Whats on my workdesk Wednesday 195? Relax, Laugh and Peace!

Hello fellow Wednesday desk hopper, welcome to my desk over in Cape Town, South Africa.

I finally climbed up onto my desk and found the words that had slid off the wall in the heat down behind the back of beyond... now I must go and get some mirror tape to stick them back above my desk.

At the back of my desk you can see my name tray that I was inspired to make by fellow WOYWWer Minxy who put one on her Face book page

And here is mine up close:

Then just in the top of my desk picture, you can see the bottom of a comic I printed off Paula's blog that she found here at Hyperalergic which I thought was so very me...especially the last two blocks!  Like the artist was in my head!

So that is me for this Wednesday.  Now I am off to Julia's blog to see if you have linked up and are joining in the fun of the world wide desk hop and snoop!

Thanks fro the visit

Bella

I was inspired!

Thanks to Minxy I was inspired to go to my desk and create!

She posted on Face Book yesterday and though it took me a while to get to make my project (as I had to finish 6 birthday cards for orders first), I finally treated myself to a little inky time...

Here is her project that inspired me, though it is not on her blog, here is the link for more inspirational porjects:  http://thealteredinker.blogspot.com/

Here is mine.  My word stand was purple plastic so it just begged to be altered!

I used Sticky backed tin foil tape and black alcohol ink to change my plastic into an industrial looking version.

Bella

Everything is coming up Roses!

Since I got the punch yesterday I have not stopped making roses...I have a whole posy going now!  They are such fun and are so quick to make.

All I have to do is cover the skewer sticks with florist's tape and they are done!

Bella

What's on my Workdesk Wednesday? 194 Roses

Hello fellow Wednesday desk hopper! Welcome to my desk in Cape Town, South Africa!

I had a serious case of room shrinkage due to...well I am not entirely sure what, but I got seriously fed up with it on Saturday after my class and did a MAJOR clear up and re-organise, including restructuring and painting of some furniture! To see the before and afters go here

This is my room of stash this morning and yes the word Relax is relaxing slowly off my wall above my desk...I need to go get some mirror tape (along with new glitzy handles for my re-purposed bedside tables now residing under my desk) from the hardware store.

The photo at the top of my post with the roses on the black canvas is what is still there from creating this step out series last night on how to make a rose from a punch.  I think you can read the instructions if you click on the photo, it should enlarge enough.

This is the dining room table at my friends house where we meet once a month for a creative something or other and chin wag.  We usually pick a theme like stamps, embossing folders, punches or dies and all bring our stash with and swap so we take home some new ready made things to play with.  This Monday it was die cutting and so we have called our little group the BOND girls as we all now have Vagabonds and we die cut up a storm.  The plastic bag on my desk to the left of the first photo is what I cut with their dies.

So now I am off to see what is on your desk if you have linked up with Julia on her blog over at Stamping Ground where she valiantly hosts us every week.

Thanks for the visit.

Bella

Harmony Restored before and after shots!

I had not planned a full on clean up today, but some how one thing lead to another after coming home from teaching this morning's card class for my friends birthday party...I needed to put all my stuff away from the kit trays and barely had enough space on the temporary folding desk to put them down, let alone unpack them!

I have been unhappy with the chaos in the study/studio for quite some time but have been flying at full tilt just to keep up with classes, card orders and the like so cleaning up was not a priority!

I found myself thinking that the little cupboards that had once been our bedside tables in cornflower blue and green would look much better white and so I set about unearthing them from behind the temporary (read permanent for the past few months) table and from under the boxes and general stuff on top of them.

I also then realized if I took the base off them they would fit under my existing desk which is just full of  stuff...then they would be more accessible and I would use the stash in them more often.

So the bases and knobs came off and they got painted white!  I am going to get them some lovely clear glass knobs on Monday.

I am now short of surface space for a few things like the 2 albums and 2 boxes that are stacked at the end of my desk, but I need to go through the large drawer and cupboard under them...maybe they can go in there...time will tell..tomorrow

So here are the before and after shots and yes it is now dark outside as it is 9pm!  Wowza!  This has all taken since 1pm to do.  I have such respect for those peeps who do those make over programs on TV!  I know they have crew to help etc but my word it is not a speedy process!

Before, view from the door ( yes the wording is melting off the walls in the heat...I need to get mirror tape...and find the words that have gone down the back of my shelves...)

Before view of the temporary desk and under my desk.

Before view of the two bedside tables

During view of the chaos

The bedside tables about to be painted.

A view of my room during the process from the garden

After view from the door (yes the words are still missing...I have not had the time or energy to hunt them down behind the shelves...that's tomorrows job!)

After view with the newly painted bedside tables under my desk

After view of the place the temporary desk and bedside tables had been.

After view from the garden

My washing basket that holds my exercise ball has to live in the corner in front of the now folded and back to temporary table.  I can now also see out my lovely concertina doors to the garden!

Thanks for the visit

Bella

Hardware store findings

After my WOYWW post yesterday I realised that a few of you had never seen the tile spacers before and so I thought I would show you what they look like here in Sunny South Africa!  Not sure how they look in your part of the world.

They come in a packet all joined together in sheets.  Then you cut them apart into the X's which you are supposed to stick between the tiles end on when you are gluing them onto the wall so that you have even spacing round each tile for the grout.

Now when I saw them they looked more like a lovely texture I could use on my canvasses and cards if I painted them or glued tissue paper over them...

Here you see a row of them as kisses on my Valentines canvas!  Making sense now?

I also added the key hole cover and the plasterboard tape into the photo which was called "good luck tape" so you could see all of my hardware store finds that I used on my canvas.

And for Julia, here is my dress.  Yes I am 6ft tall so it is a bit like "a long drink of water" as my Mom puts it, but I love it as it is so nice and cool in the heat of summer!

Have a fabulous Valentines day!

Bella

Happy Valentines day!

I know it is a bit early, but I need to wrap this and get it into my hubbies bed side table before he comes home from work!

I have used a ton of Ranger stuff on here from red and white Paint dabbers to black soot distress ink and Perfect Pearl mixed with water in a mister bottle (subtle on the white) to Glue n seal to adhere the dictionary paper and the tissue paper.  I decided to avoid the whole pink thing for valentines this year and went for the red, white and black look.

I started with the 4 mini canvases that have been gathering dust on my desk for weeks and covered them in the dictionary paper then some white paint dabber.  I stuck some plasterboard tape on that for texture and then swiped the red over the top to pick up the form of the tape.  I then started embellishing with Tim's tags and lettering and the other stuff I got from the hardware store like the 3 xxx which are actually tile spacers!

I glued a sheet of tissue paper onto the main canvas with Glue n seal and then edged it with black soot distress ink to make the crunched paper show up a bit more.

Hope my hubby likes it!

Thanks for looking

Bella

What's on my Workdesk Wednesday 193? Happy mail

Hello Desk hopper from Julia's place over at Stamping Ground.

I sent out Christmas cards to a few (those of you whose snail mail addys I had) fellow WOYWWers (all be it late on the 24 December...beam me up Scottie) and have received such wonderful happy mail in return.

Here is a card and 2 ATCs by Sandra in Australia which arrived yesterday

and card and Moustache tape from Tamara in the Netherlands which arrived last month.

Not to be left off the happy mail though I did receive these a LONG time ago from Kim and Sam...

I Have so been busy getting up to date with my kitting and designing and getting orders for cards out in the past few days that I feel like time should have stayed still...Know that feeling? Like when you finally raise your head from your desk that it should still be Saturday afternoon when you started on this mad hell bent mission... not Wednesday morning!  Where is that pause button for the world so I can play catch up and the world will wait for me while I do that and then we can all carry on together when I have finally caught my tail!

Here is what is on my (permanent) fold up desk:  The kits for a class I am doing for a friend as it is her birthday and she has invited her crafty friends for a morning of making cards as her party.

Yes you can see my tie-died dress here...

This is one of the Sizzix flipit card dies which is so nice and different.

Then my real desk is full of yummy purchases from the local hardware store (they would be shocked to know what I am doing with their stuff I am sure, especially as I only went in for the plasterboard tape and the key hole cover and while paying at the till point the guy behind me put down the tile spacers and I went rushing off to get a packet of my own...) The Dictionary is from a local Charity shop and the guy there at least understood my need for one to use in art...clearly I am not the first woman in a tie-died dress to make such a request!

I am busy with a Valentine gift for my hubby which still has to be tweaked and stuck to another canvas which still has to be painted...Yes I know the 14th is tomorrow...remember I am still on Saturday afternoon...how did we get here?

PAUSE, PAUSE, PAUSE...I tried...

Oh well, see you next week Wednesday again.

Thanks for the visit.

Bella

What's on My Workdesk Wednesday? 192? Car Office

Hello there Fellow Wednesday Desk hoppers

Yes it is Wednesday again, the fastest appearing day in the week.

This time last week I was looking forward to a braai (BBQ) on the roof top of the hotel in the middle of the city, where my WOYWW friend Ali was staying...It howled a gale as only the Cape Town South Easter can, but we had a fabulous evening, being enthralled by some of our locals who gave such informative talks.  They made me really proud to be South African.  At least this meant that Ali and I got to chat for another 3 hours...it is really amazing how fast those hours can go by when there is so much to learn and talk about.

My desk is nothing exciting this week and I seem to have spread onto the floor and the folding desk that should only be up in the study if I am kitting for classes, but now seems to be a permanent feature in the room...That's how it rolls around here at the moment...nothing more permanent than the temporary!

I am kitting for Saturdays class at my store(when am I not kitting any more?), planning the next weeks class and have just finished doing Tim's Feb tag which I am teaching at the Scrapbook factory Store where I took Ali shopping last week.

The folder in the middle of my desk is the "car office" as I call it.  This is full of  my art journal and other crafty things to do while I wait for my son and his friends to come out of school or during their sport practices.  It is here to be restocked with paper for stamping on and cutting out for cards as my son has swimming squad practice today.  I have a little pocket full of tools too so I can get quite far with projects until they require the messy stuff like distress inks or sprays etc...

This is the "temporary" desk...

So this is my desk(s) over in Sunny (but windy) Cape Town, South Africa for this week, now I am off to inspect what you have on offer in the way of a view of your creative space over at Julia's place called Stamping Ground.

Thanks for the visit, if you leave a comment please post where in the world you are from, just for the fun of it, it would be nice to know.


Bella

Tim's12 Tags of 2013 - Feb

Hello there

Hope February is treating you well so far?  I have managed to get some time to myself today and created Tim's Tag for the month.

I must say that I do so look forward to the first day of each month and the anticipation grows as the day approaches a bit like having Christmas 12 times a year...

For the instructions on how to make a similar tag please go to his blog here.

I did not have any of the items that Tim used so have improvised HUGELY on this one.  Not sure that the stamped image works, I find it a bit twee, but it was the only one I had in my stash that allowed me to stamp the image on the tag and cut out a smaller image to colour with the Distress Markers...

Thanks for the visit

Bella