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

What's on my Workdesk Wednesday 191? Gifts and a fellow WOYWWer!

Hi there fellow Wednesday Desk Hoppers!

I Have met my first fellow WOYWWer in person here in South Africa and it isn't even a fellow countryman!  No!  It is Ali H all the way from Wales!  She is here on business and let me know when and where she would be and we managed to coincide our free time to go shopping and have a chinwag over some coffee in the HOWLING South Easter that blows here in the summer.

First on our list of things to do was go scrap shopping and so we hit one of our largest stores, the Scrapbook Factory Shop, to see if we could get something South African that it not available overseas and we did!  Then it was on to the Waterfront to go gift shopping and have some coffee.  Finally 3 hours later I had to take her back to her hotel so she could meet up with her fellow countrymen  to go to dinner.  We managed to do quite a lot in the 3 hours but are meeting up again this evening which I am really looking forward to.

 Here we are in The Scrapbook Factory Shop in Salt River above and at the V& A Waterfront below where bronze elephants roam...

 This is Ali's very generous gift to me below and the photo of my desk at the top of the page is what I have been doing with it all!

Now I am off to go see what's on your workdesk this Wednesday at Julia's place over at Stamping Ground where she hosts this world wide desk hop and snoop!

Bella

Designing projects for classes

I had a wonderful Sunday sitting at my desk pepping kits for classes and designing the next batch of classes for my Store.

Here is one of the projects I am doing in the Card class on 9 February.  Valentines is just round the corner!  I haven't quite got over Christmas yet!  I feel like this year has a speed wobble already!

Thanks for the visit

Bella

Whats on my Workdesk Wednesday 190

I see with shock that it is Wednesday again!  This year is evaporating before my eyes and that is with every organizational tool being put to use and into action!

Here in South Africa the Summer hols are over and the kids went back to school last week Wednesday hence my absence from this grand desk snoop and visit.  This week things have gotten into a better rhythm and so I am BACK!

I have been a very busy bee and even thought to take a shot of my desk over the week-end after making a set of greeting cards as a gift form my good friend...see below.

Creating all of the above caused this below...an ever decreasing space on my desk!  If I were in Hogwarts I would swear that someone had cast a shrinking spell on my workspace!

The picture at the top of the page is the one I took a few minutes before sitting down to post this...Can you tell what it is going to be?  A Pegasus...well it was...I had a query to ask if I could make 5x Pegasus 90cm tall (or bigger) 3D, in yellow, silver and white as table centre pieces for a grand horse race called the J&B Met.  I found the wings and wigs (which would have been the tail and mane)...but then I have not heard further from the person wanting this done, so here sits the roll of paper of a giant horse and some fancy dress costume which will just go into my growing costume wardrobe...

Below you can see my concept...

Well that's my desk this week folks...now I am off to see what you have put up on offer to be perused over at Julia's place at Stamping Ground.

Thanks for the visit

Bella

CSI Case File No.53

Well over at CSI I have been put on the watch list for the last case which was my Christmas LO.  I am truly honoured to be selected.

Here is my latest offering for case file No53

My Evidence is flowers, scallops and teacup accent

My Testimony is Recipe journaling which in my case is more of an explanation than a recipe...

I really enjoy these challenges as they make me scrap stuff out of the ordinary for me.

I hope to keep up the weekly challenge as often as I can this year.

Bella

WOYWW 188? Crop stuff

Hello fellow Wednesday desk hoppers...here is my desk after going crafting at a friend last night.  My tote and my bag of papers to make cards.  I thought I would get tons done, but I travelled too light...no punches, embossing folders, inks...I learned my lesson!

I got 2 and a half cards done in 2 and a half hours...an hour a card...not bad I guess considering we chatted and sorted through our stuff...but man that felt so unproductive.

So that's my desk this week, now  I am off to see yours over at Julia's place called Stamping Ground where she hosts this huge desk hop and snoop!