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Hi there, just a quick post to show two pages I have done recently.  One of my suppliers RS&E held a workshop where we made a double page designed by Glenda Viljoen.  As usual, I changed mine dramatically and have made it so I can use it for my friend who is about to pop and her nursery theme is Monkeys and the walls are yellow!

Then the pink page is one I have just finished designing for my class I am teaching at my store this Saturday 4 May.

Thanks for the visit.

Bella

What's on My Workdesk Wednesday 203? Mac Gyvered Hat box!

Hello fellow Wednesday desk hopper and welcome to my desk (and uncluttered floor)over in Cape Town, South Africa!  There was considerable interest in the box I had on the floor last week which is my Ranger kit box!

Here it is up close and in detail!  This is it closed, just to prove it can all fit!

You can see some extra holes in the top box where I changed the angles of the arms...

I can also flip it forward to get at the stuff at the back of the box in the bottom.

I needed something to be able to transport all my kit to and from the classes I teach at the different stores around town without having to pack a million different containers...I first saw a fishing tackle box and then Tim's boxes, but they were too small for the job.  I also wanted something with a smallish "footprint" when open.  I found this hat box in a second hand store and then realized that the pizza boxes fitted perfectly inside.  This was a great solution, but it meant that I had to pack and unpack the boxes to get at what I wanted.  So I found a collapsible wine rack on a sale and took it apart to get the "arms" of my shelves (pizza boxes) which I attached with nuts and bolts after calculating the engineering required to make them fit.

The box lives on the floor where I can easily reach the top layer of inks or open it further to reach the stuff on the lower levels.

The last thing on my desk this week is the (now full) card stash organiser which I made out of foam core board...I have ordered more foam core to make another one as this one is now full to overflowing!

Thanks for the visit, and I will endeavour to link to my page this week, not back to Julia's!  Now I am off to see what I can see on your desk if you have linked up to Stamping Ground, HERE.

Bella

Whats on my Workdesk Wednesday 202? Cards

Well hello again fellow Wednesday desk hopper from a vacationing Mrs Dunnit's over at Stamping Ground!  Thanks for coming to visit my desk in Cape Town, South Africa.  We are in the midst of a typical winter storm (howling wind, pouring rain and stupid drivers)
so being inside is the order of the day.

This is my desk as I left it at midnight last night after making up some cards to fill the different categories in my box.  A friend of mine is taking it to work with her today to see if she can sell any for me.  I also had a last minute order (8pm) for a Mazeltov on a baby boy card for today and that is the one you see on top of the pile on my desk.

I am unashamedly showing you my desk and floor to the left of me

 and to the right of me

as my desk seems to have shrinkage issues while I work...Then I give you an overview of the whole chaos...  The empty white box like the card display box is going to hold all the stuff that was in last weeks tin created while in my "car office" as I have two tins like that and I want to categorise my bits and pieces which I have prepared so it is easier to find them when I make my cards.

That's it from me this week.

Thanks for the visit.

Bella

My April Tag of Tim's 12 Tags of 2013!

Here is a picture of Tim's tag and if you click on his name it will take you to his blog where you will find all the instructions on how to make one.

I have the Paints!  Now there is a great start seeing as this tag is all about the PAINT!  The rest is touch and go...I die cut the 4 from his Wordplay alphabet and painted it black, then did his technique. I used the Papillion set of stamps as I don't have any of Tim's new ones.  I used the Xcut Cogs die by Do Craft to make the mini cogs and painted a key instead of the pen nib and phrase plate thingy... oh and I don't have any of those corners either and my tissue tape is the butterfly one instead.  He always says go with the flow and enjoy the journey which is exactly what I did with my tag below!

Thanks for the visit

Bella

What's on My Workdesk 201? Habby Stuff

Hello my friend and fellow desk hopper!  Most peeps look forward to Friday, but I look forward to Wednesdays as Julia over at stamping Ground, hosts a massive desk hop and snoop!

Today I didn't have anything much on my desk of interest so I decided to show you my finds at the Habby store from last week...I loved the black lace and as you can see, I have tested it on the Dressmakers dummy already!  Then there is the lovely vintage looking cream lace that was the end of their roll and the already ruffled white lace (on the dolly dress pattern I got for a steal-no I don't plan on sewing...it is for backgrounds!) that I can picture on a scrap page or as ruffles on a bodice card...my mind does flick flacks when I go into shops like these and I really should have a chaperone!  I got some hooks and eyes and press-studs too, but I have been a good girl and packed them in their containers already!

Then there is the tin at the back of my desk where I have been storing all the things I have been stamping and cutting in my car office while waiting for kids to finish school or sport!  There are also some machine cuts of happy birthday etc, together with some die cuts all ready to go onto some cards.  Now I just need to make the time to sit and put all these pieces together into something coherent!

Lastly there is a cog stencil I designed and cut on my eCutter that is waiting to get inky in my art journal...

So thats my desk for the week, now I am off to see what you have put up for show on yours!

Thanks for the visit.

Bella

Distress Paint sampler

I have been playing with Distress Paints lately and thought I would make a sample for my store to show my customers how versatile this amazing stuff is, so I set about revamping a project I did with Keizercraft at a convention.

It was a MDF wall hanging and seeing as I had not decorated the back, I tested how the paints would work directly onto the un-primed surface.  It worked a treat.  Then I tried working on top of existing paint and that worked brilliantly too!  This stuff is just so pliable!

Once I had added the 3 colours (Victorian Velvet, Antique Linen and Fired Brick) and sprayed it with water I dried it with my heat tool as I am impatient. I experimented and found the one I left to dry by itself kind of over blended and was not as interesting as the ones I dried when I was happy with the "wicking".

 Fabric flower (fired brick and walnut stain)

 Paper flower (fired brick and walnut stain)

Chippies and metal.  I only half painted the key hole cover to show that it was metal. (fired brick and walnut stain)

So that is what I have been up to today!

Thanks for the visit.

Bella

What's on my Workdesk Wednesday 200? Card box and Gorguss!

Hello there fellow desk hopper from Julia's place at Stamping Ground.

Welcome to my desk in Cape Town, South Africa!  I give you an overview of the chaos and then a close up of my Card organiser I made for my office where I sell my cards.  I am also trying to make stock for a market in September which is right round the corner at the rate at which this year is going!

I have recently bought some Gorjuss stamps and some cute little fairy baby stamps which I am colouring for the cards.  (I cut off the wings so they look like babies not fairies...)  We were away for the Easter week-end so I took them with to stamp and colour while I relaxed and chatted with the family, but still felt productive.

Here are a few finished ones.

I cut her rope away and added real chain so she can really swing on the card.

That's all from me.  Now I am off to Julia's place to see what you have put up for viewing on your desk.

Thanks for the visit

Bella

What's on My Workdesk Wednesday 199? Ditress Paint

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

This post should really be called TESTING, TESTING 123...

I finally got hold of a batch of Distress Paint and they are truly wonderful!  They are just so creative and unpredictable, that it makes them so enjoyable.  It is a case of paint, spray with water and watch the magic happen!

At the back of my desk you can see a canvas that I first smeared with Gesso and let dry, then I added Mustard seed, Picked raspberry and Salty Ocean followed by a good spray of water and let it dry.  So far so good, not sure where to from here...

To the left of my desk there are 3 squares from a Keiser Kraft kit I never finished at a Convention and they got a dose of Fired Brick, Antique Linen and Victorian Velvet.  The fronts I mixed the colours together and sprayed, while on the back I just did one colour and sprayed to see how it would react.  The single colours with stronger pigment left a watermark effect where as the Antique linen was still very plain...this is the one where you can see the marbled front.

Next I tried stamping with the colour Distress Paints onto black paper and fabric, they worked like a dream.  Followed by Picket fence on the black paper which gives a lovely chalk board look.

I have also given each of the bottles a dab of colour on their lids so that I can see them easily in my box.  The interesting thing is they dry 2 shades darker than when they are wet.  Just an observation if you are trying to match colours up later for a repeat effect.

Finally I played in my Art Journal and used 3 colours, Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserves which I sprayed with water and closed the book to get the colour onto both pages.  I then added the Keep Calm and Carry on Stencil with Black soot Distress ink over the top.  I am yet to finish the page, but it has been fun so far.  In the photo below you can see the marbled effect before I closed the book to spread the colour to the other page.

This is a lengthy post so I better get out of here and onto Julia's desk to see if you have linked up!

Thanks for the visit.

Bella

Whats on My Workdesk Wednesday 198? A kit in progress

Hello fellow Wednesday Desk hopper!

Here is my desk today.  Nice and quiet.  Just one kit to make for an order from a class I ran last week.

NOT A ROSE IN SIGHT!  For those of you who were asking last week how I made them, I recorded a video on Sunday which is in my top right hand corner bar, just click on the rose photo and it will take you there if you are interested.  I show how to make both size roses.  It is about 10 min long so have a cup of tea or coffee handy.  I am no pro video maker, but I think you will get the gist of it!

This was the finished order for 40 plus roses done and dusted!

That's me for this week.

See you at your desk if you have linked up with our hosetess Julia...

Oh and I am keen to make extra ATCs for the 4th year celebrations if you want to swap just let me know either via email in my side bar or in the comments...

Bella

Sizzix cup cake pop up card with Tim's tattered flower decorations

I have been very busy at my desk today.  This concept has been in my head for a while and it took a few prototypes to get it to work.  Good thing they are not edible or I would have put on a fortune of weight by eating the "flops"!

I started with the cupcake case die by Sizzix which I cut, assembled and folded in half.

I then cut 2 white and one yellow Sizzix Rosettes by Tim
 
I pleated them and glued the two white ones together to make a LONG strip of concertinaed paper then made them into a circle.  I pleated the yellow one and made that into a circle.

I glued the yellow one on top of the white one so they made a Christmas tree shape.

I made a 6"x6" card and using two scraps of paper I glued the cupcake holder to the centre of the inside of the card.

I then built a support shelf on the inside of the cup cake holder with kraft card stock.  This is to hold the candle.  The candle was not long enough to stick out the top of the "icing" so I placed it in a drinking straw and hot glued this to the centre of the shelf.

I used the shelf to glue the tree of  rosettes to with tabs underneath.  Here is a view from the top where I added a medium tattered flower to finish it off, supposedly to look like the candle holder....

While all of that was drying...

I decorated the outside of the card using white card stock which I ran through the sizzix embossing folder and clipped its edges with Mustard seed yellow distress ink to highlight the pattern.  I cut a small piece of the cupcake holder again to use a section of for the case of the 2D one and ran the "icing dome" (I cut a shape by hand) through a paper crimper to imitate the concertinas of the icing of the cake inside the card.  I cut 3 of the tiniest tattered flowers and curled them with my stylus on a foam mat to add to the top of the cupcake with half pearl centres.

Because the 3D cupcake was so bulky, I needed to tie the card together so I made some crinkle ribbon by running it over the Mustard seed distress ink pad and spraying it with water before drying  it in my tweezers.

This is as closed as the card gets...not one for mailing to anyone! 

Here is the finished cupcake in the card!

It was fun getting my concept into reality!

Thanks for the visit.

Bella