2 of these kits left at R145 plus postage of R35 local and R105 international

Titleless page! I did not title this page as I left the photos to tell the story and there is a flap that goes over your sleeve on the top of the RHS page for you to journal under and write to your hearts content!

I have 2 of these kits left at R105 plus postage of R35 local and R105 international

What's on your workdesk Wednesday? 113

Not much happening on my desk shown above today, so I am showing you the growing pile of stuff to the left of me in the photo below! Right in the corner is the "repair yard" of my sons stuff that either needs glue or a stitch or two...anything from trains to an Easter bunny to shirts and cars with wheels off...

Then the pile at a precarious angle is my "busy with" pile of new paper to be cut on my eCraft or alphabets I have already cut and bagged for a kit, oh and the box on top that I keep all my tags in for now that is supposed to be a recipe file...

Stopping the whole pile from cascading onto my workspace is a box filled with all my Tim Holtz goodies that I purchased and now am hoarding cos they are precious! How stupid is that? The problem is that they are expensive and hard to come by in South Africa and when they are in the shops they sell out fast, so not always there when you need them to replace them. Silly attitude I know, one I am working on...

Finally here is a serviette that I found in my local craft shop with these divine dress forms on and the bonus is that I thought it was only going to be 4 images and it is 6! Can't wait to bet playing with this and the bird tag sticking out is one my 6.5 year old son is busy with, I love the feathers he has added to the bird. I am lucky he is still at the age where it is cool to sit and craft with mom. Long may this last!

Lots of waffle from me today. Happy WOYWW everyone! Now go over to Julia's desk and desk hop all round the world as I am not the only crazy one to put my chaos out there for your perusal!

Simon Says Stamp and Show a tag!

Over at Simon Says Stamp, it is make a Tag week...Oh how I love to make a tag! This was a challenge just for me!

Today I used some fabric swatches that I ran through my trusty Vagabond and cut out the flowers, inked their edges with walnut stain distress ink and put a spiral of perfect pearls in their centres.

I stamped the leaves with espresso paint dabber then I added gold embossing powder while it was still wet and heated it. I then filled in the centre of the stamp with the paint dabber and drew the veins in with my gold pen.

I finished off the tag by using my rollor pricker for fake stitching and drew over it with first brown AC slick writer and then my gold pen.